Monday, July 24, 2017

Our New Life -- Not A Philosophy To Be Imagined, It Is A Reality To Be Lived.



…. your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. —Matthew 5:20

{CHAMBERS} “The characteristic of a disciple is not that he does good things, but that he is good in his motives, having been made good by the supernatural grace of God. The only thing that exceeds right-doing is right-being […] Jesus is saying, “If you are My disciple, you must be right not only in your actions, but also in your motives, your aspirations, and in the deep recesses of the thoughts of your mind.” Your motives must be so pure that God Almighty can see nothing to rebuke. Who can stand in the eternal light of God and have nothing for Him to rebuke? Only the Son of God, and Jesus Christ claims that through His redemption He can place within anyone His own nature and make that person as pure and as simple as a child. The purity that God demands is impossible unless I can be remade within, and that is exactly what Jesus has undertaken to do through His redemption.  No one can make himself pure by obeying laws. Jesus Christ does not give us rules and regulations— He gives us His teachings which are truths that can only be interpreted by His nature which He places within us. The great wonder of Jesus Christ’s salvation is that He changes our heredity. He does not change human nature— He changes its source, and thereby its motives as well.”

{ELGIN}  (2 Corinthians 5:17) “Old things have passed away .. all things have become new”  (John 3) We are born again by the Spirit.  This new life is not a philosophy to be imagined, it is a reality to be lived.  Jesus changes us from the inside out.  Some things are oh-so-hard to give up.  We have become dependent upon them.  They define us.  They may even bring some sort of perverted sense of comfort and security.  Even though they are harmful and they bring pain, we fear that letting go of them will be even worse.  But Jesus bids us “Come”.  (Matthew 11:28) “Come to Me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”  There is a song – “All to Jesus I surrender, All to Him I freely give.  I will ever love and trust Him, in His presence daily live.  I Surrender all.  All to Jesus, precious Savior, I surrender all.”  Are you willing to let Jesus change you?  It requires faith and an attitude of total, not partial, abandonment.  Paul wrote about the struggle in Romans chapter 7.  “I do the things I don’t want to do and the things I want to do, I don’t do.  Wretched man that I am who will save me from this body of death? Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!”  We find deliverance through Jesus.  He is the only way we can find deliverance.  You may think there is another way, but there is not.  You might try partial surrender, but it is not enough.  You must lay your life down.  It is an act of obedience and an act of faith, all wrapped up into one.

No comments: