The great object of
our life is to be brought into a perfect union with Christ and that does not
happen along a straight line. It comes
in fits and bursts as we allow God's Word to conform us to God Himself. The universal
law is that we are stubborn brutes and we fight tooth and nail to maintain our
independence of God. It is painful to
let Him have a reaction, an attitude or a desire. All of our stretch is corrupted by sin and
because it has such hold of us, it is like separating our blood and flesh...it
comes at great cost. We think we are so
very good and ready to live holy lives and yet let God take just one small
object of love from us and we are cracking with frustration and confusion. "How can God love me if He ruined that
plan?" "How can He be here if
He is not reasonable in this?" We
do not recognize the sin strangling our faith and love but can see it plainly
in others. The Cross of Christ redeems
our totality and God will not cease in re-working us until it is just as
finished as Calvary is finished. Our sin
corrupted interests and desires and hopes must be crucified as well if we are
to have pure and undimmed fellowship with God and one another. It was painful for Paul and Peter and John
and Abraham and all the rest of the "heroes of the faith" to be
crucified with Christ. Why would we think
it should be less so for us. We read the
account of Abraham taking his boy up to Mt. Moriah as if it is some sort of
fairy tale. Was it not psychologically
as devastating for Abraham and then for Isaac and for Sarah as our own
"misfortunes" are? Did not
Sarah weep with bitter sorrow at the sight of Abraham leaving with Isaac? Should we think sin is less treacherous for
us than it was for Abraham and Sarah? Do
we really believe that God must be less the surgeon with us than He was with
His finest saints? God's scalpel comes
without warning but the sin that makes us limp believers will be cut out of us
and the health of Heaven will make us as lively as the greatest Christians the
world has ever seen!
Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what
he suffered … Hebrews 5: 8 NIV
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