I hope this is thought provoking and I'd love to get some discussion
going so any comments, or differing opinions from mine are welcome.
I’ve been puzzling over why so many people who call themselves Christians have a very hard time sacrificing things to further their understanding of God. Most Christians can count on the fingers of one hand how many times they’ve directly heard from God. Christians are supposed to conquer, redeem and save the world not to putter around half in the world half in eternity waiting in immaturity for Christ to return and fix everything.
An answer explaining our great weakness is that many of us come to the cross of Christ but we never get on our own cross. We bow before Christ in shame at our sin but we never crucify ourselves with Christ as we are told to do in Galatians 5:24 This results in a group of people who simply trust Christ to forgive sins without trusting Christ to change them. So we continue our whole lives as sinners without ever embracing the true reason for Christ's incarnation. Which was not to forgive us from sin but to free us from sin's bondage, now and in eternity. Galatians 5:24 “And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.”
Practically speaking how does one do this. Well the process of crucifying must be done alone. We walk in the footsteps of our savior and master Jesus Christ so let's follow Him. Matthew 26:56 “Then all the disciples left him and fled.” Christ was left alone to meet His fate, none of His disciplies, his friends, his family could do it for Him and if you ever crucify your flesh for Christ you’ll have to do it yourself. After being left alone Christ was humiliated. He was stripped, beaten(Matthew 26:67), mocked and misjudged (Matthew 27:34) all as preparation for the cross. Christians if they desire true godliness must also travel a journey of humiliation. We must learn that we are not necessary to God’s plan, that we are mere grains of sand in a cosmic beachhead, that our lives are merely a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. (James 4:14) THe world was not created for us and we were not created to be glorified. We were created to be image bearers of God’s greatness, glorifying Him in all that we do. Until we humbly submit to our own smallness we will be at odds with the plans of God for this world. After being humiliated Jesus walked the road to his
own
death. Without fear and without regret our Lord wavered not in his
resolve to bring glory to the Father. He never looked back. Lot’s wife
looked back because she had bound herself to the temporal things she
loved, her house, her friends, her money, her worldliness and she was
forever crystallized as a memoriam to the snare that worldliness is.
(Genesis 19:26) As Christians today walking the straight and narrow way
we must not look longingly back at the palace of self indulgence from
whence we came. We must not be ashamed of our humiliation, of our
rejection of worldly things. To follow in the bloody footsteps of our
maker in pain and discomfort is a greater honor than wearing a kings
crown or any other really cool thing you’d like to do on this side of
eternity.
Finally in loneliness for none could come with Him, in humiliation for He had been beaten beyond recognition our Lord ascended Golgotha where he was nailed to the cross and lost all His rights. (Matthew 27:35) So it will be with us as well if we ever get nailed to the cross we will lose all our rights. No longer can we claim we are being mistreated, or wronged because a crucified person has no rights. Upon the cross Jesus had his mind on only two things, those entrusted to Him and the Father whom He trusted. His mother who He was responsible for He entrusted to another (John 19:26-27) and He entrusted Himself to His Father (Luke 24:46) Those crucified with Christ will follow this example. In the midst of excruciating pain our thoughts will be far from us, resting in love on the people God has entrusted to us, our friends, our families, our schools, our communities, our churches and our nations. When we crucify ourselves we abandon the road of self glorification and began to walk on the high road of God glorification.
It is amazing how crucifying yourself to the world makes one totally invulnerable to anything but oneself. Just think, how can you harm a person who doesn’t care about themselves? You can only harm a person by harming what they care about and if all you care about is Christ you can’t be harmed. Sure you may suffer pain, heartache, grief, stress and all the other results of living in a sin filled world but once an individual submits to Christ, totally and without reserve he is completely invincible to the attacks of other people, the devil and in submission to Christ he will be saved from himself. So do not hurt yourself more by only coming to the cross of Christ and not getting on the cross yourself. Do not waste the gift Christ gave you and merely allow Him to forgive sin, let Him free you from sin and death. Submit in humility to the tutelage of the only man who ever really knew how to love, Jesus Christ.
I’ve been puzzling over why so many people who call themselves Christians have a very hard time sacrificing things to further their understanding of God. Most Christians can count on the fingers of one hand how many times they’ve directly heard from God. Christians are supposed to conquer, redeem and save the world not to putter around half in the world half in eternity waiting in immaturity for Christ to return and fix everything.
An answer explaining our great weakness is that many of us come to the cross of Christ but we never get on our own cross. We bow before Christ in shame at our sin but we never crucify ourselves with Christ as we are told to do in Galatians 5:24 This results in a group of people who simply trust Christ to forgive sins without trusting Christ to change them. So we continue our whole lives as sinners without ever embracing the true reason for Christ's incarnation. Which was not to forgive us from sin but to free us from sin's bondage, now and in eternity. Galatians 5:24 “And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.”
Practically speaking how does one do this. Well the process of crucifying must be done alone. We walk in the footsteps of our savior and master Jesus Christ so let's follow Him. Matthew 26:56 “Then all the disciples left him and fled.” Christ was left alone to meet His fate, none of His disciplies, his friends, his family could do it for Him and if you ever crucify your flesh for Christ you’ll have to do it yourself. After being left alone Christ was humiliated. He was stripped, beaten(Matthew 26:67), mocked and misjudged (Matthew 27:34) all as preparation for the cross. Christians if they desire true godliness must also travel a journey of humiliation. We must learn that we are not necessary to God’s plan, that we are mere grains of sand in a cosmic beachhead, that our lives are merely a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. (James 4:14) THe world was not created for us and we were not created to be glorified. We were created to be image bearers of God’s greatness, glorifying Him in all that we do. Until we humbly submit to our own smallness we will be at odds with the plans of God for this world. After being humiliated Jesus walked the road to his
own
death. Without fear and without regret our Lord wavered not in his
resolve to bring glory to the Father. He never looked back. Lot’s wife
looked back because she had bound herself to the temporal things she
loved, her house, her friends, her money, her worldliness and she was
forever crystallized as a memoriam to the snare that worldliness is.
(Genesis 19:26) As Christians today walking the straight and narrow way
we must not look longingly back at the palace of self indulgence from
whence we came. We must not be ashamed of our humiliation, of our
rejection of worldly things. To follow in the bloody footsteps of our
maker in pain and discomfort is a greater honor than wearing a kings
crown or any other really cool thing you’d like to do on this side of
eternity.Finally in loneliness for none could come with Him, in humiliation for He had been beaten beyond recognition our Lord ascended Golgotha where he was nailed to the cross and lost all His rights. (Matthew 27:35) So it will be with us as well if we ever get nailed to the cross we will lose all our rights. No longer can we claim we are being mistreated, or wronged because a crucified person has no rights. Upon the cross Jesus had his mind on only two things, those entrusted to Him and the Father whom He trusted. His mother who He was responsible for He entrusted to another (John 19:26-27) and He entrusted Himself to His Father (Luke 24:46) Those crucified with Christ will follow this example. In the midst of excruciating pain our thoughts will be far from us, resting in love on the people God has entrusted to us, our friends, our families, our schools, our communities, our churches and our nations. When we crucify ourselves we abandon the road of self glorification and began to walk on the high road of God glorification.
It is amazing how crucifying yourself to the world makes one totally invulnerable to anything but oneself. Just think, how can you harm a person who doesn’t care about themselves? You can only harm a person by harming what they care about and if all you care about is Christ you can’t be harmed. Sure you may suffer pain, heartache, grief, stress and all the other results of living in a sin filled world but once an individual submits to Christ, totally and without reserve he is completely invincible to the attacks of other people, the devil and in submission to Christ he will be saved from himself. So do not hurt yourself more by only coming to the cross of Christ and not getting on the cross yourself. Do not waste the gift Christ gave you and merely allow Him to forgive sin, let Him free you from sin and death. Submit in humility to the tutelage of the only man who ever really knew how to love, Jesus Christ.