36. The Purpose of Life

The Purpose of Life The sixth point is light on the great purpose of life, “Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin; that he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God” (1 Peter 4:1-2). There is the great purpose of life, and Peter says, “Arm yourselves,”—or equip yourselves—“with the same mind,” that is, with the same conception of the purpose of life. The word “arm” in the Greek comes from a word which means a tool which was used in offensive warfare. Peter tells you what the warfare is here, sin manifested through the lusts of the flesh, “For he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin, that he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men.” “The flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the Spirit lusteth against the flesh” (Galatians 5:17), so the flesh is unceasing, and Satan will never stop his efforts to break you and me down through the flesh. That need not be something gross. He will never stop his efforts to break you and me down somehow or other through the flesh. It may be by the flesh getting into Christian service, service being done in fleshly energy instead of in the power of the Spirit. Therefore the apostle bids us equip ourselves with a weapon by which we can defeat the devil and win the day.

Notice what that weapon is. It is just a right conception of the purpose for which you have been redeemed. What is that? To do the will of God. Oh, that sums up the whole Christian life, to do the will of God. You cannot obey two wills at the same time. You cannot yield to two opposing forces. If you do the will of God then you are not captured by the will of the flesh; but bear in mind this, the flesh will only yield to the cross; not to all the resolutions you may make at a conference, not to any self-effort, not to any attempted self-crucifixion, only to co-crucifixion, crucified together with Christ. It is not by putting yourself to death, or trying to put yourself to death, but by taking, by faith and surrender, your place of union with Christ in His death. That is the blessed barrier of safety between you and all the attractions of the flesh, and that makes the way open to do the will of God.

What is life for? Just what it was for Christ. What was it for Christ? “I came down from heaven to do the will of Him that sent me” (John 6:38), and all through life He did it, in childhood, in His ministry, in the shadow of the garden, in the awful shame of the judgment hall, in the darkness of the cross, from the beginning to end the impelling, constraining motive of the Lord Jesus Christ was His Father’s will. He was so really the master of His will by complete surrender of His spirit to His Father that He could take that will of His and put it deliberately and definitely, consistently and persistently, on the side of His Father, and He won the fight through yieldedness. And the same must be true of us. The cross shows that to do the will of God is to make the most of life.