02.20. ESSAY NO. 20

ESSAY NO. 20

Christians may trust God never to require, or to permit, anything that is inconsistent with the laws of their mind and nature, or that is inimical to their wel­fare. To them, God is too wise to make mistakes, and too good to betray their confidence and take advantage of their limitations and helplessness. In Christianity, this is the basic relationship between Creator and creature.

Frustration of Christians

It is very difficult for men really to get onto this Christian ground. Even when they intellectually per­ceive the correct relationship between the divine and the human in Christianity and want to dethrone self that Christ may reign in their lives, there may be no corresponding inner reality to the outer symbolism. Instead of the old man’s being buried and a new man’s being born in baptism, the old man may remain alive to dominate the desires, ambitions and activities of their lives. Those who go through this pattern of a re­generated life with little or no change in purpose and direction of life should not be surprised when they reap frustration, for "God is not mocked."

Christ taught much that pertains to this matter. He repeatedly warned his disciples against doing things to be seen of men and against the unreality and hy­pocrisy of the Pharisees. In substance he said: "The attempt of the Pharisees to make men think they are pious and good, when they are not, has eaten the very heart out of Hebrew religion. Beware of their leaven; this must not be repeated in my kingdom." Did Peter, James and John, as well as Judas, need this caution? He warned "his disciples first of all" (Luke 12:1) of this supreme danger. Christ knew that not only his immediate disciples were disposed, but also that many in coming generations would be disposed to pervert his way of living into a code, which they would at­tempt to "stick on" the old man instead of becoming new creatures, who could live Christ’s way naturally, because it would be in harmony with their new nature. He knew that the effort to do good without being good would be as unnatural and impossible as for thistles to produce figs: he knew that this unreality would dress wolves in sheep’s clothing.

Some Christians are frustrated and joyless because their "fruit of the Spirit," like cut flowers, is rootless and artificial. As the foolish Galatians and Colossians (Colossians 2:16-23) thought, they foolishly think that Chris­tianity lacks power and effectiveness; that, if the best fruit is to be had, the gospel must be eked out by "rudi­ments of the world," legalism, and human merit. This perversion upsets the exquisite balance and perfect adaption of the gospel to human need, cuts the tap root of the fruit of the Spirit, and otherwise obstructs the divine "power that works in us" (Ephesians 3:20).

God’s Sovereign Cure-all

Sin has not distorted the nature of plants and ani­mals as it has the nature of man. They still live nat­urally according to their original nature. But when Adam rebelled against God, something deep within his inmost being snapped with catastrophic ruin to his whole personality. He was so disorganized that he could never restore himself, because he had lost the power both to do right and to refrain from doing wrong. No matter how heroically men strive in this depraved state to live rightly, they, as Romans 7:1-25 at­tests, always miserably fail. Since other creatures of earth, from animals, birds and insects through flowers, have never so "fallen," such striving is unknown to them. Man’s being exceptional among earthly crea­tures in this respect is good evidence of his having been created in the image of God, of his tragic fall, and of his fitness for restoration. To correct all the ravages that sin has wrought in human nature is the prodigious task that God has set himself in Christianity. And inasmuch as nothing can reach maturity except through the fulfillment of its nature, God proposes to restore man’s original nature so that he may live, naturally, as he was made to live, without moral drudgery. Now, this is a religion worth having, and worthy of God! However, Christians on earth are yet in training, and, by reason of their im­perfect surrender to God, much frustration and failure occur. "But now we see not yet all things subjected to him (Jesus). But we behold . . . Jesus . . . saying . . . Behold, I and the children whom God hath given me" (Hebrews 2:8-13). God and Christ are perfecting a host of "children," healed of all wounds, to be "a new harmony yet." "Not yet" do we see it; we are yet to see it.

Sowing seed in soil does not make a harvest. In both nature and religion, sowing seed is prerequisite, but inadequate. The seeded soil must lie exposed to the sun for a season that God with superhuman work may produce his harvest. Likewise, Christians must lie ex­posed to God’s super-human, redemptive workings as he advances his stupendous task of restoring man’s original personality. And as men, knowing that the work of seed, soil and sun cannot be divorced, never vex themselves about the part each plays in making a crop, so they need not argue about the respective work of the inseparable word and Spirit in their souls. Nevertheless, God the Spirit’s ministry was not completed with his giving the written word. He takes up his abode in those who receive his word to help their infirmities, and in word­less groanings to pray for them (See Romans 8:26). Of course, all that he does is in conjunction and agree­ment with his written word.

Christians, can we but realize how deep our hurt, how on a human level incurable our wound, how when given the best human treatment it but festers and grows worse, surely we can humbly and truly trust God’s treatment. Can we but realize the difficulty and the immensity of the task of re-creating wrecked hu­manity, that, "It is by no (mere) breath, turn of eye, wave of hand, that salvation joins issue with death"; realize that not only man’s destiny, but also God’s name, honor and glory are involved, surely we can see the extreme folly and peril of rending the seamless robe of Christianity and discarding part of it as being unnecessary. If in our redemption,, God, assuming a work that, if any work can tax him, taxes his resour­ces, graciously proposes to dwell in us as his temple and to strengthen us at the place of our greatest weakness and need "with power through his Spirit, in the in­ward man," who are we to say that such help is con­trary to the laws of the human mind! May not such an attitude be responsible for some of our frustration with its mere fluttering instead of flying? "Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God."

We close our, "Studies in Galatians" with Paul’s benediction: "The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, brethren. Amen."