#18: THE WAY TO MATURITY
I have been crucified with Christ.
Hello fellow sojourners. Welcome back to our weekly newsletter. This is where you can find prayers, promises, and treasures on the narrow way. Written for the one in need of a drink of living water.
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There is nothing like being renewed in the presence of God. We could run a thousand miles off the path, but the moment we stop and seek His face, we are right where we are supposed to be. He withholds nothing even in our failure and does not flinch at our mistakes. In the chaos of our lives, He is ever-present, unchanging, and reliable.
To lose ourselves in Christ is not easy. It is forsaking all we are to search for all He is. To know Jesus is to walk by faith into the wilderness of our own soul and believe that He is the only source that will satisfy. We will never taste the riches of the kingdom of God until we face the emptiness of our mortal lives.
Sometimes I feel more barren when I sit before God than I do full. In His presence, I am reminded that I can do nothing, produce nothing, and am nothing apart from Him. I realize how much I can’t do what I set out to do and will never attain anything in my own power.
In our barrenness, our eyes are opened to behold. The end of ourselves is the beginning of Him. Amid our fainting flesh and thirsting souls, we meet Jesus. It is a divine gift in this age to feel how low Jesus came to save us.
As our outer selves are wasting away, we hold the promise that our inner selves will be renewed. His word is living water, like jumping into a cold swimming pool on a hot summer day. It is the word of God that renews and satisfies more than fat and rich food. Let us eat this eternal bread and be strengthened for the journey ahead.
For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies. For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you. (2 Cor. 4:6-12)
The great mystery when we are born again is Christ inside of us. Our weak human frame becomes the container of the Holy Spirit. The Lord chose the weakest vessels for His impossible work. His masterpiece is forming and fashioning the Church to look like Him.
There is only one mechanism God uses for maturity: the cross.
If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me (Lk. 9:23). We all have a cross to carry. It looks different for each of us. It may be persevering in faith through an impossible situation or bearing the stigma of standing for righteousness. It may be holding onto the goodness of God through tragedy or making tough decisions to obey the Lord. Our cross is the “thing” that hurts but we know Jesus is calling us to persevere in love.
These afflictions are what conform us to His image. They empty us of our strength; to trust God and not lean on our own understanding. Our weakness testifies to His surpassing power that sustains us. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed.
In our affliction, we lay hold of the promise of resurrection. His resurrection is the everlasting light that shines at the end of every tunnel. Even in the darkest night, we can see the glimmer of light that if He rose again, we will too.
Pain and trials come regardless of whether we are Christians or not, but there is a distinct difference between suffering with God and suffering without Him. Apart from Jesus, there is no redemption from death. For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord (Rom. 6:23).
When Paul emphasizes “carrying in the body the death of Christ,” he ties in the reality of being resurrected with Him. We are not able to willingly give ourselves over to death without faith in Jesus’ resurrection (and our own).
The cross is foolishness. The desire to be “crucified with Christ” does not originate in our hearts but is a work of the Holy Spirit to reveal the power of God. Why would a human being desire a life of crucifixion? It makes no sense. It is foolish to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God (1 Corin. 1:18). This understanding can’t be found within ourselves but only in the manifold wisdom of God.
Jesus does not instruct us to grit our teeth in discipline to obey God more. We are not to pursue death to ourselves apart from our eternal hope. As we set our eyes on the hope of resurrection, that light will illuminate our understanding to take one more step of faith.
But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God (1 Cor. 1:27-29).
Our weakness testifies to God’s strength and magnifies the treasure of Christ in us.
PSALM 119:17-24
Deal bountifully with your servant,
that I may live and keep your word.
Open my eyes, that I may behold
wondrous things out of your law.
I am a sojourner on the earth;
hide not your commandments from me!
My soul is consumed with longing
for your rules at all times.
You rebuke the insolent, accursed ones,
who wander from your commandments.
Take away from me scorn and contempt,
for I have kept your testimonies.
Even though princes sit plotting against me,
your servant will meditate on your statutes.
Your testimonies are my delight;
they are my counselors.
“David implies that God's commands were his comfort in his exile. They reminded him of home and they showed him the way there, and so he begged that they might never be hidden from him, by his being unable to understand or obey them.” — Charles Spurgeon, The Treasury of David
Oh, how many wonderful things await us in God's word. His words are our navigation and the light that guides our steps.
The eyes of our hearts must be opened to see. We need the enlightening of the Holy Spirit to know the hope of Jesus, the riches of His inheritance, and the immeasurable greatness of His power (Eph. 1:18-19). Anyone can see something with their physical eyes but it takes the Spirit of God to reveal things unseen.
To receive this, all we have to do is ask for it:
And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.... What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” (Luke 11:9, 11-13)
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Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. (Matt. 4:4)