Christ’s glorious life as a living sacrifice captivates and raptures us over into a mindset where we’re looking for what we can give, rather than living in a constant tug-of-war over what we consider to be our rights and territory and possessions. If any man thinks we owe them anything, they can have it. After all, Christ held nothing back from us even when we were his enemies; dead in the very sins that screamed out for him to be crucified.
The natural mind is repulsed when it hears this call - it is a very real and ongoing call to lay down our lives on a daily basis, and it is a shameful offense to natural thinking. We see no point to it, no benefit from it. We see a total waste and ruin of everything we’ve lived and worked for, as well as a posture of defenselessness for ourselves and everyone we’re closest to and care the most for. We immediately project whatever degree of school-of-hard-knocks mentality we’ve accepted as modern reality to the fullest catastrophic outcome and then backpedal into how we’ll allow ourselves to understand Christ’s call.
This is exactly why Jesus went straight to the worst-case scenarios when he spoke about this living-sacrifice kind of life: forsaking all, set at variance with father and mother and sisters and brothers and even wives and children, cutting off hands and gouging out eyes instead of letting habitual sin run us into hell, giving up houses and fields, drinking the same cup of sufferings as he did, slandered as being Beelzebub himself, and voluntarily releasing any personal claim to our lives. Jesus is looking to short-circuit our self-defense.
We’ve heard terms like “born again” and “surrender all” and “crucified with Christ” in so many metaphorical settings that we’re almost entirely numb to the razor-sharp edge they were originally spoken with. Jesus isn’t interested in negotiating with those who come after him. Natural man is endlessly comparing himself with himself; looking back, second-guessing, hesitating and postponing. There are many in who sit in church carrying on a dialog with God which God is no longer part of. He simply refuses to haggle over our lives; Jesus’ blood either buys us completely or not at all.
Love is our constant fullness; our filling and our overflow. Greater love has no man than this: that he lay down his life for his friends. Jesus had authority to lay down his life; and he laid it down not only for his friends, but for those who hated him with a bloodthirsty passion. This is the love that gave us new birth, this love is our divine DNA; this love is our lifeblood.
In these words you get a glimpse of the heart of a Christian. This is what happens when Jesus really gets a hold of someone. When you are captivated by God and His Spirit is at work within. Thanks for the words bro!
And I totally agree with you on becoming numb to the terms. Being familiar with these words has robbed them of their power and impact. And when Papa leads to speak these words thru His people it is often received as a “general statement” or responses like “We already no this!” But Papa knows what He is doing and it would be wise to listen to the terms we have become so familiar with
My bad… Typing in a hurry
“We already no this!” = “We already know this!”
Everything God does has his passion, his intensity, his fire written all over it. Then man tries to figure it out and communicate it off-line of the Holy Ghost, and we end up with an entire culture essentially numb to God. Yet at any moment when someone truly interacts with the living God purely in the Holy Ghost - on his own terms - you get all the original passion, intensity and fire multiplied.
That’s why the Holy Ghost moved Jesus to tell the Jews to tear the temple down, and he would rebuild it in 3 days!
oh my.. this one wiped me out. must read again immediately. daily.