Tuesday, October 9, 2012

In Christ, We Are Freed from the Bondage of Self


Free me from the bondage of self, that I may better do thy will.

 The AA program properly diagnoses the key problem for us – self.

 Yet like many self-help and recovery programs, there is no solution provided, except more of self doing selfish things. The solution to self is not more of self – but more of Himself!

Working twelve steps, confessing one’s sins, going through the motions of doing good works for others – none of this can deliver us from the body of death which keeps us in bondage.

We need to be delivered from self into a new life entirely!

It’s not enough to get rid of self – we must also get receive Himself!

And Himself is about Him giving us all of Himself:

"When the even was come, they brought unto him many that were possessed with devils: and he cast out the spirits with his word, and healed all that were sick:
"That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses. " (Matthew 8: 16-17)
 "Himself" took it all. And in the Word, when Jesus met with Cleopas and wife on the road to Emmaus:
"And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself." (Luke 24: 27) 

We cannot help but see ourselves as nothing in the presence of one who gave Himself for us:
"He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?" (Romans 8: 32) 

I was so caught up in being self-centered, I wanted not to be self-centered.

The problem with self-centeredness is that you end up being self-centered all the more in trying not to be self-centered. Hence the drama that Paul found himself in:
"For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do." (Romans 7: 19)

Like many people, I fond myself looking at my feelings as the final arbiter of truth and peace in my life, yet feelings inevitable connects to what we are doing. It focuses on us all over again. When we look at our thoughts, we get depressed and frustrated because we are identifying with our flesh instead of with His Spirit.

Faith is about resting in the truth of all that God has done for us through His Son Jesus Christ.

Consider once again the new Covenant:
"For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:

"And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me, from the least to the greatest.

"For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more." (Hebrews 8: 10-12)

We rest because the New Covenant has nothing to do with us. Notice how it's all God: "I will. . .I will. . .I will" – the moment that we falsely believe that we have to do something in order to access this grace, then it is no more grace, and we in fact frustrate the grace of God in our lives!

I am learning that resting has nothing to do with me – that’s why it’s rest – resting from my efforts to get anything done. The moment that I believe that I have to “do something” in order to rest, then I am doing something, and thus I am not resting.
 
It seems confusing at first, mostly because of those of us who have been raised on AA for so long, we have grown introspective with taking our inventory and talking about our feelings all the time. We do need to freed from the bondage of self, but we cannot do that ourselves! A belief in a "God as I understand Him" is not adequate either, since "self" is all caught up in our understanding of God. Paul explained how he received the Gospel:
 
"But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man.
"For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ." (Galatians 1: 11-12)
Christ is not a teaching, not a set of ideas, not a way of living, but God in the flesh, and Life itself for all who believe and are willing to receive Him!
Our life is hid in Christ, therefore let us rest in our new identity in Him, who sets us free (John 8: 36).
 

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