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 Balanced Christianity by G. H. Lang

Two great principles are involved in the Christian life, referred to above as objective and subjective.

The objective outlook is that which dwells upon what Christ Himself is: what He is to the Father, what He did for us in His great work of redemption, and our eternal security as brought through Him into the family of God. The danger here is not of an over-appreciation of Christ, for this is impossible. It lies in our resting in our standing or our faith, satisfied that all is well because we are told that none can snatch us out of His hand.

The fault here is that the heart is not engrossed with the person of Christ, that He is not the Object of affection. It is to be feared that in many cases (most particularly in children brought up in Christian homes) there has not been deep exercise of heart as to sin, and consequently there is little true appreciation of the magnitude of the salvation effected by the Lord and no saying in heart, "I will arise and go to MY FATHER." Thus there is no real enjoyment of the Father's home as the sweet present abode of the soul, and there is lacking the normal reaction of walking with God in glad and humble subjection to His holy will, with the happiness of heart which this brings. Is not this why many souls are spiritually at a standstill, accompanied often by much worldliness and a marred testimony to Christ?

The subjective aspect deals with our actual present state, as distinct from our standing in Christ. Its importance lies in its effects upon our actions. It is introduced in such exhortations as "Abide in Me and I in you ... Let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit ... I exercise myself always to have a conscience void of offense ... The kingdom of God is righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit."

The danger is not in over-stressing such passages of Scripture but in building a theory of sanctification on isolated texts, especially when the mind is occupied to largely with oneself, looking inward, emphasizing a daily dying. Such souls do not realize that a dead person cannot die. The Word says "YE DIED, and your life is hid with Christ in God" (Col. 3:3). Our part is to reckon one IS dead, and then, by the power of the Spirit, TO MAKE TO DIE the sinful DOINGS formerly done through the body, and which the old nature would gladly continue (ROM 8:13).

Regarding the experimental realization of our possible privileges, so as to enjoy them in one's own soul, there are two chief perils:

(a) There are such as rest content with assent to the objective historical facts as to Christ, and receive little or no corresponding subjective inward experience.

(b) There are others so engrossed with their inward subjective condition that they give too little regard to the facts about Christ.

For example:

(a) Some acknowledge Jesus to be the Son of God and to have made by His death atonement for sin, and here they leave the matter. They neither know nor seek peace with God.

(b) Others moan and groan because of their sins, fear the wrath of God, long for peace of conscience, strive to be good and to do good, diligently practice religious ceremonies, pray perpetually for pardon as "miserable offenders," but make no spiritual progress. Nor will they ever do so until they turn the mind from self to rest upon the objective facts concerning Christ, and what God, in His Word of truth, states as to those facts. Upon doing this they will have assured peace. The subjective state must rest upon the objective facts. Otherwise any sense of peace, if any be reached, will prove baseless and deceptive.

(c) Others are satisfied with theoretical acceptance of their presumed position and blessing in Christ, and pay too little attention to their inward state and their practice. Assent to the objective facts contents them, if contentment it can be called; they are not much distressed that their inward experience is earthly, worldly, unheavenly, or they take the dope that this cannot be bettered till they "get to heaven." They may even deserve the rebuke: "Thou sayest, I am rich, and have gotten riches, and have need of nothing; and knowest not that thou art the wretched one and miserable and poor and blind and naked" (Rev. 3:17). Thus may the soul beguile itself by saying it has all in Christ. As if holding title deeds dispensed with obtaining possession.

(d) Yet others think they have made much progress in inward holiness and are IN THEMSELVES free from sin. To themselves their subjective state is satisfactory. They have not weighed that God does NOT say that our "old man" IS crucified in US, but that it WAS crucified IN CHRIST at the cross. (ROM 6:6. The "is" of the A.V. is wholly indefensible and very misleading It is the past tense, as in the A.S.V.) Because they think they stand, these are ever liable to fall; and many do fall, sometimes to a lower moral depth than in their unregenerate days, and into despair. The objective did not underpin the subjective, and the latter collapsed.

(e) Some will speak (not to say SING) with complacence about being children of God the Father yet, as if orphans cast upon this cruel world, they worry daily as to food, clothes, and the possible troubles of tomorrow. The subjective condition of mind is not yet rectified by the relationship avowed.

(f) Others talk of sitting in the heavenlies in Christ, but experimentally know nothing of His authority over the powers of darkness, those wicked spirits that Christ has defeated, but who still defeat these easygoing Christians by inducing absorption in this earth and conduct very unheavenly. Happy is he of whom that can be said which one said of R. C. Chapman: "We talk about the heavenly places, but HE LIVES IN THEM."

(g) But others are dreadfully and rightly alarmed at defeat, and they muster all their own energies for the daily conflict; yet unavailingly, because they do not see that WE can get NOTHING except what our Head has gained, and that we come to share in His victory and authority by resting upon and appropriating Him as revealed and offered in God's Word.

These instances suffice to illuminate spiritual life. They all reveal the fundamental principles:

(a) That only what the Head is, has done, and is doing is available for man; furthermore, that ALL that the Head is OUGHT to be the personal experience of His members.

(b) That the Holy Spirit of power makes experimental what faith accepts, and no more than faith accepts, upon the basis of the promises of God, the obedience of faith proving it to be genuine faith. "Arise and walk," said Christ to a man who could not walk. Faith at once obeyed, and strength to walk was instantly granted.

It is balance that is needed. The mystic dwells disproportionately upon inward experience. His tendency is to be ever regarding God within. This advances easily to a pantheistic identifying of God and self, and may lead on to the virtual worship of "the divine in man," which is self worship, a phase of the bait offered in Eden, "Ye shall become as God."

On the other hand, the believer may be a creedal formalist, accepting all the facts declared by the Father concerning the Son, agreeing to all the derived doctrines, but experiencing little of their living power to cleanse the heart from sin and to cause Christ to well there to be your life, displacing the old self-life.

It is balance that is indispensable. There must be the conscious, persistent, unconditional acceptance of, dependence upon, and expectation from Christ, the historic Christ. He must be the Object of confidence and affection; the Satisfier of the soul; its Savior from disorder, corruption, unregulated desires; the One sanctified in the heart as LORD. Then the Spirit of Christ can cause the thoughts, feelings, and decisions to be derived from and to center in Christ, the Man who in person is at the right hand of God, but who is thus developed morally in the believer on earth by His moral features growing progressively in the Christian's character and walk.

Christ is God's Deliverer for the world: This is God's method of deliverance. He gives us in Christ a new center, and the wheel of life runs truly and smoothly because it is truly centered. But because Christ is the center of the whole kingdom of God, in heaven and on earth, the life that is centered in Him is thereby in harmony with God and all His kingdom, the world of order, harmony, peace, and joy, the world where one will alone prevails, the will of God -- and being such, is therefore eternal (I John 2:17).

But for the same reason which a life is eccentric, out of center, with that portion of the universe, heavenly and earthly, which is not centered in Christ. If two sets of powerful machinery were at work in the same space, there would arise friction, clash, damage. In this age, this situation induces conflict of spirit and practical trouble for the Christ-centered man. But he can endure with patience and confidence, seeing that he knows that Christ has conquered this world, and that His world, the heavenly, will prevail finally.

Christ is God's Savior for the individual and for the world: association with Him, by faith and obedience, if God's method of salvation. There is no other, nor can there be (John 3:35, 36).

"Christ! I am Christ's! and let the name suffice you; Ay, for me, too, He greatly hath sufficed. Lo, with no wining words I would entice you; Paul has no honor and no friend but Christ."

The all-inclusive doctrine and power of the true life is: "Ye died with Christ ... ye were raised with Christ ... Christ is our life ... Seek the things that are above, where Christ is" (Col. 3:1-4).

Entire Message found here:

http://www.believersweb.org/view.cfm?ID=979

-Daniel

 2015/11/27 11:13Profile





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