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Discussion Forum : Articles and Sermons : Where is responsibility for disobedience?

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 Where is responsibility for disobedience?

Now to him that is of power to establish you according to my gospel, and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began, but now is made manifest, and by the scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, made known to all nations for the obedience of faith. Rom 16:25,26

Where is responsibility for disobedience?

There is only one obedience in the Bible, the obedience of faith, not the obedience of works. The last verse in the book of Romans, which is kind of the standard book on gospel truth, it’s unto the obedience of faith. But, what’s that mean? It means I’m believing God is what He says He is. There’s only one wrong thing in life and that is not to believe that God is what He says He is. I don’t talk in terms of disobedience or obedience when I know who I am on the truth basis, on the Bible basis, which is that you and I are really Christ expressed in human forms. Of course, you see, if this life consists of God in me, it says, "God works in me to will and do." I don’t will and do, then. Philippians says, "It is God that works in me to will and do of His good pleasure," and I just fulfill His willing and doing. That’s why it’s an easy life. I don’t do a thing unless I’m made to. It’s great fun. The Bible doesn’t tell me to walk. The Bible tells me, in Ezekiel, that when He puts His spirit within me, He causes me to walk. Well, He does the walking then. He causes me to walk. I walk. I just get pushed along, that’s all.

So then, disobedience is not to believe that God is doing everything, including the evil. Because the Bible says the only evil is not to believe God. Jesus said when the Holy Ghost comes he’ll convict the world of sin because they "believed not on me." That’s the only sin. Because they believed not on me. And, Jesus called evil not to be of a single eye. He said, "If your eye is single, your whole body’s full of light, it radiates right through. Your eye, of course isn’t your physical eye, it’s the inner seeing, of course. This is only the outer stuff. And the Light radiates right through.

"Eye is single" means you only see One. Single means One. So, then our main focus is: I only see God in everything everywhere and everybody. I don’t see devil, I don’t see anything . . . only God everywhere. If he’s a devil, he’s only God in a devil form, that’s all. I don’t see a devil. I don’t see anybody except God. Your eye is single, it’s full of light because God happens to be full of light. When your eye is on Him, you’re full of light. And light radiates through your very outer form, which is your body.

And then Jesus said, "If your eye is evil your whole body is full of darkness." Why say evil because the opposite of single isn’t evil. The opposite of single is double. Oh, I see, double because to see double is evil." Whenever I’m not seeing God, I’m moving on the evil plain. I’m tempted. You only do evil if you’re going to do it, but you’re tempted all the time. When I’m moved away from seeing everything as not God, I’m moving toward the evil level. That’s what the Bible says.

So I come back to your question. The only obedience is the obedience of faith. I’m told that in Romans. The obedience of faith. What does the obedience of faith mean? It means I believe what He says he is. What’s He saying, what’s the truth? I’m believing in Him in different operations, that’s all. And that’s, to me, the final word in the Bible on obedience. You see, until we’ve got it clear we’re not we but He, then we fuss about ourselves and then we say do we obey or not? Which shows I’m negative because when I know I’m not I but He, I don’t fuss about myself. I’ve forgotten myself. I’m He and enjoying myself because it’s He doing it. There’s no more fuss.

So when a person says, "What about the wrong?" I know they haven’t got there or they wouldn’t ask it. Because when you do a thing right, you’re not fussing about the wrong very much. If you know your job, you’re not fussing about doing it wrongly, you’re occupied in doing it rightly. The difference is how it’s used. If you’re a trained carpenter you don’t say, "Am I doing it wrong, am I doing it wrong?" You take it pretty well for granted you’re doing it right. You live on the right level, not the wrong level. You live on the positive, not the negative. Of course I’m doing my job. I know how to do my carpentry and I do it. I don’t say, "Is it wrong, is it wrong, is it wrong?" There might be occasional moments when I say, "Well, it might not be this way", but that’s just a minor. But we Christians are far more concerned with "Are we wrong" than we are with "Are we right"? Which shows where you stand. We ask the question, "Are we wrong?" because we think we’re still just ourselves and then we’re afraid. When you’re not yourself but Christ, you don’t ask it anymore than the carpenter asks how he does his carpentry. He just does it.

And, the temptations that come, they’re just good exercise. Your temptations become your adventure because your temptations give you new proofs of what God is. The pullings tempt you to act as if you’re not God. See when I’m in the union I’m not I but Christ. Precisely how Paul says it, "I don’t live, Christ lives." My human self is just a branch expressing the Vine. The Vine’s the point. My human self is a body which is expressing the head which is Christ. The body’s just the agency of the head. The head’s what matters. The Vine’s what matters. See, when you do that and you’re living like that, you live free.

Sin is that the whole world lives as if independent self, not as God. The whole is a lost world so it doesn’t see itself as a form of God, but sees itself as independent, but it really is a form of Satan. It doesn’t even know that -- just thinks it’s a form of self. Of course, independent self is Satan, really. We don’t know that. And so the whole world is for self-for-self -- Satan.

So temptation is to pull me out to "I" fear, "I" react, "I" don’t like this, "I’m" hurt by that, "I’m" bothered with that, "I" haven’t got that far. "I," "I," "I," "I". It’s a lie! I’m being pulled out to a lie because I’m not "I", I’m Christ. It’s a pulling, it’s an illusion, as if I’m "I" apart from Christ. That’s what temptation is. That’s my adventure. Because then it’s, "Oh, come on!" It gives me, when I’m hurt, "Oh, now, good, then. Now’s a chance to see how God makes me love a person who hurts me!" It confirms to me the God in me. I come back to God! So my negative moves me back to experience it being swallowed by a positive.

I talked to a friend, I’d only met her once, with another friend. A woman about 40, I suppose, and she’s very new at this life. She knew Christ in her. You don’t know herself as Christ. She wrote me a flaming letter, poor thing, about 2 weeks ago. "What am I to do," she says. "My husband’s walked out on me with another woman. I hate him! I’m boiling over. What am I to do?" She said, "I know about Christ in me. It didn’t work! I’m full up with rage and hurt and resentment and hate, really. He’s left me and left the kids and walked off with another woman. What am I to do? Don’t talk about Christ in me because I know that."

Of course, I said, "You don’t know it, because if you did you wouldn’t say ‘What am I to do?’ because you’re Christ. You’d say, ‘What does Christ do?’ You forget who you are, dear. You’re not you, you’re Christ. You’re Christ in human form. And of course you’re raging and may you be blessed to go on raging to cut your own throat in doing it. Be good for you maybe to do that. Rage away because you’d better rage because that’s a false thing! You’re listening to a lie. You’re not an independent self at all! You’re Christ in you! Now, when you find Christ in you, Christ loves everybody. He loves your husband and he’s got to save your husband although he’s left you. And he loves the woman he’s walked off with. And when you say, ‘Oh, I’ve got a chance now to show love, to express, to have God’s love towards a man in my own soul self I hate.’ -- That’s your answer!

"When you find you’re beginning to be occupied with how you can see by faith that Christ is operating in your husband and expressing that love all you can, not that your husband comes back to you but he gets back to Christ. And the woman too! Then you’ll find you’re free. Then it’s Christ’s freedom, not yours. Your mistake isn’t your hate, it’s that you think you’re an independent self. The disobedience of faith. It isn’t the hate that’s wrong. It isn’t the rage."

She’s justified in hating, on the human level. That’s not the trouble. It’s the disobedience of faith, of not believing who you are. You forget who you are. You’re so occupied as if you’ve come alive again and you’ve got this that’s happened to you, what’s going to happen to your children and so on. You’ve forgotten you’re not you at all, you’re Christ in you! Go back with who you are. How do you go back? Recognize who you are.

There’s some justification in human level rage. That wasn’t the sin. It wasn’t a sin anyhow, it was not meeting temptation. And I said, "As for your children, you’ve got a wonderful thing. When you’ve got it in you that God meant your husband to do this, it’s all part of the way. God always means evil to be evil. God meant your husband to do this. This is how God’s going to do something for him and do something for the woman and, as for you, you’ve got a marvelous opportunity to show your children how you love a person who’s wronged you. They’ll learn far more than they’ll learn in any other kind of education. If your children could see that you’re loving and concerned about the husband who’s deserted you and been stolen by another woman, you’ve got something to show, you’ve got a real Christ to show your children. You needn’t worry about your children. They’ll really learn some riches."

But the answer’s simple. It wasn’t the husband leaving her. The Lord means evil to be evil. If you do evil then God means you to do it. We get a world banged up that way, that’s how we get our bangs. To get a few band aids on you from Jesus Christ. So that’s all right. So your tribulations become your adventure. But, the only real tribulation is not seeing who I am. There is a real suffering. Of course you suffer. There’s real suffering. You will suffer. Of course you’ll suffer. There is an element to human suffering and you’ll never get beyond that. We’re in the world but we suffer. And that’s physical suffering. So there is that. But that’s overflowed when you’re enjoying Christ. There is an element that still remains of suffering but it’s overflowed because it’s for the joy set before you you endured the cross. So did Jesus. For the joy set before me I endured the cross. Instead of suffering in the cross. But the joy overflowed the suffering.

I’m not talking about that because that’s not the real suffering. The real suffering is heady suffering. You see, self-service is hell. Heaven and hell are in us. They may expand a little later on outside but it’s here now. And hell is self-centeredness. We all started life in hell. The only way to heaven is through hell. Because it’s only when you’ve had hell you know there is a heaven and you want it. You don’t even discover there is a heaven until you’ve got a hell and want to get out of it. That’s why you’ve got to be a sinner before you get saved. If you haven’t been a bad sinner you’re not a good saint. If you’ve not been well-lost you haven’t been well-saved. You’ve got to be lost to be saved. It’s only lost people who can be saved. You wouldn’t be saved if you didn’t need saving, would you? (World saving) means that. I must be bad to be made good. And God meant me to be. To put some sense into me. I won’t do it again so quickly then. So God’s got a good deal of some common sense about Him, I think.

By Norman Grubb

 2016/6/21 9:57





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