Excerpted from In the Cleft of the Rock: Insights into the Blood
of Jesus, Resurrection Power, and Saving the Soul by Michael J. Webb
Gethsemane
(Part 3)
It would appear from the condition of the
present-day Church that many, perhaps even most, of the Body of Christ have
never been to Gethsemane. 1Peter1:9 tells us that “the end of faith is the
salvation of your souls.” The Greek word translated “end” in this
passage is “telos” and literally means “completion, or perfection.”
Jesus had much to say about the souls of men when He walked among us, not least
of which is “he that finds his life (soul) shall lose it: and he that loses his
life (soul) for My sake shall find it.” (Matthew 10:39) The context of this
passage is taking up the cross and following Jesus. In its most basic sense,
the idea of taking up the cross means dying to self. It is humbling ourselves
before the mighty hand of God and submitting our will to His.
Humility is a fruit of the spirit, i.e., a
fruit of the manifest Life of God. Pride is a fruit of the flesh, i.e., a fruit
of the manifest life of the soul. The two character traits stand in obvious and
direct opposition to one another. The soul’s greatest stronghold is pride, and
the spirit’s greatest weapon is humility. Pride drives a person to rule and
reign. Humility draws forth the character of a servant.
Many in the body of Christ today truly desire
to take up their cross and follow Jesus, but they just can’t seem to stay on it
long enough for the nails to be driven in.
A classic example is that of the rich young
ruler in Matthew 19. He asks Jesus what he must do to have eternal life. Jesus
answers that he is to keep the commandments. The young ruler replies that he
has done so from his youth until now and asks what he lacks. Jesus responds,
saying, “If you will be perfect, go and sell all you have and give to the
poor.” This is too much for the man. He left sorrowful because his possessions
were of more value to him than what Jesus offered. Although he’d kept all the
commandments, and Jesus did not dispute this, the one thing he could not do was
give up those things which were the product of, and exalted, his soul.
Many professing Christians today find a similar
stumbling block when seeking intimacy with the Lord. The principle elucidated
by the story of the rich young ruler is not about having, or not having,
possessions. It is about the condition of one’s soul. Until an individual
learns to figuratively take his or her soul to Gethsemane, and thereby
put it to death, the message of the Cross will always be simply theology. It
will remain impossible for that person to walk in the fullness of what Christ
accomplished with the shedding of His precious blood.
The freedom of the Cross cannot, and will not,
become reality for us until we allow the Lord to become both the Shepherd and
the Bishop of our soul. (1Peter 2:25)
It is important to understand that Christ must
be both our Savior and our Lord for us to walk in the fullness God
intends for us. Salvation is the ultimate gift of God, accomplished through the
death and resurrection of His precious Son. When we confess Jesus according to
Romans 10:9-10 we are saved by the grace of God through faith and His shed
blood becomes atonement for our personal sins. It is then that He becomes our
personal Shepherd, watching over us as an earthly shepherd watches over and
guards his sheep.
Because salvation is a gift, we need only
exercise our will and choose to receive the gift by faith. However, we must
make another choice as well, and this one is in some respects the more
difficult one.
For many, Jesus is their Savior, or Shepherd,
but He is not the Lord, or Bishop, of their soul. Bringing the soul into submission
is an arduous task for every believer, because the soul has ruled and reigned
in our lives since birth. Contrast the picture of the rich young ruler and his
possessions with that of Abraham and his son, Isaac. Isaac was Abraham’s child
of promise, yet, at God’s command, Abraham offered him up as a sacrifice,
having the faith that God would honor His word and provide a lamb. Isaac was to
Abraham what the rich young ruler’s possessions were to him. But Abraham made a
very different decision, with very different results. Scripture says that Isaac
was Abraham’s only son even though Ishmael had been born first. In many ways,
Isaac was the fulfillment of the longing in Abraham’s soul. However, unlike the
rich young ruler, Abraham was willing to give up that which his soul delighted
in, and in so doing he reaped eternal reward.
It is the soul in submission that delights God.
David sings to the Lord these words in Psalm 131: “Lord, my heart is not
haughty, nor mine eyes lofty: neither do I exercise myself in great matters, or
in things too high for me. Surely I have behaved and quieted myself as a child
that is weaned of his mother: my soul is even as a weaned child.” David
achieved much in his life, but he also suffered much. Through the things which
he suffered he learned to wean his soul from the things of this world.
What is the evidence that we’ve brought our
soul into submission?
No comments:
Post a Comment