GETTING LOST TO GET SAVED
Whoever cares for his own safety is lost; but if a man will let himself be lost for my sake and for the Gospel, that man is safe. Mark 8:35, N.E.B.
Ever since Eden we've thought that we have the ideas on how to take care of ourselves, how to meet our needs, how to reach our goals. In many cases we are convinced that we can take better care of ourselves than even God can. For example, the lonesome teenager who longs to be loved may seek for it in illicit sexual relationships rather than wait for God's longer, slower, but more satisfying methods to accomplish the goal.
A young business executive seeks for professional success and security--certainly worthy goals in themselves. But if, in his haste to get there, he compromises his health, integrity, and relationships, the goals are no longer worthy of him. When Jesus was being tempted in the wilderness, nothing was wrong with His waiting to be fed, to be sustained by His Father, or to be victorious in His mission to win the earth back from Satan. What was wrong with each of the temptations was that they involved shortcuts to the goal, do-it-yourself methods apart from the Father's wise perception of what was necessary.
Virtually every sinful thing that we do has an understandable motive behind it: we are acting to fulfill a legitimate need. We need love, enjoyment, successes, security, sexual release, food and shelter, and freedom from pain. The thing that makes our sinful act so wrong is not the need itself but the fact that we have gone about meeting it by our methods rather than God's.
A 26-year-old woman, fearful that she was about to become an "old maid," was seriously dating a non-Christian. He was eager to enter matrimony, but she was sufficiently apprehensive that she came for advice. She was terrified at my suggestion that she break off the relationship because it appeared she would never have her need for companionship met. After much anguish she cast her full confidence in God and broke up with the suitor. A short time later she met and happily married a fine man of her own faith.
Real victory over sin, then, means coming to have such a practical confidence in God's ability to meet our needs that we will not be prone to meet them on our terms. "Lost" in Him, we are safe.
Whoever cares for his own safety is lost; but if a man will let himself be lost for my sake and for the Gospel, that man is safe. Mark 8:35, N.E.B.
Ever since Eden we've thought that we have the ideas on how to take care of ourselves, how to meet our needs, how to reach our goals. In many cases we are convinced that we can take better care of ourselves than even God can. For example, the lonesome teenager who longs to be loved may seek for it in illicit sexual relationships rather than wait for God's longer, slower, but more satisfying methods to accomplish the goal.
A young business executive seeks for professional success and security--certainly worthy goals in themselves. But if, in his haste to get there, he compromises his health, integrity, and relationships, the goals are no longer worthy of him. When Jesus was being tempted in the wilderness, nothing was wrong with His waiting to be fed, to be sustained by His Father, or to be victorious in His mission to win the earth back from Satan. What was wrong with each of the temptations was that they involved shortcuts to the goal, do-it-yourself methods apart from the Father's wise perception of what was necessary.
Virtually every sinful thing that we do has an understandable motive behind it: we are acting to fulfill a legitimate need. We need love, enjoyment, successes, security, sexual release, food and shelter, and freedom from pain. The thing that makes our sinful act so wrong is not the need itself but the fact that we have gone about meeting it by our methods rather than God's.
A 26-year-old woman, fearful that she was about to become an "old maid," was seriously dating a non-Christian. He was eager to enter matrimony, but she was sufficiently apprehensive that she came for advice. She was terrified at my suggestion that she break off the relationship because it appeared she would never have her need for companionship met. After much anguish she cast her full confidence in God and broke up with the suitor. A short time later she met and happily married a fine man of her own faith.
Real victory over sin, then, means coming to have such a practical confidence in God's ability to meet our needs that we will not be prone to meet them on our terms. "Lost" in Him, we are safe.
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