Obedience by Faith CHOOSING TO LET GOD CHOOSE
And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out. Matt. 5:29.
Jesus referred to the problem of surrender in very interesting words. He said, "If thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee....And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee." Have you ever pondered this passage? I'm thankful for the insight given in Thoughts From the Mount of Blessing, page 61: "It is through the will that sin retains its hold upon us. The surrender of the will is represented as plucking out the eye or cutting off the hand."
Someone says, "If I'm supposed to give up my will, that sounds to me as though I'm going to go through life maimed and crippled." For the high achiever, the capable person, this seems disconcerting. Sometimes they even become angry at it. "God made us in his image," they even say, "He's not going to take away our wills. He's not going to make automatons out of us."
I'd like to invite you to read Steps to Christ, page 47, very carefully before this day is over. Within the context of that page, will is defined as our power of choice. Every time you read the word will, substitute power of choice, and see what you come up with. You can conclude nothing else than that surrender is giving up our power of choice.
"Oh, but I'll be crippled!" Well, if God invites me to give up my power of choice, can't I leave the question of whether or not I'm going to be crippled to Him? God invites us to surrender our will toward everything except the continuing relationship with Him. We are always free to choose whether to continue seeking Him. We never lose our power of choice there.
Let's get more practical about it. Say I have a problem: smoking. And God says, "If you will give up your power of choice toward everything except your relationship with Me, an entire change can be wrought in your life." Is the victory gained by choosing not to smoke? No, it doesn't work that way. Instead, I give up my power of choice to Him, and exercise my power of choice toward the faith relationship. Jesus then comes in and lives His life in me, and He chooses not to smoke! Obedience comes only by faith, because we are invited to give up on ourselves and allow Christ to control us and choose for us, as we surrender more and more constantly to Him.
And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out. Matt. 5:29.
Jesus referred to the problem of surrender in very interesting words. He said, "If thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee....And if thy right hand offend thee, cut it off, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee." Have you ever pondered this passage? I'm thankful for the insight given in Thoughts From the Mount of Blessing, page 61: "It is through the will that sin retains its hold upon us. The surrender of the will is represented as plucking out the eye or cutting off the hand."
Someone says, "If I'm supposed to give up my will, that sounds to me as though I'm going to go through life maimed and crippled." For the high achiever, the capable person, this seems disconcerting. Sometimes they even become angry at it. "God made us in his image," they even say, "He's not going to take away our wills. He's not going to make automatons out of us."
I'd like to invite you to read Steps to Christ, page 47, very carefully before this day is over. Within the context of that page, will is defined as our power of choice. Every time you read the word will, substitute power of choice, and see what you come up with. You can conclude nothing else than that surrender is giving up our power of choice.
"Oh, but I'll be crippled!" Well, if God invites me to give up my power of choice, can't I leave the question of whether or not I'm going to be crippled to Him? God invites us to surrender our will toward everything except the continuing relationship with Him. We are always free to choose whether to continue seeking Him. We never lose our power of choice there.
Let's get more practical about it. Say I have a problem: smoking. And God says, "If you will give up your power of choice toward everything except your relationship with Me, an entire change can be wrought in your life." Is the victory gained by choosing not to smoke? No, it doesn't work that way. Instead, I give up my power of choice to Him, and exercise my power of choice toward the faith relationship. Jesus then comes in and lives His life in me, and He chooses not to smoke! Obedience comes only by faith, because we are invited to give up on ourselves and allow Christ to control us and choose for us, as we surrender more and more constantly to Him.
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