Tuesday, January 10

Surrender...100%

The following is a daily devotional copied verbatim from the January 10th page of My Utmost for His Highest. I found it very thought provoking. The Opened Sight

"I now send you, to open their eyes...that they may receive forgiveness of sins..." (Acts 26:17-18)

This verse is the greatest example of the true essence of the message of a disciple of Jesus Christ in all of the New Testament.

God's first sovereign work of grace is summed up in the words, "...that they may receive forgiveness of sins..." When a person fails in his personal Christian life, it is usually because he has never received anything. The only sign that a person is saved is that he has received something from Jesus Christ. Our job as workers for God is to open people's eyes so that they may turn themselves from darkness to light. But that is not salvation; it is conversion--only the effort of an awakened human being. I do not think it is too broad a statement to say that the majority of so-called Christians are like this. Their eyes are open, but they have received nothing. Conversion is not regeneration. This is a neglected fact in our preaching today. When a person is born again, he knows that it is because he has received something as a gift from Almighty God and not because of his own decision. People may make vows and promises, and may be determined to follow through, but none of this is salvation. Salvation means that we are brought to the place where we are able to receive something from God on the authority of Jesus Christ, namely, forgiveness of sins.

This is followed by God's second mighty work of grace:"...an inheritance among those who are sanctified...." In sanctification, the one who has been born again deliberately gives up his right to himself to Jesus Christ, and identifies himself entirely with God's ministry to others.
The first thing that jumped out at me was the statement, "When a person fails in his personal Christian life, it is usually because he has never received anything." The first time I read it, I wondered if he was using the word "fails" as a replacement for the word "sin", but the more I thought about it the more I don't think so. I think Chambers was referring to a complete failure in your Christian life. A turning and walking away from what you professed. I think that's much more inline with the context of this passage and the Word.

The second passage that really hit me was, "Conversion is not regeneration." My first thought here was, "Whoa...It's not?" However, the way he defines conversion he's right. He's seeing conversion as the decision of the individual to decide to follow Christ. You can make the decision and never be born again, but I don't think you can be born again without making the decision.

What Chambers seems to be warning against is the idea of people saying, "Yes, I'm going to be a Christian." without ever fully coming to the Lord broken and receiving forgiveness of our sins.

The last paragraph is convicting for me. I still have so much to learn about the person of Christ. I have so much to learn about deliberately giving up myself to Christ and identifying solely with Him. Lord, Help me, today, to continue dying to myself and my own desires, and help me to fill my heart with thy Word, which contains all your desires for me. In Jesus Name, Amen

5 comments:

Stephanie said...

"I do not think it is too broad a statement to say that the majority of so-called Christians are like this. Their eyes are open, but they have received nothing."

I would have to agree. There is a staggering statistic that states that something like 80% of all Americans consider themselves to be "Christians". However, many of these people have only an awareness of Jesus Christ as being the key to thier faith, but not truly recieving His gifts of salvation, redemption, and purification.

"Conversion is not regeneration". Well, that depends on each individual: it can be a package deal, but I agree. It's not one in the same. The definition of regeneration is "a spiritual renewal or revival" (according to Webster's Dictionary). To simply convert and say, "I am no longer a Muslim, but I am a Christian because I believe that Jesus was the son of God, and I'm going to do everything I can to live a good life according to what is moral and just" is simply a declaration of your "religion". That is not regeneraton. But if you say "I no longer am a Jew because I believe that Jesus is the son of God, and He came to this earth to die for MY sins, and I outrightly accept Him as my Lord and savior and willingly give my life over to Him to change me and use me in whatever capacity He will to further His Kingdom", well then you've just experienced a conversion of religion/faith, and an awakening of your spirit (regeneration).

Wow Luke: I have this book sitting at home collecting dust on my nightstand. I think I'll be joining you in morning devotionals from this book. Thanks for always being a reminder of the things so very necessary to my Christian walk.

Katie said...

Great book and great things to ponder. I have nothing to add Luke, Chambers hit it on the head and you did a great job disceting it.

Luke said...

whoa...Katie...You have nothing to add? I'm not sure what that means...either I'm honored that you think I covered it that well, or else I did a poor job of invoking thought! ;)

Anyway, thanks for taking the time to check it out. :)

jw said...

I agree very much with the view he presents on "Christians." I believe that just calling on Christ and being done with it doesn't make you a Christian at all. There must be fruit and change signifying that we've gone through a Biblical conversion (whether defined as regeneration or not... I kinda like) and received such an undeserved incredible gift, salvation. I really like how he defines this change as a realization that we've received something. When we realize what we've received we can't help but follow, albeit often stumbling in our unworthiness. Thank God for the grace he then provides.

Luke said...

Justin: I loved the last paragraph on grace! Thank God for it.