|
|
|
Part 4 - The Application of Faith
The Sharing of the Light with the World
Love to the Lost
The fruit of abiding in Christ is love. This love has four avenues of
expression: to the lost, to God, to fellow members in the body of Christ,
and to Jesus Christ as Redeemer and Mediator between God and mankind.
Christ's sanctifying work is modeled in the creation account which typifies
both the setting apart of the believer from sin and death and the
consecration of the believer to the purposes of God. See Part 2,
The Sanctifying Work of Christ, for details on
the four ways in which Christ has set apart the believer and the
corresponding four ways in which the believer is consecrated to God's
purposes. The first aspect of separation is separation from darkness into
the light of Christ. The corresponding consecration is the consecration of
the believer to sharing that light with those in darkness (see Part 2,
Consecrated to Sharing the Light). Sharing the
light of the knowledge of God is the expression of love to the lost.
Identification and compassion
The basis for Christian witness, where the truth of the gospel is shared
with the lost, is the believer's own deliverance through that truth. In the
light of Christ the believer finds peace with God, hope of eternal life, the
forgiveness of sins, deliverance from the power of sin, and the joy and
comfort of God's presence. It is the testimony of one's personal salvation
through the light of Christ that is the witness.
Compassion for the lost comes when the believer identifies with the plight
of the lost. Except for God's grace and intervention into the believer's
life, the believer has no more ability to deliver himself from the
destructiveness of sin than those apart from Christ. There is a process of
brokenness that God works into the lives of all believers. This process
causes the believer to realize his own desperate need for God, the same need
that all of mankind has. The result is an identification with and a compassion for
those who are apart from Christ.
Brokenness
Jesus likened Himself to the chief cornerstone of a building. To this He
added, "And whoever falls on this stone will be broken; but on whomever it
falls, it will grind him to powder" (Matt. 21:44). In the end those opposed to Christ
will be completely crushed. Mankind's rebellion against God will eventually be
fully dealt with. Interestingly however is that those who come to Christ
will be broken. This is the breaking of man's independence from God where
he would depend upon his own works, wisdom, and life. Man would seek to
establish his standing before God through his own works; God's way is that
man would be established before Him based on God's work, thus necessitating
rest in the work of Jesus Christ. Man would depend upon his own wisdom and
understanding; God's way is that man would depend upon God's infinite wisdom
and understanding, thus necessitating faith in God on the part of man. Man
would seek to live life based on his own resources; God's way is that man
would find God to be his resource, thus necessitating life in the Holy
Spirit through Christ. Those who come to Christ will be broken in these
areas so that God will become all in all.
It is in brokenness that the sweet fragrance of God's presence comes forth
bringing victory over sin and producing the fruit of love. Sin began when
mankind stopped cleaving to God and tried to rely upon himself. Mankind
became self-centered and sin is simply a manifestation of this
self-centeredness. The brokenness that God is working out in His people is
the breaking of self-centeredness so that God-centeredness will be produced,
and more specifically, Christ-centeredness. Brokenness comes when the
believer finds that he cannot earn his standing before God based on his own
works. It comes when the believer finds himself in situations that are
totally out of his control and understanding. Brokenness comes when the
believer finds he cannot live life based on his own resources. When he gives
up depending upon himself and declares failure is when God is ready to come
in and take over. The believer learns to rely entirely upon God, and in this
God gets the glory. This is the working of the cross upon a believer's life
at which point he can say, "For I through the law died to the law that I
might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who
live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I
live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me" (Gal.
2:19-20).
The believer is able to serve God when he sees himself not as being able to
do anything but rather as being an earthen vessel through which God can work
and accomplish His purposes. Love is produced through the Spirit as the
believer seeks not his own glory in accomplishments but the glory of God who
first has loved mankind and has worked out redemption and restoration for
fallen man. In brokenness, under the lordship of Jesus Christ, the believer
learns to rest in the accomplishments of Christ, believe in Christ, and
abide
in the life of Christ through the Holy Spirit. This removes the
self-centeredness that inhibits love and fruitfulness.
As God has done for the believer, so too does He desire to do
for all others who sit in darkness, sin, and spiritual death. The believer
who has received light and hope in Christ is called to be a vessel through
which God's love can go out to the lost. The book of Romans states, "For the
wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus
our Lord" (Rom. 6:23). A striving to earn God's approval and acceptance
produces strife between people, for pride creates a desire to stand higher
than others. This produces contempt or envy toward others. The light of the
gospel however shows that the only thing that is earned is death, "for the
wages of sin is death." The gospel shows that all have sinned and have
fallen short of the glory of God. All are at the same level of being in
desperate need of God's mercy and grace. Eternal life comes only in and
through Christ and is a gift, unearned and undeserved. This is the light that
all believers receive and as they believe and abide in it the truth of it
sets them free. This truth removes strife and produces love and compassion.
Preaching the good news
Romans states, "How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not
believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And
how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless
they are sent? As it is written: 'How beautiful are the feet of those who
preach the gospel of peace, Who bring glad tidings of good things!' . . .
So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God" (Rom.
10:14,15,17). Here is God's method through which faith in Him is realized:
The gospel of peace is preached; the word of God is spread through the
preaching; the lost hear the word; faith in the word is exercised by those
who hear and receive.
Jesus taught the principle, "Freely you have received, freely
give" (Matt. 10:8). The truth of the gospel is a transforming light. God's
people have freely received it and are called to freely share it with compassion
and love. The love that is the fruit of abiding in Christ is partly
manifested in love for those apart from Christ who dwell in darkness. The
truth that comes from abiding in the light of Christ is that which is freely
received and is to be freely given. The consecration of all believers to
this purpose of God is part of the sanctifying work of Christ and is part of
the plan of God that was formulated from before the foundation of the world.
The Bible states that "the just shall live by faith," and "without faith is
is impossible to please God." The book of Hebrews states, "For indeed the
gospel was preached to us as well as to them; but the word which they heard
did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in those who heard it. For
we who have believed do enter that rest" (Heb. 4:2-3). Rest in Jesus Christ
and His finished work through faith is the foundation for service to God and
the fulfillment of His purposes. When one places faith in Christ and by
faith abides in the place of separation in Christ the way is opened for
service to God in and through the Holy Spirit. Service to God is not
self-effort and work. It is not something done to bring glory to oneself.
Serving God is actually yielding oneself as an instrument through which God
the Holy Spirit works. The work is God's and God gets the glory for it.
"Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let
us use them . . . in proportion to our faith" (Rom. 12:6).
A work of the Spirit
Serving the purpose of God by sharing the light of the gospel with the lost
is a calling to be done in love and through the Spirit. Thus Jesus told His
disciples, "But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon
you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and
Samaria, and to the end of the earth" (Acts 1:8). Jesus told His disciples
to "tarry in the city of Jerusalem until you are endued with power from on
high." They were to tarry until Jesus ascended to the Father in Heaven and
the Holy Spirit was sent to indwell the church. This would be the beginning
point of the church at which time the sanctifying work of Christ would be
complete. This complete work entails not just the consecration of the
believer to share the gospel message, but the provision to carry it out.
The work of evangelism is a work of the Holy Spirit to be done in Jesus
Christ and under His lordship. Christ is the head and directs His body, the
church. Paul writes, "For as we have many members in one body, but all the
members do not have the same function, so we, being many, are one body in
Christ, and individually members of one another" (Rom. 12:4-5). The witness
of the church to the lost is a corporate work. All members do not have the
same function, so each believer is to seek God's will and yield to the
leading of the Holy Spirit.
In creation God filled the seas with life. Genesis records, "Then God said,
'Let the waters abound with an abundance of living creatures . . . ' So God
created great sea creatures and every living thing that moves, with which
the waters abounded, according to their kind" (Gen. 1:20-21). In like manner
God has placed His people throughout the world, mixed in with the lost, to
be a witness. Each believer's place is different, unlike any other, and each
one is consecrated to life in the Spirit where the ministry of the Spirit is
to reach out to the lost in manifold ways. Jesus says to His people,
representatives of His light, "You are the light of the world . . .
Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and
glorify your Father in heaven" (Matt. 5:14, 16).
|
|
