Our study has now brought us to
the point where we are able to consider the true nature of
consecration. We have before us the second half of Romans 6 from
verse 12 to the end. In Romans 6:12,13 we read: "Let not sin
therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey the
lusts thereof: neither present your members unto sin as
instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves unto God,
as alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of
righteousness unto God." The operative word here is
"present" and this occurs five times, in verses 13, 16
and 19.[9]
Many have taken this word
"present" to imply consecration without looking
carefully into its content. Of course that is what it does mean,
but not in the sense in which we so often understand it. It is
not the consecration of our 'old man' with his instincts and
resources -- our natural wisdom, strength and other gifts -- to
the Lord for Him to use.
This will be at once clear from
verse 13. Note there the clause "as alive from the
dead". Paul says: "Present yourselves unto God, as
alive from the dead". This defines for us the point at which
consecration begins. For what is here referred to is not the
consecration of anything belonging to the old creation, but only
of that which has passed through death to resurrection. The
'presenting' spoken of is the outcome of my knowing my old man to
be crucified. Knowing, reckoning, presenting to God: that is the
Divine order.
When I really know I am crucified
with Him, then spontaneously I reckon myself dead (verses 6 and
11); and when I know that I am raised with Him from the dead,
then likewise I reckon myself "alive unto God in Christ
Jesus" (verses 9 and 11), for both the death and the
resurrection side of the Cross are to be accepted by faith. When
this point is reached, giving myself to Him follows. In
resurrection He is the source of my life -- indeed He is
my life; so I cannot but present everything to Him, for all is
His, not mine. But without passing through death I have nothing
to consecrate, nor is there anything God can accept, for He has
condemned all that is of the old creation to the Cross. Death has
cut off all that cannot be consecrated to Him, and
resurrection alone has made consecration possible. Presenting
myself to God means that henceforth I consider my whole life as
now belonging to the Lord.
Let us observe that this
'presenting' relates to the members of my body -- that body
which, as we saw earlier, is now unemployed in respect to sin.
"Present yourselves ... and your members", says Paul,
and again: "Present your members" (Romans 6:13,19). God
requires of me that I now regard all my members, all my
faculties, as belonging wholly to Him.
It is a great thing when I discover
I am no longer my own but His. If the ten shillings in my pocket
belong to me, then I have full authority over them. But if they
belong to another who has committed them to me in trust, then I
cannot buy what I please with them, and I dare not lose them.
Real Christian life begins with knowing this. How many of us know
that, because Christ is risen, we are therefore alive "unto
God" and not unto ourselves? How many of us dare not
use our time or money or talents as we would, because we realize
they are the Lord's not ours? How many of us have such a strong
sense that we belong to Another that we dare not squander a
shilling of our money, or an hour of our time, or any of our
mental or physical powers?
On one occasion a Chinese brother
was traveling by train and found himself in a carriage together
with three non-Christians who wished to play cards in order to
while away the time. Lacking a fourth to complete the game, they
invited this brother to join them. 'I am sorry to disappoint
you', he said, 'but I cannot join your game because I have not
brought my hands with me.' 'Whatever do you mean?' they asked in
blank astonishment. 'This pair of hands does not belong to me',
he said, and then there followed the explanation of the transfer
of ownership that had taken place in his life. That brother
regarded the members of his body as belonging entirely to the
Lord. That is true holiness.
Paul says, "Present your
members as servants to righteousness unto sanctification (A.V.
'holiness')" (Romans 6:19). Make it a definite act.
"Present yourselves to God."
What is holiness? Many people
think we become holy by the eradication of something evil within.
No, we become holy by being separated unto God. In Old Testament
times, it was when a man was chosen by God to be altogether His
that he was publicly anointed with oil and was then said to be
'sanctified'. Thereafter he was regarded as set apart to
God. In the same manner even animals or material things -- a
lamb, or the gold of the temple -- could be sanctified, not by
the eradication of anything evil in them, but by being thus
reserved exclusively to the Lord. "Holiness' in the Hebrew
sense meant something thus set apart, and all true holiness is
holiness "to the Lord" (Exodus 28:36). I give myself
over wholly to Christ: that is holiness.
Presenting myself to God implies a
recognition that I am altogether His. This giving of myself is a
definite thing, just as definite as reckoning. There must be a
day in my life when I pass out of my own hands into His, and from
that day forward I belong to Him and no longer to myself. That
does not mean that I consecrate myself to be a preacher or a
missionary. Alas, many people are missionaries not because they
have truly consecrated themselves to God but because, in the
sense of which we are speaking, they have not consecrated
themselves to Him. They have 'consecrated' (as they would put it)
something altogether different, namely, their own uncrucified
natural faculties to the doing of His work; but that is not true
consecration. Then to what are we to be consecrated? Not to
Christian work, but to the will of God to be and do whatever
He wants.
David had many mighty men. Some
were generals and others were gatekeepers, according as the king
assigned them their task. We must be willing to be either
generals or gatekeepers, assigned our roles just as God wills and
not as we choose. If you are a Christian, then God has marked out
a pathway for you -- a 'course' as Paul calls it in 2 Timothy
4:7. Not only Paul's path but the path of every Christian has
been clearly marked out by God, and it is of supreme importance
that each one should know and walk in the God-appointed course.
'Lord, I give myself to You with this desire alone, to know and
walk in the path You have ordained.' That is true giving. If at
the close of a life we can say with Paul: "I have finished
my course", then we are blessed indeed. There is nothing
more tragic than to come to the end of life and know we have been
on the wrong course. We have only one life to live down here and
we are free to do as we please with it, but if we seek our own
pleasure our life will never glorify God. A devoted Christian
once said in my hearing, 'I want nothing for myself; I want
everything for God.' Do you want anything apart from God, or does
all your desire center in His will? Can you truly say that the
will of God is "good and acceptable and perfect" to
you? (Romans 12:2)
For it is our wills that are in
question here. That strong self-assertive will of mine must go to
the Cross, and I must give myself over wholly to the Lord. We
cannot expect a tailor to make us a coat if we do not give him
any cloth, nor a builder to build us a house if we let him have
no building material; and in just the same way we cannot expect
the Lord to live out His life in us if we do not give Him our
lives in which to live. Without reservations, without
controversy, we must give ourselves to Him to do as He pleases
with us. "Present yourselves unto God" (Romans 6:13).
If we give ourselves
unreservedly to God, many adjustments may have to be made: in
family, or business, or church relationships, or in the matter of
our personal views. God will not let anything of ourselves
remain. His finger will touch, point by point, everything that is
not of Him, and He will say: 'This must go'. Are you willing? It
is foolish to resist God, and always wise to submit to Him. We
admit that many of us still have controversies with the Lord. He
wants something, while we want something else. Many things we
dare not look into, dare not pray about, dare not even think
about, lest we lose our peace. We can evade the issue in that
way, but to do so will bring us out of the will of God. It is
always an easy matter to get out of His will, but it is a blessed
thing just to hand ourselves over to Him and let Him have His way
with us.
How good it is to have the
consciousness that we belong to the Lord and are not our own!
There is nothing more precious in the world. It is that which
brings the awareness of His continual presence, and the reason is
obvious. I must first have the sense of God's possession of me
before I can have the sense of His presence with me. When once
His ownership is established, then I dare do nothing in my own
interests, for I am His exclusive property. "Know ye not,
that to whom ye present yourselves as servants unto obedience,
his servants ye are whom ye obey?" (Romans 6:16). The word
here rendered 'servant' really signifies a bondservant, a slave.
This word is used several times in the second half of Romans 6.
What is the difference between a servant and a slave? A servant
may serve another, but the ownership does not pass to that other.
If he likes his master he can serve him, but if he does not like
him he can turn in his notice and seek another master. It is not
so with the slave. He is not only the servant of another but he
is the possession of another. How did I become the slave of the
Lord? On His part He bought me, and on my part I presented myself
to Him. By right of redemption I am God's property, but if I
would be His slave I must willingly give myself to Him, for He
will never compel me to do so.
The trouble many Christians have
today is that they have an insufficient idea of what God is
asking of them. How lightly they say: 'Lord, I am willing for
anything.' Do you know that God is asking of you your very life?
There are cherished ideals, strong wills, precious relationships,
much-loved work, that will have to go; so do not give yourself to
God unless you mean it. God will take you seriously, even if you
did not mean it seriously.
When the Galilian boy brought his
bread to the Lord, what did the Lord do with it? He broke it. God
will always break what is offered to Him. He breaks what He
takes, but after breaking it He blesses and uses it to meet the
needs of others. After you give yourself to the Lord, He begins
to break what was offered to Him. Everything seems to go wrong,
and you protest and find fault with the ways of God. But to stay
there is to be no more than just a broken vessel -- no good for
the world because you have gone too far for the world to use you,
and no good for God either because you have not gone far enough
for Him to use you. You are out of gear with the world, and you
have a controversy with God. This is the tragedy of many a
Christian.
My giving of myself to the Lord
must be an initial fundamental act. Then day by day I must go on
giving to Him, not finding fault with His use of me but accepting
with praise even what the flesh rebels against.
I am the Lord's and now I no longer
reckon myself to be my own but acknowledge in everything His
ownership and authority. That it the attitude God requires, and
to maintain it is true consecration. I do not consecrate myself
to be a missionary or a preacher; I consecrate myself to God to
do His will where I am, be it in school, office or kitchen,
counting whatever He ordains for me to be the very best, for
nothing but good can come to those who are wholly His.
May we always be possessed by the
consciousness that we are not our own.
The Normal Christian Life - Chapter 7: The Eternal Purpose
