April
22, 2003
SEPARATION
FROM SIN
"If
your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and cast it
from you; for it is more profitable for you that one of your
members perish, than for your whole body to be cast into hell"
(Matthew 5:30, NKJV).
"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. Often it seems to us that to surrender
the will to God is to consent to go through life maimed or
crippled. But it is better, says Christ, for self to be maimed,
wounded, crippled, if thus you may enter into life. That which
you look upon as disaster is the door to highest benefit.
"God
is the fountain of life, and we can have life only as we are
in communion with Him. Separated from God, existence may be
ours for a little time, but we do not possess life. 'She who
lives in pleasure is dead while she lives' (1 Timothy 5:6).
Only through the surrender of our will to God is it possible
for Him to impart life to us. Only by receiving His life through
self-surrender is it possible, said Jesus, for these hidden
sins, - to be overcome. It is possible that you may bury them
in your hearts and conceal them from human eyes, but how will
you stand in God's presence?
"If
you cling to self, refusing to yield your will to God, you
are choosing death. To sin, wherever found, God is a consuming
fire. If you choose sin, and refuse to separate from it, the
presence of God, which consumes sin, must consume you.
"It
will require a sacrifice to give yourself to God; but it is
a sacrifice of the lower for the higher, the earthly for the
spiritual, the perishable for the eternal. God does not design
that our will should be destroyed, for it is only through
its exercise that we can accomplish what He would have us
do. Our will is to be yielded to Him, that we may receive
it again, purified and refined, and so linked in sympathy
with the Divine that He can pour through us the tides of His
love and power. However bitter and painful this surrender
may appear to the willful, wayward heart, yet 'it is profitable
for you.'
"Through
the gospel, souls that are degraded and enslaved by Satan
are to be redeemed to share the glorious liberty of the sons
of God. God's purpose is not merely to deliver from the suffering
that is the inevitable result of sin, but to save from sin
itself. The soul, corrupted and deformed, is to be purified,
transformed, that it may be clothed in 'the beauty of the
Lord our God' (Psalm 90:17), 'conformed to the image of His
Son' (Romans 8:29), 'Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor
have entered into the heart of man, the things which God has
prepared for those who love Him' (1 Corinthians 2:9).--Thoughts
From The Mount Of Blessing, pp., 60-63.
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