Life Ministries

The second principle of the new law which we need to understand is: We keep wanting to depend on OURSELVES and God keeps wanting us to depend on HIM.

    If you really want to understand the teaching of Jesus just spend some time reading Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5-7. Read it over several times as though this was the first time you have read it. I get over-whelmed every time I read it because I realize how far I am from the kind of life he is talking about. What he is talking about is something so radically different that it takes a total dependence on God to enter into it.  It is not something I can do by my own effort. If this is what my life must be like, God has to change me completely, because I can’t do it at all. I have to totally depend on him every moment of my life, and the minute I stop depending on him I begin to fall. The Christian life is not an offer I make to God, it is an offer which I must accept from God. It is not something I do for him; it is something he does for me.

    Listen as Jesus says, “You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. And if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic, let him have your cloak as well. If someone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you” (Matthew 5:38-42)  Can you live like that? Most of us would be ready for a fight if we experienced that kind of injustice. But when we are completely depend-ing on God, we allow him to settle all the scores. We don’t try to get even; we give him control.

    You have to lean on God to do what Jesus taught when he said, “But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you” (Luke 6:27-28) In order to live God’s way we have to have God’s power. We have to depend on him. This means that we live with humility. Jeremiah wrote: “I know, O LORD, that a man’s life is not his own; it is not for man to direct his own steps” (Jeremiah 10:23). This is difficult in our culture of radical independence. It means that we surrender to God and agree to live his way instead of our way.

    Jesus said, “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). We are not sure we like the idea that we can’t do anything without him. We want to be in charge. We even want to be in charge of our own spiritual lives. We want to accomplish things for God and have him congratulate us. That way we can compliment ourselves and have others admire us. We want to feel good about ourselves. We want to do something to please God, but he wants us to allow him do something in us. We have to give up our straining and striving, and surrender.

    The Christian life is a life of dependence on God. It is the way of surrender and humility. The Bible says, “Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). Paul wrote to the Romans saying, “Therefore, I urge you brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God — this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is — his good, pleasing and perfect will. For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you” (Romans 12:1-3). This means that I have to be surrendered totally to the lordship of Jesus Christ in my life.