His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to[c] his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.”
2 Peter 1:3-4
“But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.”
John 1:12-13
“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.”
John 10:10
“True religion is a union of the soul with God, a real participation in the divine nature, the very image of God drawn upon the soul.”
Henry Scougal
The 17th century was a difficult time to be a Bible believing Christian in England. In the later part of the 17th Century, England was ruled by King Charles II. He was determined to rid England of its Puritan influences and persecuted intensely all non Anglicans, especially their Pastors. They were called in a maligning way Non-conformists or Puritans. One of the best known of these Puritans was John Bunyan. You have probably heard of him for his most famous work The Pilgrims Progress. In 1672 about 50 miles northwest of London in Bedford, Pastor John Bunyan was released from twelve years of imprisonment for preaching without a license. He was 44 years old.
Just before his release he updated his spiritual autobiography called Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners. He looked back over the hardships of the last 12 years and wrote about how he was enabled by God to survive and even thrive in the Bedford jail. One of his comments was on what sustained him over the course of his most difficult life. His quotes from 2 Corinthians 1:9 where Paul says, "Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead" Then he says, “By this scripture I was made to see that if ever I would suffer rightly, I must first pass a sentence of death upon every thing that can be properly called a thing of this life, even to reckon myself, my wife, my children, my health, my enjoyment, and all, as dead to me, and myself as dead to them. The second was, to live upon God who raises the dead.”
God's first great design for our life is that we might let go of self-confidence and to rely on God and not ourselves. That was how John Bunyan lived and it is how all Christians must live. Either we live on God or we don’t really live. As the saying goes, “Just because you’re breathing doesn’t mean that you are living.” A Christian life is a “peculiar life”. It is an inexplicable, extraordinary, life. It is as Henry Scougal defines it in the title of his book as “The Life of God in the Soul of Man.”
The natural man lives on food, water, sleep, oxygen, etc.; but the spiritual man lives on God alone. He exists to do things that can't be done without God's special, supernatural grace. Henry Scougal contrasts what he calls the natural or wicked man with the religious or spiritual man in his profound book The Life of God in the Soul of Man: “The difference between a religious and a wicked man is, that in the one, Divine life bears sway, in the other, the animal life doth prevail.” So there is human life, natural life, fleshly life, or soulish life common to all mankind. But there is a peculiar life, the divine life, the life of God in the soul of man that is only common to those who are born again.
“Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and whoever loves the Father loves the child born of Him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and observe His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome. For whatever is born of God overcomes the world.” 1 John 5:1-4
Let me illustrate with a picture. I want you to imagine with me that you are at a track meet held by Jesus Christ and you are in the high jump. He sets bar to begin at 3 feet. So you run up to the bar and easily jump over it. He keeps raising the bar three inches and you keep successfully jumping and clearing over each height. But then Jesus raises the bar to a height that you have never cleared: six feet. So you focus all of your energy, run as fast as you can, you jump, graze the bar, and you fail. You try a second time and you fail again. Finally, you go for the last time giving it your all. You jump, get a good lift into the air, and all of your body clears, except the edge of your heal grazes the bar. As you land you see the bar wobble and wobble and then it falls. You have failed and are out of the meet. You are discouraged because you realize that you are only able to jump under six feet at your best.
But then Jesus raises the bar to ten feet and surprisingly says “I want you to jump again and clear the bar.” You are thinking, “Lord Jesus, ten feet, why I can’t even jump six feet. As a matter of fact, nobody in the world can jump over 8’5”. Jesus knows that you are having a hard time with this so He says, “My child, I promise you that you will clear the bar. I will be with you every step of the way and I will be in You to empower you and enable you to clear the bar, I promise. I will make sure that you clear the bar. As a matter of fact I am writing this all down in a book telling everyone that you must do this, you can do this, and that I am going to enable you to do this, so that if you fail, I will look bad, not just you. I will look like a liar who doesn’t keep His promises, I will look unreasonable in my demands upon you, I will look powerless in my ability to help you, and one will try to jump any higher than their own natural abilities. Now do as I say and jump.”
How would you respond? Some would say, “Sorry Lord, I will just play it safe and stick to doing what I’m capable of jumping under six feet on my own. I’m content with jumping six feet, that’s good enough for me. I mean, hey, I jump higher than lots of other people! I think I’m a pretty good jumper”. Others will say, “Well Jesus never really meant ten feet... Hew meant the ten feet of possibilities. He is encouraging to jump to my full six foot potential.” Others will say, “Lord, I know you said ten feet, but I’ve tried that before and it didn’t happen and I can’t take another failure so I think I’ll pass. Then Jesus says to them, “I’m telling you all, if you want to be in my track meet you must jump ten feet.”
But others will get excited and scared at the same time. They would look at Jesus with courage, they would think about what He said against what they think, and they would risk and run and jump and clear the bar at ten feet just like Jesus commanded and promise. When they clear the bar and land with overwhelming joy they cry out, “Lord, I did it just like you promised. I can clear ten foot high jumps through Christ who strengthens me”. And everyone watching is aware that they have done something extraordinary that didn’t come naturally to them. They have done the impossible, all because of the motivating promise and the enabling power of Jesus Christ.
How many of you readers are jumping ten feet? How many of you are doing things in your life that can only be explained by the power of God? How many of you feel that the Holy Spirit is speaking to you, promising you, commanding you, and challenging you to raise the bar in your life and begin to jump higher than ever? Perhaps God is calling for you to sacrifice something or surrender something. Perhaps God is asking you to step out in faith. Perhaps God is asking you to step out or get involved in ministry. Perhaps there are habits that need changing. Perhaps God has prompted you to begin daily Bible reading. Perhaps God is calling you to walk in a deeper obedience than ever. Perhaps God is calling you to persevere and serve Him in the midst of great trials. Perhaps God is calling you to reach out to the needy. Perhaps God is challenging you to evangelize a neighbor or friend. Perhaps He is asking you to give more of your money or time. Perhaps God has told you men to start listening to your wives.
Jesus describes the Christian life in these terms: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another" John 13:34-35
“Unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” Matthew 5:20
"If you love me, you will keep my commandments” John 14:15
“Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father.” John 14:12-14
“Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing… By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples” John 15:4-8
What is this fruit that Jesus says that His disciples will bear? Paul speaks of the fruit being this (I want to read this from the Amplified Bible):
“But the fruit of the [Holy] Spirit [the work which His presence within accomplishes] is love, joy (gladness), peace, patience (an even temper, forbearance), kindness, goodness (benevolence), faithfulness, Gentleness (meekness, humility), self-control (self-restraint, continence).”
Galatians 5:22-23 Amplified Bible
So the nature of the Christian life is that God raises the bar to make impossible demands upon us with wonderful promises to us along with a supernatural enablement for us. He commands us to love like He loves. To do the things that He did. To speak his word. To live a moral standard of life exceeding that of the most moral and religious and virtuous men of the time. To obey His commandments. To bear fruit that lasts and glorifies Him.
Jesus is trying to overwhelm us to show us the utter impossibility of the Christian life on our own. He does this in order to show us that true Christianity is supernatural or it is nothing. It is either extraordinarily high jumping ten feet according to the promises and by the power of God or it is living on your own strength and limitations jumping at no more than six feet.
The Christian life is a supernatural life. It is not produced by merely human forces. It takes resources that we do not have. It is bad news to all those who chose to attempt to be a Christian and live the Christian life on their own strength. It refuses to believe the words of Christ who says “for apart from me you can do nothing.” But it is good news to the sinful, the weak, the limited, and helpless. It liberates and frees us to face our sinfulness, our weaknesses, and our limitations, and let them become a launching pad for the power and glory of God! But it makes a particular demand upon us all. It demands that we live on God alone. It demands a daily declaration of dependence!
To be continued...
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