There is more and more a shift in religion to honor and promote ourselves. Personal testimony for the Lord and the great things He has done in our lives seems to invade our talk and assemblies. Some use the term "witnessing for the Lord." "For we do not preach ourselves but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your bond-servants for Jesus' sake." (II Cor. 5:4) Paul made it abundantly clear that we do not preach our own commitment or holy lives! Jesus is Lord! Jesus is the Savior! Jesus is the One that atoned for our sinfulness. Our changed lives are no substitute for the atoning life and death of Jesus Christ. That means we are not to offer our moral and spiritual attainment as proof of the cross. It is not our transformed lives that make the cross the moral and spiritual center of the universe! The cross, the death, burial and resurrected Christ is what creates our transformed lives as a witness to the true center of this universe. It's all about Jesus and Him crucified!
There is nothing wrong with thanking the Lord God and speak in gratitude for the way He has brought about change within us. We should thank God and praise His name for the wonderful blessing and gift He brought about to us in His Son. But that thankfulness is not to be a substitute for what life is really about or our worship. What transforms us and shapes our lives is the mercies of God shown to us in the glorious Lord (Rom. 12:1-2). The gospel of Jesus and Him crucified is what makes sense of our lives but our lives do not validate Jesus Christ!
Too many are carrying things to make people look at us! A little here, a little there and man becomes the center while claiming it is about the Christ. Christ gave the glory to His own death. We are not to proclaim a deed but the man, the person Christ Jesus (I Tim. 2:5). Look closely at His gift and what He offers. Look at the commitment on our behalf and the power to change and transform that comes from His life. Therein you and I will find all the reason to give thanks, praise His name knowing it was His redeeming blood that, His guiltless and perfect sacrifice that makes us anything. It's all about Jesus and nothing else!
1 comment:
Simply put, it is about pride.
The belief we are doing great things for the Lord (to which I must ask this, what can we do for the Lord that He is unable to do to start with?) leads to a path of pride and being self-centered on "me" instead of focusing on what has, is, and shall be done for us by Christ.
How shallow are we to believe our personal testimony and "witnessing" is of consequence to ourselves or to others when it comes to the promise of salvation, freely given, by God through Jesus?
In Phillippians 2:12 we are instructed to work out your salvation in fear and trembling for it is God who is at work in you. It is not "us" being at work in God as so many seem to believe and focus on.
Pride has no place when we present ourselves before the Lord either with our lives or in our worship. Have we forgotten what it means to be humble before our God and Lord? Maybe so.
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