Copyright\u00a0 by Shea Oakley<\/p>\n
All rights reserved<\/p>\n
The Bible tells us that God works in us, that we cannot do anything without him. Yet, it also declares that we have a role to play, responsibilities to accept and work to do. One of the most difficult challenges of the Christian life is avoiding the extreme versions of \u201cLet go, and let God\u201d and \u201cGod helps those who help themselves.\u201d While neither of these terms is found in scripture both contain some truth. On one hand we must not make the mistake of lying back in our easy chairs and waiting for God to bless and heal our lives, but we should also not try to change ourselves into the image of his Son through the effort of the flesh either.<\/p>\n
The truth is that sanctification depends on a cooperative, though very uneven, partnership between the Lord and His children. This should not be a surprise. God is intrinsically relational (witness the Trinity) and beings made in His own image are created for relationship as well. It was never the divine will to design totally autonomous, independent creatures. In fact the greatest proponent of such radical self-sufficiency is Satan himself. The fall of the human race was all about the Devil\u2019s attempt to convince us that we were meant to be God, rather than depend on God. Any attempt by a believer to achieve perfection in his or her own strength is a legacy of the Enemy\u2019s devastating success in that attempt.<\/p>\n
The flesh cannot reform the flesh. Spiritually speaking the modern term \u201cSelf-help\u201d is a tragic oxymoron. It is only through surrender to Christ and to the ultimate power of his shed blood that enables real, positive change to occur in our lives. Apart from Him we can do nothing to effect our growth in godliness. As long as we are consciously or unconsciously trying to pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps we will abjectly fail to become truly Christ-like. In fact if we continue to strive to reform ourselves by ourselves<\/em> we will only push ourselves away from the real Source of our sanctification and, if anything, become more distant from Him.<\/p>\n The other extreme is to become completely passive and expect God to transform our lives without any input from us at all. This He will not do. God expects all his children to take an active role in their spiritual growth. This role is not so much about effort as about trusting obedience. Our job in such obedience is to take the vital first step of trusting that the power required to do whatever He wants us to do, or be whatever He wants us to be, will be supplied, as we will to obey his call<\/em>. When we take that step in sincerity of heart we will be find that the strength we need is given to us in abundance. This is how the great saints of church history accomplished such seemingly superhuman tasks, because they literally received superhuman power through trusting that \u201cwith God nothing is impossible.\u201d<\/p>\n No one is saved through effort. If salvation comes only through faith in the Savior why would the same not be true in regards to sanctification? We cannot transform ourselves in our own strength. Conversely, inertly waiting for God to remake us without any cooperation in the process on our part doesn\u2019t work either. The real key to spiritual transformation is a kind of faith similar to that which saved us in the first place. When we become willing to trust God for any strength we need in order to do or become something new, and then act on the basis of that trust, He gives us the ability to accomplish whatever his will is for our lives. All we need do is walk it out in His power. This type of \u201cactive faith\u201d is the best way to trump both self-effort and spiritual passivity.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Copyright\u00a0 by Shea Oakley All rights reserved The Bible tells us that God works in us, that we cannot do anything without him. Yet, it also declares that we have a role to play, responsibilities to accept and work to do. One of the most difficult challenges of the Christian life is avoiding the extreme… <\/p>\n