Eradication of Self Effort


Concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless. (Php 3:6)


There have been times when we can think that God calls us to service, but Saul found out that man’s best effort is not God’s requirement. We can also fall into a trap where we think that serving God is a sign of our holiness. On the contrary we have to reckon and come to conclude that the bottom line to those things we love and doing the Lord’s work as counted as loss. Not for loss and into ‘nothing-ness’ but a divine transaction to replace the things that we value so much and have become an integral part of us with the satisfaction of Christ alone. Paul says loss for Christ (Php 3:7), not just one thing to another but to a greater in the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ. There is a leaving of one state to another (1 Pet 2:9 and John 3:30) to becoming a son with inheritance, we can’t maintain our current state and hope to have Christ formed in our lives (Gal 4:19).


With this we have to understand the truth of ‘holiness’. Watchman Nee explains holiness as not the eradication of sin but set-apart, wholly belonging to Another. Leaving our old master to yield to the One Master (Matt 6:24) where often the old master concerns self, not just the devil. Jesus has dealt the death blow to the devil on the cross two thousand years ago; however the cross of discipleship deals with the master 'self'. The test of being set apart is at the times of loss whether it be loved ones (even our own children), money, possessions and time. Do we possess or are we possessed by them? If we possess as stewards than giving up doesn't end with any bitterness but demonstrated with thankfulness that we have been blessed and now it’s time to have others blessed. Loosing children is very hard as I have witnessed a loss of an 8 year old cousin to my uncle and aunt. But if the 8 years is seen as a blessing of 8 years of joy that the Lord has graciously given then bitterness won’t set in. Set apart lives live in true gratefulness that God is sovereign over all.


We can’t be super-spiritual to say that there is no pain in loss. Paul’s loss was very real for he had to leave everything that he lived for, believed in, born into and even dreams for the future... his past life was the sum total of 'him'. The Saul was the self that Paul painfully left behind. That is why he could say ‘for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus’ (Gal 6:17). The marks are left there as the scars of crucifixion for ourselves and also for others so that we can make the same Christ like invitation ‘Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing’ (John 20:27).


How often we ask Jesus ‘What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?’ (John 6:28). The Lord’s reply to us is ‘that ye believe on him whom he hath sent’ (John 6:29). Our setting apart for God is not that we called to missions, preaching, or whatever good works but child-like, unwavering believing Him. Our setting apart is His Lordship over us, when He does give us assignments it will done in His name and His grace, without an ounce of self effort.