Because I was an English major in college, immersing myself in British history and literature, I’ve become something of an “Anglophile.” Living in England for two years (a fantasy of mine that came true) only enhanced my fascination with all things British. I’ve recently been re-watching “Downton Abbey,” “binge watching” really. The story began to occupy my thoughts and even my dream life. I awakened during the pre-dawn hours this morning feeling very anxious and unsettled. So I came into the living room and began to quieten myself inside to listen to the Holy Spirit—not exactly an easy skill to master but, arguably, the most valuable one; for inside is where God dwells (see “Where Is God?”) and therefore where we find answers, solutions and direction.
As I’ve said repeatedly, I feel that God has called me to write and post on the internet that which He reveals to me. I never attempt to write contemplations unless I feel that God has given me a revelation that He wants me to articulate, either for my own private spiritual ongoing or to post on the website. Although I’ve been editing and recording over thirty previously written contemplations for posting on the website, I haven’t actually written anything new for about a month.
As I began to get quiet inside, I noticed that I had expectations as to what I was probably going to hear. I allowed myself to entertain thoughts along those lines to see if indeed that was what God was speaking to me. I thought God was probably going to tell me that if I’d spend as much time and brain power reading the Scripture as I was watching the TV that I would receive more revelation and have more to write.
As I contemplated that thought, from deep inside I was somewhat surprised to hear, “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature” (Galatians 6:15). I wasn’t expecting that! But I immediately felt the joy and peace that always comes when I hear the still small voice inside—even before I comprehend the meaning and import of what I’m hearing.
Now I could relax and really listen as the Spirit expounded upon this Scripture. I understood that God never leaves us or stops speaking to us because of anything we do or don’t do. To think otherwise is just going back under the law. Just as circumcision and uncircumcision is a work of the flesh in its attempts to do or not do something to gain the favor and approval of God, so is watching or not watching TV and even reading or not reading Scripture. I realized that my anxiety was coming from my feelings of guilt associated with “wasting” my time doing something so “unspiritual” as watching TV. My “conscience” (which came in with the law to accuse us for not fulfilling whatever laws we have set for ourselves necessary to attain and remain in God’s favor) had not yet been “purged from dead works to serve the living God” (Hebrews 9:14). I was still laboring under the delusion that I must attain to some level of spirituality in order to receive whatever I needed or wanted from God.
But I now understood that the only thing that “avails” is the “new creature,” the true identity of Spirit being that I recognize to be mine when I awaken to the reality that Christ is my life (Colossians 3:4), that I am “in Christ Jesus” because there is no other life; in Him I live and move and have my being (Acts 17:28):
2Corinthians 5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
The “old things” that are “passed away” are my humanity and the law that governs it:
Romans 6:6 Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. (7 For he that is dead is freed from sin. 8 Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him: 9 Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him. 10 For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God.) 11 Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Romans 7:6 But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.
To live out of my true identity, the “new creature,” is to become so intimately acquainted with my Spirit being that I am totally governed by it, paying no attention at all to “should’s” and “should not’s” of the law of any sort (moral, dietary, any law at all)—because it “availeth nothing”; “all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags” (Isaiah 64:6). “There is none that doeth good, no, not one” (Romans 3:12). One person’s humanity may look better than another’s, but humanity is incapable of being “good.” Even Jesus Himself acknowledged this concerning His own humanity:
Mark 10:18 And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God.
That “new creature” is one with God, and it alone can do anything that “availeth.” All that we accomplish in our humanity, no matter how good it looks, is just “wood, hay and stubble,” fit only to be consumed by fire (1Corinthians 3:11-15), leaving only that which is done by the “new creature,” or God Himself, the “Christ of God” that Jesus was one with (Luke 9:20) as is also the “new creature”:
Galatians 2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
Psalms 127:1 Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.
These are hard words for the ego (persona, humanity, old man) to hear. We have thought that all our efforts to be spiritual, to choose good over evil, to do the “right” thing while refraining from doing “wrong,” to overcome everything the church calls “sin,” has been pleasing to God and rewarded by Him. But we have to be once again reminded that we have no righteousness of our own, that we must just humbly accept the righteousness of God, which is a free gift and not attainable by “works” (anything we do or don’t do) (Ephesians 2:4-10).
When Jesus was tempted (see Temptations of Jesus) by His humanity to do those things which looked good and would seemingly glorify God (and provide for the Jewish nation), He demonstrated that indeed He spoke and did only what He saw and heard His Father say and do (John 5:19; 12:49) as He quoted the Scriptures spoken to Him concerning not living by bread alone, not tempting God and worshiping God alone. On other occasions He quoted Scriptures and gave them interpretations based on not the letter (what was written), but the Spirit (what He heard the Father inside say). He would begin by saying, “Ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old time” and quote the Scripture but add, “But I say unto you” and relate what His Father had spoken to Him (Matthew. 5:21-22, 27-28, 33-34; 38-39). Likewise, when the woman caught in adultery was brought to Him, His actions did not reflect what was in Scripture, but rather what had been revealed to Him by His Father inside (John 8:3ff). This was true on many other occasions, such as His interpretation of Scriptures concerning the proper observance of the Sabbath.
It was in the Garden of Gethsemane and during His arrest that Jesus best demonstrated what it is to live as the “new creature” rather than out of our humanity. He knew that He could avoid the crucifixion ((Matthew 26:53) Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels?) if He chose to. Everything in his humanity wanted to avoid it (for that is where His (and our) humanity (the devil) was destroyed!), but He chose to submit His human will to the will of His Father inside (Luke 22:42) (the “new creature” or our true identity) by “presenting His body a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God,” thereby “proving what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God”—(Romans 12:1-2).
And that is precisely what each of us must do—surrender our wills and present our bodies a living sacrifice—if we are to “avail” as a “new creature.” This corruptible body of “flesh” with its reasoning, human, law-governed mind that is always occupied in “fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind” (Ephesians 2:3) must be reckoned “dead” (Romans 6:11). As we become “dead” to this “sinful flesh” (Romans 8:3), we ignore it completely and become “alive unto God” (Romans 6:11)—begin to live out of our true identity which is the Christ inside. Indeed, it is the Christ inside who is living as us (Galatians 2:20). I don’t decide what I should or should not do; I just listen and follow any instructions given me, not concerning myself with the outcome. The government of my life is now on the shoulder of the Christ (Isaiah 9:6).
Yesterday a friend of mine was telling me about her years-long battle to stop smoking. She left off smoking to chew the nicotine gum and then became addicted to it. All her best efforts were in vain. Then one day as she was stopped at a stop sign, she gave up all her human efforts and cried out to God, “I can’t do this. You are going to have to do this for me, or it won’t get done!” From that day to this she has never had the urge to smoke. That is a beautiful illustration of the difference between her humanity and the “new creature” which never had the desire to smoke in the first place. As soon as she surrendered her human will to stop smoking and presented her body a living sacrifice to God, she immediately proved his good and perfect will—with no more human effort. She became “strong in the Lord” and went forth “in the power of HIS might” (Ephesians 6:10).
Word of caution: anyone reading this who turns this story into a formula to conquer the smoking habit is almost sure to fail—for that is but another human effort to get something from God that has already been given. Each of us must rely on the “new creature” that is individualized as whatever we call ourselves.
As I put my focus on the “new creature,” it can no longer be on my humanity. When I walk north, I cannot walk south. When I “walk in the Spirit, I “shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh” (Galatians 5:16).
Unless it is in my “heart” to leave off watching TV, it “availeth nothing.” I get no credit for using my human will to cease doing what my conscience tells me I ought not to be doing.
1Samuel 16:7 . . . the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.
If it is indeed God’s will (and I’m not saying that it is) that I stop watching, the only thing that “availeth” is being so yielded to my inner man that God’s desires become mine—for my desires are given to me by Him:
Psalms 37:4 Delight thyself also in the Lord; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.
It is then that I can do what I desire to do, not what I think I ought to do.
I come to the place where my life is now hid with Christ in God (Colossians 3:3 For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.). It’s not about me anymore. It is about the “new creature.” The “old” attempts to please and serve God and earn His favor are passing away. All things are becoming new. It is no longer I who am living; it is the Christ that is living as me (Galatians 2:20).
March 5, 2017
I went to bed last night meditating upon what I believe God has revealed to me in this contemplation. This morning I awakened with the Holy Spirit bringing to my remembrance seemingly countless examples of the futility of attempting to do “good” through human effort, showing conclusively that it indeed “availeth nothing.”
Perhaps the best example is Paul listing all his accomplishments, even to the extent of keeping the law “blamelessly,” and then telling us that it was all “dung,” (Philippians 3: 4-9) or we would probably say “crap” in today’s vernacular. He said that he had been trusting in his “flesh” when the only thing that counted was “the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord,” or we could say the “new creature” who depends entirely upon that knowledge.
Likewise, we see that the rich young ruler had also kept the commandments “from his youth up” but found them to be of no “avail”; he had to hear and respond to the voice of God spoken to him personally to “enter into life” (Matthew 19:16-26).
Of course we know what Jesus said to and about the Pharisees and the “doctors of the law” who did nothing but study the Scriptures and attempt to abide by them. Neither their “much speaking” in long prayers (Matthew 6:7), their giving to the poor (Matthew 6:1-4), or their attempts to “evangelize” (Matthew 23:15) received any commendation.
It was those who were wanting to keep the law by stoning the woman caught in adultery who received Jesus’ rebuke, not the woman guilty of the “sin.” For her He showed only compassion because she came to Him with no righteousness of her own, totally dependent upon His love and mercy. Paul laments that his fellow Jews, though they had a “zeal of God” it was “not according to knowledge,” that they were attempting to come to God on the basis of “their own righteousness” rather than just accepting the free gift of God’s righteousness (Romans 10:1ff).
Then there are the ones who “cast out devils,” “prophesied” and did “many wonderful works” in the name of the Lord (Matthew 7:21-23) but it all “availed nothing” because they were unacquainted with the Christ inside. The same can be said of the ones who have spoken “with the tongues of men and of angels,” who “understand all mysteries,” who have “faith that can remove mountains,” who even give all their “goods to feed the poor” and “give their bodies to be burned” and yet find that it “profits them nothing” (1Corinthians 13:1-3). It is worth noting that giving all his goods to feed the poor is precisely what Jesus told the rich young ruler to do (Matthew 19:21) if he wanted to “have eternal life”—thus illustrating that there is no formula, no obedience to any set of laws, but rather listening to and following the Christ inside, the “new creature” that is one with that Christ.
Other examples could be given, but I think these will suffice to convince us that we must cease depending on anything that we can do or not do and depend entirely upon the Christ inside who is living our life as the “new creature,” the only thing that “availeth.”