Christian Fellowship Community Group
A safe place for Christians who Love Jesus Christ to meet and ask for prayer and share scriptures from the bible. We value the posting of Christian music, poems, stories and also personal testimonies. Please let us know your needs, concerns and have some fun getting to know each other. We treat each other with respect.
The wisdom of the fathers
OUR END IS GOD'S BEGINNING
The meaning and value of Romans 7 continued
What does it mean in everyday life to be delivered from the Law? At the risk of a little overstatement, I reply, “It means that from henceforth I am going to do nothing whatever for God: I am never again going to try to please Him.” "What a doctrine!" you exclaim. "What awful heresy! You cannot possibly mean that!"
But remember, if I try to please God "in the flesh", then immediately I place myself under the Law. I broke the Law; the Law pronounced the death sentence; the sentence was executed, and now by death I—the carnal ‘I’ (Rom. 7:14)—have been set free from all its claims. There is still a Law of God, and now there is in fact a “new commandment” that is infinitely more exacting than the old, but, Praise God! its demands are being met, for it is Christ who now fulfills them; it is Christ who works in me what is well-pleasing to God. “I came... to fulfill {the law}” were His words (Matt. 5:17). Thus Paul, from the ground of resurrection, can say: “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God which works in you both to will and to work, for his good pleasure” (Phil. 2:12, 13).
It is God that works in you. Deliverance from law does not mean that we are free from doing the will of God. It certainly does not mean that we are going to be lawless. Very much the reverse! What it does mean however is that we are free from doing that will as of ourselves. Being fully persuaded that we cannot do it, we cease trying to please God from the ground of the old man. Having at last reached the point of utter despair in ourselves so that we cease even to try, we put our trust in the Lord to manifest His resurrection life in us.
God’s requirements have not altered, but we are not the ones to meet them. Praise God, He is the Lawgiver on the Throne, and He is the Lawkeeper in my heart. He who gave the Law, Himself keeps it. He makes the demands, but He also meets them. As long as we are trying to do anything, He can do nothing. It is because of our trying that we fail and fail and fail. God wants to demonstrate to us that we can do nothing at all, and until that is fully recognized our disappointments and disillusionments will never cease.
A brother who was trying to struggle into victory remarked to me, ‘I do not know why I am so weak.’ ‘The trouble with you’, I said, ‘is that you are weak enough not to do the will of God, but you are not weak enough to keep out of things altogether. You are still not weak enough. When you are reduced to utter weakness and are persuaded that you can do nothing whatever, then God will do everything.’ We all need to come to the point where we say: ‘Lord, I am unable to do anything for You, but I trust You to do everything in me.’
Do you see it? When we give up the case, then God will take it up. He is waiting until we are at an end of our resources and can do nothing more for ourselves. God has condemned all that is of the old creation and consigned it to the Cross. The flesh profits nothing! If we try to do anything in the flesh we are virtually repudiating the Cross of Christ. God has declared us to be fit only for death. When we truly believe that, then we confirm God’s verdict by giving up all our fleshly efforts to please Him. Our every effort to do His will is a denial of His declaration in the Cross of our utter worthlessness. Our continued efforts are a misunderstanding on the one hand of God’s demands and on the other hand of the source of supply.
(by Watchman Nee)
OUR END IS GOD'S BEGINNING
The meaning and value of Romans 7 continued
What does it mean in everyday life to be delivered from the Law? At the risk of a little overstatement, I reply, “It means that from henceforth I am going to do nothing whatever for God: I am never again going to try to please Him.” "What a doctrine!" you exclaim. "What awful heresy! You cannot possibly mean that!"
But remember, if I try to please God "in the flesh", then immediately I place myself under the Law. I broke the Law; the Law pronounced the death sentence; the sentence was executed, and now by death I—the carnal ‘I’ (Rom. 7:14)—have been set free from all its claims. There is still a Law of God, and now there is in fact a “new commandment” that is infinitely more exacting than the old, but, Praise God! its demands are being met, for it is Christ who now fulfills them; it is Christ who works in me what is well-pleasing to God. “I came... to fulfill {the law}” were His words (Matt. 5:17). Thus Paul, from the ground of resurrection, can say: “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God which works in you both to will and to work, for his good pleasure” (Phil. 2:12, 13).
It is God that works in you. Deliverance from law does not mean that we are free from doing the will of God. It certainly does not mean that we are going to be lawless. Very much the reverse! What it does mean however is that we are free from doing that will as of ourselves. Being fully persuaded that we cannot do it, we cease trying to please God from the ground of the old man. Having at last reached the point of utter despair in ourselves so that we cease even to try, we put our trust in the Lord to manifest His resurrection life in us.
God’s requirements have not altered, but we are not the ones to meet them. Praise God, He is the Lawgiver on the Throne, and He is the Lawkeeper in my heart. He who gave the Law, Himself keeps it. He makes the demands, but He also meets them. As long as we are trying to do anything, He can do nothing. It is because of our trying that we fail and fail and fail. God wants to demonstrate to us that we can do nothing at all, and until that is fully recognized our disappointments and disillusionments will never cease.
A brother who was trying to struggle into victory remarked to me, ‘I do not know why I am so weak.’ ‘The trouble with you’, I said, ‘is that you are weak enough not to do the will of God, but you are not weak enough to keep out of things altogether. You are still not weak enough. When you are reduced to utter weakness and are persuaded that you can do nothing whatever, then God will do everything.’ We all need to come to the point where we say: ‘Lord, I am unable to do anything for You, but I trust You to do everything in me.’
Do you see it? When we give up the case, then God will take it up. He is waiting until we are at an end of our resources and can do nothing more for ourselves. God has condemned all that is of the old creation and consigned it to the Cross. The flesh profits nothing! If we try to do anything in the flesh we are virtually repudiating the Cross of Christ. God has declared us to be fit only for death. When we truly believe that, then we confirm God’s verdict by giving up all our fleshly efforts to please Him. Our every effort to do His will is a denial of His declaration in the Cross of our utter worthlessness. Our continued efforts are a misunderstanding on the one hand of God’s demands and on the other hand of the source of supply.
(by Watchman Nee)
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