Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Can Do

I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. (Philippians 4:13, NKJV).
The Apostle Paul here gives us the syllabus for his curriculum of how he had learned in whatever state he found himself to be content.
He has declared repeatedly throughout the New Testament, his complete reliance on Christ. He does not see such interpersonal dependence on the Savior as weakness, but as the epitome of strength. This is diametrically opposed to the world view that promotes self-reliance and self-confidence. In fact, in contrast, Paul warns that he who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. Where we consider ourselves the strongest is where, in reality, we are the weakest.

It is only through our moment-by-moment surrender to Christ and His will for us that we can hope to accomplish anything of worth in this life, and it is only through our humble acknowledgement of our own weakness that He  can be strong in us. Paul puts the equation this way:

Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Corinthians 12:10, NKJV).  
This is true because our ability to do anything truly valuable comes only through Christ.

Do not misunderstand. I am not naively claiming that there does not exist any merely human talents, strengths and achievements. There have been many powerful and accomplished unbelievers throughout history. But aside from the fact that their abilities and/or character traits are gifts from God that He sometimes bestows on some individuals as He wills, through genetic inheritance or fortuitous circumstances, it does not mitigate the fact that the results of those gifts are utterly worthless from an eternal perspective. While they might accidentally benefit others, the motivations behind those achievements are self-centered and therefore an abomination  to God. 

He does not share His glory, and for good reason. Anything or anyone that does not point or give credit to the Father in Heaven distracts and misleads people from the only thing that is ultimately important, escaping eternal damnation. What possible good does it do for someone to worship a celebrity or sports figure or philanthropist or billionaire or system or philosophy or relative? And make no mistake. That kind of human or conceptual worship is pervasive today, perhaps mores than at any other time in our planet's past.

We are built to worship. It is part of our essential nature, as much a requirement as the need for air or nourishment.

And if we don't worship Christ, we WILL worship something or someone else, usually ourselves.

Furthermore, if we do not honestly recognize the Source of all good things, we will be deceived into following that which cannot lead to the Savior. And without the Savior we are unthinkably doomed to a fate far worse than death.

Conversely, if we end up crediting ourselves as being the source of any good that we do, we become guilty of worshiping a false God. For who makes you differ from another? And what do you have that you did not receive? Now if you did indeed receive it, why do you boast as if you had not received it? (1 Corinthians 4:7, NKJV). And in crediting ourselves, we deny God the thanksgiving that is His due.

These ideas have become the antithetical benchmark of modern thinking. To give God glory for these abilities and gifts is to acknowledge His rightful place as Creator, and that is anathema to the world. The rabid anti-Creationist hostility that runs wild through the halls of academia and cultural institutions says it all. If God is Creator, than man is under His authority and ownership. To behave or believe otherwise is rebellion and sin. It is what brought death into the world.

Think about it for a second. Had Adam in the Garden simply maintained belief in the statement Paul writes so succinctly in this verse, he would have passed the test of temptation, and all the hellish events of history since that horrible act of self-reliance on the part of the First Man would not have occurred. Earth would have remained Paradise instead of Perdition.

Often and rightly, we look at the the apostle's eloquent declaration of dependence on His Lord as a means to strengthen us in times of weakness. It reminds us that Christ stands with us through temptations and trials, and we are encouraged by that necessary reminder. But it is far more than that.

It is a declaration of allegiance to God and His Son, and a declaration of defiance against the deception of this age. It places us firmly in opposition to the world and its current ruler, and on the side of the One who died to make us free.

To live this way, in open and unpretentious reliance on God for all things, will not make you popular or influential among the children of rebellion, but you will shine as an inextinguishable light in the realm of the King.