Salvation brings you into a covenant with God. This covenant, just like any genuine covenant, requires both parties to exchange something of worth to perpetuate the covenant beyond breaking. Jesus has done His part, by giving His life; and now, you are expected to give yours.
Refusing to balance the arrangement by giving your own will weaken and eventually nullify the covenant of salvation in your life. What is this balance you are giving to make the covenant work in your life?
NOTE: This discussion is about salvation\’s experiential dimension, not the positional dimension. God\’s salvation work is complete on God\’s side. However, if you are unwilling to align and conform to His will, you can prevent yourself from receiving salvation\’s effect and benefits.
Salvation cannot work if you disregard the LORD\’s claim on your life. If you simply accepted Jesus into your life (that is, you took His life) and you did not reject your own life (by giving it to Jesus in a fair exchange), you will not have access to the primary benefit of deliverance from sin that opens the door to other benefits. This is the main issue.
The life of Jesus you received can only work when it is not supplanted by your old life that you have refused to give up. In order for Jesus to live and reign in you, you have to die. You die to yourself, you die to the world, you die to sin and you die to the devil. You are only alive to God, His Kingdom and Righteousness.
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PARAMETERS OF PROGRESS
100% alignment with God will make you live on God\’s terms and not your own. IT IS NOT BY FORCE, IT IS BY CHOICE. To be aligned with God, you will submit to a set of conditions that will radically change the course of your life. These are the parameters that will indeed put you on the highway of holiness, change your reason for living, enable you to live above the law and make you a masterpiece of God\’s Grace for your generation.
LET HIM DENY HIMSELF, AND TAKE UP HIS CROSS DAILY AND FOLLOW ME.
Luke 9:23-24
\”And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me…\” (KJV)
\”And He said to all, If any person wills to come after Me, let him deny himself [disown himself, forget, lose sight of himself and his own interests, refuse and give up himself] and take up his cross daily and follow Me [cleave steadfastly to Me, conform wholly to My example in living and, if need be, in dying also]. For whoever would preserve his life and save it will lose and destroy it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he will preserve and save it [from the penalty of eternal death].\” (AMP)
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THE HIGHWAY OF HOLINESS
Isaiah 35:8
\”And a highway will be there; its name will be, The Holy Way; the unclean and the sinner may not go over it, and those who go on it will not be turned out of the way by the foolish.\” (BBE)
The moment you get born again, there is a separation between you and others who are not saved. If you disregard this separation and dishonour the demands of your salvation, that means you choose to retain yourself rather than deny yourself. If you don\’t deny yourself, you are not going anywhere – you are not heaven-bound! It is as you reject yourself, and lose sight of yourself and your interests that you will walk on the highway of holiness. You can see that this road is not for everybody. It is exclusive. It is that narrow way that leads to eternal life. What strikes me most about the scripture above is that \”…those who go on it will not be turned out of the way by the foolish.\” This is the power of God to save to the uttermost (completely). Hebrews 7:25. Hallelujah!
A NEW REASON FOR LIVING
To deny yourself, forget yourself, give up yourself, and disown yourself, is to decisively deal with the resident enemy of God and accomplice of the devil in you. This is quite difficult for many to swallow. When you say you are born again, it means your self that is under the wrath of God dies (and becomes your old self) and the New Self, which is Christ, is birthed in you. Since old things have passed away (2 Cor 5:17), you can no longer continue with your old ambitions, desires and interests. There is now another reason to live. Self (the old life) is no longer the centre of your being; Christ (the original, uncreated Life) is the new centre.
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In Luke 9:23, you will note that if the old self has been denied (and continues to be), it is the new Self (Christ in you) that can take up your cross to follow Jesus. The one who denied himself or herself now has a fresh reason for living. If that is you, you have a new ambition, a new desire, a new interest, a new passion etc. This is signified by the cross you carry. To carry your cross, therefore, means you will now live your life according to the principle of the cross.
The cross is an instrument of death. So, it is a sign that you are cut off from sin, satan, the world and your old self. The cross is also an instrument of suffering. It means you have signed up to embrace any difficulty, challenge or suffering that may come your way because of your new life in Christ Jesus.
The cross is also an instrument of completion. Jesus kept saying to his disciples, \”I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.\” (John 9:4) and \”…I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.\” (John 6:38). When Jesus died on that cross and said \”It is finished\” (John 19:30), He completed His assignment, and the cross became an instrument of completion, spiritually speaking. When you carry your cross to follow Jesus, it means you are determined, under God, to fulfil your assignment and finish as Jesus did. This is the way to die empty. it is by carrying the cross.
We will look at living above the law and being made a masterpiece by God for your generation in the next post. The work of salvation is perfect (flawless, complete, impeccable). The covenant of salvation is indestructible. But the experience of salvation depends on you – what you do with the terms of the covenant. Jesus has given you His life; when you accept Him, you must literally GIVE HIM YOUR LIFE.
Without this exchange, you cannot move forward in the NEW LIFE. There is no middle ground. You either meet the condition or go away sorrowfully like the rich young ruler (Mark 10:17-22). You can see that these conditions were never lowered for anyone and will never be. I encourage you to take the step the rich young ruler never took. It is time to press on with the LORD. Let us pray!
LORD Jesus, I present myself to You. I humble myself before You. I choose You, I choose Your Life. I choose the Way of the LORD. I don\’t want to be a halfway believer, I want to be a wholehearted disciple. I embrace the terms of progress with You. I DENY MYSELF, TAKE UP MY CROSS AND FOLLOW YOU. And by this, I enter into the liberty of the Spirit in Christ Jesus. Thank you, Jesus.
In Jesus\’ name. AMEN.
