. . . present . . . your members as instruments of righteousness to God —Romans 6:13
I cannot save and sanctify myself; I cannot make atonement for sin; I cannot redeem the world; I cannot right what is wrong, purify what is impure, or make holy what is unholy. That is all the sovereign work of God. Do I have faith in what Jesus Christ has done? He has made the perfect atonement for sin. Am I in the habit of constantly realizing it? The greatest need we have is not to do things, but to believe things. The redemption of Christ is not an experience, it is the great act of God which He has performed through Christ, and I have to build my faith on it. If I construct my faith on my own experience, I produce the most unscriptural kind of life— an isolated life, with my eyes focused solely on my own holiness. Beware of that human holiness that is not based on the atonement of the Lord. It has no value for anything except a life of isolation— it is useless to God and a nuisance to man. Measure every kind of experience you have by our Lord Himself. We cannot do anything pleasing to God unless we deliberately build on the foundation of the atonement by the Cross of Christ.
The atonement of Jesus must be exhibited in practical, unassuming ways in my life. Every time I obey, the absolute deity of God is on my side, so that the grace of God and my natural obedience are in perfect agreement. Obedience means that I have completely placed my trust in the atonement, and my obedience is immediately met by the delight of the supernatural grace of God.
Beware of the human holiness that denies the reality of the natural life— it is a fraud. Continually bring yourself to the trial or test of the atonement and ask, “Where is the discernment of the atonement in this, and in that?”
The story behind this song is in the intro of this live performance of the same song. — DJR
Journal DJR
Good morning Lord.
The message of the devo and the song and the story behind the song point to a great faith. But perhaps it shouldn’t be considered great. Perhaps that faith that believes, even without seeing or feeling it … perhaps that is the real faith that is available to all of us, but most of us dont walk in it, most of the time. With faith like that, the kind that believes in sunlight, even in darkness, the kind that believes what Jeremiah wrote, where you said you had good plans for us, for a future and a hope (29:11) … there is no need to stress out over anything. The man in the concentration camp cell who carved the words that inspired this song into the stone wall of his cell, No one even knows his name. But you do. Let him be our hero. He had the same faith that kept Paul rejoicing and writing scripture in his death cell. Let these be our heroes, instead of those the world raises up, of politics and sports and entertainment.
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