THE SECRET OF LIVING THE CHRISTIAN LIFE
Jinu Ninan
For many years after I was born again I heard many challenging messages and tried my best to live according to what I heard. In the beginning I was very enthusiastic and happy and I wanted to live for God and to do many things for God. I had thought that the Christian life was easy. But very soon I discovered I was wrong.
Then as I began to see more of the standard the new-covenant life demanded of me, I saw that the Christian life was difficult. But again I found I was wrong.
I sincerely tried to live according to the standards of the New Testament. But the more I tried, the more I failed and that showed me how much high is God's glorious standard of righteousness and how deep I am fallen short of that. I seek help of Holy Spirit in order to produce the fruits, but I found only the works of the flesh coming out, Instead of Living waters from the inner being only evil from the evil source.
At one point I thought it was better if I didn’t know the standards of this New Testament. Because I saw many Christians, those who did not know about the standard of life demanded in the New Testament are living happily without any condemnation. The more I understood about standards of this New Testament, I tried more to obey. The result was, I failed more, and I got condemned more.
Finally, few years ago, after many years of continuous failure, discouragement and futile self-effort to live for God, I discovered the truth at last – which the standard of life described in the new covenant, was a sheer impossibility for me.
By then I had lost all hope of ever living this life. But I was absolutely certain that I was a child of God, redeemed by the blood of Jesus, and ready by His grace, for heaven. But at the same time I realized how incapable I was of living by the standard of life that God demanded from me on this earth.
But the end of my rope was also the beginning of a new discovery. God opened my eyes to see that although the Lord requires us to bring forth the fruit of the Spirit, throughout the New Testament, only in TWO places does He tell us how we can actually bear that fruit.
(1) John 12:24 - By falling into the ground and dying.
(2) John 15:1-5 - By abiding in Him as a branch in the vine.
Thus alone would the Lord be able to produce fruit in us through the Holy Spirit.
I realized then that the life that God demands from us can be lived only by His Son Jesus.
I realized that this life is not possible not by trying, but by falling into the ground and dying. Then He will live His life in and through me. It is not by trying but by trusting, by abiding so that He produces the fruits. I found I was trying to live the life by the help of the Holy Spirit. But I found it is no longer I live by His help, but I die and Christ lives in and through me in His power. I found the secret of Christian life is Christ-in-Life. Secret is not doctrine or self-efforts but Christ himself. (Philippians 4:12, 13).
After seeing this truth the entire bible became new to me. As Paul, I am convinced that there is nothing good dwells in me, long before I knew that truth; God knew the nature of my flesh. I understood He never expected anything good from me but only utter failure. Anything apart from what Jesus does in and through me will only be from my corrupt sinful flesh and will be as unacceptable to God as Ishmael was. It will be like the good sheep of the Amalekites that King Saul tried to offer to God that God rejected (1 Sam.15). All such results of my self-effort will be burnt up in the final day as wood, hay and straw – even if I do make it to heaven as a redeemed sinner, saved by Christ’s blood (1 Cor.3:12-15).
Also I knew that opposite to everything in my corrupted fallen nature is in the sinless nature of Jesus and when He is in me He will produce that life from my inner being. I don’t need to try and improve my sinful flesh which can only produce evil; which cannot be improved. But if I die to that old self, Jesus can produce rivers of living water from my inner being. God never wanted my flesh to be improved; he only wanted me to crucify it daily.
God does not ask me to produce this life - because He knows that I cannot. He only asks me to die to my Self every day so that He can live His life in me and through me. The measure in which He will be able to manifest His life through me will be exactly proportional to the measure in which I am willing to die to my Self and the measure in which I continue to abide in Him. It is not scholarship, but the relationship with Christ like a branch in the wine makes this life possible. It is not my determination or my ability that will make this life possible for me, but rather my availability to Him and my willingness to surrender to His total Lordship over me.
After many years of futile effort in trying to live for God, I discovered that my Lord had been waiting all those years to live His life through me. The only thing that hindered Him was my unbelief and unwillingness to die to my Self. Without dying with Him, I was trying to live for Him – and that is impossible.
This truth liberated me first from condemnation and then from many sins. Like Moses, after years of despair, destitution, failure and wilderness experiences, I came to know that a bush can go on burning only when God is in the bush. Also I found ANY BUSH CAN BURN AS LONG AS GOD IS IN THE BUSH. Without God, all my efforts to burn will result in a heap of ashes within minutes. But with God, I can burn and burn without being burned out (Exodus 3:3-4). Only the imparted Life of Jesus through Holy Spirit can produce anything lasting in my life. I understood the sinless Life Jesus offered in the cross is the basis of my salvation from Hell and the Same Sinless nature imparted in me is the basis of salvation from my sinful nature.
After all those years of sinking and sinking and sinking again, I praise God that I have now experiencing the power of His mighty Hand holding me up and keeping me from sinking. As the hymn says, “From sinking sand He lifted me…….With tender hand He lifted me… From shades of night to plains of Light, O praise his name ...HE LIFTED ME”
Now that God has opened my eyes to see this glorious truth, whenever I speak about the challenge of the New-Testament standard of life, I always seek to emphasize the utter helplessness of fallen human flesh to meet God’s glorious standard and the need of continuous dependence on Him as the branch in the vine.
Dear brother/sister, if you are a ‘Christian’ who wants to enjoy the world, live for yourself and want to go to heaven at the end of your life, please ignore this message, this is not relevant for you. But if you are a serious Christian who has been challenged by the New-Testament standard of life, but finding yourself utterly unable to meet those standards, if you are a Christian who is about to quit the fight, because you are facing the same failures that I went through, and if you have therefore decided to settle for believing that there is nothing more that Jesus offers than forgiveness of sins and a place in heaven, then I want to tell you this:
Don’t quit. Lay your inability to live a holy life at the same place where you laid your sins many years ago – at Jesus’ feet. When God given Jesus Christ, He has given you everything needed for life and godliness by His divine power (1 peter 1:3, Ephesians 1:3).God cannot give to you anything more than Jesus for this life of Godliness. And you never need anything more than Jesus for this life of Godliness .But you may have never known about your glorious inheritance in Jesus Christ. This comes only by the true knowledge of Him. That is the reason Paul prayed that the eyes of God’s children to be opened to see the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints (Ephesians 1:18, 19).But the god of this world has blinded the minds of many so that they might not see the Glory of this Gospel (2 Corinthians 4:4).
As you received the forgiveness of your sins by faith, you can receive the power to live this life also by faith. Ask Christ to live in you and through you. He not only died for your sins. He removed your old sinful heart. He also rose again to give you His life and to manifest Himself through you. God is looking for the people who have come to the end of themselves and ready to admit from their heart that they can do nothing apart from Him. Perhaps you have reached the end of your life of self-effort at last and are now ready to receive this great truth that the Lord wants to teach all His children. Believe it and accept it – and you will find your life and ministry changed from one of dryness to rivers of living waters.
Apart from Christ, you are nothing (1 Cor 3:7), you have nothing (Romans 7:18) and you can do nothing (John15:5). But in Christ, you can do everything through His power working in you (Phil. 4:13, Eph.3:20)
“Not by might, nor by power but by My Spirit. says the Lord” (Zech. 4:6). Amen