“…and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it
may bear more fruit.” (John 15:2b).
I recently saw
in the news that a fish from the ocean depths appeared at the surface of the
waters; this was most unusual. Fish who live in the deep realms are supposed to
stay in the trenches and valleys fathoms below, they are not supposed to visit
the upper seas where light penetrates. This fish reminds me of deep sin, of elements
within us, hopefully in our past, that seldom make their appearance, but when
they do they arrest our attention – demanding acknowledgement in the form of
contrition and confession and immediate release to our Lord Jesus.
Our Father’s pruning
is about shaping us into the image of the Firstborn Son, it is always about
Jesus, ever and always about Jesus. Consequently, there is an element of
pruning that not only reveals who Jesus Christ is, our Everything, but also who
we are outside of Jesus Christ – which is beyond description because there are
no words to communicate the wickedness of our old selves, after all we were “dead
in trespasses and sins” (Eph. 2:1 – 3) and we were enemies of God (Rom. 5:10).
Since we tend to
focus on the exterior of life, on the things we do, we seldom get a look at
just who we are, at what lies in the depths of our hearts and souls and inner
selves. Psychobabble, Christian or otherwise, is more preoccupation with self
and a coddling of self than anything else, it is about making little Bobby or
Roberta feel good – only the Cross of Christ can deliver us from such nonsense,
only the Cross can bring us to the end of ourselves and to the Life of Christ.
Our problem is not self-esteem, it is in not esteeming Jesus Christ.
As Romans
Chapter 6 makes clear, the Gospel is not about perpetuating our old selves, it
is about bringing us to the end of ourselves and into new life in Jesus Christ.
(Why do we not recite Galatians 2:20 to one another?)
Yet, a curious
thing is that when we focus on sins, on the things we have done against the Law
of God, or even on the things we may still do (occasionally let us hope) in
violation of God’s commandments and Way, we avoid the core of the problem of
sin – for the problem of sin is not sins, it is not the things we do, it is who
we are and who we were – for once again, before we knew Jesus Christ we were
not sinners because we sinned, we sinned because we were sinners.
Now for those in
Christ, we are saints – we have been made the “righteousness of God in Him” (2
Cor. 5:21). We live out of our completeness in Jesus Christ (Col. 2:10; Heb.
10:10, 14). This new identity is manifested by “considering ourselves to be
dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 6:11) and by putting off
our “old man with its evil practices and putting on the new man who is being
renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him”
(Col. 3:5 – 11). We learn to live “as those who have been chosen of God, holy
and beloved” (Col. 3:12), we do not live as a bunch of miserable worthless
worms and sinners for we are now holy in Jesus Christ.
We trust our
Father that He is working within us “both to will and to work for His good
pleasure” (Phil. 2:13; see also Phil. 1:6).
But you see, to
focus on sinful actions is to look at the surface, it is to look at the deeds
done, while to focus on the nature and source of the deeds is to strike at the
root of the problem – we are either drawing our Life from the Vine, Jesus
Christ, or we are drawing from the poisonous well of what the Bible terms the “old
man” – that self-centered nature which rejects the Tree of Life (Jesus Christ)
and aligns itself with the serpent.
There are times
when the process of Divine pruning requires that we see our reflection in the
waters of sin, death, and hell. That is, there are times when we need a glimpse
of just who we were – and would be – outside of Jesus Christ. These glimpses
are what I call “deep sin.” These are the times fish from the depths of the
ocean surface, if only briefly, to refresh the contrast between Light and
darkness, between Life and death, between Truth and lies, between Heaven and
hell.
These are
reminders that sin is not about eating too much chocolate, nor that it is
something that can be glossed over. They are reminders that our actions indeed
matter and that sinful actions are horrific and that only the blood of Jesus
can provide forgiveness and cleansing. They also remind us what is fathoms
below the surface, of what lurks in the depths of sin and self and the hell of
rebellion – of what resides in the nature of the “old man” – something beyond
human description, something that we ought to fear as we cling to the Christ of
the Cross and the Cross of Christ, confessing our identity in Him (once again,
Galatians 2:20) and His perfect salvation.
And let me also
say something about the “will.” We don’t hear much about the will these days.
We don’t hear much about surrendering our will to God in Christ. What we do
hear about the “will” is usually in terms of us having free will and making
choices, about us being free moral agents and autonomous. I am not going to chase
my tail like a puppy and attempt to untangle the mystery surrounding the will,
for it is a mystery. But there is one thing about the will that ought not to be
a mystery, and we see that in Romans 6:16:
“Do you not know
that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are
slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of
obedience resulting in righteousness?”
We cannot live
autonomously. We will serve either God or the enemy. We will live
either by the life of Christ or according to the poison of the serpent. We can
either live as bondservants of Jesus Christ, as His disciples, as His sheep, in
His Family…or we can live in bondage to the system of death and rebellion. What
we cannot do is live independently, we cannot live autonomously. There are only
two kinds of people on earth; those who are alive in Christ and those who are
dead outside of Him.
Now to be sure
there are professing Christians who live in the twilight land of the “natural”
or “soulical” man, and that is a sad place to live, in one’s carnal strength (1
Cor. 2:14; 3:1 – 3). We see this too much, and I suppose we see it because the
Cross is foolishness to us (1 Cor. 1:17 – 2:5) and we want to preserve our
natural person rather than know Jesus Christ in His death and resurrection. But
my immediate point is that no matter how we negotiate the matter of “will,” let
us not be so foolish as to think we can live life on our own terms, that is a
lie. We will either live on God’s terms or Satan’s – and only a fool thinks
otherwise. I know what it is to be a fool…am I the only one?
Our Father
prunes us, in part, so that we will know these things. So that we will see
ourselves as we are in Christ, and as we were apart from Christ. From time-to-time
fish from the deep appear to remind us of the depths from which we have been
delivered to know Jesus.
We’ll continue
with this, the Lord willing, in our next reflection.
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