If there is even a trace of individual self-satisfaction left in
us, it always says, “I can’t surrender,” or “I can’t be free.” But the
spiritual part of our being never says “I can’t”; it simply soaks up
everything around it. Our spirit hungers for more and more. It is the
way we are built. We are designed with a great capacity for God, but
sin, our own individuality, and wrong thinking keep us from getting to
Him. God delivers us from sin— we have to deliver ourselves from our
individuality. This means offering our natural life to God and
sacrificing it to Him, so He may transform it into spiritual life
through our obedience.
God pays no attention to our natural individuality in the development
of our spiritual life. His plan runs right through our natural life. We
must see to it that we aid and assist God, and not stand against Him by
saying, “I can’t do that.” God will not discipline us; we must
discipline ourselves. God will not bring our “arguments . . . and every
thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5)— we have to do it. Don’t say, “Oh, Lord, I suffer from wandering thoughts.” Don’t
suffer from wandering thoughts. Stop listening to the tyranny of your
individual natural life and win freedom into the spiritual life.
“If the Son makes you free . . . .” Do not substitute Savior for Son in this passage. The Savior has set us free from sin, but this is the freedom that comes from being set free from myself by the Son. It is what Paul meant in Galatians 2:20
when he said, “I have been crucified with Christ . . . .” His
individuality had been broken and his spirit had been united with his
Lord; not just merged into Him, but made one with Him. “. . . you shall
be free indeed”— free to the very core of your being; free from the
inside to the outside. We tend to rely on our own energy, instead of
being energized by the power that comes from identification with Jesus.
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