We Would See Jesus - Chapter Six

Chapter Six: Sinai or Calvary?

In this chapter the authors address the reality that although God has made the way simple into His fullness through the Door (Jesus), the enemy is very astute in presenting truth in twisted ways in order to afflict the hungry heart and prevent him/her from entering in through the Door.

"Whenever a sense of sin lies upon our conscience, two persons fight to get hold of that conviction - the devil and the Holy Spirit. The devil wants to get hold of it in order to take it and us to Sinai and there condemn and bring us into bondage. The Holy Spirit, however, wants to take us and our sin to Calvary, there to bring us through the Door into peace and freedom."

Mount Sinai and Calvary represent the two covenants: the covenant of the law and the covenant of grace. This seems simple when we hear or read this, but in practice there is great struggle in that the enemy "simulates the voice of the Holy Spirit in order that the uninstructed Christian will think it is God who is taking him to the place of condemnation and bondage, and that he must, therefore, follow."

The covenant given on Mount Sinai is still the one that fallen humans find easier to understand and to follow and to which our conscience most readily responds: "Do this and you will live; don't do this and you will die." In our daily lives now this is represented in the whole system of moral and religious standards that we each work out for ourselves.

Whenever we have some sense of failure, the devil works hard to take us to the law in order to accuse us based on the standards that we have adopted but have failed to keep. So the higher our moral and spiritual standards, the more room there is for the devil to accuse us. The very thing that gives strength to the accusations is the law! (I Cor. 15:56)

These accusations usually have 2 effects on the believer, which is just what the devil wants:
1. Self-excusing (Romans 2:15). When we attempt to excuse ourselves, the enemy has succeeded in provoking us to stand before God on the basis of our own righteousness and innocence. This, of course, is sinking sand because anything we have from and of God is only on the basis of our acknowledging our true condition and depending utterly on the righteousness and innocence of Jesus.
2. Self-effort and striving. "He (devil) tells us what we are not in order to get us to struggle in our own strength to make up for it. He accuses us that we are not praying enough, or not speaking enough to others of their need of Christ...The whole purpose of the devil...is to get us into striving and self-effort, and thus into real bondage."

Though the enemy's accusations have the appearance of truth, they're half-truths, which make them all the more deadly. We desperately need the discernment of the Holy Spirit to recognize the difference between the voice of the accuser and the voice of the Spirit.

The half truth that the devil speaks is that we are sinners and he leads us to the law; he leaves out the truth that Jesus died for us and did a complete work on our behalf. When the Holy Spirit points out sin in our life, He leads us to Calvary and magnifies Jesus and His work on our behalf.

This revelation of the Spirit has two effects on the believer when he truly receives it:
1. Acknowledgment of his sin; whether it be true conviction of sin or false accusation of the enemy, the blood of Christ is the solution for either one.
2. Rest from self-initiated activity to get himself right. With a revelation of the work of Calvary, the believer is empowered to simply repent with no arguments or defenses, and in repenting (turning), he can rest because he has no need to waste emotional energy on self-justification.

(As I was reading this chapter, I remembered reading years ago about Madame Guyon, a saint from centuries past who, when she was accused of evil, said something to the effect, "You would say much worse things about me if you really knew me." What a way to silence the accuser and throw one's dependence onto the righteousness of the only Righteous One!)

When the Holy Spirit points out a lack in our life, He doesn't mean for us to start striving to correct that. For example, if we see that we lack love for another in our life or if we are prayerless, the way out is not to strive to make up for this in our own strength.

"The Holy Spirit...is not concerned primarily to get us to try to be better, but to repent deeply of the sin there is; not to try to be more loving to that person, but to repent of having been jealous and critical towards him, etc. Having repented, the Holy Spirit would bid us rest as sinners at the Cross, where sin is cleansed away, and so be at peace. As we rest as sinners in that low place, Jesus pours into our hearts His own love for that person..."

The authors tell a story of a place in Africa that had been a center for revival in the past but spiritual coldness characterized the place with the passing of time. This was recognized by the Christians and they had prayed and repented of it but the spiritual famine continued. A visiting Christian from another part of Africa came and charged them with their coldness and told them they needed to get out and witness to the unbelievers. A wise leader in the local group answered him in this way: "You are quite right - we are cold. We have acknowledged that to God and have been repenting. But we are not going to start striving to do this or that to bring the blessing back, not even street preaching. Having repented, we are going to rest as sinners under the blood of Jesus until God is pleased to meet us again." God soon met them and spiritual renewal came to that place.

Lord, have mercy on us and our bent towards trying to fix things with fleshly activity. Grant us the grace to turn and repent and wait and rest until You move on our behalf. Thank You for Your great kindness and patience. Thank You for Calvary and for the righteousness that is ours in Christ Jesus alone. Thank You that we don't need to excuse nor defend ourselves; our defense is found in You. We love You!

Next week is chapter 7: Seeing Jesus as the Way.