We were buried with Him . . . that just as Christ was raised from the dead . . . even so we also should walk in newness of life —Romans 6:4
No one experiences complete sanctification without going through a “white funeral”-the burial of the old life. If there has never been this crucial moment of change through death, sanctification will never be more than an elusive dream. There must be a “white funeral,” a death with only one resurrection-a resurrection into the life of Jesus Christ. Nothing can defeat a life like this. It has oneness with God for only one purpose— to be a witness for Him.
Have you really come to your last days? You have often come to them in your mind, but have you really experienced them? You cannot die or go to your funeral in a mood of excitement. Death means you stop being. You must agree with God and stop being the intensely striving kind of Christian you have been. We avoid the cemetery and continually refuse our own death. It will not happen by striving, but by yielding to death. It is dying— being “baptized into His death” (Romans 6:3).
Have you had your “white funeral,” or are you piously deceiving your own soul? Has there been a point in your life which you now mark as your last day? Is there a place in your life to which you go back in memory with humility and overwhelming gratitude, so that you can honestly proclaim, “Yes, it was then, at my ’white funeral,’ that I made an agreement with God.”
“This is the will of God, your sanctification . . .” (1 Thessalonians 4:3). Once you truly realize this is God’s will, you will enter into the process of sanctification as a natural response. Are you willing to experience that “white funeral” now? Will you agree with Him that this is your last day on earth? The moment of agreement depends on you.
Have you really come to your last days? You have often come to them in your mind, but have you really experienced them? You cannot die or go to your funeral in a mood of excitement. Death means you stop being. You must agree with God and stop being the intensely striving kind of Christian you have been. We avoid the cemetery and continually refuse our own death. It will not happen by striving, but by yielding to death. It is dying— being “baptized into His death” (Romans 6:3).
Have you had your “white funeral,” or are you piously deceiving your own soul? Has there been a point in your life which you now mark as your last day? Is there a place in your life to which you go back in memory with humility and overwhelming gratitude, so that you can honestly proclaim, “Yes, it was then, at my ’white funeral,’ that I made an agreement with God.”
“This is the will of God, your sanctification . . .” (1 Thessalonians 4:3). Once you truly realize this is God’s will, you will enter into the process of sanctification as a natural response. Are you willing to experience that “white funeral” now? Will you agree with Him that this is your last day on earth? The moment of agreement depends on you.
When I woke up this morning at about 3-4 o'clock, this was one of the first things I read. I kind of just flipped open my copy of My Utmost and started reading through January, and this is what I ended up hitting. It took me a couple of times of reading it to fully grasp the serious implications of what Oswald is saying here, but I completely agree with what this text is all about. We cannot just assume that we can be truly alive in Christ if we are not willing to completely die unto ourselves; it just doesn't work that way. Even in my reading this morning (I was in Galatians) I hit verses 19-20 of Chapter 2, which are as follows (NKJV),
"For I through the law died to the law that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me." (underlining mine)
Now I'm well aware of the context of Galatians 2 in that it is refering to justification through faith. However, through the Spirit's conviction in my own life, I started wrestling with the whole concept of complete death to myself; not in a physical sense, but rather the death of the person I once was before Christ made me new. I know that there will always be some part of my old self that will keep coming back to haunt me, but I know this for certain: that even in my inability to overcome the person I was entirely and put myself to death, Christ is offering his hand to each and every one of us; he is ready and willing to lead us to our own funeral, that with his hands guiding ours, we may effectively fill in the grave of our own accord. I love the mental image Chambers paints of a "white funeral" because, through our death with Christ, we may experience true Life through a life lived in complete and utter submission to Him. Even as Christ was fully submitted to the will of the Father as he walked up Golgotha, bearing the cross that was intended for you and I.
(http://utmost.org/do-you-walk-in-white/) Oswald Chambers, My Utmost For His Highest
No comments:
Post a Comment