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Self surrender, the Challenge of a Kingdom Lifestyle
A. INTRODUCTION
God’s kingdom was to be brought about only by God’s method! The method of God was the method of Jesus. He would be the Son of man, but there would be an inner hub of difference. It was clear–and it was powerful and awesome. He went into the wilderness full of the Holy Spirit, He returned in “the power of the Spirit” (Luke 4:1). He went in full of the Spirit and he came back in the power of the Spirit–mere fullness turned to power under temptation. If you know how to use the devil, not just bear him, but also use him, then you are victorious! The devil defeats himself, for his way is anti-nature, anti-life, anti-universe, anti-everything.
It is all clear that Jesus wouldn’t live apart from men –or above men on pinnacles, but as a man, like them in character and life.
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B. THE CHALLENGE OF A NEW LIFESTYLE
“Treat one another with the same spirit as you experience in Christ Jesus.”
This morality of the Kingdom is the high-water mark of morality of God’s children. Beyond it we will not progress. It is more comprehensive than love your neighbour as you love yourself, for the standard in this statement is self-love; here the standard is Christ-love. “Do unto others, as you desire they would do unto you”. (Luke 6; 31.) This standard is what you desire for yourself. This morality of the Kingdom sets the standard of what Jesus Christ would do for you.
° The standard set in the Sermon on the Mount of loving your neighbour as you love yourself was the highest until Jesus amended it upward in the light of His own unfolding, then it became, “Treat others as I treat you.” This is the kingdom-ultimate. The Kingdom is the spirit of Jesus by and large. There isn’t a situation, individual or collective, in heaven or on earth, which would not be solved if the spirit and attitudes of Jesus were applied to that situation. You always win if you take the kingdom-attitude. You gain on both ways, whether the person accepts or rejects your “Kingdom” peace.
° The Kingdom works in each case a silent, automatic penalty. Break its laws and you are broken. Fulfil its laws and you are fulfilled. It works with a mathematical precision, and there are no exceptions. Jesus said: “Let your first words be,’ Peace be to this house.’ If there is a man of peace there, your peace will rest upon him; if not, it will return and rest upon you” (Luke 10:6).
° This morality of treating one another with the same spirit which you experience in Christ, supersedes and revokes all other lesser or contradictory attitudes. Jesus always replaces a lower passion by offering a higher passion—always a constructive, always creative. Jesus never closes a door to anything concerning us without opening a larger door to better things. “Treat one another with the same spirit which you experience in Christ Jesus.” Parents take note in the treatment of your children. Never say no, unless you can say yes to something higher. From Jesus we receive not only the highest, but also the best, a wisdom that always inspires. All else is meaningless. C. THE SURRENDER OF JESUS TO THE KINGDOM OF HIS FATHER
“For this reason He had to be made like his brothers in every way, in order that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God, and that He might make atonement for the sins of the people. Because he himself suffered when He was tempted, He is able to help those who are being tempted.” (Heb.2; 17, 18.)
God himself obeyed the law of self-surrender, through giving Himself for us in Jesus our Lord. This most amazing fact of the self-surrender of Jesus needs further emphasis. This is important and undisputable — we do as God our Father did in His beloved Son and live or we refuse to do it and we decay and perish.
° He would live with men as the Son of man, for the sake of our redemption. His program for the bringing in of the Kingdom was crystal clear. He went to the little synagogue at Nazareth and announced His program. One would have thought that the Christian Church would have fastened on this synagogue at Nazareth as one of the greatest shrines in Christendom, for here the greatest program for the reconstruction of the world was announced. This is a striking reminder of how the Christian faith has lost the kingdom of God as its central program and emphasis. In Nazareth, Jesus gave the Kingdom manifesto–the content of what it would bring and mean to men.
D. THE FRUIT OF THE KINGDOM IS CHRIST LIKENESS
The kingdom was taken away from Israel not only because they refused to put it in operation but also because it was trying to put into operation something other and something different from what Jesus was revealing in his own Person. “The kingdom of God shall be taken away from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof” (Matt. 21:43). Note, “bringing forth the fruits thereof.”
° The test of possessing the kingdom is to bring forth the fruit thereof. This fact raises the kingdom out of identification with any existing nation and any existing church or movement. It is now and placed it in the hands of those who bring forth the fruit thereof. To make it more specific, Jesus said, “Many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven. But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out” (Matt. 8:11,12) This includes all to the degree that they bring forth the fruits of the kingdom and excludes none except those who exclude themselves.
° The secret of this fruit is not quantity but quality. The fruit is the extension of His life in us. The character of the kingdom is Christ likeness. He used interchangeably “for my sake” and “the kingdom’s sake.” He was the kingdom, not merely expounded, but exposed. Men saw it and did not merely hear it. He was it. This is of vast and significant importance. It is unique in quality and quantity and goal and scope and objective. It is the most radical proposal ever proposed to the mind and allegiance of man. This is radicalism. Nobody and nothing is beyond its scope and pursuit and redemption.
° Wherever His kingdom is accepted it fulfils the good, cleanses the evil, and goes beyond anything ever thought or dreamed anywhere. This is the desire of the ages–if men only knew it.
D. THE FRUIT OF A SELF-SURRENDERED LIFESTYLE
He fulfilled the deepest law of the kingdom of God: “whoever would save his life will lose if and whoever loses his life for My sake [in a higher cause, the Kingdom) will find it” (Matt. 16:25 RSV).
“Therefore, my brothers, I implore you by God’s mercy to offer your very selves to him: a living sacrifice, dedicated and fit for his acceptance, the worship offered by mind and heart. Adapt yourselves no longer to the pattern of this present world, but let your minds be remade, and your whole nature thus transformed. Then you will be able to discern the will of God, and to know what is good, acceptable and perfect”(Rom.12:1-2 ).
When you surrender to the kingdom,
° You surrender to creative love and all you say, and do, is finely tuned to make a lasting impact. You think thoughts you couldn’t think before, you do things you couldn’t do before, and you are a person you could not otherwise be.
° You are a surprise to yourself and others. And now you can love yourself because you love something (the Kingdom) and someone (Christ) more than your self. Your self on your own hands is a problem and a pain; your self in the hands of Christ is an unlimited possibility and a power.
° Self-loathing, self-rejection drops away. How can you hate what He loves! How can you reject what He has accepted? “Blessed are my eyes for they have seen Him and do see Him, my hands for they have clasped his, my feet for they walk in His way, my heart for it belongs to Him, now and forever-blessed am I, for I am his!
F. CONCLUSION
We have seen the inner account of Jesus’ surrender of himself obeying the deepest law of the Kingdom. We now see it through the anointed eyes of Paul:
“Treat one another with the same spirit as you experience in Christ Jesus” (Phil 2:5-10)
Jesus in His human life expresses the nature of God.
“IF YOU SURRENDER TO CHRIST YOU SURRENDER TO CREATIVE LOVE”. Self-surrender was not merely something for the creatures to do–it is something the Creator did Himself. This is therefore an all-embracing principle and attitude for God and man.
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