At present, we are working with the light of truth presented by Dr. Francis Schaeffer from his book True Spirituality where we are discussing the basic considerations of the Christian life, or true Christianity.

Part 5

(Wading deeper into what we discussed yesterday) 

In this…. 

Romans 6:4: “We were buried with him by baptism into death.”  

Romans 6:6: “Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him.”  

Galatians 2:20: “I am crucified with Christ.”   

Galatians 6:14: “But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom” [or whereby] “the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.”  

…we find that as Christians we died, in God’s sight, with Christ when we accepted him as Savior; but there is more to it than this. 

And in this… 

1 Thessalonians 5:18: “In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.”  

We saw that the Word of God is definite that in all things, including hard things, we are to be contented, to say “Thank you” to God.  

And in this… 

Romans 1:21: “Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.”  

…we understand the beginning of man’s rebellion against God, was, and still is, the lack of a thankful heart. They were not thankful. Instead of giving thanks they “became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.”   

And in this… 

Matthew 22:37,39  ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind…You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ 

Luke 9:23 And Jesus said, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” 

…we also see that the Bible tells us that we are to love men, not only in a romantic or an idealized way.  We are to be willing to say no to ourselves, we are to be willing to say no to things, in order that the command to love God and men may have real meaning. Even in things that are lawful to me, things that do not break the Ten Commandments, I am not to seek my own, own, but I am to seek another man’s good. And we see that Jesus asks us to follow Him, daily, in living our life in a moment by moment relationship with Him – toward Him.

When we stand in the circle of mankind’s usual perspective of life, and honestly face these things in the Bible, we must say one of two things. Either we must romanticize, and claim that these statements are intended just to give a good feeling, and some day, way off, in the reign of Christ in the future, or in the eternal heaven, it will mean something in practice. Or, if we do not say this, but face in a real sense these words as the Bible gives them, we must feel that we are against a hard wall. You cannot listen to this type of verse, this negative thrust in the Word of God concerning the Christian life, in a comfortable way, unless you romanticize it. Surely this has always been so, since the fall of man. But surely also it is especially so in the things-mentality and the success-mentality of the twentieth century. We are surrounded by a world that says no to nothing. When we are surrounded with this sort of mentality, in which everything is judged by binges and by success, then suddenly to be told that in the Christian life there is to be this strong negative aspect of saying no to things and no to self, it must seem hard. And if it does not feel hard to us, we are not really letting it speak to us.   

Thoughts developed or used directly from the work of Schaeffer, Francis. True Spirituality . Tyndale House Publishers, Inc