The Relinquished Life

[Bootstrap]

Here is the March 8th entry from My Utmost for His Highest.

The relinquished life

I am crucified with Christ. Gal. 2:20.

No one is ever united with Jesus Christ until he is willing to relinquish not sin only, but his whole way of looking at things. To be born from above of the Spirit of God means that we must let go before we lay hold, and in the first stages it is the relinquishing of all pretence. What Our Lord wants us to present to Him is not goodness, nor honesty, nor endeavour, but real solid sin; that is all He can take from us. And what does He give in exchange for our sin? Real solid righteousness. But we must relinquish all pretence of being anything, all claim of being worthy of God’s consideration.

Then the Spirit of God will show us what further there is to relinquish. There will have to be the relinquishing of my claim to my right to myself in every phase. Am I willing to relinquish my hold on all I possess, my hold on my affections, and on everything, and to be identified with the death of Jesus Christ?

There is always a sharp painful disillusionment to go through before we do relinquish. When a man really sees himself as the Lord sees him, it is not the abominable sins of the flesh that shock him, but the awful nature of the pride of his own heart against Jesus Christ. When he sees himself in the light of the Lord, the shame and the horror and the desperate conviction come home.

If you are up against the question of relinquishing, go through the crisis, relinquish all, and God will make you fit for all that He requires of you.

[Aaron]

How many times throughout Scripture is it found written "in union" with God or with Jesus ?

So many of the descriptions in the NT reveal this - the people of God lived /walked/ daily IN UNION WITH JESUS and with the FATHER. (not opposed to them like almost everyone today)

[PetrChelcicky]

My personal objection:
"Sins" should focus on "sins against other persons". And in that regard we need to be more self-critical. To denounce "pride against god" is not wrong, but only insofar as that pride leads us to neglect where we have failed to do what our neighbour needed. If this fundament is lost, all is lost. (The basic dimension is the horizontal, not the vertical.)