The cross of Christ is God’s last and endless word. There the prince of this world is judged, there sin is killed, and pride is done to death, there lust is frozen, and self-interest slaughtered, not one can get through.
~Oswald Chambers (1874-1917)
Oh beloved, somehow we learn to (mostly) run from the lusts of our flesh. Our bodies scream for attention. Touch me! Feed me! Comfort Me! And by His Grace, we are learning not to listen.
And many of us have let go of a dependence on things or circumstances or feelings or health or security. We have found that in letting go, there is actually great freedom.
But (and this is a big but), there is one last enemy.
Us.
We want people to like us. We want recognition. We want their worship. We want honor. Oh, maybe we don’t want to be on stage getting an award. Maybe we just don’t want people to hate us (we have a hard enough time not hating ourselves).
But, oh my, we want people to see us in a positive light. We want them to be pleased with us. And we often will do incredible and/or horrible things to get the tiniest dose of this deadly drug. The commentator Matthew Clarke talks about us as those who are endlessly “hunting after honors, titles, and pedigrees; boasting of ancestry, family connections, great offices, honorable acquaintance, and the like.”
We might even fool ourselves into thinking that we are sensitive to others and their feelings. We feel bad when we have made someone else feel bad. But what is driving this? Is it compassion? Or is it discomfort with the fact that someone is uncomfortable with us?
Beloved, we have to get real about this in our lives. The “I” in all of us is the last great frontier of the Spirit’s work in our lives. And if this “I” can be truly slaughtered. We finally have the potential – nay the surety – of living victorious lives of righteousness, peace and joy in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Jesus died to save us. And let us not forget that His great salvation is not just a saving from the penalty of sin. It is a saving from the power of sin – and sin’s great power base in our lives is the middle letter of the word sin itself: “I.” Further, the great hope of His great salvation is that we will one day be saved from the presence of sin altogether.
This writer is often struck with the tenacity of this kind of lust in his own life. Perhaps i am alone. But, somehow, i doubt this to be true. Join me then, in the journey to have our minds changed about all aspects of lust and pride. Surely, the cross and the One who bore it for us is able to break even a bond such as this!
