“. . . because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts crying out ‘Abba Father!’” (Gal 4:6)
Reading this and living the reality it describes remain distinct. Many will read. Few seem to participate in, or experience, the life. The initial and ongoing general manifestation of Christ’s Spirit resident in the soul is an orientation toward the Father. If you are a son, you have Christ’s Spirit. If you have Christ’s Spirit, you (as Christ did) recognize within you the cry “Father, Father!”
This seems to beg the question, “As a Christian, if my heart is not crying out for the Father, then is it crying out for something else?” That is, “Are our hearts fashioned to cry out for something?” Or, “Can one’s heart truly be dead and have no voice, no cry, at all?”
Likewise, “If I have a heart cry, can my own cry escape my notice?” “Might I be blind to myself?” Many could answer yes in theory, but then fail to follow the path of self-awareness and actually find their cry and the reasons for “that” cry, whatever it might in truth actually be.
Ask yourself, “If Christ’s Spirit had to be given to me, then what nature was the spirit I had crying out in me if it was not Christ’s crying “Father, Father!” Is that spirit back in place as the one guiding and motivating your heart now, if you discern not Christ’s Spirit guiding and motivating your heart toward the Father?
Consider the word SIN. S can stand for Satan (and all he is), Sin itself, one’s Self, and Slavery. I can represent Individuality. N can stand for Nature. The Apostle Paul in Galatians 3:22 states that “the Scripture has confined all under sin.” Chapters 3 and 4 address grounds for identity that were common if one was not “in Christ.” Chapters 3 and 4 also reveal a possible living as unto nature. [Other supporting verses abound.] Thus, a case can be made that if one is not oriented to the Father, then one is oriented and living as if “not in Christ,” and thus as to sin (or the flesh, as Paul later calls it).
Christ was oriented to His Father. We, as believers, those in Christ, have been given Christ’s Spirit in our hearts by God Himself. Thus, we should now naturally live and give out what we’ve inwardly received: Godly Affection that transcends or bypasses what is earthly.
Christ, if we were to study His Spirit, loved the Father. Christ understood the Father. He submitted to His Father’s will. Christ had as a primary affection His Father. Not Sin, Self or Satan. Not some grand Self-centeredness. Nor did Christ anchor His life to Nature. Christ’s understanding, His will, and His affections (in total, His heart), were oriented by and toward His Father. These were oriented and unified.
Friend, do our hearts resemble Christ’s? We supposedly have His Spirit. Do the things which motivate us and manifest from within our lives to the world, do these things resemble what motivated Christ and came from within the inner world of His heart to the external world of history?
The call for the Father moves outward from deep within. This is a different motivation than, say, the Law, which is an external pressure upon a life. It is also a different influence than, say, nature (either internal to the self or external from the self) that motivates reason, will, and affection. It is not sin. Motivation from Christ’s Spirit is a pure, loving desire to be with and please God, recognizing Him for who He is and being delighted and at home in His presence.
Reflect on and consider what you know of Christ’s life, His understanding, His decisions, His affections. Now consider your life, your understanding, your decisions, and your affections. If you do not see traces of Christ’s Spirit in your heart, and God’s word is true, then either you have not because you are not, or you are (and you have) but you want not, therefore you will not.
You may believe some things, as did the Galatians, but you may not understand as is required. The Galatians believed in some way the gospel, but their lives, their affections, their motives, their actions, led the Apostle Paul to have severe doubts about them. They failed to understand their son-ship, thus their lives were not anchored an animated by Christ’s Spirit within their hearts. This was an error and it opened them up making them susceptible to further error. Let it not be so with us.
The Christian life is driven by a relational affection, not by mere belief acknowledgements that permit someone to hide true fleshly, earthly, motivations behind the wall of ongoing self-rationalizations. This dynamic is not life. It is a false substitute for what some call life, because it seems natural (and, in the flesh, it is natural).
What Christ understood about His Father defined every moment of His life. Because He understood (in truth) the Father, Christ’s chief affection (what stemmed from the core of His heart) was always love for the Father. Because Christ always loved the Father, He both longed to be with and please the Father. His understanding, affections, and will were oriented and unified. May this be so with us.
Let what God has placed in your heart, if you be in Christ, rule you. Sin is not to be your master. You are not your own. Nature is no god. These are all earthly orientations. Christ’s Spirit in you is a heavenly and divine deposit that lives to release you from these former sources of apparent life to the source of true life, the Father Himself. That is where your heart should be aimed! He is to be the object of your deepest affections! “Father, Father!” is to be the cry of your heart! If it is not, then prayerfully seek the truth as to why.
Greenies Make No Sense
7 years ago
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