A Daring Faith in a Cowardly WorldSample

Losing Ourselves in Him

When we’re born, we’re utterly dependent on our mother for life. Everything from our feeding to our health depends on her care. We’re unaware of how dependent we are; we yield to her. Our problems begin as we grow and become aware of our independence. We enter our “Terrible Twos” and think maybe we will touch that hot stove, run to the edge of that cliff, or pull on the dog’s tail. Slowly, and sometimes painfully, we learn that maybe Mom isn’t trying to keep us from the glorious pleasures of the hot stove—maybe she knows a thing or two about what’s good for us and what isn’t.

Our childhood becomes a long lesson in unlearning what we became aware of when we discovered our freedom of choice. We struggle with knowing that Mom knows better than we do, yet picking up the dog poo looks so exhilarating even as she’s yelling “No!”

This is true, the first time we’re born and when we’re born again. It seems as if God is trying to keep us from so many delights because we aren’t mature enough to realize it’s all dog poo outside of Him. Our desires are immature; they’re still worldly. Only by growing in Christ do our desires mature. Then we start to become holy. Only then do we have anything to offer.

Matthew 5 through 7 is the great Sermon on the Mount. It is a message from Jesus about how someone who is already a believer becomes holy, not how someone becomes a Christian. This is clear from the beginning of the passage as Jesus withdraws from the crowd and preaches the sermon only to his disciples. The message was meant only for his disciples then and only for those who would be His disciples today. I’ve heard many people say it is impossible to live up to the teaching in the Sermon on the Mount, and they’re right. It is impossible—without first yielding completely to Jesus’ teaching in faith. Without losing oneself in the Father’s kingdom purpose, which allows the Holy Spirit to have complete control of us, we can never live up to Jesus’ statements. This leads us to feel afraid because Jesus says if we don’t live up to them, we’ll be led to “destruction,” to “hell” (gehenna—a life pronounced as worthless), or to thinking that He must not mean what He says. It is possible to live up to them when we are abandoned to Him—and that’s His point. Jesus would never demand impossible things from us, but He does demand things of us that are possible only if we are completely yielded to Him.

The sermon has become a stumbling block of much of the institutional church because we think Jesus can’t be serious, so we skip over the harsh words or seek out teachers or books that will explain to us that He didn’t mean what He said and then put a nice spin on it. Our problem is that we don’t understand who Jesus is and have been taught to divide everything into heaven or hell (lake of fire) statements. When we understand that Jesus is offering His disciples a choice, not between heaven or hell—they’re already saved—but between a worthless life or a holy life, His statements make sense.

We begin to understand the harshness of His words. He is saying that if we lose ourselves in Him by picking up our cross daily (Luke 9:23)—literally making a daily choice to die, to our right to ourselves—we can be coheirs with Him and will reign with Him forever. Either we can seek comfort and safety in this life on earth, which the Bible calls the equivalent of a blade of grass that springs up in the morning and dies in the noonday sun, or we can lose ourselves in His kingdom’s purpose and reign with Him for eternity.

So how do we do this? What is the formula? The Sermon on the Mount is the formula. It is the step-by-step process of having God’s best in this life and for all of eternity. It is the blessed, harsh, impossible demands He makes on anyone who wants to be called His friend. Jesus knows as He teaches His exasperated disciples that it is not only possible but it’s easy when we’re filled with the Holy Spirit.

Institutional religion is the opposite of Jesus’ intent. Religion seeks to clean up the outside through rules and judgment rather than changing the inside. To try hard not to sin and keep rules leads to a life of misery. To have one’s heart completely changed by our Father, so much so that our very desires become His desires, is the aim of Jesus’ words. Joy results from having our wills molded to His. We don’t lose our will; instead, our will is changed so that we happily choose His best.

The Sermon on the Mount is our Lord’s recipe for losing ourselves in Him. As long as we hold on to things in our lives that give us a sense of value apart from Him, we can’t grow in Him to our full extent. In dying to ourselves daily, we find our true value as sons and daughters of the Most High.

Respond

What does it mean to “lose yourself in Jesus”?

Are you living a “holy life”? Explain.

Prayer

Lord, thank You for the joy I feel as I walk with You daily.