“Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.” Romans 7:16-20
These words from Paul to the church in Rome, describing our condition apart from the work of Christ, ring true to us: this is our experience. But Christ has now saved us from our bodies of death, thanks be to God!
In the book of Joshua the Israelites enter the Promised Land, Canaan, returning from generations of slavery to the land where their fathers had lived and received God’s promise. Jacob’s family had gone down to Egypt as seventy people (Gen. 46:27), and the Lord brought them out again 430 years later “by their hosts” (Ex. 12:51). As the book of Joshua begins, these hosts of Israel (after 40 years of wandering in the wilderness) cross the river Jordan on dry ground even as their fathers had been brought out of Egypt through the Red Sea. There in Canaan the Lord fights for Israel, defeating kings and hosts of armies before them in amazing ways—throwing hail stones on them, keeping the sun from setting that they might not flee into darkness, causing them to kill one another in their terror. But when Joshua is old the Lord says to him, “You are old and advanced in years, and there remains yet very much land to possess” (Josh. 13:1). The Lord names all the land and their yet-undefeated inhabitants, and promises his help to the following generations: “I myself will drive them out from before the people of Israel.”
Our hearts resemble the land of Canaan, don’t they? Our God has broken the power of sin and death—not only in this world but in my heart, in yours! He has buried us with Christ in our baptism that he might also raise us with him “through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead” (Col. 2:12). Our enemies are defeated; like the tribes living in Canaan they cower before our God. The powers and principalities of this world know that their Conqueror has come. And yet, there remains “very much more land to possess.” Bringing our hearts more and more fully into submission to our King is our daily task, made possible only by looking to our Lord and asking him to fight for us—the very thing he is eager to do! As Paul reminds us a little earlier in Romans (6:4), “We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.” We have been set free by Christ’s work on our behalf to walk in new ways! The old ways have power over us only as we give it to them, paying allegiance to sin rather than to our King. Against the evil inclinations of our hearts we wield “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication” (Eph. 6:17-18).
Moment by moment, as required by people who are still inclined to live as if we were dead, who still have darkness lingering in our hearts, let us remind and charge ourselves with Paul: “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Gal. 2:20). Our God, like a refiner’s fire, will burn away the death in us; Our Lord and Savior, like the noonday sun, will scatter away all the darkness in us. We have only to lift our heads and open our hands. And being inclined to turn away, we must lift our heads and open our hands again, and again, and again. Thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ!
A Reflection on Mark 8
And calling the crowd to him with his disciples, he said to them, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospel's will save it. For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul? For what can a man give in return for his soul? (Mark 8:34-37)
This last Sunday we heard these words of Jesus. They are familiar to us all—the sort of words we hear quoted in all sorts of situations. The saying is that “familiarity breeds contempt,” but in reality, it is far more likely to breed apathy. Familiar people get taken for granted. Familiar pleasures lose their luster. Familiar words become metaphors with no reference point, empty proverbs, and greeting card sentiments. They become words we stop thinking about, stop feeling anything about, and stop caring about. At times, we need to slow down, and let familiar words sink deep into our souls.
“If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.”
“Let him deny himself.”
How can we deny ourselves? Does this mean we give up our jobs, and go live in a monastery? Work in a rescue mission? Give away our possessions? How exactly does one give up herself? We all know what it means to be denied, for we have all been in a situation where we didn’t get our way, where our viewpoint didn’t matter, or where we were overlooked. Is Jesus really calling us to do this to ourselves? Are we supposed to always let others go first, speak first, be first?
Part of the threat of this call is the fear of losing ourselves. It means that we might have to relinquish our place, our desires, even our identity. If we don’t stand up for ourselves, who will? If we don’t express ourselves and speak for ourselves, will we cease to matter?
But Jesus is clear—those who seek to save their lives will lose them, and those who lose their lives for the sake of Jesus will save them. We may struggle to believe this, but he is clear. Attempting to preserve our place, our voice, and our identity doesn’t work. We can’t give life to ourselves, no matter how hard we try. And if we let go of ourselves, if we listen and serve rather than speak and seek our own way, we will be given life. As Jim Elliot said, “he is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”
As we travel through Lent, through this period of preparation and self-denial, let us willingly give up ourselves! Let us give up ourselves for the sake of Jesus, for the sake of the gospel, and for the sake of others. Let us give up ourselves not stoically or in misery, but instead in joy, because we are walking in the footsteps of the Savior, who has promised to give life to all who follow him!
Steven+
Joshua 5 Devotional
And the Lord said to Joshua, “Today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you.” And so the name of that place is called Gilgal to this day.
While the people of Israel were encamped at Gilgal, they kept the Passover on the fourteenth day of the month in the evening on the plains of Jericho. And the day after the Passover, on that very day, they ate of the produce of the land, unleavened cakes and parched grain. And the manna ceased the day after they ate of the produce of the land. And there was no longer manna for the people of Israel, but they ate of the fruit of the land of Canaan that year. Joshua 5:9-12
This generation of Israel who have spent their lives wandering in the desert is here reminded of their identity as the people of God, as they celebrate the feast of Passover on the plains of Jericho. In explaining to their children why they sacrifice a lamb on this night, they must have been reminded that the God of their fathers is also their God and they are his people, called to be holy as he is holy. This generation is presented as a fresh start, a renewed hope for Israel as they camp within the borders of Canaan and eat of the fruit of the land. Egypt can no longer exult over them, but cowers before them even as do those in Jericho whose hearts, we are told by Rahab, melt before Israel and her God. Similarly Jesus, in Matthew’s Gospel in particular, is presented as Israel, and yet a new Israel—Israel as she was always meant to be, fulfilling the word spoken to her by Moses and all the prophets as she never could.
After his baptism in the Jordan, Jesus was driven by the Spirit into the desert for forty days and there he was tempted by Satan. As Satan tempts him a third time, Jesus banishes him with the words of Moses in Deuteronomy as he has each time before, pulling from Moses’ warning to this generation not to forget God once they are in Canaan and eating of the fruit of land. Moses says in Deuteronomy 6:12-13, “then take care lest you forget the Lord, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. It is the Lord your God you shall fear. Him you shall serve and by his name you shall swear.”
Israel here begins to eat of the fruit of the land, which is both a beautiful fulfillment of the promises of God, and also an ominous hearkening back to Moses’ warning to them, that they not forget the Lord their God as they begin to eat of the fruit of the land he will bring them into. Is this not an ominous warning for us also? We are certainly many of us in danger of feasting on all the good things our God has given us and forgetting from whose hand they come. As Israel was commanded to come continually in repentance and thanksgiving to the Lord with burnt offerings and sacrifices, even as our Lord Jesus showed his own dependence on the Father in prayer and fasting and participating with his disciples in the Passover and the other feasts and sacrifices commanded by God, may we not neglect to gather together, but feast on him our Passover Lamb that we might be strengthened to live a life of dependence on God in prayer, repentance, and faithful obedience, following our risen Lord Jesus who as the prophet Isaiah foretold, “will not grow faint or be discouraged, until he has established justice in the earth” and even into every dark corner of your heart and mine.
Rebekah