“Getting In the Way”

      Biblical Christianity does not involve only God, and it certainly does not involve only man.  It rather involves God and man, or more pointedly, God in man.

    “Great is the mystery of godliness; God was manifest in the flesh” (I Timothy 3:16).

     Occasionally, believers say or pray, “Lord, get me out of the way so you can work free and unhindered.”  While the sentiment is perhaps humble and noble, the idea is not Biblical.  Rather than eliminating or annihilating our humanity and its faculties, God purposes to resurrect and redeem them for the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ.  Beginning in His beloved Son, our Heavenly Father instituted a union of the Divine and human whereby two seemingly opposing realms unite to accomplish His purposes.  The Lord Jesus was (and is) the God who is man, and the man who is God.  Both aspects of His unique personage comprise the fullness of our Lord’s being, and neither could be “gotten out of the way” without destruction of the whole.

     While we are not Divine in our person, we are “habitations of God through the Spirit” (Ephesians 2:22).  Through Christ, God and man unite in the born again believer, with both parties remaining distinct in their person and being.  As in the Savior, neither component could be removed without complete distortion of God’s purpose in birthing the unique creation that is the “Christian.”  Rather than getting us “out of the way,” our Father seeks to get us in the way.  That is, He works to teach us that our human members and faculties are His “instruments of righteousness” (Romans 6:13).  They remain unperfected at present, and certainly, we misuse them when succumbing to devilish and carnal purposes.  Nevertheless, the Spirit of God works incessantly to redeem our humanity unto its intended purpose of being “a vessel unto honor, sanctified, and meet for the master's use, and prepared unto every good work” (II Timothy 2:21).

     True Christianity is not simply the Treasure, nor is it only the earthen vessels.  It is, as the Apostle Paul declared, “This Treasure in earthen vessels” (II Corinthians 4:7).  We will forever be the human home of the Divine, even as are in this present hour.  There is something about us that makes us the most potentially God-revealing and glorifying creature in all of His handiwork.  Thus, our Lord works to get us in the way for the purpose of displaying the wonder of His nature, character and redeeming work of grace…

“But God, who is rich in mercy, for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved), and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.”

(Ephesians 2:4-7)