We Would See Jesus by Roy Hession
“Whenever a
sense of sin lies upon our conscience, two persons, it seems, fight to get hold
of that conviction-the devil and the Holy Spirit. The devil wants to get hold
of it in order to take it and us to Sinai, and there condemn us and bring us
into bondage. (Law) The Holy Spirit, however, wants to take us and our sin to
Calvary, there to bring us through the Door into peace and freedom. (Grace)…
The whole purpose of the devil in these accusations is to get us into striving
and self-effort, and thus into real bondage…The Holy Spirit takes that sin, and
us with it, to Calvary, to Jesus our Door. There He shows us that that sin, and
much else, was anticipated and settled by the Lord Jesus in His death upon the
cross…The word of promise is for us…Having returned-that is, having repented-we
can rest, and we can do so because we see that Jesus has done a finished work
for us on the cross…The Holy Spirit is not concerned primarily to get us to try
to be better, but to repent deeply of the sin there is; not to try to be more
loving to that person, but to repent of having been jealous and critical
towards him… Then having repented, the Holy Spirit would bid us rest as sinners
at the cross, where sin is cleansed away, and so be at peace. As we rest as
sinners in that low place, Jesus pours into our hearts His own love for that
other person…a forbearance towards him that was never there before… ‘Not I, but
Christ liveth in me,’ for it is into His love, patience, and victory
that we enter, not ours. And so it is that we learn by experience, ‘In
returning and rest shall ye be saved.’…While Satan accuses only to bring
despair, bondage and striving, the Holy Spirit convicts only to bring comfort,
freedom and rest…
“A ‘door,’
then, speaks of the beginning or a crisis, while a ‘way’ speaks of the going
on. Both are fully provided for in the Lord Jesus…God calls us to walk in
continuous, present-tense fellowship with Him…Basically this difficulty is due
to the fact that we are not seeing Jesus as the Way but are trying to
make other things the way, and they just do not work. Some feel that prayer is
the most important thing in the Christian life, and it becomes the way for
them. Others would put Bible study in that place, others fellowship, others
personal witnessing…It is felt that if we do these things we shall then be
really living the full Christian life-and so we consider them to be the way
onward…None of these things, however, is the Way, and they only make the
Christian life hard and barren…Only the Lord Jesus Himself is the Way; to
attempt to walk on any other is to fall and to despair…The Lord Jesus Himself
is the Way. None else will suit our stumbling feet…Living with Jesus in the now.
“Since
finding Him, men have not only found the Way but the End too. We do not have to
go beyond Him to something else to satisfy our needs. He is the End of all that
we need, and the simple, easily accessible way to that End…Our End is to be the
Lord Jesus Himself. The reason for getting right should not be that we might
have revival, or power, or be used of God, or have this or that blessing, but
that we might have Him. He knows all ends will not satisfy our hearts, for
we are made for Him, and we are restless till we rest in Him. Moreover, such
ends, if that is all we come to, would fail to satisfy His heart, for the Bible
tells us that the whole purpose of Jesus on the cross was to reconcile us ‘unto
Himself.’ (2 Cor. 5:19)… So it is that He allows us to be frustrated and
disappointed in our strivings after this or that end until at last He comes to
us and says, ‘My child, I never promised you that if you would surrender,
repent and get right with Me, you would have an eased situation, great power,
success in your service, or even revival. What I do promise you is that, if you
will walk with Me and allow Me to show you sin as soon as it comes in, and
cleanse you from it, you will have not these things but-Me. Make Me your
desired End and you will surely have that End, and you shall be satisfied,
lacking nothing that is in the will of God for you.’… ‘predestined us unto
the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself’ (Eph. 1:5), and
that Jesus gave Himself for us ‘that He might…purify unto Himself a
peculiar people.’.(Titus 2:14)
He
is our peace; He is our power; He is our victory; He is
our revival. There is nothing beyond Him.
No comments:
Post a Comment