I’m gonna do a whole lot quoting from Oswald Chambers . . . still my favorite book besides the Bible.
“For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.” ~James 2:10
The moral law does not consider us as weak human being at all, it takes no account of our heredity and infirmities, it demands that we be absolutely moral. The moral law never alters, either for the noblest or for the weakest, it is eternally and abidingly the same. The moral law ordained by God does not make itself weak to the weak, it does not palliate our shortcomings, it remains absolute for all times and eternity. If we do not realize this, it is because we are less than alive; immediately we are alive, life becomes a tragedy. ”I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.” When we realize this, then the Spirit of God convicts us of sin. Until a man gets there and sees that there is no hope, the Cross of Jesus Christ is a farce to him. Conviction of sin always brings a fearful binding sense of the law, it makes a man hopeless – “sold under sin.” I, a guilty sinner, can never get right with God, it is impossible. There is only one way in which I can get right with God, and that is by the Death of Jesus Christ. I must get rid of the lurking idea that I can ever be right with God because of my obedience – which of us could ever obey God to absolute perfection!
We only realize the power of the moral law when it comes with and “if”. God never coerces us. In one mood we wish He would make us do the thing, and in another mood we wish He would leave us alone. Whenever God’s will is in the ascendant, all compulsion is gone. When we choose deliberately to obey Him, then He will tax the remotest star and the last grain of sand to assist us with all His almighty power.
Can one be convicted about the condemnation? haahaa . . . I think I’m feeling this message because I easily get off base . . . making my relationship with God based on my performance . . . obedience equalling love and acceptance . . . instead of the obedience being out of love for Jesus . . . already at peace with my standing in Him. I cannot earn the forgiveness and mercy of God. Good thing too.
This next one goes right along with the last one . . . I can’t help it . . . I’m typing it . . . you can’t stop me.
“Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect . . . . “ ~Philippians 3:12
It is a snare to imagine that God wants to make us perfect specimens of what He can do; God’s purpose is to make us one with Himself. The emphasis of holiness movements is apt to be that God is producing specimens of holiness to put in His museum. If you go off on this idea of personal holiness, the dead-set of your life will not be for God, but for what you call the manifestation of God in your life. ”it can never be God’s will that I should be sick.” If it was God’s will to bruise His own Son, why should He not bruise you? The thing that tells for God is not your relevant consistency to an idea of what a saint should be, but your real vital relation to Jesus Christ, and your abandonment to Him whether you are well or ill.
Christian perfection is not, and never can be, human perfection. Christian perfection is the perfection of a relationship to God which shows itself amid the irrelevancies of human life. When you obey the call of Jesus Christ, the first thing that strikes you is the irrelevancy of the things you have to do, and the next thing that strikes you is the fact that other people seem to be living perfectly consistent lives. Such lives are apt to leave you with the idea that God is unnecessary, by human effort and devotion we can reach the standard God wants. In a fallen world this can never be done. I am called to live in perfect relation to God so that my life produces a longing after God in other lives, not admiration for myself. Thoughts about myself hinder my usefulness to God. God is not after perfection me to be a specimen in His showroom; He is getting me to the place where He can use me. Let Him do what He likes.
Am I the only one that has a picture of what I am suppose to look like when I’m following God correctly? If I don’t live up to that image . . . well, I question my God and my relationship with Him . . . not because of Him but because of my inability to be what I perceive he wants from me. A lot of that image has to do with how people see me and perceive me. My thoughts are usually forming around me and my appearance.
In the past few months I’ve been running on fumes, if running at all. I have all but given up on creating that image . . . being that I’ve been saved since I was six or so, though the image in my mind has shifted and formed, it remains generally the same.
I have never once fulfilled that image and I’m tired of trying, truthfully.
What I do want and desire in this life is an honest relationship with Jesus Christ . . . not that I haven’t had that in snipits in the past . . . one that is not defined by what church I attend or what program I’m contributing to or whether or not I say or do all the right things. I believe I’m at a place in my life where God is asking me to lay down the image and take up only my relationship with Him . . . a relationship, I unfortunately haven’t cultivated lately.

