The Area of Conquest

Total obedience is more of a problem with "self" than it is with sin. In sanctification, the Holy Spirit leads us to put to death the deeds of the flesh—the lust, violence, murder, covetousness, idolatry, sorcery, stealing, lying, drunkenness, and all the other manifestations of the nature of evil, unclean spirits.

Conquest, on the other hand, has more to do with our desire to be ourselves, to be noticed, to succeed, to receive honor, to achieve, to insure that our will is performed. Such yearnings are not always thought of as being hindrances to pleasing God.

The desire to succeed, to receive honor for an outstanding performance, to achieve—these ambitions are not sin. They are not a violation of the moral law as is true of adultery, murder, lying, stealing. They are self. Why does Christ want to interfere with our right to be ourselves?

The answer to this question lies in the destiny of mankind, particularly the destiny of the Church. The Church is destined to be in the image of Christ, to be united in Christ in the Godhead, to be a coheir with Christ, to be the eternal Temple of God, to be the Servant of the Lord who will judge and liberate the inhabitants of the earth.

God will not permit a member of the Body of Christ to be saved from wrath, delivered from the bondages of sin, and then arise as a judge of the creation. He would be a monster of pride and self-seeking.

A further step is necessary. This step is the re-creating of his whole personality such that he is broken to powder and pounded into the Essence of Christ. We are being made part of God Himself by marriage to God’s Son. The process is not always enjoyable but the final result certainly is worth the discomfort.

If God’s will for Abraham were only that he be a good man, a God-fearing, honest herdsman, God would not have required the offering of Isaac. If Abraham were to be merely a righteous sheik of the desert, raising livestock by day and dancing to the flute by night, he never would have been subjected to the awful demand.

Abraham was called to be the father of those who believe. His Seed is destined to be as the stars of the heavens and the source of blessing for the nations of the earth. Because of this inconceivably great inheritance Abraham had to be made obedient to the point of death.

The imprisonment of Joseph, the afflictions of Job, the suffering of Jeremiah, the persecutions of Paul were not because of sin or to break the chain of sin. The purpose of these tearings-down were that God might build up His holy dwelling place, that the resurrection life of Christ might supplant flesh and blood.

Your present pressures, dear reader, may have nothing to do with sin. Instead, they may have come so you may grow in His Substance, in His image, in His resurrection Life, until you become the purified expression of single-minded obedience to the Father.

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