The following is a paper I wrote for New Staff Class at Gospel for Asia on the book Calvary Road by Roy Hession. All views are my own and do not necessarily represent those of Gospel for Asia. 

 

“I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” –John 10:10

Jesus created us beautiful. He created us in His image. There was no hiding; there was no looking down upon, no judgment, pride, envy, jealousy, or selfish ambition.  We once were as we were intended to be, and we treated one another with perfect love, perfect kindness and perfect openness.

Sin destroyed all of that. Beauty was shattered. The unity of God and man was broken. We are now shadows of who we were made to be. “We see that we are merely reflections of reflections left by our predecessors”  –Underoath

But God has not left us to ourselves. He longs to cross the divide. He sent Jesus to rescue us from our pride and self-centeredness. His coming not only gave us eternal life, but empowered and showed us the way we are to live in this life. He humbled Himself to walk among us.

He walked in humility along the highway of holiness, for He did only His Father’s will. He invites each of us to walk with Him hand in hand. And this is restoration.

 

[Brokenness]

The Christian life begins with one great revival, and is continued in a state of constant revival. This is another expression of justification, happening in a moment, and sanctification, a process that continues for the rest of our life.

Revival is the saving life of Christ poured through us by the power of the Spirit. It is the leaving behind of the old man, and the resurrection of the new man.  Revival can never fill a proud vessel. We must be broken. Just as the Children of Israel had to wander in the wilderness for forty years to learn obedience before they could enter the Promised Land, and as Naaman the Syrian had to humble himself before his leprosy would be cleansed; so God chooses to pour His life through us when we are broken. “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” – James 4:6

Brokenness comes when we have a right view of God and a right view of ourselves.  To know that on our own we are the worst of sinners, that all that we have is because of grace destroys any context for pride.

And furthermore, as we gaze at Jesus, we see that He, though He had every right to exultation did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made Himself nothing and took the form of a servant. We are to have His mind. As we fall more in love with Jesus, we will be broken.

 

[Cups Running Over]

Brokenness however, is not an end to itself. It is the beginning of revival. It is the shattering of the dam of pride to release the flood of the Spirit. Brokenness does not leave you in sadness, but rather brings you to a place of joy. Broken people are joyful people. “He leads me beside still waters” –Psalm 23:2

“But Love can never be reconciled to an unlovely object, and you are infinitely unlovely by despising God and His Love so long… He can never therefore be reconciled to your sin, because sin itself is incapable of being altered: but He may be reconciled to your person, because that maybe restored and, which is an infinite wonder, to greater beauty and splendor than before.” –Thomas Traherne

Jesus desires to fill us, but He cannot when we are unclean. This is clear all through the temple and sacrificial system. All who went up to enter the temple or served before God were to go through ritual purification and mikveh baths. God is Holy, and He calls us to be holy. Before we can be reconciled to His life-giving spirit we must be made clean.

There is no way to be made clean but by the blood of the Jesus. If we are to live in the constant filling of the Spirit, we must live under His blood. Every thought, action, emotion and attitude that is not in submission to God, all that is sin, we must take captive to the obedience of Christ and be cleansed by His blood.

In this way we will be constantly filled to overflowing, and the love of Jesus will spread to everyone around us. “’Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ Now this He said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive…” –John 7:38,39

 

[The Way of Fellowship]

One of the chief results of the fall is that man became the center of his own universe. Sin naturally turns us inward onto ourselves. We worship the creation rather than the Creator, specifically, we worship ourselves. As a result, our fellowship with one another is corrupted. We seek our own good, not the good our fellow man. We break fracture into a million pieces the second greatest commandment of God, to love our neighbor as ourselves. Instead there is no one we love like ourselves. We each do what is right in our own eyes.

But through Jesus fellowship with one another can be restored.  Indeed, it must.  It is not an option, for Jesus commanded “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.” –John 13:34

Jesus prayed “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you.” –John 17:20,21 He desires not just that we have fellowship with one another, but that we have the same closeness and unity that the Father has with the Son.  To fulfill this prayer we must remove ourselves from the center, and put God in the center. As we all draw near to God, we draw near to one another. Our love for God is inseparable from our love for each other. The way of fellowship begins with love.

To be in fellowship with one another requires that we walk in the light “If we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.” – 1 John 1:7

In the light there is no hiding. It scares us, for we must be vulnerable and let down our defenses, but is the only place that we will ever find rest. If we belong to Jesus, we are children of light. He beckons all of us out of the shadows into the glimmering light of fellowship with Him and one another.

 

[The Highway of Holiness]          

“For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life” -Matthew 7:14

“Blessed are those whose strength is in you,
in whose heart are the highways to Zion” –Psalm 84:5

Through all of history God has revealed Himself as a God who leads His people on journeys. He first brought Abram from His own land to the Promised Land. Later He led Moses and the children of Israel, though they wandered along the way. Today, most of Israel is scattered amidst the nations, but He promises to one day bring them back. And we as His children are walking towards the Heavenly Kingdom along the Highway of Holiness. This is the Christian life, simply walking the course marked out for us hand in hand with Jesus and one another.

There is only way onto the Highway. That is by the cross. The finished work of Jesus is the only way in which we are able to enter. To come to the cross we must surrender. To give your life to Jesus is to give it all. We do not come to the cross with squared shoulders, but with a bent back, utterly desperate apart from the life that it imparts. “Only the broken can enter the Highway.” We must first be broken before we enter the Highway, but that does not mean that we will not have to be broken again. The old sin nature that we are still at war with will raise its vile head, our pride will try to surface, and we must be cleansed afresh by the blood of the lamb. Our brokenness will be tested. Walking the Highway is not easy, but it is beautiful.

 

[The Dove and the Lamb]

The Spirit of God is not poured out upon proud people. The dove will rest only on us if we have the disposition of the lamb. Thus we must study the Lamb of God and seek to be like Him.

We are to be simple. No planning or schemes for ourselves. No mistrusting and doubting, but simple trusting in our Shepard. We are to be shorn. Willing to have no reputation or liberty, giving up everything that we suppose is due to us. We are to be silent. Not seeking to vindicate ourselves, make excuses, or lash back. Rather to answer nothing, but have only love for those who sin against us or speak ill of us.

We are to be spotless. No bitterness or resentment, unstained, not responding to sin with a sinful reaction. The dove is to be our captain. We are to submit to Him and let Him lead us in all that we do. And then we will fly, for we will be free.

 

[Revival in the Home]

God requires us to live these things out in every area of lives. And this begins at home. We are to treat those with whom we are living with every bit of respect, love, grace and humility that we would show to anyone else. It is said that familiarity breeds contempt, this may be true for the world, but it is not the way of the Spirit.

The Christian home is centered around God.  Again, God is light. He calls us to walk in the light. Even in the closeness of the home we can try to hide behind our walls in the shadows. But Jesus came to break down those walls, that we might have true fellowship with one another. Revival is not meant to be experienced alone, but hand in hand. This means hiding nothing, but being perfectly honest about your sins, failures, fears and attitudes.

This is a fearful thing, for we feel safe behind our walls. “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear.” – 1 John 4:18

The home that is centered around God will be home that loves. Love leaves no room for selfishness or fighting for one’s own way. To see a home that is experiencing revival is to see a home that is being perfected in love.

 

[The Mote and the Beam]

If we love each other, we will be grieved when we see things in our brothers and sisters that are hurtful. But often we do not respond to the sin in them in a righteous way, but rather in a prideful or critical way; or if there sin is something that affects us; with resentment and bitterness. This Jesus calls a beam in our own eye. We are so quick to see our brother’s sin, but slow to see our own.

If we are going to be able to help our brother, we must first be cleansed. We must once again be broken, and be washed in the blood of the lamb. Only then will our vision be clear that we may help our brother.

 

[Are You Willing to Be a Servant?]

“Do you understand what I have done to you? You call me Teacher and Lord, and you are right, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also ought to wash one another’s feet.” –John 13:13,14

Servanthood is the heart of our new relationship with Jesus. If we are His, we will be like Him. And Jesus was the greatest servant this world has ever known. He asks us this question every day “Do you understand what I have done for you?” and He whispers “serve one another.” When we become broken, when our sin is scrubbed away, we find underneath what we were made to be; servants. The only question is “are we willing?”

A true servant does not serve out of guilt or obligation, but out of love. There have been many servants who have been given their freedom, but chosen to stay with and serve their masters, because they love them. So it is with was. We serve because that is our very heart, we cannot imagine anything else.

 

[The Power of the Blood of the Lamb]

“And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony…”  -Revelations 12:11

Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sins. (Hebrews 9:22) We are utterly without hope apart from the blood of the lamb. The blood is not of one shed in battle, fierce and angry; but of a lamb; led without protest, without struggle, with no thought for itself, but only of others. The blood Jesus is infused with His gentleness, His grace, His quiet majesty.

To experience the power of the blood, we must identify ourselves with the lamb, and be willing surrender all to be made like Him.

 

[Protesting Our Innocence?]

We try and divide people up into categories. We say there are bad people, and people who are alright, and people who are good, and even some who are great; but the truth is that there are only two categories. There is us; sinful, corrupt, abase, covered in filth, and there is Jesus. He is the only One who is righteous. We are not innocent. We are the guilty. When we stand before the throne, we cannot protest our innocence. Every sin will cry out against us. There is only One who can declare us innocent. His name is Jesus, our innocent sacrifice.

Thus we can look down on no one. The only difference between us and them is the grace of God. Therefore, we put no confidence in the flesh, but cast ourselves at His nailed scarred feet. Only there will we find hope.

“Jesus said… ‘son, your sins are forgiven.’” –Mark 5:2

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