That Christ Would Use Us

God is determined to accomplish His otherworldly goals. He has always and will always prevail over mankind’s mortal restraints.
For us who follow Christ, this means that His unshakable holiness (set-apartness) is our most fundamental, daily source of hope as we continue to live in this sinful world.

God must be independent from the world in order to save a people such as us, because we are so naturally enthralled with our own sin. And it is a daily miracle that Christ sets us apart for Himself in the midst of a world that loves to inundate itself with filth and perversion.

Indeed, God's holiness is our greatest advantage. His set-apart-ness is unequivocal cause to be encouraged and jump boldly into action. In this we little people should be overjoyed, that God's divine plans consume our tiny plans and leave no room for our silly input.

There is a useful way to embrace our utter dependence on God. And there is unexpected power in recognizing God's independence from our own fleshly limitations.

God demonstrates His masterful grace and explodes the loftiest expectations of pious men by redeeming a people who made themselves worthless. Not only does He put value back into a hell-bound people, but He also gives them the inestimable honor of being employed in His joyful, heavenly work. He works out various God-sized goals not just despite sinful people, but through sinful people, transforming them from being only, always sinful into living as sons and daughters of God.

Christ displays His amazing depth of character by redeeming men for His own use. This also is a sign of God's divine patience, that He continues to bear with us.

Through Christ, God brings to light an unimaginable wealth of grace, that men might forget themselves and get back to doing the work they should have been doing all along. Christ renews us, a formerly hopeless generation, by being our Way to know, admire, enjoy and worship God.

The conviction that we are nothing in light of God's greatness, when taken at the right times and in correct doses, leads to eternally useful ends. For one thing, this truth is the most effective means I know of to set anxious minds at ease.

It should not worry us to the point of despair that our sinful impulses continually overwhelm our ability to resist. Nor should it be a crippling discouragement to us that we cannot attain to anything higher than spiritual impotence on our own. We needn’t fret nor, for that matter, be in denial of any truth about ourselves so long as our confidence is in Christ. He is our productive Way to embrace all things truthful because, in Him, no truth is hopeless. Christ is our overwhelming Truth.

We can strive ahead toward maturity, no longer bogged down by the mud pits that theologian clubs dig for themselves as they go on and on about how God is soooo great that He really doesn’t need us at all. It is positively pitiful to go around trying to sound so “deep” all the time. It’s no wonder that theological “experts” discourage themselves from praying at all when they train themselves to believe that God is so callously independent and hopelessly distant from them.

Therefore, in spite of everything and because of everything, Christ remains our singular Sufficiency. In Him we have the opportunity to throw away our silly little, man-made mazes, which only lead us back to our old selves.


by Patrick Roberts
This is an excerpt from To the Church of the West, Scattered Throughout the World. Find this book and similar articles at www.BooksByPatrick.com

Patrick is an average Christ-seeker. His goal is to turn people to Jesus Christ.