Readings for such a time as this(3): - from: Balancing the Christian Life, by Charles C. Ryrie Dedication THERE IS PERHAPS no more important matter in relation to the spiritual life than dedication. And yet this very basic concept is often confused especially when it is made a part of formulas for victorious living. Some present dedication as the entire answer to all the problems of the Christian life; others give it little place; and most do not understand the place of rededication in the whole matter. To be confused at this point is to do damage to the entire biblical teaching on Christian living. The Basis Of Dedication Throughout Scripture the call to dedication is always based on blessings already granted. In other words, God appeals to His children to dedicate their lives on the basis of the fact that He has richly blessed them. In both Testaments the blessings are related to the position of His people, either in the commonwealth of Israel or in the church, the body of Christ. Although there are many mercies of God which should motivate the believer to dedication, probably the chief one in the background of dedication is redemption. The mercies of God of Romans 12:1, which are Pauls basis for appeal for the presentation of ones body as a living sacrifice, certainly include the two previous mentions of redemption. In Romans 3:24 the apostle has reminded his readers that their position in Christ as justified by a righteous God is through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. In 8:23 he looks ahead to the redemption of the Christians body. The same appeal is made in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20: Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body. The word translated as bought is the Greek word for redeem; thus redemption is made the basis again for the exhortation to glorify God in our bodies. Since redemption is so basic to dedication, it would not be amiss to look into some of the things involved in this concept. The New Testament teaching concerning redemption is based on three words which are used to convey the concept. The first is a simple word which means to buy or purchase or pay a price for something. It is used, for instance, with this ordinary, everyday meaning in the parable of the treasure hid in a field which motivated the man to buy (redeem) the field (Matt. 13:44). In relation to our salvation, the word means to pay the price which our sin demands so that we can be redeemed (Rev. 5:9; 2 Peter 2:1). And it is only by the blood of Christ that the price can be paid. The awesome purchase price of the very life of the son of God should be more than ample motivation to make every child of God eagerly want to yield back to the Lord the very freedom which his death bought.The second word for redemption is the same first basic word prefixed with a preposition. This has the force of intensifying the meaning in a way that can easily be translated into English, for the prepositional prefix is the little word that means out of. Since the root of the word redemption is the word for the marketplace (thus to pay the price in the market), this second word means to purchase out of the market. In other words, the idea in this second word is that the death of Christ not only paid the price for our salvation but also removed us from the marketplace of sin in order to give assurance to us that we will never be returned to the bondage and penalties of sin. Christs coming was in order to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons (Gal. 4:5). The use of this compound word in this verse assures us that we can never lose that adoption as sons and be returned to bondage. The third word for redemption is an entirely different Greek word, and it signifies that the purchased person is also released and set free in the fullest sense. Again it is Paul who says that the death of Christ was in order that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good deeds (Titus 2:14). Thus, redemption in its fullest connotation means that because of the shedding of the blood of Christ believers have been purchased, removed and liberated. Since redemption includes this idea of freedom, this means that the child of God is not automatically a servant of the new Master who bought him. If that were so, then the sinners bondage would only have been transferred from one master (sin) to another (Christ). The truth is that Christ has purchased us in order that we might be free, and He does not take unwilling servants or slaves into captivity. That accounts for the exhortations, rather than commands, which we read in the New Testament to offer ourselves willingly to the Lord in dedication of life. Or to put it another way, those who have been set free from the slavery of sin are asked to enter voluntarily into a new servitude, and the request is made on the basis of the very act that set them free. The awesome purchase price of the very life of the Son of God should be more than ample motivation to make every child of God eagerly want to yield back to the Lord the very freedom which His death bought. All of this is beautifully illustrated in one of the regulations of the Mosaic law. The Hebrew slave who was to be set free by his Hebrew master the seventh year might choose to stay in the service of that master for the remainder of his life. Of course this choice was entirely voluntary on the part of the slave, but if the relationship of life servitude was entered into, then the agreement was sealed by the master piercing the ear of the slave with an awl. And it shall come about if he says to you, I will not go out from you, because he loves you and your household, since he fares well with you; then you shall take an awl and pierce it through his ear into the door, and he shall be your servant forever. And also you shall do likewise to your maidservant (Deut. 15:16-17). Notice the two reasons why a man might make a choice like this: because he loved the master and because the master had been good to him. The mercies of God, the basis for our dedication, are far greater than those of any human master, and the blessings of a life dedicated in service to God are far more certain in their richness. Why so many hesitate to dedicate themselves to Him is difficult to understand. The Area Of Dedication What is it that the Christian is to dedicate? The answer is himself. Present yourselves to God (Rom. 6:13), present your bodies (Rom. 12:1), glorify God in your body (1 Cor. 6:20), submit yourselves ... to God (James 4:7)—this is the uniform appeal of Scripture, and it concerns our bodies. If this is so, then it follows that dedication concerns the years of ones life, since that is the only period in which the body functions. Dedication concerns the present life, not the life hereafter. Very often these days dedication is mixed up with salvation. We must not digress on this point too long except to say that salvation concerns my personal relationship to Jesus Christ as my Substitute for sin which unless paid for would bring me into eternal condemnation. Dedication concerns the subjection of my life to Jesus Christ as long as I live. Salvation involves the sin question: dedication, subjection. But too often some make dedication a condition of salvation, and this is nothing less than adding works to the grace of God. We shall look into this more fully in a later chapter. If dedication concerns the years of ones life, it is directed primarily to the question of the control of that life. Simply stated, dedication concerns whether I will direct my life or whether Christ will. Dedication only secondarily concerns the issues or details of life, and yet these are frequently made the substance of dedication. What I am saying is this: Dedication does not pose the question of whether, for instance, one will go to the mission field; nor does it ask whether one will turn over his business to the Lord. It faces the Christian with the question of who will be the master of the years of his life. Once that is decided then the question of the mission field or business as well as every other detail of life has automatically been involved in that basic decision. Now it is true that often the Holy Spirit will face a Christian with the basic question of control through one of the secondary questions of detail. Frequently it is some business decision or lifework decision which brings to the forefront the issue of mastery of the entire life. But dedication should never be presented as a matter of yielding to some thing or in some area; it should always be directed toward someone, the Lord Himself. Dedication concerns the subjection of my life to Jesus Christ as long as I live.To dedicate in some area or in relation to some thing will, of course, mean that only that area or thing in life has been yielded to the Lords control. Then in the course of time another problem or decision will face the person, and he will have to decide whether or not to yield to the Lords will in that respect. Then another choice will arise. Then a crossroads will appear, and so on and on through life. Each time the believer will be faced with deciding his basic relationship to the will of God. It will be like weeding a garden. This year you pull up one weed; another year, another. In the meantime more weeds grow, and there is never any basic settledness toward the will of God. But if one dedicates his life with all of its problems, decisions, situations, and circumstances—both known and unknown—as decisions arise they can always be faced in light of the fact that there has been a basic, total and lifelong commitment to the will of God. Thus the area of dedication is ones whole life. This will involve the details of life, but it involves them not as means to dedication but as results of dedication. The Components Of Dedication The dedicated life (the initial act of dedication plus continuous commitment to it) involves at least three component features. They are clearly delineated in Romans 12:1-2 which is undoubtedly the central and favorite (though not always correctly interpreted) passage on the subject. 1. The dedicated life must be initiated by the believer by presenting himself as a living sacrifice. Paul addresses his readers as brothers; yet he feels it necessary to urge them to make that presentation or dedication. While the aorist tense itself does not indicate whether the action referred to is past, present, or future, obviously here it does not indicate past action. Otherwise Paul would not need to urge them to make this since they would already have done it. Rather, he is urging them to make a presentation which they had not previously made. Furthermore, the presentation of body is reasonable or rational or logical in view of the greatness of the mercies of God in salvation. Too, it is a sacrificial thing since we are asked to live for Christ in the daily routine as well as in the more unusual occurrences of life. We are to be living sacrifices, not dead ones. And, of course, this presentation is to be a complete one. It involves all of our bodies, or, as Paul puts it in 6:13, present yourselves. This means clearly a total presentation, not a partial one, and it includes all that we know about ourselves at the time of presentation and all the unknown future. It includes the good that we possess as well as the bad. We do not give over to the Lord just those aspects of our lives which we cannot control or which we wish to rid ourselves of, but we give Him everything including the good traits and talents. And all is for Him to use or not to use as He sees fit. This is the logical, sacrificial, total, and decisive presentation of dedication. Separation from the world, or nonconformity, is being unfashionable, and this is a necessary characteristic of the dedicated life.2. The dedicated life also involves a separation or a nonconformity to the evil age in which we live (Gal. 1:4). Perhaps we can understand what nonconformity is by looking at the opposite. The character of conformity is really hypocrisy, for the meaning of the word used here is that the outward appearance looks similar to that of the world even though the transformation of the new birth has taken place within the heart. Conformity, then is two-facedness, and it is something similar to Satans character, because he, although inwardly a liar from the beginning, is able to disguise himself into a veritable angel of light (2 Cor. 11:14; this is the same root word). It is tragic but true that too many believers, although children of light, are covered with the veneer of this present age. The meaning of nonconformity involves the idea of being unfashionable. The only other occurrence of the Greek word used in Romans 12:2a gives us the hint for using this word unfashionable in defining the concept. Peter uses it in 1 Peter 1:14 and it is translated in the King James not fashioning yourselves. This is a very vivid expression and throws the light of Gods Word on so many of our ambitions, activities, goals, standards, and programs which are too often geared to the methods of the day rather than to the glory of God. Separation from the world, or nonconformity, is being unfashionable, and this is a necessary characteristic of the dedicated life. 3. The third feature of the dedicated life is transformation. Both separation and transformation are required. The one is negative and the other is positive. The one is more outward; the other, inward. The positive transformation is done by the Holy Spirit (2 Cor. 3:18), but the center of it is the mind. This is rather unexpected, for we would more naturally think of the need for cleansed hearts or lives, rather than minds. And yet in this passage it is the mind that is the center of the transforming activity of the Spirit in the life of the believer. Too often we think of total depravity as affecting man from his neck down, and we unconsciously exempt the head from the effects of sin. Consequently, we conclude that what we think or the attitudes we have are free from the effects of the fall. That is not so, and the fact that the transformation of life centers in the mind demonstrates this. We need to think Gods standards in order to have our lives transformed into His likeness. He who is light, holiness, and truth is our standard, not the world with all of its counterfeits. In summarizing the need for separation and transformation the church father, Tertullian, put it this way: But our Lord Christ has surnamed Himself Truth, not custom. The Frequency Of Dedication Does the act of dedication have to be repeated? Enough has already been said to indicate that this author believes not. The use of the aorist tense in these dedication verses alone would argue for such a conclusion. Only the preaching of many speakers and the apparent need of many Christians seem to argue for rededication. What is the truth about this matter? The scriptural picture is an initial act of dedication which includes all of oneself for all of ones life. This should never be taken back; therefore, when a dedicated person comes to a crossroad in life or faces a decision, he is not faced with deciding again whether or not he will do the will of God. This has already and forever been decided in that crisis dedication. He must only find what the will of God is in this situation; then he will gladly do it. This is the biblical picture of a dedicated life. But, of course, when Christians come to such crossroads and decisions they sometimes choose not to do what they know to be the will of God. In such instances, sin enters and their dedication has been violated. They miss the will of God and substitute their own will in the particular situation. They may be out of the will of God in a major area or in a minor area of life, but in either case they have gone back on their dedication vow. What is needed in such cases to remedy the situation? Is it a rededication? In a sense one might call it that, but it is a use of the basic word dedication with a different connotation. The rededication (if one calls it that) is not a doing again of the same thing that was done at the time of dedication; therefore, the rededication connotes something different from dedication. In such a usage, rededication means getting back on the track on which you started at the time of dedication. It would probably be better to call the remedy restoration, and this comes through confession of sin. Choosing to do your own will even though dedicated is a very real possibility since God does not remove from us the freedom of choice when we dedicate ourselves to Him. When we wish to recognize and admit that we have thus sinned, the remedy is not rededication but confession of the sin and restoration to the place of fellowship. Then we can go on living a dedicated life. It is not necessary to start over; and even though sin leaves its mark, it does not always mean that everything is lost. Confession and restoration may, therefore, be frequent in the dedicated Christians life. Indeed, they will occur in every Christians life as long as we live in these bodies. But a dedication (meaning doing again the same thing that was done in dedication) is really not an accurate way to express the remedy. But if rededication is not really a wrong concept (if it means restoration), why quibble over the use of the word? This is why. In practice a rededication emphasis gives one the picture of needing to pluck out this sin, get rid of that wrong, change that fault, so that if you rededicate often enough you will eventually become dedicated. Rededication becomes a means of dedication, not a route to restoration. This is why the emphasis often becomes confusing if not damaging to normal Christian growth. Every speaker is tempted to prefer to see a lot of decisions about particular problems in lives than to have one genuine, complete, crisis dedication, and this is why rededication is so often preached. But it is far better to be clear concerning the completeness of dedication, to be pointed in asking people on which side of the dedication line they stand, and to clarify the difference between genuine dedication and a violating of dedication which requires confession and restoration to remedy. If in any area ones dedication has for any reason been violated, then the remedy is confession to God and restoration by God.So let me take my own advice and be clear and pointed. Each believer stands on one side or the other of dedication. Either we have made this lifelong commitment or we have not. Either we have faced the issue of who is to be the master of our lives or we have been plucking up one sin at a time. If there has never been a dedication of life this is the next step the reader should take. If there has been, then it is always profitable to examine the present state of that dedicated life. If in any area ones dedication has for any reason been violated, then the remedy is confession to God and restoration by God. This, too, can be done at any time—even while reading these words. The Results Of Dedication There are many detailed results of dedication, but we want here to concentrate on those results in two major areas of life. Dedication, first of all, relates to the will of God. Romans 12:2 says that the result of presentation, separation, and transformation is that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect will of God (kjv). This means that dedication brings the knowledge, the doing, and the enjoying of Gods will for that life. A life lived in the light of the will of God is not a sinless life, but it is a life directed in the right path; it is a life that grows and matures day by day. But dedication is also related to the filling of the Spirit. To be filled with the Spirit is to be controlled by the Spirit. To dedicate ones life to God is to yield control to Him. Thus dedication allows the Holy Spirit to fill the life of the believer. An undedicated life reserves control for self and thus prevents the Spirits filling that person. Of course, if dedication is violated, the filling ministry of the Spirit is hindered; but without initial dedication there can be no real experience of this vital ministry of the Spirit. Thus dedication is a prerequisite for being filled with the Spirit; this is not all that is involved, but the rest of the story must await another chapter. These are some aspects of dedication and the dedicated life. This is the starting place for the victorious life. Without it there is no victory; with it the basis for victory is laid. - via WORDsearch10 #readingsforsuchatimeasthis #christjesus #vineofchristministries #theword #studyscripture #god #biblestudy
Posted on: Sat, 09 Nov 2013 18:26:52 +0000
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