Rights Versus Responsibilities Your old fleshly nature probably won’t like this devotional, so stop now if you don’t want to be challenged with the cost of discipleship! Don’t say I didn’t warn you! As Christians, we know that salvation is a totally free gift to us from God when we trust Christ’s work on the cross as full payment for our sin. Our salvation cost Jesus His life but we get it free based only upon trusting in Christ as Savior. He paid the price. We get the free gift of salvation. Wow! Incredible! But true! But what about discipleship? To live as a disciple of Christ, after salvation, is anything but free (even though it is actually very liberating). To truly follow Christ as a believer means that we have to die to our own will, no matter how good it may seem to us, and instead embrace whatever God calls us to do. We must be dead to self and instead be alive to God. Being a true disciple costs us whatever God may call us to sacrifice in serving Him. It could be things like our career, our desire to marry, our reputation, our comfort, our retirement plans, our health, and even our very lives. Consider what Jesus said in Luke 9:23. “Then He said to them all, ‘If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.’ ” Notice the phrase, “let him deny himself”. That means that when God’s will for us differs from our own will, we must submit our wills to His will. That may be some very major things in life but it also includes many smaller day-to-day things as well, namely our so called “rights”, i. e. what we think we deserve. The Bible DOES articulate God ‘s moral will about how we should treat each other. Husbands should love their wives, wives should respect their husbands, children should obey their parents, fathers should not provoke their children to anger, etc. etc. But we all know it often doesn’t go according to God’s intended plan. At those times it sets up a conflict between our rights and our responsibilities. There is often a fierce battle that rages in our hearts concerning rights and responsibilities. If we focus only or primarily on our rights, we will likely sin in response to others sinning against us. Why? “Because I have my rights!”, we think and say angrily or with self pity. But if we embrace discipleship the way the Lord commands, we yield all of our rights to God and let Him decide when or if those “rights” are received. A true disciple recognizes that the only right he really has is to die to self and live for God. When that involves hardship, suffering, and deprivation, a true disciple commits that to God and purposes to still fulfill his God given responsibilities towards God and others regardless of what others do or do not do. When by God’s grace we keep fulfilling our responsibilities regardless of what others do, a supernatural power and joy will sustain us despite the suffering we may endure. The surprising, amazing thing is that when we do actually die to self and live for God, we actually find the supernatural, Spirit filled life that God intends. And we discover the truth of Romans 12:1-2. “Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.” Did you catch that last phrase? The will of God is actually “good and acceptable and perfect”. I often find that embracing the will of God in my life, (whether it is the big momentous, life changing decisions, or the little day to day responses to trials and pressures), seems very hard at first because of what I perceive I have to give up that I want; my own plans, or the short term pleasure of anger of self pity or vengeance, etc. But when I succeed in being a disciple who dies to self and embraces God’s way instead of my way, I soon discover that His way is actually good (and not bad as I had feared in my lack of faith), it is actually acceptable (often to my surprise), and eventually I see that it is actually perfect! (Better than anything I could have chosen for myself!) I quoted Luke 9:23 above. Notice what the next verse is. 23“Then He said to them all, ‘If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me. 24 FOR WHOEVER DESIRES TO SAVE HIS LIFE WILL LOSE IT, BUT WHOEVER LOSES IT FOR MY SAKE WILL SAVE IT.’ ” Imagine that! Being a disciple, although very hard, is actually the best course we can choose to really live as God intended! What rights does God want you and me to yield to Him today? What responsibilities do we need fulfill today that we have neglected? Lord, please help us to be disciples today! Blessings, Steve Wilkins, Biblical Counselor
Posted on: Thu, 22 Aug 2013 10:49:19 +0000
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