FALLING SHORT OR FINISHING THE COURSE?
BY J.FARRELL FISHER
Acts 20:24, “But none of these things move me; nor do I count my life dear to myself, so that I may finish my course with joy, and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.”
“Falling short or finishing my course?” It’s really interesting, challenging, convicting, that Paul tells us in Acts 20:22 that he was going “bound in the spirit to Jerusalem, not knowing the things that will happen to me there…,” but he clearly understood, by the testimony of the Holy Spirit in him, “that chains and tribulations await me.”
And, notice, in verse 24 Paul said, “But none of these things move me; nor do I count my life dear to myself, so that I may finish my course with joy, and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the grace of God.”
But is it possible that there are those “followers of Christ” who do not finish the course ordained of God for them? Paul said in Acts 20:29-30, “For I know this, that after my departure savage wolves will come in among you, not sparing the flock. Also from among yourselves men will rise up, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after themselves.”
In 2 Corinthians 6:12 Paul challenged the ‘church’ at Corinth, “You are not restricted by us, but you are restricted by your own affections.” Did some listen but others didn’t? Did some become blinded to the faith rather than eyes fixed on Jesus? Did some become “unequally yoked together with unbelievers?” Did they willfully try to share the “fellowship of righteousness” with “lawlessness”? Did they choose to try to walk in both ‘light’ and ‘darkness’? Were they ‘OK’ with “idols”?
Of course, you are aware that some “professors of faith” in Christ have done nothing more than attempt to be a ‘Christian’ apart from repentance toward God and faith alone in the finished work of Christ – to them, ‘churchianity’ is highly appealing, and with the best efforts of ‘natural individuality’ they attempt a walk of holiness, yes, apart from the “Healer” and the “Helper” – and ‘flesh’ always tires, falls short, or turns aside from the goal!
“Falling short”? Isaiah 26:3 tells us, “You will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You.” But rather than “stayed on God” there are those who “stray” from Him, rather than being continuously quickened there are those who consciously quit, rather than ‘remember’ they forget, and rather than ‘zoned in’ there are those who zero out!
In fact, in John 6:66 we read, “From that time many of His disciples went back and walked with Him no more.” Do you remember Luke 9 where three different people ‘talked’ about following Jesus, but all three came up with excuses or explanations and Jesus said in Luke 9:62, “No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.” I’d say that’s a serious indictment!!
And what brings on that spiritual rebellion, spiritual indifference, and a spiritual departure? I sense in my spirit that Paul wrote Timothy with tears as he told him, in 2 Timothy 4:10, “..Demas has forsaken me, having loved this present world.”
I have no doubt that you know and remember Galatians 5:1 as Paul instructed the church then and now to stand in the “Christ-given liberty.” “Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.” But “entanglements” can and do become a forfeiture of faith, fellowship, and ‘follow-ship’! ‘Yokes of bondage’ are not figments of one’s imaginations but strong bonds of self-destruction! If a man is “sowing to his flesh,” [that’s his old sin nature], he “will of the flesh reap corruption.” [Galatians 6:8].
But in our Lord and Savior we are no longer “helpless sinners” but truly “hope-filled saints” set apart to honor our Lord and Savior through a life fully yielded to the King of kings and Lord of lords! Our walk of faith is not “performance-oriented” but is eternally based on our “position” of oneness in and through Christ alone! This is why Paul wrote in Romans 5:17, “For if by the one man’s offense death reigned through the one, much more, those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.”
“Abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness”, but you ‘struggle’ to try and live a godly life? It’s not our ‘struggle’ but our surrender to the Indwelling Christ that gives us victory, it’s not our fleshly ambition to be a spiritual man or woman, but the “blood Atonement” of Christ Jesus, it’s not ‘manly effort’ but the Master’s inclusion of us ‘in Him’ ON THE CROSS!! He died on the Cross and we were “crucified” with Him! Oswald Chambers wrote: “Our Lord took on Him our human flesh and transfigured it, and it has become for every saint the temple of the Holy Ghost.” Glory!
Do you realize how many professing Christians are “trudging toward God-likeness” when in Psalm 46:10 He tells us: “Be still, and know that I am God!”?Chambers, in his “My Utmost For His Highest,” [p.37], also wrote: “There are times when it seems as if God watches to see if we will give Him the abandoned tokens of how genuinely we do love Him. Abandon to God is of more value than personal holiness. Personal holiness focuses the eye on our own whiteness; we are greatly concerned about the way we walk and talk and look, fearful lest we offend Him. Perfect love casts out all that when once we are abandoned to God. We have to get rid of this notion – “Am I of any use?” and make up our minds that we are not, and we may be near the truth. It is never a question of being of use, but of being of value to God Himself. When we are abandoned to God, He works through us all the time.”
I have no doubt this is why Paul wrote 2 Corinthians 11:2-3! “For I am jealous for you with godly jealousy. For I have betrothed you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.” What a powerful revelation! “The simplicity that is in Christ!”
The Apostle Paul also had to confront ‘deception’ in the Galatian letter. In Galatians 3:3 he wrote: “Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?” The simplicity that is in Christ? Do you really know that, received it, and you walk in it? The author of Hebrews tells us about our great High Priest, “who has come, not according to the law of a fleshly commandment, but according to the power of an endless life.” That’s Jesus, but you yield to the “best” of your human flesh that He judged worthy only of the Cross?
I’m sure you remember the story in Mark 10 as Jesus counseled ‘the rich young ruler’ who came to Him with the question, “Good Teacher, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?” Jesus confronted him with biblical commandments that are there to expose our own law-breaking, bringing us to, not a place but a Person, who can redeem us from the curse of the Law! The young man declared he’d kept all the law. Jesus told him, “One thing you lack: Go your way, sell whatever you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, take up the cross, and follow Me.” The word says, “But he was sad at this word, and went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.” [Do you know any who substitute who they are and what they have over oneness with Christ?]
For you, is it “performance” apart from “saving grace and mercy of the Cross”? For you, is it “promotion” of who you are and what you’re capable of doing in the best efforts of fallen flesh or are you fixed on “Jesus Only”?
You do understand that spiritual ‘history’ in all ages and all places, even including the “church” itself, lives with a ‘dark cloud’ of counterfeit allegiance apart from the desire to be one with God, God’s Way, in and through the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ alone! It’s in most men’s minds and hearts to decide whether or not they are even interested in the things of God. ‘They’ will leave open or close the door, they think, themselves!
But they better look to the God who is still seated on His Throne because when He arises they may not be interested in what He is up to when His “Judgment Day” comes! ‘Mortal ills’ will prevail for a season, and then the “mighty fortress” arises, and He prevails! C.S. Lewis wrote in “The Great Divorce”: “There are two kinds of people: those who say to God, ‘Your will be done,’ and those to whom God says, ‘All right, then, have it your way.’”
I pray you’re a man who knows about taking off your shoes because you’ve sensed, faithed, recognized, “holy ground” that you’re walking on! In “Aurora Leigh” [Book VII,l.821], Elizabeth Barrett Browning wrote: “Earth’s crammed with heaven, And every common bush afire with God. And only he who sees takes off his shoes, The rest sit round and pluck blackberries.” As YOU look around at fallen humanity, do you see faces covered with the blackberry-stains?
“Falling short or finishing the course?” I remind you of John 3:19-20! “And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed.”
If a man loves darkness rather than light, if he loves ‘practicing evil’, if he refuses to ‘come to the light,’ he does so because he ignores conviction of sin, accepts his self-induced ‘respectable goodness,’ looks only unto himself for his rescue, refuses an arousal of the guilt of sin, and denies God’s grace, mercy, and love. He believes, “I am able to resolve my own ‘heart-problem’,” and have no need of God’s divine intervention!
But one who “comes to the light” because he knows the darkness of his own heart? Galatians 5:24 tells us, “And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.” They, yes, have accepted God’s judgment of their sin – they willingly ‘deny themselves’ and “rest” in the finished work of Christ at the Cross! Denying your self is understanding that God’s presence in you is better than justification of your old sin nature!
“I die daily?” Why? “I take the sentence of death unto myself that the resurrection life of Christ may be manifested in my mortal flesh.” Oh, really? “By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.” Are you sure that’s YOUR path?
Is it your pastor’s major emphasis, not only by his pulpit preaching, but by his daily example, Matthew 16:24-25, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.” Are you aware of God’s deep and passionate desire that you be brought into “Oneness” with Him with you surrendering all of your rights under His Holy Sovereignty?
What was Jesus’ prayer in John 17? Look at verse 22! “And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one…” Does that mean ‘one in nature and character’? Does that mean ‘one in intent and purpose’? Does that mean ‘one in obedience, even the Cross’? Does that mean ‘one in the Spirit’ with death to your flesh, your old man, your old sin nature’?
What did Paul say in Galatians 6:14? “But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” But not all have severed ties with a fallen world but battle within at times for allegiance only to their Lord and Savior or allegiance to the sinful nature of a world of sin, wrongness, deception, darkness, unbelief, even spiritual madness!
“Falling short or finishing the course”? Romans 1:25-32 says, telling us that there are those “who exchanged the truth of God “FOR THE LIE” [you can sin and not die!!], and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen….
For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due….
And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting; being filled with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are whisperers,…
Backbiters, haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful; who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those who practice them.”
“Falling short or finishing the course”? Some are so unwilling to leave a past life of debasing sinfulness and rest in the finished work of Christ, because they understand in Christ the past life of sin IS OVER and resurrection life in Christ begins! Though one sinned and fell short of the glory of God, “In Christ” those who repent, trust in, rely upon Jesus are “being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.” That’s Romans 3:24!
And now, because of His saving grace, mercy, and love, we become “new creations” with the old life dead through Christ at the Cross and the new life beginning because of His Resurrection! Because of our Savior and Lord, whatever we do, we “do all to the glory of God”!
Have you appropriated His “divine forgiveness”? Have you been told, John 8:36, “Therefore if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed”? No more slavery to Satan, no more bondage to an old sin nature He put to death, no more prison shackles to your old life, no more shame of the old things so opposite of the nature and character of God, no more ‘brazenness’ of “look at me, at who I am, of what I’ve done” – NO, “I AM CRUCIFIED WITH CHRIST”! “Look at the Christ within!!”
If you don’t know it now, you will soon: I Peter 4:12-14 says, “Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you; but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy. If you are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are you, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you…” Amen?
Oh, I know: There are the “blessed people” (?) – that’s all they know! But the walk of true faith is discipleship, following Christ, even to our crosses, our sufferings, and our ‘faith’ is obedience to the King of kings and the Lord of lords with a willingness to “die” ourselves for the honor of His Name! And we will “FINISH” our course gladly even if pain, tears, and execution for His Name awaits us!!
“Finishing the course”? “I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me!” “It pleased God…to reveal His Son in me.” “I am a son of God…through faith in Christ Jesus.” “As a son, I am an heir of God Through Christ.” “I stand fast in the liberty by which Christ has made me free.” “I live in the Spirit – I walk by the Spirit.” “In Him I trusted – and was sealed with the Holy Spirit.” “The eyes of my understanding have been enlightened by the knowledge of Christ.” “Though once far off from God, I’ve been brought near to God by the blood of Christ.” “Through Jesus I have access by one Spirit to the Father.” “I’ve been built together through Christ for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.” “Christ Himself dwells in my heart through the gift of faith.” “Through Christ I can do exceedingly abundantly above all I ask or think.” “I have put on the new man created according to God in true righteousness and holiness.” “I walk as a child of light.” “I am a bondservant of Christ doing the will of God from the heart.” “Yes, I am strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.” “I am confident that He who began the good work in me will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ.” “I have been filled, by the grace of God, with the fruits of righteousness.” “Christ will be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death.” “It has been granted to me on behalf of Christ to suffer for His sake.” “My tongue confesses that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.” “God works in me both to will and to do for His good pleasure.” “I hold to the word of life because in me and through me it shines as lights in the world.” “I rejoice in the Lord.” “I count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord.” “I desire to know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, yes, being conformed to His death.” “The peace of God, which passes all understanding, guards my heart and mind through Christ Jesus.” “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” “My God supplies all my needs according to His riches in glory by Jesus Christ.” “The hope of heaven is laid up for me – my place secured in Jesus’ Name!” “God has delivered me from the power of darkness and conveyed me into the kingdom of the Son of His love.” “I am more than conqueror through Him who loved me and gave Himself for me.” “I am complete in Christ.” “I have been raised with Christ, sitting at the right hand of God, so I set my mind on the things above, not on the things of this earth.” “I daily put on the new man that is renewed in the knowledge of Him according to His very image and likeness.” “Whatever I do in word or deed, it’s my desire to do all in the name of the Lord Jesus and for His honor and His praise.” “I was approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel of God.” “My hope, my joy, my crown of rejoicing? It’s all who’ve come to know Christ through the ministry world-wide God gave to me.” “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord.”