I wasn't going to post this since I've written similar things recently, but it occurred to me that if an idea is repeatedly stirring in my mind, it is probably doing the same to other folks. So here's what's on my mind:
In Prone to Love, Jason Clark talks about the line in the hymn "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing" that says "prone to wander, Lord, I feel it; prone to leave the God I love." He says that this should not be the testimony of a Christian. He writes:
"Because of Jesus’s life, death, and resurrection, and because I have said yes to Him, I am no longer prone to wander. Just the opposite, I am prone to love Him! The moment I said yes to Jesus, my very nature underwent a radical transformation" (164).
He lists several Scriptures to support this point:
• Romans 6:11 (ESV) "So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus."
• Colossians 3:3 "For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God."
• 2 Corinthians 5:17 "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come."
• Ephesians 4:24 "Put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness."
• 1 John 3:9 "No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God."
The truth is that believers are no longer sinners prone to wander, but saints who have been set free from sin's dominion. Yes, we will still wander at times, but that is not our natural tendency anymore. Our new nature is inclined to love God and serve Him if we will listen to the new Master.
I was thinking about this last Sunday as we celebrated communion, and I was reminded of what the Apostle Paul wrote:
"Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with Him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life" (Romans 6:3-4).
I've wrestled with Clark's comments. I have often sung "prone to wander" with great feeling. But I can see how that binds me and blinds me to think of myself in wrong terms. (I was prepared to skip that line when we sang the hymn this week, but we sang the version below.) If I want to walk in this "newness of life," it requires retraining my brain to remember my new identity in Christ.
This idea is hard to grasp, probably because we know old nature, and we know how difficult the struggle against sin can be. But God is reminding us we are no longer sinners. We aren't even sinners saved by grace. We are saints, citizens of the Kingdom, children of the Father, and new creations in Christ.
"For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death" (Romans 8:2).
Oh, to grace how great a debtor
Daily I'm constrained to be!
Let that grace now, like a fetter,
Bind my yielded heart to Thee.
Let me know Thee in Thy fullness;
Guide me by Thy mighty hand
Till, transformed, in Thine own image
In Thy presence I shall stand.
Daily I'm constrained to be!
Let that grace now, like a fetter,
Bind my yielded heart to Thee.
Let me know Thee in Thy fullness;
Guide me by Thy mighty hand
Till, transformed, in Thine own image
In Thy presence I shall stand.
(Authorship of this verse is unclear but is assumed to be public domain. Please notify me if you know otherwise.)
© Dawn Rutan 2016.
