Saturday, June 13, 2015

Our Desperate Need

"His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires" (2 Peter 1:3-4)

Peter tells us that God's definition of regeneration is the impartation of a new nature, "the divine nature," God's own nature, to us.

We are all born into this world with a corrupt nature; corrupt in its thoughts, corrupt in its affections, corrupt in its will.

First of all, every one of us, no matter how fine our ancestry, are born into this world with a mind that is blind to the truth of God. "The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned" (1 Corinthians 2:14). 

In the second place, we are all born into this world with affections that are corrupt, with affections set upon things that displease God. We love the things we ought to hate, and we hate the things we ought to love.

In the third place, we are all born with a will that is perverse. "The sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so" (Romans 8:7). This sinful mind includes a will that is perverse, set upon pleasing self and not upon pleasing God. What pleases self may not be something corrupt or criminal or immoral. What pleases us may be something refined, something of high character; it may not be getting drunk or stealing or lying; it may be culture or music or art of something refined. But pleasing self is the very essence of sin, whether the thing that pleases self is something very high or something very low. Any will that is set upon pleasing itself is a will in rebellion against God. There is only one right attitude for the human will, and that is an attitude of absolute surrender to God, and the whole aim of life should be to please God in all things.

Spirit of God, these words are all true concerning my life. I have loved what I should have hated, my will has been totally bent toward what pleases me, and my mind is blind to Your truth. Break through with Your light and power and set me free! Amen

~R. A. Torrey~

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