Chapter 1 Why Do You Leave Your Oxygen Behind?

The old pearl divers had magnificent lungs. They could last out under water for minutes at a time. But even they soon had to come up gasping for air. There was a limit to what even their lungs could take. The modern diver has no such problem, for he takes his oxygen tank with him. And as long as he follows the regulations he can stay under water for a considerable amount of time, and never have a problem. Such is the wonder of progress.

And that is the question that we must ask ourselves. What progress have we made in our Christian lives? Do we still depend on taking a deep breath and diving into life each day, or do we take our oxygen with us?

For the problem for many of us is that we read the Bible in the morning, (I am assuming that we do), pray a brief prayer, and then having refreshed ourselves and taken a deep breath, dive into the new day hoping that our oxygen will last out. We forget that we should be taking our oxygen with us.

Paul knew what it meant to do this for he said, ‘Christ lives in me, and the life which I now live, I live by faith in the Son of God Who loved me and gave Himself for me’ (Galatians 2.20). He took his oxygen, ‘Christ lives in me’, with him each day. And Jesus’ offer to us is the same. He says, ‘Look, I am with you always’ (Matthew 28.20). He does not want to be left behind. He wants to go with us as we live out our lives each day. Indeed He wants to live out His life through us. But the question is, do we want Him?

For there is a conscious decision to be made by each one of us, because He will not come with us if we are going to ignore Him. That is why He says through Paul, ‘put off the old person, which is spoiled by total selfishness and greed, and be continually renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new person, which in the likeness of God is created in goodness and true Christ-likeness’ (Ephesians 4.22-24 paraphrase).

It is true that in one sense that is what becoming a Christian initially involves, for Paul says that once we are truly ‘in Christ’ we experience Christ’s life-transforming power so that we are new creatures, with old things passing away and everything becoming new. In other words it involves a commitment to being a new person as a result of Christ’s transforming power (2 Corinthians 5.17). Anything less than that is not salvation. But these words in Ephesians were written to Christians who had already experienced that, and thus they were written to ALL of us. It is therefore something that we have to consciously do every day. We have to renew the decision to put off the old person and put on the new every morning. We have to recommit our lives to Christ. We have to strip off what is unsuitable. And we must then put on what is suitable. We must ‘deny ourselves and take up our cross daily’ (Luke 9.23). That is what being a Christian involves. And then once we are properly dressed with the right attitudes and aims He wants to go out with us into the day, so that He can live out that renewed life through us. He wants to be our oxygen tank. His plan was that we should ‘never walk alone’.

Notice how close this is to what our modern divers do. They do not think that they can just jump into the water as they are. Before entering the water they strip off their old clothing, put on their wetsuits, don their oxygen tanks, and after checking that they are working properly, in they go. They ensure that they are properly equipped for what they intend to do. And that is what we must also do daily if we want to be pleasing to Christ. We must strip off our old lives, and don our spiritual wetsuits each morning.

For, of course, our divers have to recognise that they cannot go into the water dressed as they like. They cannot take with them all the selfish comforts of life. If they want to ‘live’ in the water then everything must be aimed to that end. All that is unsuitable must be left behind. They are going into an environment that is the opposite of the one that they usually face. And if we want to ‘live in the Spirit’, it must be the same for us. We are going into a difficult environment for we must ‘no longer live the rest of our time in the flesh committed to the desires of men, but committed to the will of God’ (1 Peter 4.2).

And that may well be our problem. It may be that we do not want to take Christ with us into our daily lives because of what it would mean for us. We like to think that we can have Him and keep our old lives at the same time. We like to have Him hidden away in our bedrooms, but we do not want Him to interfere in how we live. We do not want to strip off everything that is unsuitable for living for Christ. We want to have our cake and eat it. Listen then to what He says to us. ‘Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord’ and do not do what I say?’ (Luke 6.46). In other words, He is saying, you cannot do that and call yourself a Christian.

For the truth is that if we want to live the Christ life it requires us to be renewed each day. It requires us to constantly put off the old life, until it no longer has any hold over us. And it means yielding ourselves to Him daily, and following Him, asking Him to live out His life through us. Our prayer must be, ‘Live out your life through me, O Lord my Saviour’.

Chapter 2. The Spirit of the Lord Clothed Himself With Gideon.

‘The Spirit of the Lord clothed Himself with Gideon’ is the literal translation of Judges 6.34. Here Gideon was, an inexperienced and somewhat hesitant leader who was unsure in spite of everything whether he could cope with what lay ahead, and then suddenly everything changed, because ‘the Spirit of the Lord clothed Himself with Gideon’.

That did not mean that the way was going to be smooth in front of him. Indeed God was going to ask quite a lot from him. But it did mean that he was now ready to cope. He now had the source of strength and power and endurance that would enable him to carry on. And in the same way if we allow Jesus Christ to ‘clothe Himself with us’, we will be in the same position as he was.

You may say, ‘I am not Gideon.’ And you will be quite right. But you are, if you are a Christian, a Christ-in-man. In other words you have living within you the One Who created all things by His powerful word (Hebrews 1.2-3). ‘Christ lives in you’ (Galatians 2.20). And this same Jesus Christ is just aching to take control in your life and live out His powerful life through you. Notice Ephesians 1.19 where He speaks of ‘the exceeding greatness of His power towards us who believe’. It is a huge power. It raised up Christ to the right hand of God where He rules over all. And yet that same power is the power that is at work within us in order to raise us up to that same position (Ephesians 2.6). In the spiritual realm we are to share His privilege, and with that privilege He calls us to responsibility. How can we take our place on the throne of Heaven, and yet not be involved in Heaven’s work? And what a privilege that is. For ‘He has chosen us in Him so that we might be totally dedicated and set apart to God (holy), and living our lives without blemish’ (Ephesians 1.3). He has called us to live spotless lives. Of course we cannot do this on our own, but once we recognise that Christ is within us there is no limit to what we can do. That is why Paul could speak of ‘Christ in you the hope of glory’. And this does not just mean glory in the future, it means glory now. We are to ‘let our lives so shine before men and women that they see our good works and glorify our Father Who is in Heaven’ (Matthew 5.16). The glory which the Father gave to Him, He has given to us (John 17.22).

But there can be no half measures. It would have been no good for Gideon to agree a 50:50 deal with God. He had to obey Him utterly, even when what he was asked to do appeared to defy common sense. Mind you we have to be careful here, Gideon had learned the hard way how to discover God’s will. He carefully made sure that it was God’s will before he did it. We must not just go along with any feeling that we have and then put the blame on God for it. We will have enough to do in fulfilling the clear demands in Scripture without trying to do something outlandish. We do have to use common sense. It is true that sometimes God does bring home to people that they have to go that one step further, but He never asks us to do anything that is not Scriptural. God never tells us to go outside of what the Scriptures teach. So when you ‘feel’ that God is leading you, first make sure, not only that you have a verse to back you up, but also that you are reading what the verse means in its context. There are far too many Christians who take verses out of context and then claim that through them God has told them what to do. But God always uses verses in context when He is giving guidance.

However, the question now is, are you willing to obey without question like Gideon did, once you know what is God’s will? And if your answer is ‘yes’ there is plenty for you to go at in the Bible. ‘This is the will of God, even your sanctification’ (1 Thessalonians 4.3). What does that mean? ‘Sanctification’ means ‘being set apart to God as holy’.It means being set apart to Christlikeness. It means becoming more and more like Him. For that is His final aim, that we should be like Him when we see Him as He is (1 John 3.2). And ‘everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself even as He is pure’ (1 John 3.3). For we are ‘foreordained to be conformed to the image of His Son’ (Romans 8.29). So that should be your first target, to be more like Christ.

A few years ago it became the fashion for Christians to ask themselves, ‘what would Jesus do?’ The question was a good one. And we might add to it, ‘what would Jesus be in this situation?’ But for many the impetus quickly faded for they were trying to do it on their own. The question should rather be, what does He want to do and be through me? And having asked that, you must yield your controls to Him and let Him do and be through you whatever He wants to be. Let Him clothe Himself with you.

Gideon could never have accomplished what he did on his own. With all the encouragement in the world he would have failed. But once God began to work through him everything was different. And that is what God wants to do through us. He wants us so to put our lives under the control of Jesus Christ within us, so that He can live through us as He wills. He can ‘clothe Himself with us’. However, like Gideon it will mean that we cannot pick and choose. He must be given full control. Our wills must be aligned with His will. Some have described it as ‘letting go, and letting God’. And that is fine if we really are letting God. The danger there is that some people just let go. For when we do ‘let God’, we are still called on to put every effort in, as God works out through us. But now it is putting the effort in knowing that we will be energised by His mighty power and the result will be that it will be successful because God will work out through us what He at first works in us. We must ‘Produce the fruit of our salvation with greatest care’, knowing that it is God Who is ‘at work within us, causing us to will and do of His good pleasure’ (Philippians 2.12-13).

Chapter 3. To Will And To Do Of His Good Pleasure.

This then raises the question, ‘What then does God will to do through us?’ The first thing that He wills to do through us is good to the world in a practical way. ‘He makes His rain to fall on the righteous and the unrighteous, the good and the not so good’ (Matthew 5.45). It is not so difficult to have the right attitude towards and do good to those who are truly good, for they will commend us and do good to us in return. Where it becomes more difficult is where we are called on to have the right attitude towards those who are not so good, to those who might even be unpleasant towards us, and even moreso to our enemies. That will be the real test of whether we have Jesus living through us. For we do know what He would do. He would show the same kindness towards those who are not so good, and towards those who are His enemies, as He would towards the good. He would love them (Matthew 5.44).

But when we talk about love we are not talking about having great feelings of affection for them. We are talking about ‘Christian love’. And that is partially defined for us in 1 Corinthians 13.4-8. ‘Love puts up with a great deal for a long time, love is kind, love does not become full of envy, love does not exalt itself, love is not full of itself, love does not behave in an unseemly way, love does not look for its own advantage, love is not easily provoked, love does not look at the evil in the other person and act accordingly, love is never delighted in what is unworthy of God, love rejoices in the truth, and in what is true, love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, puts up with all things. And above all love never fails, it never runs out, it is never not there when it is needed’ This is the kind of people that God wants us to be, and this is the kind of life that Jesus wants to live out through us. Get caught out on one of these and it is not Jesus Who is living through us, at least not at that particular moment, it is ourselves.

Sadly we may all fail sometimes, when we are not satisfied with the direction in which Jesus is taking us, and we may seize the reins out of His hands. What do we do then? Just give up? No of course not, for God is still at work within us to will and to do of His good pleasure, and we are still privileged to be in the King’s service. What we must then do is to bring it into the light before Him, admit that we have failed Him, and then ask for the blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, to cleanse us from all sin (1 John 1.7). And He will do it, for He has promised.

But wait. There is one more thing. Before you come and offer more worship to God, think, and if you remember that someone genuinely has something against you, go and make it right between you and them (Matthew 5.23-24). It may require an apology without arguing who is the most to blame. It may mean restoring something that you have wrongly gained. It may mean just being humble and biting your lip. But God wants you to do everything possible to put things right. This does not mean dredging up all the wrong thoughts you have had about people that they know nothing about. It is about when you KNOW that someone has good reason to have something against you.

Then once you have done that you can come and offer worship that is pleasing to God. Remember you are not responsible for what they do. But note that you are responsible for what you do about the situation, not what their response is. Once you have genuinely done what you can to make things right, that is all you can do. On the other hand if someone asks for your forgiveness you must be willing to forgive them in the same way as you are expecting God to forgive you (Matthew 6.14-15).

But you will notice that what we have said up to now is in some ways negative. On the whole it is looking at our attitude and response towards the behaviour of others. It is not dealing with the question of positive action. There is, however, another side to Christlikeness, and that is the positive side. If Christ is living through us we will not only respond well to people, but we will seek to do good even to those whom we do not as yet know, just as He did. For our lives are to be so positive that others see the fruit coming from them and glorify God (Matthew 5.16). That does not mean that we should try to make public what we do. It does not mean drawing attention to it. It means that we are to be so like Him all the time that although we do not make a great show of it, something about it inevitably slips out. You cannot be Christ-like and it not be noticed eventually.

The first positive thing must be our witness. We will look at that more in a future chapter. But if Christ is living His life through us we should always be ready to give to anyone who asks us the reason for the hope that is within us (1 Peter 3.15). It is our responsibility to make sure that we know enough to answer people’s questions, even if it is only by a testimony. And if Christ is living through us we will always be ready to speak of Christ when we have earned the right to do it. That does not mean buttonholing everyone and forcing them to listen to us (although some do have a gift for doing it without causing offence). Nor does it mean speaking about Christ to everyone we meet however casually. But it does mean not allowing shyness to prevent us from witnessing when a genuine opportunity arises. For some of us that might really mean letting Christ take over. But that is precisely what He wants to do as He lives through us. And this also involves playing our full part in our church’s witness to outsiders. And if it has none, then perhaps it is time we thought prayerfully about how it could have one.

The next positive thing must be to show love towards those who receive little of love. The lonely, the elderly, the sick, the hungry, those in prison. ‘Inasmuch as you have done it to the least of these, you have done it to Me’ (Matthew 25.40). There is so much need out there waiting for Christians to meet it. If Christ is living through you He is not going to let Himself down by not going out to meet it!! And you must not let Him down either. But what you must beware of is pushing yourself in where you are not wanted. You must remember that people have their pride, so that often you must seek to help them by letting them think that they are helping you. Jesus did not make a great fuss about providing the wine at Cana in Galilee. He did not embarrass His hosts. He simply did it quietly and then let others explain it afterwards.

And a third positive thing that you must do is to look for every opportunity of showing Christ’s love in the home, and to the family (and if you were not fond of them before to the dog and the cat). It is surprising how many Christians want Christ to live though them when they are away from home, and then take over the controls from Him once they get into their own home. It is almost as though they feel that Christ has no place in the home, and that their family members are not as deserving of the love of Christ as others are. Of course it is not really that, it is often a sense of fair play and jealousy. How often an overworked mother is left to do everything because siblings will not help unless everyone else helps too. It is not that they do not want to help. It is just that they do not want to do so unless everyone else does too. So Christ living through you when you are at home is often the very best test of your genuineness. Often we fail to show love there in practical ways because we do no see why we should so when no one else does. We are like the disciples, each looking at each other and wondering which one would wash their feet, but quite aware that it was not their responsibility. And we all know Who did it in the end (John 13.1-17 - don’t miss out on the final verses). So remember, Jesus would get up and do the equivalent of washing their feet, whatever it might be. And He wants to do it through you. He wants you to be the servant of all, even your brothers and sisters.

Well that is enough to be going on with for the moment, but you can see that, if you truly have Christ living through you, you are going to be quite busy, for the moment that Christ went home with Peter He started sick visiting even though He was unquestionably very tired (Mark 1.29-31), and he will expect it of you too.

Chapter 4 Are You Ready to Die?

No, I do not mean that literally, I mean are you ready to die to yourself? For that is what living for Christ, and allowing Christ to live through us requires. It requires that we die to ourselves. This was what Jesus emphasised to His disciples. He said quite plainly that if they were to follow Him they had to be ready to deny themselves and to die daily (Luke 9.23).

We have already cited Paul’s words, ‘Christ lives in me’. But we should also notice what comes before it. ‘I have been crucified with Christ.’ Now that means two things. Firstly that God once for all considers me to have been crucified with Christ. I am looked upon as having died along with Him as the guiltbearer, so that I can no longer be held liable to account for my guilt at the judgment, because the penalty of death has already been paid by Him. My sin has thus already been accounted for. I have been crucified with Christ.

But it also has another meaning. It means that I have to ‘account myself as dead to sin and alive to God, in Christ Jesus’ (Romans 6.11). I must reckon that if my sin took Christ to a cruel cross, how can I want to have anything more to do with it? Thus I must take up a positive stand against it. I must say very firmly, ‘I have died to sin, and will therefore no more willingly engage in it’. But the trouble with sin is that it is like children playing a game of cowboys and Indians. When they are shot they die magnificently. But then they want to come alive again. And so we have to shout, ‘You are dead’. And hopefully they will die again. But what we are talking about now is much more serious than just a game. It is a matter of pleasing God. Nevertheless the principle holds good. Whenever my own desires start to assert themselves I must say to them, (or must hear Christ saying to them), ‘you are dead’. Then I must expect them to fall down dead again and stop interfering.

Getting used to this sometimes takes a good deal of time. But if I learn patiently to say to myself, ‘you are dead’, every time I purpose something sinful, it will not be long before it becomes a habit so that the idea becomes almost automatic. But what should become automatic is the dying to sin, not the saying of it. Otherwise it will cease being effective.

Paul in fact stresses this idea. He points out that if we have been baptised into Christ Jesus, we have been baptised into His death (Romans 6.3). That, he says, is what baptism is all about. It is a declaration that I am only worthy of death. It is a declaration that I want to be seen as crucified with Christ. Now how can I, having declared that, reasonably allow to live something that I have declared should be put to death? It would be inconsistent. That is why even though we have been freely forgiven, we must still be determined to do away with sin. We must become united with Him in His death (Romans 6.5). We must put off the old man.

But if that was the whole of our message we would be in despair, for we would find that our sin kept springing to life and defying all our efforts. Fortunately, however, there is another side of the story. For we are not only to say, ‘I am dead’. We are also to say, ‘Christ lives in me’.

Indeed each of the verses that we have quoted above also gives the other side of the story. For when Paul says that, ‘you have been baptised into His death, he immediately declares that, ‘just as Christ rose from the dead, so we also may walk in newness of life’ (Romans 6.4). In other words our newness of life come through the power of His resurrection, through ‘the exceeding greatness of His power towards us who believe’ (Ephesians 1.19). And when he says, ‘you have been united with Him in the likeness of His death’, he immediately adds, ‘you will be also united with Him in the likeness of His resurrection’ (Romans 6.5). In other words all the power of the risen Christ is put at our disposal so that having died to our sin, we might live unto Him.

This is then followed up by an explanation of what we should do. ‘Do not present the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as alive from the dead, and the members of your body as instruments of righteousness to God’ (Romans 6.13). In other words do not allow your self-life to run your body, but allow the living Christ to run your body in obedience to God. Let Christ live out His life through you. And then he adds emphatically, ‘sin will not have dominion over you, because you are no longer under law but under the riches of God’s love active to save (grace)’ (Romans 6.14).

Chapter 5. Do Not Let Sin Reign In Your Mortal Bodies (Romans 6.12).

When we first come to Christ to receive His forgiveness of our sins we may not fully be aware of what we are doing. At that moment it may well be that our whole concentration is on how sinful we feel, and on how we can find forgiveness.

But if we have truly come to Him in repentance and faith, turning to God from our sin, it will not be long before we realise that something rather wonderful has happened. For we can only find that forgiveness for our sin ‘in Christ’. We are forgiven because we enter into Christ in God’s eyes. Our lives are hid with Christ in God (Colossians 3.3). And if any man is in Christ he is a new creature. Old things have passed away and everything has become new (2 Corinthians 5.17). for it will mean that we have been ‘born from above’, born of the Holy Spirit.

And if that has happened then we have been crucified with Christ and Christ lives in us. And we cannot then avoid the fact that He is in us as Lord, for He is ‘the Lord, Jesus Christ’.

There is no way in which we can become a Christian without Jesus coming into our lives as Lord. It may, of course, be some time before we fully recognise the fact, and that may not have been in our minds when we came for forgiveness. But nevertheless the fact is unavoidable. If we have truly received forgiveness of sins then Jesus Christ is our Lord.

When I hear someone say, ‘I have accepted Jesus Christ as my Saviour, but not as my Lord’ I am very much afraid. It is fine coming from someone who is newly converted and is feeling his way. What he means is that he has not yet fully recognised the implications of what has happened to him. But if he is still saying that after, say, a year, then there is real cause for anxiety. For if he has been truly saved Christ will have been working in his heart bringing him to recognise His Lordship. He will be saying to him, ‘Prove yourself whether you are in the faith. Do you not know that Jesus Christ is within you unless you are one who is rejected after testing?’ (2 Corinthians 13.5). And be in no doubt about it, if Jesus Christ is in you, He is in you as the Lord, Jesus Christ.

That does not mean that calling Him ‘Lord’ is sufficient. As He said Himself, ‘Not everyone who says ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter under the Kingly Rule of God, but only those who do the will of My Father Who is in Heaven’ (Matthew 7.21). That is the heart of the matter, doing the will of the Father. In other words doing what God wants you to do. Then He went on to say that in the judgment there were some who called Him ‘Lord, Lord’ who would be told, ‘depart from Me for I never knew you’. And what will be the test by which their end will be determined? Look at the verse. It will be by the fact that they continued in sin, they ‘worked iniquity’. Or as the parables that follow it make clear, that they had not listened to His words and done them (Matthew 7.24-27). The truth was that they had had no genuine desire to be saved. Oh yes, they wanted to be constantly forgiven and to go to Heaven, they wanted to be saved from the guilt of sin, but they did not want to be saved from its power. And you cannot have the one without the other. Of course someone clever may tell you that these words do not apply to you, but if I was you I would listen to Jesus.

And this is what Paul is talking about in this verse in Romans 6.12, he is saying ‘Do not let sin reign in your mortal bodies, that you should obey its desires.’ Notice that this is right in the heart of his message about justification, and yet here he is describing its practical result. He is saying, ‘sin must not reign in your mortal bodies. God must reign there.’ (Romans 6.13-14). Being justified, that is, being accounted as righteous by Christ (just-as-if-I’d-never-sinned), you immediately come under the Kingly Rule of God (which is ‘righteousness, and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit’ - Romans 14.17). And that means recognising Christ as your Lord.

That in fact is what Jesus’ message of the Kingly Rule of God was all about. It was that by turning to God to receive the forgiveness of sins they would come under the Kingly Rule of God. And as Paul says here, they must from then on be willing to ‘present themselves to God as alive from the dead (enjoying Jesus’ resurrection life), and the members of their body as instruments of righteousness to God. For although they have been saved by God’s grace, His saving love in action, that does not mean that they may continue in sin so that that grace might abound (Romans 6.1). Rather they are to recognise that ‘he who has suffered in the flesh (along with Christ) has ceased from sin’ (1 Peter 4.1).

So having been forgiven by God we are now faced with the consequences. By receiving that forgiveness we have made a choice. We have rejected the reign of sin and we have accepted the reign of Christ. And just as we once allowed sin to live through us, and handed our bodies over to sin so that it could continue to do so, now we must allow Christ to live through us, and must hand our bodies over to Christ so that He might continue to do so.

Chapter 6. If Any Man Does Not Have The Spirit Of Christ, He Is None Of His

In Romans 8.9 Paul provides a clear test of whether a person is really a Christian. He says, ‘If any man does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His’. In other words, only those belong to Jesus Christ who have the Spirit of Christ within them.

But let us be quite clear about this. This is not referring to ‘the spirit of Christ’ in the same way as when we speak of ‘the spirit of Christmas’. In the latter case we are referring to a good emotion that the idea of Christmas arouses in people. But when Paul speaks of ‘the Spirit of Christ’ he means more than having ‘a similar attitude towards things as Christ has’. Of course a Christian should have that. But like the spirit of Christmas it would probably not last very long.

No, here Paul is saying that if you belong to Jesus Christ, then Christ Himself has come to live within you through His Spirit. It means that you have become His possession. He has come in to take you over. When a conquering army captures an area of ground, one of the first things it does is to plant its flag there. By it that army is saying, this ground now belongs to us. It is their mark of ownership. In the same way when you become a Christian Jesus Christ comes into you by His Spirit, and that is a mark that He places in you to show that you belong to Him. The Bible calls it ‘the seal of the Spirit’ (Ephesians 1.13-14). It is what constitutes the proof that you are going to Heaven. It is a sample (an ‘earnest’) of what you will enjoy when you get there. And it is the guarantee that you will one day be there (Ephesians 4.30).

Once you have received ‘the seal of the Spirit’ it indicates that your life has become the place where Christ dwells, and incidentally if Christ is dwelling in you it means that God the Father is as well (John 14.23). Think about that. It means that the whole of the Godhead have taken up their abode in your lives. And if that is so, how can you possibly remain the same? But notice in that verse what the proof of this will be. It will result in the fact that you will love Him and keep His word. In other words you will love Him and search His word, so that you may be able to do what His word requires of you.

But this is not something that you can judge by how you feel. They do not dwell in your veins, and in your blood pump, and in your nerves. They do not stir up your emotions (although when you think about it you should be emotionally stirred). They come to dwell within your spirit, within that part of you which was made in the image of God. And how do you know that they dwell there? The answer is, by faith. If you have opened your life to Jesus Christ and have asked Him in, you can be sure that he has come into you because He promised. It is a matter of taking Him at His word.

Of course, it will soon go beyond that, because once They have come to live within you things will begin to happen. It may not be very noticeable to you at first, but if you have really become His it will soon begin to be noticeable to other people.

And this is because the first thing that begins to happen within you will be that the powerful principle of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus will begin to set you free from the principle of sin and death (Romans 8.2). You will have begun to be ‘in the Spirit’, and He will have begun His transforming work on you. He will begin to ‘fizz’ within you.

You see when you became a Christian it was because you came to see that you were a sinner. And you may even have begun to think at that time that you could not do anything about it. You may have begun to try and live by what you knew to be Christian standards, standards found in the Bible, and may have failed. And you may even have despaired, and have recognised that there was no way in which you could become acceptable to God. You may have realised that you just could not be good enough.

But, if you are a Christian, that is where God has stepped in (and if He hasn’t yet, well let Him step in now). And what you have found is that what the Law (the list of God’s standards) could not do, because it was weak as a result of your sinfulness, (it could not make you pleasing to God because of what you are), God has done. By sending His Son in the likeness of your sinful flesh, and as an offering for sin on the cross, He has condemned the sin that was in your flesh. That was why He was there on the cross. Sentence was passed on your sin and the punishment was borne by Christ. And as a result it has made it possible for you to stop trying to live according the Law, (because it no longer condemns you) and to start living according to the Spirit (Romans 8.4). Instead of trying to live by a set of rules you are to let Christ live through you by His Spirit, so that He can live by that set of rules for you.

For once you become a Christian, you receive the mindset of the Spirit. You cease to have your mind set on sin, and begin to have your mind set on pleasing God. And that has to be so. If you are a Christian you cannot continue to have your mind set on sin (even if the sin within you still has its mind set on you), because you recognise that such a mindset is at enmity against God. And how can you as a child of God have a mind that is at enmity against God? (See Romans 8.6-7).

Sadly that does not mean that you will never fail again. The pull of your fleshly desires is still very strong. But it does mean that your mind will be set on pleasing God, so that you when you sin you will seek forgiveness for your sin (1 John 1.7-9), and will then set your face to obey the Spirit of God within you. You will put the control of your life back in the hands of Jesus Christ and will allow Him to live through you.

For that is the whole point about becoming a Christian. It means that Christ and the Holy Spirit have come to dwell within you (Romans 8.8). And if Christ is in you, then, as we have seen in the previous chapters, your body will be dead because of sin. You have been crucified with Christ. But at the same time the Spirit within you is life, because Christ’s righteousness has been put to your account (2 Corinthians 5.21) silencing the condemnation of sin, and Christ’s righteousness has been placed within your heart giving you a desire to please God (Romans 8.10). You have begun to live again (yet not I but Christ lives in me - Galatians 2.20)

And then we come to the glorious crunch point. If the Spirit Who raised up Jesus Christ from the dead really dwells within you, then He will do the same for you as He did for Jesus, He will make you and your mortal body truly alive through the Spirit Who dwells in you (Romans 8.11). You will enjoy within your life the presence of the Risen Christ, and He will live through you. You will begin to enjoy a spiritual resurrection (John 5.24-25). And that will be the guarantee that you will also have your part in the resurrection which is to come (John 5.28-29).

And what is the consequence of all this? It is that you owe a great debt to God. You have become a debtor. And what does that debt require of you? It requires that you live by the Spirit, and that through the Spirit you put to death the deeds of your body. And the result will be that you will have life, and have it more abundantly (Romans 8.13; John 10.10).

Chapter 7 As Many As Are Led By The Spirit Of God, They Are The Sons Of God.

If you are a Christian how often do you sit down and wonder at the fact that you have become a child of God? Many people say loosely that ‘we are all children of God’, and by that they mean that every person in the world is a child of God. And there is some truth in that. Indeed in his sermon in Acts 17 Paul quoted a heathen poet who had stated, ‘we are also His offspring’ (verse 28). And what he meant by that was that we were all God’s creations. And Paul then went on to say that if that were the case we should all be worshipping Him (verse 29).

But that is not what the Bible usually means when it speaks of people being children of God. When it speaks of ‘children of God’ it is almost always referring to those special people who as a result of receiving Jesus Christ into their lives have received a spiritual new birth. They have been born of God. ‘To as many as received Him, to them gave He the right to become the children of God, even to those who believe in His Name --- and they are born of God’ (John 1.12-13). As he points out there, this is not a matter of human birth brought about by man’s activity, nor of religious birth brought about by a priest’s activity, it is a matter of divine birth, brought about by God’s activity in response to faith, and it makes such people ‘partakers of the divine nature’ (2 Peter 1.4).

But notice what Peter says about such people. He describes them as ‘those who have escaped the corruption which is in the world which is the result of men’s fallen desires’ (2 Peter 1.4). In other words he is saying that it is not possible to be a true child of God and still be wallowing in the world’s corruption. In the heading above Paul says the same thing. He says that those are the true sons of God who are led by the Spirit of God. That is the test of the true child of God. They are led by the Spirit of God (Romans 8.14), and He leads them into the ways of God.

Paul then makes clear the reason why this is so. It is because of the glorious privilege that is theirs. Previously they had lived in fear. They had realised that they were sinners and had tried to do something about it and had sought to live by God’s teaching. But they had failed miserably. The more they had tried to please God the more they had failed. And it had become a bondage to them. They had felt bound and trapped by sin. Having become aware that they needed to be free from sin they may have listened to someone who had said, “Don’t worry, just do what you can. That is all that God expects of you’, and they had tried. And the more they had tried the more they had failed. And the more they had failed the more they had been afraid of the judgment of God. From those who had advised them they had only ‘received the spirit of bondage again to fear’ (Romans 8.15).

But, says Paul, now that you have become Christians that is no longer true. True Christianity does not just say, ‘Do the best you can’. That would simply result in more fear. Rather it says, ‘you have received the Spirit of adoption whereby you cry, Abba, Father’ (Romans 8.15). It says, ‘because you have received Jesus Christ you have been born of God and have become His true beloved children’ (John 1.12-13). It says that you can now look on God as your true Father Who is concerned about every part of your life. It says that you are His adopted children, adopted by the working of His mighty power in Jesus Christ. And the result is that within your inner heart the Spirit of God bears witness with your spirit that you are a true child of God (Romans 8.16).

But it does not stop there. For no one can become a true child of God and remain what they were. Those who are truly His children will be led by the Spirit of God, because they are His sons, (Romans 8.14), and will have received His Spirit (Romans 8.9), and they will therefore expect to suffer for His sake (Romans 8.16). In other words to become a child of God is not to take an easy ride, it is to make a full commitment. It is to put our leading reins into the hands of our Father.

Paul expands on that idea in Galatians 5. He says, ‘now that you are Christians you must walk by the Spirit, and then you will not fulfil the desires of your sinful flesh’. And then he describes the battle that takes place as a result. Within the Christian, he says, two forces are at work. On one side is the Holy Spirit pulling us to follow the ways that please God, and on the other is the flesh which is pulling us to please ourselves (Galatians 5.17). And the result is that because the Holy Spirit is pulling us in God’s direction we cannot go on doing what the flesh wants us to do. We may, of course, sometimes fail, but we will never be satisfied with failure, because the Holy Spirit will constantly be pulling us away from the sins of the flesh.

And the reason for this is because the ones who belong to Jesus Christ have crucified the flesh with its affections and desires (Galatians 5.24). They have begun to walk step by step with the Spirit (Galatians 5.25). For that is what being a Christian involves. They have become new creations of the Spirit. And if any man has not the Spirit of Christ he is none of His (Romans 8.9).

Then like a good doctor Paul points out the symptoms which clearly bring out whether we are living by the flesh or by the Spirit. He says that those who live by the flesh indulge in illicit sex; they enjoy dirty humour; they live lives which follow forbidden pleasures; they make a god out of money; they indulge in the occult; they look on many people as their enemies because they are often resentful of people; they are constantly jealous of other people because they appear to get on better or because they have what they cannot have; they constantly lose their tempers and are not ashamed of it; they split up into rival groups and vie with each other in a hostile way; they believe whatever suits them rather than the word of God; they are filled with envy at those who appear to be more prosperous than they are; they like to go and ‘drown their sorrows’; they live for a good time. That, says Paul, is how people live who live according to the flesh, who follow their own desires. And then he adds, ‘And I warn you quite clearly, that those who do such thing will not inherit the Kingdom of God’ (Galatians 5.21).

Now some preachers will tell you that as long as you have believed you do not have to worry. You can do all these things and still go to Heaven. They say that Jesus was wrong in Matthew 7.21-23. They say that Paul is wrong here. They say that doing all these things will not prevent you from inheriting the Kingdom of God. So you have to choose whom you will believe. The question is, will you believe them, or will you believe Paul and Jesus?

Paul then gives a description of what the Holy Spirit produces in the true Christian. He produces love and joy and peace, gentleness, consideration for others, and kindness. He produces trustworthiness, a non abrasive spirit, and self control. And he says when a man has these, no law in the world can point a finger at him. He is free from the law because he fulfils it by loving his neighbour as himself (Galatians 5.22-23 with 5.14).

Now I can immediately hear some of you saying, ‘Oh dear. I am not like that at all. Does that mean I am not a Christian?’ Well the truth is that Paul did not expect us all to become perfect immediately. For he goes on to point out that we might indeed be overtaken in a breaking of God’s requirements, and that in this regard we have to bear one another’s burdens (Galatians 6.1-4). But what he is saying, as we saw in the last chapter, is that if we are truly God’s children then we will have the mindset of the Spirit. We will not be satisfied with failing. Failure will be a wandering from the path of which we are deeply ashamed, not something that we accept lightly. Our longing will be to be exactly as Paul has described. And as we learn more and more to look to the Spirit of Christ living within us, and to read and understand His word, so will we be more and more transformed by His Spirit. We will be ‘being transformed by the renewing of our mind’ (Romans 12.2). We will be being changed ‘by His Spirit Who dwells in us’ (Romans 8.9, 11; 1 Corinthians 3.16; 1 John 3.24; 4.13). As we behold more and more the glory of the Lord we will be ‘being changed from glory into glory, even as by the Lord the Spirit’ (2 Corinthians 3.18). And all this because Jesus Christ is dwelling in us and living though us, and we are being led by the Spirit in Christlikeness. (Always beware of anyone who is led by the Spirit unless it leads to goodness).

Thus in the end it all comes down to this. That I recognise that ‘I have been crucified with Christ, and that nevertheless I live, yet that it is not I who live but Christ Who lives in me, and the life which I now live in my body I live by faith in the Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself for me’ (Galatians 2.20).

Chapter 8 That I might Know Him, And The Power Of His Resurrection, And The Fellowship Of His Sufferings, Being Made Conformable unto His Death. ,

It is important to recognise in all that we have been considering that we are not to see it as somehow suggesting that with the help of Christ and the Holy Spirit there is a way in which we can somehow save ourselves. What we have been describing is not to be seen as the way in which we can somehow become acceptable to God. Rather it is to be seen as the way in which, once we have been made acceptable to God through faith in our Crucified and Risen Saviour, He carries out His intended work of salvation within us. It has been our working out with greatest care what God is at work within us to accomplish (Philippians 2.12-13). We have simply been describing the power that is at work within us in order to bring our salvation to its climax.

This very much comes out in Philippians 3. There Paul describes how, if anyone could have become acceptable to God by their own good works he could have done. He had dedicated his life from the very beginning to the task of making himself acceptable to God. And he had had all the advantages. He had been one of God’s chosen people. He had been properly circumcised. He had been able to trace back his descent to Benjamin. His parents had both been Hebrews. He had belonged to a sect which had prided itself on its attempts to keep God’s Law. He had been zealous in persecuting Jewish opponents. He had faithfully observed all the ritual requirements of the Law. Everything was in his favour. But in the end he had thrown it all aside because he had seen that it was so much rubbish. For in his studies he had come across the commandment ‘you shall not covet’. And he had had to recognise that he did covet, and that all the righteousness that he had built up had therefore come to nothing (Romans 7.7-11). For he had broken the Law and it had not seemed that he could do anything about it. He was gripped by sin and he could not help himself.

But then he had met the risen Christ face to face. Christ had apprehended him and had laid hold of him. And as a result he had begun to recognise that in Him was the solution to his problem. For here was One Who had borne the sin for which he was guilty, so that he could go free, and Who could provide him with genuine righteousness. And so he had thrown aside everything that he had built up so painfully, counting it as so much refuse so that he could come to know Christ. Indeed he had set aside everything for that privilege. He had not been prepared to let anything get in his way of realising it. For he had recognised that only in Him was true righteousness to be found, a righteousness which was of God by faith (3.9). Thus Christ had had to become his all.

Note that he had recognised that in order to enjoy that righteousness he would have to throw his whole lot in with Christ. As far as he was concerned there could be no half measures. If he wanted to benefit by Christ’s resurrection he knew that he himself would have to experience both His cross and His resurrection to the full. He would have allow his ‘old man’ to be crucified with Christ. He would have to be conformed to His death. He would have to experience the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings. Every nerve and sinew would have to be strained in that direction. Not in order to earn it, but so as to appropriate what was being given to him. For only thus could he be sure of coming to genuinely know Him, and so attain to the resurrection from the dead (verse 11).

And if it was necessary for Paul to be so committed, can we doubt that it is equally necessary for us? For us also every nerve and every sinew must be fixed on the goal of the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus (Verse 14). And we too must be crucified with Him, and experience the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings by being made conformable to His death. What ridicule these words of Paul pour on those who say that because salvation is a free gift we can decide for ourselves what effort we will put in. The Gospel of Christ demands our all. We can hold nothing back.

We should note that he was not worried about the prospect of failure, for he had no doubt that he had been apprehended by Christ for salvation (verse 12). And he knew that ‘He Who had begun a good work in him would continue it until the day of Jesus Christ’ (Philippians 1.6). But nevertheless he had still recognised that in receiving it he had to give his all. Can we therefore think that we have to do anything less?

Paul then goes on to indicate that there were some who taught such false doctrine. And he points out that their walk made him weep (verse 18), for he saw in them the enemies of the cross of Christ. And his thought was not that they would somehow get a lesser reward. It was that they would end up in destruction (verse 19). For they were men who had set their minds on earthly things and not on heavenly things, and thus by this they had demonstrated that their citizenship was very much firmly of this earth and was not in Heaven (verse 20).

But in contrast with that he could say, ‘our citizenship is in Heaven, from where also we wait for a Saviour, the Lord, Jesus Christ, Who will fashion anew this body which so humbles us, so that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working whereby He is able even to subject all things to Himself.’

In other word his whole trust for salvation was in our Lord Jesus Christ Himself as our only Saviour. He depended totally on His working to bring his salvation about. It was ‘according to the working whereby He is able even to subject all things to Himself’. But not for one moment did that therefore make him think that he was not required to give his all. And that was because he knew that when Christ saves He does not do it with a light touch. He saves to the uttermost. And the only proof that He is at work is that it is really happening.

Chapter 9. Foreordained To Be Conformed To The Image Of His Son.

Up to this point our attention has been very much on the individual Christian and his or her response to the effect of the cross and the work of the Spirit. We have looked at our need to die, and to let Christ live through us. Now perhaps we should look at the other side of things and recognise what God Himself is doing in order to bring all this about. For the reason that we have become Christians is because of the mighty working of God which is set on bringing it about.

We will look first at Romans 8. For from Romans 8.28 onwards we learn about God’s eternal plan. And it is to this that we can turn every time that we become discouraged. Listen to this. ‘And we know that to those who love God all things work together for good.’ What he is saying here is that if we are His then God will make everything work together for our good. It does not matter what it is. It does not matter how much the Devil throws at us. It does not matter how much the world, and people, let us down. We are promised that God will make it all work together for good. What a stupendous promise. He is saying that while we are going about, dying to ourselves and letting Christ live out His life in us, at the same time God will be fashioning all that happens to us and will be working it out for our good. And just in case someone sees that almost as a platitude, he then sets the statement within the whole purpose of God from before creation to the end of time and beyond. It is not just that God is watching and making adjustments as they are needed (although He certainly does that). It is that He is working everything together for good within His eternal plan.

For it does not just say that He will work everything together for good, it says that He will do it ‘according to His purpose’. For you see, when you became a Christian it was not just a coincidence. In fact you became caught up in the vortex of the very purposes of God from before time began. You became part of His eternal plan. This is not just something that has happened to you accidentally, or even fortuitously. It had already been formulated in the mind of God from the beginning of all things.

Look at His words in Romans 8.29 where this plan is outlined, ‘for whom He did foreknow, He also foreordained to be conformed to the image of His Son, and whom He foreordained, them He also called, and whom He also called them He accounted as righteous, and whom He accounted as righteous them He also glorified.’ Here is God’s plan from beginning to end, from before Creation right through to the second coming and beyond. And you are a part of it.

It begins with His foreknowledge. But the word to ‘foreknow’ does not just mean to ‘know about’ beforehand. That would be a different word. It means to ‘enter into something by experience beforehand’. In other words God was in some way involved with you from before the beginning of time. We all know something of what it means to enter into something beforehand. If we have a great treat planned for us ahead one of the best things about it is thinking about what is coming over and over again. We go through the experience of it again and again before it happens. And that is something of what God has been doing about our salvation from all eternity. He has not only known about it, He has been entering into it beforehand.

And having entered into it beforehand He then planned what exactly it would produce. ‘He foreordained that we should be conformed to the image of His Son’. Do you see what that means? It means that He foreordained that we should become Christ-like. He foreordained that our lives might bring to God, and to men and women, ‘the sweet savour of Christ’ (2 Corinthians 2.15). This means, as we saw in the previous verse, that everything that we experience, and everything that happens to us, is aimed at making us like His Son. And if that is to happen to us it will only be through our allowing Christ to live through us.

And then, having foreordained this wonderful plan for us, there came the moment that has changed our lives. ‘For whom He foreordained (to be conformed to the image of His Son), them He also called’. That is the wonderful thing about what has happened to us, it has been as a result of the call of God. It has not just happened by chance. God was at work in it. To some that call comes with a loud bang. To others it comes as a still, small voice. But to all who become His it certainly comes. We are ‘the called of God’.

And the first stage in our calling is that we are accounted as righteous in His sight. ‘Whom He called, them He also accounted as righteous’. For however we may view our initial response to Christ, this was God’s great purpose in it. It was that we might be ‘accounted as righteous’ before Him through what Christ did for us on the cross. This was initially our greatest need, for, until we were accounted as righteous, a righteous God could not have dealings with us. And that is why Christ died for us. It was that we might be ‘accounted righteous through the shedding of His blood’ (Romans 3.25), because he ‘gave His life as a ransom for many (Mark 10.45). And it was only once we were ‘accounted as righteous freely by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus’ (Romans 3.24) that God’s further purpose for us could begin to be worked out. And that purpose is that we should be glorified.

But what does it mean to be glorified? It means to be made like Him, for we will see Him as He is (1 John 3.1-2). It means that we will be presented before Him without spot or stain, holy and without blemish (Ephesians 5.27; Colossians 1.22). It means that the glory that was Christ’s will be given to us (John 17.22). It means that we will shine as the brightness of the firmament and as the stars for ever and ever (Daniel 12.3). It means that we will shine forth as the sun in the Kingdom of our Father (Matthew 13.43).

So from the moment when He conceived His plan, to the time when it will be fulfilled in our glorification, all has been going ‘in accordance with His purpose’. And we are a part of that purpose. We are caught up in what God is doing.

However, having said that, that purpose is a process, even though here it is only described in its main stages. But in between those stages are the means by which each goal will be achieved. And in between ‘being accounted righteous’ (justification) and glorification comes the process of glorification. ‘And we, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord’ (2 Corinthians 3.18). And that is what we have been looking at in the previous chapters. God is at work in us to will and to do of His good pleasure (Philippians 2.13), and we must therefore make our response.

Chapter 9 Telling The World About What God is Doing.

Having seen what God is doing, and having committed ourselves to becoming a part of it, and having received Christ into our lives, we must now finally consider how this should affect our daily witness. For knowing about it gives us a responsibility to speak with others about it. We have become ‘ambassadors for Christ, as though God was entreating you by us, “Be you reconciled to God” (2 Corinthians 5.20). If Christ is living out His life through us, can we doubt that it will affect how we approach men and women. We are all called on in His name to become daily ‘fishers of men’ (Mark 1.17).

There are some fishermen who use rough and ready methods. They hurl an explosive device into the water and then there is a massive explosion, after which they go out in boats and collect the stunned and dead fish lying on the surface of the water. But that is not the Christian way, for that simply results in dead fish, and we are to ‘take men alive’ (Mark 1.17).

How then are we to go about it? One way to obtain fish is to buy an aquarium, fill it with water, aerate it, put in the right kind of plants, and then put out an advertisement inviting all fish to come along and enjoy it. That is certainly the easy way, but we doubt whether you will end up with many fish.

No, if you are going to catch fish, you must go where the fish are. And having done that you must ask yourself how you can persuade the fish to leave the water and come and join you on shore or in the boat. In order to achieve that you will need to use good bait that the fish will like. You must take the trouble to learn their tastes, for it is no good fastening your delicious ham sandwich to the hook, if they would much prefer a tasty maggot. And with that bait you will need a hook, otherwise the fish will just eat the bait, say ‘thank you very much’ and swim off. But even after that you will need much patience. The fish are not going to bite immediately. You must be prepared to sacrifice time in order in order to attract the fish. And finally you will need to be prepared for when you have caught the fish, so that you have a means of bringing them on shore, and if you want them alive, you must also have the means of keeping them alive.

So here are the simple principles of good fishing, and of good evangelism:

• Go where the fish are.
• Make sure that you have a bait that the fish will like (what they are interested in).
• Put it on the end of a good hook (the Scriptures clearly and carefully applied in a way that the fish will appreciate).
• Have a multiplicity of patience while you wait for the fish to take the bait (these things can never be hurried, and to do so is discourteous).
• Have ready a net so that you can sweep in the hooked fish on to the shore (be prepared as to what you will do when someone does respond).
• Ensure that you have the means of keeping them alive once they are caught (make sure that you have planned a suitable follow up).

If you look at the above principles again you will also see that they are the methods used by good salesmen. They know how to ‘catch fish’ because their livelihood depends on it. If they went about it in the slaphappy way in which many Christians go about ‘soul winning’ they would end up starving. How much more then should we be thoughtful when we go about ‘winning men for Christ’. Let us then consider some of those principles which they use, while recognising that we must avoid their worse traits, and as we do so we will find that they are in fact an imitation of Christian love, for they teach people to give the impression of thoughtfulness and consideration, even if in their case it is often not genuine.

The first thing that we have to remember when we go about ‘winning people’ is that we are not just to deal with impersonal ‘souls’. Jesus never saw people as impersonal souls. We are to deal with people remembering that we are to love them, and that Christ wants to love them through us. And that means approaching them in a Christ-like manner. In trying to win them we must ‘win them over’. We must let Christ be revealed though us. And that means taking the right approach. Remember that we will not on the whole be dealing with antagonistic Scribes and Pharisees. We will be dealing with people like you and me. So what then are the principles that we should keep in mind when going about face to face evangelism, although ever remembering that our aim is to leave with them some message from the Scriptures? We would suggest that if you think the matter over, and think how you would like to be approached (Matthew 7.12), the following ideas will spring to mind:

1). You should avoid criticising them, even in your mind. It may be that you do not like their lifestyle, or their politics, or their style of dress, or their views. But that is not what your main concern should be. You are not there to offend them over non-essentials. If you fulfil your main concern that will sort itself out later, if there is anything wrong in them. Your main concern should be to bring them to Christ as they are. It is true, of course, that you will eventually be aiming to make them realise that they are sinners. But this can be done in a comparatively inoffensive and gentle way without giving them the impression that you see them as worse than everyone else, (this will include making clear that you are a sinner as well), and should only result once you have won the right to do so. First establish a basis of friendliness, and then what you have to say will be more welcome. And remember that it is often better to gently lead them into seeing themselves as sinners, often by asking questions about what they consider sin to be, than just to use an outright attack. You cannot avoid ‘the offence of the cross’ (Galatians 5.11). But you can present it in such a way that it is not you or your words which are offensive.

This is not to say that no preacher should ever preach forcefully. But it is a reminder that especially in personal evangelism, and often in preaching, sweet reasonableness is often the best approach. After all, you have the advantage of knowing that they are sinners, and of knowing that really they are aware of it themselves underneath. So that is what you should be seeking to bring out from them, not your own view of them, but their awareness of their own sinfulness. Let the Holy Spirit do the enforcing (John 16.7-12).

Make sure that you are talking about the same thing. If their view of sin is simply one of prostitution and drug-dealing, then telling them that they are sinners may simply cause them to reject what you have to say. If you want them to understand you must talk in their language.

• Do not openly condemn them. It may be that they disagree with something which you consider to be important such as abortion, or a particular war, or politics. But in this context those things are unimportant. They are side issues. The Devil will do his best to get you talking about them. But your aim is to win them to Christ, not to win an argument about something which can be sorted out later (and which you are not likely to convince them about if they feel strongly the other way). Concentrate on the main issue and do not let yourself to be caught up in side issues, however strongly you feel about them. For if you get the man or woman right, the rest will take care of itself.
• Do not complain about them or their response (even in your own heart). After all, if they do not respond as you would like, perhaps some of the blame for that must fall on you. Ask yourself afterwards, ‘where did I fail so that it caused them to take up their attitude’. And next time take another approach. Most people are reasonable if approached in the right way.

  I remember an incident when two of us knocked on a door and when the woman answered and learned who we were she immediately bristled with annoyance and declared that all church people were hypocrites, and was ready to close the door. But to her surprise I immediately agreed, and she was so astonished that her annoyance subsided. I then gently suggested that so were people in the pubs (wine bars), and I gave one or two examples of how we can all be hypocrites. For you see, she was quite right, there is something of the hypocrite in all of us. But what she needed to see was that Christ saves hypocrites, and in the end that she was one of them. It would not have helped, however, if we had denied what she knew to be partially true. On the other hand we should not enter into criticism of individuals.

• Never blatantly contradict them. It is far better to see their point of view and find in it something to agree with and appreciate, following that up by bringing up the other side of the argument, than simply to condemn their ideas out of hand. After all, their ideas mean as much to them, as your ideas mean to you, and if you simply contradict them you have lost them already. Interestingly most people do not think that they, and only they, are right. But they do not like to be told bluntly that they are wrong (any more than you do).
• Try to give people a feeling that they are important. After all they are important to God. And praise what you can find to be good about them. People blossom under praise and shrivel under criticism. To give two trivial examples, if they have lovely roses or are wearing something particularly attractive it does no harm to mention it, given of course the right circumstances. The truth is that people do like to feel that they are important, and usually in some ways most people are. So seek to find out how and bring the fact out. They will be far more likely to appreciate you and your message if you have shown them that you appreciate them.
• Get the other person to want to do what you want them to do by arousing their desire for what you are offering. If their appetite is whetted they are much more likely to listen. We have something which is very attractive, so try to present it attractively. And if you can find out what they are interested in, use that as an approach. Remember how Jesus spoke to people about seeds, and sheep, and lilies, because He knew that that was what they were interested in. He knew that in order to win men you have to win their interest.

Please note that I am not suggesting by this that you water down the Gospel. All that I am suggesting is that you give the Gospel a chance by not putting people off by your approach or by offending them unnecessarily. If you first win their confidence, you are half way to winning them. You want to leave them feeling that they are pleased that they have met you.

How Should I Go About Witnessing?

We should remember that the end aim of witnessing is to win people, and to present Christ to them, not to try to badger them into submission. So we first need to aim at winning their confidence. Here then are a few things to keep in mind although they must be used genuinely, and not just as a sales gimmick. You will note that in fact they all reveal consideration for the people we are approaching, which is a genuine aspect of Christian love:

• Begin with a friendly approach and a smile. If you are not happy about your message you cannot expect them to be.
• Commence with questions that you know that they can answer ‘yes’ to. By this means you will be getting them ‘on your side’ and make them feel positive towards what you want to say.
• Show respect for their opinions and give them fair consideration. If you will not consider what they are saying, why should they consider what you are saying? It is discourteous just to wait for them to finish without heeding what they saying, so that you can then tell them what you think, and they will soon recognise the fact and be resentful.
• Never blatantly tell them that they are wrong. It is in fact doubtful if they will be wholly wrong, so start from what you can agree with in what they say. Then you must seek to introduce your viewpoint without it jarring too much.
• Make sure that you let them have their say, and try to appreciate their point of view. You must never let them think that their views are not important, even if you do think that they are wrong. Let them feel that you and they are sharing with each other, rather than it just being you who are telling them, with them having to listen.
• Try to avoid arguing. It will only harden them in their position. That does not of course mean that you must never disagree with them. But if you do, introduce the idea gently as though it is another aspect of things (which it probably is). If you can take up their ideas and expand on them in such a way as to make them feel that what you are saying is what they would have said, you are well on the way to acceptance.
• If they catch you out on something and demonstrate that you are wrong, admit it humbly with a smile, and thank them for pointing out your error.
• Never be afraid to appeal to their noble motives. You want them to feel good about considering what you have to say, and there is nothing more noble than the message that you are taking to them.

If you think about all this you will realise that what has just been said is a way of demonstrating to people that you genuinely love them, and is in fact part of dying to yourself and letting Christ live and speak through you. It is loving your neighbour as yourself. And it will in most cases help to gain you a hearing. No, more, it will help to lodge what you say in their hearts. And hopefully it will at a minimum leave then feeling that they have been speaking to someone who cares. And that is what we do want to leave behind. A sweet savour of Christ.

But the final results of our witnessing must be left in the hands of God. However, if it is Jesus Christ Whom we allow to speak though us those results will never be in doubt.

IS THERE SOMETHING IN THE BIBLE THAT PUZZLES YOU?