Instruments Of Righteousness!

We have now asked the question of whether or not we make a practice of sinning, or whether we stumble and fall into sin. When this question has been settled we can move on, but until the answer is known we can not move forward into the deeper life of sanctification. The Christian and Missionary Alliance, which I am a part of, has always had an emphasis on teaching people to live the deeper, sanctified, consecrated life. I recently heard a missionary friend speak on the consecrated life, and how it is that we can find ourselves consecrated to God. In doing this he used the call of Isaiah to teach it. That call looks like this:

In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said: "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!" And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. And I said: "Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!" Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. And he touched my mouth and said: "Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for." And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?" Then I said, "Here am I! Send me." And he said, "Go, and say to this people: "'Keep on hearing, but do not understand; keep on seeing, but do not perceive.' Make the heart of this people dull, and their ears heavy, and blind their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed." Then I said, "How long, O Lord?" And he said: "Until cities lie waste without inhabitant, and houses without people, and the land is a desolate waste, and the LORD removes people far away, and the forsaken places are many in the midst of the land. And though a tenth remain in it, it will be burned again, like a terebinth or an oak, whose stump remains when it is felled." The holy seed is its stump. Isaiah 6:1-13

I would suggest to you that if you find yourself diving headlong into sin than you probably have not went through this crisis moment answering the call to the deeper life that God has for you. Choosing to live a life set apart for God is not undertaken lightly. As you can see Isaiah answered the call, but the life he was called to was hard, preaching to an unresponsive people. Christian the consecrated life is always hard in the flesh, but if you chose it, and walk according to the Spirit, you can succeed in it. The apostle Paul puts the call to the deeper sanctified, consecrated life like this: Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal bodies, to make you obey their passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace. Romans 6:12-14

If you are to answer the call of the deeper life, there is no more simple way that to do this. Present your body, mind, will, and emotions to God as instruments of righteousness. If you have been born again of God’s Spirit you do not have to live a life full of sin. Sure there will be times in your life that you sin, but when you present your whole being to God as an instrument of righteousness then you will find the deeper life is attainable. We were made holy at the time of salvation, by Christ’s imputed righteousness, but living holy is a different story. If you take the time to focus on doing the will of God, that is being an instrument of righteousness, then you don’t even have the time to get involved in a lot of sin, let alone letting sin reign in your body.

Dear brothers and sisters living holy isn’t a matter of attaining perfection, it is a matter of surrendering your will to God, no matter what it means. It is my prayer that this helps in answering the question of whether you practice sin, or stumble into sin. And either way I urge you to embrace surrender to God, presenting all of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness.

Dear God,
I surrender all, I surrender all! Now I ask you to help me leave it surrendered to you. In Jesus' name, Amen.