Scripture reading: 1 Peter 1:19-25
We can see that the term “without spot or blemish” (as stated in 1 Peter 1) speaks of a soul as the lamb of old without any scar or tarnish of sin, which has been thoroughly cleansed of God, emptied of self, and offered to its Maker for His use. It is possible that a person can reach the stage right HERE AND NOW, where he or she does not sin with his mind, neither with his or her emotions, neither with the will, nor with the desire. When you are in this condition, then you only need to make sure that your motive for all this was not SELF. Self-PRESERVATION could easily make a man get so smart with His God that he would submit and do all he needs to do. If self-anything is our motive, then self is still alive. All our motive must be GOD AND GOD ALONE. God’s people, God’s plan, God’s will. Lost, utterly lost in God, and absolutely rejecting that which we knew to be the thing called self. When Adam fell, his thought pattern fell. Now we rise. Our thought pattern must rise.
“For as he thinketh in his heart, SO IS HE.” Proverbs 23:7.
The Christ cannot be fully resurrected from within us until we are dead in Him. Death of the seed precedes the life of the new plant. If Jesus cleanses us of all sin, then, praise God, we should reach the point where sin is completely driven out of our soul nature, and the divine nature is being formed within. Without spot or blemish… blameless.
Wherever men of faith dwell, and wherever men live by faith, the name Abraham becomes a beacon and a sign post to them.
Genesis 22:2, “And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; And offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of.” Verse 4, “Then on the THIRD DAY Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place afar off.” Verse 6, “And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, and laid it upon Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife; and they went both of them together.” Verse 10, “And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son.” Verse 11, “And the Angel of the Lord called unto him out of heaven, and said, ABRAHAM, ABRAHAM: and he said, Here am I.”
The angel had spared Isaac by his intervention, BUT had slain the self-life of Abraham. How significant it is that all this took place on a mountain which was afterwards the site of the temple built by Solomon (see 2nd Chronicles 3:1). The site is City of Zion, the stronghold of the people of God, and a SYMBOL of God’s elect in the end of this age. This was also the same spot where the threshing floor of Ornan stood, where David offered the sacrifice to God and saved Israel from a terrible plague. Today, the spot is covered by the Dome of the Rock and the El Aksa Mosque, a Moslem house of worship.
God, the same today as He was yesterday and shall be forever, required from Abraham the same sacrifice of self which He requires of us today. With the greater knowledge and more ABUNDANT LIFE which we have received, we will automatically give more when we give all. “For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required” (Luke 12:48). All of a bucket is different from all of a well, and yet the sacrifice is the same.
(Excerpt from The Pattern, pg. 126-127)
Thought for today: Let us empty ourselves of us as we let God thoroughly cleanse us, and let us commit to do the will of OUR FATHER!
