Our study has now brought us to the point where we are able to consider the true nature of consecration. In Romans 6:12-13 we read, ‘Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts. And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.’ The operative word is ‘present,’ and this occurs five times in Romans chapter 6 in verses 13, 16, and 19.
The word ‘present’ in those verses is not consecration of anything belonging to the old creation, but only of that which has passed through death to resurrection. The presenting spoken of is the outcome of our knowing our old man to be crucified. Knowing, reckoning, presenting to God – that is the divine order.
When I really know I am crucified with Him, then spontaneously I reckon myself dead (verses 6-11); and when I know that I am raised with Him from the dead, then likewise I reckon myself alive unto God in Christ Jesus (verse 11), for both the death and the resurrection side of the cross are to be accepted by faith. When this point is reached, giving myself to Him follows. In resurrection, He is the source of my life – indeed He is my life; so I cannot but present everything to Him, for all is His, not mine. But without passing through death I have nothing to consecrate, nor is there anything God can accept, for He has condemned all that is of the old creation to the cross. Death has cut off all that cannot be consecrated to Him, and resurrection alone has made consecration possible. Presenting myself to God means that henceforth I consider my whole life as belonging to Him. God requires of me that I now regard all my members, all my faculties, as belonging wholly to Him. It is a great thing when I discover I am no longer my own but His.
Paul says, ‘Present your members as servants to righteousness unto sanctification,’ [holiness as to the Lord (Exodus 28:36)]. I give myself over wholly to Christ – this is holiness. What is holiness? Many people think we become holy by the eradication of something evil within. No, we become holy by being separated unto God. In Old Testament times, it was when a man was chosen by God to be altogether His that he was publicly anointed with oil and was then said to be sanctified. Thereafter he was regarded as set apart to God.
Presenting myself to God implies a recognition that I am altogether His. This giving of myself is a definite thing, just as definite as reckoning. We cannot expect the Lord to live out His life in us if we do not give Him our lives in which to live. Without reservations, without controversy, we must give ourselves to Him to do as He pleases with us. ‘Present yourselves unto God’ (Romans 6:13).
If we give ourselves unreservedly to God, many adjustments may have to be made – in family, or business, or church relationships, or in the matter of our personal views. God will not let anything of ourselves remain. His finger will touch, point by point, everything that is not of Him and will say, ‘This must go.’ Are you willing? It is foolish to resist God, and always wise to submit to Him. We admit that many of us still have controversies with the Lord. He wants something, while we want something else.
How good it is to have the consciousness that we belong to the Lord and are not our own! There is nothing more precious in the world. It is that which brings the awareness of His continual presence. I must first have the sense of God’s possession of me before I can have the sense of His presence with me. When once His ownership is established, then I dare do nothing in my own interests, for I am His exclusive property. ‘Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin to death or of obedience to righteousness?’ (Romans 6:16).
How did I become the slave of the Lord? On His part, He bought me, and on my part, I presented myself to Him. By right of redemption, I am God’s property, but if I would be His slave, I must willingly give myself to Him, for He will never compel me to do so.
The trouble with many Christians today is that they have an insufficient idea of what God is asking of them. How glibly they say, ‘Lord, I am willing for anything.’ Do you know that God is asking of you your very life? There are cherished ideals, strong wills, precious relationships, much-loved work that will have to go; so do not give yourself to God unless you mean it. God will take you seriously, even if you did not mean it seriously.
“God will always break what is offered to Him. He breaks what He takes, but after breaking it He blesses and uses it to meet the needs of others. After you give yourself to the Lord, He begins to break what was offered to Him. Everything seems to go wrong, and you protest and find fault with the ways of God. But to say there is to be no more than just a broken vessel – no good for the world because you have gone too far for the world to use you, and no good for God either because you have not gone far enough for Him to use you. You are out of gear with the world, and you have a controversy with God. This is the tragedy of many a Christian.
My giving of myself to the Lord must be an initial fundamental act. Then, day by day, I must go on giving to Him, not finding fault with His use of me, but accepting with praise even what the flesh finds hard. That way lies true enrichment.
I am the Lord’s, and now no longer reckon myself to be my own but acknowledge in everything His ownership and authority. That is the attitude God delights in, and to maintain it is true consecration. I do not consecrate myself to be a missionary or a preacher; I consecrate myself to God to do His will where I am, be it in school, office or kitchen or wherever He may in His wisdom, send me. Whatever He ordains for me is sure to be the very best, for nothing but good can come to those who are wholly His. May we always be possessed by the consciousness that we are not our own!
The Eternal Purpose We have spoken of the need for revelation, faith, and consecration if we are to live a normal Christian life. But unless we see the end God has in view, we shall never clearly understand why these steps are necessary to lead us to that end.
What is God’s purpose in creation, and what is His purpose in redemption? It may be summed up in two phrases, one from each of our two sections of Romans. It is the glory of God (Romans 3:23), and the glory of the children of God (8:21).
In Romans 3:23 we read ‘all have sinned, all fall short of the glory of God.’ God’s purpose for man was glory, but sin thwarted that purpose by causing man to miss God’s glory. When we think of sin we instinctively think of the judgment it brings; we invariably associate it with condemnation and hell – man’s thought is always of the punishment that will come to him if he sins, but God’s thought is always of the glory man will miss if he sins. The result of sin is that we forfeit God’s glory – the result of redemption is that we are qualified again for glory. God’s purpose in redemption is glory, glory, glory.”