The Fundamental Principles of Christianity in the Light of Modern Thinking i By JOHN M. MACINNIS, B. D. VIII. THE POWER TO LIVE THE CHRISTIAN LIFE Acts 1:8
I N OUR last study we saw that God is able to save us. He breaks the power of cancelled sin and sets the spirit free. Free to do what? Free to live along the old lines of failure, or free to live a new and victorious life? There can be no question about the fact that the New Testament most clearly teaches that men are saved from sin in order that they may live the kind of life God intended them to live. What kind of life does God want us to live? We can hardly question the fact that Paul got the mind of God on this question when he said, “Have this mind in you which was also in Christ Jesus.” God wants men to live the kind of a life that Christ lived. In facing this fact we must not forget that so far as the human life of Christ was concerned He lived a perfectly normal human life in a perfectly nor mal human way. That is the way that every man must live his life in order to realize himself and please God. This does not mean that if a man lives a normal life he must do the exact things that Jesus did in the exact way in which Jesus did them. If we have rightly interpreted the meaning of life to do this would mean not to be normal but to be abnormal. Accord ing to our interpretation every man has a place and a definite mission and work in God’s place. To be normal is to be willing to be what God wants us to be and to do the work God wants
us to do. God does not want you or me to do Christ’s work. Christ fin ished the work that was given Him to do while He was here. We deceive ourselves if we think we could do Christ’s work. The essence of His life was not in the details of what He did but in the great attitude that made it possible for Him to do the work that God gave Him to do. We have the mind of Christ when we are hon estly seeking to be what God wants us to be and to do what God wants us to do. We are like Christ only in the measure in which we have a passion to do this thing. Paul was one of the most Christlike men‘that ever lived because the great passion of his life was to lay hold on that for which he was laid hold on by Christ Jesus. As soon as we face the practical is sue of living this kind of a life two questions arise at once. First, how can I know what God wants me to be and to do ? Second, When I do know His will how can I get the strength to carry it into effect? I. How Can I Know What God Wants Me to Be and to Do? The one is a question of knowledge and the other is a question of power. Both are real and represent needs in the life. Men need guidance. “Lead, kindly light, amid the encircling gloom” is not an empty, meaningless bit of poetry, but the sincere cry of a soul in quest of God and God’s will. There are some phases of this ques-
1 An address delivered at the Montrose Bible Con ference. Copyright, by John M. Maclnnis, 1913.
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