 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
||||
Total Consecration |
||||
|
By Ralph I. Tilley
|
||||
|
In twentieth-century Christianity we have replaced the expression The Hebrew and Greek words for "consecrate," or one of its forms, occur approximately 199 times in the Bible: 171 in the Old Testament and 28 times in the New Testament.[2] The first occurrence where the word is rendered "consecrate" is found in Exodus 13:2, where God commanded Israel: "Consecrate [quadash] to me all the firstborn. Whatever is the first to open the womb among the people of Israel, both of man and of beast, is mine."[3] The two occurrences in the New Testament where the ESV renders the Greek word (hagiazô) as "consecrate" are located in John's Gospel and are spoken by Jesus. In the first occurrence, Jesus is responding to the Jews' charge that Jesus had committed blasphemy by saying that he and the Father were one: "If he called them gods to whom the word of God came—and Scripture cannot be broken—do you say of him whom the Father consecrated [hçgiasen] and sent into the world, 'You are blaspheming,' because I said, 'I am the Son of God'?"[4] The second occurrence is located in Jesus' prayer for his disciples: "And for their sake I consecrate [hagiazô] myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth."[5] The term "consecrate," as used in the Old and New Testaments, has at least four shades of meaning according to A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature.[6] * It means to "set aside something or make it suitable for ritual purposes;" i.e. "to consecrate, dedicate" things. For example, when God gave instructions to Moses regarding the consecration of Aaron and the priests, he said, "You shall consecrate them, that they may be most holy. Whatever touches them will become holy."[7] * It means to "include a person in the inner circle of what is holy in both cultic and moral associations of the word, consecrate, dedicate, sanctify." For example, when Moses was instructed by God to provide special garments for the priests to minister in, God told him: "And you shall put them on Aaron your brother, and on his sons with him, and shall anoint them and ordain them and consecrate them, that they may serve me as priests."[8] In Hebrews the writer uses the same Greek word in reference to ritual purity: "For if the sprinkling of defiled persons with the blood of goats and bulls and with the ashes of a heifer sanctifies [hagiazei] for the purification of the flesh, . . ."[9] * The word is used to mean to treat persons and things as holy. For example, Peter exhorts Christians to "regard Christ the Lord as holy [hagiasate], always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you."[10] * Finally, it means to "eliminate that which is incompatible with holiness, purify." For example, Paul expresses his desire for the Thessalonian believers by praying, "Now may the God of peace himself sanctify [hagiasai] you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ."[11] For the purposes of this article, consecration is used to describe the follower of the Lord Jesus Christ as giving himself completely to his Master and Lord, without reservation, for the purpose of living a life wholly devoted to the Lord Jesus to the glory of God. It is the call to follow Jesus with wholehearted devotion. It includes the totality of the person—body, soul and spirit. Such an offering in total consecration to the Lord Jesus has been beautifully expressed in the classic prayer of Frances Havergal. The first verse reads:
Take my life, and let it be The Example of Abraham The giving of oneself to Christ in total consecration is explicitly taught in the NT with pointers in the OT. There is an outstanding example from the life of Abraham that speaks to this subject of total consecration. When God first called Abraham, he called him to leave his homeland and relatives and travel to unknown territory. Abraham (then called Abram) responded to God's initiative by obeying: "So Abram went, as the LORD had told him."[13] Abraham continued to walk with God, albeit, with some occasional questionable behavior.[14] Nevertheless, aside from a few recorded lapses in moral judgment, Abraham's life was characterized by the faithful worship of and obedience to Yahweh. Abraham's pilgrimage with Yahweh reached a critical turning point, however, with respect to his love for Isaac, his son. Two loves and loyalties were in danger of competing, with one canceling out the other. Yahweh, Abraham's covenant God, devised a plan whereby the patriarch would offer that which was most precious to him as a gift to his LORD. God asked for the gift of Abraham's son, which in substance was the giving of Abraham himself in total consecration to his God. "Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you."[15] The record informs us that Abraham's obedient faith to Yahweh's call was immediate: "So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, and took two of his young men with him, and his son Isaac. And he cut the wood for the burnt offering and arose and went to the place of which God had told him."[16] Following a three-day journey, Abraham and Isaac reached their appointed destination. Leaving his servants at the mountain's base, father and son climbed Moriah's slope until the father is informed by Yahweh of the precise place where the offering is to occur. After making the necessary altar preparations, "Abraham bound Isaac his son and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. Then Abraham reached out his hand and took the knife to slaughter his son." God saw that his consecration was complete and called out to his devoted follower: " 'Abraham, Abraham!' And he said, 'Here am I.' He said, 'Do not lay your hand on the boy or do anything to him, for now I know that you fear God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son, from me.' "[17] Consecration Involves Death One of the masters in Spiritual theology in the 19th century was the devout Lutheran minister, George Steinberger. In a little volume that is considered a classic by many who have read it, this perceptive student of God's ways with men, said this about man's essential problem: The fall of our first parents was a result of their making themselves the center of life. The soul who does this today will learn that spiritual darkness and death, separation from and enmity toward God, are the consequences. In all that is selfish, the power of Satan is active. In the selfish heart there burns the hidden fire of hell. As long as we cherish our own lives, we keep ourselves under God's curse; for on the cross God has cursed all that is selfish. To live for one's self is to be against God. Steinberger then adds: "Flesh [in the ethical sense, as used by Paul] is ingrown selfness."[18] Intrinsic to total consecration to God is death—a deep death to one's sinful self-interest and every inordinate human attachment. In offering his son Isaac to God, Abraham experienced a deep, inner personal death to his own preferences, affections, and desires. Jesus said such is the case for anyone who would be one of his authentic disciples. Our Lord radically taught that one cannot be his disciple while making his own self-centered choices. Matthew 16 records this truth following Christ's dramatic encounter with Peter. Jesus had just informed his disciples that his own future involved suffering, death, and resurrection. Peter only heard "suffering and death." Instinctively the disciple recoils from such a thought of hardship and death for Jesus (and for himself as well?). His instincts were to spare Christ of such a future. Taking Jesus aside, he tried to dissuade his Master from pursuing such a course. Jesus rebuked Peter: "Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me. For you are not setting your mind on the things of God, but on the things of man."[19] Christ turns the occasion into a teaching opportunity. He informs all his disciples that discipleship must embrace suffering and death: "If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it."[20] To follow Jesus is to turn away from one's self and selfish ways. "Jesus is giving us a way," observes Frederick Bruner, . . . to loose ourselves from "being gripped by the concerns of human beings" (v. 23), and that way is decisively to disown ourselves and the lordship of our own thinking and to go under new management. Self-denial is not so much giving up chocolates at Lent as it is giving up on ourselves as lords; it is the decision to let another Lord rule one's life.[21] Christ's disciples must reject their inborn bent to self-sovereignty and self-rule. In the words of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, "When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die."[22] Such a death embraces every choice the disciple of Jesus makes. Exhorting the disciples of Christ of his own day, Bonhoeffer said: "You must not follow the work which you choose, not the suffering which you devise, but that which comes to you against your choice, thoughts, and desires."[23] Such a radical death to sin and self was objectively wrought for every Christian in Christ's substitutionary death, but must be appropriated by faith in order to be effectively realized in the heart and life of Christ's disciples in every age. Paul teaches this truth in the great Romans 6 passage. In verse 6 he announces, "We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin." Paul is saying since Christ has achieved such a great victory for the believer through his death and resurrection, the believer must not be content to continue in sin, but must now live in obedience to Christ. How can this be done? Paul provides the answer: So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. 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.[24] Here death is directly linked to consecration—a death to sin and a presentation of oneself to God. While Jesus was sinless—having no inherent proclivities to self-centeredness nonetheless, he is the disciple's perfect model in how death to one's human preferences opens the door to blessing, usefulness, and fruitfulness in the kingdom of God. One day there were some Greeks who approached the disciple Philip, inquiring how they might gain an audience with Jesus. Philip and Andrew carried the Greeks' request to their Lord. After listening to Philip reiterate their request, Jesus spoke of his impending death in picturesque language: The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.[25] By saying no to his own preferences as well as his very life, Jesus presented his body in consecration to his heavenly Father, thus making it possible for all peoples of all time to enjoy eternal life. The writer of Hebrews captures this beautifully: Consequently, when Christ came into the world, he said, "Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but a body have you prepared for me; in burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no pleasure." Then I said, "Behold, I have come to do your will, O God, as it is written of me in the scroll of the book."[26] As painful as it may be to man's fallen ego, an existential inner death must occur before the disciple can adequately give himself in total consecration to Christ. Until such a death takes place, one lives with a divided heart and mind; he is torn between his love for Christ and his love for lesser things. Quoting Augustine, François Fénelon writes, "When we love anything out of [i.e., separate from] God, . . . we love God the less for it." Then Fénelon remarks, It is like a stream from which part of the water is turned off. This division of the affections of the heart diminishes what should go to God, and it is from such a division that arise all the disturbances of the heart. God wishes to have all, and his jealousy will not leave a divided heart in peace.[27] David prayed that God would cure his own divided heart: ". . . unite my heart to fear your name."[28] The apostle James called the believers of his own day to such a radical self-renunciation, a calling that demanded a break from everything that threatened one's supreme loyalty to Jesus Christ: ". . . purify your hearts you double-minded."[29]
Pentecost Preparation To the careful student of God's Word, Pentecost was clearly a transforming event to all who were present in that Upper Room. A radical cleansing and empowering accompanied the Spirit's descent. While the veil has not been lifted for us to peer into much that occurred during those ten days prior to the Spirit's outpouring, one thing that surely did occur was a renewed consecration to their Lord. What happened at Pentecost attests to this, for God does not cleanse and fill with his Spirit anyone who is not totally surrendered and consecrated to him. What about you, dear reader? Have you given yourself totally to Christ? Or do some pockets of resistance remain? If Christ is not truly your Lord, seek a quiet place and stay there until both your consecration and the renovation of your heart is complete.
- Soli Deo Gloria - 1 Murray J. Harris, Slave for Christ (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1999), 18. |
||||
|
|
|