Apart From Him They Can Do Nothing

1/17/2001

Before a person comes into a saving relationship with Jesus, does God give them any gifts or strengths? For example, there are those who are patient or show great hospitality before they are saved, so when they are saved do they just have to acknowledge that those strengths were from Him in the first place or is there something deeper here?

Of course, fine attributes are found in those made “in the Image of God”—though, if you dig DEEP enough, you will find pride and self all over that stuff. It may not be obvious to the undiscerning of an unregenerate person that appears to be willing to “give you the shirt off of their back”—but Self is the lot in life for ALL who have not been “transfigured from the kingdom of darkness to the Kingdom of the Beloved Son.” As Paul himself said, “as fine a man” and “god-fearing” as they come, “At one time, we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived, and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures.” WHO would have believed such a thing about one of the finest young men ever to grow up in the Jewish faith?! But PAUL knew that of himself, at least in retrospect, prior to the “deposit of the Holy Spirit.” Cornelius was another such man, with fine qualities no doubt, and “God heard his prayers, and saw his giving.” Nevertheless, he remained a child of the devil, “enslaved (secretly) by all kinds of passions and pleasures” until the “Son had made him Free Indeed.” He had to be TOLD how to be Saved, though he had even had an Angelic Visitation, as a child of the devil. “A fine ‘family man’ who would give you the shirt off of his back?” No doubt. Created in God’s Image. But also just like the first Adam, until he abandons his life and his “strengths” to the Second Adam... he was nothing and had nothing, in reality.

Jesus is All in All. The folks in Genesis 11 had unbelievable “gifts”—as they were created in God’s Image. God Himself had to come and interfere with their unregenerate “gifts.” They found only judgment since those gifts and strengths were channeled for themselves, making a name for themselves, and accomplishing a temporal task, unauthorized by their Creator and without real-time fellowship with Him.

How CAN a person come to Jesus, really, without seeing that “apart from Him they can do nothing”? Blessed are the poor in Spirit. “I did not come for the strong or the wise or the ‘healthy’ or the self-helpers,” saith the Lord. If we don’t “fall on the Rock”—we’ve not found the Real Jesus! “Let THIS mind be in you that was also in Christ Jesus: He emptied Himself and made Himself nothing... became a servant, and obeyed His Father even when it cost Him His very life.”