In sermon preparation, there is so much material that never makes it into the message – there’s just not enough time. Often, I simply get the edification that comes from studying the scriptures so deeply, but that’s as far as it goes. Other times, it’s just too good not to share and it winds up here, on my blog.
As I’ve was studying Philippians 1:19-20 I came across the following from James M. Boice that I had to share:
If the Lord Jesus Christ is to be magnified in our bodies, our bodies must be surrendered to him… This means that the kind of life the Bible advocates is impossible for the non-Christian; it is impossible for the one who has failed to come to God solely on the merits of Christ and His atoning death on Calvary. Nothing in the unsaved man can satisfy God in the slightest degree. All acts of human sacrifice apart from Christ, all acts of self denial apart from Christ, all acts of penance apart from Christ – all these are acts of human righteousness. And God call such acts filthy rags when measured by the standards of His holiness. It is only after a man has come to Christ, accepted Him as Savior, and committed himself to Christ irrevocably, that God moves him to make that sacrifice of his body through which Jesus Christ is magnified. Have you done this? Have you made this first and great commitment? If not, you need to. For all other steps in the Christian life flow from it.
Then, too, we must surrender our bodies to the Lord to use as He determines. Merely to see this truth is not sufficient; it must also be practiced. You must practice yielding your body to Christ. You must practice living to His glory as He gives you grace to do so. You must wake with the name of Jesus on your lips and commit the day to Him. You must surrender your thoughts to Him at breakfast. You must yield yourself to Him for guiding what you say when you enter the office or the factory, or when you begin to go about your household chores. You must ask Him to take control of your eyes, that they might be given to His service. You must give Him your tongue. Moreover, you must do so each moment as each is yielded to His direction.
In such a way Jesus Christ will be truly magnified in you, and you will be more and more able to say: It is “my earnest expectation and my hope, that in nothing shall I be ashamed, but that with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be magnified in my body.”
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