(The Test of Genuineness and the Origin of Every True Affection)
June 11th brings the believer to a searching and liberating truth: Jesus Christ himself is the standard by which the life is measured, and whatever genuinely proceeds from God in the believer has its origin in Christ before it ever finds expression in us.
Christ Himself Is the Test
Chambers writes:
“Jesus Christ makes Himself the test to determine your genuineness.” (My Utmost for His Highest)
Chambers directs attention away from comparisons and toward Christ himself.
The believer is often tempted to measure spiritual life by many different standards:
- knowledge,
- activity,
- influence,
- sacrifice,
- experience,
- or comparison with other believers.
Yet Christ places before us a different measure.
He is the measure.
The question is not whether we compare favorably with others.
The question is whether the life of the Son is being manifested.
This is both humbling and freeing.
Humbling, because no human standard can substitute for Christ.
Freeing, because the believer is no longer trapped in continual comparison.
The issue becomes one of conformity to the Son.
Is his mind being formed within us?
Is his obedience being manifested?
Is his relation to the Father becoming increasingly evident?
The test is not external success.
The test is Christ.
Every True Affection Has Its Source in Him
Spurgeon writes:
“There is no light in the planet but that which proceedeth from the sun; and there is no true love to Jesus in the heart but that which cometh from the Lord Jesus Himself.” (Morning and Evening)
Spurgeon points to the origin of spiritual life.
Just as the moon possesses no light of its own, the believer possesses no independent source of divine affection.
Every genuine movement toward Christ begins with Christ.
The love of the believer is a response before it is an initiative.
The Son is both the object and the source.
This preserves humility.
No one can boast in his devotion as though it originated within himself. The very love that draws the believer toward Christ proceeds from the life that Christ himself communicates.
What is true of love is true of every aspect of sonship.
The source remains in him.
The believer participates.
The life does not originate divine realities.
It receives and manifests them.
Where the Two Meet: The Measure and the Source Are the Same
These truths meet beautifully.
The one who measures the life is also the one who supplies the life.
Christ does not stand before the believer merely as an external standard that must be attained through effort.
He is the source of the very life he requires.
This is the glory of sonship.
The Father is not asking the believer to produce independently what only Christ can supply.
The life of the Son becomes both the pattern and the provision.
One truth establishes the measure. The other reveals the source.
Together they remove both pride and despair.
Pride disappears because the source is not ourselves.
Despair disappears because the provision is not ourselves either.
Pastoral Orientation
June 11th calls for honesty and dependence.
Do not measure your life primarily by activity, knowledge, or comparison with others. Let Christ himself remain the measure.
Do not imagine that love, faithfulness, or devotion originate from your own resources. Every true affection toward Christ proceeds from the life he supplies.
As you continue walking “after the spirit,” you will find that spiritual maturity consists less in becoming impressed with your progress and more in recognizing that everything genuine in the life proceeds from Christ and returns to Christ.
Keep your eyes upon the Son. Draw continually from his life.
And you will discover a life that is measured by Christ, supplied by Christ, and increasingly manifests the communion, obedience, and love of the Son before the Father.