(Freedom from Self-Vindication and Participation in the Death of the Son)
June 27th brings the believer into one of the deepest lessons of sonship: the life governed by Christ is no longer controlled by questions of personal justice or injustice, because it has accepted a greater purpose. That purpose is found in identification with the death of Christ, through which the old life gives way to the manifestation of the new.
Devotion to Christ Transcends Personal Justice
Chambers writes:
“If we are devoted to Jesus Christ, we have nothing to do with what we encounter, whether it is just or unjust.” (My Utmost for His Highest)
Chambers is not saying that justice is unimportant.
He is saying that personal justice is no longer the governing concern of the believer.
The natural life continually measures circumstances.
“Was I treated fairly?”
“Did I receive what I deserved?”
“Have I been wronged?”
The Son lived differently.
Jesus certainly encountered injustice.
He was misunderstood.
Rejected.
Falsely accused.
Condemned.
Yet none of those things diverted him from the Father’s will.
Why?
Because his life was governed by a greater reality than personal vindication.
The believer who shares in the spirit of sonship increasingly learns the same lesson.
The question is no longer:
“What do I deserve?”
The question becomes:
“What is the Father accomplishing through this?”
The life that remains occupied with defending itself soon loses sight of communion.
The life that remains occupied with the Father’s purpose is freed from the constant demand for self-vindication.
This is one of the clearest evidences that the life of the Son is being manifested.
Death to the World Through Identification with Christ
Spurgeon writes:
“Death to the world, and burial with Christ, are experiences which carnal minds treat with ridicule, and hence the ordinance which sets them forth is almost universally neglected, and even contemned.” (Morning and Evening)
Spurgeon turns our attention to the meaning of identification with Christ.
The world naturally values independence, recognition, advancement, and self-preservation.
Identification with Christ points in another direction.
To be buried with Christ is to acknowledge that the old source of life is no longer the one from which we live.
The believer is no longer governed by the values that once shaped him.
This is why the world finds such teaching strange.
It cannot understand a life that no longer seeks its identity from earthly success, reputation, or personal rights.
Yet this identification is not merely negative.
Death always serves resurrection.
The old life gives way so that the life of the Son may be manifested.
The believer leaves one source in order to live from another.
Where the Two Meet: Freedom Through Identification
These truths belong together beautifully.
Why is the believer able to release the demand for personal justice?
Because the old life that insisted upon its own rights has been brought to the cross.
Identification with Christ changes the very question the believer asks.
Instead of asking,
“How can I preserve myself?”
he asks,
“How may the life of the Son be manifested here?”
One truth releases the believer from self-vindication.
The other explains why.
The life that has accepted its identification with Christ no longer finds its identity in protecting the self.
Its identity is found in participating in the Son.
Thus injustice no longer becomes the controlling issue.
Communion does.
The Father’s purpose does.
The manifestation of Christ does.
Pastoral Orientation
June 27th calls for freedom and identification.
Do not allow your life to become governed by the continual pursuit of personal vindication.
Let the Father’s purpose become the greater concern.
Do not fear what it means to be identified with Christ.
The surrender of the old life is the pathway through which the new life is manifested.
As you continue walking “after the spirit,” you will find that the need to defend yourself gradually diminishes as your communion with the Father deepens, and that identification with the death of Christ becomes the doorway to the increasing manifestation of his life.
Release the demand for self-vindication.
Embrace your identification with the Son.
And you will discover a life that is no longer governed by the claims of the old man, nor by the pursuit of personal justice, but by the Father’s purpose, through which the life of Jesus is increasingly manifested in the spirit of sonship, to the glory of God.