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 One
day a preacher walked into my study and placed a quarter upon my
desk. “Here’s your money,” he said. “I surely wasn’t
thinking straight when I chipped into that pool.”
We
had been fishing together some days previously, and he thought I
had had part in a “pool” which was given to the man who
caught the first fish. When he was convinced that I had no part
in the gambling game, I helped him identify the men who had been
in his boat. He returned their money, with apologies for
participating in the caper. Perhaps these worldly men thought he
was a real “square,” but in my book that man’s stock
soared.
He
had proven himself equal to one of the most demanding
requirements of Christianity — that of self-correction.
The
betting incident was unknown to brethren who might have
criticized. Among the participants he was “Hale Fellow, well
met!” This was the popular thing to do. Correction took money
he could have used, time, a fifty-mile round trip — and most
of all, it required humiliating self-censure.
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Saving
faith exists only among those who trust in Christ, not in
themselves (Matt. 16:24). Obedience to commands, per se, does
not make a Christian. A follower of Christ is truly submissive
to Christ as Lord — self is crucified in obedience, or the
effort is wasted. He is a Jew who is one “inwardly” (Rom.
2:28-29), who “delights in the law of God after the inward man”
(Rom. 7:22). The ultimate test for Christianity in man comes
when that man, separated from all external inducement and
coercion, motivated only by his desire to serve God, corrects
himself in keeping with that which he believes to be the will of
God. It ain’t easy, brother!!
This
takes us to the core of the “free will” controversy. It
tests our faith in God, obviously; but it also tests our faith
in the very nature of the man whom God made. God said man could
“repent and turn”— now we must demonstrate that God knew
His product.
The
man with the beam is not only a poor mote remover (Matt. 7:1-5);
his myopic vision is so self-centered he fails to see the way to
heaven.
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