Take Courage

On Taking Too Much for Granted

Insight from A. W. Tozer – On Taking Too Much for Granted

There is a danger that we take Christ for granted. We “suppose” that because we hold New Testament beliefs we are therefore New Testament Christians; but it does not follow. The devil is a better theologian than any of us and is a devil still.

We may assume that salvation is possible without repentance…………

We are also in danger of assuming the value of religion without righteousness…….

We may also erroneously assume that we can experience justification without transformation. Justification and regeneration are not the same; they may be thought apart in theology but they can never be experienced apart in fact…….

Again, we may go astray by assuming that we can do spiritual work without spiritual power…..

David Brainerd once compared a man without the power of the Spirit trying to do spiritual work to a workman without fingers attempting to do manual labor…… The Holy Spirit is not a luxury meant to make deluxe Christians……. The Spirit is an imperative necessity. Only the Eternal Spirit can do eternal deeds.

Without exhausting the list of things wrongly taken for granted I would mention on more: Millions take for granted that it is possible to live for Christ without first having died with Christ. This is a serious error and we dare not leave it unchallenged.

The victorious Christian has known two lives. The first was his life in Adam which was motivated by the carnal mind and can never please God in any way. It can never be converted; it can only die (Romans 8:5-8).

The second life of the Christian is his new life in Christ (Romans 6:1-14). To live a Christian life with the life of Adam is wholly impossible. Yet multitudes take for granted that it can be done and go on year after year in defeat. And worst of all they accept this half-dead condition as normal.

For our own soul’s sake, let’s not take too much for granted. – Taken from Man: The Dwelling Place of God, pages 63-66.

Tozer gives us something to think about doesn’t he?

Stay faithful and hopeful,

Bill (a fellow-laborer),

Romans 15:13; Isaiah 66:2