What
do you have that God hasn’t given you?
And
if everything you have is from God,
why
boast as though it were not a gift?
1
Corinthians 4:7
There are still a lot of people in this world who think that
there is something in man that can contribute to the glory of God and that
Christianity is only the bringing up out of man of something that is for the
glory of God. That is a long, long-standing fallacy and lie. It is not true.
Call it what you like; it goes by various names, such as "the inner
light" or "the vital spark." The Word of God all the way through
is coming down tremendously on this thing. I start at zero, and zero for me
means that I can contribute nothing. Everything has to come from God. The very
fact that the gift of God is eternal Life means that you have not got it until
it is given to you. You are blind until God gives you the faculty of sight. You
are dead until God gives you Life. You are a hopeless cripple until God does
something for you and in you which you can never do. Unless God does this
thing, unless this act takes place, well, there you lie. Spiritually, that is
how you are. You can contribute nothing....
This is one of the great lessons that you and I have to learn in
the School of Christ, that God begins for His glory at zero, and God will take
pains through the Holy Spirit to make us to know that it is zero; that is, to
bring us consciously to zero, and make us realize it is all with Him.... Have
we got settled on this? We take so long to learn these basic elementary lessons.
We do still cling to some sort of idea that we can produce something, and all
our miserable days are simply the result of still hoping that we can in some
way provide the Lord with something. Not being able to find it, but breaking
down all the time, we get miserable, perfectly miserable. It takes us so long
to come to the place where we do fully and finally settle this matter, that if
we lived as long as ever man lived on this earth, we shall not be able to
contribute one iota which can be acceptable to God, and which He can take and
use for our salvation, for our sanctification, for our glorification, not a
bit. All that He can use is His Son, and the measure of our ultimate glory will
be the measure of Christ in us, just that.
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