The Wednesday Word - 15 June, 2022 A.D.

 



He Must Increase! 

by D.G. Miles McKeeHave you ever felt dissatisfied with your faith? Have you ever thought that if only you had a better quality of faith, then you could be sure of your salvation? This is dangerous thinking. Why? Because we are never called to have faith in faith.  Since when does the Bible say, "Being satisfied with our faith, we have peace with God”?  (See Romans 5:1). Satisfaction with Jesus, His person and work is what is called for.  We are never called to be satisfied with our faith but called rather to be occupied with Christ and His objective, outside of us, finished work! Let’s look further at this. Gospel faith takes a hold of Christ and His accomplishments on our behalf.  Gospel faith releases us to set our affection on things above where Christ is seated in cosmic authority. (Colossians 3:2).  Gospel faith takes us out of ourselves and into the Lord Jesus.The result of gospel faith is satisfaction with Christ and His substitutionary work done on our behalf.  Christ is all (Colossians 3:11).  Gospel faith sees and rests on this! If our desire, however, is to be satisfied with our faith, we are evidently dissatisfied with Jesus. We are not thinking as gospel believers. Our thoughts have somehow been re-arranged.  By way of contrast, the gospel believer is learning to be dissatisfied with self and to be satisfied with Christ Jesus. He has taken John the Baptist’s words to heart,  Do you remember, John the Baptist's words?   Speaking of Jesus, the Baptist said "He must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30)? As we apply them, we see that for the gospel-focused believer, growth can be explained with these three little words, “He must increase.”  He. The Lord Christ who has conquered, death, sin and the grave.Must. It is not an alternativeIncrease. In our understanding, appreciation thinking and love. For Him to increase does not mean an increased inward self- occupation with our warm fuzzy subjective experiences, but rather it means enjoying being occupied with the risen and exalted Christ. When He, the risen Christ is increasing, everything else that vies for our attention is decreasing. Near the pulpit, in an old church in the Highlands of Scotland there is a sign that says, “No man can give at once the impression that he himself is clever and that Christ is mighty to save.”  This is just another way of saying, ‘He Must Increase.’  With the Lord’s help, may we all learn to be thrilled with faith's glorious object, the Lord Jesus.  In summary, faith, no matter how perfect, is nothing in and of itself. Faith, however, points us to Jesus. It commands us to look away from ourselves and look to Christ, the risen, exalted, crucified Lord.  Faith agrees that "Christ is all." (Colossians 3:11). Faith constantly urges us to look to the One who says, "Look unto me” (Isaiah 45:22). He must Increase! And that’s the Gospel Truth!

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