April 27
I have refined you, but not like silver. I
have tested you in the furnace of suffering (Isaiah 48:10 GW).
The furnace of affliction is for those who by
faith are in Christ. What happens in the furnace of affliction? What is it that
is dealt with in the fire? Is it you, and is it I, that are refined in the
fire? Are you refined in the fire? Am I refined in
the furnace of affliction? I say, No! Emphatically NO!! If we say,
"Yes!" well, let us look at the furnace of affliction, the fire with
the metal in the crucible. What are you doing with that metal? Well, you say,
you heat the fire intensely and all the uncleanness, the corruption, comes to
the surface; this is skimmed off, and when that process has been carried
through to its end, there is left pure gold! Then if you say that is you or
that is me you will have to abandon your doctrine of total depravity, and you
will have to come back to the place where you say there is good in us, after
all! You will have to say there is good and bad in us, and the furnace of
affliction is to get the badness out of us and leave the goodness! Is that true
doctrine? No!
The furnace of affliction is not for the removal
of the bad out of us so as to leave the good that is in us, and secure it! Then
what is its purpose? Is it to refine Christ in us? We need not discuss that!
Christ needs no refining! What is it for? It is to divide between what is us in
fallen nature, and what is Christ, and to get rid of the one in order to give
full place to the other! The furnace of affliction is the application of the
Cross to the getting rid of you and me, in order to leave the whole place for
Christ. It is the measure of Christ that God is after, not to cut in between
the good and bad in us, but to cut in between what is Christ, and what is
ourselves. That is what the Lord is doing. He is after increasing Christ, and
in order to do that He has to displace self, the old creation. It is all the
measure of Christ in this realm. The realm of God is not going to be refined
self, reformed self, or any kind of patching up of self. It is
going to be none of self, and all of
Christ.
By T. Austin-Sparks from: The Essential
Newness of the New Creation - Chapter 2
This image came from the Facebook page of Pete Scanlon.
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