This episode addresses the tendency among believers to draw on resurrection power only in crises or challenging circumstances. The operating presumption is that believers utilize their own power for routine everyday life but rely on God's power when our own isn't up to the task. Some who are successful in achieving a certain degree of sin-management settle into a mediocre Christian life in which DAILY reliance on Christ becomes optional. One reason is that the bar for Christian life is lowered: being a Christian is primarily about sin-management and strangely "following Christ" is only necessary to manage sin. But this recasting of the purpose of Christian life is fundamentally self-centered and contradicts the Scriptures. "If anyone would be my disciple he must first deny himself, pick up his cross and follow me." (Matthew 16:24) Following Christ and service to Him is the end-goal and it is embodied in love of God and neighbor. In essence "sin-management" is the necessary precondition of following Christ which is principally demonstrated by love of God and neighbor. The recasting of Christian life into sin-management, divorced from following Christ, is arguably the principal reason why many dichotomize routine everyday life from crises moments, only the latter of which requires depending on resurrection power. FOLLOWING Christ and loving God and neighbor requires divine power ALL the time.
“Lord, I Give You ALL of me!”
This episode continues applying the holistic cross of self-denial to all areas of life that aren't sinful per se. Christ Himself set the example: He didn't use His abilities without submitting them over to the Father's discretion. The God-man could easily have overwhelmed his hearers with His wit and mental acuity but chose on many occasions to refrain. Isaiah 42:3 says about Him "a broken reed He would not break nor a dimly burning wick He would not snuff out." He didn't break broken sinners but submitted all His talents and abilities over to the Father, to be used only at His discretion. Christ exemplified TOTAL submission to the Father and it had little to do with sin, for He was morally perfect and free from sin. So when believers subsequently identity with Christ in His death, burial and resurrection they ideally should present their whole selves as living sacrifices, to be used for His pleasure.
Present All of You as a Slave of Righteousness
This episode addresses the cross of self-denial with respect to all of our natural abilities and talents. Identifying with Christ is His death, burial and resurrection doesn't just apply to our sin issues and suffering for Christ: it also refers to holistically submitting to the will of the Father, presenting our natural giftings over to Him to be used at HIS discretion. Paul modeled this kind of self-denial to the Corinthians: to the weak he became weak, "becoming all things to all men that he might win some." (1 Corinthians 9:19-22) The episode cites several examples in which Christians win battles but lose souls when they fail to lay their knowledge and verbal acumen at the Master's feet, only to be used upon His leading.
The Multi-Faceted Cross
This episode introduces the second arena in which believers are called to apply the death, burial and resurrection of Christ to their lives, that of self-denial. While Christians use the paradigm of Christ's death and resurrection as a model for dealing with the cross of sin, closely related, but not the same, is our attitude towards everything we have that is NOT sinful. All of our gifts and talents need to placed at the Master's feet and utilized based on HIS leading. The episode also mentions the cross of persecution, the third area in which we apply the death, burial and resurrection of Christ to our lives. The episode affirms that the three crosses carried by Christians (sin, self-denial, and persecution) are inter-related. Our submission to Christ over sin issues naturally affects how we respond to self-denial in other areas and our attitude towards persecution.