The Believer Becomes “Alive Unto God”

Having been born into God’s family as a child and into His Kingdom as a citizen, his whole life is now centered in the family and Kingdom interests. Having been accepted as Savior, united with as Head, and crowned Lord, Christ has become both the center and the circumference of his life and all in between. In Christ Himself, the believer finds his deepest joy, his greatest delight, and his complete satisfaction.

As being “dead to sin” detracts from sin’s charms and breaks its power to lure and entice, so being “alive unto God” enhances Christ’s charms and heightens the Holy Spirit’s power to woo and win us to love our Lord and to delight in Him. To be “alive unto God” is to love the Lord Jesus as we love no other person or thing in heaven or upon earth. It is to adore Him as the Beloved, to give Him the place of preeminence in our lives. It is for Christ Jesus Himself to be all and in all to us.

Colossians 1:18

“And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.”

Song of Solomon 5:10

”My beloved is white and ruddy, the chiefest among ten thousand.”

Colossians 3:11

“But Christ is all, and in all.”

But is there in the lives of very many Christians whom you know such a personal passion for the Lord Jesus? Does the average church member impress the world as being “alive unto God”? Is the Christian businessman more eager for God’s projects to succeed than his own? Upon which does the Christian mother put the most thought and time—her daughter’s health, her place in society, or growth in her spiritual life? Which does the ordinary church member attend most regularly, the cinema or the prayer meeting? Is there not sluggishness and stagnancy in the lives of thousands upon thousands of professed Christians today that amounts almost to deadness toward God and His interests? Many of God’s children in all parts of the world believe that the Church of Christ is in just such a dead condition and that there is a great need for revival.

Perhaps this book will fall into the hands of some persons who are altogether unconscious of the need for such a quickening. They are conventional, respectable Christians. They always attend church, attend prayer meetings, and faithfully fulfill what they consider their financial obligation to the church. They never do anyone any harm; neither do they do anyone any good. They would not consciously put a stumbling block in the way of somebody’s becoming a Christian; neither would it ever dawn upon them to put forth an effort to win one. They are colorless Christians. They would be disgusted with the frivolous person who found pleasure for a morning in reading a trashy book, but just so, they would be bewildered at the joy some earnest soul found in several hours’ study of the Word. To them, the pleasure places of the world have no attraction, but neither does the trysting place of prayer. They are the lineal descendants of the elder brother in the parable of the prodigal, who did not bring disgrace to his father’s name, but neither did he bring joy to his father’s heart.

What I am trying to say is that you and I may be separate and yet not be holy; we may be orthodox and yet not be spiritual; we may be “dead to sin” and yet not be “alive to God.” We may have cut ourselves loose from every form of worldliness but, in so doing, have become critical and self-righteous. We may be loyal defenders of the faith, ready even to lay down our lives for it and, in so doing, become bitter and unloving. We may be faithful in the fulfilling of every obligation to God and have given ourselves in self-sacrificing devotion to His cause and yet have no warm glow of love in our hearts, no spring of joy in our souls, no fervency of spirit in our communion with the Lord Jesus Himself.

Source: “Life on the Highest Plane” by Ruth Paxson

Dear Lord Jesus, save us from being complacent!  Stir a flame within us through the power of Your Holy Spirit to truly be those who are “alive to God.”