“To Will Is Present With Me, BUT...”

In the human mind, there is a continuous struggle between the will and the desires; the desires being more powerful than the will and invariably proving the master; for we are fighting a battle against ourselves all the time. Many hold that a resolute will can control the life, and that such a will is capable of resisting all temptations. Experience however confirms the scripture, which so aptly describes the helplessness of the will against the corruptions of the heart. “For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh alone) dwells no good thing for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would I do not, but the evil which I would not, that I do.”

In this conflict that rages in the heart of man it needs something more than the power of the will, if right and goodness are to triumph. The addict to smoking or alcohol, the victim of drugs or sensuality, may make firm resolutions to control his actions, but when the craving comes, he is swept away helplessly in spite of all his prior determination. The force of his desire is too powerful for his will to control, and he finds himself in need of a power outside of himself. This is equally true of every one of us; we cannot save ourselves. We need to be saved from ourselves. This is just the thing that God undertakes to do for us, if we will obey His instructions, it is in vain that we seek to strengthen our will, God alone can provide the solution to this problem, and He does so by completely changing our desires, and by bringing our wills within the orbit of His own will.

How is this tremendous change effected? By the simple and familiar formula, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved.” It may be asked how a belief could have such transforming power. First of all, believing on Christ consists of something much more than an intellectual assent to the acceptance of Christ. It means not merely a change of ideas, but a complete change of heart. A change of heart implies an entirely new and dominating affection in life, which is centered on Christ “whom having not seen we love, in whom believing we rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.”

Such a love springs spontaneously in our hearts as Christ is revealed to us in all His beauty and glory…In this way, it pleases God to reveal His Son in us so that Christ might dwell in our hearts by faith. Owing to this indwelling love for Christ, and for the Father who sent Him, God is able to do “exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to His power that works in us.” For the Spirit of love, which is the Holy Spirit, is stronger than all our natural desires, and replaces them by introducing a new range of desires and change of heart. Goodness itself then ceases to be a tiresome and fruitless struggle against ourselves, and becomes an inward urge and a joy to be sought after. It is not evil things alone that have the power of attraction. Beauty and truth are far stronger than these, when they are brought into direct opposition to the things of darkness.

Many look upon goodness as the painful duty of refraining from pleasing ourselves. They imagine that the law “Thou shall not” operates all the time, while our heart is secretly loving and longing for the things we must not have. This is an entirely false impression; we follow goodness because we love it. We see an attraction in helping others. We have a new center; a deeper happiness in life, an anchor that keeps the soul sure and steadfast. Evil can be conquered only by a complete change of heart, never by a mere change of mind. There may yet be hard struggles, for nothing is easily gained that is worth having, but victory is assured to us if our heart is enlisted on the side of right. There is no limit to the power of Christ to change man. The transformation that man’s will can never accomplish, the Christ-filled heart can, and does. For “He is able to save to the uttermost, all who come unto God by Him.”

We must not be discouraged because the carnal mind is at enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. It is because the flesh lusts against the Spirit that we cannot do the things that we would. But we must have faith in the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. For if the Spirit of God dwells in us, we are assured that we are no longer in the flesh, but that the Spirit will quicken these mortal bodies with power hitherto unknown to us. We shall then truly live, because we are the Sons of God, and heirs to a glorious future inheritance. If we should have the least doubt regarding the possibility of our complete deliverance from the body of this death, we should remember that God foreknew, predestinated, called, justified, and will just as surely also glorify those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. In all things, we shall be more than conquerors through Him that loved us and nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

“Now unto him that is able to keep us from falling and to present us faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever.” - Jude 24

From Bible Student Magazine