Devotional Hours with the Bible, Volume 8: Chapter 43 - Beneficial Warnings
By J.R. Miller
1 Peter 4:1-8
"Therefore, since Christ suffered in his body, arm yourselves also with the same attitude, because he who has suffered in his body is done with sin." It was not easy for Christ to be our Redeemer. He was in this world as the Captain of our salvation, and His work here was a conflict. He came to destroy the works of the Devil. He met sin and sin's influences everywhere. It was not easy for Him to fight the battle. He resisted unto blood, striving against sin. He went to the cross for us, bearing our sin. We are His followers, and should be inspired by His example--should arm ourselves with the same mind.
Jesus taught that not only He must bear His cross--but that every one that would follow Him--must likewise take up the cross. He taught that the only way to save one's life--is to lose it, to hate it, to be ready to sacrifice it. We never can get through life victoriously, unless we fight. The armor we need is not something to put on outside--but a holy heart and mind within. That was Christ's armor as He went through life. He had no helmet of brass, no sword of steel; His holy purpose was His armor, and He was victorious. If we have a pure heart and a holy life, the world will have no power over us. The best armor--is the armor of the soul.
We are not to understand that the Christian who has died with Christ, shall never sin any more--but that he has given up his sins, repented of them, and renounced them. He used to make his sins part of the aim of his life. He loved them; his heart ran to them greedily. Now he is a Christian, he has taken Christ as his Savior, he has found mercy. Hence he gives up the sins which he used to commit. Instead of following the devices and desires of his own evil heart--he now lives according to the will of God. This is the way every Christian should live. We should crucify the flesh--the old evil things, and let Christ live in us. This is the change that Christ works in every life that is given to Him. That is what the new birth means.
There is an old legend of an instrument which hung upon a castle wall. Its strings were broken and it was filled with dust. No one understood it, and no one could put it in order. But one day a stranger came to the castle. He saw the instrument on the wall. Taking it down, he quickly brushed the webs of dust from it, and with gentle hand reset the broken strings and began to play upon it. The chords long silent awoke, beneath his touch, and the castle was filled with rich music. Every human life, in its unrenewed state, is such a harp, with broken strings, tarnished by sin. It is capable of giving forth music marvelously rich and sweet--but first it must be restored, and the only one who can do this--is the maker of the harp, the Lord Jesus Christ. Only He can bring the jangled chords of our life--into tune, so that when played upon, they shall give forth sweet music. If we would make our lives beautiful, we must surrender them into the hands of Him who alone can repair and restore them.
"As a result, he does not live the rest of his earthly life for evil human desires, but rather for the will of God. For you have spent enough time in the past doing what pagans choose to do--living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing and detestable idolatry." Not a moment of life should ever be given up to sin. Life is too precious to be stained and wasted in evil. Those who are thus throwing away their life--should instantly abandon all that is wrong, and turn to God and to the life to which He invites them. The time past which has been spent in sin--is surely enough for such a ruinous waste. Few things are sadder, than the story of one who lives in sin all his days and then, at the last, creeps back to God's feet to find mercy. One such, lying in a hospital, and near unto death, was very happy, for he had found Christ and had the assurance of eternal life. A friend said to him, "You are not afraid to die?" "No," answered the man, "but I am ashamed to die." He was ashamed because he had nothing to bring to God but a wasted life--forgiven at last--but of no service in the world.
