Coming to the end of yourself

Performance-ism is just another word for legalism. It’s the mindset (by you and/or others) that directly equates your identity and value to your performance and accomplishments. 

This is the way the vast majority of people (saved and unsaved) do life, getting their sense of value, meaning, validation and purpose out of what they’ve done and how they're performing, says Richard Jordan. We find out we’re not performing well enough when we get the cold shoulder, snubbed, written off.

We say to ourselves, "Well, I’ll try harder and maybe then I will be accepted." That’s just performance-based acceptance.

Paul says in Galatians 2:20-21, 20] I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

[21] I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.

Endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit is not performance-ism. It’s not, "I’ll perform and therefore get there." Your value, your identity in Christ does not come from that. 

Paul says, [20] Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God.

The realization to make is, "I’m here in His place, doing what He’d be doing if He was here. In fact, He is here in me, living His life out through me."'

That’s why we’re called the Body of Christ. We’re the vehicle through whom He lives and works today. That’s why Paul says, "I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me."

We’re not talking about religion; we’re talking about a RELATIONSHIP with the God of heaven and earth, the Creator. The one who made you originally.

Your self-will has taken you off in a different direction. Paul says, "I’m dead to that." How? "Through Christ. I died with Him. But I didn’t just die with Him; when He put away my sin, He gave me His life."

Paul says, "A spiritual transaction took place on a supernatural level inside of me, where I received His life, and so that the life I now live, I live by the faith of the Son of God. I have His life and it’s Him living in me."

The Lord Jesus Christ, my friend, is most magnified, most exalted, when we’re satisfied in life with Him and He’s enough. All the other stuff, even if we lose everything else, we’ve got Him and we’re still ahead.

Paul said, "For me to live is Christ and to die is gain." To live is to know Christ and to die is gain because now I just get more intimacy with Him. I’ve heard that word defined "in-to-me-see." That’s really what it is.

More and more there’s the ability to see into Him, and Him to see into me, the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. In your life, when He is preferred above everything else, that’s how He’s cherished and demonstrated to be the treasure.

When we’re satisfied with Christ, when we’re prizing Him, cherishing Him, treasuring Him as a prize, and His gain is our heart’s delight above all else, that’s what Paul means in Philippians 3:9 when he says, [9] And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:
[10] That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;

You notice how "and be found in him," that’s a passive voice? I’ve come to love the passives. The essence of life is not DOING! The essence of the Christian life is BEING, not doing! It’s who you are, not what you do.

It’s who God has made you in His Son, and when that becomes the focus of your life, and you learn to just relax and enjoy life in the identity God has given you in Christ, rather than trying to do things and look over your shoulders and see if God’s happy with you, you’ll find yourself doing plenty. But it won’t be to gain something from others; it’ll just be because that’s who you ARE and that’s who people who ARE this--that’s the way they live.

When I had cancer several years ago, someone sent me an email saying, "You’ll never know if Christ is all you need until He’s all that you have, and when He’s all that you have, then and only then do you discover that Jesus is really all that you need."

If you don’t count all that you can do "but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ" . . .  if you’ve never come to that point in your life and you’re still trusting something of yourself, can I tell you that’s a dead-end road?

Maybe you haven’t learned that yet, but when you do learn it, can I tell you it’s a dead-end road, and when you really do do what the Psalmist said ("I came to the end of myself"), can I tell you there’s one standing there at the end of your rope who is the answer.

You go bloody your nose to learn, "It ain’t me." Whatever it is you hope to rely upon, whatever it is you hope to cling to, whether it’s in yourself or with others, if you’d be honest enough in your own self to know you can’t trust yourself . . . 

We put the bravado on, but in your heart of hearts you know yourself. We kick at the slats; we don’t like to believe that but the grace of God is only available when all of our resources are gone. You’ll never do it until you come to the end of yourself.

Compared to everything else, He is the one who really is the treasure of your life. God help us to let that be the reality. Instead of screaming and hollering, "But I’m going to lose it all," just say, "You know what, I’m really FINDING the real source of life."

Paul said, "For me, Christ is gain. I just want to be found in Him, not having my own righteousness." That old song says, "Oh, how I love Jesus because He first loved me."

(new article tomorrow)