The all of sin: Some small measure of the knowledge of this fact was necessary even at the time of conversion. This, however, was still very imperfect. If a Christian is to make progress and become fully convinced of the necessity of being filled with the Spirit, his eyes must be opened to the extent in which sin dominates overs everything within him.
Everything in him is tainted with sin, and therefore the omnipotence of God must take in hand the renewal of everything by the Holy Spirit. Man is utterly impotent to that which is good in the highest sense. He can do more of what is good than what the Spirit actually works in him at any moment. He learns also to see the all of sin just as distinctly in the world around him. Everything must be sacrificed and given over to death.
All of God must expel the all of sin. God must again live wholly and entirely within us and continually take the place which sin unsurped. He that desires this change will rightly understand and desire the fullness of the Spirit, and as he believes will certainly receive it.
The All of Christ
The Son is the revelation of the Father: the all of God is exhibited to our view and made accessible to us in the Son. On this account the all of Christ is just as necessary and infinite as that of God. Christ is God come upon the earth to undo the all of sin, to win back and restore in man the lost all of God. To this end we must know thoroughly the all of Christ.
The idea which most believing disciples have of the all of Christ is that He alone does everything in the atonement and the forgiveness of sin. This is indeed the glorious beginning of His redemptive work, but still only the beginning. God has given Christ Himself desires to be our life and strength, the indweller of our heart, who animates that heart and makes it what it ought to be before God. To know the all of Christ and to understand how Christ if prepared to be everything in us is the secret of true sanctification. He who discerns the will of God in this principle and yields himself to its operation has found the pathway to the full blessing of Pentecost.
The All of Christ: Acknowledge this in humble joyful thanksgiving. Confess that everything has been given by God in Him. Receive with firm confidence the fact that Christ is all and the promise that he will work all, yet, all in you. Consent from the heart that this must be so and confirm it by laying everything at His feet and offering it up to Him. The two things go together: let Him be and do all; let Him reign and rule over all. Let there be nothing in which He does not rule and operate. It is not impossible for yo to accomplish this change. Let Him be everything; let Him have everything in order that by His almighty energy He may fill everything with Himself.
The All of Surrender
Leave all, sell all, forsake all; that was the Lord's requirement when He was here on earth. The requirement is still in force. The chief hindrance of the Christian life is that, because men do not believe that Christ is all, they consequently never think of the necessity of giving Him all.
Everything must be given to Him, because everything is under sin. He cannot cleanse and keep a thing when it is not so yielded up to Him that He can take full possession of it and fill it. All must be given up to Him, because He alone can bring the all of God to its rightful supremacy within us.
The All of Surrender: It is because Christians are so ignorant of this requirement that all their praying and hearing avail so little. If you are really prepared to turn to God for the fullness of the Spirit and to have your heart purified and kept pure, then be assured that it is your blessed privilege to regard and deal with everything - everything that you have to strive for or do as given up to Him. The all of surrender will be the measure
of your experience of the all of Christ.
~Andrew Murray~
(continued with # 48 and last in article)
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