The Pursuit of God
by A.W. Tozer
Chapter 8 : Restoring the
Creator-Creature Relation
Be Thou exalted, O God, above the heavens; let
thy glory be above all the earth. Psa_57:5
It is a truism to say that order in nature depends
upon right relationships; to achieve harmony each thing must be in its proper
position relative to each other thing. In human life it is not otherwise.
I have hinted before in these chapters that the
cause of all our human miseries is a radical moral dislocation, an upset in our
relation to God and to each other. For whatever else the Fall may have been, it
was most certainly a sharp change in man's relation to his Creator. He adopted
toward God an altered attitude, and by so doing destroyed the proper
Creator-creature relation in which, unknown to him, his true happiness lay.
Essentially salvation is the restoration of a right relation between man and
his Creator, a bringing back to normal of the Creator-creature relation.
A satisfactory spiritual life will begin with a
complete change in relation between God and the sinner; not a judicial change
merely, but a conscious and experienced change affecting the sinner's whole
nature. The atonement in Jesus' blood makes such a change judicially possible and
the working of the Holy Spirit makes it emotionally satisfying.
The story of the prodigal son perfectly
illustrates this latter phase. He had brought a world of trouble upon himself
by forsaking the position which he had properly held as son of his father. At
bottom his restoration was nothing more than a re-establishing of the father-
son relation which had existed from his birth and had been altered temporarily
by his act of sinful rebellion. This story overlooks the legal aspects of
redemption, but it makes beautifully clear the experiential aspects of
salvation.
In determining relationships we must begin
somewhere. There must be somewhere a fixed center against which everything else
is measured, where the law of relativity does not enter and we can say 'is'
and make no allowances. Such a center is God. When God would make His Name
known to mankind He could find no better word than 'I am'. When He
speaks in the first person He says, 'I am'; when we speak of Him we say
'He is'; when we speak to Him we say, 'Thou art.' Everyone and everything else
measures from that fixed point. 'I am that I am,' says God, 'I change not.'
As the sailor locates his position on the sea by
'shooting' the sun, so we may get our moral bearings by looking at God. We must
begin with God. We are right when and only when we stand in a right position
relative to God, and we are wrong so far and so long as we stand in any other
position.
Much of our difficulty as seeking Christians
stems from our unwillingness to take God as He is and adjust our lives
accordingly. We insist upon trying to modify Him and to bring Him nearer to our
own image. The flesh whimpers against the rigor of God's inexorable sentence
and begs like Agag for a little mercy, a little indulgence of its carnal ways.
It is no use. We can get a right start only by accepting God as He is and
learning to love Him for what He is. As we go on to know Him better we shall
find it a source of unspeakable joy that God is just what He is. Some of the
most rapturous moments we know will be those we spend in reverent admiration of
the Godhead. In those holy moments the very thought of change in Him will be
too painful to endure.
So let us begin with God. Back of all, above all,
before all is God; first in sequential order, above in rank and station,
exalted in dignity and honor. As the self-existent One He gave being to all
things, and all things exist out of and for Him. 'Thou art worthy, O Lord,
to receive glory and honour and power: for Thou hast created all things, and
for thy pleasure they are and were created.' (Rev_4:11)
Every soul belongs to God and exists by His
pleasure. God being Who and What He is, and we being who and what we are, the
only thinkable relation between us is one of full lordship on His part and
complete submission on ours. We owe Him every honor that it is in our power to
give Him. Our everlasting grief lies in giving Him anything less.
The pursuit of God will embrace the labor of
bringing our total personality into conformity to His. And this not judicially,
but actually. I do not here refer to the act of justification by faith in
Christ. I speak of a voluntary exalting of God to His proper station over us
and a willing surrender of our whole being to the place of worshipful
submission which the Creator-creature circumstance makes proper.
The moment we make up our minds that we are going
on with this determination to exalt God over all we step out of the world's
parade. We shall find ourselves out of adjustment to the ways of the world, and
increasingly so as we make progress in the holy way. We shall acquire a new
viewpoint; a new and different psychology will be formed within us; a new power
will begin to surprise us by its upsurgings and its outgoings.
Our break with the world will be the direct outcome
of our changed relation to God. For the world of fallen men does not honor God.
Millions call themselves by His Name, it is true, and pay some token respect to
Him, but a simple test will show how little He is really honored among them.
Let the average man be put to the proof on the question of who is above,
and his true position will be exposed. Let him be forced into making a choice
between God and money, between God and men, between God and personal ambition,
God and self, God and human love, and God will take second place every time.
Those other things will be exalted above. However the man may protest, the
proof is in the choices he makes day after day throughout his life.
'Be thou exalted' is
the language of victorious spiritual experience. It is a little key to unlock
the door to great treasures of grace. It is central in the life of God in the
soul. Let the seeking man reach a place where life and lips join to say
continually 'Be thou exalted,' and a thousand minor problems will be solved at
once. His Christian life ceases to be the complicated thing it had been before
and becomes the very essence of simplicity. By the exercise of his will he has
set his course, and on that course he will stay as if guided by an automatic
pilot. If blown off course for a moment by some adverse wind he will surely
return again as by a secret bent of the soul. The hidden motions of the Spirit
are working in his favor, and 'the stars in their courses' fight for him. He
has met his life problem at its center, and everything else must follow along.
Let no one imagine that he will lose anything of
human dignity by this voluntary sell-out of his all to his God. He does not by
this degrade himself as a man; rather he finds his right place of high honor as
one made in the image of his Creator. His deep disgrace lay in his moral
derangement, his unnatural usurpation of the place of God. His honor will be
proved by restoring again that stolen throne. In exalting God over all he finds
his own highest honor upheld.
Anyone who might feel reluctant to surrender his
will to the will of another should remember Jesus' words, 'Whosoever
committeth sin is the servant of sin.' We must of necessity be servant to
someone, either to God or to sin. The sinner prides himself on his independence,
completely overlooking the fact that he is the weak slave of the sins that rule
his members. The man who surrenders to Christ exchanges a cruel slave driver
for a kind and gentle Master whose yoke is easy and whose burden is light.
Made as we were in the image of God we scarcely
find it strange to take again our God as our All. God was our original habitat
and our hearts cannot but feel at home when they enter again that ancient and
beautiful abode. I hope it is clear that there is a logic behind God's claim to
pre-eminence. That place is His by every right in earth or heaven. While we
take to ourselves the place that is His the whole course of our lives is out of
joint. Nothing will or can restore order till our hearts make the great
decision: God shall be exalted above.
'Them that honour me I will honour,'
said God once to a priest of Israel, and that ancient law of the Kingdom stands
today unchanged by the passing of time or the changes of dispensation. The
whole Bible and every page of history proclaim the perpetuation of that law. 'If
any man serve me, him will my Father honour,' said our Lord Jesus, tying in
the old with the new and revealing the essential unity of His ways with men.
Sometimes the best way to see a thing is to look at its opposite. Eli and his
sons are placed in the priesthood with the stipulation that they honor God in
their lives and ministrations. This they fail to do, and God sends Samuel to
announce the consequences. Unknown to Eli this law of reciprocal honor has been
all the while secretly working, and now the time has come for judgment to
fall. Hophni and Phineas, the degenerate
priests, fall in battle, the wife of Hophni dies in childbirth,
Now set over against this almost any Bible
character who honestly tried to glorify God in his earthly walk. See how God
winked at weaknesses and overlooked failures as He poured upon His servants
grace and blessing untold. Let it be Abraham, Jacob, David, Daniel, Elijah or
whom you will; honor followed honor as harvest the seed. The man of God set his
heart to exalt God above all; God accepted his intention as fact and acted
accordingly. Not perfection, but holy intention made the difference.
In our Lord Jesus Christ this law was seen in
simple perfection. In His lowly manhood He humbled Himself and gladly gave all
glory to His Father in heaven. He sought not His own honor, but the honor of
God who sent Him. 'If I honour myself,' He said on one occasion, 'my
honour is nothing; it is my Father that honoureth me.' (Joh_8:54) So far had the proud Pharisees
departed from this law that they could not understand one who honored God at
his own expense. 'I honour my Father,' said Jesus to them, 'and ye do
dishonour me.'
Another saying of Jesus, and a most disturbing
one, was put in the form of a question, 'How can ye believe, which receive
honour one of another, and seek not the honour that cometh from God alone?'
(Joh_5:44) If I understand this
correctly Christ taught here the alarming doctrine that the desire for honor
among men made belief impossible. Is this sin at the root of religious unbelief?
Could it be that those 'intellectual difficulties' which men blame for their
inability to believe are but smoke screens to conceal the real cause that lies
behind them? Was it this greedy desire for honor from man that made men into
Pharisees and Pharisees into Deicides? Is this the secret back of religious
self-righteousness and empty worship? I believe it may be. Who will make the
once-for-all decision to exalt Him over all? Such are these precious to God
above all treasures of earth or sea. In them God finds a theater where He can
display His exceeding kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. With them God can
walk unhindered, toward them He can act like the God He is.
In speaking thus I have one fear; it is that I
may convince the mind before God can win the heart. For this God-above-all
position is one not easy to take. The mind may approve it while not having the
consent of the will to put it into effect. While the imagination races ahead to
honor God, the will may lag behind and the man never guess how divided his
heart is. The whole man must make the decision before the heart can know any
real satisfaction. God wants us all, and He will not rest till He gets us all.
No part of the man will do.
Let us pray over this in detail, throwing ourselves
at God's feet and meaning everything we say. No one who prays thus in sincerity
need wait long for tokens of divine acceptance. God will unveil His glory
before His servant's eyes, and He will place all His treasures at the disposal
of such a one, for He knows that His honor is safe in such consecrated hands.
O God, be thou exalted over my possessions.
Nothing of earth's treasures shall seem dear unto me if only Thou art glorified
in my life. Be Thou exalted over my friendships. I am determined that Thou
shalt be above all, though I must stand deserted and alone in the midst of the
earth. Be Thou exalted above my comforts. Though it mean the loss of bodily
comforts and the carrying of heavy crosses I shall keep my vow made this day
before Thee. Be Thou exalted over my reputation. Make me ambitious to please
Thee even if as a result I must sink into obscurity and my name be forgotten as
a dream. Rise, O Lord, into Thy proper place of honor, above my ambitions,
above my likes and dislikes, above my family, my health and even my life
itself. Let me decrease that Thou mayest increase, let me sink that Thou mayest
rise above. Ride forth upon me as Thou didst ride into Jerusalem mounted upon
the humble little beast, a colt, the foal of an ass, and let me hear the
children cry to Thee, 'Hosanna in the highest.'
In Jesus name, Amen.