Dear BPCWA worshipper, Last week, we saw how the driver for us to walk as Christ must be love for God. When we do so, the result will be that our love for God will grow as we walk like Him. Walking as Christ walked is not an option for a Christian. We will cover the next 2 sermons in today’s pastoral, where we will learn 2 prerequisites for walking as Christ walked.

Consecration. Consecration is the first prerequisite to walking as Christ walked. 1Jo 2:2 tells us Christ “is the propitiation for our sins”. Christ’s propitiation is because the wrath of God was coming toward us. Christ stood in between us and God and deflected God’s wrath. To be our propitiation, Christ gave Himself completely to appease God’s wrath. Christ was fully consecrated to the Father’s will and purpose. If we are not fully consecrated, we will always struggle against walking as Christ walked. This is why God says that after salvation, we must “present” ourselves as a “living sacrifice” (Ro 12:1) to wholly do the will of the Father. The Old Testament atonement sacrifices pre-figuring Christ’s atonement were consecrated and sanctified (Ex 29:33). The consecration confirmed that it will be set aside for God. The same idea is presented when God says a city was cherem – it belonged totally to God and there was nothing that must be left for man to own. A burnt offering must be complete. To be complete, it had to be consecrated. God says in no uncertain terms, “Notwithstanding no devoted thing (cherem), that a man shall devote unto the LORD of all that he hath, both of man and beast, and of the field of his possession, shall be sold or redeemed: every devoted thing (cherem) is most holy unto the LORD” (Le 27:28). Consecration to God means we must abandon our will. When the self thinks about something contrary to God’s will, we must deny and not approve of that thing, because we are devoted only to doing God’s will. Denying self is the only remedy against unwillingness to walk as Christ walked. Consecration is not partial obedience. Anything incongruent with the Father’s will must be crucified. Only then can we devote ourselves to the Father’s will and purpose – our resources, time, and energy. When we are consecrated to God alone, we will persevere when the sacrifices become personal. We see how Paul was stoned almost to death, but “Howbeit, as the disciples stood round about him, he rose up, and came into the city: and the next day he departed with Barnabas to Derbe” (Ac 14:20). Paul continued to do God’s work and returned to the city where he was stoned. His life showed that “we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God” (Ac 14:22) if one is to walk as Christ walked. We must expect life to be difficult. Consecration is painful and will have personal costs and sacrifices. Christ was tired and suffered hunger, but still, He prayed through the night. Christ’s mind was “For the Lord GOD will help me; therefore shall I not be confounded: therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed” (Isa 50:7). A flint is a hard stone and that showed how Christ’s heart was dead set to do His Father’s will, unflinching in the face of the cross to be our propitiation. When you are faced with difficulties, will you flinch? Without the requirement of consecration, you will have an unstable love. With consecration, your heart will know the joy of being devoted to the Father’s will, as Christ knew. “Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Heb 12:2) reminds us that there is joy in total consecration. Without a commitment to consecration, it will be a miserable walk. Consecration requires faith and is the only walk a Christian should walk. Don’t listen to Satan’s lie that consecration is depressing life. Complete consecration is the walk where “your joy may be full” (1Jo 1:4). It is not a burden. It is a passion.

Humility. This is the 2^nd prerequisite to walking like Christ. Humility was in Christ’s heart to be our propitiation. “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus” (Php 2:5). Christ, Who is God, humbled Himself to become man. Humility is to accept someone telling you what to do and what to be. This is what devotion to someone else requires – just tell me who you want me to be, how far you want me to go, and I’ll forfeit all and put it at your feet. It takes humility to be what another person wants you to be. “Even as he walked” (1Jo 2:6) in utter humility towards the Father, so must we. Responding without arguing when being told to change our ways to walk like Christ requires humility. Even if I thought my walk was quite good, the standard is Christ’s standard. We don’t like to change, much less be told to change, because change means admitting that we’ve been wrong. Christ fully knows He was “equal with God” (Php 2:6) yet He had the deepest humility. Humble means to bring low, depress, and abase oneself to the lowest possible level. It is about being devoid of pride, and yield without a struggle. Christ took on a servanthood that was like a slave to the Father though He Himself is God. So, can we say we are not willing to make changes when we are but man? If we have humility, consecration won’t be a problem. In this sense, humility is the prerequisite for consecration. To have Christ’s humility, how we think must be like Christ. Christ submitted to the Trinity’s order to obey the Father’s will. Christ did not plead and argue with Father and resist being our propitiation but set His face as a flint to go to be abused, humiliated, spat upon, slapped, and crucified as if He was a criminal. How much more important it is for us to obey and submit fully to God since I am a sinner? We see another aspect of Christ’s humility when “Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered” (Heb 5:8). Christ didn’t say “I am God, I don’t need to learn”. The universe and the sun obey Christ’s command perfectly every day. Despite that, the young Christ was “in the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them, and asking them questions” (Lu 2:46). He wasn’t there only to question them, but to learn as well. Every child goes through learning and so must Christ as 100 percent man. What should be our mentality toward the Word if Christ sits at the feet of human doctors? Can I just self-learn without coming to church to be taught? Do I feel I am as able as the pastor in the Word and so don’t need to attend and learn? If parents have such a mentality, the children will take it to the next level. Be willing to learn a new area where I’m not walking or not obeying sufficiently. We must have the humility to keep learning, relearning, and being reminded of areas in which we have been obeying but can obey better as we learn. I do so because I want to walk even more closely to how Christ walked. Conversely, the proud won’t see or hear even if God keeps correcting them. One test of humility is how you feel when you are corrected, especially by someone you do not like. Before I can have “the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary”, I must first be humble to listen to God Who “wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned” (Isa 50:4). Even the learned must still learn. Denying self requires humility to change how we think and respond. We must have an “SOS” walk – Submit to God totally, Obey quickly, and Sacrifice anything willingly. We must be humble enough to receive godly advice even if we don’t like it. Another aspect of submission we must learn is submitting to what God intended for our life on earth and in heaven. Christ “hath no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him” (Isa 53:2). He would be “despised and rejected of men . . . he was despised, and we esteemed him not” (Isa 53:3). In the incarnation of Christ, this unattractive body would be Christ’s physical body for eternity, which the Father chose for Him. Looks fan and builds pride. How will you accept a permanent change in your life of how you look or how you spend your days? Total consecration is required in every aspect and age of your life. Even now in heaven, Christ “liveth unto God” (Ro 6:10) and “also maketh intercession for us” (Ro 8:34). If God so calls you into His full-time service, will you change your life forever? The will of the Father is most glorious. To walk as Christ walked, we must despise what man would consider as the “shame” (Heb 12:2) of whatever God calls us to. It is not shameful to walk as Christ walked.

Php 2:8   And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

Yours in our Lord’s service,
Pastor