“I always do that which is pleasing to Him”: (John 8:29).
This is how God the Son laid aside His divine power and majesty; by yielding it up to the Father and only doing and saying those things that the Father directed Him to do and say. Paul too, could say that He spoke not to please men, but God (1 Thessalonians 2:4).
This is what the believer is also called to; this is how we “take up our cross and follow Him”; it is the cross upon which our self-realization must be utterly broken; only after that takes place can we truly say that we have been crucified with Christ, and only then can we begin to live the resurrection life. This self-breaking is something we have to do by our own hand; God will not do it for us; He may bring me to the point of breaking many times, but it is up to me to allow it to break self.
It means breaking the hard shell of my independent individuality, and liberating my personality from self, so that it can be one with Christ Jesus. That can only happen when we come to the realization that this is what God demands; it is the very kernel of sanctification “without which no-one will see the Lord” (Hebrews 12:14).
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