A. W. Tozer:Man - The Dwelling Place of God.

On Taking Too Much for Granted

ONCE MARY AND JOSEPH, with a number of friends and relatives, were traveling
back home from Jerusalem and, supposing the young Jesus to be in the company,
went a whole day's journey before discovering that He had been left behind.
Their fault was that they assumed that what they wanted to believe was so in
fact. They took too much for granted. A simple check at the start of the journey
would have saved them a harrowing experience of fear and uncertainty and two
days' unnecessary travel.
Theirs was a pardonable fault and one that we ourselves are in great danger of
committing. The whole company of evangelicals is traveling home supposing
things, some of which may not be true. We had better check before we go any
further. Our failure to do so could have more serious consequences than those
suffered by Mary and Joseph. It could lead straight to tragedy.
There is danger that we take Christ for granted. We "suppose" that because we
hold New Testament beliefs we are therefore New Testament Christians; but it
does not follow. The devil is a better theologian than any of us and is a devil
still.
We may, for instance, assume that salvation is possible without repentance.
Pardon without penitence is a delusion which simple honesty requires that we
expose for what it is. To be forgiven, a sin must be forsaken. This accords with

the Scriptures, with common logic and with the experience of the saints of all
ages.
We are also in danger of assuming the value of religion without righteousness.
Through the various media of public communication we are being pressured into
believing that religion 'is little more than a beautiful thing capable of
bringing courage and peace of mind to a troubled world. Let us resist this
effort at brainwashing. The purpose of Christ's redeeming work was to make it
possible for bad men to become gooddeeply, radically and finally. God translates
men out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of the Son of His love. To
believe that such translated men must still dwell in darkness is a reflection on
the blood of Christ and the wisdom of God.
In spite of all that James said to the contrary, we are still likely to take for
granted that faith without works does somehow have a mystic value after all. But
"faith worketh by love," said Paul, and where the works of love are absent we
can only conclude that faith is absent also. Faith in faith has displaced faith
in God in too many places.
A whole new generation of Christians has come up believing that it is possible
to "accept" Christ without forsaking the world. But what saith the Holy Ghost?
"Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is
enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy
of God" (James 4:4), and "If any man love the world, the love of the Father is
not in him" (I John 2:15) . This requires no comment, only obedience.
We may also erroneously assume that we can experience justification without
transformation. Justification and regeneration are not the same; they may be
thought apart in theology but they can never be experienced apart in fact. When
God declares a man righteous He instantly sets about to make him righteous. Our
error today is that we do not expect a converted man to be a transformed man,
and as a result of this error our churches are full of substandard Christians. A
revival is among other things a return to the belief that real faith invariably
produces holiness of heart and righteousness of life.
Again, we may go astray by assuming that we can do spiritual work without
spiritual power. I have heard the notion seriously advanced that whereas once to
win men to Christ it was necessary to have a gift from the Holy Spirit, now
religious movies make it possible for anyone to win souls, without such
spiritual anointing! "Whom the gods would destroy they first make mad." Surely
such a notion is madness, but until now I have not heard it challenged among the
evangelicals.
David Brainerd once compared a man without the power of the Spirit trying to do
spiritual work to a workman without fingers attempting to do manual labor. The
figure is striking but it does not overstate the facts. The Holy Spirit is not a
luxury meant to make deluxe Christians, as an illuminated frontispiece and a
leather binding make a deluxe book. The Spirit is an imperative necessity. Only
the Eternal Spirit can do eternal deeds.
Without exhausting the list of things wrongly taken for granted I would mention
one more: Millions take for granted that it is possible to live for Christ
without first having died with Christ. This is a serious error and we dare not
leave it unchallenged.
The victorious Christian has known two lives. The first was his life in Adam
which was motivated by the carnal mind and can never please God in any way. It
can never be converted; it can only die (Rom. 8:5-8).
The second life of the Christian is his new life in Christ (Rom. 6:114). To live

a Christian life with the life of Adam is wholly impossible. Yet multitudes take
for granted that it can be done and go on year after year in defeat. And worst
of all they accept this half-dead condition as normal.
For our own soul's sake, let's not take too much for granted.
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