11/03/2026 – “A bond servant of Jesus” / “I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.” Galatians 2:20
“These words mean breaking my independence with my own hand and surrendering myself to the supremacy of the Lord Jesus Christ. No one else can do this for me; I must do it myself. God may bring me to the point of surrender three hundred sixty-five times a year, but he can’t push me through. Surrender means breaking the shell of my individual independence from God. It means the emancipation of my personality into oneness with him—not for any agenda of my own, but for absolute loyalty to Jesus. Very few of us know anything about this kind of loyalty. “Whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel . . .” (Mark 8:35): that is what makes an iron saint.
Has the break with my independence come? The one thing I must decide is, Will I give up? Will I surrender to Jesus Christ, making no conditions? I must be broken of the desire for self-realization. Once this point is reached, supernatural identification with my Lord takes place immediately, and the witness of the Spirit of God within me is unmistakable: “I have been crucified with Christ.”
The passion of Christianity is that I deliberately sign away my rights and become a bond servant of Jesus Christ. Until I do that, I cannot begin to be a saint. When I have done it, God is able to help himself to my life. Will I let him? Or do I have my own ideas of what I’m going to be?”
WISDOM FROM OSWALD
Jesus Christ reveals, not an embarrassed God, not a confused God, not a God who stands apart from the problems, but One who stands in the thick of the whole thing with man.
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Soli Deo Gloria!
“For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life because of Me and the gospel will save it. For what does it benefit a man to gain the whole world yet lose his life? What can a man give in exchange for his life? For whoever is ashamed of Me and of My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of him when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.” Mark 8:35-38. (See also: Luke 9:24 and Matthew 16:25)
This is what we call “born again” in Christ. See Nicodemus’ visit to Jesus at night – John Chapter 3. “Born again” is also a paradox, is it not?, just as our bible verses: Mark 8:35-38. It makes no sense in terms of the world, just as it didn’t to Nicodemus, but it rings absolute Truth in terms of His kingdom, and what the LORD desires for us personally.
Interesting note: John notes in John 20:39 that Nicodemus, along with Joseph of Arimathea were the two men that buried Jesus in the tomb. Does that not at least suggest that Nicodemus was a believer at that point? Born again / Saved! by the grace of the Holy Spirit!
I encourage y’all to read John Gill’s commentary on these verses, link below. Just toggle down to verse 35 to the bottom of the Mark 8 screen and read these last four verses. I will be using this “studylight.org” sight extensively when we go through the read through the bible in 365 days. (Semikkah7 plan in the blog) The commentators all embrace a belief that the Bible is the infallible Word of God. But over the course of the year, each of us will find our own favorites going forward. The point is to understand the context of what we are reading and praying over, in order to enrich our devotional time all the more. Here is our commentary detailed link that takes us to John Gill’s commentary – Mark – Chapter 8:
https://www.studylight.org/commentaries/eng/geb/mark-8.html
Thoughts? / Reflections? / Questions for fellowship?