Joyful loss of life

Before Jesus went to the cross He prayed to His Father with requests for His disciples, those at the time and those who would follow Him later . . . .

The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. (John 17:22–23)

Chambers uses these verses to sum up his thoughts on personality vs. individually and how unity among believers and Christ is a union of personality that cannot happen if we cling to our individuality.

First he describes personality as those qualities that make me distinct from everyone else. While I might assume I know my personality, it is like an island or an iceberg with hidden depths that only my Creator knows and understands.

Chambers also defines personality as the characteristic of a spiritual person. When I walk in the Spirit with God’s power and direction in my life, I am still ‘me’ but in relationship with God, I am yielded and united to Him.

In contrast, Chambers says the main characteristic of the natural person is individuality. This means that when I am not following God but my own ways and in my own strength, I’ve taken God’s place as director of my life and have fallen into sin. That is, I can walk with God as spiritual or walk away from God and live as I once did — as a ‘natural’ or sinful person who does not know God.

From these definitions and the above passage from Jesus’ prayer in John 17, Chambers says that oneness is about giving up my rights to myself so that God can make of me the full person that He intended.

That is, unity with God sets free my personality and because of that freedom, I am being transformed. I don’t cling to ‘me’ and can grow to maturity rather than being stifled and in bondage to sin. My personality is still ‘me’ but I am becoming more like Jesus. However, this process cannot happen without yielding my old life, my natural individuality. This helps me better understand verses like these:

For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. (Luke 9:24)

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)

The individuality dies so the personality can be made alive in Christ.

These thoughts also explain unity. Biblical unity is not that every Christian has the same understanding and beliefs about everything. Instead, our unity is in the fact that Christ by His Spirit lives in us and is transforming each of us into His likeness. As this happens, I do not lose my personality, but I do lose my sinful tendency to insist on my own rights and be my own boss. Rather, I am becoming like Him in attitude and nature, yet retaining the qualities that make ‘me’ a distinct personality from other Christians.

The natural person does not know the things of God and if a Christian reverts to that natural individuality, that relationship with God is hindered. This ‘self-reliance” must be confessed, put off, yielded to God and taken to the Cross to die. Resisting that process may allow my individuality to remain, but then my personality is stifled.

Yielding to Jesus and rejecting individuality is “losing my life for His sake” yet He saves my personality and makes it like His own. That is the death that produces life, abundant life in rich fellowship with Him and with others that are experiencing the same marvelous transformation!

Denying myself means finding myself

A Christian brother said something about his idiosyncrasies. It seemed to me that he was almost proud of being ‘different’ yet at the same time using that word as an excuse for not trusting God with some issues in his life. Since hearing him, I’ve been thinking about the difference between quirky personality traits and behaviors that are rooted in lack of faith.

For instance, personality is the child who dances to imaginary music without trying to impress anyone, or the clerk in the store that asks you how you are and really means it. From what I am reading, personality describes the real me — without any “I wants” attached. It is tied to non-sinful traits that make me different from others. One example is spiritual gifts. Those gifted in teaching love to collect information. Those gifted with compassion are usually hugging everyone.

On the other hand, individuality is tied to the natural person. It is who I am with my fleshy desires and traits. It is all about being my own person, calling for my rights, excusing my sins with, “This is just the way I am.” When considering these words of Jesus, a Christian needs to know the difference between personality and individuality.

Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” (Matthew 16:24–25).

Because individuality is confused with personality, and because individuality is held on to so dearly, this verse is often confusing and misunderstood. It is also often disobeyed.

Jesus did not ask me to stop being me. He wants my life saved, not destroyed. To do that, He asks me to take up my cross and die to my selfish and demanding nature. Then, when my individuality is gone, my true personality is free to emerge.

A few weeks ago someone taking care of her aging mother remarked that the woman’s feisty, controlling way of life was vanishing and she was becoming more compliant, softer, quieter. While taking care of her became easier, it was “hard to see her personality vanishing.” My response surprised both of us. I said, “Maybe what you are seeing now is her true personality.”
This agrees with what I’m reading today. Individuality is a mere husk surrounding and hindering the personal life. It is “all elbows” and awkward, with a tendency to separate and isolate. It is the “I want it now” characteristic of a spoiled child. The only way that a person’s true personal life may come out and be brought into fellowship with God is by dropping individuality, even putting it to death.

The reading goes so far as to say that individuality counterfeits personality as lust counterfeits love. God designed human nature for Himself; individuality debases human nature for itself because it is independent and self-assertive, hindering our spiritual life more than anything else. The one thing in me that refuses to be reconciled to another, even to God, is my individuality.

God wants to bring me into total union with Himself, but unless I am willing to give up my right to myself, He cannot. When Jesus said, “Let him deny himself” He meant to deny this independent right to myself, allowing the real life, the new life I have in Him, a chance to grow.

Sadly, confusing the two can be a way to avoid growth. If I should say about any of my individual (and self-centered) traits, “Oh, that is just the way I am,” then I am making an excuse for sin and thwarting the work of God in my life.

On the other hand, my personality, which makes me distinct from everyone else, is too much for me to understand. Others see it but I cannot evaluate it. This is for God who made me and is remaking me, just as seeing and getting rid of that sinful husk is also the work of God and the Holy Spirit.

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Lord, I started out this devotional time in frustration over others who assert their individuality and use it to excuse their sin. However, You turned my thoughts around and encourage me to examine myself. Am I doing the same thing? Whenever I make excuses for sin, or think that my sinful nature is just part of who I am, I have forgotten the great and precious promises that come with saving faith. You do love me ‘just as I am’ but You also love me too much to leave me that way. Thank God, thank God.