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Spiritual Bankruptcy
Rather than something to avoid, it God's goal for us

by David A. DePra
 
     Have you ever felt as if you have reached a dead-end
spiritually? I mean, felt like you were utterly defeated; utterly
without resources? Christians often feel this way regarding sin,
bad emotional reactions, relationships, and personal obedience.
     The more we try to make ourselves obey what we think is the
standard for these things, the more we fail. Over the course of
time, it is easy to conclude that we are spiritual failures. It is
likewise easy to conclude that something is terribly wrong with our
relationship with Christ. Depression, condemnation, fear, and
confusion are often the results. And some even give away faith
altogether and classify Christianity as nothing more than another
creed which doesn't work.
     This is no small issue. Christians who have come to a spiritual
dead-end are often ripe for deception. They are seeking a way
out of their dilemma and discomfort. Too often there comes along
someone with what seems to be the answer. The "answer" usually
offers what such a person is seeking: Escape. But what escape
offers is always a substitute for what God really wants for the
believer: Spiritual bankrupcy. Spiritual nakedness. Nothingness.
     Today the Truth of the gospel has become so marred by
religious tradition and heresy that it is barely recognizable. We
have, to a degree, missed the Truth about what it means to be
found in Jesus Christ. Tradition suggests to us that to be found in
Christ means that we are spiritual success stories. We think we
have the power to obey God, and the right to be proud of it. We
are told that being a Christian means that we are saved and going
to heaven. All we need to do down here is live the kind of life
which witnesses to the world. Somehow the possibility of being a
spiritually bankrupt human being never enters into the equation.
To come to the place where we realize that we have no ability
whatsoever to please God remains a theory at best. Few people
seem to testify to the actual experience of it. Many would probably
tell you that such an experience cannot be of God.
     Ignorance of what it means to be found in Christ can result in
our blindly working at cross-purposes with God. When God
begins to strip us of all of our religiousity, and to expose us for
who we are, we will think that there is something wrong. We must
be falling away, we'll reason, for a "real Christian" would never
have such emptiness inside of them. Like Adam, we'll strive
to find some "fig leaves" we can use to cover our nakedness.
     The Truth is, when I come to conclusion that there is no
possibility that I can live up to God's expectations, there is NOT
something wrong. There is something right. When I have reached
a place where I am convinced -- not doctrinally -- but
experientially, that I am an utter failure as a Christian, it is not
cause to be depressed. It is cause to rejoice. And when I have
begun to see just how totally naked I am spiritually, and just how
spiritually bankrupt I am, it is not cause to run out and look for fig
leaves. It is cause to stand there naked before God and look up,
for my redemption is nigh. God has brought me to the place where
I can begin to function the way a Christian is supposed to
function: Resting in Christ alone, instead of in myself.
     The spiritual norm for a Christian is described by the phrase:
"When I am weak, then I am strong." But this is not to be merely a
slogan we use. It is not to become part of our vocabulary simply
because we want to say what God wants to hear. It is to be our
experience. We are actually supposed to BE weak. Yet because
our faith is in Christ, we are able to side-step, indeed, overcome
that weakness, by standing in the victory of Jesus Christ.
     Notice the description the apostle Paul gives of himself in
Romans 7:
"For that which I do, I don't want to do. For what I want to do, I
do not. But what I hate, that I do. If then I do that which I do not
want to do, I consent unto the law that it is good. Now then it is no
more I that do it, but sin that dwells in me. For I know that in me,
that is, in my flesh, dwells no good thing. For to will is present with
me. But how to perform that which is good, I can't find out. For
the good that I would do, I do not. But the evil which I don't want
to do, that I do.....Oh wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me
from this body of death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our
Lord. So then with my mind I myself serve the law of God. But
with my flesh, I serve the law of sin." (Romans 7:15-19, 25)
     Some teachers have suggested that Paul is here describing
himself BEFORE he overcame his sins and his doubts. But that is
not correct. Paul is describing himself as a believing son of God.
His description is given to us so that we might not think something
is wrong with us when we find ourselves in the same condition.
     Notice Paul's condition: He is an utter failure. He cannot do
what he wills to do, i.e., obey God. He can't even figure out HOW
to get by this impass. Indeed, in verse 25, Paul pictures himself as
being constantly plagued by "this body of death." The Greek
behind this term is revealing. Paul is describing himself as one
who has a corpse (body of death) hanging around his neck. He is
burdened by it; encumbered by it. It is keeping him from being
the person he desires to be. It is preventing him from doing what
he wants to do. It is so bad that he finally cries out, "Who will
deliver me from this body of death?!" Paul knows that he has no
power or possibility of delivering himself.
     That is spiritual bankruptcy. It is what it means to be weak; to
be totally convinced of your nakedness before God. And it is THE
place where we will make some of our most pivotal choices before
God.
     When we come to this terrible place, we must choose. We
must make the same choice Adam made: Either hide from God,
or stand before Him naked. We will either make for ourselves a
covering, or surrender our nakedness to God. And our choice is
not merely a one-time thing. It is a choice we must continue to
make and affirm through our standing in Christ by faith.
     If God left us standing there naked, that would be terrible. But
He doesn't. He says, "Yes, you are naked. There is nothing about
you that is good. All there isn't a thing you can do about it. I have
spent a great deal of time and effort bringing you to see this about
yourself. Now that you do, you are ready to really understand
what it means to receive the grace of God in Jesus Christ."
     No one embraces the grace of God unless they see their great
need. It is impossible to do so otherwise. Therefore God is busy
doing a great work of depletion and reduction; of exposure and
conviction by His Holy Spirit. He wants to bring us on to deeper
and deeper levels of spiritual grace and maturity.
     Unfortunately, many of us don't know this. We think we are
supposed to become "spiritual giants." To us, failure cannot be
option if we are "really" standing in Jesus Christ. So when God
begins to pull off my man-made fig leaves, I pull them right back
on. In ignorance, I resist the freedom God wants to bring. I try to
remain undisturbed and "in tact" religiously. Perhaps it is what I
have always been taught to do. Or perhaps any other
alternative seems too terrifying to me.
     What seems so scary at first, however, ends up being the
most freeing thing imaginable. When I stand before God
naked, I no longer have anything to hide. I have nothing
I can prove. Yet I don't stand there in despair. Nor in fear.
I stand full of hope because I realize my struggle and journey
is over. I have come home. I realize that everything always
depended on Jesus anyways. Now I can rest in that Truth.
     Go back to Paul's picture of the "body of death." We have
one of those hanging around our necks too. But as we go on
with God by faith, we pay less and less attention to it. We are
never free of it, but we aren't distracted by it. We fix our
attention upon Jesus Christ.
     Notice that the "body of death" isn't ALIVE. No. It really is
dead! But because we are still in this creation physically, it sure
does weigh alot. And it sure can stink. But we have to learn
how to walk with God despite it -- by faith. And if we do, the
burden and weight of it will actually end up building up our
spiritual muscles, rather than weigh us down!
     To walk with God by faith means that I don't use my
performance or anything else about me to judge whether I am
right with God. No. All of that is part of the "body of death." I
stand and walk in the finished work of Jesus Christ. I seek, not
to be "found in myself," -- that is, to stand on my own merits --
but to be "found in Him."
     To be found in Jesus Christ means that I no longer look at
myself and try to establish, from my performance or spiritual
traits, any sort of basis for righteousness. Indeed, my
righteousness has NOTHING to do with myself. It is
established completely APART from my merit. I am totally free
from the routine of taking my spiritual temperature and deciding
whether it can please God. I know -- and function like I know --
that every bit of righteousness I have, and every bit of standing
I have before God, is wholly reliant upon what Christ has done.
     Can we now see why God MUST reduce us to spiritual
bankruptcy? Can we now grasp why God MUST peel off our
religious fig leaves and expose us as spiritually naked? He
must because it is only then that we will finally see our need,
and STOP trying to do for ourselves what Christ HAS done.
     It is a spiritual principle of the kingdom: God cannot merely
tell us the Truth. We must experience the Truth. God cannot
merely tell us His will. We must BECOME His will. And if we
are to be "found in Him" -- not in theory, but really, then God
must do a work in us which will expose us as naked. That
won't be fun. But the result will be that we'll be found in Christ.
     To be "found in Jesus Christ" doesn't mean that I always
know where I am. No. It means that God knows where I am.
HE has found ME. It means that despite all of the difficulty that
our "body of death" may cause us, it is dead in Christ. And we
are alive as a new creation in Him..
     Isn't the Truth of God ironic? We've got it all backwards.
We strive to obey God and keep His law, and struggle to act
like a holy person. And we end up miserable failures. We
try to become righteous through works, and God tells us that
we must become righteous through faith alone, and then
the works will be there. Praise be to God, for it is through
the very failures which so tax us that God is able to bring us
to spiritual bankruptcy, and reveal in us the solution through
His Son. That makes all of the glory go to Himself.

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