20.2 Commitment
© 2017 Christ Revealed Bible Institute
The word commitment is from the Latin. If you gave a literal definition to its parts it would mean – the state or condition of being sent together. The Greek word for the same thing, that is for the Latin/English root mit/mis, becomes the English “apostle.”
Commitment is the missing piece; that is, commitment is the necessary ingredient, a fact I’ve known all along, but have chosen to leave entirely on the shelf of God. It was the act of commitment over which Sam Fife and Preston Eby parted ways, a fact that can be ascertained when you know each was speaking of the other, but never by name. Both were right and both were wrong.
To the Body of Christ
When Sam Fife preached commitment to the Body of Christ, Preston Eby drew back. You will not find such a word anywhere in Eby’s writing. Preston Eby was wrong, and Sam Fife was right. And yet Sam Fife’s definition of commitment was a mixture of truth and awfulness. And thus Preston Eby was right to draw back from such practice. Commitment to the group will always replace Christ.
Yet you and I will not be a part of the revelation of Jesus Christ without commitment, not just to Christ, not just to one another, but to this entity called the Body of Christ, all those of God’s elect through whom Christ is revealing Himself.
Christ Is a Many-Membered Body
If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen (1 John 4:20)?
Let’s change that slightly to mean the same thing. If someone says, “I am committed to God,” but is not committed to other believers in Jesus, he is a liar; for he who is not committed to those with whom he walks, cannot be committed to a God who cannot be seen.
Commitment to “Christ,” especially to those of us who walk in the knowledge of Christ as us, in the end, becomes little more than a commitment to self. Yet Christ is a many-membered Body, as Paul said.
Defining Commitment
Commitment (Webster’s 1926): 1. Act of committing or putting in charge, keeping, or trust; state of being committed; consignment. 2. Law. A warrant for imprisonment. 4. Act of doing or performing something. 5. A promise or pledge to do something; an engagement.
To commit one’s self utterly to Christ in His body is to bind one’s self to the service of Christ towards His people. It is to live in the essence of Jesus: “I am here for you.” Yet this commitment is a commitment FOR, not a commitment TO. To commit “to” is to place one’s self under the manipulation of others. To commit FOR is to serve as Christ Himself, in complete freedom, yet utterly for others.
Separating Calvinism and Christ
There is a good reason why I have avoided the topic of commitment as well as the much deeper “commission,” which I have placed in the session “Authority Is Now Come.” The divide between Calvinism and Christ had to become sharply clear for me.
Inside the arena of commitment and authority, the fine root hairs of Christ and the fine root hairs of the evil one are so intertwined and enmeshed, so grown together, that separating between the two must be the most exhaustive operation upon which any gardener/surgeon could engage. Only now do I have the confidence to begin that operation. And the distinction is based entirely on the definition of “God.”
The Absence of Jesus
Suddenly, there is an up-surge of “Friend requests” on Facebook again. And as I make the decision to confirm or dismiss, I am looking across the entire range of Christian expression in the English-speaking world. The absence of the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ is simply staggering. So much talk about God and about the Bible and about “Christian” doctrine. Yet Jesus Himself, living in us and we in Him, is just not there.
Yet I do see Him – in the gentle expressions of love that I do come across now and then.
Everyone is looking at God through the lens of the serpent; few even know that we should see God by the lens of the Human Jesus, or, when He is mentioned, it is only in support of the law.
A Multiple Choice Test
Here is a multiple choice test; pick A or B.
A. The Son of Man is come to rule over all wayward and loathsome humans.
B. The Son of Man is come to seek and to save what is lost.
I would guess that 9 out of 10 pick choice A, including most of those who call themselves “evangelists” and present pictures of themselves posing as the “man” or “woman of God,” before the people (– if they were struck momentarily with honesty). And to most, COMMITMENT is for an increase in righteousness, which can be only self-righteousness. You and I cannot increase our righteousness, for it is the righteousness of God in Christ our only life.
Not “To” Christ
I have heard one boast to me that they had committed themselves to the same one community of Christ for 35 years (unlike myself who had lived at a number of communities and now was no longer in “the move”). In this person’s eyes, I saw only a desperate desire to increase righteousness against hope and under the demands of an implacable God. Jesus, Savior and Salvation, was not in view.
Our commitment is NOT a commitment to Christ, but the commitment of Christ. It is He, yet it is us. Those who are committed to Christ WILL fail Him. Those who are the commitment of Christ are faithful and true, for even their continual mistakes, He turns to goodness.
Christ Now As Us
I have stated a number of times that we are seized in the grip of the most passionate Being in the universe, who has set Himself to pour Himself out again through us for the sake of His Beloved. Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world (1 John 4:17). Christ Himself, now as us.
AS HE IS absolute intensity, utterly poured out for others, so are we in this present age. AS HE IS totally committed to seeking and saving what is lost, to bringing to Father all that belongs, so are we in this age. And AS HE IS the husband to His Bride, the church, so are we in this present age. It’s not us, it’s Jesus, yet it is us, yet it is He.
The Commitment of Calvinism
The commitment of Calvinism, that is, seeing God separately from the Human Jesus, now our only life, goes like this. “God has commissioned me to do this great work. Now, God expects you to commit yourself to supporting this great work in which I am engaged, and to commit yourself to that group of people who are supporting this great work. So long as you remain committed, God will bless you, but if you should pull back and go elsewhere, God’s anger will be against you and awful things will happen in your life.”
The Commitment of Christ
The commitment of Christ goes like this. Owe no man anything except to love one another (on the one hand) and “Christ who is the only life I am loves you with a pure heart fervently” (on the other hand).
I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep. – I lay down My life for the sheep. And other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring (John 10: 11 & 15b-16a). Do you see the heart of Jesus that we possess as our own? Our commitment is to ALL who belong to Jesus. Yes, that commitment is expressed to whoever of His own ones are in our immediate presence, but that commitment is never limited.
A Commitment of Faith
The commitment of the evil one in the church is a commitment of one’s old creation self to whatever “vicar” has taken the place of an absent Jesus in our lives and to all those in the vicar’s group. And “vicar” can be pope or pastor or apostle or “father ministry.” It’s all the same absence of Jesus.
The commitment of Christ is Jesus Himself, revealed now as us, the revelation of Jesus Christ. It is not a commitment of outward perfection, but of faith, the faith of the Son of God, always turning what appears to be “mistakes” into the path of goodness. Yet it is the commitment of Christ to all who belong to Him.
I Am Committed to You
When I look inside myself today, I see Jesus for REAL in Person, utterly committed to you. Yet I also see that commitment as the very same commitment wrought inside of me when I was twenty-one years old. Back then, the commitment was covered over with barnacles and crust. Today it is clear and bright as a diamond.
I can say that, for now I know that my commitment is Jesus Himself towards you, and I know that He does all things well. Jesus is absolutely committed to you; therefore, I also am absolutely committed to you. Jesus lays down His life every moment for you; therefore, I also lay down my life every moment for you.
From Heart to Mouth to Eyes to Hand
But our commitment to one another as the Body of Christ, the commitment of Jesus as us, cannot remain only in our hearts. The word is near you, even in your heart and in your mouth, this word of faith that we preach (Romans 10).
That commitment must arise out of our heart to pass through our mouth before we see all things through the utter devotion of Jesus to His Jerusalem, to all those whose hearts the Father has given to Him, regardless of their present state, and to one another as Christ with Christ. And now dwelling in our eyes, that commitment, always arising from our own hearts, now flows into our hands to become our actions and our way of life.
Speak Your Commitment
My Father, I, Daniel Yordy (say your own name), commit myself utterly to You as the Lord Jesus Christ, that You might be glorified through me. Father, I commit myself as the revelation of Jesus Christ towards all of Your purposes and intentions in this world.
Father, I commit myself without reservation or holding back, as the Lord Jesus, to pour out my life for the sake, first, of those who walk with me as Your Body, as we share life together as the expression of Jesus. And Father, I commit myself without reservation or holding back, as the Lord Jesus, and together with my close brethren, to pour out our lives for the sake of all whom You have given to Jesus, and thus to us.
For Your Sake, Oh Father
My Father, I, Daniel Yordy , commit myself utterly to the fellowship of Christ in Community, to my brethren, walking together in all of life and in all love.
Father, I commit myself, as Christ Himself, to the full expression of Your Body, utterly together as one in all things. Father, I commit myself, as the revelation of Jesus, to loving my brothers and sisters in all practical outward expression, as the joy of my own heart leads. Father, I commit myself, as Your own Heart, for the sake of Christian Community, the true and full witness of Jesus Christ in all of heaven/earth.
For Your sake, Oh Father, I am Your Body, one Pperson with You; be Yourself through me. (And He answers, “I AM.”)