June 22

“But far be it from me to glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world hath been crucified unto me.” Galatians 6:14

When God comes to you and me with the revelation of the finished work of Christ, he does not only show us ourselves crucified with Christ on the cross. He shows us our world there too. If you and I cannot escape the judgment of the cross, then neither can the world escape that judgment. When I see this, I do not try to repudiate a world I love; I see that the cross has repudiated it. I do not try to escape a world that clings to me; I see that by the cross I have escaped.

Let me ask you: What is your occupation? A merchant? A doctor? A farmer? Do not run away from these callings. Physical separation from the world does not bring about spiritual separation; and the reverse is also true, that physical contact with the world does not necessitate spiritual capture by the world.

Eden was a garden without an artificial wall to keep Satan out. God intended that Adam and Eve should “guard it” by themselves constituting a moral barrier to the enemy. Today, through Christ, God plans in the hearts of his redeemed people an Eden in which, in triumphant fact, Satan will at last have no moral access whatever.