Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing. But Jesus on his part did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man. John 2: 23-25
This passage implies that Jesus was looking for people to whom he could entrust himself but, on that occasion, did not find any.
I’ve heard that while our Lord’s love is unconditional, we must “earn” His trust. How can we accomplish that? Through striving? Education? Studying scripture? Moral behavior? It’s not a matter of what we do. God will never trust a soul-dominated human, no matter how apparently good. That human may even have the moral standing of a Pharisee, even a respected teacher of Moses’ law like Nicodemus. The answer is always the same: “You must be born from above” (John 3:7). “You must…” It is a requirement.
We understand this new birth as our receiving an impartation of the life of Jesus Christ into our human spirit. Being born again is just the beginning of a mighty work of transformation, by which the life of Christ expands from the spirit to permeate the human soul: the mind, will and emotions. Christ Himself offers to do this work in us through the Holy Spirit. In the process we incrementally relinquish our self-centered claims in favor of Christ’s authority. The question then becomes, how much of Christ is there in us? How much of the soul’s territory has come under His banner, as opposed to what remains in the grip of the old nature? Only to that extent can He entrust Himself to us.
And how does He accomplish this transformation? The scripture uses metaphors for the process, including “the furnace of affliction” (Isaiah 48:10). T. Austin-Sparks describes it this way in chapter 2 of his book, The Essential Newness of the New Creation:
The furnace of affliction is for those who by faith are in Christ. What happens in the furnace of affliction? What is it that is dealt with in the fire? Is it you, and is it I, that are refined in the fire? Are you refined in the fire? Am I refined in the furnace of affliction? I say, No! emphatically NO!! If we say, “Yes!” well, let us look at the furnace of affliction, the fire with the metal in the crucible. What are you doing with that metal? Well, you say, you heat the fire intensely and all the uncleanness, the corruption, comes to the surface; this is skimmed off, and when that process has been carried through to its end, there is left pure gold! Then if you say that is you or that is me you will have to abandon your doctrine of total depravity, and you will have to come back to the place where you say there is good in us, after all! You will have to say there is good and bad in us, and the furnace of affliction is to get the badness out of us and leave the goodness! Is that true doctrine? No!
The furnace of affliction is not for the removal of the bad out of us so as to leave the good that is in us, and secure it! Then what is its purpose? Is it to refine Christ in us? We need not discuss that! Christ needs no refining! What is it for? It is to divide between what is us in fallen nature, and what is Christ, and to get rid of the one in order to give full place to the other! The furnace of affliction is the application of the Cross to the getting rid of you and me, in order to leave the whole place for Christ. It is the measure of Christ that God is after, not to cut in between the good and bad in us, but to cut in between what is Christ, and what is ourselves. That is what the Lord is doing. He is after increasing Christ, and in order to do that He has to displace self, the old creation. It is all the measure of Christ in this realm. The realm of God is not going to be refined self, reformed self, or any kind of patching up of self. It is going to be none of self, and all of Christ.
One of God’s intentions in creating humanity was to entrust to it the governance of the visible creation. Because of the fall He had to put that plan on hold. In Jesus Christ we now have an opportunity to undergo this mighty work of transformation, so that we can be people to whom He can entrust Himself.
&&&