“The Samaritan woman said to him, ‘How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?’ (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, ‘If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.’”(John 4:10, ESV).

And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read. And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written,

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives
and recovering of sight to the blind,
to set at liberty those who are oppressed,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.’

And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” (Luke 4:20)

We are Prisoners

God’s people are living in secret prisons. They are oppressed and blind. Jesus is speaking to us. He is speaking liberty to the captives. We are captives of our own darkness: our fears and insecurities, our wants and dreams and expectations. Much of the modern Church is weak in itself, but this is not an obstacle, nor is it even the source of their problems or ineffectiveness.

Our real problem is that we act from ourselves and so we have no power because there is no power in ourselves. When our fears or our ambitions are driving us, we are without His power. We live in poverty of the soul, even if we may be rich by the world’s definitions of riches: money, power, status or love.

“And as he was setting out on his journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘Do not murder, Do not commit adultery, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Do not defraud, Honor your father and mother.’” And he said to him, “Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth.” And Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him, “You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” Disheartened by the saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.

And Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How difficult it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” And the disciples were amazed at his words. But Jesus said to them again, “Children, how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” And they were exceedingly astonished, and said to him, “Then who can be saved?” Jesus looked at them and said, “With man it is impossible, but not with God. For all things are possible with God.”

The Secret Motives of the Heart

If we only knew that our secret (or perhaps not so secret) love for these things is robbing us of the true riches in Christ. This is, indeed, very tragic, but there is good news. He waits at the door ready to cleanse us from these things so that we can inherit that which is infinitely greater.  He, alone, can provide us with His sufficiency, His abundance!

We do not understand that He is unlimited in power. Why is our power so pathetic?

”Now they had forgotten to bring bread, and they had only one loaf with them in the boat.  And he cautioned them, saying, ‘Watch out; beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and the leaven of Herod.’ And they began discussing with one another the fact that they had no bread.  And Jesus, aware of this, said to them, ‘Why are you discussing the fact that you have no bread? Do you not yet perceive or understand? Are your hearts hardened?  Having eyes do you not see, and having ears do you not hear? And do you not remember?  When I broke the five loaves for the five thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?’ They said to him, “Twelve.’  ‘And the seven for the four thousand, how many baskets full of broken pieces did you take up?’ And they said to him, ‘Seven.’  And he said to them, ‘Do you not yet understand?'” (Mark 8:14-21, ESV).

In Luke we read,

In the meantime, when so many thousands of the people had gathered together that they were trampling one another, he began to say to his disciples first, “’Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. Nothing is covered up that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known “ (Luke 12:1-2, ESV).

In other words, your limitations are irrelevant. His power is sufficient for all things, but it can only work within the framework of the righteous will of God. If we are the authors of our own behavior, it is dead to God.

But why is the leaven of the teaching of the Pharisee’s hypocrisy? It is hypocrisy because the Pharisees taught that our requirement to God was, at its essence, an outward compliance with the law and the commandments of God.

Where is Our Hope Placed?

If we hope in our own righteousness, we have no hope at all. If we place our confidence in our own capacity to perform, we are placing our hope where it cannot be rewarded by God.

On the other hand, if we transfer our hope from ourselves to place all our hope in Christ’s death, then we qualify to inherit the kingdom of God. However, we must be aware that this hope must be uncontaminated by the hope in self, it must be pure. If we try to mix it with hope in self, we nullify its power because we have defiled His holy and perfect offering for us. God is light, and in Him, there is no darkness at all. He does not fellowship with our lies (1 John 1:5-7).

Without our hope being pure and undefiled, we are inescapably left with relying on self, even if our wish is to be motivated and helped by God. Thus, we are left to be motivated by the natural self. That which originates in the self can never be truly clean nor accomplish the will of God, regardless of how good our intentions are. Many of the Pharisees, including Paul, prior to his conversion, were well-intended (Philippians 3:6). We cannot produce real righteousness on our own.

From Above

But if our righteousness comes from the living God, we are in the will of God, then there is no limitation because He has no limitation. It is an operation of faith which is from hearing Him speak directly into our hearts by the Holy Spirit. “Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of Christ”  (Romans 10:17, NASB). It always begins with the word of the cross which produces the death of self so that Christ may be manifested in us. That is why James said,

“Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers.  Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change” (James 1:17).

Every work of God must be a work authored and empowered from above. That work is perfect and eternal. It cannot be stopped by man or any spiritual opposition. It is God’s working. It always prevails.

Only Believe

Therefore, we must learn to believe only and solely in Christ’s sanctifying work on the cross so that we can receive the gifts of death to ourselves so that we can receive His life.

We are not trying to cleanse ourselves from the darkness and temptation that arises in us, but we are, instead, presenting these things to God for his speaking cleansing light into that darkness. This always breaks the power of that darkness over us and thus enables us to live in His resurrection life.

The Power of Our Simple Confession

We  learn to hold fast to this confession regardless of our circumstances, and by the end of the day, we will have our victory. We will not have to wait long for that deliverance (Luke 18:1-8).

The Only Way to Overcome

This is the only way to overcome the world, our own flesh, and the power of darkness over us. This is the process of inheriting liberation from our captivity and the power to live as Christ lived, in real righteousness. This makes our lives a serious threat to the enemy of God and the demonic powers will oppose us at every opportunity.

A Spiritual War

We must be prepared for this and not be confused, thinking that something is wrong. In fact, it means something is very right, and we are in a position to make a great impact in the lives of others.

“For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:3-5, ESV).

For further reading see here and here.

(all verses quotations courtesy of biblehub.com)