Cultivating Righteous Desires
I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost, That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh… Romans 9:1-3
The statement made here is similar to a statement made by Moses when he came down from Mt. Sinai and found the children of Israel in revelry while worshipping a golden calf. He desired that God would blot out his name from God’s book for the salvation of Israel.
There is a sense that both of these are prayers, a very powerful petition. While Paul made this request, he would have recognized that there was no way that he could be accursed from Christ for his brethren, but it reveals Paul’s burden for His Jewish brethren. It also reveals that he would actually be willing to be accursed for their salvation.
What kind of passion do you have for those who are without Christ, those who will spend eternity in everlasting destruction if they are not saved? I would like to suggest three reasons as to why Paul prayed this way.
His zeal for Christ and the lost was based on what God had done in his life.
When Paul met Christ on the road to Damascus, he immediately recognize Christ’s sovereign authority and responded, “Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do” (Acts 9:6). Unlike responding to a Sunday morning sermon, the Lord didn’t ask Paul to make a decision. He told him what he was going to do.
Paul later told King Agrippa that he was not disobedient unto the heavenly vision (Acts 26:19).
Have you ever felt as though you needed a fresh vision of our Lord? Do you remember how the disciples on the road to Emmaus responded after their eyes were opened and they knew it was the Lord? They said to one another — Did not our heart burn within us, while He talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the Scriptures (Luke 24:32). When is the last time your heart burned within you while reading the Word of God, while praying, or while listening to a Biblical sermon?
In 1973, we had a revival in our church and as people began to catch a fresh glimpse of Jesus, their hearts burned within them. There was repentance and confession of sin. There was weeping and rejoicing as God’s people were getting right with God and one another. The community began to notice. This revival meeting lasted for a full nine weeks with a beginning attendance of roughly 160 people to an average attendance in the last week of over 5,000.
When is the las time your heart burned within you with a fresh vision of the Lord? You could not stop the Apostle Paul for the Lord changed his life. Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature (II Corinthians 5:17). Do other people recognize that we are new creatures? The basis of his zeal was what God had done in his life.
His zeal was based on his understanding of what it is like to be without Christ.
The Apostle Paul was at Troas and while he was there he had a vision of a man in Macedonia appealing to him — “Come over and help us” (Acts 16:9). People without Christ do not often recognize how desperate their circumstances are, but God was ready to call some in Europe to Himself and He was going to use Paul in the process.
Some have thought that the Philippian jailor was the man in Paul’s vision. He was the first man in Europe to trust Christ but there is no way to say that he was the one. Nevertheless, Paul heard that cry … people begging to know the Savior and he was never the same again. In Paul’s mind, possibly the cry stood out because Paul remembered when he was without Christ and the change that took place when God miraculously saved him. Do you remember what took place when God saved you? What was it like in your life before you trusted Christ?
In II Corinthians 5, Paul said that the love of Christ constrained him. How much do you love Christ today? With tears, Paul told the believers in Ephesus that he was going Rome. When was the last time you wept over someone without Christ? How often do you pray for lost sinners? Paul recognized that they were eternally lost. He said — I have to tell them. He was not willing to go to heaven without them.
There are so many we remember because they had a passion for souls — George Whitefield, David Livingstone, Robert Moffat and others. George Mueller witnessed to his closest friend for 61 years, determined he would not spend eternity in hell. Mueller died and at his funeral, his friend trusted Christ as Lord and Savior of his life.
Let me ask you this. Do you believe that men and women are dead in their sins? Do you believe Hebrews 9:27, which states that after death is the judgment?
Paul’s zeal was based on what God did for him and his understanding of what it is like to be without Christ.
His zeal was based on his understanding of eternity.
People today are so ignorant about eternity. How much time do you give to considering eternal things? We get so caught up with football, cell phones, politics, movies and so many other things and fail to prepare our souls for eternity. It is the goal of Satan to keep us all delusional concerning eternal things and that is exactly what is taking place in our nation today and sad to say, in many churches as well.
William Booth caught a glimpse of hell and started the Salvation Army. Christ gives us a glimpse of eternity in Luke 16 with the rich man and Lazarus. For those without Christ, it will be a place of horror so far beyond that of the holocaust or the dropping of the bomb on Hiroshima. Paul heard the cries of a lost sinner in Macedonia. From hell, there will be cries like never heard before begging God for a second chance.
C. T. Studd was a millionaire sportsman. After getting a vision of hell he gave away his entire fortune for the spread of the gospel. What shall it profit a man if he should gain the whole world and lose his own soul (Matthew 16:26).
Do you have anything close to the passion of the Apostle Paul for lost sinners? We need to bathe ourselves in the Word and catch a fresh glimpse of Christ and the difference that took place in our lives when Christ redeemed us. Perhaps we ought to ask God to give to us a glimpse of eternal hell, maybe the same vision William Booth had!
George Stiekes held successful pastorates in churches in Michigan and Washington among other places. He currently resides in North Carolina and blogs at Reverent Reflections. We recommend his ministry and republish his material by permission.