Sold-Out?
Copyright 2004 by Shea Oakley
All rights reserved
What does it really mean to be wholly devoted to God? Beyond that, what can be done by any believer to come to live for Christ and Christ alone?
The term "Sold-out to Jesus" is an evangelical cliché that nonetheless conveys the ultimate essence of the authentic Christian life. To be "sold-out" is to have put aside anything and everything that might hinder the believer from knowing and serving Christ to the utmost. A person who has done this lives the most meaningful, joyful life possible because Jesus has truly become their Lord in the deepest sense possible this side of Heaven. They have come to love and want Him above all else. The World has become "strangely dim" to such individuals in a way it has yet to become to Christians who continues to waver in focus between Jesus and the World. Somewhere along the line in these people’s spiritual journey they have fell in love with the Lord in a way that, unfortunately, most of us have not. They are willing to die to themselves and live for God alone because they have come to love Him more than life itself. Their love is real and pure. Their hearts are no longer divided, only devoted.
If you ask most believers to tell you how many people they know who fall into this category they will likely tell you either none or perhaps a few at most. The answer would likely be different if the question was "how many serious Christians do you know?" Most of us like to consider ourselves "serious" about our faith. But when someone asks us if we are "sold-out" few of us will immediately and confidently proclaim that we are. This is because the majority of us, sadly, are not. Christians who do claim to be at this point in their walk immediately arouse our suspicions. We often think them spiritually conceited. Perhaps this is true in some cases, but it is frustration with our own level of faith and envy for what they have that often colors what we think of such individuals. It is easier to write off someone as proud than to grapple with one’s own divided heart.
The better approach to encountering such totally committed children of God might be to ask them how they got to the point of Jesus Christ truly becoming everything to them. What was the "tipping point" after which God became the only One that mattered to them in everything they did and everything they were?
Most likely this will be something hard to put into words. When we fall in love with another person there is no formulaic answer to the question "why?’ Pascal told us "the heart has reasons that reason knows nothing of". How do you fall in love with someone? If you have to ask than you have never been in love.
But there is one good piece of advice that is certain. In our quest to love God with an undivided heart we must realize that to truly know Him is to truly love Him. No one becomes our lover in the most real sense until we have come to know the person and that can only happen if we spend much time together. In the world of romance love at first sight usually turns out to be shallow infatuation at first sight! A brief glimpse of the loveliness of the Lord is not enough to cause to us to give it all away to be with and of Him. We must seek Him consistently over time to get to that place. How do we do that? We read God’s Word, we talk to Him and meditate on what we have come to know about Him while asking to know Him more deeply, and finally we spend time with the people who bear His name. All these things are disciplines that can help us to progressively know and love Jesus Christ in increasing measure. Then we begin to sincerely desire Him in a new way. At some point we realize that He is precious to us above all other things. It is then that the Lover of our souls becomes truly known by us. All that is left is to joyfully give ourselves to the God we now know loves us perfectly and without end. In such knowledge are both the desire and the ability to become wholly His. We become "sold-out" because His love, known over time, has purchased us.