Your Picture or Your Life?
The artist, way up on the scaffolding, stood back to admire his own handiwork.
He had been painting the most beautiful picture on the underside
of the cathedral dome. And as he paused in his work and stood
on the platform, he was intoxicated as he drank in the sheer
genius of his own ability. It was beautiful; he never would
have dreamed that it would turn out so well. And completely
enraptured, he stepped back to get a better look, and stepped
back yet again, and again, until one more step backward would
send him plunging to his death on the stone floor of the lofty
cathedral. But he was totally unaware, he was caught up in
his own handiwork, he was intoxicated, he was drinking it
in—it filled him with himself! And just at that precise moment his assistant, also
on the platform, saw the danger and grasped the situation—one
step and the artist would plunge to his death. And with amazing presence
of mind picked up a bucket of paint and threw it on the freshly
painted picture. The artist leaped forward in a rage and said “You
spoiled my picture!” His assistant quietly said “Yes, sir,
I spoiled your picture—but I saved your life!”
When Satan is smart enough and subtle enough to persuade us that we can do something for Jesus, in the natural energy of our own humanity, it comes as a shock when somebody comes along and “spoils your picture”, crashes your dreams, and reduces you to all that God intended you to be apart from Him—nothing.
The Lord Jesus, deliberately choosing to be born a human being, emptied Himself, humbled Himself, made Himself of no reputation. Literally translated, He made Himself all that He knew man to be apart from God—nothing. So that He in us might be all that He allowed the Father to be in Him—everything; without Whom He could do nothing. That is the Gospel.
Which would you like—your picture or your life?
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