By Tom Price

Before the fall, Adam and Eve rested in their relationship with God.  They experienced His joy as their joy, they experienced His peace as their peace, and they experienced His life as their life!  In other words, they were totally dependent on God to meet all their needs.  They did not have to ask God for "help" because there was not a need for His help.  He freely gave them Himself to meet every need, whether physical, psychological, or spiritual.  The only time we ask for help is when we sense there is an unmet need beyond our ability to fulfill.

After the fall, when God's Spirit was no longer in Adam and Eve, they became keenly aware of every need.  Whereas life was effortless before, it was now dependent upon self effort apart from God. For the first time since they were created, they completely understood the need for "help."

The absence of God's Spirit meant that His life giving presence no longer dwelled in man.  Jeremiah said, "The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; who can understand it?" (Jer. 17:9, NASB)  In order for an Old Testament believer to lead a righteous life, he had to implore God's help.  Even though God gave His people the Ten Commandments, they could not follow them consistently without His Spirit.  The relationship between God and the Old Testament believer was an "If you, then I will..." kind of relationship.  It was based on performance, but without God's empowering Spirit, life became a constant internal struggle to comply.

After the cross, Jesus fulfilled the promises that were made through the OT prophets.  Jeremiah quoted God about that day, "But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days," declares the Lord, "I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.  They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord,' for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them..." (Jer. 31:33-34, NASB)

In the beginning with Adam and Eve, the central control of their lives was God's life IN them.  After the cross, as in the beginning, the central control of the believer's life is Christ IN us! No longer do we need His "help."   We now trust His life WITHIN us to animate and empower our lives.

This is the key to whether you and I will experience Christ life.  Are you trying in your strength to do the right thing and asking God to help you?  If so, I applaud your heart because God has placed that desire in you.  However, if God helps you to do your work better, you will have some bragging rights. Ephesians 2:8-9 says, "For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast." (NASB)  The phrase "and that not of yourselves" is often interpreted as the salvation we receive.  Even though that is true, it is also referring to faith.  God's plan included faith as power for life as well as for salvation. "As you therefore have received Jesus Christ the Lord (by faith), so walk in Him." (Col. 2:6, NASB)  Even the faith we use to accept or receive salvation is a gift from God.

God is not interested in any man boasting about his works!  Jesus said in John 15:5, "...apart from Me you can do nothing."  Paul said in Philippians 4:13, "I can do all things through Him (Christ) who strengthens me."  The action is THROUGH Christ and by HIS STRENGTH!

Have you ever prayed for God's help with something, but it seemed He did not answer, and you continued to struggle?  Have you ever come to the end of your self-effort and discovered that when you gave up or surrendered, God was there?  The sooner we give up the notion that God wants to help us with our desires and understand that what He really wants is to "be" our help, the sooner we will experience His life in us!  I pray you are experiencing His life now.

Blessings!