Onus

 Taking personal responsibility for anything has become anathema not only to those in the world but far too many within the church as well. Whenever anyone brings up the idea of accountability or that the onus for certain things is on us as individuals when it comes to a true and lasting relationship with God, we bristle and balk, obfuscate and deny, thinking that if we can be loud enough, if we can get enough people on our side, then it will make the truth void.

It’s always someone else’s fault when things go wrong. It’s always someone else’s doing when we don’t experience the intimacy we were promised because we heard it clear enough: all we had to do was touch our TV screen, send in a check, and we would know the fullness of the power of God. We would feel the Holy Spirit coursing through our veins; we would level up and be able to declare, bind up and loose, cast down, and build up as we will. No more humbling ourselves in the sight of the Lord. No more denying ourselves and picking up our crosses; we would ascend to our rightful places. Bring on my rod of iron; I’ve got some smiting to do!

Our participation in any of it was not required. We are too busy to add something like growing in God to our ever-burgeoning schedule, so all we needed to do was consent to being transformed. It was supposed to be God’s job to do everything else. As such, anyone who mentioned repentance was shunned and became persona non grata. Being a child of God is all well and good, but not if it comes at a cost. No, sir, we will not believe that report, even though it is rooted in Scripture.

James 4:7-10, “Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.”

What James reiterates may not be popular, but it is Biblical. Usually, the more popular something is, the less Biblical it is, especially in our day and age, so if we gauge something by its popularity, chances are we will believe things that have no Scriptural basis or foundation.

The first thing James counsels is that we submit to God. Partial submission is total rebellion, so when we submit to God, we do so wholly, completely, in every area in which He has a say. We can’t submit to God only in the easy things, but even those that would peel back the flesh and cause us great discomfort when we do them.

Doing the easy thing is easy. We gravitate toward the easy things because we know they do not require much exertion or sacrifice. It’s why the one pill every morning to get back to your beach body pills are so popular because they require so little of us as individuals. You don’t have to exercise, and you don’t have to watch what you eat. Just pop a pill in the morning, and it will undo all the abuse you’ve foisted upon yourself for the past two decades. They must work; they come with a money-back guarantee, so anyone who says differently is just a naysayer. When you dare to point out that if they did work as advertised, obesity wouldn’t be raging out of control in the West, they just call you misinformed and go back to their stuffed crust family-size meat lover’s pizza.

If all James instructed was to submit to God, then I could see myself going along with the idea that all one really needs to do is consent to being made clean, but he continues in his letter and points out a handful of other things we must do, and explains why we must do them.

After submitting ourselves to God, it is our duty to resist the devil. When we’ve submitted to God and resisted the devil, then the devil will flee. The word resist is a verb. A verb is a word used to describe an action. When James counsels us to resist the devil, he is not encouraging us to be passive but to actively withstand the actions of the enemy and the effects thereof.

I’ve heard it asked once why God doesn’t make men stop sinning, and the answer is that it’s man’s job to resist the devil that he might flee. When you withstand the devil's actions, God will give you the strength to continue doing so. When the devil sees that he is actively being resisted, he will flee because he knows that he can’t force someone to sin. Contrary to popular belief, the devil can’t make you do it; he can just present you with the opportunity. You choose whether to resist him or give in. You choose whether to withstand his temptations or surrender to the impulses of the flesh.

It’s easier to blame the devil and insist he made us do something or another than to admit that we failed to withstand him and that in our struggle, we did not resist unto blood striving against sin.

The onus is on us to draw near to God. The onus is on us to resist the devil. The onus is on us to make sure that we are doing what the Word of God insists we must so that we might obtain what it promises we would.

If you’ve never obeyed God, followed through, done what He commanded you to do, and remained consistent in it, you can’t blame Him for your failures, shortcomings or for His not having revealed Himself fully to you. It’s not a God problem; it’s a me problem, and the only thing that will fix it is humble obedience.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.