CHRIST: THE END OF THE ROAD — AND ITS BEGINNING
There comes a point in the dealings of God where every road upon which man has confidently walked simply comes to its end. The strength of the flesh fails there. The wisdom of man has no further light. Religious activity itself loses its voice. The Lord brings His people, sooner or later, to a place where all that is merely of Adam reaches a dead end. It is there that Christ is revealed not merely as One who helps us continue, but as the One who replaces the whole former ground upon which we stood. “For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God” (Colossians 3:3). The cross of Christ is not an improvement of the old creation. It is God’s verdict upon it (Romans 6:6; Galatians 2:20).
Many believers imagine the Christian life to be a better road for the natural man to travel. Yet the Lord never intended the old man to become spiritual through education, discipline, or religious effort. He intended the old man to come to an end in the death of Christ. The wilderness taught Israel that man does not live by his own sufficiency, but by every word proceeding from God (Deuteronomy 8:3). So too the Holy Spirit steadily works to uncover the deep incapacity of self-life. The Lord allows failures, weakness, disappointments, and even confusion in order to bring us to the place where our confidence in ourselves is shattered. “Without Me you can do nothing,” Christ declared plainly (John 15:5).
But Christ is not only the end. Blessed be God, He is also the beginning. When God closes the door upon the old creation, He opens before us the vast reality of His Son. Resurrection always follows true spiritual death. “I am the resurrection and the life,” said the Lord Jesus (John 11:25). The Christian life does not begin with our strength dedicated to God. It begins with Christ Himself becoming our life. There is an immeasurable difference between merely trying to live for Christ and allowing Christ to live in us (Galatians 2:20). The one produces strain. The other produces spiritual fruit born out of union with Him.
The tragedy is that many stop at the end of the road and sit down in despair, not realizing that God has only been clearing away the ground for something altogether heavenly. Abraham came to the end of natural hope before Isaac could be received as from the dead (Romans 4:18-21). Jacob had to halt upon his thigh before he could walk in spiritual authority (Genesis 32:25-31). Peter had to weep bitterly over his own collapse before he could strengthen his brethren (Luke 22:31-32). God does not discard broken vessels when they come to the end of themselves. Rather, He begins to fill them with Christ.
There is a deep inward knowing that comes when Christ truly becomes the beginning. One ceases from feverish striving. Prayer becomes less mechanical and more vital. The Word of God ceases to be merely studied and begins to burn inwardly like living fire (Jeremiah 20:9; Luke 24:32). Obedience becomes the fruit of fellowship rather than mere duty. The soul learns that Christianity is not fundamentally a teaching to follow, but a Person to know. Eternal life itself is defined this way: “that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent” (John 17:3).
The Lord is constantly bringing His Church back to this central matter. Not doctrines merely, not movements, not works, not reputation, but Christ Himself. Everything in the New Testament converges upon Him as both the consummation and commencement of all God’s purpose (Ephesians 1:9-10; Colossians 1:18). He is the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last (Revelation 22:13). What God begins, He begins in Christ. What God concludes, He concludes in Christ. The end of our road becomes the threshold of His fullness.
And perhaps this is why the Lord so often leads His people into places they would never choose for themselves. He is not merely trying to make them stronger Christians. He is emptying them of all that is not Christ. For only what is born of Him can endure eternity. Everything else, however impressive, belongs to the passing order. “He who does the will of God abides forever” (1 John 2:17).
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Lord Jesus, bring us to the end of all confidence in ourselves and into the fullness of Your life. Strip away what is merely natural, religious, and earthly, and reveal Your Son more deeply within us. Teach us that You are not only our Savior from sin, but our very life before God. Lead us beyond striving into true union with You, that Your mind, Your strength, and Your character may be formed in us. Amen.
BDD
