Doing Good in Your Own Power

Self life is the life of the soul. Self is our personality and all that it is composed of. From self proceeds our personal idea, flavor, thought, desire, inclination, like and dislike. Self life is the animating power of the person. Let us recognize that the self is our very self, including its love and hate. Its life is our natural power for doing good. Self is a life which is resident in the lives of those believers who have not died to it and is a life which frequently tries to relive itself in the lives of those believers who have died to it. In short, self life is a self-centered life.

After a believer has accepted the sin aspect of the work of the cross, the sin factor—which is to say, the sin nature—is paralyzed as though dead, it thus having been rendered inactive. Yet the self life remains very active because it has not heretofore been noticed or not noticed very much. During that period of time, this self life is like the life of Adam before the fall. It is not spiritual, however, since it has not been transformed by the tree of life; nor is it carnal, for it has not yet sinned. In other words, the self of the believer is capable of committing sin or of being spiritual as it wishes. That is why the life of the believer during that period is analogous to Adam’s before the fall. It is not spiritual, because it has not been liberated nor has it received the higher life of God. But, then, it is not carnal either, because it has already accepted the finished work of the cross and has reckoned itself to be dead to sin. It therefore belongs to the self—soulical, natural and untransformed. Through carelessness, it could fall downward and be defiled by the sins of the flesh. But by advancing into the deeper work of the cross it could become fully spiritual. If it remains in the self-centered realm, it will most likely fall and become carnal.

This, then, is a dangerous stage in the Christian’s life. On the one hand, he should watch lest he fall; on the other hand, he should prepare for practical righteousness. The danger is to do good in his own power. This may not be noticeable; often, in fact, it is rather hidden. Sometimes it takes God many years to convince the believer how he is self-possessed and does God’s will in his own strength!