Recently listening to the Sovereign Grace song, The Deep, Deep Love of Jesus, I was struck by the singer’s statement to Christ that He had ruined her for the world. Those are great words for us to ponder. Prior to coming to Christ, in one form or another, we were all destined to be worldlings. We were locked into auto-pilot, being sucked into the chasm of the world’s most seductive allurements. We would not have been capable of escaping the draw of ego, riches, religion, pleasure, or vanity. Mark it down: this stuff has a powerful appeal and none of us are a match for its beautiful deception. Then came the Son of God, calling us to Himself, breaking our wills, snatching us with an unseen hand from above, and placing us upright upon our feet to walk in newness of life. We have been saved – saved unto Someone and saved from something. Ours is a rescue from this world and entrance into another. We vacate the temporary and are brought to the eternal. All that ever drew us before lost its brilliance, and we were given new sight to behold things as they truly are.
When we opened our eyes as new creatures we were ruined for this world.
What does this world offer you that Heaven has not better promised? Do we truly feel as if we have been deprived or disallowed from experiencing something that God cannot match in the beauty of Jesus Christ? The world promises happiness; God grants joy. This world pledges peace to us, yet none have ever found it more than fleeting. This world affords you a certain amount of pleasure, but you must chase it to keep it fresh…and it always comes at some price. At the right hand of God there are pleasures evermore, of which we have not even seen the half. In moments of spiritual clarity you and I must conclude that there is nothing in this world that can satisfy us. Along with the Apostle Paul, we eventually must count it all rubbish because we have been graced to fathom the greater end.
Today I find myself blissfully content in Christ alone. I have much more than I need, and far better than I deserve. I am acutely conscious of our ongoing need to never allow this world to seduce us with its hollow promises and neon lies. How will we accomplish this task when so many others have succumbed? By affixing the heart on Jesus Christ and His blessed cross. He has placed a cross upon me at my request, and He teaches me to walk under its weight with songs of deliverance. My cross reminds me that I am free. My cross reminds me that I am the property of another. My cross reminds me of the value God has placed upon His people. My cross is what ruins me for this world.
God bless us to cherish the cross and refuse anything else from owning our desires.