Brokenness: God's Strategy in a Christian's Life

". . .Why do you not know how to interpret the present time?" (Luke 12:56)

"Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit" (John 12:24).

 Brokenness.  It is certainly not a popular subject among Gospel preachers these days, though the fact of the matter is that it has never been particularly popular as a sermon topic.  Yet, it is one of God's major strategies in the life of all Christians.  One cannot arrive at any semblance of maturity in the Christian faith without coming to understand how God uses it to work out His purposes in our lives.

The reason that most Christians understand nothing of brokenness is that they see all trouble in life as either 1) something coming from the Devil to be rebuked or prayed away, or 2) the normal misfortunes of living in a sinful and disease-ridden world, that are to be overcome or endured by God's power and grace.

Granted, most of our troubles do fall in one or both of those categories. But, if we do not come to see God's hand behind it all---especially in the major woes in our lives---we will fail to let Him accomplish the most important work He purposes for us. That purpose is to finish what He began on the day we entered into salvation: to make us into the persons He created us to be.

I think that most Christians do not understand God's strategy of brokenness because they do not understand the difference between sins and self in a believer's life. Perhaps the lack of teaching on this in American Christianity these days is one of the primary reasons for the terrible shallowness of spiritual life in many of our churches. Herewith a few brief points on the matter:

The greatest need in your life and mine is not just the necessity of our obtaining forgiveness from our heavenly Father for our sins. No, the greatest need is for us to be freed from the demands of our sinful nature. (See last week's commentary). Atoning for that required the Holy Son of God to take on human nature, and put it to death on the Cross. The Old Testament sacrificial system sufficed to atone for sins, but it took the death of the Son of God to atone for sinfulness.

Thus, the Apostle Paul exhorts us in Ephesians 4:22-24: "Put off your old self (or nature), which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires. . .and put on the new self (or nature), created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness." Notice that it is obvious that he is addressing born again believers in Christ, not the unconverted, because only Christians have a former manner of life! Everyone else just has the same manner of life they have always lived. Also, note that the old self or nature is corrupt, or sinful---nothing naturally good about it. That doesn't mean that unregenerated people are incapable of good deeds---they are. It just means that our human nature is corrupt and self-centered from conception. And, all of us still have that corrupt nature in us, even though we are saved. The difference is that, though it is there, we don't have to give in to it---it has no power over us because of Christ's Spirit in us.

But, in order for God to bring us into the fullness of salvation and maturity in Christ, we must be progressively freed from the grips of our sinful natures. How does God do that? Through brokenness!

That is the meaning of the words of Jesus on the grain of wheat, quoted at the beginning of this commentary . The seed has a hard outer coating around it. In order for the new life to sprout forth from it, the seed has to be buried in the earth, and the outer shell has to be broken. In Jesus' terms, the seed has to "die"---it's present "seedness" has to die in order for it to bring forth new life. Applied to you and me, what Jesus is saying to us is that unless we are willing to "die" or be "buried" in the difficult circumstances of our lives, we will never become truly fruitful in the Kingdom of God. The seed has to experience lying unnoticed and seemingly abandoned under the earth for a lengthy time before new life comes, just as you and I may have to experience being unnoticed and seemingly abandoned. The life is within the seed (as the life of Christ is within you and me), but the "natural" life of the seed must be broken (as our natural self-life must be broken) in order for the new life to emerge. "If it dies," says Jesus, "it bears much fruit."

God's first dealing with me along these lines came when I had only been surrendered to Jesus for a few years. It was therefore, a relatively minor breaking, although at the time I thought it was a big deal. I had come into the Baptism in the Holy Spirit in seminary, and had begun to experience the charismatic gifts of the Spirit. Coupled with my strong evangelical faith, belief in the Word of God, and personal relationship with Jesus, I felt sure that upon graduation from seminary I was ready to take my own church as the only pastor. Wrong.

God made me wait an entire year before giving me a call to a church, and then it was a call as an Assistant Minister! A bit of humbling there! But, it was very good for me, and proved to be just the right situation. I learned a great deal in my 2.5 years as an assistant, and after that time the Lord brought me to Cape Cod to pastor my own congregation for ten years. Many other, and much deeper, breakings took place in my life in the years afterward. But, had I not seen, by the grace of God, that He was dealing with my arrogance and pride in those years as an assistant, the lesson would have been lost.

One cannot read Holy Scripture without seeing God ministering brokenness to His people in countless places. Moses was placed on the backside of the Sinai wilderness, tending his father-in-law's sheep for forty years (!), before he was ready to be used of God to deliver the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. He had tried to step into that call in his own strength when he killed the Egyptian, which is why God had to send him into exile---to free him from relying on himself in any way. It took forty years.

How long will it take us before we learn to stop relying on our own strength, our own opinions, our own perspectives, our own traditions, our own _______?

Joseph was a spoiled brat, the youngest son of Jacob's twelve, to whom God had given dreams about the special nature of his call. But, the Lord allowed him to be sold as a slave into Egypt, and then falsely accused of rape and imprisoned for 13 years. All during that time God was doing a work of breaking and maturing in Joseph, teaching him to rely totally and solely on the Lord. Only after that young man had given up all human hope of his dreams coming true was the Lord able to use him to literally keep his father and brothers (and the future bloodline of Christ) from starvation.

Many of us Christians have to come to the place where our dreams lie shattered, strewn in broken pieces around our feet. Perhaps it was the dream of having the perfect family or the perfect marriage, or even having any family or marriage at all. Perhaps it was the dream of being the CEO of the corporation, or at least one of the First Vice-Presidents. Perhaps it was the dream of having a great ministry for the Lord! Whatever it may be, we have to let go of them.

It doesn't mean that none of these things will happen. It means that you and I must have our hold on these dreams and plans broken; they must be given up to the Lord, so that He can bring them to pass, or not. As Abraham had to surrender Isaac---the precious miracle child from God had to be given back to God---so you and I must surrender what is most precious to us. Often we have to experience the brokenness first---most of us don't truly surrender the precious things until their pieces lie broken at our feet.

When, as an old man, Jacob learned Joseph was alive and heard his son's story, he understood God's dealings with Joseph, for he himself had experienced brokenness at the hands of God. The climax of Jacob's life had been the night he wrestled with the" angel of the Lord" (Jesus, I suspect) and had his hip put out of joint. Jacob had been a conniver and deceiver and liar by nature (his name means supplanter), and now symbolically one of the strongest parts of his body was rendered weak. He was given a new name---Israel (he who strives with God)---to indicate his new nature. The rest of his life Jacob limped, to remind him of the futility of relying on himself.

God has many ways of breaking our natural strengths, to bring us to the end of our self-reliance.

The Apostle Mark tells us that the woman who anointed Jesus with the oil of nard from the alabaster flask first had to break the flask to release the precious ointment (Mark 14:3). The flask was valuable in itself, but it had to be broken in order for the more valuable ointment to come forth. So with us: sometimes valuable possessions, or relationships, or gifts, have to be broken in order for the life of Jesus within us to come forth.

My mother went through terrible brokenness in the death of my father at such an early age, at the height of his ministry. And yet, the souls saved and the lives healed were a thousand times greater through Mother's books and the movie about Dad than ever would have been the case had he lived for another thirty years.

After Jesus took the five loaves and prayed over them, he broke them before giving them to the disciples to distribute. At the Last Supper He would break the bread before giving it to His disciples, and say: "This is my body, which is broken for you." He was, of course, symbolizing the piercing and breaking of His own body on the Cross, which would come the next day.

In any properly administered service of Holy Communion, the celebrant holds the bread up in the sight of the people and breaks it, to remind us of Christ's brokenness. . .and ours. That which is used of God to feed people must first be broken.

Jesus gives us Himself out of His own brokenness, and unless we are willing to become "broken bread" and "poured out wine" in the hands of Jesus, He cannot use us to feed others.

Even after we are born again, the hard outer coating of our natural independence from God has to be broken, in order for us to come into the close union that He wants with us. He has many ways of accomplishing that brokenness, but all of them have to do with giving up my right to myself, and choosing absolute loyalty to the Lord Jesus. As Oswald Chambers says, without this "all the rest is religious fraud."

Only when we have experienced brokenness will we understand what the Apostle Paul means when he says: "I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me" (Galatians 2:20). Until we experience that brokenness that God uses to bring us into a deeper union with Himself, we will view that scripture as merely a New Testament theological statement, or a teaching on what it means to be born again, and miss the deeper meaning of it.

“Oh, break my heart; but break it as a field Is plowed and broken for the seeds of corn;
Oh, break it as the buds, by green leaf sealed, Are, to unloose the golden blossom, torn;
Love would I offer unto Love’s great Master, Set free the fragrance, break the alabaster.
Thomas Toke Bunch

Copyright, 2007, Peter J. Marshall. All rights reserved.

This Article was published on 10/19/2007 and filed in