There was no sin dwelling in the flesh of Christ. He did not have to learn righteous behavior. But He took upon Himself our sins and suffered the terrible penalty.

We now are learning through suffering the peaceable ways of righteousness.

He who would obey God must, through Christ's grace, gain victory over the love of the world and the love of sin. Finally, the love of self must be overcome. The love of self, and trust in self, may be the deepest, most resistant aspect of the believer's rebellion against God. Perhaps it is in this realm that even the holy, righteous Christ had to learn obedience through suffering.

The world and sin are obviously evil. Even the unsaved can understand that much of what is practiced is wicked and destructive, being contrary to the law of conscience that dwells in every person.

But the love of self and trust in self are not always deemed to be wicked and hostile to God. Neither the world nor the Christian believers, for the most part, understand the monster of evil lurking in the cavern of self-love. It may be true that the love of self is a more horrible serpent than the world and sin combined.

The individual who is free from self-love is far along on the path to the Father's heart.

Since the love of self is the most vicious of all forms of rebellion and the most firmly entrenched in the human personality, so it is true that the sufferings required to dislodge it, to cleanse it from the soul, are the most intense, the most fiery of the tribulations the believer experiences.

There are in the Scriptures two dreadful portrayals of God dealing with self-love. One is found in the Old Testament, the other in the New. One took place in the land of Moriah, the other in Gethsemane—both within the boundaries of Jerusalem.

God "tested" Abraham in the realm of self-love, self-will, trust in self. This trial had nothing to do with the world or with sin. It had to do with Abraham's trust in God.

God promised Abraham his descendants would be in number as the stars and as the sands of the sea. Then He made Abraham wait for the birth of Isaac for a quarter of a century. You can imagine the patience involved in waiting twenty-five years for something desired so intensely.

Finally the promise was kept, as God's promises always are. The glorious, impossible hope became flesh and blood. Abraham's future was all joy now. Or was it?

One day, out from the darkness came the most frightful words Abraham had ever heard or ever would hear again. "Offer up Isaac as a burnt offering."

This was a perfect, comprehensive test of Abraham's self-love. His whole soul was wrapped up in Isaac. To slay Isaac was to slay himself.

Had Abraham refused to surrender his soul to God, neither Abraham nor Isaac would have become the ancestor of Christ. God will not tolerate disobedience in His children—and no excuses are accepted.

The greatest testings are reserved for those whose destinies are the highest.

To be continued.