p. 12 | AS MUCH AS IN ME IS by John Nevins Anderson

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Aug 13, 1902

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 28, No. 33.

"AS MUCH AS IN ME IS."

By John Nevins Anderson

IN these simple words the apostle Paul consecrates himself to the evangelization of the Roman metropolis. It is not a burst of fitful enthusiasm, but a sober, yet profound utterance of one, who, having counted the cost, under a solemn conviction of duty, deliberately weighs out the price of the enterprise. The consecration is no less simple than unconditional and entire. It has in it no if's nor but's; nor does he stop to estimate or consider the issue of this great undertaking. In view of his past labors and successes as a Gospel herald, he might very naturally assert a bold confidence as to the outcome of his mission to Rome; but waiving this and all other considerations he looks over that vast field as it expands before him, presenting great opportunities with corresponding responsibilities, and his whole being swells with emotion constraining him to utter the profound sentence, "So, as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the Gospel to you that are at Rome also." The enterprise is gigantic, and Paul resolves to throw into it every power of his being.

This consecration of Paul is both unique and ideal, presenting to us a true conception of our individual responsibility and the measure of our self-giving. It is here reduced to its simplest terms by the elimination of all factors except the individual messenger and his mission. Paul's language is, "I am a debtor" to humanity, so then "as much as in me is." However keenly Paul may have felt the responsibility of the mother church or of the other apostles, all this is waived if not forgotten as he conceives himself to be the responsible debtor, not to one people or two, but to the race. By some mysterious transaction (evidently well understood by Paul) he has contracted a debt which places him under obligation to all his fellow-men; and to discharge this debt he pledges to give as much as in him is.

"As much as in me is." How simple the thought is, and yet how comprehensive and inclusive. Paul had rare native abilities, a superior education, a national reputation both politically and religiously, and over and above all, he possessed a wonderfully magnetic life full of love and enthusiasm for Christ and humanity. All these and whatever else could be turned to account, he now dedicates and consecrates to the discharge of his debt.

In fulfilling this pledge the apostle Paul endures untold hardships—mob violence, imprisonment, extended travels, shipwreck, deprivation, the sting of apostasy and false brethren, and finally death itself; but there can be no doubt that he fulfilled, or, perhaps better, in fulfilling the full claims of his creditors. During the few years of his sublime and eventful life Paul never ceased to give all his powers to the salvation of his generation. And now that he is waiting his crown of glory, wherever the Gospel is preached, there by his personal testimony, his patient, intense sufferings for the truth, and most of all by his divinely inspired letters of love and power, Paul is ever discharging his personal debt to humanity. Like the mighty ocean currents moving on from shore to shore, bathing in turn each continent, so the consecrated life of the apostle sweeps on through the generations till it shall reach the other shore.

As followers and ambassadors of the same Lord in common with Paul, our consecration, if it be full and permanent, can never fall short of the one here set forth. The personal consecration of Jesus, in whose steps we are called to walk, is expressed in the sentence, "I come to do thy will, O my God."

It was the fulfillment of this that led Him to exclaim, "I have a baptism to be baptized with, and how am I straightened till it be accomplished;" and in the hour of His supreme crisis it wrung from his shrinking humanity the plea that the cup of sacrificial death be allowed to pass from Him. This shows how absolutely His consecration involved not only His powers of mind and body, but the sacrifice of His very life, which both crowned and culminated His ministry, giving Him "a name which is above every name."

And this example He sets as a standard for us. He repeatedly affirms that the final test of discipleship is our willingness and readiness to lay down our lives for his sake. This has always been the measure of consecration by the faithful followers of Christ. So in all ages through the history of the Christian Church we read of a great host of martyrs who "loved not their lives unto death." Whether in life or in death, they gave as much as in them was. And this truth should come home to us as a people and as individuals with peculiar force, since we believe ourselves to be the possessors and the bearers of the most solemn Gospel message ever sent to the world. Are we not called to preach this Gospel of the kingdom in all the world for a witness unto all nations? And is not that preparatory to the consummation of all things earthly and the advent of our waiting Lord, who shall then take to Himself His kingdom and reign? And if Paul in the consciousness of his personal obligation and of the needs of the world could say, "As much as in me is," I am ready to go, is it not even more incumbent upon us to discern the world's needs, acknowledge our own responsibility, and in the language of Paul say in solemn earnestness, "As much as in me is," I am ready to go and do and be as my Lord shall direct.

With thousands and millions of souls in every continent still unwarned, our work is far from finished; we have in fact but just entered upon our labors. But when this Pauline consecration seizes every one of us, how the mighty power of God's salvation will be made perfect in our weakness. This problem of carrying the truth to the world is not one of money nor even of men, but of consecration. It is well for us to cast our eyes toward heaven and to read and interpret the tokens of Christ's coming, but it is infinitely more consistent for us to look with sympathetic eyes upon the "fields white already to harvest;" and realizing the great work before us, let us say in individual hearts, "As much as in me is," I am ready to go.

J. N. ANDERSON.