Christ Life for Self Life — E.A. Johnston

Jacob’s Crisis at the Jabbok

In Genesis 32, in verses 22 through 32 we read,. And he rose up that night, and took his two wives, and his two women servants, and his eleven sons, and passed over the four Jabbok. And he took them, and sent them over the brook, and sent over that he had.

Let me pause here, friends, to say, Jacob is clearing the ground of his loved ones. For he knows his brother Esau comes riding with four hundred men, and he fears for his life. I want you to picture this man Jacob in his predicament.

Jacob’s Desperation and the Misreading of Genesis 32

Jacob the conniver, Jacob the supplanter. But Jacob was so crooked he could hide behind a corkscrew. Here is a man at the end of his rope, and he is in the place of desperation. And Jacob was left alone, and there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day.

I will pause here. I've preached from Genesis 32 many times in the past as an illustration of prayer. How Jacob wrestled with God in prayer, and how through prevailing prayer, he was spared from his brother Esau's anger and radically changed as a man of prayer.

But that's not what transpired here in Genesis 32. That's poor expository preaching that only scratches the surface of the text. I used to approach Genesis 32 all wrong by using the passive of Jacob wrestling with God as an illustration of man's earnestness in prayer.

God’s Conquest of the Self-Life

That's not even remotely close to what transpires in this striking passage of Scripture. It's not about a man approaching God in prayer, but about God tackling a man to conquer him. It is God pigeonholing a man through a crisis with the express purpose to squeeze self out of him in such a violent chokehold that if he doesn't surrender, he is finished.

This isn't about a man praying with God. It's about a man in conflict with God who is confronted by God, overcome by God, and eventually conquered by God. Our text doesn't say there prayed a man with him, but there wrestled a man with him.

This speaks of a struggle of hand-to-hand combat. We're of a contest of only be one victor. Jacob is in for the contest of his life in a conquest of the self-life once and forevermore. If you want to see Jacob praying to God, he already prayed to God in verses 9 -12 where he reminds God of his attributes and his promises to him and mercies given.

Dependence on God Rather Than Self-Reliance

But in our passage here, in Genesis 32, Jacob is jumped from behind. An angel jumps on Jacob to conquer him. This passage is not about a man prevailing with God in prayer, but a picture of a self-reliant man being brought out of himself to fold dependence upon God Almighty.

It's a desperate picture of a man in a death struggle to hang on to the self-life, but who is overcome by a power stronger than he. The outcome is already providentially determined that this man Jacob will be finally brought to the place of brokenness and desperation with only one outcome where self goes down in utter annihilation to entire submission and utter surrender to God.

Salvation as Surrender to Christ’s Rule

Allow me to make this statement, friends. If a man is going to be saved by Christ, he will one day be conquered by Christ. He might hold out longer than most and resist by hanging on to the self-life and be subjected to more trying circumstances than most.

But a day will come in that person's life of self-rule when self goes the way of the cross and the kingdom of self implodes and the Lord Christ takes over as a reigning sovereign. I believe that every man who makes it to heaven goes there as a conquered man with the Lord in complete control.

I also believe many sit upon a false hope of heaven by way of an empty religious profession. There they sit on the throne of their life and rule there until the day they die and when they die, they die outside of Christ's blood.

The Dethroning of Self and the Reign of Christ

God will have no self-ruled rebels in his holy heaven, but hell is full of self-ruled church members. If you're going to make it to heaven, friend, there will come a day when self is dethroned and another enthroned there in your life, the Lord Jesus Christ.

You will be confronted with your own personal Jabbok. The outcome of that experience will be a changed life as Christ becomes your glad sovereign. We see this transformed life in verse 28. And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel.

The Mark of a God-Conquered Life

For as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed. And we see the mark on this man in verse 31. And as he passed over Peniel, the sun rose upon him and he halted upon his thigh.

And as Jacob walked with a limp from that day on, he was no longer a self-reliant man, but a transformed man entirely relying upon God. And when God brings you, friend, to the place where he conquers you, a mark will be left upon you as well as a daily reminder that Christ must be all in all and Lord of all.