JESUS MUST INCREASE, I AM DECREASING

In the military, we are taught and trained by the warrior ethos that there is nothing we cannot do if ordered. No obstacle is too significant, and no goal is unattainable.  Therefore, set your mind to the task, and you will succeed.

It's intriguing how the military's 'nothing is impossible' ethos aligns with much of current Christianity. This "unique" perspective is exemplified in the recent book promoted by Newsmax TV: The Christ Cure: 10 Biblical Ways to Heal from Trauma, Tragedy, and PTSD, authored by Tim Murphy, Ph.D. 

Dr. Murphy writes in the Preface of his book, 'If you have fallen, if your life has been smashed by trauma, you know what it feels like. But I assure you, no matter how bad the pain, you can fight and scrape your way out . . . you deserve a chance to change, to grow, repent, to be forgiven, to recover and to live a renewed life. . . . All of this takes work. But be patient and committed. Healing is not passive. When Bartimaeus wanted Jesus to cure his blindness (Mark 10:46-52), it did not just happen. Jesus asked him, 'What do you want me to do for you?' Bartimaeus literally had to take steps toward Jesus. Bartimaeus had to commit and to act. When Christ cures, we all must take our own steps toward healing. You can. You will. You must. And this book will tell you how.' (emphasis added)

The Christ Cure is one more 'Christian' self-help manual with Jesus thrown in to give it "legitimacy" with some, but not all. It doesn't matter how much Scripture Dr. Murphy uses; the focus is still on man and his innate spiritual ability. It's all about what you must do because you can become an indispensable part of your healing. Dr. Murphy needs to understand the overall message and tenor of Scripture. Sin brings death (Gen. 2:17; Eph. 2:1f), the estate into which all men enter at birth.

God is the one who bruises, so God Himself must heal. Your diagnosis of PTSD is not by accident and fits into an eternal cosmic plan. A person's first step toward Christ is not from their power because they are dead in trespasses and sins (Eph. 2:1; et al.). 

Jer. 30:12 “For thus says the Lord,

‘Your wound is incurable

And your injury is serious.

13 ‘There is no one to plead your cause;

No healing for your sore,

No recovery for you."

Westminster Confession of Faith

Chapter VI Of the Fall of Man, of Sin, and the Punishment thereof

II. By this sin they (Adam & Eve) fell from their original righteousness and communion, with God, and so became dead in sin, and wholly defiled in all the parts and faculties of soul and body.

III. They being the root of all mankind, the guilt of this sin was imputed; and the same death in sin, and corrupted nature, conveyed to all their posterity descending from them by ordinary generation.

IV. From this original corruption, whereby we are utterly indisposed, disabled, and made opposite to all good, and wholly inclined to all evil, do proceed all actual transgressions.

The gift of grace Jesus won via His perfect active and passive obedience to God on the believing sinner's behalf empowers the first, second, and third steps we take before and after salvation. Upon conversion, God imputes this grace to the believer. Grace slowly makes us grateful to God and creates humility in our souls. Otherwise, God must share His glory with the creature because the sinner took the first step (Isa. 42:8; see context). Salvation (all of it, from first to last) is from the LORD.

Jn. 3:25-30 Therefore there arose a discussion on the part of John’s disciples with a Jew about purification. 26 And they came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, He who was with you beyond the Jordan, to whom you have testified, behold, He is baptizing and all are coming to Him.” 27 John answered and said, “A man can receive nothing unless it has been given him from heaven. 28 You yourselves are my witnesses that I said, ‘I am not the Christ,’ but, ‘I have been sent ahead of Him.’ 29 He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice. So this joy of mine has been made full. 30 He must increase, but I must decrease. (emphasis added)

As stated, 30 He (Jesus Christ) must increase, but I (John and we Christian vets & spouses) must decrease. One of the ways God has designed a broken, war-ravaged cosmos (on earth and in the heavens) is to cause His people to decrease through traumatic stress or PTSD. Psychology can only quantify or measure what it sees because it is empirically based. It is entirely incapable of dealing with the inner man or the heart, our greatest need because psychology is empirically oriented (1 Sam.16:7 for God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” It is the sinful heart or flesh that Jesus warned about. “For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, slanders" (Mt. 15:19). PTSD is not man's most significant trouble. A dead soul is.

Psychology seeks to overcome PTSD by changing the mind and behavior. I believe God's purpose for PTSD is to overcome us by its cruel reign over our lives, thereby weakening or humbling our ability to resist God's truth about ourselves: 1) we are sinners justly deserving God's wrath and justice (1 Thess. 1:10 Jesus, who rescues us from the wrath to come. 2) the truth about Himself (Ex. 33:19 And He said, “I Myself will make all My goodness pass before you, and will proclaim the name of the Lord before you; and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show compassion on whom I will show compassion.”; Ex. 34:6-7 Then the Lord passed by in front of him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; 7 who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, Ex. 20:5 for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, 6 but showing lovingkindness to thousands, see also Rom. 9:18), and God's answer to our dilemma--Jesus Christ and His work for sinners.

"After conversion we need bruising so that reeds man know themselves to be reeds, and not oaks. Even reeds need bruising, by reason of the remainder of pride in our nature, and to let us see that we live by mercy. . . . Thus Peter was bruised when he wept bitterly (Matt. 26:33). . . . Thus David was bruised until he came to a free confession, without guile of spirit (Psa. 32:3, 5); nay, his sorrows did rise in his own feeling unto the exquisite pain of breaking bones (Psa.  51:8. This Hezekiah complains that God had 'broken his bones' as a lion (Isa. 38:13). Thus the chosen vessel Paul needed the messenger of Satan to buffet him lest he be lifted up above measure (2 Cor. 12:7." (Richard Sibbs, A Bruised Reed, p. 5).

God uses traumatic stress to show us what He sees in us: Jer. 17:9-10 “The heart is more deceitful than all else And is desperately sick; Who can understand it? 10 “I, the Lord, search the heart, I test the mind, Even to give to each man according to his ways, According to the results of his deeds." None of us understands our heart rightly. Hence, the severity of our traumatic stress. Therefore, it performs an excellent service for God: showing His love and healing power. As Richard Sibbs wrote, "Now, he that is thus bruised will be content with nothing but with mercy from him who has bruised him. He (God) has wounded, and he must heal (Hos. 6:1). The Lord who has bruised me deservedly for my sins must bind up my heart again." (A Bruised Reed, p. 11).

Scripturally speaking, we find God's pattern and purpose for bruising His people (with PTSD) in two passages. He (Jesus) must increase, and I (Paul, we Christian vets) must decrease. Notice how Paul's suffering produces humbling of self and exalting Christ.

2 Cor. 12:7-10 Because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me—to keep me from exalting myself! 8 Concerning this I implored the Lord three times that it might leave me. 9 And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. 10 Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong. (emphasis added)

Phil. 3:1-11 Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. To write the same things again is no trouble to me, and it is a safeguard for you.

2 Beware of the dogs, beware of the evil workers, beware of the false circumcision; 3 for we are the true circumcision, who worship in the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh, 4 although I myself might have confidence even in the flesh. If anyone else has a mind to put confidence in the flesh, I far more: 5 circumcised the eighth day, of the nation of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; as to the Law, a Pharisee; 6 as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to the righteousness which is in the Law, found blameless.

7 But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, 9 and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, 10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; 11 in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. (emphasis added)

He (Jesus) must increase, and I (Paul, we Christian vets) must decrease.

Heb. 5:8-10 Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered. 9 And having been made perfect, He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation, 10 being designated by God as a high priest according to the order of Melchizedek.

The biblical fact is, in union with Jesus Christ, we are decreasing and He is increasing.