The Ape and the Angel

An angel and an ape… can you imagine a less likely combination?

A.W. Tozer agreed: "Two creatures may be in the same room and yet millions of miles apart. For instance, if it were possible to put an ape and an angel in the same room, there would be no compatibility, no communion, no understanding, no friendship; there would only be distance. The shining angel and the slobbering, gibbering ape would be far, far removed from each other" (The Attributes of God). In order for the two to be truly close, Tozer went on to write, their spirits would need to be changed, made similar. That’s because inner likeness is closeness.

Pastor Ben spoke to us Sunday about abiding in Christ. Sometimes it’s like the ape trying to keep company with the angel, isn’t it? We tend to look at things differently than Jesus does. We allow fears and worries and opinions and irritations to interfere. Our communion with Him is on-and-off, and we sometimes feel millions of miles apart from Him. As a result, instead of experiencing joy and bearing much fruit, we wither on the Vine. Our differences have separated us from Him; there is “no compatibility, no communion, no understanding, no friendship”… only distance.

The bottom line is, we need to be like Christ in order to get near to Him. Tozer goes on to ask: “Have you any tears for your unlikeness? Have you any tears for that distance between you and God? You’re not diminishing in any way the things God has already done in your life… But you can’t escape that sense of remoteness…

“I think that repentance is called for. We need to repent of unlikeness; of unholiness in the presence of the holy; of self-indulgence in the presence of the selfless Christ; of harshness in the presence of the kind Christ; of hardness in the presence of the forgiving Christ; of lukewarmness in the presence of the zealous Christ… of worldliness and earthliness in the presence of the heavenly Christ. I think we ought to repent.”

Amen, Dr. Tozer. True repentance gives the Holy Spirit permission to change us into His likeness. To re-create us in the image of God. To make it possible, finally, to understand and connect and commune… to abide in Him.