The following is taken from here - a post by Matt Richard
In thinking about
the prophet Isaiah for a moment, what happened to him as he saw the the
Lord sitting on the throne? (See: Isaiah 6:1-7) Answer, he realized his
sinfulness. In other words, something profound happens as God moves in
on us and that is what John Kleinig calls "Reverse Progress." You see,
this idea of progress in sanctification is not the movement of the
Christian upon holiness, but the movement of the Holy One upon the
Christian. As God continually moves in on us, striking us down and
binding us up (Hosea 6:1), "...we move away from pride in ourselves
and our own achievements to a gradual awareness of our spiritual failure
and Christ's work in us as we entrust ourselves to Him. We move away
the conviction that we are self-sufficient to the repeated experience of
spiritual bankruptcy. We move on from delusions of our spiritual
importance to a growing sense of our utter insignificance and the glory
of God. We move on from delight in our own power to the painful
recognition of our spiritual weakness. We are brought from our
self-righteousness to the increasing consciousness that we are sinful."
Kleinig goes on to say,
"In our human lives, growing up involves the gradual shift from
dependence to independence. But the reverse is true for us as we grow
spiritually. On our journey we become more and more dependent on Christ
for everything in every situation. We do not then proceed from childhood
to adulthood; we move forward into spiritual childhood as we grow in
faith and become people of prayer... As we mature in faith we learn to
borrow all that we need and all that we are from Christ. Only as beggars
do we have access to the Father's presence and His grace. Only as we
receive grace upon grace from His fullness can we praise Him in the
heavenly choir."
In summary Kleinig states that this idea of reverse progress is a lifelong journey where our, "...whole life is a process of conversion from ourselves to God, a dying to self that is complete only when we die."
We are
beggars, this is most certainly true. What do we have that has not been
given to us? (Matthew 5:3 & 1 Corinthians 4:7)
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John Kleinig quotes from above are take from:
Grace Upon Grace (CPH, 2008), 34-35.
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