A Look at a Book
by Anonymous

BOOK REVIEW: No Independent Self by Norman Grubb

I want to tell you about a small twelve-page pamphlet called No Independent Self by Norman Grubb.

In wishing to convey to us the very basis of our total truth, right off, he states that the human self has no nature of its own. That is, it has never been a self-operating self and has never operated by expressing a nature of its own.

He states that there is no independent, self-operating self in the universe, except the one who calls Himself the I AM (Ex. 3:14) and says, " I am the Lord and there is none else, there is no God beside Me" (Isa 4:55). But even God limited Himself, because Titus 1:2 says God cannot lie. He has eternally fixed Himself as a self for others when He could have chosen to be a self for self. The two alternatives were there. "’Therefore, when we say that we created selves have no independent self, but express His eternal Deity Self, we are also saying that we express God’s fixed nature, which has eternally discarded the possibility of expressing the liar, self-for-self nature. We are fixed as He (1 John 3:9).

The author continues through the rest of the booklet to develop the truth of no independent self, constantly using Biblical references.

His next topic is "the law of opposites." He states that "the fundamental law of the universe is that there are pairs of opposites and that nothing operates except the one swallowing up the other." Satan (Lucifer) was created to manifest God’s other love nature, but in his freedom to choose, he chose to be the opposite nature of self-for-self to which God had died.

God is bringing into being a growing family of sons whose created selves express His other love nature. We are brought to see how Adam and Eve were confronted with the law of opposites by way of Satan’s lies about God and began to express his self-for-self nature in them by taking the fruit, which God had forbidden (1 John 3:8-10).

Next, Norman speaks of the secret and essential value of the Law of God through Moses. He shows how the Law exposes eternal truth as well as our inability perform it in our false union with Satan (Rom. 1:18-21). He takes us to the Law’s final revelation: "What is finally revealed is the root of sin: the Satanic deceit of thinking we are independent selves, who by ourselves can resist all of Satan’s assaults of self-forself. In this condition we struggle and seek to resist the pulls, we feel guilty, seek forgiveness of our sins through the blood of Jesus, knowing we will go through the same thing over and over. But at last some of us become desperate and only those who become desperate can find the releasing secret." The remainder of the booklet can be a true eye-opener to those who would be free to be who we truly are and to be "more than conquerors" (Rom. 8:37) because we are freed from fighting our own battles and watching out for our human responses. How are we freed to be "fathers" not just "young men" (1 John 2:12-14), co-laborers, co-saviors (1 Cor. 9:22) and intercessors?

There are answers to these questions in No Independent Self and I would very much encourage you to read it for yourself.