It is a rare gift to understand that your life is wondrous, and that it won't last forever, at least in the form we now occupy. We have faith in the promised gift of eternity: but we are only human, we are here, this is our only practical existence. How can we take the promises we all hope for and cause it to be appreciated, even lived experientially while we are on this earth?
I think of the Lord Jesus, His beauty and the love He contained within Himself for us, His sacrifice for the ones He loved. His obedience in portraying the Grace of the Father is such a wonder. Surely if His example is true, and it applies to us as individuals, He must have also wished for it to impact the way we live our lives in a self volitional way; in light of the fact He gave us the advantage of having the gift of such joyful knowledge of a life in Him, available to us in His Word. "I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus" Phil 3:12.
The practical side of such prose as above is hard to reach as a aware existence. Where is the hope then found? If a life in Christ doesn't become practical what good is it? If we are simply carrying on for the good of a improved situation on this earth, history shows this has been a fruitless endeavor. How can the beautiful vision painted in the Bible's Words, us as the children of God, "hid in Christ", bear fruit via a expression of our most inner being? Becoming what we are portrayed to be in it's pages: in our daily earthy lives.
Well the answer is; there is a way, and it's right before our eye's, giving us a total revelation of the living God. The power is in His Word's. This is how life is changed. We by the alive Spirit of Jesus Christ inside of our minds can take advantage of the reflective inner vision of a life given in complete abandon to the Lord Jesus Christ. Knowledge guides with faith as it's anchor. "That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection" Phil. 3:10a.
The problem on the way to achieving this nirvana like existence is we come to realize a fact; a large part of that discovery, as a way of life, is found on the down side. How ironic, but it must be a Godly intentional condition. After all He could have made us any way He wished! " And the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable to His death" Phil 3:10b.
John Darby said it like this: "The awakening of the conscience in one who is sincere, never produces in him the accomplishment of righteousness, but on the contrary despair."Oh wretched man that I am!" This thought puts us in a position of asking. "Who shall deliver me?" His ways are so above ours. How can we take the place we are told we have been positioned in Christ Jesus?" Has made us alive together with Christ" Eph. 2:5.
God takes no pleasure in leaving us here in such a wretched condition: but as soon as we acknowledge our state as natural earthly men, without any hope, the Father reveals our perfect deliverance in Christ. " Oh wrenched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from this body of death" Rom. 7:24 This is the new position we find in our weakness, by the Spirit in the Fathers mind seen fully in the light of His Son, and from that as our platform for life we may be delivered and bring forth good fruit. "For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be reveled in us" Rom 8:8
"Alive unto God in Jesus Christ, our lord" Rom. 6:11. Until we come to believe in the fact that our position as Christians is in the risen Lord Jesus Christ we will have no rest during the process of becoming alive to that position. Him becoming our true condition. In other words we must be sure of the Source before growth. " Set you affections [mental attitude] on things above....for you died [old nature on the cross] and your life [new nature in Christ] is hidden with Christ in God" Col. 3:2, 3.
Our standing with the Father is settled, it is perfect, it is eternal. "You were set free [co-crucified with Christ] from the tyranny of sin' Rom 6:18. However our condition or state is imperfect and is always fluctuating. We as Christians are partakers of a new life by Spirit, without sin, as we are considered as in Christ and Him only by the Father. But we go about our physical existence in the old Adam nature, which can only sin. "Sin is in the flesh". Our standing with God however is the new spiritual, not the old natural. We are not in this sinful flesh if in the Spirit of Christ as one born again. "But you are not in the flesh [natural man in God's sight]. but in the spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you [ born again]. Yet if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not of Him" Rom. 8:9. Our freedom from the old condition lies not in function and behavior or experience which is Law: but in mental acquiescence to God's Grace given as an identity, to the new man of faith, who bears the new nature as his very own. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus [our identity is in Him] has made me free from the law of sin and death" Rom. 8:2. We are excepted by God.....complete in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Our practical sinful condition can never even touch our spiritual position which is internally secured by Jesus Christ. But it can very seriously affect our fellowship and worship. Our testimony, service and spiritual enjoyment can be very compromised. The carrying about of the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ in our practical Christian life, is defined and lived by the discovery of our position and identity in Him. This is a spiritual apprehension which defines our eternal life itself. "He shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified, and fit for the master's use, and prepared unto every good work" 2 Tim. 2:21. There are great consequences to be gained in understanding this truth, in the recognition of the new personality and conscience we have inherited, which requires a new mind; changed by God's revelation, to take advantage of the new man we have become in Christ.
The position of the true believer always remains intact, we have complete security and even the most immature Christian is seen as perfect in Christ by the Father, as He wholly represents us. As we become more mature however we can see our condition as both in the sinful man and in the perfection of our Lord. The former condition serves the aware saint as a thorn to prod us to ever seeking identity in Christ. But now we are partakers on the earth of a heavenly position by Spirit and our faith. We may then more fully enjoy the favors of the Father [us represented by the Son] to us in heavenly places. "This I say then, walk in the Spirit and you shall not fulfill [define yourself as a natural man] the lusts of the flesh" Gal. 5:16 Then we may thank Him for the condition we must live under, in the circumstances of the earthly man; as it only serves to enhance the position of love we may rest in; trusting in faith in all that the Father has made us in His Son. "For me to live is Christ" Phil. 1:21.
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