Others May - You Cannot

 Others Can – You Cannot

If God has called you to be really like Jesus He will draw you into a life

of crucifixion and humility, and put upon you such demands of obedience,

that you will not be able to follow other people, or measure yourself by other Christians, 

and in many ways He will seem to let other people do things which He will not let you do.

Other Christians and ministers who seem very religious and useful, 

may push themselves, pull wires, and work schemes to carry out their plans.

but you cannot do it, and if you attempt it, you will meet with such failure

and rebuke from the Lord as to make you sorely penitent.

Others may boast of themselves, of their work, of their successors,

of their writings, but the Holy Spirit will not allow you to do any such thing,

and if you begin it, He will lead you into a deep mortification

that will make you despise yourself and all your good works.

Others may be allowed to succeed in making money, 

or may have a legacy left to them,

but it is likely God will keep you modest and humble,

because He wants you to have something far better than gold,

namely, a helpless dependence upon him,

that He may have the privilege of supplying your needs day by day 

out of an unseen treasury.

The Lord may let others be honoured and put forward, 

but keep you hidden in obscurity,

because He wants to produce some choice fragrant fruit for His coming glory,

which can only be produced in the shade.

He may let others be great, but keep you small.

He may let others to do a work for him and get the credit for it,

but He will request that you work and toil on without knowing 

how much you are doing;

and then to make your work still more precious 

He may then let others get credit

for the work which you have done, and thus make

your reward ten times greater when Jesus comes.

The Holy Spirit will put a strict watch over you, with a jealous love,

and will rebuke you for little words and feelings or for wasting your time,

which other Christians never feel distressed over. So make up your mind

that God is an infinitely Sovereign Being, and has a right to do as He

pleasers with his own. He may not explain to you a thousand things 

which puzzle your reason in his dealings with you, 

but if you absolutely sell yourself to be his love slave,

He will wrap you up in a jealous love, and bestow upon you

many blessings which come only to those who are truly his elect and chosen ones.

Settle it for ever, then that you are to deal directly with the Holy Spirit,

and that He is to have the privilege of tying your tongue,

or chaining your hand, or closing your eyes,

in ways that He does not seem to use with others.

Now, when you are so possessed with the living God that you are,

in the secret place of your heart,

pleased and delighted over this peculiar, personal, private, 

jealous guardianship and management of the Holy Spirit over your life,

then you will have found the divine pathway towards heaven.

Word of Praise

 

Histories Greatest Event

 No event in history is more significant than the resurrection. It is not just His resurrection, it is also yours.

Christ not only died for you, He died AS YOU. When He died you died. Paul taught that we were crucified with Christ, buried with Christ and risen with Christ.

“I am crucified with Christ.” When He rose you rose! And that is why we are told we are invited to seek those things that are above where we are seated with Him in heavenly places. “If you then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above where Christ sits at the right hand of God.”

As I write these words I am reminded that I have such a shallow revelation and appreciation of all that is implied in the substitutionary death, burial and resurrection of Christ. There are layers here that we seldom fathom.

For instance, what we’re Jesus first words when He was seen on the third day? “I go to My Father and YOUR FATHER, to My God and YOUR GOD.” In a way that was totally unique, even different than before the resurrection, we now have a relationship with God as our heavenly FATHER. Just like Jesus had during His earthly ministry. Being “in Christ” puts you into a new level of relationship with the Godhead. The new birth makes you a “partaker of the divine nature.” You have the DNA of God in your born again spirit. You are now a child of God not merely a fallen creation of God.

That’s why this is GOOD NEWS for you and me and all who are IN HIM who came out of that tomb on the third day. The resurrected Christ lives inside you.

That’s why you know you’ll be resurrected. Paul said that “Christ IN YOU” is “the hope of glory.” What hope? What glory? The hope of a glorified body just like His. Did you know that you have a supernatural SEAL on your spirit? When Jesus died, the Romans put a seal on the tomb of Christ to make it secure as government property. Likewise God put a seal on you as His Government property. “You were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.” Ephesians 1:13-14

What is “the earnest”? Earnest money is what you put down as a deposit on a property you purchase. The Holy Spirit in you, Christ in you, is the seal and deposit that guarantees your salvation and the full purchased redemption of your body.

What was the payment made for you as His property? The blood of Jesus. The blood purchased you, the water washes you clean and the Spirit fills you. These three bear witness of what I’m saying: “the Spirit, the water and the blood; and the three are in agreement.” 1 John 5:8

~ Lance Wallnau

Growing Old

 

Working for God?

Are you busy "working for God" at your church, in your community, or with a ministry? If so, be careful not to let the work define you or become the source of your self-esteem. I've met many Believers who "work for God" and get their need for acceptance and self-acceptance met through their work. In fact, they need the work. Take the work away from them and they'll become depressed. You see, Jesus wasn't the source from whom they were generating esteem; it was the work.

Paul's work was removed from him the last few years of his life. His goal for evangelizing Spain disappeared. He was a goal-oriented, hard worker, but he didn't get depressed over the lost goal. He wrote his most encouraging letters from prison, a place of "no achievement." He was able to do this because he wasn't satisfying his need for self-esteem through achieving tangible goals. His overriding, major goal was "that I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection" (Philippians 3:10). He drew even closer to this goal while experiencing the inactivity of prison life.

Again, I challenge you, Christian. What is the source of your acceptance of yourself -- your self-esteem? How are you getting your needs satisfied on earth? What or who is the source of your purpose in life? How much can the Lord remove from you and you'll continue to praise Him and rest in the passionate acceptance that is yours in Christ?

Why are you here? Some say it's to "work for God." Consider what my friend Tom Grady asks,

"Is that the reason you and your spouse had kids? So they could shoulder part of the work around the house? I imagine you planned for children so you could experience the joy of loving them and receiving love from them in return. To delight in them and in their victories, and to comfort them in their defeats. In short, to develop an intimate relationship with them."

That's the kind of relationship God wants with you!

The notion that God recreated you in Christ to get more work out of you is such a low view of our Father. God wants you to adopt Paul's life verse: "that I may know Him [Christ]" (Philippians 3:10). As you pursue that goal, spiritual fruit will begin to drop off of you to the glory of Christ. Men asked Jesus, "What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?" Jesus answered, "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He has sent" (John 6:28,29).

Telos of all Creation

 

On this Day (Good Friday)

 Good Friday and what God was doing in Christ: On this day, God demonstrated his own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

On this day, God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not counting our sins against us.

On this day, God reconciled to himself all things in heaven and on earth through Christ by the blood of the cross.

On this day, Christ, who being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death — even death on a cross!

On this day, Christ the Good Shepherd laid down his life for his sheep.

On this day, Christ the Mercy Seat took away the sins of the world.

On this day, Christ died for our sins, fulfilling the Scriptures.

On this day, Christ made cleansing for our sins.

On this day, Christ freed us from our sins.

On this day, Christ ransomed us from all bondage.

On this day, Christ cancelled out the “handwriting of requirements” that was against us, nailing it to the cross.

On this day, Christ disarmed the principalities and powers and made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.

On this day, Christ judged the world, driving out the “prince of this world,” and now draws all people everywhere to himself.

On this day, Christ destroyed the works of the devil, breaking their power.

On this day, Christ broke the power of him who holds the power of death, that is, the devil.

On this day, the righteous act of Christ resulted in justification and life for all.

On this day, we were crucified with Christ, to make us alive to God with him.

By the Incarnation

 From now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. (2 Corinthians 5:16)

The gospel changes how we view every human being. The cross certainly does, for Christ died for all of us. And referring to the cross, Jesus said, “And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” That being so, we can no longer look at each other through the lens of “us” and “them.” That lens is a “worldly” point of view, how the world determines things. But it is a failed way of seeing each other, and the cross of Christ puts the lie to it. There is no “us” and “them,” but only those for whom Christ died, which is everyone.

Along with the cross, we must also consider the Incarnation, through which the death of Christ could be effective for any of us and, by the same reason, was effective for all of us. For it is through the Incarnation that God joined himself with all humankind; in Jesus Christ, divinity and humanity became one. All the fullness of divinity dwells in Christ in bodily form, in whom also all the fullness of humanity dwells, so that, in Christ, we are made complete and become partakers of the divine nature.

In the Incarnation, Christ did not just become one of us, or even just one like us, but he became one with us. This union does not depend upon anything we have done or ever could do; it does not even depend upon our faith. Rather, it depends upon Christ and his faithfulness, who is completely faithful. It is this union that made the cross of Christ effective for every one of us, so that Paul could say, “one died for all, and therefore all died.”

For Christ’s love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. (2 Corinthians 5:14-15)

Christ died, therefore all died. This could only have been possible because of the Incarnation. Indeed, the Incarnation made the cross inevitable, because the one who has joined himself to us is Life and would therefore confront the human mortality to which we are all subject. And in confronting death, he overcame it, even as light overcomes darkness. The death of Christ is our death and his victory, our victory, so that his life has now become our life. This is true of every one of us because of the inclusive nature of the Incarnation.

This is why Paul could say, “So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer.” Paul had once considered Christ from a death-bound point of view, but then having met the living Christ on the way to Damascus, he could no longer see him that way. Christ, who died for all, had been raised from the dead for all, and the death-bound perspective of the world no longer made any sense.

“Therefore,” Paul says, “if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!” (2 Corinthians 5:17). Elsewhere, Paul calls Christ the “firstborn over all creation” and the “firstborn from among the dead” (Colossians 1:15,18). Christ, by whom, for whom and through whom all things were created, and in whom all things consist, became part of his creation, joining himself to us through the Incarnation. When Christ died, all creation died; when Christ was raised from the dead, all creation was raised to new life with him. The new creation has come!

When Paul says, “If anyone is in Christ,” he is not suggesting that there are two groups: those who are in Christ (“us”), and those who are not (“them”). That is the old, worldly point of view that has been done away by the gospel. Rather, all are in Christ, for when Christ died, all died. Paul could not have asserted that all died when Christ died unless all were in Christ. But the “if” in Paul’s statement makes a logical connection and shows what it means that we are in Christ, that we have new life and are part of the new creation.

We see this same dynamic at work elsewhere in Paul’s letters. In Romans 5:18, for example, he says, “Just as one trespass resulted in condemnation for all people, so also one righteous act resulted in justification and life for all people.” The one trespass was Adam’s, and it resulted in condemnation for all, because all were in Adam. The one righteous act was Christ’s and resulted in justification and life for all people, because all are in Christ. In 1 Corinthians 15:22, Paul says, “As in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.” Paul sees everyone as being in Christ, as having died with Christ, as having been raised to new life with Christ, and even as having been seated with Christ at the right hand of the Father (Ephesians 2:4-6).

So, for those who are in Christ, which is all of us, the new creation has come, and we are part of it. This is why we can no longer view each other through the old way of the world.

All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. (2 Corinthians 5:18-19)

In Christ, the whole world has been reconciled to God, and God has not counted our sins against any of us. All are forgiven, and this has been demonstrated at the cross. The good news of the gospel is the announcement of that reconciliation and forgiveness — our at-one-ment, as the word “atonement” literally means.

We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. (2 Corinthians 5:20)

This reconciliation is objectively true, but clearly, not all have known it or experienced it. Our subjective response to it is a matter of faith, but our faith does not make it true, nor does our lack of faith undo the truth of it. It is objectively true of us that we are in Christ and reconciled to God whether or not we have any subjective sense of it or response to it. The work of evangelism, of bringing that message of reconciliation, is so that others may begin to know and experience what has been done for us in Christ and live in the truth of our fellowship with God.

God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:21)

God was in Christ, and Christ became sin for us. This happened in the Incarnation. In Christ, God became a human being (though no less God), joining himself with all humankind, even at our very worst, taking all our darkness, all our brokenness, all our shame into himself. For whatever in us he did not join himself to, he could not deliver us from.

Why did God do this? So that in Christ we would become the righteousness of God. In Christ, we have, and are, God’s own righteousness. Not by imputation, nor by impartation, but by Incarnation. That is, this righteousness is not a legal fiction, or something that is merely reckoned to our account (imputation). Nor is it merely something imparted to us, as if it were some discrete substance delivered to us from the outside. But we have it by the Incarnation, in which we participate in Christ and Christ participates in us. By that participation, then, we participate in God’s righteousness. We share in it because we share in Christ and Christ shares in us.

Because we are in Christ, chosen in him from before the creation of world (Ephesians 1:3), and have been reconciled in him, have died with him, have been raised with him and seated with him in the heavenlies, and share with him in the righteousness of God, we can no longer see each other through the old eyes of the world. The gospel changes that, giving us new eyes to see.

Christ our True Nature

We are already in Christ as much as we are ever going to be, and Christ is already in us as much as he is ever going to be — which is 100%! It is irrevocably so because to undo it would require undoing the Incarnation, in which Christ has united with all humankind. Indeed, it would require the dissolution of creation itself, for all things are created in Christ and hold together in him.

Our salvation in Christ is settled from the beginning. For Christ is the Lamb of God slain from the foundation of the world, and we are chosen in him from the beginning (Ephesians 1:4).

But there is a sense in which our salvation is progressive as we continue to be transformed, by the life of Christ and the Holy Spirit in us, in our experience of salvation and the redeemed nature we have in Christ.

And there is a sense in which our salvation is future, for we have yet to experience the transformation of our mortal, corruptible bodies into immortal, incorruptible bodies, like that of Christ in his resurrection.

Yet our identity in Christ remains the same throughout. We neither increase nor decrease in him, and he neither increases nor decreases in us. What increases is our awareness and experience of him and our awakening response to him. Our true nature in Christ remains constant, created in the image of God and to be like God, to participate in the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4).

There is only one human nature, of which we all partake, and it is redeemed in Christ, by his participation in this nature with us. And though we do agree with God about sin, the things that do not belong in us and in our life (this is called confession), we do not agree with any false idea that we are of a sinful nature. For Christ is now our life (Galatians 2:20) and through the Incarnation, he shares with us in the only human nature there is and has healed it, so that Christ is our true nature. So instead of agreeing with the false idea that we have a sinful nature, we agree with the gospel, and with the Incarnation, which is foundational to the gospel.

Jeff Dole