Our Christian life is a life of rest, a total rest in Christ, for He had finished everything that God could think of at the Cross two thousand years ago. A divine exchange of life between God and men had taken place at the Cross where the sinful and hopeless life of men had been totally absorbed by Jesus and His sinless, anointed life had been freely lavished into this world. Whosoever believes in Him shall have this new life eternally. This is what Jesus had promised before the Cross. He said He came to give us life, a life more abundantly and He gave it all through the Cross.
As His believers, what can we contribute in living out this abundant life? Can a bankrupt man trying to live out this abundant life? Is there any instruction from the Lord that we can follow so that we can live out this abundant life?
Certainly cannot, how can a bankrupt man live out this abundant life? Jesus did not say He came to teach us how to live but He came to give us this abundant life. This abundant life is a spirit life. He caused us to born again in the spirit as a new creation, a creation that never existed during the six days of His majestic creation work.
We, as a new creation, we just need to believe that we are righteous simply because of the gift of the righteousness that Christ died to give us. Our soul will be at rest when we establish ourselves in Christ's righteousness. This rest will enable the Holy Spirit to write the law in our heart and He will cause us to live out the abundant life through us.
Hebrews 10:17 then He adds, "THEIR SINS AND THEIR LAWLESS DEEDS I WILL REMEMBER NO MORE."
Hebrews 10:16 "THIS IS THE COVENANT THAT I WILL MAKE WITH THEM AFTER THOSE DAYS, SAYS THE LORD: I WILL PUT MY LAWS INTO THEIR HEARTS, AND IN THEIR MINDS I WILL WRITE THEM,"
The best kind of Christian life to live is the life that we live out without our conscious of how we are going to live it. If we live our life conscious of how we are going to live, we ended up being religious and the outcome is self righteousness.
Recently, we came to understand of this Spirit led life happening in our midst. My wife, Penny had gone through a tough time in her office for the past two months due to the numerous closing of tender. Her working life then was quite stressful. After the closing of all these tenders, their office life was back to normal and a colleague who is quite new in the company, came to her and asked her whether she could know more about her God. Hey, this colleague of hers wanted to know more about Jesus…! Penny was surprised by her approach and introduced Jesus to her.
Though Penny does not know as much scriptures as I do, she does not share with people as much as I do, she does not pray as much as I do and she does not speak in tongue as much as I do, the Lord told me that she believes He is a good God. She trusts in His grace, the unearned and unmerited favour of God. She believes she is righteous because of what Jesus had done for her at the Cross. She believes and is resting His finished work.
Abundant life is not what we can do but what we believe and how we rest in our Lord. Just by believing and trusting in Jesus' goodness, He can write a beautiful epistle in our life.
2 Corinthians 3:1-3 (The Message)
Does it sound like we're patting ourselves on the back, insisting on our credentials, asserting our authority? Well, we're not. Neither do we need letters of endorsement, either to you or from you. You yourselves are all the endorsement we need. Your very lives are a letter that anyone can read by just looking at you. Christ himself wrote it—not with ink, but with God's living Spirit; not chiseled into stone, but carved into human lives—and we publish it.
Though I felt inferior after the Lord had revealed this truth to me, but He reaffirmed me by saying, "Son, you two are in one...!" Man..., this is the kind of righteous life that we should be living! An effortless life that lived through by the Holy Spirit. Indeed, we are an epistle of Christ, written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart!
We are where we are now, because of the kind of message we have listened before. We will be who we are in the future, because of the message we are listening to now...
Hi Brother Alan,
ReplyDeleteHow blessed can we be! knowing who we are in Christ... Rom 8:29-30 says... For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. 30 Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.
We are the Glory of God for He has glorified us in Him and now we are the living epistle of Christ in this world! And now we live His life that the world shall see!! Amen.
Dear brother, I say AMEN to your post! Excellent. I need the reminder DAILY! It is so easy to forget how to rest in Him and watch Him works in our lives. Right believing will always leads us to right living. Only then, we will start to see the fruit of the Spirit. Glory to God who truly loves us with an everlasting love! Amen!!! :)
ReplyDeleteAmen yaso and Michelle,
ReplyDeleteWhat can we do, eh? Anything that is out of ourselves are dung according to Apostle Paul.
So let us keep on reminding ourselves that we are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus and labour to enter His rest!
May grace and peace be yours in abundance through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.
Amen Brother.
ReplyDelete