2019-05-17
Good Morning Dear Ones,
As we continue with Scriptures that support the book of Colossians, we are also delving into the relationship that God desires for us to have vertically, with Him and horizontally, with other believers and potential believers. This is not to say that we should ignore certain people or judge them when we don’t know if they will ever come to faith in the Lord Jesus. After all, we’ve been told to treat all people with kindness, genuine interest in them and with an eye to where they might be in their faith walk. The third chapter of Colossians begins with some rather amazing truths, things like found in COL 3: 3-4, “For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. Your real life is Christ and when He appears, then you too will appear with Him and share His glory!” What!? We imperfect humans will appear with Him and share His glory???!!! Yes, and what this means is that once Christ is in us, as a result of our genuinely faithful proclamation that He is our Savior, we are forever transformed into beings that can choose to sin, rather than ones on a one-way path to spiritual death. We must choose to “let God transform us inwardly by the complete renewal of our mind” [RO 12: 2]. When we do this, we please God, gaining His justification [RO 4: 3], are saved for eternal life with Him [JN 3: 16], and are eternally forgiven [1 JN 1: 9].
But there is more! We are set free from the law of sin and death, so that we can live the Spirit [RO 8: 1-2]. This means “there is no condemnation for those who live in union with Christ Jesus.” The Holy Spirit dwells in our souls to teach, guide, and enable us to have a direct conduit with the Father [JN 14: 16-18, 21]. Moreover, we undergo spiritual “adoption” by the Father and become His children [RO 8: 14-16]. As it has been explained to me by a Christian mentor, “When we become a child of God, we will inherit what God has to offer His Son, Jesus Christ. That is His eternal Kingdom, so that we will share leadership of that Kingdom with Christ. We will share as joint-heirs with Christ in His glory!” [RO 8: 17]. GA 2: 19-20, “So far as the Law is concerned, however, I am dead-killed by the Law itself—in order that I might live for God. I have been put to death with Christ, on His cross--so that it is no longer I who live, but it is Christ Who lives in me. This is the life that I live now, I live by faith in the Son of God, Who loved me and gave His life for me.” GA 5: 14, “Those who belong to Christ Jesus have put to death their human nature with all its passions and desires.” GA 6: 14, “As for me, however, I will only boast about the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, for by means of this cross the world is dead to me, and I am dead to the world.”
If anything is seen as a huge blessing, it is all that I have said here! It is a lead-in to answering the quintessentially important question: How has Christ’s sacrifice on the cross impacted my life? In going beyond this theological part of one’s answer, each of us must go on answering from the perspective governed by the particulars of his own life. My own answer would have to include 1 JN 4: 4, “But you belong to God, my children, and have defeated the false prophets, because the Spirit Who is in you is more powerful than the spirit that is in those who belong to the world.” That is such a comfort! Yes, I know there are lots of exclamation marks in these heartfelt words, but they express how God’s richest blessings have engaged my soul. My life before Christ entered it and afterward has been transformed to something so much better and more orderly, so much more so that I could have never imagined it. The Holy Spirit’s remarkable power to do good has been so efficient and intense that I have fallen deeply in love with the word of God. He has given me the peace to truly perceive and understand His constant presence in my life and to become quite dependent on Him. I will never be abandoned again, as I had been by some humans in my past life before the Lord Jesus came to it. PS 9: 9-10 is true! “The Lord is a Refuge for the oppressed, a Place of Safety in times of trouble. Those who know You, Lord, will trust You; You do not abandon anyone who comes to You.”
PRAYER: O Lord, Your love for Your human creation can’t be matched. It is unconditional and sacrificial. As a recipient of that love and the blessings that flow from it, I am filled with reverence, awe, and gratitude, which is directed at You. No human being has ever shown such kindness, goodness, and generosity toward us as You have. Your love enables us to have strong faith that one day You will raise us to heaven for an eternal life of bliss and fellowship with You. That one day we will meet You face to face, seeing clearly what now on earth, “what we can only see, like a dim image in a mirror, only partial and not complete” [1 COR 13: 12]. You know everything about each person who comes to You. “There is nothing that is hidden from You; everything in all creation is exposed and lies open before Your eyes” [HE 4: 13]. Any tender feelings that we have are with us because of Your own. Because of You, we can have inner peace and true happiness. We can trust You to keep any promise You make. We take great joy in serving You, using the talents You have given us to do work that You have already prepared for us to do. You extend Your grace to us, even though we don’t deserve any of it. The blessings You bestow on us are too numerous to count. You encourage us to focus on those blessings and not on the fleshly desires of our imperfect human spirits. For what is written here so far, we offer You our love, loyalty, praise, thanks, and honor. In Christ’s holy/mighty name, we pray. Amen.
NEXT WEEK: As I obey the Holy Spirit’s command to present supporting Scriptures to the book of Colossians, I will continue to do this while discussing the ultimate outcome of having God-pleasing relationships with Him and with other people. Therefore, I will take up worship in heaven as outlined in REV 4 and beyond. My own understanding of being revealed with Christ in glory remains limited by human perspective. However, there are some questions which I believe have begun to be answered in part for me. My training as a young adult was in science using the scientific method. My time in university began before the Lord Jesus became a part of it. What I wanted at the time was a physical description of God. That didn’t come for me until much later when I read and was called upon to teach a course on the book of Ezekiel. This OT prophet was a leader of a group of Jews exiled in the Chabar River area of Babylonia (sometime after the Babylonian Captivity began in 602 BC). Ezekiel saw a vision of extraordinary idolatrous disobedience to God going on by priests in the temple in Jerusalem. A room with symbols of idolatry was built into the wall of the temple, and the Jewish priests were engaging in worship of these idols there [EZK 8: 7-10, 12, 16b, 17b]. God found this so offensive that He made the decision to physically depart from the temple! EZK 10 describes His departure and is followed by the closest physical description of God’s person that I had ever encountered. It was during the latter portion of my time in university that the Lord Jesus began making His entrance into my life. Once this physical description was filled out with burgeoning spiritual maturity, my life was made better forever. I pray and hope He is impacting your life the same way. Praise and thanks be to Him!
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn
JS 24: 15
© Lynn Johnson 2019. All Rights Reserved
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