2002-01-01
Good Morning Faithful Ones,
As we continue to examine how God reveals Himself as Jehovah Rapha, the Lord Who heals, I am led to take up the subject of the conflict between the flesh and the spirit. It is the meat of what is going on during the process of sanctification. 1COR 15: 46, “It is not the spiritual that comes first, but the physical, and then the spiritual.” This very revealing Scripture is amidst a passage dealing with the resurrection bodies that we will receive at the time we are glorified. To place it in proper context, let me cite the verse just before it (45). “For the Scripture [GN 2: 7] says, ‘The first man, Adam, was created a living being;’ but the last Adam is the life-giving Spirit.” Because of the original sin inherited from Adam, we are born creatures of the flesh. It is only when we repent and accept Christ as our personal Savior that we begin the process spoken of in RO 6: 11 as “ being dead to sin and but alive in Christ.” The process of sanctification involves dying to the flesh and becoming alive in the Spirit. The dominance of the inner, spiritual self is increasing while that of the outer fleshly self is decreasing. Please read RO 7: 14-25, which I have discussed in previous devotions to be refreshed on how this process occurs. Paul comes to the inescapable conclusion in RO 7: 24b-25, “Who will rescue me from this body that is taking me to death? Thanks be to God, Who does this through our Lord Jesus Christ! This, then, is my condition: on my own I can serve God’s law only with my mind, while my human natures serves the law of sin.”
Because faith in Christ is the only way for healing from the ravages of sins and dominance of the flesh, it is a gift given those of us who believe by Jehovah Rapha. GA 3; 13-14 seems to summarize well what was done for us by Him. “But by becoming a curse for us Christ has redeemed us from the curse the Law brings; for the Scripture [DT 21: 23] says, ‘Anyone who is hanged on a tree is under God’s curse.’ Christ did this in order that the blessing which God promised to Abraham might be given to the Gentiles by means of Christ Jesus, so that through faith we might receive the Spirit promised by God.” It is appropriate to once again cite Peter’s slant on this crucial topic from 1 PET 2: 24, “Christ Himself carried our sins in His body to the cross, so that we might die to sin and live for righteousness. It is by His wounds that you have been healed.”
No one ever said that going though the process of sanctification is easy. In fact, Christ described it as going through the narrow gate. MT 7: 13-14, “Go in through the narrow gate, because the gate to hell is wide and the road that leads to it is easy, and there are many who travel it. But the gate to life is narrow and the way that leads to it is hard, and there are few people who find it.” I wish it were easy and that more people would come to life-giving faith, but who comes to faith is God’s sovereign decision and not ours. I’m glad we don’t know who has been chosen, so that we will feel motivated to carry His message to all that we can. God makes His will very clear about what we are supposed to do; this is nothing new, as He sent these messages from OT times. IS 50: 10, “All of you that have reverence for the Lord and obey the words of His Servant, the path you walk may be dark indeed, but trust in the Lord, rely on your God.” We know that God had revealed to Isaiah that “His Servant” would come from all that Isaiah wrote about Christ in IS 53. Isaiah didn’t know Him by the name, Jesus Christ, but his faith was deep enough for him to know that God is incapable of lying about the coming Servant Who will suffer for us. This message even goes back further, as can be seen from God’s words in EX 15: 26. “If you will obey Me completely by doing what I consider right and by keeping My commands, I will not punish you with any of the diseases that I brought on the Egyptians. I am the Lord [Jehovah Rapha], the One Who heals you.” God commands His children to obey Him, even if it isn’t easy, because He wants them to be healed. The use of the term, “Egyptians,” can be thought of as not only applying to people from ancient Egypt, but as any people who are enemies of God.
In the next message, I will share some stories from the Scriptures that will allow us to see how people from our past struggled with walking through the narrow gate. These stories apply to us today, because God’s teachings are consistent regardless of when in history they are applied. These struggles and Jehovah Rapha’s interactions will reveal more ways to us how blessed we are that our Abba loves us as much as He does.
PRAYER: O Lord, our first reaction to temptation, illness, and other challenges to our faith is to allow our flesh to lead us. However, You sacrificed Your Son to buy us out of this marketplace of slavery to sin. When we made the decision to repent from our sins and to believe in Jesus Christ, the real work began that You want to do in us. That is working through the sometimes seemingly awful conflict between the flesh of our outer selves and the Spirit Who resides in our inner selves. That Spirit is an extraordinary and unparalleled gift of Your love and grace. As our sanctification proceeds, the Spirit becomes stronger and stronger as the flesh becomes weaker. You have commanded us to trust and obey Your commands, even when that is very difficult for us requiring major changes in our lifestyles. Yet, You do not order us to make these changes, because You take pleasure in seeing us suffer. You do that, because You know it is the only way that we can become perfected in order to be ready for that Day when the Lord Jesus calls us to Him. You honor us by inviting us to join You in Your work while this process is going on. We humbly thank You for that honor and offer our lives to You as living sacrifices of service pleasing and acceptable to You. This we do in the name of Your Son, Jesus Christ, amen.
Join me tomorrow for the Biblical stories I promised. Let me use some contemporary language to describe how the Father blesses us. He is on the job loving, guiding, protecting, providing for, and healing us “24/7 !” That means He is there for us 24 hours a day, seven days a week! He is our main Cheerleader, rooting for us to succeed and gently picking us up when we fall back and look to Him for help. Peter and I send you our love too.
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn