The
high
calling of God that born again believers serve as vessels of
Christ begins with
the actuality, or the
fact of the
matter.
“Because
ye are
sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts,
crying, Abba
Father” (Galatians 4:6).
Whether
or not
we realize and consistently apply the truth, the Spirit of Christ
lives within
us if we have believed. “We
have this
Treasure in earthen vessels” declared the Apostle Paul (II
Corinthians
4:7). Thus, we possess
potential to
bless both God and man with the Lord Jesus as revealed in the
unique person we
are, and the particular life we live. We
are what we are, and we
are where we are by the
working of God for
this sublime purpose, again, regardless of our awareness of such
blessed truth.
True
fulfillment
of our hearts and the fulfillment of life’s purpose begin when we
acknowledge our
privileged role and
responsibility.
“Yield
yourselves
unto God as those which are alive from the dead, and your members
as
instruments of righteousness unto God” (Romans 6:13).
Paul
commands
that we view ourselves as “alive from the dead” selves, that is,
as those
joined unto the risen Lord Jesus.
“He
that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit” (I Corinthians 6:17). Indeed,
we are not simply ourselves if we have believed. We are ourselves, as
inhabited by the Holy
Spirit. Such
realization is a
game-changer, as it were, if we determine to seriously accept the
truth so
often proclaimed in the New Testament.
We did not awaken to this day in order to live our lives as
if by
ourselves. We rather “live
through Him”
(I John 4:9). This is not
mere esoteric
philosophy for the believer. This
is Truth,
truth to be acknowledged by decisive faith, and then…
Applied. “If we live in the Spirit,
let us also walk
in the Spirit” (Galatians 5:25). In
essence,
the Apostle commands that we be who we are. We take the many
opportunities life affords
to remember Whose we are, and who we are.
The world, the devil, and the flesh constantly seek to
distract and
discourage us from the fact of Christ in us, and us in Christ. We would all acknowledge that
they have too
often won skirmishes in this “good fight of faith” (I Timothy
6:12). Never, however,
have they succeeded in
changing the truth that the Spirit of the Lord Jesus dwells in us
as our very
life. They cannot change this Truth, affirmed by Paul to be
“sealed unto the
day of redemption” (Ephesians 4:30).
Yes,
our Lord inhabited us for the duration when we believed, the
duration of both
time and eternity. The
Christian who
awakens and acknowledges this truth, even perhaps after a long
season of
spiritual slumber, possesses the holy potential to yet again arise
in the grace
of a Christ nearer than our next breath.
Such
blessed
truth came at so high a cost that we must not fail to acknowledge
and affirm this
ever-present life of Christ. Indeed,
the
Lord Jesus was abandoned by His Father and the Holy Spirit on the
cross of
Calvary – “My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?” – so that
we might never
be alone or live alone in either time or eternity (Matthew 27:46). Again, we are ourselves as
united to the
Spirit of Christ. This is
God’s view of
His trusting sons and daughters. It
must
be ours as well. To the
degree we open
our eyes and apply our hearts to so great a gift will be the
degree to which we
please our Heavenly Father with His Son as revealed in us, and
bless our world
with the same.
“It pleased God… to reveal His Son in me.”
(Galatians 1:1-16)
“I will dwell in them, and walk in them.”
(II Corinthians 6:16)
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