"Life Beyond Life"

"Life Beyond Life"

   

    Born again believers in the Lord Jesus Christ experience countless "resurrections" as we trust and submit to our risen Savior.

    "Christ died… but God raised Him from the  dead" (I Corinthians 15:3; Acts 15:30).

    "Ye are risen with Him through the faith of the operation of God, who raised Him from the dead" (Colossians 2:12).

    "If Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because of righteousness.  But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken (enliven) your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you" (Romans 8:10-11).

    The Lord Jesus lives in a Life beyond life, as it were.  As glorious as He was in His eternal past as God the Son, He now exists in even greater splendor as the risen Son of both God and man.  Our Savior trampled death under His nail-scarred feet as He exited the tomb to be forevermore exalted.  Moreover, His Spirit now lives in all who believe, imparting to us the presence and active involvement of Life beyond life.  "God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying Abba Father" (Galatians 4:6).  Thus, we expect deaths as we walk with our Lord, that is, experiences of challenge, loss, and difficulty that seem to place us in jeopardy.  "Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus."  Even more, however, we anticipate resurrections as God imparts Life beyond life in various ways and means that reveal the power of Christ's empty tomb.  "That the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh" (II Corinthians 4:10).

   Believers live not for victory, but from victory, the triumph of the empty tomb.  The resurrection of the Lord Jesus, while a blessed historical reality, must be viewed in terms of it significance and application to this day.  We require such administration of Life beyond life for the very living of our lives, even as the Apostle Paul revealed or bodies to be "dead because of sin."  That is, we possess no inherent capacity for even the smallest act of faith and faithfulness to God.  He must enliven our human faculties to trust and obey Him by the enabling of His Son's risen life.  This He does, and this we must believe as we face the challenges of navigating the path of righteousness in a fallen world.  The empty tomb we embraced to be born again is the empty tomb to which we must presently look in order to live from our spiritual birthing in Christ.  The same risen Lord Jesus who raised us from spiritual death now administers such overcoming grace by the indwelling Holy Spirit.  Indeed, you and I will require resurrection, Life beyond life, for this day.  Our Savior will supply it, and we will experience it as we continually exercise the same faith that began our everlasting life in the risen Christ…

"If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved… "As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him."

(Romans 10:9; Colossians 2:6)

Weekly Memory Verse

   "There is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus."

 (I Timothy 2:5)