The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…
"The Promise of Life"
Nicodemus came to the Lord Jesus Christ to be taught.
"Rabbi, we know that Thou art a teacher come from God" (John 3:2).
The Lord Jesus, however, declared to Nicodemus that he needed life. "Ye must be born again" (John 3:7). Indeed, no one can know who Christ is, or understand His words apart from the Holy Spirit's revelation and illumination. "The things of God knoweth no man save the Spirit of God" (I Corinthians 2:11).
Scripture indicates that Nicodemus responded well to the Lord Jesus' counsel (John 19:39). Thus, He received the promise of the Holy Spirit, fulfilled after the Savior's death, resurrection, and ascension. He was spiritually born again thereby, as is every sinner who has believed the Gospel since the day of Pentecost and been birthed into "newness of life" (Romans 6:4).
"But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through His name" (John 20:31).
Scripture commands that believers view ourselves as "alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Romans 6:11). This involves the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit who spiritually birthed us, and who leads, motivates, and empowers us by living within us. "I will dwell in them and walk in them" (II Corinthians 6:16). This life imparts more than simply presence, as wonderful as that is. It also provides power, the power of God that makes possible a life of faith and faithfulness. In fact, the Apostle Paul declares "the power that worketh in us" to be "exceeding, abundantly above all we ask or think" (Ephesians 3:20).
Do we believe "the promise of life which is in Christ Jesus" regarding our walk with God, as we believed when we were born again? (II Timothy 2:1). We must. A life - the indwelling life of Christ Himself - is a terrible thing to waste. The New Testament resounds and redounds the assurance to believers that we need not - we must not - seek to live the Christian life by our own devices. "We had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead" (II Corinthians 1:9). The risen Christ dwells within us through the presence of the Holy Spirit. He will walk in us as we believe "the promise of life," and as we submit ourselves to Him in confidence of His leading and enabling.
Nicodemus would joyfully tell us of the salvation that spiritually birthed him into the family of God. He would tell us more of the life he lived thereafter through the indwelling life of Christ. The same is true in all who trust the Lord Jesus. God gave Himself to our hearts when we believed, imparting the blessedness of His presence, and the enabling of His power whereby the birth of life leads to the walk of life. Yes, the Spirit of God lives in us that we may live through Him, fulfilling the promise, the promise of life in Christ Jesus.
"In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him."
(I John 4:9)
Weekly Memory Verse
Being confident of this very thing, that He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. (Philippians 1:6)
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