The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…
"The Promise of Life"
"Quicken (enliven) me according unto Thy Word, o Lord" (Psalm 119:107).
"If Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin, buy 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 8:11).
The Christian life is precisely that, a life, the life of the risen Lord Jesus enabling us to trust and obey God. We require such grace because the members and faculties we inherited from Adam - the flesh - possess no inherent capacity to do the will of God, being "dead because of sin." Conversely, dwelling within our spirit is the Holy Spirit, whereby we are "alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Romans 6:11). As we trust and submit to God, the life of Christ in our spirit engages and empowers our capacities to think, speak, act, and relate in faith and faithfulness. Thereby, we mortify (put to death) the deeds of the body, or as the Apostle Paul succinctly declared, "Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh" (Galatian 5:16).
This enlivening happens as we choose to walk in the light of Scripture, as opposed to worldly, fleshly, and devilish influences. As the Psalmist requested, "Quicken me according unto Thy Word, o Lord." The Holy Spirit who indwells the Bible He inspired and the believer He spiritually birthed, administers the risen life of Christ as the enlivening power whereby vessels of earth become the scene of Heavenly glories and wonders. "We have this Treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us" (II Corinthians 4:7). Only thereby do we have the slightest hope of living the Christian life made possible through the life of Christ. "Without Me, ye can do nothing" (John 15:5).
The Lord who transformed a tomb of death into the joyous birthplace of His Life beyond life does the same in believers as the Spirit of God and the Word of God enliven us. Indeed, every act of faithful obedience in the history of the church has required Christ's risen life no less than did His own resurrection. We walk with God as believers in the same way we became believers. We believe our Lord Jesus to be risen from the dead not only for us as the basis of our new birth, but also within us as "the promise of life which is in Christ Jesus" (II Timothy 1:). As always, He is "the way and the truth and the life," and as always we….
"Live through Him."
(I John 4:9)
"Ye are risen with Him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised Him from the dead."
(Colossians 2:9)
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