The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…
"To Live Is Christ"
"The Christian life is the life of Christ, the life of the Christ who once walked the earth on human feet now walking the earth again in the hearts of His people."
That which began our Christian life also serves to continue it.
"As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in Him, rooted and built up in Him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving" (Colossians 2:6-7).
Just as we received the Lord Jesus by faith in salvation, we receive by faith the power to "bear the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ" (Philippians 1:11). No other possibility of living the Christian life exists than the life of Christ dwelling with and within us.
"Without Me, ye can do nothing…I will dwell in them and walk in them… I can do all things through Christ" (John 15:5; II Corinthians 6:16; Philippians 4:13).
We must remind and encourage each other often of this truth because in the same passage that began this consideration, the Apostle Paul warns…
"Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. For in Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in Him" (Philippians 1:8-11).
"The tradition of men," empowered by the trappings of Satan, ever seek to move us away from "the faith which was once delivered unto the saints" (Jude 1:11). The devil, having been bludgeoned over and over again through the ages by the Lord Jesus walking and warring in His people, well knows that the trusting saint serves as the living temple of a triumphant Savior. Our enemy therefore tempts us to look away from "the Author and Finisher of our faith" unto "weak and beggarly elements" of illusory human efforts that cannot begin to empower even the first step of genuine faith and faithfulness (Hebrews 12:2; Galatians 4:9). To live is indeed Christ, in both spiritual rooting and being built up in Him. Nothing else suffices, and we must be on guard continually to avoid being spoiled by devilish and human "vain deceit" that tempts us to traditions that distract from our Lord's triumph.
Within our hearts, believers live upon our knees because the Lord Jesus does the walking therein. Thereby, we journey on feet motivated, led, and empowered by the One who lives in us no less than He died for us. The Christian life is the life of Christ, the life of the Christ who once walked the earth on human feet now walking the earth again in the hearts of His people. "I will come to you" said the Lord Jesus to His disciples just before He died on the cross (John 14:19). The Savior kept His promise, and has been coming to those who trust Him in the new birth for two thousand years. He came to us when we believed, and He now dwells within us and purposes to walk in us. "As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus… so walk." Yes, that which occurred in the twinkling spiritual moment of receiving God's grace by faith provides the same abundant means for trusting and obeying Him in this moment, and in all to follow…
To live is Christ, nothing else is.
God made and redeemed us in love
for this.
To think in truth means to think of Him
as not only with us,
but dwelling within.
To live is Christ, what glory of grace,
to live by His presence,
in the light of His face.
To live is Christ, nothing else is.
"To live is Christ" (Philippians 1:21).
"I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. And the life I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me."
(Galatians 2:20)
Weekly Memory Verse
If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away, behold, all things are become new."
(II Corinthians 5:17)
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