"We Shall Live"

"Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise took part of the same; that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage" (Hebrews 2:14-15).
"Whosoever liveth and believeth on Me shall never die" (John 11:26).

Regardless of how much the unbeliever seeks to push the reality of death out of his conscious awareness, he remains a slave throughout his lifetime to his mortality and the Holy Spirit's witness of "judgment to come" (Acts 24:25).

Conversely, the born again believer in the Lord Jesus Christ is delivered from this slavery. We may still at times have nervous thoughts about the largely unknown quantity and experience of physical death. However, the bondage of fear and its countless expressions do not dominate us as the Holy Spirit bears witness to our immortality and joy to come. In the truest sense, the believer will never die because the person we most deeply are has already passed through death and resurrection. "Ye are dead (literally, "have died"), and your life is hid with Christ in God" (Colossians 3:3). We are even said to presently "sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus" (Ephesians 2:6). Any "death" we will experience, therefore, involves merely the putting aside of a mortal frame that becomes an ever-increasing burden as the years pass.

In the twinkling moment of our passing from this present world, we will be more "alive" than we've ever been. In "the valley of the shadow of death," our Lord will greet us and meet us in a way heretofore not experienced. In that holy place, "Thou art with me" will be the overwhelming awareness and sensibility (Psalm 23:4). Indeed, when a fellow believer's earthly life ends, we are far more accurate if we say "he lived!" rather than "he died." Again, the Lord unequivocally declared that we "shall never die." Any temptation to fear death, therefore, is exactly that. It is a temptation. Because in the context of the only definition of death that matters, God's definition, we will not die when our earthly breath ceases and our hearts stops beating. We shall live.

"Our Savior Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel."
(II Timothy 1:10)

"Already True"

Faith does not make things true. It rather ushers us into the apprehension and access of truths that are already true.


Before we existed, the Lord Jesus Christ had died for our sins, risen again, and ascended to Heaven as Savior and Lord. When we believed in Him, we entered into the reality that had been awaiting our awakening for nearly 2,000 years.


In similar manner, our ongoing discovery of the dynamic presence of our Lord does not originate the truth of who we are in Him. Instead, we are made aware of the spiritual environment of being in Christ, and of Christ being in us. This understanding and affirmation leads to countless fruits of the Holy Spirit being produced in our thoughts, attitudes, words, and deeds. Certainly these expressions are fresh and new, and would not have existed had we not believed the Word of God. Again, however, the tree that produced these fruits was planted in our hearts when we believed, and our faith in its existence within us is a primary nurturing that results in the harvest of godliness.


"His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that hath called us to glory and virtue" (II Peter 1:3).


Note the past tense of the Apostle Peter's declaration. The source and supply of "life and godliness" was given to us at a time previous to this moment, namely, when we believed in the Lord Jesus and received the Holy Spirit. Therefore, everything we will ever need for the issues of character and its outward expression already exists in us in the person of the indwelling Spirit of Christ. Faith simply opens our eyes to the truth, encouraging our hearts and motivating us to submit ourselves to the presently existing reality that is then expressed in "glory and virtue."


Walking with God involves as much affirmation as asking. If His Word declares truths to already be true, we do well to agree with our Lord regardless of appearance, emotion, or outward evidence. Perhaps we might ask to be made aware of already possessed "things that pertain to life and godliness," even as the Apostle Paul prayed for the Ephesians believers...


"Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints, case not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers; that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him: the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of His calling, and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power to usward who believe, according to the working of His mighty power, which He wrought in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places."
(Ephesians 1:15-20)

Grace and Obedience Conclusion

"His commandments are not grievous" (I John 5:3)


God's will would be grievous (burdensome) if He had not sent His Spirit to dwell within us when we believed, and if this indwelling had not birthed us as a "new creature" who "delights in the law of God" (II Corinthians 5:17; Romans 7:22).


God's will can also be burdensome if we do not know that such blessed truth is in fact true. The desires of our flesh often tell us that what we want are those things contrary to God's will. Such desires are real in us, but they must must recognized for what they are. They are the desires of the flesh, as opposed to the delight for the glory and will of God that resides in our innermost being. "I delight in the law of God after the inward man, but I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind... so then with the mind, I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh, the law of sin" (Romans 7:22; 25).


It is vital that we understand and affirm the delight for godliness that exists within our Christ-inhabited spiritual selfhood. Grace has given such holy inclination to us as a free gift. It also perpetuates the delight by the Holy Spirit who"worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure" (Philippians 2:13). Because this desire is deep within us, we may not always feel or perceive it in the way we feel and perceive the desires of our flesh. Of these contrary yearnings, the Apostle Paul wrote, "I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind" (Romans 7:23). Conversely, we do not always "see" our delight for godliness. "We walk by faith, not by sight," and our love for God's will often has to be affirmed when the only evidence for it is the authority of the "It is written" of Scripture (II Corinthians 5:7).


I genuinely love writing these devotionals, and 259 mornings a year, I consciously and emotionally look forward to the experience. On that one morning of just about every year when such anticipation is absent, however, I must remember and affirm no less my delight for this aspect of God's will in my life. My feelings and the thoughts coursing through my brain are not the issue. The issue is truth and reality. If the Bible declares that God is working in me both to will and to do of His good pleasure, and if it is the delight of my innermost being to do His will, I must walk by faith and not by sight. This is true of every aspect of God's will in our lives, and to the degree we believe the Word of God concerning our Christ-wrought desire to obey will be the degree to which we consistently experience its power.


The grace of the Lord Jesus has freely constituted and instituted literal delight for obedience in us. The word "obedience" should therefore make us smile and rejoice no less than the word "grace." We honor and proclaim our Lord's redeeming work on our behalf when we affirm with the Psalmist, "I delight to do Thy will, o God" (Psalm 40:8). This is not a boast about ourselves. It is praise unto the God who made such grace possible at the highest cost to Himself. And it is Truth, the truth which liberates us to walk in the Spirit even as we live in the Spirit.


"Now are ye light in the Lord. Walk as children of light."
(Ephesians 5:8)