Wednesday, February 19, 2014

THERE’S HOPE FOR THE CHURCH THAT EMBRACES THE SAVED: Our Sufficient Resource

“When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.” (Col.3:4 NKJV)

Here we see the flip side of the same coin.  Much of what Paul writes in the third chapter of Colossians concerns our position in Christ.  But, in verse four, the Apostle notes our provision of Christ.  Yes, we are in Christ, but also, Christ is in us!  These are two sides of the same Christian coin.

Jesus doesn’t just give us life as something apart from Himself—He is our life!    This means that Jesus, by His Spirit, now indwells you—the all-sufficient resource for all you face. 

The Christian life is simply Jesus being Jesus in and through you.  We may think the Christian life is difficult.  No!  It’s impossible!  We could never hope to live up to the standard set by the sinless Savior.

Only one Person has ever lived the Christian life as it is meant to be lived—that is Jesus Himself! That is still the way it works—the Christ life expressed through the Christian’s life.

 Rather than rely on our puny resources, we can rest in His powerful ones!  That’s why we are more than conquerors through Him. 

It isn’t a victory at the end where we barely pull it out.  We may have the erroneous idea that on one side there is the devil and on the other side there is Jesus.  They are up and down the court of time scoring basket after basket—nip and tuck all the way.  Then we come into the final seconds of human history, with God’s team down by two points.  As the clock goes to zero the last shot has left the Lord’s hand and it swishes through the net for a three pointer—the buzzer sounds—and we win!  The truth is that the contest isn’t even close—more like 9,000-0!  Scripture doesn’t just say that we conquer, but that we are super-abundant conquerors through Jesus!

Now, that should fill us and thrill us with hope!

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