I do not say this to
condemn;
for I have said
before
that you are in our
hearts,
to die together and
to live together.
Great is my boldness
of speech toward you,
great is my boasting
on your behalf.
I am filled with
comfort.
I am exceedingly
joyful
in all our
tribulation.
2 Corinthians 7: 3 --
4
As I wrote
in my previous blog, sin is filthiness, and there are defilements of body and
mind; and from these we must cleanse ourselves, for God is to be glorified with
both body and soul. We must be living
unto righteousness and holiness. Peter
wrote; "For to this you were called,
because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should
follow His steps" (1 Peter 2:21).
How is it that we are to follow His steps? If we are imitating anything we do so would only result in a more
or less clever affection. Children will
often imitate their parents that only assist them in expressing of their
inherent tendencies, naturally and simply, because he is obeying a nascent
instinct. This is the form of
limitation that Peter is alluding is that when a saint imitates Jesus, he does
it easily because he has the Spirit of Jesus in him. Far too often the imitation that is being applied is that of a
pharisaic holiness which is only a matter of imitation that seeks by means of
prayer and religious exercises to establish, even though seriously and are
justly, is only an exercise that is un-regenerated holiness, a self determining
holiness. True holiness is only due to
want having a spiritually holy life that is God determined. Therefore, we are called to be holy as He is
holy. Often we substitute our best
experience, even our most spotless moral walking, our most earnest prayers, that
we offer to God in the very least to be the measure as the ground of our acceptance
by him That, then all we've done is fatally denied the atonement. Our righteousness is imputed to us by God: "just as David also describes the
blessedness of the man to whom God impeach righteousness apart from works"
(Romans 4:6). To impute means
"to attribute vicariously" and this is what God has done through His
Son the Lord Jesus Christ: impute to His children vicariously righteousness and
holiness. What is righteousness? Righteous means living and acting in
accordance with the right and justice, therefore, it is expressed in your daily
and bodily life. Here is were we often
fail in our understanding of vicarious righteousness and holiness being applied
to His children for this must never mean that God puts the role of His
righteousness over our moral wrong so that he pretends that we are all right
when we are not. Jesus Christ was made
righteousness for us and by this has imparted his very life on the ground of
the Tom that enables us to walk in the light as God is in the light. So, as long as I or you remain in the light
of God, God sees only the perfections of His Son. By this we are accepted in the Beloved: "Little children, let no one deceive you. He who practices righteousness is righteous,
just as He is righteous" (1 John 3:7).
Paul
writes: "For indeed, when we came to
Macedonia, our bodies had no rest, but we were troubled on every side. Outside were conflicts, inside were
fears. Nevertheless God, who comforts
the downcast, comfort us by the coming of tightness, and not only by his
coming, but also by the consolation with which he was comforted in you, what he
told us of your earnest desire, your morning, your zeal for me, so that I
rejoiced even more" (2 Corinthians 7: 5 -- 7). Maybe you feel often as Paul did that within
yourself fear and there is much stress upon you do too, i.e., various trials,
tribulations, and confrontations. God
is Holy, God is not asleep, and God brings comfort and consolation to those who
are living in righteousness and holiness.
And if need be so, he will send you some one who will return you to that
position that you are losing which is the holiness that God vicariously impart
to us through his son the Lord Jesus Christ.
Not only that, as a child of God we also can comfort others and often
this is that infested by your earnest desire to follow the truth, and your
morning for when you did not follow the truth, and for your zeal for those who
are actually teaching the truth of God's Word.
Those who are not simply teaching their own worldview, their own
theological ideology: this happens far much, too far, in many Christian
congregations. Paul writes in
Philippians: "yet at that indeed I
also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus
my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as
rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having my own
righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in
Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; that I may know Him and
the power of his Captain resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings,
being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to the
resurrection to His death" (Philippians 3: 8 -- 10). May the words of our Lord Jesus Christ that the
Holy Spirit inspired men to be recorded for all of God's children drive you, to
even conform with and you, holiness and righteousness.
Stand up and bless the LORD your God
forever and
ever!
Which is exalted above all blessing and praise.
You alone
all our the LORD;...
Nehemiah
9: 5b – 6a
Allow your self to be led by God
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