I have been
crucified with Christ;
it is no longer I who
live, but Christ
lives in me; and the
life which I now live
in the flesh I live
by faith in the Son of God,
who loved me and gave
Himself for me.
I do not set aside
the grace of God;
for if righteousness
comes through the law,
then Christ died in
vain.
Galatians 2: 20 -- 21
There are
two books that have similarity in their writings and they are Galatians and the book
of Romans both written by Paul. Both
books discuss the doctrines of sin and redemption, and the relation of the
law and the Gospel. Furthermore, these
books teach salvation by free grace and justification by faith. As we study this book of Galatians we should
come to the understanding that it is by means of freedom and for freedom that
Christ set us free so that we can stand fast in Him and not become entangled
again in the yoke of bondage to sin.
What does this mean for us?
First and foremost, these words of Paul that he was crucified with
Christ and that is Christ that lives in him means that we must break our
independence and this we do by our own efforts and then surrender ourselves to
the supremacy of the Lord Jesus Christ.
No one can do this for you, you must do this for yourself. Do not God give you a brain? Did not God give you the ability to make
choices? Do you not have what we term
as free will which is really a matter of making choices to do that which is
right or wrong. We are not meant to just
sit back and say God must do it for us.
God may bring you up to a point time after time after time, but He
cannot put you through it! Would it not
be nice of God would just reach into our hearts and just totally make changes, and
only by His effort, not by our own effort? You must break your individual
independence of God and the emancipating of your personality into oneness with
God, not for your own ideas, rather to be absolutely loyal to Jesus
Christ. I am afraid that we far too
often dispute with God but when you once get to that point where your loyalty
has the highest priority over all things then there is no longer a possibility
of dispute. Unfortunately, very few of
us know anything about loyalty to Christ.
When asked this question: have you come to this point, that break
whereby you have foregone your independence and have become totally loyal to
Jesus Christ, will you say that this is positively true? There is something you
must decide: Will you give ourself up, will you surrender to Jesus Christ, and will you
make no conditions for what ever as to how that break may come? Think upon this: until you are broken from
your self-realization, and you immediately approached that point, then and only then wil the
reality of the supernatural identification takes place in you and if so it will be at once. When this occurs the witness
of the Spirit of God in you is unmistakable and then you will know that you
have become crucified with Jesus Christ.
What is the passion of Christianity and what does that mean? All we often talk about the passion of Jesus
Christ but how often have we thought about our passion? Probably never! Let us take a look at that word and see how it applies. The word passion means to have a compelling
strong emotion, enthusiasm or a desire for something in our Christian life are
passion and desire is for Jesus Christ in this you do write living in
faith. It is this faith in this passion
of our Christianity whereby you deliberately sign away your own rights and
become a bond servant of Jesus Christ.
Until this is done, and until you begin, you will not begin to become a
saint. Have you heard the call of God
if so that call is sufficient for you for that call is for God to help you to
Himself and to use you in your life for the work that He has designed for you
to do in what ever situation or circumstance you find yourself. Don't become so taken up with a conception
of what you are going to do or what you are going to be doing, do as James taught us
in his letter: "Draw near to God and
He will draw near to you. Cleanse your
hands, you sinners! And purify your
hearts, you double minded. Lament and
mourn and weep! Let your laughter
returned to morning and your joy to gloom.
Humble your selves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you
up" (James numeral 3:8 -- 10).
God has given us all the chances we need to act on the truth revealed in
His word of the Bible. Yet, the
responsibility is to left with each individual for you cannot act for any
individual, for must be each person's own deliberate act, and yet the
evangelical message ought to always leading man to act. Not the one who is paralyzed and refuses to
act for if you do you are left exactly where you were before. If you act, once you act, you will never be
the same. How foolish it is, how we
stand in the way when we have been convicted by the Spirit of God. Immediately when you do precipitate yourself
into an act, the second to begin to live according to Scripture, everything in
is just existence. It is these moments
when you truly live though in this existence and they are moments whereby you
act with your whole will. The feeblest
of a saint, in a saint, who transact business with Jesus Christ will find
themselves emancipated the second he asked.
Then you will find the almighty power of God is on your behalf. Jesus calls out: "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will
give you rest. Take My yoke upon you
and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest
for your souls" (Matthew 11:28 -- 29). When you do come, that
second that you do there will be a supernatural rush of life that life of God
that will invade you instantly. You
will find that you have dominating power over the world, the flesh and the
devil then is paralyzed, not by your act, but because your act has linked you on
to God and His redemptive power.
But as for me, I
will come into
Your house in the multitude
of Your mercy; in
fear of You
I will worship toward
Your holy temple.
Psalm
5: 7
God will bless the
righteous
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