“All
Things Are Yours”
I Corinthians 3:18-23; Romans 14:8
18) Let no man deceive himself. If any man among
you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become
a fool, that he may be wise.
19) For the wisdom of this world is foolishness
with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in
their own craftiness.
20) And again, The Lord knoweth
the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain.
21) Therefore let no man glory in men. For all
things are your's;
22) Whether Paul, or Apollos,
or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things
present, or things to come; all are your's;
23) And ye are Christ's; and Christ is God's.
8)
For whether
we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord:
whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord's.
Preface
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verything
that we need to know has already been done in the Spirit. The question becomes,
then, “How do I tap in?”
One
would think that we would be tired of not having any victory. All too often, we
want to believe that this is just because God does not give it to us. Of
course, this is not true. We have not because we won't accept.
We
would, of course, prefer to receive the “bulk” of our blessings without having
to change. This is not going to happen, because salvation is “set up” to require
“change.” Perhaps we resist the idea of change so stringently because we
try to relegate salvation to an “after I die” issue. In that the God that we
serve is a “Living God,” the salvation that He grants is a “living
salvation,” and therefore, about today. If this were not the case,
once again, we would be able to “handle” something as if it were about “us.”
Main Thought
Whatever
the state or the
situation in which we find ourselves, we are the Lord's and therefore,. He does and will take care of us. In verses
21 and 22 of our text, we find that all that Jesus has is available to us. Yes,
we can read that we are “...heirs and joint heirs with Christ...” but
all too often, we find this difficult to “process.” Why would this be? Because we fixate upon our “present” and how it does not compare
to the
Too
many who are professing to belong to Him do not
consider themselves having been absorbed by Him so much as having
brought Him into their lives. However, since we become joined to Him and
He is not “human,” evidently we must become something other than human, as
well.
The
term “saved” comes from the Greek word “sozo.”
Basically, this word means that we are “delivered from danger.” The “danger”
spoken of is the threat of facing an eternity in hell.
Though
we may know that we have not changed, there is still hope for us if we
are willing to admit that we have not changed, but need to. Apart from
this, we will never accept help.
Accepting
that provision has been made (by God) for all of us concerning all that we
might need has blessings even beyond immediate peace. You see, many “vices”
from which man suffers are “cured” through accepting that “all things are
(his).” One of these, greed, results when one attempts to do things for oneself
because of not accepting or acknowledging what one has already.
Part
of what prohibits Man from being able to appropriate all that the Lord has and
is to himself is that the message of salvation is spiritual, so
therefore, if one would realize all that he has been granted, he would have to be
spiritual. No one is able to “perceive” what is spiritual through the
natural mind, but being willing to believe God for what one cannot “see” brings
that thing to fruition for you.
Just
because “things” don't always happen how or when we would prefer
frequently “interferes” with our acceptance of them. We take God's “planning”
as “slowness” which adds up to “doubt” in us. In one of the most obvious cases
in the scripture, God “waited” when dealing with Abraham and Sarah because He
wanted to make sure that they were wa-a-a-ay past the
biological probability of child-bearing.
All
that the Lord has ever really been looking for is one who will walk in the
faith of God—not just one seeking blessings. He has also never been “impressed”
by “sensationalism.” You see, the things that seem necessary to keep the “attention”
of churchgoers, today, are not salvation. Nothing that one does, says,
or implements will make one more spiritual. The only thing that leads to
spirituality is first, having the Spirit and then, believing God and
operating in faith.
As
with anyone who gives his life for a “cause,” the Lord wants to see that we appreciate
all that He has done for us. Inarguably, He has done above and beyond
anything that we would have dared ever to imagine. But, even so, what does any
of this mean to us? As opposed to changing us, we seem to want “more.”
Salvation
is spiritual and not concerned with earthly things. All that the Lord does is
to advance the
“Joy”
and “rejoicing” is not something that can be “faked.” “If you're happy...”—others
will know it as well as you and none of us will have true joy apart from
submitting ourselves to the Lord. It sometimes seems that we resist submitting
because then, we would be unable to blame our problems on the devil. Once we
submit, we are forced to acknowledge that God is in charge and
therefore, anything that he does, he has been allowed to do. You
see, nothing that God owns can be touched without His permission—and
guess
who He “owns?”
If
“all things are (ours),” we have a right to enjoy them. One of the
things included in what we are “given” is praise. With the praise, itself comes a reason as well as justification. It
is through the suffering of Jesus and its resultant joy that all has
been made available to us. Every lash that He took, every indignity that He
suffered has a purpose—and that purpose was to eternally convict us of His love
for us. How much more need He do to convince us of the legitimacy of our
“heritage?”