19)
To wit, that
God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself,
not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of
reconciliation.
20)
Now then we are
ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in
Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God.
21)
For he hath
made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the
righteousness of God in him.
|
I |
t is through what has been done by the Lord (that is, coming to us in a body of flesh) that we have been redeemed. When we are filled with the power of the Holy Ghost, we become righteous. The granting of God's righteousness places us in a new relationship with Him. You see, whereas before, we were sinners, separated from Him, we are now reconciled by the granting of His Spirit.
Without His
Spirit, we so often feel bereft concerning the Lord and His principles because
flesh is unable to relate to spiritual things. This also explains how, after
salvation, we can feel the same way if we persist in following our flesh.
In both
instances, the issue of "knowledge" arises. Unredeemed Man is so
largely because it is hard for him to accept the instruction that he needs the
Holy Ghost. Likewise, redeemed Man persists in operating in the flesh because
it is hard for him to believe that doing so is as detrimental as he is told.
The Lord is
trying to show us that saints are falling, today, because we refuse to accept
how little we actually know and are. The devil has convinced us that the human
mind is capable of making sound decisions. Such is absolutely not the case, for
that which is "human" is ruled by the carnal and, is therefore, very
unstable. This is one of the reasons why receiving the Holy Ghost is essential.
Though the
World has a self-help group for just about every problem imaginable, we seem to
keep being drawn back to the same point: to God, Himself. Only those who
testify of receiving Him can boast of permanent, complete change. It takes His
power to change the life of a human being to that of a spiritual
being—and that life is overcoming.
Man must
attain "the high calling of God" (righteousness) in order to be
pleasing to Him. This is possible only by being given wholly to the Spirit of
God.
Too often,
when it comes to being led of and controlled by the Spirit and standard of God,
His people oppose themselves. We find that when our flesh does not want to obey
God, we find it is more convenient to establish our own standard. This, then,
convinces us that we are under no obligation to meet the standard of God. So
when this is our choice, we find our failure before God not related so much to
the fact that we do not have what we need, but rather, our unwillingness to
exercise what we have been given.
What we must
never lose sight of is that Jesus never tried to perform anything in His
humanity. All that He did, He did through the Spirit of God. This is
especially important when we realize that that which began while Jesus was here
on the earth still has to be accomplished. Since He knew that this is where we
would find ourselves and that there would still be work to be done, He left us
with the means to do it. So, once this is realized, we will know that we need
not panic about anything set before us. All panic does is bring us to wanting
to protect ourselves. Many of our difficulties arise from an erroneous belief
that things should and will go "our way." This gives us false hopes
and expectations, which lead to disappointment and problems. Now, once the
problems have come, we should commit them to the Lord; but too often, we try to
solve them ourselves. This is yet another problem.
We are saved
not that it might be a problem or a disappointment. We are saved that we might
help our fellow man be reconciled to God. We have been entrusted with the
"Word of reconciliation" which is to be combined with our lives in
Christ to reach others. We are largely unsuccessful because nobody is attracted
to the lifestyle of one who is always unhappy and long-faced.
A little bit
of happiness goes a long way. Not only will others be won, but we will help
them be blessed as well.
It is
becoming increasingly clear that many of God's people do not know who they are
and therefore, are easily deceived and defeated by the devil. We allow the
devil to dictate to us a negative self-concept when the truth of the matter is
that "we are made God's righteousness in Christ." This is who we are
because of our relationship with Him.
In that we
have salvation, we have every reason to give glory and honor to the God of that
salvation. Only this will supersede our self-pity that we are "in this by
ourselves." Once we realize that God has gone ahead of us in all things,
we can celebrate victory now!
As God's
righteousness, we must want the Lord to know that no matter what or how much we
go through, "I still love You and You are still
Lord."
When we feel that we have reason to complain, we need to look at ourselves and be reminded of our position in Christ. That position is ours because of God's righteousness. Because of this, nothing can come and change that position. I am free to live a life of holiness and victory.