11)
For we which
live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus' sake,
that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.
12)
So then death worketh in us, but life in you.
13)
We having the same spirit
of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken;
we also believe, and therefore speak;
14)
Knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus,
and shall present us with you.
15)
For all things are for
your sakes, that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many
redound to the glory of God. For which cause we faint
not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by
day.
|
I |
t
is not hard, today, to find one who will confess having Christ in his life.
What is hard, however, is to find one in whose life God is actually manifested.
"The
manifestation of" the life of Jesus goes beyond the initial manifestation
of speaking with other tongues. If we will truly allow Him to be seen, we will
submit to His attempts to make and mold us into His image.
Somewhere,
somehow, Man, has developed (and consequently) an opinion that only certain
"things" (or certain kinds of things) should happen to him. This
shows a lack of understanding that we have not been saved to live a natural
life, but rather, a life in the Spirit.
With
so much thought and emphasis put on Man's natural life, most have absolutely no
idea why we have it. The reason that physical life was ever given to us by the
Lord is so that we could be freed from bondage to the flesh. In that this is
such an enormous task (that is, being freed from bondage to the flesh), He wants us to "noise" His name abroad. The Lord
never saved us that we might continue working for ourselves with a bigger
"arsenal," daily.
As
we live the lives that Jesus has given us, we can never afford to forget that
we belong to Him. Of course, it seems obvious that this is what one must do if
he would manifest that selfsame life. However, too often we will attempt to
live as we please, yet proclaim that we are representatives of the One Who
saved us.
In
that this life is His life, we have a responsibility to accomplish the
will of God—and there can be no excuses. He is the Planner of lives and since
He was "...tempted at all points like as we are..." yet retained the
Victory, He expects the same of us.
We
so frequently complain about our "situations" that is, tests and
trials, yet we do not endure what early Christians or Jesus,
Himself, were forced to endure for their faith. We are not physically
"put to death" everyday. We have not come close to what Jesus
willingly went through. After all, we were redeemed by Jesus' own blood.
It
is a fact of the life in the Spirit that one will be tested. We know this
because Jesus was tested. We also know that the point of testing is to make us
all that we need to be to inherit the kingdom; we are to see our areas of
deficiency and we are to glorify God. So, then, the point of a test is to learn
something. Therefore, we should not need to experience the same test over and
over again. If we are that hard-headed, we will find ourselves out of time to
accomplish what we must.
One
thing that we do not do as we should is seek direction from the Spirit.
We say that we do and act as if we do, yet we seem unable to get conflicts
resolved (within ourselves and with others) and move forward. God is not a God
of stagnation so one who would manifest His life must be forwardly mobile.
The
Lord is calling for us to learn the importance of completely
"destroying" ourselves so that we might be saved. It is important
that we "take to heart" that the children of
Until
and unless we give ourselves wholly to the direction of the life of God, not
only will we be unable to manifest that life, we will also not be able to
partake of it.