The Life that Jesus lived qualified Him for the death that He died and the death that he died qualifies us for the Life that He lived.
No Christian can live the Christian life – BUT – every Christian can live the Christian life.
Jesus said (Matthew 5:17) don’t think that I came to do away with the Law or the Prophets, I have come to fulfill and complete them. When Jesus saved us, He exchanged our sin for His righteousness. Therefore, the righteous requirements of the Law (Romans 8:4) are fulfilled in us through Him. Why did God send His Son (Isaiah 9:6, 1 John 4:14) into the world clothed in humanity? He came to die because only a sinless human could atone for the sin of all humans, every one of them. Why did He not just come as Man, die, be raised from death and go back to heaven? Because He had to be tested, tried, proved, equipped and qualified to be the Lamb of God by learning obedience (Hebrews 5:8)through suffering. Obedience was a new experience for Him because, as God, He commanded obedience but there was no one higher for Him to obey. If there had been even one sinful thought, word, deed throughout His Life on earth, Jesus would be just another failure Like Adam. BUT He always (John 8:29) pleased the Father. He supremely excelled and fully, totally qualified to be the Lamb of God - - - and the King of kings and Lord of lords.
I heard someone say – even though He had all the limitations of humanity, He had an advantage because he was (Colossians 2:9-10) filled with all the fullness of the Godhead. Excuse me for a moment, someone else is speaking. Did you hear him? Paul just spoke up and said (Ephesians 3:19) you may be filled through all your being unto all the fullness of God, have the richest measure of the Divine Presence, and become filled and flooded with God Himself. Don’t you think that fullness would enable you to live the Christian Life?
What does that actually mean?
Our bodies are the temples (2 Corinthians 6:16) of the Living God and therefore we have the Incarnate Deity of Jesus within us to live His Life through us by the enabling power of the Holy Spirit. If you think you can live the Christian Life by your own efforts and strength (Philippians 3:3) you are a pushover for Satan’s deceptions. Not your efforts but only possible because it is God (Philippians 2:13) Who works in you to will and to do what pleases Him. We are not perfect yet as Jesus was. Our ongoing perfecting is the result of sanctification and obedience. Our perfection will reach its glorious climax when (1 John 3:2) we see Jesus. Meanwhile we have a sin principle/the flesh within us. Why didn’t God remove this when He saved us? Because God will never violate the free will He gave us. To saved and unsaved Jesus says (Matthew 16:24) “If any man will – let him”. We are free to choose as we will but be aware that there will always be consequences and we will always be held accountable for our choices. Wouldn’t you think we would have learned that from Adam by now? Our daily lives remind us that our flesh is determined (Galatians 5:17-21) and we urgently need the Holy Spirit to take us into Galatians 5:22-24 for the fruit which He strives against the flesh to produce in us. We must continually (Ephesians 5:18) be being filled with the Holy Spirit just as Jesus was. Because He was surrendered without measure (John 3:34) the Holy Spirit was given to Him without measure. The Life that Jesus lived qualified Him for the death that He died and the death that he died qualifies us for the Life that He lived. If your life is filled with things of the flesh and the world, there will be no room for the life of Jesus. God showed me that giving up things can be worthless legalism.-
Oswald Chambers: - “God does not tell us to give up things just for the sake of giving them up, He tells us to give them up for the sake of the only thing worth having which is Life with Himself.”
This Life is not a patched-up improvement of what we were but something totally new. This is essential because we are not the same, we are born (2 Corinthians 5:17) a new creation, a new creature altogether. We have been delivered from the kingdom of darkness and have received eternal life, the very life of God which is (John 14:6, 1 John 5:11) in His Son. We have a new identity as (Ephesians 2:19), citizens of heaven and a new occupation as (1 Peter 2:5) one of a holy priesthood. We have been reconciled (2 Corinthians 5:18) to God, we are (J0hn 1:12) the children of God and already (Colossians 1:13) have been transferred by the Father (Colossians 1:13) into the Kingdom of His Son as present citizens of that Kingdom. We need to meditate on the great truths of our position in Christ, the new person we have become and our pursuit of God and purpose to reflect Jesus and honour God the Father.
What makes us so worthy and so valuable that God loved us so much that He thought we were worth dying for? Certainly not because of anything we had done or can ever achieve. It was something much higher and far more significant. Now focus your mind on God and consider this. We are (Ephesians 2:10) God’s own handiwork, His very workmanship. We have been formed and fashioned (Genesis 2:7) by the hands of the everlasting God Himself!
If you are inclined to put yourself down or feel inferior to anyone else, meditate on these unchangeable TRUE FACTS. By meditation on (John 8:31-32) the TRUTH, you can be set free from false negative feelings. What God has created (including you and me) is never and can never be inferior. Remember – not up and down feelings but eternal TRUTH where God operates. We are the precious valuable work of God.
Something I heard at the Keswick Bible Conference in Florida about 45 years ago and it is frequently part of my early morning talks with the Lord.
Major Ian Thomas: - “Lord Jesus, I can’t,
You never said I could;
But You can,
And You always said You would.”
The Life I now live in my body, God’s temple (Galatians 2:20) I live not because of my faith but by the faith OF the Son of God. Of course, I must have faith in Him but it’s because of His faith originally which made possible my new, real life (Colossians 3:3) hidden with Christ in God. He trusted the Father by the Holy Spirit’s power to enable Him for a sinless life, an atoning death and a glorious resurrection.
He died for us (2 Corinthians 5:15) so that we, by the Holy Spirit’s power would live for Him Who loved us so completely and unconditionally, that He gave Himself for us. Behold (1 John 3:1) what an incredible quality of love the Father has bestowed on us.
We have to live in our body and sometimes our bodies can make it difficult. I hope this thought will encourage you. Sometimes I felt bad because I’m so bent over in my old age due to arthritis. But God gave me a new slant and I now view it this way. Being bent over is an outward symbol of an inward truth – that my heart and mind are always bowed before the Lord. If and when our minds fail to understand some circumstances, developments etc., our hearts can always rejoice to own those very things.