God in Christ is worthy of all the glory, praise, and worship from all creation. His love overcomes and fills us with worth and value. Every human being redeemed by His ultimate sacrifice, and in whom He now lives, is a manifestation of the LOVE of God.
In conversations with many friends, two major realities have repeatedly been brought to my understanding. One, they have difficulty grasping what this means to us, and secondly, in understanding our qualification to receive it.
The problem seems to concern the reality of Christ Jesus living in them. In some way, people cannot accept that Christ Jesus, the ultimate righteousness of God in Christ, could truly dwell in our mortal bodies with us. They can understand Christ in His own sinless body as an absolute truth. But Christ, the Son of God, in our weak, imperfect, and sin-scarred bodies, may feel too good to be true.
They may feel something like this in their heart. After all, I do know how lustful and sinful my life was before being saved, and the unclean thoughts that have plagued me even after being “born again.” Truly, I am as filthy rags in comparison to Christ Jesus.
We may know that the Bible speaks of us as His Body and the temple of God on earth. And may teach us about our sins, which were as scarlet, are made white as snow, or put away as far as the east is from the west. and that we are a new creation, and that we can do all things in Christ, and in Christ we are seated in heavenly places with God, and… Psalm 103:12, Isaiah 1:18.
Boiling it down, we may feel as UNWORTHY of such a thing as Christ Jesus truly abiding in our lives with us, and feel in our heart that only Jesus in His own body could ever be the reality of all this.
GUESS WHAT? THAT IS EXACTLY RIGHT! YES, THAT IS IT! YOU ARE EXACTLY RIGHT. ONLY GOD CAN BE GOD, ONLY CHRIST JESUS CAN BE CHRIST JESUS, AND CHRIST JESUS WILL ONLY FULLY LIVE IN HIS BODY!
WARNING! A big crash and explosion are happening in lives now!
Yes, Christ Jesus will only live in HIS BODY. And He will not fully live in our body with us. One of us, either Jesus or us, must go. We were crucified with Christ, and yet have sought to continue our lives with His life.
We have not come to the cross of Christ again. We have come to our own cross, of me ruling my life, to the place of losing our lives that He may fully live in His body that was once our body. “Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.” Matthew 16:24.
COMING TO SPIRIT LIFE NOW
Jesus went to the cross to atone for all sin and make the way for RESURRECTION LIFE. We are losing our lives to gain His resurrection life abundantly now and forever. This is not really about losing our lives; it is about coming into real life now in the Spirit.
This is THE BEGINNING OF LIFE. We are coming into life in the Holy Spirit as we lay down our self-governed life. It is laid down at God’s altar of pure holy love as we arise into Jesus and His resurrected life now living in us, as Paul wrote, I am crucified, put to death with Christ, and risen to life in the Holy Spirit.
Galatians 2:20, “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.”
Corinthians 6:20, “For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.
Our personal life is small in the scope of all that has transpired in the history of God’s called-out people over thousands of years. Consider the many martyrs throughout history and the biblical accounts of great men of God interacting with God through the ages. The New Testament saints, such as Stephen, Paul, and multitudes of others, have given their lives for a much greater one in God.
I tell you plainly that none of them experienced that which we have in this day in which we now live. They may have seen it afar off, but it has become our living experience. God has not changed, but the world is far different and yet much the same.
The gifts of God in the advancement of worldwide communications and travel are great enhancements that can quickly bring the world to a place of full reconciliation with God or to becoming more evil and demonic than ever in history.
The revelation of intimate love communion by the Holy Spirit is more alive in God’s people than ever before. The shells of evil compromise and denominationalism are falling off and crumbling. The reality of truly falling in love with God face to face has become a reality in a love connection, as a marriage, becoming one with God in Christ Jesus by the HOLY SPIRIT.
Ephesians 5:30-33. “ For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones. 31 ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’ 32 This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. 33 Nevertheless let each one of you in particular so love his own wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.”