“For this light momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient but the things that are unseen are eternal.”
It has been over a year since we breached Jesus’ words in Mark 9:49. This mystery of Godliness reveals within us the continuing purging of our sinful clay bodies with God’s righteous decree that “everyone will be salted with fire.” This is our Lord’s way of taking us deeper and deeper into His grace and agape love! We are justified by faith and disciplined by His grace because, for one thing, we are being prepared for an eternal weight of glory!!!
We are subject to God’s purifying fire; it is a very troublesome thing on the human level but it edifies us Spiritually! We are now spiritual beings because we have accepted Jesus’ redemption on the cross; we have become His purchased possession; we are His sheep in His pasture.
Now, as God’s Spiritually created children, we are seeking to be whom He intends for us to be. God’s righteousness is now “salted” within us and we must grow His saltiness in purity! God uses this purging pattern of burning and purifying in our human experience to move us out from our worldly culture of seeing temporally but seeing, rather, eternally. God’s pathway for His children is to see and understand from His point of view! Having now the mind of Christ, we may now begin to probe deeper into God’s spiritual culture of agape love and grace. In Jesus, we begin now to see the unseen!
Grace is God’s provision for growing our spiritually redeemed life; He is dispensing righteousness and grace into us while adorning these jars of clay we temporarily are wearing! He has placed His “treasure” of Jesus into our earthly containers to change and reconcile us in Him as a “tender new growth” within His grace culture of agape love.
Our identity in Jesus is the spiritual core of our new born-again human life! God is a Spirit; our new realm of living is Spiritual; it is HIS Life in us on earth! We are now a Spiritual person and partakers of His divine nature. As far as God is concerned, our flesh is now dead because living within us is His Spirit with the resurrection power of Jesus. He is now our source to “overcome” the fleshliness of our clay container.
God’s Spiritual pathway is walking in the Spirit while putting to death the sin now living in our mortal bodies. We are to live by faith, in grace, so that His righteousness visibly produces spiritual fruit from our John 15 “tender new growth,” our branch in His vine, even while living in these corrupt, earthly containers of flesh.
We now are in Jesus and He possesses us! We now have the mind of Christ and His resurrection power, so that, in our jar of clay we will be a light shining out of darkness bearing “much fruit” as our yield on His vine of new life.
Jesus put it this way: “Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.” -Matthew 6:33.
Faith is our moment by moment intentional choosing God’s righteousness! God’s way is so much higher than our own, it is just the right thing to do and it is an agape love thing as well! God’s pathway requires our faith!
If we are redeemed but doubt our possession of the mind of Christ, we have not grappled enough with our identity, who we really are in Christ Jesus! If we are on the short side of faith, we might do well spending a little more time in Romans 5 thru 8; we have obtained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand since the law of the Spirit in Christ Jesus has set us free from the law of death.
Elisha had a new servant helper after Gehazi had been stricken with a leprosy judgment. Elisha’s new servant helper had to have his spiritual eyes opened to see “the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire” surrounding Syria, the enemy of Israel in Dothan, as they threatened Elisha. Like Elisha’s new servant, we also, the redeemed believer, have Jesus’ resurrection power as our resource when walking in God’s pathway of “this light momentary affliction” because we now are “in Christ Jesus!”
Living in these corrupted human vessels demands our living faith. God’s agape love is our constant companion equipping us to see “the mountain full of horses and chariots of fire” who are equipped to rescue and overcome. Our faith will consume His grace!!
God’s pathway for us is Spiritual; we are in Him and He is in us; His Spirit is joined to our spirit. This is done by God’s new creation within us but honed by our willful choice of faith in our Lord God and not by placing confidence in our own self-will or pride. This defines our faith! If we walk in union with His Spirit, we will consume God’s grace and He will open our spiritual eyes to see His “mountain full of horses and chariots of fire.”
As we explore our tender and beautiful new spiritual relationship within our living heavenly Father, we need to drink the milk of His word as we learn to consume His grace. This process expands and deepens our faith and His grace.
Jesus left us with His logos word, not only as an expression of Himself, it is also His living presence, so that, we have His own person within our heart to absorb His truth and righteousness and yes, even praying for us as well. At the same time, we have the constant reminder of the flesh which is waring against the Spirit. It is in this living context of conquering that we learn to be overcomers glorifying our Lord Jesus. God is also sourcing us with the eternal reality of everlasting Life in Him! This is a glorious and amazing thing!!!
We are a “tender new growth” that can mature into producing “much fruit.” This is God’s mission for us while living on this earth. In His grace, we are learning who we are in Jesus and who He is in us. Both are blended together within us as we grow in knowing God and experiencing His agape love.
In His closing hours with His disciples, Jesus leaves the upper room and crosses down into the Kidron Valley to the east side of Jerusalem, up the hill on the other side, into the Garden of Gethsemane. On the way He probably passed the temple gate where the Jewish symbol of the vine was welded into the gate design. He pauses, teaching about our intimate relation with and in Him. He is the vine rooted into the soil and we are “His tender new growth;” the vine’s purpose is to produce fruit and “much fruit.” The vine was the symbol of the nation of Israel! Israel is God’s vineyard and we are a tender new growth grafted into the living vine of Jesus.
God’s pathway leads us into learning about our own selves as a way to understand others. It was over 10 years after meeting the Lord, on the road to Damascus, that Paul was called by the Lord into ministry through Barnabas. Paul had much to learn about God’s pathway of faith and consuming grace from God Himself before God actually put him into His active ministry.
The mystery of God to finite men comes only through God and His Holy Spirit indwelling men, but man must choose to walk in God’s pathway even after having accepted God’s gift of His Son, Jesus. Living in the Spirit and walking in the Spirit are two separate issues! Paul spent over ten years “Knowing God” before God called him into active service of producing “much fruit.”
Paul’s inspired words to the church at Ephesus were to be both rooted and grounded in love. This learning came from his own personal experience.
“And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that having all sufficiently in all things at all times, you may abound in every good work.”
Paul goes on in this passage to give us this instruction:
“He who supplies the seed to the sower and the bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest for your righteousness.”
These and many other passages convey the intimacy of Jesus’ relationship within us. But we may not experience this same intimacy in God if our faith is too weak; we are Spiritual children needing to consume grace. The Holy Spirit prays for us on our behalf because we are too immature spiritually. We are in Christ Jesus and He is in us but we don’t have a clue to the wonder and glory of this reality! Even so, He is faithful, we are in this world with this glorious opportunity to grow in His agape love and grace!
Jesus’ desire for us is just as Peter instructs us: “Grow in grace and knowledge of our Lord and savior Jesus Christ!”
Earth’s Contrarywise systems distract us from the eternal-view of our new nature in Jesus. All around us, we are continually distracted by worldly concerns, removing our eyes off from Jesus and our absolute dependance on HIM in faith.
There are many reasons one should consider faith an important issue, whatsoever is not of faith is sin! The concept of faith is itself a bit illusive, the evidence of things not seen! To help us get this right, we must rely exclusively on God Himself; we have access to the Father through the person of Jesus.
We could say faith is a measure of our stewardship of God’s grace. We are all called to minister and share what God has done in us! In fact, we are accountable for the grace we ourselves have received!
Grace is God’s provision of Himself into us, whereas faith is our rejection of self-reliance; we are able to receive His grace, grace upon grace, from and thru God the Father, Jesus His Son and the Holy Spirit … only! We must replace our self-interest with the loving person of Jesus!
Receiving new life in Jesus is a miracle of new creation performed in us, you and me! Being born-again is an amazing new Spiritual identity, while at the same time, it is equipping us with death to our flesh. By exercising our Lord Jesus’ resurrection power, we experience victory over self-centered darkness and pride. In Christ Jesus, we are overcomers and may change human darkness into Jesus’ eternal Light, if we choose to do so!
If we find we really don’t want to overcome self, preferring rather our own self confidence and pride, then we may need to get our “want to” fixed; we haven’t then realized who we really are in Christ Jesus! Our SELF is a primary hinderance to our faith.
“If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.”
When we stay on God’s pathway into faith we will grow in grace AND knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ! Our pathway into faith will put to death our unconscious self-reliance; reliance on self-will nullifies faith in God. Do we have faith in self or faith in God, or both?
We cannot receive healing of our leprosy unless we go wash in the Jorden seven times! Jesus is the author and finisher of our faith! Grace is God’s part, faith is our part … we are enabled by His grace!
It sounds like a circular argument but we must remember, God the Father thru Jesus the Son by His Holy Spirit is participating in our ability to break into the gift of His eternal reality and glory … making it ours as well!
We must look to Jesus Himself; He is our only true, viable source!
Putting off the “old man” and putting on the “new man” can only happen on God’s pathway into faith. Being transformed into the same image as our Lord Jesus, from one degree of glory to another, happens thru God’s grace provisions within our faith. Walking in faith creates an intimate relationship with the Father through Jesus! “Our light momentary affliction is preparing us for an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison.”
There is an old chorus that says “Christ liveth in me, Oh, what a salvation this, that Christ liveth in me.” Christ living in me is the second creation occurring inside of our first creation body when we accept God’s gift of redemption; it is personal and individual. Christ Jesus is living in ME because I was created with a new Spiritual identity in Him; I am now a child of the King!
I have been crucified with Christ.
It is no longer I who live,
But Christ who lives in me.
And the life I now live in the flesh
I live by faith in the Son of God,
Who loved me and gave himself for me. -Galatians 2:20.
It is through redemption we enter into this fresh new Spiritual relationship. Through redemption we are a new living Spiritual identity transcending the flesh in which we walk because we have the resurrection power of Jesus.
Our new birth creation licenses and enables us to hear with Spiritual ears and see the Law of the Spirit of Life with Spiritual eyes. “The Law of the Spirit of Life” replaces “the law of sin and death!” We now have God’s Spirit of Life and the law of God’s life officially and permanently gifted into us.
“and it is God who establishes us with you into (ειs) Christ, and has anointed us, and who has also put his seal on us and given us his spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.”
Being “born again” is literally a miracle performed within us. Our new creation in Christ Jesus guides us into an invisible path relying on truth found only in Jesus and His Word. This is the ministry of the Holy Spirit living within us, ministering to our Spiritual calling and need, ministering into our new Spiritual person! Praise God from whom all blessing flow!