Paul’s letters to the churches are packed with teaching about our new spiritual status, and how that status affects our practical living. The revelation of who and what we are ‘in Christ’ and what we can do ‘through Christ’ has a dramatic effect on our ability to overcome life’s challenges and even disappointments.
Take, for example, the challenge to ‘forgive’. Think of the times that challenge has come to us, either through the ministry of the Word or by that inner prompting that we should and must forgive? Ephesians 4 v31,32 says “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving one another, even as God, in Christ, forgave you”. This suggests that the same measure of forgiveness I received when I became a Christian has now become part of my nature. My old ‘unforgiving’ nature has been changed to a new ‘’forgiving’ nature. Paul said in Galatians 2 v20 “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me…”
Remember the prayer that Jesus prayed, recorded for us in John 17. Read from verse 20 to the end. Notice v23 “…I in them and you in me, that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them as you have loved me”. Read it slowly, prayerfully, and thoughtfully.
In Christ, I am personally loved and accepted by God the Father. I am not living in ‘rejection’ but in ‘acceptance’.
In Christ, I possess untold spiritual wealth. That includes the peace of God that is beyond human understanding; and, by the way, more than money can buy! Through Christ, I have access to the Father’s resources, at any time and anywhere. Through Christ, I share his victories. Jesus said “Because I live, you will live also” – John 14 v19.
These truths are not way out beyond our reach. They are real, they are effective and, by God’s grace, they are ours in and through Christ.
Be blessed.
Eddie.