No Longer a Sinner - Accepted in Christ

 

Jesus is the picture of humanity at its finest, devoid of the depravity of sin and filled with the power of God. What Satan stole from humanity in Genesis 1-3, Jesus - the Sacrificial Lamb and the soon and coming King - restores to us in Revelation 20-22.

As authentic Believers, we see God's glory with an unveiled face as He transforms us into the appearance of Christ by His Spirit. We are changed into His image from one stage of glory to the next (2 Corinthians 3:18).

Christ abides within us and redeems us from sin, as God writes His laws on our heart and adopts us as His children (Hebrews 8:10-13; Ephesians 1:5). God's Spirit gives us liberty from the flesh and fills us with His fruit (1 Peter 1:19; Galatians 5:22-23).

This is an experience common to every Believer, with no respect to one person above another. It is a free gift, just as Salvation is free (Romans 6:23; Galatians 3:1-3). We all see the face of Christ reflected in us and in one another (1 Corinthians 15:48-53; Romans 8:17; 1 John 3:2).

Christ is our whole life (Colossians 3:4). We gaze upon His face in our private moments with Him, and feel His Spirit and His presence filling us to overflowing throughout the day.

Sin no longer claims our attention; its debauchery is disgusting to us; we have no desire to continue to reap the destructive consequences of its power. We abide in Christ and He in us (1 John 4:15).

We come to know God, and Jesus whom He sent, which provides us with eternal life now as well as for eternity (John 17:3). We see His glory in us, which comes from God and fills us (John 1:14, 17:24). Sin has no part in our life.

Prayer:

Father God, it is Your plan that all of humanity enjoy the benefits of Christ's death on Calvary, the glory of His resurrection from the grave, and the proximity to You from His vantage point on His throne in Heaven as we walk in the ever-increasing glory of holiness.

We are accepted through Christ into Your beloved family (Ephesians 2:19-22), pure, as He is pure; and our life reflects His perfect image. You provide us with every good thing that we need to fulfill Your will for our life (1 Timothy 6:17); and You sustain us through every trial that we encounter in life. For this we give You all of the praise and glory that is due to Your name.

Thought for the Day:

Through the processes of Justification, Sanctification and Glorification, we move from obscure sinner to sacred Saint in Christ, as we are filled with an increasing measure of the fullness of Christ through God's Spirit who abides within us. 

- Ephesians 3:16-19

No Longer a Sinner - God's Seed in Us

In reality, nothing good comes from our flesh. It is only Christ in us who works in and through us to produce lasting fruit (Romans 7:18; Philippians 2:12-13). The roots of the Spirit ground us and the Vine provides for us.

As Born Again Believers, we are born of God and partakers of the divine nature of Christ (2 Peter 1:4). When Christ dwells in us, He gives us the power to conquer temptation and sin (1 Corinthians 10:13).

We do not continue in a lifestyle of sin, because His seed remains in us (1 John 3:9). His Spirit empowers us and makes us more than conquerors (Romans 8:37). We are conduits for His work through our life.

Sin no longer controls us because His Spirit dwells within us and conforms us to the image of Christ (Romans 8:29; 2 Corinthians 6:18). Christ sets us free from the law of sin and death (John 8:36; Romans 8:1-2).

Therefore, we grieve the heart of God when we wallow in sin and give in to temptation and the flesh. We deny His power within us and we give Satan the attention that God deserves.

We waste our lives and fail to live up to God's best for us. When we take the wide road to destruction, we end up with little to show for a lifetime of living. We reap few rewards in heaven, because we rarely served Him with our life.

Yet, if we walk in His will each moment of the day, we accomplish His work in the earth and make a lasting contribution to His Kingdom. We reap rewards for each act of obedience and earn crowns that we can cast at Jesus' feet (Revelation 4:10-11).

We cast our crowns, because we realize that we do not deserve them. Everything we accomplish on the earth is the result of His Spirit's work in and through us, and we have no bragging rights (Ephesians 2:8-9).

Prayer:

Father God, thank You for Your Spirit who calls to our spirit and empowers us to walk in Your will each day of our life (Ephesians 2:10; Philippians 2:12-13). Help us to walk in Your Spirit so we will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh (Galatians 5:15-25). The more our carnality decreases, the more You encompass our life. We walk in increasing increments of spirituality, and sin no longer tempts us. We have no desire for this world's enticements.

You provide for our every need abundantly more than we even expect, and we give You all the praise and glory for every good thing in our life (James 1:17). We spend our days singing praises to You as we go about meeting only Your expectations in our life. As we listen to Your Spirit, You always work out everything for our ultimate good (Romans 8:28).

Thought for the Day:

If we keep living a lifestyle of sin without conviction and repentance, this is proof that we are not born of God; we remain in the flesh and our spirit is still dead in sin; once we know God, His sanctifying power causes us to gradually lose our desire to keep on sinning. 

- Ephesians 2:1; 1 John 2:29, 3:6

Yoked With Jesus

Jesus told us to take His yoke on us and He would give us rest (Matthew 29:29-30). Picture a wooden yoke hooking two oxen together to pull a load.

One oxen alone bears all the burden, but two oxen share the weight and make the load lighter. Alone in this world without Christ in our life, we are not fully alive, because our spirit is dead in sin (Ephesians 2:1-5). We barely make it and even our success is hollow and meaningless.

If we are yoked with Jesus, He carries the full brunt of the load on His shoulders. The shared yoke also keeps us in step with Jesus as we traverse life (Galatians 5:16, 25). We are never alone again.

We have no worries or fears because our sin nature is dead, and our life is hidden with Christ in God (Colossians 3:3, Romans 6:5; 1 Corinthians 6:17). Paul learned this lesson when God used him mightily even while imprisoned (Acts 16:16-40).

Like Paul, we too can keep our focus on Christ in us (Romans 6; 2 Corinthians 11:23-12:10). Paul considered the loss of his human achievements as trivial when compared to the joy of serving the Lord (Philippians 3:9).

We can make it the goal of our day to feast on God's Word in order to feed our spirit, to nurture our soul with spiritually beneficial activities and to sustain our body with wholesome foods.

Yoked with Jesus our burdens lighten, our worries diminish, our fears vanish and our faith in His faithfulness increases. This intimate union nourishes every part of our being through every moment of our day.

Prayer:

Lord Jesus, You invite us to yoke up with You and to permit You to carry our burdens. We do not crumble under the weight of our circumstances, because we are yoked as one with You. The closer we live in this union with You, the more peacefully life transpires for us, regardless of our circumstances. You set us free from caring about whatever is bothering us.

Because of Your plan and purpose for our life, we die to this concern and it no longer has power over our life. If we experience a similar trial, You remind us that we are dead to this issue. It is no longer a false god or a graven image, which consumes our time and attention. We experience total freedom in this area. Now, Satan has less and less to tempt or badger us with in the future. 

Thought for the Day:

When we follow God’s Spirit each moment of the day, we live in overwhelming peace and gratitude for all He has done, is doing and will continue to do for us, in us and through us. 

- Colossians 3:15