Union with Christ - The Second Adam

 

The Trinity comes to abide in us once we repent of our sin and surrender our life to God. The more we die to our flesh, the more room we have for the fullness of God in us to fill our soul - our thoughts, choices and emotions (Ephesians 3:19).

When God's Spirit rebirths our spirit from the death of sin, we are spiritually alive in complete union with God. What the "first Adam" lost for us, the "last Adam" - Jesus Christ - regained for us (1 Corinthians 15:45).

God created us to enjoy fellowship with Him; but sin, Adam's and ours, keeps us separated from this union. However, Jesus' death and resurrection gave us the opportunity to repent and to believe in His work for us on Calvary's cross.

We may or may not have this world's goods, but we learn to live in contentment with the power of Christ's redemption and His resurrection life filling us to the brim (Philippians 4:12; John 11:25-26).

Since Jesus experienced the wrath of God over the sins of the whole world - past, present and future (Isaiah 53:10-12; 2 Corinthians 5:21), we never die again. Though our body will go to the grave, our soul and spirit live on with Christ for eternity (1 John 5:12).

God longs to restore this intimacy with His creation and calls us all to repentance (Acts 13:39; John 3:15-18). He fills us with His presence and His Spirit; and no matter what happens in our body or our mind, we find our joy and fulfillment only in Him.

God makes us a new creation, and our life changes for the better from that moment on (2 Corinthians 5:17). He is the center of our identity. As we walk in His Spirit, everything we think, say and do comes from Him (Galatians 5:15-25).

Prayer:

Father God, I will both lie down in peace and sleep because You alone make me to dwell in safety. I pray for the persecuted church, for all of the Saints, for the abused and for the babies and children in this world who lack nurturing and care. Lord, give them the comfort of Your love, peace and joy in spite of their earthly circumstances.

Help us to recognize the little blessings, which You give to us all day long, to prove to us that You care for us even now. I thank You for Your daily mercy and grace, and for Your ever-present help for us in every time of need (Psalm 4:8).

Thought for the Day:

God puts the mind of Christ within us and we focus on the spiritual, eternal aspects of our union with Him, rather than the foolish and confounding aspects of life on this earth. 

- 1 Corinthians 1:27-28

God's Kingdom Within Us

God gives us His salvation, so that we might share in His divine nature (2 Peter 1:4). Before we came to Christ, our spirit was dead in our sins, but Jesus delivered us from eternal damnation in hell (Ephesians 2:5).

He provides pardon for our sins, comfort in our affliction, strength to overcome adversity, the promise of a glorious resurrection, and life everlasting with Christ and all of the Saints.

Jesus spoke the words of God so that we can obey them and believe that God sent Him (John 17:8). When we choose to love Christ and to keep His statutes, He comes to make His home in us (John 14:23).

In our union with Jesus, we live in His divine nature and His divine nature lives in and through us (2 Peter 1:4). Since Christ dwells in our spirit, we become one Spirit with Him (1 Corinthians 6:17).

Through His divine power, God gave us everything we need to live a godly life (2 Peter 1:3). Although we live physically in this earthly realm, the reality of our life is that we live in the Kingdom of God (Luke 17:21).

We no longer view our life from a temporal standpoint, but from an eternal perspective. We live as partakers of Christ’s holiness as He puts His mind within us (Hebrews 12:10; 1 Corinthians 2:16).

The Father is in Jesus, Jesus is in the Father and we are in Jesus; therefore we are also in union with the Father (John 14:20-23, 17:21-23). The best part about life is that God loves us and shows Himself to us (John 14:21).

Prayer:

Father God, our attitudes about life and eternity change once we come to Christ in salvation. You created our new self to exist with the purity and holiness of Christ (Ephesians 4:23-24). Each day we come a little closer to complete unity in the faith and in our knowledge of Jesus, which will also eventually bring us to the full stature of the maturity of Christ in us (Ephesians 4:13).

Because of Your promises, we look forward to Your new heaven and new earth where righteousness dwells forever (2 Peter 3:13). We long for the day when there is no more sighing or suffering, where complete unity occurs between nature and mankind, and where Your Body is ready, willing and able to serve You.

Thought for the Day:

Just as Jesus was fully human with God’s divine nature fully abiding in and through Him, we are fully human with Christ’s divine nature fully abiding in and through us.

Hoping in God

As human beings, we place our hope in many things: people, places, careers, stock markets, etc. We often fail, however, to realize that our only lasting hope is in God.

Jesus secured our hope by His death, burial and resurrection. His sacrifice touches every part of our life, even the most devastating moment we could ever experience.

At salvation, our hope in God turns to faith, which is authentic, powerful and enables us to enjoy God's company as our loving and nurturing Father.

His presence opens the door for us to enter into the citizenship of heaven, the Body of Christ, the circle of His beloved children, His Saints and called out ones. We are no longer pilgrims and sojourners (Philippians 3:20-21; Ephesians 2:19).

For those of us who believe in God, this hope is tangible evidence of the calling He gives to each one of us. We inherit His glorious riches and enjoy His great power and assurance now and forever (Ephesians 1:18-20).

Moses failed to deliver God's people when he killed the solitary Egyptian soldier who mistreated his Jewish brother. He ran from the consequences of that behavior and hid in the desert.

He forgot that God allowed Him to be raised in the king's castle and that He was actually a child of the almighty King. His self-image was polluted by Satan's lies and accusations of his failure.

This occurs in our life as well. Satan throws our past up into our face over and over in order to render us ineffective in any ministry for the Lord. We are riddled with self-doubt.

We can trade God's truth about us for the devil's recrimination and lies about our failings. Taking our journal, we sit in silent meditation and listen as God speaks His truth about who we really are and how He feels about us. ( www.theophostic.com )

We can read the back of the book, the last two chapters of Revelation, and understand that God returns to us everything which Satan attempted to steal from us in the first chapters of Genesis.

Prayer:

Father God, Your truth ignites our passion to have more of You in our life and to walk in Your Spirit and will for our life (Galatians 5:15-25). We live as a testimony of Your existence for the world to see. We read daily affirmations from Your Word about who we are in Christ, which transform our thought life from a negative image to a Godly one (Galatians 3; 2 Corinthians 5; Romans 8).

Your Spirit testifies that we are Yours and He breathes the breath of life into our spirit until He transforms us from one level of spiritual maturity to the next (Romans 8:16; 2 Corinthians 3:18). We overcome the world and our doubts and fears through the victory that overcomes the world - our faith in Your faithfulness (1 John 5:4) - and You empower us by Your Spirit as we walk in Your will moment by moment throughout the day.

Thought for the Day:

Regardless of what we view with our human understanding and vision, we live by the faith from God's promises about the unseen world, which are just as real and tangible.