A
New Life with a New Way
The apostle Paul revealed the very core of the Christian
life when he wrote: “For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain”
(Philippians 1:21). Paul testified that his life passion is to know Christ.
I count all thing loss that I might value the surpassing
value of knowing by personal experience Christ Jesus my Lord. I count all my
self-efforts a loss in order that I may gain Christ, and be found in Him. I want
a righteousness that comes on the basis of faith in the atoning death of Jesus
Christ. The passion of my life is “that I may know Him, and the power of His
resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death,
in order that I may attain to the resurrection of the dead” (3:10-11).
Has Jesus Christ laid hold of you? Like a wrestler, the
apostle Paul says, Christ got hold on me, and now I want to get a good grip on
Him. Do you have that same passion of the apostle? I want Jesus Christ, and
nothing else in life will satisfy once you get a taste of His life.
When you come to an intimate love relationship with
Christ, you want to celebrate His glory at every opportunity. You long to see
His face and hear His voice and feel His touch and walk hand in hand with Him.
He bides us, “Come and follow” and trust Him for every
provision each step of the way.
What makes the new life in Christ so dynamic is that in
everything that happens in our lives, God is conforming us to the likeness of
His Son. “That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection” is the Spirit
of God working in the inner person. It is Christ through His Holy Spirit in the
heart, rooted and grounded in love, filled with the fullness of God.
There is no other way to live the Christian life to the
glory of God. He invites us to make ourselves available to Him. When we do, the
Holy Spirit frees us to draw near to the Father and draw our strength from
Him.
This is the way the believer glorifies God. As we listen
to the Holy Spirit and obey Him, we will always glorify Christ. This is the
divine agenda. The Holy Spirit never glorifies Himself. His one objective is
to exalt Jesus Christ. When I am obedient to the Spirit, I always exalt Christ
to the glory of God the Father.
God is sovereign, and He is always in charge of His own
agenda.
When I pray that I may know Christ and the power of His
resurrection and the fellowship of His suffering, I want to be strengthened with
the power of the Holy Spirit in the most intimate inner person of my being. I
want Him to settle down and make Himself at home in my core being.
Is there ever a time when He is not available to me? Never. With the new life, I have a new way, a new entry into the living
presence of a holy and righteous God. I don’t come my way; I come His way by
means of His righteousness that He provides to the believing sinner. He has
give us a new identity “in Christ,” with a new power and a new purity.
Why remain on the old way running down the same old road of
self-righteousness when Jesus Christ has provided a new way by means of His
saving grace?
The new life begins at the cross and ends in the presence
of God in heaven. Along the way is the joy of knowing the love of Christ, which
surpasses knowledge and human experiences. The new life with the its new way is
one “that you may be filed up to all the fullness of God.”
Since God is able to do exceedingly abundantly beyond all
that we ask or think according to the power that works within us,” we can trust
Him to the better way that is God’s very best.
The old way of rules and regulations binds and enslaves the
new life in the Spirit. The grace of God freely given in Christ sets you free
to live His way. “It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep
standing firm and do not be subject again to the yoke of slavery” (Gal. 5:1). The old way is walking around with that yoke. The new way of life in the Spirit
is by faith working through love.
Selah!
Message by Wil Pounds (c) 2006
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