|
|
|
[God's Plan] [Satan's Plan] [Up] SECTION 3---JESUS CHRIST, OUR LIFE PART
9- RESTING IN JESUS AS OUR LIFE—POWER IN HUMAN WEAKNESS
In section 1, we discovered that we become God’s child simply by trusting in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and are born again as a free gift of God. God the creator of heaven and earth comes to live in us. (Colossians 1:27) As God's child we learned that God is calling us to be Christ like, to live a Godly life of love, doing good works and being a light in a dark world. In section 2, we discovered we are in spiritual battle—a life and death struggle against Satan and his forces. If that were not bad enough we now understand that our flesh (self life) is an enemy to God and is naturally hostile to God’s purposes. The flesh is part of us until the day we die but is no longer our true identity. We are saints who still have a bent toward wrong doing. Our flesh (self life) is easily tempted by the lure of the world system. Our minds and hearts can easily be led astray by the wiles of Satan. Also, we can be weighed down and oppressed by the troubles of this life. This can drive us to despair until we realize that Jesus Christ is to be our life!! (Colossians 3:4) The high calling of the Christian life in the midst of such adversity is humanly impossible! As God’s children, God helps us to recognize that we can not produce His Godly, loving life in our own strength. God knew life was too difficult so He came to live in us! What good news, in the midst of our human weakness God’s power is perfected!! (2Corinthians 12 9,10) As we learned, Jesus Christ is the power of God. (1Corinthians 1:24) God’s goal is for us to abandon our self effort to live the Christian life and by faith depend on Jesus to live His perfect life through our body as we practice yielding to Him in every area of our life. Life’s difficult challenges, decisions, problems, and trials. are the catalyst that leads to brokenness which allows God to teach us to trust Him by child like faith versus trusting in our human wisdom and strength. Our inadequacy allows for God’s ability to work as we learn to depend on Him. The submission of our will to God and trusting Him by faith allows the power of God to overcome our fleshly bent toward sin and self sufficiency. Our human emotions and self will need to be yielded to God. This can be a battle since our feelings at times can be quite contrary to God's will & plan for us.
Bible verses to think about:
A. Read 2Corinthians 3:4-5, 4:7-12, 12: 9-10, Philippians 4:13, Galatians 2:20-21. These verses help us to see that we are not adequate to live the Christian life in our own strength. As we practice trusting and resting in Jesus as our life, he will strengthen us by living His life thru us. B.
The trials allowed in our lives can seem totally overwhelming and impossible to
bear. Read 1 Corinthians. 10:13, 2 Corinthians 1:8-11. The apostle Paul implies
that the trials are too much for us to bear in our own strength but only thru
God's power can we bear them. Notice in 2 Corinthians 1:9, that the
Apostle Paul says God allowed the trial so they would not trust in themselves!
Individual prayer and corporate prayer play in God’s deliverance. If we are
facing overwhelming troubles call on the Lord to be our strength and have other
believers pray for you. Remember a life of faith is a life of prayer! C. Read Mark 14:32-39,John 5:19, Hebrews 4:14-15. Jesus in the garden suffered great conflict between His feelings and doing God's will. Reread Mark 14:38(weak means totally without strength). Jesus is telling us that our flesh has no strength to carry out God's will but the Holy Spirit is willing to work thru us if we submit our human will to Him when we are tempted. Romans 8:26-27 The Holy Spirit intercedes for us even when we are too weak to pray for ourselves.
D. The key to our rest is God's indwelling presence and that He will be with us in life's difficulties. (Colossians 1:27) In Matthew 1:23 Jesus was called Emmanuel which means "God with us". Exodus 33:13 God said, "My presence will go with thee, and I will give thee rest. For the Christian, Jesus lives in us and we are to practice resting in His life and power to work thru us..
E. Colossians 3:4 tells us Jesus is our life. Colossians 3:5 tells us we are to practice putting to death the deeds of our flesh. Romans 8:13 implies that these deeds of the flesh can only be neutralized by the power of the Holy Spirit. Only by practicing resting in Jesus as life can we begin to overcome the sinful passions of our flesh. Romans 8:10-11 tells us that since Jesus lives in us it is the Holy Spirit that produces His abundant life in us.
PART 10- OUR CALL FROM SELF EFFORT TO FAITH
As we discovered over the course of our study, the Christian life is to be lived by faith. The trials and tribulations of this life are the catalyst God uses for our spiritual growth. These difficulties can cause us to trust God or we can rebel against God and slow our spiritual growth. God’s goal for us is to place our faith in Jesus and trust in His promises. Faith is defined as being sure of what you hope for and certain of what you don’t see. Faith is trusting, depending upon, and resting in God’s faithfulness. We all exercise human faith everyday. If you are sitting on a chair while doing this study you have faith in the builder of the chair and the capacity of the chair to hold you up. Therefore, you rest comfortably in the chair’s ability expecting it to hold you up. In the spiritual life, God wants us to practice trusting Him by resting in His life and His promises expecting Him to work on our behalf to accomplish something we could not do on our own. As we discovered from a previous lesson in Romans 10:17 saving faith is self-contained in God’s living word. Also, faith is a fruit of the Holy Spirit. It is important that we meditate on God’s word and renew our minds in order to build faith. Our human faith mixed with God’s saving faith results in God’s power being released. Human faith by itself is worthless (1 Corinthians 15:14) but linked with God the power source results in God’s mighty work. Therefore, we are not trying to muster up our human faith to please God but to practice resting in God's faithfulness, loving kindness and appropriating His Holy Spirit filled life. The Christian is to live by faith in order to appropriate the practical Godliness of Jesus Christ to work through us versus our self-effort to keep God’s moral law (10 commandments) by our own human power. Our human effort to produce Godliness either leads to conviction of our inability to do so or leads to self righteousness. The purpose of the 10 commandments is to convict of us of our sin in order to lead us to Jesus as our life. Therefore, the normal way to live our Christian life is by faith appropriating and resting in Jesus as our life to work thru us on a daily basis.
Bible verses to think about.
A. Read Romans 4:1-5. This verse tells us that a righteousness
(being okay with God forever) by faith preceded the 10 commandments. The
purpose of moral law (10 commandments) was to convict us of sin and lead
us to trust Jesus as our life and abundant life. Read Galatians 3:19-26.
Living by the law is when we try to produce God's holy life by our self effort.
Galatians 3:11-12 B. Hebrews 11:6 tells us it is impossible to please God without faith. Read Romans 1:17, Galatians 3:11, Hebrews 10:38, Romans 14:23. These verses clearly indicate the Christian life is a life of faith. Reread John 6:28-29 This verse implies in order to do the work of God we need to have faith in Jesus. Read Matthew 13:58. This verse states that because of the unbelief of the people, Jesus was hindered from doing miracles on their behalf. C. Read 1Timothy 1:8-11, Galatians 2:21, Romans 7:6. The law is not made for the righteous (the Christian) because we are to live by child like faith drawing off of Jesus resurrection life. The 10 commandments are good but they don't help produce Godly behavior. They tell us what to do but don't give us the power to do it.
D. Romans 10:4 says Jesus is the end of the law for practical righteousness (Godly life) This verse is saying that the Christian is no longer to live by self effort but practice child like faith resting in Jesus as our life to produce a Godly life of love. Romans 13 :10 tells us that love fulfills the law. God wants the end result of a holy, Godly, loving life but wants it done in a new way by Jesus living thru us.
E. The bible tells us that the Christian life is a fight of faith. The bible considers it a work of faith to believe. We are to practice setting our mind on the promises of God expectantly waiting for God to act on our behalf. By practicing a life of child like faith we rest in Jesus as our life to work thru us. Hebrews 4:10-11, Matthew 11:28-30 PART 11- DIFFICULTIES IN A WALK OF FAITH—A
PROCESS TOWARD SPIRITUAL MATURITY
As we learned in part 2, a born again child of God becomes part of the body of Jesus Christ. 2Timothy 2:13 implies that as his child if we do not walk by faith as He designed us for then Jesus is still faithful since He cannot reject part of His body! Yet Galatians 6:7-8 indicates that God is no fool. We reap what we sow. Two men in the Old Testament are a stark contrast regarding what their lives produced. Abraham the man of faith, friend of God was by no means perfect in his behavior but he followed God by faith trusting God to deliver what he promised. From his descendants came Jesus Christ! Righteous Lot (2Peter 2:4-9) compromised with the society around him and walked by sight versus by faith. The result of his life ended with no impact on his family, friends or the society. In fact his descendants became enemies of God’s people. The choice is set before us as Christians do we want to live by our flesh or walk by faith and allowing the very presence of Jesus to permeate our lives? The Christian life is a fight of faith! Hebrews 5:5-6 implies that maturity is a process that occurs by learning principles of God’s word and practicing walking by faith appropriating Christ’s life in every area of our life. God wants us to walk with Him with a pure heart. Some may feel this life of faith can lead to an unhealthy perfectionism. We are not suggesting that Christians reach a state of spiritual perfection but the goal is to walk with a blameless heart confessing any known sin as we go. Rather than seeking our own perfection by striving with self-effort we are seeking to rest, trust, and lay hold of Christ’s perfection by faith knowing He will never fail us or forsake us. Spiritual maturity is a process of learning to trust Jesus more and more by the power of His Holy Spirit and relying less and less on our sinful self. Hannah Whitall Smith in her book "The Christian's Secret of a Happy Life" gave the analogy of how an apple develops from a bud to a ripe juicy apple perfect in each stage of development and yet the bud is far different from the mature apple. The same is true in our spiritual maturity as a Christian. Even though we may be spiritual kids we can practice acting maturely by following the leading of the Holy Spirit. In this way we can maintain a pure heart in each stage of our development. A new Christian and a mature Christian may differ tremendously in external behavior. Yet, whether we are just starting out in the Christian life or a more mature believer, Jesus fully lives in us the moment we invite Him into our lives and we are complete in Him.
Bible verses to think about
A. Colossians 2:9-10 tells us that we are totally complete since Jesus lives in us. Yet, there is a process of developing into what God already sees us as His mature sons and daughters. Romans 8:14-16 , Galatians 4:19, Colossians 1:27-29. B. Read Romans 12:1-2, , 1Thessalonians 4:1,9-10, 2Peter1: 3-8.God is asking us to submit our bodies to Him to be used as a living expression of Jesus. Time spent alone with Lord reading or listening to His word and prayer are very important in renewing our minds on daily basis. . As we realize our need to draw off of God's life, our time in God's word becomes a necessity just as eating is necessary to sustain our physical strength. The Christian life is a learning process as God teaches us to love. We are in a spiritual battle protected by God as we trust Him with child like faith. With any learning process failure is part of learning anything new. C. Read 2Timothy 2:19-27, Titus 2:11-14, 2Peter 3:7-14, and 1Timothy 1:8-11. For a Christian to be prepared for every good work these verses indicate that we need to keep our hearts pure. In 1Timothy 1:10-11, Titus 2:1-10 and Titus 1:1, these verses remind us that sound doctrine encourages us to live Godly lives. 2 Timothy 2:22 tells us to keep our heart's pure. In John 13:10 Jesus told Peter he was clean but that he still needed his feet washed. The application for us is that as God's child we have been forgiven yet as the Holy Spirit points out sin to us we need to confess, repent and appropriate the forgiveness that is ours in Christ. D. Read 1Corinthians 10:13, James 1:12-15. There is a difference between temptation and sin. When tempted we can feel sinful even though our mind and will are set against it. It is important to be able to distinguish between sin and temptation. Another area, which can be perplexing, is the relationship between faith and feelings. Read Matt 26:36-46. Jesus overcame the temptation of his human feelings of not wanting to go to the cross by submitting His will to the Father. We can submit our wills to Father even though our feelings may make us like a hypocrite as we look to God to strengthen us! We can't always control our emotions but we can submit our will to God. . 2 Timothy 2:22 says flee youthful lusts…. Our part when tempted is to flee by God's grace!
E. Blending common sense and trusting God by faith can be challenging. Read Proverbs 3:5-6, John 14:26, Psalm 25:12, Psalm 32:7-9, Colossians 2:1-3, James 1:5-8 God can give us wisdom in any area of our life. He is available 24 hours a day 7 days a week to help us! He wants us to include Him in every area of our lives. His line is never busy if we keep our hearts clean by keeping short accounts with God regarding sin.1John 1: 9. Sin can hinder God answering our prayers.
PART 12-REWARD/LOSS OF REWARD YET ETERNALLY SECURE!We have discovered in our study that Jesus Christ is to be our life! Jesus is our righteousness, redemption, holiness and wisdom. We have the Godhead Father, Son and Holy Spirit living in our bodies. We are a temple of the Godhead--- the Holy of Holies! God wants to use us as we have been designed to allow Him to work His good works through us to bear His fruit and build up His body. He is looking for vessels cleansed with His Son’s blood, prepared for every good work. We learned that our natural man, the self-life (flesh), will try to work for God. As Watchman Nee said in his book, The Normal Christian Life “We can do a lot for God but it may count for nothing! God is calling us as Christians to practice walking by faith to deny and put off the self-life and put on the Jesus Christ. We are to rest in Him to produce His fruit of the Spirit which is a life of supernatural love. How do we work the works of God? Simply by recognizing they are God’s work and only God can accomplish His works in us. By yielding to God by faith to His custom made plan for us, He gives us rewards now and eternally. There is the danger of that the doctrine of rewards can be twisted into a life of self effort striving after the flesh. It has to be firmly fixed in our minds that a life of child like dependence resting in Jesus as our life must be foundational. We are rewarded for allowing God to use us to carry out His works thru us which are a product of the leading of the Holy Spirit.
Bible verses to think about
A. Read 2 Corinthians 5:10. God’s word says that believers will be judged by Jesus at the judgment seat for the things done in this life whether they are good or bad (worthless). Now reread John 6:63, Mark 14:38(Reminder: the word weak means impotent i.e. totally without strength), John 5:30. These verses are implying what ever is produced from the flesh is worthless and whatever is produced by the Holy Spirit is rewarded. B.
Reread John 6:28-29. The works of God are produced as we trust Jesus to live
thru us to lead and direct us into His good works. As we learned, our
entire Christian life is to be lived by faith. Hebrews 11:6 says that without
faith it is impossible to please God! Read 1 Corinthians 15:58, This verse tells
us to be always abounding in the work of the Lord. . Some think a life of faith
will lead to a passive lifestyle. Since each of us is unique, God will prod the
passive ones to action and may restrain the energetic folks!
A life of faith will result in abounding in the “work of the Lord” as
we make ourselves available and cooperate with God’s special plan for us to
participate in His work. Remember He is the head of the body and calls the shots
not us! C.
Read 2 Corinthians 4:7-12, 1 Corinthians 3:5-15, 2 John 8. The fruitful works
are these that are being rewarded are Jesus working thru us. The works of
the flesh will be destroyed. 2 Peter 3:10-14 We are rewarded for allowing and
cooperating by faith with Jesus to work out his prearranged plan for our lives.
Read Revelation 4:1-11 Note that in Revelation 4:10 the elders cast their golden
crowns before the throne realizing that even their rewards they received were
given as a free gift by God! D. There are earthly benefits for practicing resting in Jesus life. These are a few. Hebrews 4:10, Matthew 11:28-30 We experience a more consistent rest that we are okay because of God's faithfulness and loving kindness, Psalm 25:12-14 God will lead and direct us, Psalm 1:2-3 God will bless us in what we do, Psalm 37:3-5 Jesus will give us the very desires of our hearts., Psalm 91:14-16 He will protect us and deliver us from evil.
E. Heavenly rewards include Revelation 1:6 reigning with Christ as Kings, 1 Corinthians 6: 2-3 judging the world and angels, Eternal crowns: 2 Timothy 4:7-8 , 1Peter 5:1-4, 1 Thessalonians 2:19-20, 1 Corinthians 9:24—27. John 15:15 tells us that only by practicing abiding in Jesus can we produce a fruitful life which is worthy of be rewarded. Only by practicing resting in Jesus as our life can we produce good works pleasing to our heavenly Father. It is God working thru us that produces good works that will be rewarded eternally. |
|
|