LIFE IN CHRIST IS THE ULTIMATE!

 EVERYDAY IN THE WORD!

FRIDAY MAY 05, 2023.

SUBJECT: LIFE IN CHRIST IS THE ULTIMATE!

Memory verse: ”I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.” (John 14 vs 6). 

READ: Romans 8 vs 1 - 4:

8:1: There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.

8:2: For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.

8:3: For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh,

8:4: that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.

INTIMATION:

When we have Christ, we have everything we need for salvation and right living. He alone holds the answers to the true meaning of life because He is life. Christ is the unique source of knowledge and power for the Christian life. No Christian needs anything in addition to what Christ has provided to be saved: “And there is salvation in no other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4 vs 12). 

Jesus, as the way, is our path to the Father, and no one can be saved outside the atonement that has been provided by Jesus on the cross. As the truth, He is the reality of all God’s promises. He is the revelation of the grace that proceeded from God for the salvation of all men. As the life, He joins His divine life to ours, both now and eternally. In order to have life throughout eternity one must come into a covenant relationship with Jesus (Ephesians 1 vs 3).

Jesus holds the keys to death and Hades. He alone can free us from eternal bondage to Satan. He alone has the power and authority to set us free from sin’s control. Believers don’t have to fear death or Hades because Christ holds the keys of both. All we must do is to turn from sin and turn to Him in faith. When we attempt to control our lives and disregard God, we set a course that leads directly to hell. But when we place our life in Christ’s hands, He restores us now and resurrects us later to an eternal, and peaceful relationship with Him.

The Scripture says, “For in Him dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. And you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.“ (Colossians 2 vs 9 - 10). In union with Christ and through His empowering Spirit, we are complete. We have all the fullness of God, expressed only in Christ, available to us. Those who are in Christ are spiritually complete for God’s eternal purpose to create beings with characters that are fit for eternal dwelling. They are complete because of the grace of God. 

But we must appropriate that fullness through faith and through prayer as we daily live in and for Him. A strange and often hard-to-identify inner vacuum gives most people an uneasy sense of incompleteness. Christ fills that vacuum! You can ask the Holy Spirit to fill every aspect of your life to the fullest. In our lives, some days may not feel like it, but in Jesus, the vacuum is gone; the full power and presence of God have taken up residence in your mind and heart. You are a new person, equipped for life and satisfied in God. Take some risks—God will guide you. Give more generously—God will supply. Love more freely—God will energize you. Say “can do” more often—God will amaze you. 

When we are united with Christ, life takes on both immediate and eternal dimensions. The life in Christ Jesus is the life that Jesus gives immediately to those who trust Him, as well as the life fully realized in eternity. The Scripture says, “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation” (Second Corinthians 5 vs 17). So new life begins at conversion. Yet on the other hand, we groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body” (Romans 8 vs 23). The present experience we enjoy provides a foretaste of our complete redemption at Christ’s return. 

Prayer: Abba Father, thank You, most gracious Lord, for the gift of Your only begotten Son to the world as a propitiation for our sins. In Him we have redemption through His blood and the remission of our sins. I commit my entire life to Him as my personal Lord and Savior. Give me the grace to live for Him and in Him all the days of my life, in Jesus’ great Name I have prayed, Amen.

PRAISE THE LORD!