30th Mar 26 | 13:54
Studies by Book
Luke 17 7-10 An unprofitable Doulos of Jesus Christ 07 For we died
📖 Luke 17:7-10
17Jul2020 - *For we died* - _Luke 17:7-10_ - A DOULOS OF JESUS CHRIST 7 – Bible reading: _Philippians 3:10-11_
The Lord wanted the disciples to accept that they are His bondslaves. _Luke 17:7 And which of you, having a servant ploughing or tending sheep, will say to him when he has come in from the field, 'Come at once and sit down to eat'?_
Yesterday, we said that we are not only the bondslaves of Jesus but we offer ourselves to be bond slaves to each other for the building up of each other in the body of Christ. This is because of our love for one another.
We, as His Doulos, carry upon us the same understanding that Jesus had. He died for us and so our lives are no more ours. We too die with Him and our life belongs to Jesus and so that we live no more for ourselves. _II Corinthians 5:14-15 For the love of Christ compels us because we judge thus: that if One died for all, then all died; (15) and He died for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him who died for them and rose again_
This is the precious place that we must arrive at, at the earliest. _Colossians 3:3 For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God._ We are dead with Jesus. The problem with us is that we still want our importance, we carry hurts, we are upset when things do not go our way. We find ways and means to handle this day to day challenges in life and therefore life seems like a big struggle and burden for us. We have not reached the place of being dead.
_II Corinthians 4:10 always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body._ Apostle Paul says, “Always…” This matter of being dead with Christ has to be an ‘always’ experience for us.
As we always carry in our body the death of Jesus, the life of Jesus manifests from our body. Isn’t that the life that all of us long for? We desire to have the life of Jesus revealed from within us. This powerful life of Jesus will be lived out from us, by His Holy Spirit, as we constantly experience our death with Jesus.
_Galatians 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ; *it is no longer I who live*, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me._ Christ lives from within us. We live this life of Jesus by faith. We cast ourselves on Him. Faith in God becomes easy, for we are dead. It is only when we are still alive that faith in God becomes a contest for the self comes in the way. We still fall prey to relying on ourselves, instead of relying entirely on the Lord.
He loved us and He gave Himself for us. We consider and appreciate the love of God for us that took Him to Calvary. He suffered, bled and died for our redemption, for our justification, for our forgiveness, for our reconciliation with God and we are now accepted in Him. We tend to stop here in understanding His love for us.
His love for us is also about His resurrection. He is now alive in us. His love for us is to this extent that He longs to live from within us so that we need not carry this big burden on our selves any more. We can reckon ourselves dead. It is only when we reckon ourselves dead that He is free to live His life fully from within us.
_II Corinthians 1:9 Yes, we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead,_ What freedom we have that we no longer need to trust in ourselves. (The world teaches us to trust in ourselves) Our trust is in God, who raises the dead.
Do you want to experience the resurrected life of Jesus flowing through you? You will first need to die. Without death and burial, there can be no resurrection. Many of us want the resurrected life of Jesus without wanting to die and be buried first.
_Philippians 3:10-11 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, (11) if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead._ Unless we are conformed to His death, we cannot experience the power of His resurrection. The resurrected life of Jesus flowing through us is a reality that we can have here on earth and we also look forward to the second resurrection, when we will rise with Jesus to a new reality of the new heaven and the new earth.
The first and the second resurrection is only for those who are dead, with Jesus.
_Colossians 1:24 I now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up in my flesh what is lacking in the afflictions of Christ, for the sake of His body, which is the church,_
Jesus suffered, died and rose again for us and we consider His work as complete. Apostle Paul tells us that the Lord has left something for us to complete. As we die with Jesus, the life of Jesus flowing in and through our flesh is what builds us up as the body of Christ.
*Thought to ponder*
```What a glorious partnership we have with Jesus!```