30th Mar 26 | 13:54
Studies by Book
Luke 18 31-34 KNOWING THE THINGS THAT ARE SPOKEN OF HIM 12 Living out the resurrected life of Jesus from within us
📖 Luke 18:31-34
27Oct2020 - *Living out the resurrected life of Jesus from within us* - _Luke 18:31-34_ - KNOWING THE THINGS THAT ARE SPOKEN OF HIM 12 – Bible reading: _Romans 6:4-5_
_Luke 18:33 They will scourge Him and kill Him. And the third day He will rise again."_
The resurrected life of Jesus, being lived out from within us, is the life in His kingdom.
In the beginning, God gave to man, life. Life, which was His life, which God breathed into man and man became a living being. Man chose death by sinning against God. _I Corinthians 15:21 For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead._
God came as the Son of man and gave us resurrection from death in which we were prisoners. _I Corinthians 15:22 For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive._
The difference between the first Adam and the second Adam is, _I Corinthians 15:45 And so it is written, "THE FIRST MAN ADAM BECAME A LIVING BEING." The last Adam became a life-giving spirit._ God gave us life but we lost it but Jesus has now come to breathe His life once more from within us.
In believing in Jesus, we who were dead are now made alive. _John 5:24 “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life._
The love God is not only about Jesus going to the cross for us.
The love God is also about Him giving us His life, for us to live. _I John 4:9 In this the love of God was manifested toward us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him._ The resurrection of Jesus is about Jesus now living from within us.
As we are united together with Jesus in His death and His burial, we are also united together with Him in His resurrection. This is the core gospel message. _Romans 6:4-5 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. (5) For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection,_
This is the message the Lord wanted Nicodemus, the Pharisee, to understand and receive. _John 3:5 Jesus answered, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God._ Nicodemus, who was well versed with the Old Testament, was not able to grasp the new life of His kingdom.
The life in His kingdom is about being surrounded by God and God also living from within us. _I Corinthians 8:6 yet for us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we for Him; and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and through whom we live. Act 17:28 for in Him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, 'For we are also His offspring.'_
We were earlier under the law of sin and death. We had no way to overcome this law though we desired to do good, we were not able to because we were powerless. When we receive the resurrection of Jesus by faith and identify with Him in His resurrection, He now lives from within us.
_Romans 8:2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death._
We now operate under a new law, the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. Is this unconscious? No…it is not.
You and I need to be intentional since we are still in the flesh and living by the flesh brings death. _(Romans 8:13)_ We, therefore, deliberately, yield repeatedly to the Holy Spirit, who is now in residence in us, in an attitude of brokenness and surrender.
One school of thought is, our sins, past, present and future sins are forgiven in Jesus and so we do not need to repent and seek God’s forgiveness anymore, since all our sins are forgiven. This school of thought teaches that it is sacrileges to repent and ask God’s forgiveness, after becoming a child of God, for we are questioning and doubting God’s forgiveness.
This school does not realise that in not having an attitude of repentance and dethroning the self, we are promoting the self in us once again, which is sin.
The attitude of repentance and brokenness is ever-present in us, for we know that the flesh in us is hostile toward God. _(Romans 8:7-8)_ Repentance is about dethroning the self in us and enthroning Christ, which is life in His kingdom
The other school of thought is, out of sincere love for God, we are wanting to please God by trying to live a righteous life. We are constantly repenting and asking God’s forgiveness. We go on for a while and then fall back into sin and are filled with great remorse. We then repent, seek God’s forgiveness and start all over again.
This is the repeated cycle that many are undergoing. They are still seeking to please God by their own effort. The matter of seeking to please God by our own effort is another way of promoting the self in us, which is sin.
We must realise that we cannot please God by our own effort but only through the Holy Spirit who lives in us _(Romans 8:1-14)_. We are constantly surrendering, yielding and inviting the Holy Spirit to take over in all our circumstances and dimensions of life, to live out the life of Jesus from within us, which is life in His kingdom.
I hope we are able to see the two schools of thought that today is plaguing the church?
*Thought to ponder*
```Life in His kingdom is lived from a broken and contrite spirit, surrendering and inviting the Holy Spirit to live out the life of Jesus from within us. It is no more us but Chris who now lives in and through us _(Galatians 2:20)_ The self is being dethroned and Christ enthroned.```