30th Mar 26 | 13:54
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Luke 23 50-56 THE BURIAL OF JESUS 06 16Feb2022 Luke 23 54 Internalising the body of Jesus by His Spirit
📖 Luke 23:50-56
06 – 16 Feb 2022 – Internalising the body of Jesus by His Spirit - Luke 23:50-56 - THE BURIAL OF JESUS - Bible reading: Colossians 2:11-12
“Thank you, Lord Jesus, that out of our body, we can live a victorious life by the enablement of the Holy Spirit. We give You all the glory. In Jesus name, we pray, Amen.”
Luke 23:54 That day was the Preparation, and the Sabbath drew near.
The details of the burial of Jesus are given to us in the Gospel of John
John 19:40-42 Then they took the body of Jesus, and bound it in strips of linen with the spices, as the custom of the Jews is to bury. (41) Now in the place where He was crucified there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had yet been laid. (42) So there they laid Jesus, because of the Jews' Preparation Day, for the tomb was nearby.
Let us now consider another passage to further understand the burial of the body of Jesus.
Colossians 2:9-12 For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; (10) and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power. (11) In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, (12) buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.
Baptism is the new covenant experience of what circumcision was in the old covenant. When we are buried with Jesus in Baptism, we are, by His grace, putting off the body of the sins of the flesh.
Let us focus on this particular phrase, ...putting off the body of the sins of the flesh…
Apostle Paul is making a differentiation between the body and the flesh.
I Corinthians 3:16-17 Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? (17) If anyone defiles the temple of God, God will destroy him. For the temple of God is holy, which temple you are.
Our bodies are the dwelling place of God in the Spirit, both individually as well as corporately, as the church.
Our body, has within it, the component of the flesh.
Romans 7:18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find.
In the flesh, there is nothing good. Romans 8:8 So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
It is not those who are in the body that cannot please God but it is those who are in the flesh. The Body must be under the control of the Holy Spirit to please God.
Our body, therefore, has two options, either to be under the control of the flesh or to be under the control of the Holy Spirit. If we do not give our bodies to be under the control of the Holy Spirit, we will come, automatically, under the control of the flesh. There is no third option.
Romans 8:9 But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.
Our prayer is to constantly submit our body to the control of the Holy Spirit.
Romans 8:10 And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
The sin part in us is dealt with by our identification with the burial of Jesus. The life in us is the life of righteousness because it is the life of the Holy Spirit.
Romans 8:11 But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.
This mortal body is under the enablement of the Holy Spirit.
Romans 8:12 Therefore, brethren, we are debtors—not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh.
Paul is pleading with us, not to give our bodies to be under the control of the flesh but to be under the control of the Holy Spirit.
Romans 8:13 For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
The only method to overcome the activities of the flesh is by surrendering our bodies to the Holy Spirit.
Romans 8:14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.
How did the Lord make this principle available for us?
Romans 8:2-4 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.
The Holy Spirit has broken the power of the law of sin and death in us.
(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,
The Law is good but the flesh in us prevented us from meeting the righteous requirement of the Law. Therefore, God provided us with the solution in Christ.
(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.
Jesus came in a body and flesh but the difference was that He alone, was able to live without sin in the flesh. Jesus alone did not have corruption in His flesh.
He, therefore, presents His body to us, for us to internalise by faith, through His Holy Spirit.
Thought to ponder
Are you still searching for a solution for victory, when the solution has already been provided?