The Daily Word of Righteousness

God's Purpose in Man, #6

I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)

Where are you on the great tapestry of life? Are you attempting to preserve and repair your adamic nature? Are you going back and picking up some points of the Law of Moses in the hope that you can make your first personality more acceptable to God?

Are you a modern Christian who believes God has forgiven your adamic nature by grace and is going to bring you to Paradise to live forever in a mansion, wearing your golden slippers?

Or are you a growing son of God who is seeking Divine grace for each day so you may put to death the cravings and claims of your first personality, meanwhile obeying the exhortations found in the New Testament and seeking to live each day by the Virtue found in the body and blood of the Lamb of God?

Are you pressing toward the rest of God by listening to and obeying the Spirit of God? Are you cultivating the Presence of the Holy Spirit in every aspect of your thinking, speaking, and doing?

Come away from the clamor of the flesh and the world. Jesus is drawing near to His Church. He is going to have a Bride without spot or wrinkle. You can be part of the Bride, but not in your adamic nature. You must put to death the deeds of your body by the spirit of God and feed your new nature with prayer, the written Word, and stern obedience to the Father.

Adam must decrease and Christ must increase each day of your sojourn.

Do not think for one moment that God is requiring of you to give up something of true and eternal value. God is asking you to surrender your threadbare, pitiful existence; or if you are a Jew to let go of the rags of the self-righteousness gained by observing the Law. In exchange He is offering you the fullness of His Glory.

Do you remember the image of God in the first chapter of Ezekiel? God is creating man in His image, after His likeness. Would you prefer the eternal likeness of God or the temporary life of decaying flesh?

If you will remain faithful and true to the changes God is requiring you will be created in the image of the Lord Jesus, having a human nature refined by suffering and glory and a Divine nature given to you by the Lord.

Now you can look forward to an eternity in which you will serve as a chariot of God. (from The Chariots of God)