Gal. 5:24--And they that are Christs HAVE CRUCIFIED the flesh with the affections and lusts. (emphasis mine) The difficulty here, it seems, is how can it be so that we HAVE crucified these things when to US it surely seems we HAVE YET to crucify them..?? There are other Scriptures that speak in present-tense of something that, to us, seem to be future-tense, or else we are not saved in spite of our confessing Christ Jesus with our mouths and believing in our hearts that God the Father has raised Him from the dead. Even though we believe in Him as much as we know how to believe in anything. One such Scripture that comes immediately to mind is Eph. 2:6, where we are said to be raised up together (with Christ--v. 5) and made to sit (with Him) in Heavenly places. How can this be..?? I sit right now at a computer-desk in a chair, but it is not what I think of as a Heavenly place. I think the answer MIGHT be that Scripture, being written from above (Paul is just Gods Paul-point pen here), is often spoken of in terms of eternity instead of time. In eternity, it seems there is no when or then, but everything is now. Pure speculation, mind, but I dont know any other way it could mean anything that would be true throughout ALL generations. I envision empty glorified bodies, waiting to be occupied by those of us who grow Spiritually to certain sizes in THIS life so as to be able to fit them perfectly. Again--pure speculation. We are said to be the righteousness of God (II Cor. 5:21). How can that be so when we all KNOW of sins we commit today (for comfort, though--Jesus loves us anyway knowing what sins we will commit tomorrow, which tells us something about His matchless love and grace)..?? I believe there are things in Gods Word designed purposely like this to get us to focus on an eternal viewpoint--HIS viewpoint--and steer us away from common everyday self-condemnation, which is a satanic trap left over to our flesh. The flesh tempts us to a sinful act, then condemns us for it. If we follow our flesh, pretty soon were doing its work for it. But if we follow after the Spirit--even if we stumble and fall now and then on the way--we are under NO condemnation. How can that be so..?? :-O Because God says so (Rom. 8:1). But do we know things about ourselves that He doesnt..?? :-O Of course not; we just have to learn to see ourselves through His eyes, and that takes practice. If Jesus has died for ALL of our sins--even the ones we dont know are coming in the next few days, weex, or months--and has declared us not guilty by reason of His blood, NOBODY can reverse that verdict....not even ourselves. I dont know if I can believe that enough for Him to actually do that, though. :-\ His work depends on His faithfulness--NOT our poor ability to trust Him (II Tim. 2:13). If we need help to strengthen our belief, we need only ask Him to do for us what He did for that guy at Mark 9:24; He is no respecter of persons, and He WILL do it for us. But Im afraid if I really DO get free of this self-bondage, I may go overboard and theres no telling WHAT would happen to me. :-( Then dont go there until you are drawn. Whatever one of us does without faith is sin to us (Rom. 14:23), even though there is nothing (NOTHING means NOTHING) unclean of itself (Rom. 14:14). You have to know that before you can realize it; and you have to believe it before you can ever know it. But if it can help, know this: you cant be a sheep in the flock of the Good Shepherd and be your own shepherd at the same time. Sooner or later, we all have to trust our own keeping to the One Who says He will in no wise cast us out (John 6:37) and that nobody can pluck us out of His hand (John 10:29). We have the choice to either dare to believe that is true and walk in that faith (II Cor. 5:7), or to just suppose its true and stand still while our doubts and fears to the contrary surround us to eventually consume us. God bless us all to take that dare.
Posted on: Sun, 16 Mar 2014 19:33:25 +0000
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