To Walk as Jesus Walked To do this, I think we need to deeply apprehend something Jesus said while in the flesh… "I am not able of myself to do anything." (John 5:30) If this is true of Him, how much more so of us? I think the impact of this needs to settle deep in our hearts, especially since Jesus point blank tells us, "Apart from me you can do nothing" (John 15:5). Then Paul brings it home, "And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, ‘Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord’" (1Cor 30-31). Only Christ is our life, only by Him are we able to do anything of value, everything else is deception. 1 Cor 1:27-31 essentially tells us that what Paul calls “the flesh" is always going to lead us wrong. The base, despised people are those who understand what they have been calling their lives are empty, a sham. They have come to realize “of themselves" they can do nothing. They put no trust in the flesh. Paul in fact says of himself, "For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwells no good thing" (Rom. 7:18). In the end, overcoming fear of losing this old dead self is done by faith that sees that spiritual truth and reality are only in Christ—the resurrected Christ. That means coming into deep understanding of being crucified with Christ and raised with Him. Hallelujah! This is how we are set free. As believers, this walk—this denial of “the flesh"—doesn’t happen by focus on the flesh at all but only by being in accord with and living—truly living—the Christ life in us. This is our moment by moment spiritual walk.
Posted on: Sun, 14 Jul 2013 01:57:46 +0000