One of the things that we can be most incredulous about, (see yesterday’s blog), is this whole mystery of the new life that I now have in Christ. My salvation is not just about what happens when I die, but the fact that I now already have Christ’s life within. The Apostle Peter puts it like this, ‘Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ: seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and Godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence. For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature…..’. 2 Peter 1:3,4. NASB.
Note that he uses the past tense and reminds us several times that certain things have already been granted to us so that we can now ‘partake’ or share in God’s divine nature. Incredible or what? You and I have, as we take hold of those promises, been granted everything pertaining to life and godliness. Everything we need to live from the Christ life within.
A couple of days ago we quoted another apostle – Paul – encouraging us to ‘reckon (count) yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus. We wrote that focusing and reckoning on ‘My new life in Christ’, releases the faith in me that allows that new life to grow stronger and stronger. Sometimes, however, it’s hard to believe that there really is a new life within.
I can believe that ‘I am a new creation’ 2 Corinthians 5:17, but perhaps find it harder to believe that ‘the old has gone, the new has come’. It really is an incredible truth but one that it is so important for us to fully grasp and believe, if we are going to live out of that new life, and not try to reform the old.
Graham Cooke explains it like this, ‘It’s not about your effort or struggle to be better. We are asking you to focus on His life and to learn to walk in Him, through Him, as Him, and with Him. His life, righteousness, holiness, grace, faith, character and power all belong to you’.*
As we said yesterday when we find ourselves incredulous at a truth in the bible, keeping our heart full of thankfulness as we meditate on that truth, can help us to ‘see’ that truth, absorb its significance and believe it more and more. Then the more that we can grasp and believe it, the more our words and deeds and actions will express that truth and be seen by others, bringing glory to the Lord.
A spin off of recognising that it is all about believing those amazing promises and receiving the power that they carry to enable me to live as a new creation in Christ, is that it causes me to ‘walk humbly with my God’ Micah 6:8. Once I grasp that, like forgiveness and new birth, living from the new man within is all about grace and not self effort, there is no room for self congratulatory thoughts but all the glory does indeed go to Jesus.
Just one more reason to be thankful because as we continue to gives thanks for this amazing aspect of our salvation we will be joining with Paul in saying ‘to the only wise God be glory for ever through Jesus Christ! Amen. Romans 16:27.
*Graham Cooke. The Newness Advantage. Chapter 5. Brilliant Book House. 2017.
