March 25th, 21

Paul is reminding us that we all struggle in the desert. We all experienced temptation. In the Old Testament, the struggle in the desert, took these people out. They failed to believe they failed to enter into what God had done, and who they now were. They were God's special possession. God had delivered them out of slavery into freedom. God had given them a land as their own. But they succumb to the temptation, of unbelief. And it resulted in their bodies being littered across the wilderness. They never realized who they were, and how they were to exist.

But not for us. Paul doesn't want us to get confused and think that these desert wanderings are some kind of example for us, or to think that it is somehow analogous for us to the normal Christian life, to struggle and die in the wilderness, to struggle and fail with temptation to have our bones littered about in the desert. No, the normal Christian life that Paul is pointing us to is the life of Christ, living and abiding in you. The victorious life, overwhelming victory has happened in Christ on the cross, where Adam failed, Christ has one. First Corinthians 15:21 says, "For since death came through a human being, the resurrection of the dead, has also come through a human being, for as all die in Adam. So all will be made alive in Christ Jesus."

The consequences of Christ's victory, have fundamentally altered your being, you are no longer a slave. You are his special possession, you're his child, in this act of deliverance, wasn't just for some obscure little tribe in North Africa. No, it was done for all humanity. You are in him, you have been drawn into the very life of God. This is the truth of your being. And it's all a gift. Well, you have challenges where you have temptations and suffering in this life. Yes, you will. But that does not change what has happened to you. And the spirits life in you now has made a way for you to endure through all these struggles, in the grace and the peace of our Lord. 2 Peter 1:4 says, "God has enabled you to share his divine nature, and escape the world's corruption caused by human desires."

The truth of our being is that Christ has made us partakers of his divine nature, the way of our being, is now empowered by the nature of God himself, his presence in you. And here's the thing I can go on and on talking about this. And some of you are thinking that maybe I have. But the truth is this, only God can reveal God. And so my prayer today is that God will reveal Himself to you, he'll reveal the truth of your being to you, that you will begin to realize what he did on that cross has changed everything. You are his, you are forgiven. You are loved, you're made new. You've been given freedom. And you've been given a new land to live in a land that is flowing, flowing with life in him. As the revelation of Christ breaks forth in your heart in your mind. You'll have a new power, to live a new way, the way of faith in hope and love. It will be a self giving life, a radically forgiving life. It co suffering life. It'll be the cruciform life of Christ, living his life in and through you. That's the prayer that I have for my own soul. And that's a prayer that I have for my family for my wife and my daughters and my son. And that's a prayer that I have for you. May it be so

You are loved!