My spirit is redeemed now what?
Jesus lived a perfectly sinless life from beginning to end. An innocent man, he carried all of our sins with him on the cross and died for mankind, once for all. so that we could be restored to the Father. God offers this priceless gift to all who will trust Him and receive it by faith. When we accept this gift we are born of the Spirit. This means we are once again restored to fellowship with the Father because we are in Christ. We no longer stand in our filthy worthless righteousness we stand in His perfect righteousness. Sin no longer gets in the way of our relationship with God.
We can now look forward to the promise and hope that we have of receiving our resurrected glorified bodies when Christ comes again. We will dwell with Him forever more. What do we do in the meantime while we wait?
We can now look forward to the promise and hope that we have of receiving our resurrected glorified bodies when Christ comes again. We will dwell with Him forever more. What do we do in the meantime while we wait?
There is plenty to keep us busy while we wait. We have been set free from the bondage of sin to live in glorious freedom in Christ. God didn't save us to be in a stagnant relationship with Him. He saved us to be in a vibrant and active relationship with Him and to partner with Him in his work here on earth. Our new birth in Christ is just the beginning of our new life. We are now a new creation that has been given spiritual life in Him. When we are born of the Spirit, just as when babies are born of the flesh, we are immature. We must grow in our knowledge of our Lord and learn all his ways in order to become the spiritually mature adults that God wants us to be. We are citizens of God's Heavenly Kingdom and ambassadors for Christ here on earth fitted in His righteousness, purified and ready to do the works that God has prepared for us to do in advance. As we grow in maturity we will be given more responsibility in God's Kingdom.
However there is still one problem, our fleshly desire to sin doesn't simply go away when we are born of the Spirit because our physical bodies are not transformed yet. Sin no longer separates us from God but it can still cause plenty of problems in our lives if we let it in. While in these bodies, temptation is still a snare that can lead us to sin. It's our responsibility to resist the devil and to flee from temptation. Sometimes we will stumble. If sin is not dealt with swiftly and firmly in our lives it allows our enemy a foothold. This is why it's so important for us to continue to walk in the Spirit, in the ways of God. As we grow in maturity it becomes easier. Thankfully we are not left on our own. We are given the indwelling of the Holy Spirit to help us to grow in faith and to remain faithful. It's our responsibility to stay in the Word of God and to listen to the Holy Spirit when he speaks to us. We also have each other. No man is an island. We need each other. We are all part of the Body of Christ so we are all in this race together. We have been given the very power of God in us to help us over come temptations but if we do sin we have the perfect High Priest Jesus Christ Himself, to intercede for us. God has faithfully provided us with everything we need to live fruitful lives filled with peace and joy. We are guaranteed to succeed if we stay faithful to Him. In the end our reward will be greater than any earthly thing that you can ever possibly imagine. Let's run to win!
Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? Run in such a way as to take the prize. - 1 Corinthians 9:24
