Christ’s Life Is My Life
By Beulah Davies
Most of us have some knowledge of the life of Jesus Christ. But have you ever really considered His life, His miraculous obedience and His death on the cross? Why would we? What has this got to do with us?
If we choose to believe, it has everything to do with us!
Because Christ, the Son of God, lived, obeyed, suffered and died as a son of man, every single one of us can live, obey, suffer and die as a son of God! I believe in Christ’s one offering for me and that I owe Him my life. In whatever situation the Father God allows in my life I am becoming assured that I am His and that He is with me.
Each one of us has been given natural physical life and this certainly is marvellous and God-given. Living in this condition, the Bible calls us ‘sons of men’ but there is more to life than what is natural! The good news of the gospel says that there is much more for you! The Bible also says that ‘as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God’. Romans 8:14. So what on Earth does it mean to live by the Spirit? And can we, on Earth, live by any other way than merely natural?
See and remember the big picture; this Earth (and all that is natural) is not going to last. It has a use-by date and is going to be wrapped up. We see this everywhere, don’t we? This natural, earthly existence cannot last for any of us! There is a way to live that is much better than doing the best we can do with what we have, and there is a way to live that is far different from determining for ourselves ‘who I am and how I should live’.
Many people believe in God – that He created them and that God is amazing and powerful (though afar off in heaven). Many believe that they are God’s children but with no ability within themselves to live as children of God. This is true! But do you know that we can receive the power to live as sons of God as we join His predestined will for us? There are things which the Bible calls ‘works’, that God wants us to fulfil and we can be strengthened to receive His obedience! We can actually do His will in our lives, here on Earth, as it is done in heaven.
How do we receive our full inheritance as a son of God? Like Christ, we learn obedience through the things that we suffer. Life here on Earth isn’t just fun, fun, fun! And even if I happen to be having a ‘great’ day, there are many elsewhere on the planet enduring famine or suffering the effects of war, or others closer to home facing the loss of a dear one or suffering some hideous disease themselves. God has allowed the temporary sorrows of this life to lead us to obtain new life – His life, which is abundant and everlasting!
Through these trials, afflictions and sorrows in life we can go either of two ways; we can die in our sin or we can be led to repentance. Repentance is miraculous change and a new way to walk. Christ’s obedient life can become our way of life! Christ did not deserve the death He died and yet this was planned and ordained for Him before the foundations of the Earth. Christ did not have to die the way He did but He chose not to resist the will of the Father. We, likewise, can choose not to resist the chastening of the Lord. As we accept our mortality and absolute lack within ourselves, we can also freely receive His free gift of salvation.
I believe I can live as a son of God – a life that is indestructible. I can live, no longer under the fear of death and alienation, but alive to Christ and being joined as one with His body here on Earth.
Make confession today of the everlasting truth that ‘Christ’s life is my life’.
