We come now to the ultimate answer to Paul's secret to a contented life: The source of his strength comes directly from the Power of God that resides in him.
The Christian life isn't merely about salvation. It is that. But, the Christian life is that Christ would live IN us. Paul wrote something startling to the Galatians, “…it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me” (2:20).
Martyn Lloyd-Jones elaborates, “The Christian life, after all, is a life, it is a power, it is an activity. That is the thing we so constantly tend to forget. It is not just a philosophy, it is not just a point of view, it is not just a teaching that we take up and try to put into practice. It is all that, but it is something infinitely more. The very essence of the Christian life, according to the NT teaching everywhere, is that it is a mighty power that enters into us; it is a life, if you like, that is pulsating in us. It is an activity, and an activity on the part of God.'
Phil 1:6, 'For I am} confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.'
MLJ continues, “You are the people in whom God has started to work; God has entered into you, God is working in you. That is what Christians really are. They are not just men who have taken up a certain theory and are trying to practice it; it is God doing something in them and through them.'
Paul continues in Phil 2:13, 'for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for {His} good pleasure.' And, 1 Cor. 2:16 says, “…we have the mind of Christ”! It is His power harnessed to His mind and both reside in us who believe! What tremendous potential we have. |
