PDA

View Full Version : God Gives Life to the Body in this Dispensation



Nottheworld
11-01-2006, 05:15 PM
Christ is made our redemption in us as well as before God. His being made our redemption in us is especially related to our body. In being our redemption in us He becomes the life of our body as He delivers us from the law of sin which is in our members (Rom. 7.23, 8.2). So says Romans 8.11: "If the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwelleth in you, he that raised up Christ Jesus from the dead shall give life also to your mortal bodies through his Spirit that dwelleth in you." It does not say He shall resurrect us after we die; it says instead that He will give life to this our body of death today.

Look also at 2 Corinthians 4.10,11 which reads as follows: "Always bearing about in the body the dying of Jesus, that the life also of Jesus may be manifested in our body. For we who live are always delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh." What arrests our attention here is that though verse 11 in relation to verse 10 seems to be redundant, in actuality it is not repetitious. For verse 10 speaks of the life of Jesus being manifested in our body, while verse 11 speaks of the life of Jesus being manifested in our mortal flesh. Many believers may have the life of Jesus manifested in them, but they do not go deeper to experience the life of Jesus manifested in their mortal flesh. The difference between these two is immense.

Many believers while in sickness may be truly submissive and patient. They are neither anxious nor murmuring. They sense the presence of the Lord, and they express in their face, voice and manners the virtues of the Lord Jesus. They really manifest the life of Jesus in their body by the Holy Spirit. Nevertheless, they do not know that the Lord Jesus is able to heal their sickness, that His life is also for their bodies of humiliation. They have received the grace to endure pains, but they have not obtained the healing of the Lord. They experience verse 10, yet they do not experience verse 11.

We need to know how Christ is made our redemption in relation to our body. To say that this our body of death is quickened into life does not imply that hereafter the nature of this body is changed into immortality. As a matter of fact, the nature of this body remains unchanged, though a new life in us is now supplying strength to this body. Formerly we relied on our natural life as the source of our body strength, but presently we depend on the life of Christ for its supply. We obtain the resurrection life of Christ to maintain our body, thus strengthened to do God’s will.