
Our salvation was procured. Our sins covered. Our reputation before God presented faultless. Our welfare and well-being acquired. Our eternal home purchased.
Through the impartation of His own resurrecting Spirit, He desires to be in us accomplishing good things, things that are both His will and pleasure to give.(Philippians 1:13) Yet, in spite of this gift, we remain out of sorts within our hearts and with one another: selfish, ambitious, negative, complaining, unhappy, disputing, offended, vindictive... The reason, Paul explains in Philippians, is that we haven’t fully embraced the provision of the cross. Jesus took on the nature of sin so that our sin nature could embrace the heavenly. But we fail to do so. With eyes fixed on this life and on our power, we negate the power of God, thereby the victories, He purchased with His life.
If we are looking for self-exaltation, we fail to see the exalted Lord. If we are in search of pleasure, we can’t experience the joy of the Lord. If we are looking to our own achievement for righteousness, we lack the righteousness of Christ. If we lean on our own understanding and strength, we will find it impossible to suffer for the sake of the Gospel. Within our own abilities, we cannot attain the spiritual. Our reasoning will cancel out faith every time. Minding earthly things opposes the cross and thus, nullifies what God can do.
But if we just look up. If we transfer our faith from the earthly to the heavenly, we can “attain the resurrection from the dead” and experience real life in Jesus. We can forget those things of the past, which were rooted in our carnal nature, and reach for the better things found in Jesus. We draw from His ability within us to do what we are ill equipped to do through our flesh. Abiding in Him, we look forward to the future He has prepared and the rewards that await. We “press on,” gripping tightly to the things that God has supplied for us in Jesus. As we let go of self, we release cares, worries, tendencies to control. We can even endure suffering and abasement and persecution like a servant, and we can enjoy the riches of His glory as a son.
Because Jesus became what He didn't have to be, we are able to become what we could never be. Our whimpering cries are given an eternal voice. Our human restraints are released from shackles of skin and bones. Our impoverishment traded for majesty. Our rags of servanthood exchanged for the inheritance of sonship. Our death exchanged for everlasting life. Through Christ’s power, we are made like Him and viewed through His perfection. Transformed into His likeness, we become more than we dreamed we could be; we become what GOD dreamed we could be.
Tip/Tidbit: God's plans for you are bigger than you might imagine, and through Him, you are fully equipped--for the being, the having, the doing, and the becoming!