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The Daily Word of Righteousness
To Perish or To Live, continued
To those who by persistence in doing good seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life. (Romans 2:7—NIV)
Would you want unrighteous church people to be given an immortal body, a body of galactic capabilities like the body of Jesus Christ? Neither would I! Look at the harm they are doing now. Can you imagine what they could accomplish with their gossip and slander were they given a body like that of Jesus Christ?
The Apostle Paul described the program of redemption.
First of all, we must recognize that our body is dead, cut off from the eternal Life of Christ, because of the sin that is resident in it.
But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, yet your spirit is alive because of righteousness. (Romans 8:10—NIV)
But God intends to redeem our dead body.
And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit, who lives in you. (Romans 8:11—NIV)
The Spirit that one day will give life to our physical body is already living in us. Resurrection Life is in our personality because Christ is present in us.
Because our body is dead in sin, and is waiting to be redeemed, we do not owe it to our body to continue obeying its sinful lusts and passions.
Therefore, brothers, we have an obligation—but it is not to the sinful nature, to live according to it. (Romans 8:12—NIV)
If we choose to continue to obey the sinful desires of our flesh we will lose the resurrection life given us in the beginning, as in the parable of the sower.
For if you live according to the sinful nature, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live, (Romans 8:13—NIV)
If however we follow the Spirit in overpowering and driving from us the lusts and follies of our flesh, we will grow in eternal life in preparation for the day when the Lord Jesus Christ returns, raises our body from the dead, and fills it with incorruptible life.
It is those who follow the Spirit in conquering their flesh who are the sons of God. They will inherit all things and God will be their God.
Because those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. (Romans 8:14—NIV)
We see, therefore, that we Christians are pursuing eternal life in the body. We are seeking to regain what was lost in the Garden of Eden. The Lord Jesus told us the gate is small and the way is compressed and difficult that leads to life and few find it. Receiving the Lord Jesus Christ gives us the authority to pursue life. Then the Holy Spirit gives us the wisdom and power to attain life. The goal is the resurrection to eternal life in the body. God so loved the world He gave His only Son that the body of whoever believes in Him would not perish but attain immortality.
But it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel. (II Timothy 1:10—NIV)
To be continued.