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The Daily Word of Righteousness
Suffering and Glory, #3
Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. (Galatians 6:7,8)
One of the basic principles of the Kingdom of God is that we reap what we sow.
Each of us was conceived in sin and brought forth in iniquity (Psalms 51:5). We began life as a self-centered, lawless individual.
The great question of life is, "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" (Romans 7:24).
It is the Lord's will that we be fashioned in the moral image of the Lord Jesus Christ. To this end we have been predestined.
For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be changed into the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers (Romans 8:29).
We were born with a blemished personality. The program of redemption is designed to remove the blemishes and present us before the Father in the image of Christ.
Let us take, for an example, the personality blemish we term impatience. In the Kingdom of God, patience is a very important attribute of personality. God is patient. The Lord Jesus is a patient Person. Satan, and those who follow him, are impatient, demanding and seizing by force whatever they desire.
God may have put strong desires and ambitions in us. As we seek to obtain and fulfill our desires many hindrances arise. At this point we have a choice. We can force our way through to the objective, breaking the laws of God in the meantime; or we can go to the Lord in prayer, seeking His help and comfort, and the patience of Christ, until the Lord brings to pass what we desire.
We are perplexed and struck down by circumstances but the eternal Life of the Lord Jesus raises us up. We keep on pressing forward in the Lord, and we keep on being frustrated in terms of our hopes and desires.
Our original "robe," our adamic nature with its impatience, is torn down and passes away. At some point, God rewards us by giving us the Divine patience of Christ. It is not a shaping of our adamic soul but the substitution of Divine patience for our natural ability or inability to be patient.
The attributes of personality we desire are all in Christ. God is ready to add these to us as soon as we prove worthy of them. We prove worthy of them by doing what God has commanded to the best of our ability.
God rewards us for striving to be patient by giving us of Christ's patience. Divine patience is a reward that is given to us because we have learned to lean on the Lord, obeying Him in all matters as we are able. In fact, the ability to lean on the Lord is a gift from Heaven which we are to pray for.
The robe of righteousness from Heaven is a change in personality, which may be given to us now in part, and shall be given to us in its fullness when the Lord returns. The ability to be righteous, holy, and obedient to God is our reward for keeping the Lord's commandments to the best of our ability. It is a "house from heaven."
To be continued.