| E-MAIL SERVICE | Sign me up to receive the daily Word of Righteousness free via my E-mail address! ( ONLY AVAILABLE IN ENGLISH ) | |
| ARCHIVES | I want to check out the daily Words of Righteousness for any of the last fourteen days or from previous weeks. ( ENGLISH ONLY ) | |
| FEEDBACK | I have a question or comment about today's Word of Righteousness. ( ENGLISH AND SPANISH ONLY ) | |
| BOOK LIST | I would like to see the complete book list of the Words of Righteousness author Robert B. Thompson. (SOME SPANISH TITLES AVAILABLE ) |
The Daily Word of Righteousness
The Pursuit of Life, #10
Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:13,14—NIV)
I am forgetting what is behind. I am straining toward what is ahead. I press on toward the goal to win the prize.
The goal, the prize, is the fullness of eternal life, the redemption of the body.
Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. (Romans 8:23—NIV)
Paul wanted to be delivered from the body of sin and death. Paul wanted to be able to live a righteous life in God's sight without having to wrestle continually with a body full of sin. He realized the Lord Jesus has come to do just that—to free us from the sinful body so we can live in a manner pleasing to God.
Notice, in the context of the verses we have just read, that Paul had in mind the redemption of his body, its change into the likeness of the body of Christ.
But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, Who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so they will be like his glorious body. (Philippians 3:20,21—NIV)
I think most Christians believe when the Lord comes they will receive a body like His. What they do not understand is that such a change in our body will take place only as we have sought to gain Christ in the same manner as Paul.
The idea that we can take the "four steps of salvation" and then live as an average American, occupied with the idols of money, entertainment, lust, the occult, and violence, spending hours each day watching Hollywood presentations on the television, and then by grace be carried up to Heaven and receive a body like Christ, is very far removed from scriptural reality. To receive a body like Christ requires a life of continual cooperation with the Holy Spirit as He deals with the worldliness, lust, and self-will of our personality.
The standard of Christianity in America is so far below the biblical standard that a vast, comprehensive religious awakening must take place if an entire generation of believers is not to be lost to the purposes of God. I think God is ready and willing to move wonderfully in America, but we must start preaching the commandments of Christ and His Apostles rather than the prevailing grace-rapture-heaven mythology.
We will not make our way prosperous or please the Lord, neither will the Lord heal our country, until the Christian people begin to deny themselves, take up their cross, and follow the Lord Jesus, praying always for the strength and wisdom to keep His commandments and those of His Apostles.
To be continued.