Part 19 - The Complete Answer

This will be my last blog for a month, as I am going overseas on family business, but please feel free to look over some earlier posts to get the full picture of the exchanged life. I will resume on July 7th.

The Christians of the early church have been described as being "incorrigibly happy, completely unafraid, and nearly always in trouble." That is gloriously true, and Paul gives us an illustration of this attitude in 2 Corinthians when he was in a situation that was beyond human endurance. "We were burdened beyond measure," he says, "....so that we despaired even of life."

Then he goes on, "Yes, we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves but in God who raises the dead." He was adopting this attitude: Our present difficulty is not our problem; it is His problem. It is in the hands of our God, who raises the dead. Here was Paul dying to self, and this allowed him to hand the whole situation over to the One in him, Jesus Christ, the God of resurrection power.

Dying to self is a wonderful position to be in, because dead people cannot die, and dead people do not have problems. You see, every time you give yourself the right to have a problem or the right to worry about something, you give yourself the right to live your own life. However, if you adopt an attitude of total dependence on the Life of the Lord Jesus, the only life with which God will ever credit you, then no matter how threatening a situation may be, you can relate it to Him. You can say, "Thank you Lord ! This is no longer my problem or my worry; it is Yours."

This is the quality of life that gives you "the peace that passes all understanding." It is the quality of life that amazes other people, leaving them perplexed and baffled as they see you remain on such an even keel in situations which would completely demoralize them. This is the privilege that is yours and mine in Jesus Christ. It applies to every single situation in life without exception, to every decision you may be confronted with today, to every temptation that faces you, and to every responsibility you may be called upon to carry. This truth always applies: If you are in Him and He is in you, you are complete. (Colossians 2: 10) Paul needed no crutches, because through dependence on Christ's completeness and competency, he himself was completely competent.

To be wholly and completely and exclusively dependent on Christ's competence - THAT IS THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. It is not just the monopoly of a few, nor is it the privilege only of God's special favourites. It is the Life for which you were redeemed. It does not mean that you will avoid pressures and threats and discomforts, but you can know that in every situation, you have the complete, total, and absolute answer...in Christ, your Life. He is the answer. To live a life less than this is to miss the whole point of your redemption !

Thank you for your patience and God bless you as you put these principles into practice......Andrew.