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The Power of His Resurrection

I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised Him from the dead. I want to suffer with Him, sharing in His death, so that one way or another I will experience the resurrection from the dead! (Philippians 3:10,11 NLT)

You never do touch the Lord Jesus in His death in any new measure without knowing a new measure of resurrection Life. When the Lord Jesus by His Spirit brings us in a further measure into the meaning of His death, let it be settled with us, once and for all, that that is in itself a new measure of resurrection Life. The two things go together, it cannot be otherwise. It is death unto Life. It is loss unto gain. The Life and the gain are of a different sort from the death and the loss. The death and the loss is simply all that which, sooner or later, will go in any case, and even while it remains is of a very doubtful value, but the Life and the gain are eternal, and have in them all the values of God. So Paul could, with something of joy, hail conformity to the death of Christ. He speaks about it in no mournful terms as though he were going to lose everything. There is no shadow on his face, or sob in his voice, when he speaks about being conformed to His death. It is the shout of a victor. There is something he is after....

He has known power, popularity, reputation, position, possession, and he says the knowledge of Christ Jesus is excelling all that. What knowledge is it? It is the particular knowledge of "Him, and the power of His resurrection." Why? Because of what that leads to, all the possibilities of that resurrection Life and power, because of its ultimate issue: because of the place to which it can bring him, no less a place than the very Throne of the Lord Himself.

Pray for one another, that you may be healed.

Abraham answered and said, “Indeed now, I who am but dust and ashes have taken it upon myself to speak to the Lord: Suppose there were five less than the fifty righteous; would You destroy all of the city for lack of five?” So He said, “If I find there forty-five, I will not destroy it.”

Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do. § Pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you.

I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for those whom You have given Me, for they are Yours … I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word. § Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.

The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain; and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months.

James 5:16;  Gen. 18:27,28;  Luke 23:34;  Matt. 5:44;  John 17:9,20;  Gal. 6:2;  James 5:16,17

As for man, his days are like grass;as a flower of the field, so he flourishes.For the wind passes over it, and it is gone,and its place remembers it no more.

So teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom. § What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?

Surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever. § The world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.

Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation. § Use this world as not misusing it. For the form of this world is passing away. § Let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.

Ps. 103:15,16;  Ps.90:12;  Mark 8:36;  Isa. 40:7,8;  1 John 2:17;  2 Cor. 6:2;  1 Cor. 7:31;  Heb. 10:24,25

Lifeless Law

For if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law" (Gal. 3:21).

Paul devoted two full chapters to establish our freedom from the fallen Adam. Romans Six sets forth our freedom from the dominion of Adamic sin; Romans Seven explains our freedom from Adamic law.

Whereas our liberty was won on the Cross, it is worked out in our daily life and experience by the Holy Spirit. On the Cross, by the Spirit, in the Lord Jesus Christ.

"If ministers and teachers of God's Word would set saints free and establish them in the Gospel, let their preaching and teaching be based upon the sixth and seventh of Romans, the central theme of which is our union with the Lord Jesus in death and burial; and our resurrection and ascension with Him into newness of life; where not the law, but grace, reigneth; where not the letter but the Spirit, moveth the heart and life of the believer. Satan will fight most fiercely against such teaching, but no other will establish the Lord's people."

"If God has declared that we died, we did die. If God has declared us discharged from the law, we are discharged and are hereby God's free children, new creatures,' created after God in righteousness and true holiness.'

"Our longing for conformity to the image of God's Son shall be confirmed and fulfilled by the Holy Spirit who hath been given unto us. No man can believe he has a right to walk freely and fully in the Spirit until he believes himself to be free from the law." -W.R.N.

"Law cannot give eternal life, nor have, therefore, any control over it." -L.S.C.

"But now we have been discharged from the law, having died to that wherein we were held" (Rom. 7:6, ASV.).

God’s Perfect Peace

The Choice of Faith