Archive for March 1998
Christ Our Pattern
A frustrated gardener quipped, I’m not much of a gardener. Once I took a seed catalog and started out the door. ‘Where are you going with that?’ my wife asked. ‘I’m going to show it to my tomatoes,’ I explained.” This reminds me that we need more than an ideal; we need an activated life.…
Read MoreHow Christ Lived
We continue our theme of Jesus Christ as our perfect example. Jesus not only exemplified the ideal standards of motive, words and deeds, He also exemplified the dynamic of HOW God intends for His people to live. As Ian Thomas has written, “Now if it is true that he Lord Jesus Christ will live His…
Read MoreImitating Christ
The story is told that President Calvin Coolidge invited some people from his hometown to dinner at the White House. Since they did not know how to behave at such an occasion, they thought the best policy would be just to do what the President did. The time came for serving coffee. The President poured…
Read MoreCrucified With Christ: Position and Power
“I am crucified with Christ.” Galatians 2:20 Positionally Identified The Lord Jesus Christ acted in what he did as a great public representative person, and his dying upon the cross was the virtual dying of all his people. [“For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all…
Read MoreJesus Christ: The Last Adam
“And so it is written, ‘The first man Adam became a living being.’ The last Adam [Christ] became a life-giving spirit’” (1 Corinthians 15:45). . Jesus is the federal head of his elect [His people]. As in Adam, every heir of flesh and blood has a personal interest, because he is the covenant head and…
Read MoreLiving By Faith
“…The life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God…” Galatians 2:20 When the Lord in mercy passed by and saw us in our blood,[1] He first of all said, “Live”; and this He did first, because life is one of the absolutely essential things in…
Read MoreMore Than Conquerors
“Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us” (Romans 8:37). We go to Christ for forgiveness, and then too often look to the law for power to fight our sins. Paul thus rebukes us, “O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth,…
Read MoreThe Resurrection Life
At a Resurrection Day service a pastor declared, “More has been gained in the resurrection of Jesus than was lost in the fall.” David McCasland observed, “Each day we experience the damage caused by sin entering our world. Greed, injustice, and cruelty all trace their origins back to Adam and Eve’s decision to follow their…
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