Quote:
Originally Posted by KeptByTheWord
There are so many important events in scripture that occur in patterns of 3. I always find that interesting.
Thank you for bringing out the death to self parable picture.
How important it is to realize that salvation comes to bring us victory over our enslavement to self.
It is a hard-fought battle that we will always fight (our flesh will never give up until the day we draw our last breath), but we can live victorious through the spirit of Christ Jesus living in us. We don't have to live under the burden of it, but we can and must be overcomers... but we cannot fool ourselves into thinking the battle is in the past. It is present, ongoing, and will never end while we draw breath into our bodies. But we can live as overcomers, and that is the exciting part about what Jesus did at Calvary for us!
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Good stuff.
I once heard a Kingdom-focused preacher speak about the cross as an entrance truth, so to speak, and then we depart and head into the kingdom understanding. I disagree. I am strong on the kingdom being here now, but the cross is vital in it all the way until the end. We have to remind ourselves of it constantly so that we can say that we died and were buried and risen with Christ so that the same power that raised and enthroned HIm is all for us in our daily struggles. With that in mind, our faith would be so powerful that nothing could discourage us. The victory of the cross is always needed. That is the power that we require to deny self. We cannot do it on our own. We need Holy Ghost empowerment. And the cross that we carry as we follow him and deny ourselves keeps our bodies under, as Paul said in
1 Cor 9, and makes way for God's Spirit to "resurrect" us, so to speak, in victory! How can we abandon the need for the cross?