Saved… 

Part 9 – To rest in him     

In Galatians 2:20, Paul made the startling statement that “I no longer live.” But he had to be alive to be able to write that, so what was he getting at? 

Well, he followed it up with another startling statement, that “Christ lives in me,” by which he meant, “The life I’m living in this earthly body is based purely on trust in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” His entire life, in other words, was Christ’s doing. And that’s what he rested in and relied on every day.

He explained how it had been made possible in several other startling statements he made in Colossians 3, that we’ve already been “raised with Christ,” verse 1, our lives “are now hidden with Christ,” verse 3, and amazingly, that “Christ is our life,” verse 4. So while we’re alive in these earthly bodies of ours, Jesus has our lives totally in his hands, directing and shaping us for his grand appearance in verse 4 when he reveals to the world what he’s been doing with us. 

So (in one author’s response to this), “Do you see what this does to life? It turns it into an adventure, doesn’t it? You never know what any situation is going to result in. A creative God, beginning to work in the most ordinary circumstances, can suddenly make them break wide open, and you have something on your hands which staggers you, which you never dreamed could happen, and which even alarms you, so vast are its possibilities. This is the kind of God we have, that we can expect him to do this – and therefore we can rest in him, and not be anxious about what’s happening to us.” 

Because this is what he saved us for, so rather than struggling to be a Christian we have this picture from Paul of us sitting with Christ in his world and he’s doing the work of shaping us. So, when Paul writes in Philippians 2:12, “work out your salvation with fear and trembling,” he doesn’t mean “get anxious about how we’re doing,” he meant get excited about what we’ve got, “for,” verse 13, “God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him.”

That’s why “God called us into fellowship with his Son,” 1 Corinthians 1:9, because “He will keep you strong to the end and blameless on the day he appears,” verse 8. Good reason to rest in him…(continues tomorrow)