Taking on a new nature - Ruminating in the Word of God

The Lord is awe-inspiring, fearsome, fascinating, intriguing, majestic, and full of splendor: breathtaking! Here is what I saw of him and what came to my mind and heart in Philippians 1:9-11,

"And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God."

Paul prayed for his readers in Philippi. He desired to see their spiritual growth, "the fruit of righteousness" as a result of their union with Jesus Christ. A little later in his letter, 2:12-13, he says, "Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed—not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence—continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose." A part of this working out of their salvation would be the fulfillment of something he says in another letter, Romans 8:29, "Those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters." 

God decided ahead of time that those he knew that would embrace Jesus Christ in faith would go through a process of spiritual development in this life, the outcome of which would be the assimilation of the very character and nature of Jesus Christ! In this life we only move in this direction, in the resurrection we will experience it to its fullness. In yet another letter, Paul enumerates what this looks like in practical terms, Galatians 5:22-23, "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control." Things like this. These are the kinds of things that are being developed in our lives. I don't take this to be an all-inclusive list, but Paul enumerates enough of these character qualities of Jesus Christ so that we get the picture. It was Paul's prayer for his Philippian readers that this fruit of righteousness might abound in love "in knowledge and depth of insight" in his readers.

I don't know about you, but I have had the pleasure of encountering folks who are on this path of development to one degree or another and they are wonderful to be around. How might you feel if all those around you manifested the things Paul lists in Galatians, "love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control"? To be around folks like this is truly a foretaste of heaven. In heaven we all will have shed that sinful nature once for all and Jesus Christ will be among brothers and sisters, us, who are now finally fully conformed to the image of his many-splendored perfections. Not that we evolve to anything beyond us being his creations, but that we now emulate our Creator without the hindrance of our sinful natures and reflect his magnificent nature.

As it is wonderful to muse upon these things, what captures my attention this morning is that this process of maturing spiritually, to whatever degree we may reflect these wonderful qualities of Jesus Christ, is not to our credit, it is not for any adulation due us. It is entirely something that is to be "to the glory and praise of God." I note that the wonderful qualities Paul lists as fruit of the Spirit are, in fact, "fruit of the Spirit"! It is only because of God and what he has done that any change comes to us, that any spiritual maturity comes to us. 

God is the One who equips us with all we need to live godly lives! He is the One who has freed us from our sinful natures! He is the One who has provided us his indwelling Holy Spirit to encourage us, to lead us, to guide us. He is the One who has provided us the Scriptures so that we have everything we need to be thoroughly equipped for every good work. He is the One who has provide us with wonderful brothers and sisters in the Lord, gifted by him, to encourage us, to love us, to inspire us, to help us.

"To God be the glory, great things he has done!"

Anything of the Lord capture your heart from Scripture today? Share what moved you about him from your Bible reading today. I'd love to hear from you!

 

Trevor Fisk

trevor.fisk@gmail.com