God’s very life is mine

This morning’s devotional reading from Oswald Chambers is profound. I can only say amen. I wanted to copy/paste it, but in fairness to copyright law, I’ll put it in my own words. He begins with this passage about the Christian’s identification with the death and also the life of Christ . . .

We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. (Romans 6:9–11)

Then he shares a marvelous truth: Eternal life is not a copy of the life which Jesus Christ, but the same life. In other words, eternal life is not a gift from God, eternal life is the gift of God. He comes to live in those who have been reborn by His grace and power.

That power is not a gift either. The Lord Jesus said, “You shall receive the power of the Holy Ghost.” It is the Holy Spirit, not His power but the Spirit Himself imparted to us. When we get right with God, the full life of God comes in. Jesus gives those who believe in Him an endless supply of life — “that you might be filled with all the fullness of God.”

While we use the word ‘eternal’ eternal Life is not about time. It is about the kind of life that Jesus lived, His very life. He is the sole source of it. It is His life, in us, forever!

This life is experienced by all who believe. It is only limited by how tight I hold on to the rule of self, that old nature that persists in its resistance to the Lordship of Jesus. Yet, as Chambers says, I have to keep letting go of it, dying to it. When I do that, the great full life of God will invade every part of me. It is also possible, even likely, that others will notice that I have been with Jesus.

Oh my, what glory!