Complimentary Story
May 2024“For it is God which WORKETH IN YOU both to will and to do of His good pleasure.” (Philippians 2:13).
We are only strong in His might, and we need Him working in us to give us victory. Jesus said: “...Without Me ye can do nothing.” (John 15:5). “Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God.” (2 Corinthians 3:5). “But by the grace of God I am what I am: and His grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was in me.” (1 Corinthians 15:10). “For He that wrought effectually in Peter to the apostleship of the circumcision, the same was mighty in me toward the Gentiles.” (Galatians 2:8). “Whereof I was made a minister, according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of His power.” (Ephesians 3:7). “I can do all things through Christ Jesus which strengtheneth me.” (Philippians 4:13). The conclusion given in all these verses is, God worketh in you, or you can do nothing.
“Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.” (James 2:17). Therefore, one must have God working in you in order for His will and good pleasure to be accomplished in your life. So, faith, without His working in you is dead. Many assume and do nothing and think they will live the Spiritual life when they get to Heaven. That’s all bogus. If you don’t have Jesus working in you now, you won’t have Him to work in you in Heaven.
Jesus does not stop working, and if you have received Him then God worketh in you, and He does His will and good pleasure. This then, continues when you get to Heaven. Once Jesus comes into a life He never leaves you nor does He forsake you. (Hebrews 13:5). “And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fullness of God. Now unto Him that is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us.” (Ephesians 3:19, 20).
When you receive Jesus, you are not only loosed from sin but you receive the fullness of God who worketh in you. “But now, being free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life. For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 6:22-23).
So, you see, it’s only what Jesus did, it’s what He is still doing: “He worketh in you to will and to do His good pleasure.” Many live as if this world were all there is, and live only in the physical realm. Today they don’t look unto God to bring change, or change lives, they only look forward to some man, a president, that will lead them our of the chaos and uncertainly the world is in. Before the resurrection of Christ that is exactly what the followers of Jesus were looking for. A man to solve everything. They wanted the man Jesus to be someone He was not sent by God to be. They wanted a man worldly leader, a man king. They waited a long time for His coming, and now that He arrived they would enthrone Him. Two of the ten wanted to reign with Him in this worldly kingdom. (Matthew 20:20-24). However, none of their man-made plans came to pass, because “Every way of a man is right in his own eyes...” (Proverbs 21:2). After the resurrection, they were able to say and acknowledge: “Yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we Him no more.” (2 Corinthians 5:16).
Jesus threw a monkey wrench into their worldly plans when He began to teach them, that “the Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected of the elders, and the chief priests, and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. And He spoke that saying openly. And Peter took Him, and began to rebuke Him. But when Jesus had turned about and looked on His disciples, He rebuked Peter...” (Mark 8:31-33).
The cross, and Jesus being crucified was not in the plans of His followers. How could this be? What about our ruling? What about our king and kingdom? What about our prosperity?
What did the cross, and the death of Jesus do to His followers? They forsook Him, fled, and hid. All hope was gone.
Look at the two on the way to Emmaus. Jesus said: “What manner of communications are these that ye have one to another, as ye walk, and are sad?” (Luke 24: 17). “They said: But we trusted that it had been He which should have redeemed Israel.” (Luke 24:21). Then Christ told His plan: “O fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. Ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and to enter into His glory?” (Luke 24:25-26).
None of His disciples believed after the cross, or just by the cross. Only after Jesus gave proof of His resurrection did they believe. The resurrection explains the cross, and you must have and include them both. Most modern day evangelists are leading the lost to just the place where the disciples lost all hope. “...Jesus was raised for our justification.” (Romans 4:25) and we need a living Saviour to work in us.
I’ll quote what brought hope then, and what brings hope now: “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to His abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you. Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.” (1 Peter 1:3-5). Only after the resurrection did God begin to work in them.
Everywhere in Scripture the crucifixion is mentioned with the resurrection. The One serves no purpose without the other, and preaching the cross without the Resurrection is vain. “If Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain... But now is Christ risen from the dead...” (1 Corinthians 15:14, 20).
Apostle Paul “...delivered first of all that which he also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures; and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.” (1 Corinthians 15:3-4).
Our hope is in the Risen Living Lord Jesus. “For none of us liveth to himself, and no man dieth to himself. For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord’s. For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that He might be Lord both of the dead and living.” (Romans 14:7-9).
“And that He died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them, and rose again.” (2 Corinthians 5:15).
“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” (2 Corinthians 5:17). Galatians 2:20 reveals again Christ living in a person, and that He is still working in you. “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, Who loved me, and gave Himself for me.”
There is a God-shaped void in the life of every human being, and only God can fill that void. We are incomplete without Him in that void. Nothing is uncertain because He lives, and He lives in us. We have the victory, no matter what, for it is God who worketh in us, “and we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose.” (Romans 8:28).
“We are the temple of the Living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.” (2 Corinthians 6:6). “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.” (Psalm 46:1). “Because greater is He that is in you, than He that is in the world.” (1 John 4:4). Send questions or comments to:
The Upper Room Ministry
John E. Burt
6854 N. Zett Road
Loretta, WI 54896
