07 Jan '16 16:26>
We need not speculate "What if Jesus had been born today?" Rather we need to let the available Spirit of that resurrected and living Lord Jesus be imparted into our beings. Then Christ IS born today. Christ is BORN today in you and me.
Here again the pioneer Paul teaches that God's will was to MANIFEST Christ in his [Paul's] body whether through life or through death.
Paul as one of our foremost pioneers in the experience of Christ, knew that he lived for this. God desired to manifest Jesus Christ in Paul. God deposited Christ as "a life giving Spirit" (1 Cor. 15:45), into the innermost kernel of Paul's spiritual being.
This is not sentimental. This is actual. God has a way to dispense Jesus Christ Himself INTO man. And why? So that in age after age, until He comes again, Christ would be manifested in the lives and bodies of those who received Him.
So the next verse says the purpose for which Paul lived -
For Paul to live was Christ.
For Paul to live and work among the churches, preaching the gospel, edifying the beleivers, was for Christ to live. Christ lived again on the earth IN Paul.
And Christ living again on the earth today IN those who believe into Him is the will of God.
I will comment on the Luke passage shortly.
Here again the pioneer Paul teaches that God's will was to MANIFEST Christ in his [Paul's] body whether through life or through death.
"According to my earnest expectation and hope that in nothing I will be put to shame, but with all boldness, as always, even now Christ will be manifested in my body, whether through life or through death." (Phil. 1:20)
Paul as one of our foremost pioneers in the experience of Christ, knew that he lived for this. God desired to manifest Jesus Christ in Paul. God deposited Christ as "a life giving Spirit" (1 Cor. 15:45), into the innermost kernel of Paul's spiritual being.
This is not sentimental. This is actual. God has a way to dispense Jesus Christ Himself INTO man. And why? So that in age after age, until He comes again, Christ would be manifested in the lives and bodies of those who received Him.
So the next verse says the purpose for which Paul lived -
"For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain." (v.21)
For Paul to live was Christ.
For Paul to live and work among the churches, preaching the gospel, edifying the beleivers, was for Christ to live. Christ lived again on the earth IN Paul.
And Christ living again on the earth today IN those who believe into Him is the will of God.
I will comment on the Luke passage shortly.