Note: If you are new to this blog, I suggest you start at post #1 ("Introduction") and work your way from oldest post to newest.
"No other way"
Although the truth about being united with Jesus is "above the reach of natural reason" (p. 13), yet we can discover it if we open ourselves to having God reveal it to us through the Bible.
1. It’s clearly expressed in the Bible that all things pertaining to our salvation are available to us in Jesus, and by having Jesus, and no other way.
[From the Bible]For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ ....Colossians 1:19 New Living Translation[From the Bible]When you came to Christ, you were "circumcised," but not by a physical procedure. Christ performed a spiritual circumcision—the cutting away of your sinful nature. For you were buried with Christ when you were baptized. And with him you were raised to new life because you trusted the mighty power of God, who raised Christ from the dead. You were dead because of your sins and because your sinful nature was not yet cut away. Then God made you alive with Christ, for he forgave all our sins.Colossians 2:11-13 New Living Translation[From the Bible]All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ.Ephesians 1:3 New Living Translation
Marshall concludes: All our spiritual blessings are in Jesus "and therefore we must have our holy endowments out of Him or not at all" (p. 14).
2. We get our holiness out of Jesus by fellowship with him.
[Definition]
fellowship: companionship, company, the quality or state of being comradely
Merriam-Webster OnLine
[From the Bible]From his abundance we have all received one gracious blessing after another. 17 For the law was given through Moses, but God’s unfailing love and faithfulness came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God. But the unique One, who is himself God, is near to the Father’s heart. He has revealed God to us.John 1:16-18 New Living Translation[From the Bible]We proclaim to you what we ourselves have actually seen and heard so that you may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.1 John 1:3 New Living Translation
Marshall: "There are other texts that reach the proof of the whole direction fully; showing, not only that our holy endowments are made ready first in Christ for us, and received from Christ, but that we received them by union with Christ" (p. 15).
[From the Bible]Put on your new nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like him. In this new life, it doesn’t matter if you are a Jew or a Gentile, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbaric, uncivilized, slave, or free. Christ is all that matters, and he lives in all of us.Colossians 3:10-11 New Living Translation[From the Bible]But the person who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with him.1 Corinthians 6:17 New Living Translation[From the Bible]My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.Galatians 2:20 New Living Translation[From the Bible]And this is what God has testified: He has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have God's Son does not have life.1 John 5:11-12 New Living Translation
Marshall sums it up this way: "We receive from Christ a new holy frame and nature, whereby we are enabled for an holy practice, by union and fellowship with Him...." (p. 15).
I sum up Marshall this way: First God had to give us the right equipment—a new nature, one formed in himself. Then and only then are we able to invite him to live in us in close companionship. From then on, we can turn to him for everything we need to live life to the fullest—and these resources always come from him, not from our old natures or anything we drum up.
Next post: What Jesus didn't come to do.
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