His Righteousness
Through his sacrificial death on the cross he provided righteousness that does not belong to us. We are now declared righteous and the perfect life that Jesus lived is now exchanged for our sinful one.
Communion with Him
We have not been made righteous to feel better about ourselves. It’s for communion with God, it’s so we can know God and have fellowship with Him. We have been rescued for communion.
Victory Over Darkness
Colossians 2: 15 Rulers and authorities have been disarmed (this is talking about satanic power). Although we can be led to believe that satan doesn’t exist and he’s just a comic book character, he does. His greatest trick is to convince us he does not.
At the cross Jesus destroyed Satans kingdom. Jesus has won the decisive battle over all darkness.
Healing
By his wounds we are healed. At the cross we find healing.
Grace for suffering
God gives us grace in the midst of our suffering. With Christ we will still suffer, we are not removed from the world, but God gives us grace to be able to endure and even be blessed in our suffering.
We tend to think of stress as a modern problem but Elijah, a man just like us, certainly knew what it was to run out of gas.
Suddenly a fiery dart from the enemy penetrated all his defences, and yesterday’s zeal was not enough to take him through today. He collapsed in the pressure and ran away. This rock-like figure who was able to withstand a whole nation suddenly had nothing more to give.
After encountering God’s incredible mercy, his running away becomes more purposefully focused on running to the rock Horeb where God had previously revealed His faithfulness to the nation. Believers need to be reminded not simply to seek ‘escape’ from their difficulties but to run with purpose to the covenant God who loves them and will reveal His faithfulness to them.
Elijah’s fresh meeting with God, like Simon Peter’s on Lake Galilee with the resurrected Christ, leads to total reinstatement, refreshment and fresh commissioning.
God’s covenant love never fails. The redeemed know who to run to. But what of those who don’t know Him? They can only try to escape the pressure. How they need also to find the rock of safety.
After his brief salutation Paul is remarkably positive about this church. He is full of thanksgiving for them. But how can this be so when he is about to open up a can on them? It is because of Paul’s mature gospel based perspective. Do we really understand thankfulness as described and displayed here by Paul?
Without thankfulness we betray an evil heart of unbelief (Romans 1). So we must guard our hearts against ingratitude and learn from the Holy Spirit ways of maintaining a thankful heart.
Remember this is a grace thing – a gospel thing. It cannot be manipulated, true thankfulness is gospel driven.
Grace Promotes Unity
In the third paragraph (10-17) we have Paul’s opening salvo against the fundamental failings of the church. They have written to him about a few things (7.1) – but he will not touch on them until he has got some things off his own chest. He has been told that there is serious division amongst them.
There is nothing about Paul’s message and ministry that should naturally lead to factionalism and party spirit. So another influence is at work here. The culture of Corinth was affected by an obsession with popular orators – who had a kind of rock star image. The believers in Corinth had transferred some of that man-centred hubris into the church, imagining that they belong to a particular team in the congregation – not realising that the preachers themselves – including Paul were simply servants.
Paul brings them back down to earth by pointing out the centrality and sufficiency of Jesus and his work.
Church of Christ the King (CCK) serves the city of Brighton & Hove, UK (and the surrounding area), living by and communicating the message of Jesus Christ.
We meet together for worship and teaching on Sundays at 9.15am, 11.30am & 6.30pm at the Clarendon Centre, New England Street, Brighton, BN1 4GQ, UK
