With Elder Elico Manenji
✝️The Apostle Paul likens the present body as a tent or clothes that cover a being. Our bodies are earthly and temporary as God will replace this vile earthly body with the eternal spiritual one. This fact is guaranteed by the indwelling Holy Spirit that one day believers will enjoy the fulness of life for which God is preparing them. Presently we may be physically separated from Christ but we desire to be with Him, this is our hope and encouragement. We may not see Him with our eyes but we live by faith in Him. As we live in this hope that brings glory and judgment, our lives are being examined so that the glory we will have may be of Christ in us the hope of glory. The fact that
Jesus Christ died for all is proof that all died in Him so that all who believe may live in Him and so may not live according to sinful flesh. If so we live in Christ, we become new creatures to preach and present the glorious ministry of reconciliation of our bodies unto God. Christ the righteous, the sinless died for us so we may become the righteousness of God in Him.
*1️⃣2 Corinthians 5:1-10: Believers are God's eternal House of dwelling.*
⏹️Even when our earthly bodies might decay, and be worn out, might endure trials and tribulations, we may sigh and groan but we know we have a better home, a spiritual house which the eternal God will give us on the last day as we continue to keep the faith. The Apostle says, *"For in this hope we were saved; but hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he can already see? But if we hope for what we do not yet see, we wait for it patiently"(Romans 8:24-25).*
⏭️Certainly our bodies are not just common dwelling places, they are the dwelling of the Holy Spirit who is shaping us. God has given to us the Holy Spirit as the pledge and assurance of the eternal inheritance which He is preparing for us. The Apostle says, *"Know you not that you are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?"(1 Corinthians 3:16).*
*"What? know you not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which you have of God, and you are not your own?"(1 Corinthians 6:19).*
⏭️ Divine love in all its dealings with us is not merely a blessed spiritual life but the completion of our humanity in a perfect spirit dwelling in a glorified body. The Apostle says, *"And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together"(Romans 8:17).*
⏹️So, if we die in this body, its not a big deal for we have a spiritual life which we will relive again through Christ. The Apostle says, *"So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption: It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power: It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body"( 1 Corinthians 15:42-44).*
⏭️ No matter how perfect our faith, no matter how holy our life, this body must die so that the curse of sin is reversed not by the exemption from death but by the resurrection to eternal life. So we live by faith and not by sight, this earthly bodies must be cleansed of sin, corruption and put on the new man in Christ Jesus. The Apostle says, *"For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known"(1 Corinthians 13:12).*
*"But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the LORD"(2 Corinthians 3:18).*
*2️⃣2 Corinthians 5:11 21: Believers are God's earthly Ambassadors to show His eternal glory.*
⏹️To those who refuse mercy, the Lord Jesus will be an object of terror and alarm, as God appointed Him to execute judgment when the wrath of God will be shown in the condemnation of the guilty. Jesus said, *"For the Father judges no man, but has committed all judgment to the Son"(John 5:22).*
*"To execute judgment on all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him"(Jude 1:15).*
⏭️But we are sustained and vindicated, we are held together and pressed together
because of the love of Christ which He has shown to the children of men. Christ so loved the world as to give himself for it. His love for the world was a demonstration that people were dead in sins. And we, being urged by the same love, are prompted to like acts of zeal and self-denial to save the world from ruin. The Apostle Peter says, *"Whom having not seen, you love; in whom, though now you see him not, yet believing, you rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory"(1 Peter 1:8).*
⏹️As we live in Him in this earthly body, we became new creatures, we became
the new man, which God is creating in righteousness and true holiness. The Apostle says, *"And that you put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness"(Ephesians 4:24).*
⏹️Basically, all good things are of God, His doctrine, its privileges of pardon, justification, sanctification, adoption and communion, all work in favour with us to eternal glory. The Apostle says, *"And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things to himself; by him, I say, whether they be things in earth, or things in heaven"(Colossians 1:20).*
⏭️For Christ has brought us reconciliation with God. He who had no sin was made sin for us so that we maybe the righteousness of God in Him. The Apostle says, *"For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh"(Romans 8:3).*
The Apostle John says, *"And you know that he was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no sin"(1John 3:5).*
*🅰️Appeal*
The love of Christ should stay in our hearts so that the world remains under our feet. Good Christians can not enjoy the comforts of this life so their relations in this world should be treated with holy indifference. Yes, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now should we know Him after the Spirit, for the flesh benefits no man but by the Spirit. The Apostle John says, *"Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins"(1John 4:10).* Amen!!!
Elico Manenji
(+263712952704)
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