Have Your Calling Before You

Have Your Calling Before You

In Romans 8:3 we read why God sent His Son in the likeness of sinful flesh: to do what the law could not do. The law said, “You shall not covet” (Rom. 7:7), but it could not lead people to the point where they did not covet. Covetousness is hidden. The law could not intervene when something was hidden; it had to be revealed first. We learn this from the incident of the Pharisees and the woman who was caught in adultery. They could stone her according to the law of Moses, but by doing that they could not lead her to a new life. 2 Cor. 3:6-9. Jesus said, “He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first.” The scribes knew that they coveted and that consequently they were sinners. When Jesus said this, they were convicted by their conscience and went out one by one, beginning with the oldest even to the last. They had all coveted; consequently they had a sinful flesh. They only quoted Moses as it suited them. John 8:3-12.

Now that God had sent His Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, He condemned sin in the flesh. Jesus agreed with the Father’s condemnation of sin in the flesh; He was the sacrifice. “How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” Heb. 9:14. This is how sin in the flesh (including covetousness—the lusts) was put to death. This is why Jesus’ flesh did not become sinful; consequently He could serve the living God. The scribes had not come to this salvation; they had not purified their conscience. Therefore they did not come to the point of serving the living God. They were slaving away under the law and did not come to any development or growth in their lives. All they could do was dead works.

We read further in Romans 8:4: “That the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.” Most people do not read verse 4. They reckon that Jesus fulfilled the law in our place. Thus they exclude Jesus from being our forerunner who consecrated the new and living way for us through the veil, that is, His flesh. Heb. 10:19-20. This is our heavenly calling. Heb. 3:1.

This death that passes over the flesh is called the death of Christ, and we are to bear it in our bodies so that the life of Jesus also might be revealed in our bodies. We must have this before us in all the trials and temptations into which we come. We have an opportunity to follow our forerunner in all these situations. All those who want to be Jesus’ disciples must also hate their own life. Then all our temptations and trials will lead us to sanctification. Instead of pitying ourselves and blaming the others or the circumstances, we serve the living God, and through the knowledge of Jesus we partake of divine nature and grow in the virtues. This is how an abundant entrance will be supplied to us into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 2 Pet. 1:3-11; 2 Cor. 4:10; Rom. 5:1-5, 10.