Ro 4:19 And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness ( necrosis) of Sara’s womb:
2Co 4:10 Always bearing about in the body the dying ( necrosis) of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.
The deadness or the corpsing of the Lord Jesus. The depth of Paul’s walk was that as to himself, and his ability, he was a corpse and relied on the resurrection power of Jesus to do anything and everything for him.
So different to the Christianity of today; so flattering, so politically correct, always making the other one feel good, before saying to the one, you must become a corpse, so that Christ can live.
Politically correct love spares the person’s reputation, his feelings, to the degree of actually sparing him from the cross.
Our wish not to discipline can be the enemy’s ploy to keep another in bondage.
We must be careful to edify and encourage, but with a view to the person embracing the cross and becoming a corpse that the life of Christ can be manifested and not so that his feelings are always protected.
Sometimes our desire to protect the person’s feelings is a curse by denying him the painful death of the cross where only can he truly become free.
“God manifests life in our dying, and death in our living (Alford).”
If the church is to be relevant, its relevancy must be found in the cross of Christ and from that position, social issues can flow, but never in social issues which protect and avoid the cross. The devil adores the latter. He will give the church access to every conceivable social issue as long as he keeps the flesh of the church alive.
The church alive in the flesh, will not overcome the ploy of the devil. Only a dead to the flesh church and alive to God, can defeat him.
A church that strives to be culturally relevant and avoids the cross will always be irrelevant. Relevancy is found in the cross where the church manifests the resurrection of Christ. The devil has no creativity. His ploy is to deceive the church to avoid the cross. Without the cross the devil always win.
If the church is to be relevant once again, it must be the church of the cross and not social issues.
12 So then death worketh ( energizing) in us, but life in you.
There are two energies. One, is the energy which functions to cause us to die like, and with Christ. The other is the energy which causes us to live like, and with Christ. You can’t have the latter without the former. The devil wants us to avoid the former, making us believe that we can have the latter without it, but that’s impossible.
Christianity today, passionately teaches us how to avoid the energy that causes us to die with Christ. This is root of political correctness. Christian beware of this feel good ploy, it will keep you in bondage.
2 Cor 4:13 We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak;
I realize now why the church has so much unbelief, so little faith, so much double mindedness. If the cross and the death of Christ are not embraced, where fears are put to death, fear then remains alive and well. Fear is diametrically opposite to faith.
The next wave of Bible teachers must come back to teaching the cross, which has been regrettably abandoned since the 1990’s. Prosperity teaching denied the cross. Social issues placed on the church, many times denies the cross, just the same. It’s the same ploy of the devil with a different color. Anything that denies the cross of Christ, no matter how noble, has the devil’s thumbprint all over it.
2 Cor 4:13 We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak;
14 Knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus, and shall present us with you.
Col 2:12 Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation ( energy) of God, who hath raised him from the dead.
The genuine spirit of faith is the faith of God exercised in resurrecting Christ from a corpse. This is the faith of God. If I am to work in a spirit of faith, it will be the spirit found in the resurrection power of Christ. Without death there can’t be resurrection. If I don’t embrace the cross, I will embrace fear and double mindedness, but never the spirit of faith. The devil loves it when he keeps the church focused on everything, but the cross.
Jose and Mary Alvarez 