Changing Our Blood-life to Resurrection-life

The life of the flesh is in the blood, the Bible tells us.

We may think blood-life is a satisfactory form of life. It is not. Compared with the indestructible, incorruptible resurrection-life the Lord Jesus Christ came to bring us, blood-life is seen for what it is—a corruptible, perishable form of energy.

Blood-life, being corruptible and perishable, cannot enter the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of God is neither corruptible nor perishable.

However, our flesh will enter the Kingdom. We notice that when Christ came forth from the cave He had a flesh-and-bones body. "A spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see I have."

The flesh is not a problem. It is the life of the flesh that is the problem. Blood is just not an acceptable form of life for God’s children, except on a temporary basis as they learn how to please God and walk in His ways.

The Lord Jesus Christ came so we would not perish but receive the imperishable Life that is in Himself and by which He lives.

Our hope is that in the day of resurrection we shall receive a body of incorruptible life, a body living by the Spirit of God. But before it is possible for us to receive such a body we must attain incorruptible life in our inward nature.

This is why the Apostle Paul was setting aside everything else in order that he might attain the resurrection to eternal life; not just to be brought back from the dead but to be clothed with an immortal body free from all the bondages of sin. Such clothing necessitates the development of eternal life in the inward nature.

The inward must be made alive before the body can be made alive.

The question is, how is the inward personality made alive?

But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses. (1 Timothy 6:11-12—NIV)

Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so they may take hold of the life that is truly life. (1 Timothy 6:18-19—NIV)

We are to flee from the pursuit of money and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance, and gentleness.

The pursuit of these qualities necessitates a fight. The true Christian life is a fight to lay hold on eternal, incorruptible life.

"Fight the good fight of faith."

We receive a portion of eternal life when we first receive Jesus as our Savior. This portion of life enables us to set out on the course of our discipleship. It gives us the desire and strength to accept the denials and pressures that accompany discipleship.

Each day we have to fight to take hold of more eternal life, and then more eternal life. We do not want to live in the sins and compulsions of the life of blood any more than we have to. We desire to live by the Spirit of God, to think by the Spirit of God, to speak by the Spirit of God, to act by the Spirit of God. When we thus live in the Spirit we do not fulfill the lusts of our flesh and soul.

We are to "take hold of the life that is truly life." Blood-life is not "truly life." It is death. Our body is dead because of sin.

But Paul promises that if the Spirit of God is alive in us, God, at the return of the Lord, will make alive even our mortal body so our flesh no longer is animated by blood-life but by eternal life. This transition is our goal, and the answer to Paul’s cry: "Who will deliver me from this body of death?"

Problems and pain assist us in the desired change from blood-life to eternal life. They beat down our body, frustrating us, keeping us from rushing about in our enthusiasm and passions.

As we respond correctly to the problems and pains the Holy Spirit is better able, now that we have suffered, to express His Life in us. As He does so we are set free from the law of sin and death, in the meanwhile being without condemnation because of the righteousness of Jesus Christ ascribed to us. This is how the new covenant operates.

We have seen then that problems and pain purify us from sin, teach us obedience, and change our blood-life to resurrection-life. This is why the Scripture says we enter the Kingdom of God through much tribulation.

Strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the faith. "We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God," they said. (Acts 14:22—NIV)

Each day we increase in the power of Christ’s resurrection. Each day we share His sufferings, being conformed to His death on the cross.

I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, (Phil 3:10—NIV)

We must remain in the imprisoning circumstances in which we have been placed if we expect to be crowned with life and righteousness when we are brought back from the dead and face the Lord Jesus.

Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer persecution for ten days. Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life. (Rev 2:10—NIV)

Evidently the Apostle Paul was a man of great personal energy and motivation. In order that Paul’s ministry would remain as an expression of resurrection-life and not his pride or blood-life, the Lord permitted Satan to attack Paul’s body. Some scholars believe this affliction was in the form of an eye infection. Whatever it was, it kept Paul leaning on the Lord instead of his own strength.

To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so Christ’s power may rest on me. (2 Corinthians 12:7-9—NIV)

The Lord made Paul weak in his natural strength. Then the power of Christ served to enable Paul to do what God desired. Now it was no longer Paul but the Life of Christ that was active in his personality. By this affliction Paul changed from his normal blood-life to eternal life.

Paul did not regret this change from his natural strength to God’s strength.

That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Corinthians 12:10—NIV)

When Paul was weak in his own strength he was strong in the strength of Christ. God’s Life comes forth from our death. We do not enjoy this process and we must make an effort to keep on delighting ourselves in the Lord no matter what takes place. It is for our good that we change from corruptible life to incorruptible life just as soon as possible.

Indeed, in our hearts we felt the sentence of death. But this happened that we might not rely on ourselves but on God, who raises the dead. (2 Corinthians 1:9—NIV)

How wonderful to have the sentence of death in ourselves that we should not rely on ourselves for any aspect of our life! We are to rely only on God who raises the dead. This sort of life is greatly to be desired!