Week 15—Saturday 1 Corinthians 15:51-55
Week 15—SATURDAY
THE FLESH MADE BY JESUS IS MADE FOR HIM
We are in a position to gather up on this last day of the week our conclusions regarding the working from Revelation down—the Christian approach—and from the facts up—the scientific.
The Christian approach from Revelation, from Christ down, reveals the nature of God and the nature of God’s purposes for us—God is Christlike, and intends that we be Christlike in character. “It does not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3:2). That “is the Way.” But God’s way is also written in our physical nature and in lower nature. We see the outcroppings of God’s purposes there. And it is the same—to serve as Jesus served and to give his life a ransom. The principle of atonement is in lower nature.
So “the creation waits with eager longing [literally, “on tiptoe”] for the revealing of the sons of God . . . because the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the glorious liberty of the children of God” (Rom. 8:19, 21). So it, too, is coming out at the feet of Christ.
So when Jesus became “the Word became flesh,” he was not coming to an alien element, the flesh, he was coming to his own—“He entered his own realm” (John 1:11, NEB)—the flesh, the material, was “his own realm.” It was made by him and for him. It works well in his way and badly in some other way. Just as he purified all foods, “making all foods clean,” so he purified our ideas about the material. It is not an alien element, to be hated and rejected and fought. It is something to be accepted and dedicated to the purposes of God. This makes the Christian faith at home in the world. It is its field of operation. The natural order is a preparito evangelica—a preparation for the gospel. The flesh is made for the gospel as soil and seed. They are affinities.
O Lord Jesus Christ, we thank you that your gospel is not an alien importation—it is inherent. And when we come to you we come to our own, come to that for which we are made, our Homeland. We thank you for the blessed at-homeness in you. Amen.
AFFIRMATION FOR THE DAY: My flesh and I are partners in a common service to God.