Enduring for Christ

“If we endure, we shall also reign with Him.”

This is part two of the four trustworthy sayings or I would call four difficult sayings. The first part of this verse is “if we endure.” Now at first glance that seems to be an English if then statement.  It also appears that our salvation is conditional. It appears that God’s love and salvation are conditional. We know from Scripture that is not the case. So what does this tiny little two letter English word mean in this passage.  It is important to figure this out. Many bad doctrines, cults, and heresies   come from not correctly interpreting the Bible.  Scripture interprets Scripture.

We know we did in fact die with Christ the moment we asked Him to save us. We know in fact that we live with Him currently and we will in the next life.  So these four difficult sayings seem to be facts. So you could look at this verse like this: since we endure, we shall also reign with Him.  Endurance is part of the Christian life. We all have to endure.  Jesus said take up your cross and follow Me.

How are some of the ways Christians endure? Believe it or not we endure every day. We tolerate Satan’s onslaught against us. We tolerate our own sin nature pushing us to do wrong.  Yes we still sin yes we fail. The difference now is there is an eternal struggle.  We follow the difficult path.  If you try to live for Christ you are going to be given a hard time.  You will struggle. Satan and his forces will come after you.

The positive side of this verse it the “we shall reign with Him.” The first part of the verse describes what happens to us now while we are on earth. The second part describes what will happen when we get to heaven.  One day all those who are in Christ will rule with Him. During the millennium we will be rulers with Christ. We will help in watching over His kingdom.  What a great God we have. For our mortal struggle we get eternal rewards.


How are you enduring today? Are you living for Christ? Are you trying to do His will?

Living with Christ

“we shall live with Him.”

The first part of this verse talks about is death with Christ. Romans chapter six gives a fuller description of this process if you want to read it. The second part of this verse states the opposite. When we die with Christ we live with Him. That is the process. What does this mean?

Accepting Christ as your savior gives you spiritual life. Spiritual life gives you the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit came into your heart the moment you were saved. Spiritual life means you no longer have to worry about dying physically. You know where you are going after your physical body passes away. Spiritual life also means that one day your physical corrupted body will be reunited with your soul and changed to an uncorrupted body.

Spiritual life means living with Christ eternally. Forever and ever you will live with Christ. If you read Romans chapter one you will read that humans have a God shaped hole in them. Humans need God. This is part of being made in God’s Image. Now they may find other ways to fill that hole and cloud God out but there is still that internal yearning for God.

The real tragedy with not accepting Christ as your Savior is that you will be eternally separated from God. Right now the unsaved still enjoy some of the benefits of the presence of God. In the afterlife the unsaved will no longer have those. How sad it will be to be eternally separated from what you were created for. This is not what God wants but it is your choice.

Below is an old hymn written by T. O. Chisholm I thought was appropriate for this:

1.      Living for Jesus a life that is true;

        striving to please him in all that I do,

        yielding allegiance, gladhearted and free,

        this is the pathway of blessing for me.

Refrain:

        O Jesus, Lord and Savior,

        I give myself to thee;

        for thou, in thy atonement,

        didst give thyself for me;

        I own no other master,

        my heart shall be thy throne,

        My life I give, henceforth to live,

        O Christ for thee alone.

2.      Living for Jesus who died in my place,

        bearing on Calvary my sin and disgrace,

        such love constrains me to answer his call,

        follow his leading and give him my all.

        (Refrain)

3.      Living for Jesus wherever I am,

        doing each duty in his holy hame,

        willing to suffer affliction or loss,

        deeming each trial a part of my cross.

        (Refrain)

4.      Living for Jesus through earth's little while,

        my dearest treasure, the light of his smile,

        seeking the lost ones he died to redeem,

        bringing the weary to find rest in him.

Dying with Christ 2 Timothy 2.11

“For if we died with Him, we shall live with Him.”

This verse eleven of chapter two contains four faithful sayings as the passage says or you could say four trustworthy statements. This verse explains what will happen when you come to Christ and decide to be real Christian. This first part describes what happens to you spiritually the moment you come to know Christ. This is not an allegory.

You died the moment you accept Christ. You became dead to sin. Sin’s power no longer has an eternal bearing on you. Jesus paid for your sins so you did not have to pay for them yourself. When God the Father looks at us He sees us through Christ’s blood. We were once dead in our sins but through Christ we are dead to sin.

A big fancy word for that is positional sanctification. It means that no matter what you do your place is still held by God. Does that mean we have a license to sin? Of course not! When we sin God will punish us. He will convict us of sin. If we continue in sin the consequences will become greater. Hebrews 12.6 says that whom the Lord loves he chastens.

If you truly believed one way to prove it is to live in sin and see God come after you. This would be called progressive sanctification. It means like a roller coaster ride your Christian walk will have ups and downs. It will not be the sweet by and by as they say. If you live in sin and God is not punishing you perhaps you need to reconsider your salvation. God does not want us to be a slave to sin. No matter how much sin may appear to be freedom it is not.

We are created in His image. There is a part of every person that longs to follow God’s ways. We are built that way. The sad part is we are so taken over by our sin nature we reject the things of God. We become like a petulant child where nothing is good enough.

The Father does not want us to live this way. He loved us so much He sent His Son to die for us.