Are You Occupied with Yourself or with Christ?
Dearly beloved of God, God sent His Son to accomplish what we could never accomplish ourselves. He alone is the Savior. We should be thinking about what he did, and who God says we are in him, not ourselves.
God, Who is rich in mercy, for His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in sins, made us alive together with Christ, (by grace are you saved;) and He raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly realm in Christ Jesus so that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in kindness to us in Christ Jesus. See Ephesians 2.
For by grace are you saved through believing (See Romans 10:9-17), and that salvation is not of ourselves, it is the gift of God. He provided the Lamb of God who was given for our salvation, and He received the sacrifice on our behalf. Our salvation is not of our works so that no one should boast.
Dearly beloved, we are God’s workmanship. He created spirit life in us when we confessed Jesus as Lord, and believed that God raised him from the dead. He created us in Christ Jesus on the basis of his good works, not ours. Now it is Christ in you, the hope of glory!
If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old things passed away. Behold, new things have come, and all of the new things are from God, Who reconciled us to Himself through Christ.
God created one new man in Christ Jesus, and we are completely filled in him with all that he accomplished. Furthermore, the Father freely gives us all things with His Son. Oh rejoice!
Dearly beloved, philosophy says: “Know thyself.” God says we are to know His wisdom and prudence concerning Jesus Christ the Lord, and his accomplishments.
God our Father wants our hearts comforted, being knit together in love, even unto all riches of the complete certainty of understanding, unto the knowledge of the mystery of God concerning Christ, in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.
God does not want us mired down in the past, in our sins, or in our shortcomings. He wants us filled with the knowledge of the good pleasure of will toward us concerning Christ.
We have a new identity. We are children of God, and members of the body of Christ, filled with all that the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished in each and every one of the members. God our Father blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realm! He freely gives us all things with His Son.
Why would we want to waste our life focusing on our flesh when we could be focusing on the revelation knowledge He has given us concerning Christ? The “all spiritual blessings” are ours in Christ, not in anything we have done or not done. As the head of the body, Christ fills all the members with all these spiritual blessings.
God our Father wants us to know the administration of the grace of God and the untraceable riches of Christ to the Gentiles. He wants us to understand His multifarious wisdom in accordance with the purpose of the ages, which He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord so that we can understand His purpose in him.
If we could have accomplished what Jesus Christ accomplished there would have been no need for a Savior, but we could not.
II Corinthians 1:21,22
21 Now He who established us with you in Christ, and has anointed us, is God;
22 who hath also sealed us, and given us the earnest of the spirit in our hearts [as a guarantee].
God did this in Christ. God wants us to be occupied with Christ and what he accomplished; we are complete in him who is head of all principality and power, and we are sealed for everlasting life.
The flesh will always direct our thoughts inward; to ourselves and some form of soul-searching, whether it concerns our walks, our failures, our shortcomings, our experiences, etc..
God our Father directs us to know the Lord Jesus Christ and what he accomplished. He wants us to believe the measure He has revealed for our believing concerning Christ, and who we are in him. This knowledge will make you free, dearly beloved.
If your thoughts are less than kind, check your carnal thoughts at the door, and occupy your thinking with who you are in Christ as God instructs us do. Be transformed by the renewing of your mind to who you are in Christ, dearly beloved of God. Thinking in this manner will cause you to be radiant.