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365 Days with Philpot

April 16

Christus’ opstanding

Vandaag

3 min. read

That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection.
Philippians 3:10

Intimate communion with the Lord Jesus as the risen Head is what all the cleansed and justified saints of God strive after, according to the measure of grace and of the life and power of God in their souls. Alas, that communion is often interrupted and disturbed by the sin that is in us. But the principle is there, for that principle is life, and life is the privilege, the possession and the mark of the children of God. You need no one to assure you that Jesus is risen from the dead, if He manifests Himself to your soul. You need no proof that you are a sheep, if you have heard and known His voice. Then you can say, “Jesus is risen, for I have seen Him; Jesus is risen, for I have heard Him; Jesus is risen, for I live upon Him.”

Communion with Jesus is the very essence of religion, and without it religion is but an empty name. If without Him we can do nothing, if He is our life, our risen Covenant Head, our Advocate with the Father, our Bridegroom, our Friend, our Brother, how else can we draw sap out of His fulness, as the branch from the vine, or know Him personally and experimentally in any of His glorious characters, than by continual communion with Him at His throne of grace? Indeed, the great difference between the living and the dead, between the true child of God and the mere professor, is this: the one is really united to a risen Jesus and has communion with Him, while the other is content with a form of godliness.

Every quickened soul reaches out after the power of God, after communion with heaven, after peace and pardon, after blessings of mercy and grace. And when it has seen Christ by faith and received a revelation of His Person and work, nothing afterwards can really satisfy it but inward, spiritual fellowship with Jesus, whereby the Lord and it become one: “But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit” (1 Corinthians 6:17).

Reading: 1 Corinthians 6:12-20

To the reader…

Here you are given a simple test, when you ask yourself whether you are really a child of God. You need no one to assure you that Jesus is risen, if He has manifested Himself to your soul. You need no other proof that you are a sheep, if you have heard and known His voice. Then you may say, “Jesus is risen, for I have seen Him; He lives, for I live upon Him.”

But perhaps you complain that your communion with Him is so often interrupted by the sin that dwells in you. That is the complaint of all the saints. Yet the principle of life is there, and that life can be satisfied with nothing but Him. Stay, then, at His throne of grace, as the branch draws sap from the vine. For he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit with Him.

With warm regards,
The compilers of jcphilpot.nl