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NASB | Matthew 28:18 And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Matthew 28:18 Jesus came up and said to them, "All authority (all power of absolute rule) in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. |
Subject: How do you "share the Gospel?" |
Bible Note: I prefer this by Watchman Nee: God will not give me humility or patience or holiness or love as separate gifts of His grace. He is not a retailer dispensing grace to us in doses, measuring out some patience to the impatient, some love to the unloving, some meekness to the proud, in quantities that we take and work on as kind of capital. He has given only one gift to meet all our need .. His Son Christ Jesus, and as I look to Him to live out His life in me, He will be humble and patient and loving and everything else I need -- in my stead. Remember the word in the first Epistle of John: "God gave unto us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath the life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not the life" [1 John 5:11,12]. The life of God is not given us as a separate item; the life of God is given us in the Son. It is "eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord" [Rom. 6:23]. Our relationship to the Son is our relationship to the life. It is a blessed thing to discover the difference between Christian graces and Christ; to know the difference between meekness and Christ, between patience and Christ, between love and Christ. Remember again what is said in 1 Corinthians 1:30: "Christ Jesus ... was made unto us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption." The common conception of sanctification is that every item of the life should be holy; but that is not holiness, it is the fruit of holiness. Holiness is Christ. It is the Lord Jesus being made over to us to be that. So you can put in anything there: love, humility, power, self-control. Today there is a call for patience: He is our patience! Tomorrow the call may be for purity: He is our purity! He is the answer to every need. That is why Paul speaks of "the fruit of the Spirit" as one [Gal. 5:22] and not of "fruits" as separate items. God has given us His Holy Spirit, and when love is needed the fruit of the Spirit is love; when joy is needed the fruit of the Spirit is joy. It is always true. It does not matter what your personal deficiency, or whether it is a hundred and one different things, God has one sufficient answer .. His Son Jesus Christ, and He is the answer to every human need. |