Steadfast - Part 1

 

1 Corinthians 15:58 “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.”

The nouns in this verse are brethren, work, the Lord, ye, and labor. The descriptors are steadfast, abounding, not in vain, and in the Lord. The verbs are be steadfast, be unmovable, be abounding, and know. The context of this verse is in verses 55: “O death where is thy sting, O grave where is thy victory, the sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law.” Stinging pain and the cattle-prods that prick us when we stray from God’s narrow way, help keep us in the way of the Lord Jesus Christ.

We have been born-again of God’s Spirit through confessing Jesus Christ is Lord. He is the sacrifice for sin on our behalf and salvation is by confession that Jesus is our Lord and Master, and by believing that God has raised Him from the dead (Romans 10:9-10). When we exercise the gift of Holy Spirit that God gave us. When we plant and water of the seed of the Word of God and allow our minds to be renewed in righteousness and true holiness, then God will produce His “fruit of the Spirit” within us. The fruit of the Spirit is the yield from the crop that God produces in us when we are faithful to walk in the Spirit. Galatians 5:22 says, “the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith meekness and temperance; against such there is no law.” Colossians 2:6-7 says, “Therefore as ye have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him. Rooted and built up in Him as you have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.” Good roots produce good fruit.

Watchman Knee said that the nature of the flesh that we inherited from Adam cannot be reformed. It has to be crucified. It has to be put to death. According to Galatians 2:20, “For I was crucified with Christ, nevertheless I life, yet not I but Christ lives in me and the life that I now live, I live by faith in the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me.” Romans 8:2 says, “For the law of the spirit of life in Christ has made me free from the law of sin and death.” Therefore, reckon the Old Man (of the flesh) dead. As Paul said, in my flesh dwells no good thing. We who were dead in trespasses and sins, He has made alive because of the price Jesus Christ paid on our behalf that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.  

To live to Christ is to die to self. To confess Jesus is Lord means that I’m no longer lord over my own life … He is. Christians are the people of God. The grammatical construction of the phrase “Of God” is the “genitive of possession”. Christianity is not who we are but WHOSE we are. For we are not our own. We were bought with a price and our life is hid with Christ in God. He redeemed us and saved us for the purpose He intended; that we should be holy and acceptable before him in love and that we would live to the praise of the glory of His Grace in the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace.

Steadfast in Christ, Michael