[Some] teachers tell us that we must live in the light of the resurrection. All God's power is being made available to us and we need to appropriate resurrection power. But in the New Testament it is the cross, rather than the resurrection, that is the model for Christian living. Jesus said that if we were not prepared to take up our cross daily, we could not be his disciples )Luke 9:23). The cross speaks of death, not resurrection power. Paul writes like that about his own life and ministry: we always carry around in our bodies the death of Jesus, he says (2 Corinthians 4:10). When he goes on to speak of the life of Jesus being revealed, he says 'death is working in us but life in you.' Again, he says of himself 'even to the present hour we both hunger and thirst and we are poorly clothed' (1 Corinthians 4:11). The evidence of resurrection power in the life of the believer, according to Paul in Philippians, is that we share in his sufferings (Philippians 3:10).Perhaps I may illustrate from my own life in a way that every Christian should understand. There have been two major miracles in my life: the first is the one that plucked me from sin and washed my clean, took me out of the Kingdom of darkness and placed me in the kingdom of God's own dear So. the second miracle is the one that has kept me, and keeps on keeping me, there! For the Christian life is not always easy, and my own flesh reacts against its discipline; and yet, by grace, here I am. And you too; if you are a Christian, you have known the same two miracles.
There is, of course, more to come. But it is 'not yet'. There are things which we cannot have now not because we do not have enough faith, but because God reserves them for the life to come.
(from my 'Why, Lord?', page 69, published by Day One)
