Christ Our Guarantee In Meeting Our Needs
By Senior Pastor Prince Guneratnam
And my God will meet
all our needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus – Philippians
4:19.
One of god’s names, “Jehovah Jireh”, revealed by God Himself
to Abraham (Gen
As believers we enjoy certain privileges just being “in
Christ Jesus”.
Christ Jesus – Our
When God says He will “meet all our needs according to his
glorious riches in Christ Jesus”, He means we need to come into a relationship
with Him. We need to have fellowship with Him. “In Christ Jesus” indicates our
position in Him, that is, our union with Christ. This union opens the way for
our needs to be met.
The Vine and the
Branches
This union is very clearly illustrated by Jesus in John
15:5-8 when He showed the relationship between the vine and the branches: “I am
the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will
bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not remain in
me, he is like a branch which is thrown away and withers; such branches are
picked up, thrown into a fire and burned. If you remain with me and my words
remain in you, ask what ever you wish, and it will be given to you. This is to
my Father’s glory that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my
disciples.”
The only way for the branches to grow and to bear fruit is
to abide in the vine. As long as we abide in and have fellowship with Jesus,
our union will bring the blessings of God into our lives. This union is
possible because of the finish work of Jesus Christ on the cross. We cannot do
anything to bring about this union. Jesus goes on to say in John 15:13-14, 16
that “greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his
friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. You did not choose me,
but I chose you and appointed you to go bear fruit that will last.” The
Christian life is a union with the person Jesus Christ. This union is made
possible by God because of His love for you.
Our
This union with Jesus is a gift from God. God links Himself
with us through Jesus. Gifts cannot be earned. Nothing we do can merit God’s
blessings. The apostle Paul tells us the reason – “so that no one may boast
before him. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become
for us wisdom from God – that is, our righteousness, holiness and redemption.
Therefore, as it is written: “Let him boast in the Lord” 1 Cor 1:29-31.
“Praise be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who
has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.
For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and
blameless in his sight. To the praises of his glorious grace, which he has
freely given to us in the One he loves. In him we have redemption through his
blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God’s grace” –
Eph. 1:3, 4, 6, 7.
Our righteousness is established by Christ who indwells us
by His Spirit. We are therefore in Christ Jesus and this enables God to meet
all our needs. On the cross, Jesus has done the work to establish this union and
this union “we live and move and have our being… we are his offspring” Acts
We cannot make ourselves worthy enough for God. We can only
be made worthy through God’s grace in Christ Jesus. This then brings us into an
inheritance.
In Christ Jesus – Our
Inheritance
When we repent of our sins and accept Jesus as our personal
Saviour, we are born into the
When we are united with Christ, we have an inheritance. Our
inheritance makes it possible for God to help us live right: “His divine power
has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of
him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through this he has given us
his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate
in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil
desires” II Peter 1:3,4. In Christ, God has made everything available to us so
that we may be able to live godly lives.
There are only two unions – in Christ or in Adam. It is one
or the other. If we choose to live in Christ, we are assured of God’s divine
enablement but if we choose to live
otherwise it will lead to death: “For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will
be made alive” 1 Cor 15:22.
In Adam we die. What does this mean? “As for you, you are
dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you use to live when you
followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the
spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived
among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and
following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by mature objects of
wrath” Eph 2:1-3.
We were living after the way of the world – under the wrath
of God till God Himself pulled us out from our state of alienation from God. We
cannot become better to get to God so He came down to save us and after having
done that to equip us with every possible means to live victoriously as a
Christian.
Our relationship and union with Christ also gives us a right
to enjoy the privileges that come with our union with Him.
Our privileges as Christians are based upon our union with
Christ. It is in this union that all our needs can be met. Jesus Himself
stressed its importance when He prayed for us to live in this union
continually. He said: “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those
who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one,
Father, just as you are in me and I am with you. May they also be in us so that
the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given the glory that you
gave me, that they may be one as we are one. I in them and you in me. May they
be brought in complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have
loved them even as you have loved me” John
Jesus prayed that we might be one in Him because He knows
that we can have the correct perspective of ourselves and the things around us
when we are united in Him. This unity makes us sons of God who can rightly
inherit all the blessings that are in Him.
However, for us to enjoy our privileges as the sons of God
we need to obey God. Jesus set forth this condition in John 15:10 when he said:
“If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love just as I have obeyed my
Father’s commands and remain in my love.” Obedience is the key to our full
enjoyment of these privileges. In other words, our disobedience to His word can
deprive us of these privileges. Then, we need to repent of our sins so that the
relationship can be restored.
When we have come into a personal relationship with Christ
and obey Him, we have the assurance of God’s help, provision and
privileges. Our guarantee that all our
needs will be met is only in Christ. God delights to meet all our needs
according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus.
(All verses quoted in
the above text are in the New International Version)
Issue 28 July – August 1994