Book Summary
The words ‘joy’ and ‘mind’ are the words which summarize this book. Jesus is our joy and this joy is grained more and more into our lives as our minds our renewed into His image day by day. We know we are walking in the spirit if tasks of life are done in a rejoicing attitude. The joy in which we live out life is our strength because the joy is sourced in God, – “the joy of the Lord is your strength. (Nehemiah 8:10)In the midst of trials joy can be given from the Lord in the same way that in the middle of a hurricane there is stillness.
Now our minds are being renewed into the mind of Christ, a mind that was obedient to death on a cross and this same mind is what gives us direction, is what gives us obedience. It is the grace of God which imparts obedience to us, His commandments become ennablements when Christ imparts His life to us. Jesus fulfilled the law, we can’t , therefore it is His life of obedience which He wants to live through us – “do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves who you obey, whether of sin leading to death or of obedience leading to righteousness?” (Romans 6:16)
Philippians 3:10 tells us about a life which is consecrated to Christ, that is a life which wants to know the fellowship of His sufferings, in those sufferings you can rejoice because you have been counted worthy!