The only things you can expect

OK, I admit it: You can't expect everything from Christ on this side of the Jordan. There is something to this "already and not yet" business. As far as I can tell, the following are the only benefits in Christ that you can reasonably lay hold of in the next few days and weeks and years:

You may "reign in life" (Romans 5:17); "walk in the newness of life" (Romans 6:4); ask for "a spirit of wisdom and revelation" (Ephesians 1:17); experience "being perfected" (Galatians 3:3); expect "faith growing abundantly and love . . . increasing" (2 Thessalonians 1:3); "walk by the Spirit, and . . . not gratify the desires of the flesh" (Galatians 5:16); "overcome the evil one" and be "strong" (1 John 2:14); "keep his commandments" (1 John 2:3); "put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness" (Ephesians 4:24); "be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing" (James 1:4).

Oh, a few more things: You can "be transformed into [Christ's] image from one degree of glory to another" (2 Corinthians 3:18; Romans 12:2); "be filled with all the fullness of God" (Ephesians 3:19); be cleansed "from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion" (2 Corinthians 7:1); "do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us" (Ephesians 3:20); be kept from stumbling and be presented faultless (Jude 24); not let sin reign in your body (Romans 6:12); operate under a new master and power (Romans 6:14); become slaves of righteousness instead of sin (Romans 6:18).

You may or may not have met many people who are living that way and doing these things. When empirical observation and personal experience seem contrary to the Word of God, then you have to ask yourself a stark question: How do 10,000 testimonies of men stack up on the scales against the one testimony of God. The Lord has an answer to that challenge:

"Let God be true though every man a liar" (Romans 3:4).

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