Gabe Fluhrer

So that the in-breaking of the age to come by the descent of the Holy Spirit after the ascension of Christ into this present evil age means that, as one author put it, there's many resurrections going on inside of us every day.

So if the bad news—first of all, bad news is that you're a sinner—

And that you have no hope of salvation apart from Jesus.

But what we would take in being very comfortable, well-fed, modern people, bad news of suffering.

We never want to talk about suffering.

Love our comfort, love our ease, guilty as charged.

Bad news about that, here's the good news.

And it's all good news in this sense.

That as we follow Jesus in the pathway of suffering, he begins to raise us up.

He begins that mysterious, life-giving work of renewal by the power of the Spirit in each one of our lives.

So that as we live in the outer world,

Outer man age, we begin to experience true life as those who still must die unless Jesus returns, who still face the mundane frustrations and unspectacular difficulties of daily life, who still engage in cross bearing, that in the midst of bearing the cross, the crown is always before us.

That even though we might live in a Good Friday reality, Easter Sunday is happening every day in our lives.

That's what Paul is saying.

That's why he didn't lose heart.

Have you ever noticed that in Paul?

Have you ever noticed that he never prays for his circumstances to change?

Never.

I'm in prison, he says.

I don't care.