Partnership With Christ
by Dr. J. Vernon McGee

God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord. (1 Corinthians 1:9)

The word that is important here in connection with the Lord Jesus Christ is "fellowship." The word is the Greek koinonia, and it is used by Paul again and again. It can mean a partnership, and I believe that is the way it is used here in this verse. This is without doubt one of the greatest privileges that is given to us. If you are in Christ, if you have come to Him and accepted Him as your Savior, then you are in partnership with Christ. He is willing to be our partner. Therefore this means an intimate relationship to Christ.

What does it mean, then, to be in partnership with the Lord Jesus? For one thing, it means that in business you own things together with Him. Everything that I own belongs to Jesus Christ. It belongs to Him as much as it does to me. Therefore, He is interested in what I own.

The marriage partnership means different things. It means having mutual interests. I'm in that kind of partnership with the Lord Jesus, too. Christ is interested in me and I am interested in Him. That carries it to a pretty high plane, you see. Also, we have a mutual devotion. His resources are mine, and mine are His. He doesn't get very much, but He owns me. I have presented my body to Him. Now that answers quite a few questions for me about where I can go and what I can do. Do you see that our decisions are made on a higher plane than simply "Dare I do this?" or "Ought I do that?" We belong to Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ belongs to us.

Also in the love partnership there is a mutual service. God accommodates Himself to our weakness. I need His gentleness, and I accept His power. A verse of Scripture which deals with this is a verse that I believe has been mistranslated. This was called to my attention by G. Campbell Morgan. The verse is Isaiah 63:9: "In all their affliction he was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them: in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; and he bare them, and carried them all the days of old." It sounds as if in our weakness He becomes weak. The better translation puts it in the negative: "In all affliction he was not afflicted." That is a lot more meaningful to me. It means that when I stumble and fall, He does not stumble and fall. He accommodates Himself to my stumbling, my blindness, my ignorance, my weakness. Although He accommodates Himself to that, He does not become weak at all. I have made many blunders, and I have stumbled and I have fallen. Many times I have done it deliberately. Yet my Lord never let me down. He was always there. He accommodated Himself to my weakness. How wonderful that is, friend! The partnership of Jesus Christ is the solution to the problems of life.

--from Edited Messages on 1 Corinthians by Dr. J. Vernon McGee

Friday, February 01, 2008