“Afterward that which is spiritual” (I. Cor. xv. 46).
God has often to bring us not only into the place of suffering, and the
bed of sickness and pain, but also into the place where our righteousness
breaks down and our character falls to pieces, in order to humble us in
the dust and show us the need of entire crucifixion to all our natural
life. Then, at the feet of Jesus we are ready to receive Him, to abide in
Him and depend upon Him alone, and draw all our life and strength each
moment from Him, our Living Head.
It was thus that Peter was saved by his very fall, and had to die to Peter
that he might live more perfectly to Christ.
Have we thus died, and have we thus renounced the strength of our own
self-confidence?
We begin life with the natural, next we come into the spiritual; but then,
when we have truly received the kingdom of God and His righteousness, the
natural is added to the spiritual, and we are able to receive the gifts of
His providence and the blessings of life without becoming centered in them
or allowing them to separate us from Him.