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This is volume two in a three volume series
Believed to be in the Public Domain
Vol. I. The Person and Work of Christ
Vol. II. The Relation Between Christ and the Christian
Vol. III. The Believer's Response to the
Holy Spirit's Inworking
Life On the Highest Plane
Volume Two
The Relation Between Christ and the Christian
Life On the Highest Plane
A Study of the Spiritual Nature and Needs of Man
By RUTH PAXSON
Volume II
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CONTENTS, VOLUME II
I. Grace Triumphant over Sin - 7
II. Christ Our Saviour--The Bridge Crossed - 11
III. Christ Our Head--A New Creation Formed - 36
IV. Christ Our Lord--A New Sovereign in a New Sphere - 61
V. Christ Our Life--A Perfect Oneness Effected - 91
VI. Christ Our Sanctification--A People for His Possession and Use - 101
VII. Christ Our Captain and Conqueror--Conflict and Conquest - 135
VIII. Life on the Highest Plane - 156
IX. Carnal or Spiritual - 185
X. The Christian's Choice--Self or Christ? - 217
BIBLIOGRAPHY - 245
DIAGRAMS: Facing Page (omitted in this file)
VIII. Receiving Christ the Saviour - 25
IX. Rejecting Christ the Saviour - 35
X. A New Creation - 48
XI. Changed Relationships - 113
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I. GRACE TRIUMPHANT OVER SIN
THE most triumphant words ever spoken were those which fell from
the lips of the Lord Jesus Christ when on the Cross He said, "It is
finished." It was the divine proclamation that grace had triumphed
over sin. It was God's pronouncement to the world that all that had
been lost both to Him and to man through the first Adam had been
regained through the last Adam.
Rom. 5:20, "But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound."
Rom. 5:12, 15, "By one man sin entered into the world." "Much
more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man,
Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many."
The Challenge of Grace--In Adam or In Christ
So far in our studies we have considered God's dealings with the
human race representatively through two men, the first and the last
Adam. Through the federal headship of the first Adam God established a
union with the whole human race in creation. All that Adam was in
creation God intended all mankind latent in him to be.
But Adam sinned and thereby received a sinful nature, becoming a
sinner both in desire and in deed. He came
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into bondage to sin, self and Satan. He became a subject in the
kingdom of Satan and entered into the sphere of death, darkness and
disorder. He became "flesh" and descended to life on the plane of the
natural. There was upon him a sinner's guilt, over him a sinner's
condemnation, and before him a sinner's doom.
Through his federal headship Adam bequeathed to the human race
latent in him all that became his in the fall. He became the
progenitor of a race "begat in his own likeness, after his image"
(Gen. 5:3). His posterity inherited his sinful nature and shared in
the consequences of his sin. Every man by physical birth is "In Adam."
In Adam's creation God had established a union with the human
race on the basis of personal communion and governmental cooperation.
In Adam's fall that union was broken and mankind was alienated from
God. Sin put an impassable chasm between a righteous, holy God and
guilty, sinful men.
But as God dealt representatively with the human race in the
first Adam so did He also in the last Adam. What was ruined in the
fall of the first man God redeemed in the victory of the second Man.
The loss that both God and the race sustained by the sinful act of the
first Adam was recovered by the righteous act of the last Adam. The
union that was broken through His first man God reestablished through
His second Man. The impassable chasm made by the first Adam's sin was
bridged by the last Adam's sacrifice.
On the Cross of Calvary Christ Jesus, the divine-human
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Mediator, took the sinner's place and became the sinner's Substitute.
The sinner's guilt was borne, the sinner's condemnation was removed,
and the sinner's doom was met, by the Sin-bearer. Adam's sin was put
away and all of its consequences were borne by God's Son.
Through His federal Headship Christ made potential for all
sinners all that became His through the victory of His death and
resurrection. As all men have been united to the first Adam in
creation and in the fall, so all men may be united to the last Adam in
grace through faith. As all men are "In Adam" so all men may be
"In Christ."
Through the death, resurrection, ascension and exaltation of the
Lord Jesus Christ mankind was potentially redeemed and God
reestablished a relationship with the race "by grace through faith" so
that all men may come out of bondage to sin, self and Satan into the
glorious liberty of the children of God and into the bounteous
inheritance of the heirs of God. "In Christ" all men may now find a
way of escape from the sphere of death, darkness and disorder and an
abundant entrance into the sphere of life, light and liberty and they
may be delivered from the kingdom of Satan and translated into the
Kingdom of God's dear Son. "In Christ" all men may now leave the plane
of the natural and rise to the plane of the spiritual. Every man by
spiritual birth may be "In Christ."
God deals representatively with the whole human race in these two
federal headships. It may be said,
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that judicially God has relation to but two men in all the universe,
Adam, the first and Adam, the last.
Rom. 5:18, 19, R.V., "So then as through one trespass the
judgment came unto all men to condemnation; even so through one act of
righteousness the free gift came unto all men to justification of
life. For as through the one man's disobedience the many were made
sinners, even so through the obedience of the one shall the many be
made righteous."
But through these two men God has a personal relationship with
every individual on earth because every person is now either "In Adam"
or "In Christ," either still is alienated from God through sin or is
accepted by God through His Son.
Sin entered, abounded, and reigned (Rom. 5:12, 20, 21); on
Calvary's Cross grace entered and did much more abound and now reigns
wherever God's gift is accepted by faith.
Rom. 5:21, "That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might
grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ
our Lord."
And now every living person is challenged by grace to come out of
the life of sin, to leave the life "In Adam" for the life "In Christ."
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II. CHRIST OUR SAVIOUR
The Bridge Crossed
IN this book we are writing, as it were, the spiritual biography
of man. Our story encompasses his life in creation, in the fall, in
grace, and in glory. We have seen what God meant him to be in
creation, what he became in the fall, and what God has done for him
through grace. We have now come to the most crucial point in his whole
history. A choice must be made that will give direction to all that
lies beyond both for time and for eternity. It is a decision that
determines destiny. Will the natural man remain on the plane of the
natural or will he choose to live on the plane of the spiritual? Will
he receive or refuse God's gift through grace? Will he cling to his
sin or lay hold upon God's Son? The Inevitable Choice--Your Sin or
God's Son.
God's first gift to man is that of a Saviour because this is
man's primary need. It was God's love for sinners that led Him to give
His Son to die for us (Rom. 5:8). Christ was born into this world a
Saviour.
Luke 2:11, "For unto you is born this day in the city of David, a
Saviour, which is Christ the Lord."
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It was Christ's love for sinners that brought Him from Heaven to
earth. By His own testimony He came to seek and to save the lost.
1 Tim. 1:15, "This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all
acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners: of
whom I am chief."
Luke 19:10, "For the Son of Man came to seek and to save that
which was lost."
"'Man of Sorrows,' what a name,
For the Son of God, who came
Ruined sinners to reclaim,
Hallelujah! What a Saviour!"
Christ crucified is the sinner's only way back to God. He is the
sinner's only door of access into the presence of God and God's only
door of access into the heart of the sinner.
John 14:6, "Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and
the life; no man cometh unto the Father but by me."
John 10:9, "I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be
saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture."
The initial relationship of the natural man to God must be that
of a sinner penitently acknowledging his sin and accepting God's
gracious gift of a Saviour. The sinner must come to God through the
crucified Christ, or he cannot come to God at all.
This is an exceedingly humiliating position for the
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natural man to take, it knocks the underpinning from beneath his
entire life for it strikes at the very root of his self-will,
self-love, self-trust and self-exaltation. By it he is compelled to
acknowledge that he has made an utter failure, that he is wholly
incapable of living his own life in his own strength, but more than
that, that he is absolutely unfit to live in the presence of One who
is righteous and holy. It brings him altogether to the end of himself,
to the foot of the Cross to acknowledge his sinful, helpless, hopeless
condition, and to look up in simple faith to the Crucified Saviour,
who alone can lift him to a higher plane of life.
Many sinners in the world today will not go thus far. They will
acknowledge their lack of light and their need of a teacher; they will
confess they do not know the right way of life and need a leader; they
will admit the low level of their standards and their need of an
example; but they will not acknowledge that they are out-and-out
sinners needing a Saviour. They simply place themselves outside the
class for which Christ died. But the Lord of Glory did not leave the
bosom of His Father and the joy of Heaven for the suffering and sorrow
of earth and the shame and scourging of Calvary's Cross merely to
receive the patronizing admiration of men and to help them to live a
somewhat more intelligent, respectable, useful life as sinners on the
plane of the natural man. He came only because men were lost and must
be found: because they were sinners and must be saved. He came not to
call the righteous but sinners to repentance.
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Through Christ, as Saviour, God has provided the only way back to
Himself that He deems effectual: He has opened the only door from
earth into Heaven. Through His Son, as Saviour, God has made salvation
from sin a potential gift to all sinners so that since Christ died and
rose again all men everywhere are shut in to an inevitable choice--the
choice between their sin and His Son. "Neither is there salvation in
any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men,
whereby we must be saved."
Since the shedding of the precious blood of His only begotten Son
on the Cross of Calvary, God the Father sees every person on earth
either with or without a Saviour.
The Gracious Invitation
God not only provided a Saviour for every sinner but He has
through the Gospel sent forth an invitation to those "of every tongue,
and people, and nation" to accept His gift, to partake of His feast,
to inherit His riches, to share the blessings of His heavenly home.
His infinite grace, His tender love, His compassionate mercy, have
made room for all. He declares that none are too good to come, for if
they are, the salvation provided for them in Christ is useless, and
that none are too bad for salvation would thereby be proved
ineffectual. Not one who has put his trust in the shed blood of the
Saviour, however long he has lived in sin or however deep into it he
has sunk or however crimson is its stain upon his life, will be turned
away from the Father's heart or home. To the weary and heavy laden; to
the hungry, thirsty and poor; to the wandering
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and the wayward; the loving Father says, "Come unto me."
Matt. 11:28, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy
laden, and I will give you rest."
Isa. 55:1, "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters,
and he that hath no money; come ye, buy and eat, yea, come, buy wine and
milk without money and without price."
John 7:37, "In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus
stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and
drink."
John 6:37, "All that the Father giveth me shall come to me: and
him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out."
Dear reader, are you still among the number who have not accepted
God's gracious invitation to come unto Him? Are you troubled,
perplexed, anxious, restless? Christ says, "Come unto me, for in me ye
may have peace."
Are you unhappy, discontented, and dissatisfied, and is your
heart devoid of joy? Christ says, "Come unto me, my joy shall remain
in you that your joy may be full."
Does life seem intolerable to you because of its burdens, its
sufferings, its tribulations? Christ says, "Come unto me, in the world
ye shall have tribulation but I have overcome the world."
Are you discouraged by the repeated temptation at the same
vulnerable spot which you are utterly powerless
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to resist? Christ says, "Come unto me, and in me ye shall be more than
conquerors."
Is your heart filled with an insatiable hunger which no one and
no thing has ever been able to satisfy? Christ says, "I am the bread
of life, he that cometh to me shall never hunger."
Is your soul parched with a thirst that you have tried to quench
in a thousand ways and have failed? Christ says, "If any man thirst,
let him come unto me and drink."
Is your path strewn with disappointments, afflictions, trials,
and does the road ahead seem to be dense darkness? Christ says, "I am
the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in
darkness, but shall have the light of life."
Are you terrified at the sin stains on your soul and doubt if
ever they can be removed? Then the Saviour says, "Only come unto me,
though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they
be red like crimson, they shall be as wool."
Do you really wish to be free from sin, to end the despotic rule
of self, and to sever your partnership with Satan? You may come out of
this threefold bondage into the glorious liberty and the bounteous
inheritance of a son and heir of God if you will avail yourself of
God's gracious invitation. Christ Jesus is able to save you to the
uttermost of your sin and to satisfy you to the uttermost of your
need. The first step out of the natural into the spiritual is such a
very simple one that even a little child may take it for it is just
the choice of God's Son instead of your sin;
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it is the personal acceptance of God's wondrous gift of a Saviour.
"Out of my bondage, sorrow and night,
Jesus, I come, Jesus, I come;
Into Thy freedom, gladness, and light
Jesus, I come to Thee.
Out of my sickness into Thy health,
Out of my want and into Thy wealth,
Out of my sin and into Thyself,
Jesus, I come to Thee."
The Response of Faith--The Bridge Crossed
Man has had nothing whatever to do with the building of the
bridge of salvation. That was God's work and His alone. God furnished
both the material and the workmanship by which this wondrous bridge
was builded. "By grace are ye saved."
Titus 2:11, "For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath
appeared to all men."
2 Tim. 1:9, "Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy
calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose
and grace which was given us in Christ before the world began."
But God leaves it to the sinner to decide whether he will cross
this bridge or not. What God's grace has provided man's faith must
possess. The salvation made potential by grace God expects to be made
experimental by faith. Salvation is not something to be purchased or
earned or gained through merit of any kind, for salvation is a gift
and a gift is received. Salvation is for all
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men but only those who believe and receive are saved. "By grace are ye
saved through faith."
1 Tim. 4:10, "For therefore we both labour and suffer reproach,
because we trust in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men,
specially of those that believe."
Eph. 2:8, 9, "For by grace are ye saved through faith: and that
not of yourselves, it is the gift of God: ... lest any man should boast."
While man has had nothing to do with the building of the bridge
yet he has everything to do with regard to the use of it for he
decides whether or not he will cross it. Have you crossed this bridge?
Has God's gracious invitation met with a glad response on your part?
I must press the question home for it is one that will have to be
answered either here and now, or yonder at the great white throne. No
decision you will ever be called upon to make can begin to compare
with this one in importance because upon it hangs your happiness and
usefulness in this life and your destiny in the life to come.
Perhaps among the readers of this book are some earnest enquirers
who are saying in their hearts, "But what does crossing the bridge
involve?" and "What must I do to be saved?" Let us together now
consider these questions in turn.
Crossing the bridge means a decisive break with all that pertains
to the old creation in the old sphere. If, then, one decides to become
a Christian, his first step will be to turn his back on sin, and turn
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his face toward Christ his Saviour. In that first step he will
renounce his sin and receive God's Son. The first step out of the life
on the plane of the natural into life on the plane of the spiritual
involves a twofold reversal in the sinner's relationship to God which
the Bible calls repentance and faith.
Acts 20:21, "Testifying both to the Jews, and also to the Greeks,
repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ."
Acts 26:18, "To open their eyes and to turn them from darkness to
light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive
forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified
by faith that is in me."
1 Thess. 1:9, "For they themselves shew of us what manner of
entering in we had unto you, and how ye turned to God from idols to
serve the living and true God."
The Cross of the Lord Jesus Christ is the place at which this
decisive break with the old life is made. It is the birthplace of real
repentance and true faith.
In the parables of the Kingdom, (Matt. 13:1-52) Christ likened
the Kingdom of Heaven unto a field in which there were both wheat and
tares, and unto a net in which were both good and bad fish. He states
that no attempt will be made to separate them until the harvest time
at the end of the age. False professors and true possessors are in the
visible Church today and will continue'to be until Christ comes again.
The false professor has never genuinely repented, for let us
remind ourselves that repentance means a change of mind, a complete
reversal of attitude toward God and consequently
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a change of mind toward all that is opposed to God. There is much in
Christian experience today that is called repentance which is sheer
camouflage. It is not genuine abhorrence and loathing of sin as
something hateful and heinous in the sight of God, but is selfish and
sinful regret in having sin exposed or in having to suffer its
punishment. It is not a real turn about face but it is a pretence at
looking Godward while walking sinward. A repentance that makes one a
possessor of God's gift through grace is born of a consciousness of
sin that deepens into conviction and compels one to cry out in honesty
of heart, "What must I do to be saved?"
Such a repentance has its birth at the Cross of Christ. Gazing
upon the spotless, sinless, Son of God crucified upon a criminal's
cross, bearing the sin of the world with all its stain; drinking the
cup of suffering even to its bitter dregs; enduring the penalty and
punishment of sin even unto death; the sinner comes to a realization
of the sinfulness of sin. With the light of God's holiness and the
warmth of God's love streaming into his own soul the sinner has his
first real revulsion toward sin. Repentance which is "not only a heart
broken for sin but from sin" follows. To see sin as God sees it in the
light of the Cross is to have the taste for it and the delight in it
taken away.
Neither has the false professor ever truly believed for let us
remember that to believe is to receive a Person into the life to
possess and to control it as His own. There is much in Christian
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experience today that is called faith which is not faith at all.
Sometimes one is deceived into thinking emotional feeling is faith.
The emotions are played upon by sentimental appeals and a superficial
response is made. But the seed sown has not taken root so a change of
feeling results in a casting away of faith. That is sometimes called
faith which is merely the assent of the mind to the great historical
facts regarding Jesus Christ but is wholly divorced from any intention
of accepting Him as Saviour, yielding to Him as Lord, and
appropriating Him as Life. But, a faith that makes one a possessor of
God's gift through grace is born of a consciousness of helplessness
and hopelessness that compels the sinner to cry out in sincere longing
of heart, "God, be merciful to me a sinner."
Such a faith has its birth at the Cross of Christ. The Holy
Spirit having brought the sinner to acknowledge his own helpless and
hopeless condition then fixes his gaze upon the all-sufficient
Saviour. He points him to the One who bore his sins in His own body on
the tree; to the Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world
which included his sin. He reveals Christ Jesus as the One who tasted
death for him and enables him to say, "He loved me and gave Himself
for me." He assures the sinner now burdened by the guilt and pollution
of his sins that there is forgiveness and cleansing for him in the
blood of the slain Lamb. Then He leads him to put his trust in Jesus
Christ as his own personal Saviour and by an act of his will to
receive Him into his life as such. Having considered what is involved
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in a genuine crossing of God's bridge of salvation let us now turn to
the other question, "What must I do to be saved?" God's Word gives an abundant answer to this question.
John 20:31, "But these are written, that ye might believe that
Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have
life through his name."
Acts 16:30-31, "And brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I
do to be saved? And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and
thou shalt be saved, and thy house."
John 1:12, "But as many as received him, to them gave he power to
become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name."
God wishes the poor, the unfortunate, the illiterate, the young
and the untalented to come to Him and to have the blessings of
salvation, as well as the rich, the favoured, the learned, the aged,
and the gifted. He has made the way of salvation so simple that all
may walk in it and nobody need be excluded because of any lack in
himself. Salvation is all wrapped up in a Saviour who is a gift of God
to be received upon the one condition of faith. "Whosoever believeth
on him shall not be ashamed."
While faith is very simple yet it is a very comprehensive thing
and involves in its operation the mind, the heart, and the will. Faith
includes belief which is the assent of the mind to the things written
in God's Word concerning the Saviour. We believe that He is the
Christ, the Son of God, who died for our sins. Faith includes
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trust, which is the consent of the heart to the gracious work of
Christ. We not only believe the things which the Word teaches about
Christ, the Saviour, but we believe on Him. We put our trust and our
dependence upon Him alone for our salvation. But faith also includes
appropriation which is the decision of the will to receive Christ
Jesus. Faith enables me first to perceive Christ as the Saviour of all
men and then to receive Him as my own personal Saviour. Faith leads me
to believe that "God so loved the world that whosoever believeth in
him should not perish" and then leads me to receive "Him who loved me
and gave himself for me."
We see, then, that salvation is far more than mere assent to the
doctrinal truth of the Bible for one could believe every word in the
Book and still not be saved. It is also far more than mere church
membership for one could perform every ordinance and ceremony the
Church requires and still not be saved. Salvation centers not in a
doctrine nor in an ordinance but in a Person and he only is saved who
has put his trust in Christ as Saviour to the point of receiving Him
into his whole being as the Saviour from his sins.
Such salvation is typified for us in the redemption of the
children of Israel from their awful bondage to Pharaoh and their
deliverance from the terrible judgment of death in Egypt. Because of
Pharaoh's rebellion toward God the first-born in all the land were to
be smitten with death. God gave definite instructions to the children
of Israel through Moses as to what they were to do to avert this
terrible sentence of death upon their
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households. They were told to take a lamb without blemish, slay it,
and put the blood upon the two side posts and on the upper door post
of the house. As God passed through the land of Egypt at midnight He
would pass over every house upon which He saw the blood and into that
home the plague of death would not come. "When I see the blood I will
pass over you." The only thing that saved the first-born in any
household on that memorable night was the blood of the lamb on the
door post.
Since God's dear Son laid down His life in death on Calvary's
Cross the sinner's only shelter from the wrath of God is under the
cover of His precious blood. God has told us that we are "redeemed
with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and
without spot" and asks us to take by faith the blood of Christ to
cover all our sins. As He looks upon each of us today He sees us
either with or without that covering.
Matt. 26:28, "For this is my blood of the new testament, which is
shed for many for the remission of sins."
1 Pet. 1:18, 19, "Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed
with corruptible things, as silver and gold, from your vain
conversation received by tradition from your fathers; But with the
precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without
spot."
The Cross of Christ is the only place where God and the sinner
can meet and the Lamb of God is the bond of union. The sinner looks up
and trusts in the shed blood of the
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Saviour. God looks down and says "I see the blood and will pass over
you." Faith has responded to grace and the Saviour and the sinner are
made one at the Cross.
My friend, whoever and wherever you are, have you crossed God's
bridge of salvation? Have you responded to the unsearchable riches of
God's grace as manifested in Christ, through faith? Have you believed
on Him and received Him into your life as your own personal Saviour?
Are you resting safe and secure today under the sheltering cover of
the blood of the Lamb of God? If not, will you not lay this book down
and right now look up in faith to Him?
"I take, O Cross, thy shadow,
For my abiding place;
I ask no other sunshine
Than the sunshine of Thy face,
Content to let the world go by,
To know no shame nor loss.
My sinful self my only shame,
My glory all the Cross."
(Diagram VIII. omitted)
The First-Fruits of Faith
The inheritance into which the believer enters as a son and heir
of God is a very rich and beautiful one and includes every spiritual
blessing in Christ. But the blessing primarily coveted is relief from
the burden of sins, the sense of forgiveness, the assurance of pardon.
The circumstances of conversion vary greatly and people come to God in
vastly diverse ways. Some are born of Christian parents and are
nurtured in an atmosphere surcharged
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with the love and worship of God. The name of Jesus is on the lips
almost as soon as the name of "Father" or "Mother." Sometimes one
cannot tell when that personal choice of Jesus Christ as Saviour was
made for love to Him seems always to have been in the heart. With
others the new birth has meant a decided and definite break in the
life. Not all have the keen realization of the awful sinfulness of sin
nor does the guilt and condemnation of it rest on them as a terrible
burden as it did upon Pilgrim in Bunyan's classic story, but to almost
every one there is the bondage to some besetting sin from which he seeks
release. So the first blessing of which the sinner is conscious and
the one in which he primarily rejoices is the forgiveness of sins.
Eph. 1:7, "In whom we have redemption through his blood, the
forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace."
The moment the sinner acknowledges his sin and turns in real
faith to Christ as Saviour, that very moment God grants perfect and
permanent pardon for all his sins: his past is blotted out and he will
not be judged for sin that his Saviour has borne to the Cross. But
lack of assurance regarding forgiveness is a very common thing even in
the lives of some who have been Christians for years. Because of
ignorance of God's Word when perchance one falls again into some
besetting sin, doubt comes into the heart and robs it of the joy of
salvation. In order that the believer may rest in the conscious
assurance of full acquittal God unfolds
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in His Word the completeness of forgiveness. Are you resting today in
the assurance of sins forgiven? If not, may God speak to you in these
precious statements of His Word and enable you to claim each for
yourself.
Isa. 38:17, "Behold, for peace I had great bitterness; but thou
hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption, for
thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back."
All my sins behind God's back! Out of God's sight! Never to be
seen again! O! the comfort of knowing that the sins God has forgiven
He will never see again!
Ps. 103:12, "As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he
removed our transgressions from us."
All of my sins put the distance of the world's circumference from
me! Out of my sight as well as out of the sight of God! While in China
I received a cable telling of the death of a dearly loved sister in
America. During the weeks that followed in which I waited for a letter
giving further particulars of her death, I realized how far the east
is from the west and there came a new, sweet experience of the
assurance of my salvation in these precious words, "As far--So far."
O! the comfort of knowing that the sins which God has forgiven I shall
never see again!
Micah 7:19, "He will turn again, he will have compassion on us;
he will subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all their sins into
the depths of the sea."
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All my sins cast into the depths of the sea! Not only out of
sight but out of reach! A few years ago the steamship Titanic built at
a cost of millions of dollars and carrying a cargo valued at many
millions more went to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. So far as I
know no attempt has ever been made to bring either the Titanic or her
cargo from the depths of the sea. O! the comfort of knowing that the
sins forgiven by God are out of reach, pardoned for time and for
eternity!
Isa. 44:22, "I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy
transgressions, and as a thick cloud thy sins."
Heb. 8:12, "For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness and
their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more."
All my sins blotted out and forgotten! Not only out of God's
sight and out of God's reach, but out of God's memory! But in the
unsearchable riches of His grace God has blotted out my sins so
completely that there is not a trace of them left to remind Him that
once they were. O! the comfort of knowing that the sins which God has
forgiven He has also forgotten!
But the forgiveness of sins is but half, and that the negative
half, of the first-fruits of faith. Merely removing the penalty for
and the punishment of sins does not undo all the work of sin. For the
natural man is not only a sinner: he is a rebel and an outlaw as well.
He needs not only to be redeemed but to be reinstated to favour with
God. A criminal may be pardoned and released from prison but he
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returns to the community in which he lives as a pardoned criminal. No
human judge has the power to reinstate him into society as one who
never sinned. What man cannot do God can. Justification is the
positive half of the first-fruits of faith.
Acts 13:38-39, "Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren,
that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins.
And by him all that believe are justified from all things, from which
ye could not be justified by the law of Moses."
2 Cor. 5:21, R.V., "Him who knew no sin he made to be sin on our
behalf; that we might become the righteousness of God in him."
Christ, our Saviour, not only pardoned our sin but He gave us the
standing before the Father of one who had never sinned. The only way
in which He could do this was to exchange places with us. He took our
place upon the Cross becoming sin for us that we might take His place
before the Father becoming righteousness in Him. His death was one act
with a double blessing. The negative side was forgiveness which took
something from us, the penalty of our sins; the positive side was
justification which gave something to us, the righteousness of God.
The death of Jesus Christ accomplished a twofold work in the believer:
it unclothed him by removing the filthy rags of sin and it clothed him
by bestowing the pure garments of His perfect righteousness. "For he
hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin," here Christ Jesus is
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saying to His Father, "Put their sins to my account." "That we might
be made the righteousness of God in him," here Christ Jesus is saying
to His Father, "Put my righteousness to their account." Through His
death upon the Cross Jesus Christ not only took us out of the old
standing in Adam but He brought us into a new standing in Christ. The
grace of God provides for justification, the blood of Jesus Christ
procures it, and the faith of the believer possesses it.
Rom. 3:24, "Being justified freely by his grace through the
redemption that is in Christ Jesus."
Rom. 5:9, "Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we
shall be saved from wrath through him."
Rom. 5:1, "Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with
God through our Lord Jesus Christ."
Through justification certain definite and glorious blessings are
secured to the believer. Chief among these is peace with God.
Resistance and rebellion through self-will have ceased and the heart
rests in the assurance of God's favour.
Rom. 5:1, "Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with
God through our Lord Jesus Christ."
All distance between God and the sinner is obliterated. All
barriers are torn down. The believer is made nigh to God's heart
through the blood of Christ.
Eph. 2:13, "But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off
are made nigh by the blood of Christ."
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"O the love that sought me,
O the blood that bought me,
O the grace that brought me to the fold!"
The Great Refusal
Jesus Christ spoke some very sad and solemn words during His
earthly ministry but among the saddest and the most solemn are these:
John 5:40, "And ye will not come to me that ye might have life."
These words were spoken to men who professed to believe and to
love the Scriptures and who even searched them in the hope of securing
eternal life. The very Scriptures that they searched pointed
everywhere to Jesus Christ as the Author and Giver of life, yet Him
they stubbornly and persistently refused and rejected. To Him they
would not come acknowledging themselves sinners needing Him as their
Saviour. These men were guilty of the great refusal. They rejected
God's Son as their Saviour. The cause of their refusal was self-will.
Please note Christ said "ye will not come to me." Their rejection of
Jesus Christ was not due to inability but to unwillingness. They could
come but they would not. Note too that all Christ asked them to do was
to come to Him that He might give them that which they needed more
than they needed anything else.
Their decision determined their destiny. God left it with them to
make the choice between their sin and His Son but having made it He
determined what the result of that choice should be.
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John 8:24, "I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your
sins: for if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins."
John 8:21, "Then said Jesus again unto them, I go my way, and ye
shall seek me, and shall die in your sins: whither I go, ye cannot
come."
To refuse grace is to invite judgment. To retain a sinner's guilt
is to receive a sinner's doom. If the natural man chooses to live and
to die on the natural man's plane then he must expect the natural
man's destiny.
The Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ has been preached all over
the world yet millions upon millions of those who have heard it are
living as though Christ had not died, as though God had not taken up
the sin question and settled it in such a way as to provide salvation
for all men. Throughout the world today are multitudes who are guilty
of the great refusal, who are choosing to remain in their sins rather
than accept God's Son as their Saviour.
Out of this number are some who apparently have no concern
whatever over their souls. Their minds and hearts are set upon the
pursuits and pleasures of this life as though there were no God to
reckon with and no life beyond this to prepare for. There are others
who through self-righteousness and self-exaltation refuse God's way of
the Cross. It is an offense unto them. They indulge in very shallow
and superficial sentiments about the love of God which they think too
great to ever condemn any one to separation from
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Him forgetting altogether that the love of God spent itself on that
very Cross. Up to the Cross God has infinite love for the sinner but
if in self-exaltation he passes it by and rejects the Saviour, then on
the other side that very love is wrath. There are others who say they
want to believe but cannot. Unbelief is never due to inability. It may
be due to unwillingness. Thomas was an honest doubter and said, "I
will not believe except I shall see." God gave him to see and he
believed. It may be due to ignorance of what faith is and requires.
The all-important thing in faith is not its measure but its object.
Christ Himself stated this when He said "Come unto me." Any one can
come.
There are countless sins of which every sinner is guilty but
there is one above all others for which God is today condemning him
and holding him accountable and that is the sin of refusing Jesus
Christ as his Saviour. Wrapped up in that sin are all the others. That
is the sin of sins. It is upon that sin the Holy Spirit puts all the
pressure of conviction to bring a soul to God. This is His initial
work in the sinner.
John 3:18, "He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he
that believeth not is condemned already; because he hath not believed
in the name of the only begotten Son of God."
John 16:8-9, "And when he (the Comforter) is come, he will
reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment; of
sin, because they believe not on me."
God gives clear and unmistakable warnings to those
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who are facing the inevitable choice between their sin and His Son.
The great refusal means death.
Rom. 6:23, "For the wages of sin is death: but the gift of God is
eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."
The great refusal means the wrath of God abiding upon the
unbeliever.
John 3:36, "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life:
and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of
God abideth on him."
The great refusal means the judgment of the great white throne.
Rev. 20:12, "And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before
God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is
the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which
were written in the books, according to their works."
The great refusal leads to eternal separation from the presence
of God.
2 Thess. 1:8-9, "In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that
know not God and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ:
Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence
of the Lord, and from the glory of his power."
God invites you to receive Christ into your life as Saviour
today. To drift is to refuse; to ignore is to
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refuse; to postpone is to refuse; to face the claim of Christ and to
turn silently away is to refuse. The rich young ruler refused and is
never mentioned again. A young official in China faced the claim and
call of Christ one night but he said, "Tomorrow, wait until tomorrow."
He refused. That night he was assassinated.
2 Cor. 6:2, "Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the
day of salvation."
Heb. 3:15, "While it is said, Today if ye will hear his voice,
harden not your hearts, as in the provocation."
Prov. 27:1, "Boast not thyself of tomorrow; for thou knowest not
what a day may bring forth."
Isa. 55:6, "Seek ye the Lord while he may be found; call ye upon
him while he is near."
"Choose ye this day whom ye will serve." The Cross of the Lord
Jesus Christ is the Great Divide. On which side of it are you today?
The choice is inevitable--your sin or God's Son. (Diagram IX. omitted)
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III. CHRIST OUR HEAD
A New Creation Formed
CROSSING God's bridge of salvation begins with the believer's
justification but it does not end there for justification in its
twofold aspect deals largely with our past and carries us only over
the border-line into the new sphere. It gives us a new standing
before God, but it does not equip us to live in a state becoming our
standing. It paves the way for us into the presence of a holy God but
it cannot make us holy. It opens the door for the establishment of the
new order in Christ but it needs regeneration to furnish the
certificate for membership in that order. Justification and
regeneration are simultaneous in experience.
The Risen Christ--Head of a New Order
In Christ crucified God made an end of the old creation and all
that pertained to it; in Christ risen, He made the beginning of a new
creation. Through His resurrection Christ Jesus became the Head of a
new order of beings, who are to be as heavenly and holy, as pure and
as perfect as He is; the Progenitor of a new race of redeemed men
whose ultimate glory through grace is to be complete conformity to His
image.
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Rom. 8:29, "For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to
be conformed to the image of his son, that he might be the first-born
among many brethren."
But life in the new order requires a wholly new equipment which
Scripture clearly describes.
The Implantation of a New Life
The first necessity for fellowship with the living God is life;
the first requirement for union with the divine Head is divine life;
to live in the sphere of the Spirit one must have spiritual life. To
belong to the new order one must have the same kind of life as the
Head of the order.
But the natural man is "without Christ" therefore he is without
"life." By nature every sinner in Adam whether rich or poor, literate
or illiterate, moral or immoral, religious or irreligious, is
spiritually dead. Every child born into this world, whatever his
parentage or position in society, enters it entirely destitute of the
divine life of God.
The primary need, then, for membership in the new order, for
citizenship in the new kingdom, for sonship in the new family, is life
that fits one for his new relationships and environment. To be related
to God either as a son in His family or as a subject in His Kingdom
necessitates the possession of His eternal, divine, spiritual life.
But how would a dead man become possessed of this life? The answer to
this all important question our Lord Himself gives in His conversation
with Nicodemus recorded in the third chapter of John's Gospel.
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Nicodemus was a man of the Pharisees. So great was his fear of
his co-religionists, yet so insistent was his desire for something the
Lord Jesus possessed, that he came to Him under cover of the night. As
a ruler of the Jews also he occupied an influential position yet
despite his religious privileges his heart was unsatisfied and craved
something which Phariseeism was unable to give him. Without question
Nicodemus came to the Lord Jesus driven by a deep sense of need. What
then did he come for? The answer to this question is important in the
light of what Christ Jesus gave him; it may also help some reader to
interpret his own greatest need and to understand the right method of
approach to the One who alone is able to meet it. We are not told
directly why he came but John 3:2 suggests a clue.
Nicodemus was himself a teacher but perhaps he recognized in
Jesus' teaching an authority and attractiveness which was lacking in
his own. He was a great religious leader yet he had no such
miracle-working power as had Jesus. He was a ruler of the Jews and
Jesus was only a humble itinerant preacher yet God was not with him as
He was with Jesus. Did Nicodemus come seeking light upon the secret of
such wisdom and power which possibly even for unselfish reasons he
craved to possess? Did he come as a teacher to a greater teacher
merely to be taught? As a leader to a greater leader simply to be led?
Was the deepest need he felt in his life the need of light? Had he who
professed to be the physician of others' soulsickness failed to
diagnose correctly his own? If so, there
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are many in similar positions today who have made the same mistake.
The conversation that follows shows that the Great Physician
instantly went to the seat of Nicodemus' trouble. He who "knew what
was in man" diagnosed his case aright and saw a much deeper and more
imperative need than that of which Nicodemus himself was yet
conscious. Nicodemus came for light but he needed life: and the light
he wanted could only come out of the life he needed.
John 1:4, "In him was life; and the lije was the light of men."
Nicodemus wanted divine wisdom and spiritual power, these are the
fruit of divine, spiritual life. Nicodemus came to Him who said, "I am
the light of the world" to receive light but he had not come to Him
who said, "I am the life" to receive life. Nicodemus came only as a
teacher to a teacher to be taught. The Lord Jesus saw that he needed
to come as a sinner to a Saviour to be saved. So in His reply He met
not the desire but the need of Nicodemus. He went to the core, He
touched the quick of his need.
John 3:3, "Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I
say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom
of God."
The proof that the Lord was right in His diagnosis and that
Nicodemus was devoid of the life of God is plainly seen in his utter
lack of spiritual apprehension of the Master's
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words. He had not the faintest idea of the meaning of the words "born
again" as his perplexed question to Jesus revealed.
John 3:4, "Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when
he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother's womb and be
born?"
What could Nicodemus have thought a man could gain through a
second physical birth that he had not received through the first? What
additional inheritance could be given him through the same parents in
a second birth? The very question he asked revealed his need of light,
but of spiritual light that is the product of spiritual life.
Nicodemus was blind because he was dead. The thing which Nicodemus did
not know, but which Christ did know, was that he was still in the
sphere of death, outside the Kingdom and family of God, and living on
the plane of the natural man.
Consequently Nicodemus did not know that no thing which he had
through the flesh could be put to his account in the realm of the
spirit; that the position, possessions and privileges, upon which he
prided himself in the sphere of the natural, were as counterfeit coins
in the sphere of the spiritual. Nicodemus did not apprehend that no
thing which he could have received through a thousand physical births
could make him eligible to citizenship in the Kingdom of God or to
sonship in the family of God.
The whole purpose of Jesus' conversation was to
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show Nicodemus that he was an alien and that citizenship in the
Kingdom of God required naturalization through regeneration. Is it any
wonder that the perplexed cry came from his heart, "How can these
things be?" For was he not a Jew by birth, therefore was he not born
into the Kingdom of God? Had he not scrupulously and punctiliously
observed every ordinance and ceremony and fulfilled every religious
duty, therefore had he not earned his way into the Kingdom of God by
good works? Was he not a man of the Pharisees, yea even a ruler of the
Jews, therefore was he not eligible to citizenship in the Kingdom of
God by his religion? Nicodemus was all that he claimed to be by birth,
by good works, and by religion, yet Jesus told him that none of these
things in themselves or all of them put together would serve as
naturalization papers in the Kingdom of God. One thing was absolutely
essential in a Kingdom that was built upon the supernatural, and that
one thing was supernatural life. Without this no one, whatever his
parentage, privileges or position, could qualify for entrance.
Seeing the perplexity of Nicodemus' mind, yet understanding the
hunger of his heart, Jesus repeated and amplified His words on the
absolute necessity of the new birth.
John 3:5, 7, "Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee,
except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into
the kingdom of God. ... Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be
born again."
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Is it possible that some reader of these pages is, like
Nicodemus, trusting to his godly parentage, his good works, his
exemplary morality, his inherited religion, for entrance into the
Kingdom of God? If so, will you not heed the words which Jesus spoke
to Nicodemus for He is speaking them to you as well?
The absolute necessity of the new birth as a requirement for
entrance into the Kingdom of God could not have been expressed in more
emphatic words, than the Lord uses here. If you will trace His
conversations in the Gospels you will notice that He never employs the
use of the words "Verily, verily," except when teaching something of
paramount importance. In John 3:5, 7, He uses three very emphatic
words, "except," "cannot," and "must." The Lord of the Kingdom is
declaring the first and fundamental requirement of life in the Kingdom
when He says "Ye"--no matter who you are--"must be born again." There
are absolutely no exceptions to this law of the spiritual realm.
If any one could have hoped for exemption from this requirement
Nicodemus would have been that man. Yet his high moral character, his
clean, upright life, his orthodox religious creed, his influential
social position, his membership in the Sanhedrin, his faithful
performance of religious duties, and his acknowledgment of Jesus as a
great teacher and a good man, were insufficient to gain an entrance
for him into the Kingdom of God. Jesus Christ, who looks at men from
the viewpoint of heavenly standards, told Nicodemus that even he could
not see, much less enter, the heavenly
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Kingdom except this divine miracle of the new birth was wrought in his
spirit.
The Impartation of a New Nature
Jesus has expressed to Nicodemus the imperativeness and the
inflexibility of the necessity of a new birth for the implantation of
the new life. But has Jesus made an arbitrary, perhaps even an
unreasonable demand, or has He only stated a law of the spiritual
Kingdom, which admittedly is as reasonable as the law which governs
the physical kingdom?
In the physical realm we recognize two laws which operate
everywhere and always; physical life is the result of physical birth,
and the thing that is born partakes of the nature of that which gave
it birth. Like begets like. Natural begets natural. Jesus told
Nicodemus that the same kind of a law prevails in the spiritual realm;
the spiritual life is the result of spiritual birth and that that
which is born of God partakes of the nature of God. Like begets like.
Divine begets divine.
John 3:6, 7, "That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that
which is born of the Spirit is spirit. ... Ye must be born again."
In these verses Jesus has stated with intentional conciseness and
clarity four profound truths:
(1) There are two distinct spheres in which men live.
(2) Entrance to each sphere is by birth.
(3) Flesh begets flesh and Spirit begets spirit.
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(4) Any one who wishes to pass out of the sphere of the flesh into
the sphere of the Spirit can do so only by a second birth.
Nicodemus coveted for himself something which Jesus possessed.
That which Nicodemus coveted was a spiritual thing. It belonged only
to those living in the spiritual sphere; it could be bestowed only
upon those who possessed a spiritual nature. But Nicodemus was living
in the sphere of the flesh. He was no doubt living up to the best that
he knew in that sphere; in fact he came to Jesus for more light on how
to live a still better and more useful life in that same sphere. Was
it not a reasonable and even laudable desire and should it not be
granted?
Again Jesus goes to the very heart of the difficulty and shows
the utter impossibility of making the flesh spiritual. "That which is
born of the flesh is flesh" and it can never be anything else. It may
be educated flesh, cultured flesh, travelled flesh, moral flesh, yes,
even religious flesh, but it is still flesh.
Even God makes no attempt to make the flesh anything but flesh.
He tells us why in His Word.
Rom. 8:7, 8, R.V., "Because the mind of the flesh is enmity
against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed
can it be. And they that are in the flesh cannot please God."
The flesh is God-hating and God-defying. It is irreconcilably
hostile to God. Because the flesh is what it is it is unchangeable and
unimprovable. So God makes no attempt
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either to repair the ruin or to reconcile the enmity of the old,
corrupt, defiled, rebellious, lawless nature. Even when outwardly
clothed in the beautiful garments of geniality, amiability,
kindliness, generosity, courtesy and gentleness, it is still at heart
God-hating and God-defying. "They that are in the flesh cannot please
God."
How then could God permit one to enter His family as a son, or
His Kingdom as a citizen, who had only the old nature of the flesh?
How could one obey the laws of a spiritual Kingdom with only a fleshly
nature? How could a corrupt, defiled nature that loved sin and hated
holiness ever make a man holy? Upon what would God have to build to
conform the natural man into the image of His Son? Or what enjoyment
would Heaven offer to an unregenerate soul? If on earth those living
in the flesh find no pleasure in the companionship and converse of
those living in the Spirit surely this would be even more true in
Heaven. The pursuits and pleasures, the desires and the deeds of the
natural man, are the exact antitheses of those of the spiritual man.
If Nicodemus were to possess and enjoy the spiritual thing for which
his heart hungered he must have a spiritual nature.
"That which is born of the flesh is flesh." The old, fleshly
nature equips one to live in the sphere of the flesh but nowhere else.
So Jesus held out to Nicodemus no hope of his heart's desire and need
being met and satisfied through any change either sudden or gradual in
his old nature. Jesus makes no proposal to reinvigorate or reinforce
the old nature by the addition of spiritual
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gifts and graces or by the subtraction of evil tendencies and
practices. Jesus will not put a new piece on an old garment. Jesus
shows unmistakably that "there is no process, even of divine alchemy,
by which the base metal of the flesh can be transformed into the fine
gold of the Spirit." The flesh cannot be improved, changed or utilized
by God. There is nothing in it which God can accept.
What then does God purpose to do to equip a repentant, believing
sinner for membership in the new order of heavenly holy men? He
purposes to endow him with a new nature that fits him for citizenship
in His Kingdom and for sonship in His family. He purposes to bestow
upon him His own divine nature which will fructify in a supernatural
life. To live the life of God one must have the nature of God,
therefore through the new birth God plants His own seed in the spirit
of man to abide there.
2 Pet. 1:4, "Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and
precious promises; that by these ye might become partakers of the
divine [quality of] nature, having escaped the corruption that is in
the world through lust."
1 John 3:9, R.V., "Whosoever is begotten of God doeth no sin,
because his seed abideth in him; and he cannot sin, because he is
begotten of God."
The believer in Christ Jesus becomes the possessor of something
which he never possessed before--the [qualitative] nature of God
Himself. The eternal life of the uncreated God is implanted in the
innermost part of his human personality
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and his whole being throbs with the divine energy of a new life. The
new birth is the impartation of a new intellectual, emotional,
volitional nature which produces in man a totally new life and fits
him to live in a totally new sphere.
In the light of the Lord Jesus' conversation with Nicodemus it is
a self-evident fact that God cannot accept any substitute for the new
birth. Reformation cannot be substituted for regeneration. If God
makes no attempt to reform "the old man" surely He cannot accept any
fragmentary improvement man might effect. Reformation is purely man's
work; it leaves the flesh flesh, for it is the human trying to
better itself. Reformation may improve the character of the flesh by
the lopping off of certain evil habits but it cannot change flesh into
spirit. Reformation may make a man somewhat more kind, generous,
courteous, but it cannot make him holy, and "without holiness no man shall
see the Lord." Reformation may help a man to better the condition of
his living on the plane of the natural but this does not meet God's
requirement for a totally new life on the plane of the spiritual.
Respectability cannot be substituted for regeneration. Many
people are deluding themselves into thinking that if their character
and conduct conform to the moral standards of the best society that is
a sufficient passport into the companionship of an altogether holy
God. But God's standards are as far above man's as the heavens are
above the earth.
Religion cannot be substituted for regeneration. Nicodemus was an
ardent, active religionist but he was not
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a son of God nor a citizen in the Kingdom of God. Over the doorway to
the Kingdom of God no one will ever see written, "Admittance granted
to those who have been baptized, who have been punctilious in church
attendance, who have partaken of the holy communion, who have read the
Scriptures and prayed, who have given their tithe." In His holy Word
God has already written these solemn and irrevocable words over that
doorway, "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of
God." Jesus Himself, the righteous Judge, bars the gate of Heaven to
the unregenerate. "And there shall in no wise enter into it anything
that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a
lie; but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life" (Rev.
21:27). "Marvel not that I said unto thee, ye must be born again."
(Diagram X. omitted)
The Holy Spirit--The Author of the New Life
But Nicodemus did marvel at what our Lord was saying and could
only reply "How can these things be?" Nicodemus like many others today
had preconceived ideas and prejudices which made it difficult for him
either to understand or to accept the divine simplicity of God's plan
of salvation. "He had to descend from the lofty heights of Rabbinical
learning and traditionary religion and learn the alphabet of the
Gospel in the school of Christ." Then, too, it would be a most
humiliating thing for this prominent leader in religious circles who was
supposed to teach others concerning the Kingdom to admit that he
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himself could not enter the Kingdom except he came as a sinner to a
Saviour confessing his need of a new nature.
But the Lord Jesus takes infinite pains to throw light into the
darkened mind of Nicodemus because He knows that He is dealing with a
hungry soul. So He tells him the "how" of the new birth.
John 3:8, "The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest
the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it
goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit."
John 3:6, "That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that
which is born of the Spirit is spirit."
As in justification so in regeneration God takes the initiative
and does the work. "By grace ye are saved." The spiritual man is born
of the Spirit. The new birth is God's work alone. It is a birth from
above.
1 John 3:9, R.V., "Whosoever is begotten of God doeth no sin,
because his seed abideth in him; and he cannot sin, because he is
begotten of God."
John 1:12-13, "But as many as received him, to them gave he power
to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:
Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of
the will of man, but of God."
"Born"--"not of blood." Regeneration has no connection with
natural descent. Recently I asked a gentleman if he were a Christian.
Instantly he replied, "Certainly, I was born a Christian." I have a
friend who felt quite sure that her first baby was born a
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Christian but now she has come to be more sure that not one of her
seven could have been born Christians. God says distinctly that the
divine, eternal, spiritual life of God is not passed from father to
son but is implanted by God, the Holy Spirit, directly in the spirit
of man. "Salvation does not run in the blood." Eternal life is not an
inheritance from godly parents but it is the gift of God in Christ His
Son.
"Born"--"not of the will of the flesh." Regeneration has no
connection with natural volition. The will of the flesh is hostile to
God and left to itself it would never move Godward. Did not Christ say
to those who opposed Him, "Ye will not come to me that ye might have
life." Self-will would never abdicate in favour of God. But even if it
would choose to do so it is altogether "without strength" (Rom. 5:6).
Good resolutions made when the heart is touched by an emotional
appeal, or the turning over a new leaf on one's birthday, or at the
beginning of the New Year, or the fixed determination to cut one's
self loose from an evil practice, do not constitute regeneration.
Except grace takes the initiative and the Holy Ghost operates on the
will of man he would never desire a new nature or be able to obtain
one. "So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth;
but of God that sheweth mercy" (Rom. 9:16).
"Born"--"not of the will of man." Regeneration has no connection
with natural relationships. God uses the faithful preaching and
teaching of the Word by pastor and Sunday School teacher, the
believing prayer of parents and friends, the earnest exhortation,
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warning and pleading of the personal worker to show another his need
of a Saviour and to teach him the way of salvation, but no effort of
theirs can beget in another the divine, supernatural life of God. No
ordinance or rite, however sacred and holy, administered by priest or
preacher has life-begetting power.
"Born"--"but of God." Regeneration is solely the work of God. It
is patent that no one can give the life of God to another but God
Himself. To become a son of God one must receive the life of God from
God. God, the Holy Spirit, is the sole author of this new life which
He implants by a creative act in the sinner.
Sin's first devastation was wrought in the human spirit. So here
is where the Holy Spirit begins His work in regeneration. In the human
spirit of the believer is implanted the life of God.
Eph. 2:1, "And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses
and sins."
Eph. 2:5, "Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us
together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved:)."
Into this renewed human spirit the Holy Spirit comes to dwell.
Here He will operate to make the implanted life a living reality. So
the believer will be transformed into the image of Christ from glory
to glory.
Eze. 36:26-27, "A new heart also will I give you, and a new
spirit will I put within you; and I will take away the stony heart out
of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will
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put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye
shall keep my judgments, and do them."
1 Cor. 3:16, "Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that
the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?"
In regeneration the Holy Spirit uses both a divine and a human
instrument. The divine instrument is the Word of God.
1 Pet. 1:23, "Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of
incorruptible, by the Word of God, which liveth and abideth forever."
James 1:18, "Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth,
that we should be a kind of first-fruits of his creatures."
To place the Word of God in the hands of those not yet born again
or to unfold its truth to them God uses human instruments.
1 Cor. 4:15, "For though we have ten thousand instructors in
Christ, yet have ye not many fathers; for in Christ Jesus I have
begotten you through the gospel."
Gal. 4:19, "My little children, of whom I travail in birth again
until Christ be formed in you."
The Cross--The Place of Spiritual Birth
The Lord Jesus had told Nicodemus of the necessity, the nature,
and the author of the new birth, but he still said, "How can these
things be?" Was it a personal question? Did Nicodemus want to know how
such a miracle as regeneration could be wrought in himself even though
he might still be unwilling to admit the
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need of it? Whether this be true or not Jesus now used the Scriptures
with which this master in Israel was very familiar to tell him how he
could be born again.
John 3:14-15, "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the
wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; That whosoever
believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."
The Old Testament incident was well known to every Jew. The
Israelites were murmuring against God and Moses. The Lord sent fiery
serpents among the people, they were bitten by them and large numbers
were dying. Moses prayed for their deliverance and the Lord told him
to make a serpent of brass and to put it upon a pole that every one
who was bitten, when he looked upon it, should live.
The serpent of sin has put its deadly poison into every
descendant of Adam. But God lifted up His Son, "made in the likeness
of sinful flesh" to the Cross where He put away sin and all its deadly
effects by the sacrifice of Himself. One believing look at the serpent
meant life to the death-smitten Israelite. One believing look at the
Crucified One means life to the one "dead in trespasses and sins."
"There is life for a look at the Crucified One;
There is life at this moment for thee;
Then, look, sinner, look unto Him, and be saved,
Unto Him who was nailed to the tree."
The Cross of Christ reveals to us the Son of God
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dying as our Saviour. We look to Him in faith and the Holy Spirit
implants in us the life of God and imparts to us the nature of God and
we are born again. The Cross of Jesus Christ is the believer's
spiritual birthplace.
At the Cross of Christ through the new birth the sinner leaves
the family of Satan and becomes a son and an heir in the family of
God. The new birth causes a radical reversal in his filial
relationship.
Gal. 3:26, "For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ
Jesus."
1 John 3:8-10, "He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the
devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was
manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.
Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth
in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. In this the
children of God are manifest, and the children of the devil; whosoever
doeth not righteousness is not of God, neither he that loveth not his
brother."
Rom. 8:16-17, R.V., "The Spirit himself beareth witness with our
spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs;
heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer
with him, that we may be also glorified with him."
At the Cross of Christ through the new birth the rebel, the
alien, the outlaw, becomes a citizen in the Kingdom of God.
Phil. 3:20, R.V., "For our citizenship is in heaven; whence also
we wait for a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ."
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A New Creation Formed
The new birth entitles the believer to membership in the new
order of beings of which the risen Christ is the Head. Through the
implantation of the divine life and the impartation of the divine
[quality of] nature in the believer a completely new entity is formed.
The man in Christ is a new creation.
2 Cor. 5:17, R.V., "Wherefore if any man is in Christ, he is a
new creation; the old things are passed away: behold, they are become new."
Gal. 6:15, "For neither is circumcision anything, nor
uncircumcision, but a new creation."
In this new creation everything must partake of the character of
the new nature which is its fountain-head; therefore the old things
must pass away. Members of the new order have a new ambition which is
to be altogether well-pleasing unto the Lord, its Head (2 Cor. 5:9).
To be like Christ is their supreme ambition. To attain this they are
willing to count all things belonging to the old life but loss.
Phil. 3:7-8, "For what things were gain to me, those I counted
loss for Christ. Yea, doubtless, and I count all things but loss for
the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I
have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that
I may win Christ."
Members of the new order have new affections. The object of their
affections has changed from self to Christ. The
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Holy Spirit has made the Lord Jesus so attractive and so satisfying
that they can say from the heart:
"Thou, O Christ, art all I want,
More than all in Thee I find."
The love of Christ constrains them to live unto God instead of
unto themselves and to love God with all the mind, heart, strength and
soul.
2 Cor. 5:14-15, "For the love of Christ constraineth us; because
we thus judge, that one died for all, therefore all died; And he died
for all, that they that live should no longer live unto themselves,
but unto him who for their sakes died and rose again."
Matt. 22:37, "Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy
God, with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy
mind."
Loving God in this way with every faculty of the whole being
means loving the things He loves and hating the things He hates. The
expulsive power of this new affection removes the old things that
grieve and displease Him; the things which are not to His honour and
glory. The creative power of the new affection produces within us love
for the things He cares for most, His Word, His house, His people, His
day, His Kingdom.
Love for the Father includes love for all His children. The love
of the Head of the new order constrains every member to love all the
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other members. Love for our brothers and sisters in Christ is one
proof of our own rebirth.
1 John 3:14, "We know that we have passed from death unto life
because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth
in death."
The new order demands a new standard of life. Self-exaltation was
the norm of the old life. Sin was less sinful than it really is and
holiness was less holy than it really is.
In this new creation there is a new conception of sin. Things
that before seemed altogether right now seem altogether wrong. Habits,
haunts, practices, pursuits, pleasures, companionships, conversations,
clothes, that were harmonious and suitable in the old sphere seem
wholly out of place in the new. Their presence in the new sphere
spoils its harmony and vitiates its atmosphere. After breathing the
fresh, pure air of the higher altitude the truly born-again one finds
the atmosphere of the natural plane reeking with worldliness,
selfishness and sin, stifling and sickening. The one born of God
cannot go on sinning as he once did: he cannot continue in the
practices which he knows to be contrary to God's will and Word. He has
now a conception of sin which makes him loathe them.
1 John 3:9, "Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for
his seed remaineth in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of
God."
In the new creation there is also a new standard of
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measurement. In the old life the sinner measured himself by himself or
by others like himself. But in the new order the victorious, obedient,
holy life of the incarnate Son becomes the believer's pattern for his
own life on earth and all his living is measured by that perfect
standard.
Christ's unchanging and unchangeable teachings and principles are
now the rule by which he lives and he rejoices in being free from the
despotism of the constantly shifting customs and styles of worldly
society. The new creation in Christ has a new standard of values. Time
becomes an extremely precious thing, the use of which is to be
sacredly guarded and prayerfully made. Money becomes invested with new
meaning and power for consecrated to the Lord and used in His service
it may be the means of saving souls infinitely precious in God's
sight. Men and women, boys and girls, become vastly more than flesh
and blood; they are seen as God sees them, human souls lost in sin,
redeemed by the precious blood of the Son of God, and waiting to be
saved through faith in Him. In all things Christ the Son becomes the
believer's Example.
John 13:14-15, "If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your
feet, ye ought also to wash one another's feet. For I have given you
an example, that ye should do as I have done unto you."
1 Pet. 2:21, "For even hereunto were ye called; because Christ
also suffered for us, leaving us an example that we should follow his
steps."
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But need we continue to enumerate the things made new through the
new birth when God says so plainly that "all things are become new?"
Indeed, they must become so because we have a new Spring from which
all things in our life come. "All things are of God" (2 Cor. 5:18).
The source of all our thoughts, feelings, motives, ambitions,
aspirations, actions, affections, purposes and plans, is God Himself.
The new birth is just the beginning of a new life. "It is a crisis
with view to a process; a rebirth with the prospect of a constant
renewal."
Have you, my friend, been born again? Are you a member of the new
order? Are you a new creation? If not, will you not begin that new
life just now by one believing look at the Crucified One?
But perchance, you have professed to come into the family of God
through faith in Jesus Christ and yet you are discouraged today
because of the countless old things that still persist in the new
life. Is yours the case of new pieces on an old garment?
One day on the streets of Peking I saw an old countryman. He had
on an old, faded, worn out garment. It had been blue once but it was
blue no longer. Right across the front and across the back of his
faded garment were big, bright blue, new patches. On seeing the
innocent old countryman's garment I laughed aloud. I couldn't help it
for it looked so funny. But why did I laugh? The patches were all
right. They were big and new and bright and blue and covered the whole
of his garment, front and back. There was nothing the matter with the
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patches! Then why did I laugh? I will tell you why. Because the
garment and the patches were out of harmony with each other. The
garment was old and faded and worn out; the patches were new and
bright and blue. The garment and the patches did not belong to each
other. I wonder if as God looks down upon us today He sees some
patched Christians! Some professors of Christianity rather than
possessors of Christ! Perhaps you go to church, read your Bible, have
daily prayer, partake of the holy communion, all of which are part of
every genuine Christian life. But in your life are these things like
new patches on an old garment? Are they simply good habits added on to
the old life of sin and self? Are you a patched Christian? A professor
instead of a possessor? Or have the old things passed away and all
things become new because you are in deed and truth a new creation in
Christ?
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IV. CHRIST OUR LORD
A New Sovereign in a New Sphere
CROSSING God's bridge of salvation the believer enters into a
totally new sphere which requires the enthronement of a new Sovereign
over his life. The Head of the new creation must become its Lord if
all things are to become new.
When the risen Christ ascended to Heaven His Father exalted Him
to the place of Lordship over the universe and He included within that
sovereignty the enthronement of Christ as Lord over the individual
believer. To understand better the absolute necessity for such a
change of sovereigns let us study these two spheres more in detail.
The Characteristic Mark of Each Sphere
These two spheres are the exact antitheses of each other so that
life in the one precludes life in the other. They may be readily
distinguished because each has a characteristic mark.
Rom. 8:5, "For they that are after the flesh do mind the things
of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the
Spirit."
Rom. 8:9, "But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so
be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the
Spirit of Christ, he is none of his."
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The characteristic mark of the old sphere is the "flesh" and of
the new the "Spirit." The unbeliever is "in the flesh" and the
believer is "in the Spirit."
The Bible teaches very plainly that "the flesh" and "the Spirit"
are mutually irreconcilable enemies in totally diverse camps.
Rom. 8:6, "For to be carnally minded is death: but to be
spiritually minded is life and peace."
Gal. 5:17, "For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the
Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary the one to the other;
so that ye cannot do the things that ye would."
Man became "flesh" through Adam's sin.
Gen. 6:3, R.V., "And Jehovah said, my spirit shall not strive
with man forever, for in their going astray they are become flesh."
The flesh is the whole natural man, the life of nature, whether
good or bad, received through the first birth. It is the earthward,
sinful life received through human generation. It is all that I am as
a son of Adam.
John 3:6, "That which is born 0} the flesh is flesh; and that
which is born of the Spirit is Spirit."
God invariably describes "the flesh" as the cause of sin's power,
of the law's weakness, and as enmity toward Himself. God declares "the
flesh to be irreconcilably lawless.
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Rom. 7:25, "I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then
with the mind I myself serve the law of God but with the flesh the law
of sin."
Rom. 8:3, "For what the law could not do, in that it was weak
through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful
flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh."
Rom. 8:7, "Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it
is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be."
God sees nothing good in "the flesh." Even the very best product
which physical generation can produce He casts away as altogether
useless.
Rom. 7:18, "For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) dwelleth
NO GOOD THING: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that
which is good I find not."
Paul's estimate of the flesh as given in this verse is
God-inspired as any one must readily admit who knows his former high
regard for himself (Phil. 3:4-6). Through human generation Paul was
indeed richly endowed. Yet inspired by the Holy Spirit he wrote "I
know that in my flesh dwelleth no good thing." When he entered into
the sphere of the Spirit he saw that the finest and best thing in him,
his righteousness, was as "filthy rags" because it, too, was permeated
and defiled by sin--it was self-righteousness. No, God sees no
redeeming feature in any son of Adam. The flesh offers nothing which
is acceptable to God. Indeed the flesh is the soil in which Satan
works to keep the sinner alienated from God.
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So there is but one possible attitude which God can have toward
the flesh. It is the attitude of condemnation and rejection. God
refuses to deal with the flesh on any terms for it is irretrievably
displeasing to Him. "They that are in the flesh cannot please God"
(Rom. 8:8).
Regeneration opens the way for man to become spiritual. At the
new birth, as we have already seen, it is the Holy Spirit who quickens
our human spirit and then comes to dwell therein to make our entire
life spiritual and supernatural, heavenly and holy. It is the Holy
Spirit in us who causes sin's power to be broken, God's law to be
kept, and love of God to be supreme.
Rom. 8:2, 4, "For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus
hath made me free from the law of sin and death. ... That the
righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after
the flesh, but after the Spirit."
Rom. 5:5, "And hope maketh not ashamed: because the love of God
is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto
us."
The Reign of the Old Man
In each of these spheres is a sovereign who purposes to rule with
undivided authority.
Col. 3:9-10, "Lie not one to another, seeing ye have put off the
old man with his deeds; and have put on the new man, which is renewed
in knowledge after the image of him that created him."
The sovereign in the old sphere is "the old man." The very
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essence of the flesh is self-will in the form of this God-resisting,
God-rejecting nature. The heart of the flesh is this deep-dyed traitor
which hates everything that God loves and loves everything that God
hates.
The expression "the old man" is used but three times in the
Bible, in Eph. 4:22, Col. 3:9, and Rom. 6:6. It has an equivalent in
the "I" of Gal. 2:20 and in the word "sin" as used in Romans 6. The
term commonly used is "self." Through the first Adam's fall "self"
usurped the throne of man's personality and has held it in its control
and use ever since. Every child is born into the world with king
"self" on the throne, a fact which is made evident before he can even
walk or talk.
"The old man" on the throne determines what the whole life from
center to circumference shall be. His evil desires become evil deeds;
his unholy aspirations are transmitted into unholy acts; his
unrighteous character manifests itself in unrighteous conduct; his
ungodly will is expressed in ungodly works.
Eph. 2:3, "Among whom also we all had our conversation in times
past in the lusts of the flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh
and of the mind."
Col. 3:9, "Lie not one to another, seeing ye have put off the old
man with his deeds."
Gal. 5:19-21, "The works of the flesh are manifest, which are
these; adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry,
witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions,
heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like;
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of the which I tell you before, as I have told you in time past, that
they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God."
"The old man" demands an environment that is in full accord with
his tastes and inclinations, all of which are earth born. He feeds on
the things that are seen, he walks by sight, he revels in "the lust of
the flesh," "the lust of the eyes," and "the pride of life." So the
only atmosphere in which he could live and breathe is that of the
world. "The world" is "the old man's" native heath.
1 John 2:16, "For all that is in the world, the lust of the
flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the
Father, but is of the world."
Dethronement of the Old Man--Co-crucifixion with Christ
The vast majority of Christians stop short in their experience of
the blessings of salvation with the joy of forgiveness of past sins
and with the hope of Heaven in the future. But the present is a
forty-year wilderness experience full of futile wanderings, never
enjoying peace and rest, never arriving in the promised land.
The history of God's dealing with the children of Israel is full
of helpfulness and instruction for us at this point. Indeed it is
typical of every phase of our deliverance from the old sphere and our
entrance into the new. Egypt is the type of the world; the oppression
of Pharaoh typifies the bondage to Satan in which the sinner is held;
Canaan, the promised land flowing with milk
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and honey, typifies the heavenlies in which the believer has every
spiritual blessing.
God purposed not only to bring the children of Israel out of
Egypt but into Canaan, not only out of bondage but into rest. There
are three distinct stages recorded of this deliverance: while still in
Egypt they were delivered from the judgment of death through the
sprinkling of the blood of the Paschal lamb upon the door posts; then
they were delivered out of Egypt and from the enemies who pursued them
by the miraculous passage of the Red Sea. Due to their rebellion and
unbelief the forty long, weary years of futile wandering in the
wilderness followed, during which all of the people, except Caleb and
Joshua, died, never having "possessed their possessions." Then came
the last stage in their deliverance when the two, who had wholly
followed the Lord, led the new generation of Israelites into the
promised land through the miraculous passage of the river Jordan.
There they had victory over their enemies, entered into the possession
of their inheritance and had rest.
God purposes not only to bring the sinner out of the world but
into the heavenlies: not only out of sinnerhood but into sainthood.
There are three distinct stages in this deliverance which represent
three different aspects of the death and resurrection of the Lord
Jesus Christ. They are not stages in the sense of being marked off in
point of time for they all belong to the believer through his
relationship to the crucified, risen, exalted Lord and are his in
experience the moment he apprehends and claims them by faith.
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While still in bondage God speaks to the sinner telling him the
way of deliverance from death, through faith in the shed blood of the
Lamb of God. This results in the joy and peace of forgiveness, this
covers the past. But the sinner needs much more than this for he needs
to be taken out of the old sphere and to be freed from the grip of his
old enemies, the world, the flesh and the devil. This is the passage
of the Red Sea—the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ
which makes a way clean out of the old sphere for the believer and at
the same time swallows up the pursuing enemies in utter defeat and
destruction. This is the believer's justification which gives him the
standing before God of a freed and justified man and places the Cross
and the open tomb between him and his enemies.
Just here many believers stop; satisfied with release from the
servitude of Pharaoh's land but not seeking the delights and rest of
God's land of promise. They stop short of the last stage of the
journey; hence the years of wilderness wandering, constantly going but
never getting anywhere. They have been taken out of Egypt but Egypt is
still in them. They hanker for the things of the world and of the
flesh. Their lives are characterized by selfishness, murmuring,
defeat, dissatisfaction, rebellion and fruitlessness. The Jordan
crossing is still ahead for them. I wonder if this book has found such
a wilderness wanderer in you? If so, may it come as God's Joshua to
lead you over the Jordan into the land of your perfect inheritance in
Christ Jesus. Through justification and regeneration
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the believer is separated from the old sphere of the natural man and
all that pertains to it; through identification with Christ in His
death, resurrection and ascension, he is brought out of the wilderness
wanderings of the carnal life and into the victory, peace and rest of
the spiritual life. Let us study together now what the crossing of the
Jordan typifies for the believer.
Few people are willing to admit that "the old man" sits upon the
throne and rules the whole being with despotic power. Even among
Christians there is gross ignorance of and indifference to the subtle,
insidious workings of the old "I." If the grosser "works of the flesh"
are absent from the life, the individual rests in a complacent sense
of goodness failing altogether to apprehend how obnoxious to God are
the more refined and less openly manifest sins of the spirit and how
they separate one leagues upon leagues from His pure holiness. No man
living, except the one who through the enabling Spirit has seen Christ
in His righteousness and holiness, will ever willingly say, "I know
that in me (that is in my flesh) dwelleth NO good thing."
Let us, then, pause for a moment to take a fulllength portrait of
this hideous, heinous Self; let us face honestly his manifold
operations and see if we are not forced to accept God's estimate of
him and to acquiesce in the method of deliverance from his
sovereignty. The foundation of life in the natural man is foursquare;
self-will, self-love, self-trust, and self-exaltation, and upon this
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foundation is reared a superstructure that is one huge capital "I."
Selfwill is the corner-stone and self-exaltation is the capstone.
Self-will--"We have turned every one to his own way." The flesh
wants its own way and is determined to have it even if it defies and
disobeys God and over-rides others. "I will" is the alphabet out of
which self fashions its language of life.
Self-centeredness--"the old man" feeds upon himself. He is the
beginning and the end. Life presents little that interests or affects
him except as it relates to himself. He is the center of the world in
which he lives and moves and he, always looks out for number one.
Self-assertion--"the old man" believes that every one is as
interested in him and as fascinated by him as he himself is, so he
protrudes and projects himself into the sight, hearing and notice of
others continually. He monopolizes conversation and the theme is
always "I," "my" and "mine." He walks with a swagger and expects the
world to stop work and look at him. And he never dreams how offensive
his self-importance is to others.
Self-depreciation--"the old man" is very versatile and sometimes
it suits his purpose better to clothe his pride in a false humility.
He curls up in his self-depreciation and shirks a lot of hard work
which other people have to do. He magnifies his littleness and
feebleness to his own advantage, yet with strange inconsistency he
resents others taking his professed estimate of himself and treating
him accordingly.
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Self-conceit--"the old man" lives so much in himself that he does
not know how big the world is in which he lives and how many other
really intelligent people there are in it, so he has little regard for
the opinions of others, especially if contrary to his own. He looks
with proud and supercilious pity upon those less favoured and gifted
than himself.
Self-love--"the old man" loves himself supremely, one might say
almost exclusively. He loves God not at all and his human love for
others is tainted more or less with selfishness, jealousy, envy or
impurity. Indeed "the old man" makes an idol of himself which he not
only loves but worships.
Self-indulgence--"the old man" eats, drinks, and is merry. For
him to want anything is equivalent to having it. He pampers and
coddles himself; he can even indulge his extravagant, fleshly,
appetites while others starve to death before his eyes.
Self-pleasing--"the old man" chafes under discomfort and
deprivation and is grumpy and peevish unless everything in the life of
his day ministers to his real or imagined needs. He lives unto only
one person whose name is SELF.
Self-seeking--"the old man" is on a quest: he is after whatever
will advance the cause of self. He seeks with feverish ambition and
activity praise, position, power, prominence, and anything that checks
his gaining them is attributed to others.
Self-pity--his love for himself often creates within "the old
man" rebellion against his circumstances or relationships; he
exaggerates his own possible suffering, discomfort
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or sorrow and makes himself and others miserable by his habitual
murmuring.
Self-sensitiveness--"the old man" is extremely hard to live with
because he is covered with wounds and is continually being hurt
afresh. He is not very companionable because usually he is dissolved
in tears, shrouded in silence, or enjoying a pout.
Self-defence--"the old man" is very jealous of his rights and
busy avenging his wrongs. He indulges freely in lawsuits. In his
pursuit of his own vindication and justification in cases of
disagreement and estrangement with others he is blinded by his own
sin.
Self-trust--"the old man" is very self-confident and feels no
need of one wiser and stronger than himself. Trusting in his own
powers and resources he is prone to say "Though all men shall deny
Thee, yet will not I."
Self-sufficiency--the self-confidence of "the old man" fosters an
egotistical, smug self-satisfaction which leaves him stagnant. He has
neither desire nor sense of need for anything beyond what he already
possesses.
Self-consciousness--"the old man" never forgets himself: wherever
he goes he casts a shadow of himself before. He is constantly occupied
with photographing himself and developing the plates. He is chained to
himself and as he walks one hears the clank of the chains. He is often
morbidly self-introspective.
Self-exaltation--"the old man" is absorbed in his own
excellencies: he overestimates himself and his abilities: he thirsts
for admiration and praise and he thrives on
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flattery. He secretly worships at the shrine "Self" and he wishes
others to do so publicly.
Self-righteousness--"the old man" loves to dress himself in the
garments of morality, benevolence and public-spiritedness. He even
patronizes the Church and often assists in drives for raising money
for philanthropic and religious purposes, heading the list of donors
with a handsome gift. He keeps a double entry account book--both with
the Church and with the world and expects a reward both on earth and
in Heaven.
Self-glorying--perhaps "the old man" resents this plain
delineation of himself as he really is and thinks the condemnation too
sweeping. Immediately he begins to enumerate his good qualities, his
amiableness, geniality, tolerance, self-control, sacrificial spirit
and other virtues. In doing so he takes all the credit to himself for
what he is, exhibiting ill-concealed pride and vanity.
All that we have desired to say of this hideous ugly Self is said
most tellingly by Gerhard Tersteegen in the following lines:
"Apart from Thee
I am not only naught but worse than naught,
A wretched monster, horrible of mien!
And when I work my works in self's vain strength,
However good and holy they may seem,
These works are hateful--nay, in Thy pure sight
Are criminal and fiendish, since thereby
I seek, and please, and magnify myself
In subtle pride of goodness, and ascribe
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To Self the glory that is Thine alone.
So dark, corrupt, so vile a thing is self.
Seen in the presence of Thy purity
It turns my soul to loathing and disgust;
Yea, all the virtues that it boasts to own,
Are foul and worthless when I look on Thee.
Oh that there might be no more I or mine!
That in myself I might no longer own
As mine, my life, my thinking, or my choice,
Or any other motion, but in me
That Thou, my God, my Jesus, might be all,
And work the all in all! Let that, O Lord,
Be dumb, forever die, and cease to be,
Which Thou doest not Thyself in me inspire,
And speak and work."
Is this delineation of Self true or untrue? You have three ways
by which you may judge and decide; what God's Word says of him, what
you have seen of his manifestation in other lives, and what you know
to be true of yourself. In the light of our own experience is there
one of us who would not have to confess to every one of these hateful
manifestations of Self at some moment in a greater or less degree? We
each of us know what a hydra-headed monster that old "I" is. Luther
knew it and said "I am more afraid of my own heart than of the Pope
and all his cardinals. I have within me that great Pope Self."
What, then, shall be done with this most stubborn foe? this
most-tyrannical sovereign? this bold usurper of God's place? God has
declared very plainly in His Word what He has already done with him.
He has but one place for "the old man" and that is the Cross,
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and but one plan for the termination of his despotic rule and that is
by his crucifixion with Christ.
Rom. 6:6, R.V., "Knowing this, that our old man was crucified
with Christ, that the body of sin might be done away, that so we
should no longer be in bondage to sin."
Gal. 2:20, R.V., "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no
longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now
live in the flesh I live in faith, the faith which is in the Son of
God, who loved me, and gave himself for me."
2 Cor. 5:14-15, R.V., "For the love of Christ constraineth us:
because we thus judge, that one died for all, therefore all died: And
he died for all, that they that live should no longer live unto
themselves, but unto him who for their sakes died and rose again."
Two things explicitly stated in these verses should be noted;
first, that the crucifixion of "the old man" is an already
accomplished fact, and second, that it is a co-crucifixion.
Notice the tenses: "was crucified"--past, and "have been
crucified"--past perfect. The judicial crucifixion of "the old man"
took place centuries ago. Whether or not a single soul ever accepted
this glorious fact that the entire old creation in Adam was carried to
the Cross and there crucified with Christ, it is as gloriously true as
the fact that Christ Himself was crucified.
"One died for all"
Substitution--the Saviour on the Cross for the sinner.
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"Therefore all died"
Identification--the sinner on the Cross with the Saviour.
It is part of the flawless provision of God's grace for the
believer that everything that pertains to the old nature should
terminate its sinful course at the Cross. Whether from "sins" or from
"self" the Cross is God's only place of deliverance. But as surely as
Christ Jesus "bore my sins in His own body on the tree" just so surely
was my "old man crucified with Him" there. If I accept and act upon
the one fact by faith, consistently I must accept and act upon the
other fact by faith.
Deliverance from the old sphere "in the flesh" and entrance into
the new sphere "in the spirit" demands the dethronement of self. It is
very evident that a house divided against itself cannot stand. No
house can entertain two masters without unceasing conflict. If the
Lord Jesus is to take the throne and rule over the human personality
then "the old man" must abdicate. That he will never do. So God must
deal drastically with him. He is a usurper whom God has condemned, and
sentenced to death. In His infinite grace God carried out that
sentence on Calvary's Cross. And now God declares to every person who
cries out for deliverance from the tyranny of self, "the old man was
crucified with Christ." Do you believe it and find it increasingly
true?
I was once leading a series of meetings in a school in China and
was showing the way of deliverance from both the penalty and the power
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of sin through the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.
One message was particularly on the theme we are now considering. The
most attentive listener in the audience was a man who had been the
classical teacher in that school for eleven years. Although he had
daily heard the Gospel in chapel and had attended church he had never
become a Christian. But during those days the Spirit of God worked
mightily in his heart convicting and convincing him and finally
leading him to an open confession of Christ. In conversation with a
missionary afterward this teacher said that, although he had believed
the Gospel truth that Christ died for his sins, he had never accepted
Him as Saviour because this did not seem to fully meet his need. He
said that he was under the dominion of sin, and was governed by that
old sinful nature and that not until he learned that God in Christ's
Cross had dealt with that root, sin, out of which came the fruit,
sins, did he believe it was a salvation sufficient to deliver him.
But he found in this glorious truth of the crucifixion of "the old
man" that God is able to save to the uttermost those that come to Him
in Christ and accept the full work of His Cross.
The second fact which these verses make clear is that this is a
co-crucifixion. "Our old man" was crucified with Christ. This declares
both the method and the time of this crucifixion. There is often
confusion at this point.
Paul says, "I have been crucified with Christ." He did not try to
crucify himself nor did his crucifixion take place at some special
point in his spiritual experience through
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some act on his part. With that death Paul had no more to do than he
had with the death of Christ Himself. The crucifixion of that old "I"
was not self-crucifixion neither did it take place in Damascus,
Arabia, or when Paul was "caught up to the third heaven." But the
death of the "I," which was Saul, took place on the Cross when Christ
died there.
The truth becomes easy of apprehension if we but remember that
God sees every person either in Adam or in Christ. He deals with the
human race through these two representative men. When Adam died the
human race died in him. You died in Adam. So did I. Through that
spiritual death "the old man" found birth and usurped God's place on
the throne of man's life. Christ came as the last Adam to recover for
God and for the race all that had been lost to them through the first
Adam. God's method of defeating death is through death, so Christ died
and the race of sinners died in Him. "One died for all: therefore all
died." When the last Adam died "the old man" died with Him. The old
"I" in you and in me was judicially crucified with Christ. "Ye died"
and your death dates from the death of Christ. "The old man," the old
"Self" in God's reckoning was taken to the Cross with Christ and
crucified and taken into the tomb with Christ and buried.
Rom. 6:3-4, R.V., "Or are ye ignorant that all we who were
baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were
buried therefore with him through baptism into death: that like as
Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we
also might walk in newness of life."
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The perfection of God's grace is marvellously manifested in this
glorious fact of co-crucifixion--the sinner with the Saviour on the
Cross, It needs only the perfection of man's faith to make it a
glorious reality in his spiritual experience. Assurance of deliverance
from the sphere of the "flesh" and of the dethronement of "the old
man" rests upon the apprehension and acceptance of this fact of
co-crucifixion.
The Creation of the New Man--Co-resurrection with Christ
Co-crucifixion opens the door into co-resurrection. Death is the
gate to life. Identification with Christ in His death and burial is
but the beginning of the believer's union with Him in endless life.
Death is both an ending and a beginning, an exit and an entrance.
Rom. 6:5, R.V., "For if we have become united with him in the
likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his
resurrection."
Rom. 6:8, R.V., "But if we died with Christ we believe that we
shall also live with him."
Identification with Christ in His quickening, resurrection and
ascension, takes the believer into the new sphere of the "Spirit" and
begins the life of "the new
man."
Eph. 2:4-6, "But God who is rich in mercy, for his great love
wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead
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in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are
saved), and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in
heavenly places in Christ Jesus."
Eph. 4:24, "And that ye put on the new man, which after God is
created in righteousness and true holiness."
"Together with Christ" on the Cross, in the tomb, in the
heavenlies! Thus would the exalted Lord of glory, Head of the new
creation, share with every believer the glorious victory of His death,
the mighty power of His resurrection, and the regal bounty of His
throne.
"If Christ would live and reign in me,
I must die;
With Him I crucified must be;
I must die;
Lord, drive the nails, nor heed the groans,
My flesh may writhe and make its moans,
But in this way, and this alone,
I must die.
When I am dead, then Lord to Thee
I shall live;
My time, my strength, my all to Thee
I shall give.
O may the Son now make me free!
Here, Lord, I give my all to Thee;
For time and for eternity
I will live."
The New Sphere--The Believer in Christ
The moment a penitent sinner puts his faith in the atoning blood
of the crucified Christ that moment he steps
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out of life "In Adam" and enters into life "In Christ." Forever after
he is ensphered and environed by the Lord of Glory. He is "In Christ
Jesus" and will be through the ages upon the ages to come. All that he
is and has he is and has "In Christ." In God's reckoning the believer
has no life apart from His Son. Christ is the ground in which he is
rooted and planted. Through the new birth the believer became a new
creation with a new nature which demanded a new environment, a new
atmosphere, as it were, where the new life could mature into an ever
deepening conformity to the image of Jesus Christ. This new
environment is "In Christ."
Let us read a few passages out of scores in the Bible in which
this expression "In Christ" is used to show that from the eternity of
the past through our present life on into the eternity of the future
God thinks of us who have accepted Christ as Saviour only in this
relationship to His Son.
Eph. 1:4, "According as he hath chosen us in him before the
foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame
before him in love."
Eph. 1:6, "To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he
hath made us accepted in the Beloved."
Eph. 2:13, "But now, in Christ Jesus ye, who sometimes were far
off, are made nigh by the blood of Christ."
1 John 2:6, "He that saith he abideth in him, ought himself also
so to walk, even as he walked."
Phil. 3:9, "And be found in him, not having mine own
righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through
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the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith."
Rom. 16:10, "Salute Apelles approved in Christ."
Col. 2:7, "Rooted and built up in him and stablished in the
faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving."
2 Cor. 5:17, "Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new
creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become
new."
2 Cor. 2:14, "Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to
triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by
us in every place."
1 Cor. 1:2, "Unto the church of God which is at Corinth, to them
that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all
that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ our Lord, both
theirs and ours."
Col. 2:9-10, "For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead
bodily, and ye are complete in him which is the head of all
principality and power."
Col. 1:28, "Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every
man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ
Jesus."
That every reader of this book might be lead into a clearer
apprehension of this marvellous truth I would commend the reading of
the late Dr. A.T. Pierson's book IN CHRIST. To whet the appetite for
it I would quote the following from the introduction:
"A very small key may open a very complex lock and a very large
door and that door may itself lead into a vast building with priceless
stores of wealth and beauty. This brief phrase 'In Christ,'
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a preposition followed by a proper name, is the key to the whole New
Testament. Those three short words, 'In Christ Jesus' are without
doubt the most important ever written, even by an inspired pen, to
express the mutual relation of the believer and Christ. They occur
with their equivalents over one hundred and thirty times. Such
repetition and variety must have some intense meaning. When, in the
Word of God a phrase like this occurs so often and with such manifold
applications, it cannot be a matter of accident; there is a deep
design. These two words unlock and interpret every separate book in
the New Testament. Here is God's own key whereby we may open all the
various doors and enter all the glorious rooms in this Palace
Beautiful and explore all the apartments in the house of the heavenly
Interpreter from Matthew to the Apocalypse, when the door is opened
into Heaven."
[You might also want to read: THE CHRISTIAN "IN CHRIST" -- An
Introduction to "In Christ" Truth -- The Believer's Position and
Possessions in Christ By David K. Spurbeck Sr. -- Published by: Know to Grow "in Christ" Publications,
1601 Limpus Lane, Forest Grove, Oregon 97116-1356. Also found on
http://bartimaeus.us/christianbookshare.html .]
This relationship of the believer to the Lord Jesus determines
his position, his privileges and his possessions. To be in Christ is
to be where He is, to be what He is and to share what He has.
The believer in Christ is where Christ is. Christ is in His
Father's immediate presence, He is at the Father's right hand, He is
in the Father's sight; so is the believer in Christ.
Eph. 2:6, "And hath raised us up together, and made us sit
together in heavenly places in Christ."
Col. 3:3, "For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in
God."
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Christ has left the earth as His place of abode and now dwells in
the heavenlies. The believer is in Christ, therefore even now while
still on earth his real citizenship is in Heaven and he is a pilgrim
upon earth for his real life is in Christ.
Phil. 3:20, R.V., "For our citizenship is in heaven; whence also
we wait for a Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ."
Heb. 13:14, "For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one
to come."
Therefore the believer's heart is set upon heavenly things; he
values and seeks heavenly things more than earthly.
Col. 3:1-2, "If [since] ye then be risen with Christ, seek those
things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.
Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth."
Do I hear some one say, "This is too high a standard for me; it
is not only impossible but unattractive. I am on the earth and in this
world, therefore why should I not live as though I were and enjoy what
this earth and this world have to give me and leave the enjoyment of
Heaven until I reach there?"
Such is the reasoning of vast numbers of Christians and their lives
are in full harmony with their reasoning. As some one has aptly said
they have become Christians much as a man takes out a life insurance
policy--something that does not in any way alter one's manner of
living but will be of use after death and is maintained with the
payment of a yearly premium. With many a person
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becoming a Christian has made little if any difference in either his
character or conduct. He is still of the earth earthy.
Is it not conceivable that God would have us become acclimated to
our eternal home in Heaven with Christ during our transient stay on
earth? If the atmosphere of Heaven is stifling to me here what will it
be to me there? If the heavenly pleasures and pursuits are
unattractive to me now, what will they be to me then? There is music
in Heaven but it is not jazz; there are pleasures there but they are
not the pleasures of the ballroom, the card table, or the cinema;
there are pursuits in the Glory land but not that of making money or a
name or a place in society. Death is both an exit and an entrance all
in one. For the believer it closes the door on earth to open one into
Heaven. There is not one instant for preparation for that higher
altitude. If my heart can't stand it here how will it stand it there?
Or is it unthinkable that God would wish to open a window into
that blessed realm of light and life to some wayward, worn traveller
on the road of darkness and death through the Spirit-filled lives of
believers on earth? In fact is that not one of His most effectual ways
today of making known the beauties and excellencies of that other
world? Does He not want to bring Heaven to earth that He may woo earth
to Heaven? And how else can He do it but through Heaven-born,
Heaven-filled men and women?
Again is there one so selfish, so grasping, as to wish to get all
from God and give nothing to God? Is there
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one who would accept a pass from earth to Heaven provided only through
God's matchless grace and marvellous love, who still will spend all
his time and substance in pleasure-seeking?
No, God means that life down here shall be in harmony with life
up there; that even while sojourning on earth we shall live a life
partaking of the nature of Heaven, a life holy and heavenly in
character and conduct.
In Christ Jesus the believer is what Christ is in the reckoning
of God. Christ, the Head, and the believer, a member of His body, are
one. Through this wonderful identification God looks upon us as
joint-heirs with Christ, entering into and occupying the same position
and enjoying the same privileges as His Son.
Rom. 8:17, "And, if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint
heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be
also glorified together."
We are so enfolded and environed by the Lord Jesus that God
cannot see Christ today without seeing us. This moment as God looks
upon His Son at His right hand He sees you and me if we are in Christ
Jesus.
"Near, so very near to God
Nearer I could not be;
For in the person of His Son,
I'm just as near as He.
Dear, so very dear to God,
Dearer I could not be;
For in the person of His Son,
I'm just as dear as He."
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In Christ Jesus the believer shares with Christ all His
possessions. Every spiritual blessing is ours in Christ. Dare we
believe it? All things are ours in Christ. Dare we act as though we
believed it?
Eph. 1:3, R.V., "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ who hath blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the
heavenly places in Christ."
Rom. 8:32, "He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up
for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?"
1 Cor. 3:21, "Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things
are your's."
God says in these and many other passages that the possessions of
the exalted Christ are the possessions of the one united to Him by
faith. Identification with Him in His death, burial, resurrection and
ascension includes identification with Him in all the gain and the
glory, all the privileges and possessions gained by Him through His
passion. Christ's victory over Satan and all the forces of evil is
ours and His present life of rest, peace and joy is ours.
What, then, should be the Christian's chief business in life? To
possess his possessions in Christ Jesus that in daily life and service
he may realize and utilize to the full his spiritual inheritance. How
may this be done?
(1) Through spiritual apprehension of our riches in Christ.
1 Cor. 2:12, "Now we have received, not the spirit of the world,
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but the Spirit which is of God: that we might know the things that are
freely given us of God."
We could never know of ourselves but the Spirit knows and
indwells us that He may illumine us regarding our riches in Christ.
(2) Through spiritual aspiration for our riches in Christ.
Col. 3:1-2, "... Seek those things which are above. Set your
affection [or thought patterns] on things above."
Not only through the Holy Spirit's illumination but also through
His impelling shall we possess our riches in Christ. The indwelling
Spirit creates within us the desire for all our spiritual inheritance.
Through spiritual appropriation of our riches in Christ.
2 Cor. 3:18, R.V., "But we all, with unveiled face beholding as
in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image
from glory to glory, even as from the Lord, the Spirit."
Faith lays hold on our inheritance in Christ and appropriates
that which God has so prodigally provided. We are energized by the
Holy Spirit to take these things by faith.
The New Sovereign--Christ in the Believer
Through the new birth the believer enters into the Kingdom of God
where God's will is supreme. The life of every loyal subject is lived
wholly in the will of God. The government of God has spiritual laws
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which operate beneficently for the well-being both of the individual
and of society in every department of life. Wherever these laws are
implicitly obeyed, there the will of God is done on earth as in
Heaven, and peace, rest and unity prevail. Through the new birth the
believer enters into the family of God where the Father's will is
supreme. The life of every filial child is lived wholly in the will of
the Father.
Self-will is the corner stone upon which Satan's kingdom is built
and he constantly tempts the Christian to disobey. No man in his own
strength is able to resist. Only one Man ever has wholly resisted it
and refused the control of Satan over his will. Now as Head of the new
creation He is absolute Lord in the new sphere.
By virtue of entering into that sphere every believer
acknowledges Christ Jesus to be the Lord of his life and accepts the
will of God as his rule of life. When Christ is thus crowned as Lord,
then the responsibility is His to keep the believer from falling and
to enable him to resist every temptation of Satan.
John 13:13, "Ye call me Master and Lord and ye say well, for so
I am."
Rom. 14:8-9, R.V., "For whether we live, we live unto the Lord;
or whether we die, we die unto the Lord; whether we live therefore or
die we are the Lord's.... For to this end Christ died and lived again,
that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living."
To many Christians the most difficult thing they have to do is to
consent willingly to the Lordship of Jesus
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Christ over their whole being. They are loath to admit the necessity
of the absolute dethronement of "the old man" and the perfect
enthronement of the Lord Jesus. As some one has very aptly said, "I
was quite willing that Jesus Christ should be King, so long as He
allowed me to be Prime Minister." But Christ shares His Lordship with
no one and unless "He is Lord, of all, He is not Lord at all."
But the perfection of God's grace meets even this weakness and
inability in us in His gift of the indwelling Holy Spirit who enables
us by His inward working to crown Christ Lord.
Thus Christ Jesus establishes His throne at the very center of
the new creation and from there rules to the circumference of the
believer's being. He becomes Lord of all.
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V. CHRIST OUR LIFE
A Perfect Oneness Effected
CHRIST JESUS was made like us that we might be made like Him. In
the incarnation there was the union of Deity with humanity that in
regeneration there might be the union of humanity with Deity. When the
Holy Spirit begat in the believer a new nature He opened the door to a
living, organic union between Christ and the Christian which will
exist through the ages upon ages to come. Christ and the Christian are
eternally one. The exalted Christ lives now to bestow upon us in all
of its fulness His own triumphant, joyous, holy life.
To be a Christian is nothing less than to have the glorified
Christ living in us in actual presence, possession and power. It is to
have Him as the Life of our life in such a way and to such a degree
that we can say even as Paul said, "To me to live is Christ." To be a
Christian is to grow up into Christ in all things: it is to have that
divine seed which was planted in our innermost spirit blossom out into
a growing conformity to His perfect life. To be a Christian is to have
Christ the life of our minds, our hearts, our wills, so that it is
Christ thinking through us, loving through us, willing through us. It
is increasingly to have no life but the life of Christ within us
filling us with ever increasing measure.
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But I can hear some modern Nicodemus say, "How can these things
be?" How can I live such a life in my home where I receive no sympathy
nor help but rather ridicule and scoffing, and where I have for so
long lived a sinful and a defeated life? How can I live a truly
consistent Christ-life in my social circle where there is scarcely a
person who ever gives Him a thought and where His name is never
mentioned? How can I live "in the Spirit" in a place of business where
I am surrounded by those living altogether "in the flesh" and where
the very atmosphere seems surcharged with evil? How can I even learn
to live the life more abundant when my membership is in a thoroughly
worldly church where little is given to feed and strengthen my
spiritual life?
As we are in Christ in the heavenlies so is He in us on earth.
CHRIST IN US can live this life anywhere, and that is what He longs to
do. This truth our Lord gave in germ in His last conversation with His
disciples on earth. He had told them that He was going away from them
and they were wondering how they could ever be true disciples apart
from Him. The burden of this last conversation was to assure them He
would be with them in a spiritual Presence far more real and vital
than the relationship they had with Him up to that time. The same Life
that was in Him as the Vine would flow through them as branches.
John 15:5, "I am the vine, ye are the branches; he that abideth
in me and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit; for without me
ye can do nothing."
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It was likewise the burden of our Lord's High Priestly prayer on
that last night.
John 17:23, 26, "I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made
perfect in one; that the world may know that thou hast sent me; and
hast loved them, as thou hast loved me. ... I have declared unto them
thy name and will declare it; that the love wherewith thou hast loved
me may be in them, and I in them."
"I in them"--these three simple but significant words close the
prayer with that little inner circle in which He breathed forth the
passionate desire of His heart for His own on down through the
centuries. Now as well as then, it is the consuming desire of Jesus
Christ to reincarnate Himself in the Christian.
The Apostle Paul in the revelation given him laid hold upon this
precious, glorious truth and it is woven into the warp and woof of his
experience, his preaching, and his missionary service. "Christ liveth
in me" was the very acme of his personal spiritual life.
Gal. 2:20, R.V., "I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no
longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me; and the life I now live
in the flesh I live in faith, the faith which is in the Son of God,
who loved me, and gave himself for me."
Phil, 1:21, "For to me to live is Christ."
"Christ liveth in me" so that "To me to live is Christ"--there
was nothing beyond this for Paul. Having the glorified Christ as his
very life was all-inclusive in Paul's
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spiritual experience. This to him was life on the highest plane.
"Christ in you" was the heart of his message to the churches. It
rang out with clarion
clearness in all Paul's teaching and preaching. A cross section from
any of Paul's Epistles would reveal this truth written in capital
letters.
Col. 1:27, "To whom God would make known what is the riches of
the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you
the hope of glory."
"Christ in you" was the very passion of his missionary service.
Paul might employ different methods in his service for God, he might
be all things to all men, but the end, the aim, the goal of it all was
just one thing with him--that Christ Jesus Himself might be formed in
each one who heard the Gospel message.
Gal. 4:19, "My little children, of whom I travail in birth again
until Christ be formed in you."
To be a Christian is to accept Christ as Saviour and to crown Him
as Lord. But there is one step more: it is to appropriate Him as Life.
As the works within the watch are the real life of the watch so the
Lord Jesus within the believer is the real life of the believer. "The
Christian life is not merely a converted life nor even a consecrated
life but it is a Christ-life." Christ is the Christian's center;
Christ is the Christian's circumference; Christ is all in between. As
Paul has put it "Christ IS all and IN all."
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Col. 3:4, "When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall
ye also appear with him in glory."
A Perfect Oneness Effected
The spiritual history of a believer could be written in two
phrases, "Ye in me" and "I in
you." In God's reckoning Christ and the believer have become one in
such a way that Christ is both in the heavenlies and upon earth and
the believer is both on earth and in the heavenlies. The Church
without Christ is a body without a Head; Christ without the Church is
a Head without a body. The fulness of the Head is for the body and the
body is "the fulness of him that filleth all in all."
Col. 2:9-10, R.V., "For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the
Godhead bodily, and in him ye are made full who is the head of all
principality and power."
Eph. 1:22-23, R.V., "And he put all things in subjection under
his feet, and gave him to be head over all things to the church, which
is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all."
Could God tell us more clearly that in His divine purpose He
means for the fulness of Christ to be the fulness of the Christian? It
is a staggering thought! Its plain import is that you and I and all
other Christians are to bring Christ down from Heaven to earth and to
let men see even in us who He is and what He has done and what He can
do in a human life. It is to have Christ's life in such a perfection
of likeness that men see Him in us and are drawn to Him in faith
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and love. It is to be such a oneness of life that one's human
personality is but a vessel in which the beauty, holiness and glory of
the Lord Jesus shine forth in undimmed transparency.
But here I hear the murmur of a doubting Thomas, "Except I see
this Christ life more perfectly in my fellow-Christian or experience
it more fully in my own life I will not believe it is possible!" All
I can say in answer to this is "I believe because I have seen." For
six weeks I lived in a Heaven upon earth in a Chicago boarding house,
incredible as that may seem. It was run by a little woman who weighed
about eighty-five pounds and who was kept from falling into a heap
upon the floor by a brace which was worn night and day. She had lived
upon the third floor for two years with no outlook but the blue sky
above and a patch of green grass a few feet square below. But her eyes
shone like stars, upon her face was a smile that intense bodily
suffering, straitened financial circumstances, few social contacts,
limited opportunities for enjoyment of God's great and wonderful
world, had not been able to remove, and mirrored in that face was a
light that one never sees on sea nor land except where the Light of
the world dwells in undimmed brightness. Christ was the Life of her
life.
A young Chinese man who had been a Christian less than two years
came one day for a bit of Christian fellowship. From a godless life he
had been very marvellously converted and transformed. Christ had in
deed and truth become all and in all to him. After he left the house
that day a gentleman who saw him for
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only a brief moment said, "Who was that young man? I never met any one
who so instantly compelled me to think of Christ as did he."
A Christian business man lay dying of cancer in a hospital.
Friends called to comfort him and they left feeling that they had not
only been taken to the very door of Heaven but even that they had seen
the King in His beauty. Christ had been the Life of his life in health
and continued to be so in sickness.
A young woman of nobility and wealth was on the road that led
into worldliness and ease, when she met her Lord. Captivated by His
mighty love and power, even as was the apostle of old, she too said,
"Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" The answer was, "I would go
through you to carry the Gospel to China." For nearly thirty years she
has been there without a furlough, working and praying through the
cold of winter and the heat of summer, with only an occasional
vacation of a week or two. In more than twenty places are groups of
worshippers of the true God and many hundreds have been eternally
blessed through that life crucified, buried, and risen with Jesus
Christ. You say, "She must be old, worn and haggard." Far, far from
it. In her beautiful face is all the joyous gladness of youth and yet
all the wondrous peace of the twilight years of a life lived in the
constant and conscious presence of the living God. Even a stranger
immediately recognizes in that life something more than human;
something that belongs to another world than this. Christ is the Life
of her life.
A little girl of eleven years of age lay dying. She
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deeply and dearly loved her Lord and as He came to take her home she
seemed fairly transfigured. She called father, mother, brothers and
sisters to her and with the very love of Christ filling and flooding
her little heart she plead with them to meet her in Heaven. An elder
sister who loved that child as she loved no one else went from that
room crushed but with her heart steeled against her sister's Christ.
Out into a life of reckless worldliness she went but ever haunted by
the face of Christ and the voice of Christ as she had seen and heard
it in her little sister. Two years passed by but the vision of His
face and the sound of His voice were not dimmed and finally that cold,
resisting heart was melted into such love of the Lord Jesus that she
joyously accepted Him as her Saviour, and her life was marvellously
transformed. Christ was the Life of that eleven year old child.
Is He the Life of your life? Could this be said of you?
"Not I, but Christ be honoured, loved, exalted,
Not I, but Christ be seen, be known, be heard;
Not I, but Christ in every thought and action,
Not I, but Christ in every look and word."
The thought of living such a Christ-life could well make us
tremble and fear did God not make it so clear that He does not expect
us to live it in our own strength and power but that in the gift of
the Holy Spirit He has made ample provision for our growing conformity
into the image of His Son and for a continuous renewal of Christ's
life within us. It is the Holy Spirit
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who brings the fulness of Christ's life in the heavenlies into our
life on earth.
2 Cor. 3:18, R.V., "But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as
in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image
from glory to glory, even as from the Lord the Spirit."
Eph. 3:16, 17, 19, "That he would grant you according to the
riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in
the inner man; that Christ may dwell in our hearts by faith; ... That
ye might be filled with all the fulness of God."
"There's a Man in the Glory
Whose Life is for me,
He's pure and He's holy,
Triumphant and free.
He's wise and He's loving,
Tender is He;
And His Life in the Glory,
My life must be.
"There's a Man in the Glory
Whose Life is for me,
He overcame Satan;
From bondage He's free.
In life He is reigning,
Kingly is He;
And His Life in the Glory,
My life must be.
"There's a Man in the Glory
Whose Life is for me,
In Him is no sickness:
No weakness has He.
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He's strong and in vigour,
Buoyant is He;
And His Life in the Glory,
My life may be.
"There's a Man in the Glory
Whose Life is for me.
His peace is abiding;
Patient is He.
He's joyful and radiant,
Expecting to see
His Life in the Glory
Lived out in me."
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VI. CHRIST OUR SANCTIFICATION
A People for His Possession and Use
THE Christian is a new creation, in a new sphere with a new
sovereign, living a new life, all of which speaks of differentiation
and distinctiveness. The Christian is a marked man. There is a
distinct line of cleavage between the man "in the flesh" and the man
"in the Spirit." There is a definite boundary between "the world" and
"the heavenlies" and the man who through redemption has stepped over
that border line is thereby a sanctified man. Christ, the Saviour, has
become his Sanctification.
The necessity for sanctification will be clearly seen when we
remember that man was created for God's possession and use but through
sin he fell into the possession and use of Satan. In sanctification
God recovers His own and fits him for communion and cooperation with
Himself.
Sanctification, as Scripture reveals, has a very vital
relationship to the believer's calling, position and condition. This
is typified in God's redemptive dealings with the children of Israel.
Through His call to Abraham God chose and set apart a nation for
Himself. With them He made a covenant by which they were to be
separated from all other peoples upon the earth and were to become a
holy people who would show forth the praise
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and glory of His name among the heathen nations. The children of
Israel were set apart as God's peculiar possession, under His
sovereign control and for His exclusive use.
Deut. 14:2, "For thou art an holy people unto the Lord thy God,
and the Lord hath chosen thee to be a peculiar people unto himself,
above all the nations that are upon the earth."
But the children of Israel were sold into the bondage of Egypt
and became the subject--slaves of Pharaoh. That He might repossess His
own God redeemed them and brought them out of Egypt and into Canaan.
In position as well as by calling they became a separated people;
God's own possession.
Lev. 20:24, 26, "But I have said unto you, Ye shall inherit their
land, and I will give it unto you to possess it, a land that floweth
with milk and honey; I am the LORD your God, which have separated you
from other people. ... And ye shall be holy unto me, for I the LORD am
holy, and have severed you from other people, that ye should be mine."
Num. 3:13, "Because all the first-born are mine; for on the day
that I smote all the first-born in the land of Egypt I hallowed unto
me all the first-born in Israel, both man and beast; mine shall they
be: I am the LORD."
Then God commanded them to live as a people who belonged wholly
unto Him. The separateness which He had wrought through their changed
position was to be manifested through a changed condition. As a people
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in covenant with a holy God they were to live a holy life in the midst
of altogether unholy nations and were to be God's instrument in the
conquest of the promised land.
Lev. 20:7-8, "Sanctify yourselves therefore, and be ye holy: for
I am the LORD your God. And ye shall keep my statutes and do them; I
am the LORD which sanctify you."
The Believer a Saint by Calling
In the New Testament God says that believers are a chosen,
called, and separated people. In Christ the believer was set apart as
God's own peculiar possession even before the foundation of the world.
Every believer is chosen in Christ to be holy; he is called to be a
saint; he is set apart to shew forth the beauty, glory and holiness of
His God.
Eph. 1:4, "According as he hath chosen us in him before the
foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame
before him in love."
Rom. 1:6-7, "Among whom are ye also the called of Jesus Christ:
To all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints; Grace to
you and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ."
1 Pet. 2:9, "But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood,
an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should show forth the
praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous
light."
Thus we see that every believer was chosen and called to be a
saint and that a saint is one set apart as
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belonging to God and as separated unto Him for His use. Throughout
Scripture this is invariably the meaning of the words "to sanctify" or
"sanctification" whether used in connection with things or persons.
That which is sanctified is something wholly set apart for God's
possession and use and when God lays claim to anything and separates
it unto His use it is by that act "sanctified." God's undivided
proprietorship of the believer lies enfolded in the very heart of the
truth of sanctification. In the eternity of the past God called us to
be His own possession. He said, "Thou art mine."
The Believer a Saint by Position
When, where, and how is the believer sanctified? At what point of
time, at what stage in spiritual experience, and through what means is
the believer wholly separated unto God and set apart as the special
possession of the Lord? There has been much confusion on these points
that has led to bewilderment on the part of many and even delusion on
the part of some.
But God's Word is crystal clear on this theme as on all others
connected with salvation if we keep to the Scriptural meaning and
method of the spiritual experiences God intends we should enjoy. Let
us never forget that God is infinitely more concerned about our
entrance into the fulness of our inheritance in Christ than we can
possibly be. How hurt and harmed is the separate, holy Christ by the
mixedness and unholiness in the lives of Christians. Then surely He
would take great care that this wondrous truth of sanctification
should be made very plain.
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So the Word of God answers the above questions by showing us that
sanctification is primarily a change in position and secondarily but
of necessity a change in condition.
God tells us very plainly when, where and how the children of
Israel were sanctified.
Num. 8:17, "For all the first-born of the children of Israel are
mine, both man and beast; on the day that I smote every first-born in
the land of Egypt I sanctified them for myself."
Lev. 11:45, "For I am the LORD that bringeth you up out of the
land of Egypt, to be your God; ye shall therefore be holy, for I am
holy."
By the blood of the Paschal lamb they were redeemed in Egypt and
set apart as a people for God's own possession. By the crossing of the
Red Sea they were redeemed from Egypt and separated from other people
for the Lord's use. Even during the wilderness wanderings in which
there was much of murmuring and rebellion they were, as far as their
position before God was concerned, a sanctified people.
Just so the Cross of the Lord Jesus Christ marks the place of the
believer's sanctification; the blood of the Lamb of God is the means;
and the moment in which the sinner puts his faith in that atoning
blood for salvation marks the time.
Heb. 10:10, "By the which will we are sanctified through the
offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all."
Heb. 13:12, "Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the
people with his own blood, suffered without the gate."
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Acts 26:18, "To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness
to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive
forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified
by faith that is in me."
God never acts apart from Christ. Everything that God does
whether in creation or salvation He does through His Son. And
everything that God does in Christ for man's salvation He begins at
the Cross. So our sanctification begins there. At the Cross the sinner
becomes a saint. Every believer has been set apart for God's own
possession and use by the sacrifice of His Son. The believer is a
saint by position. As in justification the guilty sinner is accounted
righteous through the blood of the Cross so in sanctification the
denied sinner is accounted holy. By the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus
Christ he "hath been perfected once for all." In this objective aspect
sanctification is absolute and complete. Christ Himself and Christ
alone is our Sanctification.
Heb. 10:14, "For by one offering he hath perfected forever them
that are sanctified."
1 Cor. 1:30, "But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is
made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and
redemption."
Thus we see that sanctification in this aspect is not "a second
work of grace" at some time subsequent to conversion; nor a result of
any act of consecration or faith on the part of the believer; but that
it takes place through God's first and initial work of grace--the
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death of His Son--and is simultaneous with justification and
regeneration. "The primary and fundamental idea of sanctification is
neither an achievement nor a process, but a gift, a divine bestowal of
a position in Christ."
In this positional aspect of sanctification all believers share
equally: the youngest, weakest and most immature is as truly and as
much sanctified as the oldest, strongest and most spiritual Christian.
This fact we see in the spiritual history of the Corinthian
Christians as given in Paul's epistles. These letters were written to
rebuke and correct gross sins, outstanding evils, even fearful
immoralities in the Corinthian church yet the Apostle writes to them
as those that have been sanctified, those who are "holy in Christ."
While he tells them that he cannot write unto them as unto spiritual
but rather as unto carnal Christians yet he calls them saints. Even
though they are still in the wilderness as regards spiritual
experience yet he considers them a people separated unto God for His
possession and use. It is because they have been so set apart and
given such an exalted position that he reproves them for their unholy
condition.
1 Cor. 1:2, "Unto the church of God which is at Corinth, to them
that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints, with all
that in every place call upon the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord, both
their's and our's."
Their position as sanctified ones is the basis of his appeal for
a corresponding condition of life. He reminds them that "fornicators,
idolaters, adulterers, drunkards, and
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revilers, shall not inherit the kingdom of God" (1 Cor. 6:9-11), and
then frankly says, "and such were some of you" in the old sphere when
you were wholly separated unto sin and wholly separated from God. But
it is all different now for "you are sanctified" and are thereby set
apart unto God. Therefore your condition should correspond with your
position. You were once in the devil's possession and use but now you
are set apart unto God for His possession and use. You are saints;
therefore live like saints.
1 Cor. 6:11, "And such were some of you; but ye are washed, but
ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus,
and by the Spirit of our God."
Are you a true believer in the Lord Jesus Christ? Then you are a
saint. Have you put your trust for salvation in Christ's shed blood?
Then you are sanctified and set apart as one belonging wholly and only
unto God. Are you "a new creation in Christ Jesus"? Then you are also
"a saint in Christ."
The Believer a Saint by Condition
A holy God must have a holy people. That which God has taken to
be His own, which He has separated unto Himself must be holy even as
He is holy. God took Israel out of Egypt into Canaan that they might
be made a separate people shut in to Himself that through His presence
in their midst as their Lord and Leader they might learn to do His
will and obey His laws. He had called them to be a holy people. He had
separated them that they might become a holy
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people. Their changed position from Egypt to Canaan presupposes a
corresponding changed condition in all their manner of living. His
very proprietorship of them demanded holiness. That which belongs to
God must be holy for God cannot presence Himself with unholiness
neither can He use in His service that which is unclean. If He did so,
He would deny His own nature, dishonour His own name. What God is that
which belongs to Him must be, or else God would lay Himself open to
the charge of being a partaker of the sin of His people. Because they
were a separated people God commanded them to be a holy people and to
put all uncleanness of every kind away from them. He told them that
the real purpose of their redemption had been their sanctification.
Lev. 20:24, 26, "I am the LORD your God, which have separated you
from other people. ... And ye shall be holy unto me; for I the LORD am
holy, and have severed you from other people, that ye should be mine."
2 Chron. 29:5, 15-16, "And said unto them, Hear me, ye Levites,
sanctify now yourselves, and sanctify the house of the Lord God of
your fathers, and carry forth the filthiness out of the holy place....
And they gathered their brethren, and sanctified themselves, and came
according to the commandment of the king, by the words of the LORD, to
cleanse the house of the LORD. And the priests went into the inner
part of the house of the LORD to cleanse it and brought out all the
uncleanness that they found in the temple of the LORD into the court
of the house of the LORD."
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God has taken the believer to be His own and His proprietorship
of the life is in itself a call and a challenge to holiness. God has
redeemed us that He might possess us and He possesses us that He may
conform us to the image of His Son. Christ saved us that He might
sanctify us.
1 Thess. 4:7, "For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but
unto holiness."
Eph. 5:25-27, "Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also
loved the church, and gave himself for it; That he might sanctify and
cleanse it with the washing of water by the word. That he might
present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle,
or any such thing: but that it should be holy and without blemish."
The position of the believer in Christ is a call and a challenge
to holiness. It also reveals God's provision for the life of holiness
which He expects of the believer. God requires Christians to live "as
becometh saints" but the power for such a life is not in ourselves but
in Christ Himself. Through identification with Him in His death and
resurrection we have been planted into Christ and He environs us with
His own holiness. We are "holy--in Christ."
Eph. 5:3, "But fornication and all uncleanness, or covetousness,
let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints."
Phil. 4:21, "Salute every saint in Christ Jesus."
The presence of Christ in the believer is a call and
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a challenge to holiness. "I am holy--be ye holy." Perfection of life
is God's only standard. In Christ incarnate we find Divine holiness in
a human life and nature. Through Christ crucified that holy, divine
nature was imparted to us. In the risen, ascended Christ indwelling we
have the very presence of the Holy One in power. In virtue of what
Christ did for us we are made holy and in virtue of what He does in us
we are kept holy. Christ Himself is our Sanctification.
1 Pet. 1:15-16, R.V., "But like as he who called you is holy, be
ye yourselves also holy in all manner of living; because it is
written, ye shall be holy; for I am holy."
1 Thess. 5:23-24, "And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly:
and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved
blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is he
that calleth you, who also will do it."
In this conditional aspect of sanctification there is a vast
difference in believers. Some who have been Christians for a quarter
of a century may show few evidences of a holy life while one who has
known Christ but a short time may have much "fruit unto holiness." The
progressive realization of holiness in life depends upon the
believer's response to God's provision for it in Christ. With some this
progress is a steady inflow, while with others it comes through a
special experience which seems to them as marked as that of
conversion. Let us now consider what that provision is.
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Sanctification is a Radical Reversal in Relationships
Entrance into the new sphere involves a decisive, clean-cut
reversal of every relationship obtaining in the old sphere. What the
sinner was alive to the saint becomes dead to, and what the sinner was
dead to the believer becomes alive to. The radical change wrought in
the believer's position demands a complete reversal in every
relationship if a corresponding change is to be wrought in his
condition. Sanctification is one act with a double significance:
negatively it means separation; positively it means holiness.
Christ, our Sanctification, separates us from all that is opposed to
the will of God and He separates us unto all that is consistent with
that will.
Let us consider first the things to which the believer becomes
dead. The believer becomes dead to sin. Three phases of three words
each which the Apostle Paul uses throw marvellous light upon this
reversal in the believer's relationship to sin. Please note that it is
a study in prepositions.
Eph. 2:5, "Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us
together with Christ."
Rom. 6:8, "Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we
shall also live with him."
Rom. 6:2, "God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin live
any longer therein?"
"Dead IN sins"--such is the sinner's relationship to sin in the
old sphere. He is so permeated and saturated
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with sin that God can only describe his relationship to sin as one of
immersion in it. Sin is his environment.
"Dead WITH Christ"--such is the sinner's identification with the
Sin-bearer. Salvation had to put both the Saviour and the sinner on
the Cross to reverse the relationship to sin.
"Dead TO sin"--such is the believer's relationship to sin in the
new sphere. He is so insulated and enveloped by Christ that God can
only describe his relationship to sin as one of death to it. Christ is
his environment. (Diagram XL omitted)
Death defeats death and annuls its power over the sinner. The
believer is so united with Christ in His death that he enters into
precisely the same relationship to sin that Christ enjoys--Christ
Jesus was never "dead in sins," the Lamb of God was "without spot and
blemish" for there was no sin in Him. But as the last Adam, the
representative Man, the sinner's Substitute, He was in a very real
sense "made sin for us." The sin of the whole world of sinners was
upon Him so that on the Cross of Calvary in a very real and awful
sense He was so separated unto sin for our sakes that He was separated
from God. But, praise God, His death once-for-all changed not only His
relationship to sin but that of the believing sinner in Him.
Rom. 6:10, R.V., "For the death that he died, he died unto sin
once (Gr. once-for-all) but the life that he liveth, he liveth unto
God."
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Rom. 6:11, R.V., "Even so reckon ye also yourselves to be dead
unto sin, but alive unto God in Christ Jesus."
Let us not through unbelief or fear of the consequences minimize
the force of the words in Rom. 6:11! To make this truth stand out
before us in all its daring ruggedness let this verse fall into its
constituent parts before our eyes.
Dead unto sin--Alive unto God
The believer's changed relationships
In Christ Jesus--The divine Medium.
Reckon--The human Means.
Even so--The defined Measure.
Simpler words could not have been used to convey to the mind and
heart one of the most profound truths in the Bible nor could language
tell us more plainly the severing power of the Cross of Christ:
neither make more clear the meaning of sanctification in God's
thought. The believer "dead with Christ" is dynamited out of the old
relationship "dead in sins" into the new relationship "dead to sin."
But what does the expression "dead to sin" mean? Does it mean
that sin is dead or that it is eradicated? Does it mean that the
believer is beyond the reach of temptation or the possibility or
ability to sin? No, it means nothing of the kind. God's Word teaches
that the believer on earth has the penalty of sin removed and the
power of sin broken but nowhere does it say that he is freed from the
presence of sin. That blessed state is the believer's future
inheritance as we shall see in a later study. Neither is he freed
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from temptation. In fact temptations are even more severe and more
constant as one maintains in faith the attitude of "dead to sin." But
"dead to sin" does mean that in Christ the believer has been brought
positionally into such a relationship to it that he is beyond the
reach of sin's dominion, that he is environed by Christ Jesus in such
a measure as to share to the full His victory over sin. It means also
that through the new birth he has been given a nature which hates sin
and loves holiness. Where formerly there was response to sin, and
apathy toward God, now the attitude is completely reversed. Sin meets
with a cold reception and a quick rebuff while the whole being is
aglow with an ever deepening love and devotion to its Lord. "The new
man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness"
refuses sin and chooses holiness; says "no" to sin and "yes" to God.
This positional victory over sin through grace is perfect. In
Christ God has taken the believer beyond the necessity of sin's
lordship. In Christ sin's power is broken and its claim is cancelled.
Several times in Romans six God declares the believer's perfect
freedom from the power of sin.
Rom. 6:18, 22, R.V., "And being made free from sin, ye became
servants of righteousness. ... Being now made free from sin and become
servants to God, ye have your fruit unto sanctification and the end
eternal life."
Rom. 6:14, "For sin shall not have dominion over you, for ye are
not under law but under grace."
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These words if they teach anything clearly tell us that the
believer in Christ need not sin, that sin has no rightful claim upon
him. Let us get this thing straight and have no confusion in our minds
about it. God nowhere says that we are not able to sin but He clearly
says that we are able not to sin. In other verses in Romans six God
states explicitly that sin still has power over the believer because
the believer permits it. In other words, the believer sins because he
wants to, because he yields to the allurements, the charms, the call
of sin or he sins because he does not claim his privileges in Christ.
Just here I can almost hear the murmur of doubt in the heart of
some reader as he says, "Is such victory possible?" Most of us have
such an inadequate conception of the meaning of the Cross and of the
power of Christ. We imagine Him able only to carry us safely over the
border line of the new sphere of life and unlock for us the door into
Heaven, but utterly impotent to keep us victorious and Christ-like in
the midst of the temptations of a sinful world. We are so ready to
believe in the strength of the devil and so loath to believe that we
are indeed spiritual multimillionaires, "heirs of God and joint heirs
with Christ." But such you and I are even while living as spiritual
paupers. But "He is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that
we ask or think," and will prove that He is so able if we but give Him
the chance.
Perhaps some reader, if we were talking together personally,
would put to me the questions that have been asked scores of times.
"Can this truth of complete and continuous
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victory over sin be brought from Heaven to earth, can it be brought
out of the realm of the doctrinal into the realm of the experimental?
Will it really work if applied to my temper, jealousy, worry, pride,
resentment and hatred? Can I in my daily walk in a world reeking in
sin and placing temptation before me at every step really be kept
unspotted and unsullied? Can the relationship 'dead to sin' be
actualized in my spiritual experience here and now on earth?"
My answer to you would be, "Test the power of Jesus Christ's
victory over sin on your besetting sin and give Him a fair chance to
prove to you that He can save to the uttermost, even to make you dead
to that sin. Take the sin that is dragging you down into the very
depths of despair and let Him who is your Sanctification make you dead
to it."
A missionary came once for a talk. Her face was the picture of
despair. By her own confession hers was a joyless, peaceless,
powerless life. She found no joy in Bible study; no reality in prayer;
and she had no love for souls. She had dreaded having me come to that
school to lead a series of evangelistic meetings because she thought
she would be expected to do personal work among the girls and she was
utterly devoid both of desire and of power for such a task. Her body
as well as her spirit was ill and she had already told her Chinese
co-workers and her fellow-missionaries that because of ill-health she
did not intend to return to China after her furlough. We talked
together of the life of victory in Christ but she repeated over and
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over again that while she believed it was for others she knew it was
not for her. She knew intellectually the Bible truth about victory
over sin and was altogether familiar with every Bible verse that I
quoted. She had read many books on victory in Christ and could have
told any person who came to her seeking help the way to victory. But
she herself was living in utter defeat and abject discouragement. Deep
down in her heart was a hurt. There it had been for four years eating
away at her spiritual vitals like a cancer. To that hurt she was
wholly "alive." We talked for hours but she left me as she came--in
despair. However, a deep, quiet assurance of complete victory for her
came into my heart. I knew that victory in Christ was God's will for
her for He had said so in His Word so I confidently claimed His
promise in 1 John 5:14-15 and thanked God for the answer to the prayer
as I fell asleep.
Before breakfast there was a tap on the door. What a gloriously
radiant face greeted my eyes as I opened it and she exclaimed: "Oh!
it's gone and I know it will never come back again!" What gone? The
hurt. How? The Lord Jesus Christ, her Victor, had presenced Himself in
the spot where the hurt was and had made her dead to it. Since that
time, fully seven years ago, God has used that missionary to help many
another defeated one into the joy and peace of victory over sin.
Sanctification is separation from sin and Christ is the Separator
and He sanctifies by indwelling, possessing and controlling. Victory
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is not a mere blessing, doctrine, nor experience, but it is a Person.
To have Him acknowledged as sole Proprietor of the whole being and
allowed to act as such is to be assured of victory over sin. To have
Him crowned as Lord and in control is to have victory already. This
throws light on what real victory is and what it is not. Some of us
may not have victory because we are altogether too superficial in our
thinking. We trifle with this very important thing. We think we shall
obtain victory by reading literature on the subject or by hearing
messages at a Conference, or by an interview with some Christian
leader while all the time we are unwilling to face God alone that He
may show us both what sin is and what victory is.
God does not speak of being dead to "sins" but to sin." He does
not talk of "victories" but of "victory." He does not command us to be
troubled over our sin but to be "dead" to it. He makes it very clear
that He does not mean mere control over outward expressions of sin but
a definite dealing with inner disposition. Real victory is a glorious
and marvellous change in the innermost recesses of the spirit which
transforms the inner disposition and attitude as well as the outward
deed and act. "Real victory never obliges you to conceal what is
inside." Nay, more than that, if one has real victory over sin he
longs with intensity to let others know what his treasure is.
If we are to look to the Lord Jesus to make our freedom from sin
actual and if "dead to sin" is to be lifted out of its doctrinal
setting in Romans six and made an experimental fact in your life and
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mine, then we must know both what sin is and what victory is. Satan
blinds the minds, dulls the consciences, deadens the spiritual
sensibilities so that countless Christians never think of calling some
sinful things sin. Of course we are forced to call some glaring,
outstanding offense against God and man that becomes more or less
public, sin. But what about that black, defiling, evil thing, hidden
away in the spirit, heart or thought which has not yet found its way
out into a word or a deed, but which is open to the all-seeing,
all-searching eye of our holy God? Is that sin? God would lead us to
think it is.
Ps. 19:12, 14, "Who can understand his errors? Cleanse thou me
from secret faults. ... Let the words of my mouth and the meditation
of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength and my
Redeemer."
Ps. 51:6, 10, "Behold thou desirest truth in the inward parts;
and in the hidden part thou shalt make me to know wisdom. ... Create
in me a clean heart O God and renew a right spirit within me."
2 Cor. 7:1, "Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let
us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit
perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord."
Let us face a few simple tests and see if we have been cleansed
"from all filthiness of the spirit" and if there is freedom from sin
"in the inward parts."
You used to lose your temper and give way to violent outbursts;
now there is a large measure of outward
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control but a very great residue of inward irritation and secret
resentment. Is that real victory?
Some one says something unkind or unjust to you; you do not
answer back and outwardly you appear polite but inwardly you are angry
and are saying to yourself, "I'd like to give her a piece of my mind!"
Is that freedom from sin?
Some one has wronged you; you do not openly retaliate or seek to
revenge the wrong but in your innermost heart you wish the person
misfortune and rejoice when it comes. Is that having "a right spirit"?
You are a favoured one through family, position or wealth. You do
not openly boast but your heart is filled with secret pride, vanity
and a sense of superiority. Is that counted as being "dead to sin"?
At a Summer Conference in China a woman came seeking help. She
was unhappy and others around her were made unhappy. There was unlove
in her heart; in fact, there was some one she hated. She was a
Christian worker and recognizing the havoc this feeling was working in
her own life and in that of others she tried to gain gradual victories
over it. She had hated even the sight of the other person but she
acknowledged finally the sinfulness of that. So she invited the person
to dinner in her home but hoped she wouldn't come! When she came to me
she had reached the point where she was "ready to forgive" but "would
never forget!" Then she compelled herself to say that she "wouldn't
hate" but she "couldn't love." Not until God, who is love, really
possessed her heart did she become "dead" to that sin.
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In Christ Jesus full provision has been made for you and me to be
"dead to sin." But Rom. 6:11 tells us that the believer must respond
to God's act of grace by an act of faith. Man's faith is the
cooperative complement of God's grace. Through faith God makes real in
experience what through grace He has made real in fact. Through grace
God has reversed the believer's relationship to sin and now God calls
upon him to "reckon" upon this reversal as a fact and so to act, walk
and live.
Furthermore Rom. 6:12—13 tells us that the believer must respond
to God's act of grace by an act of the will.
Rom. 6:12, "Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal' body,
that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof."
This is a call, a challenge and a command all in one. It is a
call to higher ground, to life on the highest plane. It is a challenge
to take God at His Word and prove His power as Victor. It is a command
to assert the rights of one whose real life is in the heavenlies in
Christ.
Through the finished work of Jesus Christ God has done all He can
do toward the believer's sanctification. If he enjoys in experience
real separation from sin he must now act. His will must coalesce with
God's will and work as a unit if he is to live as one "dead to sin."
And God does not let this step be shrouded in misty vagueness but in
Rom. 6:13 tells in simplest and plainest language just what the
believer must do to keep sin from reigning in his body.
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Rom. 6:13, "Neither yield ye your members as instruments of
unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that
are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of
righteousness unto God."
"Yield," "yield," "YIELD"--by a definite, intelligent, voluntary
act of the will the believer must choose Christ as his new Master and
yield himself to Him as Lord. Christ and sin cannot both "reign" over
your life at the same time. There is no possibility in God's plan for
such a compromising alliance. Jesus Christ not only desires to enter
every life as Saviour but to rule as Lord and to reign as King. He not
only designs to take possession but to assume control. He is not
content to be recognized only as the owner of the house but purposes
as well to be manager of the household. He is not satisfied to become
something only to us but wishes to be everything.
Rom. 6:14-22 reveals two incontrovertible facts:
(1) We are able not to sin.
(2) If we sin, we sin because we want to sin; because we will to
sin; because we choose to yield to our old master instead of to our
new Master.
But it also clearly implies that by "reckoning" ourselves dead
unto sin and by "yielding" ourselves unconditionally to Christ we may
come to have a totally changed attitude to sin. Love for it and
indulgence in it will become hatred for it and resistance to it. Sin
is not dead and it will continue to entice but it will meet with no
response from us. Our former master still lives and works hard at his
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task but Christ, our new Master, makes us deaf to sin's appeals by
making us dead to sin itself.
The believer becomes dead to the law. If one is to come into real
liberty in the Lord and be released from the futile striving to attain
by his own effort what by faith he may obtain as God's gift, he must
apprehend this second reversal in his relationships. Paul in the light
of his own experience expounds this truth quite fully in Romans seven.
Paul as a sinner had tried to become righteous by keeping the law of
God. He had failed utterly and had come to Christ as his Saviour that
he might be made righteous in Him. But in Romans seven as a saint, he
was trying to become holy by attempting to keep God's law in his own
strength. He had learned that he could not be saved by his own efforts
but he had still to learn that he could not be sanctified in that way.
The law is holy and demands of man both perfect righteousness and
perfect holiness, but it cannot give to any one the power to be
righteous or holy. So when one comes into a realization of the holy
nature of God's law and of its rightful demand for holiness of life
the attempt is made to live such a life in one's own strength. It is
this that Paul is telling us in Romans six and seven, we neither can
do nor need try to do. He tells us this in three different statements
each of which unfolds a distinct phase of this truth.
First, the saint in the new sphere is under a distinctly
different regime from the sinner in the old sphere. He is no longer
under law but under grace.
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Rom. 6:14, "For sin shall not have dominion over you; for ye are
not under the law but under grace."
Second, the believer has come under the regime of grace through
his union with the Lord Jesus Christ in His death and resurrection. So
that now under grace he fully shares Christ's relationship to the law.
In His incarnate life Christ Jesus as the representative Man met every
demand of the law both for righteousness and holiness. In His death,
as the sinner's Saviour, He met every claim of the law for
righteousness against the sinner and in His resurrection, as the Head
of the new creation, He met every claim of the law for holiness
against the saint. The law has no further claim against the believer
either for righteousness or for holiness for every claim has been
fully satisfied.
Third, the believer is, therefore, dead to the law.
Rom. 7:4, "Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the
law by the body of Christ: that ye should be married to another,
even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth
fruit unto God."
Gal. 2:19, "For I through the law am dead to the law, that I
might live unto God."
It is the function of grace to do for us what we cannot do for
ourselves. It is the work of grace to undo the work of sin. Sin made
us unholy: grace makes us holy. Grace always operates through Jesus
Christ who dwells within us in the very perfection of His own holiness
through the power of the Holy Spirit.
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Does this not show us how needless and futile are our efforts to
compel ourselves to live well pleasing unto God, to achieve victory
over sin through good resolutions or through will power, and to live a
holy life through legal bondage to certain principles or practices?
The way of sanctification is as simple as the way of salvation. As
truly as Christ is our Saviour just so truly He is our Sanctification.
Our part is to believe and to receive.
Holiness is a gift and a gift is not "attained" but "obtained."
Christ Himself is our holiness. Holiness does not come as a result of
"works" but is a "fruit." "Becoming servants to God ye have your fruit
unto holiness" (Rom. 6:22).
Becoming "dead to the law" does not give to any Christian the
license to sin. Far from it. His death to the law is accomplished only
through his marriage union with the Holy One Himself and that for one
definite, distinct purpose, that he may "bring forth fruit unto God"
and live wholly unto Him. It is for the one purpose of enabling him to
do the will of God in every department of his life.
The believer becomes dead to self. The exact words are not in
Scripture but the thought is clearly there in the following passages
which show the believer's radical reversal in his relationship to self.
2 Cor. 5:15, R.V., "And he died for all, that they that live
should no longer live unto themselves, but unto him who for their
sakes died and rose again."
Gal. 5:24, "And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh
with the affections and lusts."
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"The old man" never acknowledges himself as dead. Self-will is
married to self-love and they and their entire offspring will work
night and day to retake the throne of the believer's life permanently,
if possible, but if not, temporarily. But Christ enables us to say a
continuous and firm "No" to every appeal of self and to refuse it even
a foothold in any of the territory which He has conquered. The divine
Proprietor is amply able to guard and keep His property for Himself.
Our part is to maintain a persistent and consistent attitude of death
to self.
The believer becomes dead to the world. Christ, as our
Sanctification, brings about a very radical reversal in the believer's
relationship to the world and in its relationship to the believer. The
Apostle Paul uses a very strong expression in stating it.
Gal. 6:14, "But God forbid that I should glory, save in the Cross
of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and
I unto the world."
He says it is a twofold crucifixion. A double death takes place
at the Cross of Christ when the sinner becomes a saint. The absolute
necessity for this is clearly seen when we remember that the sinner is
part of the system, called the world, which is Satan's channel of
manifestation and his instrument for service. The world and the Church
are wholly antagonistic in their whole manner of living and working:
their pleasures, pursuits, plans and programs are as different from
each other as Christ is different from Satan. So when Christ
sanctifies the believer as His own possession
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and for His own use, He takes him so altogether out of this
world-system and separates him so wholly unto Himself that he is
thereafter "dead to the world."
As soon as the believer really takes this attitude toward the
world and maintains his position in Christ as a consistent member of
His body then the world hates him and disclaims any relationship or
affiliation with him. As long as the believer compromises and
maintains a friendly attitude toward the world the latter will be
friendly with the hope of winning the Christian back into its fold.
But the world only loves its own and hates all that is not of it so
that when the believer comes out into an open, decisive separateness
the world thereafter is crucified unto him.
John 15:19, "If ye were of the world, the world would love his
own; but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of
the world, therefore the world hateth you."
1 John 3:1, "Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed
upon us, that we should be called the sons of God, therefore the world
knoweth us not, because it knew him not."
The real secret governing our abandonment of the world is but
love for the Lord Jesus Himself. He loved us so much that He gave
Himself for us. We are captivated by that love and we open our hearts
to receive Him, then He gives Himself to us. He in His loveliness
becomes much more attractive than anything
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the world can offer; He in His tender sympathy, loving understanding
and exquisite love bestows upon us much more than the world can give;
He in His own wondrous divine-human Person satisfies our hearts as all
that the world has to give could never satisfy.
It was so in the life of a university student who was enamoured
of the world. She fed on worldliness, she walked and lived in it. Her
clothes, her companionships, her pleasures, her conversation, her
tastes, her choices, in fact everything about her bore the mark of the
world. She had been indulging in the gaieties of the university life
to an excess that troubled even her worldly minded friends. But one
night in the beginning of the spring term of her senior year she found
Christ as her Saviour and her Master. Only a few days later she was to
have attended the biggest dance of the season. She did not go but
spent the entire evening in communion with her new-found Lord over His
Word and in prayer. Throughout the remaining weeks of her senior year
she refused scores of invitations to similar parties. A something had
come into her life that made some who had known and prayed for her
very happy and that made others who had companioned with her in the
past very contemptuous. She would have told you that that something
was a Some One, it was the Lord Jesus. Love for Him had made her dead
to the world, which, when she no longer belonged to it had become dead
to her.
This radical reversal of our relationship to sin, to the law, to
self and to the world is brought about through our identification with
Christ in His death and
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resurrection. In Christ crucified and risen we are made a separate
people for His possession and use.
Christ our Sanctification not only made a clean-cut reversal in
our relationship to Satan and to everything pertaining to his sphere
but He made an equally revolutionary change in our relationship to God
and to everything that belongs to His Kingdom.
The believer becomes "alive unto God." Having been born into
God's family as a child and into His Kingdom as a citizen his whole
life is now centered in the family and Kingdom interests. Having
accepted Christ as Saviour, having been united to Him as Head, and
having crowned Him Lord, Christ has become both the center and the
circumference of his life and all in between. In Christ Himself the
believer finds his deepest joy, his greatest delight and his
completest satisfaction.
As being "dead to sin" detracts from sin's charms and breaks its
power to lure and entice so being "alive unto God" enhances Christ's
charms and heightens the Holy Spirit's power to woo and to win us to
love our Lord and to delight in Him. To be "alive unto God" is to love
the Lord Jesus as we love no other person or thing in Heaven or upon
earth. It is to adore Him as the Beloved, to give Him the place of
preeminence in our lives. It is for Christ Jesus Himself to be all and
in all to us.
Col. 1:18, "And he is the head of the body, the church; who is
the beginning the first-born from the dead: That in all things he
might have the preeminence."
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Song of Solomon 5: 10, "My beloved is white and ruddy, the
ckiefest among ten thousand."
Col. 3:11, "But Christ is all and in all."
But is there in the lives of very many Christians whom you know
such a personal passion for the Lord Jesus? Does the average church
member impress the world as being "alive unto God"? Is the Christian
business man more eager for God's projects to succeed than his own?
Upon which does the Christian mother put most thought and time--her
daughter's health, her place in society, or growth in her spiritual
life? Which does the ordinary church member attend most regularly, the
cinema or the prayer meeting? Is there not a sluggishness and
stagnancy in the lives of thousands upon thousands of professed
Christians today that amounts almost to deadness toward God and His
interests? Many of God's children in all parts of the world believe
that the Church of Christ is in just such a dead condition and that
there is great need of revival.
Perhaps this book will fall into the hands of some persons who
are altogether unconscious of the need of such a quickening. They are
conventional, respectable Christians. They always attend church, go to
prayer meeting and fulfil faithfully what they consider to be their
financial obligation to the church. They never do any one any harm;
neither do they do any one any good. They would not consciously put a
stumbling block in the way of somebody becoming a Christian; neither
would it ever dawn upon them to put forth
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an effort to win one. They are colourless Christians. They would be
disgusted with the frivolous person who found pleasure for a morning
in reading a trashy book but just so they would be bewildered at the
joy some earnest soul found in several hours' study of the Word. To
them the pleasure places of the world have no attraction but neither
does the trysting place of prayer. They are the lineal descendants of
the elder brother in the parable of the prodigal, who did not bring
disgrace to his father's name but neither did he bring joy to his
father's heart.
What I am trying to say is that you and I may be separate and yet
not be holy; we may be orthodox and yet not be spiritual; we may be
"dead to sin" and yet not be "alive to God." We may have cut ourselves
loose from every form of worldliness but in so doing have become
critical and self-righteous. We may be loyal defenders of the faith,
yea, ready even to lay down our lives for it and in so doing become
bitter and unloving. We may be faithful in the fulfilling of every
obligation to God and have given ourselves in self-sacrificing
devotion to His cause and yet have no warm glow of love in our hearts,
no spring of joy in our souls, no fervency of spirit in our communion
with the Lord Jesus Himself.
But the divine-human God-man can never be satisfied with
negation. If He died and rose again to separate us from sin, He
ascended into Heaven and was exalted to the throne that He might
separate us unto the Lord. The work of the Cross is to be perfected
through the work of the throne. What the Saviour
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began the Sanctifier is to continue. The ascended Lord lives to keep
us holy through His Spirit.
This He does as our Great High Priest, our Advocate and our
Intercessor. He has lived on earth and He knows how unceasingly we are
in contact with that which defiles. He knows the insidiousness of
Satan's temptations and how he takes advantage of our times of trial,
affliction, weariness, loneliness, sickness, disappointment, stress
and sorrow to press upon some vulnerable spot in our character to
tempt us into sin. So there He is as our Representative before the
Father's throne pleading our case and as we turn to Him in frank open
confession of our sin He applies the precious blood that cleanses and
enables us to walk again in the light of His holy presence. Christ has
come not only to save us but to save us to the uttermost. A life as
pure and perfect as His own is His only standard for us. For this He
intercedes constantly at His Father's throne.
1 John 2:1, "My little children, these things write I unto you,
that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the
Father, Jesus Christ the righteous."
Heb. 7:25, 26, "Wherefore he is able also to save them to the
uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make
intercession for them. For such an high priest became us, who is holy,
harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the
heavens."
But how could the believer's conscience ever become enlightened
to discern the presence of sin and how would his heart be made to
recoil from its defilement and
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his spirit to resent its intrusion? Here again we see the perfection
of God's grace in the gift of the Holy Spirit by whom the initial work
of sanctification in us is begun and through whom its progressive work
is carried on. It is He who makes us feel the need of cleansing and
leads us to Him who alone can cleanse.
1 Pet. 1:2, "Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the
Father through the sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and
sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ."
2 Thess. 2:13, "God hath from the beginning chosen you to
salvation through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the
truth."
A holy God has opened the way into His presence and has taken
unto Himself a people to live there in abiding communion with Himself.
Blessed the man or the woman who has found his way into that holy
Sanctuary and delights himself in the Holy One! Upon such God sets His
seal signifying that they are His own possession forever and that He
has begun to work within them conformity to the image of His Son. This
seal is none other than the Holy Spirit.
Eph. 1:13, "In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word
of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also after that ye
believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise."
2 Cor. 1:21-22, "Now he which stablisheth us with you in Christ,
and hath anointed us, is God; Who hath also sealed us, and given the
earnest of the Spirit in our hearts."
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VII. CHRIST OUR CAPTAIN AND CONQUEROR
Conflict and Conquest
WHEN Jesus Christ ascended into Heaven He went as Conqueror over
the evil one and all his hosts. When God exalted Him to Lordship over
the universe He set Him at His own right hand far above all the
principalities and powers that belonged to the kingdom of Satan and
put them all under His feet. Through His death upon the Cross Jesus
Christ wrested from Satan every vestige of his claim upon the world
and upon men. Through His resurrection and ascension He passed as
Conqueror through the enemy's territory. At His exaltation God and all
the heavenly host united in crowning Him King of kings and Lord of
lords, the one and only Potentate. Through His Saviourhood He has now
a claim upon every man's life, and through His installation as Head of
the new creation He gained the right to the worship of all that
believe. He has regained for God His sovereignty over millions upon
millions of lives which are now in the possession and use of their
rightful owner. Jesus Christ has entered into the enemy's territory
and inch by inch has won it back for God.
Eph. 1:20-22, "Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him
from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly
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places, Far above all principality, and power, and might, and
dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but
also in that which is to come: And hath put all things under his feet,
and gave him to be the head over all things to the church."
1 Tim. 6:14, 15, "... Our Lord Jesus Christ, which in his times
he shall shew, who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of
kings, and Lord of lords."
Satan was judged, sentenced and doomed at the Cross of Christ
but, until that sentence is executed, he is contesting fiercely the
Lord's victory and with all the might of his supernatural power is
fighting to hold his ground and to regain what he has lost.
This conflict is typified in the conquest of the children of
Israel over the wicked nations dwelling in Canaan as recorded in the
book of Joshua. The land of Canaan was the land that God promised to
the seed of Abraham. It was theirs by the right of God's gift. But it
was occupied by the Canaanites who were an accursed race (Gen. 9:25),
and other kindred nations who also were steeped in iniquity and
wickedness.
These wicked nations in the land of promise were under the
leadership and control of Satan to defeat God in the carrying out of
His divine purpose for, in, and through, His chosen people. Satan,
through his emissaries, would keep God's people from the possession,
enjoyment and use of their promised inheritance. These wicked nations
were very powerful and, although each was under its own ruler, were
easily welded together as one in an aggressive alliance against God's
people.
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God commanded the children of Israel first to enter the promised
land and then to possess and to hold it.
Joshua 1:11, "Pass through the host, and command the people,
saying, Prepare you victuals: for within three days ye shall pass over
this Jordan, to go in to possess the land, which the Lord your God
giveth you to possess it."
God equipped them for the conquest of the land with a promise and
a Presence; the promise was of victory, the Presence was that of the
Victor.
Joshua 1:5, "There shall not any man be able to stand before thee
all the days of thy life; as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee,
I will not fail thee nor forsake thee."
As they moved toward Jericho to begin the conquest of these
strong, powerful enemies, there appeared unto Joshua a man with a
sword drawn in his hand. It was Jehovah, the Lord, who then and there
became the Captain of the hosts of the Israelites as they went forth
into battle against the Lord's enemies and theirs.
Joshua 5:13-14, "And it came to pass, when Joshua was by Jericho,
that he lifted up his eyes and looked, and, behold, there stood a man
over against him with his sword drawn in his hand, and Joshua went
unto him, and said unto him. Art thou for us, or for our adversaries?
And he said, Nay, but as captain of the host of the Lord am I now
come. And Joshua fell on his face to the earth, and did worship, and
said unto him, What saith my lord unto his servant?"
Under the command of the Lord of hosts Israel
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went forth to take Jericho, Ai, Gibeon and to win victory over
thirty-one kings. "The Lord delivered them into the hand of Israel."
The victory of God's children was accomplished through the presence of
the Victor.
Joshua 10:42, "And all these kings and their land did Joshua take
at one time, because the Lord God of Israel fought for Israel."
The book of Joshua in the Old Testament has its counterpart in
the New in the Epistle to the Ephesians. The conflict and conquest of
the children of Israel under Jehovah, the Captain of the host,
foreshadows the conflict and conquest of the new creation, the body of
Christ, under the Lord Jesus Christ, its Head and Conqueror. The
Conflict in the Heavenlies.
"In Christ" in the heavenlies is the believer's promised land.
This is his God-given inheritance promised even before the foundation
of the world (Eph. 1:4, 11). "In Christ" in the heavenlies every
spiritual blessing is his possession by right (Eph. 1:3). Through his
identification with Christ the believer has already entered into the
heavenlies (Eph. 2:5, 6).
Christ, his Saviour, has won him from the kingdom and family of
Satan to the Kingdom and family of God; Christ, his Head, has given
him his own divine [quality of] nature; Christ, his Lord, has
dethroned self and has assumed the undivided control of his life;
Christ, his Life, has shared with him His risen, glorified,
supernatural life in all its fulness; Christ, his Sanctification,
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has put His blood, His Cross and His throne between the believer and
the world, the flesh and the devil; and Christ, his Conqueror, gives
Himself in His High Priestly and intercessory ministry for the
believer's continuous and complete victory.
All this maddens the devil and spurs him into warfare against the
saints of God. It is the twofold triumph of Christ in the believer and
the believer in Christ that causes the conflict in the heavenlies. It
is Satan contesting with Christ His inheritance in the saints and
their inheritance in Him.
It is a spiritual conflict. It is a battle between supernatural
forces. It is he who is the very personification of evil and
wickedness and all his evil subordinates warring against Him who is
the very personification of righteousness and holiness and all of His
holy warriors. It is the hierarchy of hell against the theocracy of
heaven.
Eph. 6:12, R.V., "For our wrestling is not against flesh and
blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the
world rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual hosts of
wickedness in the heavenly places."
If in this conflict Christ is to be manifested as the Victor
there must be on the believer's part a realization of the power of the
enemy. It is a very foolish thing to underestimate the power of the
devil for we do it not only to our hurt but to the detriment of the
body of Christ of which we are a member. The devil is mighty and
powerful; he is cunning and crafty; he is intelligent and industrious.
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His forces of evil are invisible--"not flesh and blood."
They are well-organized--"principalities."
They are well-governed--"powers."
They work in secret--"the darkness of this world."
They are entrenched in innumerable hosts in the very territory
where the believer dwells--"hosts of wickedness in heavenly places."
It behooves the believer to know that he is surrounded by the
unseen, cunning, malicious, powerful hosts of the evil one who plots
his downfall.
1 Pet. 5:8, R.V., "Be sober, be watchful, your adversary, the
devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour."
The believer is the channel through which Christ manifests
Himself to a world in Satan's embrace, and through which Christ
witnesses and works in that world to win it back to Himself. So if the
devil can defeat the believer and cause his testimony, his prayer and
his service, to be powerless, he has to that extent defeated Christ
for he has held his ground in the world and regained ground in the
believer. The only way in which he can hold his kingdom is by keeping
his dominion over human lives. The most holy and spiritual Christian
is Satan's greatest hindrance so against him will be launched his
fiercest onslaughts.
This being true, not only is it necessary to realize the power of
our foe but also to recognize his methods of attack. He is a deceiver
and seldom fights in the open. He lays snares to entrap the ignorant
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and innocent and comes as an angel of light to deceive even the elect.
He works most successfully through the subtlety of seduction.
2 Cor. 2:11, "Lest Satan should get an advantage of us; for we
are not ignorant of his devices."
2 Tim. 2:26, "And that they may recover themselves out of the
snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will."
2 Cor. 11:14, "And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed
into an angel of light."
2 Tim. 3:13, "But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and
worse, deceiving and being deceived."
In the garden of Gethsemane we see the devil making his final
attack upon the God-man by trying to drive a wedge between the Father
and the Son. To accomplish this he aimed his fiery darts at our Lord's
spirit, soul and body. All the hosts of hell were united in that
spiritual battle to keep Him from the Cross. And now he works in every
conceivable way to keep the body of Christ from appropriating and
abiding in the victory He gained for it at the Cross and shares with
it from the throne. Against both the corporate body of Christ and its
individual members the devil is massing his hosts for he knows the
time is now near when the sentence against him will be executed.
To understand his present method of attack we shall need to
remind ourselves that he has two accomplices: the world and the flesh.
The flesh is the material in human life upon which he works and the
world is flesh in the aggregate. We shall need to understand also just
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what the devil is doing in this world which is wholly under his
leadership and control.
His aim, as we have seen in chapter five, is the dethronement of
God. To accomplish this there must be the undermining of the authority
of God in every relationship He bears to man, and the democracy of
self-will must be established in its place. To achieve this success
Satan planned a world-wide revolution in government, in society, and
in religion. His plan is to destroy government through anarchy;
society through debauchery; religion through apostasy.
The daily papers chronicle his successes in his world-wide
revolution in government. Under the deceiving guise of a fair-looking
but falsely-working nationalism he is seducing countless numbers of
men and women in various countries, some of whom are truly honest
patriots at heart, into action that must inevitably end in the
overthrow of stable government.
His successes in the world-wide revolutions in society are no
less apparent. The immodesty and indecency in women's dress, the
surrender of the outward marks of gracious womanliness for an aping
mannishness; the laxness in the marriage vow as evidenced in the
frequency of divorce; the insubordination of children and lack of
parental discipline; the fading of the fair bloom of purity from the
heart life of countless boys and girls; the growing unfaithfulness in
the sacred relationship of husband and wife which reaches its height
in the hell-born doctrine of free-love; the feverish pursuit of
pleasure on the part of both old and young: all are but a few of the
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manifestations of the social debauchery into which the devil is
leading the world.
His successes in the world-wide revolution in religion is a topic
of daily conversation in almost every country of the world today. The
devil would have no religion but devil-worship; he would do away with
all authority but that of self-will. The authority of the Sovereign
God, delegated to the incarnate Word and revealed in the written Word,
is set aside as something obsolete in the modern world. The right of
every man to be a law unto himself in all matters of religion is the
basic principle in the present appalling apostasy.
This terrible condition which God so plainly predicted would be
seen in the last days is clearly outlined in one passage of Scripture.
In the following verses we see the full-blown flower of anarchy,
debauchery and apostasy.
2 Tim. 3:1-8, R.V., "But know this, that in the last days
grievous times shall come. ... For men shall be lovers of self, lovers
of money, boastful, haughty, railers, disobedient to parents,
unthankful, unholy, without natural affection, implacable slanderers,
without self-control, fierce, no lovers of good, traitors,
headstrong, puffed up, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God;
holding a form of godliness, but having denied the power thereof: from
these also turn away. ... For of these are they that creep into houses
and take captive silly women laden with sins, led away by divers lusts
... ever learning and never able to come to a knowledge of the truth.
... And even as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also
withstand the truth; men corrupted in mind, reprobate concerning the
faith."
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Against the corporate body of Christ Satan is working in two very
distinct and definite ways at the present time, through degeneration
and through division.
First of all, he is sowing tares among the wheat. He is placing
his emissaries both in the pulpit and in the pews for the sole purpose
of leavening the whole. He is mixing his own progeny among the people
of God so as to lower the standard of the entire body of Christ. Thus
Christ will be so caricatured before those in Satan's kingdom that
they will see no advantage in leaving it for the Kingdom of God.
Satan is working through his paid and his lay agents in the
professing Church to destroy the sovereignty of God; to undermine the
authority of His Word; to strip Christ of His Deity, and to unseat
Him from the place and preeminence of Lordship; and to lead His people
away from full conformity to the image of Christ by partial conformity
to the standards and fashions of the world. Thus through this
degeneration within the visible Church, the body of Christ is being
made impotent in the midst of the world's appalling need.
The world has its standard of what the Christian should be, and
inconsistent as it may seem, it holds the Church of Christ up to that
standard. A worldlyminded woman was asked by a minister's wife to
become a Christian. Her response was as revealing as it was cutting,
"If I should become a Christian, I could never wear the immodest
clothes that you wear." The emptiness of the pews speaks of the
contempt the world has for a church that degenerates into a lecture
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hall and a place of entertainment. A friend, who was eagerly praying
for a husband's conversion, who out of regard for her went regularly
to church, said, "Oh! why doesn't the minister preach Christ?" "
Anything but Christ crucified, risen, ascended, exalted" is the
devil's motto and he is doing his best to get ministers of the Gospel
to make it theirs.
But the devil has another mode of attack upon the corporate body
of Christ. He is doing a very deadly work even among the saints of God
through division. When he sees that he cannot touch the spiritual man
through deceiving him regarding the fundamental truths of God, or
undermine his love for God, or deflect him from doing the will of God,
then he works to make him so zealous in his defense of the truth, so
ardent in his love for it, so set in his own particular interpretation
of it, that he will not fellowship with those who, as sound and true
and devoted as he, do not see and act as he does. He cannot see that
"adorning the doctrine" may be as great a manifestation of real love
for Christ and as potent a weapon against the appalling apostasy as
"defending" it. Or perhaps in his desire for vital spirituality within
the Church he has placed such emphasis upon some segment of truth that
he unspiritualizes other brethren who do not give that truth the same
emphasis. Thus the devil succeeds in injecting into the very vitals of
Christ's body the poison of acrimonious criticism, unwarranted
suspicion, unloving intolerance and bitter feeling. By weakening and
dividing the spiritual forces of Christ and by turning their eyes in
upon themselves rather than out upon the
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world lying in sin, Satan gains a tremendous victory in the conflict.
But the devil goes still further and presses on in an attack upon
the individual members of Christ's body who have entered into real
oneness with their Lord. He sends forth his fiery darts to carry
depression of spirit, delusion of mind, distraction of heart,
deflection of will and distress of body.
The human spirit is the headquarters of the Holy Spirit in the
believer's life and the vantage ground from which He works to carry
the life of Christ out to the uttermost part of the human personality.
So it is very necessary to have it untrammelled, joyous, assured. But
the evil one works to inject the poison of doubt concerning one's
spiritual condition, and discouragement over one's work. Especially
are Christian workers being attacked in this manner by Satan.
The world today is flooded with cults. Tons of literature are
sent, broadcast filled with Satanic propaganda. Reading rooms and
lecture bureaus are established and everything possible is done to
delude people and to seduce them from the simplicity of the faith of
Christ. Earnest children of God are often caught unawares in some time
of sorrow or affliction when they seek for light and comfort. These
cults hold forth spurious hope through specious lies and people are
ensnared. Or some through neglect of God's Word and failure to
appropriate their inheritance in Christ by faith are unsatisfied in
their Christian lives and turn to one of these novelties in religion
hoping by some short cut to obtain what they have hitherto not had in
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experience. Others who desire the deepest spiritual life are led to
take some truth of God's Word and then go beyond what the Word teaches
regarding it into disastrous error. Or sometimes Satan seduces a
Christian worker into a study of the books of these various cults
under the guise of ability to save others from deception, and he
thereby becomes entrapped. Satan has a thousand methods suited to the
temperament and circumstances of the one he is trying to ensnare.
Satan hates the Word of God and works against it by blinding men's eyes
(2 Cor. 4:4), by substituting his own doctrines (1 Tim. 4:1-2), by
contradicting it (Gen. 3:5), by wresting it (Matt. 4:6), by leading
men to disbelieve it (2 Tim. 4:3-4), by taking it out of men's hearts
(Mark 4:15). Above all he would keep God's children ignorant of the
truth concerning himself which the Bible reveals, and of the victory
which Christ Jesus has already gained over him at the Cross.
Satan works to cause distraction of heart. Many of God's
consecrated children are being tortured by cruel and crushing
suffering and sorrow which has its source in Satan. He is sending his
poisoned shaft into the home and alienating husband and wife through
unfaithfulness. He is causing estrangements in family circles based on
falsehood, misunderstanding and false interpretation of motives, words
and acts. Through the shirking of the burden on the part of one member
of the family he is placing an intolerable load upon another. Others
who have made their business a real partnership with God he attempts
to overwhelm with business perplexities and financial losses through
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the unscrupulousness of others. The evil one works to rob God's child
of the peace of God.
Satan schemes to cause deflection from God's plan and purpose in
work. He will do anything to keep God's child from the direct work of
saving souls. He directs the attention to secondary matters; he
divides the energy over unnecessary tasks, and he darkens the mind
over questions of guidance.
Satan works to cause distress of body through weakening it by
disease or crippling it by disaster (Job 2:7). Through his continued
onslaughts upon every part of the believer's being the devil is trying
to move him out of the will of God by getting him experimentally out
of his position in Christ Jesus.
The Captain of the Host
Some believers are ensnared by Satan because they fail to realize
his power and to recognize his tactics. But others make the equally
fatal mistake of overestimating his power and of over-emphasis upon
his activities. He is mighty, but there is One infinitely mightier. He
is powerful, but there is One who is allpowerful. He can and does
attack us from without, but there is an omnipotent, triumphant One who
can and does strengthen, sustain and energize us from within. He is
the One to whom all power has been given in Heaven and upon earth. He
is the Captain of our salvation; the Leader of God's hosts.
1 John 4:4, "Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome
them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the
world."
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Matt. 28:18, "And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All
power is given unto me in heaven and in earth."
Rom. 8:37, "Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors
through him that loved us."
Heb. 2:10, "For it became him, for whom are all things, and by
whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the
captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings."
The believer should always look upon Satan as a defeated foe. He
has already been overcome by the Captain of our host. Any power which
he exercises today is only a permitted power that God may get greater
glory to Himself through the victory gained by His child before a
doubting world, and also that the Christian's life in Christ may be
deepened and strengthened. Satan was permitted through his human tools
to stone Stephen to death but through Stephen's gloriously triumphant
martyrdom God won the crown jewel from Satan's diadem, Saul of Tarsus.
He was allowed through human instruments to put to death the Lord of
glory but in doing it he sent himself to the bottomless pit.
That wicked one has no claim whatever upon one who is born of God
and he has no power to harm or hurt him. The believer who is hid with
Christ in God and who is one with his ascended Lord has the right to
claim the perfect protection which that position provides and to
reckon himself as a conqueror in Christ Jesus.
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1 John 5:18, "We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not;
but that he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked
one toucheth him not."
Rom. 16:20, "And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your
feet shortly."
The Captain of the host never commanded the children of Israel to
fight for a position of victory but to fight from a position of
victory. In His reckoning the battle was won before it was begun. Even
before entrance into a battle He invariably spoke in the past tense of
the deliverance of the enemy into their hands.
Josh. 6:2-3, "And the LORD said unto Joshua, See I HAVE given
into thine hand Jericho, and the king thereof, and the mighty men of
valour. And ye SHALL compass the city, all ye men of war, and go round
about the city once. Thus shalt thou do six days."
Then why did they have to fight the battle at all? That through
faith in their Captain and His Word they might come to share His
assurance of complete conquest over the enemy. While the walls of
Jericho were still standing and the children of Israel were shut
outside the gates Joshua proclaimed to the people that their conquest
of the city was an accomplished fact.
Josh. 6:16, "And it came to pass at the seventh time, when the
priests blew with the trumpets, Joshua said unto the people, Shout;
for the LORD HATH given you the city."
The battle of the believer is that of faith from his
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position of accomplished victory over the evil one through his oneness
with His ascended Lord.
The Conquest of the Enemy
In Ephesians 6:10-18 our Captain tells us that power to stand
against the enemy depends upon our position and upon our protection.
Eph. 6:10-11, "Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and
in the power of his might. Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may
be able to stand against the wiles of the devil."
In ourselves we have no power and we would have to succumb
instantly to the attacks of the evil one. But "In Christ" oh! how
different! Our Victor over Satan envelops us for we are hid with
Christ in God. As some one has truly said, "Before the devil can reach
your life to touch it, he must get through God and through Christ."
Our part then in the conquest is, calmly and confidently, to meet
every onslaught of the enemy from our hidden position in Christ Jesus
and to sing as we fight "The Lord HATH given me the victory." Then it
will be ours in the conquering power of His might.
In ourselves we have no power to withstand the continuous attacks
of the enemy against every part of our lives. But God has provided an
armour that will protect at every point.
Eph. 6:14-18, R.V., "Stand therefore, having girded your loins
with truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness ... and
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having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace;
withal taking up the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to
quench all the fiery darts of the evil one. ... And take the helmet of
salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God: ...
with all prayer and supplication praying at all seasons in the Spirit
and watching thereunto in all perseverance and supplication for all
the saints."
"Stand--girded with truth." The power of the deceiver lies in his
ability to persuade people to believe him instead of God and thus to
lead them into doubt, disbelief and error. The antidote to this
deception is to abide in Him who is the truth. We should saturate our
lives in the truth of His love, His faithfulness, His power, His
holiness, His purposes, yea, in the truth of Christ Himself so that
such truth like a girdle will bind us to Him in unswerving love and
loyalty. But we need also to have Him, who is the truth, abide in us
so that there may be nothing hypocritical, dishonest or shady upon
which the prince of darkness can lay hold and use against us.
"Stand--having put on the breastplate of righteousness." Rooted
in Him who is our righteousness and growing up into His own
uprightness of life more perfectly day by day through the indwelling
and working of the Holy Spirit, the believer can stand before every
accusation of the devil with "a conscience void of offense toward God
and men," as the tall pine tree whose roots have hid themselves in the
bowels of the earth resists the blasts of the winter storm.
"Stand--having shod your feet with the preparation
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of the Gospel of peace." Our walk is through a world of disorder.
Thousands of things happen to us to cut, to bruise, to wound, to
grieve, to rob us of the peace of God that passeth all understanding
and to hinder our testimony regarding a Gospel of peace and joy and
rest. Countless things occur, many of them very trivial, which the
devil rejoices to use to cause estrangement and misunderstanding. But
the believer has the love of God in his heart so he is enabled to live
at peace with all men. Over the mountain roads of Switzerland
travellers wear heavy boots with thick soles, often with spikes, so
that as they walk over the rough, stony paths they are unbruised, and
over the ice and snow they are kept from stumbling and falling. They
are rightly shod.
"Stand--taking the shield of faith." Conybeare's translation adds
to the understanding of this direction from our Captain by saying
"take up to cover you the shield of faith." How does the believer know
from which direction the enemy under the cover of darkness will send
forth a fiery dart, or at what point in his life it may be aimed? Paul
speaks of "all" the fiery darts intimating that possibly the devil
sends many of them at the same time. There is great need that faith
should be a covering. So the believer needs to walk in faith, to pray
in faith, to speak in faith, to praise in faith, to live continuously
believing in the faithfulness of God to keep that which has been
committed unto Him.
[1 Pet. 5:9, "Whom resist steadfast in THE FAITH (DOCTRINE) ..."]
"Stand--taking the helmet of salvation." The helmet is for the
head. One of the most vulnerable places
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in the believer is his thoughts. Perhaps the devil finds entrance here
more quickly than elsewhere. Is this not the reason why the Apostle
Paul exhorts Christians to think of things that are "true, honest,
just, pure, lovely, and of good report"? Every thought needs to be
brought into captivity to the obedience of Christ if the believer is
to know how to refuse the thoughts that come from the evil one. Satan
also finds an undisciplined, undiscerning mind an easy prey to his
delusions and ofttimes an unconscious instrument in his service. Even
earnest Christians are often gullible and commend a sermon that is
saturated with the most insidious denial of the person and work of
Jesus Christ because it is couched in eloquent, fervent language and
even flattering admiration of the Lord it betrays. If ever there was a
time when Christians needed to put on the helmet of salvation it is
now. And putting it on will mean such a thorough and intelligent
knowledge of salvation in Christ as shall make the believer impervious
to every Satanic attack even in these days of growing apostasy.
"Stand--taking the sword of the Spirit." Jesus Christ puts into
the Christian's heart and hand the only weapon which He Himself used
when He won that perfect victory in the wilderness. The sword of the
Word of God, when used in the power of the Holy Spirit, is the
mightiest weapon in this spiritual conflict. Satan cannot stand before
"It is written" spoken out of the assurance of the believer's own
experience of its absolute trustworthiness and power. It is the
spiritual man who has been taught by the
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Holy Spirit the very deep things of God who is best able to put the
enemy to rout by the use of this powerful weapon.
"Stand--praying in the Spirit and watching." The Christian
warrior clad in his protective armour is now ready for the hardest
fight of the battle. It is "prayer and supplication in the Spirit and
watching thereunto" until the enemy is routed. It takes a truly
spiritual man to be a potent prayer warrior. True "praying in the Holy
Spirit" leads him out of himself into intercession for the lifting of
the whole body of Christ to life on the highest plane and for the
victory of the ascended Head to be manifested in the whole life of
each member of His body on earth.
Thus the believer, who is deeply rooted in his position in Christ
and who has put on the whole of his protective armour, is able to
stand and to withstand every onslaught and attack of Satan. The ground
gained for him by Christ is held by him for Christ and a steady and
successful advance is made into the territory still held in the
dominion of the evil one. The spiritual man becomes an overcomer and,
one with his ascended Lord, rejoices in daily and hourly conquest in
this spiritual conflict in the heavenlies.
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VIII. LIFE ON THE HIGHEST PLANE
IN the quiet of a village in Switzerland God has been teaching me
many precious lessons about this ascent to life on the highest plane.
Grindelwald is thirty-six hundred feet above the sea and from my
window I can see four majestic, snow-capped mountains rise to immense
heights out of this little valley. For days after coming here I was
absolutely satisfied with what I could see from my window. What more
of beauty, of majesty, of glory could one want or take inl But as I
got a glimpse here and there of higher peaks hidden from view by these
nearer mountains the desire came to climb to some place where I could
look out over them all.
One day a party of us started on such a climb. The way was
unknown to us but green paint on rock, tree and fence told us the
path. We carried that day only what was necessary for the trip;
everything but what we actually needed was left behind. The path led
steadily up with almost no stretches on the level, in places quite
steep. As the sun shone upon us we grew warm, the rough, stony places
made our feet burn and ache, unused muscles were stretched and
strained, and we had to stop often to rest; every part of the body
felt the tug of the climb. To endure the difficulties of the mountain
climb and to enjoy all the beautiful things God has placed along the
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way to see and hear and smell, every faculty of our being and every
member of our body was brought into play.
Very often on the upward climb we stopped to rest and refresh
ourselves by looking back over the road already traversed and at the
new beauties that greeted us the higher up we went. At one point in
the way we caught sight of just the summit of a pyramid-shaped,
snow-covered peak different from all others we had seen. It arrested
our attention and provoked inquiry because of its distinctiveness in
shape and its purity of covering. How thrilled we were to learn that
it was the Jungfrau, that queen of the Alps.
But oh! what joy when we reached the Waldspitz and how amply
repaid we felt in just one moment's time as we gazed at that
indescribably beautiful panorama of several of the highest snow-capped
Alpine mountains, which is thought one of three of the most beautiful
views in Switzerland. Below us the valley and everything in it seemed
dwarfed; the glaciers that in the valley towered so high were now so
far below; and the nearer mountains that from the valley seemed so
high as to live in the clouds were overtowered by the majestic
Schreckhorn and the peerless Jungfrau.
We were very, very far yet from reaching the highest height of
the Alps but we had gone far enough on such a mountain climb to know
that it was worth all it cost, and to get a vision of what majestic
glory must be in store for one who dared to go to the top where he
could look up to God's heaven and out over God's world from the
highest plane.
Dare I hope that the studies in this book have meant
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just such a spiritual ascent to some readers? Did the book find you
living in the heat and stress and strife of life below sea level, on
the plane of the natural but with a true desire to seek relief in a
higher spiritual altitude? Or had you already left the old sphere of
the natural and were enjoying life a few hundred feet above sea level,
on the plane of the carnal? Had you settled down in complacent
self-satisfaction with what you could see from the little window of
your valley experience and had you become content to live at the
half-way house of spiritual achievement? Did you aspire for nothing
higher than the pleasant walks you could take on the level road where
you would not need spiked shoes, a traveller's kit and a climber's
stick but could still wear your best clothes and high heeled shoes and
only get comfortably tired? But when the book found you was there a
stirring of discontent in your soul because at times when walking in
communion with Him alone, or in the companionship with some saint of
God who had reached the highest plane and told you of its glories, you
had seen glimpses of a life in Christ immeasurably beyond anything you
had ever seen or dreamed of, and your whole soul cried within you for
an experience of such victory, glory, peace and holiness as you knew
were possible?
Dare I hope that you essayed to make the climb and that the
studies, chapter by chapter, have pointed the way for you out of the
natural into the spiritual life in Christ Jesus? I know from
experience that it has not been an easy climb. Besetting sins and
hindering weights have had to be left behind and only those
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things taken with you which would strengthen and assist you on the
upward climb toward God; the sunshine of God's chastening has heated
you to the highest pitch of endurance at times; your feet have been
cut and torn by the temptations and afflictions along the way; unused
muscles of faith, love, longsuffering, patience and devotion have been
stretched to the point of strain; perhaps you have been easily winded
by the buffeting and blows of the world, the flesh and the devil. I am
sure that before you had gone very far from the valley experience of
life on the carnal plane you found that every part of your being was
feeling the pull of the climb; and that spirit, soul and body needed
to be wholly sanctified and surrendered to the Lord Jesus Christ and
put under the control and guidance of the Holy Spirit, that you might
not be overcome by the difficulties and might not miss the blessings
God had strewn along the way.
But now you have reached the place where you may look out upon
God's spiritual Alpine range of salvation and get one glorious
panoramic view of peak upon peak which altogether reveal the infinite
grace and boundless love of the triune God. Off yonder in the range of
vision are the twin peaks of Forgiveness and Justification; next in
sharp, clear outline is the lovely peak of Regeneration; further to
the back is a majestic peak which one does not see at all from the
valley viewpoint of the carnal life because it is hidden by the nearer
mountain of Regeneration, the peak of Identification with Christ in
His death, resurrection, ascension and present life in glory. But off
in the distance is one peak
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different from all the rest, distinctive in its snowwhite purity and
holiness, the crown of all the others. It is Sanctification, the
Jungfrau of spiritual experience. As you have gazed upon the flawless
perfection, the indescribable grandeur, the overpowering majesty of
the wonders of God's infinite grace and perfect love has not
everything in the valley of your carnal life seemed to sink into utter
insignificance? Have not things which seemed high above you and that
overpowered you by their weight taken their proper place beneath your
feet? Have you not realized how shut in you were down there by narrow
interests, selfish enjoyments, petty pleasures, puny aspirations? Do
you not feel that life for you can never again be the same now that
you have felt the thrill of the climb on the ascent and have viewed
God's gracious, glorious plan of salvation from the mountain top?
If this be true of you, dear fellow-traveller, may we not just
rest a while with this glorious vision before us and sit in quiet
meditation upon what we have seen life on the highest plane to be.
It is a Life Saved through God's Gracious Provision.
The salvation which God has provided for the sinner is a perfect
salvation. It is without a flaw. It provides for his past, present and
future. It covers every need of every part of his being under every
circumstance. It relates him rightly to Heaven and to earth; to the
divine and to the human; to God and to man for time and for eternity.
It is a salvation to the uttermost.
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Such a salvation is the gracious provision of God in Christ.
Apart from Jesus Christ no man can be saved; in Christ any man may be
saved to the uttermost because in Christ incarnate, crucified, risen,
ascended and exalted, God found everything needful to restore a
believing sinner to fellowship with Himself.
Acts 4:12, "Neither is there salvation in any other; for there,
is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be
saved."
2 Tim. 2:10, "Therefore I endure all things for the elect's sake,
that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with
eternal glory."
The provision that God made in Christ for every believer is
threefold. He sent Him to die on the Cross as our Saviour; He raised
Him from the dead to make Him the Head and the Lord of the Church, His
body; and He exalted Him to His right hand and gave Him all power in
Heaven and upon earth that He might share Himself and His possession
in the heavenlies with His joint-heirs on earth. The one who has
reached the goal of life on the highest plane has accepted Christ as
his Saviour, yielded to Him as his Lord, and appropriated Him as his
Life. It is a Life Conformed to God's Perfect Pattern.
Complete conformity of the penitent, believing sinner to the
image of his perfect Saviour was the purpose of the wondrous plan of
salvation wrought out in the eternal counsels of the triune God before
ever the world or man was made.
God laid the foundation for such an achievement
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in the creation of the first man in His own image. In His second Man
God gave mankind the perfect Pattern to which He would conform every
believer in Christ Jesus. May we see, then, what were the constituent
elements in the life of this perfect Pattern that we may fully
understand and quickly respond to the operation of the Holy Spirit as
He works to fashion us according to it.
We have seen in our study on the incarnation that the life of the
God-man was a truly human life in every sense in which our life is
human, except in its sinfulness. He lived in the same kind of a world
and was involved in the same kind of relationships. So the constituent
elements in His moral and spiritual character that enables Him to be a
perfect Pattern to all mankind must be in us if we are fully conformed
to His image.
The God-man's surpassing perfection is seen most clearly in His
relationship to His Father which was one of unimpaired obedience and
of unintermittent dependence. The will of God was the center and the
circumference of His life and all that took place from His birth in
the manger to His death on the Cross was the execution of His Father's
will. He came, He lived, He died, that His Father's will might be done
on earth as it is done in Heaven. Obedience was the invariable,
unalterable rule in the life of Christ on earth. He always said "yes"
to God. Self-will had no place in His life.
Heb. 10:9, "Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He
taketh away the first, that he may establish the second."
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John 6:38, "For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will,
but the will of him that sent me."
John 4:34, "Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of
him that sent me, and to finish his work."
Christ, the perfect Pattern, was also absolutely dependent.
Self-trust had no place in the life of the God-man. The last Adam
lived the life of dependence which the first Adam refused to live.
Never was a life lived on earth so dependent upon God as was His. His
thoughts, His words, His works, were those of His Father. He was a
Sent One and He did only what He had been sent to do. He never
initiated or executed anything which had its spring in Himself for His
was a life "insulated in God's will." In His utter dependence upon God
the last Adam was the perfect Pattern.
John 5:30, "I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I
judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but
the will of the Father which hath sent me."
John 14:10, "Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the
Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself:
but the Father, that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works."
The God-man's surpassing perfection is seen again most
transparently in His glorious victory and in His spotless holiness.
Tempted in all points as we are, having
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no companionship but that of sinful men and women in a world of sin,
tested by His Father and tempted by the devil, yet He came forth so
victorious that both friend and foe alike acknowledged no fault in
Him.
Luke 23:22, "And he said unto them the third time, Why, what evil
hath he done? I have found no cause of death in him; I will therefore
chastise him, and let him go."
1 Pet. 2:22, "Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his
mouth."
But the perfection of His character did not consist so much in
the negative quality of sinlessness as in the positive one of
holiness--a holiness so rare, so wondrous, so unearthly that it
compelled His Father to break the silence of Heaven three times that
He might speak forth His divine appreciation and evaluation of it.
Luke 1:35, "And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy
Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall
overshadow thee; therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of
thee shall be called the Son of God."
Matt. 17:5, "While he yet spake, behold, a bright cloud
overshadowed them; and behold a voice out of the cloud, which said,
This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased, hear ye him."
The God-man's surpassing perfection is seen again most wondrously
in His regal righteousness and in His
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sacrificial love. "He came unto his own, and his own received him
not." He was despised, persecuted, rejected and finally crucified by
the very ones He came to save yet there was never a trace of
bitterness, malice or revenge in His heart. Even from the Cross He
prayed for His murderers. He was reviled, yet He showed no trace of
retaliation; He suffered unjustly, yet He made no threats of redress.
When He drove the money changers from the temple and when He spoke the
scorching, scathing denunciations of the hypocritical Pharisees it was
but the outward expression of His own regal righteousness. Whether
dealing with friend or foe, in mercy or in judgment, Christ Jesus was
always the perfect Pattern.
1 Pet. 2:21-23, "For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ
also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his
steps. Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth: Who, when
he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened
not; but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously."
But it was in His sacrificial love for men that the perfection of
Christ's character shone forth even more than in His righteous
treatment of them. Christ Jesus never pampered or pleased Himself.
Though weary and hungry the soul need of a prostitute in Samaria would
detain Him by Jacob's well while the others went on into town to buy
food; His night's sleep was gladly forfeited that He might talk with
the man who feared to come to Him by day; He did not stop short
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with self-emptying and self-humbling, costly as they were, but kept on
giving Himself even unto death, yea, the death of the Cross. The
God-man pouring out His soul unto death in sacrificial love is the
perfect Pattern.
John 15:12, "This is my commandment, that ye love one another as
I have loved you."
The spiritual man is the man who lives his daily life according
to the perfect Pattern. In Him are to be found the same constituent
moral and spiritual elements which were regnant in the character and
conduct of the God-man. He has made the will of Jesus Christ the
center and the circumference of his life, and so he is obedient. He
acknowledges that he has no life apart from Christ and takes the Lord
Jesus for everything in his inner life, his environment and his
service, and so he is dependent. The spiritual man has crowned Christ
Lord and placed his life completely under the control of his Master,
therefore he is gloriously victorious. He has appropriated Christ as
the Life of his life therefore he becomes the partaker of His
holiness. The spiritual man has accepted Christ's commission as one
sent into the world to save sinners even as Christ accepted this
commission from His Father, so his attitude to all men whether friend
or foe is based on Christ's principles of righteousness and love.
The spiritual man is one who is being conformed to the image of
Christ, the perfect Pattern. When this
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has been said, everything has been said. In God's reckoning there is
nothing for man beyond conformity to the image of His Son. Christ is
God's perfection and to be fully conformed to His image is to be
perfect before Him.
The process of conformity is going on day by day in the spiritual
man's life. It is a transformation from obedience to obedience, from
dependence to dependence, from victory to victory, from holiness to
holiness, from righteousness to righteousness and from love to love.
As the spiritual man gets a larger vision of this perfect Pattern
through daily study of God's Word, he takes higher ground along the
line of the God-given revelation, so that his life is a continuous
growing up into Christ in all things.
2 Cor. 3:18, R.V., "But we all, with unveiled face beholding as
in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image
from glory to glory, even as from the Lord the Spirit."
Eph. 4:15, "But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him
in all things, which is the head, even Christ."
The consummation of this conformity will not be experienced until
the Lord Jesus returns to take His own to be forever beyond the
presence of sin into the presence of the Saviour (1 John 3:2). It is a
Life Perfected by God's Holy Presence.
I hasten to this point because I would not have any one think
even for an instant that conformity to the image of Christ is effected
by imitation of a Pattern, no matter how perfect. Such conformity as
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the Bible speaks of is not wrought in the believer through the
imitation of a Pattern without but through the presence of a Person
within. It is only through the union whereby the Vine lives in the
branch and the branch in the Vine that such conformity is found. It is
only the man who apprehends his position in Christ and Christ's
possession in him who grows up into likeness to his Lord. It is only
the man who consistently can say, "Christ liveth in me" who can say
honestly, "To me to live is Christ." It is not the imitation of the
incarnate Son but it is the indwelling of the crucified, risen,
ascended, exalted Son that perfects conformity to His image. What He
was I am to be because of what He did on the Cross and now does from
the throne. It is the Father's answer to the last three words of His
Son's High-Priestly prayer that produces conformity to Christ in the
believer. Oneness with the Lord makes likeness to the Lord.
John 15:5, "I am the Vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth
in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without
me ye can do nothing."
John 17:26, "And I have declared unto them thy name, and will
declare it; that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them
and I in them."
It is a Life Energized by God's Mighty Power.
One has only to begin to live his life on the highest plane to
know that life can never be maintained on that level in one's own
power. Living steadfastly and habitually in the altitude of the
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heavenlies is the spiritual man's greatest difficulty. Even after
taking Christ Jesus as his perfect Pattern and realizing His holy
Presence within, the believer often has periods of dismal failure and
terrible defeat.
But the spiritually minded man has learned God's way of
maintaining his life in the heavenlies and his life is energized by
the mighty power of the Holy Spirit whom God bestows upon every child
of His. The Holy Spirit is given when the new nature is imparted to
the believer for the very purpose of effecting this growing conformity
to the image of Christ.
Eph. 3:16, 17, 19, 20, "That he would grant you, according to the
riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in
the inner man: That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; ...
That ye might be filled unto all the fulness of God. ... Now unto him
that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or
think, according to the power that worketh in us."
Life on the highest plane is consistently and continuously
maintained by the energizing power of the indwelling Spirit of God. It
is a Life fulfilling God's Eternal Purpose.
Before ever the world was created or man was made to inhabit it
God had a purpose which He intended to carry out through His Son.
Eph. 3:11, "According to the eternal purpose which he purposed in
Christ Jesus our Lord."
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2 Tim'. 1:9, "Who hath saved us and called us with an holy
calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose
and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began."
This purpose God kept hid in His heart, yet throughout all the
centuries preceding the incarnation of His eternal Son He was working
toward its fulfilment. Then Christ came, lived, died, rose again and
ascended into Heaven. Now the time had come both for the revelation
and the realization of this purpose. Through the Apostle Paul, God's
chosen vessel, the revelation of this eternal purpose of God in Christ
Jesus was made and its clearest unfolding is given to us in the
Epistle to the Ephesians.
Through the finished work of Christ upon the Cross and from the
throne God would call out a people unto Himself who during this
present period of His Son's absence from earth would witness and work
for Him here as His body and upon His return to earth to reign would
come with Him as His bride.
Eph. 1:22-23, "And hath put all things under his feet, and gave
him to be the head over all things to the church, Which is his body,
the fulness of him that filleth all in all."
Rev. 21:9, "And there came unto me one of the seven angels, which
had seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me,
saying, Come hither, I will show thee the bride, the Lamb's wife."
The Holy Spirit as a purifying and energizing power works within
the Church to prepare it to live on earth
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as Christ's body and to present it in Heaven to Christ as His bride.
2 Tim. 2:20-21, "But in a great house there are not only vessels
of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some to
honour and some to dishonour. If a man therefore purge himself from
these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, meet for the
master's use, and prepared unto every good work."
Eph. 5:25-27, "Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also
loved the church, and gave himself for it; That he might sanctify and
cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, That he might
present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle,
or any such thing: but that it should be holy and without blemish."
But there are two things which are absolutely essential in the
relationship between Christ and the believer if God's eternal purpose
is to be fulfilled; one is communion and the other is cooperation. God
is love and love is a reciprocal thing. Love must both give and
receive. There is no such thing as love between God and man or man and
man unless there exists in the relationship both communion and
cooperation, and the greater the love the fuller is the communion and
the cooperation.
In the eternity of the past the eternal Son rested in the bosom
of the eternal Father--that was communion. And when the triune God
initiated the wondrous plan of redemption the eternal Son offered
Himself as the Lamb to be slain--that was cooperation. In the garden
of Eden the Lover-Creator and His first man must have walked often in
the garden in the cool
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of the day--that was communion. And the sovereign Lord God gave to His
subject the dominion over everything on earth--that was cooperation.
The night before His crucifixion the God-man sat at supper with the
twelve--that was communion. And before He ascended into Heaven He
said, "All power is given unto me in heaven and on earth. Go ye,
therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the
Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost; teaching them to
observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you"--that is
cooperation.
The spiritual man apprehends this truth and appreciates the
significance of it. He sees that it means such a yielding of himself
to Jesus Christ as Lord, as will make possible the perfect possession,
the complete control and the unhindered use of his entire being. He
clearly perceives that salvation includes sanctification and that life
on the highest plane demands not only a separation from sin but a
separation unto God and he rejoices in being thus wholly set apart
unto communion and cooperation with the Lord of Glory. It is a Life
Fashioned on God's Original Plan.
In God's original plan the human personality was a unity. The
human spirit, dominated and directed by the Holy Spirit was supreme in
authority over the soul and the body so that the Holy Spirit through
the channel of the human spirit made and kept the whole being
spiritual.
As we have seen in Chapter IV sin began its deadly work in Adam's
spirit by severing it from the divine Spirit thus alienating it from
the life of God and
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making it a death chamber. Sin also dethroned it as sovereign over the
human personality and made it a slave to the soul and body. Thus sin
left the human spirit darkened, deadened and dethroned. Salvation must
begin where sin began; the human spirit must be quickened. The
sovereignty of the Holy Spirit over it must be restored, and its
supremacy over soul and body must be revived.
The human spirit was made the receptacle of the eternal life of
God. Salvation always outruns sin for "where sin abounded grace did
much more abound." In the quickening of the human spirit God not only
made it cease being a death chamber but He made it the receptacle of
the eternal life of the triune God. Through the new birth He implanted
within it something which had never been there before, the divine,
spiritual, eternal life of the triune God in the person of Christ the
Son "in whom dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily" (Col.
2:9).
1 John 5:11-12, "And this is the record, that God hath given to
us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son
hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life."
Into this quickened spirit the Holy Spirit comes to dwell,
feeding and fostering this new life within that it may grow up "into a
perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ"
(Eph. 4:13). A renewal of this divine life within is made daily by the
Holy Spirit.
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Ez. 36:26-27, "A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit
will I put within you, and I will take away the stony heart out of
your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put my
Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall
keep my judgments, and do them."
2 Cor. 4:16, "For which cause we faint not; but though our
outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day."
The spiritual man is one in whom the human spirit is
supernaturally recreated through the implantation of the uncreated
life of God at the new birth. Into this quickened spirit the Holy
Spirit has come to abide, to control, to renew and to energize.
Between them "a perpetual partnership" is established. Through this
supernatural reunion of the divine Spirit and the human spirit Christ
and the believer are joined into one spirit.
2 Cor. 6:17, "But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit."
Through this act of God in regeneration the maladjustment within
the believer's human personality is remedied. True balance between the
constituent parts is restored; the sovereignty of the spirit over soul
and body is revived, and the human spirit is again the premier in the
governmental affairs of the human being, and the soul and body are its
loyal and faithful underlings.
The human soul becomes the illumined vessel of the divine Spirit.
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(1) The mind is renewed. The spiritual man is spiritually-minded.
He thinks the thoughts of God. He craves divine wisdom (1 Cor. 2:7);
he sits at the feet of a divine Teacher (John 16:13); he loves God with all his mind (Matt 22:37); he minds
the things of the Spirit (Rom. 8:5); he thinks on the things that are
true, honest, just, pure, lovely, and of good report (Phil. 4:8); he
is of one mind with his brethren (Phil. 2:2); he has the mind of
Christ (1 Cor. 2:16) so he is of sound mind, (2 Tim. 1:7) and every
thought is brought into captivity to the obedience of Christ (2 Cor.
10:5). Intellect, reason and every faculty of his mind are renewed and
illumined by Him who knows the mind of God.
Eph. 4:23, "And be renewed in the spirit of your mind."
Rom. 8:6, "For to be carnally minded is death; but to be
spiritually minded is life and peace."
Phil. 2:5, "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ
Jesus."
(2) The heart is purified. The spiritual man is pure-hearted. He
wants to possess his inheritance in Christ so he sets his affection on
things above (Col. 3:2); he craves the vision of God granted only to
the pure in heart (Matt. 5:8); he desires to see his Lord which is
only the prerogative of the holy (Heb. 12:14); he seeks the conformity
to Christ promised upon His return to those who purify themselves even
as He is pure (1 John 3:2), and so he allows the Holy Spirit to do
within him all needed work of pruning and purifying.
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Acts 15:8-9, "And God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them
witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us; And put
no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith."
1 Thess. 3:13, "To the end that he may stablish your hearts
unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of
our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints."
(3) The will is energized. The spiritual man knows that at the
center of Satan's being is self-will and that every one, in whose life
self-will is supreme, is the seed and the subject of Satan. He knows
that at the center of Christ's being is God's will and that every one
in whose life God's will is supreme is the seed and the subject of
Christ. He has compared and contrasted the "I will" of Satan, Isa.
14:12-15 and its result in Rev. 20:7-15 with the "I will" of Christ in
Heb. 10:5-13 and its result in Phil. 2:5-11 and has decided to cast in
his lot for time and for eternity with Jesus Christ the obedient,
dependent One. The spiritual man looks to the Holy Spirit to work in
and then work out God's perfect will within him.
Heb. 13:21, "Make you perfect in every good work to do his will,
working in you that which is well-pleasing in his sight, through Jesus
Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever."
Phil. 2:13, "For it is God which worketh in you both to will and
to do of his good pleasure."
The human body becomes the habitation of the
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triune God on earth. The spiritual man apprehends the spiritual
significance and sacredness of his body. Under the Holy Spirit's
illumination he learns what it becomes through the new birth.
(1) The body is the temple of the living God.
2 Cor. 6:16, "And what agreement hath the temple of God with
idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I
will dwell in them, and walk in them; I will be their God, and they
shall be my people."
(2) The body is the temple of the Holy Spirit.
1 Cor. 6:19-20, "What! know ye not that your body is the temple
of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are
not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in
your body, and in your spirit, which are God's."
(3) The body is a member of the Lord Jesus Christ.
1 Cor. 6:15, "Know ye not that your bodies are the members of
Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them the
members of an harlot? God forbid."
(4) The body is the container of the heavenly treasure.
2 Cor. 4:7, "But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that
the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us."
(5) The body is the channel for good works.
2 Cor. 5:10, "For we must all appear before the judgment seat of
Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body,
according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad."
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(6) The body is Christ's broadcasting station.
2 Cor. 4:10-11, "Always bearing about in the body the dying of
the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be manifest in our
body. For we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus'
sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal
flesh."
The spiritual man perceives through this truth that God wishes to
become incarnate and to dwell on earth and that the way in which He
has chosen to do this is by having the perfect possession, the
complete control and the unhindered use of the human body of the
believer. Acting upon this knowledge the spiritual man has presented
God with his body here and now as a living sacrifice.
Rom. 12:1, "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of
God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable
unto God, which is your reasonable service."
Not wishing to run any risk of defrauding God or of deceiving
himself in regard to the completeness of this transaction he makes a
special gift to God of each individual member of his body to be used
hereafter as God's instrument.
Rom. 6:13, "Neither yield ye your members as instruments of
unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that
are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of
righteousness unto God."
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But the spiritual man knows also that the redemption of the body
is not yet completed and will not be until the Lord comes again when
this body of humiliation will be exchanged for one glorified even as
Christ's is glorified now (Rom. 8:23, Phil. 3:20-21, R.V.). He knows
further that the flesh is still entrenched within him even though he
is not now in the sphere of the flesh and that he is still environed
by a hostile, hateful world.
Rom. 8:10, "And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of
sin; but the spirit is life because of righteousness."
John 17:15, 18, R.V., "I pray not that thou shouldst take them
from the world, but that thou shouldst keep them from the evil one.
... As thou didst send me into the world, even so sent I them into
the world."
So he understands the need of constant vigilance over the body
that it may be kept under the dominating control of the Holy Spirit
lest he yield to any of the appetites, passions and lusts of the flesh
or be conformed to the fashions and foibles of the world. The
spiritual man is willing for any work of the Holy Spirit within him in
the way of discipline that will keep the body under and enable him to
possess it in honour and sanctification.
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1 Cor. 9:27, "But I keep under my body, and bring it into
subjection; lest by any means, when I have preached to others, I
myself should be a cast-away."
1 Thess. 4:4, "That every one of you shall know how to possess
his vessel in sanctification and honour."
Thus we see that in grace the human personality was sacredly
preserved as an entity as it was made in creation and remained in the
fall. All that was ruined was redeemed and restored, plus. For through
the new nature imparted and the new life implanted that which in
creation was earthly and human only, in re-creation became heavenly
and divine. With this perfect adjustment to God, the life becomes
righteous and holy; and then of necessity follows adjustment within
and without. Through the spiritual man's perfect harmony with God,
with himself and with others the Kingdom of God begins on earth and
the will of God is done on earth as it is in Heaven. It is a Life
Lived on God's Appointed Plane.
As God has never had but one plan for the life of man and that a
spiritual one so He has never had but one plane on which He means man
to live and that the plane of the spiritual. Life lived on the highest
plane is a life of deep, vital, growing spirituality. When God speaks
of the man who is capable of examining and understanding the things of
God and of the one whom He can trust to help weak and sinful believers
He calls him "he that is spiritual."
1 Cor. 2:15, "But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he
himself is judged of no man."
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Gal. 6:1, "Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which
are spiritual restore such an one in the spirit of meekness,
considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted."
There are three outstanding marks of the life lived on the
highest plane, the first is--it is an abounding life. The spiritual
man draws all his resources directly from God consequently he never
need lack for anything. God's granaries are always full and the doors
are opened earthward. In Christ, the believer's life, "dwelleth all
the fulness of the Godhead bodily," and in Him the believer may be
made as "full" as he wishes to be (Col. 2:9-10). The spiritual man
desires with a deepening intensity "to be filled unto all the fulness
of God" (Eph. 3:19), consequently he draws bountifully from Christ.
2 Cor. 8:7, "Therefore, as ye abound in everything, in faith, and
utterance, and knowledge, and in all diligence, and in your love to
us, see that ye abound in this grace also."
2 Cor. 9:11, "Being enriched in everything to all bountifulness,
which causeth through us thanksgiving to God."
(1) The spiritual man abounds in grace.
2 Cor. 9:8, "And God is able to make all grace abound toward you;
that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things may abound to
every good work."
(2) The spiritual man abounds in hope.
Rom. 15:13, "Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace
in believing that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy
Ghost."
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(3) The spiritual man abounds in joy.
John 15:11, "These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy
might remain in you, and that your joy might be full."
(4) The spiritual man abounds in peace.
Col. 3:15, "And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the
which ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful."
(5) The spiritual man abounds in thankfulness.
Eph. 5:20, "Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the
Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ."
(6) The spiritual man abounds in knowledge.
1 Cor. 1:5, "That in everything ye are enriched by him, in all
utterance, and in all knowledge."
(7) The spiritual man abounds in love.
Phil. 1:9, "And this I pray that your love may abound yet more
and more in knowledge and in all judgment."
The more the spiritual man abounds in the riches of God's grace
the more unsearchable and exhaustless he finds them to be so that
there exists in his life a strange but joyous paradox--that of always
being satisfied in Christ and yet always unsatisfied. The spiritual
man never stops growing because he is always reaching upward to that
still higher height that is just beyond. It was this passionate upreaching toward Christ in the
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heart of the Apostle Paul that inspired those words to the Christians
at Philippi.
Phil. 3:12-14, "Not as though I had already attained, either were
already perfect, but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for
which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not
myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those
things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which
are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling
of God in Christ Jesus."
The second mark of life lived on the highest plane is--it is an
overcoming life. Having taken his position by faith in the heavenlies
in Christ the spiritual man lives in the atmosphere of triumph which
prevails there. The spiritual man is on top of his difficulties; he is
the conqueror not the conquered; the victor not the vanquished. His
identification with Jesus Christ in the victory over sin and Satan is
a reality to him and he looks upon Satan as an already defeated foe
and treats him accordingly and reckons upon his own death to sin, to
self and to the world.
Rom. 8:37, "Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors,
through him that loved us."
1 John 5:4, "For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world:
and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith."
The spiritual man aspires to such an overcoming life
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on earth as will win for him a share in the reigning life of Heaven.
Rev. 3:21, "To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in
my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in
his throne."
The third mark of life lived on the highest plane is--it is an
overflowing life. The spiritual man has enough and to spare. He does
not have to hoard his spiritual riches for he is the child of a King
and knows that his Father is a royal Giver and has taught His child "
that it is more blessed to give than to receive." He is assured that
the more he gives the more he will receive. Out of his innermost being
flow the rivers of living water to bring life more abundant to every
life he touches.
John 7:38, R.V., "He that believeth on me, as the Scripture hath
said, from within him shall flow rivers of living water."
A life lived on the highest plane is a continuous miracle of
God's grace.
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IX. CARNAL OR SPIRITUAL
THAT God has made ample provision in Christ for each person to
live his life on the highest plane is evident from our previous
studies. But that every believer does not exercise this privilege
needs no argument. We feel how far short of it we ourselves fall and
we observe the low spiritual level upon which other lives are lived. A
casual perusal of Paul's letters to the churches will reveal the fact
that there is more than one kind of Christians. In the sixth through
the eighth chapters of Romans this truth is clearly taught.
Romans six is the hub of life on the highest plane. Deep
spirituality emanates from a spiritual apprehension, appropriation and
assimilation of the truth of this chapter. In this divine revelation
God gives us the spiritual seed from which the full-blown flower--a
life in growing conformity to the image of Christ--springs. Here man
is delivered from the sphere of darkness, death and bondage; here he
leaves behind the old servitude to sin and becomes the servant of
righteousness; here he comes out from under the yoke of the law to
live under the reign of grace; here he witnesses the crucifixion of
the old man to make way for the control of the new nature; here God
tells the believer that he not only need not sin but that he may be
holy. Romans six tells us plainly that God has
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made full provision in Christ for lifting the sinner from the lowest
depths of life on the plane of the natural to the highest heights of
life on the plane of the spiritual.
Romans seven and eight each pictures the life of a Christian but
the difference in likeness to the pattern set in Romans six is so
great as to lead one to think that there are surely two kinds of
Christians.
Romans seven pictures a life of storm, stress and struggle; a
life of defeat and discouragement crowned with despair. Romans seven
is the divine photograph of an eager Alpine climber. He starts at the
base (Rom. 6) of the majestic snow-capped Jungfrau and aspires to
scale its highest height (Rom. 8). He has studied a guide-book about
Alpine climbing and confident of his own strength and ability he
presumes to ascend without a guide. After hours upon hours of toilsome
climbing, ignorant of the way, floundering in masses of ice and snow,
worn out with his effort to ascend the steep and dangerous path, he
sinks down exhausted and filled with despair and in the darkness of
the night that has overtaken him cries out for deliverance (Rom.
7:24).
In Romans seven we find the believer acknowledging that the law
of God is holy, just and good, and admitting that it should be obeyed.
A part of him longs to keep it, even strives to do so in his own
strength, while another part of him resists. How to conquer in this
conflict he does not know. He knows that he need not sin and resolves
that he will not but he goes on sinning. His will functions but he is
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baffled in knowing how to fulfil its decree to be holy and to do good.
He wills and he works to reach the plane of the spiritual but is
unsuccessful and inevitably must fail for a man cannot sanctify
himself any more than he can save himself.
Romans eight pictures discernment after delusion; conquest after
conflict, sunshine after storm. The despairing cry of the Alpine
climber has been heard by an unseen Guide Who has climbed all the way
with him. Unwilling to intrude where not wanted, He has remained
silent, but the moment He hears the cry for help He flashes light upon
the midnight darkness of the traveller's path, He points out the way,
He even lifts the weary traveller up and enables him to overcome every
difficulty of the way and to reach the goal of his aspiration. The "I"
used more than thirty times in Romans seven is displaced by the "Holy
Spirit" who in that chapter is not mentioned once. The mountain is the
same, the path is no less difficult or dangerous. But the difference
between Romans seven and eight is the difference of a Guide who knows
the way and can enable the traveller to reach the top.
Romans eight reveals as clearly as does Romans seven that there
is a conflict on within every believer which never ends as long as one
dwells on earth, but it reveals the way of victory. It removes the
delusion that the believer can fight the enemy in his own strength and
gives spiritual discernment of God's gracious provision of the means
of victory. Romans eight lifts the believer above the clouds of
discouragement into the clear sunlight of abiding peace and rest
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because it assures him at the beginning that "In Christ" there is no
condemnation by God as regards his past, and at the end that "In
Christ" there is no separation from God as regards his future, and all
the verses in between proclaim the perfect provision made "In Christ"
for victory over every enemy within and without as regards the present
(Rom. 8:2-34). The Father has given unto every believer the Spirit of
His Son to guide him on life's pathway.
Rom. 8:1, "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which
are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the
Spirit."
Rom. 8:35-39, "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?
shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or
nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For thy sake we are
killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.
Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that
loved us. For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor
angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things
to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able
to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our
Lord."
There are, then, two kinds of Christians clearly named and
described in Scripture. It is of the utmost importance that every
believer should know which kind of Christian he is and that, after
knowing, he should determine which kind he wishes to be. Let us read
these verses from Paul's letter to the Corinthian Church, and note the
names he gives to these two
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classes. One he addresses as carnal, the other as spiritual
Christians.
1 Cor. 3:1-4, "And I brethren, could not speak unto you as unto
spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. I have
fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to
bear it, neither yet now are ye able. For ye are yet carnal; for
whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye
not carnal, and walk as men? For while one saith, I am of Paul; and
another, I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal?"
The Marks of the Carnal Christian
The up and down line in the first diagram is photographic. It is
almost cruelly self-revealing. It visualizes the average
church-member. It is like a costly picture cheaply framed or an
exquisite garment illy fitted. One look tells you that something is
wrong and no matter how often you look it never seems right. We know
instinctively that the true Christian life could never be symbolized
by a wavering line. Christianity, which is Christ possessing,
controlling and using, must spell straightness and steadiness. It must
be life on the spiritual plane. The life of the carnal Christian is
not so.
It is a life of unceasing conflict.
Rom. 7:22-23, "For I delight in the law of God after the inward
man; But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of
my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in
my members."
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Gal. 5:17, "For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the
Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other;
so that ye cannot do the things that ye would."
One law "warring against" another law in the same personality;
part of a man "serving" one law and part of him serving another--this
is indeed the language of conflict. Two forces absolutely contrary to
each other are each working to gain and to keep control over the
entire personality. Two natures, the divine and the fleshly, are
engaged in deadly warfare. The spiritual is sometimes in the
ascendancy and the believer enjoys a momentary joy, peace and rest.
The divine nature imparted to him at his rebirth is in control and
Christ in him is victorious. But the fleshly nature which is always
defiant to the authority and rule of God rebels. Conflict ensues. The
fleshly nature is again the master, and joy and peace are gone. Such
is the miserable existence of the carnal Christian.
A friend told me a story of her six year old nephew which
tellingly illustrates this manner of living. Her nephew was often
tempted to run away and his mother was much distressed by it. One day
she told him that if he ran away again she would have to punish him.
Soon afterwards the temptation came through a neighbour boy and he
yielded to it. Upon returning home his mother said, "James, didn't you
remember that I said if you ran away again I would punish you?" "Yes,"
said James, "I remembered." "Then why
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did you do it?" asked his mother. Little James replied, "It was this
way, Mother. As I stood there in the road thinking about it Jesus
pulled on one leg and the devil pulled on the other and the devil
pulled the harder!" The Lord Jesus pulling on one leg and Satan
pulling on the other is the constant experience of the Christian, but
yielding to the devil and giving to him the victory over Christ is the
wretched condition of the carnal Christian. It is a life of repeated
defeat.
Rom. 7:15, R.V., "For that which I do I know not: for not what I
would, that do I practice: but what I hate, that I do."
Rom. 7:19, R.V., "For the good which I would I do not; but the
evil which I would not, that I practise."
As one reads Romans seven he feels that the Apostle Paul is
writing some one's spiritual biography. It was no doubt his own. But
could it not have been yours and mine as well? It is the revelation of
a true desire and an honest attempt to live a right and a holy life
but it is surcharged with the atmosphere of deadly defeat; a defeat so
overpowering as to burst forth in that despairing cry for deliverance.
Rom. 7:24, "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from
the body of this death?"
Who of us has not uttered it? We have made countless resolutions
at the dawn of a new day or of a New Year regarding the things we
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would or would not do. But long before the twilight hour our hearts
have been heavy with a humiliating sense of failure. The things we
steadfastly determined to do were left undone and the things we
solemnly resolved not to do were repeatedly done. Sins both of
commission and of omission, like evil spirits, haunt our bed-chamber
and rob us even of the balm of sleep. Temper, anger, fretting, worry,
murmuring, pride, selfishness, malice, worldliness, unfaithfulness,
evil speaking, bitterness, jealousy, envy, quarreling, hatred, in fact
"the old man's" entire family of evil passions and desires may have
worked havoc in one's own personal life, and spoiled the day not only
for one's self, but for one's family and friends and, most of all, has
grieved God.
The trouble was not with the will for it was very sincere in the
decisions made at dawn and fully purposed to carry them out.
Rom. 7:18, "For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) dwelleth
no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that
which is good I find not."
But in the carnal Christian Christ is compelled to share the
control of the life with another and the result is both inner and
outer maladjustment. Selfwill, self-love, self-trust and
self-exaltation always spell envying, quarreling, bitterness and
division.
1 Cor. 3:3, "For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among
you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as
men?"
The state of the carnal Christian is one of failure
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and defeat and it never can be anything else. If he wishes deliverance
he may have it but it will be a deliverance out of Rom. 7 into Rom. 8.
It is a life of protracted infancy.
The carnal Christian never grows up. He remains, stunted and
dwarfed, a mere "babe in
Christ."
1 Cor. 3:1-2, "And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto
spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. I have
fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to
bear it, neither yet now are ye able."
The Corinthian Christians should have been full grown; they had
been Christians long enough to have become spiritual adults but they
were mere "babes in Christ." They should have been strong, healthy,
meat-eating grown-ups; instead they were weak, milkdrinking infants.
They did not measure up either in stature or strength to what they
should have.
Nothing on earth could be sweeter or more perfect to loving
parents than a baby in babyhood but oh! the indescribable heartache
endured by the parents if that precious child remains a baby in body
or in mind. Nothing on earth sets the joybells of Heaven ringing as
the birth of one into the family of God but oh! what pain it must
cause the heavenly Father to see that spiritual babe remain in a state
of protracted infancy!
Which are you today, dear reader, a spiritual babe or an adult?
Are you still in infancy in spiritual
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things or are you full-grown? To answer the question it may help to
ask and answer another. What are the marks of a babe? A baby cannot
serve himself but is helplessly dependent upon others. He may give
enjoyment to others but he cannot help them. A baby absorbs attention,
he expects to be the center of his little world. A baby lives in the
realm of his feelings, being entirely governed by them. If all goes
well, he is pleased and smiling but he is exceedingly touchy and if
his desire is crossed at any point he quickly lets it be known in
lusty remonstrance. God's Word shows that the carnal Christian bears
these self-same marks.
Heb. 5:12-14, R.V., "For when by reason of the time ye ought to
be teachers, ye have need again that some one teach you the rudiments
of the first principles of the oracles of God; and are such as have
need of milk, and not of solid food. For every one that partaketh of
milk is without experience of the word of righteousness; for he is a
babe. But solid food is for full grown men, even those who by reason
of use have their senses exercised to discern good and evil."
The Christians to whom this epistle to the Hebrews was written
were evidently carnal Christians also. They ought to have been
teaching others yet they themselves still needed to be taught even the
elementary truths of spiritual experience. They, as well as the
Corinthians, should have been able to eat meat but they were still
content to feed on milk. They were able neither to help themselves nor
others. They were incapacitated through their protracted infancy
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either to receive the deep things of God or to impart them to others.
Perhaps Paul puts his finger upon the reason for the stunted
condition of the Corinthian Christians in the first two chapters of
1 Corinthians. He teaches us that the spiritual man knows the deep
things of God through the discernment made possible by the Holy
Spirit's illumination. The spiritual man is one who, delighting in
God's Word, devours and digests it. By feeding upon it he grows in
stature and strength.
But the Corinthian Christians were very evidently not of this
type. They were following human leaders, esteeming lightly the wisdom
of God and exalting highly the wisdom of men. They were substituting
fodder for food and attempting to satisfy hunger on husks.
Consequently they were still "babes in Christ,"--weak, emaciated
Christians.
Much the same condition prevails today in the churches of
Christendom. The average professing Christian is not going first-hand
to the Bible for food expecting the Holy Spirit to give him the strong
meat of the Word. He is looking to human teachers for his nourishment
and gulps down whatever is given him. He is a spiritual parasite
living on predigested food, consequently he is underfed and anaemic.
In this weakened state he is open to all forms of spiritual disease.
He is an easy prey for temper, impurity, pride, bitterness and
selfishness and because of his close relationship to other members of
the body of Christ, the result is often just such an epidemic of sin
as existed in the Corinthian Church.
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It is a life of barren fruitlessness.
Luke 13:6-7, "He spake also this parable; a certain man had a fig
tree planted in his vineyard; and he came and sought fruit thereon,
and found none. Then said he unto the dresser of his vineyard, Behold,
these three years I came seeking fruit on this fig tree, and find
none: cut it down; why cumbereth it the ground?"
John 15:2, "Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh
away, and every branch that beareth fruit he purgeth it, that it may
bring forth more fruit."
The influence of the carnal Christian is always negative. The
carnal Christian occupies a pew in church on the Lord's day indicating
some love in his heart for the Lord and devotion to Him but he is
unable to bring with him any member of his family or associate in
business or friend because of the inconsistency of his life before
them during the week. He is a branch of the Vine but a fruitless,
hence a useless, branch.
It is a life of adulterous infidelity.
James 4:4, "Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the
friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will
be a friend of the world is the enemy of God."
1 John 2:15-16, "Love not the world, neither the things that are
in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not
in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the
lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is
of the world."
The language of James 4:4 is drastic and austere,
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there is an irrevocable finality about it. Men may hold two opinions
about "the world" but not so with God. In James 4:4 he at least leaves
no Christian any room whatever for argument regarding his attitude
toward and relationship to "the world" but declares in words of
transparent clearness that any Christian who maintains friendship with
the world is guilty of adulterous infidelity in his relationship to
Christ.
To realize the truth of God's pungent statement the reader need
only remind himself of what the world is and of its attitude to
Christ. "The world" is Satan's eyes, ears, hands and feet combined to
fashion his most cunning weapon for defeating God by capturing the
souls of men. "The world" is Satan's lair for the unsaved and his lure
to the saved to keep them from God. "The world" is human life and
human society with God left out.
What, then, should be the Christian's relationship to the world?
The answer is found in the Christian's relationship to Christ. Christ
and the Christian are one. They are joined together, as we have seen,
in such an intimate union and identification of life that God, the
Holy Spirit, does not hesitate to say that the love relationship they
bear to each other is one analogous to that of marriage.
Is it any wonder, then, that God says that friendship with the
world on the part of a Christian is tantamount to spiritual adultery
and that He brands "the friend of the world" "an enemy of God"?
Hobnobbing with the world in its pleasures, entering into partnership
with it in its pursuits, fashioning one's life
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by its principles, working to carry out its program, all make one an
accomplice of the evil one against one's own Beloved, against the
Saviour, Lord and King of one's life. Such adulterous unfaithfulness
in love marks one as a carnal Christian.
But perhaps some reader is still in the dark as to what is
worldly. He is not clear as to what he may have, do or enjoy. The acid
test of worldliness is given in 1 John 2:16. Under the Holy Spirit's
illumination test your life by it and you will quickly discern the
mark of the worldly.
Worldliness is "all that is not of the Father." Whatever would
not be as appropriate and fitting to Christ's life in the heavenlies
as to the Christian's life on earth is worldly. Whatever does not come
out from God and cannot go back to Him with His blessing is
worldliness. Such is the negative aspect of worldliness.
It has a positive aspect as well. Worldliness is "the lust of the
flesh," "the lust of the eyes," and "the pride of life." Worldliness
may be manifested in one's conversation, in one's style of hairdress,
in the clothes one wears, in the company- one keeps, in the pleasures
one enjoys, in the books one reads, in the appetites one indulges, in
the things one buys, in the ambitions by which one is ruled, and in
the activities in which one engages.
Anything which feeds or pampers the flesh, the animal part of
man, whether it results in gross sensuality, or in taking the bloom
from heart purity, or merely in soft self-indulgence and self-ease, is
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worldliness. Anything that stains the heart, soils the hands, stings
the conscience and separates one from the joy and sweetness of
communion with Christ, is worldliness. It is "the lust of the flesh."
Anything that caters merely to the fashions of this world, that
stimulates desire for possession and property, that aims merely to
please men and gain their approval, that keeps the eyes fixed on the
lowlands instead of on the heights, on the seen rather than on the
unseen, anything that puts a cloud between Christ and the Christian
and shuts Him out from one's vision is "the lust of the eyes."
Anything that exalts self, that fosters pomp and pride, that
clips the wings of the soul so that it grovels in the dust of earth
instead of soaring heavenward, that sets the affections upon the
wealth, the fame, the honours of earth rather than upon the treasures
of Heaven, that robs the Christian of his possessions and privileges
in Christ, is "the pride of life."
There can be no confluence between these streams. Their admixture
in a human life produces the carnal Christian.
It is a life of dishonouring hypocrisy.
Eph. 5:8, "For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light
in the Lord; walk as children of light."
1 John 1:5-6, "God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.
... If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness,
we lie, and do not the truth."
1 Cor. 3:3, "Are ye not carnal and walk as men?"
The carnal man says one thing and does another;
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his walk does not correspond with his witness; he professes what he
does not possess. The carnal man walks as those who make no profession
of being Christians and presents them with such a caricature of Christ
that he has no power to win them to his Saviour.
Does anything more need to be said to prove that the carnal
Christian falls far short of God's best and is not well pleasing unto
Him? But there is abundant hope for the believer who, wearied with the
conflict, humiliated by the defeat, chagrined by the immaturity,
distressed by the fruitlessness, convicted of the infidelity, and
pained by the hypocrisy, turns to God and cries out for deliverance
from the wretched captivity of carnality into the glorious liberty of
spirituality.
The Marks of a Spiritual Christian
It is a life of abiding peace.
John 14:27, "Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you;
not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be
troubled, neither let it be afraid."
John 16:33, "These things have I spoken unto you, that in me ye
might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of
good cheer; I have overcome the world."
The peace of the spiritual Christian is that of Christ's
presence. "My peace I give unto you." It does not mean that there is
no conflict in the life of the spiritual Christian for it is through
conquest in conflict that he grows, but it does mean the peace of
conscious victory in Christ. The spiritual Christian does not continue
in the practice of known, wilful sin so he
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lives in the unclouded sunshine of the Father's presence and in the
unshadowed light of the Father's countenance. His communion with the
Father is unmarred by the gnawing consciousness of soiled hands, by
the pricking of a wounded conscience, or by the condemnation of an
accusing heart. There is abiding peace, deepening joy and satisfying
rest. It is a life of habitual victory.
1 Cor. 15:57, "But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory
through our Lord Jesus Christ."
Rom. 8:37, "Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors,
through him that loved us."
2 Cor. 2:14, "Now thanks be unto God which always causeth us to
triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by
us in every place."
The believer has changed masters and has entered into a new
servitude which is perfect freedom. God tells him he has been made
"free from sin"; that he is "more than conqueror" through Christ; that
"the victory" of the Cross was all inclusive; and that "in Christ" he
may walk through life's battlefield "in triumph." The spiritual
Christian takes God's word at face value, he dares to believe it and
to act accordingly.
The believer's identification with Christ did not secure for him
"victories" only but "victory." His victory over sin is all inclusive,
the greater has wrapped within it the lesser. He who has given victory
over one sin can give victory over all sin; He who has kept from sin
for a moment, can with equal ease keep for
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an hour or a day. Victory over sin is a gift through Christ.
Victory need not be intermittent but may be habitual. God can
cause us always in all places, under all circumstances, at all times,
in all things, "to triumph in Christ" for "He is able to save to the
uttermost them that come unto God through him, seeing he ever liveth
to make intercession for them."
Perhaps some reader will say, "I have experienced occasionally
this glorious freedom from some besetting sin but it has been only a
transient liberty. Is there really such a thing here on earth as
habitual victory over all known sin?"
Let us think of the difference between such a transient liberty
and a permanent freedom. It was made very clear to me once through an
experience in speaking on two Sundays to the women in Cook County jail
in Chicago. At the first meeting one hard-faced, rough-looking woman
made considerable trouble, nearly breaking up the meeting. She came at
the close imploring me to secure her release from jail, making all
sorts of lavish promises of good behaviour, even to becoming a
Christian if I would do her this favour. Twenty-six times she had been
behind those bars for the same offense, she said. This confession told
me why she was in jail. Liberty she had had twenty-five times: freedom
she had never known. She had no desire to break with sin but only to
break from jail.
The following Lord's Day I spoke on the difference between
liberty and freedom. Knowing that the woman's attention must be held
for the sake of others
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as well as for herself I had taken some thread and scissors to
illustrate the message. During the talk I asked her for the loan of
her fingers. I wound the thread lightly around them and then asked her
to free herself. With her strong, brawny hands it was an easy matter
just to loosen the thread and she did it exultingly. Then I wound it
around again and again some fifty times until her fingers were truly
"bondservants" to that thread, praying that God would drive home the
truth of her terrible bondage to sin. All the time her face grew
longer and more perplexed. Finally I stopped and asked her again to
loosen her fingers and free herself. With real seriousness she looked
into my face and said bluntly, "You know I can't!" I said, "Yes, I
know you can't and are you not glad that I have brought these scissors
along which can cut this thread and set your fingers free?" Then I
told her of the Saviour who came from Heaven to die on Calvary's Cross
that through the outpouring of His precious blood she might be cut
loose from sin and set free forever and ever. "If the Son shall make
you free, ye shall be free indeed" (John 8:36).
To make that perfect victory permanent He has sent the Holy
Spirit to indwell and control. The carnal man is under the power of
the law of sin. It operates in his life bringing him much of the time
under its dominion. But there is another and a higher law at work in
the believer and as he yields himself to its mighty power the
spiritual man is delivered from the law of sin and death. Herein lies
his habitual victory over all known sin.
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Rom. 8:2, "For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath
made me free from the law of sin and death."
It is a life of constant growth into Christ-likeness.
2 Cor. 3:18, R.V., "But we all, with unveiled face reflecting as
a mirror the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image
from glory to glory, even as from the Lord the Spirit."
There is nothing static in true spiritual experience. The upward
look and the unveiled face must catch something of the glory of the
Lord and reflect it. With a growing knowledge of Him and a deepening
communion with Him, there must inevitably be a growing likeness to
Him. It is a transformation into His image from glory to glory. The
spiritual nature is ever reaching out after and laying hold of that
which is spiritual in order that it may become more spiritual. "As the
bursting acorns lay hungry hold only on what will produce oaks" so the
spiritual man lays hungry hold only on what will produce likeness to
Christ Jesus.
John 15:2, 5, "Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he
taketh away; and every branch that beareth fruit he purgeth it, that
it may bring forth more fruit. ... I am the vine, ye are the branches;
he that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much
fruit: for without me ye can do nothing."
Surely there is progression in Christ-likeness--"not fruit,"
"fruit," "more fruit," "much fruit." Do these phrases not unveil
before us the possibilities and potentialities
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for Christ-likeness open to every branch in the vine? Do they not also
show us the positive progression "from glory to glory" God expects to
see in us? These expressions are descriptive. Which one describes you?
There is but one branch that fully satisfies the heart of the divine
Husbandman.
John 15:8, "Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much
fruit, so shall ye be my disciples."
God makes very clear what is the fruit which He expects to find
on the branch.
Gal. 5:22, R.V., "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy,
peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness,
self-control: against such there is no law."
The "fruit of the Spirit" is the full-orbed, symmetrical
character of the Lord Jesus Christ in which there is no lack and no
excess. The Apostle Paul did not speak of "the fruits of the Spirit"
as he is so often misquoted. It is just one cluster, and all nine
graces are essential to reveal the beauty and glory of true
Christ-likeness. But how often we see a great heart of love spoiled by
a very quick temper--there is "love" but not "self-control." Or we see
longsuffering marred by boastfulness--the person being so afraid the
long-suffering will not be noted and appreciated that there is a
repeated reminder of it. There is "long-suffering" but not "meekness."
Occasionally one sees a Christian long on faith but very short on
gentleness. He has in his make-up the thunder of
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Mount Sinai more than the love of Calvary. He believes the doctrine
and defends it with better success than he adorns it. He has "faith"
but not "kindness." Or often we see one whose life is the embodiment
of goodness but the goodness is overshadowed by anxiety, worry, and
fretting. The presence of "goodness" is limited in its beneficent
working by the absence of "peace." Oh! how the lack or the excess of
one of these graces mars the beauty, the completeness, the symmetry of
the cluster! In the spiritual Christian all nine of these graces blend
in such beautiful and winsome attractiveness and harmony that the
world sees Christ living within.
I was travelling upon the Yangtsze River in Central China. A
heavy rain storm had just cleared away and the sun had come out
brightly from behind the banked-up clouds. I felt an inward impelling
to go out upon the deck and the Lord had a precious message awaiting
me. The water of the Yangtsze River is very muddy. But as I stepped to
the railing and looked over I did not see the dirty, yellow water that
day but instead the heavenly blue and fleecy white of the heavens
above and all so perfectly reflected that I actually could not believe
that I was looking down instead of up. Instantly the Holy Spirit
flashed 2 Cor. 3:18 into my mind and said, "In yourself you are as
unattractive as the water of the Yangtsze River but when your whole
being is turned Godward and your life lies all open to Him so that His
glory shines upon it and into it then you will be so transformed into
His image that others looking at you will see not you but
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Christ in you." Oh! friends, are you and I "reflecting as in a mirror
the glory of the Lord"? It is a life of supernatural power.
John 14:12, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on
me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these
shall he do; because I go unto my Father."
These words were spoken by Jesus Christ to a little group of
unlettered men. One of them was a sunburnt, weather-beaten, rough old
fisherman. He would be ill at ease in a modern college crowd and very
probably would fail to pass entrance examinations into a present-day
theological seminary. But he belonged to the company of believers to
whom this promise was given and one day it was marvellously fulfilled
in his life when through one sermon he won six times as many souls to
true discipleship as Jesus did in the three years of His public
ministry.
In what did Peter's power consist and does it avail for you and
me? Was it the power of personal charm? of gracious manner? of giant
intellect? of eloquent speech? of massive scholarship? of dominant
will? While there were many lovable qualities in the impulsive, eager,
loving old fisherman yet none of them could begin to account for such
an overwhelming fulfilment of our Lord's promise in him. God clearly
reveals the secret of Peter's power.
Acts 1:8, "But ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost
is come upon you; and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem,
and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the
earth."
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The power to do "the same works and even greater" is not the
power which resides in anything human. On the contrary it is the power
of God the Holy Spirit which is fully at our disposal when we are
fully yielded to Him. Is His supernatural power manifested in your
life and works today?
It is a life of devoted separateness.
1 Thess. 4:3, "For this is the will of God, even your
sanctification."
Heb. 7:26, "For such an High Priest became us, who is holy,
harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the
heavens."
John 14:17, "Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot
receive, because it seetk him not, neither knoweth him; but ye know
him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you."
The spiritual man apprehends the will of the Father, the walk of
the Son, and the work of the Spirit, in relation to his
sanctification. The Father willed that he should be set apart and
separated wholly unto Himself and the spiritual man acquiesces in the
Father's purpose and wills to separate himself from everything that he
knows would keep him from becoming a vessel fit for the Master's use.
The spiritual man takes Christ as his Example and determines to
walk as He walked. Christ lived a life that was "holy, undefiled,
separate from sinners." He was in the
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world but not of it. He had the closest contact with the world but
without conformity to it or contagion from it. He lived in a world,
evil, corrupt, polluted, yet He remained unspotted, unstained and
unsullied. The spiritual man aspires to a similar separateness of walk
in this evil world.
The spiritual man lives habitually under the dominating control
of the Holy Spirit who indwells him. The Holy Spirit and the world
have nothing in common. The world cannot see or know the Holy Spirit
for He is unseen and invisible and the world comprehends only the seen
and the tangible. The Holy Spirit working within the believer enables
the risen Lord to continue from the throne the work of sanctification
begun in the believer at the Cross. The spiritual man yields
unconditionally to the Spirit's power as He works out God's full
purpose in him.
God, the Father, works through His Son, by the Holy Spirit, to
carry out His will of complete sanctification.
1 Pet. 1:2, "Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the
Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and
sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ."
1 Thess. 5:23, "And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly:
and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved
blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ."
The Holy Trinity are at work within the believer to separate him
wholly unto the Lord and to set him apart as a vessel fit for the
Master's use, God is ever working
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to bring the believer into full conformity to the image of His Son.
When there is complete separateness the Christian will bear the
same relationship to the world as Christ bore to it and the world will
bear the same relationship to him as it bore to Christ. The Christian
will regard the pleasures, the pursuits, the principles and the plans
of the world exactly as Jesus Christ did. He is not of the world,
therefore the world hated, persecuted and crucified Him. Such an
experience the spiritual Christian will likewise have.
John 17:16, "They are not of the world, even as I am not of the
world."
John 15:19-20, "If ye were of the world, the world would love its
own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of
the world, therefore the world hateth you. Remember the word that I
said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have
persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my
saying, they will keep yours also."
There can be no successful attempt at a compromising admixture of
the world and the heavenlies, of the flesh and the Spirit in the life
of the one who truly aspires to life on the highest plane. God has
separated these two unmixables by the Cross of Christ. Any believer
who submits to the perfect work of that Cross both for and in him must
choose to leave the world and the flesh behind and be wholly separated
unto the pleasures and pursuits of life in Christ in the heavenlies.
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God calls the believer to a life of spiritual "isolation" and
"insulation" in order that he may be conformed to the image of His Son
and filled by His Spirit. The spiritual Christian responds to the call
and obeys God's command to come out and live a life of devoted
separateness.
2 Cor. 6:14-18, "Be ye not unequally yoked together with
unbelievers; for what fellowship hath righteousness with
unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? And what
concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth
with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols?
for ye are the temple of the living God: as God hath said, I will
dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they
shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye
separate, saith the Lord, touch not the unclean thing: and I will
receive you, And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons
and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty."
But it is not merely the apprehension of and acquiescence in the
will of God that loosens the grip of the world and the flesh upon the
believer. It is the deeper appreciation of the gracious love of the
Father and the sacrificial love of the Son that woos and wins him into
a life of devoted separateness. We consent to be truly separated when
once we spiritually discern how for our sakes He sanctified Himself
that we might be sanctified. It is the one, who beholding the Lamb of
God taking away the sin of the world, says, "He loved me and gave
Himself for me" who gladly consents
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to be crucified unto the world and to have the world crucified unto
him.
May the writer bear testimony that it was so in her experience.
Life in the flesh and in the world kept her for some years after her
conversion and entrance into church fellowship from victory and peace
in her inner life and from power in service. Hour upon hour had been
spent in argument with a dear friend and a separated Christian upon
the harmlessness and rightfulness of her worldly walk. But one day
face to face with God the decision of the will was made and the front
door of her life was opened and the King of kings and Lord of lords
was invited to enter and to take real control. Thereupon the vagabonds
and hirelings that had robbed her of her possessions and privileges in
Christ sneaked out the back door and desire for and delight in their
companionship was gone forever. It was with her in deed and truth "the
expulsive power of a new affection" that kept her so occupied with her
adorable Lord and so happy in His service that there was no sense of
loss but rather of incalculable gain.
It is a life of winsome holiness.
Ex. 15:11, "Who is like unto thee, O Lord, among the gods? who is
like thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?"
1 Pet. 1:15-16, R.V., "But like as he who called you is holy, be
ye yourselves also holy in all manner of living; Because it is
written, Ye shall be holy; for I am holy."
God's holiness is His crown of glory. It is His
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holiness that measures the awful distance between Himself and the
sinner. Yet He calls His own to be holy because He is holy and there
is no other way by which he may come to have fellowship with Him for
"without holiness no man shall see the Lord" (Heb. 12:14).
Every Christian is called by his new position in Christ to a life
of holiness. But there are many Christians who frankly do not want to
be holy. There are others however who truly desire to be spiritual but
are nevertheless afraid to be "holy." This may be due to their
misunderstanding of what holiness is, either through their own neglect
of the study of God's Word or through the false teaching on this
subject which makes them shy of it through fear.
If one aspires to life on the highest plane he must be holy
according to Scriptural holiness. What, then, is it? First, may we say
what it is not. Holiness is not sinless perfection, it does not place
one beyond the possibility of sinning nor remove from him the presence
of sin. Scriptural holiness is not "faultlessness." That is a
condition he will reach only upon the return of the Lord Jesus who
takes him beyond all contact with a world of sin. Scriptural holiness
is not "faultlessness" but it is "blamelessness" in the sight of God.
We are to be "preserved blameless" unto His coming and we shall be "
presented faultless" at His coming.
1 Thess. 5:23, "And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly:
and I pray God your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved
blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ."
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Jude 24, "Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and
to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with
exceeding joy."
This truth was unfolded to me with fresh meaning four years ago
when I was called upon to dispose of the personal belongings of a
dearly loved sister whom God had called Home. Among the things she
especially treasured was found a letter written to her when I was
seven years of age. She had gone on a visit; I loved her and missed
her and that letter was the love of my heart expressed in words. The
letter was by no means "faultless" for the penmanship was poor, the
grammar was incorrect and the spelling was imperfect, but it was
"blameless" in the sight of my sister for it came out of a heart of
love and was the best letter I could write. For me, a grown woman, to
write the same letter today would not be "blameless" for my experience
in penmanship and my knowledge of grammar and of spelling are far
greater.
Holiness is a heart of pure love for God expressed in character,
conversation and conduct. Holiness is Christ, our Sanctification,
enthroned as Life of our life. It is Christ in us, living, speaking,
walking. The character of even the greatest saint will have in it some
lack, his conversation will often fail in magnifying his Lord and his
conduct in some respect will fall short of his calling in Christ
Jesus. He will not be sinless but his heart will be pure love for God
and he will give Christ the place of supreme preeminence in his
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mind, heart, strength and soul. There will be nothing static in his
holiness but daily by the Holy Spirit's faithful sanctifying work in
his inmost life Christ Jesus will be formed more perfectly within him.
The result will be a "transformation into His image from glory to
glory."
1 Thess. 3:13, "To the end he may stablish your hearts
unblameable in holiness before God, even our Father, at the coming of
our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints."
Such holiness is winsome for it spells the holy calm of God
mirrored in the face, the holy quietness of God manifested in the
voice, the holy graciousness of God expressed in the manner, and the
holy fragrance of God emanating from the whole life. It is God so
inhabiting His holy temple, which temple ye are, that He reveals
Himself through human personality.
A sermon I heard when a student at the Moody Bible Institute
thirty years ago brought me the meaning of true holiness. The sermon
was not a long one, neither was it preached by a famous preacher. It
was a sermon of just six words preached to an audience of one by
Amelia, the maid who waited upon the door. Amelia's sermon was
occasioned by the call upon me of a very poor woman needing help on a
very hot day when I was packing a very big trunk in a very small room.
Several times I had gladly gone to this woman's home to help her but
on this particular day I did not want to see her. Of course, I did not
want Amelia to know that, so smiling sweetly said, "I will be down
soon." Amelia turned and went a few steps, then
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came back and with a pained expression in her face said, "Why, Miss
Paxson, you looked cross!" Amelia taught me that day that holiness is
an inward possession and not an outward profession and a possession
that implies a Presence--that penetrates to the inmost spirit, that
permeates the whole being and that purifies it in every part.
The life of the spiritual Christian which has been unfolded is
that which every true believer desires but which very few expect to
live on earth. To many such a life seems to be the prerogative of only
a few rare souls chosen by God for especially high and holy tasks and
to be utterly impossible for others. On the contrary, it is not the
prerogative of a few but the privilege of all. To some it is a life
which they have admired in others but have feared for themselves
because of the demand it made for complete surrender. To others there
has been utter ignorance either of the possibility of such a life or
of how to live it. But I believe there are a very large number of
Christians today who are not satisfied with the lives they are living
and who desire to know what is the cause and the cure of carnality.
Diagnosis precedes cure. We have attempted in this chapter to make a
diagnosis. Let us now seek to find a cure.
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X. THE CHRISTIAN'S CHOICE--SELF OR CHRIST?
THERE are two kinds of Christians, easily identified and clearly
distinguished from each other. "How can there be such a paradox?" is
the question that must present itself to every thoughtful mind. The
fountainhead of the Christian life is the same for all. Then how can
there be two streams from it which flow so widely apart? When every
Christian, as we have seen, has been brought through God's grace into
the same position and put under the same control how does one become
carnal and another spiritual? How can two persons, each of whom is
born again, live such differing lives? An answer to this question is
essential if one is to choose intelligently to be a spiritual
Christian and to carry out that choice steadfastly.
The Co-existence of Two Natures in every Believer
Every Christian is conscious of inward conflict, of a duality
within himself which he experiences but perhaps does not understand.
Part of him aspires to be well-pleasing unto God, another part of him
wants to satisfy every demand of self. Part of him longs for the peace
and rest of the promised land, another part of him lusts for the
leeks, onions and garlic of Egypt; part of him grasps Christ and part
of him grips the world. He has to admit that there seems to be a law
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of gravitation which tends ever to pull him sinward while at the same
time a counteracting law lifts him Christward.
The Scriptural explanation of this duality in Christian
experience is found in the co-existence of two natures within the
believer: the old, sinful Adamic nature and the new, spiritual Christ
nature. Let us turn to the first Epistle of John for its clear
unfolding of this very important truth. The Apostle John is a mature
Christian and he is writing to those who are at least capable of
receiving very deep spiritual truth. In the simplest of language he
teaches the co-existence of the two natures in every believer.
1 John 1:8, "If we say that we HAVE no sin [nature], we deceive
ourselves, and the truth is not in us."
If any Christian, no matter how full-grown he is or how many
special experiences he has had, says that he is entirely freed from
the old sinful nature, he deceives himself. But such a person does
not deceive his family, nor his neighbours, nor his fellow-Christians,
nor does he deceive God. In the next verse God makes provision for the
very sins which will come out of the root of sin still existing in
this self-deceived Christian (1 John 1:9). These "sins" which are
forgiven and the "unrighteousness" which is cleansed, are the sins and
the unrighteousnesses of saints.
But the Apostle John goes further. "If we say we have no sin
[nature]" the inevitableness of logic compels us to say that we do not
sin for if the root of sin is eradicated,
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then from what source could sins come? Every stream no matter how tiny
must have a source. A few days ago looking out upon the Alps in a
heavy rainstorm I saw ten streams of water flowing down the mountain
side. In today's sunshine I look out again and not one of those
streams can be seen. If there is "no sin [nature]," then the believer
"cannot sin." The old apostle uses very drastic language here--it may
be that he knew he was writing to some who in the very earnestness and
intensity of desire were in danger of believing this unscriptural
doctrine.
1 John 1:10, "If we say that we have not sinned, we make him
(God) a liar, and his word is not in us."
The gross, vulgar, more open sins may have gone from us but what
of the hidden sins of the heart; the pride even in our spiritual
attainment, the attitude of self-righteousness toward others who are
still on a lower plane, the harshness of judgment of those who do not
believe as we do, the secret irritability, sometimes even toward those
we love best, the unloving thought toward relative, friend or servant,
the intolerance toward the weak or wilful, or the countless sins of
omission that must be charged against the Christian by the One who
said, "To him that knoweth to do good and doeth it not, to him it is
sin." Sin is not merely an act; it is also an attitude and an absence.
It is not alone what we do but what we do not do. It is what we are
and what we are not in the innermost part of our being as God sees us.
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Who that has a Scriptural apprehension of sin as it is in man and of
holiness as it is in God could ever say he is without sin?
There is in every believer that old nature which can do nothing
but sin. John traces this sinful nature back to its original source in
Satan. Inherent within the old nature is a threefold inability: it
cannot know God, it cannot obey God, it cannot please God. By physical
birth every person becomes the possessor of this God-ignorant,
God-defying and God-displeasing nature and it remains in him as long
as he lives on earth.
But there is in every believer that new nature which cannot sin.
The old apostle leads us along the trail to its source in God.
Inherent within the new nature is a threefold capacity: it can and
does know God, obey God and please God. By spiritual birth every
person becomes the possessor of this God-knowing, God-obeying,
God-pleasing nature.
1 John 3:6-9, "Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not; whosoever
sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him. Little children, let no
man deceive you: he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he
is righteous. He that committeth sin is of the devil; for the devil
sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God was
manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil. Whosoever is
born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he
cannot sin, because he is born of God."
These two natures co-inhabit every believer. This truth is
repeatedly brought out in 1 John. John wrote
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to those believers as though he did not expect them to sin because
they had within them this God-inspired, God-begotten nature.
1 John 2:1a, "My little children, these things write I unto you,
that ye sin not."
Yet he made full provision for their sinning because they had
within them this Satan-inspired, devil-begotten nature.
1 John 2:1b, "And, if any man sin, we have an advocate with the
Father, Jesus Christ the righteous."
God makes no attempt to change or to improve the old nature
because it is unchangeable and unimproveable. Cultivation through
education and travel do not change it one iota but simply clothe it in
a more refined and respectable costume. God makes no attempt to
subject it for it is incorrigible and irreconcilable. Government and
laws may keep it partially suppressed but it is planning and secretly
executing a world-revolution against God and His government, and
stands ready to break out in vehement action at every favourable
opportunity. God makes no attempt to eradicate it because He has a far
more wonderful way of conquest over this sinful nature which we shall
soon consider.
The Conflict of these Two Natures in every Believer
To admit the co-existence of these two diametrically opposed and
mutually exclusive natures is to admit the
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necessity of fiercest conflict. It is indeed the age-long conflict
between Satan and Christ with the believer's inner life as the
battlefield. It is Self contesting Christ's right to His purchased
possession.
This conflict is personalized in the spiritual experience of the
Apostle Paul. He has been reborn, he was justified and sanctified in
Christ Jesus. The Lord Jesus had come in to possess His possession and
to take control. But there was one who contested His right. A conflict
ensued between the old Saul and the new Paul. Two antagonists were
fighting a deadly battle for a coveted prize. Romans seven pictures a
Christian torn to pieces by this awful conflict and baffled and
discouraged beyond words by it all. He wonders if there is any
possible way into victory and rest.
It is this conflict which staggers many a young Christian and
often causes a total eclipse of faith or a gradual backsliding into
the world. He took the first step into the Christian life because
his conscience was awakened to the evil of his doings. His chief
concern was for his sins. He had been convicted of the sinfulness of
acts and habits, and felt a
sense of guilt because of them. He came to Christ and accepted Him as
Saviour that he might be rid of certain sins. In the realization of
forgiveness and the assurance of pardon he experiences great joy and
gladly witnesses for Christ.
But he soon finds himself doing the old things again; the evil
habits persist; the sinful disposition manifests itself in
hydra-headed fashion; wicked practices return;
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worse than all, the joy in fellowship with Christ lessens; the heart
grows cold; the spirit is dulled; he grows utterly discouraged. But
his love for God has not been altogether quenched and flames up into
intense desire under the inspiration of some message from God's Word
or by the glimpse into a life which reflects peace and joy. Something
in him cries out for God while another something contests every inch
of God's claim upon the life. He is wholly nonplussed by this duality
within himself.
Something within him will not let him release his hold upon God.
Consequently he strives against these sins, agonizes over them, prays
for release, makes every effort possible within his own power to get
victory. But in spite of all he does his life is a kingdom divided
against itself. Then something tells him it is no use trying to live a
victorious life and he may as well give up. Over and over again he
asks himself the question "Is it all worth while?" He tries even to
persuade himself that the man who makes no profession of Christ is
much happier than he. But one day when on the very verge of absolute
despair he cries out of deep heart desire for deliverance, "O wretched
man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?"
What seems like his utter downfall is really his hour of
deliverance for it is the time of abject self-despair to which he had
to come before God could step in and open before him the way of
deliverance.
Dear friend, are you living in Romans seven today? Are you worn
out with the conflict? Do you wish to
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know the way out? Then just close this book for a moment and tell Him
so; then open it and ask Him to show you the way out into conquest and
victory.
The Conquest of the Old Nature
God gives to us very clear and definite instruction regarding our
part in the dethronement of this usurper Self and the enthronement of
Christ as sole Possessor and only Ruler over His inheritance in us.
We must condemn the flesh. God condemns the flesh as altogether
sinful (Rom. 8:3); He sees in it "no good thing" (Rom. 7:18) and no
Christian will ever have conquest over it until he accepts God's
estimate of it and acts accordingly. This may seem like an easy thing
to do but on the contrary it is exceedingly difficult. God's standard
is very exacting. He says there is "no good thing" in the flesh. God
says that "the flesh" both at its center and circumference is sinful;
He condemns both its innermost desires and its outermost deeds (Eph.
2:3, Col. 3:9), and declares that it is unworthy of any confidence on
our part. The first step which the Apostle Paul took to the life on
the highest plane was this--to condemn as unsafe, unclean and
untrustworthy, the flesh which formerly he had so highly regarded.
Phil. 3:3-4, "For we are the circumcision, which worship God in
the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the
flesh. Though I might also have confidence in the flesh. If any other
man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more"
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But we do have a great deal of confidence in the flesh. We divide
it into the good and the bad. Certain things in the flesh we are
compelled to distrust because they have gotten us into trouble.
Certain other things we have gone so far as to acknowledge as
weaknesses, faults, possible danger points. But there is another good
sized portion of the flesh that we rate rather high and in which we
trust without reserve. It may be our refined and cultured tastes; the
opinions and judgments which are the product of our educated minds;
our generous, noble, philanthropic feelings; our high standard of
morality; or, like Paul, our ancestral heritage. So that when we make
a cross-section of our "flesh," taking good and bad together, it seems
in our sight to measure up fairly well; at least we can see no reason
for such a wholesale condemnation of it as God makes.
But let us put this best product of the flesh to the test. Let us
take it from a home in which love reigned and sweet companionship was
its daily portion, where books lined the library shelves, beautiful
pictures adorned the walls, snow white linen covered the table, and
from a community life which offered everything needful to satisfy the
intellectual, social, aesthetic and spiritual desires and needs.
Transplant this life to an interior village on the mission field to
live within a house with several people of varying temperaments and
tastes, with limited household appointments, with untaught, untrained
servants, with nothing without upon which to rest the eye but mud
walls and dirty narrow streets, surrounded by jarring voices and
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unpleasant odours, and a furlough seven years off--would this best
product of the flesh stand the test and come off more than conqueror?
More than one missionary has left the mission field even before
furlough was due and for no other reason than that "the flesh" broke
down under the test.
Or let us put it to a different kind of a test. Perhaps "the
flesh" boasts of that Godlike quality of character called love. So
choose the deepest, purest human love we can find and place it
alongside of the love of 1 Corinthians 13. Is it a love that in
nothing or at no time seeketh its own, that is absolutely free from
the slightest taint of jealousy? Does it suffer long and is it always
kind or is there sometimes not a feeling of secret irritability toward
the one most deeply loved? Has it unfailingly been so charitable that
it has never taken account of evil? Would it not have to blush with
shame at its jealousy, envy, snobbishness, intolerance, selfishness,
impatience and irritability? Has our "flesh" never broken down under
this divine test?
May we make one more analytical test of "the flesh." This time
let it be a chemical analysis made in God's laboratory. Here is a man
who boasts of his generosity and is considered one of the best givers
in the city. He lavishes expensive gifts upon his family and gives
costly dinners to his friends and subscribes largely to campaigns when
the newspapers print the list of donors. But he grinds the most
possible labour out of his employees for the least possible pay, he
quarrels with his tailor over his bill, and he robs God of
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even the tithe which is His by right. Here is a woman who rides
triumphantly upon the social wave as one of the most gracious and
charming women in the community. But she nags her husband, is
impatient with her children and scolds her servants. "The flesh"
always has its blind side.
But I can almost hear some one rise up in defense of "the flesh"
and say, "But is it not natural to resent wrong? to dislike some
people? to crave certain things? to stand up for your own rights?"
Yes, it is natural and that is just why it is sinful. That is just
what "the flesh" is, it is our natural life; including all we call
highest and best as well as all we deem worst and weakest. What God
asks us to do is to take the cross section of "the flesh" we have made
and condemn it all, to believe in its utter impotence to do good and
in its mighty power to do evil.
We must consent to the crucifixion of the old man. Having
condemned "the old man" as a hideous, hateful, heinous thing we are
prepared for the next step God asks us to take. He has declared "the
old man" worthy of crucifixion, in fact, he has already accomplished
his crucifixion with Christ. Now God asks the believer to give his
hearty consent to this transaction and to consider it an accomplished
fact in his experience. Again this would seem like an extremely easy
thing to do. In theory it is, in practice it is not, for "the old man"
will fight like a tiger for his life.
"Self will make any concession if allowed to live. Self will
permit the believer to do anything, give anything,
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sacrifice anything, go anywhere, take any liberties, bear any crosses,
afflict soul or body to any degree--anything, if it can only live. It
will consent to live in a hovel, in a garret, in the slums, in far
away heathendom, if only its life can be spared. It will endure any
garb, any fare, any menial service rather than die."
But God says nothing short of the crucifixion of self will do.
This was the second step which the Apostle Paul took to life on the
highest plane--he gave his whole-souled consent to his co-crucifixion
with Christ Jesus and considered it something now past.
Gal. 2:20, R.V., "I have been crucified with Christ: and it is no
longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me; and the life that I now
live in the flesh I live in faith, the faith which is in the Son of
God, who loved me and gave himself for me."
"The Cross only severs what you consent to part from. The
severing of the Cross is not an actual experience, unless the will of
the believer desires and consents to the actual separation in fact and
practice."
Have you consented to your crucifixion with Christ? There can be
no reservations, no holding back part of the price. The whole "I" must
be counted dead. God asks you to put your signature to this statement,
"I have been crucified with Christ." If you have never done so, will
you do it today?
We must cooperate with the Holy Spirit in keeping the old man
crucified. What Christ has made possible for us the Holy Spirit makes
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real within us but only with our intelligent cooperation. God states
very clearly in His Word what our part is and it is the duty of every
believer to know and to do his part.
(1) Reckon yourself dead unto sin.
Rom. 6:11, "Likewise reckon ye yourselves to be dead indeed unto
sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord."
Through the crucifixion of "the old man" with Christ the believer
has been made dead unto sin, he has been completely freed from sin's
power, he has been taken beyond sin's grip, every claim of sin upon
him has been nullified. This is the flawless provision of God's grace
but this accomplished fact can only become an actual reality in the
believer's experience as faith lays hold upon it and enables him
moment by moment, day by day, though temptation assail him, "to
reckon" it true. As he reckons the Holy Spirit makes real; as he
continues to reckon, the Holy Spirit continues to make real. Sin need
have no more power over the believer than he grants it through
unbelief. If he is alive unto sin it will be due largely to the fact
that he has failed "to reckon himself dead unto sin in Christ." We
cannot expect God to do His part and our part too. His part has been
done perfectly, He waits now for us to cooperate with Him through
faith in making this perfect salvation a reality in experience.
Through grace "the old man" was nailed to the Cross and buried in the
tomb: through faith "the old man" will be kept there. Continuously
reckon yourself to be totally severed from all that belonged to the
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old life and all that pertained to the old sphere, and faith will
eventuate into experience.
Because I know in personal experience the defeat and
discouragement that ensues from failure to reckon one's self dead unto
sin and because I believe it is the common experience of scores of
Christian workers I am quoting at length from a letter received from a
missionary. God will use this testimony to help many, I confidently
believe, to see the place of failure.
"Last night I had a long conference with my Father. It was like
other nights in my life, when after long periods of perplexity and
prayer for light, the Lord has settled matters for me. I asked Him to
show me why I was failing, why my life was not more even and assured.
He knew I was keeping back nothing, and that I believed Jesus had met
the whole sin question, branches and root, on the Cross. Why was my
experience so fluctuating?
"It was not long before the answer came, and I saw, what I had
never realized before, that while I had taken the work of Christ on
the Cross as the perfect and complete satisfaction for the guilt of my
sin, so that the devil in all his assaults had not been able to move
me from my confidence that all my sins, past, present and future are
under the blood, and powerless to bring me again under the
condemnation of God; I had never appreciated to the full the value of
His dealing with the root of sin in me. I believed He had dealt with
it. I believed He had identified me with Himself on the Cross, and
that in Him I was crucified, 'dead unto sin and alive unto God.' I
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believed it as a fact in the Lord's glorious work, but I had been
appropriating the value of it only piecemeal, so to speak. It had been
the way of victory to me for years. Many of the temptations resisted,
the victories won, were through a definite reckoning of myself as dead
to sin and alive to God. Such victories have lasted months sometimes,
blessed seasons! But I saw that just as I would have fallen into
distressing condemnation under Satan's assaults, if I had not taken
Christ's atoning work in its entirety, once for all; so my failure to
appropriate the work of the Cross for my sinful self, in its entirety,
had left me an occasional prey to its power. I had been reckoning just
parts of myself dead, instead of my whole self. As a result I was
afraid of self, often uneasy and not sure of victory. And he that
feareth is not made perfect in love.
"Your words Sunday helped me, 'Who giveth us the victory, not
victories.' Well, dear friend, I have taken Christ in death and
resurrection as the full and perfect solution for the whole of the sin
problem. He has done it and it is done. I have asked for the same
immovable assurance about sin as I have enjoyed for years about my
sins, and I believe He has given it and will maintain it. He has given
me deep calm about it all.
"I see how my failure to trust fully the work of the Cross has
hindered the inflow and outflow of the Holy Spirit. The failure to
give Christ the full glory due Him has meant that my carnal self was
able to keep me, much of the time, without the Holy of Holies of
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the presence of Father and Son, where in the Spirit it is my privilege
to dwell.
"Glory be to God, the triune God! You will give Him glory with
me, for this unfolding of His truth to His unworthy child. I believe
this was the one thing needed to enable me to be used to work all the
good pleasure of His will."
(2) Make no provision for the flesh.
Rom. 13:14, "But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not
provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof."
Gal. 6:8, "For he that soweth to the flesh shall of the flesh
reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit
reap life everlasting."
Rom. 8:5, "For they that are after the flesh do mind the things
of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the
Spirit."
Rom. 8:4, "That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled
in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit."
Here before us is very definite and practical instruction on the
way of conquest of "the old man" which is constantly ignored and often
wilfully disobeyed by Christians. How can the Holy Spirit make real
within us our complete severance from "the old man" and all that
pertains to the old creation when we daily make ample provision for
the renewal of that life within us by feeding him upon the food that
makes fat? What is food to "the flesh" is fodder to the Spirit and
vice versa. Search your own life under the
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Spirit's guidance to discover what stores you have on hand that are
making "the flesh" fat in you and then throw the entire supply away
and stock your shelves with those things upon which the Spirit can
feed.
God's law of sowing and reaping in the spiritual realm is as
inexorable as it is in the material realm. If we sow to "the flesh" we
shall reap of "the flesh." What folly for a Christian woman to think
she can sow to "the flesh" in mannish hair dress, indecent clothes,
trashy books and worldly pleasures and then reap in return an
unspotted husband, Christian children and spiritual fellowship in the
home! And what inconceivable absurdity for a church to sow to its
young people the dance and the movie and expect to reap a
prayer-meeting or a revival! To which are you sowing your time, your
strength, your money--to "the flesh" or to the Spirit?
What things do you "mind"? It is a strong word. Upon what things
are your mind, heart, will set? In what kind of things are you so
immersed as to be oblivious to other things? With the desire for what
kind of things are you saturated? With a consuming, compelling passion
for what kind of things are you filled? You are responsible for the
direction your desires take because in cooperation with the Holy
Spirit He will direct you away from the things of "the flesh" toward
the things of the Spirit. Are you making provision for "the flesh" in
the things that you "mind"?
The world judges a Christian very largely by his "walk." To a
world deaf to every other kind of a
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message the Christian may witness by his "walk." But what kind of a
witness is the Christian if the worldly man finds him walking just
where and just as he walks? What power will a Christian walking "in
the flesh" have to deliver a sinner from the sphere of the flesh? Here
is largely the secret of the shameful fruitlessness of the Church of
Christ in the world today. Are you walking "in the flesh" or in the
Spirit?
God commands every believer to take a definite, decisive
attitude toward "the flesh" and to maintain it by the Holy Spirit's
power under all circumstances.
1 Pet. 2:11, "Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and
pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul."
Gal. 5:24, "And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh
with the affections and the lusts."
It resolves itself into a total abstinence of all that feeds or
fosters the life of "the flesh" and a full appreciation of all that
starves and stifles it.
(3) Ignore the claims of the flesh.
Rom. 8:12, "Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the
flesh, to live after the flesh."
"The flesh" is a fighter and will never abdicate the throne of
its own will nor will it ever renounce its claim upon the believer's
life. We owe "the flesh" nothing: we owe the Saviour, who severed us
from its deadly, deathly poison, everything. Our invariable,
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unswerving attitude to every claim of "the flesh" upon us should be
one of insistent refusal. It is the believer's privilege in the face
of any claim it may advance to quietly, persistently say, "I am dead
to that thing." Take sides instantly with the Holy Spirit whenever
"the flesh" puts forth a claim to any part of your life and victory in
Christ will be yours.
(4) Mortify the members of the body.
Col. 3:5, "Mortify therefore your members which are upon the
earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil
concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry."
Rom. 8:13, "For if ye live after the flesh ye shall die; but if
ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall
live."
The body is the playground of "the flesh." Through it as a
channel the believer is continuously open to temptation; its members
have long been the tools of sin. But by yielding every member of the
body as an instrument of righteousness to Jesus Christ we may
cooperate with the Holy Spirit in routing "the flesh" from its long
fortified stronghold. We must cast off the old man.
Eph. 4:22, R.V., "That ye put away as concerning your former
manner of life, the old man, that waxeth corrupt after the lusts of
deceit."
Col. 3:9, "Lie not one to another, seeing ye have put off the old
man with his deeds."
The old nature is cast aside as a filthy, worthless
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garment. It is as though a beggar had become betrothed to the King of
all the earth and cast aside her filthy rags that she might don her
bridal robe.
The Lord Jesus in Control
But the conquest of the old nature is but the negative side of a
life that is spiritual. The positive aspect of it is the supernatural
control of every department of the believer's being by the Lord Jesus.
It was not enough that the children of Israel should cross the Jordan,
they were commanded to possess the land and by dispossessing every
enemy live in victory and peace.
We must crown Jesus Christ as Lord.
2 Cor. 5:15, "And that he died for all, that they which live
should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died
for them and rose again."
Gal. 2:20, R.V., "I have been crucified with Christ: and it is no
longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me."
Phil, 1:21, "For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain."
The very purpose of Jesus Christ's death and resurrection is to
dispossess, to displace and to dethrone that old "I," and to give the
throne of the human personality to Him to whom it belongs by the right
of creation and of purchase, that He might reign there as its sole
Lord and King. "To me to live is Christ" is the life God expects every
believer to live. The apostle's cry of despair, "O wretched man that I
am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" and his shout
of victory, "I thank God through Jesus Christ my Lord," were spoken
almost in the same breath. By one supreme
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act of the will he seemed to step out of the grip of the old nature
into the control of the new.
Dear friend, has Christ's coronation day as King been celebrated
yet in your life? Who sits to-day on the throne of your being, Self or
Christ? Unless by a definite act of your will you have chosen Him as
Lord it is futile for you to expect Him to control your life.
We must covet the things of Christ.
Col. 3:1-3, "If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things
which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set
your affections on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye
are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God."
It will never do merely to crown Christ as a puppet King by an
act of the will and then live under the democracy of Self-desire.
Of self, for self and by self, seems to be the threefold principle
governing countless Christian lives. If self-will dethrones God in
human lives today, it is self-love that votes to keep Him dethroned.
It is not enough to have the will fixed in its purpose to crown Him as
Lord and then have the affections lusting for the things of the world,
the flesh and the devil. The desires of the heart must keep step with
the decision of the will; the believer must "seek those things which
are above" and joyfully, eagerly, "set his affections [thought
patterns]" upon them. How incongruous for him to be "In Christ" seated
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in the heavenlies at the right hand of God and hid away with Christ in
the Father's innermost sanctuary and yet be hankering for the things
of earth and of time and of sense!
If one truly covets Christ, he will be willing to count all
things loss. He will not only cut loose from every besetting sin and
entangling alliance but he will stand ready to lay aside every
hindering weight. He will make himself ready to be a victor in the
race of life here on earth (1 Cor. 9:24-27), and he will have his
bridal robe ready for the coming marriage to the Lamb (Rev. 19:7-8).
Phil. 3:7-8, R.V., "Howbeit what things were gain to me, these
have I counted loss for Christ. Yea verily, and I count all things to
be loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord:
for whom I suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but
refuse, that I may gain Christ."
Heb. 12:1, "Wherefore, seeing we also are compassed about with so
great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin
which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race
that is set before us."
The Apostle Paul put before him a prize to be gained--Christ
Jesus Himself--and this prize he coveted above all else in life. His
passionate desire for the Lord Jesus made him willing, nay even eager,
not only to renounce all known sin but even to cast aside anything and
everything that tended to make his spiritual experience stagnant and
sluggish.
The Alpine climber prepares to ascend the Jungfrau--at last
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a long cherished ambition is to be realized. Into his pack go
necessities as he thinks them to be. A heavy load it becomes. Early in
the climb he is overcome. His body is wearied through its excessive
burden. Finally the guide tells him a choice must be made because not
only is he hindering his own progress but that of the other climbers
to whom he is roped. He must either give up his hope of reaching the
summit or he must cast aside the weights. Does he covet his prize
enough to count all these things but loss that he may gain the summit
of the Jungfrau?
My friend, have you been living in the valley, self-satisfied and
self-complacent? As you have gone with me through these studies has
your eye travelled up, up, up to the very summit of spiritual
experience--Christ Jesus, crucified, risen, ascended, exalted, living
in all the fulness of His beauty, power, glory, and holiness in human
life, conforming it to His image, and then using it to bring other
lives into the same conformity? Have you aspired to reach the top--to
live your life on that highest plane? The ascent is steep and
difficult but it is possible and a thousand times repaying. But, if
you attempt it, you will have to follow the explicit direction of the
Guide not only for your own sake but for the sake of others. The
divine Spirit will command you to renounce all known sin; He will even
ask you to cast away some things which He sees are weighing you down
and wearying you so that you cannot keep pace with your spiritual
companions, which, if carried, will keep you from reaching the top.
Perhaps He will require you to make that choice today. God
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grant that you may count all things but loss that you may win Christ.
We must cooperate with the Holy Spirit in keeping Christ
enthroned. It is not crowning Christ as Lord that troubles many an earnest soul but the keeping Him enthroned. It is not reaching the high altitude in the spiritual realm but it is the maintaining of life on that highest plane. But for this specific purpose God's second gift, the Holy Spirit, was bestowed upon every believer. Through His indwelling the Christian He enables him to glorify Christ in character, conversation and conduct. But His omnipotent working depends upon the believer's constant and consistent cooperation. And He tells him just what he must do to cooperate.
(1) "Reckon yourself alive unto God."
Rom. 6:11, "Likewise reckon ye yourselves to be dead unto sin,
but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord."
Through identification with Jesus Christ in His resurrection the
believer has been made "alive unto God." Through the burial of "the
old man" with Christ in the tomb he was completely separated from all
that belonged to the old creation. Through the emergence of "the new
man" with Christ from the tomb he was completely separated unto all
that belongs to the new creation. This is the faultless provision of
God's grace for every believer. Every believer is already in the
heavenlies in Christ; Christ is now the source and sustenance of every
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Christian's life. All that the Man in the Glory is and has is the
rightful possession of every believer here and now. But what God
provides through grace He expects the believer to possess through
faith. Emissaries from the realm of darkness and death will come to
lure him away from his hidden life in Christ but as he "reckons
himself to be alive unto God" he will be able to resist the evil one
and to maintain his position in Christ. As he "reckons" upon this
accomplished fact based on his Saviour's resurrection the Holy Spirit
works within to make it real. As he continues to "reckon" moment by
moment that he has no life but life in Christ, the Holy Spirit keeps
him abiding.
(2) Make every provision for the Spirit.
Rom. 8:9, "But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so
be that the Spirit of God dwell in you."
The moment the believer becomes the possessor of the new nature
he leaves the sphere of the flesh to abide in the sphere of the
Spirit, and the Spirit comes to abide in him. In other words, he is in
the Spirit and the Spirit is in him. The maintenance of such a life in
such a world as this requires the most careful and constant provision.
Only the Holy Spirit knows what will sustain and strengthen life
in His sphere. He alone can provide that food. This He has done for
every believer and all He asks is for the acceptance of the food He
offers. He knows both the age and the capacity of each believer and
will suit his food to his need.
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1 Pet. 2:2, "As new born babes, desire the sincere milk of the
Word, that ye may grow thereby."
Heb. 5:14, "But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full
age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to
discern both good and evil."
(3) Follow the leading of the Spirit.
Rom. 8:16, "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are
the sons of God."
The only way to combat successfully the claims of the flesh is to
obey implicitly every prompting or motion of the Spirit, be it ever so
slight. Whether it be a warning, a check, a leading, or a teaching,
all are given by Him as He sees necessary, and should be followed
instantly.
(4) Yield to Christ the control of every member of the body.
Rom. 6:13, "Neither yield ye your members as instruments of
unrighteousness unto sin; but yield yourselves unto God, as those
alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness
unto God."
It is utter folly to talk about Christ's control over and use of
our lives if we have blinded our eyes to His vision and deafened our
ears to His voice and tied our tongues as His witnesses and fettered
our hands as His tools and lamed our feet as His messengers, through
yielding them to the devil as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin.
But it is just such a stultified life that countless Christians expect
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Christ to use. If Christ's control is to count for anything in our
lives and through us in the lives of others, every member of our
bodies must be at His absolute disposal.
We must clothe ourselves with Christ.
Gal. 3:27, "For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ
have put on Christ."
Rom. 13:14, "But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ and make not
provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof."
Did you discern in reading these two verses that in the first
one God declares that the believer has already put on the Lord Jesus
Christ and in the last one He exhorts--may we put it stronger yet--He
commands him to do so? Through the grace, mercy and love of God the
believer has been unclothed and clothed upon in the new position in
Christ to which he has been brought. The snow-white linen of Christ's
righteousness and holiness are his. But God requires the cooperative
response of the believer's love, devotion and faith in keeping these
garments clean and rightly fitted to the believer's daily walk and
warfare.
Dear fellow Christian, perhaps we have come to the second crucial
milestone in your spiritual experience. Already you have accepted
Christ as Saviour. You faced the choice of your sin or God's Son and
you chose Christ as your Saviour. But have you wandered forty years in
the wilderness of defeat, of discouragement and oftentimes of despair?
Are you weary and footsore? Does your heart cry out for the peace,
joy, victory and power you see others enjoying? If so, are
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you ready just now to take the second step into the life on the
highest plane by crowning Jesus Christ as Lord over your spirit, soul
and body and by placing your whole being unconditionally under His
control? Before you is this choice, Self or Christ?
"Oh! the bitter shame and sorrow,
That a time could ever be,
When I let the Saviour's pity
Plead in vain, and proudly answered--
'All of Self and none of Thee.'
"Yet He found me: I beheld Him
Bleeding on the cursed tree;
Heard Him pray, 'Forgive them, Father,'
And my wistful heart said faintly--
'Some of Self and some of Thee.'
"Day by day His tender mercy,
Healing, helping, full and free,
Sweet and strong, and oh! so patient,
Brought me lower while I whispered--
'Less of Self and more of Thee.'
"Higher than the highest heavens,
Deeper than the deepest sea;
Lord, thy love at last has conquered:
Grant me now my soul's petition--
'None of Self and all of Thee.'"
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
Chapter I:
In Christ or In Adam, I.R. Dean
Chapter II:
Salvation, L.S. Chafer
What Justification is and What it Does, Griffith Thomas
The Sinner and the Saviour, Adolph Saphir
Chapter III:
Ruined--Redeemed--Regenerated, C.M. Mackintosh
From Death unto Life, J.H. Brookes
Real Salvation, R.A. Torrey
Chapter IV:
In Christ Jesus, A.T. Pierson
The Parables of the Cross, I. Lilias Trotter
The Parables of the Christ Life, I. Lilias Trotter
In Christ, A.J. Gordon
Chapter V:
Like Christ, Andrew Murray
Oneness with Christ, W.R. Nicholson
Chapter VI:
Grace and Power, Griffith Thomas
Holy in Christ, Andrew Murray
Sanctification, Philip Mauro
Chapter VII:
Types in Joshua, A.C. Gaebelein
The Conquest of Canaan, Mrs. Penn-Lewis
Chapter VIII:
Reigning in Life, J. East Harrison
The Happy Christian, Unknown Christian
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Chapter IX:
Victory in Christ, Conference Report, S.S. Times
The Spiritual Life, Andrew Murray
Grace and Truth, W.P. Mackay
Chapter X:
The Way of the Cross, Gregory Mantle
The Christian's Choice, Philip Mauro
The Two Natures, I.M. Haldeman