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I saw that this article reflected quite nicely and went in tandom with what you are saying Michael

ENJOY, for it won't last long-lol
Most Chistians are in need of Grace, not Law-meh
Though, some indeed require Law to free them of thier flesh, so here goes

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Christ, Who Is Our Life!!
By Don Higgins
Undated

What is the Christian life? It is likely that some of the more common answers from born again Christians would contain the following concepts.

"The Christian Life is living my life for Christ. In return for what the Lord Jesus Christ has done for me, I will devote my life to live for Him as Lord and Master." (That seems right and good!!)

"The Christian Life is dedicating my life, my talents, my abilities, time and energy to Him. Because the Lord Jesus Christ is worthy of all honour, praise and glory, I dedicate all that I am and hope to be to the Lord Jesus Christ." (That seems very sacrificial and good!!)

"The Christian Life is forme to try to serve the Lord and to obey all His commandments. The Lord Jesus Christ has set the example of living a holy life before God. The Christian life is to do what He would do in all phases of my life." (That seems honourable and good!!)

"The Christian Life is finding and fulfilling His plan and purpose for my life. God has a perfect will for my life. To the best of my ability, I should measure up to His expectations and thus fulfil His plan and purpose for me." (That seems noble and good!!)

"The Christian Life is having the Lord Jesus Christ at the centre or on the throne of my life. Because the Lord Jesus knows best, I will allow him to control me by being at the centere of my life, and ruling over me. I will submit to Him always, as the Lord of my life." (That seems very majestic and good!!)

"The Christian Life is for me to follow the Lord Jesus all the days of my life. As a disciple of the Lord Jesus, I will follow Him. I will listen to Him, I will talk to Him, and I will walk with Him. I am to go wherever He would want me to go, say what He would want me to say, and be what He would want me to be." (That seems devoted, sincere and good!!)

All of these are good, very good, and while they seem to be good, all of them unwittingly, conceal what the real Christian Life is. Our complicated explanations of the Christian Life have a major flaw. There is too much of me, my life and my effort in them.

"The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. He is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else." Acts 17: 24 - 25.

God, as our Father, wants to give life to us, and this life is in His Son the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus said: I am the Way, I am the Truth, and I am the LIFE !! JESUS CHRIST IS THE CHRISTIAN LIFE! "I have come that you might have Life, and that you might have it to the full." John 10:10.

Jesus Christ is the Only One Who can live the Christian life, because He is THE LIFE!

God never intended that we should even try to live the Christian life. It is not only difficult, it is impossible for anyone to do it. Only by totally yielding in full surrender to the indwelling Christ, can a Christian know what the Christian life is. Trying to live the Christian life results in repeated re-dedications of my life and repeated re-committments of my life . This is living proof that there is too much of my life in the way?

It is God's intention that Jesus live His life through me. "For it is God who worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure." Phil. 2 :13. Jesus often said; "In and of myself, I can do nothing", Yet many Christians today, try to do what they can to please God. They unconsciously see Jesus as being their helper rather than their life source . They are still trying to do it, trying to be like Jesus, and have Jesus help them. (Check out your prayers and see if it isn't so.) Failure is the inevitable result.

Peter on the day of Pentecost, declared to the holiday throng: "Men of Israel, listen to this: Jesus of Nazareth was a man accredited by God to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God did among you through him ." (Acts 2:22). If we understand this statement clearly, it was God Who fed the five thousand, it was God Who turned the water into wine, it was God Who raised Lazarus from the dead, and it was God Who did everything that men saw the man Jesus doing.

Jesus attested to this principle many times. He said: "If you have seen me you have seen the Father." "I do nothing of my own initiative, I only do what I see the Father doing." It is with this principle in mind that Jesus also says: "As the Father has sent me so send I you." We are not to try to do as Jesus would do. We are to let His abundant Life live in us.

The disciples asked Jesus: "What must we do to do the works of God?" Jesus' answer was very direct: "The work of God is this, that you believe on the One Whom He has sent." (John 6:28-29). It is certain that every born-again Christian has believed on the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation. It is not quite so certain that all born-again believers are believing on the Lord Jesus Christ to do the work of God through them.

Jesus said: "I am the vine, you are the branch, without me you can do nothing" (John 15:5). How much can a branch do without the vine? Nothing!! It does not choose what fruit to bear, how much to bear, nor when to bear it. It can do nothing but abide in the vine. How much can a branch do with the vine helping it? Nothing!! The branch does nothing but abide in the vine. The vine does everything.The life is in the vine, it brings life from the ground, through the vine, thence to the branch, and then the fruit appears on the branch. All this happens because of the vine, nothing of the branch. The branch just becomes the conveyor.

Paul the Apostle said it other ways: "Just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, (by faith) continue to live in Him." Col 2:6. "We walk by faith and not by sight." (knowledge, feeling or intellect) IICor. 5:7. "How much more, having been reconciled, shall we be (being) saved by His Life." Rom 5:10. "When Christ Who is Our LIFE!!" Col. 3:4. "For me to live is Christ." Phil 1:21.

It is not up to us to go on saving ourselves by our efforts, but rather that we simply depend by faith on the LIFE of the Lord Jesus to be in such a position of Lordship, that He Himself in His power, keeps on saving us moment by moment. By faith we believe that Jesus Christ has taken away our sins and saved us from eternal separation from God. In the same way by faith we are to allow the living Christ to keep us in victory, cause us to bear fruit and live above the circumstances that otherwise crush us.

Of course there is one villain in the way of this process--ourselves. Until we abandon all hope and trust in our own self efforts to do anything of eternal value and merit, we will continue to struggle in self effort. That only leads to destruction. The Old Testament refers to this kind of living as "our own way that seems right to us but leads to destruction." Prov 14:12, 16:2, 25.

Jeremiah, in chapter 17 and verse 9, declares that "the heart of man is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked, who can know it?" (KJV). It takes a work of the Holy Spirit to reveal the bankruptcy of our own efforts and our own ways. The NIV says it this way, "it is beyond cure." Yet, many Christians have a tendency to trust in their own self effort. How deceptive! Time and time again, God calls His people to forsake their wicked ways, and to repent of this self sufficient way.

It is only the truth of Galatians 2:20 and Romans 6:6 that provide the power to release us from our self efforts to live our version of whatever we think the Christian life is. "I have been crucified with Christ," .... "we know that our old self was crucified with Christ." It is only as the Holy Spirit makes that truth real in our experience, and as the believer allows that truth to be operative in him moment by moment, that Jesus Christ can live the Christian Life in us.

May the power of the Holy Spirit restore us to New Testament Christian Life, where once again we can "know Christ and the power of His resurrection LIFE, becoming like Him in His death so as to somehow attain to the resurrection from our dead selves." Phil 3:10-11.

Father, I see that I have unknowingly been trying to live the Christian life in my own resources. I repent of my foolishness, and choose now to trust Your living Son for daily LIFE AND VICTORY. Forgive me for trying in my own efforts to live the LIFE that you have provided for me in the mighty matchless resources of Your Own Precious Son.

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Watchman Nee talks about that in The Normal Christian Life, Chapter 4, Reckoning. When people get ahead of the process outlined by the Holy Spirit in Romans, namely that TRY to "reckon themselves dead" BEFORE they KNOW that they are dead in Christ, then when difficulties arise, they begin to furiously "reckon" by saying over and over, "I'm dead, I'm dead, I'm dead", but they will find themselves "still very much alive" because they have skipped the "knowing they are dead" step of Romans 6:6.

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Posts: 3273 | From: Charlotte N.C. | Registered: Sep 2007  |  IP: Logged | 

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Now, on that second part which you called 'secondly', I agree with the 'intent' on display here. However I have talked about being something in 'name only'. And the fact is that one can claim by faith that they are dead, without crossing the border into the reality of understanding. In other words, one can comfort him/herself that they are 'dead' by thinking themselves to 'reckon' that they are, which is not entirely unscriptural to do, however, it is yet to be their reality, or understanding. This means in fact that they could be lying to themselves, while 'holding onto their life' still. That would make it basic dishonesty towards God, or in other words, 'lack of surrender', which God cannot and will not reward.

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Now, on that second part which you called 'secondly', I agree with the 'intent' on display here. However I have talked about being something in 'name only'. And the fact is that one can claim by faith that they are dead, without crossing the border into the reality of understanding. In other words, one can comfort him/herself that they are 'dead' by thinking themselves to 'reckon' that they are, which is not entirely unscriptural to do, however, it is yet to be their reality, or understanding. This means in fact that they could be lying to themselves, while 'holding onto their life' still. That would make it basic dishonesty towards God, or in other words, 'lack of surrender', which God cannot and will not reward.

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Michael:
Perhaps if you will find where he talked about "The wounding of Jacob's thigh," which is a chapter in one of his books, maybe you will find it.

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heh

Not everyone wrestles with God.

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Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?

But I trust that ye shall know that we are not reprobates.

Posts: 749 | From: Toronto, Canada-EH! | Registered: Jun 2008  |  IP: Logged | 

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Regarding the part I bolded, that is NOT TRUE at all. First of all, regarding the bolded part, where does Watchman Nee teach that?

Secondly, Watchman Nee teaches that we come to see that our old man is dead by faith, just because God said so. God said so, therefore I see it now and accept it.

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Posts: 3273 | From: Charlotte N.C. | Registered: Sep 2007  |  IP: Logged | 

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The Body of Christ: A Reality
Watchman Nee

3. Hold Fast the Head

And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him to be Head over all things to the church. (Eph. 1:22)

But speaking truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him, who is the Head, even Christ; from whom all the body fitly framed and knit together through that which every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love. (Eph. 4:15-16)

And not holding fast the Head, from whom all the body, being supplied and knit together through the joints and bands, increases with the increase of God. (Col. 2:19)


One

In order to make Christ the Head of all things, God first made Him the Head of the church. After being made the Head of the church, Christ will later have His authority extended to be Head over all things. His future position in the universe is closely related to His place today in the church. For Christ to be Head over all things, God wants Him first to be such among His children - that is, in the church which is His body. How exceedingly important a subject is this matter.

Christ being the Head of the church and the church being the body of Christ, the whole body is thus summed up in the Head. If our human body is separated from the head, that automatically means death to our body. All the movements of a person are governed by the head. Whenever the head is wounded and thereby loses its effectiveness, the activities of the body stop and the body ends in death; for the head is the central control of the life of the body. Now the word of God declares that he who has the Son of God has life (1 Jn. 5:12). A Christian receives life from the Lord Jesus, who is the Son of God; yet this life never leaves the Lord. He who has the Son has life, but this life, says God's word, is in the Son (1 Jn. 5:11), and not even for a moment has this life left the Son. Hence, apart from the Lord Jesus we just cannot live.

Let us understand that God has not apportioned to us a small amount of Christ so that we may take that portion and go away. No, God has given the total Christ to us and has joined us intimately with His Son. All the power of our existence rests in Christ. In the event we lose communication with the Lord because we have departed from Him, we instantly become lifeless. Thus, though a Christian receives life from Christ, it remains in the Lord. We have received life, yet this life and the head are inseparable. Upon our accepting Him, we still must live in Him. Though we have received Him, we are yet to depend on Him. Accordingly, we cannot be independent in anything. The Lord alone is head, and He is the sole resource of our life.


Two

Christ is the life of the body; He also is its authority as the Head. Because life is in Him, authority too is in Him. He is our life, therefore He has authority; and when we obey His authority, we have life. Hence if we see what is the body of Christ, we cannot avoid accepting the control of the Head, since a body with its members is not able to move at will but does so only at the order of the head. If there is no command from the head there is no movement in the body. No member of the body can take its own initiative, but must be governed by the head. Where life is, there is authority. True authority is life. And since the Lord controls our life, He has authority over us.

Anyone who confesses with his mouth that he knows body life ought to ask himself if he has subjected himself to the Lord's authority. Whether or not he is in subjection to the authority of the Head proves whether or not he really knows the life of the body. The attitude of some people to the word of God is: "This is what the Lord has indeed said, but I think..." Who allows any of us to say "But"? Who gives us such an authority to say "But"? In the world, if anyone does not follow the order of his superior he is deemed an insubordinate person. Since Christ is the Head and we are not, we have no right not to obey the Lord.

What is meant by "follow"? To follow signifies that the way I tread and the place where I go are all decided by someone else. We are following the Lord; therefore we have no authority to decide our own path. The body in its relation to the Head can only obey and follow. If we wish to live out the life of the body of Christ we must cover our own head; that is to say, we must not have our personal opinion, egoistic will or selfish thought. We can only obey the Lord and let Him be the Head. The Lord alone is in that position; nobody else can be. I cannot be the head, neither can anyone else in the church be, for the body has only one head and is in subjection to that Head, which is Christ. We all must therefore obey Him.

Unfortunately, there appears to be in the church too many heads, too many human leaders, too many men's ways and regulations. Too often man aspires to be the authority. While Christ is Head in heaven, man wants to be head on earth. When the thought of the earthly head happens to agree with that of the heavenly One, we obey Christ. But when the earthly head disagrees with the heavenly One, we disobey Christ. How wrong is this entire system!

Have you ever said to the Lord: "O Lord, You are my Head. I have no right to decide anything, nor have I authority to make any choice of my own. May You deliver me from trying to be head as well as deliver me from other people who set themselves up as head." Each one of us needs to learn how to accept the command of God: Christ is Head, and therefore no one can follow his own will. To be subdued by the Lord and then to capitulate to Him should be a basic experience of every Christian.

We learn from Acts 2 that when Peter proclaimed the gospel he said this: "God has made Him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified" (Acts 2:36). He opened his mouth and declared that Christ is Lord. Christ is not only Savior, He is firstly Lord: we need Him to be Lord to us. And because we have sinned, He must also be our Savior.

Take a look at the experience of Paul at his conversion. While he was on the way to Damascus the Lord shone around him,. And then he asked: "Who are You, Lord?" (Acts 9:5) Paul first saw Jesus as Lord before he believed on Him as Savior. Oh how we all must come to the place where we can honestly say: "O Lord, I am finished. Henceforth, it is You who directs me, because You are the Lord."


Three

Let us realize that we all must hold fast the Head. To do this means to acknowledge that Christ alone is Head. It means absolute obedience to His authority. "My grow up in all things into Him, who is the Head, even Christ; from whom all the body fitly framed and knit together through that which every joint supplies, according to the working in due measure of each several part, makes the increase of the body unto the building up of itself in love" (Eph. 4:15,16). From this passage we learn that the members of the body of Christ are fitly framed and knit together because all hold fast the head and live out the life of the body. This does not suggest that God wants you to pay attention only to the one who sits next to you, but that He preeminently wants you to have a proper relationship with the Lord. If you maintain such a relationship with the Head you will have a good relationship with other body members. All matters between you and your brothers and sisters may be easily solved if you can submit yourself to the Head. If you have no controversy with the Lord you will have no problem with any brother or sister.

Whether or not you can successfully live out the life of the body rests on your relationship with the Head. Let us see that we did not become Christians because we found other Christians agreeable, nor are we successful as believers because we have mastered some kind of Christian technique. We became Christians because we know Christ. And the way we continue to live successfully as Christians is the way we were born as Christians. We were so born by having a relationship with the Head, and we continue as Christians by maintaining a proper relationship with the Head - who is Christ the Lord.

This is not to insinuate that Christians do not need to have fellowship with one another; no, it simply affirms that the fellowship among believers is based on their relationship to Christ. We need to fellowship with one another because the Christ who dwells in me and the Christ who dwells in you are inseparable. The Christ who indwells me is not a fragmentary, but a whole, Christ. Christ in you and Christ in me - this is the Christ that is the basis of our fellowship. Aside from Him we have nothing with which to fellowship. Even though the education we each receive and the environment and natural talent we individually have are all different, there is still one thing common to all of us, which is the indwelling Christ. Since the Christ in us is the same, we can fellowship with one another. Not because a certain person has ability or good temper or is gentle or considerate do you have fellowship with that one. Not at all. If your fellowship is based on people, you are not holding fast the Head - but on the contrary, your fellowship will be according to the kind of communication which Absalom had with the people of Israel. Such fellowship separated the people from David (see 2 Sam. 15:1-17). And similar conduct today would not constitute a holding fast the Head.

The fellowship between Christians ought to be that which is related to Christ. We have no basis for fellowship outside of the Head. Our fellowship is both normal and profitable if all of us hold fast the Head. Otherwise, fellowship will be marred. How far will you go as a Christian? Will you follow the Lord to the end? If someone draws back and falls away, will not your fellowship with him be affected? All of us must follow the Lord the entire way in order to maintain full fellowship, which only the mutual holding fast of the Head can accomplish.


Four

What are the conditions for holding fast the Head? On the one hand we must let the cross deal deeply with the flesh and its natural life and on the other hand we need to learn to walk according to the Spirit. Thus shall we enjoy a wholesome body fellowship. Without the dealing of the natural life by the cross we cannot live out the body life.

The book of Revelation reveals a company of people who follow the Lamb wheresoever He goes (see Rev. 14:1-5). Can we say we follow the Lamb anywhere He goes? Let us never forget that the cross is the instrument of fellowship. It deals with our flesh, it breaks down our self-life so that we may follow the Lamb wherever He leads. If we have no hindrance before the Lord, we will present no obstruction to the church. If our relationship with the Head is proper, our relationship with the body will also be proper. For let us clearly understand that every member has a direct relationship with the Head. In the physical body, for example, if the left hand should be hurt, it will be the head which order the right hand to help. The right hand makes no direct move by itself. So is it with the body of Christ. The inter-relatedness of its members comes in every instance through the Head. When one member goes to help a brother, if he holds fast the Head it is for the Lord's sake and not for the sake of mere human friendship. By holding fast the Head we will be spared from maintaining a direct relationship with anyone, and thus we will not harbor any special affinity towards a few. To do otherwise will bring in division or party spirit.

Now God does not permit division or party in the church. What is party? A party is formed when a few Christians establish direct intercourse among themselves through the technique of bypassing the Head. They maintain a special affinity towards each other which does not originate with the Head. This is party. Yet what is even worse than a party is a sect. Some people are so close and so naturally attracted to one another that the form a sectarian group. But if brethren will hold fast the Head their hearts will be as large as that of the Head. Brethren should indeed love one another; yet this mutual love has a foundation which belongs to the entire body of Christ. Loving one another must encompass all members in the body. That which falls short of the boundary of the body is not permitted by God. Only by holding fast the Head can Christians love one another without falling into parties and sects.

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The Body of Christ: A Reality
Watchman Nee

2. The Consciousness of the Body of Christ

For I say, through the grace that was given me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but so to think soberly, according as God has dealt to each man a measure of faith. For even as we have many members in one body, and all the members have not the same office: so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and severally members one of another. (Rom. 12:3-5)
In the previous chapter we came to understand a little how consciousness reveals life. Here we will continue further so that we may understand what the consciousness of the body of Christ exactly is.


Love the Brethren

Let us first approach it from the standpoint of love. One thing is quite marvelous when we contemplate this verse: "We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren" (1 Jn. 3:14). All who have passed out of death into life love one another. All who have become members of the same spiritual body love one another. Such love comes from life and it flows spontaneously. Could a person be considered a child of God if, after answering affirmatively in a church meeting that he is a Christian and after being reminded that as a Christian he ought to love other Christians, he then says, "I will start to love other Christians tomorrow if you say so"? Oh let us see that everyone who is truly born from above and has the life of God spontaneously loves all who are members together with him in the body of Christ. Whether he is reminded or not, he has a consciousness of loving the brethren. He unquestionably needs many times to be reminded of loving the brethren. Yet this reminder does not add anything to him which is not already within him, it instead merely stirs up into more fervency what is already present in him. If the love of God is present in a person, the love of the brethren is there. And if God's love is absent, brotherly love is not there. It is that simple. Nothing can be created or manufactured. When a believer meets another person who belongs to God he strangely but quite naturally loves him because he has that inner consciousness within him which must express itself in love towards that other person.

Once a son was born to a brother in Christ. He was asked, "Now that you have become a father, do you love your son?" His answer was: "A week before I was to be a father, I kept thinking how I should love my son. But as soon as my son was born - the moment I saw him - my heart quite naturally when out to him and I simply loved him." We see here how human love springs from a consciousness inside, it is not taught from outside. Likewise, all the children of God who are bought with the blood of the Lamb and receive God's life and are baptized into the body of Christ cannot help but be moved from within to love one another as members of the same body.

Oftentimes when you meet an individual who is truly of the Lord, your heart goes out to him as soon as you learn he is a Christian, regardless whether he comes from abroad or is a native citizen, whether he is highly civilized or uncultured, or regardless of what race or profession he may be. Love is an inner consciousness. If you are in the same spiritual body, you naturally have this kind of consciousness.


No Division

One who has seen the body of Christ and who thus possesses the consciousness of the body feels unbearable inside when he does anything which may cause division or separate God's children. For he loves all who belong to God and cannot divide His children. Love is natural to the body of Christ, whereas division is most unnatural. It is just as in the case with our two hands: no matter for how many reasons one hand may be raised against the other hand, there is no way to sever their relationship: division is simply impossible.

Perhaps a person is proud of himself for being one who has left a sect and thus deems himself to be a person who knows the body of Christ. As a matter of fact, however, leaving a denomination is not necessarily the same as, or an indication of, seeing the body of Christ. It is quite true that whoever discerns the body is delivered from denominationalism. But who can claim he has apprehended the body of Christ simply because he has left a denomination? Outwardly many have left a denomination, yet they simply set up another kind for themselves elsewhere. Their leaving the denomination merely demonstrates their own latent feeling of superiority; they fail to comprehend that all the members of the body are their brothers and sisters and therefore all are loving. For this reason, let us realize that all sectarian spirit, divisive attitude, outward action, or inward thought which separate God's children are the unfailing signs of not knowing the body of Christ.

The body of Christ will deliver us from sect and sectarianism; it will also save us from self and individualism. How sad that the life principle of many is not the body but the individual self. We may discover this principle of individualism in many areas. For example, in a prayer meeting someone can only pray by himself, since he cannot pray with other people. His physical body may kneel together with others, yet his consciousness is circumscribed by his own self. When he prays, he wishes other people to listen to him; but when others pray, he will not listen to them. He has no inner response to another's prayer, and he is unable to offer up an amen. His consciousness is disconnect4ed from the consciousness of other people. Hence he prays his prayers and lets the others pray their prayers. There appears to be no relationship between his prayers and those of the others. When he comes to the meeting he seems to do so only for the sake of uttering whatever words are pent up within him, and thereafter feels that his job is done. He does not care what prayer burden or consciousness others present may have. This is the rule of individualism, not the principle of the body. In point of fact he has not seen the body, and thus he cannot cooperate with other people before God.

Sometimes three or five, even ten or twenty brethren at a meeting will all speak only whatever concerns themselves, without showing any interest in the affairs of the others or listening to the others' thoughts. Or, as the case might be, as you or others sit with such a person as has been described, he may talk with animation for an hour or two about his own business; but when you or the others talk, he does not pay the slightest attention - for if you ask him afterwards, he evidences the fact that he hardly seems to have heard anything. In small things such as these, you can tell if a person has truly discerned the body of Christ.

The plague of individualism can grow from simply expressing one person's individualism to that of several people. You may notice in the church that three or five, perhaps even eight or nine persons will sometimes form a small circle. Only these few are of one mind and love one another. They do not fit in with the other brothers and sisters. This indicates that they too have not perceived the body of Christ. The church is one, it cannot be severed. If a person has really know the body, he cannot endorse any kind of individualism. He cannot form a party or any small circle.

If you have genuinely experienced the body of Christ you will be conscious of something wrong whenever you begin to show your individualism, and obviously you dare not take any action. Or else, when you or several others should make a wrong move, this body consciousness will cause you to be aware of being disconnected from the other children of God, thus preventing you from proceeding further. There is something in you which restrains, speaks, reproves, warns, or hinders. This consciousness of life can deliver all of us from any taint of division.


Deliver From Independent Work

If we have body consciousness we will comprehend immediately that the body is one. Thus, in spiritual work, it cannot be individualistic in its scope. In order to participate rightly in the Lord's work, it is imperative that we deal with this matter of independent labor. In the thinking of some people, a person must lay his own hand on things or else that person will consider those things to be good for nothing. Whatever is done by him is deemed as having spiritual value; what is not done by him has no value at all. When he preaches and nobody is saved, he feels depressed. When he preaches and people are saved, he shows pleasant surprise. This is because he looks at the work as his own personal labor. But the moment God's children perceive the oneness of the body, they immediately comprehend the oneness of the work. They instant they see that the body is one, they are delivered from their individual endeavor since they now see the work of the body. This does not imply that a person can no longer labor as an individual. It simply means that he can no longer consider work as belonging solely to himself. Whether the work is done by him or not is no problem anymore, so long as it is done by someone.

As Christians, we should admire and seek for spiritual things, but we ought not have any emulative pretensions nor any trace of jealousy. Our attitude individually towards spiritual work should be: What I can do I hope others can also do; and what I cannot do I wish someone else can do; I would like to do more as well as I would expect other people to do more. How I need to realize that I can only be a single vessel in the work; I cannot monopolize it. I dare not consider the work and its result as altogether mine. If I insist that everything must be done by me, I have not apprehended the body. The moment I apprehend the body, immediately I realize that both my labor and that of others mean gain to the head as well as to the body. And let all glory be to the Lord and all blessing be to the church.

The Lord distributes His work to all, and everyone has his share. We must not think of ourselves more highly than we ought to think. We should be faithful to the portion which the Lord has given each of us; but we should also respect the portion He gives to others. Many young people possess a kind of competitive attitude in which they are always comparing what they have with that which others do not have and what they do not have with that which others have. Actually, such comparison is absurd. How can we add a chair to a table? Are they one or two? A table plus a chair equals a table and a chair. If we are asked which is better, the hand or the eye, we can only answer that the hand and the eye are both good. He who has seen the body recognizes the functions of all the members. He looks at himself as only one among many members. He will not project himself to a distinctive position in order to compare himself favorably with others or even to occupy another's place.

As soon as a Christian inwardly discerns the body of Christ he has no way or justification to be either proud or jealous. Since the body is one, it makes no difference whether the work is done by him or by others. Whether by him or by other people, all glory goes to the Lord and all blessings flow to the church. If anyone sees the body of Christ, there will naturally be within him this consciousness: that the body is one, and therefore the work is one.


See the Need for Fellowship

He who sees the body of Christ most spontaneously sees not only the stupidity of independent action but the need for fellowship as well. Fellowship is not an external exercise in social intercourse; it is the spontaneous demand of body life. What is erroneously but commonly assumed to be fellowship by God's children is a visiting of homes of some brothers and sisters at times of leisure and chit-chatting with them a while. In actuality, fellowship means realizing the total inadequacy of my own self. I am desirous of doing all things with the other members of the body. Although for doing many things I am not able to gather all the brothers and sisters in the church, I still can do them with two or three brothers and/or sisters according to the principle of the body.

Oftentimes we need to learn fellowship in prayer, to learn fellowship in difficulties, to learn fellowship in seeking God's will, to learn fellowship concerning our future, and to learn fellowship regarding God's word. What fellowship means is that, knowing that I am inadequate in the matter of prayer, I seek out two or three others to pray with me. I by myself am incompetent in solving difficulties, hence I ask two or three brethren to deal with the situations together with me. Alone I am unable to know God's will, therefore I solicit the help of two or three others. I in myself am rather confused as to my future, consequently I request two or three brothers and sisters to fellowship and decide with me what my future should be. I cannot understand God's word alone, so now I study the word of God with two or three brothers and sisters who have spiritual discernment to help me (and not just ask those to help me who are affectionate towards me). I am inadequate, and hence I need the help of other brethren.

The body of Christ is a life, and there is therefore also a consciousness involved. You yourself will become conscious or aware of the fact that without fellowship you cannot live.


Learn to Be a Member

If a person has body consciousness he at once recognizes his place in the body; that is to day, he sees himself as being one of its members. Each member has his distinctive usefulness. A member of a physical body is different from a body cell. Lacking a cell does not matter much, but the lack of a member in a body is unthinkable. Of course, a cell has its use, but please note that the Bible in its use of the analogy of the human body says that we are members of the body of Christ, not cells. How pitiful that the conditions of many Christians are like those of cells in the human body instead of members. Such a person seems to have no specific use in the body of Christ, neither does he fulfill his part. In any given church meeting his presence does not appear to add anything to the body of Christ, and his absence does not give the appearance to the body that it is lacking in anything. He has not discharged his function in the body because he has never seen the body. When he is with brothers and sisters he never knows his ministry, neither does he even realize what he should do. Were he to perceive the body he could not help but see himself as a member. Were he to perceive the body, he would know that it will suffer loss if he does not supply life to it.

No one can be passive in a meeting. Each person is a member of the body, and consequently no one can come to a meeting as a passive spectator. As we gather together we pray because we realize we are mutual members of the body of Christ. Whether uttered or unuttered, we nonetheless pray, for we want to supply life to the body.

Some Christians are life-supplying members. When they attend a meeting, even if they do not open their mouths, their very presence lifts the meeting; for they are there supplying life, they are there swallowing up death. Once anyone discerns the body of Christ, he cannot fail to recognize himself as a member of the body.

Because we are members of the body of Christ and members each in its part, we must seek how to help the body in gaining life and strength. In any gathering, even if we do not open our mouths, we may pray silently. Even though we may not speak, we can still look to God. This is body consciousness. If we have seen the body, we cannot say we are a person of no consequence. We will rather say: I am a member of the body, and hence I have a duty to perform. I have a wo0rd which I should speak, I have a prayer which I should utter. When I come to the meeting I must do whatever God wants me to do. I cannot afford to be a spectator. Such things as these are what we will say or do if we truly apprehend the body. And as we all function, the life of the entire gathering will swallow up all death. Many meetings fail to exhibit such power to overcome death for there are too many spectators.


Submit to Authority

If you really see the body of Christ you are conscious of the loveliness of God's children, of the error of division, of the need for fellowship, and of the responsibility in you as a member of the body of Christ. All these facets of awareness are because of body consciousness. Moreover, as you are aware that you are in the body, you must become equally aware that you are under the authority of the Head. For whoever knows the life of the body of Christ and is conscious of being a body member will invariable sense the authority of the Head, who is Christ Jesus the Lord.

We must not only submit to the direct authority of the Head, we need also to submit to the indirect authority of the Head. My physical hand is under the direct authority of the head of my body, but when my arm moves, my hand moves together with my arm - for my hand submits to the head through the arm. Consequently, whoever sees the body of Christ sees also the authority which God has set in the body of Christ for him to submit to.

Sometimes when you are told by someone in the church to do a certain thing, you do not sense it is the Lord's will for you after you have prayed about it. And so you do not do it, and you feel happy. You know it is right for you to listen to the Lord's word rather than to man's word. On the other hand, is there an instance when you become aware that if you do not listen to your brother or sister you come into conflict with the Lord? Is there one time, or even a number of times, wherein you have the sense that one or more of the brethren who know the Lord have been placed by Him in the position of representing His authority and that if you enter into controversy with them you are in controversy with the Lord? If you truly perceive the authority of the Head, you will also perceive that one or more members of the body are ahead of you, and that to them you must learn to submit. Hence you recognize not only the Head but also those whom God has set in the body to represent the Head. If you are at odds with them, you will also be at odds with God.

If our eyes have been opened by the Lord to recognize the body, we will also recognize authority. When we behold the human body, why is it that all parts work so harmoniously as to reveal the fact that the entire body is one? This is because there is authority in the body. If there is no authority the entire body will be thrown into confusion. Suppose, for example, that the stomach is hungry for food, but that the mouth refuses to eat; what will happen to that man? The entire body will suffer if but one of its parts refuses to obey its authority. Or again, take the example of cancer, which we know is a most serious disease. How does cancer arise in the body? It is due to a few cells which develop themselves independently and not according to the law of the body. The body does not require them to develop in such a way, yet they insist on growing abnormally. They absorb many useful nutrients by which to supply their own growth. They only mind their own development: they do not care if the body does not need such growth: they do not obey the authority of the body but act independently on their own. Now the larger they grow, the more damage the body incurs. With the result that a few insubordinate cells may cause death to the entire body.

It is clear from the above observations that authority is the law of the human body, and insubordination to it is symptomatic of disease in the body. Equally true will this be in the spiritual body of Christ. If a person does not know what authority is, how can he say he knows the body of Christ? Let us see that the one who knows the body can discern - even when only three or five people are assembled together - who among those assembled is his authority; because there is manifested in their midst the authority of the Head to which he needs to submit. How natural and how beautiful it is in the human body for the fingers to submit to the wrist, the wrist to the arm, the arm to the shoulder, and so on. And this same beauty can be displayed in the body of Christ.

Certain Christians are so careless in action as well as in speech that they will not listen to anyone. They seem to regard themselves as being the greatest to such an extent that they fail to recognize anyone to whom they could submit. This proves that such believers have never known the restraint of the body nor have ever submitted to the authority of the Head. May God have mercy on such members. If we have genuinely been dealt with by the Lord and if our flesh has received such dealings as to have had the backbone of the natural life broken, we will immediately acknowledge how neither our hands nor our mouth have unlimited freedom - since all are under the control of the body - and how we cannot fail to submit ourselves to the authority which God has set in the body of Christ.

May we not remain merely in the realm of teaching on this matter, but be truly led of God to know and to experience the body of Christ. May this body consciousness in its many facets always follow us so that we have no way to do anything according to our own will, or to live carelessly through our days. Thus shall we receive rich supply through this body, and we will be able to manifest the testimony of the Lord.

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The Body of Christ: A Reality
Watchman Nee

Translator's Preface

"And gave Him [Christ] to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him that fills all in all" (Eph. 1:22,23).

As Christ the Head is a reality, so the church as the body of Christ is a reality. To many, however, the body of Christ is a vague, nebulous and abstract term. It is merely a beautiful concept or a noble theory. It is not a living reality as is presented in the Scriptures. The time has come, and now is, that all who seek the Lord should enter into a new understanding of the body of Christ. We need to see that the body of Christ is a life which we live in. It ought to become our daily experience.

In this little volume of collected messages selected for the unity of their subject matter and given by the author through years of faithful ministry, Watchman Nee attempts to show us the reality of the body of Christ. He proves to us that the body of Christ is founded on life and life consciousness. It is built on a living relationship among its members as well as with its head. This body is governed by its own laws, and blessed are those who discover these laws and follow them. To them the body of Christ is indeed a living reality.

May God grant to all who read this book wisdom and strength for living in the reality of the body of Christ.


1. Life and Consciousness

In Him was life; and the life was the light of men. (Jn. 1:4)

So then, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. (Rom. 8:12)

And whether one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; or one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it. (1 Cor. 12:26)

From the human standpoint, life seems to be rather intangible and quite abstract. How can anyone present life in such manner as to cause people to recognize that it in fact is life? We cannot take life as such and explain it to others, neither can others explain it to us. Nevertheless, we may all know and recognize this life through the feeling of life's consciousness, which to us is far more substantial. Now by the same token, the life which God has given to the Christian believer can likewise be known by its consciousness. Although we cannot take hold of such divine life and show it to ourselves or to other people, we nonetheless know we have this new life because there is within us an altogether new consciousness.


Consciousness of God's Life

After a person has accepted the Lord we say he not only is saved but also has been regenerated. This means that this man is now born of God. He has received a new life from Him. Yet this is something difficult to explain. How does he know he has the life of God? How will other people know he has divine life? How will the church recognize that he has the life of God? The presence of divine life is proven through life's consciousness. If the life of God is in him, the consciousness of that life must be in him as well.

What is life's consciousness? A Christian who is occasionally overcome by sin feels most uncomfortable. And this is one facet of consciousness. He feels restless when he sins. He immediately senses a veil between him and God after he has sinned and instantly loses his inner joy. Such manifestations as these are facets of life's consciousness, for because the life of God hates sin, therefore a person who has God's life must also have a certain feeling against sin. The very fact of his possessing this life's sense proves he possesses such life.

Suppose a man says he has confessed he is a sinner and has also accepted the Lord Jesus as his Savior, but he never has any sense against sin. Is this man born again? In such a case, if he should commit any sin, someone has to go to his home and tell him that what he has done is wrong before he will ever acknowledge that he has indeed done wrong. When a person asks him why he commits such a wrong, he will ignorantly answer, Why can't I do it? When a second time he is informed that he has committed another sin, he again will confess that he has done something wrong. Yet not long afterwards he commits another sin, and someone is once more obliged to tell him of this transgression before he once again acknowledges his sin, and someone is once more obliged to tell him of this transgression before he once again acknowledges this wrong. Here, it is not that he does not listen to his prompter's word; as a matter of fact he is quite obedient to the other person's word. The problem is, though, that he himself has no spiritual consciousness. Can it therefore be said that such a person has God's life if he is utterly void of any spiritual awareness and that others have to feel for him? If he has the life of God, he should have its consciousness with him. It is absolutely impossible for a person to have spiritual life and yet not have the consciousness of that life. The life of God is not something nebulous, nor is it abstract; it is very concrete and substantial. And how do we know it is substantial? Because such life has its own consciousness.

Having the life of God, a person is not only, negatively speaking, aware of sins but he also, positively speaking, knows God: for what we receive is not the spirit of a bond-slave but the spirit of sonship. We just naturally feel that God is very approachable and that calling Him "Abba, Father" is most sweet (Gal. 4:6). The Holy Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God (Rom. 8:16). Knowing God as Father is therefore the inner consciousness of this life.

Some people merely have doctrinal understanding; they have never met God; and they are therefore afraid of Him whom they cannot touch. They do not have any life relationship with God, and the Holy Spirit has not borne witness with their spirit that they are God's children. They cannot cry out of their spirit, Abba, Father. Such people may pray, though in their prayer they neither sense the distance of sin nor the nearness of the Lord. They do not have the feeling of the awfulness of sin nor the intimacy of God. They have no relationship with Him because they have not yet received new life from Him. Hence they do not feel that God is near, nor do they sense that Christ has already removed the wall of partition between them and God. In short, they do not have the consciousness of being the children of God. They may confess that they are Christians, but their feeling before God is inadequate. Though with their mouth they may say, "Heavenly Father," there is no such sensation within them. Only the presence of such a consciousness proves the existence of such a life. Now if there has never been such an awareness, how can anyone say that there is such life within them?


Body Consciousness a Facet of Life's Consciousness

The same is true with regard to the body of Christ. Many brothers and sisters ask: How can I say I have seen the body of Christ? On what ground may I assert that I have lived out the life of the body of Christ? Our answer is simple: all who know the life of the body of Christ will have the consciousness of the body of Christ. If you have really seen the body, you cannot but have body consciousness - because the life in you being a reality and an experience, it cannot fail to show forth its consciousness. You perceive the body of Christ not only as a principle or as a teaching but you discover that the body of Christ is a matter of real inward consciousness.

"And whether one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; or one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it" (1 Cor. 12:26). Suffering is a sensation, so is rejoicing a sensation. Although the members are many, the life is one, and so, too, the consciousness is one.

Let us take the example of a person who may have had installed in his body an artificial leg. Now although it may appear to be almost the same as the other real leg, it nevertheless has no life in it. It therefore has no body consciousness; for when other members suffer, this artificial leg does not feel anything - when other members rejoice, the artificial limb senses no elation. All the other members have the same awareness because they all possess the one common life. The artificial leg alone has no awareness because there is not that life in it.

Life cannot be simulated, nor does it need to be. If there is life there is no need to pretend; if there is not life there is no possibility to pretend. The most distinctive expression of life is its consciousness. Hence a Christian who sees the body life will invariably have body consciousness with other members of the body.


The Teaching of the Body vs. Its Reality

In spiritual things, knowing doctrine without having consciousness is of no avail. Someone, for instance, may say that lying is a sin which he should not commit because he has been told by other people that a Christian should not tell lies. The real issue here is not a matter of whether or not it is right to lie, rather is it s a question of whether he is inwardly aware of it or not when he tells a lie. If he has no inward consciousness that his lying is a sin, then however much he may confess with his mouth that lying is a sin, it does not help him at all. He may say on the one hand that a person should not lie but on the other hand he constantly lies. What is special with those who have God's life is that when they lie outwardly, they feel bad inwardly - not because they know doctrinally that lying is wrong, but because they feel uncomfortable inwardly if they do lie. This is what being called a Christian really signifies. What characterizes a Christian is an inward awareness of this life consciousness of which we have been speaking. He who has no life and no inner consciousness is not a Christian. Outward rules are merely standards, not life.

Let it be said that it is totally inadequate for a person to say, "I know the teaching of the body of Christ, therefore I must not move independently"; he needs also to have an inner consciousness of such a teaching. Suppose he says with his mouth that he should not be independent and yet when he acts independently he fails to be aware of such independence; he is thereby proven to have never truly seen the body of Christ. This does not mean he has not heard the teaching of the body of Christ: it simply indicates that he has not seen its reality.

Hearing the teaching and seeing the reality of the body of Christ belong to two totally different realms. Hearing the teaching of the body is merely an outward understanding of a principle, whereas seeing the body of Christ produces a consciousness within. It is similar to the situation in which merely hearing the doctrine of salvation only gives the person the knowledge of how God saves sinners, but that inwardly accepting the Lord Jesus as Savior creates within that person an awareness of God as well as a consciousness of sin. What a difference between the two! Consequently, we should not overlook this matter of life consciousness (it not simply being an outward sensation, but an inward feeling too). Such consciousness is life's expression. The presence or absence of this consciousness reveals the reality or unreality within. It gives us insight into whether or not there is the life of Christ within.

Life's consciousness is distinctive in that it enables you to know spontaneously without the need of being told. It is too late if you must be told before you know. What would happen if every Christian needed to be told what sin is and what should not be done? What if, in this event, nobody is at your side? What if you forget after being told? Oh, let us see that a Christian does not act according to what he hears from people without, but he is motivated by what he is told from within. Within him is a life - an inner light, an inner consciousness. It comes from the inner shining of God's light: it comes from the life inside and not from outside information.

When we are born again we receive a very real life. We thus have within us a very real consciousness. The reality of such consciousness proves the reality of divine life. Let us ask God to be merciful to us that we may always touch this life consciousness and live therein. Let us also ask God to give us rich consciousness so that we may have a sensitive awareness in all things: that we may be aware of God, of sin, of the body of Christ, and of all spiritual realities. May God lead our way and glorify His own name!

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Originally posted by WildB:

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Originally posted by Zeena:
"just because God said so"

Amen Eden!

It's a DONE deal, either we reckon it or we don't.

If we do, there is treasure awaiting us in Heaven, and JOY for us here!

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2Cor.4

[7] But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.

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AMEN WildB!

Jesus Lives! WooT!

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Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?

But I trust that ye shall know that we are not reprobates.

Posts: 749 | From: Toronto, Canada-EH! | Registered: Jun 2008  |  IP: Logged | 

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Originally posted by Zeena:
"just because God said so"

Amen Eden!

It's a DONE deal, either we reckon it or we don't.

If we do, there is treasure awaiting us in Heaven, and JOY for us here!

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Posts: 8775 | From: USA, MICHIGAN | Registered: Mar 2004  |  IP: Logged | 

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Yet, Watchman Nee talks about the 'crisis' moment, wherein someone's old-man is slain because an event which one cannot cope with is encountered, and the believer, in the moment discovers his 'dependance' upon God.

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What, then, is the secret of reckoning? To put it in one word, it is revelation. We need revelation from God Himself (Matt. 16:17; Eph. 1:17,18).

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Posts: 3273 | From: Charlotte N.C. | Registered: Sep 2007  |  IP: Logged | 

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The Normal Christian Life, Chapter 4: the Path of Progress: Reckoning
By Watchman Nee
Undated

We now come to a matter on which there has been some confusion of thought among the Lord's children. It concerns what follows this knowledge. Note again first of all the wording of Romans 6:6: "Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him". The tense of the verb is most precious for it puts the event right back there in the past. It is final, once-for-all. The thing has been done and cannot be undone. Our old man has been crucified once and for ever, and he can never be un-crucified. This is what we need to know.

Then, when we know this, what follows? Look again at our passage. The next command is in verse 11: "Even so reckon ye also yourselves to be dead unto sin". This, clearly, is the natural sequel to verse 6. Read them together: `Knowing that our old man was crucified, ... reckon ye yourselves to be dead'. That is the order. When we know that our old man has been crucified with Christ, then the next step is to reckon it so.

Unfortunately, in presenting the truth of our union with Christ the emphasis has too often been placed upon this second matter of reckoning ourselves to be dead, as though that were the starting point, whereas it should rather be upon knowing ourselves to be dead. God's Word makes it clear that `knowing' is to precede `reckoning'. "Knowing this... reckon." The sequence is most important. Our reckoning must be based on knowledge of divinely revealed fact, for otherwise faith has no foundation on which to rest. When we know, then we reckon spontaneously.

So in teaching this matter we should not over-emphasize reckoning. People are always trying to reckon without knowing. They have not first had a Spirit-given revelation of the fact; yet they try to reckon and soon they get into all sorts of difficulties. When temptation comes they begin to reckon furiously: `I am dead; I am dead; I am dead!' but in the very act of reckoning they lose their temper. Then they say, `It doesn't work. Romans 6:11 is no good.' And we have to admit that verse 11 is no good without verse 6. So it comes to this, that unless we know for a fact that we are dead with Christ, the more we reckon the more intense will the struggle become, and the issue will be sure defeat.

For years after my conversion I had been taught to reckon. I reckoned from 1920 until 1927. The more I reckoned that I was dead to sin, the more alive I clearly was. I simply could not believe myself dead and I could not produce the death. Whenever I sought help from others I was told to read Romans 6:11, and the more I read Romans 6:11 and tried to reckon, the further away death was: I could not get at it. I fully appreciated the teaching that I must reckon, but I could not make out why nothing resulted from it. I have to confess that for months I was troubled. I said to the Lord, `If this is not clear, if I cannot be brought to see this which is so very fundamental, I will cease to do anything. I will not preach any more; I will not go out to serve Thee any more; I want first of all to get thoroughly clear here.' For months I was seeking, and at times I fasted, but nothing came through.

I remember one morning -- that morning was a real morning and one I can never forget -- I was upstairs sitting at my desk reading the Word and praying, and I said, `Lord, open my eyes!' And then in a flash I saw it. I saw my oneness with Christ. I saw that I was in Him, and that when He died I died. I saw that the question of my death was a matter of the past and not of the future, and that I was just as truly dead as He was because I was in Him when He died. The whole thing had dawned upon me. I was carried away with such joy at this great discovery that I jumped from my chair and cried, `Praise the Lord, I am dead!' I ran downstairs and met one of the brothers helping in the kitchen and I laid hold of him. `Brother', I said, `do you know that I have died?' I must admit he looked puzzled. `What do you mean?' he said, so I went on: `Do you not know that Christ has died? Do you not know that I died with Him? Do you not know that my death is no less truly a fact than His?' Oh it was so real to me! I longed to go through the streets of Shanghai shouting the news of my discovery. From that day to this I have never for one moment doubted the finality of that word: "I have been crucified with Christ".

I do not mean to say that we need not work that out. Yes, there is an outworking of the death which we are going to see presently, but this, first of all, is the basis of it. I have been crucified: it has been done.

What, then, is the secret of reckoning? To put it in one word, it is revelation. We need revelation from God Himself (Matt. 16:17; Eph. 1:17,18). We need to have our eyes opened to the fact of our union with Christ, and that is something more than knowing it as a doctrine. Such revelation is no vague, indefinite thing. Most of us can remember the day when we saw clearly that Christ died for us, and we ought to be equally clear as to the time when we saw that we died with Christ. It should be nothing hazy, but very definite, for it is with this as basis that we shall go on. It is not that I reckon myself to be dead, and therefore I will be dead. It is that, because I am dead -- because I see now what God has done with me in Christ -- therefore I reckon myself to be dead. That is the right kind of reckoning. It is not reckoning toward death but from death. The Second Step: "Even So Reckon..."

What does reckoning mean? `Reckoning' in Greek means doing accounts book-keeping. Accounting is the only thing in the world we human beings can do correctly. An artist paints a landscape. Can he do it with perfect accuracy? Can the historian vouch for the absolute accuracy of any record, or the map-maker for the perfect correctness of any map? They can make, at best, fair approximations. Even in everyday speech, when we try to tell some incident with the best intention to be honest and truthful, we cannot speak with complete accuracy. It is mostly a case of exaggeration or understatement, of one word too much or too little. What then can a man do that is utterly reliable? Arithmetic! There is no scope for error there. One chair plus one chair equals two chairs. That is true in London and it is true in Cape Town. If you travel west to New York or east to Singapore it is still the same. All the world over and for all time, one plus one equals two. One plus one is two in heaven and earth and hell.

Why does God say we are to reckon ourselves dead? Because we are dead. Let us keep to the analogy of accounting. Suppose I have fifteen shillings in my pocket, what do I enter in my account-book? Can I enter fourteen shillings and sixpence or fifteen shillings and sixpence? No, I must enter in my account-book that which is in fact in my pocket. Accounting is the reckoning of facts, not fancies. Even so, it is because I am really dead that God tells me to account it so. God could not ask me to put down in my account-book what was not true. He could not ask me to reckon that I am dead if I am still alive. For such mental gymnastics the word `reckoning' would be inappropriate; we might rather speak of `mis-reckoning'!

Reckoning is not a form of make-believe. It does not mean that, having found that I have only twelve shillings in my pocket, I hope that by entering fifteen shillings incorrectly in my account-book such `reckoning' will somehow remedy the deficiency. It won't. If I have only twelve shillings, yet try to reckon to myself: `I have fifteen shillings; I have fifteen shillings; I have fifteen shillings', do you think that the mental effort involved will in any way affect the sum that is in my pocket? Not a bit of it! Reckoning will not make twelve shillings into fifteen shillings, nor will it make what is untrue true. But if, on the other hand, it is a fact that I have fifteen shillings in my pocket, then with great ease and assurance I can enter fifteen shillings in my account-book. God tells us to reckon ourselves dead, not that by the process of reckoning we may become dead, but because we are dead. He never told us to reckon what was not a fact.

Having said, then, that revelation leads spontaneously to reckoning, we must not lose sight of the fact that we are presented with a command: "Reckon ye..." There is a definite attitude to be taken. God asks us to do the account; to put down `I have died' and then to abide by it. Why? Because it is a fact. When the Lord Jesus was on the cross, I was there in Him. Therefore I reckon it to be true. I reckon and declare that I have died in Him. Paul said, "Reckon ye also yourselves to be dead unto sin, but alive unto God." How is this possible? "In Christ Jesus." Never forget that it is always and only true in Christ. If you look at yourself you will think death is not there, but it is a question of faith not in yourself but in Him. You look to the Lord, and know what He has done. `Lord, I believe in Thee. I reckon upon the fact in Thee.' Stand there all the day. The Reckoning Of Faith

The first four-and-a-half chapters of Romans speak of faith and faith and faith. We are justified by faith in Him (Rom. 3:28; 5:1). Righteousness, the forgiveness of our sins, and peace with God are all ours by faith, and without faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ none can possess them. But in the second section of Romans we do not find the same repeated mention of faith, and it might at first appear that the emphasis is therefore different. It is not really so, however, for where the words `faith' and `believe' drop out the work `reckon' takes their place. Reckoning and faith are here practically the same thing.

What is faith? Faith is my acceptance of God's fact. It always has its foundations in the past. What relates to the future is hope rather than faith, although faith often has its object or goal in the future, as in Hebrews 11. Perhaps for this reason the word chosen here is `reckon'. It is a word that relates only to the past -- to what we look back to as settled, and not forward to as yet to be. This is the kind of faith described in Mark 11:24: "All things whatsoever ye pray and ask for, believe that ye have received them, and ye shall have them." The statement there is that, if you believe that you already have received your requests (that is, of course, in Christ), then `you shall have them'. To believe that you may get something, or that you can get it, or even that you will get it, is not faith in the sense meant here. This is faith -- to believe that you have already got it. Only that which relates to the past is faith in this sense. Those who say `God can' or `God may' or `God must' or `God will' do not necessarily believe at all. Faith always says, `God has done it'.

When, therefore, do I have faith in regard to my crucifixion? Not when I say God can, or will, or must crucify me, but when with joy I say, `Praise God, in Christ I am crucified!'

In Romans 3 we see the Lord Jesus bearing our sins and dying as our Substitute that we might be forgiven. In Romans 6 we see ourselves included in the death whereby He secured our deliverance. When the first fact was revealed to us we believed on Him for our justification. God tells us to reckon upon the second fact for our deliverance. So that, for practical purposes, `reckoning' in the second section of Romans takes the place of `faith' in the first section. The emphasis is not different. The normal Christian life is lived progressively, as it is entered initially, by faith in Divine fact: in Christ and His Cross. Temptation And Failure, The Challenge To Faith

For us, then, the two greatest facts in history are these: that all our sins are dealt with by the Blood, and that we ourselves are dealt with by the Cross. But what now of the matter of temptation? What is to be our attitude when, after we have seen and believed these facts, we discover the old desires rising up again? Worse still, what if we fall once more into known sin? What if we lose our temper, or worse? Is the whole position set forth above proved thereby to be false?

Now remember, one of the Devil's main objects is always to make us doubt the Divine facts. (Compare Gen. 3:4) After we have seen, by revelation of the Spirit of God, that we are indeed dead with Christ, and have reckoned it so, he will come and say: `There is something moving inside. What about it? Can you call this death?' When that happens, what will be our answer? The crucial test is just here. Are you going to believe the tangible facts of the natural realm which are clearly before your eyes, or the intangible facts of the spiritual realm which are neither seen nor scientifically proved?

Now we must be careful. It is important for us to recall again what are facts stated in God' Word for faith to lay hold of and what are not. How does God state that deliverance is effected? Well, in the first place, we are not told that sin as a principle in us is rooted out or removed. To reckon on that will be to miscalculate altogether and find ourselves in the false position of the man we considered earlier, who tried to put down the twelve shillings in his pocket as fifteen shillings in his account-book. No, sin is not eradicated. It is very much there, and, given the opportunity, will overpower us and cause us to commit sins again, whether consciously or unconsciously. That is why we shall always need to know the operation of the precious Blood.

But whereas we know that, in dealing with sins committed, God's method is direct, to blot them out of remembrance by means of the Blood, when we come to the principle of sin and the matter of deliverance from its power, we find instead that God deals with this indirectly. He does not remove the sin but the sinner. Our old man was crucified with Him, and because of this the body, which before had been a vehicle of sin, is unemployed (Romans 6:6). [5] Sin, the old master, is still about, but the slave who served him has been put to death and so is out of reach and his members are unemployed. The gambler's hand is unemployed, the swearer's tongue is unemployed, and these members are now available to be used instead "as instruments of righteousness unto God" (Romans 6:13).

Thus we can say that `deliverance from sin' is a more scriptural idea than `victory over sin'. The expressions "freed from sin" and "dead unto sin" in Romans 6:7 and 11 imply deliverance from a power that is still very present and very real -- not from something that no longer exists. Sin is still there, but we are knowing deliverance from its power in increasing measure day by day.

This deliverance is so real that John can boldly write: "Whosoever is begotten of God doeth no sin... he cannot sin" (1 John 3:9), which is, however, a statement that, wrongly understood, may easily mislead us. By it John is not telling us that sin is now no longer in our history and that we shall not again commit sin. He is saying that to sin is not in the nature of that which is born of God. The life of Christ has been planted in us by new birth and its nature is not to commit sin. But there is a great difference between the nature and the history of a thing, and there is a great difference between the nature of the life within us and our history. To illustrate this (though the illustration is an inadequate one) we might say that wood `cannot' sink, for it is not its nature to do so; but of course in history it will do so if a hand hold it under water. The history is a fact, just as sins in our history are historic facts; but the nature is a fact also, and so is the new nature that we have received in Christ. What is `in Christ' cannot sin; what is in Adam can sin and will do so whenever Satan is given a chance to exert his power.

So it is a question of our choice of which facts we will count upon and live by: the tangible facts of daily experience or the mightier fact that we are now `in Christ'. The power of His resurrection is on our side, and the whole might of God is at work in our salvation (Rom. 1:16), but the matter still rests upon our making real in history what is true in Divine fact.

"Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the proving of things not seen" (Heb. 11:1), and "the things which are not seen are eternal" (2 Cor. 4:18). I think we all know that Hebrews 11:1 is the only definition of faith in the New Testament, or indeed in the Scriptures. It is important that we should really understand that definition. You are familiar with the common English translation of these words, describing faith as "the substance of things hoped for" (A.V.). However, the word in the Greek has in it the sense of an action and not just of some thing, a `substance', and I confess I have personally spent a number of years trying to find a correct word to translate this. But the New Translation of J.N. Darby is especially good in regard to this word: "Faith is the substantiating of things hoped for". That is much better. It implies the making of them real in experience.

How do we `substantiate' something? We are doing so every day. We cannot live in the world without doing so. Do you know the difference between substance and `substantiating'? A substance is an object, something before me. `Substantiating' means that I have a certain power or faculty that makes that substance to be real to me. Let us take a simple illustration. By means of our senses we can take things of the world of nature and transfer them into our consciousness so that we can appreciate them. Sight and hearing, for example, are two of my faculties which substantiate to me the world of light and sound. We have colours: red, yellow, green, blue, violet; and these colours are real things. But if I shut my eyes, then to me the colour is no longer real; it is simply nothing -- to me. It is not only that the colour is there, but I have the power to `substantiate' it. I have the power to make that colour true to me and to give it reality in my consciousness. That is the meaning of `substantiating'.

If I am blind I cannot distinguish colour, or if I lack the faculty of hearing I cannot enjoy music. Yet music and colour are in fact real things, and their reality is unaffected by whether or not I am able to appreciate them. Now we are considering here the things which, though they are not seen, are eternal and therefore real. Of course we cannot substantiate Divine things with any of our natural senses; but there is one faculty which can substantiate the "things hoped for", the things of Christ, and that is faith. Faith makes the real things to become real in my experience. Faith `substantiates' to me the things of Christ. Hundreds of thousands of people are reading Romans 6:6: "Our old man was crucified with him". To faith it is true; to doubt, or to mere mental assent apart from spiritual illumination, it is not true.

Let us remember again that we are dealing here not with promises but with facts. The promises of God are revealed to us by His Spirit that we may lay hold of them; but facts are facts and they remain facts whether we believe them or not. If we do not believe the facts of the Cross they still remain as real as ever, but they are valueless to us. It does not need faith to make these things real in themselves, but faith can `substantiate' them and make them real in our experience.

Whatever contradicts the truth of God's Word we are to regard as the Devil's lie, not because it may not be in itself a very real fact to our senses but because God has stated a greater fact before which the other must eventually yield. I once had an experience which (though not applicable in detail to the present matter) illustrates this principle. Some years ago I was ill. For six nights I had high fever and could find no sleep. Then at length God gave me from the Scripture a personal word of healing, and because of this I expected all symptoms of sickness to vanish at once. Instead of that, not a wink of sleep could I get, and I was not only sleepless but more restless than ever. My temperature rose higher, my pulse beat faster and my head ached more severely than before. The enemy asked, `Where is God's promise? Where is your faith? What about all your prayers?' So I was tempted to thrash the whole matter out in prayer again, but was rebuked, and this Scripture came to mind: "Thy word is truth" (John 17:17). If God' Word is truth, I thought, then what are these symptoms? They must all be lies! So I declared to the enemy, `This sleeplessness is a lie, this headache is a lie, this fever is a lie, this high pulse is a lie. In view of what God has said to me, all these symptoms of sickness are just your lies, and God's Word to me is truth.' In five minutes I was asleep, and I awoke the following morning perfectly well.

Now of course in a particular personal matter such as the above it might be quite possible for me to deceive myself as to what God had said, but of the fact of the Cross there can never be any such question. We must believe God, no matter how convincing Satan's arguments appear.

A skillful liar lies not only in word but in gesture and deed; he can as easily pass a bad coin as tell an untruth. The Devil is a skillful liar, and we cannot expect him to stop at words in his lying. He will resort to lying signs and feelings and experiences in his attempts to shake us from our faith in God's Word. Let me make it clear that I do not deny the reality of the `flesh'. Indeed we shall have a good deal more to say about this further on in our study. But I am speaking here of our being moved from a revealed position in Christ. As soon as we have accepted our death with Christ as a fact, Satan will do his best to demonstrate convincingly by the evidence of our day-to-day experience that we are not dead at all but very much alive. So we must choose. Will we believe Satan's lie or God's truth? Are we going to be governed by appearances or by what God says?

I am Mr. Nee. I know that I am Mr. Nee. It is a fact upon which I can confidently count. It is of course possible that I might lose my memory and forget that I am Mr. Nee, or I might dream that I am some other person. But whether I feel like it or not, when I am sleeping I am Mr. Nee and when I am awake I am Mr. Nee; when I remember it I am Mr. Nee and when I forget it I am still Mr. Nee.

Now of course, were I to pretend to be someone else, things would be much more difficult. If I were to try and pose as Miss K. I should have to keep saying to myself all the time, `You are Miss K.; now be sure to remember that you are Miss K.,' and despite much reckoning the likelihood would be that when I was off my guard and someone called, `Mr. Nee!' I should be caught out and should answer to my own name. Fact would triumph over fiction, and all my reckoning would break down at that crucial moment. But I am Mr. Nee and therefore I have no difficulty whatever in reckoning myself to be Mr. Nee. It is a fact which nothing I experience or fail to experience can alter.

So also, whether I feel it or not, I am dead with Christ. How can I be sure? Because Christ has died; and since "one died for all, therefore all died" (2 Cor. 5:14). Whether my experience proves it or seems to disprove it, the fact remains unchanged. While I stand upon that fact Satan cannot prevail against me. Remember that his attack is always upon our assurance. If he can get us to doubt God's Word, then his object is secured and he has us in his power; but if we rest unshaken in the assurance of God's stated fact, assured that He cannot do injustice to His work or His Word, then it does not matter what tactics Satan adopts, we can well afford to laugh at him. If anyone should try to persuade me that I am not Mr. Nee, I could well afford to do the same.

"We walk by faith, not by appearance" (2 Cor. 5:7, mg). You probably know the illustration of Fact, Faith and Experience walking along the top of a wall. Fact walked steadily on, turning neither to right nor left and never looking behind. Faith followed and all went well so long as he kept his eyes focused upon Fact; but as soon as he became concerned about Experience and turned to see how he was getting on, he lost his balance and tumbled off the wall, and poor old Experience fell down after him.

All temptation is primarily to look within; to take our eyes off the Lord and to take account of appearances. Faith is always meeting a mountain, a mountain of evidence that seems to contradict God's Word, a mountain of apparent contradiction in the realm of tangible fact -- of failures in deed, as well as in the realm of feeling and suggestion -- and either faith or the mountain has to go. They cannot both stand. but the trouble is that many a time the mountain stays and faith goes. That must not be. If we resort to our senses to discover the truth, we shall find Satan's lies are often enough true to our experience; but if we refuse to accept as binding anything that contradicts God's Word and maintain an attitude of faith in Him alone, we shall find instead that Satan's lies begin to dissolve and that our experience is coming progressively to tally with that Word.

It is our occupation with Christ that has this result, for it means that He becomes progressively real to us on concrete issues. In a given situation we see Him as real holiness, real resurrection life -- for us. What we see in Him objectively now operates in us subjectively -- but really -- to manifest Him in us in that situation. That is the mark of maturity. That is what Paul means by his words to the Galatians: "I am again in travail until Christ be formed in you" (4:19). Faith is `substantiating' God's facts; and faith is always the `substantiating' of eternal fact -- of something eternally true.

[5] The verb katargeo translated `destroyed' in Romans 6:6 (A.V.) does not mean `annihilated', but `put out of operation', `made ineffective'. It is from the Creek root argos, `inactive', `not working', `unprofitable', which is the word translated `idle' in Matthew 20:3,6 of the unemployed laborers in the market place. -- Ed.

Abiding In Him
Now although we have already spent long on this matter, there is a further thing that may help to make it clearer to us. the Scriptures declare that we are "dead indeed", but nowhere do they say that we are dead in ourselves. We shall look in vain to find death within; that is just the place where it is not to be found. We are dead not in ourselves but in Christ. We were crucified with Him because we were in Him.

We are familiar with the words of the Lord Jesus, "Abide in me, and I in you" (John 15:4). Let us consider them for a moment. First they remind us once again that we have never to struggle to get into Christ. We are not told to get there, for we are told to stay there where we have been placed. It was God's own act that put us in Christ, and we are to abide in Him.

But further, this verse lays down for us a Divine principle, which is that God has done the work in Christ and not in us as individuals. The all-inclusive death and the all-inclusive resurrection of God's Son were accomplished fully and finally apart from us in the first place. It is the history of Christ which is to become the experience apart from Him. The Scriptures tell us that we were crucified "with Him", that we were quickened, raised, and set by God in the heavenlies "in Him", and that we are complete "in Him" (Rom. 6:6; Eph. 2:5,6; Col. 2:10). It is not just something that is still to be effected in us (though it is that, of course). It is something that has already been effected, in association with Him.

In the Scriptures we find that no Christian experience exists as such. What God has done in His gracious purpose is to include us in Christ. In dealing with Christ God has dealt with the Christian; in dealing with the Head He has dealt with all the members. It is altogether wrong for us to think that we can experience anything of the spiritual life in ourselves merely, and apart from Him. God does not intend that we should acquire something exclusively personal in our experience, and He is not willing to effect anything like that for you and me. All the spiritual experience of the Christian is already true in Christ. It has already been experienced by Christ. What we call `our' experience is only our entering into His history and His experience.

It would be odd if one branch of a vine tried to bear grapes with a reddish skin, and another branch tried to bear grapes with a green skin, and yet another branch grapes with a very dark purple skin, each branch trying to produce something of its own without reference to the vine. It is impossible, unthinkable. The character of the branches is determined by the vine. Yet certain Christians are seeking experiences as experiences. They think of crucifixion as something, of resurrections as something, of ascension as something, and they never stop to think that the whole is related to a Person. No, only as the Lord opens our eyes to see the Person do we have any true experience. Every true spiritual experience means that we have discovered a certain fact in Christ and have entered into that; anything that is not from Him in this way is an experience that is going to evaporate very soon. `I have discovered that in Christ; then, Praise the Lord, it is mine! I possess it, Lord, because it is in Thee.' Oh it is a great thing to know the facts of Christ as the foundation for our experience.

So God's basic principle in leading us on experimentally is not to give us something. It is not to bring us through something, and as a result to put something into us which we can call `our experience'. It is not that God effects something within us so that we can say, `I died with Christ last March' or `I was raised from the dead on January 1st, 1937,' or even, `Last Wednesday I asked for a definite experience and I have got it'. No, that is not the way. I do not seek experiences in themselves as in this present year of grace. Time must not be allowed to dominate my thinking here.

Then, some will say, what about the crises so many of us have passed through? True, some of us have passed through real crises in our lives. For instance George Muller could say, bowing himself down to the ground, `There was a day when George Muller died'. How about that? Well, I am not questioning the reality of the spiritual experiences we go through nor the importance of crises to which God brings us in our walk with Him; indeed, I have already stressed the need for us to be quite as definite ourselves about such crisis in our own lives. But the point is that God does not give individuals individual experiences. All that they have is only an entering into what God has already done. It is the `realizing' in time of eternal things. The history of Christ becomes our experience and our spiritual history; we do not have a separate history from His. The entire work regarding us is not done in us here but in Christ. He does no separate work in individuals apart from what He has done there. Even eternal life is not given to us as individuals: the life is in the Son, and "he that hath the Son hath the life". God has done all in His Son, and He has included us in Him; we are incorporated into Christ.

Now the point of all this is that there is a very real practical value in the stand of faith that says, `God has put me in Christ, and therefore all that is true of Him is true of me. I will abide in Him.' Satan is always trying to get us out, to keep us out, to convince us that we are out, and by temptations, failures, suffering, trial, to make us feel acutely that we are outside of Christ. Our first thought is that, if we were in Christ, we should not be in this state, and therefore, judging by the feelings we now have, we must be out of Him; and so we begin to pray, `Lord, put me into Christ'. No! God's injunction is to "abide" in Christ, and that is the way of deliverance. But how is it so? Because it opens the way for God to take a hand in our lives and to work the thing out in us. It makes room for the operation of His superior power -- the power of resurrection (Rom. 6:4,9,10) -- so that the facts of Christ do progressively become the facts of our daily experience, and where before "sin reigned" (Rom. 5:21) we make now the joyful discovery that we are truly "no longer... in bondage to sin" (Rom. 6:6).

As we stand steadfastly on the ground of what Christ is, we find that all that is true of Him is becoming experimentally true in us. If instead we come onto the ground of what we are in ourselves we will find that all that is true of the old nature remains true of us. If we get there in faith we have everything; if we return back here we find nothing. So often we go to the wrong place to find the death of self. It is in Christ. We have only to look within to find we are very much alive to sin; but when we look over there to the Lord, God sees to it that death works here but that "newness of life" is ours also. We are "alive unto God" (Rom. 6:4,11).

"Abide in me, and I in you." This is a double sentence: a command coupled with a promise. That is to say, there is an objective and a subjective side to God's working, and the subjective side depends upon the objective; the "I in you" is the outcome of our abiding in Him. We need to guard against being over-anxious about the subjective side of things, and so becoming turned in upon ourselves. We need to dwell upon the objective -- "abide in me" -- and to let God take care of the subjective. And this He has undertaken to do.

I have illustrated this from the electric light. You are in a room and it is growing dark. You would like to have the light on in order to read. There is a reading-lamp on the table beside you. What do you do? Do you watch it intently to see if the light will come on? Do you take a cloth and polish the bulb? No, you get up and cross over to the other side of the room where the switch is on the wall and you turn the current on. You turn your attention to the source of power and when you have taken the necessary action there the light comes on here.

So in our walk with the Lord our attention must be fixed on Christ. "Abide in me, and I in you" is the Divine order. Faith in the objective facts make those facts true subjectively. As the apostle Paul puts it, "We all... beholding... the glory of the Lord, are transformed into the same image" (2 Cor. 3:18 mg.). The same principle holds good in the matter of fruitfulness of life: "He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same beareth much fruit" (John 15:5). We do not try to produce fruit or concentrate upon the fruit produced. Our business is to look away to Him. As we do so He undertakes to fulfill His Word in us.

How do we abide? `Of God are ye in Christ Jesus.' It was the work of God to put you there and He has done it. Now stay there! Do not be moved back onto your own ground. Never look at yourself as though you were not in Christ. Look at Christ and see yourself in Him. Abide in Him. Rest in the fact that God has put you in His Son, and live in the expectation that He will complete His work in you. It is for Him to make good the glorious promise that "sin shall not have dominion over you" (Rom. 6:14).

The complete text of this book is available at the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (http://www.ccel.org)

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The Normal Christian Life, Chapter 3: the Path of Progress: Knowing
By Watchman Nee
Undated

Our old history ends with the Cross; our new history begins with the resurrection. "If any man is in Christ, he is a new creature: the old things are passed away; behold they are become new" (2 Cor. 5:17). The Cross terminates the first creation, and out of death there is brought a new creation in Christ, the second Man. If we are `in Adam' all that is in Adam necessarily devolves upon us; it becomes ours involuntarily, for we have to do nothing to get it. There is no need to make up our minds to lose our temper or to commit some other sin; it comes to us freely and despite ourselves. In a similar way, if we are `in Christ' all that is in Christ comes to us by free grace, without effort on our part but on the ground of simple faith.

But to say that all we need comes to us in Christ by free grace, though true enough, may seem unpractical. How does it work out in practice? How does it become real in our experience?

As we study chapters 6, 7 and 8 of Romans we shall discover that the conditions of living the normal Christian life are fourfold. They are: (a) Knowing, (b) Reckoning, (c) Presenting ourselves to God, and (d) Walking in the Spirit, and they are set forth in that order. If we would live that life we shall have to take all four of these steps; not one nor two nor three, but all four. As we study each of them we shall trust the Lord by His Holy Spirit to illumine our understanding; and we shall seek His help now to take the first big step forward. Our Death With Christ A Historic Fact

Romans 6:1-11 is the passage before us now. In these verses it is made clear that the death of the Lord Jesus is representative and inclusive. In His death we all died. None of us can progress spiritually without seeing this. Just as we cannot have justification if we have not seen Him bearing our sins on the Cross, so we cannot have sanctification if we have not seen Him bearing us on the Cross. Not only have our sins been laid on Him but we ourselves have been put into Him.

How did you receive forgiveness? You realized that the Lord Jesus died as your Substitute and bore your sins upon Himself, and that His Blood was shed to cleanse away your defilement. When you saw your sins all taken away on the Cross what did you do? Did you say, `Lord Jesus, please come and die for my sins'? No, you did not pray at all; you only thanked the Lord You did not beseech Him to come and die for you, for you realized that He had already done it.

But what is true of your forgiveness is also true of your deliverance. The work is done. There is no need to pray but only to praise. God has put us all in Christ, so that when Christ was crucified we were crucified also. Thus there is no need to pray: `I am a very wicked person; Lord, please crucify me'. That is all wrong. You did not pray about your sins; why pray now about yourself? Your sins were dealt with by His Blood, and you were dealt with by His Cross. It is an accomplished fact. All that is left for you to do is to praise the Lord that when Christ died you died also; you died in Him. Praise Him for it and live in the light of it. "Then believed they his words: they sang his praise" (Psalm 106:12).

Do you believe in the death of Christ? Of course you do. Well, the same Scripture that says He died for us says also that we died with Him. Look at it again: "Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8). That is the first statement, and that is clear enough; but is this any less clear? "Our old man was crucified with him" (Romans 6:6). "We died with Christ" (Romans 6:8).

When are we crucified with Him? What is the date of our old man's crucifixion? Is it tomorrow? Yesterday? Today? In order to answer this it may help us if for a moment I turn Paul's statement round and say, `Christ was crucified with (i.e. at the same time as) our old man'. Some of you came here in twos. You traveled to this place together. You might say, My friend came here with me', but you might just as truly say, `I came here with my friend'. Had one of you come three days ago and the other only today you could not possibly say that; but having come together you can make either statement with equal truth, because both are statements of fact. So also in historic fact we can say, reverently but with equal accuracy, `I was crucified when Christ was crucified' or `Christ was crucified when I was crucified', for they are not two historical events, but one. My crucifixion was "with him". [3] Has Christ been crucified? Then can I be otherwise? And if He was crucified nearly two thousand years ago, and I with Him, can my crucifixion be said to take place tomorrow? Can His be past and mine be present or future? Praise the Lord, when He died in my stead, but He bore me with Him to the Cross, so that when He died I died. And if I believe in the death of the Lord Jesus, then I can believe in my own death just as surely as I believe in His.

Why do you believe that the Lord Jesus died? What is your ground for that belief? Is it that you feel He has died? No, you have never felt it. You believe it because the Word of God tells you so. When the Lord was crucified, two thieves were crucified at the same time. You do not doubt that they were crucified with Him, either, because the Scripture says so quite plainly.

You believe in the death of the Lord Jesus and you believe in the death of the thieves with Him. Now what about your own death? Your crucifixion is more intimate than theirs. They were crucified at the same time as the Lord but on different crosses, whereas you were crucified on the self same cross as He, for you were in Him when He died. How can you know? You can know for the one sufficient reason that God has said so. It does not depend on your feelings. If you feel that Christ has died, He has died; and if you do not feel that he died, He has died. If you feel that you have died, you have died; and if you do not feel that you have died, you have nevertheless just as surely died. These are Divine facts. That Christ has died is a fact, that the two thieves have died is a fact, and that you have died is a fact also. Let me tell you, You have died! You are done with! You are ruled out! The self you loathe is on the Cross in Christ. And "he that is dead is freed from sin" (Romans 6:7, A.V.). This is the Gospel for Christians.

Our crucifixion can never be made effective by will or by effort, but only be accepting what the Lord Jesus did on the Cross. Our eyes must be opened to see the finished work of Calvary. Some of you, prior to your salvation, may have tried to save yourselves. You read the Bible, prayed, went to Church, gave alms. Then one day your eyes were opened and you saw that a full salvation had already been provided for you on the Cross. You just accepted that and thanked God, and peace and joy flowed into your heart. Now salvation and sanctification are on exactly the same basis. You receive deliverance from sin in the same way as you receive forgiveness of sins.

For God's way of deliverance is altogether different from man's way. Man's way is to try to suppress sin by seeking to overcome it; God's way is to remove the sinner. Many Christians mourn over their weakness, thinking that if only they were stronger all would be well. The idea that, because failure to lead a holy life is due to our impotence, something more is therefore demanded of us, leads naturally to this false conception of the way of deliverance. If we are preoccupied with the power of sin and with our inability to meet it, then we naturally conclude that to gain the victory over sin we must have more power. `If only I were stronger', we say, `I could overcome my violent outbursts of temper', and so we plead with the Lord to strengthen us that we may exercise more self-control.

But this is altogether wrong; this is not Christianity. God's means of delivering us from sin is not by making us stronger and stronger, but by making us weaker and weaker. That is surely rather a peculiar way of victory, you say; but it is the Divine way. God sets us free from the dominion of sin, not by strengthening our old man but by crucifying him; not by helping him to do anything but by removing him from the scene of action.

For years, maybe, you have tried fruitlessly to exercise control over yourself, and perhaps this is still your experience; but when once you see the truth you will recognize that you are indeed powerless to do anything, but that in setting you aside altogether God has done it all. Such a revelation brings human self-effort to an end.

[3] The expression "with him" in Romans 6:6 carries of course a doctrinal as well as historical, or temporal sense. It is only in the historical sense that the statement is reversible. W.N.

The First Step: "Knowing This..."
The normal Christian life must begin with a very definite `knowing', which is not just knowing something about the truth nor understanding some important doctrine. It is not intellectual knowledge at all, but an opening of the eyes of the heart to see what we have in Christ.

How do you know your sins are forgiven? Is it because your pastor told you so? No, you just know it. If I ask you how you know, you simply answer, `I know it!' Such knowledge comes by Divine revelation. It comes from the Lord Himself. Of course the fact of forgiveness of sins is in the Bible, but for the written Word of God to become a living Word from God to you He had to give you "a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him" (Eph. 1:17). What you needed was to know Christ in that way, and it is always so. So there comes a time, in regard to any new apprehension of Christ, when you know it in your own heart, you `see' it in your spirit. A light has shined into your inner being and you are wholly persuaded of the fact. What is true of the forgiveness of your sins is no less true of your deliverance from sin. When once the light of God dawns upon your heart you see yourself in Christ. It is not now because someone has told you, and not merely because Romans 6 says so. It is something more even than that. You know it because God has revealed it to you by His Spirit. You may not feel it; you may not understand it; but you know it, for you have seen it. Once you have seen yourself in Christ, nothing can shake your assurance of that blessed fact.

If you ask a number of believers who have entered upon the normal Christian life how they came by their experience, some will say in this way and some will say in that. Each stresses his own particular way of entering in and produces Scripture to support his experience; and unhappily many Christians are using their special experiences and their special scriptures to fight other Christians. The fact of the matter is that, while Christians may enter into the deeper life by different ways, we need not regard the experiences or doctrines they stress as mutually exclusive, but rather complementary. One thing is certain, that any true experience of value in the sight of God must have been reached by way of a new discovery of the meaning of the Person and work of the Lord Jesus. That is a crucial test and a safe one.

And here in our passage Paul makes everything depend upon such a discovery. "Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away, that so we should no longer be in bondage to sin" (Romans 6:6). Divine Revelation Essential To Knowledge

So our first step is to seek from God a knowledge that comes by revelation -- a revelation, that is to say, not of ourselves but of the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ on the Cross. When Hudson Taylor, the founder of the China Inland Mission, entered into the normal Christian life it was thus that he did so. You remember how he tells of his long-standing problem of how to live `in Christ', how to draw the sap out of the Vine into himself. For he knew that he must have the life of Christ flowing out through him and yet felt that he had not got it, and he saw clearly enough that his need was to be found in Christ. `I knew', he said, writing to his sister from Chinkiang in 1869, `that if only I could abide in Christ, all would be well, but I could not.'

The more he tried to get in the more he found himself slipping out, so to speak, until one day light dawned, revelation came and he saw. `Here, I feel, is the secret: not asking how I am to get sap out of the Vine into myself, but remembering that Jesus is the Vine -- the root, stem, branches, twigs, leaves, flowers, fruit, all indeed.'

Then, in words of a friend that had helped him: `I have not got to make myself a branch. The Lord Jesus tells me I am a branch. I am part of Him and I have just to believe it and act upon it. I have seen it long enough in the Bible, but I believe it now as a living reality.'

It was as though something which had indeed been true all the time had now suddenly become true in a new way to him personally, and he writes to his sister again: `I do not know how far I may be able to make myself intelligible about it, for there is nothing new or strange or wonderful -- and yet, all is new! In a word, "whereas once I was blind, now I see"... I am dead and buried with Christ -- aye, and risen too and ascended... God reckons me so, and tells me to reckon myself so. He knows best... Oh, the joy of seeing this truth -- I do pray that the eyes of your understanding may be enlightened, that you may know and enjoy the riches freely given us in Christ.' [4]

Oh, it is a great thing to see that we are in Christ! Think of the bewilderment of trying to get into a room in which you already are! Think of the absurdity of asking to be put in! If we recognize the fact that we are in, we make no effort to enter. If we had more revelation we should have fewer prayers and more praises. Much of our praying for ourselves is just because we are blind to what God has done.

I remember one day in Shanghai I was talking with a brother who was very exercised concerning his spiritual state. He said, `So many are living beautiful, saintly lives. I am ashamed of myself. I call myself a Christian and yet when I compare myself with others I feel I am not one at all. I want to know this crucified life, this resurrection life, but I do not know it and see no way of getting there.' Another brother was with us, and the two of us had been talking for two hours or so, trying to get the man to see that he could not have anything apart from Christ, but without success. Said our friend, `the best thing a man can do is to pray.' `But if God has already given you everything, what do you need to pray for?' we asked. `He hasn't', the man replied, `for I am still losing my temper, still failing constantly; so I must pray more.' `Well', we said, `do you get what you pray for?' `I am sorry to say that I do not get anything', he replied. We tried to point out that, just as he had done nothing for his justification, so he need do nothing for his sanctification.

Just then a third brother, much used of the Lord, came in and joined us. There was a thermos flask on the table, and this brother picked it up and said, `What is this?' `A thermos flask.' `Well, you just imagine for a moment that this thermos flask can pray, and that it starts praying something like this: "Lord, I want very much to be a thermos flask. Wilt Thou make me to be a thermos flask? Lord, give me grace to become a thermos flask. Do please make me one!" What will you say?' `I do not think even a thermos flask would be so silly,' our friend replied. `It would be nonsense to pray like that; it is a thermos flask!' Then my brother said, `You are doing the same thing. God in times past has already included you in Christ. When He died, you died; when He lived, you lived. Now today you cannot say, "I want to die; I want to be crucified; I want to have resurrection life." The Lord simply looks at you and says, "You are dead! You have new life!" All your praying is just as absurd as that of the thermos flask. You do not need to pray to the Lord for anything; you merely need your eyes opened to see that He has done it all.'

That is the point. We need not work to die, we need not wait to die, we are dead. We only need to recognize what the Lord has already done and to praise Him for it. Light dawned for that man. With tears in his eyes he said, `Lord, I praise Thee that Thou hast already included me in Christ. All that is His is mine!' Revelation had come and faith had something to lay hold of; and if you could have met that brother later on, what a change you would have found!

[4] The quotations are from Hudson Taylor and the China Inland Mission by Dr. and Mrs. Howard Taylor, Chapter 12, `The Exchanged Life'. The whole passage should be read. -- Ed.

The Cross Goes To The Root Of Our Problem
Let me remind you again of the fundamental nature of that which the Lord has done on the Cross. I feel I cannot press this point too much for we must see it. Suppose, for the sake of illustration, that the government of your country should wish to deal drastically with the question of strong drink and should decide that the whole country was to go `dry', how could the decision be carried into effect? How could we help? If we were to search every shop and house throughout the land and smash all the bottles of wine or beer or brandy we came across, would that meet the case? Surely not. We might thereby rid the land of every drop of alcoholic liquor it contains, but behind those bottles of strong drink are the factories that produce them, and if we only deal with the bottles and leave the factories untouched, production will still continue and there is no permanent solution of the problem. The drink-producing factories, the breweries and distilleries throughout the land, must be closed down if the drink question is to be permanently settled.

We are the factory; our actions are the products. The Blood of the Lord Jesus dealt with the question of the products, namely, our sins. So the question of what we have done is settled, but would God have stopped there? What about the question of what we are? Our sins were produced by us. They have been dealt with, but how are we going to be dealt with? Do you believe the Lord would cleanse away all our sins and then leave us to get rid of the sin-producing factory? Do you believe He would put away the goods produced but leave us to deal with the source of production?

To ask this question is but to answer it. Of course He has not done half the work and left the other half undone. No, He has done away with the goods and also made a clean sweep of the factory that produces the goods.

The finished work of Christ really has gone to the root of our problem and dealt with it. There are no half measures with God. "Knowing this," says Paul, "That our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away, that so we should no longer be in bondage to sin" (Rom. 6:6). "Knowing this"! Yes, but do you know it? "Or are ye ignorant?" (Rom. 6:3). May the Lord graciously open our eyes.

The complete text of this book is available at the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (http://www.ccel.org)

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You Say; God Says
By Adam Pringle
June 5, 2008

For all the negative things we have to say to ourselves, God
has a positive answer for it.

You say: "It's impossible"
God says: All things are possible (Luke 18:27)

You say: "I'm too tired"
God says: I will give you rest (Matthew 11:28-30)

You say: "Nobody really loves me"
God says: I love you (John 3:16; John 13:34)

You say: "I can't go on"
God says: My grace is sufficient (II Corinthians 12:9; Psalm 91:15)

You say: "I can't figure things out"
God says: I will direct your steps (Proverbs 3:5-6)

You say: "I can't do it"
God says: You can do all things (Philippians 4:13)

You say: "I'm not able"
God says: I am able (II Corinthians 9:8)

You say: "It's not worth it"
God says: It will be worth it (Roman 8:28)

You say: "I can't forgive myself"
God says: I FORGIVE YOU (I John 1:9; Romans 8:1)

You say: "I can't manage"
God says: I will supply all your needs (Philippians 4:19)

You say: "I'm afraid"
God says: I have not given you a spirit of fear (II Timothy 1:7)

You say: "I'm always worried and frustrated"
God says: Cast all your cares on ME (I Peter 5:7)

You say: "I don't have enough faith"
God says: I've given everyone a measure of faith (Romans 12:3)

You say: "I'm not smart enough"
God says: I give you wisdom (I Corinthians 1:30)

You say: "I feel all alone"
God says: I will never leave you or forsake you (Hebrews 13:5)

Pass this on, you never know whose life maybe in need of this today!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Note: The edition that is posted at http://www.GraceNotebook.com has active links; the Bible references are linked to the corresponding Scripture text.

Adam Pringle, Adam Pringle
Lead Vocals and Pianist of "The Seven Day Shirts"

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Christ in Heaven and Christ Within
By T Austin-Sparks
December 9, 2004

"Christ in Heaven and Christ Within"

by T. Austin-Sparks

The Need For Balance

"Which He wrought in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places" (Eph. 1:20).

"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" (Col. 1:27).

"What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into His death? Therefore we are buried with Him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection: Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin" (Rom. 6:1-6).

"There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death" (Rom. 8:1-2).

"Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, Who is even at the right hand of God, Who also maketh intercession for us" (Rom. 8:33-34).

We feel the importance of saying a word with regard to Christ in heaven and Christ within the believer, that is, what is objective and what is subjective. It is tremendously important that we should keep a proper balance of truth. A very great deal of our trouble is because of there being an unbalanced emphasis upon some aspect of truth. It is good to know the truth, and it is good to rejoice in it, but it is just possible that even truth may get us into trouble. There are many perils lying in the direction of truth, even spiritual truth; and there are not a few of the Lord's people who have fallen into those perils. It is not that they suffer from want of light, but they are suffering very much because they have not got their light properly adjusted and balanced. Thus it becomes very necessary for us to get things in their right perspective and proportion. Preponderance on any one side will always lead to spiritual injury, and very often to disaster. The history of many instrumentalities which have been raised up and used by the Lord is eventually the sad story of a loss of power and effectiveness because of striking an unbalanced emphasis, of putting some side of truth in a place out of proportion to that which is complementary to it.

Complementary Truths

It is not just a matter of being all-round, that is, of having everything and being in everything; but in the constitution of a body we find that one law is balanced by another. All the laws, of course, are necessary, and it is important to give due place to every function in our bodies; but there run parallel laws and functions, one balances the other. There is that which is complementary to something else. These two things are, as it were, twins, running together, and to over-emphasize or over-develop one means to throw the whole order out, and to bring about quite serious limitation and weakness, and to make things far less effective than they should be.

So it is in spiritual matters. There are always balancing truths. There is one thing, but there is something which goes with it, and which keeps it in its right measure, and causes it to fulfil its purpose and to serve its end most effectively. There is this order in the Divine creation - one thing is necessary to another to make that other fulfil its purpose to the full. That is where balance has to be observed and maintained.

The Adversary Using God's Work Against Him

Then we must remember that the adversary is always wanting to use God's own work and God's own truth against God Himself. That fact is made very clear in the Scriptures, and we may observe it in experience and in spiritual history. This line of action is more successful for the adversary than perhaps any other, because the result is that he immediately prejudices God's work and God's truth. He closes the door to the acceptance of what is of God simply by using it against God, and one of his most successful methods is that of securing an over-emphasis or an unbalanced apprehension of Divine truth. You will see what I mean as we go on.

A Peril With Every Blessing

So that with every Divine blessing there is a peril. Wherever there is something which is really from the Lord, that has linked with it its own peculiar peril.

Now these are merely general observations, as leading up to this brief meditation along the specific line of what is objective and what is subjective as to the work of the Lord Jesus for and in the believer. We will look at both of these separately very briefly, seeing what the blessing is and what the perils are.

THE OBJECTIVE SIDE

We take the objective side first, the Lord Jesus presented to us as in heaven. We know that He is there, and we know that a very great deal is said in the Word about His being there; but why is He there? In the first place: How did He get there? Now you will notice if you look into the Word that whenever the heavenly side of the ascension of the Lord Jesus is presented, that is, whenever the matter is looked at from above, it does not speak about His going up or His ascension, but it speaks about His being received up. In the first chapter of theBook of the Acts it is recorded that as the disciples were looking up into heaven after the Lord Jesus had been taken up from among them, two angels appeared and said to them: "Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye looking into heaven? This Jesus, Who was RECEIVED UP..." (The Authorized Version says "taken up"). That is an angelic, or a heavenly, standpoint, and the word "received" represents something more than just the fact that He ascended to heaven. It carries with it this fact, that it would be impossible for the Lord Jesus to be received in heaven if He had not perfectly accomplished the work which He came from heaven to do. In effect, heaven would have been closed to Him; heaven would have had to say to Him, 'But You have not done the work; there can be no reception until You have'. But it was because He had perfected the work which He came to do, and there was nothing more to be added to it, that heaven received Him, and it was a great reception! Psalm 24 gives us some idea of what that reception was: "Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors: and the King of glory will come in. Who is the King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle." You see, it implies the work that He has done by His Cross, in overthrowing all His and our enemies, meeting all the demand of human need in the matter of salvation, perfecting our salvation. And so He IS RECEIVED UP, and is at the right hand of God; and the right hand is always in Scripture the place of strength and honour. He is at the right hand of God because the work which He came to do was finished. That is, our salvation has been perfected by and in the Lord Jesus. There is nothing whatever for Him to add to it. That is the most elementary thing to say, and yet it is so foundational. So many of the Lord's people have not yet entered into the joyful appreciation of that - that the Lord Jesus really has given the last stroke and the last touch to our salvation; that when heaven received Him, heaven set its seal to the perfected work of His Cross; and that He is there in possession of a salvation which has not still to be accomplished but which is final, full, complete, utter.

Perfect Salvation When We Believe

Our salvation rests upon our faith acceptance of that, not of anything subsequent to that. In the day in which we believe in the Lord Jesus on the ground of the perfection of the work of His Cross, we receive perfection of salvation, and enter into all that salvation to its very last degree. We shall never - though we were to live for centuries on this earth, - we shall never IN CHRIST be one little bit more perfect than we are in Him in the very moment that we believe. All that is made good to us in the day that we believe. There are no questions, no hazards, no risks, the thing is settled, it is ours; full and complete IN CHRIST. The Blood of the Lord Jesus has dealt with the whole sin question, root and branch, once and for all, for us. The question of condemnation has been for ever settled. You cannot have anything more utter than this - NO condemnation! "There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus." It does not say: 'There is no condemnation to those who have faithfully been going on with the Lord for years'. It says: "to them that are in Christ Jesus." And when are you in Christ? You are in Christ the moment that you believe in relation to His work on the Cross for your salvation, and in that very moment you enter into the place of NO CONDEMNATION, and freedom from condemnation cannot be more complete than that.

The tremendously important thing is for us to have that settled in our own hearts. We are saved, we are forgiven, we are delivered from condemnation. IN CHRIST we are perfect. He is our perfection, and that perfection of His is ours through faith. The people who have the purest, clearest, fullest heart-grasp of that are the happiest people, the people who know joy. The people who have not grasped that are disturbed people,they have not the fullness of joy, they are always afraid, anxious, worrying about their salvation, doubting; and the enemy plays many tricks with people who have not settled that once and for all.

Now that is the blessed truth of what is objective in salvation for the believer as IN CHRIST. I am so glad that He is in heaven "far above all" with this matter. If He were here in this world I might think that anything could happen: but He is not, nor is He in any realm where anything can happen; He is beyond all happenings in the matter of salvation. That salvation of ours in its perfection has been put beyond the reach of anything that can throw a doubt upon it, or raise a question about it - beyond the touch of anything that can bring it into uncertainty.

The Perils Of The Objective Apprehension

But there are perils associated even with that blessed truth, because it is only one side of the truth. It is the first side; it is the thing which must come first, but it is only one side, and therefore it is just possible to make salvation one-sided by putting all the emphasis upon that and not giving due place to the other side.

1. The Peril Of Shallowness

What are some of the perils? Well, we begin with the simplest, the peril of superficiality, of shallowness. What Christ has done for us may be a matter of very great joy and rejoicing and satisfaction; but contentment in that realm and with that side alone may just prevent that deep work which is necessary, which comes by the complementary side of the truth of Christ's work, the subjective. Thus it is found that many people, who are rejoicing to the full in the finality of their salvation IN CHRIST, are living very much upon the surface, and not learning a very great deal about the deeper realities and fuller meaning of Christ. That is the first and perhaps the simplest form of peril.

2. The Peril Of Delayed Maturity

Closely related to this is the peril of making the Christian life static, settled, where it has reached the point of accepting all the objective truth by faith and staying there, and not going on beyond that in spiritual experience. The truth is there, but it is objective, external, although there is great joy, and assurance in the heart; but the Christian life has stopped with that, it has settled down. That is a very real peril, and you find it marking a great many of the Lord's people. Their attitude is, "I am saved, nothing has to be added or can be added to my salvation; I need have no more doubt of my salvation, I am accepted IN CHRIST, and I am perfect in Him; what more do I need? I just rest upon that and enjoy that day by day." Well, that is very good, but you see it can bring a check, so that you live on one side of things, and the whole of the Christian life stops there.

3. The Peril Of Contradiction

There is a further peril into which some fall who have apprehended in a very true and blessed way the greatness of the salvation which Christ has accomplished as theirs. Because they know that the question of salvation is eternally settled, and there is no room whatever for any doubts or fears, and nothing can ever alter the fact; and that their salvation does not rest for a moment upon anything that they are or do, but upon what He is and has done, - all of which is undeniably true; nevertheless, because they are perfectly sure and have no doubts whatever, there is found a lack of sympathy and they become hard, cold, and legal. Sometimes they become cruel, and too often inconsistencies arise in the life; that is, their attitude says in effect, "I am saved, it does not matter what I do, I shall never be lost." They would never dream of saying that in so many words and yet very often it works out that way, that their very certainty of salvation opens the door for inconsistencies and contradictions in their lives which never reach their conscience, simply because they say they have no more conscience of sin, that the conscience has been once purged, and so one should never be troubled with conscience again; salvation is absolute, nothing can touch it. Subtly, imperceptibly, without their reasoning or thinking, that attitude does creep in and you find with some that if you bring home to them certain things in their lives which you see to be glaring inconsistencies they will hardly believe them, they will possibly repudiate them, or simply say, "well, nothing alters the fact of my salvation." Life is thus thrown into an unbalanced state, and the peril comes right in with the very fact of the fullness and finality of salvation.

4. The Peril Of Truth Taking The Place Of Life

There is another peril; it is that of making progress a matter of truth rather than of life. Progress, of course, is recognized as necessary. No true believer would sit down and say, "Well, now there is no more progress to be made." But for many who have so strongly taken up the position upon the objective work of the Lord Jesus in its perfection, the matter of progress is not a matter of life, it is rather a matter of truth; that is, to know more rather than to become more. Thus you find that a very great many who are in that position have advanced tremendously in their knowledge of truth, but they know a great deal more than they are, and somehow or other their own spiritual growth in Christlikeness has not kept pace by any means or in any proper proportion to their progress in the knowledge of things about Christ. That is a danger which comes in with this very thing of which we are speaking.

5. The Peril Of Missing The Prize

Then this further peril - that of giving less importance to the prize than should be given to it. Salvation is not the prize. Salvation never was a prize. You can never win or earn salvation; it is a free gift. But to settle down with salvation in its fullness and its finality means for a great many a failure to recognize that there is a prize - that of which the Apostle Paul spoke when he said: "I press on towards the goal unto the prize of the upward calling..." (Phil. 3:14). There is something more than salvation, something related to the Lord's full purpose in glory, something related to the ultimate full manifestation of the Lord in His people; and that is not simply that they are saved people, but that they have ATTAINED (and Paul uses that word) unto something. Paul was never in fear of losing his salvation. When he said: "Lest... after that I have preached to others, I myself should be rejected" (I Cor. 9:27), he was not thinking of losing his salvation, but he was aware that there was something that he could miss; he could fall short of something, that which he called "the prize"; and he related to its attainment a growth in his spiritual life: "Not that I... am already made PERFECT." If we settle down in the attitude that says, "My salvation is perfect, complete, and final in Christ. Nothing can be added to it and I rejoice in that" - this may well mean that we give less importance to the prize than we ought to give.

So you see there are perils which come in with what is perhaps the greatest of the blessings.

THE SUBJECTIVE SIDE

That does not cover all the ground [about the objective side of salvation truth], but it must be enough on that side for the moment. We turn just for a moment to the other side - Christ in us, or the subjective work of Christ. What does Christ in us mean? We know from the Word that it means conformity to the image of Christ. Paul uses the phrase: "Until Christ be (fully) formed in you" (Gal. 4:19). In salvation we have everything as to our own perfection in Him. When we receive Christ we receive within us potentially all that is in Him as to His present character - not only His position but His character, mark you. It is not WHERE He is but WHAT He is. It is not now what He possesses but what He IS. He possesses our salvation, but we know what He is, and "when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is" (I John 3:2). So that all that He has given to us potentially when we believed is there to be developed; and, as Paul says, Christ is to be fully formed in us, and we are to be conformed to the image of God's Son. That is a very wonderful thing. It is: "Christ in you, the hope of glory." Christ in us means that eventually we shall be like Him to the full. But this is not the FACT of our being saved, this is the OBJECT of our being saved. This is not salvation in its fundamental and initial meaning; this is salvation in its outworking to its full meaning, the image of Christ, God's Son.

Identification With Christ

How do we accept that? We accept that by recognizing the second side of Calvary's work. The one side - the objective - is what Christ has done for us, apart from us, in His own Person. We accept this other side of conformity to His image - the subjective by accepting that Christ not only did that FOR us but AS us, that is, representatively. We come to Romans 6 and recognize that when Christ died we died, when Christ was buried we were buried, when Christ was raised we were raised. That is His representative work. Now we accept all that in simple faith at the beginning; but, mark you, that does not become operative in any full measure until the objective side has been settled. There must be a settlement, definitely, positively, finally, that our salvation in Christ is perfect and complete, before there can be any full measure of the out-working of Christ in our hearts. The Lord must have that basis upon which to work.

This is where the danger comes in with a great blessing. Oh! it is a great revelation, a wonderful unveiling, that God has chosen to make us like Christ - not only to save us with a perfect salvation so that the question of sin and condemnation is answered finally and for ever, but to conform us to the image of His Son; what a revelation, what a blessing! Yes, but God cannot do that second thing until the first thing is settled, because it is in that realm that there is unspeakable peril. What is the peril? It is this.

The Peril Of The Subjective Apprehension

If the Lord were to get to work to empty us of ourselves in order to make room for the Lord Jesus; to show us ourselves in order to show us the Lord Jesus; to make us to know what we are in ourselves in order to make us know what Christ is in us; to make us know our weakness in order to make Christ's strength perfect in it; to make us know our foolishness in order to make Christ as our wisdom, perfect in us; if He were to start to do that and the question of our salvation were not settled, the devil would jump in at once and use God's very work against us, and when the Lord was dealing with us to make room for His Son, the devil would begin to say: "You are under condemnation, God is against you, these very dealings of God with you are proofs that your salvation is not certain." And so it is with a great many in whom the Lord begins to work out things. They allow the enemy to jump in and take hold of the very work of God and turn it against God, by bringing up doubts in their hearts as to their salvation.

Do you see that? So often that is done, and the peril is there, running right alongside of the greatest blessing all the time. It is thus that the enemy tries to use God's truth against God.

Now the subjective side of God's work demands for its effective outworking that we are settled once and for all as to our salvation; that comes first! If you have only the one side; the objective, and all your emphasis is upon that, you may be shallow and you may not grow spiritually. If you dwell only on the subjective, you become introspective and begin to doubt your salvation; your eyes are always turned in upon yourself, and the result is that you begin to look for something in yourself that can commend itself to God; and therein lies a denial of the perfect work of salvation accomplished by the Lord Jesus. You see it is an undermining and undercutting of the whole of the work of Calvary. These two things must go together. On the one hand - fully and finally in Christ we are as perfect in the hour when we believe as ever we shall be. On the other hand - all that is in Christ is going to be made, not THEORETICALLY true, but ACTUALLY true in us by the Holy Spirit. But the second demands the first, and we must keep the balance. We must rejoice always in the fact that our names are written in heaven, that we are saved with a perfect salvation; but, on the other hand, we must remember that there is something that the Lord wants to do - not to make salvation true, but to make the image of Christ an inward thing. That is the outworking of salvation.

So this balance is necessary, and we must give equal emphasis. If we over-emphasize the subjective we take something from the glory of Christ. If we over-emphasize the objective we take something from God's purpose. It is a matter of the work of God in Christ, and the purpose of God in Christ: and these two things must both have their place.

May the Lord give us understanding, so that we come into a place of rest and are delivered from the perils which lurk in the vicinity of every Divine blessing.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Grace Notes, Dec. 2,9,16, 2004. This article is courtesy of http//www.austin-sparks.net . "THEODORE AUSTIN-SPARKS (1888-1971) left behind a treasury of writings filled with the Wisdom, Life and Revelation of Christ. He felt that whatever was given by the One Spirit of God should be freely shared with the One Body of Christ - what belongs to the One, belongs to all... Having greatly appreciated his writings ourselves, we offer them here on the web for the further establishing and strengthening of the Body, that in all things CHRIST might have the preeminence."

Notes on the use of terms: "Objective" refers to what Christ has done for us; "subjective" refers to what He does in and through us. -JBW

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Romans 6:17-18
But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you wholeheartedly obeyed the form of teaching to which you were entrusted. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.

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Transformational Grace
By Jerry Bridges
September 15, 2005

["But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being TRANSFORMED into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord." 2 Corinthians 3:18, NKJV, emphasis added]

What is the glory Paul referred to and how does it transform us? First, the glory of the Lord denotes the presence of God in all that He is in all of His attributes--His infiniteness, eternalness, holiness, sovereignty, goodness, etc. In other words, God is glorious in all of His being and works, However, in the context of 2 Corinthians 3:18, Paul was contrasting the glory of the law given by Moses with the far-surpassing glory of the gospel (see 2 Corinthians. 3:7-11). Then in 2 Corinthians 4:4 he spoke of "the gospel of the glory of Christ"....

So the gospel pulls together and harmonizes all the glorious attributes of the Lord: His righteousness with His grace, His justice with His mercy, His power with His love, His wisdom with His patience and compassion.

It seems, though, that God desires to magnify His grace in a special way to us, for Paul wrote in Ephesians 2:6-7, "And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus."[NIV]...

This then is the glory that has a transforming effect on us. It is the glory of Christ revealed in the gospel, the good news that Jesus died in our place as our representative to free us not only from the penalty of sin, but also from its dominion. A clear understanding and appropriation of the gospel, which gives freedom from sin's guilt and sin's grip, is, in the hands of the Holy Spirit, a chief means of sanctification.

To the degree that we feel we are on a legal or performance relationship with God, to that degree our progress in sanctification is impeded. A legal mode of thinking gives indwelling sin an advantage, because nothing cuts the nerve of the desire to pursue holiness as much as a sense of guilt. On the contrary, nothing so motivates us to deal with sin in our lives as does the understanding and application of the two truths that our sins are forgiven and the dominion of sin is broken because of our union with Christ....

Our specific responsibility in the pursuit of holiness as seen in 2 Corinthians 3:18, then, is to behold the glory of the Lord as it is displayed in the gospel. The gospel is a "mirror" through which we now behold His beauty. One day we shall see Christ, not as in a mirror, but face to face. Then, "we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is" (1 John 3:2). Until then we behold Him in the gospel. Therefore, we must "preach the gospel to ourselves every day."

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This article is an excerpt of Jerry Bridges' book, The Discipline of Grace, (NavPress, 1994) 106-109. Jerry has served with the Navigators since 1955 and has also authored The Pursuit of Holiness, The Practice of Godliness, Trusting God, and Transforming Grace.

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Originally posted by Michael Harrison:

• Rom 6:16 Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?

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• Rom 6:16 Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?

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Jekyll or Hyde?
By John Woodward
March 14, 2001

As I read my daughter Laura's English paper, I was intrigued by her quote from Robert Louis Stevenson's novel "Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" . Dr Jekyll had surmised, "If each [good force and evil force]. . . could be housed in separate identities, life would be relieved of all that was unbearable; the unjust might go his way, delivered from the separate aspirations and remorse of his more upright twin; and the just could walk steadfastly and securely on his upward path." 1 She went on to describe how Dr. Jekyll "was intrigued by the mysteries of human life and character; after years of study he discovered a formula for separating the two parts of man. He carried out this experiment on himself (against his better judgment) and created Mr. Hyde--a wholly evil person."

How often have we felt burdened and frustrated in our inward struggle against sin? What is the nature of this inner conflict in the life of the believer in Christ? How can we enjoy freedom from the power of sin and enjoy rest from such inner turmoil? The ethical struggle as described in Romans 7 often refers to "the flesh." What does the Bible mean by "flesh"? This culprit is identified in Galatians 5:17: "For the flesh lusts against the (Holy) Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish."

Sometimes we summarize our three spiritual enemies as the world (as the fallen system of humanity opposed to God--1 John 2:15-17), the flesh (our internal foe--Rom 7:18), and the devil (Satan--1 Pet 5:8). Of these three, the flesh seems the most illusive and difficult to accurately discern.

So how can we define "flesh" when it is used in an ethical sense? It has been observed that you can take the "h" off of "flesh" and spell it backwards and you have "self"--the self used as a carnal spiritual condition. 2 Charles Solomon notes, "The believer, though he is no longer 'IN the flesh,' may yet walk 'AFTER the flesh.' The flesh is no longer a permanent "position" for the believer, but it is an all too frequent "condition" [Rom 8:9] . . . Entering daily into freedom from the flesh may be hindered by carryovers from the past life in the soul. The mind has some thought patterns that were ingrained in the brain. There may also be some emotional damage sustained in childhood or later. The problems of the soul (mind, will, and emotions) must be worked through in the power of the Holy Spirit to achieve the full freedom belonging to every believer." 3

Our strategy for victory over the flesh is a positive one: "I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh" (Gal 5:16).

We should clarify that the physical body as "flesh" is not our enemy. Genesis one records that Adam and Eve were made with physical bodies in innocence "and God saw that it was good."(Gen 1:31). Jesus received a human body at His incarnation and remained sinless. Unlike those who try to afflict their bodies to reduce the influence of sin, we should respect this earthly vessel God has given as to live in and use it as "an instrument of righteousness" (Rom 6:13; Cf.1 Cor 6:19). Neither afflicting your body or trying to isolate your body has any lasting value in overcoming the power of sin (Col 2:20-23).

Another misconception is that the believer is the victim of inner DUALISM--two opposing forces of good and evil which have an equal claim on his mind, character, and choices. I was originally taught that my new nature as a Christian was like a white dog and that my old, sinful nature was like a black dog; these were in constant tension. The remedy for this miserable condition was said to be to "feed the white dog." --'No wonder I felt like an old bone! (Now it is true that feeding your soul with prayer and the Word of God will influence you for godliness in your fight against sin, yet I hope that a closer examination of "the flesh" will indicate some good news about your birthright to live in freedom from the power of sin.) 4

Dualism in philosophy is the idea that good and evil are parallel forces in conflict in the world. Those who promote the cause of goodness have the motto of Star Wars-- "May the force be with you!" Notice how this differs from the Christian world view: although good and evil coexist in the world, they are NOT equal forces! God is good, sovereign, all-powerful, all-knowing, and unchanging. Recall the book of Job: Satan could do nothing beyond God's permissive will. Satan was defeated at Calvary through Christ's work on the Cross (Col 2:14); his doom is sure (Rev 20).

Similarly, as a true believer in Christ, this same sovereign God indwells you by His Spirit. Romans 6:5-7 affirms that you have been identified with Christ. "For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin."

Therefore GOD'S WORD DOES NOT TEACH DUALISM in the universe or in the believer's nature. Instead of seeing yourself with a co-equal good nature and bad nature (half light and half dark), recognize that your ESSENTIAL NATURE IS HOLINESS. That is why God's Word says you have been sanctified (Heb 10:10) and are therefore a "saint" (1 Cor 1:2). This does not teach the eradication of sin as a negative influence in the Christian life, nor does it indicate the possibility of sinless perfection (James 3:2). We still have the flesh to contend with, but in Christ we have freedom from sin's authority, we have the power of God's Spirit, and we have the freedom to live righteously through grace!

Bill Gillham describes the implications of understanding these principles. "Just because a Christian doesn't have a sinful nature doesn't mean that we don't struggle in our war against sin. . . Just as you can pick apples without having an apple-picking nature and eat pork without having a pork-eating nature, you can sin without having a sinful nature. 'Nature' is defined as 'a fundamental characteristic.' Sinners LOVE sin. Saints HATE it. Sinners plan ahead for more innovative ways to sin. Saints attend seminars to learn how to overcome it. Our fundamental characteristic is to AVOID sinning." 5 This is confirmed in 1 John 2:29, "If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone who practices righteousness is born of Him." (Cf. 1 John 3:7-9;4:7;5:4).

So your "Mr. Hyde" was nailed to the Cross with Christ! The "old man" is out of the picture; you have a "new man"--a spirit that is alive unto God. Paul admonished, ". . . put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy language out of your mouth. Do not lie to one another, since YOU HAVE PUT OFF the old man with his deeds, and HAVE PUT ON the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him" (Col 3:8-10). Notice that the "old man" WAS put off. This occurred when you were saved and spiritually united with Christ (1 Cor 6:17). This union identified you with Christ's death, burial, resurrection, and ascension! (Eph 2:4-6).

In Alive for the First Time, David Needham emphasizes the value of clearly discerning our essential spiritual nature in Christ: "[Many believe that] whenever you are feeling sinful desires, you are actually encountering your fundamental nature--a sinner. In those hot, pressured times, you either follow through with those desires and DO WHAT YOU WANT or by God's strength resist them and end up DOING WHAT YOU OUGHT. . . Yet whether or not you obey the 'oughts', you still must reckon with the true nature of the kind of person you assume yourself to be--at heart, a sinful person. . "Whether or not we realize it, the desire of our inmost self is the same as Paul's--'for me to live is Christ!' [Phil 1:21] It is correct to speak of Christian self-denial within the limits of a sense of selfishness or self-centeredness, both of which are enemies of dependence [on God]. . .
"How very important it is for Christians to be taught quickly that when they were saved, not only were they justified, but God also performed those interior miracles that changed the focus of their selfhood from flesh to spirit. Their deepest level of self, their truest self, never desires to sin [1 John 3:9]. That 'self' is always in perfect agreement with the 'oughts' of God's moral law." 6

So, in Christ, we are free to chose to cooperate with God's Holy Spirit and produce good fruit! When we do so, we act consistently with our essential nature; we walk in harmony with our true identity in Christ! God bless you, "Dr."!

J.B.W.

March 14, 2001

revised and reissued from May 3, 1999 Vol. 2 # 18

_____

Notes:

[1] Robert Louis Stevenson, Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde, p.105.

[2] The word "flesh" is a translation of the Greek word "sarx" which occurs 130 times in the New Testament. Sometimes it speaks of the physical body, or the material aspect of living things (Phil 1:22). When it is used in an ethical sense, however, it has many implications for our inward fight against sin. For example, 1 Peter 2:11 [used as an adjective-"sarkikos"] warns us: "Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from FLESHLY lusts which war against the soul. Cf. 2 Pet 2:18; 1 John 2:16.

[3] Charles Solomon, Gems and Jargon (Cross Life Expressions) p.10,11.

[4] Note: the term "sinful nature" is commonly used to describe the sin principle in the believer but can be misleading. The NIV translation of "flesh" as "sinful nature" in Rom 7:18 and elsewhere is too vague. A more literal translation as "flesh" (like NKJV or NASB) is needed for a precise understanding of this topic.

[5] Bill Gillham, What God Wishes Christians Knew About Christianity (Harvest House) p.102,103.

[6] David Needham, Alive for the Fist Time (Multnomah, 1995), p. 157-58. Cf. L. Berkhof on regeneration--"that act of God by which the principle of new life is planted in man, and the governing disposition of his heart is made holy." (Systematic Theology, p.469.)

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Well, that was good, but it is not the spirit that has faith. It is the soul. More specifically, it is the heart. Oddly, the heart and will are similar, although, I believe separate. The heart is between the soul and the spirit. The will is between the mind and the emotions.

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Future Grace
By John Woodward
March 13, 2000

Over the years I've had the opportunity to take many airplane flights. One of the lingering impressions is the sight of eager faces circling the airport's doorway, waiting for those who are deplaning. As passengers come into view they are greeted with delighted shouts and joyful hugs. If parting is "such sweet sorrow," then reunion is sweet happiness. The anticipation of such reunions surely encourages the travelers!

Prior to a flight bound for Atlanta, I bumped into a friend at the airport terminal where passengers gathered for boarding. We had half an hour to catch up on news. I told Brian that I was looking forward to seeing my father later that morning in Atlanta. When our plane landed there, Brian deplaned before I did. As he went through the door into the terminal, he saw an older gentleman to whom I bear a noticeable resemblance. Taking a chance about his identity, he said to my dad, "are you waiting for John? He's on the plane and will be out soon." My father was a bit mystified as to how this stranger recognized him, but was glad to hear that I would eventually emerge from the jet! Our reunion was a happy one.

As I reflected on the memories of people eagerly awaiting the arrival of loved ones, I imagine the joy of true believers in Christ when they will one day see Him face to face. Oh the joy of the family reunion we will have with those who have "fallen asleep in Christ" (1 Thess. 4:14). The cluster of blessings promised to believers are aspects of "future grace."

Most Christians dwell on the grace they have ALREADY experienced--which is wonderful to contemplate. As John Newton put it, "Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me; I once was lost but now am found, was blind but now I see" (cf. Eph. 2:8,9).

As we grow spiritually, we learn that grace is essential in this PRESENT time in order to live the Christian life. As we humble ourselves and admit our need, God "gives more grace" to express His life through us (James 4:6; 1 Cor 15:10; Rom 5:10).

But now we consider FUTURE grace. This gripped the heart of a disciple who was warned by the Lord Jesus: "Most assuredly, I say to you, when you were younger, you girded yourself and walked where you wished; but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will gird you and carry you where you do not wish" (John 21:18). This disciple wrote to the early church regarding his predicted martyrdom: "I think it is right, as long as I am in this tent [the mortal body], to stir you up by reminding you, knowing that shortly I must put off my tent, just as our Lord Jesus Christ showed me" (2 Peter 1:13,14).

How would you have felt if you knew that this trial awaited you? Could you have maintained a joyful life and a fruitful ministry? Peter did, and he mentioned a vital resource that fortified him. Peter was assured of his destiny in heaven and learned to focus his hope on future grace (1 Peter 1:3-5).

He instructed those who faced persecution under the infamous emperor Nero: "Gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the GRACE that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ" (1 Peter 1:13). To "gird up your loins" is a figure of speech meaning: "prepare your minds for action" (NIV). Having done so, we are to "be sober." Clearly grasp the implications of God's truth. The truth we are to focus on is future grace. This is the "grace that is to be brought to you" (as a child of God). And when will this grace be distributed? It will be given "at the revelation of Jesus Christ"--at His Second Coming.

What are some of the dimensions of this future grace?

First, we will see the glory of heaven.

Those who die in Christ are "absent from the body and present with the Lord" (2 Cor. 5:7). Our Lord reassured the disciples the night before His crucifixion: "Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I GO TO PREPARE A PLACE FOR YOU ... I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also" (John 14:1-3). This hope sustained believers in the Old Testament era who saw this life as a pilgrimage en route to the future glorious kingdom: "But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them" (Heb. 11:16; cf. Heb. 13:14).

Second, we will see Christ in His glory!

"Looking for the blessed hope and GLORIOUS APPEARING of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ" (Titus 2:13). Peter had affirmed the importance of faith; by faith the Christian loves Jesus, although He is not now visible on earth (1 Pet. 1:8). Yet, we echo the hymn writer, "And Lord, haste the day, when the faith shall be sight, the clouds be rolled back as a scroll, the trump shall resound and the Lord shall descend, even so it is well with my soul." [1]

Third, believers who are living on earth at the moment of Christ's return will bypass physical death!

Paul spoke of this mystery that was revealed through him: "We shall not all sleep, but WE SHALL ALL BE CHANGED--in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible [body] must put on incorruption [the resurrected body], and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: 'Death is swallowed up in victory'" (1 Cor. 15:51-54; cf. 1 Thess. 4:17).

Fourth, we will be given a glorified body.

"Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, WE SHALL BE LIKE HIM, for we shall see Him as He is. And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as He is pure" (1 John 3:2,3; Phil. 3:20,21, Rom. 8:23,29).

Notice that this hope is not an escapist wish for "pie in the sky by-and-by." Rather, it is a purifying hope, a practical hope, and a sanctifying hope (1 Cor. 15:58; Titus 2:11-14).

This vision of future grace should grip our hearts. J. F. Strombeck noted the vital importance of vision: "Vision plays a great role in the lives of men. A vision will keep a man in a straight course until it is realized. It will bear him up during days of severe trial and hardships. It will cause him to deny himself things that might interfere with the fullest accomplishment of his vision. A vision is a great disciplinarian ... It is because of this power of vision to transform the very life of a person that grace teaches the believer to look for the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ. This being true it is hardly to be expected that the proper outlook on life will be found among believers who do not look for this great event and are not aware of its importance to them. It is unthinkable that when this truth has gripped a person it will not leave a deep and lasting impression on his life." [2]

No wonder hope is included--along with faith and love--in the special triad of Christian graces (1 Cor. 13:13). This grace sustained the apostle Peter in the days leading up to his martyrdom; it can sustain you in your difficulties as well. Where have you set your hope? How about setting it on the blessings of future grace?

------------------------------------

Revised from March 2000 GN.

Notes:

[1] "It is Well with My Soul" by H. G. Spafford, verse 4.

[2] Disciplined by Grace , by J. F. Strombeck (Moody) p.124.

This article is copyrighted 2000 by John Woodward. Permission is granted reprint this for non-commercial use. Bible quotations are from the New King James Version, Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson.

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The Believer As God's Tabernacle
By Martin Luther
June 29, 2006

The Believer as God's Tabernacle

["Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?" (1 Cor. 6:19, NKJV). In his commentary on the Gospel of Luke, Luther gave a detailed explanation of the parts of man when he discussed Mary's Magnificat: "My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior" (Luke 1:46).] [1]

Let us take up the words in their order. The first is "my soul." Scripture divides man into three parts, as St. Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 5:23. . . ["Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." NKJV]. The nature of man consists of the three parts--spirit, soul, and body ... The first part, the spirit, is the highest, deepest, and noblest part of man. By it he is enabled to lay hold on things incomprehensible, invisible, and eternal. It is, in brief, the dwelling place of faith and the Word of God ... [2]

[After noting the distinction of the body, Luther gives a profound analogy relating to the Tabernacle. What seems at first glance to be an unusual comparison becomes increasingly meaningful.]

Let us take an illustration from the Scriptures. In the tabernacle fashioned by Moses there were three separate compartments. The first was called the Holy of Holies: here was God's dwelling place, and in it there was no light. The second was called the Holy Place; here stood a candlestick with seven arms and seven lamps. The third was called the outer court; this lay under the open sky and in the full light of the sun.

In this tabernacle we have a figure of the Christian man. His spirit is the Holy of Holies, where God dwells in the darkness of faith, where no light is; for he believes that which he neither sees nor feels nor comprehends. His soul is the Holy Place, with its seven lamps, that is, all manner of reason, discrimination, knowledge, and understanding of visible and bodily things. His body is the forecourt, open to all, so that men may see his works and manner of life.[3]

[Luther continued by drawing attention to the priority of man's spirit in sanctification. Expounding again on 1 Thessalonians 5:23, he takes note of the sequence Paul mentioned.]

When the spirit that possesses the whole inheritance is preserved, both soul and body are able to remain without error and evil works. On the other hand, when the spirit is without faith, the soul together with the whole life cannot but fall into wickedness and error ... As a consequence of this error and false opinion of the soul, all the works of the body also become evil and damnable, even though a man killed himself with fasting and performed the works of all the saints ... it is necessary that God preserve, first our spirit, then our soul and body, not only from overt sins but more from false and apparent good works.[4]

[Thus, Luther clearly connected trichotomy of man with the biblical strategy for progressive sanctification. May each of us as believers rejoice that our spirit is united with Christ. The "old man" has been crucified; the "new man" refers to our regenerated spirit that has become a partaker of the divine nature. May we reckon this to be true (because it is) and yield our members daily as instruments of righteousness. "He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it" (1 Thess. 5:24, NKJV). Cf. 1 Cor. 6:17; Gal. 2:20; 2 Pet. 1:4; Col. 3:9,10; Rom. 6:6-13.]

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This article is an edited excerpt from Man as Spirit, Soul and Body: Implications for Biblical Counseling, chapter 5. It is online at http://www.GraceNotebook.com under "Theological Papers" and "Other Goodies/ E-Books"

[1] This article shows the Reformer's distinction of the spirit from the soul ontologically [in their being, not just their connotation]. Luther's reference to 1 Thess. 5:23 gives further support to his basic definition of trichotomy.

Most of the scholars of the Reformation held to the dichotomous (body and soul) view of man. Theologian, L. Berkhof, noted the trend of dichotomy from the days of Augustine (in the fourth century) through the Protestant Reformation (in the 16th century). "During the Middle Ages it [dichotomy] became a matter of common belief. The Reformation brought no change in this respect, though a few lesser lights defended the trichotomistic theory." [Systematic Theology, 192.] Without tracing out these "lesser lights," an examination of Martin Luther's view seems to illustrate the reluctance of contemporary theologians to acknowledge trichotomy as an orthodox view in church history.

One might wonder why Luther's trichotomous teaching has been virtually ignored. One reason may be that his references to the soul as the immaterial part (in contrast to the body) have been taken as evidence of dichotomy in his writings. His definition of soul in the same context exemplifies this: "The second part, the soul, is this same spirit, so far as its nature is concerned, but viewed as performing a different function, namely, giving life to the body and working through the body. - Luther's Works 21:203.

When Luther said that the soul is the same "nature" (German-"natur") he was affirming what trichotomists concede as well, i.e., that the soul and spirit are united as the immaterial side of human nature. In the same paragraph in his commentary that he defined soul he continued to further elucidate the distinction between soul and spirit: "It is its [the soul's] nature to comprehend not incomprehensible things but such things the reason can know and understand. Indeed, reason is the light of this dwelling; and unless the spirit, which is lighted with the brighter light of faith, controls this light of reason it cannot but be in error. For it is too feeble to deal with things divine. To these two parts of man [the soul and spirit] the Scriptures ascribe many things, such as wisdom and knowledge--wisdom to the spirit, knowledge to the soul..." - Luther's Works 21:203.

This shows that Luther believed the distinction between soul and spirit to be more than merely a functional one. The term "part" is used eight times in this context in denoting the parts of man (spirit, soul, and body). The German term Luther used was "teil," meaning "part," "division," or "portion." [Muret-Sanders Encyclopedic English-German and German-English Dictionary, 1910 ed., s.v. "Tiel," 2:952.] He also used the synonym "stuck," meaning "piece," "part," or "portion." [Ibid., s.v. "Stuck," 937].

However uncomfortable to the ears of the proponents of monism or monistic dualism, Luther did not hesitate to speak in terms of the three parts of a person.

[2] Martin Luther, Luther's Works, ed., Jaroslar Pelikan (St. Louis: Concordia, 1956), 21:303.

[3] Luther's Works, 21:304.

[4] Ibid., 21:305-06.

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Christ in Heaven and Christ Within
By T Austin-Sparks
December 9, 2004

"Christ in Heaven and Christ Within"

by T. Austin-Sparks

The Need For Balance

"Which He wrought in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places" (Eph. 1:20).

"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" (Col. 1:27).

"What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into His death? Therefore we are buried with Him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection: Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin" (Rom. 6:1-6).

"There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death" (Rom. 8:1-2).

"Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, Who is even at the right hand of God, Who also maketh intercession for us" (Rom. 8:33-34).

We feel the importance of saying a word with regard to Christ in heaven and Christ within the believer, that is, what is objective and what is subjective. It is tremendously important that we should keep a proper balance of truth. A very great deal of our trouble is because of there being an unbalanced emphasis upon some aspect of truth. It is good to know the truth, and it is good to rejoice in it, but it is just possible that even truth may get us into trouble. There are many perils lying in the direction of truth, even spiritual truth; and there are not a few of the Lord's people who have fallen into those perils. It is not that they suffer from want of light, but they are suffering very much because they have not got their light properly adjusted and balanced. Thus it becomes very necessary for us to get things in their right perspective and proportion. Preponderance on any one side will always lead to spiritual injury, and very often to disaster. The history of many instrumentalities which have been raised up and used by the Lord is eventually the sad story of a loss of power and effectiveness because of striking an unbalanced emphasis, of putting some side of truth in a place out of proportion to that which is complementary to it.

Complementary Truths

It is not just a matter of being all-round, that is, of having everything and being in everything; but in the constitution of a body we find that one law is balanced by another. All the laws, of course, are necessary, and it is important to give due place to every function in our bodies; but there run parallel laws and functions, one balances the other. There is that which is complementary to something else. These two things are, as it were, twins, running together, and to over-emphasize or over-develop one means to throw the whole order out, and to bring about quite serious limitation and weakness, and to make things far less effective than they should be.

So it is in spiritual matters. There are always balancing truths. There is one thing, but there is something which goes with it, and which keeps it in its right measure, and causes it to fulfil its purpose and to serve its end most effectively. There is this order in the Divine creation - one thing is necessary to another to make that other fulfil its purpose to the full. That is where balance has to be observed and maintained.

The Adversary Using God's Work Against Him

Then we must remember that the adversary is always wanting to use God's own work and God's own truth against God Himself. That fact is made very clear in the Scriptures, and we may observe it in experience and in spiritual history. This line of action is more successful for the adversary than perhaps any other, because the result is that he immediately prejudices God's work and God's truth. He closes the door to the acceptance of what is of God simply by using it against God, and one of his most successful methods is that of securing an over-emphasis or an unbalanced apprehension of Divine truth. You will see what I mean as we go on.

A Peril With Every Blessing

So that with every Divine blessing there is a peril. Wherever there is something which is really from the Lord, that has linked with it its own peculiar peril.

Now these are merely general observations, as leading up to this brief meditation along the specific line of what is objective and what is subjective as to the work of the Lord Jesus for and in the believer. We will look at both of these separately very briefly, seeing what the blessing is and what the perils are.

THE OBJECTIVE SIDE

We take the objective side first, the Lord Jesus presented to us as in heaven. We know that He is there, and we know that a very great deal is said in the Word about His being there; but why is He there? In the first place: How did He get there? Now you will notice if you look into the Word that whenever the heavenly side of the ascension of the Lord Jesus is presented, that is, whenever the matter is looked at from above, it does not speak about His going up or His ascension, but it speaks about His being received up. In the first chapter of theBook of the Acts it is recorded that as the disciples were looking up into heaven after the Lord Jesus had been taken up from among them, two angels appeared and said to them: "Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye looking into heaven? This Jesus, Who was RECEIVED UP..." (The Authorized Version says "taken up"). That is an angelic, or a heavenly, standpoint, and the word "received" represents something more than just the fact that He ascended to heaven. It carries with it this fact, that it would be impossible for the Lord Jesus to be received in heaven if He had not perfectly accomplished the work which He came from heaven to do. In effect, heaven would have been closed to Him; heaven would have had to say to Him, 'But You have not done the work; there can be no reception until You have'. But it was because He had perfected the work which He came to do, and there was nothing more to be added to it, that heaven received Him, and it was a great reception! Psalm 24 gives us some idea of what that reception was: "Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lifted up, ye everlasting doors: and the King of glory will come in. Who is the King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle." You see, it implies the work that He has done by His Cross, in overthrowing all His and our enemies, meeting all the demand of human need in the matter of salvation, perfecting our salvation. And so He IS RECEIVED UP, and is at the right hand of God; and the right hand is always in Scripture the place of strength and honour. He is at the right hand of God because the work which He came to do was finished. That is, our salvation has been perfected by and in the Lord Jesus. There is nothing whatever for Him to add to it. That is the most elementary thing to say, and yet it is so foundational. So many of the Lord's people have not yet entered into the joyful appreciation of that - that the Lord Jesus really has given the last stroke and the last touch to our salvation; that when heaven received Him, heaven set its seal to the perfected work of His Cross; and that He is there in possession of a salvation which has not still to be accomplished but which is final, full, complete, utter.

Perfect Salvation When We Believe

Our salvation rests upon our faith acceptance of that, not of anything subsequent to that. In the day in which we believe in the Lord Jesus on the ground of the perfection of the work of His Cross, we receive perfection of salvation, and enter into all that salvation to its very last degree. We shall never - though we were to live for centuries on this earth, - we shall never IN CHRIST be one little bit more perfect than we are in Him in the very moment that we believe. All that is made good to us in the day that we believe. There are no questions, no hazards, no risks, the thing is settled, it is ours; full and complete IN CHRIST. The Blood of the Lord Jesus has dealt with the whole sin question, root and branch, once and for all, for us. The question of condemnation has been for ever settled. You cannot have anything more utter than this - NO condemnation! "There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus." It does not say: 'There is no condemnation to those who have faithfully been going on with the Lord for years'. It says: "to them that are in Christ Jesus." And when are you in Christ? You are in Christ the moment that you believe in relation to His work on the Cross for your salvation, and in that very moment you enter into the place of NO CONDEMNATION, and freedom from condemnation cannot be more complete than that.

The tremendously important thing is for us to have that settled in our own hearts. We are saved, we are forgiven, we are delivered from condemnation. IN CHRIST we are perfect. He is our perfection, and that perfection of His is ours through faith. The people who have the purest, clearest, fullest heart-grasp of that are the happiest people, the people who know joy. The people who have not grasped that are disturbed people,they have not the fullness of joy, they are always afraid, anxious, worrying about their salvation, doubting; and the enemy plays many tricks with people who have not settled that once and for all.

Now that is the blessed truth of what is objective in salvation for the believer as IN CHRIST. I am so glad that He is in heaven "far above all" with this matter. If He were here in this world I might think that anything could happen: but He is not, nor is He in any realm where anything can happen; He is beyond all happenings in the matter of salvation. That salvation of ours in its perfection has been put beyond the reach of anything that can throw a doubt upon it, or raise a question about it - beyond the touch of anything that can bring it into uncertainty.

The Perils Of The Objective Apprehension

But there are perils associated even with that blessed truth, because it is only one side of the truth. It is the first side; it is the thing which must come first, but it is only one side, and therefore it is just possible to make salvation one-sided by putting all the emphasis upon that and not giving due place to the other side.

1. The Peril Of Shallowness

What are some of the perils? Well, we begin with the simplest, the peril of superficiality, of shallowness. What Christ has done for us may be a matter of very great joy and rejoicing and satisfaction; but contentment in that realm and with that side alone may just prevent that deep work which is necessary, which comes by the complementary side of the truth of Christ's work, the subjective. Thus it is found that many people, who are rejoicing to the full in the finality of their salvation IN CHRIST, are living very much upon the surface, and not learning a very great deal about the deeper realities and fuller meaning of Christ. That is the first and perhaps the simplest form of peril.

2. The Peril Of Delayed Maturity

Closely related to this is the peril of making the Christian life static, settled, where it has reached the point of accepting all the objective truth by faith and staying there, and not going on beyond that in spiritual experience. The truth is there, but it is objective, external, although there is great joy, and assurance in the heart; but the Christian life has stopped with that, it has settled down. That is a very real peril, and you find it marking a great many of the Lord's people. Their attitude is, "I am saved, nothing has to be added or can be added to my salvation; I need have no more doubt of my salvation, I am accepted IN CHRIST, and I am perfect in Him; what more do I need? I just rest upon that and enjoy that day by day." Well, that is very good, but you see it can bring a check, so that you live on one side of things, and the whole of the Christian life stops there.

3. The Peril Of Contradiction

There is a further peril into which some fall who have apprehended in a very true and blessed way the greatness of the salvation which Christ has accomplished as theirs. Because they know that the question of salvation is eternally settled, and there is no room whatever for any doubts or fears, and nothing can ever alter the fact; and that their salvation does not rest for a moment upon anything that they are or do, but upon what He is and has done, - all of which is undeniably true; nevertheless, because they are perfectly sure and have no doubts whatever, there is found a lack of sympathy and they become hard, cold, and legal. Sometimes they become cruel, and too often inconsistencies arise in the life; that is, their attitude says in effect, "I am saved, it does not matter what I do, I shall never be lost." They would never dream of saying that in so many words and yet very often it works out that way, that their very certainty of salvation opens the door for inconsistencies and contradictions in their lives which never reach their conscience, simply because they say they have no more conscience of sin, that the conscience has been once purged, and so one should never be troubled with conscience again; salvation is absolute, nothing can touch it. Subtly, imperceptibly, without their reasoning or thinking, that attitude does creep in and you find with some that if you bring home to them certain things in their lives which you see to be glaring inconsistencies they will hardly believe them, they will possibly repudiate them, or simply say, "well, nothing alters the fact of my salvation." Life is thus thrown into an unbalanced state, and the peril comes right in with the very fact of the fullness and finality of salvation.

4. The Peril Of Truth Taking The Place Of Life

There is another peril; it is that of making progress a matter of truth rather than of life. Progress, of course, is recognized as necessary. No true believer would sit down and say, "Well, now there is no more progress to be made." But for many who have so strongly taken up the position upon the objective work of the Lord Jesus in its perfection, the matter of progress is not a matter of life, it is rather a matter of truth; that is, to know more rather than to become more. Thus you find that a very great many who are in that position have advanced tremendously in their knowledge of truth, but they know a great deal more than they are, and somehow or other their own spiritual growth in Christlikeness has not kept pace by any means or in any proper proportion to their progress in the knowledge of things about Christ. That is a danger which comes in with this very thing of which we are speaking.

5. The Peril Of Missing The Prize

Then this further peril - that of giving less importance to the prize than should be given to it. Salvation is not the prize. Salvation never was a prize. You can never win or earn salvation; it is a free gift. But to settle down with salvation in its fullness and its finality means for a great many a failure to recognize that there is a prize - that of which the Apostle Paul spoke when he said: "I press on towards the goal unto the prize of the upward calling..." (Phil. 3:14). There is something more than salvation, something related to the Lord's full purpose in glory, something related to the ultimate full manifestation of the Lord in His people; and that is not simply that they are saved people, but that they have ATTAINED (and Paul uses that word) unto something. Paul was never in fear of losing his salvation. When he said: "Lest... after that I have preached to others, I myself should be rejected" (I Cor. 9:27), he was not thinking of losing his salvation, but he was aware that there was something that he could miss; he could fall short of something, that which he called "the prize"; and he related to its attainment a growth in his spiritual life: "Not that I... am already made PERFECT." If we settle down in the attitude that says, "My salvation is perfect, complete, and final in Christ. Nothing can be added to it and I rejoice in that" - this may well mean that we give less importance to the prize than we ought to give.

So you see there are perils which come in with what is perhaps the greatest of the blessings.

THE SUBJECTIVE SIDE

That does not cover all the ground [about the objective side of salvation truth], but it must be enough on that side for the moment. We turn just for a moment to the other side - Christ in us, or the subjective work of Christ. What does Christ in us mean? We know from the Word that it means conformity to the image of Christ. Paul uses the phrase: "Until Christ be (fully) formed in you" (Gal. 4:19). In salvation we have everything as to our own perfection in Him. When we receive Christ we receive within us potentially all that is in Him as to His present character - not only His position but His character, mark you. It is not WHERE He is but WHAT He is. It is not now what He possesses but what He IS. He possesses our salvation, but we know what He is, and "when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is" (I John 3:2). So that all that He has given to us potentially when we believed is there to be developed; and, as Paul says, Christ is to be fully formed in us, and we are to be conformed to the image of God's Son. That is a very wonderful thing. It is: "Christ in you, the hope of glory." Christ in us means that eventually we shall be like Him to the full. But this is not the FACT of our being saved, this is the OBJECT of our being saved. This is not salvation in its fundamental and initial meaning; this is salvation in its outworking to its full meaning, the image of Christ, God's Son.

Identification With Christ

How do we accept that? We accept that by recognizing the second side of Calvary's work. The one side - the objective - is what Christ has done for us, apart from us, in His own Person. We accept this other side of conformity to His image - the subjective by accepting that Christ not only did that FOR us but AS us, that is, representatively. We come to Romans 6 and recognize that when Christ died we died, when Christ was buried we were buried, when Christ was raised we were raised. That is His representative work. Now we accept all that in simple faith at the beginning; but, mark you, that does not become operative in any full measure until the objective side has been settled. There must be a settlement, definitely, positively, finally, that our salvation in Christ is perfect and complete, before there can be any full measure of the out-working of Christ in our hearts. The Lord must have that basis upon which to work.

This is where the danger comes in with a great blessing. Oh! it is a great revelation, a wonderful unveiling, that God has chosen to make us like Christ - not only to save us with a perfect salvation so that the question of sin and condemnation is answered finally and for ever, but to conform us to the image of His Son; what a revelation, what a blessing! Yes, but God cannot do that second thing until the first thing is settled, because it is in that realm that there is unspeakable peril. What is the peril? It is this.

The Peril Of The Subjective Apprehension

If the Lord were to get to work to empty us of ourselves in order to make room for the Lord Jesus; to show us ourselves in order to show us the Lord Jesus; to make us to know what we are in ourselves in order to make us know what Christ is in us; to make us know our weakness in order to make Christ's strength perfect in it; to make us know our foolishness in order to make Christ as our wisdom, perfect in us; if He were to start to do that and the question of our salvation were not settled, the devil would jump in at once and use God's very work against us, and when the Lord was dealing with us to make room for His Son, the devil would begin to say: "You are under condemnation, God is against you, these very dealings of God with you are proofs that your salvation is not certain." And so it is with a great many in whom the Lord begins to work out things. They allow the enemy to jump in and take hold of the very work of God and turn it against God, by bringing up doubts in their hearts as to their salvation.

Do you see that? So often that is done, and the peril is there, running right alongside of the greatest blessing all the time. It is thus that the enemy tries to use God's truth against God.

Now the subjective side of God's work demands for its effective outworking that we are settled once and for all as to our salvation; that comes first! If you have only the one side; the objective, and all your emphasis is upon that, you may be shallow and you may not grow spiritually. If you dwell only on the subjective, you become introspective and begin to doubt your salvation; your eyes are always turned in upon yourself, and the result is that you begin to look for something in yourself that can commend itself to God; and therein lies a denial of the perfect work of salvation accomplished by the Lord Jesus. You see it is an undermining and undercutting of the whole of the work of Calvary. These two things must go together. On the one hand - fully and finally in Christ we are as perfect in the hour when we believe as ever we shall be. On the other hand - all that is in Christ is going to be made, not THEORETICALLY true, but ACTUALLY true in us by the Holy Spirit. But the second demands the first, and we must keep the balance. We must rejoice always in the fact that our names are written in heaven, that we are saved with a perfect salvation; but, on the other hand, we must remember that there is something that the Lord wants to do - not to make salvation true, but to make the image of Christ an inward thing. That is the outworking of salvation.

So this balance is necessary, and we must give equal emphasis. If we over-emphasize the subjective we take something from the glory of Christ. If we over-emphasize the objective we take something from God's purpose. It is a matter of the work of God in Christ, and the purpose of God in Christ: and these two things must both have their place.

May the Lord give us understanding, so that we come into a place of rest and are delivered from the perils which lurk in the vicinity of every Divine blessing.

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Grace Notes, Dec. 2,9,16, 2004. This article is courtesy of http//www.austin-sparks.net . "THEODORE AUSTIN-SPARKS (1888-1971) left behind a treasury of writings filled with the Wisdom, Life and Revelation of Christ. He felt that whatever was given by the One Spirit of God should be freely shared with the One Body of Christ - what belongs to the One, belongs to all... Having greatly appreciated his writings ourselves, we offer them here on the web for the further establishing and strengthening of the Body, that in all things CHRIST might have the preeminence."

Notes on the use of terms: "Objective" refers to what Christ has done for us; "subjective" refers to what He does in and through us. -JBW

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Posts: 749 | From: Toronto, Canada-EH! | Registered: Jun 2008  |  IP: Logged | 

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Originally posted by Michael Harrison:

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"there's no such thing as perfect people"

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There's no such thing as perfect faith either? And after all, our faith is not our faith, but His faith, if we have any faith at all.

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Originally posted by Michael Harrison:
Therefore, HiS faith is not perfect, by that measure?

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1 Corinthians 13:2b
and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.

It's the measure of Love! And Jesus is that measure, as I know you bear witness.

1 John 4:16
And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.

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Therefore we necessarily are ostracized from HIM, which is contrary to what HE came to die on our behalf for, in order to accomplish HiS will, that we be reunited or restored into His presence, and fellowship, which we will not see, know, or experience, without such faith. "For without faith, it is impossible to please [know] God."

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Growing Your Faith
By John Woodward
January 12, 2006
"A man fell off a cliff, but managed to grab a tree limb on the way down. The following conversation ensued:
'Is anyone up there?'
'I am here. I am the Lord. Do you believe me?'
'Yes, Lord, I believe. I really believe, but I can't hang on much longer.'
'That's all right, if you really believe you have nothing to worry about. I will save you. Just let go of the branch.'
A moment of pause, then: 'Is anyone else up there?' [1]

We can sympathize with this fellow's reluctance to radically believe in what his senses could not verify. "Now faith is a well-grounded assurance of that for which we hope, and a conviction of the reality of things which we do not see" (Hebrews 11:1, Weymouth). Hanging in there by faith requires a biblical understanding of the value of trust.

Let's consider this question: How can our faith grow?

The Lord Jesus often admonished His disciples due to their "little faith."[2] However, when the Roman Centurion confessed his confidence that Christ could heal his servant (without Him even traveling to the sick man), the Lord declared publicly, "'Assuredly, I say to you, I have not found such great FAITH, not even in Israel!' Then Jesus said to the centurion, 'Go your way; and as you have believed, so let it be done for you.' And his servant was healed that same hour" (Matt. 8:10,13).

The apostle Paul commended the believers at Thessalonica saying, "We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is fitting, because your FAITH grows exceedingly, and the love of every one of you all abounds toward each other" (2 Thess. 1:3). In the book of Acts, leaders such as Stephen and Barnabas were commended as ones who were "full of faith."[3]

Just as salvation is received through true faith, so abundant living requires that we live by faith.[4] So if faith can grow, how can we increase it? Let's consider four steps in this growth process.

1. Discover what God has revealed.

Whereas science can discover by empirical knowledge what God has created in the physical realm, spiritual realities can only be grasped through revelation. "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God..." (2 Tim. 3:16). Romans 10:17 clearly affirms, "So then FAITH comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God."

Some teach a method of faith that is based upon one's imagination and willpower. Faith is portrayed as a power that can be harnessed for one's own agenda. However, Biblical faith always begins with truth as revealed by God--through creation, the Bible and especially Christ Jesus (Cf. Heb. 1:1-3). If you're trying to make faith work apart from God's revealed truth, go back to this anchor for true belief.

2. Choose to agree with God.

Faith is a choice. However, this decision is not made by us independently; it is a response to the illuminating work of the Holy Spirit [5].

When God promised Abraham that he and Sarah would have a son (in their old age after many years of infertility), the patriarch chose to agree with God. As Romans 4:19-21 recalls, "And not being weak in faith, he [Abraham] did not consider his own body, already dead (since he was about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah's womb. He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform." That's faith!

Often we allow our feelings, circumstances, and the opinions of others override what God has revealed. This is the essence of unbelief. However, when we choose to agree with God, He is pleased and our faith germinates (Heb. 11:6). God's children are enabled to grow in faith by these belief decisions because "...God has dealt to each one a measure of faith" (Rom. 12:3).

George Mueller noted, "God delights to increase the faith of His children ... I say, and say it deliberately--trials, difficulties and sometimes defeat, are the very food of faith ... We should take them out of His hands as evidences of His love and care for us in developing more and more that faith which He is seeking to strengthen in us."

On the other hand, to disbelieve God's revelation is nothing less than dishonoring Him: "He who believes in the Son of God has the witness in himself; he who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed the testimony that God has given of His Son" (1 John 5:10).

Will you choose to agree with God, even when it means everyone else's opinion would be wrong? (Cf. Rom. 3:4)

3. Confess God's revealed truth.

As creatures made in the image of God, we have the capability of verbal communication. When profanity and lies spill out, this discredits man and his creator. But speech can convey a powerful testimony of faith. Consider how the writer of Hebrews rehearses so eloquently the many men and women of faith. "By faith ..." occurs over 20 times in chapter 11!

As you decide to agree with God in your mind and heart, this faith is confirmed as it is spoken. Notice this Gospel invitation: "... that if you CONFESS with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation" (Rom. 10:9,10). When the man healed of blindness met Christ, his Healer, he confessed, "'Lord, I believe!' And he worshiped Him" (John 9:38).

Your faith is exercised as you confess it audibly, in agreement with God's Word.

4. Live in the light of faith.

Having confessed God's revealed truth, we need to act and respond each day in harmony with this spiritual perspective. This typifies the Christian life, since "we walk by faith, not by sight" (2 Cor. 5:7). Fellowship with other believers also helps our faith to grow (Cf. Rom 1:12; Heb 10:23,24).

Although these steps are important, they should not overshadow this assurance: the spiritual life is not primarily about our ability to believe, but about the faithfulness of the One in Whom we trust (Cf. 2 Tim. 1:12; Lam. 3:23).

Living out our faith is its practical expression. "In 1893, engineer George Ferris built a machine that bears his name--the Ferris wheel. When it was finished, he invited a newspaper reporter to accompany him and his wife for the inaugural ride. It was a windy July day, so a stiff breeze struck the wheel with great force as it slowly began its rotation. Despite the wind, the wheel turned flawlessly. After one revolution, Ferris called for the machine to be stopped so that he, his wife, and the reporter could step out. In braving that one revolution on the windblown Ferris wheel, each occupant demonstrated genuine faith. Mr. Ferris began with the scientific knowledge that the machine would work and that it would be safe. Mrs. Ferris and the reporter believed the machine would work on the basis of what the inventor had said. But only after the ride could it be said of all three that they had personal, experiential faith." [6]

When you act and react in harmony with our agreement and confession, your faith grows. This fortifies you for abundant living and spiritual warfare (Cf. Gal. 2:20; Eph 6:16).

May we echo the disciples request, "Lord, increase our faith" (Luke 17:5).

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[1] From Sermonillustrations.com

[2] Matt. 6:30; 8:26;14:31; 16:8; Luke 12:28

[3] Acts 6:5,8; 11:24

[4] Gal. 2:20; 5:6; John 15:5-8; 1 Tim. 6:11; 2 Tim. 2:22

[5] John 16:8-14; 1 Cor. 12:3 This raises the question, Is faith a gift of God? By virtue of the Holy Spirit's role and the activating power of God's revelation, yes. In a general sense all we have is a gift from God: "For of Him and through Him and to Him are all things, to whom be glory forever. Amen." (Romans 11:36).

But this does not cancel man's freedom and responsibility to choose to believe. "He who believes in Him [Christ] is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God" (John 3:18). If a lost person did not have the potential to believe, he would not be judged for unbelief. Some have under emphasized the role of choosing to believe by implying that man is passive in this process. Ephesians 2:8,9 is appealed to: "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast." Is salvation the gift or is faith? Taking a look at the Greek text, "faith" is a feminine gender noun; and "that" is neuter. Robertson Word Pictures states: "[That] refers not to 'pistis' [faith] (feminine) or to 'charis' [grace] (feminine also), but to the act of being saved by grace conditioned on faith on our part."

Everyone is given "common grace" to believe in Christ by the Gospel call and ministry of God's Spirit (1 Tim. 4:10).

[6] From Sermonillustrations.com

Capitalization of font in Scripture quotes added.

Grace Notes: Jan 12, 2006. Copyright 2006 by John Woodward. Permission is granted to reprint this article for non-commercial use. Please credit Grace Fellowship International. Scripture quotations (unless indicated otherwise) are from The Holy Bible, New King James Version © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.

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It's Christs Life in us as we trust, rest and abide in His Love and His ALLMIGHTY provision in us -->JESUS!

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We enter HiS perfection whenever we trust as HE has given us to trust, never mind the naysayers accusations; for there will be those, in no small number. But God has given us a hiding place. He has 'given' us the eye of the storm. He has given us "His Rest."

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I have always been amazed how that people read Watchman Nee without understanding what he was saying. And he, like Paul, was basically only saying one thing, a thousand different ways, to try to make the point.

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By the Grace given us, let us place our faith in Christ, who ALONE has "ear's to hear"

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Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?

But I trust that ye shall know that we are not reprobates.

Posts: 749 | From: Toronto, Canada-EH! | Registered: Jun 2008  |  IP: Logged | 

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eden

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"there's no such thing as perfect people"

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There's no such thing as perfect faith either? And after all, our faith is not our faith, but His faith, if we have any faith at all. Therefore, HiS faith is not perfect, by that measure? Therefore we necessarily are ostracized from HIM, which is contrary to what HE came to die on our behalf for, in order to accomplish HiS will, that we be reunited or restored into His presence, and fellowship, which we will not see, know, or experience, without such faith. "For without faith, it is impossible to please [know] God."

We enter HiS perfection whenever we trust as HE has given us to trust, never mind the naysayers accusations; for there will be those, in no small number. But God has given us a hiding place. He has 'given' us the eye of the storm. He has given us "His Rest."

I have always been amazed how that people read Watchman Nee without understanding what he was saying. And he, like Paul, was basically only saying one thing, a thousand different ways, to try to make the point.

Posts: 3273 | From: Charlotte N.C. | Registered: Sep 2007  |  IP: Logged | 

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Originally posted by Eden:
Dear Wildb, who are you addressing in the post directly above this one? Remember we are helping the church of God, so identify, please, who you are quoting or referring to in the direcly above post? thank you!

love, Eden

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Posts: 8775 | From: USA, MICHIGAN | Registered: Mar 2004  |  IP: Logged | 

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Now Nee wrote a lot of stuff (lots) over a long period of time. He was growing during this time. And I simply use him as reinforcment. As much as I recognize Nee, Jesus is the final authority.

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Originally posted by Carol Swenson:
Zeena

Neither. Don't assume I have mean intentions. I am saying this because I know that Michael likes Watchman Nee, but Michael does not like OSAS. I wonder if Michael knows that Nee taught OSAS, at least according to Troy Brooks.

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Praise God, and YES, Nee freely taught the upholding Word of His Power

Hebrews 7:25
Wherefore also he is able to save to the uttermost them that draw near unto God through him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them.

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Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?

But I trust that ye shall know that we are not reprobates.

Posts: 749 | From: Toronto, Canada-EH! | Registered: Jun 2008  |  IP: Logged | 

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Originally posted by Eden:
Watchman Nee and Witness Lee have nothing to do with each other. I have read a number of Watchman Nee's books and I have NEVER found anything UN-Christian in Nee's books. In fact, I have learned a LOT of new Christian things from Watchman Nee's books.

It was Watchman Nee's book The Normal Christian Life that essentially saved my Christian life. I was a miserable Christian trying not to sin and to be good, and beating myself over the head over every little sin which popped up again.

That is, I was miserable until Watchman Nee showed me that my old man had been crucified with Christ and that a dead man cannot really help God with anything. Then I was finally freed from my old man's deeds; I confess them to the Lord, tell Him that I'm sorry for them, and move on. Now I am finally a happy Christian, trusting that the LORD Yahweh and the Lord Jesus will manifest Their Goodness thru me as I "wait upon the LORD".

When I stopped trying as if I was dead in Christ, my Christian life began to work and blossom. Oh, how I thank Watchman Nee for showing me this!

love, Eden

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I'm so happy for you Eden!

Jesus Loves you very much!
And is overjoyed you have found rest for your soul in Him!

That was a GREAT testimony, thank you for sharing!!!

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Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?

But I trust that ye shall know that we are not reprobates.

Posts: 749 | From: Toronto, Canada-EH! | Registered: Jun 2008  |  IP: Logged | 

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Originally posted by Carol Swenson:
Michael, do you know that Watchman Nee was clearly "osas arminian"?

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Are you saying that for sake of upholding OSAS doctrine or to turn him against a man?

Also, in regards to 'arminian', it's not the same 'arminian' you find floating around this world. For not all WILL be saved.

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Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?

But I trust that ye shall know that we are not reprobates.

Posts: 749 | From: Toronto, Canada-EH! | Registered: Jun 2008  |  IP: Logged | 

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Originally posted by Michael Harrison:
To say that Watchman Nee took anything from confuseus is absurd to the point of sillyness. And when you have your arms cut off, woolyb (over the eyes), and you are still preaching Christ to the prison guards, and still you do not give up until they have decided to silence you by cutting out your tongue, then I will believe in you. Because that is what happened to Watchman Nee. He is a martyr for Christ. Moreover, he went back into China to preach Jesus Christ to people who would not hear if he did not go, which he did not have to do. He ended up in Chinese prison where he still would not quit preaching, where this atrocity took place, and prisoners and guards were saved. And this heathen that you have published should be ashamed. Dig some more dirt will ya? Then praise the Lord, huh? It is all you seem to understand. Who will awaken you to the truth? I dom't believe anyone can.

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Posts: 6787 | From: Colorado | Registered: Dec 2007  |  IP: Logged | 

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The Believer's Fourfold Union With Christ
By John Woodward
November 19, 2001

When our Lord Jesus was giving His farewell address to His disciples the night before His crucifixion, they desperately needed comfort. Having been with Christ for over three years, they faced the grim prospect of being separated from the Lord. How could they go on to an impossible mission without Him? This need for power and fellowship with Christ was met through the promise of the Holy Spirit. When He would come on Pentecost to baptize God's people, believers would be personally united with Christ. Then, whether in Jerusalem or the ends of the earth, Christ would be present in their hearts! (John 14:16-18).

As Christians, we tend to overlook the significance of this union with Christ. Missions leader Norman Grubb observed, "Very often from our pulpits no nearer presentation of Christ is given to the believer than that He is a Friend close at hand, and so forth. The veil of a false separation is left over the eyes." And what consequences arise from this? Grubb continued: "Here...lies the great error. It leaves man to do the very thing he was never created nor redeemed to do, to carry on as best he can by self-effort, helped, he hopes, by the presence and blessing of God. For most of us this deeper revelation of union has to come as a second experience. We can seldom see our outward sins and inner selves in one single exposure...The twofoldness is not on His [God's] side. But for most of us there has to be a twofold appropriation of the great deliverances that stream from one Calvary, the deliverance from sin and wrath (Rom 1-5), [and] the deliverance from sin and independent self (Rom 6-8)." [1]

The believer's spiritual union with the risen Christ is pictured in various ways in the New Testament. We are joined to Him as members of a physical body to the head (1 Cor 6:15,17,19;12:12; Eph 1:22), as a wife is to her husband (Rom 7:4; Eph 5:31-32), as descendants are connected to Adam (Rom 5:12,18-21; 1 Cor 15:22), and as a building is based on its foundation (1 Cor 3:11; Eph 2:20-22). However, the most vivid metaphor of the spiritual union of Christ and His people is the imagery of John 15: "I [Jesus] am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser...Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing" (vv.1-5).

What are the implications of this spiritual union of the believer with Christ? [2] Scripture speaks of four key events in our Savior's redemptive work that become banners of blessing in the life of the child of God. The disciple of Christ is united to Him in His death, burial, resurrection, and ascension. Let's look more closely at these four aspects of our Savior's work for and in us.

1. Believers are united to Christ in His death. Galatians 2:20 proclaims: "I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me." And Romans 6:6 declares, "knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin."

Because we are united to Christ in His death, we are free from condemnation! The true believer need not be burdened by any guilt; Christ proclaimed on Calvary "It is finished!" (John 19:30). "Therefore, [there is] now no condemnation -- no adjudging guilty of wrong -- to those who are in Christ Jesus..." [Amplified; Cf. Col 2:13-14].

2. Believers are united with Christ in His burial. "Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death..." (Rom 6:3-4). What is the significance of burial? It is a testimony of separation from the previous realm of life.

Since believers are buried with Christ, they are free from sin's authority. In Adam's line, unsaved man was under sin's dominion --sinning because of being a sinner. "For when you were slaves of sin [before salvation], you were free in regard to righteousness. ... But now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Rom 6:20-23 Cf. v.7). Sin is not out of calling distance, but believers are FREE from its authority. Living in this freedom is a matter of faith!

Also, believers are separated from the realm of the law. "For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace" (Rom 6:14). Under the Old Covenant, the Mosaic Law was like a schoolmaster: "before faith came, we were kept under guard by the law, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed. Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after faith has come, we are no longer under a tutor" (Gal 3:22-25). Now we are under the law of love -- the law of Christ (Gal 6:2; James 2:8). And as we walk in the Spirit, we fulfil the righteous requirements of God's unchanging moral law (Rom 8:4).

3. Believers are united with Christ in His resurrection. "But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved) and raised us up together" (Eph 2:4-6a; Col 3:1).

Because of this union, we are partakers of Christ's resurrection life! "But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you [as in all believers - v. 9], He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies [power to live abundantly] through His Spirit who dwells in you" (Rom 8:11). Therefore we have the resources to walk in newness of life! (Rom 6:4). "Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Rom 6:11; Cf. Eph 1:15-21). As we realize the power we have through our spiritual union with Christ. God's will becomes our ability, desire, and delight (Phil 2:13).

4. Believers are united with Christ in His ascension. "If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory" (Col 3:1-4). And Ephesians 2:6 confirms that God, "raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus."

Since we are united with Christ in His ascension, we partake of His authority, and His authority is supreme (Matt 28:18). We are to fully submit to His authority as His people, yet we are beneficiaries of His authority also. We are joint-heirs with Christ! (Rom 8:17).

In Christ we have authority in prayer and spiritual warfare. Christ promised us, "If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you" (John 15:7; Cf. 16:23-24). And since Satan is a defeated foe, we are partakers of Christ's victory: "Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you" (James 4:7 Cf. Col 2:14-15).

Charles Trumbull testified of the blessings he experienced when he understood and appropriated by faith his union with Christ: "To begin with, I realized for the first time that the many references in the New Testament to Christ in you, and you in Christ, Christ our life, and abiding in Christ, are literal, actual, blessed fact, and not figures of speech. How the 15th chapter of John thrilled with new life as I read it now! (Cf. Eph 3:14-21; Gal 2:20; Phil 1:21). What I mean is this: I had always known Christ was my Saviour; but I had looked upon Him as an external Saviour, one who did a saving work for me from outside, as it were; one who was ready to come close alongside and stay by me, helping me in all that I needed, giving me power and strength and salvation. But now I knew something more than that. At last I realized that Jesus Christ was actually and literally within me; and even more than that: that He constituted Himself my very life, taking me into union with Himself -- my body, mind, and spirit -- while I still had my own identity and free will and full moral responsibility... It meant that I need never again ask Him to help me as though He were one and I another; but rather simply to do His work, His will, in me, and with me, and through me." [3]

In light of this spiritual union, "the Christian is a mind through which Christ thinks; a heart through which Christ loves; a voice through which Christ speaks; a hand through which Christ helps." Fellow believer, do you reckon this true for yourself?

Vol. 4, #46

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Notes:

[1] Norman Grubb, The Liberating Secret, (CLC), p. 73-74.

[2] This spiritual union with Christ also connects us with all other true believers. "For as we have many members in one body,... so we, being many as are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another" (Rom 12:4,5). No wonder the primary evidence of being Christ's disciple is mutual love! (John 13:35).

[3] Charles Trumbull, The Life That Wins, (CLC) p.19-20 [booklet selections from "Victory in Christ"].

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Posts: 749 | From: Toronto, Canada-EH! | Registered: Jun 2008  |  IP: Logged | 

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Originally posted by WildB:
Nee is a false teacher. http://thechristianbbs.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php?ubb=forum;f=53

This false teaching came into American churches through Watchman Nee and his book Spiritual Authority. Nee says on page 71, "If God dares to entrust His authority to man, then we can dare to obey. Whether the one in authority is right or wrong does not concern us. The obedient one needs only to obey. The Lord will not hold us responsible for any mistaken obedience, rather He will hold the delegated authority responsible for his erroneous act." In addition, he states, "We should not be occupied with right or wrong, good or evil; rather should we know who is the authority above us" (page 23).
So, What's Wrong With That?

Watchman Nee learned this concept of delegated authority from the ethics of Confucianism. Confucius taught that parents should always be obeyed, that they were never wrong, but if they were they should still be obeyed. Among Confucianists loyalty is one of the greatest virtues and can lead to the blind loyalty described in Nee's statement.

To bring this concept into Christianity antagonizes one of the most fundamental principles of New Testament Christianity, the Priesthood of all believers. When the veil of the Temple was torn in half God was signifying that we all now have equal access to Him. There is no person who has spiritual authority (power) over us. We are all siblings in Christ and there is no chain of command among siblings.

Authority in the New Testament is of a completely different order. In some settings in our life we experience the kind of leadership that has the power of command. Our jobs are many times an example. But in the church a very different kind of leadership is needed.

The Church is a voluntary association of free people who accept the authority of God but recognize the equality of every believer.

The Church is a voluntary association of free people who accept the authority of God but recognize the equality of every believer. Because God is no respecter of persons, and because we are brothers and sisters in Christ, and because we can come equally before the Throne of Grace, the only valid authority and leadership we can follow is one of servant leadership.

Jesus, the Almighty Creator of the Universe had the valid authority to command and coerce. He instead chose the opposite of power and became the least. He took a washbasin and cloth and washed His disciples feet. The contrast between Who He is and what He did is so great that it should be impossible for anyone to misunderstand.

Nee's "delegated authority" also blatantly violates Jesus' own counsel at Matthew 23:8-12. "Neither be ye called masters, for one is your Master, even Christ." Spiritual leaders have moral authority but they do not have coercive authority. Theirs is a servant leadership. Only the whole congregation acting together has the power to coerce according to Matthew 18.

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David Henke Makes Himself Another Master

Of the Watchman Fellowship Expositor or Fellowship, Inc.

David Henke writes "Another way submission is required is through the teaching of a 'chain of command' in one’s church and family relationships. It is also called 'delegated authority.' These terms have been associated with abusive, controlling authority in the Discipleship, Shepherding groups."

No doubt such is abused, but the fact of the matter, there are those with authority, in the household, those of the 4 fold Ministry of the Work for the Church, and there are those we look up to who are helpful in their teaching. For example, Watchman Nee was perhaps the most spiritual Christian writer that ever lived. Another writer I highly respect is Lee Strobel. To simplify, parents are the authority of their children. Watchman Nee used the example of a police officer as being of authority. We even ought to pay our taxes to the authority of the government. What is in view here is that of humility and knowing submission in where true authority is seen. Because of this fact, this is no reason to misread Watchman Nee's intention. Watchman Nee does not use the term "chain of command" for the Bible is not a military chain of command and control center. Rather all things in life have authority and submission. Yet another example, Nee uses the light bulb that needs a lamp, and that lamp needs wire that connects to an outlet for electricity that needs a power supply from the electric company, so on and so forth. This is common sense is it not?

David Henke, further writes, "This false teaching came into American churches through Watchman Nee and his book Spiritual Authority. Nee says on page 71, 'If God dares to entrust His authority to man, then we can dare to obey. Whether the one in authority is right or wrong does not concern us. The obedient one needs only to obey. The Lord will not hold us responsible for any mistaken obedience, rather He will hold the delegated authority responsible for his erroneous act.' In addition, he states, 'We should not be occupied with right or wrong, good or evil; rather should we know who is the authority above us' (page 23)."

Therefore, as noted about God's delegated authorities, such is not a false teaching, but the way the universe works and it is God's will in all things. All things have cause and effect. It did not happen as soon as when Watchman wrote Spiritual Authority. Spiritual Authority perfectly reflects God's will as it pertains to authority and submission since the beginning of creation. Another person who horribly misreads Nee in the same way, is Pat Knapp. As you read through the underlying motivation of why these individuals alter Watchman Nee's writings in their misreading bearing false witness, I have found it usually has to do with a couple of things: either they are calvinists (Nee was osas arminian), against Biblical locality, hold the fallen bipartite view of man, or they are historicalists or premillennial onlyists.

This quote on page 71 is answered with the next paragraph when Nee writes "It is therefore clear that no human element is involved in the matter of authority. If our subjection is merely directed to a man the whole meaning of authority is lost. When God instituted His delegated authority He is bound by His honor to maintain that authority. We are each one of us responsible before God in this matter. Let us be careful we make no mistake." In the previous paragraph, Nee writes, "But the Lord makes us representatives plenipotentiary. What confidence He has in us! Can we trust any less when our Lord displays such trust in His delegated authority?" Further Nee adds in the same paragraph mentioned by Henke, "Insubordination, however, is rebellion, and for this the one under authority must answer to God". Now, the point of this whole exercise to to state clearly, as David was obedient to Saul's attacks, and did not try to oust him, David accepted God's authority in Saul. In due time God would bring about a change, a change not by David's strength. To reject delegated authority is an affront to God. David Henke appears to be disobedient and hostile to God's desire to see the harmony of authority and submission in all things, therefore Henke will suffer the consequences of God's wrath through his bearing false witness and misreading intention. Hence, through such bearing false witness, we may conclude Henke is making himself the center of the universe, for what other reason does one misread, but centering upon one's self or personal agenda whatever it may be? That is between Henke and God, whom God will deal with accordingly.

On page 23, the following paragraph, Nee writes, "Since the fall of Adam disorder has prevailed in the universe. Everyone thinks he is able to distinguish good from evil and to judge what is right and wrong. He seems to know better than God. An example of this when you quote someone as Henke did, you do not flip from page 71 to 23 by saying "in addition, he states..." as somehow page 23 follows from page 71. It is out of context. Snippets out of context are man's flesh at work. In the same paragraph, Nee writes, "We are under men's authority as well as having men under our authority. This is our position. Even the Lord Jesus on earth was subject not only to God but also to other's authority. Authority is everywhere. There is authority in the school, authority in the home. The policeman on the street, though perhaps less learned than you, is set up by God as your authority. Whenever a few brothers in Christ come together, immediately a spiritual order falls into place. A Christian worker ought to know who is above him. Some do not know how to obey authorities above them, hence they do not obey. We should not be occupied with....."; as Henke continued the quote of Watchman Nee. When we know authority we know harmony. If we do not know authority, like David Henke does not know authority, what good is to anyone in his organization that he calls The Watchman Expositor or The Watchman Fellowship, Inc. Maybe that is his problem, that he is incorporated into a man's organization, not the Work of the Ministry for the Church not abiding in Biblical locality. Apostolic work does not involve corporations registered with the government. It is not necessary. Such is a man's organization usurping itself and not in the Work.

Henke concludes, "So, What’s Wrong With That? Watchman Nee learned this concept of delegated authority from the ethics of Confucianism. Confucius taught that parents should always be obeyed, that they were never wrong, but if they were they should still be obeyed. Among Confucianists loyalty is one of the greatest virtues and can lead to the blind loyalty described in Nee’s statement."

Watchman Nee did not learn the examples of delegated authority in the Bible from confucianism. Nor does Henke give an example of a proof where Nee brings anything fro Confucianism, so why make the connection by imagination alone? We must conclude then Henke's flesh is hard at work. That is merely the mistake of assumption of Henke, since Watchman Nee gives all the most pertinent examples of authority and submission in the Scriptures that is difficult for the non-humble to accept. You can see directly the authority here was the Word, and Nee was obedient in the Word, submitting to His teaching. Watchman Nee states elsewhere we do not always submit to authorities gone awry.

What Nee is doing is showing examples in the Word of how important it is to come into harmony in the body of Christ, and not misread bearing false witness in a spirit of dissension. Man's eyes looks to how he can retaliate or judge erroneously thinking he is doing good; that is the "good self'. A Christian looks to see how harmony can be maintained in submission, even in spite of some mistakes of those in authority. If people can be more lenient with each other, and resist retaliation and bearing false witness by being more humble by the grace of God, we can set an example for each other so that those in authority can change too. But when you play the false accuser as Satan does as David Henke did, when he said: "can lead to the blind loyalty described in Nee's statement". In Nee's statement, Nee did not say blind loyalty for those being obedient are fully cognizant of the error of the particular authority, just as David was not blindly obedient to Saul either, but at the same time David did not usurp himself over Saul and did wait for the right time to receive the throne, not of his own strength. Do you see how that works? So let us observe authority and from this other things fall into harmony and will reek less havoc and dissensions.

A further proof of David Henke's motivation is where he marries Watchman Nee to Witness Lee of the Local Church by misassociating the Local Church with Watchman Nee as he said "Local Church, The, Watchman Nee, Anaheim, CA" along with the various other false teachings of Witness Lee are somehow connected to Watchman Nee but he does not even try to prove it, but only self-declares that Watchman Nee believes these false teachings also. I have a real problem with todays so called watchman apologists. It appears they are so busying judging others, it is like a disease of judging, not even caring anymore that they bear false witness in so doing, listening to the pleasure of their own never ending rationalizations examining others. I don't like it one bit. Another example of someone like this is Nicholas Stivers of Cephas Ministries.

Make note this false marrying was given also by the staff of the Watchman Fellowship so their entire business is complicit. They are not very good watchmans. Watchman Nee has no association to this Witness Lee cult or the Watchman Fellowship Expositor cult, even though Witness Lee tried to attach himself through altering Watchman Nee's writings. Watchman Nee was osas arminian. Witness Lee was calvinist. Watchman Nee did not believe in a central hub of a Local Church, but believed in the local churches. Observe the various differences between Watchman Nee and Witness Lee. Anyway, you can see the underlying motivation of David Henke. It usually has to do with Biblical locality, historicalism (or premillennial onlyism), tripartite man or partial rapture; these spiritual facts, that the flesh can not accept in David Henke.

Bottom line: there is an underlying motivation. Ask the Watchman Fellowship (particularly David Henke) cult if they are calvinists, historicalists, premillennial onlyists, or of the fallen bipartite view, and there you will have your answer.

Troy Brooks

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Posts: 749 | From: Toronto, Canada-EH! | Registered: Jun 2008  |  IP: Logged | 

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How to Abide
By A. B. Simpson
June 6, 2003
A.B. Simpson (1844 - 1919) [1]

"And now, little children, ABIDE IN HIM; that, when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming." (I John 2:28, emphasis added)

It would seem as though John meant that only little children could abide in Him; that only when we get to be little can we know the Lord in His fullness; only when we cease from our manly and womanly strength and become dependent can we know His strength and independence as our support and stay. John counted himself among the little children, because he says, "we" when he addresses us. He was indeed a little child in spirit from the time Boanerges died, and John laid his head on Jesus' breast to be strong no more in himself, and to be seen no more apart from the enfolding arms of Jesus. [2]

We have seen Christ in His personal glory; we have seen what it is to be in Him and to have Him in us, and now we want to have these impressions stereotyped. John says, "Little children, abide in him, that when he shall appear we may have confidence."

Let us speak very particularly and plainly about how we may maintain this abiding. You have surrendered; you have given up your strength as well as your will; you have consented that henceforth He shall support your life. Like a true bride, you have given up your very person, your name, your independence, so that now He is to be your Lord. Your very life is merged in Him, and He becomes your Head and your All in All. Now, beloved, how is this to be maintained? He says we are to abide, and He will abide in some sense according to our abiding. "Abide in me, and I in you."

1. Live By The Moment

First, it must be a momentary life, not a current that flows on through its own momentum; but a succession of little acts and habits. You have Him for the moment, and you have Him perfectly; you are perfectly saved this moment; you are victorious this moment, and that which fills this moment is large enough to fill the next, so that if you shall renew this fellowship every moment, you shall always abide in Him. Have you learned this? The failures in your life mostly come through lost moments, broken stitches, little interstices, cleavages in the rock where the drops of water trickle down and become a torrent. But if you lost no steps and no victories, you shall abide in constant triumph.

First, then, learn this secret, that you are not sanctified for all time so that there will be no more need for grace and victory; but you have grace for this moment, and the next moment, and by the time life is spent, you shall have had a whole ocean of His grace. It may be a very little trickling stream at first; but let it flow through every moment, and it shall become a boundless ocean before its course is done.

2. Definite Acts of Will

Next, this abiding must be established by a succession of definite acts of will, and of real, fixed, steadfast trust in Christ. It does not come as a spontaneous and irresistible impulse that carries you whether you will or not, but you have to begin by an act of trust, and you must repeat it until it becomes a habit. It is very important to realize this.

A great many think, when they get a blessing, that it ought to sweep them on without further effort [participation]. It is not so. An act of will, an act of choice is the real helm of spiritual life. You were saved from sin by actually choosing Jesus as your Saviour; you were consecrated by definitely giving yourself and taking Him for everything.

So beloved, you must keep the helm fixed, and press on, moment by moment, still choosing to trust Christ and live by Him until at last it comes to be as natural as your breathing. It is like a man rescued from drowning; when they take him from the water, respiration seems to be stopped. And when it returns, it is not spontaneous, but a succession of labored pumpings; they breathe the air in and they breathe the air out, perhaps for half an hour; then an involuntary action is noticed, and nature comes and makes the act spontaneous; and soon the man is breathing without effort.

But it came by a definite effort at first, and by and by it became spontaneous. So with Christ: if you would have this abiding in Him become spontaneous, you must make it a spiritual habit. The prophet speaks of the mind "stayed on God," and David says, "My heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord." [3] We begin by determining, and we obey Him no matter what it costs; and by and by the habit is established.

["I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing." John 15:5]

3. The Law of Habit

Then comes the third principle: habit. Every habit grows out of a succession of little acts.[4] No habit comes full-grown into your life; it grows like the roots of a tree, like the fibres of the flesh [body], as the morsels of food you swallow are absorbed into your life.

You see a man going steadily along in a course of life, but that course of life was established by the habit of years. The stenographer at my side sits and takes down my words as fast as I can speak them. At first it was clumsy and slow work; but at length it became a habit, and now he does not have to stop and think how to make the characters; they come to him as naturally as the words come to my lips. So it is with writing: we remember how painfully at first we had to hold the pen, but we now dash off our signature, and it is always the same; our friends know it, our banker knows it; and it can be identified as ours. How did it come about? Because for years we have made the same marks. This is the reason, beloved, that it pays to plod; the habit becomes at length a necessity, and is easier as it grows.

It is so with evil; it is easier for a man to go down the longer he goes down, and it is easier for him to go up the longer he goes up. And so it is with looking to Jesus; it is like the movement of the eye--the lid moves instinctively and the Bible uses it as a figure of God's care. "Keep me as the apple of thine eye."[5] Before the dust can hurt the eye, the little curtain falls over the tender ball. So we find ourselves in life instinctively holding our tongues when we would have felt like talking. So we can discern the very scent of evil before it comes and inarticulately breathe a prayer to heaven before the danger reaches us. Thus also will the habit of obedience be formed; it comes by doing steadily, persistently, and faithfully what the Lord would have you to do. He is putting you to school in these little trials, until He gets the habit confirmed, and obedience becomes easy and natural.

4. Self-Repression

Again, if we would abide in Christ we must continually study to have no confidence in self.[6] Self-repression must be ever the prime necessity of divine fullness and efficiency. Now you know how quickly you spring to the front when any emergency arises. You know how easy it was for Peter to step forth with his sword drawn before he knew whether he was able to meet the foe or not.[7] When something in which you are interested comes up, you say that you think under some sudden impulse, and then, perhaps, you have weeks of taking back your thought, and taking the Lord's instead. It is only as we get out of the way of the Lord that He can use us.

And so, beloved, let us practice the repression of self and the suspending of our will about everything until we have looked to Him and said, "Lord, what is Thy will? What is Thy thought about it?" When you have that, you and He are not at cross-purposes; and there is blessed harmony. Those who thus abide in Christ have the habit of reserve and quiet; they are not reckless talkers; they will not always have an opinion about everything, and they will not always know what they are going to do. They will be found holding back rash judgments, and walking softly with God. It is our headlong, impulsive spirit that keeps us so constantly from hearing and following the Lord.

5. Dependence

If we would abide in Christ we must remember that Christ has undertaken not only the emergencies of life, but everything; and so we must cultivate the habit of constant dependence on Him; falling back on Him and finding Him everywhere; recognizing that He has undertaken the business of your life, and there is not a difficulty that comes up, but He will carry you through if you let Him have His way and hold the reins, and you just trust and follow. [8]

6. Recognizing His Presence

Again, if you would abide in Christ you must cultivate the habit of always recognizing Him as near, in your heart of hearts, so that you need not try to find Him, reaching out to the distant heavens and wondering where He has gone. He is right here; His throne is in your heart; His resources are at hand.[9] There may be no sense of God's presence, but just accept the fact that the Spirit is in your heart, and act accordingly. Bring everything to Him, and soon the consciousness will become real and delightful. We do not begin with feeling--we begin with acting as though He were here. So, if you would abide in Christ, treat Him as if He were in you, and you in Him; and He will respond to your trust, and honor your confidence.[10]

7. God In Everything

Further, if you would abide in Christ, you must recognize that Christ is in everything that comes in your life; and that everything that occurs in the course of Providence is in some sense connected with the will of God. That trying circumstance was not chance, something with which Christ had nothing to do, and which you can only protest against and wonder how God can sit on the throne and let such things be. You must believe that God led in it, and though the floods have lifted up their heads on high, yet God sits on the throne, and is mightier than the great sea billows and the noise of many waters. You must believe that He will "cause the wrath of man to praise him, and the remainder thereof will he restrain." You must say: "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof."[11]

We need not regard everything as the very best thing that we would choose, or the very best thing that God ultimately has for you; but it is allowed, either that God may show you His power to overcome it, or else that it may teach you some lesson of holiness, trust, tranquillity, or courage. It is something that, under the circumstances, fits into God's purposes; and, therefore, you are not to look for different circumstances, but to conquer in these already around you. You are not to run away and say, "I will abide in Christ when I get to where I want to be," but you must abide in Christ in the ship and the storm, as well as in the harbor of blessing. Recognize that everything is permitted by God, and that He is able to make all things work together; and not only so, but to make you know they are all for your good, and they are working out His purposes.[12]

8. Watch the Outward Senses

Again, if we would abide in Christ, we must be very watchful of our senses. There is nothing that so easily sets us wandering, and leads us out into dangerous fields and by-path meadows as the senses of the body. How often our eyes will take us away! Walking down the street you will find a thousand things to call you from a state of recollection. Some people's eyes are like a spider's--they see behind and before and on every side. You know Solomon says, "Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look straight before thee."[13] It is this letting the world in, no matter by what door it comes, that separates us from the presence of our Lord.

So with our ears. If you listen to one-hundredth part of the conversation even of Christians you will be thoroughly defiled; and so you have to hold your ears, and your eyes, and live in a little circle. You have not to manage half so many things as you undertake to sometimes, and about which you have so much anxiety.

There is a little creature called the water spider, and it lives in the water, away down in the mud lake of the marsh. It just goes down a few inches and lives there all the time. You ask how it can breathe and live in the water? Oh, it has a strange apparatus by which it is able to gather around itself a bubble of air a few times larger than its body. It goes to the surface and fills it with air and goes down, and this little air bubble forms an atmosphere for it, and there it builds its nest and rears its young; and you know where air is the water cannot get in. So it is as safe in its little home with the dark water all around it, as if it lived above in the clear air of heaven. So we can get into our element and stay there with Him, and although there is sin around us, and hell beneath us, and men are struggling and tempted and sinning, we shall be as safe as the saints above, in the heavenlies, in Christ Jesus.

9. Internal Prayer

Once more, if we would abide in Him, we must cultivate the habit of internal prayer, communing with God in the heart. We must know the meaning of such words as "God is a Spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth." "In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God concerning you."[14] This habit of silent prayer, not in word, but in thought, is one of the secrets of abiding. There is an old word the mystics used--"recollection." We would call it a recollected spirit.

10. Vigilance

There is another word in connection with abiding: it is vigilance--being wide awake.[15] It is the opposite of drifting. It is the spirit of holding, and being ever on guard, and yet sweetly held by the Lord. Now this does not mean that you have to do all the holding and watching; you are to have your hand on the helm, and Christ will do the steering. It is like the brakes on the train--the brakeman only touches the lever and sets the current in motion; the engineer does not have to make the train go, he has only to turn the throttle. You and I do not need to fight our battles. We have only to give the watchword, and the powers of heaven follow it up if it is in the name of Jesus. So we may ever abide in fellowship and victory moment by moment, until at last He becomes the element of our very life.

11. Let God Lead

If we would abide in Christ, we must stop trying to have God help us, and fall into God's way and let Him lead.[16] We must get the idea out of our spirit [mind] that we have chosen to serve Christ and we have got to have Christ help us. We must see, rather, that we have come into His way and He is carrying us because He cannot go any other way. If you get on the bosom of the river, you have to go down the river; if you are in the bosom of God, you have to go with Him. Only surrender yourself to God, and your life will be as strong as omnipotence and as sweet as heaven.

12. Surprises

We should, perhaps, speak of the surprises that come. Sometimes the Lord let sudden temptations sweep over you to put you on your guard; and if such things come into your life, take them as from Him, sent to put you on the watch and give you some hint, like the falling of the eyelash to let you know that the eye is threatened. [17] But if you keep very close to Christ, I do not believe that these things will come as quickly as you think. They spring often from some heedlessness of your own. You are getting out of the way, and were not where the Lord expected you to be, and, perhaps, the surprise came to let you know that you had been in the enemy's country. If we abide in Him, all evil will have to strike us through Him. Perhaps you were a little out of your center and Christ let the enemy come to frighten you back to Him, just as the shepherd's dogs are sent to drive the lambs into the fold. Better that you should get a little fall than ultimately to meet with disaster.

13. Failures

But if, notwithstanding all your care, you make a mistake, if you have a disaster or a discouragement, don't say, "I have lost my blessing." "I have found this life impracticable"; but remember that "if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."[18]

14. How to Make God Real

A friend asked the question the other day, "How can I make God real?"[19] God is not real to many people. He does not seem so real to that man as his difficult task; He does not seem so real to that woman as her work and her trials; He does not seem so real to that sufferer as his sickness. How shall we make Him real? The best way I know is to take Him into the things that are real. That headache is real. Take Him into it, and He will be as real as the headache, and a good deal more, for He will be there when the headache is gone. That trial is real; it has burned itself into your life; God will be more so. That washing and ironing are real; take God into your home, and He will be as real. That is what makes Him real--to link Him with your life.

So the banyan tree grows. First its trunk and branches shoot up to heaven, and then the branches grow down into the ground and become rooted in the earth, and by and by there are a hundred branches interwoven and interlaced from the ground so that the storm and the winds cannot disturb it, and even the simoon of the Indian Ocean cannot tear it up. It is rooted and bound together by hundreds of interlacing roots and branches. And so when God saves a soul He plants one branch; but when He comes to fill and sanctify and help in your difficulties, each is another branch; and thus your life becomes rooted and bound to God by a hundred fibres, and all the power of hell cannot break that fellowship or separate you from His love.

"Lord Jesus, make Thyself to me
A living, bright reality,
More present to faith's vision keen
Than any outward object seen,
More dear, more intimately nigh,
Than e'en the sweetest earthly tie.

"Nearer and nearer still to me
Thou living, loving Saviour be.
Brighter the vision of Thy face,
More glorious still Thy words of grace;
Till life shall be transformed to love,
A heaven below, a heaven above."

From "The Christ Life," (New York: Christian Alliance Publishing Co., n.d.), pp.67-79. by A. B. SIMPSON. This chapter has been included in a new edition entitled "Christ in You" (http://www.christianpublications.com).

[1] "A. B. Simpson was born in Canada of Scottish parents. He became a Presbyterian minister and pastored several churches in Ontario. Later he accepted the call to serve as pastor of the Chestnut Street Presbyterian Church in Louisville, Kentucky. It was there that his life and ministry were completely changed--during a revival meeting he experienced the fullness of the Spirit. He continued in the Presbyterian Church until 1881, when he founded an independent Gospel Tabernacle in New York. There he published The Alliance Weekly and wrote seventy books on Christian living. He organized two missionary societies which later merged to become The Christian and Missionary Alliance." God especially used in Simpson's personal "revival" W. E. Boardman book, "The Higher Christian Life."

( Biographical quote from: http://www.cantonbaptist.org/halloffame )

[2] Mark 1:17; Luke 9:51-56; John 13:23

[3] Isaiah 26:3; Psalm 112:7

[4] Titus 2:7 "... in all things showing yourself to be a pattern of good works..."

[5] Deut. 32:10; Psalm 17:8; Prov. 7:2 Zech. 2:8

[6] Phil. 3:3

[7] Matt. 26:51

[8] John 15:1-5; Phil. 4:19

[9] Col. 1:27; Eph. 1:13

[10] 2 Cor. 5:7

[11] Psalm 76:10; Psalm 46:1,2

[12] Rom. 8:28; Cf. Phil. 1:12-18

[13] Prov. 4:25

[14] John 4:24; 1 Thess. 5:18; Cf. v.17

[15] Rom. 13:11

[16] John 10:3; 2 Cor. 2:14. Christ living through us is better than if we try to serve God and ask for His assistance.

[17] James 1:2; 1 Pet. 1:6

[18] 1 John 1:9

[19] Of course, God IS real. The author means, how can we sense His presence? Cf. The Practice of the Presence of God: With Spiritual Maxims, by Brother Lawrence.

Note: These 14 points on abiding in Christ are different facets of simple surrender and trust in Christ as Life. May we benefit from the spiritual maturity and insights of Simpson on this vital theme.

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Posts: 749 | From: Toronto, Canada-EH! | Registered: Jun 2008  |  IP: Logged | 

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Originally posted by Michael Harrison:
One knows the meaning of being 'crucified' when they by faith, let Jesus be in control of it 'all', witholding nothing; then following after.

That sounds so much like "The Life That Wins," by Charles Trumbull. http://path2prayer.com/article.php?id=56

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I really enjoyed that testimony Michael, thank you for sharing that with us!

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Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?

But I trust that ye shall know that we are not reprobates.

Posts: 749 | From: Toronto, Canada-EH! | Registered: Jun 2008  |  IP: Logged | 

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Originally posted by WildB:
Nope what you copy and past is opinion. What I post IS ACTUAL TEXT FROM THE BIBLE.

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I quoted Scripture effectively to point to God speaking of delegated Authority..

So... Would you rather I quote from various teachings to address you?

Or from the Word of God given us in Scripture?

WHO is the REAL Authority WildB?

Matthew 10:16
Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.

Matthew 16:19
And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

Luke 10:3
Go your ways: behold, I send you forth as lambs among wolves.

2 Corinthians 5:20
Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God.

Romans 8:30
Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.

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Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?

But I trust that ye shall know that we are not reprobates.

Posts: 749 | From: Toronto, Canada-EH! | Registered: Jun 2008  |  IP: Logged | 

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Originally posted by Zeena:

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Originally posted by WildB:
Let us read what the Bible says.

[24] And a certain Jew named Apollos, born at Alexandria, an eloquent man, and mighty in the scriptures, came to Ephesus.
[25] This man was instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent in the spirit, he spake and taught diligently the things of the Lord, knowing only the baptism of John.
[26] And he began to speak boldly in the synagogue: whom when Aquila and Priscilla had heard, they took him unto them, and expounded(not taught) unto him the way of God more perfectly.

This was done privately. What you are doing does not resemble this in the slightest of way.

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Dear one, who has been teaching you? What are your ears hearing, ....
I'm not arguing culture, I'm simply pointing out scripture. ...
For what you speak is not truth, but opinion.

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Nope what you copy and past is opinion. What I post IS ACTUAL TEXT FROM THE BIBLE.

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That is all.....

Posts: 8775 | From: USA, MICHIGAN | Registered: Mar 2004  |  IP: Logged |