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The Law of Liberty in the Spiritual Life, Chapter 1: Sin
By Evan Hopkins
Undated
"Sin is lawlessness." - I John iii. 4.

"All unrighteousness is sin." - I John v. 17.

"Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts." - Rom. vi. 12.

"Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin." - Ps. li. 2.

"Who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works." - Titus ii. 14.

"Heal my soul, for I have sinned against you." - Ps. xli. 4.

"I will heal their backsliding." - Hos. xiv. 4.

"Knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot." - I Pet. i. 18, 19.

"Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy, to God our Savior, Who alone is wise, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever. Amen." - Jude 24, 25.

EVERY heresy, it has been said, has its root in defective views of sin. What we think of the Atonement depends greatly upon what we think of the evil which made that Atonement necessary. The converse, no doubt, is also true. But if we would rise towards a full appreciation of the value of that infinite sacrifice, we must seek to understand, as perfectly as possible, the true nature of sin.

What then is sin? So widespread and universal is the existence of evil, that we are apt to regard it as an inseparable adjunct to our human nature. But sin is not an essential element in the constitution of our humanity. We know that it was not in man originally, nor will it be in man as finally glorified; neither did it exist in the Man Christ Jesus. And yet there is scarcely a fact of which we are more conscious than the presence of evil. It meets us on every hand. Its desolating influence is seen and felt by all. Sin is no mere figment of the imagination; it is a terrible reality. It is no vague, indefinite shadow; it is a real and specific evil.

Nor again are we to regard sin as a necessary constituent of our moral progress. That it is overruled for our good, and that it is made to serve in the process of our spiritual discipline, is undoubtedly true; but sin is not an essential element in our moral training or spiritual advancement. We need not sin that grace may abound; we need not be under its power, nor defiled by its taint, in order to be advancing in knowledge or growing in humility.

To learn its true nature we must look at it, not only in relation to ourselves, but in relation to God; we must regard it in connection with His infinite justice, and holiness and love.

It is only in that light that we shall understand its real character. We must consider it, moreover, in more than one aspect. It is such a vast evil, that we can form no adequate conception of its nature unless we look at it from various points of view. Sin has many aspects.

But from whatever side we contemplate it, we shall see that the characteristic feature of each aspect is met by a corresponding fitness in the remedy which God has provided for sin.

It is one thing to recognize the effects of sin on mankind, it is another thing to see it in its essential character, as rebellion against God. Man through sin has not only become "wounded and debilitated," he has become alienated from God; he has been brought into an attitude of positive antagonism to God. Sin therefore is not something which appeals to pity only, a mere misfortune; it is that which deserves punishment, for it is rebellion against the purity and goodness and majesty of God.

If sin were not an offence, we could conceive of the mercy of God forgiving sin without any sacrifice; but the necessity of a sacrifice teaches us that sin is a violation of God's law. This necessity is set forth with unmistakable clearness in the Old Testament, and with equal emphasis in the New.

"Sin is the transgression of the law" (I John iii. 4). By the law we are to understand, "not only the Mosaic law of the Old Testament, but also the law of the New Testament in Christ, and by Him explained in the word and exhibited in the life, as the law written in man's heart for his special direction; it embraces the whole complex commandment" (Pearson).

Man feels within himself just what God has revealed in His word - that sin needs something more than the mercy of God. In this respect the doctrine of the Bible and the witness of the human heart are one.

It is a true instinct of man's nature that teaches him that guilt needs compensation; but the mistake into which he falls, if left to himself, is that he seeks to make that compensation by means which he himself has devised. This is the history of all heathen sacrifices.

Sin is an offence, because it is rebellion against the sovereignty of God, a contradiction to His nature, an insult to His holiness. It stands related to law - not merely to the law of reason, or of conscience, or of expediency, but to the law of God. Sin consists essentially in the want of conformity to the will of God, which the law reveals; it is lawlessness - a breach of law. And thus, it is the law that reveals the sinfulness of sin. "The crookedness of a crooked line may be seen of itself, but it is still more evident if compared with a perfect standard of straightness."

While the voice of conscience tells us that some amends is needed for the guilt of our sin, it is only revelation that shows us how that amends can be made; it is only there that we learn what sacrifice is sufficient to atone for human guilt. This view of sin leads us to see the meaning of Christ's death on the cross. It was the death of a condemned criminal: "He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities" (Isa. liii. 5); He died, "the just for the unjust" (I Pet. iii. 18).

Freedom from sin as a transgression, as an offence against God, consists then in this - that through Christ's atoning death it is so "put away" as "to make it as though it had never been." "No power in earth or heaven can make that not to have been done which has been done; the only imaginable and conceivable alteration is, that it should be as though it had never been done, that all bad effects of it should be destroyed and obliterated, and that the sin should be nullified by compensation." (Mozley.) This freedom from sin as an offence we enter into as a present privilege. It is the first aspect of liberty which we are brought to experience through a saving view of Christ's death upon the cross.

Sometimes the term sin is used in Scripture as having reference to acts of sin. This, however, is not the only sense in which sin is spoken of. It is also referred to as a power, dwelling and working in man.

When we speak of sinning, we imply, of course, an action. But by an action we do not mean merely that which is external; it may be a purely inward one. Transgression therefore must not be limited to outward violations of God's law; it includes all those inner activities of the soul which are opposed to the mind and character of God.

In the sixth of Romans the particular aspect in which sin is contemplated is that of a ruling power. Sin is there personified as one who seeks to have lordship over the believer.

Consider what it is that the fall has involved. It has not only brought upon man the penalty due to sin as an offence, it has enslaved him under sin as a ruling principle. Sin is a power that has entered into the central citadel of a man's being, and, establishing itself there, has brought every part of his nature under its sway. Sin is a principle that is essentially opposed to God, and by taking possession of man's will and affections, makes him an enemy to God, and leads him out into open rebellion against Him. Man has thus become a slave to sin.

From the central part of our nature sin reigns over the whole man. Our body is thus "the body of sin" (Rom. vi. 6. "The body of (belonging to) sin." . . . "The material body . . . as the inlet of temptation and the agent of sin." - Dean Vaughan): for while we are under sin's dominion, the body is the instrument through which sin carries out its work; it is in sin's possession and under sin's control.

In this sixth chapter to the Romans the Apostle sets forth the believer's present position in reference to sin. The Cross of Christ has completely changed his relation to sin.

Christ's death, which has separated the believer from the consequences of sin as a transgression, has also separated him from the authority of sin as a master - set him free.

The believer sees that Christ, by dying for him, has completely delivered him from the penalty of sin. So it is his privilege to see that because he is identified with Christ in that death, he is also delivered from sin as a ruling principle. Its power is broken. He is in that sense "free from sin" (Rom. vi. 18, 22).

The purpose of the Apostle, in this sixth chapter, is to show how completely the believer is identified with Christ when "He died unto sin." To enter fully into the meaning of that death is to see that Christ has emancipated us from any further dealings with our old master sin. The believer is privileged thus to take his place in Christ, who is now "alive unto God." From that standpoint he is henceforth to regard sin. He is now and forever free from the old service and the old rule. The Cross has terminated the connection once for all, and terminated it abruptly. It has effected a definite and complete rupture with the old master, sin.

"Such is the Divine secret of Christian sanctification, which distinguishes it profoundly from simple natural morality. The latter says to man, Become what you would be. The former says to the believer, Become what you are already (in Christ). It puts a positive fact at the foundation of moral effort, to which the believer can return and have recourse anew at every instant. And this is the reason why his labour is not lost in barren aspiration, and does not end in despair.

"The believer does not get disentangled from sin gradually; he breaks with it in Christ once for all. He is placed by a decisive act of will in the sphere of perfect holiness, and it is within it that the gradual renewing of the personal life goes forward. This second gospel paradox, sanctification by faith, rests on the first, justification by faith" (Professor Godet on Romans vi).

The Cross is the efficient cause of this deliverance. Freedom from sin's ruling power is the immediate privilege of every believer. It is the essential condition or starting point of true service, as well as of real progress. Such service and growth are as possible for the young convert as for the mature believer. Therefore freedom from sin's dominion is a blessing we may claim by faith, just as we accept pardon. We may claim it as that which Christ has purchased for us, obtained for our immediate acceptance. We may go forth as set free from sin, and as alive unto God in Jesus Christ our Lord. This is freedom from sin as a ruling principle.

It is possible to see in the death of Christ an all-sufficient atonement for sin, and yet not to see that in that death we have also the secret or source of personal purification of sin.

Sin is not merely a load that weighs us down, or an offence that has brought upon us penal consequences. It is an uncleanness that makes us unfit for God's presence. We may have rejoiced in the fact that the load is gone, that the guilt has been atoned for, and yet we may know but little of Christ's power to cleanse. Owing even to one single act of disobedience we may have been thrown out of communion. We have thus become conscious, not only of guilt, but of defilement.

How vividly all this comes out in God's dealings with Israel under the old covenant!

It is impossible to read the book of Leviticus, for example, without being struck with the emphasis there laid on the necessity of being separated from ceremonial defilement. We notice in the directions there given how jealously Jehovah watched over His people in this matter. The most minute details are entered into respecting their food, their raiment, their habits, and other domestic arrangements. All this we know was significant of something far deeper than that which was merely physical or ceremonial. It is in the light of the gospel that we learn their full and true import.

Looking at the whole question of defilement, we notice that it arose from two distinct sources - external and internal.

The defilement that arose from within is chiefly dwelt upon in the Book of Leviticus. This has reference to the moral defilement that springs from indwelling evil. And the defilement that arose from without, through external contact with death, is brought out more especially in the book of Numbers. There we have in type the defiling effects incurred by contact with the world.

In reference to the former, defilement arising from within, the most striking picture is that presented by the leper. Nothing could more forcibly impress Israel of old with the loathsome nature of sin, than this fearful disease.

Such a one would be excluded from the sanctuary. He was shut out from the worship of God, and from all intercourse with the people of God.

So with the man who had come in contact with death (Num. xix), whether intentionally, through negligence or unconsciously. He became at once ceremonially unclean, and was "cut off" from all the privileges of a redeemed worshipper.

Is it not so now?

The body in these types stands as an image of the soul. Ceremonial defilement and cleansing represented spiritual pollution, and the purification revealed to us in the gospel.

The suspension of a believer's communion is that which answers to the cutting off of a member from the congregation of Israel.

In all these pictorial unfoldings of the gospel, God was teaching His redeemed people that He could not tolerate any uncleanness upon those whom He had brought unto Himself, and amongst whom He had taken up His abode. And because He required His people to be holy He made a special provision for their purification.

Whether we speak of the defilement that comes from within, or that which arises from without, God had provided means by which all uncleanness might be ceremonially removed. And this provision God made with this view, that His people might walk before Him in close and abiding fellowship.

Now if such privileges were real under the Old Testament dispensation, how much more real are they under the New!

We must never lose sight of this central fact, that the true basis of all purification is found in the atoning death of Christ. There are not two fountains, two sources of life and purity. There is but one central spring, and that is the Cross.

It was to this both rites pointed - the law relating to the cleansing of the leper, and the ordinance of the red heifer. The place where the forgiveness of sins is found is the source whence cleansing from defilement is obtained.

It was by a definite and personal appropriation of the Divinely appointed provision that both the leper and the man who had come in contact with death were cleansed and restored to fellowship with God. Nothing that the Israelite could devise was able to effect such a restoration, for no other means could remove the ceremonial uncleanness.

So it is only in the Cross of Christ that a power can be found capable of separating the soul from all moral defilement.

And because such defilement throws the soul out of communion with God, all Christian duties performed in that condition, however scrupulously discharged are but "dead works," for they have no breath of spiritual life.

As it is our privilege to know that we are reconciled to God by the death of His Son, so it is our privilege to see that by the same atoning death we are separated from the defilement of sin. The source of our pardon and justification is the source also of our purity. And if we know what it is to be freed from the penalty due to our guilt, so we may know what it is to be cleansed and to be kept cleansed, as to our inward consciousness, from all impurity. It is only thus that we can learn what abiding fellowship with God really means.

He "gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from all iniquity" (Titus ii. 14). That is, Christ gave Himself as a ransom, to redeem us from the enemy's power. Lawlessness is here regarded as the power from whose control we are set free. But this was not the only purpose of His death. "And purify unto Himself a peculiar people," etc. The purification of those He died to redeem is also the end of His sacrifice. And both blessings are received in the same way.

How many who have grasped the first seem to fail in apprehending the second!

The "ashes" of the red heifer were to be applied to the person defiled. In those ashes we have "the indestructible residue of the entire victim." Those ashes included the blood, after the sacrifice was completed. They were available for the cleansing of the defiled Israelite. The death of the victim was not repeated. For that sacrifice pointed to the death of Christ, which was "once for all." But the ashes were set apart for endless application. The "water of separation," by which the virtue of the sacrifice was applied, was not water alone, but water impregnated with the "ashes." The unclean was sprinkled with the water containing these ashes.

"What is the spiritual meaning of this? To what does it point? Not to two sources of spiritual relief, one for pardon, another for cleansing. Whether we look at the water as foreshadowing the Holy Spirit, or as referring to the word, the one central point to which all the lines of typical truth here converge is the blood, or the death, of Christ. Is not this the reasoning in the ninth of Hebrews?

If the Old Testament rite effected the cleansing which had reference to ceremonial defilement, "how much more shall the BLOOD of Christ . . . purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?" (Heb. ix. 13, 14).

We may insist, as some do, that the water in this type refers to the word. This does not detract from the virtue of the blood. As the water carried the ashes, the ashes that contained the blood, and brought the unclean person in contact with the blood, so now it is the word that brings us to the blood of Christ. But the word is not the Fountain of our cleansing; it is only that which brings us to the Fountain. There is but one Fountain for sin and for uncleanness - the Cross of Christ.

What then we do we need in order that we may know the cleansing power of the Cross of Christ? Or, to put it in other words, how may we be separated in heart and mind, in our inner consciousness, from the defiling influence of sin? Only by an apprehension of this blessed fact, that Christ died in order to separate us from sin's defilement.

To be cleansed from any impurity is just to be separated from it. Nothing can separate from sin but the death of Christ. The fact and the purpose of that death are revealed in His word. To bring us into conformity with that death is the office of the Holy Spirit through the word. This is to know the liberty of the cleansing power, as well as the freedom from the atoning efficacy of Christ's sacrifice for sin.

It has often been shown that sin is to the soul what disease is to the body. The effect of disease on our physical organism is just a picture of what sin produces on our spiritual nature. Sin as a moral defilement has already been touched upon in connection with leprosy. What we have now more especially to consider is the paralyzing or disabling effect of sin.

It will help us to understand what sin is in this special aspect, and what it is to be freed from its disorganizing effects, if we look at our Lord's miracles as symbols of spiritual healing, illustrations of what He is now doing upon the souls of men. These miracles were not merely manifestations of Divine power. They were "signs" of spiritual truth. They were significant of something far higher than mere physical cures. Nor must we limit our interpretation of them to that of "conversion." In the majority of instances they set forth the blessings to be known and realized by those who are God's children. Disease supposes the existence of life. What is disease but life in an abnormal or morbid condition? Disease has been defined as "any state of the living body in which the natural functions of the organs are interrupted or disturbed." Every cure that our Lord wrought was an emancipation of a part, or the whole of the body, from such a state of derangement, and represented the liberation of the soul from some particular form of moral evil.

In the eighth chapter of St. Matthew, we have an account of a series of miracles which our Lord wrought immediately after He had preached His sermon on the mount. Having unfolded the principles of His kingdom by teaching, He then shows His power by His actions, and communicates His liberating and energizing virtue by healing all their diseases. We have here in this chapter leprosy, paralysis, fever, and other forms of evil; but Christ was able to cure them all.

What did those physical ailments set forth but different aspects of sin as a disease.

In the disease of paralysis we see the loss of the power of voluntary muscular motion. It may be a loss of the power of emotion without a loss of sensation, or a loss of sensation without loss of motion, or a loss of both. It appears under different forms. Sometimes it attacks the whole system; at others it affects one side of the body; and at other times a single member only is affected.

Sin has precisely the same effect on our souls. Though there is spiritual life, there may be lack of spiritual vigour. The effects of sin may be traced in the impairment of voluntary power, and in the enfeebling of all moral energy, as well as in the hardening and deadening of the spiritual sense. And the result is the whole tone of the spiritual life is lowered. Sin thus robs us of the power by which alone we are able to perform the functions that belong to our renewed being. And it not only undermines our strength, it hinders our growth. The child may have all the parts of its body complete, every organ, every faculty, and yet it will fail to grow if struck down with paralysis. So with the soul. The new birth may have taken place, the great change of conversion to God may have been clear and unmistakable, and yet sin may have been allowed to come in and produce its paralyzing effects. It not only robs us of all spiritual energy, it retards our progress, it hinders our growth.

But disease not only enfeebles and deadens the vital powers, it may bring about positive defects in the bodily organism. Take, for instance, the case of the man born blind, or of the one who was deaf and dumb. Here we see something further than the mere weakening or paralyzing consequences of disease. So with sin. We may look at it from this point of view - as a privation. This we see in the unregenerate and also in the regenerate. It may so affect the spiritual organs of our moral being that in course of time these organs cease to act. The words, "having eyes they see not," become actually fulfilled.

In the case of the deaf mute, what a picture we have of spiritual things! "They bring unto Jesus one that was deaf, and had an impediment in his speech." He was incapable of hearing or of speaking. He was destitute of two of our noblest faculties. The organs were there, but practically the man was as if they were not. Two channels of communication with the outer world were thus closed to him.

How did He effect the cure? What was the order of the deliverance? With which organ did He begin? He first opened the ear. Now the ear we know is an organ of reception. This is its design. It is made for the purpose of receiving, not of giving. It is the channel by which impressions pass into the mind from without.

The man was destitute of the power of receiving sounds. The organ was not wanting, but it was disorganized. The doors were closed - the avenue was blocked up. He was insensible to all such impressions.

It is so spiritually. Sin has robbed man of his power of hearing God's voice. And sin will rob the believer, if he yields to it, of the same faculty - hearkening to the voice of the Lord.

To hear is the first act of faith. "Hear, and your soul shall live." "He who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life." And hearkening must go on throughout the whole life.

Then the Lord Jesus loosed his tongue.

The tongue is the instrument of speech. The man was destitute of the power of communicating his thoughts. It is the faculty by which we tell out what we have realized by taking in. It is the instrument we use when we sing to God's praise, when we give utterance to our gratitude, and when we bear witness before men. It is of all others the organ which the messenger requires who goes forth to proclaim the glad tidings of salvation.

Now all this finds its parallel in the spiritual life.

Sin had robbed man of the power of giving praise to God, or of calling upon Him in prayer. It has deprived him of the ability of testifying to men. It has closed his mouth, it has made him dumb as well as deaf.

Now these two faculties - hearing and speaking - are mutually dependent. When people are born deaf, they usually remain dumb. an inborn faculty, but speaking - that is, articulate speech - is an acquired art. Man learns to speak by hearing. But how can he learn without hearing, and how can he hear if he is born deaf?

So there is an intimate connection in the spiritual life between the similar faculties of the soul.

The ears must be unstopped before the mouth is opened. Effective speaking for God depends upon right hearkening to God. It is by hearkening the heart is filled. And it is out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks.

Jesus said, "Ephphatha," Be opened. Both the ears and the tongue were set free.

That act was symbolical of the whole of Christ's ministry. He came, not only to redeem the soul, but to liberate every power and faculty we possess, and which God originally created for His glory.

Satan's great aim is to enslave and carry into captivity. He seeks to close every avenue which brings the soul into intercourse with God. Christ has come to open the prison doors - to burst the fetters that keep the soul in slavery to sin. "The effect of His ministry was one continual Ephphatha" - the emancipation of every moral and spiritual power, the loosening of every chain.

We all acknowledge the power of habit. Experience teaches us that the actions, and especially the oft-repeated actions, of days gone by, are a real power in us to-day. "The present is the resultant of the past." Habit is the power and ability of doing anything acquired by frequent repetition. What at first was difficult, and imperfectly performed, by habit becomes easy, and is executed thoroughly.

Habit, therefore, is an acquired power, and is the result of repeated action. It is often like a second nature.

It is clear from this that we are not born with habits, though we inherit that which gave rise to them. Evil habits must not therefore be confused with those sinful tendencies with which every child of Adam comes into the world. We are born with the sinful tendency, but we are not born with the sinful habit.

"Man is a bundle of habits." But his conduct is the result of something more than mere habit. Perhaps it would be impossible to exaggerate the power exercised by habit on our daily life. And yet it is of the greatest importance that we should recognize the clear distinction that exists between the inherent tendency and the acquired habit. Every evil habit may be entirely laid aside; we may be completely delivered from the power of any habit. But this does not mean that the tendency to sin is thereby eradicated.

Now there is a very close connection between acquired habits and desires. "If a bad set of habits have grown up with the growth of the individual, or if a single bad tendency be allowed to become an habitual spring of action, a far stronger effort of violation will be required to determine the conduct in opposition to them. This is especially the case when the habitual idea possesses an emotional character, and becomes the source of desires, for the more frequently these are yielded to, the more powerful is the solicitation they exert. And the Ego may at last be so completely subjugated by them as scarcely to retain any power of resistance, his will being weakened by the habit of yielding, as the desire gains strength by the habit of acting upon it" (Carpenter's Mental Physiology).

Thus we see "by means of habit, passion builds its body, and exercises as well the spiritual as the bodily organs for the service of sin" (Martensen's Christian Ethics). "The union of habit and passion is vice, in which a man becomes a bondman to a particular sin. In the language of daily life, one is accustomed to designate only those sins as vices that dishonour a man in the eyes of the world, like drunkenness, thieving, unchastity, and the like; as also one understands by an irreproachable, spotless walk in general, merely one that shows no spot on the robe of civil righteousness.

"But why should not one be at liberty to designate every sin as vice that gains such a dominion over the man that he becomes its bondman? Why should not pride, envy, malice, gossip (evilspeaking), unmercifullness, not be called vices - that is, when they have gained such a dominion that the man has forfeited his freedom?" (Ibid.).

In his Epistle to the Ephesians, St. Paul enumerates a number of sins, all of which may be included under the heading of acquired habits (Eph. iv. 25 - 32). Falsehood, theft, corrupt speech, bitterness, wrath, anger, clamour, railing, malice - all these are to be laid aside, not subjugated or kept under, but altogether put away, as things with which the believer has nothing more to do, and from which he is to be actually separated. "Wherefore putting away" - that is, stripping off - all these sins - as one puts off clothes. The very desire to yield to them may be removed.

The Apostle Peter, when he presses upon his readers the privilege and duty of holiness, brings them at once to the Cross of Christ. This is his argument: "Be holy, for I am holy…knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot." (1 Pet. i. 16, 18, 19).

We may thus claim, as one of the benefits of Christ's death, complete and immediate deliverance from the evil power of our past manner of life. Christ died to redeem us from every evil habit of mind and of body - from every false or dishonest course of action - from every vain or untrue line of conduct - from every base or impure motive.

It is sometimes asked by those who entertain the idea that sin can be absolutely eradicated, "How can sin and holiness dwell together in the same heart? How can a man be sick and well at one and the same time? Is he not freed from disease when he is in perfect health? And may it not be said of the soul on whom Christ has laid His healing hand that, being made 'whole,' sin as a disease is entirely removed?"

The inference, therefore, is that all sin - not only as a transgression, but as a principle - is eradicated, when the soul is living up to its true privileges.

The "law of sin" then, it is said, no longer exists. The very tendency to evil is destroyed.

No one questions our liability to sin. Even Adam in his original sinless and innocent condition was not free from the liability to sin.

But there are some who seem to think we may be freed in this life from all tendency to sin. There are some who seem to maintain that the blessing of being "pure in heart" is a state of purity, rather than a maintained condition of purity. The distinction is important.

It may be made clear by an illustration. Let us suppose a natural impossibility; namely, that by passing a lighted candle through a dark room, such an effect is produced by that one act, that the room not only becomes instantly lighted, but continues in a state of illumination. If this were possible, the room would not be dependent on the continued presence of the lighted candle for its light, though it would be indebted to the candle in the first instance for the state of light introduced into it.

Such is not, we maintain, the nature of the cleansing which Christ bestows upon us.

Adopting the same illustration - but without supposing an impossibility - let the darkness represent sin, and the light holiness. What the lighted candle is to the dark room, Christ is to the heart of the believer.

By the light of His own indwelling presence He keeps sin outside the region of our consciousness. The cleansing thus brought about and realized is not a state, but a maintained condition, having no existence whatever apart from Christ Himself.

When a light is introduced into a dark chamber the darkness instantly disappears, but the tendency to darkness remains; and the room can only be maintained in a condition of illumination by the continual counteraction of that tendency. The chamber is illuminated by "a continual flow of rays of light, each succeeding pencil of which does not differ from that by which the room was first illuminated."

Here then we have, not a state, but a maintained condition, and an apt illustration of the law of entire and continual dependence.

If it were a state of purity that Christ produced in the soul, then we could conceive of it as having an existence apart from the present activity of His indwelling. And to what would such a notion inevitably lead? To the habit of being occupied with a state of purity rather than with Him who is made of God unto us "sanctification." Then the delusion follows as a natural consequence, that we need not depend upon Christ continually for the counteraction of the ever-present tendency to evil, "the law of sin and death."

"We are wont to imagine," writes Professor Drummond, "that nature is full of life. In reality, it is full of death. One cannot say it is natural for a plant to live. Examine its nature fully, and you have to admit that its natural tendency is to die. It is kept from dying by a mere temporary endowment, which gives it an ephemeral dominion over the elements - gives it power to utilize for a brief span the rain, the sunshine, and the air. Withdraw this temporary endowment for a moment, and its true nature is revealed. Instead of overcoming nature, it is overcome. The very things which appeared to minister to its growth and beauty now turn against it and make it decay and die. The sun which warmed it withers it; the air and rain which nourished it rot it. It is the very forces which we associate with life which, when their true nature appears, are discovered to be really the ministers of death.

"This law, which is true for the whole plant-world, is also valid for the animal and for man. Air is not life, but corruption - so literally corruption that the only way to keep out corruption, when life has ebbed, is to keep out air. Life is merely a temporary suspension of these destructive powers; and this is truly one of the most accurate definitions of life we have yet received - 'the sum total of the functions which resist death.'

"Spiritual life, in like manner, is the sum total of the functions which resist sin. The soul's atmosphere is the daily trial, circumstance, and temptation of the world. And as it is life alone which gives the plant power to utilize the elements, and as, without it, they utilize it, so it is the spiritual life alone which gives the soul power to utilize temptation and trial, and without it they destroy the soul" (Natural Law in the Spiritual World).

To understand the great principle here set forth is to grasp the key to the whole question. Here is the solution of the great mystery. How can the tendency to sin exist in the presence of the indwelling Holy Spirit of God? By the law of counteraction. "The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death." The very fact that the "law of the Spirit of life" is in force, and is ever a continual necessity, is a proof that the law of sin and death is not extinct, but is simply counteracted; in other words, that the tendency to sin is still there.

One ignorant of the laws of natural life might conclude that a plant, while manifesting the activity and freshness of vigorous growth, is absolutely free from the influence of those forces which tend to reduce it to a condition of death and decay. In other words, that so long as the plant is in the vigour of life, all tendency to die is destroyed, or non-existent, - that the only power then in operation, in fact, is the power of life. That might be the popular view of the matter. It certainly would not be the real condition of things. Let us not make a similar mistake in the matter of our spiritual condition.

Never in this life are we absolutely free from the presence of evil; the tendency to sin and death is ever with us.

As with the plant, so with the holiest saint: the vital principle had only to be withdrawn for an instant, and the natural tendency is at once apparent. Apart from Christ as the indwelling life, even the most advanced believer would at once relapse into a state of spiritual decay, because the law of sin would no longer be counteracted.

But, on the other hand, while recognizing the fact that we are not only liable, but prone, to sin - that we have to the last a downward bias - let us not forget that Christ is stronger than Satan and sin. By His death He has separated us from sin as to its penalty, its service, its defilement, its enfeebling consequences, its habits; and so "in His life," His indwelling life, He sets us free from its law. He so counteracts the natural tendency to sin by the law of the Spirit of life, that both its tyranny and strain are gone.

Christ's death has for its end our separation from the evil. In those five aspects of sin we have here considered, we have endeavoured to show that freedom comes through the death of Jesus Christ.

But in this last aspect of sin, it is not absolute separation or eradication that the Scripture puts before us as our present privilege, but counteraction. It is not, therefore, to the death, but to the life of Christ, His risen life, that we are here directed. The law of the living Christ - that law into which we are introduced when we know what it is to be in vital fellowship with the risen Christ - sets us free and keeps us in a condition of freedom from the law of sin and death.

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The Law of Liberty in the Spiritual Life, Chapter 2: No Condemnation
By Evan Hopkins
Undated
"There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. for the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death." - Rom. viii.1, 2.

"Without Me you can do nothing." - John xv. 5.

"I can do all things through (in) Christ who strengthens me." - Phil. iv. 13.

"Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus." - 2 Tim. ii. 1.

TO UNDERSTAND the full meaning of the privilege "no condemnation," we must know what is meant by the term "in Christ Jesus." The phrase "in Christ" is almost peculiar to St. Paul. It occurs in his epistles alone about seventy-eight times. But the germ is found in the words of our Lord: "Abide in Me, and I in you" (John xv. 4).

A careful examination of the various passages will show us that the truth expressed in the words "in Christ" has two distinct aspects - the one referring to justification, the other to sanctification. While we would distinguish one from the other, we would not separate them. There is what we may term the "in Christ" of standing, and the "in Christ" of walk or experience. The former has reference to headship, the latter to fellowship.

Headship. Each of us occupies one of two positions - Adam or Christ. God's dealings have reference to two men - the first and the last Adam. The whole human race was headed up in Adam. We must not regard humanity as so many separate individuals - like a heap of sand - but as an organic unity - like a tree - though consisting of an innumerable number of parts, yet forming one whole. In Adam, then, we see the whole family of man summed up; and there, in him, we see the whole race on its trial.

Adam's trial was man's probation. It was not the trial of a single individual, it was the trial of the whole human race. All were included in him. His fall was the fall of the whole family. "as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned." ["All sinned" (aorist) i.e., in Adam. Probation may be looked at either as having reference to salvation or to service. Probation so far as salvation is concerned is no longer a question of our own works. In that sense our probation terminated with Adam's failure. But probation in connection with service is still going on. And it is in that sense that we must understand the apostle as writing when he says, "lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway," or "should be rejected" (R.V.) - (1 Cor. ix. 27) - disproved or rejected, that is, as to service.]

There we have the end of the trial. That terminates, strictly speaking, human probation (Rom. v. 12).

It is to such that the Gospel comes. Not to those whose trial is undecided, who are in process of being tested, who are still on probation; but to those whose opportunity on that ground is forever gone - to those, therefore, who are "lost."

And what does the Gospel propose? Does it come proposing another trial? Does it come offering to put man on a second probation? Nothing of the sort. The burden of its message is not probation, but redemption.

Take an illustration. Here is a tree with numerous branches. Cut the root, and what happens? Death; it not only enters into the stem, it passes over the whole tree, it affects each branch, and every leaf.

To propose the improvement of the old position in Adam, is like the vain effort of endeavouring to revive the life in the separate branches of the dead tree.

The Gospel proclaims a new creation: a new tree - union with a new root - being grafted on to a new stock. "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature" (2 Cor. v. 17). This is not to improve the old, but to be translated into a new position.

Take another illustration. Here is a man, let us suppose, who has failed in business. He is not only hopelessly insolvent, his credit is gone, and his name is disgraced. All efforts of his own to retrieve his position are utterly fruitless; he is beyond all hope of recovery in that direction. But hope comes to him from another quarter. Let us suppose he is taken into partnership by one whose name stands high in the commercial world. He becomes a partner in a wealthy and honourable firm. All his debts are paid by that firm, and the past is cancelled. But this is not all. He gets an entirely new standing. His old name is set aside, forgotten, buried for ever. He has now a new name. In that name he transacts all his business. His old name is never again mentioned.

We have here a faint shadow of what the Gospel bestows. To be a believer in Christ is to have passed out of our old position - to lose our old name - and to take our stand on an entirely new ground. We are baptized "into the name of the Lord, " - we are "in Christ."

"There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus." This is not a privilege that comes to the believer by degrees; it is complete and absolute at once. And the moment the transition takes place, the believer stands, not on the ground of probation, but on the ground of redemption.

This truth is fundamental. The "in Christ" of standing is the foundation of all practical godliness, of all Christian service. We must start here, or we cannot take a single step in the way of holiness.

But this does not exhaust the meaning of the phrase "in Christ"; nor is this all that is to be understood by the Apostle's declaration in the opening words of this eighth chapter of his Epistle to the Romans. Included in this statement is also the thought of -

Fellowship. To be "in Christ" in this sense is to have the consciousness of His favour. This is a matter, not of standing, but of experience - and yet not of feeling, but of faith. We are commanded to "abide" in Christ. That which has reference to our judicial standing cannot be a matter of exhortation. Those who have taken their stand in Christ - who are justified - are now required to remain, to dwell, or abide in Him for sanctification. The "in Christ" which has to do with our experience and walk, which relates to our sanctification, is constantly a matter of exhortation in the Scriptures.

It is possible, alas! not to abide in Him. And what happens when the believer ceases to abide? He then lives the self-life.

There is such a thing as a religious self-life. Is it not the life that is too often manifested, even by those who have a saving knowledge of Christ? There may be a clear apprehension of what it is to be "in Christ" as to justification, and yet much darkness and perplexity as to the "in Christ" of sanctification. Many have a true aim, seeking to glorify Christ, and to be made like Him; they have sincere and earnest desires, and they are making constant and vigorous efforts after holiness; and yet they are continually being disappointed. Failure and defeat meet them at every turn. Not because they do not try, not because they do not struggle, - they do all this, - but because the life they are living is essentially the self-life and not the Christ-life.

They are brought into condemnation. This arises from the fact that the "law of sin" in their members is stronger than their renewed nature.

The soul that ceases to abide in Christ lives the "I myself" life. The words, "them which are in Christ Jesus," form a contrast to the expression, I as I am in myself, in the seventh chapter, twenty-fifth verse (Godet).

"I myself" - "apart from and in opposition to the help which I derive from Christ" (N. T. Commentary, edited by Bishop Ellicott) - I myself am conscious of a miserable condition of internal conflict, between two opposite tendencies - the two natures: the one consenting to the law that it is good, delighting in it, and desiring to fulfill its requirements; the other drawing me in the contrary direction, and; being the more powerful of the two, actually bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, and thus resulting in a condition of condemnation.

"I in myself." "This expression is the key to the whole passage (Rom. vii. 14 - 25). St. Paul, from verses 14 to 24, has been speaking of himself as he was in himself." (Conybeare and Howson.)

"There is therefore now no condemnation." "This word no (aucune)," as Professor Godet observes, "shows that there is more than one sort of condemnation, resting on the head of him who is not in Christ Jesus. There is, first, the Divine displeasure excited by the violation of the law - the anger described in the first three chapters of the Epistle to the Romans. The two following chapters represent to us the removal of this condemnation by the blood of Christ, and by the faith that consents to come and draws its pardon thence.

"But if, after this, sin continues the master of the soul, condemnation will infallibly revive. For Jesus did not come to save us in sin, but from sin. It is not pardon which constitutes the health of the soul, it is salvation, it is the restoration of holiness. The reception of pardon does not affect our resemblance to God; holiness alone does this. Pardon is the threshold of salvation, the means by which convalescence is begun. Health itself is holiness.

"If then, the first condemnation to be taken away is that of sin as a fault, the second, which must necessarily be removed too in order that the first may not return, is sin as a power, as the inwrought tendency of the will. And it is the removal of this second condemnation that St. Paul here describes: 'for the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.'"

In this "I myself" life, the evil tendency gains the ascendancy. So that though with the new nature, the inner man, or the mind, we serve the law of God, yet we are nevertheless overcome, and are practically brought into captivity to the law of sin. Such a life must of necessity be a life of condemnation in the daily experience.

But another characteristic belongs to this self-life. It is essentially carnal (ìÁºιν¿Â) (Rom. vii. 14. See Appendix, Note B), not carnal in the sense of being unregenerate. A carnal man may be also one who has been born of the Spirit, but is not sufficiently actuated by His enlightening and sanctifying power to overcome the hostile power of the flesh; he still thinks, feel, judges, acts, "according to the flesh" (Lange's Comm. on 1 Cor. iii. 1).

The condition described by "carnal" may be either the immature stage of the young convert, or a state of relapse into which the more advanced believer has fallen. To the first no blame can be attached, for all must pass through this stage in their progress from the natural to the spiritual. But to the second condemnation belongs, as we see from the way in which the Apostle writes to the Corinthian believers, "I could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ" (1 Cor. iii. 1).

"He is here not speaking of Christians as distinguished from the world, but of one class of Christians as distinguished from another" (Hodge).

This is the description of every believer, even an apostle, regarded as he is in himself. And such is the experience of the believer when he lives out of fellowship with Christ. The carnal or fleshly principle gains the ascendancy. He is no longer spirit, soul, and body, but rather body, soul, and spirit, the order being reversed, the lowest principle becoming dominant.

To be "in Christ" as to fellowship is to have the individual human spirit apprehended, or laid hold of, by the Holy Spirit of God. We are thus not only brought into harmony with God, but linked with the power of God. The ability we lack when we struggle to overcome in the self-life is no longer lacking in the Christ-life. This is to be free from the law of sin and death - this is to be spiritually-minded.

The following remarks by an able and distinguished theologian are well worthy of careful perusal. "We maintain now, as ever, that even in Romans vii. 14 - 24, Paul is speaking 'out of the consciousness of the regenerate person,' without thereby meaning to say that he is giving utterance to experiences which are permitted to the regenerate as such - rather experiences which even the regenerate person is not spared. It certainly appears an irreconcilable contradiction to say that one and the same man is fleshly, sold unto sin (chap. vii. 14), and yet, on the other hand, is free from the law of sin and death by the Spirit of life that is in Christ Jesus (chap. viii. 2).

"But the Apostle actually places the two states in juxtaposition, as belonging to his present condition. He does not say in chap. vii. 14 that he was previously consisting of fleshly material, and was sold under sin, but that this is his natural constitution, and that this contrariety subsists between him and God's spiritual law. He speaks in the present; and when he sets forth, in continuation, that his acknowledgement of the law does not help him to do the prescribed good, but that sin, in spite of his own will, makes him do that which is against God's will, he speaks throughout in the present.

"This established present claims to be all the more considered, that the Apostle (chap. vii. 7 - 13) also actually speaks in historical form of a fact of experience which at that time belongs to the past. He looks back there into his childhood, and shows how, in the degree that the claim of law entered into his consciousness, the sin which was present in him, but not present as his personal conduct, became his personal sin, and the cause of his self - incurred death. It was the saving purpose of the law declared in verse 13 which he thus painfully experienced. From verse 14 onwards, the Apostle then depicts how he, the self-consciously willing one, finds himself and his doing disposed in the light of the law. Every Christian is compelled to confirm what the Apostle here says, from his own personal experience. And well for him if he can also confirm the fact that God's law, and therefore God's will, is his delight, - that he desires the good and hates the evil; and, indeed, in such a way that the sin to which, against his will, he is hurried away, is foreign to his inmost nature. But woe to him, if from his own personal experience he could only confirm this, and not also the fact that the Spirit of the new life that has its source in Christ Jesus, has freed him from the urgency of sin, and the condition of death, which were not abrogated through the law, but only brought to light; so that his will, which by the law was inclined towards what is good, although powerless, now actually capable of good, is so opposed, as a predominating, overmastering power of life, which will finally triumph in glory, to the death that continues to work in him" (Delitzsch, System of Biblical Psychology, pp. 453 - 455).

But it has been objected, "if I am in Christ, and am depicting that which I am out of Christ, I depict in concreto, not what I actually am, but what I once was out of Christ" (Philippi).

Now, as Delitzsch observes, it is only necessary to look into one's own heart to see at once what a sophism this is. Every man who is in Christ knows from actual experience what it is to be out of Christ in his walk and life. Every believer knows from sad experience what it is to cease to abide in Christ. Not that it is possible to live both lives at one and the same time - that is to be in Christ as to fellowship, and out of Christ in the same sense, at any one moment. The objection urged is based upon the assumption that the term "in Christ" can be understood only in one sense. But the twofold sense of the phrase, or the double aspect of the truth, is what we have endeavoured to elucidate.

It is the believer's privilege to know that there is now no condemnation for him, whether he thinks of himself as standing before God as a Judge, or as walking before God as a Father. As in the one case he stands before God in Christ the Righteous One, who has met all the claims of the righteous law; so in the other he is abiding in Christ the Holy One, who has satisfied all the desires of a Father's heart.

Thus walking, he knows the blessedness of pleasing God. Surely it is to this condition of soul that the Apostle refers when he says, "Beloved, if our heart condemn us not" (1 John iii. 21) - not if we stand justified in Christ, but if our heart be not accusing us - "we have confidence towards God."

It is worthy of note that while the Apostle in those eleven verses (Rom. vii. 14 - 24) refers to himself, either directly or indirectly, some thirty times, he does not there make a single reference either to Christ or the Holy Spirit. In reading that passage it is not necessary to suppose that the Apostle is speaking from the standpoint of a present experience, but from the standpoint of a present conviction, as to the tendencies of the two natures that were then and there present within him.

The freedom of which the Apostle speaks in the opening words of the eighth chapter, he enforces by an inference and a reason. The inference or conclusion is indicated by the word "therefore." "There is therefore now," etc. But to what point in the argument does this note of inference refer? To what does it go back? A careful perusal shows us that this first verse is a conclusion springing out of the first six verses of the seventh chapter.

Three great truths he had put before his readers: substitution, identification, and union. The thought of substitution he unfolds in chap. v.: "Christ died for the ungodly," "Christ died for us," verses 6 and 8 (see Appendix Note A). Here, too, we have the headship of the first and second representatives, Adam and Christ, dwelt upon.

The thought of identification he brings out in chap. vi. The believer is there regarded as crucified and buried with Christ. See verses 6 and 4. And then there is the thought of union. It is in the opening portion of chap. vii that this truth is set forth. "You also have become dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you may be married to another." This truth is dwelt on only in the first six verses. At the seventh verse a digression begins, and the subject of union is not again taken up until the first verse of chap. viii. The progress of thought in these three great facts - substitution, identification, and union - is indicated in the prepositions "for," "with," and "in." It has been said with truth, an immense amount of divinity is contained in the prepositions of the New Testament.

"Therefore now in Christ Jesus" - being brought into union with Him, not judicially alone, but experimentally also - "there is no condemnation."

But the Apostle assigns a reason for this blessed state of things, in these words. "For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death." By this union we are brought into a condition of deliverance. We get the benefit of a liberating power. Redemption then is realized to be an emancipation from sin, not merely by virtue of an act done in the past, but by virtue of a law which is in force in the present - of a law which never ceases to be in force. One law is, in fact, being effectually counteracted by another law. Fellowship with Christ, union of heart and mind with Him, introduces the soul into that sphere where all the benefits of this victorious law become his. It is there, "in Christ Jesus," but only there, that this blessed freedom can be known and realized.

What we are out of that sphere, we see as in a glass in those eleven verses in chap. vii; but what we are in Him - within the circle of His presence, we learn from chap. viii.

The believer is thus reminded of the truth of that terse but pregnant sentence spoken by the Lord Himself: "Without Me," or apart from Me, "you can do nothing" (John xv. 5); that is, without fellowship with Me, even after you have been brought to know Me as your Lord and Saviour. "It is a poor and inadequate interpretation of the words 'without Me' to make them to mean 'You can do nothing until you are in Me, and have My grace.' It is rather, 'After you are in Me, you can even then accomplish nothing, except you draw life and strength from Me…From first to last it is I that must work in and through you'" (Trench).

If a piece of iron could speak, what could it say of itself? "I am black; I am cold; I am hard." But put it in the furnace, and what a change takes place! It has not ceased to be iron; but the blackness is gone, and the coldness is gone, and the hardness is gone! It has entered into a new experience. The fire and the iron are still distinct, and yet how complete is the union - they are one. If the iron could speak, it could not glory in itself, but in the fire that makes and keeps it a bright and glowing mass. So must it be with the believer. Do you ask him what he is in himself? He answers, "I am carnal, sold under sin." For, left to himself, this inevitably follows ; he is brought into captivity to the law of sin which is in his members. But it is his privilege to enter into fellowship with Christ, and in Him to abide. And there, in Him, who is our life, our purity, and our power - in Him, whose Spirit can penetrate into every part of our being, the believer is no longer carnal, but spiritual; no longer overcome by sin and brought into captivity, but set free from the law of sin and death, and preserved in a condition of deliverance. This blessed experience of emancipation from sin's service and the power implies a momentary and continuous act of abiding.

The believer cannot glory in himself. He cannot glory in a state of purity attained, and having an existence apart from Christ Himself. He is like the piece of iron. The moment it is withdrawn from the furnace, the coldness and hardness and blackness begin to return. It is not by a work wrought in the iron once for all, but by the momentary and continual influence of the fire on the iron that its tendency to return to its natural condition is counteracted.

Such is the law of liberty in the spiritual life. We can thus understand how there may be a continuous experience of deliverance from the law of sin, and at the same time a deepening sense of our own natural depravity - a life of triumph over evil with a spirit of the truest humility.

The following is an extract from Bishop Ellicott's New Testament Commentary for English Readers, on the opening words of Romans viii:


"It differs from the first section of chapter v. in this, that while both describe the condition of the regenerate Christian, and both cover the whole range of time from the first admission to the Christian communion down to the ultimate and assured enjoyment of Christian immortality, chapter v. lays stress chiefly on the initial and final moments of this period, whereas chapter viii. emphasizes rather the whole intermediate process. In technical language, the one turns chiefly upon justification, the other on sanctification."
Dr. Lange on the same passage remarks in his commentary:


"The question of the reference to justification or sanctification must affect the interpretation of condemnation, since verse 2, beginning with gar seems to introduce a proof. The position of the chapter in the epistle, as well as a fair exegesis of the verses, sustain the reference to sanctification. (Not to the entire exclusion of the other, any more than they are sundered in Christian experience) - We must then take no condemnation in a wide sense."

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The Law of Liberty in the Spiritual Life, Chapter 3: Life
By Evan Hopkins
August 6, 2001
"That which is born of the Spirit is spirit." - John iii. 6.

"And everything will live wherever the river goes." - Ezek. xlvii. 9.

"To be spiritually minded is life and peace." - Rom. viii. 6.

"Christ lives in me." - Gal. ii. 20.

"But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life." - John iv. 14.

"He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water." - John vii. 38.

A REMARKABLE brick from the wall of Babylon bears the inscription of one of its mighty kings. In the centre of the inscription is a footprint of one of the dogs which wandered about the crowded city. It was the custom to imprint the royal mark upon the bricks used for public works. While this particular brick was lying in its plastic state to dry, a vagrant dog had accidentally trodden upon it. The king's inscription is entirely illegible, while the footprint of the dog is perfectly distinct. The name of the mighty ruler of Babylon is unknown. The footprint of the dog has decidedly the advantage over the inscription of the king (Norton).

May we not see a picture here of man's present condition? Created originally "in the image and after the likeness of God," man, as he is now by nature, no longer reflects the moral beauty and perfection of the Divine character. While in one part of his nature - the soul - God's image is defaced, in another part the spirit - it is altogether obliterated. The footprint of the Evil One is distinctly visible.

And yet we would not say that there are no traces of the original inscription. The Scriptures recognize such outlines, faint though they be, even among the heathen (Rom. ii. 14, 15). And yet while this is true, the word of God speaks of man as wholly corrupt, and needing a change, so complete and thorough, that it is called a "new creation." He "must be born again."

Man as originally created, consisted of spirit, soul, and body. We read, "The Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul" (Gen. ii. 7).

In order of thought, we have first the construction of the body. Man was made of the dust of the ground, and fashioned by the hand of God, as the potter fashions the clay. Then, into that body thus formed, God breathed "the breath of life." And yet "the formation of man from the dust, and the breathing of the breath of life, must not be understood in a mechanical sense, as if God first of all constructed a human figure from the dust, and then, by breathing His breath of life into the clod of earth which He had shaped into the form of man, made it into a living being. . . . By an act of Divine omnipotence man arose from the dust; and in the same moment in which the dust, by virtue of creative omnipotence, shaped itself into a human form, it was pervaded by the Divine breath of life, and created a living being, so that we cannot say the body was earlier than the soul" (Delitzsch).

"Man became a living soul." Though the same term is employed to designate the lower animals (Gen. i. 20, 21), "It does not necessarily imply that the basis of the life-principle in man and the inferior animals is the same. The distinction between the two appears from the difference in the mode of their creations. The beasts arose as the Almighty fiat completed beings every one a living soul. Man received his life from a distinct act of Divine in-breathing - a communication from the whole Personality of the Godhead. In effect, man was thereby constituted a living soul like the lower animals; but in him the life-principle conferred a personality which was wanting in them" (Delitzsch).

Man not only received that part which we term soul, but that part termed spirit. He was not a mere individual creature, like the lower animals: he became a person. That personality was the meeting point of the two natures, the animal and the spiritual. He consisted, therefore, of the three parts - spirit, soul, and body. Body and spirit uniting in the personal soul is the true idea of man as he came forth from the hand of God.

But what is man's present constitution since the Fall? The Scriptures declare that he is now by nature "dead in trespasses and sin." That is, so far as his spirit-nature is concerned, towards God he is dead. Not, we would observe, that his spirit-nature has ceased to exist. Not that, since the Fall, he has become body and soul, instead of body, soul, and spirit. For while he is dead towards God, he is not dead towards sin (Jude 19. "Sensual, having not the Spirit." Even though we may hesitate to accept the interpretation, with De Wette and others, that the reference here is to the Holy Spirit, this passage cannot be pressed as proving that fallen man has ceased to possess a spirit-nature. Alford observes on this text: "These men have not indeed ceased to have spirit (pneuma - pneu'ma), as part of their own tripartite nature; but they have ceased to possess it in any worthy sense: it is degraded beneath and under the power of the soul (psuche - yuch), the personal life, so as to have no real vitality of its own." The pneu'ma "is that which essentially distinguishes man from an animal, a breath from (out of) God, the noblest part of our nature; but as, in the case of all natural men, it lies concealed, since the Fall, in carnal and animal life, it may be so effectually sunk and buried under the flesh by continual sins, as if it were no longer extant" (Lange, Commentary on St. Jude. See Appendix, Note C). All capacity to understand the things of the Spirit is gone. The Fall has robbed him of the ability to hold communion with God.

And yet fallen man is capable of every kind of sin - not only of sin that pertains to the body and soul, but of sin that pertains to the spirit. He is capable of "spiritual wickedness." He must therefore still possess a spirit-nature.

Satan needs the spirit of a man to produce the highest development of human evil.

When therefore it is said that man is dead spiritually, we understand by this that he is utterly incapable of intercourse with God. In this condition of death he is incapable of attaining the true ideal of human nature.

"What, then, is man in this state? How do the Scriptures designate him? He is described as "natural." "The natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God" (1 Cor. ii. 14). He is soulish. This is the highest condition he is capable of attaining. He is one whose highest nature is the soul. The natural man is the soulish man. He is governed by his soul. He cannot rise higher, but he may sink lower. He may become devilish. His spirit-nature may become satanically possessed.

The natural man is not necessarily one who is the slave of his carnal appetites. He may be a moralist of the highest type. He may be a giant in intellect, as some of the Greek philosophers were, having all that can be derived from the first Adam: one endowed with a rational soul, and who has the use of all his rational faculties, and yet destitute of the capacity of understanding the things of the Spirit of God, or of holding communion with Him.

The reason for this incapacity is clear. The Scripture furnishes the answer: "Because they are spiritually discerned." From the very nature of the case it must be so. It is not that the natural man will not "know" the things of the Spirit - he cannot know them.

To put the matter clearly, we may say there are three great spheres - of sense, of reason, and of spirit.

There are the things which come within the sphere of sense. The lower animals are endowed with the faculties of seeing and knowing these things in common with man. With us they can touch and taste and see. These powers are possessed by the brute creation as well as by ourselves. We convince ourselves of the substantial reality of the material world by these faculties of sense.

Then there are the things which come within the sphere of reason. Now we rise into a higher domain - into a region which is beyond the reach of the lower animals. Man alone has the power of drawing deductions, forming conclusions, and grasping abstract notions. Man alone has the sense of moral obligation.

And lastly, there are the things which come within the sphere of spirit. And these the Scripture declares are beyond the reach of the "natural man" - the psychical or soulish man. These belong to the spirit-life, and are grasped by faith.

You may put a telescope into the hands of a man who is blind, and bid him look at some distant star, or on some lovely landscape. He tells you he sees nothing. Well, his witness is true. So the Agnostic affirms of all supernatural religion, that he knows it not. His witness also is true. But if the blind man goes further, and asserts that because he sees nothing there is nothing to see, his assertion is untrue, and his witness is worthless, because he speaks beyond the range of his capacity.

Such is the value of the natural man's opinion when he declares his mind on spiritual things.

But the natural man may become spiritual. The spiritually blind may be restored to sight. The Agnostic who "knows not" may be brought to see and understand and know.

The life of the spirit-nature may be restored. This is brought about by the operation of the Spirit of God. But how? What is the nature of the process?

"Not by the growth of the soul-principle, the development of the natural man. No one passes from the natural sphere into the spiritual by virtue of powers lying dormant in the soul. It is not by the culture of the natural faculties, nor is it by any supposed uncovering of the spirit-nature, as if it only lay buried underneath.

The spirit is quickened by a direct communication of life from above.

"That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit." "You must be born from above."

So to be alive unto God is to have received this Divine quickening. "Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is of God" (1 Cor. ii. 12).

It is in that spirit-nature the Holy Spirit dwells. Until that nature is quickened, there can be no spiritual nourishment, no spiritual instruction or spiritual training. For what is there to feed? what is there to instruct? what is there to develop?

But Divine life having been imparted, that which follows is the growth and development of the spirit-principle; and this involves the progressive transformation of the character.

Let us now consider the nature of this transformation.

There is not a more wonderful or comforting thought in the whole Bible than this - that if we are the children of God we are predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son." In its fullest sense its realization cannot yet take place. It is at His appearing that that likeness will be complete. "We shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is."

But this conformity does not belong to the future alone. In a very true sense it is to take place now. It is a change that goes on progressively after Divine life has entered into the soul. We are "being changed" - transfigured - "into the same image from glory to glory" (2 Cor. iii. 18).

It is not a mere superficial likeness, just as a sovereign bears the image of the Queen. That image is put upon it to give the coin currency; but the sovereign is not the image of the Queen, it is simply stamped with it.

It is a change that takes place from within. Beginning with the spirit of the man, it advances progressively through every part of his nature. This conformity to the image of God's Son consists of a change of character. Character is not something that is formed at once. It needs time and discipline, and the exercise of the will in the act of choosing, to form character.

Character is the result of conduct. Conduct is the outcome of condition. Right conduct is the fruit of right condition. But before there can be the right condition, there must be the right nature, or constitution. We have thus these four elements in spiritual progress.

The first is constitution. There must be a new nature. "And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins (Eph. ii. 1). In the case of every believer this quickening has taken place.

The Apostle could thank God that this was true of all Colossian converts: "giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light" (Col. i. 12). Not that they were meet by progressive growth in holiness. This is not the thought. "Who made us competent" (Bishop Lightfoot) - competent to inherit. Now, who is it that is competent to inherit an estate? Ask some wealthy landowner how he came into his property, and perhaps he will tell you he purchased it. Ask some of the earth's great men who have rendered signal services to their country, how they became possessed of their estates, and perhaps their answer would be, they received them as the reward of their services. They did not inherit their possessions.

It is only an heir that can inherit. But what constitutes an heir? Not talents or education; not personal efforts or great learning. There is only one way by which he becomes an heir. He must be born an heir. It is by birth.

So believers are competent to inherit, because they have been born into the family of God. We have become, by virtue of that birth, "heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ."

It is for this that the Apostle gives thanks. They were meet - that is, competent - to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light. They had the new nature. If that is lacking, there can be no advance; not a single step in the way of progress can be taken: it is vain to insist on right conduct, or to urge the importance of developing Christian character.

But now we come to condition. A spiritual nature is one thing, a spiritual mind is another. Every Christian possesses that which is born of the Spirit; but is every Christian spiritually-minded?

Three passages we may look at in which we have the phrase, "the mind of Christ," referred to in deeply important connections.

"Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus" (Phil. ii. 3). Here we have a condition of mind considered in connection with self. It was a mind that utterly ignored self. "He emptied Himself." It was on these lines of utter self abnegation that He glorified His Father. He tells us distinctly, "I can of Mine own self do nothing" (John v. 30); that is, I am not able to be doing a single thing from Myself. Again, "I do nothing of Myself" (John vii. 28); or, "I from Myself am doing nothing." "I speak not of - or from - Myself" (John xiv. 10). He took the place of a servant - of a son. The very idea of son-ship involves that of dependence. "Perfect sonship involves perfect identity of will and action with the Father…'The Father who dwells in Me does the works' (John xiv. 10). According to the true reading, The Father abiding in Me does His work" (Canon Westcott).

Now, the believer is called to walk as Christ walked. This mind of complete self-renunciation therefore, is the condition to be maintained. "Let this mind be in you." As he lived in and on the Father, so are we to live in and on Christ.

When we are in the right condition, Christ, and not self, occupies the centre of our being. Then it is that He reigns with unhindered sway as king within. The writer, not long since, heard one who had been a Christian many years describe the nature of the blessing he had recently in the following words: - "I had heard of Christ being king. Well, He had reigned in me; but it was only as a constitutional sovereign. I was prime minister, and I did a good deal of the work myself. Then I found that He must be absolute monarch. And so now He is." How much is involved in that thought! How much turns upon this condition of things! In one sense everything depends upon it.


"Higher than the highest heavens,
Deeper than the deepest sea,

Lord Thy love at last hath conquered;

Grant me now my soul's desire:

'None of self, and all of Thee.'"

PASTEUR THEODORE MONOD.


Another passage: "But we have the mind of Christ" (1 Cor. ii. 16). The Apostle had referred to the gospel, or the truths of revelation, as the wisdom of God, and as the things of the Spirit. He declares that these things cannot be known apart from the Spirit of God. But then he reminds his readers that they had received the Spirit of God, and this in order that they might know these things. The natural, or unregenerate, man cannot know them. It is the spiritual man alone who is able to discern them. To have "the mind of Christ" is to be spiritually-minded.

But it is possible for even the regenerate to become unspiritual; not the "natural man" alone, even the believer may be, without "the mind of Christ." He may become, as the Apostle declared these Corinthian Christians had become, "carnal," fleshly - mere "babes" - no longer capable of spiritual discernment (1 Cor. iii. 1. See Appendix, Note B).

"The mind of Christ" is the essential condition of all spiritual perception, of all progress in Divine knowledge. Here is the secret of apprehending the "unsearchable riches of Christ," as they are revealed to us in the Scriptures. We cease to become intelligent, or receptive of Divine teaching, when we cease to possess this condition of mind.

And the same thing applies in the matter of daily guidance. "The mind of Christ" is necessary for a quick understanding of God's will in the hourly events of life.

"There are thousands of points in our journey which require quick and almost instantaneous decision as to what we believe we ought to do. The juncture, perhaps, is such that gives very little space to go to some friend, or even to the Divine oracles of truth, or even to ponder the matter in our own breast. At such moments, a rapid perception of the right is an inestimable gift.

"Now those who have been familiar with holy things attain, gradually, to a surprising initiation of what is the mind and will of God on any subject. It is a kind of second spiritual sense. We can scarcely explain to you the process, but the conclusion it brings them to is generally a correct one, and is often far better than any outward weighing or longer thought would have given them. . . . Their first thoughts are better than second thoughts, because in their first thoughts there is less of man and there is more of the Spirit.

And who are those whose first thoughts are thus to be depended upon? Those who, by continual and long intercourse with the Fountain of love and wisdom, so see an object from His point of view, and so measure it by His standard, and so feel His affections, that they can say, 'We have the mind of Christ.'" (Rev. James Vaughan, of Brighton).

While, then, we insist on the necessity of regeneration - the communication of a new nature - before there can be the spiritual mind, let us not forget that a man may relapse into a worldly condition, though he has become a new creature. He may become "carnally minded." He may de-generate, though he cannot become un-regenerate. He may cease to mind the things of the Spirit; he may be minding the things of the flesh (Rom. viii. 5, 6). Let us not read those verses in the eighth of Romans as if they had no reference to those who have become new creatures in Christ Jesus. They point to a condition of heart and mind into which, alas! many of God's children too frequently fall. And with what result? The loss of all spiritual liberty and power. Liberty is found in obeying the law of one's being. As partakers of the Divine nature, we need continually to abide, if we would be free, in the condition which corresponds to the Divine nature.

One more passage: "Therefore, since Christ suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same mind, for he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin, that he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh for the lusts of men, but for the will of God" (1 Pet. iv. 1, 2).

"Arm yourselves with the same mind" - a condition of holy separation from all sin. We have to put on the mind of Him who has suffered for sin. The point to be noted here is that it is not so much the mind of Christ, as He was suffering, but the mind of Christ who "has suffered for us in the flesh." And the reason follows: "Because he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin" (Lange, "Commentary," in loco). "Hence he who puts on His mind, and is in communion with Him, henceforth must serve sin no more" (Ibid.).

"The mind of Christ" becomes thus our shield against the power of temptation.

All this is intimately connected with our next point.

Conduct. It will be at once understood why it is that duty is often, not only so difficult, but so irksome. The difficulty or unpleasantness frequently arises from the absence of right condition.

"If you be willing and obedient." Note the order of the two things. Willingness is a condition of oneness with the Divine mind. Conduct breaks down when the harmony is wanting, when the fellowship ceases, and the power no longer flows.

Conduct is simply the will in action. The walk that glorifies God, and keeps us in His smile, is the activity of a will that is one with God's will.

Liberty is not freedom from law - that would be license. It is freedom in law.

There is so-called liberty which is without law. This may be natural man's ideal of true freedom. But "lawlessness" is in God's judgment the very essence of sin.

There is a condition which is under law; but this is a state of bondage, the condition of the legalist.

A third and blessed relation in which we may be to the law is that of being inlawed, having it within us, written by the Spirit of God on the fleshly tables of the heart.

Liberty is not being without control, nor being under coercion; nor is it, strictly speaking, being in a state of self-control. It is to be within the sphere of Divine control, having the spirit of life within and around us.

The Holy Spirit who communicates the nature also produces the condition, and from the condition brings forth the conduct. This is seen in "the fruit of the Spirit" (Gal. v. 22). First, we have a condition of mind produced within us; "love, joy, peace." This state of inward conscious blessing must be brought about preliminary to all outward, practical obedience. Where the Holy Spirit is dwelling, without being grieved - as the Comforter rather than as the Reprover - this is the first part of His fruit we are permitted to taste. The believer will know to a greater or less degree what it is to dwell in Divine love, to be filled with Divine joy, and to be garrisoned in Divine peace.

The outcome of this condition, in practical conduct towards others, will be "longsuffering, gentleness, goodness"; while the result of such conduct, in the building up of the character, will be "fidelity, meekness, temperance."

In the first three, we have the inward disposition; in the second three, the external manifestation; and in the last three, the personal characteristic. This brings us to consider the fourth and last element in our progressive transformation into the image of God's Son.

Character. While the nature is something which is communicated instantaneously, character is that which can only be built up by degrees; it is something that is going on constantly.

As successive acts form habits, so habits combine to form character. "Character is consolidated habit." Every act of true obedience is a real contribution to the formation of Christian character. But we would say true obedience. We often judge of actions from what we see of them externally. But, as we know, there are two parts in all obedience - the outward act and the inward motive. The real value of the act is in its motive.

"Do you know what that silent work is which is going on in you? Oh, builder! do you ever think of all the structures that are going up in these great cities? There are none that are building so fast and with so many hands as that structure of which you are the subject ... There are as many master-workmen in you as there are separate faculties; and there are as many blows being struck as there are separate acts of emotion or volition. And this work is going on perpetually. Every single day these myriad forces are building, building, building. Here is a great structure going up point by point, storey by storey, although you are not conscious of it. It is a building of character. It is a building that is to stand. And the word of inspiration warns you to take heed how you build it; to see to it that you have a foundation that shall endure; to make sure that you are building on it, not for the hour in which you live but for that hour of revelation, that hour of testing, when that which hath been done shall be brought out and you shall be seen just as you are."

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The Law of Liberty in the Spiritual Life, Chapter 4: Liberty
By Evan Hopkins
August 12, 2001
"The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord." - Luke iv. 18, 19.

"Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." - 2 Cor. iii. 17.

"You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." - John viii. 32.

"The perfect law of liberty…" - Jas. i. 25.

"Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free." - Gal. v.1.

"My yoke is easy, and My burden is light." - Matt. xi. 30.

FREEDOM is an essential characteristic of that life of fellowship with Christ into which the redeemed are called. The essence of being is life. The essence of well-being is freedom in life. There may be life without liberty. The work of regeneration may have taken place. The new nature may be there, and heaven-born aspirations may be going forth from our quickened spirits, and yet our life may be anything but free.

Christ not only imparts life, He also provides that which is necessary for its emancipation - for its unfolding and growth.

Struggles may be true signs of vitality, but they are often the witness to a condition of bondage. Desperate efforts to set one's self free may be taken as evidence that we are no longer "dead in trespasses and sins"; but such conflicts must not be confused with the "good fight of faith." Freedom is not the end but rather the condition of Christian conflict - of true victorious warfare. To fight so as to "withstand," and come off "more than conquerors," we must know what it is to "stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free" (Gal. v. 1).

Liberty consists in the unrestrained activities of life. "Only that existence can be called really free that lives and moves in full agreement with its proper being, that can unfold its powers unhindered and undisturbed" (Martensen). For this it is necessary that life - whether it be vegetable, animal, or spiritual - should be in its true and appropriate element. It is there only that it finds both its sustenance and its freedom. Thus the plant must have, not only suitable soil, but air and moisture and sunshine. The surroundings do not originate the life, but they afford that which is essential for its expansion and development. In this unhindered activity its freedom consists.

And so in nature, we say a creature is free when it can move in its own native element. The bird is free in the air, and the fish in the water. Take either of them out of its element, and its liberty is gone. Change or modify the character of the element, and you limit or destroy the freedom of its life.

Through sin, we have lost the inner principle of life, and we have forfeited the sphere which is its true abode. Restoration consists in the quickening of the spirit, and its introduction into its appropriate environment. To be "born again" is to receive that quickening; and to be "in Christ" is to be in that environment. Spiritual liberty can be known, therefore, only by those who have life, and who are abiding in Him who is the true sphere of life. We cannot, then, take it for granted that every regenerate soul is of necessity in a state of spiritual liberty. Conversion is not all. Salvation means something far more than the possession of a Divine, inner vital principle.

There is a threefold emancipation we may notice in connection with our experience of true freedom - liberty for the mind, the conscience, and the will.

Liberty for the mind. In harmony with the foregoing definitions of freedom, we may observe that man's intellect or understanding must have its proper environment. It must occupy its true sphere in order to be free. That sphere is the truth. As originally created, the mind of man was free because he dwelt in the truth. There was nothing in his moral or spiritual surroundings but what was in perfect agreement with his mental being. Since the Fall, however, everything is changed. His mind is in bondage, through darkness and ignorance and error. The apostle thus describes those who are in this state: - "Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their heart" (Eph. iv. 18). Man fell through receiving Satan's lie. By this act he forfeited the truth; losing the truth, his mind lost its freedom.

Christ restores us to liberty by bringing us into the truth. "You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" (John viii. 32). Such is the freedom known and realized when we become spiritually enlightened. It is like the morning dawn - the light breaks into our inner being, and we become conscious that we have been brought into an illuminated atmosphere. We know and feel that our mental being has found its true element. What the air is to the bird, and what the water is to the fish, the truth of God is to our minds. As the bird spreads its wings, so our powers and faculties expand, and find in this new element a liberty, an enlargement, that fills our souls with peculiar gladness.

But when we speak of the truth, we must not understand by that term a mere abstraction. We must think of Him who declared, "I am - the truth." We must think of that living embodiment of truth "in Whom we live and move and have our being." Saving faith means "believing into" Christ. It implies an actual transition from one sphere into another - from darkness to light. It is in Him who is the truth, we realize, therefore, our mental emancipation.

Liberty for the conscience. Bondage may arise from sin as well as from ignorance. Guilt on the conscience will rob the soul of all liberty. There can be no freedom of utterance, no holy boldness, no liberty in the presence of God, if sin, in its guilt and defilement, lies on the conscience. "Having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience" (Heb. x. 22) is essential in order to enter into the "holiest of all." An emancipated conscience is a purged conscience. When this is realized, the soul is in an atmosphere of peace. It is in that peace the conscience finds its freedom. But it is only through "the blood of His cross" that this can be known. When we see the meaning of Christ's death, when we accept it as that which brings us into a relation of reconciliation with God, we know what peace means. We see then, not only that we stand on the work of peace, but have been brought into Him who is our peace.

The conscience finds its freedom in the atmosphere of Divine peace.

Liberty for the will. It is the remark of a thoughtful preacher, "that the weakness of human actions may be traced to the supremacy of passion, - that the passions are too strong, and carry away the will with them, - that the will as a regulative force in man is crippled" (Canon Boyd Carpenter's Hulsean Lectures).

Man's will, by nature, is not free. It is the slave of fear or of desire. If the passions are evil, his will is the victim of a sinful tyranny. There may be light and knowledge without liberty. A man may see and know the right, and yet shrink from doing it, because of the fear of suffering or reproach. This is to be in a state of bondage. He may see the evil and know that it is his duty to avoid it, and yet he may be drawn to yield to it, because of the pleasure that is more or less blended with it. How is liberty from such a condition to be brought about?

Suppose that the will is strengthened, and that by dint of a high sense of duty the man is enabled to rise superior to the power of his passions; shall we have in such a one an example of true liberty? Surely not.

As an able and vigorous writer observes: "We can make ourselves perform certain acts by an effort of the will, but this is a very different thing from making our inclinations go along with them" (Canon Mozley's University Sermons). What the will needs, in the first place, is not strengthening, but liberating. It must first be brought into its proper environment; there it finds its freedom. It may be weak, but it is no small matter that it is free. And being liberated, it is now prepared to be strengthened.

The element in which the will finds its freedom is the love of God.

The popular definition of liberty - namely, "to do as you like" - is, after all, not far from the truth. The glorified spirits are free, and they do as they like; but being holy in their desires, they do what God likes. And so, just in proportion as man's affections are purified, and he delights in the things that God delights in, he finds his freedom in doing as he likes. Whatever, therefore, purifies his desires also liberates his will. To set the will free, it follows it must be brought into the atmosphere of Divine love. As the mind finds its liberty in Him who is the truth, and the conscience in Him who is our peace, so the will finds its freedom in Him who is the embodiment of perfect love.

"The criterion of the highest and perfect moral state of mind is pleasure, - when good acts are not only done, but when we take pleasure in doing them. We are certainly bound to do them, whether we like it or not; and obedience for conscience sake, which is carried out against inclination, is deserving of all praise, and is constantly urged upon us in Scripture; but it is still an inferior moral state compared with that in which the inclinations themselves are on the side of good. For, looking into the real nature of the case, we cannot but call it a state of servitude when a man's affections do not go along with his work, but he submits to duty as a yoke which a superior power or law imposes on him, even though that law be revealed to him through his own conscience" (Mozley, University Sermons).

We have, then, two stages of experience, both included in the life of the Christian - the one being animated chiefly by a sense of right, the other by the power of love. We may illustrate the two stages by two concentric circles - the outer circle representing the duty-life, and the inner circle the love-life. We may be within the first, and yet not within the second; but it is impossible to be within the inner circle, and not be within the outer circle also. So, if we are "dwelling in love," we shall know what it is to do the right for its own sake as well as from inclination. But it is not difficult to see which of the two conditions is the true life of liberty.

"The truth must be admitted, that many who belong visibly to the dispensation of the Spirit are still inwardly under the law in this sense, that their inclinations are not yet on the side of God's service, and that, if they perform their duty in any degree, it is only in obedience to a law, of the penalties of which they stand in just and proper fear, but not on the spiritual principles of love" (Mozley, University Sermons).

Hence, while faith makes all things possible, it is love that makes all things easy.

But if love is the secret of the highest kind of freedom, what love is it? Where are we to seek for it? Whence does it come? And how may we be brought to know it, and live in it?

Shall we say, as some maintain, that there is "a root of love at the bottom of the human heart, which it has received from God, and which only requires the removal of the pressure of other matter upon it to bring it out as the true part of man"? Surely not.

The love which casts out fear and sets us free is not human love, inherent in man, lying dormant within, and only waiting to be wakened and brought forth. "The air only weighs heavily on such bodies as are void of air; so God's law, and so far God Himself, who reveals Himself by means of the law, rests like a heavy, oppressive burden on souls who have not God within them" (Martensen). In that sense of oppression we have the evidence that no kindred affection exists within them.

It is Divine love that the soul needs. "The love of God" must be "shed abroad in our hearts" (Rom. v. 5. Strictly, throughout, not into our hearts - , µÍ not µ¯Â, denoting the rich diffusion of God's love within our hearts - µÍ indicating the locality where the shedding abroad takes place).

"The love of God - this means, not our love to God, nor exactly the sense of God's love for us, but God's love itself for us" (Neil).

As Dr. Forbes observes: "The love here spoken of (Rom. v. 5) is not God's love, as merely outwardly shown to us, but as shed abroad in our hearts as a gift, and is placed in connection with other Christian graces - patience and hope" (Analytical Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans).

This Divine love "becomes our love to God" (Lange). The medium of this transfusion of the Divine love in the heart is the Holy Spirit. He himself first enters into the soul, and then from within makes known to us God's love, and communicates it as a power moulding our emotions, purposes and actions (Beet).

The expression "shed abroad" denotes plenitude of communication (Tholuck). As Philippi observes on the same text: "The love of God did not descend upon us as dew in drops, but as a stream which spreads itself through the whole soul filling it with a consciousness of His presence and favour."

In the same connection we have another and still more wonderful passage in the seventeenth of St. John's Gospel. At the close of our Lord's intercessory prayer we read: "And I have declared to them Your name, and will declare it, that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them" (John xvii. 26). Here again the love referred to is nothing short of God's own love. The truth declared is the indwelling of Divine love. "When God's love to us comes to be in us, it is like the virtue which the loadstone gives the needle, inclining it to move towards the pole" (Lange). As Dr. Westcott remarks: "The possibility of such a consummation lies in the fact of the presence of the Son Himself in them." The love of God in lighting on believers will not attach itself to aught that is defiled. For it will in truth light only on Jesus Himself, on Jesus living in them, and upon them as identified with Him and reflecting His holy image" (Godet).

In the same way that passage in St. John's Epistle is to be understood: "Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us" (1 John iii. 1). How many read these words as if the meaning were, Behold what manner of love the Father hath manifested towards us. But here we have something more "than a mere demonstration of love; the full power of Divine love has imparted itself to us as our own, is a free gift to us; not only specific manifestations of the love of God, but that love itself it given to us" (Haupt). Or, as another puts it, "God has made His love our property" (Meyer). "God has not only given in love, but He has given love itself, made it our own, absolutely given it to us, so that His love is now ours" (Lange). Dr. Westcott remarks on this text, in his Commentary on the Epistles of St. John: "The love is not simply exhibited towards believers, but imparted to them. The Divine love is, as it were, infused into them, so that it is their own, and becomes in them the source of a Divine life (Rom. xiii. 10). In virtue of this gift, therefore, they are inspired with a love which is like the love of God, and by this they truly claim the title of children of God, as par-takers in His nature."

Then we have that marvelous statement in the fourth chapter of this same Epistle (1 John iv. 16), on which Dr. Westcott observes: "The nature of the believer must be conformed to the nature of God. . . . From the very nature of God, it follows as a necessary consequence that the life of self-devotion is a life in fellowship with Him. . . . 'He that abides in love,' as the sphere in which his life is fulfilled, 'abides in God, and God [abides] in him. He that so abides in love hath risen to the heavenly order (Col. iii. 3), and found the power of Divine fellowship for the accomplishment of earthly work.'"

One deeply taught in the spiritual life observes: "We must remember carefully to discriminate that it is not the way of our salvation that St. John is here speaking of. He assumes that those whom he is addressing are saved; for notice, what comes immediately before is: 'whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God' - that is salvation, that confession of faith is salvation - 'God dwells in him, and he in God' - that is the union, consequent upon the faith, in the salvation, with the Son, and through the Son with the Father. . . . It is a very strong and eloquent term 'to dwell in love,' a home of love. And the promise of that home of love is more wonderful still - that God shall be our home. And then more stupendous beyond it - and we shall be God's home. He that has made his home in love, has his home in God, and God has His home in him" (Rev. James Vaughan, Brighton).

It is in this home of Divine love the will is free. It is then that "God is the element of human volition" (Delitzsch). Finding our home is God, the bondage of external restraint is at an end. This is not a mere ideal. It is a possible experience. It is that "fullness of the blessing of Christ" we may know even here in this life. Truth, peace, and love are no less realities than are the mind, the conscience, and the will.

It is by bringing each part of our being into its true environment that the Spirit accomplishes His work of emancipation. A life of mere duty is thus transformed into a life of liberty and delight. Let us suppose the case of one whose desires are only partially purified. Peace with God has been known and realized. But, owing to a want of liberty, this peace has become sadly marred. Incessant struggles and repeated failures have robbed the life of all joy. Such a one is told that conflict is one of the characteristics of the Christian life. He learns, moreover, from the word of God that he is called to "fight the good fight of faith," and that being a soldier of the Cross he has to "put on the whole armour of God." Conflict, therefore, he sees clearly from Scripture there must be.

But how often such a one concludes too hastily that the struggles he experiences constitute the Christian warfare! He does not distinguish between conflict and rebellion. The will may not be wholly yielded. It may be under the influence of some evil desire.

There can be no real peace or liberty for a soul in that condition. We can conceive of a case in which the will is strong, and the passions are held well under control. And what have you? You have a life of outward abstinence from the evil and of conformity to the good, but not a life of joy and liberty. You have a man who walks conscientiously, it is true; but he knows nothing of real delight and freedom in the service of God.

The force of conscience and the power of will may be sufficient in many instances to keep the passions under restraint, so that in the main there is an absence of outward transgression, and, it may be a good deal of zeal and activity in working for God. But, oh, what a sense of strain and perpetual bondage within! Christ's yoke is felt to be constantly pressing. It is not found to be easy, nor His burden to be light.

Now let us suppose such a one is brought under the power of a fuller and deeper work of the Holy Spirit. Let us suppose that Divine love sanctifies his desires to the same degree that Divine truth has emancipated his mind and Divine peace his conscience - what then? A complete change takes place in his whole life. Because he begins to love, and delights in the right, as well as recognizes its excellence, he now finds it easy to do it. He begins to like what God commands; and it is never hard to do what one likes. Then he finds the truth, in his own experience, of those words, "His commandments are not grievous."

Here, then, lies the secret of liberty and delight in the service of the Lord.

Seek to grasp the glorious fact that you may have Christ as Divine love filling your soul. Just as the alabaster box was in the house, and its presence may not have been known, so Christ has been a long time with many of His disciples, and they have not known Him; that is, they have been comparatively ignorant of His glorious fullness. But no sooner was the box broken, and the ointment shed abroad, than the odour filled the house. So when the love of God is poured forth by the Holy Spirit - when the infinite treasures of Divine love stored up in Christ are disclosed, revealed in us, shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit - their subduing, liberating, and transforming influences begin at once to be seen and felt. Their cleansing and purifying effect on our thoughts and desires are realized. We begin to learn then what our blessed Lord meant when He said, "Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God" (Matt. v. 8).

But do you ask, How am I to get this love? "Love," one has said, "cannot be produced by a direct action of the soul upon itself. A man in a boat cannot move it by pressing it from within."

It is not by straining and struggling that this blessed condition is brought about; it comes by a very real dedication of ourselves to God for this very purpose, and with this as the special end and aim in view. Just lie quietly before Him. Open all the avenues of your being, and let Him come in and take possession of every chamber. Especially give Him your heart - the very seat of your desires, the throne of your affections. Yield all up to Him, and the Lord will enter, bringing with Him all the riches of His grace and glory, turning your life of duty into a life of liberty and love. >

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The Law of Liberty in the Spiritual Life, Chapter 5: Sanctification
By Evan Hopkins
Undated
"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 Cor. iii. 18.

"Both He who sanctifies and those who are being sanctified are all of one." - Heb. ii. 11.

"For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified." - Heb. x. 14.

"You shall therefore consecrate yourselves, and you shall be holy; for I am holy." - Lev. xi. 44.

"Let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God." - 2 Cor. vii. 1.

"Yield yourselves unto God." - Rom. vi. 13. (KJV)

"Present your bodies a living sacrifice." - Rom. xii. 1.

"Who became for us … sanctification." - 1 Cor. i. 30.

"For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth." - John xvii. 19.

IN ORDER to avoid the confusion that often exists, even in the minds of intelligent believers, on this important subject, it is necessary that we should distinguish between the different senses in which sanctification is contemplated in the Scriptures. One reason of the perplexity, we venture to think, is found in the fact that different aspects of the same truth are often confused. We should clearly recognize the distinction, for instance between three things: sanctification as a process, as an act or attitude of consecration, and as a gift. We would consider that first which is the best understood, and not because it is the first in the order of time.

I. Sanctification may be considered as a PROCESS; that is, as a work wrought in the soul of the believer by the Holy Spirit, subsequently to regeneration. Of both regeneration and renewal the Holy Spirit is the Author; but the two things are not the same. Regeneration is an instantaneous communication of Divine life to the soul. It is not capable of degrees; no one is more, or less regenerate than another. "But this work of sanctification is progressive, and admits of degrees. One may be more sanctified and more holy than another, who is yet truly sanctified and truly holy. It is begun at once, and carried on gradually" (Owen on the Work of the Holy Spirit).

We do not however inquire how the Holy Spirit carries on His work, our present purpose being to ascertain from Scripture what are the chief features of that work.

We learn, for instance, that it is gradual and progressive, from such passages as 2 Corinthians iii. 18. Our spiritual transformation is there described as still going on. "We are changed (or being changed) into the same image from glory to glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord." The change here described is that gradual assimilation to Christ which takes place during this present life. This is something more than a mere reformation of character, and is brought about by something higher than mere moral culture or discipline; it is transfiguration. The word occurs altogether in four places (Matt. xvii. 2; Mark ix. 2; Rom. xii. 2; 2 Cor. iii. 18). The nature of the change is exemplified in what took place at our Lord's transfiguration. "It would appear that the light shone, not upon Him from without, but out of Him from within." He was all irradiated with celestial glory. So the change that takes place in the gradual sanctification of the believer is by virtue of a Divine power that works from within. "Instead of the mind of a man being developed by the form and fashion of his age, he receives within himself the source of a new life.... From within and not from without, from the mind and not from the world, by the birth of what is new and not by the growth of what is old, the whole aspect of human nature is transformed" (Wace) - just as the bud is transformed into the flower, the blossom into the fruit, the acorn into the oak, by a vital power that works from within. This power is not in man by nature; it is not a force that has been pent up, and needing only to be liberated in order to produce the transformation: it is God the Holy Spirit who is the Author of the change; it is the Divine indwelling Spirit alone who restores fallen man to the image of God.

Sanctification considered from this point of view is thus seen to be a process. Such also is the nature of all spiritual progress and growth - a progressive and gradual development of the new creation within the believer.

Now it is evident that in that sense our sanctification can never in this life reach a point beyond which there is to be no further progress; it can never therefore be said to be complete. So long as there is room for a fuller manifestation of the Divine image the work cannot be said to be completed.

II. But sanctification may be looked at from another point of view - as an ATTITUDE. It may be regarded in relation to our own individual condition and conduct-as personal separation from all known sin on the one hand, and dedication to God on the other. The root-thought of sanctity is separateness. A man sanctifies himself when he separates himself from that which is evil and impure. "For I am the Lord your God. You shall therefore consecrate yourselves, and you shall be holy; for I am holy" (Lev. xi. 44). So again in the New Testament we have the exhortation addressed to those who were already set apart unto God: "let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God" (2 Cor. vii. 1).

In this aspect sanctification may be regarded as a personal and definite act of consecration to God. Following the initial act, the habit or attitude of surrender is formed; and as progress is made, so the thoroughness of dedication to God deepens and increases.

We may take that word "yield" as expressive of the main idea involved in such a personal consecration; it puts before us what we may call the human side of the doctrine of holiness.

In the twelfth chapter of the Epistle to the Romans the Apostle beseeches those who were already Christians "to present their bodies a living sacrifice." What did the Apostle mean? To "present" is to "yield." The same word occurs in chapter vi. 13, 16, 19. Now what is it to yield? It is to cease to resist. That there may be a resistance, even in those who have been quickened by the Spirit, to the will of God, no believer who knows anything of his own heart can deny. This resistance is one of the main hindrances to the exercise of faith. It was so with Jacob at Peniel. "And there wrestled a man with him until the breaking of the day." Who was this that confronted Jacob, and whom Jacob resisted? It was none other than the Angel of the Covenant; it was the Lord Himself that laid His hand on Jacob.

Though God had not forsaken Jacob, Jacob had been following in the main his own will during his sojourn in Padan-aram. Twenty years before he had been favoured with a wonderful vision, in which God had revealed to him the way of access in prayer, and the way of blessing from God to man; he had seen God in covenant with His people. If Jacob apprehended there at Bethel no more, he beheld at least God as his Protector and Provider and Guide. And this vision drew from him a vow: "If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and raiment to put on, so that I come again to my father's house in peace, then shall the Lord be my God" (Gen. xxviii. 20, 21). But how had it been with him during those twenty years? He had sojourned with Laban, and there he had pursued the same course that he had previously followed with his brother and his father - a course of meanness and deception. God had sent him trials, and had during those years been contending with him, bringing back to his memory and his conscience the evil of his own ways; but Jacob was still the same Jacob - the supplanter - not humbled, not broken, full of carnal policy and self-seeking.

But now comes the crisis. Jacob's will must be broken. In this conflict, Jacob's wrestling must not be confused with Jacob's clinging. So long as he wrestled - that is, resisted - the conflict lasted. But at last the resistance ceased.

"Now when He (the Lord ) saw that He did not prevail against him, He touched the socket of his hip; and the socket of Jacob's hip was out of joint as He wrestled with him" (Gen. xxxii. 25). All power to resist was now at an end.

This passage in Jacob's history has a parallel in the life of many a child of God. How many can trace a similar crisis in God's dealing with them!

The power of resistance - which is self-will - being broken, the strength to cling - which is faith - is now brought into exercise. So we see Jacob, the moment his thigh was out of joint, no longer wrestling, but clinging - no longer as an antagonist resisting an enemy, but as a suppliant in an attitude of earnest entreaty: "I will not let You go unless You bless me."

This was the power by which Jacob prevailed; and it is to this act of clinging, as the symbol of faith, that the prophet Hosea refers: "in his strength he struggled with God. Yes, he struggled with the Angel and prevailed; He wept, and sought favor from Him" (Hos. xii. 3, 4).

Thus we learn that if we would cling with a victorious faith we must first yield in a spirit of entire submission. You cannot cling until you have ceased to resist.

But yielding means also ceasing to withhold. "My son, give Me your heart." In other words, let God have full possession, not only of the spirit and the soul, but of all your physical powers. Yield every member up to Him. If we regard "the essential condition of man as subsisting in three concentric circles, the innermost being his spirit, the inner his soul, and the external his body" (Delitzsch), we can see how the progress in his practical consecration to God takes place. To yield is to withhold nothing. The spirit being quickened presents the body as well as the soul to the Lord. "I beseech you, brethren, . . . present your bodies." Every power of mind or body is dedicated to His service and committed into His keeping.

"This verse (Rom. xii. 1) looks upon the man within as the priest who lays upon the altar, not the body of a dead sheep, but his own living body. . . . Our body has now the sacredness associated in the mind of a Jew with the animals laid on the brazen altar; . . . and presentation to God makes our body holy, as it did the sacrificial animals (Exod. xxix. 37). Henceforth they exist only to work out God's purposes" (Beet).

And again, yielding also means ceasing to struggle. No longer trying to keep oneself up - putting forth vigorous efforts to keep oneself from sinking, but, casting all upon Him who is able to keep us from falling.

But this yielding, it may be objected, is not an act done once for all? However definite and real that act may have been, surely it needs continually to be repeated? We would say in answer to this, if we suppose a relapse to have taken place, if, having presented ourselves, we have afterwards withdrawn the gift - then of course repetition is necessary. But this surely is not the life to which we are called. Having yielded ourselves, spirit, soul, and body to Him, what now we have to do is daily to recognize and confirm that act, and in this way the act once definitely accomplished becomes an attitude constantly maintained.

It is interesting to note what an able commentator (Dr. David Brown) remarks on this act of consecration: "A significant transition has been noticed here from one tense to another (Rom. vi. 13). In the first clause, 'do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness,' the present tense is used (¹±ÁιÃĬνµÄµ), denoting the habitual practice of men in their old, unregenerate state; in the next clause, 'but yield yourselves unto God,' it is the aorist (¹±ÁιÃķñĵ) suggesting the one act for all, of self-surrender, which the renewed believer performs immediately on his passing from death to life, and to which he only gets his continuous seal in all his after life" (Critical and Experimental Commentary. See Appendix, Note D).

To this important note, however, we would merely add this question, if the Apostle had felt sure that these Christians at Rome had, immediately on their conversion, thus surrendered themselves to God, would he have deemed it necessary now to press upon them so earnestly this definite act of consecration? The truth is, the Apostle does not assume or take for granted that all those Christian converts were really walking in a condition of practical consecration to God.

Looking at this aspect of our subject then, we may note two things of paramount importance. The first is the condition of the will; the second is the attitude of our faith. To be wholly the Lord's - to let go one's will so that henceforth Christ is to lead me and plan for me, and have His way with me in everything - it is to be ready to be separated from many ways and things to which naturally we cling very tenaciously. It is to let Him have the whole heart, to reign there supreme. The will is not really yielded if we have any reserves. We have not let go our moorings if there is still but one rope that keeps our little boat to the shore. We may have "slipped" many a cable that has kept us to the land, but if one single rope remains we are still held fast. We are not yet wholly the Lord's in the sense of practical consecration.

But suppose this has been done, and that so far as the light has enabled you to see, everything has been laid on the altar, then comes the question of faith.

What is your attitude to your faith? As to justification, you are no longer seeking, but resting; you are no longer anxiously praying about that, but you can thankfully praise Him. That need then has been met.

And can He not meet your need as to sanctification? Your present and continuous need in this respect can only be met by a present and continuous provision. That provision is in Christ. He who commands us to ask commands us also to receive. To be in an attitude of trust is to be receptive, and being receptive we find that we lack nothing; for Christ is our sanctification. But this is the aspect in which we have next to consider the subject.

III. Lastly, sanctification in its fullest sense is a GIFT.

Nothing is more essential in order to dwell in God's presence than holiness. Forgiveness of sins is not all we need. Peace alone is not sufficient. A perfect righteousness which places us in a position of acceptance with God is not all that is provided for us in the gospel. There must be likeness to God - conformity of heart - oneness of nature.

But what God requires He first provides. This is one of the chief features of grace; "all things are of God." And grace characterizes each step in the believer's progress. Salvation from sin is possible only because we are not left to ourselves - to our merits, our own efforts, or our own resources. He is the "God of all grace." The moment we act as if we had to meet His demands from ourselves, that moment we forsake the ground of grace.

Salvation is of grace, because it is a gift. It is all included in Christ.

Now we know that without holiness no man shall see the Lord (Heb. xii. 14); and yet we believe that Christ is able to save the sinner even at the very last moment of his earthly existence. Taking holiness only in the one sense of a process or work wrought in us by the Holy Spirit suggests a difficulty. It may reasonably be asked, If without holiness no man can see the Lord, what becomes of those who, like the penitent thief, come to Christ at the eleventh hour? They have no time or opportunity for the growth and development of sanctification.

But the difficulty leads one to inquire, What does the Scripture mean by holiness? That it often refers to the process which is wrought in us by the Holy Spirit all must admit, but that Christ Himself is made of God unto us sanctification as well as righteousness, many of God's children fail to understand. One of God's greatest gifts - bound up in His "unspeakable Gift" - is that of holiness.

But what is holiness? How does God teach us what holiness means? Does He give us an abstract definition - a mere verbal description? No; He sends us His Son; He sets before us a Person, a living embodiment, His own ideal of holiness.

Jesus is God's conception of a perfect man. In His life on earth we have set before us God's ideal of Divine holiness manifested and unfolded in a real human nature.

God sent His Son, not only to be the "Just One," who should fulfill all righteousness and meet all the claims of His righteous law, He sent Him to be the "Holy One," who should satisfy all the desires of a Father's heart, as the One in whom He could ever delight. He was therefore made wisdom to us from God, even righteousness and sanctification.

But how did Christ become sanctification unto us? He Himself declares, "For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth" (John xvii. 19); or, to make sanctification possible, He sanctifies Himself. Christ here puts before us the progressive aspect of His own sanctification. Already He was sanctified by the Father. "do you say of Him whom the Father sanctified," etc. (John x. 36). But He speaks now of His own personal consecration to the will of His Father, which should secure the sanctification of His believing ones.

What He would subsequently unfold and develop in those who should be brought into living union with Himself He first realizes in Himself. Their holiness should be essentially the same as that which was being accomplished in His own person.

It is important here to bear in mind that "to sanctify is not synonymous with to purify. To purify oneself implies that one is defiled; to sanctify oneself is simply to consecrate to God the natural powers of the soul and of the body, as soon as they come into exercise" (Godet).

He who was from the beginning absolutely holy became our holiness. He who was from the first absolutely perfect became perfected. Christ became in Himself, through trial and suffering, what He would afterwards be in us; namely, sanctification. The holiness of His believing ones should be the result and outcome of His own indwelling.

And so we read, "He learned obedience by the things which He suffered" (Heb. v. 8). This denotes, not a transition from disobedience to obedience, but the development in His own person and experience of the principle of entire consecration to God in connection with the trials and sufferings of a real human life, which has constituted Him the Captain of our salvation. "Being perfected He became the author of eternal salvation" (Heb. v. 9). The "perfecting" of Jesus as the "Leader of salvation" was historically accomplished in His person, and in this manner, by His having actually passed through and completed His career of human trial and suffering (See Appendix, Note E).

He traversed the whole realm of faith; He ascended the whole scale, from the lowest to the highest step; He has gone through the whole course. He is the Leader and the Perfecter of faith (Heb. xii. 2); He has preceded the whole company of believers. He is the princely Leader of the faith-life; He came to fulfill the true ideal of faith. He, not only taught it in precept, illustrated it in parable, encouraged it by miracle, He exemplified it in His own life.

He became one in whom faith was exhibited in perfection. Faith cannot be exhibited without trial. Trial must have its course. "Knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing" (Jas i. 3, 4).

Christ then, who is the Pattern and Example, has also become the "Author of eternal salvation," not merely as the external source, but as the indwelling Life - the vital Cause of our personal transformation. And this He becomes to all "those obeying Him." Having reached the goal Himself, He becomes the cause or origin of their sanctification.

From this we learn that to become holy we must possess the "Holy One." It must be Christ in us. Without that holiness "no man shall see the Lord." Holiness of walk flows from the Holy One. Conformity to the will of God in conduct is the outcome of conformity to the will of God in heart and mind; and this can only be brought about by enshrining Christ as Lord in our hearts (1 Pet. iii. 15). That is, "Render to Christ in the inmost chamber of your being the reverence which belongs to Him who claims to be your Proprietor and Master" (Beet). Possess the source, and you have the stream. This is that "holiness without which no man shall see the Lord."

But although this Gift is a present possession in the case of every believer, how many there are that fail to apprehend what it is they really do possess in Christ! It is one thing to be the owner of an estate; it is another thing to know what it contains. It is one thing to be in actual possession of the property, another thing to know the vast treasures of wealth that lie beneath the surface. So we may have received Christ Jesus the Lord into our hearts, and yet we may have seen but little as yet comparatively of the riches of grace and of glory stored up in Him for our daily realization.

And therefore, though Christ is ours - we have Him as a present possession - we must still follow on to know Him more perfectly. He must be ever the object of our daily aspirations. "Follow . . . that holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord." This implies activity, earnestness, diligence, and zeal. To follow after an object is to have it constantly before you; you do not lose sight of it. It dwells in your thoughts; it becomes a part of your very life; it enters into your practice; it stamps your character. That which is the object of your desire and the aim of your energies will have a transforming influence on your life.

But this is a very different thing from saying that our likeness to Christ is just the result of a mere imitation of Jesus Christ. Christ is our sanctification in a far higher sense than that in which He is our pattern. He is our holiness, because He himself dwells in us, to control our whole moral being, to transfigure our whole lives, and to become in us the spring of all our thoughts and words and deeds.

But lest, by dwelling on the human side of Christ's earthly course as exhibiting God's ideal of holiness, we should for a moment lose sight of His essential deity, and the necessity of that deity in connection with our sanctification, we would here add some valuable remarks by the gifted author whose writings we have already frequently quoted:

"All that you withdraw from the essential and personal divinity of Christ you take away from the reality of that holiness which constitutes your glorious destiny. I am struck by two expressions in this passage (Gal. ii. 20)and by their instructive connection: 'The Son of God, who loved me'; and, 'Christ lives in me.' A man could not live in another man. A man can leave us his memory, his example, his teaching; but he cannot live again in us. If Jesus is only a holy man, complete and normal Christian sanctification is necessarily reduced to the sincere effort to follow and emulate Him; and the Church would be nothing more than an association of well-disposed people, united together for the purpose of doing good, while studying their pattern, Jesus Christ. This is the level to which the most elevated and the most glorious idea of the gospel will immediately descend, when once the crown of deity has been snatched from the head of Christ.

"But, as Scripture and experience both teach us, true Christian holiness is something more than effort, an aspiration of man: it is a communication of God to man; it is Christ in person who comes and dwells in us by the Holy Spirit. Thus St. Paul calls Christ, not only our righteousness, but also our sanctification. And in St. John's Gospel Jesus expresses Himself thus:

'I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you'; 'at that day' - the day of the coming of the Holy Spirit - you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you'; he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and . . . We will come to him and make Our home with him'; 'because I live, you shall live also.' Who must He be, He who, not only comes and dwells in us by the Holy Spirit, but whose indwelling is, at the same time, the indwelling of the Father? 'Without' - or, out of - 'Me you can do nothing,' continues Jesus; 'I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit.' The Spirit 'shall glorify Me.'

"The Divine Spirit can never be said to communicate a man to other men. The Divine Spirit does not glorify a man in the heart and in the life of other men. The Divine Spirit glorifies a Divine being, the Son, who in His turn glorifies the Father. This truth is expressed in the form also of baptism, and is at the same time the secret of Christian sanctification; for holiness is Christ, and God in Christ dwelling in us by the Holy Spirit. And the Church? The Church is, not only a voluntary association of sincere imitators of Jesus Christ, it is the body of Christ, the living organ which He fills with His plenitude" (Godet).

And so in His Church Christ is still on earth fulfilling that glorious declaration "Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." And this apprehension of Christ as our sanctification does not in the least detract from the honour due to the Holy Spirit as our sanctifier. Both facts are, not only in the most perfect harmony, but are necessary the one to the other.

"Perhaps it will be asked," writes Professor Godet, "what is the connection between the passages in which our sanctification is attributed to the Holy Spirit and those in which it is attributed to Christ Himself living in us? (Gal. ii. 20).

"The answer is easy. In reality these two classes of expression refer to one and the same fact. What is the work of the Holy Spirit? It is to impart Christ to us, with everything that is His, and to make Him live again in us, as the grain of wheat which lies dead in the earth is made by the power of nature to live again in each of the grains in the ear. And, on the other hand, by what means does Christ live in us? By the operation of the Holy Spirit. There takes place in believers, by the power of that Divine Agent, an effect similar to that which produced the miraculous birth of Jesus Christ. 'My little children,' said St. Paul, 'of whom I travail in birth again until Christ is formed in you'" (Gal. iv. 19).

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The Law of Liberty in the Spiritual Life, Chapter 6: Conformity to the Death of Christ
By Evan Hopkins
Undated
"By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit." - John xv. 8.

"Being fruitful in every good work." - Col. i. 10.

"Your fruit is found in Me." - Hos. xiv. 8.

"Always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body." - 2 Cor. iv. 10.

"That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death." - Phil. iii. 10.

"I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me." - Gal. ii. 20.

"But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin." - 1 John i. 7.

PRACTICAL holiness is put before us in the Scriptures under the figure of fruit. But what is fruit? It is the deposit of the sap; it is the final result of all the inner activities of the tree - the outcome of the hidden life, which, beginning with the root, passes through the stem into the branch, and finally manifests itself in bud, blossom, and fruit. When the fruit is formed and ripened, the great purpose of the tree's activity and growth is reached; the life has completed its cycle.

Fruit therefore illustrates that side of the spiritual life that is sacrificed for the good of others. Fruit is "the produce of the branch, by which men are refreshed and nourished. The fruit is not for the branch, but for those who come to carry it away. As soon as the fruit is ripe, the branch gives it off, to commence afresh its work of beneficence, and anew prepare its fruit for another season. A fruit-bearing tree lives not for itself, but wholly for those to whom its fruit brings refreshment and life. And so the branch exists only and entirely for the sake of the fruit. To make glad the husbandman is its object, its safety, and its glory" (Rev. Andrew Murray). "By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit" (John xv. 8).

Practical holiness therefore is not something that has to be manufactured. Something more than even a perfect pattern is needed in order to be conformed to the image of God's Son, for holiness is no mere question of imitation.

"Christ's life unfolded itself from a Divine germ, planted centrally in His nature, which grew as naturally as a flower from a bud. This flower may be imitated; but one can always tell an artificial flower. The human form may be copied in wax, yet somehow one never fails to detect the difference. And this precisely is the difference between a native growth of Christian principle and the moral copy of it. The one is natural, the other mechanical; the one is a growth, the other an accretion. Now this, according to modern biology, is the fundamental distinction between the living and the not living, between an organism and a crystal. The living organism grows, the dead crystal increases. The first grows vitally from within, the last adds new particles from the outside. The whole difference between the Christian and the moralist lies here. The Christian works from the centre, the moralist from the circumference. The one is an organism, in the centre of which is planted by the living God a living germ. The other is a crystal, very beautiful it may be, but, only a crystal; it wants the vital principle of growth" (Prof. Drummond).

So it is possible to perform duties and do good works and call them fruit. "If you were to tie half a dozen bunches of grapes on your old umbrella, that would not make a vine. You may tie them on very carefully, but they will not grow. But that is just what multitudes of people are trying to do" (Canon Wilberforce).

Practical holiness is not something that begins by doing, but by being. It is not something to be built up, as you build a house, by adding brick to brick. It is not "a mosaic of moralities, nor a compilation of merits, nor a succession of acts. It is a growth" (Bp. Huntingdon).

There may be a good deal of outward activity in work that is really good, and yet no "fruit." What the apostle desired on behalf of the Colossian converts was that they might be "fruitful in every good work" (Col. i. 10); in other words, that their service should be the direct outcome of a Divine, indwelling, vital principle. It is possible to be zealous and active and busy in good works, and yet to continue unfruitful. Where there is real fruit the current of activity will flow from the centre to the circumference.

What then is the Source of all practical holiness? It must have a source. Every river has a spring. In vital union with all fruit there must be a root. What then is the source of our fruitfulness? Not our renewed nature. "That which is born of the Spirit is spirit" (John iii. 6). Through the operation of God the Holy Spirit a spiritual nature has been imparted. But "fruit" is not the outcome of our new nature, any more than in the vine fruit is the produce of the branch. The branch bears it, but the root produces it. It is the "fruit of the Spirit" - the Holy Spirit. A bad tree cannot yield good fruit. Regeneration is essential in order that the fruit should be good. But the new nature is not the source. It is Christ Himself. There is only one source of all holy living; there is only one holy life. "Your fruit is found in Me" (Hos. xiv. 8). "I am the life," not simply because I am the pattern of a perfect life, or because I am the bestower of the gift of life, not because I am the vital principle itself. He is the Spring itself. "For with You is the fountain of life" (Ps. xxxvi. 9).

It is Christ living within us. "Not I," says the apostle, though I am redeemed. "Not I," though I am regenerate, and have eternal life. "It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me" (Gal. ii. 20).

It was this that Christ promised in the fourth chapter of St. John's Gospel. "The water that I shall give him shall become in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life" (John iv. 14). There is no progress in our apprehension of Christ as the life: a progress in our heart-knowledge of that fact. We see first the life in its source (John i. 4), then in its bestowal (John iii. 16), then in its indwelling (John iv. 14), and then in its practical outflow (John vii. 38). It is in this last stage we have the "fruit," the outcome of an indwelling Christ.

Here then is the source of all practical holiness. It is important to lay the emphasis on that word "lives." "Christ LIVES in me."

What then is needed in order that this indwelling life should bring forth fruit abundantly unto God?

It is clear that Divine life can need nothing from man to increase its vitality. It does not need our efforts to make it live. Think what it is we really possess, if Christ is in us. It was no mere figure of speech that the apostle employed when he declared that Christ was living in him. And what was true of him may be equally true of us. What then is it we possess? We have Him, in whom all fullness of life actually dwells, in whom infinite resources are stored up for our use. Everything needed for continual growth, for perpetual freshness, and for abundant fruitfulness are found in Him. All power, all grace, all purity, and all fullness, absolutely everything to make all grace abound towards us, in us, and through us, are stored up in Him who verily dwells within us.

Since this is so, what then is needed? Shall we try to help Christ to live in us? shall we try to make Christ more living? shall we help Him to put forth His own power in us? shall we try, in other words, to grow - to produce fruit? Surely not. And yet is not this the grand mistake multitudes are making? Something however has to be done. Something is needed to deepen our spiritual life. All Christians have Christ, and possess therefore all the resources of spiritual power and abundant fruitfulness; and yet all Christians are not abounding in fruit unto God. What is the reason for this?

It is here: though we cannot make Christ more living, though we cannot add to His infinite fullness of life and purity and power, we may be hindering the manifestation of that life.

One of the most serious hindrances is unbelief. This lies at the root of every other hindrance. But it may be urged that Christ has power to overcome this hindrance, that He is able to break through this obstacle. And we know, of course, that He is able, that He could sweep away the barrier of all human unbelief. But is this the method of His working? Is it the law of His dealing with men?

We see Him entering a certain village. There were multitudes. of poor and needy ones there. And He was ready to bless them. The sick and maimed were brought in crowds to His feet. But what do we read? "He did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief" (Matt. xiii. 58). Not that there was no manifestation of His power. "He laid His hands upon a few sick folk, and healed them." But "He could do there no mighty work" (Mark vi. 5). "His power was omnipotent, but it conditioned itself, as infinite power always does in the world; and by this limitation it was not lessened, but was glorified as moral and spiritual power."

But the incident throws light on many a passage in our own spiritual experience. The weakness and failure we have known arose, not from want of power in Him who has made us His dwelling-place, but from the lack of trust and confidence in Him, which He is ever demanding of us.

We have limited the Holy One by our unbelief. We have "set a mark" on the extent of His power to overcome and deliver, to keep and to save.

What then is wanted for the deepening of our spiritual life is the removal of every hindrance; and when we begin with unbelief, we lay the axe at the root of every other hindrance.

But it is just here that the difficulty lies. It may be answered:

"By showing that it is a question of faith and not of effort, you do not remove the difficulty, you only shift it to another platform. How can I make myself more believing? I know it is because of my unbelief that I fail; but how am I to get more faith?"

This brings us to the main point of this chapter. The truth is, we need two powers: a power to remove the hindrances, and a power to produce the fruit; a power to separate us from the evil, and a power to transform us into the good.

This twofold power is found in Christ. There is the power of His death, and the power of His life. We do not bid goodbye to the first because we have been brought to live in the second. Nay, the condition of knowing the power of His resurrection lies in "being made conformable unto His death" (Phil. 111. 10).

The true life, that which triumphs over sin and "does not cease from yielding fruit," is a life that springs up out of death.

There is a deep spiritual meaning in those words of the apostle, which we fail to grasp at first sight, "always carrying about in the body the dying" - or the putting to death - " of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body" (2 Cor. iv. 10, νµºÁÎÃιν).

Death is here put before us as the condition of life. The continual manifestation of the life depends upon the constant conformity to the death.

Death means separation, and life means union. By being brought more and more into sympathy with Christ's death unto sin, we become more and more thoroughly separated from its service and defilement. It is not merely separation from sinning, it is a separation from the old self-life. The great hindrance to the manifestation of the Christ-life is the presence and activity of the self-life. This needs to be terminated and set aside. Nothing but "the putting to death of the Lord Jesus Christ" can accomplish this. Conformity to His death means a separation in heart and mind from the old source of activity and the motives and aims of the old life.

This "conformity" is the condition of the manifestation of the Divine life. As we have already observed, "the life of Jesus" does not need our energy or our efforts to make it more living. All that God requires is that we should fall in with those conditions which are essential for the removal of the hindrances. Let those conditions be complied with, and at once the life springs forth spontaneously and without strain or effort. Though we can neither originate nor strengthen it by direct efforts of our own, we may indirectly increase its manifestations by complying with the Divinely appointed conditions.

Our part consists in getting down into the death of Christ; His part is to live out His own life in us, just as the waters spring forth from the fountain. Then we shall know what the apostle meant when he said, "Christ lives in me." Where Christ thus dwells in unhindered activity, there will be steady growth, perpetual freshness, and abundant fruitfulness; and the life will be marked by ease and spontaneity, because it will be natural.

From this we see that it is impossible to exaggerate the importance of understanding the meaning of His death. We must see that He not only died "for sin," but "unto sin." In the first of these senses He died alone; we could not die with Him. He trod the winepress alone; as the sin offering, He alone became the propitiation for our sins. But in the second we died with Him. We must know what it is to be brought into sympathy with Him in His death unto sin. Oneness with Christ in that sense is the means of becoming practically separated, not only from sinful desires, but also from the old self-life. And this assimilation to the dying Christ is not an isolated act, but a condition of mind ever to be maintained, and to go on deepening. "Arm yourselves also with the same mind, for he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin" (1 Pet. iv. 1).

Identification with the death of Christ is the great truth we learn in the Lord's supper. In the broken bread and the poured out wine, what have we but the symbols of His death? What is it that we especially dwell upon and make prominent in that sacrament? "You proclaim the Lord's death till He comes." And by partaking of those elements we become identified with Him in that death. We become practically partakers of His life in proportion as we enter into His death, as we are made conformable in heart and mind to His death.

Wherever the blood of Christ is referred to in the Scripture, it means invariably His blood shed. The "blood," we learn from the Old Testament (Lev. xvii. 10, 11), is the life. "For the life of the flesh is in the blood." In consequence of possessing this character it could not be eaten; it was to be reserved "to make an atonement for your souls upon the altar." The clause, "for it is the blood that makes atonement for the soul," may be more correctly rendered, "for the blood makes atonement by means of the soul"; i.e. by means of the life which the blood contains. The blood is the vehicle of the animal's life; it represents that life. When it is shed - poured out - it represents that life as sacrificed: in other words, the death of the animal. The shed blood stands for the death of the victim.

Now when we speak of the blood of Christ," we mean the life poured out, sacrificed; i.e. His death.

There is a power in His death to separate us from sin. All cleansing is separating; when a garment is cleansed, it is separated from that which defiled it.

So the "blood of Christ cleanses," - i.e. the death of Christ separates - "from every sin." The more thoroughly we are brought into oneness with that death, the more fully shall we know what it is to be "cleansed from all unrighteousness."

In the consecration of Aaron and his sons we see these great principles shadowed forth with wonderful clearness.

God commanded Moses: "Then you shall kill the ram, and take some of its blood and put it on the tip of the right ear of Aaron and on the tip of the right ear of his sons, on the thumb of their right hand and on the big toe of their right foot, and sprinkle the blood all around on the altar. And you shall take some of the blood that is on the altar, and some of the anointing oil, and sprinkle it on Aaron and on his garments, on his sons and on the garments of his sons with him; and he and his garments shall be hallowed, and his sons and his sons' garments with him" (Exod xxix.20, 21).

We see here in type that which may be true in the experience of God's children. The ear, the hand, and the foot are all to be consecrated to God. Conformity to the death of Christ - contact with the blood - makes that consecration a reality. Because when we are in heart brought into oneness with that death, we become, not only set apart unto God, but separated from every hindrance to our hearkening to the voice of God, to our doing the work of God, to our walking in the will of God. These "members" (Rom. vi. 13) are not only dedicated, yielded to His service, because of the separation which the blood effects, they are "cleansed" from defilement, and anointed with the oil, the life of the Spirit; they are "meet for the Master's use." The sprinkling with the blood and the oil puts before us both the death and the life; which, as we have seen, are needed all along our earthly course.

Hence we see that we need as much the power of Christ's death every day, as we do the power of His risen life.

Let us see that we are not seeking to partake of the life without going down into His death. May not our mistakes in the past, and our lack of spiritual vigour, have arisen from failing to see the power of the Cross in the matter of sanctification? Perhaps we have been tempted to think that the death effected our justification only, and that our sanctification was entirely in His life. And this may have led to the idea, more or less prevalent in the minds of many, that having come to the crucified Christ, having seen the Cross in its atoning and justifying aspect, we have now passed beyond it, and have left it behind, because we have entered into living union with the risen Christ.

But if we have succeeded in making our meaning intelligible, we now see that this "putting to death of the Lord Jesus" - the essence of His Cross, if we may use the expression - is that which we have to carry about within us always, as an abiding condition of mind, since we need a constant and maintained separation from our old self-life. This is not a matter effected once for all.

His death unto sin has therefore a most important and intimate connection with our practical holiness. The condition of all real progress will consist therefore in the being made conformable to that death. Willingness to die to sin with Christ is a truer evidence of the soul's advance than anxiety to be filled with His life.

It is only thus we are brought to understand the true significance of both Baptism and the Lord's Supper. In the one we are buried with Him into death once for all; in the other we become assimilated to that death more and more - we are brought into closer fellowship with the mind of Christ crucified.

The cross of Christ is therefore not only the place where we find the new life, but also the place where we lose our old life. "The putting to death of the Lord Jesus" was the termination of that life which is "after the flesh," because "our old man" - that is our old unconverted self - "was crucified with Him." To be brought into oneness with that death, to be so identified with it that we, so to speak, always carry it about, is to be walking in a condition of continual deliverance from the self-life, and to find that the life of Jesus is being manifested in our daily walk.

All spiritual privileges are conditional. The condition of the "life abundant" lies in becoming a partaker of the mind of Him who died unto sin, to be armed with that mind. This is not an isolated experience, a single act, it is a mind - that is, a spiritual condition to be ever maintained, and becoming more and more deepened.

We have not therefore to strain our energies in order to live, or increase our strength. The living Christ within us will put forth His own power and manifest His own life; there shall be no lack of vitality. But what we are required to do is to voluntarily submit to die; and this, not by direct efforts upon ourselves, but by a participation of the mind of Him who died unto sin once, and now lives unto God.

The apprehension of the fact that we were identified with Christ when He died on the cross unto sin often produces most sudden and decisive results in the experience and practical walk of the believer. It cuts us away abruptly from our former course of life, and we find a glorious emancipation from sin's power and service. But this effect, though sudden and immediate, is followed by a work which is progressive and continuous. Following the first apprehension of the believer's death with Christ, and its results, there is now a deepening work of assimilation of heart and mind to the crucified Christ, a more perfect bringing into sympathy with Him in His death unto sin.

And as this work deepens, as oneness with the dying Christ becomes more and more an experimental reality, so the life increases - the living, risen Lord manifests His power, and fills the soul with His fullness. The believer's true life - that is, the life of Christ in him - is a life then that is ever springing up out of death. "I die daily," is a declaration that is fraught with deep meaning, whatever may have been the sense in which the apostle used the words.

It is as we become practically identified with Christ in His death, that all the hindrances to the manifestation of His life are removed. In no other way can they be set aside. Our own efforts cannot accomplish it; our resolutions will utterly fail in effecting it, and leave us in despair.

But God has provided us with a power by which every obstacle may be taken away. That power is the death of Christ. To get the benefit of that power we must submit to be conformed to that death, to be brought into actual sympathy with Him who died unto sin. Just as in the Cross we find the power which sets us free from the authority of darkness and translates us into the kingdom of God's dear Son, so in that death also we possess the power that separates us from the self-life and keeps us in a condition of deliverance.

Taking the "blood of Christ" as equivalent to His death, and the effect of the death to be separation, we can understand how it is that the Blood is continually cleansing us from every sin. Walking in the light, as He is in the light, the necessity of this constant separation from sin is felt more deeply continually. But the need is met by the Divine provision, and we become more and more conscious of the power of that death to separate from sin of every kind; and thence the fellowship between the believer and God is maintained, and becomes a greater reality in his experience.

This gives us another aspect of "the law of liberty" in the spiritual life.

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The Law of Liberty in the Spiritual Life, Chapter 7: Conditions of Power
By Evan Hopkins
Undated
"That power belongs to God." - Ps. lxii. 11.

"Christ the power of God." - 1 Cor. i. 24.

"For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him." - 2 Chron. xvi. 9.

"And He said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness." Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me." - 2 Cor. xii. 9.

"That you may know…what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe" - Eph. i. 18, 19.

"Strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power." - Col. i. 11.

THE essential condition of spiritual power is union with Christ. The power of which we speak is power for practical godliness, personal holiness, and effective service. This power is not from ourselves. It is not something lying dormant within us, something that has been covered up, and only needs to be liberated, set free.

It is Divine power. Originally God put power into the hands of man, but he lost it at the fall. Now God has put power in Christ. He does not give it to each one separately, but He has bestowed it on Christ; He has laid it up in His own Son. There it is eternally safe, and there it is for all the members of His body. But while it is there - and there for us - we cannot have it apart from vital union with Him.

It is not a gift that He bestows, just as you can communicate Flame to some combustible material, as, for instance, when you light one candle by another. In that case, the newly lighted candle, whatever the source from which it was lighted, has an independent flame of its own, and burns of itself. Spiritual power is not communicated to the soul after this fashion. It is power by virtue of union.

You go into some large factory; you pass through various departments; you see in each machinery at work, you see power accomplishing marvelous results: and you ask, What sets all these things in motion? where is the source of all this activity?

Then you are taken into the engine-house. There you see the centre, the source of all power that is put forth throughout the whole factory. The machinery in each department works, not by its own independent force, either generated in itself or originally derived from some other source, but by a force received moment by moment, and continuously, from the central engine.

The essential condition for the communication of the power from the engine to the machinery is union. Break the connection, and the power ceases. So that power which we must have if we are to live overcoming lives must be Divine power, God's power; not something that has been lying latent in ourselves, not something that we have derived from God, and is stored up in ourselves, but that which we are receiving - which comes to us as a ceaseless stream of energy from the central source of all spiritual life, the Lord Jesus Christ. There must be vital union with Him who is the Power of God.

But then we know that all believers are united to Christ, and "he that is joined to the Lord is one spirit." We know also that "if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His." A man may hold the doctrine of Christ, and yet may not be united to Him; but he cannot have the Spirit of Christ without also having union with Him. The Spirit is the essence of union. This is true of all believers. This union is not a matter of attainment in holiness, it is the starting point of all life, it is the beginning of all holiness. Life comes by receiving the living One. Identified with Christ in His atoning death, we are united to Christ in His risen life. "There is one body and there is one Spirit." And the body bears the same name as the Head - ."the Christ." "So also is the Christ" (1 Cor. xii. 12). Christ is the Head of angels; but He is the Head of the body, of which every believer is a member, in a far higher sense than He is the Head of angels. They form part of the company of heaven, but believers are members of that body which is the bride of Christ. This union is no figure of speech, no mere dream; it is a reality, literally spiritually true.

Now however a difficulty arises. The lack of power which we deplore is in those who are thus united to Christ: how are we to understand this acknowledged deficiency in those who are in vital union with the Source of all power?

Let us in the first place bear in mind that of no believer can it be said absolutely that he has no power. Power, in some measure, every child of God possesses; if there is life there is power. It may be life in its very lowest forms, but if life exists at all there will be some power, however feeble.

But what we now speak of is overcoming power. Not that which simply struggles and offers some resistance to sin, but that which rises triumphantly over every wave of temptation, which is able effectually to withstand every assault of the evil one and courageously to give its witness to the grace, the sufficiency, and the faithfulness of God.

We can understand how there may be union, and yet a lack of power in that sense.

Look at a man whose arm is withered. There is union between the hand and the body; but for all practical purposes there is no power for action or service. Here then we have a figure of the condition of things between many a believer and the Source of all power - union and yet no strength.

This presses the point still nearer home. What are the hindrances that stand in the way of the manifestation of power in those who are in union with Christ? We are all necessarily subject to limitations - limitations that are inseparable from our moral and physical constitution, hindrances that exist in the fact that we are finite creatures.

God's power is infinite, but our capacity is limited. No amount of growth or spiritual progress can so enlarge our capacity that it shall never be equal to God's own fullness. There are therefore limitations; but these are not the hindrances to the power of which we speak, these are not the obstacles that have to be removed. While our capacity can never become infinite, it is capable of endless increase - inconceivable expansion. Take, for instance, such passages as these, "All things are possible to him that believes"; "That you might be filled with all the fullness of God." The vessel I bring to be filled may be empty, or it may be partly occupied with something else. Worse than all, I may be keeping my hand over its mouth, and thus preventing the water from flowing in. In that case, it is not a question of the sufficiency of supply, but of the condition of reception. Well, the provision is infinite, and the channel that connects the vessel with the fountain is established - there is union. And yet there may be hindrance to the inflowing stream of power. What then is the hindrance?

The great hindrance - that which lies at the root of every other - is unbelief. We limit God by our unbelief. The avenues of our being which bring us in contact with Christ may become contracted, and the vessel into which the power is to flow may have been reduced to a very small capacity, all through the chilling influences of unbelief. If we are to be filled with the power of God, our faith must grow. Whatever increases our faith will increase our capacity, will open the avenues of our being to God, and the power will flow in.

But instead of looking at power in the abstract, instead of regarding it as a quality we can have from God and apart from Him, it will help us to understand the conditions of its manifestation if we think of it as inseparable from the Lord Himself. "For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal (perfect) to Him" (2 Chron. xvi. 9). Instead of recognizing the truth that I am weak and God is to show Himself strong in me, I may be expecting to see myself made strong. I may be looking for an experience of power in myself, rather than for a manifestation of Divine power in me. He will show Himself strong on behalf of him whose heart is perfect towards Him.

The conditions of power then is to have a perfect heart towards God. What are we to understand by a perfect heart?

Looking at the word in the original we observe first that it means a heart at peace with God.

The great work of peace is accepted. "You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You" (Isa. xxvi. 3). A heart perfect towards God is a heart that rests on Christ's atoning work. The words "perfect peace," or "peace, peace," include the thought of recompense, thus bringing out the idea of atonement, or the work of peace. The word "perfect" in 2 Chronicles xxvi. 9 is also rendered "peaceable" (Gen. xxxiv. 21 shalem). For when the heart rests on the work of peace, Divine all sufficient, and completed once for all, it is not only privileged to be at peace with God, but to have the peace of God; it may know, not only the peace of justification, but the peace of sanctification. A heart perfect towards God then is a heart against which no charge can be laid, which is justified from all things, and also in which there is no longer any controversy with God. The Spirit dwells in such a one, not as a Reprover, but as a Comforter. Another thought is suggested by the word perfect (selUv) in that passage in Chronicles.

A "perfect" heart is a heart wholly yielded to God. We read, "You shall build with whole stones the altar of the Lord your God" (Deut. xxvii. 6. See also Joshua viii. 31). Here we have the same word rendered "whole." A perfect heart is a whole heart. Wholeness is one of the primary meanings of holiness. Holiness of heart is wholeness of heart. "My son, give Me your heart" (Prov. xxiii. 26). A perfect heart is a heart that has responded to that appeal. It gives itself up without reserve. It lays itself wholly on the altar of consecration and that altar is Christ. The altar consecrates the gift. For "every devoted thing is most holy unto the Lord" (Lev. xxvii. 28).

But the same word has another rendering. Concerning Solomon's temple it is written, "And the temple, when it was being built, was built with stone finished at the quarry" (1 Kings vi. 7). The word perfect is here rendered "finished." The stones were all prepared and made fit for the builder, they were ready for his use. A perfect heart is therefore a heart in a state of preparedness. It is "meet for the Master's use, and prepared unto every good work" (2 Tim. ii. 21). It is "a heart at leisure from itself." Not absorbed in its own cares or spiritual difficulties, but being at rest and consecrated to God, it is free to devote itself to His service. As soon as the opportunity presents itself it is ready to embrace it. No time is lost in getting ready. Like an instrument always in tune, such a one is at once prepared to be used by the Master whenever He pleases.

How many spend their time in the work of preparing their hearts, as if their own sanctification were the great end of their calling!

The carpenter sharpens his tools for the work he has to do; but the sharpening of the tools is not the end, but only the means to the end he has in view. So, getting our hearts right with God, is only the means towards the accomplishment of the great purposes for which we have been rendered.

When the artisan who is engaged in some elaborate piece of workmanship requiring the highest skill, the most delicate art, and the best of instruments, lays his hand on a tool and then finds that it has lost its edge, he at once lays it down, and takes up another that is ready for use. He puts forth his power through those instruments that are perfect or "made ready"; only such is he able to use in his work.

How many of God's children is He obliged to prepare, by severe discipline it may be, before they are meet for His use! How much of pride and self-will and carnal energy have to be taken out of us, before we are really fit to be used in His service! It is not from lack of power - power belongs unto God, and there is no lack of power in Him - but from a want of being right towards Him, a want of this perfection of heart of which the word of God so often speaks, that we know so little of the manifestation of power in ourselves. He is ready and waiting to "show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him."

Once more we read concerning David's mighty men that "they came with perfect heart to make David king over all Israel" (1 Chron. xii. 38). There was thorough integrity of heart in the matter. There were no mixed motives, no lack of sincerity. It is a true heart, sincere as the apostle desired on behalf of the Philippians, "that you may be sincere," that is, "judged in the sunlight and found genuine." It is thorough in its aim and intention - "perfect towards God." It describes an attitude rather than an attainment.

Such a heart does not shrink from Divine searching. It willingly yields itself to the penetrating, purifying and consuming power of God's holy fire. Such a heart is loyal towards the Lord; its desire is that Christ should be king over the whole being.

Let this condition of soul be brought about, and there will be no lack of power. God Himself will make perfect His strength in our weakness.

How often we have said, "Yours is the power," but how little have we entered into the deep meaning of those words! Too often we have had our minds occupied with the thought, "Oh that mine were the power!" But to have His strength we must have Himself. It is not that He will show that I am strong. I am ever to be learning my own weakness - that I am weakness itself. But it is that His strength may overshadow me as a tent. Such is the meaning of the words, "That the power of Christ might rest upon me" (2 Cor. xii. 9).

When God is about to manifest His power through His children, it is thus that He leads them. He brings them into this condition of heart - a condition in which there is no longer any controversy with Him, in which every part of their being is voluntarily yielded to Him, in which the heart is entirely at His disposal and maintained in an attitude of loyalty towards Him. There is then no hindrance in the instrument to the manifestation of His power. The channel is then open, and free from all obstruction to the flowing forth of His fullness. There will then be a manifestation of Divine power in all directions.

Conquering power. The very first enemy that must be conquered, if we would lead triumphant lives, is Self. The only power that can conquer Self is the power of God. We get the benefit of that power by submitting to it - getting under it. To know what it is to be led forth in triumph by Christ you must first become His captive. He is always going forth as the conqueror, and there are no conquerors but those who are included in His train, who are conquering because they are conquered by Christ. Have you noticed the reason which the Centurion gave why his words commanded obedience? He did not say, "Because I am a man having authority" - but "because I am a man under authority." And the greatness of his faith consisted in this, that he recognized Christ's relationship to the God of heaven. "I also am a man under authority." Christ's word was power because He was under Divine authority. The centurion recognized Christ's relationship to Divine Omnipotence. He thought that just as all the power of Rome was behind him, and he had but to speak and it was done, so all the power of heaven was behind the Man Christ Jesus, and He had but to speak the word only, and his servant would be healed.

Here is the secret of reigning over sin. We must be under Divine control; we must know what it is fully to submit to it. "Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God."

Sustaining power. Some there are of God's children who seem to be always struggling to keep themselves up. You see a man in the water. In terror of sinking he begins to struggle, and soon he finds that his struggling is vain, as, in spite of all his efforts, he sinks. But there is power in that very water to keep him afloat. Faith it is true, is needed, and certain conditions must be fulfilled. One is, that he must cease from struggling. Let him cast himself on the water, and cease from trying to keep himself from sinking; let him trust the water to bear him up, and instead of sinking he floats!

So it is in finding the power that keeps us spiritually from falling. We must be ready and willing to abandon ourselves to His almighty keeping. The responsibility of keeping us from falling is His; the responsibility of trusting Him to keep us is ours.

Protecting power. We need this on every hand. Not only over us and under us, but on all sides - encircling us: "who are being guarded in the power of God." Christ, who is the power of God, is the fortress in which the trusting soul is garrisoned. Let the enemy find you thus entrenched, and he will be met by a power which is not yours but God's; he cannot touch you. "We know that whoever is born of God does not sin; but he who has been born of God keeps himself, and the wicked one does not touch him" (1 John v. 18).

Transforming power. The power of God is to fill us. When the tabernacle was finished, then God's presence filled it. "So Moses finished the work. Then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter into the tent of the congregation, because the cloud abode thereon, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle" (Exod. xl. 33 - 35). When we who are the temples of the living God lose the glory we lose the power. God transforms us by filling us. "That you might be filled with all the fullness of God" is the blessing the apostle sought on behalf of the Ephesian converts.

Lastly, overcoming power. Power, that is, for service, for aggressive work, and for suffering. It is the remark of an able preacher that "the Church has in it a power that is ever adequate to the conquest of the world" (Maclaren). This is true, because it is God Himself who is in the Church. God has says "I will dwell in them And walk among them" (2 Cor. vi. 16).

When the disciples said to our Lord, after their failure in the matter of the lunatic child, "Why could not we cast him out?" what was our Lord's answer? "Because of your unbelief." Consecration, or an attitude of thoroughness towards God, and faith, are closely related.

We are addressing ourselves to those who are believers. It is not therefore a question of the impartation of the gift of faith; it is a question of the exercise of the faith they already possess. How is faith to be increased and strengthened?

There are three things which faith needs - freedom, food, activity.

Faith means freedom. It is thoroughness that liberates faith. When we are brought to give ourselves wholly to the Lord, then it is that our faith is set free. If our eye is not single our faith will be crippled, hampered. "How can you believe, who receive honor from one another, and do not seek the honor that comes from the only God?" The want of the single eye was that which made faith impossible.

"I feel I cannot trust Him," says one. Why not? Is He not trustworthy? "Oh, yes; but I feel something holding me back." Is it anything like that to which David referred when he said, "If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me"? (Ps. lxvi. 18). Is there a suspicion that something is withheld? Is there any doubtful thing that you are afraid to bring into the light in order to have God's judgment about it? It is not by trying to believe that faith gets strengthened, but by removing the fetters that keep it bound.

Again, faith needs food. The word of God is the food of faith. In order to trust, faith must have something to trust to, a Person to trust in. The Scriptures are the warrant of faith. If faith is not always occupied with this infallible warrant, it will grow weak and feeble. Faith may be suffering from starvation. Our thoughts may turn upon ourselves, we may be occupied with our own activity, with our own act of believing, rather than with the word of God. But it is only as faith grasps the truth of the Scripture, or the facts that the Scripture reveals, that it gets strengthened.

Once more, faith needs exercise. All faith is given to be used. We do not know whether we have it at all until we are using it. This comes out in obedience; for what is obedience but faith in action? Faith must carry out into practice that which it believes.

It is so with the body. Unless we take exercise as well as food, we become indolent and slothful. So with the soul there is such a thing as spiritual indigestion. Our practical obedience and courage of faith may be a long way behind our knowledge. Let us be stepping out continually on the light revealed to us; that is, putting into practice, translating into action the truth we are receiving as food into our hearts.

It is as our faith grows that our strength increases. No greater blessing can possibly be desired than the growth of our faith, because this involves the well-being of every other part of our spiritual life.

The apostle said on behalf of the Thessalonians, "We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is fitting, because your faith grows exceedingly" (2 Thess. i. 3). "According to your faith be it unto you."

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The Law of Liberty in the Spiritual Life, Chapter 8: Watchfullness
By Evan Hopkins
Undated
"Take heed unto yourselves." - Deut. iv. 23.

"Watch, stand fast in the faith, be brave, be strong." - 1 Cor. xvi. 13.

"Be watchful in all things" - 2 Tim. iv. 5.

"Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints." - Eph. vi. 18.

"Therefore be serious and watchful in your prayers." - I Pet. iv. 7.

"Be sober, be vigilant." - 1 Pet. v. 8.

"Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain, that are ready to die." - Rev. iii. 2.

THERE are many who feel much perplexity as to the nature of watchfullness, and the place it should occupy in the life of the believer. For it must be admitted there is a kind of watchfullness which, instead of being a help, is really a hindrance to the soul in his walk with God, because it throws him back upon himself rather than upon Christ, and as a natural result his watching is in vain.

Now, of course it is with a view of being preserved from sinning, and of being guided aright in our daily life, that watchfullness is needed. But let us first clearly understand that our security does not lie in our ability to keep ourselves. True, our safety is closely bound up with our watching; we must watch, and watch continually. But let us never lose sight of the blessed fact that it is the Lord, and He alone, who is our Keeper. "Unless the Lord guards the city, the watchman stays awake in vain" (Ps. cxxvii. 1).

We must know what it is to be in His keeping before we are in a position to watch. We must be in the Tower, within the Lord's keeping power, before we can really learn what true Christian vigilance means.

Let us clearly recognize the true object of our watching. We may be directing our thoughts and attention in the wrong direction. What is it we have to watch?

Is it the enemy? No; for he has such marvelous powers of deception that he can transform himself into an angel of light.

If he had simply our vigilance to contend with, our power of discernment to cope with, he would have no difficulty in deluding us, he would find us an easy prey to his subtlety.

There can be but one object of watching: "Looking unto Jesus." There can be no other attitude of watching. And for what do we watch? For the Lord's warnings, His leadings, His teaching.

We have to watch for His warnings. It is He who alone sees and knows all Satan's schemes, everything that is going on among the powers of darkness. The believer can see but little of the wiles of the devil; but Christ's omniscient eye penetrates into all the innermost recesses of spiritual wickedness, He can never be taken by surprise. He who never slumbers or sleeps is ever ready to forewarn His believing followers of all that it is necessary for them to know in order to preserve them from the enemy's power; His loving glance will never fail to put the watching believer on his guard, and acquaint him of the enemy's approach, or of any special danger that may arise.

And as He can never be taken by surprise, so He never gives a false alarm. No child of God ever fell into grievous sin who had not previously received Divine warnings of the approaching danger. The warning neglected was the first step in the fall.

We have to watch for the Lord's leadings.

"I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: I will guide thee with Mine eye" (Ps. xxxii. 8 KJV).

To be guided by God's eye is the most delicate of all kinds of leading. You may guide another by your hand who is deaf, or you may guide one by your voice who is blind; but you cannot guide one with your eye unless he can see, and is willing to keep his eye on your eye, and understands your looks. But this supposes intimate knowledge, personal acquaintance.

There are many little turnings in the course of the day concerning which we need to know His will, as well as in the great thoroughfares of our journey through life. It is for the silent but unmistakable indications of His eye that we need to be watching if we would abide in His will. How great and momentous are the consequences that sometimes turn upon one trivial event, or that hang upon a single step! Watching is needed, not only to be kept from falling into the enemy's snare, but to be abiding in the knowledge of His will.

So if we would know the most blessed, the truest of all kinds of Divine leading, we must understand what it is to live so near, and to walk with such a vigilant spirit, that the eye of God alone is enough to indicate to us what He would have us do and the way He would have us take. There must be a perfect understanding between the soul and Christ.

"Do not be like the horse or like the mule, Which have no understanding" (Ps. xxxii. 9). True wisdom consists in knowing God's mind. "Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is." (Eph. v. 17).

We have to watch for the Lord's teaching.

"I will stand my watch and set myself on the rampart, and watch to see what He will say to me, and what I will answer when I am corrected" (Hab. ii. 1). "He awakens my ear to hear as the learned" (Isa. l. 4). He has many things to teach us which at the early stages of our discipleship we are not able to learn; but He is a wise, gentle, and patient Teacher. We must sit at His feet, as Mary did, and learn of Him, not merely by receiving His truth, but by partaking of His grace, drinking into His Spirit. He "is full of grace and truth."

"Blessed is the man who listens to me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of my doors" (Prov. viii. 34). It is impossible to say how much depends upon this attitude of watching, of hearkening to the voice of the Lord. The best messengers are not those who are the most original, but those who are able the most faithfully to deliver to others what the Lord has spoken to them. It is out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks, but it is by hearkening the heart is filled. To be good listeners to the voice of the Lord we must know what it is to watch daily at His gates.

Then as to the purpose of our watching. It is with a view to prayer. "Watch unto prayer" (1 Pet. iv. 7). This is an exhortation that occurs frequently. It shows us the immediate purpose for which we are to exercise vigilance.

We shall not watch long before we receive Divine indications of the enemy's nearness, and of the necessity of special grace and protection. These times of warnings should be times of prayer - special prayer.

It is not watching alone then that is needed, but watching unto prayer.

Often the Spirit will prompt us to prayer, when, judging from external circumstances, we shall be inclined to conclude that no real danger exists, or any special necessity for prayer. But how often have we afterwards discovered, it may be to our cost, that through disregarding the Divine call we were betrayed into a snare or overcome by a temptation!

The spirit of vigilance should lead to the deepening and strengthening of the habit of prayer. In answer to the prayer prompted by the Spirit there comes the deliverance, or the relief, or the guidance, or the light sought, as the case may be. This is followed by gratitude and praise. Hence we see the close connection between watching, praying, and thanksgiving, as they so often occur in the word of God. "Continue earnestly in prayer, being vigilant in it with thanksgiving" (Col. iv. 2).

Now from what has been said we see that the spirit of watchfullness supposes confidence in Christ's ability, a firm persuasion of His omniscient care and unfailing love. You are no longer questioning His wisdom, His power, or His faithfulness. You can rest in His care for you. You can say, "I am persuaded He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him." You are no longer fearful because of the enemy's power, for you know that greater is He that is with you, and in you, than all those that are against you. You can rely on God's keeping power. You know you are on the side of Him who is always triumphant.

But it supposes another thing; and that is a close walk with God. Nearness, not only in worship at certain stated intervals, but in the daily life, throughout each hour of the day. It implies a sensitive conscience - a conscience becoming more and more sensitive to sin's approach, a deeper and truer hatred of its loathsomeness. Not a scrupulous, but a healthy, tender conscience - a conscience void of offence.

From this it follows, that if I am continually being suddenly overcome by some evil habit, repeatedly taken by surprise by the enemy's assaults, I cannot really be in a spirit of watchfullness, I am not habitually "looking unto Jesus," I am not walking in fellowship with God. The communication between my soul and the Lord is broken.

We cannot excuse our falls by pleading that we are taken by surprise. We need never be taken by surprise, if only we are obedient to the warnings which He who knows all things ever gives to those who are watchful.

The following incident will serve to illustrate the important truth we have here touched upon, namely, that the spirit of watchfullness supposes the possession of a sensitive conscience, or a faculty of spiritual discernment, which is of the utmost value in our walk of faith.

"In the autumn of 1879, the steamship Arizona, 5,000 tons, at that time the swiftest ocean-going steamship in existence, was urging her way at the rate of some fifteen knots an hour on the homeward course from New York, whence she had sailed but a day or two before.

"It was night, and there was a light breeze, but of danger from collision with a passing ship there was little or none. The captain and crew knew of no special reason for watchfullness, and the passengers were altogether free from anxiety.

"Indeed, it so chanced that at a time when, in reality, the most imminent danger threatened every soul on board, many of the saloon passengers were engaged in purchasing at auction the numbers for the next day's run - runs below 350 knots being sold at a very low rate indeed.

"Suddenly a crash was heard. The ship's swift progress was stopped, and a few minutes later every one knew that the Arizona had run dead upon an enormous iceberg, the spires and pinnacles of which could be seen hanging almost over the ship, and gleaming threateningly in the rays of her masthead light.

"But the risk that threatened her living freight was not that of being crushed by falling ice. The bows of the Arizona were seen to be slowly sinking, and presently there was a well-marked lurch to starboard. The fore compartment and a smaller side compartment were filling.

"It was an anxious time for all on board. Many an eye was turned towards the boats, and the more experienced thought of the weary miles which separated them from the nearest land, and of the poor chance that a passing steamer might pick up the Arizona's boats at sea.

"Fortunately, the builders of the Arizona had done their work faithfully and well. Like another ship of the same line which had been exposed to the same risk, save that her speed was less, and therefore the danger of the shock diminished, the Arizona, though crippled, was not sunk. She bore up for St. John's, and her passengers were taken on later by another steamer.

"The danger which nearly caused the loss of the Arizona - collision with an iceberg - is one to which steamships, and especially swift steamships, are exposed in exceptional degree. Like this danger also it is one which renders the duty of careful watching, especially in the night and in times of haze or fog, a most anxious and important care.

"But, unlike the risk from collision with another ship, the risk from collision with icebergs cannot be diminished by any system of side lights or head lights or stern lights, except in just such degree (unfortunately slight) as a powerful light at the foremast-head, aided by strong side lights or bow lights, may serve to render the glance of the treacherous ice discernible somewhat farther ahead. But to a steamship running at a rate of fourteen or fifteen knots an hour, even in the clearest weather, at night, the distance from which a low-lying iceberg can be seen, even by the best of eyes, is but short. She runs over it before there is time for the watch to make their warning heard, and for the engineers to stop and reverse their engines.

"But science, besides extending our senses, provides us with senses other than those we possess naturally. The photographic eye of science see in the thousandth part of a second what our eyes, because in so short a time they can receive no distinct impression at all, are unable to see.

"They may, on the other hand, rest on some faintly luminous object for hours, seeing more and more each moment, where ours would see no more - perhaps even less - after the first minute than they had seen in the first second. The spectroscopic eyes of science can analyze for us the substance of self-luminous vapours, or of vapours absorbing light, or of liquids, and so forth, where the natural eyes have no such power of analysis. The sense of feeling, or rather the sense for heat, which Reid originally and properly distinguished as a sixth sense (not to be confused, as our modern classification of the senses incorrectly confuses it, with the sense of touch), is one which is very limited in its natural range.

"But science can give us eyes for heat as keen and as widely ranging as the eyes which she gives us for light. It was no idle dream of Edison, but a thought which one day will be fraught with useful results, that science may hereafter recognize a star by its heat, which the most powerful telescope yet made fails to show by its light. Since that was said the young Draper (whose loss followed so quickly and so sadly for science on that of his lamented father) has produced photographic plates showing stars which cannot be seen through the telescope by which those photographs were taken. . . . The sense of sight is not the only sense affected as an iceberg is approached. There is a sensible lowering of temperature. But to the natural heat-sense this cooling is not so obvious, or so readily and quickly appreciated that it could be trusted instead of the outlook of the watch.

"The heat-sense of science however is so much keener, that it could indicate the presence of an iceberg at a distance far beyond that over which the keenest eye could detect an iceberg at night; perhaps even an isolated iceberg could be detected when far beyond the range of ordinary eyesight in the daytime.

"Not only so, but an instrument like the thermopile, or the more delicate heat-measurers of Edison and Langley, can readily be made to give automatic notice of its sensations (so to speak). As those who have heard Professor Tyndall's lectures any time during the last twenty years know, the index of a scientific heat-measurer moves freely in response either to gain or loss of heat, or, as we should ordinarily say, in response either to heat or cold. An index which thus moves can be made, as by closing or breaking electrical contact, or in other ways, to give very effective indication of the neighbourhood of danger.

"It would be easy to devise half a dozen ways in which a heat indicator (which is of necessity a cold indicator), suitably placed in the bows of a ship, could note, as it were, the presence of an iceberg fully a quarter of a mile away, and speak of its sensations much more loudly and effectively than the watch can proclaim the sight of an iceberg when much nearer at hand. The movement of an index could set a foghorn lustily announcing the approach of danger; could illuminate the ship, if need be, by setting at work the forces necessary for instantaneous electric lighting; could signal the engineers to stop and reverse the engines, or even stop and reverse the engines automatically.

"Whether so much would be necessary - whether those amongst lost Atlantic steamships which have been destroyed, as many have been, by striking upon icebergs, could only have been saved by such rapid automatic measures as these, may or may not be the case; but that the use of the infinitely keen perception which the sense organs of science possess for heat and cold would be a feasible way of obtaining much earlier and much more effective notice of danger from icebergs than the best watch can give, no one who knows the powers of science in this direction can doubt." (Extract from a letter published in The Times by Mr. Richard A. Proctor.)

The foregoing statements from the pen of a well known writer and scientist are deeply interesting, not only as showing the marvelous results of modern scientific discovery, but also as illustrating a truth that has its parallel in the spiritual life.

We read for instance that among the other blessings conferred upon the believer there is the gift of spiritual discernment. "The Son of God has come and has given us an understanding, that we may know Him who is true" (1 John v. 20). He has "given us a sense" (Lange), so that we are getting to know the True One. The following are Dr. Westcott's remarks on this passage : - "That with which 'the Son of God' incarnate has endowed believers is a power of understanding, of interpreting, of following out to their right issues the complex facts of life; and the end of the gift is that they may know, not by one decisive act, but by a continuous and progressive apprehension, 'Him that is true.'

This then is a real endowment, of which those who are watchful and are walking in obedience to the Divine leading are made really conscious. They have given them "the power of believing in and seeing, little by little, the Divine purpose of life under the perplexing riddles of phenomena."

In words that are scarcely figurative, we may say with truth, that with the approach of some special forms of temptation or peril "there is a sensible lowering of temperature." We are made conscious that danger is at hand by something we cannot describe or explain; we feel that a call to special vigilance and prayer has come to us from above. Such warnings cannot be neglected without serious loss. Let them be the occasion of a steadier gaze, of a simpler trust, of a humbler dependence, of a more childlike confidence in God, and of a prompt obedience.

This faculty of spiritual discernment is not a gift to be lightly esteemed. It cannot be trifled with; it may be easily obscured or entirely lost, through want of watchfullness or careless walking. And when lost it is not so easily restored.

Few gifts are more precious than this faculty of spiritual eyesight, or the sense by which any lowering of the moral temperature may be at once detected. Often it will be the means of keeping us from venturing into scenes where the Spirit of God would be grieved, and where, not only our joy and peace, but our liberty and power in service are forfeited.

On the other hand, the gift by use is strengthened and becomes more and more sensitive. We grow in the possession of an "understanding heart." And as we live in this watchful and obedient attitude we are brought to know, in a way that no commentary could teach us, the meaning of these words of the apostle "that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God" (Col. i. 9, 10).

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The Law of Liberty in the Spiritual Life, Chapter 9: Conflict
By Evan Hopkins
Undated
"Fight the good fight of faith." - 1 Tim. vi. 12.

"Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ (or, who at all times is leading us in triumph in Christ)." - 2 Cor.ii. 14.

"Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us." - Rom. viii. 37.

"But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." - 1 Cor. xv. 57.

"Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil." etc…etc. - Eph. vi. 10, 11.

"Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh." - Gal. v. 16.

ALMOST immediately after the believer realizes what it is to have eternal life in Christ he is brought face to face with conflict. It is of the utmost importance that he should understand clearly the principles on which the warfare is to be waged, and what are the essential conditions to be maintained in order that there should not only be conflict, but victorious conflict.

One of the chief passages of Scripture on this important subject is the sixth chapter of the Epistle to the Ephesians.

The first thing to be noticed is the preparation for the battle. This is given us in the tenth verse. "Be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might." As when the apostle puts before us the Christian life under the figure of a race, he shows us what are the needful qualifications in order to run so as to obtain, so when he speaks of the conflict, he lays down as a preliminary condition that which is essential in order that we may come off conquerors. We must know what it is to become strengthened in the Lord.

The apostle addresses himself to those who have already apprehended their judicial standing in Christ. It is not now a question of salvation, but of becoming experimentally and practically strengthened, of which he here speaks. It is something that he presses upon them as that which is absolutely essential for Christian conflict.

But how is the exhortation to be obeyed? To be made powerful in the Lord is to occupy a certain position, from which alone the battle can be successfully waged. In order to do this we must first see clearly the nature of the victory the Lord Jesus Christ has obtained for His people.

He is, not only the Mediator between God and man, He is the Conqueror of our great spiritual adversary. He has, not only atoned for our sins by His merits, He has overcome our foes by His almighty power. Through His death He has vanquished him who had the power of death, that is the devil; He has triumphed over every enemy that can possibly assail us. When God raised Christ from the dead and set Him at His own right hand, it was "far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come, and He put all things under His feet" (Eph. i. 21, 22). To be strengthened in the Lord we must first see Him as the Conqueror, we must see Him occupying the victorious position.

As it has often been observed, the Epistle to the Ephesians in the New Testament answers to the book of Joshua in the Old. It is in the book of Joshua that the Lord manifests Himself as a man of war. In Exodus He reveals Himself as the Redeemer, but it is not until the children of Israel are standing, within the borders of the promised land, that Jehovah appears to them as the Conqueror: "As the Captain of the Lord's host am I NOW come." It is the same Divine Person, but a new revelation; it is the same Lord, but a fresh manifestation. They had only just placed their feet on true fighting ground; to lead them forth to the conflict, and to teach them the true secret of victory does He now come.

A full view of the Captain, and a clear apprehension of the complete victory He has already obtained, is the first step towards becoming strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.

But the next step is to identify ourselves with Him in His victory. What did Joshua require the captains of his men of war to do? Not simply to take in the fact that he had conquered the five kings whom he had placed in the cave, but also to identify themselves with him in the victory. As representatives of the camp of Israel they were required to place their feet on the necks of these kings.

So our Joshua would have His believing followers, not only to recognize the fact that He has triumphed over the foe, but also by faith to plant their feet on that victorious position which He has obtained for them; He would have them to enter into His triumphs, into the fruits of His conquest. Not only to stand in His righteousness, but by faith to claim and occupy the victorious position in relation to all their foes. This is to be made powerful in the Lord, and in the strength of His might.

Now let it be clearly understood, that to occupy the victorious position, as a preparation for the battle, is not a question of progressive attainment, but a matter of immediate acceptance by faith. We take it before we begin to fight, for not until that position is taken, are we prepared for the conflict.

It is a position superior to that of the enemy. Christ does not bring the believer into the valley while the enemy is occupying the heights. The conflict does not consist in obtaining the victory with His aid, and dislodging the enemy from his vantage ground. The character of the conflict is entirely different. To see what Christ has accomplished by His victory is to see that the enemy has already been overcome and dislodged from his stronghold, and that our conflict consists in fighting, not for this position of victory, but from it. We are to fight, not in order to reach the place of victory, but, occupying that position in Christ, being strengthened in Him, we fight from it. The conflict is, not to go up and take possession, but to stand in possession. Because possession is taken the moment we stand in Christ, what we then have to do is to hold our ground. We have "to keep the field," as Martin Luther puts it. And so the apostle uses this expression, "that you may be able to withstand, . . . and having done all, to stand" (Eph. vi. 13).

But again: the preparation for the battle includes another essential condition. Not only must the right position be occupied, the equipment which God has provided must be appropriated - "put on."

"Put on the whole armour of God." Here again the words must be understood, not as having reference to our judicial standing - for this could not be a matter of exhortation - but to our practical conduct. The apostle refers to that which has to be appropriated. Without entering in detail into the meaning of this armour, we may point out in passing, that what we have here is equivalent to the direction given by the same apostle in his Epistle to the Romans: "put on the Lord Jesus Christ" (Rom. xiii. 14). We may sum it up by saying that to put on Christ, is to be brought into entire subjection to His supremacy, to be wholly under his control. This, as we have seen in another chapter, is the secret of having His power. Until this is actually brought about we are not ready to engage in the battle.

In the next place, observe the foe to be encountered. The enemy especially referred to in the sixth chapter of the Epistle to the Ephesians is not the world or the flesh, but Satan. "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high (or, heavenly) places." That is, we are not fighting against mankind. It is not against the human instruments but against Satan himself, who is employing these instruments, that we wage war. The real enemy is not visible to the outward eye. He is an unseen but mighty foe; he is behind and underneath all that which is visible and human and physical. The enemy here contemplated therefore is not an internal but an external foe.

Now it may be objected, Is not the "flesh" an enemy? and is not the "flesh" within us? True. But let us not fail to observe that if the preparation for the battle has really been carried out, if the preliminary conditions have been complied with, then the flesh is no longer free to hinder us. That tendency to evil which continues with us to the last is no longer in power, but held in subjection by the supremacy of Christ.

The fight does not consist in an internal conflict. This would be mutiny. The believer cannot really conquer himself; but by giving Christ the throne, by simply falling in with His conditions, self is conquered, the flesh is held in abeyance, kept in the place of death, so that the believer is free to fight the enemies of the Lord.

We must very jealously distinguish between rebellion and true Christian conflict. If we are not willing that God should have His way with us, if we are setting up our will in opposition to His will, this certainly is conflict; but it is not Christian conflict, it is not "the good fight of faith." It is like a soldier who, going out to fight his country's enemy, is found, during the progress of the battle, sometimes on the side of the foe, fighting in his ranks against his own country, and at other times in the ranks of his own army. Unless we are really on the Lord's side, truly loyal to Him, we are not engaged in the warfare described in this epistle.

The believer who really fulfils the conditions insisted upon in the tenth and following verses in the sixth chapter of the Epistle to the Ephesians is, as Gurnal says, a "Christ-enclosed man." Satan knows what that means better than we do. He is too experienced a general to waste his strength against walls which he knows are impregnable. So, he does not come against us with his power, when we are thus entrenched; he adopts other methods. He brings his "wiles" to bear upon us - his subtle, methodized plans, in order to allure us out of our Fortress. The apostle speaks of them as "the wiles of the devil." His aim is to get the believer to quit faith's position. If he can only get him to doubt, or even to entertain discouragement - for all discouragement comes from the devil - he will succeed in his schemes; for the moment the believer quits faith's position he falls under Satan's power. Hence the fight is not merely "the good fight," because it may always be a victorious one, but "the good fight of faith," because it is essentially a question of maintaining the trusting attitude and remaining in faith's position.

It should encourage the weakest believer to remember that the "babe in Christ" who is within the impregnable Fortress is as safe as the "father in Christ" who occupies the same position; but the most advanced saint is as weak and helpless as water the moment he ceases to abide in the Fortress and have Christ between himself and the enemy.

The order in which the several pieces are enumerated is the order in which the armour of the Roman soldier was actually put on. And being armed, the soldier had then only to take up the sword or the spear. Now it is curious to note that St. Paul omits the spear; but this is exactly that part of his equipment which when on guard within the fortress the soldier would not be likely to assume.

Lastly: observe the result to be expected in this conflict. There are three "ables" in this passage that should be carefully noted. The first is in verse 11, "That you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil." The provision made for us in the armour is sufficient to enable us to stand. There is no reason why even the weakest saint should be overcome by Satan. It is God's purpose that we should come off victorious. Let us expect not defeat but triumph. How often have we been defeated because we have gone into the conflict anticipating failure!

The next "able" is in verse 13; but notice first the one in verse 16: "Above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one." Let us not overlook the little word "all." We know something of these fiery darts and the suffering they occasion: those unbelieving thoughts, desponding, hard, abominable thoughts - inflaming our worst passions and plunging us into the darkest gloom. How we long to be delivered! Well, here is God's warrant for our confident expectation that we may be. Where is the remedy? It is in the shield of faith. Let that shield be ever between us and the enemy, and not a single dart shall reach our souls. "All the fiery darts of the wicked" shall be quenched.

Christ is the shield that faith apprehends. Let Him stand between you and the foe, and you need fear no evil. This invisible and impenetrable shield shall surround you on every side, and guard you from every assault.

In the thirteenth verse we read, "That you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand." This expression, "withstand," occurs also in the Epistle of St. James, "Resist (i.e. withstand) the devil, and he will flee from you" (Jas. iv. 7); and also in St. Peter's first Epistle, "Resist him, (withstand) steadfast in the faith" (1 Pet. v. 9). This translation, and others, might lead perhaps to the idea that the believer's duty was to go out and encounter the enemy, and seek to overcome him by dint of his own power of resistance; but bearing in mind that the word is really "withstand," we see at once that the only way in which Satan can successfully be encountered is for us to be found by him entrenched in Christ. The only way we can 'resist" him is for us to stand in Christ our Fortress, and to meet his assaults with Christ as our wall of defence. So is that passage in St. Peter to be understood. We are to "resist" Satan by being steadfast in the faith; that is, by standing fast in faith's victorious position.

All these passages enable us to see clearly, that the conflict is indeed a fight of faith, and also to detect the secret of our past failures. We have not seen the indispensable necessity of this attitude of trust; we have relied on our own efforts, our own resolutions, our own prayers, it may be. While we have believed that justification was by faith, we have not really believed that the fight and the victory were also to be known and realized through faith. But this is God's appointed means. Let us not make experiments by using any other method.

"The law of liberty" is nowhere more necessary to our spiritual success than in this matter of conflict. If we are not really free from ourselves, we cannot fight so as to "withstand." Too much stress cannot therefore be laid on the tenth and following verses. There lies the secret of a continuous life of triumph over the power of the enemy.

How David anticipated the great truth set forth in this chapter we see from what he says in the eighteenth Psalm:

"The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer; My God, my strength, in whom I will trust; My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.

* * * * *

"It is God who arms me with strength, And makes my way perfect. He makes my feet like the feet of deer, And sets me on my high places.

"He teaches my hands to make war, So that my arms can bend a bow of bronze. You have also given me the shield of Your salvation; Your right hand has held me up, Your gentleness has made me great.

* * * * *

"For You have armed me with strength for the battle; You have subdued under me those who rose up against me.

"You have also given me the necks of my enemies.

* * * *

"Therefore I will give thanks to You, O Lord, among the Gentiles, and sing praises to Your name."

But an important passage as bearing on this subject of conflict has not yet been noticed. It is the well-known declaration which the apostle gives us in his Epistle to the Galatians: "I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the 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. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law" (Gal. v. 16 - 18).

It is of the utmost importance, in order to understand the meaning of these words, that we have clearly before us what the apostle here means by "the Spirit." There are multitudes of Christians who read the words as if we have here described the struggle between the two natures, flesh and spirit. Let us once and forever dismiss that thought from our minds in connection with this text. This is not the teaching of the passage. The apostle by the term "Spirit" here does not refer to the human spirit, that which is a part of every man's constitution; nor does he here speak of the new nature, "that which is born of the Spirit." As Alford observes on this text, Spirit here is "not man's spiritual part; it is (as in verse 5) the Holy Spirit of God." So to the same effect another well-known commentator has remarked: "Spirit is here doubtless the Holy Spirit; it is that that overcomes the flesh. He enters, it is true, into the hearts of believers, and works only by impelling and determining the walk, as He who dwells in the believers. But yet 'Spirit' (here) is not on this account equivalent to the new disposition of the believer himself, sanctified by the Spirit, but remains ever distinct from the individual human spirit, as Divine, transcending it" (Lange).

This moreover is clear from the context. To "walk in the Spirit" is to walk in the Holy Spirit. "The fruit of the Spirit" (verse 22) is the fruit of the Holy Spirit, not of our new nature. So here what the apostle declares is the opposition between the flesh and the Holy Spirit - the Holy Spirit being here regarded, not so much as working externally on the believer, but as an indwelling Power.

What the apostle here declares is that "walking in the Holy Spirit is the means of living in continual triumph over, or in a state of deliverance from, the "lust of the flesh."

The enemy which the apostle has now especially in view is not Satan - the conflict in that relation we have already considered in connection with the sixth of Ephesians; but here it is the flesh. We must ask, however, What does the apostle mean here by the "flesh"? We know the term is used in Scripture to denote mankind generally: "All flesh is as grass." It is also used of our physical nature, our bodily organism: "The life that I now live in the flesh." But there is another sense in which the word is used, and especially by the Apostle Paul. The flesh is spoken of as the seat of sin. "The expression gives us no right whatever to think of the bodily organism more than of the soul" (Lange). It must not be taken as equivalent to our material or physical natures. "The essential element in the idea of the flesh is the turning away from God and referring ourselves to ourselves, the self-seeking, egoistic element. This is primarily in respect to God; but immediately connected with it is the fact that a man in reference to other men, also seeks himself, his enjoyment or his gain. It is easily explicable therefore why love appears as the first effect of the Spirit being the temper and act opposed to selfishness (Muller on "The Christian Doctrine of Sin," quoted in Lange's Commentary). Selfhood is the essence of that principle called the "flesh." The flesh is that tendency to self or to sin which exists even in the regenerate. Adam was created originally without this evil tendency, though he had the liability to sin. But we must not overlook the distinction between the tendency and the liability to sin. A piece of wood floating on the water has no tendency to sink. It is liable to sink, because it may be submerged by external pressure. But a piece of lead floating on the water by means of a life-belt, though it does not actually sink, has a tendency of its own to sink. Now we believe that the "flesh," however it may be defined, is that which is incapable of being turned into spirit. And we believe moreover that the Scripture teaches us that it will exist in the believer as a tendency to evil to the last; that is, that it is not in this life actually eradicated. Therefore it is we need a power greater than that we possess by nature, greater than that we possess in ourselves by grace, a power which is Divine, even the Holy Spirit Himself, to meet that tendency and give us continually deliverance from it. We need continually the exercise of that Divine power which "is able to keep us from falling." And we may always have it; so that, though the tendency to sink is not removed, it is effectually counteracted.

The two principles are diametrically opposed. But, as Lange observes, "the contest" described in this passage (Gal. v. 16-18) "is by no means to be conceived as an interminable one. The context shows that on the contrary there is expected of the Christian a complete surrendering of himself, in order to be actuated by the one principle, the Spirit, and a refusal to give way to the lust of the flesh."

What then is needed on the part of the believer in order that his life may be a life of triumph? Not struggles with the flesh to overcome it. He has no power really to conquer the flesh; but he is free to choose either the flesh or the Spirit. He can yield either to the one or the other; and by the constant surrender of his will to the Holy Spirit, he finds at once that power in God which he does not possess in himself, a power that completely conquers the flesh and gives him continually a path of deliverance from its lusts. And hence the result is, we do not the evil things we otherwise should inevitably do if the Holy Spirit were not in us. But note what the apostle says at the end of this chapter, "They that are of Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with the passions and the lusts thereof."

"The meaning, to be sure, is not that now the flesh, with its affections and lusts, is not any longer present at all with those that have become Christians." . . . Crucifixion "naturally alludes to the cross of Christ, and the fellowship with Christ involves a crucifixion of the flesh, for the very reason that it is fellowship with Christ's death on the cross." Those, therefore, who appropriate to themselves in faith Christ's death upon the cross "have divested themselves of all vital fellowship with sin, whose seat the 'flesh' is, so that as Christ was objectively crucified, we, by means of the entrance into fellowship of His death on the cross, crucify the flesh subjectively, in moral consciousness of faith." That is, have made it "inoperative through faith as the new vital element to which we have passed over. To Christians considered ideally, as here, this ethical slaying of the flesh is something which has taken place; in reality, however, it is also something taking place and continuing" (Lange).

What we have already said on the subject of "conformity to the death of Christ," in another chapter, bears on this point. It is our identification with Christ's death unto sin, and being made one with Him in mind and heart in that death, that not only brings the flesh to the cross but keeps it there. To keep it in the place of death is the only way to walk in a path of continual deliverance.

It is in, and through, and by the Spirit then that this mortifying or putting to death of the flesh is to be accomplished (Rom. viii. 13), and this only by means of the cross.

What therefore this chapter of the Epistle to the Galatians puts before us, is not a description of that struggling between the two natures which so many Christians mistake for true Christian warfare, but the way of deliverance from one of our most serious hindrances to victorious conflict. It shows us how by the power of the Holy Spirit we may stand in a position of freedom from the harassing influences of the "lust of the flesh" - a freedom which is essential in order that we may engage in the conflict, run in the race, labour in the work, and abide in the fellowship to which by God's grace we have been called.

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The Law of Liberty in the Spiritual Life, Chapter 10: Filled With the Holy Spirit
By Evan Hopkins
Undated
"You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you" - Acts i. 8.

"They were all filled with the Holy Spirit." - Acts ii. 4.

"Therefore being exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He poured out this which you now see and hear." - Acts ii. 33.

"At that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you." - John xiv. 20.

"Be filled with the Spirit." - Eph. v. 18.

"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. He who calls you is faithful, who also will do it." - 1 Thess. v. 23.

MANY of God's children have been aroused to seek afresh that power for service with which the Holy Spirit alone can clothe them. They have found in their experience that the blessings realized at their conversion have by no means exhausted the "riches" treasured up for them in Christ; and that the fresh needs that have sprung up in their path, since first they set out to follow the Lord, cannot be satisfied by the fact, blessed though it be, that, "being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ."

They have seen that though, like the Ephesian converts, they have understood what it is to "have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace," still there is for them the further blessing, which the apostle sought on behalf of these converts in the words, "that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God" (Eph. iii. 16 - 19).

Very many have had their minds more or less exercised touching the blessing of the "baptism of the Holy Spirit," as it is often termed. We believe not a few have been hindered, if not actually thrown back in their spiritual course, simply for lack of a little instruction in the very first principle of the doctrine concerning the Person, offices, and work of the Holy Spirit.

The first point to be recognized, as clearly set forth in the Scriptures, is the fact that all Christians have the Holy Spirit. They have not only been brought under His influence, they have received the Holy Spirit Himself. "If anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His" (Rom. viii. 9). "It is remarkable," observes Professor Godet, "that the Spirit of Christ is here used as the equivalent of the Spirit of God in the preceding proposition. The Spirit of Jesus is that of God Himself, whom he has converted by appropriating Him perfectly here below into his personal life, so that He can communicate Him to His own. It is in this form that the Holy Spirit henceforth acts in the Church. Where this vital bond does not exist between a soul and Christ, it remains a stranger to Him and His salvation." At the same time we must recognize the fact that to have the Spirit is one thing, but to be filled with the Spirit is quite another thing. We know from what is recorded in St. John's Gospel (xx. 22) that even before the Ascension the Holy Spirit had actually been given to the disciples, that Christ breathed upon them the Holy Spirit. But on the day of Pentecost they were filled with the Holy Spirit.

A careful study of the New Testament Scriptures with a view to an understanding of what is said of the fullness of the Spirit, has led us to notice four distinct ways in which men were filled with the Holy Spirit.

First. After a season of waiting. This is recorded in the first chapter of the Acts of the Apostles. The disciples had a distinct promise to rest on, and a definite direction to obey. The promise was, "you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now" (Acts i. 5). The command or direction was, that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but "wait for the Promise of the Father, "which," He said, "you have heard from Me" (Acts i. 4; also Luke xxiv. 49). After this season of waiting, there came the filling we read of in the second chapter of the Acts: "They were all filled with (the) Holy Spirit" (Acts ii. 1 - 4).

Secondly. After a season of prayer. "And when they had prayed, the place where they were assembled together was shaken; and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness" (Acts iv. 31). We must not fail to observe that the words here used are precisely those we have in Acts ii. 4. The repetition of the phrase seems to teach us that even the apostles themselves needed the continual renewal of the Holy Spirit. They were not resting on a past experience, nor depending on the provision received at Pentecost. The blessing they received then, brought them into the attitude of looking up to the risen Lord for the "supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ" (Phil. i. 19). What we have here recorded in this fourth chapter of the Acts, teaches us also that the wonderful blessings of Pentecost did not make them independent of prayer.

Thirdly. After the laying on of hands. "Then they laid hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit" (Acts viii. 17). And again: "When Paul had laid hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them, and they spoke with tongues and prophesied" (Acts xix. 6).

Fourthly. After preaching, or during the very act of proclaiming the gospel. "While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who heard the word" (Acts x. 44). "And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell on them, as on us at the beginning" (Acts xi. 15). The italics are not in the original, but we emphasize the words to show that it was during the time the word was being preached the blessing came.

From these facts we see that men filled with the Spirit in more than one way, and that it is not correct to conclude that, unless there has been a season of waiting with this definite object, the particular blessing here referred to cannot be received.

Another point it is instructive to note, in connection with the events recorded in the Acts, is the distinction between being "full" and being "filled." The first indicates an abiding or habitual condition, the latter a special inspiration or illapse - a momentary action or impulse of the Spirit for service, at particular occasions.

These passages should be carefully noted.

We read, for instance, "Therefore, brethren, seek out from among you seven men of good reputation, full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom…And they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit" (Acts vi. 3 - 5), etc. And again, touching Barnabas, "For he was a good man, and full of (the) Holy Spirit and of faith."

The word "full" in these passages denotes the abiding characteristic - these were men who had been filled and were habitually full of the Holy Spirit.

But for special service - times of need and occasions of peculiar difficulty or trial - this was not enough. To those thus full there came additional or special supplies, which caused them to overflow. There was, so to speak, a welling up of the spring within. Compare John iv. 14 with John vii. 38.

Thus we read, "Then Peter, filled with (the) Holy Spirit" (Acts iv. 8), etc. He who was already full received there and then a fresh filling. And again, "Then Saul (who is also called Paul), filled with (the) Holy Spirit," etc. The word here points to a sudden illapse for a special occasion.

Now what believers should seek, or claim as that which is their privilege, is the habitual condition - always to be full of the Spirit.

This does not necessarily suppose any wonderful experience of joy, ecstasy, or consciousness of power; but a sense of nearness, of childlike confidence, of constant and entire dependence on the Lord. It gives us a sense of His indwelling.

If we are "full of (the) Holy Spirit," we shall find, as special difficulties arise, and special calls for service come to us, that there will always be that "filling," or momentary supply, which will enable us to triumph, to witness, to serve, or to bring forth fruit, as the case may be, according to His will. And it is when these fillings come that we overflow.

This abiding condition of being full of the Spirit should characterize every child of God at all times and in all circumstances. It is not a privilege that belongs only to a favoured few, nor is it something to be expected only at certain seasons, and under peculiar circumstances.

The normal condition of the believer may be illustrated by a vessel filled with water to the brim. This does not render him independent of further supplies, nor does it make him self-satisfied. On the contrary, to be thus "full" is to be conscious of one's own utter insufficiency, and the necessity of God's sustaining and renewing grace, moment by moment. It is the soul who is "full of the Holy Spirit" who really looks up, and trusts with childlike simplicity, for the momentary supply.

These "fillings" come just when God sees they are needed; and then it is that the soul overflows with those "rivers of living water" which our Lord declared should be the characteristic of Pentecostal days.

But the experience of so many of God's children is often sadly different. While they may know what it is at certain times to receive the fullness, and for a season to be "full of the Holy Spirit," so great and subtle is the spiritual leakage, that, too commonly, it is not long before they relapse into a condition of emptiness, which renders them unfit for the Master's use. Though they may find that special times of need, and of service, are met by special supplies, they no longer find that with these supplies there are also the overflowings. And the reason is obvious. The high-water mark of their spiritual life, so to speak, is far below the level of their own capacity.

Now it is clear that what is needed is, first to be made "full," and then to abide in that fullness. The "fillings" will come in the path of service according to our need. We need not be anxious about receiving the momentary supplies. God will fill to the full all our need, "according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus."

This blessing of being made "full" is ordinarily realized in connection with three things - waiting, desiring, and receiving.

Waiting. - We would not say that the fullness of the Spirit can be known only after a season of waiting, for we have it recorded in Acts x. 44 that "while Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who heard the word." There had been no tarrying for this special gift, no definite expectation had been awakened; but suddenly, while they listened to the gospel message, they were endued with the Holy Spirit. That St. Peter recognized the blessing as identical with that which the apostles themselves received at Pentecost we learn from the 47th verse, "Can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptized, which have received the Holy Spirit as well as we?"

Still, we know that one of the divinely appointed means by which our spiritual strength is renewed is that of waiting on the Lord.

We have to wait, not because He is not ready to bless - He waits to be gracious - but in order that we may be made ready to receive His blessing.

An essential condition of all spiritual progress and power is soul-rest. The believer must know what it is to enter into God's rest, if he would be filled with His Spirit. This is one of the chief purposes of waiting. We wait on the Lord rather than for the Lord. And as we wait He prepares the vessel He is about to fill, by bringing it into a state of stillness before Him.

It is a rest that comes from casting all our cares upon Him. If, instead of bringing them to the Lord, laying them upon Him, and leaving them there, we are carrying them, we shall fail to comply with the primary condition of being filled with the Spirit. But if, as we wait on the Lord, we let down our burdens, and lay aside every weight, we then take the first steps that lead to this blessed result.

It is a rest that comes from ceasing from self. This brings us into a still deeper experience of tranquility. By this means the adjustment of our inner being is brought about. This is to exchange our strength. "They that wait on the Lord shall renew (change) their strength" (Isa. xl. 31). The Lord Himself, instead of our renewed nature, becomes the centre of our activity. Then it is we learn the true meaning of self-denial, which is to ignore one's self, and to know no other but Christ as the source of our life.

It is a rest that comes from submitting to God in everything. By waiting we get down; we humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God; we get under His power, under his control. Then it is that we become like the clay in the hand of the potter; then it is that all self-energy and eagerness and anxiety cease, and the whole being is surrendered, unreservedly into the hands of God, that He might work in us "that which is well-pleasing in His sight through Jesus Christ."

Desiring. - Faith sees that to be "full of the Holy Spirit" is a blessing not peculiar to apostolic days, but the great privilege of every believer in the present dispensation, that it is a blessing which may be now known and realized, and that to live without this "fullness" is to live below our true normal condition.

Let this be seen and felt, and at once a desire is awakened in the soul which is the forerunner of the blessing itself. Without this desire our prayers for the Spirit's fullness would be cold, formal, and unreal. The longing to be filled is often brought about by a painful sense of barrenness of soul. Language like that of David in Psalm lxiii. 1 is felt to be the exact expression of the soul's desire after the life and freshness which God alone can bestow: "My flesh longs for You in a dry and thirsty land where there is no water." How many a Christian is in this "desert land" as to his experience! It is sad indeed to be in such a condition, but more sad to be thus barren and unfruitful, and yet have no longings for the "water brooks." Is not this the secret of the Church's weakness to-day - dry, barren and unfruitful, and yet little or no real desire to be "filled with the fullness of God"?

But when God is about to fill the soul He allures her into the "wilderness" (Hos. ii. 14). He brings her to see and feel her need. It is "from thence" that He causes her to receive "the fullness of blessing." To be brought to know one's parched and barren condition, is to see the utter folly and sin of all worldly compromise, and the necessity of a full and complete surrender to God. We are no longer shrinking from the thought of being too "out and out" for God', or of losing too much of this world's treasures. We are no longer afraid of going all lengths with God; we are now willing that He should have His own way with us.

Have you, my reader, been brought to this point of self-despair? Have you been brought to know by bitter experience, that a half-hearted life brings us, sooner or later, to a "thirsty land where no water is?"

Thank God, if now the language of your heart is that of David's: "As the deer pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul for You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God" (Ps. xlii. 1, 2). This desire, let us observe, is not for God's gifts merely, but for God Himself - "the living God."

The same intense longing of soul after the presence and fullness of the Lord Himself is expressed in another psalm: "I spread out my hands to You; my soul longs for You like a thirsty land" (Ps. cxliii. 6).

Now we know that to this spirit of desire itself a blessing belongs. Our Lord gave it a beatitude. "Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled." Still, let us not stop at the desire. The "thirsting" is only the preparation for the "filling." This brings us to the

Receiving. - While we plead God's promises, let us not forget to obey His commands. "Receive the Holy Spirit," "Be filled with the Spirit," are Divine commands. When Peter and John came to the Christian converts at Samaria they "prayed for them, that they might receive the Holy Spirit" (Acts viii. 15). When Paul came to Ephesus and found there certain disciples, he put this question to them, "Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?" (Acts xix. 2). Quite apart from the question as to what kind of disciples these were, it seems clear that the apostle put the question supposing them to be disciples of Christ - believers who had been baptized into His name, who had therefore been born of the Holy Spirit. We see that they were in truth only the followers of John the Baptist - disciples who had not experimentally entered into the Christian dispensation. But the point, after all, is not what was their spiritual condition, but what was the apostle's intention, what was the purport of his question?

Does not his question indicate the fact that it is possible to be a believer, to be born of the Spirit, and yet not to have the Holy Spirit in the same sense as the apostles received Him on the day of Pentecost?

So we find the same apostle writing to the Galatians, "Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?" (Gal. iii. 2). "Faith consists not in working but in receiving."

Compare with this our Lord's words: "the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him" (John xiv. 17), etc. "With the world, want of vision prevented possession. With the disciples the personal presence of the Paraclete brought knowledge, and with that knowledge the power of more complete reception" (Canon Westcott).

If many are hindered for want of desire, how many are hindered for want of reception! Here seems to be the difficulty with really earnest souls. There is much asking but little or no blessing - because there is not a corresponding reception. And yet it is through this door - a present believing reception - that the fullness of the Spirit, as well as every other blessing, is to be realized.

Our Lord's direction in this matter is clear and explicit:

"Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them" (Mark xi. 24). That is, "We are to believe, not that we shall one day have what we pray for in a future more or less distant, but that we actually receive it as we pray" (New Testament Commentary. Edited by Bishop Ellicott).

To believe that we are receiving, is more than to believe that we are desiring and asking. It is when our faith passes from the stage of seeking, to that of receiving, that the fullness comes.

To ask truly is to ask in Christ's name. When we thus pray we not only ask but also receive. "Until now you have asked nothing in My name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full" (John xvi. 24).

Let us notice our Lord does not say here, "Ask, and it shall be given you." That is true, but He is here speaking of the other side - man's side of receiving: "Ask, and you will receive." True asking will surely be followed or accompanied by an actual and present reception.

But many are perplexed, because they fail to recognize the nature of this filling.

Instead of seeking to have more of the Holy Spirit, we should yield ourselves to Him, that He might have more of us.

A simple illustration may help us here.

You receive someone into your house, and you let him have possession of one room. It is, let us suppose, the best room in your house, but still you give him only that one room. After a while you let him have another apartment. And so you go on, letting him take room after room, until at last the whole house is in his possession and under his control.

Now in this case what has taken place? It is not that more and more of the man has come into your house, but that more and more of your house has come into his possession.

So let us never forget when we speak of being filled with the Spirit that the blessing consists, not in receiving a mere influence or emanation from God. He is a Person. We have received Him. He entered our hearts when we passed from death unto life. We received the personal Holy Spirit when we believed and became converted to Christ. But the blessing consists in this, that we have been brought more completely under his power and control. It is He who has taken a fuller possession of us.

This is to be sanctified wholly. When not only the spirit - the central part of our being, where the work of regeneration commences - but when the "whole spirit and soul and body" - every room in the house, so to speak, is yielded up to Him, then it is that we are "full of (the) Holy Spirit."

But one word by way of caution. In seeking this blessing let us see to it that we do not lose our rest. If we have been brought into the rest of faith, if we have entered into His rest, let us not be allured out of it on any consideration. Nothing is more essential than restfulness if we would wait upon God. But many have so prayed for the "baptism of the Spirit" that they have completely wrestled themselves out of rest. Let us see then that our earnestness does not degenerate into impatient anxiety.

Another warning is needful. Let nothing tempt you to look away from Christ, or lead you to imagine that the blessing you seek is something outside of Him or apart from Him. Remember that "all fullness" - therefore the fullness of the Spirit - dwells in Him.

Again, see that you do not set your heart upon getting an experience - some extraordinary afilatus. Be willing to rest in God's will. Let Him "take you, break you, and make you," then He will possess you.

One word as to evidences. Does any one ask, "How shall I know that I have the fullness of the Spirit?" You will be assured of this by knowing it. Compare the two verses in John xiv. 11 and 20: "Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me"; "At that day (the day of the Spirit's fullness to you) you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you." "You shall come to know, by the teaching of the Spirit, what is for the time a matter of faith only." At that day you shall "in that knowledge realize the fullness of your fellowship with Me." The fullness of the Spirit makes Christ to our consciousness a real, indwelling, and all-sufficient Saviour. The Spirit never draws away our attention from Christ to any other object. He glorifies Christ. The more we know of the fullness of the Spirit, the more we shall glory in Christ, and the more shall we be occupied with Him. "The dispensation of the Spirit is the revelation of Christ" (Canon Westcott).

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The purpose of Grace Notes is to highlight the dynamics of abundant living as summarized in Galatians 2:20. Back issues are available at the Web site. Please pray for God's blessing on these articles. Your comments are welcome: john@gracenotebook.com.
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Originally posted by Michael Harrison:
You have a hearing problem.

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Yes I do, or did you not read the Scripture quote earlier? I'm both a blind and deaf servant of The Lord in Christ Jesus!

Isaiah 42:18-21
Hear, ye deaf; and look, ye blind, that ye may see. Who is blind, but my servant? or deaf, as my messenger that I sent? who is blind as he that is perfect, and blind as the LORD's servant? Seeing many things, but thou observest not; opening the ears, but he heareth not.
The LORD is well pleased for his righteousness' sake; he will magnify the law, and make it honourable.

John 9:41
Jesus said to them, "If you were blind, you would have no sin; but since you say, ' We see,' your sin remains.

Psalm 32:8-9
I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go: I will counsel thee with mine eye upon thee.
Be ye not as the horse, or as the mule, which have no understanding; Whose trappings must be bit and bridle to hold them in, Else they will not come near unto thee.

God has placed blinders on me, so that all I see is Jesus!

SOUND TEACHING

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Originally posted by Michael Harrison:
If the eye is single the body will be full of light.

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Originally posted by Michael Harrison:
Sanctification is not a lifelong experience. It is entered the moment one believes unto it. It is maintained by an attitude of faith.

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Originally posted by Michael Harrison:
What is sin? It is what you think, feel, or do apart from Jesus (also called darkness). It comes from being evil in our hearts. To be evil means 'to depart from Jesus in thought, or deed. It is to be, or act seperately from Him. Therefore it is to believe that we are separate from Him by not believing that we are one with Him.

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EVERY heresy, it has been said, has its root in defective views of sin. What we think of the Atonement depends greatly upon what we think of the evil which made that Atonement necessary. The converse, no doubt, is also true. But if we would rise towards a full appreciation of the value of that infinite sacrifice, we must seek to understand, as perfectly as possible, the true nature of sin.

What then is sin? So widespread and universal is the existence of evil, that we are apt to regard it as an inseparable adjunct to our human nature. But sin is not an essential element in the constitution of our humanity. We know that it was not in man originally, nor will it be in man as finally glorified; neither did it exist in the Man Christ Jesus. And yet there is scarcely a fact of which we are more conscious than the presence of evil. It meets us on every hand. Its desolating influence is seen and felt by all. Sin is no mere figment of the imagination; it is a terrible reality. It is no vague, indefinite shadow; it is a real and specific evil.

Nor again are we to regard sin as a necessary constituent of our moral progress. That it is overruled for our good, and that it is made to serve in the process of our spiritual discipline, is undoubtedly true; but sin is not an essential element in our moral training or spiritual advancement. We need not sin that grace may abound; we need not be under its power, nor defiled by its taint, in order to be advancing in knowledge or growing in humility.

To learn its true nature we must look at it, not only in relation to ourselves, but in relation to God; we must regard it in connection with His infinite justice, and holiness and love.

It is only in that light that we shall understand its real character. We must consider it, moreover, in more than one aspect. It is such a vast evil, that we can form no adequate conception of its nature unless we look at it from various points of view. Sin has many aspects.

But from whatever side we contemplate it, we shall see that the characteristic feature of each aspect is met by a corresponding fitness in the remedy which God has provided for sin.

It is one thing to recognize the effects of sin on mankind, it is another thing to see it in its essential character, as rebellion against God. Man through sin has not only become "wounded and debilitated," he has become alienated from God; he has been brought into an attitude of positive antagonism to God. Sin therefore is not something which appeals to pity only, a mere misfortune; it is that which deserves punishment, for it is rebellion against the purity and goodness and majesty of God.

If sin were not an offence, we could conceive of the mercy of God forgiving sin without any sacrifice; but the necessity of a sacrifice teaches us that sin is a violation of God's law. This necessity is set forth with unmistakable clearness in the Old Testament, and with equal emphasis in the New.

"Sin is the transgression of the law" (I John iii. 4). By the law we are to understand, "not only the Mosaic law of the Old Testament, but also the law of the New Testament in Christ, and by Him explained in the word and exhibited in the life, as the law written in man's heart for his special direction; it embraces the whole complex commandment" (Pearson).

Man feels within himself just what God has revealed in His word - that sin needs something more than the mercy of God. In this respect the doctrine of the Bible and the witness of the human heart are one.

It is a true instinct of man's nature that teaches him that guilt needs compensation; but the mistake into which he falls, if left to himself, is that he seeks to make that compensation by means which he himself has devised. This is the history of all heathen sacrifices.

Sin is an offence, because it is rebellion against the sovereignty of God, a contradiction to His nature, an insult to His holiness. It stands related to law - not merely to the law of reason, or of conscience, or of expediency, but to the law of God. Sin consists essentially in the want of conformity to the will of God, which the law reveals; it is lawlessness - a breach of law. And thus, it is the law that reveals the sinfulness of sin. "The crookedness of a crooked line may be seen of itself, but it is still more evident if compared with a perfect standard of straightness."

While the voice of conscience tells us that some amends is needed for the guilt of our sin, it is only revelation that shows us how that amends can be made; it is only there that we learn what sacrifice is sufficient to atone for human guilt. This view of sin leads us to see the meaning of Christ's death on the cross. It was the death of a condemned criminal: "He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities" (Isa. liii. 5); He died, "the just for the unjust" (I Pet. iii. 18).

Freedom from sin as a transgression, as an offence against God, consists then in this - that through Christ's atoning death it is so "put away" as "to make it as though it had never been." "No power in earth or heaven can make that not to have been done which has been done; the only imaginable and conceivable alteration is, that it should be as though it had never been done, that all bad effects of it should be destroyed and obliterated, and that the sin should be nullified by compensation." (Mozley.) This freedom from sin as an offence we enter into as a present privilege. It is the first aspect of liberty which we are brought to experience through a saving view of Christ's death upon the cross.

Sometimes the term sin is used in Scripture as having reference to acts of sin. This, however, is not the only sense in which sin is spoken of. It is also referred to as a power, dwelling and working in man.

When we speak of sinning, we imply, of course, an action. But by an action we do not mean merely that which is external; it may be a purely inward one. Transgression therefore must not be limited to outward violations of God's law; it includes all those inner activities of the soul which are opposed to the mind and character of God.

In the sixth of Romans the particular aspect in which sin is contemplated is that of a ruling power. Sin is there personified as one who seeks to have lordship over the believer.

Consider what it is that the fall has involved. It has not only brought upon man the penalty due to sin as an offence, it has enslaved him under sin as a ruling principle. Sin is a power that has entered into the central citadel of a man's being, and, establishing itself there, has brought every part of his nature under its sway. Sin is a principle that is essentially opposed to God, and by taking possession of man's will and affections, makes him an enemy to God, and leads him out into open rebellion against Him. Man has thus become a slave to sin.

From the central part of our nature sin reigns over the whole man. Our body is thus "the body of sin" (Rom. vi. 6. "The body of (belonging to) sin." . . . "The material body . . . as the inlet of temptation and the agent of sin." - Dean Vaughan): for while we are under sin's dominion, the body is the instrument through which sin carries out its work; it is in sin's possession and under sin's control.

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The reason for the cross is so that we may be one with Him by dying.

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Originally posted by Michael Harrison:
This is the gift of God, to be one with Him as we live out our lives by Him, not behaving separately from Him.

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Originally posted by Michael Harrison:
He died so that we would not have to,

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Originally posted by Michael Harrison:
so that being 'baptized' into His death, we may be one with Him in His life.

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Originally posted by Michael Harrison:
This cannot happen if we love the world.

"Love not the world, or the things of the world. If any man love the world, the love of the father is not in Him."

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God has placed blinders on me, so that all I see is Jesus!

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Originally posted by Michael Harrison:
If the eye is single the body will be full of light.

Assuming you have an 'inclination' as to what this passage of Scripture alludes to, seeing as you quoted it..

Why then, do you continue to see the darkness in this world and in your soul? For the verse does go on to say that if thine eye be evil, how great is that evil! Why not rather see the Lord working through all things, as He REALLY is?!?

Jesus underwent progressive sanctification, though He was sanctified from the beginning, and is indeed our sanctification..

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Hebrews 5:8
though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered.

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Genesis 3:5
"For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."

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Originally posted by Michael Harrison:
If the eye is single the body will be full of light.

Assuming you have an 'inclination' as to what this passage of Scripture alludes to, seeing as you quoted it..

Why then, do you continue to see the darkness in this world and in your soul? For the verse does go on to say that if thine eye be evil, how great is that evil! Why not rather see the Lord working through all things, as He REALLY is?!?

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Seeds of Forbidden Fruit, Part 1
By John Woodward
December 3, 2001
Genesis is the book of beginnings. In it we discover the beginning of the universe and life on earth -- plant life, animal life, and human life. Chapter two records the creation of man and the beauty of his environment: "And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being. The LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there He put the man whom He had formed. And out of the ground the LORD God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil"(Gen. 2:7-9).

As human beings made in the image of the Creator, Adam and Eve were created to enjoy a love relationship with Almighty God. Yet, since love is voluntarily given, Adam and Eve had free will and the potential of rejecting God's way. The test was a very simple one. Adam was clearly warned by God concerning the devastating consequences that would follow the violation of the LORD's one prohibition: "And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, 'Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die'" (Gen. 2:17).

What was the nature of this forbidden fruit? We are not told what it looked like. (The popular notion of it being an apple is conjecture.) One thing is clear: it was designated as being of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. By understanding the nature of Adam and Eve's sin in eating this fruit, we will perceive the cause of human misery and gain insights about how we appropriate God's salvation.

Consider four "seeds" that were involved in Original Sin: the "seeds" of pride, unbelief, independence, and self-will.

1. The Seed of Pride

Genesis records, "Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, 'Has God indeed said, "You shall not eat of every tree of the garden"?' And the woman said to the serpent, 'We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, "You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die."' Then the serpent said to the woman, 'You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil'" (Gen. 3:1-4).

The bait that the Enemy used for Eve was the alluring prospect of being "like God." (Notice the deception involved. Adam and Eve were already like God and living in uninterrupted communion with Him!). It shouldn't surprise us that Satan would use PRIDE to entice our first parents. He himself succumbed to pride in his prehistoric rebellion, claiming "I will be like the Most High" (Isaiah 14:14).

2. The Seed of Unbelief

Although God directly communed with Adam, the nature of this fellowship was spiritual. Since Spirit cannot be seen with physical eyes, the spiritual life requires faith (John 1:18; 4:24; Heb. 11:6).

Faith in God was challenged by Satan when he questioned God's character, then denied His warning. By suggesting that Adam and Eve could NOT eat from ANY tree in the Garden of Eden, the Tempter insinuated that God was unkind. (Eve started to slip when she replied that they could eat of the other trees but neglected to say "freely.") Satan's suggestion of doubt mushroomed into full-blown denial of God's Word: "You will not surely die." By eating the forbidden fruit, our first parents chose UNBELIEF instead of faith. The forbidden fruit appealed to Eve's body and soul; Eve's invitation appealed to Adam's body and soul. Faith, however, requires continual acceptance of God's Word through the human spirit.

3. The Seed of Independence

God gave the animals instinct to guide their behavior. The animals were given special wisdom through instinct for adapting to the environment, acquiring food, finding protection, etc. But man was not created to be guided by instinct; God made humans to be guided by spiritual communion with their Creator! Dependence on God was not a disadvantage but a glorious privilege and opportunity. Such trust was the basis of delightful fellowship with the LORD.

Man's knowledge was to be discerned through his spirit's intuition; his conscience was to guide moral choices. Both of these faculties were to be under the guidance of spiritual fellowship with God. However, the forbidden fruit represented the attempt of man getting his ultimate needs met INDEPENDENTLY of God.

4. The Seed of Self-will

Since God created Adam and Eve innocent, their will naturally cooperated with God's governance. In avoiding the forbidden fruit they could take dominion of the earth, delight in one another and benefit from all of God's gifts. This was a life of freedom!

However, the Tempter enticed Eve to exercise SELF-WILL: "'For God knows that in the day you eat of it [the forbidden fruit] your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.' So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate."

God's warning was instantly fulfilled. They ate the forbidden fruit and -- that day -- they died spiritually. (Death involves separation; they became separated from the life of God in their human spirit. This triggered the beginning of physical mortality.)

The results of guilt, shame, and alienation were immediately evident: "Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked." Self-styled religion was their natural reaction: "and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings." However, after God pronounced judgment He mercifully provided atonement for Adam and Eve: "Also for Adam and his wife the LORD God made tunics of skin, and clothed them (Gen. 3:7,21)." (This implies the shedding of blood in substitutionary sacrifice.) So, original sin forfeited the benefits of eternal life as represented by access to the Tree of Life (Gen. 3:24).

How grateful we are for our Redeemer -- the Lord Jesus Christ! His saving work established Him as the new spiritual Head of those who receive Him: "For since by man came death, by Man [Christ] also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive" (1 Cor. 15:21,22; Cf. 47-49).

The contrast of Adam and Christ, the second "Adam," is profound. Romans expounds this further: "For if by the one man's offense [Adam's] death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ... For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man's obedience many will be made righteous" (Rom. 5:17-19).

Praise God for the blessings of being IN CHRIST through saving faith! (2 Cor. 5:17-21). In the next article, let's examine how the way of salvation involves the OPPOSITES of these "seeds" of forbidden fruit.

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Copyright (c) 2001 by John Woodward. Revised October 2006. Permissionis granted to reproduce Grace Notes for non-commercial purposes.Scripture quotations from The Holy Bible, New King James Version (c) 1982 Thomas Nelson (unless indicated otherwise).

This article refers to man as spirit, soul, and body (1 Thess. 5:23). Books that support this view include "The Spiritual Man" by Watchman Nee, "What is Man?" by T. Austin Sparks, and "Biblical Psychology" by F. Delitzsch. See under GraceNotebook: e-books

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Seeds of Forbidden Fruit, Part 2
By John Woodward
December 10, 2001
How can we be reconciled to God? Pride, independence, unbelief, and self-will -- the "seeds of forbidden fruit" -- find their counterpart in the conditions for salvation.

1. From pride to humility

God designed the gospel to require humility on the part of the sinner. To the natural mind, the idea of redemption through the substitutionary sacrifice by a crucified Messiah is foolish. Therefore, Paul declared, "For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. For it is written: 'I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, And bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent.' Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? For since, in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God, it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God" (1 Cor. 1:18-24).

Jessie Penn-Lewis observed, "He [Paul] beholds it [the Cross] as the master-stroke of Jehovah against one cause of the Fall in Eden. 'The woman saw the tree ... was to be desired to make one wise.' The desire of knowledge beyond the limit set by the Lord was one of the causes of the Fall, the effect thereof continuing unto this day, for pride of intellect is still a barrier between men and the knowledge of their Creator. Salvation through the Cross, was a master-stroke of the all-wise Creator against the pride of knowledge in His fallen creatures, for the 'word of the cross' is the power of God to 'destroy', or bring to nought 'the wisdom of the wise.' The Cross as the power of God is so wholly beyond the comprehension of the natural man, that he must submit his intellect to his Creator, and accept the message on the word of Jehovah alone"[Cf. 1 Cor 2:14]. [1]

The Lord Jesus illustrated humility by referring to child-like faith: "Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of God. Assuredly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it" (Mark 10:14,15).

2. From independence to dependence

I once saw an advertisement for a TV series titled, "Inventing Your Own Religion." This is what unregenerate people desire. Like going down a buffet line at a restaurant, they pick and chose the doctrines and disciplines that appeal to them. This is nothing less than a carry over of Adam's choice to live by his own independent source of spiritual knowledge. However, Proverbs warns us, "There is a way that seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death" (Prov. 14:12).

It is significant that the first beatitude describes the necessity of total dependence on God: "Blessed are the poor in spirit, For theirs is the kingdom of heaven" (Matt. 5:3). One is "poor in spirit" when one confesses that he has nothing in and of himself to commend himself to God (Cf. Isaiah 64:6).

The natural bent of fallen people is to rely on their own merit to earn acceptance with God. This was the major hindrance to self-righteous Jews in the first century. Paul explained that," ... Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness, has not attained to the law of righteousness. Why? Because they did not seek it by faith, but as it were, by the works of the law ... For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes" (Rom. 9:30-32,10:2-4).

Man typically tries to bind himself back to God by RELIGION -- works of merit; salvation, however, is based on grace and a personal RELATIONSHIP with God (Cf. John 17:3; 1 John 5:10-13). The former is a matter of opinion; the latter is a matter of revelation. [3]

Saving faith requires that a lost person fully depend on God's grace in Christ for forgiveness and eternal life: "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" (Eph. 2:8,9).

3. From unbelief to belief

The condition of faith is the essence man's positive response to the Gospel. The Gospel of John has this as its purpose: "These are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name" (John 20:31). Although the unsaved person is oriented to live by physical senses only, God -- who is spirit -- requires faith as a condition for reconciliation of sinners to Himself. "But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him" (Heb. 11:6; John 4:24).

At the Fall, Adam and Eve disregarded God's Word (which ruled out the forbidden fruit); in salvation we repent and accept God's Word (the "incorruptible seed" - 1 Peter 1:23).

A. T. Pierson wrote of the necessity of faith in Christ as Savior: "God forsaw that sin was going to be a heavier burden than any man could bear, and so He laid it on One who is mighty to save, and who, upon the broad shoulders of omnipotence, could sustain that burden...'The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, "Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! [John 1:29]"' That sacrifice of Jesus must be appropriated by faith to be of any benefit in the salvation of a human soul." [2]

4. From self-will to submission to God's will

Receiving Christ as Savior involves more than intellectual assent to the work of Christ (even demons "believe" and tremble - James 2:19). Rather, conversion requires a response of the will: "But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name" (John 1:12). Thus, man's will is directed to CALL upon Christ as Lord: "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... For 'whoever CALLS on the name of the LORD shall be saved'" (Rom. 10:9,10,13).

We usually think that an unbeliever's lack of faith is solely due to a lack of evidence for God's existence and will. Instead, we should recognize that the mind usually rationalizes data to accommodate the desires and affections of the heart. NEGATIVELY, this is seen in the sin of unbelief. Romans declares, "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened" (Rom 1:18-21). The pivotal role of man's will is seen POSITIVELY in Christ's promise, "If anyone wants to do His will, he shall know concerning the doctrine, whether it is from God or whether I speak on My own authority" (John 7:17).

The last chapter of the Bible includes a symbolic vision of the things God has prepared for those who love Him [1 Cor. 2:9]. "And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the middle of its street, and on either side of the river, was the TREE OF LIFE... The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations" (Rev. 22:1,2). Here we see a glimpse of the glory of the future new heaven and new earth in the imagery of a renewed Garden of Eden. As the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil depicted man's fatal choice in the Fall, the Tree of Life pictures the blessings of God's salvation. Although sinners were barred from Eden's Tree of Life, God offers this new life in the person of His Son [Gen 3:24; 1 John 5:12]. Have you received Him as Lord and Savior?

A miracle of grace has turned the Cross of Calvary into a Tree of Life! So all who have been made alive in Christ herald God's gracious invitation: "And the Spirit and the bride say, 'Come!' And let him who hears say, 'Come!' And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely" (Rev. 22:17).

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

Notes:

Part 3 will focus on the counterparts to the "seeds of forbidden fruit" as seen in the conditions for abundant life in Christ.

[1] Jessie Penn-Lewis, "The Cross of Calvary," 11th edition, (C.L.C.), pp. 20-21.

[2] Arthur T. Pierson, "the Hopes of the Gospel," (London: Pickering & Inglis, 1966), pp. 65,66,74.

[3] See the online booklet "From Religion to Relationship" at www.GraceNotebook.com under e-books.

Terms:

"unregenerate": the condition of being spiritually dead -- cut off from the life of God (Eph. 2:1; Titus 3:5).

"substitutionary sacrifice": the payment for our sins by the death of Christ in our place (1 John 2:2; Isaiah 53:6).

"reconciliation": the act of reestablishing a personal relationship with God; the change from being His enemy to being His child (Rom. 5:8-10; 2 Cor. 5:19-21).

Copyright (c) 2001 by John Woodward. Revised October 2006. Permission is granted to reproduce Grace Notes for non-commercial purposes. Scripture quotations from The Holy Bible, New King James Version (c) 1982 Thomas Nelson (unless indicated otherwise).

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quote:

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The contrast of Adam and Christ, the second "Adam," is profound.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Michael Harrison:
Juet to make you think, Adam had Eve to provoke him, with no less than a tree.

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Genesis 2:23
And the man said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.
 

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Posted by Zeena (Member # 7223) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by Eden:
Zeena said

quote:

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The contrast of Adam and Christ, the second "Adam," is profound.

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What amazes me is that Jesus the second Adam was made just like the first Adam, sinless and with the same capabilities.

But the first Adam had it easy by comparison because the first Adam was surrounded by sinlessness in his environment too, and so there was nothing to "irritate" or "provoke" the first Adam.

By contrast, the second Adam had to operate in a sinful world where there were constant potential irritations and provocations, and yet this second Adam remained sinless in a sinful environment. That was a HUGE accomplishment.

love, eden

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HUGE!

How GREAT is our God
Sing with me
How GREAT is our God

And all will see
How GREAT

HOW GREAT
Is our God
 

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Posted by Michael Harrison (Member # 6801) on :
 
I have to come to the conclusion that you are deceived. Your spirit is mocking. Your attitude is wrong! There is no humility, only piousness. And you agree with the wrong people, and seem to live to fault what I say (though it is of no consequence). In other words, you are strange. I keep thinking we might find mutual ground, but it apparently isn't there. When the Antichrist comes, will he be Anti Christ? Not, I tell you! He will be for Christ. He will sound like he is 'for' Christ.

quote:

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Genesis 2:23
And the man said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.

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This makes no sense to me. If anything, it is a strangly complete departure from topic. After all, I made the comment that Adam and Eve were challenged in the garden. If there is any contrast, it is in the fact that Adam and Eve 'only' had a tree to challenge them. And they did have a tree to tempt them, lest Edcfed overlooks this. Jesus had, as EDcfed described, impossible odds to be sure. And the accomplishment is beyond profound. But Jesus gives to us, by His death, and life, this same overcoming power through belief in the work of the risen Son. Without it we would simply be unchanged diapers for all of our Christian life, which is what almost every Christian, barring a few exceptions, limit themselves to, and even defend. Needless to say, there is 'no' excuse. And one day the scriptures that one cannot see with their eyes here, will be opened to be seen there, and people will wonder why they weren't seeing it here. It is because of an 'evil' heart. It is because their 'eye' will not be single. It is because. They resist the will of God substituting instead, strange concepts instead of truth. Truth alone is all that is needed to set one free.

No zeena, from what I can discern, you are on a dangerous path. I'm glad that you have confidence, but I don't champion it. It still sounds like medication to me.

And to reinforce what I am saying, this group of scriptures is referring to Christians, or those claiming to be.

2Ti 3:1 This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.
2Ti 3:2 For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,
2Ti 3:3 Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,
2Ti 3:4 Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;
2Ti 3:5 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.
2Ti 3:6 For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts,
2Ti 3:7 Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
2Ti 3:8 Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate [REPROBATE] concerning the faith.
2Ti 3:9 But they shall proceed no further: for their folly shall be manifest unto all men, as theirs also was.


So there is no point in discussing anything with you. You mock as though you know, yet you don't apparently. Yet, at given points, you seem to, but there is no break through. Certainly this spirit is not of God. For He does not raise up boasters. Your confidence is not in Him. 1Cor13 "Love is gentle and kind, never boastful, proud, haughty, selfish or rude." (Living Bible) Or are you not aware that the scriptures are a 'filter' which insure that that no vestage of the flesh, that is of the 'old man' who we are not (by "The Grace of God," only, and that as we believe, and surrender to His will), does not manifest himself. But rather, the river of pure living water, who is Christ Himself should flow from the well, without being intermingled with muddy water of 'self'. Otherwise one does not understand the 'gift' of God.
 

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Posted by Kindgo (Member # 2) on :
 
Michael Harrison, You sir are a fool!

You have a log in your eye...
 

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Posted by Michael Harrison (Member # 6801) on :
 
Mat 5:22 But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire.

???Who has a beam? I'm sure that you will take your word for it. I am most sorry.
 

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Posted by Kindgo (Member # 2) on :
 
Pro 14:16 A wise [man] feareth, and departeth from evil: but the fool rageth, and is confident.

Fool!
 

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Posted by Carol Swenson (Member # 6929) on :
 
Kindgo


Proverbs 15:2 (NRSV)

The tongue of the wise dispenses knowledge, but the mouths of fools pour out folly.
 

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Posted by Eden (Member # 5728) on :
 
Michael Harrison said to zeena

quote:

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I have to come to the conclusion that you are deceived. Your spirit is mocking. Your attitude is wrong! There is no humility, only piousness. And you agree with the wrong people ...

No zeena, from what I can discern, you are on a dangerous path. I'm glad that you have confidence, but I don't champion it. It still sounds like medication to me.

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quote:

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I have to come to the conclusion that you are deceived. Your spirit is mocking. Your attitude is wrong! There is no humility, only piousness. And you agree with the wrong people ...

No zeena, from what I can discern, you are on a dangerous path. I'm glad that you have confidence, but I don't champion it. It still sounds like medication to me.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Michael Harrison:
Juet to make you think, Adam had Eve to provoke him, with no less than a tree.

quote:

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Originally posted by Zeena]
Genesis 2:23
And the man said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.

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The statement you wrote made it sound as though Adam was decived BECUASE of Eve, for you said "Adam had Eve to provoke him" and then you said that she "provoke[d] him with a tree."! You pointed to Eve as the reason for the fall, which is not true, so I pointed out the Eve was taken from Adam.. Simple, yet you have made it this complex? I was laughing for I was thinking you were making a funny [and a good one at that!], but alas, I should have known better.

Proverbs 17:22
A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones.

quote:

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Originally posted by Michael Harrison:
I have to come to the conclusion that you are deceived.

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quote:

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Your spirit is mocking.

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quote:

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Your attitude is wrong!

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I'm sorry you feel that way.

Philippians 2:5-11
Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death— even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

quote:

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There is no humility, only piousness.

---

quote:

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And you agree with the wrong people, and seem to live to fault what I say (though it is of no consequence).

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I don't agree with any man but Jesus, the God-man!

You can chose to look for Jesus in people, or you can look to the Risen Lord.

Let's keep our focus on Christ, who is our life.

Like all other virtues, humility is a byproduct of "looking unto Jesus".

quote:

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In other words, you are strange. I keep thinking we might find mutual ground, but it apparently isn't there.

---

quote:

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When the Antichrist comes, will he be Anti Christ? Not, I tell you! He will be for Christ. He will sound like he is 'for' Christ.

---

quote:

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Genesis 2:23
And the man said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.

quote:

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This makes no sense to me. If anything, it is a strangly complete departure from topic.

---

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quote:

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After all, I made the comment that Adam and Eve were challenged in the garden.[quote]They would NOT have been challenged if they had partook of the Tree of Life!

[quote]If there is any contrast, it is in the fact that Adam and Eve 'only' had a tree to challenge them.

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quote:

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And they did have a tree to tempt them, lest Eden overlooks this.

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quote:

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Jesus had, as Eden described, impossible odds to be sure.

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quote:

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And the accomplishment is beyond profound.

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Only He could do it! For man was created to NEED God, God is The Uncreated Life, and He has need for nothing

quote:

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But Jesus gives to us, by His death, and life, this same overcoming power through belief in the work of the risen Son.

---

quote:

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Without it we would simply be unchanged diapers for all of our Christian life, which is what almost every Christian, barring a few exceptions, limit themselves to, and even defend. Needless to say, there is 'no' excuse.

---

quote:

---

And one day the scriptures that one cannot see with their eyes here, will be opened to be seen there, and people will wonder why they weren't seeing it here. It is because of an 'evil' heart. It is because their 'eye' will not be single. It is because. They resist the will of God substituting instead, strange concepts instead of truth.

---

quote:

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Truth alone is all that is needed to set one free.

---

quote:

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No zeena, from what I can discern, you are on a dangerous path.

---

quote:

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I'm glad that you have confidence, but I don't champion it.

---

quote:

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It still sounds like medication to me.

---

quote:

---

And to reinforce what I am saying, this group of scriptures is referring to Christians, or those claiming to be.

2Ti 3:1 This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.
2Ti 3:2 For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,
2Ti 3:3 Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,
2Ti 3:4 Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;
2Ti 3:5 Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.
2Ti 3:6 For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts,
2Ti 3:7 Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
2Ti 3:8 Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate [REPROBATE] concerning the faith.
2Ti 3:9 But they shall proceed no further: for their folly shall be manifest unto all men, as theirs also was.

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quote:

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So there is no point in discussing anything with you. You mock as though you know, yet you don't apparently.

---

quote:

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Yet, at given points, you seem to, but there is no break through. Certainly this spirit is not of God. For He does not raise up boasters. Your confidence is not in Him. 1Cor13 "Love is gentle and kind, never boastful, proud, haughty, selfish or rude." (Living Bible)

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quote:

---

Or are you not aware that the scriptures are a 'filter' which insure that that no vestage of the flesh, that is of the 'old man' who we are not (by "The Grace of God," only, and that as we believe, and surrender to His will), does not manifest himself.

---

quote:

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But rather, the river of pure living water, who is Christ Himself should flow from the well, without being intermingled with muddy water of 'self'. Otherwise one does not understand the 'gift' of God.

---

quote:

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Originally posted by Eden:
Go, Zeena go!!! I love your posts.

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<--Jesus' fly girl!

YAYA JESUS, you REIGN LORD!

Alleluia!

GO JESUS!
GO JESUS!

GO JESUS!

quote:

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love, eden

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Right back at cha in Christ precious Saint!
 

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Posted by Michael Harrison (Member # 6801) on :
 
Pro 14:16 A wise [man] feareth, and departeth from evil: but the fool rageth, and is confident.

Fool!

--------------------
God bless,
Kindgo

??? God Bless, Kindgo??? Whose confidence do you suppose me to have?


zeena: I'm not going to read all of that (at least not now). But having read the first paragraph, I humbly apologize. I thank you for your explaination. I was looking for a response to my question about whether you have read Nroman Grubb. What came back seemed to ignore the question, and ridicule what I said. But you misunderstood. That is why scripture reads, "Love covers a multitude of sins." Because that kind of misunderstanding can happen. And satan works hard at seeing to it. (To the rest of you,, never mind.)

The Adam and Eve thing was not a continuation of what we last discussed, and since it appeared to be a break in the continuity, I thought perhaps you were being disengenous. I musunderstood. And I was more than sorely disappointed that we missed each other. And I did pull out three paragraphs of the publication that you posted, which I wanted to elaborate on. Sorry I missed you on this. Because if you do understand what I want to believe you do, you will be the only one here who does (except maybe one). Really! After that misunderstanding I thought you were speaking out of pride, rather than true victory. So again, sorry!

(The rest of you don't matter Why trouble me ye???) Alright! You matter but you are as funny as all-get-out! (Do you really think I am offended to be called a fool? My concern is not for me here.)


Serenade in B flat minor: Five flats!
 

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Posted by Zeena (Member # 7223) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by Michael Harrison:
zeena: I'm not going to read all of that (at least not now). But having read the first paragraph, I humbly apologize.

---

quote:

---

I thank you for your explaination. I was looking for a response to my question about whether you have read Nroman Grubb. What came back seemed to ignore the question, and ridicule what I said. But you misunderstood. That is why scripture reads, "Love covers a multitude of sins." Because that kind of misunderstanding can happen. And satan works hard at seeing to it.

---

Sorry I misunderstood, the 'natural' woman is prone to 'jump the gun'-hehe
Good thing I've recieved the SUPERnatural Life of the Creator!

1 Timothy 2:14
And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression.

2 Corinthians 11:3
But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent's cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ.

But, I also just worshipped the Lord and am renewed once again!

quote:

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The Adamand Eve thing was not a continuation of what we last discussed, and since it appeared to be a break in the continuity, I thought perhaps you were being disengenous. I musunderstood.

---

quote:

---

And I was more than sorely disappointed that we missed each other.

---

I was starting to think we were on the same page as well, then I saw this and lost heart

Yet didn't loose sight of HOPE!

quote:

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And I did pull out three paragraphs of the publication that you posted, which I wanted to elaborate on. Sorry I missed you on this. Because if you do understand what I want to believe you do, you will be the only one here who does (except maybe one).

---

Quote them please?

And explain what you want, I will pray [and you with me] that the Lord be magnified

Often, I can become too emotionally attached to those with whom the Lord deals with in and through me, I believe this is the cause for the misunderstanding. Yet, He is always drawing me deeper into Himself

Hebrews 6
Wherein God, being minded to show more abundantly unto the heirs of the promise the immutability of his counsel, interposed with an oath; that by two immutable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we may have a strong encouragement, who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope set before us: which we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and stedfast and entering into that which is within the veil; whither as a forerunner Jesus entered for us, having become a high priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek.

Just one last thing before I hit the hay?

PLEASE don't look to me to confirm your faith, look to Jesus from Heaven, in you, ok?

HeHe-But first, you must hide.
 

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Posted by Michael Harrison (Member # 6801) on :
 
Good! Sleep well sister. I am going to hit the sak also. And I don't know if I spelled disengenous correctly. But never mind now.

For certain, I am desirous to understand a little better some of the nueances of how you are perceiving this truth. And we have much to discuss. But since I am hitting the sack, it will have to wait.
 

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Posted by Zeena (Member # 7223) on :
 

code:

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Lord Most High
 

         E

From the ends of the earth (echo)

         Bsus

From the depths of the sea (echo)

         C#m

From the heights of the heavens (echo)

     A

Your name be praised

 

         E

From the hearts of the weak (echo)

         Bsus

From the shouts of the strong (echo)

         C#m

From the lips of all people (echo)

     A

This song we raise Lord

 

Chorus:

E  E/G#           A       Bsus

   Throughout the endless ages
E  E/G#           A       Bsus

   Your will be crowned with praises

C#m  A    Bsus

Lord most high 

E  E/G#           A       Bsus

   Exalted in every nation 

E  E/G#           A       Bsus

   Sovereign of all creation

C#m  A    Bsus     A

Lord most high, be magnified (be magnified)

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quote:

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"For Such a Time as This"
by T. Austin-Sparks


Beloved of God, I have recently been going over writings which expressed the feelings of spiritual people of God at various times during many years. The thing which is characteristic of them all is that the time of writing - although long periods lay between - was felt to be the most critical, ominous, and spiritually difficult or almost unbearable time that ever was. In most cases the conclusion was that the Lord must have been on the very verge of coming. Undoubtedly this has been the feeling of at least some in every part of time since Apostolic times. This might give us pause in saying that the present time - difficult as it is for so many - is more of this nature and portent than ever. It might just be because now it is our turn. And yet there are certain factors which may well give a deeper shade to the darkness, and a more intense severity to this time. There is the general fact that, the nearer we get to the end of the age, the more terribly will the powers of darkness fight to make good all the possibilities of their shortening time. The Scripture is "...great wrath, knowing that his time is short". Then, the world has grown so much as the years have passed, and it is a much bigger place now than in Roman times or the Middle Ages. Satan has so much more ground in humanity to use. Further - and this is a special point to remember - the challenge to Satan's kingdom is become so much more extended, so that, in a new sense, the issue of "inhabited world" dominion is in view. It is this question of world dominion that lies behind everything, and it is this that determines the degree of spiritual pressure and conflict. Listen to me a moment on this matter, for it is most crucial at this time.

There have been many bids made for the domination of this whole world, and, like the ebb and flow of the tides, sometimes at the Neaps, and sometimes at the Spring, the later ones have been a considerable advance upon the earlier, extending to new territories. Thus was the Roman a great advance upon the Babylonian, for instance.

So the reign of Antichrist, which is the direct succession and consummation of all such bids and movements, will be more far-reaching than all that have been. We are actually living in an emphatic stage of this purpose which is more ambitious than anything yet. Upon the natural side we do not dwell, but we see by analogy some things which should head us straight to the present implication and demand for the Church.

There is the strategical factor. One of the outstanding features of the present campaign is the infiltration into the nations of agents, representatives, missionaries, and colonists. These communities are not only propagandists, but their very presence has been made the occasion of "rights" to be "protected". In every way they give the aggressor-power something of its own to which to come, and a "moral" right and claim is the (professed) strength of the invasion or possession. This has been the case in many instances, at least. For the rest, it is war because such claims and rights are disputed. Now passing from the earthly to the heavenly, this, on the higher level, is exactly the Lord's own strategy, and therefore the occasion of the bitter warfare waged by and with the powers of darkness.

Look again at those words of His in Matthew 24:14.

"This gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world for a testimony unto all the nations; and then shall the end come." (R.V.)

Let us examine this statement word by word.

"Gospel" = "Glad tidings".

"Kingdom" = (a) The fact of royal reign or dominion.
(b) The sphere of such.
(c) The immediate and ultimate consequences of such.
All these are inherent in the word "Kingdom".

"Preached" = Proclaimed, heralded. There are five Greek words translated "preach". The one used here means to announce that someone has taken the power, or ascended the throne.

"World" = Inhabited earth.

"Testimony" = "Marturion" (Gk) means both a testimony, the one who testifies, and a proof. "To set the evidence" (Weymouth).

What then is the meaning of this statement? It has been used, of course, in general as the great incentive to missionary work and world-evangelisation, and rightly so. But for want of a recognition of the inner significance, something of real consequence has been lost. What the Lord is really meaning here is that He must have in every nation that which proclaims and gives evidence of His having taken the Throne and become Lord. "The earth is the Lord's." "God hath given him the name which is above every name." "Being at the right hand of God exalted." "Sit thou on my right hand till I make thine enemies the footstool of thy feet," etc.

Before Christ can come into His own place as the rightful ruler of this world, taking the dominion thereof, He must have a testimony to His sovereign Lordship. When David was driven out of his kingdom by the usurping Absalom, he left the loyal Abiathar and his company in Jerusalem so as to have that which was of himself to which to return; and while Abiathar and his priestly company were there, the reign of Absalom could never be universal, but would always be virtually disputed. The presence of the true Church in the nations is meant to act in exactly this same way in relation to the rejected Lord.

But note; and this is our special point; the "Testimony" is not something merely or only stated as a truth; it is "to set the evidence", as Weymouth puts it. Yes, to set the evidence. In the Old Testament the Tabernacle was called the Tabernacle of Testimony, or Witness (Num. 17:7; Acts 7:44). It was a tangible expression of a spiritual truth. The Lord said that His apostles should be witnesses unto Him. Satan and his powers are not very interested in doctrine or truth as such, but they are seriously concerned where there is representation and evidence. They will do all in their power to swamp, kill, drive out, break up, paralyze a vessel which really represents the Lordship of Christ as in the power of the Holy Spirit. If only the Lord's people will always keep immediately in mind the fact that it is not with flesh and blood that they are wrestling, but with principalities and powers, etc. and that the sole object of the enemy's assaults is to destroy or spoil the evidence of Christ's Lordship, then there would be an adequate motive for "standing and withstanding," and for dealing with everything that gives Satan ground to spoil the testimony.

Now then, let us note the first implication of our being here. The work of Apostles and their present counterpart was and is to bring into being those - twos and threes at least - in every nation who shall be there as a living evidence that Jesus is Lord. We are where we are in the will of God for this purpose, and no less than this. Satan will try to move us, to drive us, to overwhelm us but this only gives the opportunity for proving by the power of the Blood that Jesus has overcome him, and really is Lord. We hold the ground for the coming Lord, and although He will call us out for a time, we shall come with Him to reign, if we now suffer together with him.

But; and this is a sad but; is the Church setting the evidence? Is this really what the Church represents in the nations now? Alas for the testimony - the evidence! Truly the spiritual state in the light of the Lord's revealed mind as to His Body compels us to one of two positions. Either the Body of Christ is something distinct from the general multitude of those who confessed Christ and received eternal life; or else it is wholly a matter of the Church in general and "Overcomers" in particular as those who "press on toward the goal unto the prize of the on-high calling". Whichever it is, the issue is the same. The Lord must have His testimony here in fulness. The Church as a whole is far from "setting the evidence". The appeal therefore is for "Overcomers" and their testimony. This is the point of this letter.

The conviction deepens and grows that, since the loss of the Church's spiritual position in late Apostolic times, the Lord's chief concern has been with "Overcomers"; that is, with those who preserved or would recover the original position and testimony as to the absolute Lordship of Christ in every realm of life, and pre-eminently in the realm of the spiritual evil powers. The issue becomes clearer and stronger as the Antichrist forces show their hand more boldly and presumptuously toward the end. This is a time when this testimony needs to be brought out in strength and clearness as never before. If we were asked what we most truly believe to be the paramount need of our time we should say with considerable emphasis: A vessel represented in all the nations which serves the Lord in exactly the same way - only in the spiritual, not temporal, realm - as Esther served Him and His people, coming to the Kingdom "for such a time as this". It is that the Lord should have a people placed over the earth who know "Throne union" with Him now in intercession and testimony, with a background of deep chastening and travail: an instrument through the warring prayer of which He can bring evil counsels to nought and save the life of His people. Is it not clear that Christians today (to say nothing of the unsaved) are not going to get to know God's full thought for them, let alone enter into it, unless there is firstly a ministry released to them by prevailing prayer, and then an overcoming of the blinding, binding, deadening spiritual forces which are working in a thousand different ways to keep the children of God from apprehending that for which they have been apprehended by Christ Jesus? The fact is that God's people do not see.

The present vocational purpose of "Overcomers" is a tremendous one, for it relates to the need of the whole Church. But their testimony is preeminently for the Lord Himself. He must have satisfaction in His Church! The "Cherubim" company of "Living Ones" in identification with "The Living One" are something very near to God for governmental purposes; spiritually now, and literally presently. What will such a vessel be? What is its nature? To put it simply and plainly, as the whole Bible shows, the Lord must have a company in the earth who, in every respect, are a heavenly people. Their spiritual resources of life, power, wisdom, knowledge, purpose must be heavenly and by mediation of the Holy Spirit alone. Their means and methods must be Divinely supplied and dictated. Their energy must be directly Divine energy; which means that they must have been separated from their own.

The spiritual relationships and associations must be heavenly. It was the resolving into an earthly institution and system which cost the Church its Throne power at the beginning, and there can be no recovery without a clear position as to traditional relationships. There will need to be a purely heavenly position as to the really heavenly nature of the Body of Christ - the Church, without any contradictions in earthly orders. We have heard it said that at a certain gathering of servants of the Lord "it was like a touch of heaven; everyone dropped - for the time being - their differences of denomination and earthly divisions". This speaks for itself. But why go back to them?

It will be fatal to essay to engage in heavenly warfare with anything but a heavenly position. We have seen terrible scattering, confusion, and havoc made by the enemy in directions where assaults were made upon the powers of darkness by companies which had mixture, earthly religious contradictory orders, and conflicting acceptances as to vital Scriptural matters.

It may be wondered how ever such a vessel or instrument can be brought into being. Well, it was once, at the beginning; and the secret then is the same now. The Cross did two things. It brought Christ into the place of absolute sovereignty, and made the establishment of that sovereignty possible and actual in the lives of a great company by ruling out all personal, natural, earthly traditional, and temporal interests and influences. The Holy Spirit made Calvary and the Exalted Christ a reality in each heart. "They were of one mind and one soul."

We can never arrange this, or decide to do this heavenly business to any consequence (except failure) unless each one concerned is in it by revelation of the Holy Spirit, and is born into it through spiritual travail. We shall be wasting our time if we expect, try, or even pray for anything really effective apart from this essentially heavenly and therefore anointed ground. There is no royal road or short cut to the Throne or to Throne power; it will cost us everything here. We have known more than one to be faced with this issue, and - in trying to keep something here - miss the Lord's highest and best, and later in life to know that it was so.

Will you go to the Lord and ask Him to do that deep work by His Cross in the hands of the Holy Spirit which will result in your being brought into the place where His authority is exercised through you, and His rule is registered in the realm where things matter most, through your heavenly union with Him? Will you pray for the securing of the prepared instrument to "come to the kingdom for such a time as this"? Will you seek grace to count all gains but refuse in the light of the prize of that "on high" calling? Finally, will you seek the Lord that there may be just where you are in the nations a vessel of this testimony and of this heavenly nature, which really does "set the evidence"? It will be a battle to secure it, as it was in every case with the Apostles. It will be a battle to preserve it. But, given the co-operation, the Lord can do it, and He will.

From time to time God has sovereignly raised up a ministry or an instrument to serve Him in a special need which then existed. We have, as the result, the heartwarming stories of these mighty times and ministries. But they are now of the past, and while they inspire us, they only make us grieve that there is nothing like them now. Surely everyone is aware of the need of "a new thing" from above. Let us not bind ourselves to the same form which God has taken before, but realise that He may be moving on, and the need may be of something quite in advance of anything that has been, although its essential spiritual features will be in accord with the original pattern; that is - the Lordship of Christ will be the transcendent issue. If we are coming at the end back to that original issue, it will certainly mean more in every way than it has ever meant in the intervening centuries, because the consummation of that testimony is in view.

The Lord Himself give you the light and lead you into the prayer-travail for the bringing forth of His testimony in fulness.

First published as an Editorial in "A Witness and A Testimony" magazine, May-June 1941, Vol 19-3

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The Battleground of the Soul (Part 1)
By T Austin-Sparks
September 26, 2003
Reading: Matt. 16:13-25; Luke 22:31-34. "Blessed art thou, Simon ... My Father (hath revealed it unto thee)" (Matt. 16:17). "He ... said unto Peter, Get thee behind Me, Satan" (Matt. 16:23). "Simon ... Satan asked to have you ... but I made supplication for thee" (Luke 22:31-32; A.S.V.).

We have before us the spiritual history in the making of a servant of God, and this can be seen in the representative and very human case of Simon Peter.

The thing which comes out of the passages above is the fact that, in the life of one who stands related vitally to the Lord's interests, heaven and hell have a very great concern, and such a one becomes the battleground of both realms; God and Satan, heaven and hell.[1]

You could hardly have anything which more vividly illustrates that than the tremendous contrasts here. At one moment - "Blessed art thou, Simon Bar Jona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but My Father Which is in heaven"; and, it would seem, within a few minutes - "Get thee behind Me, Satan: thou art a stumbling-block (an offence) unto Me: for thou mindest not the things of God, but the things of men" (Matt. 16:23; A.S.V.). Then in connection with this we have the other passage in Luke. Literally the words are, "Satan obtained you by asking, that he might sift you as wheat: but I made supplication for thee." You hardly know what to make of such a swing of the pendulum in one man, but it has its lessons, and the very seriousness of the case accentuates the lessons which it teaches.

The Ground Of Satan's Power

(a) The World You see it is a matter, in the first place, of the ground which is taken and occupied by the one concerned.[2] When Peter took heavenly ground - "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God" - he was in a very strong position. The keys of the kingdom of heaven, binding on earth and binding in heaven, were his. He was weak, and in a very weak position, when he took earthly ground, the ground of men, the ground of his own judgment and of his own selfhood. The ground taken decided whether he was spiritually strong or weak, and whether Satan had power over him or not.

It would seem that, when the Lord was speaking to them about what was going to take place in Jerusalem as to His death, Simon just took Him apart quietly, and in a very kindly and consolatory way, and yet with a certain amount of patronage, one would feel, told the Lord that He must not be so depressed and gloomy, that He must take a brighter view of things, and that this sort of thing would certainly not happen to Him. But in Peter's attitude, on Peter's ground, the Lord saw quite distinctly a recurrence of what He had met so terribly in the wilderness in His temptation, when Satan had offered Him the kingdoms of this world without the Cross - had sought, that is to say, to divert Him from the way to which He had committed Himself. Peter became but the voice and instrument of that same arch-enemy to turn the Lord away from the Cross. Hence the word following about saving the life. But taking this ground of having the Kingdom and the Throne on any other line but God's ordained line, which is the way of the Cross, is alliance with Satan, and will put anyone in that alliance into the power of Satan and destroy them spiritually.

Firstly, then, it is very evident that any ground of the world, which in its nature is a kingdom without suffering, without the Cross, without the setting aside of natural life, is the realm of Satan's power and authority.[3] It is perfectly clear that, in the case of the Church, speaking fairly generally, and in the case of countless individual Christians, the weakness, defeat and dishonour which characterize them, and which became so manifest in Peter's case, are due to occupying the ground of Satan's strength. That ground may be said to be compromise with the world in its principle.


[1] These two kindgdoms are mentioned together in Col 1:18: "He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love."

[2] The concept of "ground" (an area of jurisdiction) is mentioned in Ephesians 4:27: "nor give place [ground, a foothold] to the devil." NKJV.

[3] "world" (GK. kosmos) in this context: "The ungodly multitude; the whole mass of men alienated from God, and therefore hostile to the cause of Christ world affairs, the aggregate of things earthly; the whole circle of earthly goods, endowments riches, advantages, pleasures, etc, which although hollow and frail and fleeting, stir desire, seduce from God and are obstacles to the cause of Christ" (Thayer). Cf. Matt.13:22; John 7:7; 8:23; 12:25,31; 15:18; 16:33; 17:14,16; 18:36; Rom. 12:2; 1 Cor. 1:21; 2:12; 2 Cor. 7:10; Gal. 6:14; Eph. 2:2 James 1:27; 4:4 2 Pet. 2:20; 1 John 2:15,16; 3:13; 4:4,5; 5:19.

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The Battleground of the Soul (Part 2)
By T Austin-Sparks
October 3, 2003
Reading: Matt. 16:13-25; Luke 22:31-34. "Blessed art thou, Simon ... My Father (hath revealed it unto thee)" (Matt. 16:17). "He ... said unto Peter, Get thee behind Me, Satan" (Matt. 16:23). "Simon ... Satan asked to have you ... but I made supplication for thee" (Luke 22:31-32; A.S.V.).

The Ground Of Satan's Power (a) The World

(b) Uncrucified Self

In the second place, there was Peter's own self-strength, self-confidence. "Lord, with Thee I am ready to go both to prison and to death" (A.S.V.). He later found out how unready, how unprepared, he was for that, but at the time it was a case of self-confidence, and that ground brought his undoing and Satan's power. The self still alive and dominant instead of dead, put to the Cross, is the ground of Satan's power.[4] Not until the soul has been denied and laid down is the power of Satan destroyed and spiritual power established in the life of the child and the servant of God. It is a question of the ground--whether it is the world or whether it is the self (another word for the flesh)-- that determines how far Satan has power and how far we have spiritual power.[5]

The Need For Persistent Determination [6]

Now, what the Lord says here to Peter is very indicative and, I think, very helpful. "Thou art a stumbling-block (an offence) unto Me."

The Lord had fought out this battle, had taken His ground, put both His feet down upon this way of the will of God for Him, namely, by the Cross to the Kingdom; and it was for Him no easy way. It was not just the being crucified and being killed, but being made sin and all that is involved of ultimately suffering the forsaking of God.[7] It was no easy way, and He had to keep Himself rigidly in that direction, and anything that came along to influence Him otherwise only brought up the new demand for resolution and persistence. Thus it offended Him in the sense that it made it difficult for Him, it made it hard for Him, it was not helping Him. It may have been intended to help, so far as Peter was concerned, not knowing what he was saying, but behind it the Lord saw that it only raised the old issue again, the old battle, and therefore it offended His sense of the will of His Father and stood across His path to make the way more difficult.

I think that does say to us that a position has to be taken inclusively and over many things where the will of God is concerned. We have to come very definitely and positively to such a position, and then realize that from time to time there will be, by one means or another, an effort of the enemy to change our minds, to weaken us in that course, to make other suggestions, to get us to reconsider it in the light of various issues and interests. We shall meet this offending, this stumbling, this hindering thing and have to be very ruthless with it. The way the Lord dealt with Peter was, in a sense, ruthless. Really there was no weakness in His attitude over that. Discerning its true nature, He saw clearly that, if He yielded to this suggestion, then He would go neither to Jerusalem nor to the Cross. It is a question of whether we have settled that such and such is the way of the will of God, and then, will this or that arising mean in the long run that we never get there, never do that will? If so, it has to be handled very ruthlessly and put out of the way and put behind us. The Cross comes to us in many connections and different terms.

Then, if we are really going to come through to the place of spiritual power as did Peter, that ground of the enemy must continually be forsaken and refused. The enemy has to be robbed of that which will destroy us and give him power to destroy us, and we have to be very ruthless with anything that arises to give him that position and defeat God's intention where we are concerned. This battle of heaven and hell, God and Satan, goes on in our souls, but there is for us this consolation, that we have a High Priest ever living to make intercession. We have a great asset in the continual intercession of the Lord Jesus for us.[8] Let us close on that note of encouragement and assurance.

~~~GN~~~


Footnotes added by the editor

[4] The biblical language is to KNOW that the old man (who a person was in Adam as epitomized by his dead, corrupt human spirit) has been crucified with Christ (Rom 6:6). The believer's spirit is now identified with Christ in His death, burial, resurrection, and ascension (Eph 2:5-7; Col. 3:1-3). Therefore, the believer is to RECKON this by surrender and faith (Rom 6:11; 12:1,2).

[5] The concept of "ground" is mentioned in Eph. 4:27: "...nor give place [ground Gk. "topos"] to the devil." An area of legal jurisdiction is given to the Enemy whenever the believer actively resists God's grace and truth (e.g., through supposed self-sufficiency, pride, rebellion, anger, or unforgiveness (2 Cor 3:5; James 4;6; Luke 9:23; Eph 4:26,32; 1 Pet 5:8,9; Cf. the legal aspect of "topos" in Acts 25:16 and Rev. 12:8 ).

[6] The concept of "determination" may cause some to confuse it with self-effort. However, trusting Christ as Life and being zealously cooperating with God ("persistent determination") are not mutually exclusive (Col. 1:29).

[7] Cf. Luke 9:51; Matt. 27:46; 2 Cor. 5:21

[8] Cf. 1 John 2:1; Heb. 7:25

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Morning & Evening: The Last Adam
By Charles Spurgeon
March 11, 1998
"And so it is written, 'The first man Adam became a living being.' The last Adam [Christ] became a life-giving spirit'" 1 Corinthians 15:45


by Charles H. Spurgeon
Jesus is the federal head of his elect [his people]. As in Adam, every heir of flesh and blood has a personal interest, because he is the covenant head and representative of the race as considered under the law of works; so under the law of grace, every redeemed soul is one with the Lord from heaven, since he is the Second Adam, the Sponsor and Substitute of the elect in the new covenant of love.

["Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned" - Rom 5:12. "For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive" - 1 Cor 15:21,22. "But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him" - 1 Cor 6:17.]

The apostle Paul declares that Levi was in the loins of Abraham [his great-grandfather] when Melchizedek met him: it is a certain truth that the believer was in the loins of Jesus Christ, the Mediator [of the New Covenant], when in old eternity the covenant settlements of grace were decreed, ratified, and made sure for ever [1 Pet 1:20; Rev 13:8.] [1]

[The Old Testament predicted concerning the Messiah, "The LORD has sworn And will not relent, 'You [Christ] are a priest forever According to the order of Melchizedek'" - Psalm 110:4. "Now consider how great this man [Melchizedek] was, to whom even the patriarch Abraham gave a tenth of the spoils. And indeed those who are of the sons of Levi, who receive the priesthood, have a commandment to receive tithes from the people according to the law, that is, from their brethren, though they have come from the loins of Abraham; but he [Melchizedek] whose genealogy is not derived from them received tithes from Abraham and blessed him who had the promises. Now beyond all contradiction the lesser [Abraham] is blessed by the better [Melchizedek]. Here [the 1st century Temple in Jerusalem] mortal men receive tithes, but there he receives them, of whom it is witnessed that he lives. Even Levi, who receives tithes, paid tithes through Abraham, so to speak, for he was still in the loins of his father when Melchizedek met him" - Heb 7:4-10.]

Thus, whatever Christ hath done, he hath wrought for the whole body of his Church. We were crucified in him and buried with him, and to make it still more wonderful, we are risen with him and even ascended with him to the seats on high. It is thus that the Church has fulfilled the law, and is "accepted in the beloved" [Eph 1:6].

["And you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power. In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses" - Col 2:10-13. "And raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus" - Eph 2:6.]

It is thus that she [the true church] is regarded with complacency [satisfaction] by the just Jehovah, for he views her in Jesus, and does not look upon her as separate from her covenant head [Christ]. ["But of Him [God the Father] you are in Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God--and righteousness and sanctification and redemption" - 1 Cor 1:30].

As the Anointed Redeemer of Israel, Christ Jesus has nothing distinct from his Church, but all that he has he holds for her.

["Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ" - Eph 1:3.]

Adam's righteousness was ours so long as he maintained it, and his sin was ours the moment that he committed it ["Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned" - Rom 5:12]; and in the same manner, all that the Second Adam is or does, is ours as well as his, seeing that he is our representative ["For if by the one man's offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ" - Rom 5:17].

Here is the foundation of the covenant of grace. This gracious system of representation and substitution, which moved Justin Martyr to cry out, "O blessed change, O sweet permutation! [transformation]" ["Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new." 2 Cor 5:17]. This is the very groundwork of the gospel of our salvation, and is to be received with strong faith and rapturous joy.

Notes:

Charles H. Spurgeon, Morning and Evening, Dec. 26am reading

Spurgeon (1834-1892) was a powerful Baptist preacher and prolific author who ministered at Metropolitan Tabernacle in England.

[1] Spurgeon assumed Paul was the author of Hebrews.

MELCHIZEDEK: "[king of righteousness]: king of Salem and priest of the Most High God, who met Abram in the Valley of Shaveh,... brought out bread and wine, blessed Abram, and received tithes from him (Ge 14:18-20). The other places in which Melchizedek is mentioned are (Ps 110:4), where Messiah is described as a priest for ever, "after the order of Melchizedek," and Heb 5; 6; 7, where these two passages of the O. T. are quoted, and the typical relation of Melchizedek to our Lord is stated at great length." (Smith's Bible Dictionary"

Edited by John Woodward. Allusions to Scriptures are added in parenthesis.(N.K.J.V.)

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Passive Righteousness Part 1
By Martin Luther
October 24, 2003
"Passive Righteousness" part 1 by Martin Luther

["Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law but by faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we might be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no flesh shall be justified." Galatians 2:16, NKJV.] [1]

The most excellent righteousness of faith, which God through Christ, without any works, imputes to us, is neither political, nor ceremonial, nor the righteousness of God's law, nor consists of works, but is absolutely contrary to these; that is to say, it is a mere passive righteousness, as the others are active. For in the righteousness of faith, we work nothing, we render nothing unto God, but we only receive, and allow another to work in us--namely, God. Therefore it seems good unto us to call this righteousness of faith, the "passive righteousness."[2] This is a righteousness hidden in a mystery, which the world does not know, even Christians themselves do not thoroughly understand it, and can hardly take hold of it in their temptations. Therefore it must be diligently taught, and continually practiced. And whoever does not understand or apprehend this righteousness, in afflictions and terrors of conscience, will eventually be defeated. For, there is no comfort of conscience so firm and sure, as is this passive righteousness [Rom. 4:5; 5:1; Eph. 2:8,9].

For the troubled conscience, in view of God's judgment, has no remedy against desperation and eternal death, unless it takes hold of the forgiveness of sins by grace, freely offered in Christ Jesus, which is this passive faith, or Christian righteousness; which if it can apprehend, then it may be at rest, and can boldly say: "I seek not active or working righteousness, for if I had it, I could not trust in it, neither dare I set it against the judgment of God. Then I abandon myself from all active righteousness, both of my own and of God's law, and embrace only that passive righteousness, which is the righteousness of grace, mercy, and forgiveness of sins."[3] [Phil. 3:8,9]

Briefly, I rest only upon that righteousness, which is the righteousness of Christ and of the Holy Spirit. The greatest knowledge, and the highest wisdom of Christians is, to not know the law, to be ignorant of works, and of the whole active righteousness, especially when the conscience wrestles with God. The opposite is the case with those who are not of God's people; the greatest wisdom in their case is to know and to urge the law and the active righteousness ...[Gal. 3:24; Rom. 3:19,20]

This is our divine ministry, whereby we teach how to distinguish between these two kinds of righteousness, active and passive, with the goal that manners and faith, works and grace, policy and religion, should not be confused, or taken the one for the other. Both are necessary; but must be kept within their limits; Christian righteousness pertains to the new man, and the righteousness of the law pertains to the old man, which is born of flesh and blood. Upon this old man, as upon a donkey, there must be laid a burden that may press him down, and he must not enjoy the freedom of the spirit of grace, except he first put upon him the new man, by faith in Christ ..., then may he enjoy the kingdom and inestimable gift of grace. [Titus 1; 3:5] ~~~~ Grace Notes Oct. 24, 03

[1] This excerpt is from the introduction in the Commentary on Galatians by Martin Luther (1483-1546), published in 1979 by Kregel Publications. Translation by Erasmus Middleton, edited by John Prince Fallowes. A reprint of the 1850 edition published by the Harrison Trust, London. Reprinted in the appendix of From Fear to Freedom: Living as Sons and Daughters of God, by Rose Marie Miller (Shaw: 1994). Updated English with additional editing by John Woodward. The title, "Passive Righteousness" was added by the editor.

[2] "Passive righteousness" refers to justification by faith--one of the central truths of the Protestant Reformation. It required the active obedience of Christ, His sacrificial death and resurrection. This right standing with God is received by grace through faith ("passive" in the sense of not being earned by man's works) and secures a spiritual rebirth (regeneration).

[3] "Active righteousness" is used in the sense of self- righteousness (the vain attempt to gain acceptance with God by personal effort). See the parable of The Pharisee and the Tax Collector in Luke 18:9-14

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Passive Righteousness Part 2
By Martin Luther
October 31, 2003
"Passive Righteousness" (part 2 of 2)

by Martin Luther

["Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage ... For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but faith working through love ... For you, brethren, have been called to liberty; only do not use liberty as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another." Galatians 5:1,6,13, NKJV. ][1]

So, are we not required to do anything? Do we work nothing to obtain this righteousness? I answer, Nothing at all. For this is perfect righteousness, to do nothing, to hear nothing, to know nothing of the law, or of works, but to know and believe this only, that Christ is gone to the Father, and is not now seen; that He sits in heaven at the right hand of His Father, not as judge, but made unto us of God, wisdom, righteousness, holiness and redemption. In summary, He is our high priest interceding for us, and reigning over us, and in us, by grace. In this heavenly righteousness sin can have no place, for there is no law; and where no law is, there can be no transgression (Rom. 4:15). Seeing then that sin has no place here, there can be no anguish of conscience, no fear, no heaviness. Therefore St. John says (1 John 5:18): "He that is born of God cannot sin."[Rom. 4:5; 1 Cor. 1:30][2]

... So both these [kinds of righteousness] continue while we live here. The flesh is accused, exercised with temptations, oppressed with heaviness and sorrow, bruised by its active righteousness of the law; but the spirit has reigned, rejoiced, and is saved by this passive and Christian righteousness, because it knows that it has a Lord in Heaven, at the right hand of His Father, who has abolished the law, sin, death, and has trodden under His feet all evils, led them captive, and triumphed over them in Himself (Col. 2:15) ...

Let us diligently learn to discern between these two kinds of righteousness, that we may know how far we ought to obey the law. We have said before that the law in a Christian ought not to pass its limits, but ought to have dominion only over the flesh, which is in subjection to it, and remains under it. But if it shall presume to creep into the conscience, and there seek to reign, see that you play the cunning logician, and make the true division. Say: "0 law, you would climb up into the kingdom of my conscience, and there convict it of sin, and take from me the joy of my heart, which I have by faith in Christ, and drive me to desperation that I may be without hope, and utterly perish. Keep within your limits, and exercise your power upon the flesh: for I am baptized, and by the gospel am called to the partaking of righteousness and everlasting life."

When I have Christian righteousness reigning in my heart, I descend from heaven as the rain makes fruitful the earth; that is to say, I do good works, how and wherever the occasion may arise. If I am a minister of the Word, I preach, I comfort the broken-hearted, I administer the sacraments [ordinances]. If I am a house holder, I govern my house and family well, and in the fear of God. If I am a servant, I do my master's business faithfully. To conclude, whoever is assuredly persuaded that Christ alone is his righteousness, does not only cheerfully and gladly work well in his vocation, but also submits himself through love to the rulers and to their laws, yes, though they be severe, and, if necessity should require, to all manner of burdens, and to all dangers of the present life, because he knows that this is the will of God, and that this obedience pleases Him.[3] This is the substance of the argument of the Epistle, whereby Paul addresses this, responding to problem of false teachers who had darkened this righteousness of faith among the Galatians, against whom he sets himself in defending and commending his authority and office.

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[1] This excerpt is from the introduction in the Commentary on Galatians by Martin Luther (1483-1546), published in 1979 by Kregel Publications. Translation by Erasmus Middleton, edited by John Prince Fallowes. A reprint of the 1850 edition published by the Harrison Trust, London. Reprinted in the appendix of From Fear to Freedom: Living as Sons and Daughters of God, by Rose Marie Miller (Shaw: 1994). Updated English with additional editing by John Woodward. The title, "Passive Righteousness" and bracketed references were added by the editor. The commentary is available online at http://www.ccel.org

[2] Although the Holy Spirit will continue to convict the believer of sin, this will not bring condemnation or jeopardize the position and essential nature of the child of God (Rom. 8:1).

[3] The Spirit-filled life fulfills the moral requirements of the law, which are summarized in the calling to love God and others (Rom. 8:4; 13:8-10)

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Michael Harrison wrote:
This is our work, to believe on Christ Jesus! Simply enough said. Next paragraph.

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The Father's Way, Pt. 1
by Preston Gillham
I would like to discuss briefly, grace, hope, trust, and peace. I don’t know about you, but as a Christian, these are things that I have talked about quite a lot and heard discussed frequently. However, I really think that I am just now beginning to grasp the meaning of what have just been clichés to me: "God has given us His grace," "He is our hope," "Trust God," "Jesus gives us the peace that passes understanding."It is said in Proverbs 3:34b that, "…He (God) gives grace to the afflicted." I read that and wondered why God would give grace and not deliverance. Deliverance is the easy way out. Grace refers to a divine influence upon the heart and its reflection in life, a reflection of acknowledging benefits, favor, thankfulness, joy, and acceptance from God. Deliverance is extraction from affliction with confidence in God’s favor and acceptance, joyfully and thankfully acknowledging His benefit. Many times grace is a training ground run through tear-blurred eyes and which in the end leaves your heart strong, your spiritual muscles toned, and your head clear and organized.In the greater chapter on faith in Hebrews, verse 11:6 reads, "And without faith it is impossible to please Him for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him." Faith is dependence upon God and His ability. The lesson of faith in and of itself is a difficult thing to grasp in practice because it implies the end of my self-dependence and self-confidence in exchange for confidence and dependence upon Christ. However, as if the lesson of faith is not difficult enough, the understanding and application of trust is even more difficult yet. Trust is dependence upon God (faith) in the face of proposed irresponsibility, untrustworthiness, and unfaithfulness on His part. You see, the simple fact is this: I will never learn to trust God until my faith in God has been challenged. Until it appears that the Lord is not being faithful to His character and integrity I will not have an opportunity to say, "I trust You, Father. Even if You should not turn out to be everything that You claim to be, I trust You and love You regardless, period." More on this next week…

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Faith and Good Works
By John Woodward
October 4, 2007

We have a special volunteer at Grace Fellowship International. She has been retired for years, but this has not diminished her commitment to help spread the ministry of Christ-centered counseling. Grace Wilens believes in the value of intercessory prayer. This conviction shows up in her faithful ministry of compiling and sending out the weekly GFI prayer e-mail. Thanks, Grace![1]

Just as Grace's belief in prayer is demonstrated in her prayer letter ministry, so saving faith is revealed in virtuous words and actions. James 2:14-26 shows how real faith shows up in a believer's life.

This passage has been a source of confusion to those who think it teaches justification before God by faith plus works. When interpreted in context, however, we shall see that the same Holy Spirit who inspired James inspired Paul (who repeatedly taught salvation by grace through faith apart from works). The Holy Spirit does not contradict Himself!

James was warning about the danger of professing faith without really possessing faith. Paul was warning about the danger of trying to add meritorious works to faith as the basis of salvation [2]. Let's explore how James' message unfolds and harmonizes with the rest of the New Testament on this fundamental issue of salvation by grace through faith.

The Scripture introduces the question, "What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can [the] faith save him?" (James 2:14). Notice how the question relates to one's profession: "... if someone SAYS ..." It is all too easy to claim belief in Christ without having a saving relationship with Him. How can we differentiate true faith from an imitation? The Greek text reads, "Can THE faith [the kind of faith described in the following examples] save him?" The implied answer is, "no."[3]

James calls attention to the need to demonstrate true faith as an evidence of its reality: "If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, 'Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,' but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead" (James 2:15-17). Just SAYING that the need should be relieved is much different than showing compassion and helping practically.

Commentator Albert Barnes gives the essence of this lesson: "The individual professes indeed to believe the truths of the gospel; he may be in the church of Christ; he would esteem it a gross calumny to be spoken of as an infidel; but as to any influence which his faith exerts over him, his life would be the same if he had never heard of the gospel. There is not one of the truths of religion which is bodied forth in his life; not a deed to which he is prompted by religion; not an act which could not be accounted for on the supposition that he has no true piety. In such a case, faith may with propriety be said to be dead."[4]

Can real faith be isolated from outward words and actions? An imaginary objector could say: "'You have faith, and I have works.' [James replies] 'Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.'" Notice again the "show me" emphasis. The only way real faith can be detected by people is if it is manifested in corresponding works.

Mental assent to the reality of God is not enough to bring deliverance from sin and its penalty: "You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe--and tremble!" (v.19). Saving faith includes repentance and trust in the Lord Jesus.

Now the great patriarch Abraham is called forward as an example of demonstrated faith: "Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar? Do you see that faith was working together with his works, and by works faith was made perfect? And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, 'Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.' And he was called the friend of God" (James 2:21-23). Notice that Abraham was justified (Gen. 15:6) BEFORE he was called upon to dramatically show his faith (Gen. 22:1-19). Abraham was willing to give up Isaac; this was a witness to his servants (Gen. 22:5) and to all who have learned of this famous act of obedience (Heb. 11:17-19).

The conclusion is drawn, "You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only" (James 2:24). Greek scholar A.T. Robertson specified the meaning of "justified" here: "not 'is made righteous,' but 'is shown to be righteous.' James is discussing the proof of faith, not the initial act of being set right with God (Paul's idea in Rom. 4:1-10)."[5]

Not only was Abraham justified by real faith, so was Rahab. Her testimony is also included in 'the hall of faith': "By faith the harlot Rahab did not perish with those who did not believe, when she had received the spies with peace" (Heb. 11:31). Both the virtuous, male Hebrew and this scarlet lettered, female Gentile were justified by a real faith that was demonstrated practically. James gives this concluding assessment: "For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also."-- i.e., it is lifeless ... a mere empty profession.

A key issue in understanding in James' argument is the SUBJECT. Who "declares righteous" (justifies) the professing believer in this context? Commentator D. Brown observed that, "To show faith to man, works in some form or other are needed: we are justified judicially by God (Rom. 8:33); meritoriously, by Christ (Isaiah, 53:11); mediately, by faith (Rom. 5:1); evidentially, by works. The question here is not as to the ground on which believers are justified, but about the demonstration of their faith."[6]

So, we see that this passage complements the doctrinal exposition of Paul's epistles (written later): "'Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.' Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt. But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness ... Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law" (Rom. 4:3-5; 3:28).

Faith is the ROOT and good works are the FRUIT. Christ does the saving: "Who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works" (Titus 2:14).

With justification by faith clarified, let's not miss the emphasis of this Scripture. As you abide in Christ, demonstrate your faith through good works!

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[1] You can receive these e-mails by contacting geewillymom@aol.com.

[2] Eph. 2:8,9; Gal. 2:16; Rom. 5:1; 10:4

[3] Greek notes: "Rhetorical question..., Condition of third class with 'ean' and the present active subjunctive of 'legw,' 'if one keep on saying.' ...It is the spurious claim to faith that James here condemns. Can that [the] faith save him? Negative answer expected ('mh')."- A.T. Robertson, Word Pictures in the New Testament.

[4] Notes on the New Testament by Albert Barnes on vs 15-17.

[5] Word Pictures in the New Testament.

[6] Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown, A Commentary, Critical and Explanatory, on the Old and New Testaments, 1871. Also on v. 18: "'Show' does not mean here to prove to me, but exhibit to me. Faith is unseen save by God. To show faith to man, works in some form or other are needed ..."

Copyright 2007 by John Woodward. Permission is granted to copy for non-commercial use. Biblical quotations are from the New King James Version, copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson.

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The Lord rebuke thee!

2 Peter 2:10
but chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of defilement, and despise dominion. Daring, self-willed, they tremble not to rail at dignities:

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Originally posted by Michael Harrison:

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The Lord rebuke thee!

2 Peter 2:10
but chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of defilement, and despise dominion. Daring, self-willed, they tremble not to rail at dignities:

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The Lord does not rebuke me! Out of what are you responding when you say that? Not His Spirit.

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Hebrews 12:4-6
Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin. And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.
 

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Posted by Michael Harrison (Member # 6801) on :
 
Why trouble ye the servant of the Lord with nonsense? Suppose yourself to be a dignitary? Clearly you are offended at evidence to the contrary. Would you lash out at me? Be careful lest you get your own dose.
 

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Posted by Zeena (Member # 7223) on :
 

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Originally posted by Michael Harrison:
Why trouble ye the servant of the Lord with nonsense?

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Originally posted by Michael Harrison:
Suppose yourself to be a dignitary?

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Originally posted by Michael Harrison:
You overlook that one must abide, in order to bear fruit, or to ask what they will. Spite is not an abiding principle. Your faith is of none effect. Your authority nill. Will you practice witchcraft? Nowhere in the word do you find opportunity to rebuke me, but in the carnal fabric of your mind. Can we get past this?

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The Transforming Power of God's Grace
By John Woodward
February 7, 2000
"The Transforming Power of God's Grace"

Back in the fall of 1976 I enrolled as a student at Northeastern Bible College in New Jersey. I remember driving in that area and sometimes catching a glimpse of the Twin Towers of World Trade Center; their absence is now a haunting memory. During that summer New York City was haunted by a terrible crime spree occurring in that metropolis. A serial killer left a note after his deadly acts which read, "I am a monster. I am the Son of Sam." When the police finally captured the murderer, David Berkowitz, his picture was plastered across newspapers everywhere.

Over twenty years later, in August 1999, this same criminal was featured on the program, "Larry King Live." Chuck Colson commented on that interview, which took place at a New York prison:

" ... We saw a different Berkowitz ... and those who tuned in saw the former Son of Sam boldly witnessing to King about his faith in Christ, and even leading viewers in a prayer. The interview took place because of a new movie about Berkowitz, called Summer of Sam, which dredges up the whole nightmare again. But the film leaves out one of the most remarkable parts of Berkowitz's story--one he did not miss the opportunity to share with Larry King. About ten years ago, Berkowitz turned his life over to Jesus Christ. Berkowitz says he now wants nothing more than to lead others to Christ, and he's made two videos for that very purpose ... In a video called Son of Sam, Son of Hope, Berkowitz lifts his hands and says, 'At one time, these hands were being used by the devil to destroy. But I thank God today for His great mercy that these hands are being used to touch lives.'" [1]

Praise God for the gospel of Christ, which is "the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek" (Rom. 1:16).

The human author of those words in the book of Romans is another example of the transforming power of God's grace. As Paul declared in his testimony, "And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who has enabled me, because He counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry, although I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an insolent man; but I obtained MERCY because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. And the GRACE of our Lord was exceedingly abundant, with faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. However, for this reason I obtained MERCY, that in me first Jesus Christ might show all longsuffering, as a pattern to those who are going to believe on Him for everlasting life" (1 Tim. 1:4-16).

We celebrate such amazing conversion stories, and rightly so. The angels also rejoice when a sinner repents (Luke 15:10).

But I wonder if we are just excited about the transforming power of God's grace for His children. Is this grace adequate to enable believers to grow to spiritual maturity and to gain freedom from unresolved conflicts and besetting sins? We know that it is God's assured purpose for every true believer to be conformed to the image of His Son (Rom. 8:29; 10:9-13). Do you believe He can successfully do this in your life in the here and now, as well as at the final installment in the hereafter?

Notice this comparison: "He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?" (Rom 8:32). In other words, if God was willing to give Jesus on Calvary to redeem us when we were "lost," how much more is He willing to supply for our ultimate needs now that we are "found"! We have the Father justifying us, Christ interceding for us, and His Spirit indwelling us (Rom. 8: 9-11; 33-34). NOTHING can separate us from God's love (Rom. 8:38-39). No wonder we are declared to be "more than conquerors THROUGH HIM Who loved us"! (Rom. 8:37).

Not only is God's grace the dynamic for changing sinful ones into saved ones, it is the dynamic to change unfruitful saved ones into FRUITFUL saved ones! (John 15:5).

Testifying of his missionary work, the apostle Paul wrote: "For I am the least of the apostles, who am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the GRACE OF GOD I am what I am, and His GRACE toward me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the GRACE OF GOD which was with me" (1 Cor. 15:9-10). We see here that God's grace kept Paul humble and grateful. Also note that he was not passive. Paul labored as a pioneer missionary and church planter; he cooperated with divine grace. We too are to live and labor BY GRACE.

The following episode from the life of a medical missionary illustrates the necessity having God's resources: "Dr. Paul Brand was speaking to a medical college in India on 'let your light so shine before men that they may behold your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.' In front of the lectern was an oil lamp, with its cotton wick burning from the shallow dish of oil. As he preached, the lamp ran out of oil, the wick burned dry, and the smoke made him cough. He immediately used the opportunity. 'Some of us are like this wick,' he said. 'We're trying to shine for the glory of God, but we stink. That's what happens when we use ourselves as the fuel of our witness rather than the Holy Spirit. 'Wicks can burn indefinitely, burning brightly and without irritating smoke, if the fuel, the Holy Spirit, is in constant supply.'" [2]

God also stressed this truth through the prophet Zechariah. After Israel returned from Babylonian exile, they faced the daunting task of rebuilding the temple in Jerusalem. In order to succeed they needed an awareness of the sufficiency of God's strength. The prophet declared to the governor of Judah,

"This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: 'Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,' Says the LORD of hosts" (Zech. 4:6).

And what was the purpose for this power? Was it only to make this leader more happy? No, there was a task waiting to be accomplished.[3] So this promise of power was a practical one:

"Who are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain! And he shall bring forth the capstone With shouts of 'Grace, grace to it!'"(Zech. 4:7).

The mountain of obstacles in the path of doing God's will was NO MATCH for His almighty power (Cf. Matt. 17:20).

This was confirmed with another promise:

"The hands of Zerubbabel Have laid the foundation of this temple; His hands shall also finish it. Then you will know That the LORD of hosts has sent Me to you" (Zech. 4:9; cf. Haggai 1-3).

Within four years the shouts of joy were heard in Jerusalem! The rebuilt temple of the LORD was completed on March 12, 516 B.C.

Just as this governor needed to rely on God's power for his responsibilities, so must we. As believers, we are the New Testament temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 3:16; 6:19,20). In a way, however, we are still "under construction." God is in the process of growing us up spiritually, strengthening our faith, hope, and love. The final "capstone" will be put in place when we are glorified together with our Savior: "Being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ" (Phil. 1:6). Let's rejoice in the transforming power of God's grace!

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Notes:

[1] from "Breakpoint Commentary" Sept 2, 1999 issue by Chuck Colson http://www.breakpoint.org

[2] "Illustrations for Preaching and Teaching," ed., Craig Larson, p.260.

[3] The temple, which was destroyed in 586 B.C., was still in ruins. Although they had initially begun to restore God's House, opposition stopped its reconstruction. This opposition led to complacency, selfishness, and doubt. For 16 years the temple continued to lay in ruins.

David Berkowitz's testimony is online at www.forgivenforlife.com

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Galatians 4:7
Therefore you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.

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We have passed that point when He is working in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure.

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We have passed that point when He is working in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure.

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The Faithful God (part 1)
By H. L. Roush
June 26, 2008

DEDICATION
To the beloved people of God, who, at this present time, have forgotten prosperity and whose souls are removed afar off from peace. To those whose hearts cry out even now, "My strength and my hope is perished from the Lord." Whose remembrance is of their affliction, misery, wormwood and gall of present circumstances, and their hearts humbled within them. May this message put you in remembrance of, and establish you in, the gracious truth that, "It is of the LORD'S mercies that we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning" great is thy faithfulness"(Lamentations 3:22-23). May the faithful God make you to soon hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord.


"Know therefore that the LORD thy God, He is God, the faithful God." Deuteronomy 7:9a
"Faithful is He that calleth you, who also will do it." 1 Thessalonians 5:24

The testimony of the writers of the Scriptures in both the Old and New Testaments abound with a single theme: the faithfulness of God. No time is wasted in dwelling on the unfaithfulness of man, for every believer is well aware of the deceitful and desperately wicked heart within [the flesh]; and when walking under its influence and dragging its heavy chains of unbelief, his only hope is in the faithfulness of God. We are often defeated by a morbid introspection of the heart and mourning over our unbelief, our failure and sin, when the source of victory is not to be found in our hope of perfect obedience, but in the perfect faithfulness of God to us. We seem to forget that if we should succeed in doing all those things commanded us, an honest heart would still force us to say, "We are unprofitable servants..."[Luke 17:10].

Therefore, this message will be of no profit to those who are satisfied with their own steadfastness and fascinated with their own faithfulness; but it will gender hope to the soul who languishes in his lethargy and will, by the grace of God, move him to worship and praise the faithful God who keeps him in all his ways.

When the heart is painfully aware of its own unworthiness and filled with doubt that God will hear and undertake in its deepest trial, doctrine cannot afford the heart the rest it desires and longs for. This is the time for testimony. Testimony of past experiences, when time after time God brought delivering grace into the midst of impossible circumstances in our lives. It was the remembrance of God's great faithfulness that brought courage to the heart of Jeremiah when his strength and hope had perished from the Lord. It was the constant rehearsal of God's past faithfulness to Israel that caused the Psalmist to walk once more in the light of His countenance.

If the disciples had considered the miracle of the loaves, their hearts would not have been hardened by fearful unbelief in the midst of the contrary winds that threatened to destroy them. Remember, it was the faithful God who first revealed Christ to you when you were dead in trespasses and sins and on your way to eternity in hell (Matthew 16:17); and it is by His continued faithfulness that He will meet your every need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus, and faithfully perform the work of grace He has begun in you until the day of Jesus Christ (Philippians 4:19,; 1:6).


GOD'S FAITHFULNESS IN OUR MATERIAL NEEDS
"And seek not ye what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, neither be ye of doubtful mind. For all these things do the nations of the world seek after; and your Father knoweth that ye have need of these things. But rather seek ye the kingdom of God; and all these things shall be added unto you." (Luke 12:29 - 31)

The believer's needs are not all of a spiritual nature, nor are they entirely material. Being body and soul both, there are many "things" of this present life necessary to his welfare. In these "things" our Father delights to show His great faithfulness; and strange as it may seem, I have found that He especially delights in doing exceeding abundantly above all that I have asked or thought at the height of my own unfaithfulness to Him. This He does to ever remind me that every good and perfect gift comes from Him and that it comes by the purest grace, not depending upon my works or faith [James 1:17].

I see this in Elijah, who slept under his juniper tree in unbelief and fearful defeat; yet, the faithful God would not let him go hungry because of his unfaithfulness, but sent an angel to bake him a cake and set a cruse of water at his head. So abundant was the supply of his physical needs, that Elijah went 40 days and nights in the strength of that ministry [1 Kings 19]. This was not the first experience of this nature for the prophet; for the faithful God sent His ravens morning and evening throughout the long exile at the brook Cherith with bread and meat for His hungry servant. When the brook went dry, God faithfully commanded a widow to take the last handful of meal in her barrel and the little oil remaining in her cruse and bake Elijah a cake. This she did, wondering where the next meal for her and her son would come from, only to find the hand of the faithful God upon the barrel and cruse so that it failed not [1 Kings 17]. Elijah's life was one long testimony of the faithfulness of God to meet every material and spiritual need for His own name's sake; and when the prophet was old and tired, God picked him up at Jordan and gave him free transportation to heaven by a whirlwind (2 Kings 2:11).

Elisha caught his mantle, stood on Jordan's banks, and called upon the faithful God to meet him in his need. The waters parted at the touch of the mantle; and crossing over he soon found all "things" provided by grace; for, a great woman was constrained to feed him and prepare a special chamber that he might have a place of rest (2 Kings 4:8-11).

Israel wandered 40 years in the wilderness of Sin because of unbelief; yet the faithful God fed them, and cared for them, and caused neither their clothes or shoes to wax old (Deuteronomy 29:5.)

When a widow couldn't pay her dead husband's debts, and his creditors threatened to take her sons as bondmen, the faithful God caused a pot of oil in her house to multiply until all her neighbours' vessels were filled. So gracious was the supply of her material needs that she sold the oil, paid her just debts, and there was still enough left over to keep her and her children (11 Kings 4: 1-7.)

When Paul was enroute to Rome and his ship was wrecked in a fierce storm, he found himself stranded on the island of Malta among barbarous people, without provisions or help. The faithful God prevailed upon these heathen to show him no little kindness, kindle a fire to warm him and receive him into their homes. When he left, weeks later, they honoured him with many honours and provided him with all necessary things for his journey (Acts 28:1-10.)

When 5,000 hungry folk found that the day was far spent and they had been too interested in the Word of God to think about food, the Lord Jesus took a little boy's lunch, blessed and broke it into enough for the multitude and 12 baskets of left-overs (John 6:1-13).

When Peter couldn't pay his taxes, due to lack of funds, the Lord Jesus Christ provided a coin in the mouth of a fish swimming in the sea and caught by Peter's hook (Matthew 17:27).

So faithful is God in providing every need of His own that He remembers to clothe the lilies, and Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of them. He feeds the ravens who never sow, reap, or build storehouses; and He never forgets a single sparrow that falls to earth. It would require a large volume for the personal testimony of this writer alone to record the faithfulness of God in meeting the material needs of a large family; but truly I can say, "Amen", to David when he testified: "I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread" (Psalm 37:25).


GOD'S FAITHFULNESS IN OUR SPIRITUAL NEEDS
"It is a good thing to give thanks unto the LORD, and to sing praises unto thy name, O most High; To shew forth thy loving kindness in the morning, and thy faithfulness every night" (Psalm 92:1-2).

When the believer is walking in the sunshine of fellowship with the Lord, his heart is filled with praise for His loving kindness; but it requires the deepening shadows of the night experiences to magnify His exceeding great faithfulness to us. Gethsemane and Calvary's long night were necessary before the faithfulness of God in resurrection could be seen. Only in the long nights of suffering, sin and unbelief in our lives, is the faithfulness of God made clear to our poor hearts and we learn that "God giveth songs in the night"[Job 35:10;Psalm 42:8].

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The Faithful God (part 2)
By H. L. Roush
July 3, 2008
GOD'S FAITHFULNESS IN OUR SUFFERINGS

"There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it." (1 Corinthians 10:13)

Paul must have felt that he had more than he could bear, when God allowed a messenger of Satan to buffet him. When this thorn cut deeply in his flesh, he cried three times in prayer to God for deliverance; but God did not remove the thorn, but revealed to Paul the way of escape He had made. This escape from the unbearable circumstances of his suffering was through the all sufficient grace of God. By this means, God, in faithfulness to Paul, made the strength of the Lord Jesus perfect in him, filled his heart with pleasure and glory, kept him from being exalted above measure, and caused the power of Christ to rest on him. Surely he could say with the Psalmist, "...thou in faithfulness hast afflicted me" (Psalm 119:75).

Joseph must have often thought his troubles were unbearable, when first he was rejected of his brethren, put in the place of death in the pit, sold into slavery in a strange land far away from home and loved ones, only to be falsely accused by his employer's wife and cast into prison as a common criminal. How heavy his chains were, and how much heavier must his heart have been, as he sat in the gloom of that prison with not a hope for the future. But witness the faithfulness of God in the life of Joseph. It was his contact with the butler, made while in prison, that placed him on the throne of Egypt and eventually restored him to the arms of his father and brethren.

Jacob surely must have considered his cup too bitter to drink, when the bloody garment of his beloved son was offered as mute evidence of Joseph's tragic death. The scriptures record how he refused to be comforted and vowed to go down to his grave in mourning for his son, as he rent his clothes, put sackcloth upon his loins and bitterly wept under a temptation that had taken him, that was more than he could bear.

No escape was to be seen in the sore famine that next came into his land and threatened his life and the lives of his sons. In desperation he sent his sons into Egypt to buy corn, only to have his sorrows multiplied by Simeon's imprisonment and the demand for Benjamin to be brought to Egypt. Jacob wept that he would be brought gray haired to his grave with sorrow. It was not until the daybreak of Jacob's long night of trouble that the shadows fled away and he saw that the hand of his faithful God had overruled it all for His glory and Jacob's good. In all of his sufferings, God was faithfully bringing Jacob to the glorified Son on the throne, who was the source of all nourishment and life [Gen. 35-50]. Oh, dear reader, hear now this testimony of God's faithfulness, and know that if the cup of your suffering seems to be more than you can bear at this moment, it is because God is driving you to the blessed Son on His throne, who wants to nourish you and give you of His life.

GOD'S FAITHFULNESS IN OUR SINS

"If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." (1 John 1:9)

Think of the great weight of sin that was lifted from your heart, when you came to the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation. All of the years that the locust and the cankerworm had eaten were restored by the faithfulness of God in the blood of the everlasting covenant [Joel 2:25]. Your sins, that were once scarlet, were made white as snow, and though they were red like crimson, they were made as wool [Isaiah 1:18]. All were cast behind His back, carried as far as east is from west from His presence never to be remembered against you again [Psalm 103:12].

But, dear reader, think of the times since you were saved that you have come to Him for forgiveness of sins in your heart and life. Day after day and night after night, and still He forgives you and cleanses you without a word of condemnation. The great faithfulness of God in the forgiveness of sins is seen in the picture of the Lord Jesus rising constantly from His place of communion to lay aside His garments and take a towel to gird Himself like a slave, that He might take the water of His word to wash the defiled feet of His own! See Him now, as He wipes them with the same towel wherewith He was girded, that they might have a continual fellowship with Him. If man, in faithfulness to his brother, is to forgive his sin 70 times seven in this world, how much more will the faithfulness of God in the forgiveness of the sins of His people be seen? How precious to know that every morning, His compassion for us poor sinners is as new as it was the first day we came to the Lord Jesus for salvation, and the blood on the mercy seat in heaven as fresh as though it was sprinkled there today! This is the sure promise of the Word of God (Lamentations 3:23, Hebrews 10:19-20) and the certain evidence that God is faithful to Himself and to us.

Dear reader, is your heart made heavy by the conviction of sin? Come boldly to our Father by the precious blood. He is faithful and just to forgive you your sins and cleanse you from all unrighteousness [Heb. 4:16; 1 John 1:9]. Cast yourself upon His great faithfulness, crying with the poet:

"Here I rest, forever viewing,
Mercy poured in drops of blood:
Precious drops, my soul bedewing,
Plead, and claim my peace with God."

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Part 2 of 3

Published in 1964 by the Gospel Book Room, P. O. Box 161, Belprie, Ohio 45714

Web site typist: Deborah Cooke

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The Faithful God (part 3)
By H. L. Roush
July 10, 2008
GOD'S FAITHFULNESS IN OUR UNBELIEF

"If we believe not, yet He abideth faithful: He cannot deny Himself." ( 2 Timothy 2:13)

"When nothing whereon to lean remains,
When strongholds crumble to dust,
When nothing seems sure but that God still lives,
This is the time to trust."

But, what if the heart can't trust? What if the heart is filled with unbelief and the promises of God seem empty and meaningless? What if we cannot find it in our poor wretched hearts to believe God, claim His promise and rest in His faithfulness? What then? Who shall deliver us? Thank God, He will!

May I share with you this personal experience? A few years ago, during a serious illness, I passed through some troubled waters that were new to me. For the first time in my Christian experience, I could not pray, for no words came and worst of all, there seemed to be no desire in my heart toward God. I tried to read God's Word and the promises were empty and there seemed to be not a word of personal hope for me. My wife could not comfort me, the counsel of brethren was meaningless, and I felt myself slipping lower and lower into a bottomless pit of spiritual despondency. For days I was sure that this was the end of my ministry. I was sure that I could never teach or preach again. To add to my sorrow, my wicked heart convinced me that if I couldn't pray, read God's Word, teach or preach, then my blessing, joy and fellowship in the Lord would be denied me. I cannot explain to you how He did it; but in spite of this cesspool of unbelief, He restored my soul, comforted me with His rod and staff, anointed my head with oil until my cup ran over, for the faithful Shepherd could not deny Himself. Had He not promised me: "I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee"? [Heb. 13:50]

Now, hear the testimony of His Word on this subject. Israel murmured in unbelief against the Lord. Certain that the Lord meant to kill them in the wilderness, they would have gladly returned to Egypt if they could have found a leader. But, the faithful God, who could not deny Himself, rained manna from heaven every morning, and brought water from the flinty rock, watched over them at night by a pillar of fire, and led them by day in the cloud. He destroyed their enemies, bore them up on eagle's wings, and brought them unto Himself, and all of it in spite of their unbelief.

Read the thrilling story of the Emmaus disciples. Here were two disciples who could not find it in their hearts to believe the Word of God. Jesus called them "fools and slow of heart" because of their unbelief. See them going down the road of life sad, trying comfort one another, not conscious of the Lord's presence, and wrongly accusing Him of being a stranger to their problems, and ignorant of the things that so burdened them. If restored fellowship depends upon their faithfulness, they are destined to walk the lonely road to Emmaus forever without the joy of His presence; but the faithful Shepherd, who cannot deny Himself, meets them in their need and in their unbelief; He ministers the precious Word of God until faith is kindled anew, and they are brought into new communion with Jesus in the breaking of bread. See them now! With eyes opened that they might know Him, and hearts burning within, they rise up the same hour and go out to tell others that they have seen Him and that He has made Himself known to them [Luke 24:13-35]. They had not prayed, read the Word, nor confessed their sins; but the faithful God, who called them into the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ, delivered them from the blindness of unbelief by the faithful ministry of the Lord Jesus in their lives. Were it not for this in our times of doubt and unbelief, we would never trust Him again.

We often testify to the deliverance of God in our lives in response to our prayers. I often wonder if God is really glorified, or our faith instead? It is true, thank God, that He has often heard my supplication and answered out of heaven in response to my cry for help; but it is also true, bless God, that He has more often answered in response to my unbelief. When I could not cry, He has answered. When I could not believe, He has been faithful. Let me show this principle from the scriptures. In Mark 4:35-41, we have the account of the storm that endangered the ship in which the disciples and the Lord Jesus were sailing. The original text hints at a hurricane that arose; the waves beat against the ship and soon began to fill it with water. The disciples, seeing this danger, awakened the Lord Jesus, who had been sleeping on a pillow, to accuse Him of not caring whether they perish or not. What bitter, black unbelief!

Had not His word been, "Let us pass over unto the other side"? Here, under the spell of unbelief, these disciples are afraid, not aware of His presence with them, and boldly slandering His love for them by accusing Him of caring not whether they or die. Dear reader, you and I have done as much against the blessed Lord and, thank God, He has done as much for us as He did for them. I call your attention to the fact that He was awakened and stirred to undertake for them in response, not to their prayer of faith, but to their cry of unbelief!! He plainly said they had no faith and were fearful, yet He delivered them by rebuking the hurricane, muzzling the sea, bringing a great calm into their hearts and lives, and demonstrating for us His faithfulness in meeting the unbelief of our hearts with His grace.

My heart has been blessed by the story, in John 21, of the unsuccessful night of fishing engaged in by Peter and six others, including John. The original language of this account leads us to believe that their intention was to desert the Lord and return to the fishing business permanently. Only a few days away from Calvary and here they were, ready to return to the old life in unbelief and discouragement. They went fishing in the flesh and accomplished just what the flesh can accomplish ... nothing! As they approached the shore the next morning, an apparent stranger directed them to cast their net on the right side of the ship. They did and were not able to draw it for the multitude of fishes. They soon recognized the Lord and came to shore to find ... what? Jesus, ready to deny them of their needs in punishment for their unbelief and disobedience? No, miracle of grace that it was, they found a fire of coals to warm them in their coldness ... the dear Lord Jesus fixing breakfast to meet their hunger and standing ready with His fellowship to restore their wayward hearts!!

"Come and dine," the faithful God cries, and withholds not a single blessing from His erring children, for He is faithful and cannot deny Himself. Only eternity will fully tell this blessed story; for, when we are come to Zion's shore to meet the Lord Jesus in the morning, we will not only find that He waits to warm us, feed us, and to fellowship with us forever, but like the disciples of old, we will also find that we have brought fruit with us that we did not catch ourselves, but was placed in our nets by the faithful hand of the Shepherd. With Peter, we will be forced to say, "Lord, thou knowest that I love thee"!

One day, dear reader, heaven will be opened and the Lord Jesus Christ will be revealed to the world in all the glory of His Father. His eyes will be as a flame of fire, and on His head will be many crowns. His vesture will be dipped in His own blood, now on heaven's mercy seat, and out of His mouth will go a sharp two-edged sword, as He rides triumphantly upon His white horse. His name is called the Word of God; but Revelation 19:11 assures us that some will call Him "Faithful and True." Those who call Him by this precious name will be the armies of heaven that follow Him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen white and clean; for their very presence will testify to the faithfulness of God that brought them to such a high and holy calling. Surely the word of the Psalmist was prophetic, when he wrote: "Thy mercy, O LORD, is in the heavens; and thy faithfulness reacheth unto the clouds" (Psalm 36:5).

In that day, His faithfulness shall be fully known; for we shall realize for the first time that throughout all our days here below, it was He who met our every want, made us to lie down in green pastures, led us by the still waters, restored our souls, led us in paths of righteousness, took our fear away in the valley of the shadow of death by His presence, comforted us by His rod and staff, prepared a table before us in the presence of our enemies, anointed our heads with the oil of His Spirit, caused our cups to overflow with His joy, followed us all the days of our life with His mercy and goodness, brought us into the house of the LORD to dwell forever, and did it all for His name's sake! Surely heaven shall resound with the doxology of the saints, as they shout, "Great is thy faithfulness"!

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part 3 of 3

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Open Your Mouth Wide
By John Woodward
June 29, 1998

"I am the LORD your God,
Who brought you out of the land of Egypt;
Open your mouth wide,
and I will fill it." (Psalm 81:10).

When I think of this invitation to "open your mouth wide," I picture a young bird eagerly responding to its mother's feeding in the nest. That imagery was impressed upon me when a baby black bird ended up sitting helplessly in our front yard. The nest was probably tucked into the upper branches our tall Blue Spruce. The little bird looked only a few days old, with its tufts of fuzz and small feathers. It would incessantly chirp and open its little beak skyward, urgently wanting its feeding. The mother wasn't coming around, so on a couple of occasions we carefully fed it a small worm (yum!), being careful to not touch it to avoid spreading our human scent. Since it was too young to be adopted by our children for nursing, we hoped it could somehow return to the safety of its nest. Unfortunately, this episode concluded with a funeral service...

When I think of the analogy to the spiritual life, I see the importance of abiding in God's "nest," feeding on His gracious Word. "It is written, 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God'" (Matt. 4:4). In the beginning, God created our first human parents with ultimate needs that are unique to mankind--those made in the image of God (Gen. 1:28). These include the need for love, acceptance, significance, security, and belonging. In the Garden, Adam and Eve initially had complete fulfillment as they enjoyed full fellowship with God and each other. Alas, after the Fall, everyone has been on a quest to get these ultimate needs fulfilled. Most people try to get these needs met through relationships, but end up disappointed by mild or severe rejection.[2] Thankfully, God has made provision for healing and abundant life through Christ's redemption and indwelling presence (Eph. 1:3,6; 2:4-10).

Like a young bird we should "open our mouth wide" to feed upon God's love and grace. The little chick opened its mouth eagerly. As the psalmist said, "I opened my mouth and panted, For I longed for Your commandments" (Psalm 119:131). It opened its mouth persistently. Jesus said, "If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free" (John 8:31,32).

Our God yearns for us to receive His provision for salvation and abundant living. The Lord Jesus was grieved over Israel's stubborn unbelief when He cried out, "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!"(Matt. 23:37).

Our little feathered visitor did not survive; its need for protection and sustenance was not met. Yet our Heavenly Father is always faithful to meet the spiritual needs of His children. The prophet Isaiah anticipated the discouragement of the Israelite exiles in Babylon: "But Zion said, 'The LORD has forsaken me, And my Lord has forgotten me.' [and the LORD replied], 'Can a woman forget her nursing child, And not have compassion on the son of her womb? Surely they may forget, Yet I will not forget you. See, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands; Your walls are continually before Me'" (Isaiah 49:14-16).

As a little bird looks dependently upon its parent, so we must stay focused upon our God. As Oswald Chambers wrote, "The golden rule for your life and mine is this concentrated keeping of the life open towards God ... The rush of other things always tends to obscure this concentration on God ... Never be hurried out of the relationship of abiding in Him." [1]

Our gracious Savior longs to bless us fully, if we remain yielded and confident in Him. As He testified,

"Oh, that My people would listen to Me,
That Israel would walk in My ways! ...
He would have fed them also with the finest of wheat;
And with honey from the rock I would have satisfied you"(Ps 81:13,16).

Lord, we "open our mouths wide" to Your generous daily provision of grace. Thank You for Your unfailing love. Keep our focus continually on You as our Creater, Redeemer, and Sustainer. In Christ's name, amen.

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[1] Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest, 1/23).

[2] Charles Solomon, The Ins and Out of Rejection (Sevierville TN: Solomon Publications, 1991).

Copyright John B. Woodward. 1998, revised 2008. Permission is granted to reprint this article for non-commercial use. Scripture quotations are from The New King James Version, copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson.

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The Cure For Apostasy
By John Woodward
September 9, 2004

A Study of Hebrews 6:1-9
Dr. John Woodward

To be assured of Christ as your source of living, you need to be assured of His salvation. However, the warning passages in Hebrews 6:1-9 and 10:26-39 are sometimes used to question the security of the believer. Let's consider a brief explanation of these passages in their context.

This article will explore the meaning of Hebrews 6:1-9: "Therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God, of the doctrine of baptisms, of laying on of hands, of resurrection of the dead, and of eternal judgment. And this we will do if God permits. For it is impossible for those who were once enlightened, and have tasted the heavenly gift, and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame" (Heb. 6:1-6).

This passage has been a challenge to Bible students and space does not allow for an exhaustive treatment of the various grammatical and theological viewpoints. But, the following analysis seems is most in harmony with the context of the passage and the teaching of the New Testament as a whole.

Let's start with the background. This epistle was written to a predominantly Jewish readership that was being persecuted for their confession of faith in Jesus as the Messiah (Christ). Although the monotheism of the Jews was permitted under Roman law (due to their zeal and heritage) the religion of being "Christian" was not exempt from the imperial requirement to confess Caesar as Lord. Evidently some who has professed faith in Jesus had returned to the economic, social, legal, and religious safety of Judaism.[1] They were once again looking to the familiar Old Testament rituals (as practiced at the Temple in Jerusalem prior to is destruction in A.D. 70).

The writer's "word of exhortation" (13:22) repeatedly warned these vacillating "converts" about the fatal consequences of looking away from Christ for a means of salvation. "... how shall we escape if we neglect so great a salvation, which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord, and was confirmed to us by those who heard Him, God also bearing witness both with signs and wonders, with various miracles, and gifts of the Holy Spirit, according to His own will?" (Heb. 2:3,4).

Leading up to chapter six is a section that rebukes the congregation for their lack of learning and neglect of spiritual growth: "For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of the oracles of God; and you have come to need milk and not solid food. For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe. But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil" (Heb. 5:12-14). The best way to gain confidence in the faith is to learn; the best way to demonstrate life is to grow.

So the writer urges, "Therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on to perfection" [i.e., maturity-Col. 1:28; 4:12]. The teaching about Christ's high priestly ministry in chapters 7-10 would be like solid food in comparison to milk. Therefore, the basic (milk) teachings would not be reviewed at this juncture (6:1,2).

Another reason for going on to a more comprehensive understanding of Christ's superiority to the Old Covenant priesthood was that these basics would not be adequate to restore a backslidden believer (a professing believer who had returned to confidence in the Temple rituals or was tempted to do so). Such a turning away from Christ is known as "apostacy" (2 Peter 2:20-22).

Theologians debate whether the scenario of Hebrews 6:4,5 refers to those who were almost saved and then fell away or to those who were truly born again but (actually or hypothetically) lost their salvation. This passage has been difficult for both Calvinistic and Arminian viewpoints--difficult for Calvinists because it sounds like the saved person falls away and does not persevere; difficult for Arminians because those who "fall away" cannot be renewed to repentance (6:6).

Without tackling that issue presently, let's take a closer look at verse 6 "... if they fall away, to renew them again to repentance, since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God, and put Him to an open shame" (Heb. 6:6). Translations seem to present a REASON apostates cannot be restored to repentance: "since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God ..." However, what if the phrase described the CONDITION of those who were temporarily enticed back to Temple worship? Those returning to Judaism were avoiding persecution, but thereby insinuating that the animal sacrifices were still necessary for atonement, even after Christ's perfect sacrifice on Calvary--"putting Him to an open shame") A closer look at the grammar indicates the second option is preferred.

"Since" (Heb. 6:6) is not in the original text; rather, it is supplied to compliment the verb "crucify again." This verb is a present, active participle, conveying the idea that they were in a condition of desecrating Christ's sacrifice [by preferring temple sacrifices.] So the text should read, "it is impossible to renew them again to repentance WHILE they crucify again for themselves the Son of God ..." And what is the remedy for this wavering confession of faith that is inclined to take refuge in Judaism? The remedy is to go on to the deeper truths of Christ's Superior priesthood! Thus, these backsliders COULD be restored to repentance if they were persuaded by the more complete revelation of God's Word. And this fits the progression of thought in Heb. 7:1-10:24.

The writer is warning the readers as a pastor, not speculating about their ultimate decisions. The doctrinal debate about the possibility or impossibility of losing one's salvation is not directly addressed here. However, saving faith is described as a faith that continues to believe (Heb. 3:6; Col. 1:23; 1 Cor. 15:2).

This warning is then illustrated from nature: "For the earth which drinks in the rain that often comes upon it, and bears herbs useful for those by whom it is cultivated, receives blessing from God; but if it bears thorns and briars, it is rejected and near to being cursed [the backsliders were flirting with judgment], whose end is to be burned" (Heb. 6:7,8).

After this warning and an explanation of his strategy to present the supremacy and finality of Christ's person and work, the author reassures the Hebrew recipients of this letter that he expects them to persevere. "But, beloved, we are confident of better things concerning you, yes, things that accompany salvation, though we speak in this manner" (Heb. 6:9).

In the next article we'll study a parallel passage in Hebrews 10:26-39. Therefore, don't fear that true faith in Christ is not adequate to keep you securely in Christ: "This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil" (Heb. 6:19). So, gain confidence in your faith by digesting the meat of the Word; demonstrate your spiritual life by growing.

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[1] In addition to Roman oppression there was resistence from Jewish society: "The numerous Christian churches scattered throughout Judaea (Ac 9:31; Ga 1:22) were continually exposed to persecution from the Jews (1 Thess. 2:14), which would become more searching and extensive as churches multiplied, and as the growing turbulence of the nation ripened into the insurrection of A. D. 66. Personal violence, spoliation of property, exclusion from the synagogue, and domestic strife were the universal forms of persecution. But in Jerusalem there was one additional weapon in the hands of the predominant oppressors of the Christians. Their magnificent national Temple, hallowed to every Jew by ancient historical and by gentler personal recollections, with its irresistible attractions, its soothing strains, and mysterious ceremonies, might be shut against the Hebrew Christian." - Smith Bible Dictionary, "The Epistle to the Hebrews."

Grace Notes: September 9, 2004. Copyright © 2004 by John Woodward. Permission is granted to reprint this article for non-commercial use. Scripture quotations (unless indicated otherwise) are from The Holy Bible, New King James Version © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.

For further study on assurance, see GN "How to Have True Assurance" at GraceNotebook.com

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The Cure For Apostasy Part 2
By John Woodward
December 8, 2004

"The Cure for Apostasy" part 2
by Dr. John Woodward

In a previous study we looked at Hebrews 6:1-6 under the theme, "a cure for apostasy." The parallel passage that gives a similar, strong warning is Hebrews 10:26-31. Verse 26 has caused many believers to question their salvation: "For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins" (Heb. 10:26). Does this mean that an intentional sin in a Christian's life is unforgivable? Obviously not! Colossians 2:13 declares, "And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you ALL trespasses."

To understand the warning in this chapter, then, we need to first look at the preceding context. In Hebrews 10:1-18 explains the perfect, complete atonement Christ made on Calvary. This is followed by exhortations to live in light of this full salvation (Heb. 10:19-24). The concluding admonition involves the importance of Christian fellowship: "And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching" (Heb. 10:24,25).

Now comes the strong warning: "For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries" (Heb. 10:26,27). The question is, What is meant by the willful sin in verse 26? To answer this we need to observe that the context is describing the superiority and finality of Christ's New Covenant.

The prospect of "sin willfully" refers to the willful rejection the New Covenant in Christ Jesus.[1]

Dire consequences of judgment are given to warn the wavering person to escape such a dreadful destiny. The next verses confirm this warning by comparing the sin of apostasy from Christ to that of apostasy from the Old Covenant under Moses: "Anyone who has rejected Moses' law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses" (Heb. 10:28). Cases of idolatry (Deut. 17:2-7) and high-handed rejection of God's authority (Num. 15:30,31) would deserve and require capital punishment. The next verse shows that rejecting the New Covenant in Christ is even more blameworthy: "Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot ..." The one who turns his back on Christ treats the Atonement with contempt. He has "counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing." Although Christ's payment for sin is sufficient for all (1 John 2:2), rejecting the gospel insinuates that Christ's sacrifice was no better than of a martyr or animal. This stubborn unbelief has "insulted the Spirit of grace" (Heb 10:29), since the Spirit of God convicts people of their need and the truth of the gospel (John 16:8-11; 1 Cor. 12:3).

The danger of a professing Christian forsaking Christ brings this additional warning: "For we know Him who said, 'Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,' says the Lord. And again, 'The LORD will judge His people.' It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God" (Heb. 10:30,31; Deut. 32:35,36).[2] This "hell fire and brimstone" language may seem harsh, but God's love is perfectly balanced by His justice (Rom. 3:26).

The following verses would reassure the persecuted Jewish believers in the early church: "But recall the former days in which, after you were illuminated, you endured a great struggle with sufferings: partly while you were made a spectacle both by reproaches and tribulations, and partly while you became companions of those who were so treated; for you had compassion on me in my chains, and joyfully accepted the plundering of your goods, knowing that you have a better and an enduring possession for yourselves in heaven. Therefore do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the [fulfillment of the] promise" (Heb. 10:32-36). To North American ears, it is difficult to comprehend this kind of suffering for Christ, yet even today, thousands of believers are experiencing persecution around the world.[3]

The biblical author concludes this section with a quote from Habakkuk. This Old Testament prophet had addressed the importance of being part of the faithful remnant in the days of foreign oppression: "For yet a little while, And He who is coming will come and will not tarry. Now the just shall live by faith; But if anyone draws back, My soul has no pleasure in him" (Heb. 10:37,38; Hab. 2:3,4).[4] As the believers in the days of Habakkuk anticipated God delivering them from Babylon, so New Covenant believers anticipate Christ's return (Cf. Titus 2:13,14). The mention of "drawing back" warns the professing Christian to not turn away from Christ in resolute unbelief. However, the passage ends with a word of assurance: "But we are not of those who draw back to perdition, but of those who believe to the saving of the soul" (Heb. 10:39).

So, this study has concluded that: 1) True believers will continue to believe in Christ (Heb. 3:7); 2) The "willful sin" is not an act of disobedience or a condition of temporary backsliding [5]. The willful sin is an unrepentant turning away from Christ's New Covenant.[6]

In Hebrews, chapter 6, the cure for apostasy is to learn and believe the meat of the Word--the New Testament truth of Christ's superior, high priestly ministry. The cure for apostasy in chapter 10 is to continue in the privileges of New Covenant faith and fellowship.

Ultimately our confidence is in the One who saves completely: "Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them" (Heb. 7:25). You can count on your Redeemer's faithfulness! "... For He Himself has said, 'I will never leave you nor forsake you" (Heb. 13:5).

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[1] "Sin" here is a present active particle in Greek, indicating a condition. "Sin" here means, ... apostatize (Heb 3:12) to Judaism or infidelity, is not a sin of ignorance, or error ... [or] of infirmity, but a deliberate sinning against the Spirit (Heb 10:29 Heb 5:2) ... a sinning presumptuously and perseveringly against Christ's redemption for us, and the Spirit of grace in us." -Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown.

[2] The idea here is, that to fall into the hands of the Lord [2 Sam 24], after having despised his mercy and rejected his salvation, would be [terrifying]; and the fear of this should deter from the commission of the dreadful crime. The phrase "living God" is used in the Scripture in opposition to idols. God always lives; his power is Capable of being always exerted. -Albert Barnes

[3] For example, see Voice of the Martyrs: www.Persecution.org

[4] "But if anyone draws back, My soul has no pleasure in him" is based on the Greek translation of the Old Testament (LXX) commonly used in the first century.

[5] God can and will discipline and restore his erring children: "My son, do not despise the chastening of the LORD, Nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him; For whom the LORD loves He chastens, And scourges every son whom He receives" (Heb. 12:5,6).

[6] Whether one believes that a born again Christian cannot lose His salvation or that he can intentionally forfeit it, God's Word warns everyone in the strongest possible terms that there is no other way of redemption, forgiveness, and salvation except through faith in Jesus the Messiah.

"The Cure for Apostasy" part 1 is posted at GraceNotebook.com

Grace Notes: November 12, 2004. Copyright 2004 by John Woodward. Permission is granted to reprint this article for non-commercial use. Scripture quotations (unless indicated otherwise) are from The Holy Bible, New King James Version © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.

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Planning For Growth
By John Woodward
August 30, 1999
A news clipping carried this anecdote about planning for a new church building. "A certain congregation was about to erect a new church edifice. The building committee, in consecutive meetings, passed the following resolutions:

(1) We shall build a new church.

(2) The new building is to be located on the site of the old one.

(3) The material in the old building is to be used in the new one.

(4) We shall continue to use the old building until the new one is completed."

Try to figure that out! This story reminds me of the contradictions of trying to live our new life in Christ using "old materials" in an "old location."

Many believers in Christ have dedicated themselves to living a holier life by using the "old materials" of the flesh and self-effort. This attempt is a lost cause, for Paul declared in Romans 7:18 "For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find." And he rebuked the legalistic Galatian church asking, "Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?" (Gal. 3:3).

Instead, we need to walk in the power of God's Spirit: "I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh" (Gal. 5:16). This new source of life and power is in direct contrast to the self-life.

It is impossible to successfully renovate your life by the strength of the flesh: "... You can work throughout your life and never get your flesh cleaned up. Christ didn't come to improve the flesh; he came to execute it and to give us new life. Trying to clean ourselves up is merely turning to the law--the ultimate exercise in futility." [1]

Optimism for spiritual victory is based on the adequacy of Christ who indwells every believer by His Spirit (Rom. 8:11). "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me" (Phil. 4:13).

Similarly, we cannot experience abundant life in Christ by sticking to our "old location". In Christ we have a new identity and citizenship--a new spiritual "location." "For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ" (Phil. 3:20).

And Colossians 3:1 calls us to focus our attention on this new spiritual location: "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" (Col. 3:1-3).

F.J. Huegel wrote of the implications of our new position in Christ: "Now when by faith we rise to claim our place in the heavenlies, our spirits are released from the thraldom [bondage] of the 'flesh-life' ... We are no longer in bondage to 'self.' We are set free. Our life is no longer lived at the circumference. It flows from the center to the circumference. Thus it is that we truly come into our own [develop our full potential in Christ]."[2]

Christ promised to build His church (Matt. 16:18). This is the primary mission of this present age of grace (Eph. 3:1-12). As God's grace is essential to the corporate building of His church, it is essential to your personal growth and victory. Let us claim His promise: "Being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ" (Phil. 1:6).

With the new resource of God's indwelling Spirit and the new location of our heavenly position in Christ, our plan for growth will not contradict reality but will cooperate with it.

Our Father, we realize the need to exchange our plans for growth for Yours. Thank you for our new identity and position in Christ. We depend upon You to complete that good work You have accomplished in our salvation. In Christ's name, Amen.

~~~~~~~~~~

[1] Bob George, Classic Christianity p.162; cf. Rom 7.

[2] Bone of His Bone, p.59.

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Posted by TB125 (Member # 2450) on :
 
I have noted and read the postings regarding this topic on this thread as well as a lot of others that touch on the doctrines of salvation, sin, God’s grace, faith, works; and the various opinions of various participants regarding osas, being “in Christ” or “having Christ", and the long and complicated discussions, debates, and even arguments that have taken place between individuals on this Forum. A lot of Scriptures have been quoted and proclaimed to individuals in support of various positions. Numerous preachers-teachers and historic theologians have been quoted, some at length, in support of various positions regarding the teachings of the Bible.

I’m not claiming to be an expert theologian, but I am an ordained preacher-teacher who has some training in the interpretation of Scripture, the teaching of the Bible, and some experience in writing and publishing Christian Bible studies. I’m offering the following list of “Fundamental Principles for Teaching the Bible” as my effort to simplify this ongoing debate-discussion in a way that may be more beneficial to each of us and all of us who are trying to become more faithful disciples “learners” of Jesus that we might be more fruitful in our ministries and bring more glory to God, our Father.

1. The Bible is the written and compiled record of God’s revelation to man and a somewhat brief history of the responses of certain individuals and groups of people to this revelation through centuries of ancient experience.

2. Although the original documents were completely “inspired” by the Spirit of God to the authors of these records, the subsequent translations of these documents from their original languages have not always been as completely “inspired” as were the originals. Various translators have obviously been influenced by their current cultures and religious traditions in their selection of specific words that they have used to translate the meanings of the various copies of the ancient manuscripts with which they were working. Any “sound teaching” of the Bible must reflect an understanding of this process and some expertise in biblical linguistics or at least a recognizable ability to discern between what is “sound” and what is “unsound” in the wording of any biblical text. Good Bible dictionaries and commentaries can be helpful in this process of discernment and learning.

3. It is the Holy Spirit who is the author, guide, teacher, and convicting counsel for all of God’s “truth". Jesus did not leave his initial disciples or us with a compiled collection of documents as the guide or manual for their or our walks of faithful discipleship and fruitful service. He left us all with the Spirit, who has always been the basic agent for God’s revelation of his glory, will, and wisdom. If we want to express “sound teaching” in our postings regarding the Bible and its words of truth, we should each be dependent upon this Spirit in our postings.

4. The original documents of the Bible were not each organized into specific numbered chapters and verses, but they were compiled as longer statements in manuscripts or “books”. This means that all “sound teaching” of the Bible must start with the context of any biblical statement apart from the specific words that are written in the original languages or their various translated versions.

5. It is not a “sound” procedure for the teaching of the Bible and its divine truth to string together a list of selected biblical verses that according to their vocabulary are interpreted by the user to support a certain doctrine or religious opinion. This common practice of using long lists of Scriptures to “prove” specific points of doctrine or one’s interpretation of biblical truth is not really biblical. I don’t believe that Jesus used such a procedure in his teaching discussion with Nicodemus as recorded in John 3:1-21. In his dialogue with Nicodemus Jesus mentioned the “Son of Man”, which is a reference to a divine figure who is identified by Daniel in his prophecies (see Dan 7:13-14). Then he referred to an incident involving Moses and the Israelites in their struggles in the wilderness when they experienced God’s judgment from “venomous snakes” and Moses was instructed to “lift…up” a snake’s image on a pole to save individuals (see Numbers 21:4-9). So Jesus used only two references to biblical passages to make his teaching point to Nicodemus. (For a commentary on this dialogue see my sermon on this discussion on my website at http://www.christianityetc.org/trying_to_teach_worldly_people_heavenly_truth.php) I don’t believe that either Paul or Peter used this procedure of “proof-texting” Scripture in their teachings.

6. It would be very helpful if we could practice “sound teaching” in our postings on this Forum by following these principles, avoiding the “proof-texting” of Scripture, and keeping our specific posts to a single point that is clearly made in a positive way. Long quotations, even from some excellent teachers of the Bible, are probably not the most helpful.

I hope that these principles are helpful. There is lot that we can do to encourage each other in our lives of faith and to lead others to Jesus in our postings on this Forum. It is one of the best Christian forums on the Internet.
 

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Posted by yahsway (Member # 3738) on :
 
I agree Bob. Point very well taken. Thanks
 

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Posted by Zeena (Member # 7223) on :
 
Me too, I'll respond accordingly when the Lord gives me opportunity bro
 

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Posted by Eden (Member # 5728) on :
 
May we the soul be quiet and listen for what "the Spirit says to our spirit of man".

love, Eden
 

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Posted by Eden (Member # 5728) on :
 
Michael Harrison wrote

quote:

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You overlook that one must abide, in order to bear fruit, or to ask what they will.

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quote:

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You overlook that one must abide, in order to bear fruit, or to ask what they will.

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6. It would be very helpful if we could practice “sound teaching” in our postings on this Forum by following these principles, avoiding the “proof-texting” of Scripture, and keeping our specific posts to a single point that is clearly made in a positive way. Long quotations, even from some excellent teachers of the Bible, are probably not the most helpful.

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I agree that it would be helpful and terrific. But is there such a thing as an advanced Christian who has it over other Christians in ability? and brain power to execute operations?.

Although I dare say that anyone who is regularly listening to their spirit man can be all those things you mentioned and could and would bypass intellectual ability, since the Holy Spirit "knows it all already".

So, TB125, I acknowledge your teaching history, do you think that ANY Christian can absorb the methods you delineated in Items 1-6, or do you think that ONLY SOME Christian can grasp the methods and implement them, by and large, a few, or not?

love, Eden
"I'm trying not to paint myself as anything..."
 

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Posted by TB125 (Member # 2450) on :
 
Eden,
I believe that "ANY" Christian can learn and use the 6 priciples or methods for teaching the Bible that I have provided in my statement. But they can only be effectively implemented by a disciple "learner" who is humbly open to the constant inspired teaching of the Holy Spirit.

So one must be inspired by the Holy Spirit to be an approved "teacher" of God's word. This means that teaching the Bible is somewhat of a gift, and it can't be a simple matter of knowledge, "ability", or "brain power". Nicodemus and all of the Pharisees, including Paul, were well educated in the recorded words of God in the biblical manuscripts, but both of them, as well as other intelligent students of the Bible and religious thought need to be "born again" before they or any of us can be an approved and effective teacher of God's word. And then there is an added "responsibility" to this gift. (I can't find the text that states that, but that keeps me from "proof-texting" my point, which is good.)

Paul has some very wise and important instructions regarding this matter in his final letters of the New Testament. They are addressed to Timothy, (see 1st and 2nd Timothy). He even uses the phrase "sound teaching" (NIV 2 Tim 1:13)in his instructions. And he goes on in his instructions to Timothy and to us, saying this: "Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth." (2 Tim. 2:15 KJV).

Anyone who attempts to teach anything about the Bible or even to witness effectively to others needs to be a dedicated and consistently inspired student of the "word". Anyone who tries to do this in accord with their own knowledge and intellectual abilities will end up proclaiming a lot of "foolish" and confusing philosophy or heresy.

There is much that most of us can do to improve the quality of our postings and our efforts to encourage each other in our personal walks of faith without seeking or claiming too much divine authority as a teacher who is "rightly dividing the word of truth". Let the "fruits" of our postings confirm the anointing of God's Spirit to our words, as we seek to keep them brief and focused on the glory of God.

Thanks for your added comments and questions. I trust that this further explanation of my points has been helpful.
 

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Posted by Carol Swenson (Member # 6929) on :
 
TB125
 

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Posted by Michael Harrison (Member # 6801) on :
 

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In my opinion, this is not true. Because we are descended from Adam and Eve, the soul has been accustomed to operate this body for almost 6,000 years. It takes a lifetime to "unlearn" this habit of trying to "take the reins of our body back into our soul hands":

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Yes, but abide in what? Abide in the Word of God, abide in Christian books, abide in having laid down soul rule and the soul is now listening to what the spirit of man is hearing from the Spirit of God, and then what the spirit of man has heard from the Spirit of God, the spirit of man conveys to the soul (spiritual to physical; the spirit has sending instruments and the soul has receiving instruments and inbetween is a converter), and then the soul ONLY executes the body with what the soul has heard from the spirit of man, which in turn heard it from the Spirit of God (if one is saved, otherwise the spirit of man is idle).

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Now, it is hard to discuss it past this point because you still insist on the spirit of man 'receiving', or 'hearing' from God. Man's spitit is dead. It died when Adam and Eve sinned.

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I don't think the spirit of man died when we sinned, but the soul died when we sinned:

Ezekiel 18:20
The soul that sins, it shall die.

When Adam and Eve (not Eve and Adam, remember God's hierarchy) were created, they were created with a spirit of man. And the LORD God spoke to their spirit of man.

After Adam and Eve chose to operate their own bodies from the soul, their spirit of man lay idle, in a state of non-use, as if dead.

But when Jesus came, the Bible said:

Matthew 12:20
A bruised reed shall He not break, and smoking flax shall He not quench, until He sends forth judgment unto victory.

It does not matter that much to me whether the Spirit of God has "come alongside" or "has come in me", but I do not think that the spirit of man has been eliminated as an instrument.

Only the spirit of man has the instruments to hear from the Spirit of God, so like the toe or the thumb, the spirit of man cannot have been eliminated. Indeed, judging from 1 Thessalonians 5:23, the spirit of man is still very much there:

1 Thessalonians 5
23 And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Since the Spirit of God is already blameless, Paul must be talking about my spirit of man, right?

love, Eden
 

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Posted by Zeena (Member # 7223) on :
 
What an excellent, excellent post Eden!

Praise God!
 

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Posted by Michael Harrison (Member # 6801) on :
 
If your soul died eden, we would not be talking to each other.

 

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Posted by Zeena (Member # 7223) on :
 

quote:

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Originally posted by TB125:
1. The Bible is the written and compiled record of God’s revelation to man and a somewhat brief history of the responses of certain individuals and groups of people to this revelation through centuries of ancient experience.

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quote:

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2. Although the original documents were completely “inspired” by the Spirit of God to the authors of these records, the subsequent translations of these documents from their original languages have not always been as completely “inspired” as were the originals. Various translators have obviously been influenced by their current cultures and religious traditions in their selection of specific words that they have used to translate the meanings of the various copies of the ancient manuscripts with which they were working. Any “sound teaching” of the Bible must reflect an understanding of this process and some expertise in biblical linguistics or at least a recognizable ability to discern between what is “sound” and what is “unsound” in the wording of any biblical text. Good Bible dictionaries and commentaries can be helpful in this process of discernment and learning.

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As is a lexicon and the study of the language in which the text were originally writ.

I have not had opportunity to study neither hebrew, greek nor aramaic, but I have spent extensive time with lexicons in Hebrew and Greek, as I'm sure most avid Bible students would, for it is prudent.

Though, I have a LOT to learn!

quote:

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3. It is the Holy Spirit who is the author, guide, teacher, and convicting counsel for all of God’s “truth". Jesus did not leave his initial disciples or us with a compiled collection of documents as the guide or manual for their or our walks of faithful discipleship and fruitful service. He left us all with the Spirit, who has always been the basic agent for God’s revelation of his glory, will, and wisdom. If we want to express “sound teaching” in our postings regarding the Bible and its words of truth, we should each be dependent upon this Spirit in our postings.

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Indeed!

However, there is a quandry with such in that we, as born again believers on the Lord Jesus Christ, may be DECEIVED!

Malachi 1:14
But cursed be the deceiver, which hath in his flock a male, and voweth, and sacrificeth unto the LORD a corrupt thing: for I am a great King, saith the LORD of hosts, and my name is dreadful among the heathen.

2 John 1:7
For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist.


The Holy Spirit is Willing to bring us back into right relationship via confession and cleansing, but we must be willing to submit, which is not always the case when our Father has allowed us to be deceived.

Romans 1:28-32
And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.

James 4:7
Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

quote:

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4. The original documents of the Bible were not each organized into specific numbered chapters and verses, but they were compiled as longer statements in manuscripts or “books”.

---

quote:

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This means that all “sound teaching” of the Bible must start with the context of any biblical statement apart from the specific words that are written in the original languages or their various translated versions.

---

quote:

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5. It is not a “sound” procedure for the teaching of the Bible and its divine truth to string together a list of selected biblical verses that according to their vocabulary are interpreted by the user to support a certain doctrine or religious opinion. This common practice of using long lists of Scriptures to “prove” specific points of doctrine or one’s interpretation of biblical truth is not really biblical.

---

quote:

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I don’t believe that Jesus used such a procedure in his teaching discussion with Nicodemus as recorded in John 3:1-21. In his dialogue with Nicodemus Jesus mentioned the “Son of Man”, which is a reference to a divine figure who is identified by Daniel in his prophecies (see Dan 7:13-14). Then he referred to an incident involving Moses and the Israelites in their struggles in the wilderness when they experienced God’s judgment from “venomous snakes” and Moses was instructed to “lift…up” a snake’s image on a pole to save individuals (see Numbers 21:4-9). So Jesus used only two references to biblical passages to make his teaching point to Nicodemus. (For a commentary on this dialogue see my sermon on this discussion on my website at http://www.christianityetc.org/trying_to_teach_worldly_people_heavenly_truth.php) I don’t believe that either Paul or Peter used this procedure of “proof-texting” Scripture in their teachings.

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quote:

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6. It would be very helpful if we could practice “sound teaching” in our postings on this Forum by following these principles, avoiding the “proof-texting” of Scripture, and keeping our specific posts to a single point that is clearly made in a positive way. Long quotations, even from some excellent teachers of the Bible, are probably not the most helpful.

---

quote:

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I hope that these principles are helpful. There is lot that we can do to encourage each other in our lives of faith and to lead others to Jesus in our postings on this Forum. It is one of the best Christian forums on the Internet.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Michael Harrison:
If your soul died eden, we would not be talking to each other.

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Originally posted by Michael Harrison:
On point number two, I have to say that I have confidence that scripture as we have it in the KJV is perfectly fine

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Unblocking the Springs
By John Woodward
April 10, 2000
One of the vivid metaphors the Lord Jesus used to describe the abundant life is that of "rivers of living waters." As Jesus declared, "'If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.' But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified" (John 7:37-39). Although the Holy Spirit was "with" the disciples, at Pentecost He would be "in" them, baptizing believers into the Body of Christ (John 14:17).

I recall taking a trip when I was a boy with my grandfather Young. We went for a drive in the Blue Ridge mountains of Georgia. When we reached a certain spot, he shut off the car. We got out and walked over to a spring flowing from the side of a hill. We each had a refreshing drink. What a delight! Then he filled a jug with the fresh water for us to take home. (This was around 1962--long before buying bottled spring water was popular!)

This reminds me of 2 Chronicles 32. The people of Judah were being threatened by the invading army of Assyria. (This invasion scattered the northern tribes of Israel in 722 B.C.). As a defensive tactic, King Hezekiah of the southern kingdom of Judah, "consulted with his leaders and commanders to stop the water from the springs which were outside the city; and they helped him. Thus many people gathered together who stopped all the springs and the brook that ran through the land, saying, 'Why should the kings of Assyria come and find much water?' And he strengthened himself, built up all the wall that was broken, raised it up to the towers, and built another wall outside..." (v.3-5). Because of the arid conditions of the land, water supply was of critical importance to an invading army.

What is not recorded here is that Hezekiah's workmen accomplished a great engineering feat. They dug a tunnel from the spring of Gihon (that supplied Jerusalem with fresh water) and routed it underground to an upper pool within the walls of the City of David. While enemy soldiers would be without water, the inhabitants of Jerusalem would have plenty to drink!

It so happens that this tunnel was rediscovered in 1880. An inscription inside it testifies of the difficulty of this project: "It was cut in the following manner... axes, each toward his fellow, and while there were still three cubits to be cut through, the voice of one man calling to the other was heard, showing that he was deviating to the right. When the tunnel was driven through, the excavators met man to man, axe to axe, and water flowed for 1,200 cubits [1,800'] from the spring to the reservoir. The height of the rock above the heads of the excavators was 100 cubits [150']" Wow!! [1] The workers went to a lot of trouble to ensure a safe, continual water supply.

The comparison to the Christian life is significant. God has taken great and successful measures to ensure the believer's continual supply of "rivers of living water." The Christian must have sustaining GRACE to live as he/she is called to live. So our Lord promises us that, "He gives more grace. Therefore He says: 'God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble'"(James 4:6).

But, alas, too often the "springs" are blocked up like in the case of the conduits outside the walls of Jerusalem. Although the Holy Spirit seals and empowers us in Christ, He is often hindered in our lives. What causes this "blockage?

First, our springs can get stopped up by SINNING against the Lord. Because the Spirit of God is a PERSON, He can be grieved: "And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption" (Eph. 4:30). For example if the Christian husband treats his wife unkindly, his prayers will be hindered (1 Pet. 3:7) It seems safe to assume that this relationship principle applies to the wife also. Likewise, as the Spirit prompts us to do His will we are to cooperate with Him, lest He be quenched: "Do not quench the Spirit" (1 Thess. 5:16-19). Confessing known sin in repentance restores unhindered communion with our Source of grace (1 John 1:9; Rev.2:5). [2]

Second, we may "block our springs" through UNBELIEF. How easy it is to view God, others, and ourselves through the lens of circumstances, feelings, and opinions. Instead, we need to renew our minds with God's Word. Rather than regarding ourselves "according to the flesh" (2 Cor. 5:16), we are to view ourselves as being IN CHRIST. This glorious position has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in Him (Eph. 1:3) As a believer you are God's child, a new creation, the temple of the Holy Spirit, and a saint! (John 1:12; 2 Cor. 5:17; 1 Cor. 6:19; 1 Cor. 1:2). As we take God's Word for it and walk by faith, our values, attitudes, words, and actions will tend to reflect our spiritual identity.

Ruth Paxson wrote of the significance of our position in Christ: "To be 'in Christ' is to share what Christ has. All that Christ possesses we possess. Every spiritual blessing in Him--joy, peace, victory, power, holiness--is ours here and now. If we are a child of God, then we are His heir and a joint-heir with Christ, so that all the Father had given His Son, the Son shares with us... Do you believe you are a spiritual millionaire? Are you living like one? ... Most of us live like spiritual paupers ... To be a Christian is to have Christ the Life of our minds, hearts, and wills so that it is He who thinks through our minds, loves through our hearts, and wills through our wills. It is to have Christ filling our life in ever-increasing measure until we have no life apart from Him. Does He so fill you?" [3]

Christ is our spring of spiritual life!

Third, we would also be wise to avoid the blockage of PRAYERLESSNESS. Since Christ lives in us and He modeled the life of spiritual fullness, we should value His example. Jesus totally depended on the Father to live in and though Him; likewise we are to totally depend on Christ, by the Holy Spirit, to live His life through us (John 5:19; Gal. 2:20).

As the perfect man the Lord Jesus demonstrated the way prayer expresses complete trust and unhindered communion with the Father. For example, Christ prayed at His baptism (Luke 3:21), before choosing the twelve apostles (all night intercession--Luke 6:12), when the crowd tried to force Him to be a political king (John 6:15), the night before Calvary (John 17), and even on the Cross (Luke 23:34,46). If the sinless Son of God needed ongoing verbal communication with the Father, how much more are WE in need of being "online" spiritually! As Paul instructed us, "Pray without ceasing" (1 Thess. 5:17).

When the Lord convicts us of "blockages" to the springs of His grace, we are to take these issues to the Cross; then we will continue to find God's supply of living waters more than adequate for the difficulties of life.

Ruth Paxson gave this example of trusting Christ as our source of Life: "For several weeks I lived in a boarding house kept by a little woman who weighed only eighty-five pounds. She was kept from falling into a heap by a brace worn at her back. She had lived on the third floor for two years with no outlook but the blue sky above and a patch of green grass a few feet square below. But her eyes shone like stars. Upon her face was a smile that the affliction and adversity she suffered could not remove, and mirrored in her countenance was a radiance that one never sees on land or sea except where the Light of the world dwells in undimmed brightness. Christ was the Life of her life." [4]

Of Mt. Zion's dignity it is written, "Both the singers and the players on instruments say, 'ALL MY SPRINGS ARE IN YOU'" (Psalm 87:7). How much more can the one indwelt by the Holy Spirit find continual resources of grace:

"He shall be like a tree
Planted by the rivers of water,
That brings forth its fruit in its season,
Whose leaf also shall not wither;
And whatever he does shall prosper" (Psalm 1:3).

Are "all your springs" in God? Then, live as a vessel of living water by the power of the Holy Spirit.

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

[1] The New Bible Dictionary, s.v. "Siloam." (cubit=about 18 inches)

[2] 1 John 1:9 is descriptive of the true believer who acknowledges willful sin as he/she repents. This confession is not a request for pardon; that has been accomplished once for all at salvation, based on the finished work of Christ (Heb. 10:10; Col. 2:13,14). For a more detailed study, see "The Christian's Confession of Sin" at GraceNotebook.com / Clarifications.

[3] Ruth Paxson, "Rivers of Living Water," p. 63-65.

[4] Ibid., p. 69.

"Therefore with joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation!" (Isaiah 12:3).

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quote:

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The Christian's Confession of Sins
By John Woodward
Undated
How wonderful it is that God judicially pardons believers in Christ of all their sins--past, present, and future--when they are saved: "And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses"( Col. 2:13).

Some grace teachers, therefore, believe that confession of sin in the Christian life is unnecessary and legalistic.

I trust we are agreed that God still requires righteousness in the disciple's attitudes, words and actions: "Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God" (2 Cor. 7:1). Can we retain the majority, evangelical view that Christians still need to confess their sins, while avoiding a legalistic works-oriented view of it? I believe so.

The traditional evangelical view has scriptural support and wide endorsement. Dr. Griffith Thomas put it this way: "God forgives us once as a Judge, but many times as a Father."

The New Testament epistles indicate that known sin requires repentance. Christ admonished the wayward Ephesian believers,"Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place--unless you repent" (Rev. 2:5, Cf. v.16).

Neglecting or suppressing such repentance,

grieves and quenches the Holy Spirit (Eph 4:30; 1 Thess 5:19),
hinders prayer (1 Pet 3:7),
hinders our usefulness to God (2 Tim 2:20-22),
mars our testimony (Col 3:17).
robs us of potential reward (1 Cor 9:24-27)
and brings God's corrective discipline (1 Cor 11:29-32).
1 John 1:9 declares, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." With the commendable aim of avoiding an installment plan/legalistic view of confession in the Christian life, some now interpret 1 John 1:9 as referring only to the initial confession at salvation. However, we can maintain the traditional interpretation of this verse without falling into legalism. The use of "forgive" here is not judicial forgiveness (which has already been granted - Rom. 8:1; Titus 2:14), but paternal forgiveness (restoring full communion - 2 Cor 6:17,18).

1 John 1:9 can be translated: "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and [even/that is] to CLEANSE us from all unrighteousness." "And" in the Gk. is "kai," which is translated 108 times in the KJV as "even," with this meaning. So, the word "cleansing" may be a more accurate term to describe the sinning Christian's repentance and restoration to intimacy with God. But using the term "forgiveness" in this way is not incorrect.

Andrew Murray, widely respected for his writing and influence through the Christ-centered, grace-oriented deeper life, acknowledged the role of confession in the believer's fellowship with God: "Too often the confession of sin is superficial, and often it is quite neglected. Few Christians realize how necessary it is to be sincere about the matter. Some do not feel that an honest confession of sin gives power to live the life of victory over sin. But we, in fellowship with the Lord Jesus, need to confess with a sincere heart every sin that may be a hindrance in our Christian lives." [1]

Most teachers use the word "fellowship" to describe an unhindered quality of communion with the Lord. However, since the Greek term for "fellowship" (koinonia) overlaps the concept of "relationship," some are uneasy with a disobedient Christian saying, "I am out of fellowship," or even, "my fellowship is hindered." Therefore, the term "communion" may be more accurate for the condition of intimacy with God.

Now, back to the concept of paternal forgiveness. Obedience is linked to the full appreciation of God's fatherhood: "Come out from among them And be separate, says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, And I will receive you." 'I will be a Father to you, And you shall be My sons and daughters, Says the LORD Almighty'" (2 Cor. 6:17,18).

In Hebrews 13:15, "praise" is literally, "confess," (Gk. - "homologeo"); it is used here as expressing the Christian's worship to God. It seems appropriate that "confession" in worship would include resolving any issue of unrepentance (John 4: 24; Psalm 51:6).

The word "forgive," (Gk. - aphiemi) is used of the Christian's relationship with God (cleansing) in the Lord's Prayer (Matt 6:12; Luke 11:4). To avoid a misuse of this discipline, however, some hold that the Sermon on the Mount does not apply to believers after Pentecost--in this dispensation of grace. Yet, James 5:15 still uses "forgive" related to the Christian's walk: "And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven." James qualifies as being in the present dispensation.

The confession of sins in the Christian life should not involve morbid introspection. Then, what are valid indications of the need to repent and confess sin?

We look to God, who will convict us by His Holy Spirit (John 16:8-11; Psalm 139:23,24).
If our conscience is violated, we have sinned and need to make it right: "But he who doubts is condemned if he eats, because he does not eat from faith; for whatever is not from faith [in a matter's acceptability] is sin" (Rom.14:23).
God's Word is the plumb line of His righteous standards. "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work" (2 Tim. 3:16,17).
Also, we should also be receptive to the loving admonition of a fellow believer who may point out a "blind spot" of disobedient actions in our lives. "Exhort one another daily, while it is called "Today," lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin" (Heb. 3:13).
Let us depend on God's enablement for righteous living. Abundant life includes repentance and confession of known sins, since disobedience grieves His Holy Spirit.

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1] Andrew Murray, God's Best Secrets. New Kensington, PA: Whitaker House, 1998. (earlier edition: Biola Book, 1923). section one: "Fellowship," reading 10: "Confession."

revised 10/05

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The purpose of Grace Notes is to highlight the dynamics of abundant living as summarized in Galatians 2:20. Back issues are available at the Web site. Please pray for God's blessing on these articles. Your comments are welcome: john@gracenotebook.com.

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Passing the Tests of Temptation, Part 1
By John Woodward
January 10, 2003

When students are taking a course, they usually have to study to pass their tests. Even so, in the "school" of Christian discipleship we need to do some studying to prepare for the temptations that face us in a fallen world. Evidently, this instruction has been essential in parental training among the people of God for thousands of years.

In Proverbs 1:10-19 we have a vivid example: "My son, if sinners entice you, Do not consent. If they say, 'Come with us, Let us lie in wait to shed blood; Let us lurk secretly for the innocent without cause; Let us swallow them alive like Sheol, And whole, like those who go down to the Pit; We shall find all kinds of precious possessions, We shall fill our houses with spoil; Cast in your lot among us, Let us all have one purse' -- My son, do not walk in the way with them, Keep your foot from their path; For their feet run to evil, And they make haste to shed blood. Surely, in vain the net is spread In the sight of any bird; But they lie in wait for their own blood, They lurk secretly for their own lives. So are the ways of everyone who is greedy for gain; It takes away the life of its owners" (Prov. 1:10-19). This is preventative and remedial counsel that is still relevant today.

Discipleship Journal readers responded to a survey regarding issues of temptation. They ranked areas of greatest spiritual challenge to them this way:

1. Materialism.

2. Pride.

3. Self-centeredness.

4. Laziness.

5. (Tie) Anger/Bitterness.

5. (Tie) Sexual lust.

7. Envy.

8. Gluttony.

9. Lying. [1]

Which would you identify as your vulnerable issues? Is there an area of temptation where you keep "failing the test?" How can believers live in consistent victory over intentional sin?


The anatomy of Temptation
Perhaps it will help to examine just how we end up failing these tests. James explained, "each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death" (James 1:14,15).

Notice that temptation itself is not sin! Christ, after all, was tempted in every area, yet remained sinless (Heb. 4:15). Yet the Tempter, Satan, tries to deceive us by accusing us of guilt even before we have yielded to the temptation. However, by learning how to say "no", we can pass these tests.

Areas of attack: the world, the flesh, and the devil

The apostle John counsels us, "Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world--the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life--is not of the Father but is of the world" (1 John 2:15,16).

Sadly, Genesis records how Eve was originally deceived by this three fold temptation. The forbidden fruit was good for food (the lust of the flesh), pleasant to look upon (lust of the eyes), and desirable to make one wise (the pride of life) -Gen. 3:6.

1 John 2:16 mentions two of our key sources of temptation--the flesh and the world. Behind both is the third nemesis, the devil. Let's define these dangers.

The "world" in this context is humanistic society arrayed independently of God. A typical snare of the world is the love of money. Paul warned, But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition" (1 Tim 6:9). Those who have a gambling addiction or who have sacrificed relationships in pursuit of wealth can testify to this indictment.

The "flesh" can be defined as the interface of body and soul that contains the depraved tendencies, values, perceptions, and conditioning of living independently of God. The flesh is distinct from the "old man" (who we were before salvation-Rom. 6:6); it is in us (Rom. 7:18), yet is not essentially us (believers-Rom.7:20,22). Our essential identity is "in Christ" and our essential nature (in the redeemed human spirit) is holy (2 Cor. 5:17; Rom. 7:22). The apostle Peter wrote, "Beloved, I beg you as sojourners and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts which war against the soul" (1 Peter 2:11).

The spiritual source behind the world system is the Tempter--The devil (1 Thess. 3:5). He is a fallen angel who is called the "god of this world," "the prince of the power of the air," "the spirit who works in the sons of disobedience" (Eph. 2:2; 6:10,11; 2 Cor. 4:4). Although he is ultimately a defeated foe, this chief adversary is permitted during this age, to "prowl around as a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour" (1 Pet. 5:8).

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Passing the Tests of Temptation, Part 2
By John Woodward
January 17, 2003

The Test in Temptation

It has been puzzling to me that there is only one Greek word for "temptation." Greek is a precise language and often there are a few synonyms for each important term, yet "peirazo" means both temptation (enticement to sin) and testing (trial). Why is this? Essentially, whether we face a temptation (such as to lust) or a trial (such as sickness), both are a TEST.

James clarifies, "Let no one say when he is tempted, 'I am tempted by God'; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone" (James 1:13). Commenting on this verse, W.E. Vine wrote, "James refers to temptation, or trial, arising from within, from uncontrolled appetites and from evil passions [the flesh] Mark 7:20-23. But though such temptation does not proceed from God, yet does God regard His people while they endure it, and by it tests and approves them." So, technically, God does "test" His people for their learning and growth. For example, the LORD tested Abraham when He asked him to sacrificed Isaac (Gen. 22:1); Christians can expect to suffer trials (tests) and afflictions (Cf. 1 Pet. 4:12-19). But, God never tempts someone to sin.

The main test in temptation is to "let go" of the wrong idea. Someone has said, we win the battle with temptation in the THRESHOLD of the mind, not IN the mind. One of the Reformers quipped, "I cannot prevent a bird from flying over my head, but I can prevent it from making a nest in my hair!"

The example of trapping monkeys shows the need to "let go" of sin's enticement: "Men who trap animals in Africa for zoos in America say that one of the hardest animals to catch is the ringtailed monkey. For the Zulus of that continent, however, it's simple. They've been catching this agile little animal with ease for years. The method the Zulus use is based on knowledge of the animal. Their trap is nothing more than a melon growing on a vine. The seeds of this melon are a favorite of the monkey. Knowing this, the Zulus simply cut a hole in the melon, just large enough for the monkey to insert his hand to reach the seeds inside. The monkey will stick his hand in, grab as many seeds as he can, then start to withdraw it. This he cannot do. His fist is now larger than the hole. The monkey will pull and tug, screech and fight the melon for hours. But he can't get free of the trap unless he gives up the seeds, which he refuses to do. Meanwhile, the Zulus sneak up and nab him."[2] Even so, victory requires a Spirit-filled decision to say "no!" to temptation.

Charles Spurgeon counseled, "What settings are you in when you fall? Avoid them. What props do you have that support your sin? Eliminate them. What people are you usually with? Avoid them. There are two equally damning lies Satan wants us to believe: 1) 'Just once won't hurt.' 2) 'Now that you have ruined your life, you are beyond God's use, and might as well enjoy sinning.' Learn to say no. It will be of more use to you than to be able to read Latin."


Precious Promises
To equip us for godly living, the Lord has given us in His Word, "many exceedingly great and precious promises" (2 Pet 1:3). Let's study some so we can claim them!

1. 1 Corinthians 10:13
"No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it."

We learn several lessons here. 1) although we may feel like our area of temptation is unique, it is not; others struggle in this same area. 2) God is faithful. We can depend on Him to give victory. 3) God will limit the degree and intensity of temptation so that it is not insurmountable. Your ability is based on the power of the Holy Spirit in you. 4). There will always be a way of escape; look for it and take it!

2. Galatians 5:16
"...Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh."

So how do we "walk in the Spirit"? One step at a time by faith. As we yield full control to Him, and depend upon His grace, He overcomes sin's tugs! In other words, as we yield to the indwelling Spirit of God and trust Him to express divine life through us, the flesh will be overruled. For example, say you have a glass half filled with water. Let the air symbolize sin and the water represents the control and power of God's Spirit. How do you get the air out? By a vacuum operation? No! You fill the glass with water; the water displaces the air. Even so, the Spirit-controlled live is empowered to say "no" to temptation.

3. Romans 6:14
"For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace."

All true children of God have been set free from the authority of sin! "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" (Rom. 6:6,7). That doesn't mean sin is out of calling distance, nor that we will be sinlessly perfect this side of heaven. But we are assured that--due to our participation in Christ's death, burial, resurrection and ascension--we share in Christ's victory over sin, His power over the grave, and His authority over this world and its prince.

Consider this allegory. Imagine you live in an apartment building managed by a cruel landlord, Mr. Law N. Flesh and owned by an evil man. The landlord bribes you with gifts to disregard the government's laws and causes conflict between you and the other tenants. He manipulates you to his own advantage. Then, happily, the apartment building is sold to a righteous man. The old landlord is fired; a new landlord, Mr. Grace N. Spirit, is hired. He upholds the principles of the rental contract, resolves conflicts with other tenants, and enables you to live in peace. From time to time Mr. Law N. Flesh shows up and starts conniving like he used to. What will you do? Don't get sucked into the old arrangement! Remember that he's NOT the landlord anymore; he has no authority over you. Identify with the new landlord--Mr. Grace N. Spirit--and cooperate with him. Heed the new landlord for your well being and to respect the new owner.

"For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death" (Rom 8:2).

4. Ezekiel 36:27
"I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them."

Here God prophesied through Ezekiel the wonderful blessings of the New Covenant. As was just mentioned, believers in this age are not not "under Law" but "under grace." This freedom is not a license to sin, but a freedom to live consistently with the new nature we have in Christ (Cf. 2 Cor. 3:17). Andrew Murray expounds on this: "He [the Spirit of God] is the power of the supernatural life of true obedience and holiness...As the light of the new Covenant promise dawns upon you and you see how Christ is all--faith all, the Holy Spirit in the heart all, and the faithfulness of a Covenant-keeping God all--you will feel you have one thing to do. In utter weakness you must yield yourself to God. In simple faith you must count on Him to perform what He has spoken. In Christian experience there may still be the Old Covenant life of bondage and failure. In Christian experience there may be a life that gives in entirely to the New Covenant grace and spirit. When a Christian receives the true vision of what the New Covenant means, a faith that rests entirely on the Mediator of the New Covenant can immediately enter the life which the Covenant secures."[3] So, obedience is not a matter of self-effort and rule-keeping, but of abiding and cooperating.

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If your soul died, eden, we would not be talking to each other.

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Jesus died in our stead, yes?

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2 Timothy 3:16
All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:

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Every God-breathed writing is helpful for enlightment, for guidance, for correction, for instruction in right living,

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Such translations make a lot of sense in keeping with the context of his letters, because Paul was writing to Timothy to give him some final instructions regarding his ministry and what resources he could best use in his teaching. This instruction was given just as some of the basic New Testament documents were being circulated, and John hadn't even composed his writings yet. The books of the Old Testament were recognized as being "God-breathed and some of them were entitled "The Scriptures", but Paul was not referring just to these OT writings.

It is "God-breathing" or inspiring through his Spirit that makes the "writing" of the prophets, apostles, teachers (like Timothy), historians like Luke, and other communicators of God's truth "profitable" for any of us.

The word "Scripture" is not in the Greek. The subject of this statement is "writing", which is from the Greek word "graphe". So we should best depend upon the "inspiration" of the Spirit for the "sound teaching" of the Bible, because it is the influence of the Spirit that makes the written words "profitable". Let's stop using "inspired" "writings" in inappropriate strings of words.
 

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Posted by Zeena (Member # 7223) on :
 
Hi Bob.

I would agree with that translation.

So, where exactly does that leave us?

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Let's stop using "inspired" "writings" in inappropriate strings of words.

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Would you mind elaborating a little on this exhortation?

In order to "stop" doing something, must one first be aware that they were 'doing' it, yes?
 

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Posted by Michael Harrison (Member # 6801) on :
 
Is Jesus 'learned', or is Jesus revealed. What does the Greek say about Jesus being revelated? The Bible can be learned, but it still will not reveal Jesus to the 'learned'. And one is no richer than a dummy with a Doctorate just because they know the history, the verses, the times, the dates. Mind you, this isn't meant to insult. However, there are Doctorates galor who haven't a clue, (Should I have capitolized Doctorate?) who have an appointment with hell. I don't mean to be harsh. Jesus revealed, is relationship. Knowledge of scripture is, well...

"Carnal knowledge puffeth up!" Well, that is a paraphrase of 1Co 8:1.

Knowing scripture, and knowing Jesus are quite different. And for the one knowing Jesus, the scriptures are clear. But for the one knowing scriptures, knowing Jesus is not necessarily clear.
 

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Posted by TB125 (Member # 2450) on :
 
Hi Zeena,
My "exhortation" is addressed to the common practice of many participants on this Forum, myself included if I'm not careful, to "string" various verses of biblical words together, with their specific chapter and verse numbers cited, to "prove" some particular point of belief regardless of the fact that the contexts for such cited verses may not address that belief or doctrine at all. This is what I call "proof-texting", which is not a biblical practice.

It is true that God's "inspired" words have a basic consistency and integrity that the Spirit maintains throughout the history of God's revelation. God does not have his prophets, apostles, historians, and teachers saying and meaning one thing in one period of his revelation and instructed will and then saying and meaning something contrary or extremely different in another period of revelation and instruction.

So some verses of "inspired" words may be attached to others so that they expand and support each other in the revelation of God and his will, but whether or not they do this will depend upon the "context" of the verses and not just the particularly words, even when they are "inspired" and appropriately translated.

Paul has a lot to say to Timothy regarding "sound teaching" (2 Tim 1:13)in both of these letters. It is a primary topic of his instructions, so his words in 2 Tim 3:16 are an essential part of the context for these letters. See these particular verses that address this topic: 1 Tim. 1:3-4, 7, 10-11; 2:3, 7, 12; 3:9, 14-15; 4:1-7, 11, 13, 16; 5:21; 6:3-5, 20-21, and 2 Tim. 1:11, 13-14; 2:2, 7, 14-18, 23-26; 3:2-8, 10, 14-17; 4:1-5.

I think that my translation of the words in 2 Tim 3:16 are more in keeping with the "context" of Paul's instructions throughout these letters than the common translation that is frequently quoted.

So my "exhortation" is to make sure that each of the verses that we cite in support of any particularly doctrine or belief is in keeping with its context and that is it is not being cited in a way that does harm to the consistent integrity of God's truth.

I pray that this further explanation of my point and the detailed context for the passage in 2 Tim. 3:16 is helpful . If it isn't get back to me with further questions.
 

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Posted by Carol Swenson (Member # 6929) on :
 
I use the Scripture, not as an arsenal, to be resorted to only for arms and weapons. . . but as a matchless temple, where I delight to be to contemplate the beauty, the symmetry and the magnificence of the structure.

Robert Boyle (1627–1691)
 

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Posted by Zeena (Member # 7223) on :
 
So, where do I go from here?
 

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Posted by Zeena (Member # 7223) on :
 

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The Transforming Power of God's Grace
By John Woodward
February 7, 2000

"The Transforming Power of God's Grace"

Back in the fall of 1976 I enrolled as a student at Northeastern Bible College in New Jersey. I remember driving in that area and sometimes catching a glimpse of the Twin Towers of World Trade Center; their absence is now a haunting memory. During that summer New York City was haunted by a terrible crime spree occurring in that metropolis. A serial killer left a note after his deadly acts which read, "I am a monster. I am the Son of Sam." When the police finally captured the murderer, David Berkowitz, his picture was plastered across newspapers everywhere.

Over twenty years later, in August 1999, this same criminal was featured on the program, "Larry King Live." Chuck Colson commented on that interview, which took place at a New York prison:

" ... We saw a different Berkowitz ... and those who tuned in saw the former Son of Sam boldly witnessing to King about his faith in Christ, and even leading viewers in a prayer. The interview took place because of a new movie about Berkowitz, called Summer of Sam, which dredges up the whole nightmare again. But the film leaves out one of the most remarkable parts of Berkowitz's story--one he did not miss the opportunity to share with Larry King. About ten years ago, Berkowitz turned his life over to Jesus Christ. Berkowitz says he now wants nothing more than to lead others to Christ, and he's made two videos for that very purpose ... In a video called Son of Sam, Son of Hope, Berkowitz lifts his hands and says, 'At one time, these hands were being used by the devil to destroy. But I thank God today for His great mercy that these hands are being used to touch lives.'" [1]

Praise God for the gospel of Christ, which is "the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek" (Rom. 1:16).

The human author of those words in the book of Romans is another example of the transforming power of God's grace. As Paul declared in his testimony, "And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who has enabled me, because He counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry, although I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an insolent man; but I obtained MERCY because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. And the GRACE of our Lord was exceedingly abundant, with faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. However, for this reason I obtained MERCY, that in me first Jesus Christ might show all longsuffering, as a pattern to those who are going to believe on Him for everlasting life" (1 Tim. 1:4-16).

We celebrate such amazing conversion stories, and rightly so. The angels also rejoice when a sinner repents (Luke 15:10).

But I wonder if we are just excited about the transforming power of God's grace for His children. Is this grace adequate to enable believers to grow to spiritual maturity and to gain freedom from unresolved conflicts and besetting sins? We know that it is God's assured purpose for every true believer to be conformed to the image of His Son (Rom. 8:29; 10:9-13). Do you believe He can successfully do this in your life in the here and now, as well as at the final installment in the hereafter?

Notice this comparison: "He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?" (Rom 8:32). In other words, if God was willing to give Jesus on Calvary to redeem us when we were "lost," how much more is He willing to supply for our ultimate needs now that we are "found"! We have the Father justifying us, Christ interceding for us, and His Spirit indwelling us (Rom. 8: 9-11; 33-34). NOTHING can separate us from God's love (Rom. 8:38-39). No wonder we are declared to be "more than conquerors THROUGH HIM Who loved us"! (Rom. 8:37).

Not only is God's grace the dynamic for changing sinful ones into saved ones, it is the dynamic to change unfruitful saved ones into FRUITFUL saved ones! (John 15:5).

Testifying of his missionary work, the apostle Paul wrote: "For I am the least of the apostles, who am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the GRACE OF GOD I am what I am, and His GRACE toward me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the GRACE OF GOD which was with me" (1 Cor. 15:9-10). We see here that God's grace kept Paul humble and grateful. Also note that he was not passive. Paul labored as a pioneer missionary and church planter; he cooperated with divine grace. We too are to live and labor BY GRACE.

The following episode from the life of a medical missionary illustrates the necessity having God's resources: "Dr. Paul Brand was speaking to a medical college in India on 'let your light so shine before men that they may behold your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.' In front of the lectern was an oil lamp, with its cotton wick burning from the shallow dish of oil. As he preached, the lamp ran out of oil, the wick burned dry, and the smoke made him cough. He immediately used the opportunity. 'Some of us are like this wick,' he said. 'We're trying to shine for the glory of God, but we stink. That's what happens when we use ourselves as the fuel of our witness rather than the Holy Spirit. 'Wicks can burn indefinitely, burning brightly and without irritating smoke, if the fuel, the Holy Spirit, is in constant supply.'" [2]

God also stressed this truth through the prophet Zechariah. After Israel returned from Babylonian exile, they faced the daunting task of rebuilding the temple in Jerusalem. In order to succeed they needed an awareness of the sufficiency of God's strength. The prophet declared to the governor of Judah,

"This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: 'Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,' Says the LORD of hosts" (Zech. 4:6).

And what was the purpose for this power? Was it only to make this leader more happy? No, there was a task waiting to be accomplished.[3] So this promise of power was a practical one:

"Who are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain! And he shall bring forth the capstone With shouts of 'Grace, grace to it!'"(Zech. 4:7).

The mountain of obstacles in the path of doing God's will was NO MATCH for His almighty power (Cf. Matt. 17:20).

This was confirmed with another promise:

"The hands of Zerubbabel Have laid the foundation of this temple; His hands shall also finish it. Then you will know That the LORD of hosts has sent Me to you" (Zech. 4:9; cf. Haggai 1-3).

Within four years the shouts of joy were heard in Jerusalem! The rebuilt temple of the LORD was completed on March 12, 516 B.C.

Just as this governor needed to rely on God's power for his responsibilities, so must we. As believers, we are the New Testament temple of the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 3:16; 6:19,20). In a way, however, we are still "under construction." God is in the process of growing us up spiritually, strengthening our faith, hope, and love. The final "capstone" will be put in place when we are glorified together with our Savior: "Being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ" (Phil. 1:6). Let's rejoice in the transforming power of God's grace!

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Notes:

[1] from "Breakpoint Commentary" Sept 2, 1999 issue by Chuck Colson http://www.breakpoint.org

[2] "Illustrations for Preaching and Teaching," ed., Craig Larson, p.260.

[3] The temple, which was destroyed in 586 B.C., was still in ruins. Although they had initially begun to restore God's House, opposition stopped its reconstruction. This opposition led to complacency, selfishness, and doubt. For 16 years the temple continued to lay in ruins.

David Berkowitz's testimony is online at http://www.forgivenforlife.com

Grace Notes (c) 2000 by John Woodward. Permission is granted to reprint this article for non commercial use. Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, New King James Version (c) 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.

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The Transforming Power of God's Grace
By John Woodward
February 7, 2000

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The few paragraphs I read were pretty good; what has John Woodward done for your Christian life, Zeena? I've lately read "Make Love Your Aim" by Eugenia Price and now I'm reading "Just As I Am", by Billy Graham. Each time I grow a little more in Christ.

immersion in Christ-related things, that I think is the key, that is...baptism onto sanctification. immersion in all things Christian is like baptism.

The Transforming Power of God's Grace
By John Woodward
February 7, 2000

love, Eden
 

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Posted by Eden (Member # 5728) on :
 
John Woodward wrote, as posted by Zeena:

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But I wonder if we are just excited about the transforming power of God's grace for His children. Is this grace adequate to enable believers to grow to spiritual maturity and to gain freedom from unresolved conflicts and besetting sins?

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But I wonder if we are just excited about the transforming power of God's grace for His children. Is this grace adequate to enable believers to grow to spiritual maturity and to gain freedom from unresolved conflicts and besetting sins?

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Originally posted by Eden:
Dear sister Zeena, how great are the adopted brothers and sisters and sisters and brothers in the family camp of God?


You also wrote (within the camp):

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The Transforming Power of God's Grace
By John Woodward
February 7, 2000

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The few paragraphs I read were pretty good; what has John Woodward done for your Christian life, Zeena?

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His disciple, Tim, has revealed the heart of God towards me.

Gracious is the Lord!!!

Through Tim's witness [The Father, Son and Holy Spirit in him] I was able to behold a broad view of our Lord, and be quickened by knowing my identity in Christ.

It's all I've recieved so far, as you can see I'm rather still a babe when it comes to 'righty dividing' and such. BUT it is a SURE foundation indeed!!!

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I've lately read "Make Love Your Aim" by Eugenia Price and now I'm reading "Just As I Am", by Billy Graham. Each time I grow a little more in Christ.

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MORE of JESUS reflecting in and through Saint Eden!

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immersion in Christ-related things, that I think is the key, that is...baptism onto sanctification. immersion in all things Christian is like baptism.

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Yes, immersion in Christ Jesus.
For He is our Life, and gives us the wonderful opportunity to abide in Him and witness His Life in us on a moment by moment basis.

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The Transforming Power of God's Grace
By John Woodward
February 7, 2000

love, Eden

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Jesus Loves you in and through me Eden, and I in Him.

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Originally posted by Eden:
John Woodward wrote, as posted by Zeena:

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But I wonder if we are just excited about the transforming power of God's grace for His children. Is this grace adequate to enable believers to grow to spiritual maturity and to gain freedom from unresolved conflicts and besetting sins?

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Regarding the words I bolded, this grace IS adequate, but it requires TWO PARTNERS, the Jesus-Holy Spirit and the believer. The grace is adequate, but if the believer is NOT ATTENDING CLASS, the Holy Teacher can wait ALL DAY can no one learns a thing yet.

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I'm just now posting another article regarding this exact topic!

This one is rather long, but articulate, and wastes not precious little time in making it's point.

Take your time, as God leads you will see it through, eventually.

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So John Woodward wrote:

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But I wonder if we are just excited about the transforming power of God's grace for His children. Is this grace adequate to enable believers to grow to spiritual maturity and to gain freedom from unresolved conflicts and besetting sins?

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It takes two for a class to occur.

love, Eden

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How Can a Little Clay Pot Express His Glory?
By Orville Swindoll
Undated

"Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. 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 3:17,18, NKJV.

Reading this Scripture portion, I want to catch your attention by asking this question about verse 18. Is it we who are looking into the mirror, or is it that God is looking into us—for we are the mirror? As we shall see, this is important. It is unfortunate that the translation in the Authorized version is not really clear. Almost any other version gives you a clearer picture of verse 18. I'd like to read this verse as J.B. Phillips renders it: "All of us who are Christians have no veils on our faces, but reflect like mirrors the glory of the Lord."

"With this hope in our hearts, we are quite frank and open in our ministry. We are not like Moses who veiled his face to prevent the Israelites from seeing his fading glory. But it was their minds which were blinded, for even today when the old agreement is read to them, there is still a veil over their minds, though the veil has actually been lifted by Christ. Yes, alas even to this day there is still a veil over their face, when the writings of Moses are read. Yet if they turn to the Lord, the veil would disappear. For the Lord, to whom they could turn, is the Spirit of the new agreement. But wherever the Spirit of the Lord is, men's souls are set free. But all of us, who are Christians, have no veils on our faces, but reflect like mirrors the glory of the Lord. We are trans-figured in ever-increasing splendor into His own image. And the transformation comes from the Lord who is the Spirit." 2 Cor. 3:12-18 Phillips

I really appreciate this translation of verse 18. You'll notice again, please, that it's not we who are looking into the mirror; it is God who is looking into us—for we are the mirror. We are transfigured in ever-increasing splendor to His own image. When you look in a mirror, you're not looking for the mirror. You're looking for the reflection of your own face.

When God made man, and in all of God's turning to look at man, do you know now what kind of response He's expecting? A reflection of Himself! When He made man, He said, "Let us make man in our own image" [Gen. 1:26]. In other words, God made man with a faculty which the Bible calls spirit, human spirit, whereby man, the human being, is capable of reflecting God. But then ,this verse takes us a step further than the reflecting and shows us that God is after something really much deeper than that, something much fuller than that. As we reflect His image we are being transformed into that image.

Now as long as I look at a mirror, I can see my image; but I can't transform the mirror. But we are uniquely designed in the plan of God. As He looks at us, two things happen: firstly, God sees Himself; secondly, we are transformed.

I've come to feel that in the Lord's dealings with man, He always has this in view—that He might see Himself. If this is true, the thing that should concern us is that we might adequately and properly reflect His image, reflect what He is.

Now if you have a mirror at home that doesn't reflect too well, you're not going to paint the picture of your face on that mirror so you can see yourself better. Something must happen to the mirror! You've got to change the mirror so that it gives a precise reflection of yourself.

Often, something clouds the mirror. There was a veil over Moses' face.;God put it there. Do you know why? It was because Moses was so beautifully reflecting the glory of God that the Israelites couldn't stand it! They were too far from the character of God.

The Scriptures tell us that a veil is over the minds of those who don't know the gospel. What does this mean? It means that they are unable to reflect the character of God. They are unable to reflect His image. The Scriptures also tell us that when a man's heart turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away; and you behold the Lord.

But there's something even more wonderful than our beholding the Lord! It is that, as the Lord looks at us. He beholds Himself. Is this—I repeat—is this our consuming concern?

You know most of us find we are motivated in our Christian life by what we can get from the Lord. We are motivated by the thought of. "Well, what is there in it for me?" And we even minister the gospel to people on this basis. We insist, "If you'll come to the Lord, you will feel good. Come to the Lord, and you'll be happy. Come to the Lord, and He'll heal you. Come to the Lord, and He'll do this or that." The whole emphasis is what you can get out of it.

It's quite surprising to find that in the Lord's dealings with man, His emphasis is very different. Man can know satisfaction and fullness only as the Lord is satisfied. God deals with man so that there is a precise reflection of Himself, not so the "mirror" can say, "0h, isn't this wonderful! It makes me feel so good," but rather that the purpose of God is fulfilled in man!

Now if you don't have a mirror, you can't see your face. Isn't that right? And this brings us to one of the things that the Lord is ultimately after—the increase of Himself. He purposes the embodying of Himself in a vessel here, there, there, there; and thus the Lord is increasing. He's not simply increasing people; He's increasing Himself.

When God told Adam to be fruitful, to multiply and replenish the earth;,the thought in view was not simply a lot of people. Rather the primary intention God had was that Adam was filled with God, his wife filled with God, his children filled with God, his grandchildren filled with God—all would be reflecting the image of God. Thus, God would find the increase of Himself in the earth.

Now we'll digress just a minute to consider an important side issue—what the Lord is after in this! We know the Lord has had an arch-enemy on this earth. Did you ever wonder, Why doesn't the Lord just make a clean sweep of the whole thing and wipe him out? This is one of the problems that many Christians face. They are puzzled as to why God doesn't enable them to avoid their difficulties. They ask, "Why does the devil come against me. Why doesn't the Lord take care of the devil?"

In one aspect we can say, well, through all of this the Lord is sharpening us. But there's something even deeper than that and much more important. Did you ever stop to think that the Lord will possibly never deal directly with Satan? I'm not throwing this out as dogmatic doctrine, but I want to challenge you a bit! There is a reason why God hasn't just finished him off. The Lord has purposed to so fill the universe with Himself that the enemy has no more ground. He's just crowded out, as all his ground is taken from him. God has never had to deal with him directly.

When I think of this, I wonder if this isn't the picture set forth when Joshua led the children of Israel into the conquest of the Land. God stated specifically, "I will not drive your enemies out! I will be in you, moving them out one by one. If you leave any there, I'm not going to take care of them. They're going to be thorns in your sides. You move them out! You take their ground from them."

As you know Israel went so far, and then quit! I'm reminded that many, many years after the conquest of the land, there was still a tribe of Jebusites that held a stronghold in a mountain right in the middle of Canaan's land. There they were—a threat! A constant challenge. A reproach to the name of Jehovah, God of Israel. For years the Israelites never did a thing about it. They just left them there. Then David came along, and said in his heart, "I can't stand this reproach. I'm going to take this mountain. I'm going to take the ground of those Jebusites. I'm going to wipe them out." And he did. And when he did, he built his house right up there in that mountain, which later came to be known as Mt. Zion.

This Hill of Praise is where the ground was taken from the enemy. Now ,God doesn't do it for you; rather He works in you, and moves through you into that ground. It is quite interesting that as you move in to occupy the ground, you go just so far, then you discover a weakness in yourself, something that is keeping you from taking ground from the enemy. The trouble is that there is ground in you that hasn't been surrendered to God. The devil, your enemy, is quick to remind you, You can't have this ground because I have it. And until this ground in you is given over to the Lord, you can't take that ground! So as you move in, the Lord is accomplishing a two-fold purpose. First of all. He's getting ground in you, and second, as He gets ground in you, He moves the enemy out!

This principle is all through the Scriptures. Jesus said to the disciples, "Occupy! Take this ground." Paul wrote to the Roman Christians, "Satan shall be put under your feet, shortly." Now when God is increasing Himself, He certainly has as one of the ends in view, not only to increase Himself, but to move His enemy off the scene. Here is a thought worth considering: will the Lord ever move directly in this situation, or will He perhaps move exclusively within the Church? Whatever the answer, it is only as we give the ground up to God that the enemy is moved off the ground.

Essentially, this is what happened in the life of the Lord Jesus. Satan kept trying to get ground in Him. He kept moving in to possess something, but he couldn't touch Him at any point. At the close of Jesus' earthly ministry, just before the Passion, Jesus said, "The prince of this world cometh and hath nothing in me!" Terrific words of victory! And just about the same time He said, "Now is the judgment of this world." "Now shall the prince of this world be cast out!" Do they not go together? Satan couldn't get any ground in Jesus. Because God had all the ground in the Lord Jesus, Satan could have none. Jesus said, "Now is the judgment of this world." Don't restrict this to the future. He said, "Right now, at Calvary, is the judgment of this world." So stand on that ground. Yield all your ground over to God, and the result will be an increase of the Lord in your life. You will find yourself reflecting the glory of God.

Now let us consider how the Lord is daily transforming us! This implies a process. Our walking with the Lord always results in this transforming which means He sees Himself reflected in us more perfectly. We could express this intention in many ways. And if this is the end in view, then all ministry must be directed to this end: a precise reflecting of the glory of God, and a transforming of the vessel of the individual personality so there is more and more of His increase in us.

If this is ministry, then 2 Corinthians 4 explodes with new meaning. Let me again use J.B. Phillips' translation here: "This is the ministry... which God in His mercy has given us, and nothing can daunt us. We use no hocus-pocus, no clever tricks, no dishonest manipulations of the word of God. We speak the plain truth and so commend ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. If our gospel is 'veiled', the veil must be in the minds of those who are spiritually dying. The spirit of this world has blinded the minds of those who do not believe, and prevents the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, the image of God, from shining on them. For it is Christ Jesus as Lord whom we preach, not ourselves. We are your servants for His sake. God, who first ordered light to shine in darkness has flooded our hearts with His light. We now can enlighten men only because we can give them knowledge of the glory of, as we see it in the face of Jesus Christ"(vv. 1-6).

In this chapter there are three principles that are essential in all spiritual ministry: The first is honesty, or openness. The mirror's finest quality is perfect reflection. Clear! With no flaws! What God is after in our lives, first of all, is a basic honesty, a frankness, an openness. If ministry does not spring out of, and result in, openness, honesty, and frankness, it never can really lead us to the full purpose of God in our reflecting adequately the image of God. Conse-quently, every ministry must be an expression of honesty and openness, so that when God turns the mirror in any direction, the only reflection is God in the man. The Lord moves me to Argentina, or moves me to Africa; but the primary thing He is interested in is that wherever He puts me, the reflection is Himself in me.

Now any veneer—any front that I put up will hinder that reflection of the image of God. Professionalism will hinder it. Anything that I add to the reflection of God will hinder that reflection of God. Ministry must involve no clever tricks. As Paul says, "no hocus-pocus." There must be no dishonest manipulation of the Word of God. Paul could say, "I am what I am by the grace of God." He never would say, "I am what I am by the training of Gamaliel." Or, "I am what I am because I have prestige." Paul summed up all that which he was by natural heritage and said. "I count the whole thing a heap of garbage. I'm just plain Paul, by the grace of God" [Phil 3:8].

You couldn't see anything in Paul's life that wasn't either the recipient of, or the expression of, the grace of God. We've painted him up, added robes, made him wonderful and well-trained; but you never can bring Paul to the confession of anything other than the grace of God. He's just frank and open.

I'm convinced more and more that one of the surest signs that God is working in us is that He is pressing us to be completely honest! All the profes-sionalism has to go. Sometimes when we pray we're not quite honest. We pray with the intent that another will be impressed and recognize that we really know how to pray. We display our activities that So and So will receive some impression which we inwardly know is not quite true. We want him to get the best picture—to see the good side of us. So we've got a good side and a bad side. The only one who sees the bad side is our wife or husband, and sometimes the children! We surely wouldn't want anybody else in the church to see that dark side.

You know what happens when God breaks us down to complete honesty? First of all, it is a terribly embarrassing thing when others begin to find out that we are not really what we have pretended to be.

When the Lord begins to do this deep unveiling in one, and then another, and finally several together, it often seems to be the breakdown of everything. But, eventually, you come to realize that it is the beginning of everything. You can't go forward with God until there is this frankness, this openness, transparency and honesty. So God must break you down until you are willing to be utterly exposed.

The Lord wants to get me exposed until I am willing that you know exactly how I act on the job, how I act behind the closed walls of my home, how I act under pressure with my children—because, it is the same way I act in the church. Finally I realize I am to get off "my little stage" and quit acting. Every hour of every day in every place there must be a transparent seeing of "me."

You know, if this should really happen in the churches in this land today, most of them would fall to pieces. What a shock we would get—and what a shock we would be to others around us. For example, here is someone whom the church considers to be the most agreeable person around. Outsiders do not know what goes on at home, but his children do and his wife does. Many seem to question why his wife and children do not draw closer to the Lord. Why do they seem so cool and unresponsive to spiritual things? The reason is quite obvious when you get beyond the outer veneer. They have seen through the sham—the unreality. Wife and children are unmoved because father has not been inwardly moved—to live in real honesty. So God must devote His time to stripping away all our pious superficiality. He must get us down where we're just plain Joe —without any glossy varnish; just plain Mary—without any bright, artificial makeup.

Perhaps you have been impressed by your winsome preacher—his effectiveness in the meeting, but wonder at his complete failure as a husband or father. You see him as seemingly responsible in the pulpit, but everybody knows he doesn't handle responsibility well at home or on the job. Or—maybe nobody knows about these failures, yet inwardly he does; and he secretly despises this sham and hypocrisy. For all of this God has just one answer: complete exposure!

This complete honesty—so imperative in spiritual ministry—is not something you have on Sunday. It's not something you have just in the prayer closet. It is not something outward, for God requires "truth in the inward parts." Once you begin to walk in complete honesty, you find out what a necessary and beautiful thing it really is. And what a relief not to have robes to wear around all day! The farce is gone; you are living an open life—transparent before others all the day long. No longer are you afraid to be unveiled—for now you have nothing to hide or cover.

Again and again in the meetings in Santa Fe, Argentina we've prayed: "Lord, take away all pretension; just let us be unpretentious." Often it takes a pretty long while to work all that pattern of deception, strategy, maneuvering and artificiality out of us. But the Lord is working Why? So He can see Himself!

And now let us consider the second essential in spiritual ministry. Verse seven speaks of this priceless Treasure we hold, so to speak, in a common earthen jar. What a shock to our ego. We are just a common clay pot, not even a pretty earthenware jar. Surely not an antique! But look at what we have in this clay pot—a priceless Treasure: the Lord Jesus, Himself.

Oh, this is something! Think! We have Him—this priceless Treasure in a common earthenware jar. And the reason becomes so clear: we are to show that the splendid power within (the jar) belongs to God; it is not of us.

Paul explains: "We are handicapped on all sides, but we are never frustrated" [v.8]. Yes, if there is anything that frustrates people, it is handicaps. Listen—as the talk often goes something like this: Well, you know Sister So and So. She's just wonderful; but me, I've got three children. What can I do? I'm so handicapped. They just drag me—wear me to a frazzle! It's more than I can handle. And so the handicaps seem to eclipse all else—and the little clay pot forgets about the Treasure within.

Again, it is so natural for another to reason: Sure, after all Brother So and So hasn't anything to do but preach, sleep and eat. But poor me! I've got to work ten hours a day. I have reason to be downcast and frustrated. If I could just move into some different circumstances—like his—I'd be spiritual too.

But now listen to Paul's words: "We are troubled on all sides..." He was encompassed in pressure, difficulty, persecution and misunderstanding. But don't stop! Paul also adds, "We're never frustrated." What was his secret? Simply this! Paul had come to realize that you can't expect anything more from a clay pot than handicaps—so quit stewing—quit worrying!

"But if I just had a pretty pot to put that Treasure in," another has confided. "If I could just put it out in a nice vase like her—or him. Now that sister over there ... she has charm, a magnetic personality that draws. That brother over there has polish, training, influence, contacts. But me, plain Joe—what can I do? How can I ever serve God? You see, my very commonness haunts me. This is why I'm frustrated and about to faint."

Now, Paul surely knew he was nothing more than a clay pot, so he testifies for all generations to come: "I don't expect anything more than handicaps, so this doesn't overwhelm me. I'm not frustrated. I can never expect to be any different than a clay pot, but I've discovered that the only thing of any value is not the clay pot; it is the Treasure within. That Treasure is lovely—beautiful—worthwhile."

You see, if you are only occupied with the clay pot, you're always going to be under a cloud. If you only gaze at your handicaps you will always live in the shadows of gloom and despair. This doesn't mean that you deny you have any. You admit you have them, but manifest to others that you are not overwhelmed because your preoccupation is with the Treasure within.

Paul continues: "We're puzzled, but never in despair"[v.8] Have you ever been utterly puzzled? You groaned. Oh, if there weren't so many things impos-sible to understand. I could surely walk with God.

And others around you are filled with the same bewilderment. One testifies: "I was walking along all right with the Lord, and bang! It happened! I could only cry out, "Where is God? What's going on?"

One of the interesting things about the Christian life is this constant pathway of paradoxes and seeming contradictions. First there is clear revelation of the Lord, and then there follows shadows and darkness. The Lord is so clear on one point, and (seemingly) so vague on another.

A few years back I thought that the epitome of the Christian life, the highest peak that you could reach, was to have all your puzzles solved. I assumed that the flooding in of His light would mean answer for every situation. I would never need to say again. "I don't know." But I have never in all my life been forced to admit, I don't know, so often as in the last few months since the Lord has been so very real and precious. Things may change down the road, and I'll see much more clearly. But I'm at rest. In this pathway I don't get all my puzzles solved, but that no longer throws me into despair.

Perhaps you have, at times, sighed, "How-dear Lord- can You ever do anything in me? My clay is so set, so unmoldable, so brittle and unresponsive." Well, remember that is the Lord's choice and His business. When the Lord began to deal with me, He knew what He was getting-just a clay pot.

My problem was that I thought He was getting something much better. I thought He was getting a polished fellow—you know, one who knew music, knew people, could speak well and influence others; well, that's what I thought. Yet, all these years the Lord has been concentrating on one thing: breaking me down to help me realize He didn't get anything but a clay pot. He's never been deceived; I've been deceived. Now the truth comes out; things are crystal clear, and there's no anxiety connected with my future.

But let us go on as Paul continues: "We're persecuted, but we never have to stand alone." It is the loneliness that makes a person feel dark when his friends and family turn against him. You feel that people just don't understand how much you're trying to walk with God. If they did they wouldn't persecute or seek to destroy you. Yet, once again, this only helps you realize that you're not standing alone—He is standing in you.

When I first went to Argentina, I suffered several knock-downs. I argued, "Well, what's the use! Might as well throw in the towel; just as well quit." But something in me whispered, "You can quit." I read Paul's words: "We may be knocked down, but we are never knocked out." But so far as you're concerned—you have been knocked out —knocked way out of the ring. You have completely exhausted all strength; there is no fight left. Yes, in spite of all that has been written—and all you've known and stood for, this is the hour. You're down—down for good. Brother, Sister, until you get to this place in your ministry, you can't really serve God. You'll never see anything last because it has always been your own energy, your own strength and promotion—but really nothing of Him.

And then something so very strange seems to happen. You can't explain it, but somehow you seem to be rising up. The Lord is raising you up out of death. Suddenly, all things become new; a whole new world dawns around you! Once you wanted God to come over and walk with you. Now you've discovered you are walking, but He is walking in you.

So every day the little clay pot is experiencing something of death working through its being, but that is simply to allow the power of His life to be released. Paul insists: "We who are living are always—(daily)—being exposed to death for Jesus' sake!" [2 Cor. 4:11]. Oh, that is so hard to take. We want a once-for-all blow of death, but not a thousand deaths—every day along the way. We are always wanting to get around where there is some joy, some peace and blessing.

How often we have announced: "Oh, if I could just get over there! If I could just go to that Bible conference; if I could just get into that Bible school. Surely, I'd have victory over there! Then I'd be able to experience the joy, the glory and the victory of walking with God unhindered."

God insists. You must stay put in that kitchen. You just keep changing those diapers. You keep on driving that old car. You stay right there in that shop.

"But Lord! I just die a thousand deaths" And He answers that it is all a necessary part of your training. There are no shortcuts; it is a continuous exposure to death. It is only out of such circumstances that you really discover what HIS LIFE really is. This is His way—the way He has chosen to work in you. If everything were sweet and wonderful all the time, you'd never know what overcoming is. Even as the Lord Jesus overcame—so you must overcome. It is the only means by which you can know more and more of His life flowing through you.

Beloved, I want to alert you to something: whenever you see a channel that God is using to bring life to others, you mark it down, that channel is experiencing death after death! Death works in you—but life in others [2 Cor. 4:11].

Now apply this to yourself! You've been wanting your sons, your daughters, your friends, your relatives and your contacts to know this life. Yet, continually you've been dodging this way of helping them into Life. You've been dodging these difficult things everytime they confronted you. The pattern is almost set—your dodging, escaping, running. And you wonder why they aren't touched. The Lord is not getting to you. If the Lord ever really gets to you. He'll get to them—through you.

We have thus far considered how the first essential was a frankness, an openness, an honesty. Secondly, we have seen how the working of death means humiliation and breaking. Thirdly, we come to see how to experience the supply of grace.

You know, this thought came to me the other day. Where does God give the grace? I suddenly realized that grace is not for the Treasure within. The supply of grace is for the clay pot. The Treasure doesn't need the grace. It's you—the little clay pot—you need that supply of grace. And the more grace God can give, the more thanksgiving rebounds to Him.

This is why Paul tells the Corinthians: "I want you to see what a benefit this is bringing to you, while I'm getting more grace too. But also more thanksgiving is rising to the Lord as I'm drawing more upon His life. Oh, it is so wonderful! These trials don't seem to bother me. Sure! I'm having a terrible time, but I'm getting to experience more grace all the time."

You know the Lord has said, "As thy day demands, so shall thy strength ever be." The interesting thing is that beforehand, He doesn't tell you, "Now, watch out because tomorrow at this time you're going to get some terrible news. But that's all right—don't be alarmed; I'm going to give you sufficient grace." He never tells you that; The news comes as a surprise. It shocks you down to your feet. And as you are about to collapse you sense the Lord's presence and undergirding. A full flow of His grace begins to move in.

You see, you'd never have known, never have experienced His grace if everything were smooth. Learn to stand still; don't run or turn aside out of His way. The Lord is simply dealing with you, training you, repairing you, bringing out the reflection of Himself through your little clay pot.

Have you said it to yourself? Oh, if I could just can up enough grace to last me through this whole week. If I had just enough to make sure I could make it to the end of this trying week! Well, you see, you couldn't handle that any more than you could handle the food for seven days at one meal. I've often thought of of a fellow coming in and telling his wife. "Honey, fix me enough food for seven days. I haven't got time to eat the rest of this week." Oh—you say—that's ridiculous, but it's just as ridiculous to come to the meeting of the saints on Sunday and say, "I've sure got to get a touch from God; I've got to get enough to last me a whole week. I just haven't enough time to seek God each day. I haven't time to draw upon His supply through the hours ahead—I must store it up." Foolishness! How ridiculous! His supply of grace flows just moment by moment. The supply is always at the reservoir—not in you. This grace-which is His presence—can only be experienced moment by moment as each situation arises. That keeps you wholly dependent upon Him.

If you could can it up for a week. pretty soon you'd want to can it up for a month. If you could can it for a month, then you'd want a reserve supply for a year ahead; and pretty soon you'd be wholly on your own. What need would you have of God?

Well, the Lord isn't going to give enough for a year ahead. You'll never get God in one big experience. You'll never get God in ten easy lessons. He'll come to be your resource day by day and moment by moment. As He works into your life through trials, He dispenses Himself as grace. It is no wonder these lovely verses by Annie Johnson Flint have become a favorite melody of so many:

He giveth more grace when the burdens grow greater,

He sendeth more strength when the labors increase.

To added affliction He addeth His mercy,

To multiplied trials, His multiplied peace.

When we have exhausted our store of endurance,

When our strength has failed 'ere the day is half done:

When we reach the end of our hoarded resources,

Our Father's full giving, Is only begun.

The testimony of every servant of God echos the same message. With every divine charge God gives sufficient grace for carrying out what He has committed. You remember in the wilderness journey how God gave Moses a great responsibility, but He also gave a commensurate measure of grace for it. In due time when that responsibility was divided among seventy men, Moses didn't need all that measure of grace, so the Scriptures explain that God took of the Spirit that was upon Moses and distributed that measure on the seventy who were to rule. How clearly you see God's transferring that grace to wherever the responsibility is. Let this be your inner confidence: when God sets a task for you to accomplish, He so works that, though you may go through insurmountable obstacles and trials. He will always be there to measure out sufficient grace. But we had better be sure we have accepted the task from Him, not given birth to some fanciful project of our own.

There is a reason Paul reminds us, "we are never to collapse." Many a better man than Paul has collapsed under lesser trials. Many have come home from the mission field to go to the mental institution. The other day I read where a Christian psychiatrist said, "One out of eight North Americans spend some time of their life in a mental institution." One out of eight; evidently plenty of these are Christians. Why are they collapsing? The Treasure can't collapse. That old clay pot has collapsed. Why? They have not drawn from the resources of His grace.

The outward man does indeed suffer wear and tear. But every day the inner man receives fresh strength. If you'll quit hoping for anything better for the outward man, you'll be a lot more settled. As the inner man gets stronger and stronger he supports this outer man. This is where a "divine seeing" is so imperative. If we have "seen" this available reservoir of His Life within our little clay pot, we have a hope which springs eternal.

Shall we pray. We thank You for allowing us to see ourselves as we should see. Father, we do come to a new measure of rest in recognizing this little clay pot is merely to allow Your glorious Treasure to be expressed. Help us never again to be so occupied with the little pot when the Treasure alone is worthy of our attention. In Jesus' Name. Amen!

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

This is one of four chapters in the book, Designed to Express His Life. For ordering information, please contact Grace Fellowship International: cathgfi@aol.com

Orville Swindoll and his wife Erma Jean, following a brief term in Mexico as missionaries in 1957, went to Argentina in 1959 with two pre-school daughters. A third daughter was born to them in Argentina in 1961, and then a son was born in the USA during a visit in 1964. They continued to serve the Lord in Argentina until April, 1991, when they moved to Miami, Florida as a strategic base to serve Latin American Christian groups in various countries in both Central and South America. (He is the older brother of radio teacher, Chuck Swindoll.) Thanks to brother Swindoll and Sure Foundation for permission to reprint this conference transcription book.

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Posted by Zeena (Member # 7223) on :
 
I read it through, now to time the reading-meh!

How long was that?

7:12pm-7:59pm..

Less than an hour!

O wait, God gives more Grace!
47 minutes!
 

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Posted by Zeena (Member # 7223) on :
 

quote:

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Grace Teaches--Love Compels
By J. Strombeck
February 11, 2002

IN PART two [of Shall Never Perish], it was shown that the doctrines of the grace of God cannot be understood and fully accepted without the acceptance of the truth of eternal security. This section deals similarly with eternal security in its relation to godly living, or practical Christianity. [1]

The great and widely accepted charge against the teaching of eternal security is that it leads to carelessness in the lives of Christians and robs the Church of its spiritual power. It is said that to teach that one who has been saved cannot be lost is to offer a licence to sin. Incidents from the lives of individuals are cited as proof of this contention. The argument is always founded upon human observations and judgments.

In reply, much evidence might be offered both from the lives of living Christians and from history to refute this charge. The lives of the Puritans, who held this truth, are outstanding illustrations which might be used with considerable effect. But in a discussion of an issue as infinite as this, finite observations and often fallible conclusions based upon them,cannot be considered as conclusive evidence. The only evidence that can be admitted as final is that which is taken from God's own revelation, the Bible. That is absolute and infallible. Those who make the charge that teaching eternal security is to offer a licence to sin never support their charge with any scripture passage.

The fact is, the charge that teaching eternal security leads to carelessness in Christian living is a direct contradiction of God's word. Many of the strongest appeals in the Bible for a pure, holy, righteous and godly life are based on statements which definitely teach the eternal security of the believer. This being true, as will be shown extensively in the following chapters, it is those who deny the eternal security of the believer and thereby rob these passages of their true and full meaning who are contributing to the low state of standards of Christian living. This can hardly be overstated.

God does not, as is the popular conception, make righteous living the condition for eternal life and glory with Him. That, as has already been shown, is a matter of pure grace [Eph. 2:8,8; Rom 4:5]. It is the fact of eternal life and assurance of glory and all that these include that is the incentive to holy living. It is what God has already done through the operation of his sovereign grace. It is the doctrines of the grace of God which have been shown to demand the doctrine of eternal security upon which God rests his appeal for practical righteousness. Men who teach against eternal security do not fully understand these doctrines and therefore cannot appeal to holiness on God's own basis.

It is not God's holiness nor His righteousness; it is not the law, nor is it the threat of condemnation (being lost) that teaches Christians to live soberly, righteously and godly. It is his grace that does so. Paul wrote to Titus giving instructions as to what he should teach as rules of conduct. Then he gave the reason in these words: "For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age" (Titus 2:11,12).

[Notice how the challenge in Romans 12:1,2 follows the chapters that expound God's grace in salvation: "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God."]

Thus those who limit the grace of God by denying the eternal security of the believer, limit that which God says teaches godly living; while those who magnify his grace are teaching that which God says teaches believers how to live lives that please Him.

It is important to be guided, not by what man's judgment or conclusions teach, but by that which God's word reveals.

THE LOVE OF CHRIST COMPELS US

As the grace of God teaches how to live as children of God ought to live, so it is the love of Christ that compels the saved one so to live. Paul says "For Christ's love compels us" (2 Cor. 5:14 NIV). Therefore, fear of the wrath of God (being lost) cannot be the dynamic of holy and righteous living. Neither can it be said that it is the righteousness or holiness of God that is the compelling influence.

[Isaace Watts' hymn says this well:

"Were the whole realm of nature mine,
That were a present far too small;
Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands my soul, my life, my all."] [2]

It is that love that was expressed when Christ died and rose again. It was through that death and resurrection that all old things passed away, yes even the curse and the condemnation of the law, and the believer became a new creature in Christ that cannot die [2 Cor. 5:17; John 5:24]. It is that love of God which He manifested when he was in Christ on the cross, reconciling the world to Himself (2 Cor. 5:15-19). It is that love of God from which the believer cannot be separated [Rom. 8:28-39], and which guarantees the eternal security of everyone that has become the object of it.

If Paul's statement is true, then to proclaim that love, to magnify it, to call attention to its eternal and unchanging nature is to open the hearts and lives of Christians for that which compels them to be what God would have them be. ["The LORD has appeared of old to me, saying: 'Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you'"- Jer. 31:3.] On the other hand, to deny the unbroken flow of this love, by saying that one who has been the object of it can be lost, is to hinder God's own dynamic from operating in the life of the saved one.

This is undoubtedly the greatest charge that can be brought against the teaching that those whom God through infinite love, expressed in the death of his Son, has saved, can be lost.

It is grace that teaches and the love of Christ that compels believers to live as God would have them live. The need of the Church today is a clear teaching of this.

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Grace Notes Vol. 5, #6 - Feb. 9, 2002

End Notes:

[1] "Grace Teaches--Love Compels" is chapter 18 of the book, Shall Never Perish, by J. F. Strombeck. Language style revised by Ian Green (1992). Originally published in Philadelphia: American Bible Conference Association, c. 1936. Edited by J. B. W. with NKJV quotations; [ ] content added.

[2] From "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross," Isaac Watts (1707).

For further teaching on assurance see Grace Notes, "How to Have True Assurance."

Bible quotations from the New King James Version (c) 1979 by Thomas Nelson Inc.

The Complete text of Shall Never Perish is available at Southvalley.org

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The Leading of the Lord: A Spiritual Autobiography
By Jessie Penn-Lewis
Undated

This is a testimony from a servant of God who had a fruitful through the Welsh revival and deeper Life devotional writings. She was born in 1861 in South Wales; even decades after her home-going, thousands of her books are sold yearly. In spite of her gender [in turn-of-the-century culture] and poor health, God used her to teach His Word in distant lands such as Russia, India, and North America. To what spiritual lessons did she attribute her usefulness to God's Kingdom? What can we learn from her ministry?

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

I was brought up in the very heart of the religious life of Wales, for my grandfather was a Welsh divine, well known throughout the Principality in his day; and my father's house was a rendezvous for the ministers as they passed hither and thither on their Master's work. My childhood's memories gather round their visits and the great meetings of the Sunday-schools, when often I sat as a tiny child in the midst of the grave elders in the "big pew", listening with intense interest to the "hwyl" of the minister. "The mercy of the Lord is ... unto children's children; but as it is often with children brought up in the midst of religious surroundings, the true inward change of heart did not come until I had married and moved away to England. Then it occurred without the aid of any human instrument, but the day -- New Year's Day -- and hour are imprinted on my mind.

Only a deep, inward desire to know that I was a child of God; a taking down of my (too little read) Bible from the shelf; a turning over the leaves, and the eye falling on the words, "The Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all" [Isaiah 53:6]; again, a casual turn of the sacred pages, and the words, "He that believeth hath eternal life"[John 6:47]. A quick facing out whether I did believe that God had laid my sins upon the Lamb of God on the Cross; a pause of wonderment that it really said that I had eternal life if I simply believed God's Word; a quick cry of "Lord, I do believe" -- and one more soul had passed from death to life [John 5:24], a trophy of the grace of God, and the love of Him Who died. The Spirit of God instantly bore witness with my spirit that I was a child of God [Rom 8:16], and deep peace filled my soul.

The new life bore fruit in that I sought to conquer my besetting sins, whereas hitherto I had found myself at their mercy, as I feebly attempted to restrain them. But my attempts still ended in abject failure, and the succeeding few months were a record of bitter repentance, and many tears over sins I could not conquer. At this point we removed to Richmond, Surrey, and found our way to Holy Trinity Church. The first sermon I heard from Rev. Evan H. Hopkins was an opening of heaven to my soul. I learned the secret of victory, and it was not long before I proved the power of God to deliver from the bondage of sin through the precious blood of Christ.

Under the Spirit-lit teaching of Mr. Hopkins, and the earnest, loving help of his noble wife, I learned the joy of full surrender and the possibilities of a Spirit-filled life [Eph 5:18]. But active service for Christ seemed far away from me, for from childhood my health had been frail, and now winter after winter was spent in increasing suffering from bronchial and lung attacks. It seemed as if my life was slowly ebbing away. Nevertheless, in 1890, with apparently only a brief span of life before me, I ventured to take the hon. secretaryship of the Richmond Y.W.C.A. Institute -- "If only for six months", I said, for my whole heart was drawn out in service for the King.

Gradually I learnt to draw upon the Lord for strength for His work, so that in spite of continued ill-health and suffering, I worked, and organised, and laboured incessantly. But after a time I became conscious that the spiritual results were not equivalent to the labour of the work. I began to question whether I knew the fulness of the Spirit. Without doubt I had received Him, and had "entered into rest" as concerned my own life and fellowship with God [Heb 4:10]; but, when I compared the small results of my service with the fruit given to the apostles at Pentecost, I could not but own that I did not know the Holy Spirit in the fulness of His power. My weekly Bible-class also was a great trouble to me, for I had no power of utterance. Organising work was much easier, but meetings were a sore trial. Self-consciousness almost paralysed me, and no practice ever made speaking less difficult. Others might have the gift of speech, but it was clearly not given to me, I said!

"But did God promise to us to-day as full an indwelling and outworking of the Spirit as in the days of Pentecost?" was my question, and I began to read book after book on the subject, until I was more and more confused. Finally, I put all on one side, and threw myself upon God to teach me Himself to know the fulness of the Spirit in power for service, as I had known Him for sanctification of life. For months I prayed, until my soul became "a furnace of intense desire", and I was ready to count all things loss, if God would but grant me that which I desired. I did not know then that He was already beginning to answer my prayers, by preparing me for deeper surrender to all His will. The more I prayed, the more there seemed to be a blight upon my much-loved work; and I was greatly perplexed. The fulfilment of my petitions seemed further away than ever. Then the Spirit of God began to question me, and to bring to light the "thoughts and intents" of my heart [Heb 4:12].

Why did I desire the fulness of the Spirit? Was it for success in service, and that I should be considered a "much-used worker"? Would I desire the same fulness of the Spirit if it meant apparent failure, and becoming "the offscouring of all things" [1 Cor 4:13] in the eyes of others? This had not occurred to me before, and I quickly agreed to any conditions the Lord should please to set before me.

Again came the question: Would I be willing to have no great experience, but agree to live and walk entirely by faith on the Word of God? This, too, was a new aspect, but I quickly answered "Yes". Then came the climax, when one morning I awoke, and, lo, I beheld before me a hand holding up in terrible light a handful of filthy rags, whilst a gentle voice said: "This is the outcome of all your past service for God" [Isaiah 64:6]. "But, Lord, I have been surrendered and consecrated to Thee all these years. It was consecrated work!" "Yes, My child, but all your service has been consecrated self; the outcome of your own energy; your own plans for winning souls; your own devotion. All for Me, I grant, but yourseIf all the same." Then came the still small voice once more, and this time it was with one little word -- "Crucified".

"Crucified!" What did it mean? I had not asked to be crucified, but to be filled. But since the Spirit of God kept ringing the word "Crucified" in my heart, He must know best. As a little child, I rested on the word thus given; and then, "it pleased God to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him" [Gal 1:15-16], I knew the risen Lord.

The Holy Spirit already dwelling in my heart had fulfilled His office, and revealed the risen Lord in full possession of His temple. "Glorious, indeed, is this Anointing! Where will it end? Waters to swim in -- no little trickling rivulet!" wrote Mrs. Hopkins to me on March 25, 1892. Immediately the living waters broke out as "torrents" in the work, and like a "tidal wave" lifted it, so to speak, on to a new plane, my fellow-workers coming into the tide with joy. The Bible classes were thronged; on all sides souls were convicted of sin, and brought to Christ. The converts became, in their turn, soul sinners. The dead prayer meetings were changed into times of blessed access to the Father. In such an atmosphere of the Holy Spirit none could be dumb. Answers to prayer rejoiced our hearts. Souls were won for Christ even at our social gatherings.

The usual trouble over finances changed into records of sometimes romantic answers to prayer; we learnt that where the Holy Spirit was free to work He provided the funds, and deficits in our yearly balance-sheets were things of the past.

We had sought to arouse missionary interest with difficulty, but in the atmosphere of the Spirit our hearts became enlarged. We began to pray for the whole world, and to ask that the living waters flowing amongst us might reach to the ends of the earth -- the Lord answering these prayers by the scattering of one and another to various parts of the world, whilst calls poured in upon me to carry the message of abundant life to other places in Great Britain.

Two years had I laboured in my own strength without the anointing Spirit, and four happy years afterwards was I permitted to watch what He could do, when we consent to be "crucified", and to give Him right of way through us to souls. My "six months" had been prolonged into six years by the wondrous grace of God. Then came the wider service which God had purposed for me, and which I had not dreamed of, when I sought the fulness of the Spirit -- and which, from physical frailty, it seemed impossible ever could be mine. But by this time the knowledge of my resources in God had grown, and I was able to cast myself in utter abandonment upon Him, and find all-sufficiency for all my need, at all times and in all circumstances.

In 1896 we removed to Leicester, and at once came a call to Sweden. Another crisis in my life had come. Raised from the grave, so to speak, for the Lord's service, my husband felt, with me, that my life was a trust from God to be used only for the Master's Kingdom. With one mind we yielded that life anew to Him Who claimed it, that He might make the fullest possible use of the frail vessel. Not disobedient to the heavenly vision, I crossed the North Sea to Stockholm for the first Scandinavian Conference of the Y.W.C.A. Delegates from Norway, Sweden, Denmark, and Finland, gathered together, and the devotional meetings held in a beautiful hall were thrown open to the public. It was my first experience of speaking through an interpreter, and on the last day I saw the Holy Spirit move upon the large audience in a remarkable way; at the close of the afternoon meeting many broke out into prayer at the same time, each in his own language -- yet there was no discord. It seemed to me like the music of a rippling brook. Was it thus at Pentecost?

The year after this came a call to Russia, where I went for a few weeks two winters in succession, visiting Finland for a few days, and Denmark, twice, on my way home. In 1898 I went for a second visit to Finland for a great Conference held at Helsingfors, when about eighty delegates were present from all parts of the country. Most of the devotional meetings were entrusted to me, and on the last day I gave the Lord's message, morning, afternoon, and evening, with two translators -- Swedish and Finnish -- the power of God upon us making the message as clear and full as if it were the original language of the people.

In the summer of 1900 the way opened for a brief tour in America, where I held meetings amongst the people of God in Canada and the United States, visiting Ottawa, Kingston, Toronto, Chicago (Moody Bible Institute), Northfield, Philadelphia, and New York City. Again, during the early months of 1903, I visited Southern India, giving Bible-readings in Bombay, Madras, Bangalore, Coonoor, and Ootacamund.

WHAT HAS BEEN THE PURPOSE OF GOD IN THE WIDER SERVICE THUS GIVEN TO ME?

The change in my own life as a Christian worker -- working without and with the fulness of the Anointing Spirit -- has been so definite and marked, that from the time of my own emergence into liberty, Christian workers have been the burden of my heart. From the hour the Spirit of God whispered "Crucified" to me, I also saw clearly the principle of death with Christ as the basis for the full working of God through the believer. It was as great a revelation to me as when at the first I saw my "iniquity laid upon Him" on the tree [Isaiah 53:6]. In one instant I understood that if my sins were there, they were not on me. In like manner when I was seeking, with all the intensity of my being, the fulness of the Holy Ghost, after the word "Crucified" came, I understood very quickly the key to the full possession and outworking of the blessed Spirit in co-operation with our surrender, trust, and obedience.

"Crucified with Christ," there is room for Him to fill us; and we have only to consent to be out of His way on the Cross, and yield implicit obedience to His workings. How simple the plan, yet how deep, for it gives no place to the creature to glory before God [1 Cor 1:31]!

The light given of God that day has never since been unseen or questioned. The Lord had revealed to me a principle which, if applied and acted upon, would lead out into unknown realms of blessing and undreamed of possibilities. We speak of "applied chemistry". What discoveries are made in the laboratory of the scientist as he applies the principles he knows! So in the spiritual realm. The Lord had mightily sealed His Word to me with a glorious out-flowing of the rivers of life; but this would not do to rest upon as a basis for future service. The "experiences" varied and changed, and passed away from my memory; but the principle upon which God would work out His purposes through me never changed. I found it "work" in every circumstance; every new test; every new aspect of life. Every fresh call to wider service was only a fresh occasion for proving the secret I had learned. When each "impossible" thing confronted me, or trial of any kind, I would simply appeal to God to prove His own Word that I was crucified with Christ, and then in childlike faith I would cast myself upon Him to undertake the service, or meet the need through me [2 Cor 4:10-11].

I found also that, as I thus "continued in the faith, grounded and settled" [Col 1:23], the Holy Spirit wrought deeper and deeper into my inner life, unveiling aspects of one's being hitherto unknown; but all was met with the word "Crucified", and as I thus consented daily to be made conformable to the death of the Lord Jesus, I found richer and fuller outgoings of the Spirit of God to others [Phil 3:10]. The words of Paul became aglow with light --"Death worketh in us, and life in you" [2 Cor 4:12]. Clearer and clearer grew the wondrous plan. Crucified with Christ, the risen Lord takes the inner throne, and leading us on into ever-deepening fellowship with Him in death, He manifests His life in glorious power, working in us that which is well-pleasing in His sight; fulfilling His promise that out of the depths of our being shall be poured forth torrents of living water [John 7:38].

Thus I was led on, until in the fulfilment of His greater purposes He took me again to the place called Calvary, and gave me such an unveiling of His death, that it eclipsed all the previous revelations of Himself. The Holy Spirit had whispered "Crucified", and revealed to me the Risen Lord; but now the glorious Risen One Himself poured the light upon His death, until my cross was lost in the sight of His. I could only cry, "God forbid that I should glory, save in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by Whom the world hath been crucified to me, and I unto the world!" [Gal 6:14].

Then I knew the purpose of the wider service He had given me. I saw, as never before, the "Word of the Cross" to be the power of God, and determined henceforth to know nothing but Jesus Christ and Him crucified [1 Cor 2:2]. He had spoken the word "crucified with Him" [Rom 6:6], and I had proved the deliverance it brought to me; but now I saw what Calvary meant to Him, and yielded myself afresh to the Eternal Spirit for the special service of proclaiming the Cross and the passion of the Son of God, that He might see the fruit of His travail, and be satisfied [Isaiah 53:11].

From this time I was kept under the "burden" of this message, increased by watching the darkness that was slowly creeping over our beloved land at the very same time that the light of God in His people was burning brighter and brighter. The increasing darkness, on the one hand, seems to intensify the light on the other.

Can it be possible that the Most High God will look on, without giving His people a renewed and mighty testimony to the Gospel of Calvary?

May God the Holy Spirit lay upon every messenger of God to-day, at home and abroad, the supreme need of proclaiming the "Evangel" --the Gospel of the atoning death of the Son of God -- and clothe each one with the Holy Ghost to preach the Cross in all its aspects, as Paul the Apostle preached it, ere the Lord returns for His own.

"Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us --unto HIM be glory in the Church and in Christ Jesus unto all generations for ever and ever. Amen." [Eph 3:20-21].

written for "The Christian" 1903

edited by John Woodward; Scripture references added

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Posted by Michael Harrison (Member # 6801) on :
 
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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Posted by Zeena (Member # 7223) on :
 

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Watchman Nee's Testimony
By John Woodward
April 13, 1998

This week, we dip into Watchman Nee's biography. Doctors advised that a time of rest for him in the healthier climate of in China's Kuling Mountain would improve Watchman's lung condition. In 1929 he spent many weeks there to recuperate, meditating on God's Word and his perspective on the Christian life.

" 'When I first came to the Lord', he says, 'I had my own conception of what a Christian was, and I tried my utmost to be that kind of Christian. I thought a true Christian should smile from morning to night. If at any time he shed a tear he had ceased to be victorious. I thought, too, that a Christian must be unfailingly courageous. If under any circumstances he showed the slightest sign of fear he had fallen short of my standard'.

"But his serial reading of the New testament had brought him back and back again to Paul's autobiographical letter, 2 Corinthians, where he read ' as sorrowful...' and the words arrested him. A great Christian who shed 'many tears', who could be 'perplexed', and who could even 'despair of life itself' must be very human. Is it possible, he asked, that Paul despaired ? This was just where he himself had been! 'I discovered,' he says, 'that Paul was a man , and the very sort of man I knew.'

"There began to dawn on him the secret of Christianity that is summarized in the words: "We have this treasure in earthen vessels, to show that the transcendent power belongs to God and not to us.' Now as he learned to trust God hourly for his very life, he came to a new place of rest in Him."
-from Against the Tide, by Angus Kinnear (Victory Press) p. 107.

The previous year Nee had written his lengthy and profound book on The Spiritual Man . This shows that illumination in applying the deeper truths of the cross is an ongoing process. He had been blessed by the writings of T. Austin-Sparks and Jessie Penn-Lewis in the previous months before his recuperation at Kuling Mountain. His continuous reading of God's Word was vital to his spiritual growth and biblical insight.

This meditation on the deeper life, did not distract Watchman from a heart for evangelism. The couple who provided his daily lunch at Kuling opened their hearts to the gospel. Thereafter, he would read the Scriptures with them and provide food for their hungry hearts.

Father, help us to continuously read Your Word with a receptive, hungry heart. Grant us greater illumination to appreciate that You are the source of our sufficiency. We rest in You. In Christ's name, amen.

Scriptures cited: 2 Cor 6:4-10, 1:8-11, 4:7-10 c.f. 3:4-6

JBW

April 13, '98

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Originally posted by Zeena:

quote:

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Watchman Nee's Testimony
By John Woodward
April 13, 1998

This week, we dip into Watchman Nee's biography. Doctors advised that a time of rest for him in the healthier climate of in China's Kuling Mountain would improve Watchman's lung condition. In 1929 he spent many weeks there to recuperate, meditating on God's Word and his perspective on the Christian life.

" 'When I first came to the Lord', he says, 'I had my own conception of what a Christian was, and I tried my utmost to be that kind of Christian. I thought a true Christian should smile from morning to night. If at any time he shed a tear he had ceased to be victorious. I thought, too, that a Christian must be unfailingly courageous. If under any circumstances he showed the slightest sign of fear he had fallen short of my standard'.

"But his serial reading of the New testament had brought him back and back again to Paul's autobiographical letter, 2 Corinthians, where he read ' as sorrowful...' and the words arrested him. A great Christian who shed 'many tears', who could be 'perplexed', and who could even 'despair of life itself' must be very human. Is it possible, he asked, that Paul despaired ? This was just where he himself had been! 'I discovered,' he says, 'that Paul was a man , and the very sort of man I knew.'

"There began to dawn on him the secret of Christianity that is summarized in the words: "We have this treasure in earthen vessels, to show that the transcendent power belongs to God and not to us.' Now as he learned to trust God hourly for his very life, he came to a new place of rest in Him."
-from Against the Tide, by Angus Kinnear (Victory Press) p. 107.

The previous year Nee had written his lengthy and profound book on The Spiritual Man . This shows that illumination in applying the deeper truths of the cross is an ongoing process. He had been blessed by the writings of T. Austin-Sparks and Jessie Penn-Lewis in the previous months before his recuperation at Kuling Mountain. His continuous reading of God's Word was vital to his spiritual growth and biblical insight.

This meditation on the deeper life, did not distract Watchman from a heart for evangelism. The couple who provided his daily lunch at Kuling opened their hearts to the gospel. Thereafter, he would read the Scriptures with them and provide food for their hungry hearts.

Father, help us to continuously read Your Word with a receptive, hungry heart. Grant us greater illumination to appreciate that You are the source of our sufficiency. We rest in You. In Christ's name, amen.

Scriptures cited: 2 Cor 6:4-10, 1:8-11, 4:7-10 c.f. 3:4-6

JBW

April 13, '98

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What the World Needs Now Is Love
By John Woodward
February 6, 2004

What the World Needs Now

One of the traditional themes of February is love. When Valentines Day rolls around, school kids exchange hearts created from colored paper and glue; couples hope to fan the flames of romance; singles may feel marginalized, widows and widowers revisit their grief.

Although love is the most sung about topic in popular music, it is also the most widely misunderstood. Greek scholars have noted the different uses of love in ancient literature. There is friendship love (phileo), family live (sterga), and romantic love (eros). However, these loves fall short of God's quality of love. The apostle John identified this as the unique characteristic of God and the spiritual influence He works in the hearts of His children: "And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him" (1 John 4:16; Cf. Rom. 5:5).

In order to describe this selfless love, the Holy Spirit led the New Testament writers to employ the word, "agape." Dr. J. I. Packer has noted the significance of this word choice: "The Greek word agape (love) seems to have been virtually a Christian invention--a new word for a new thing (apart from about twenty occurrences in the Greek version of the Old Testament, it is almost non-existent before the New Testament). Agape draws its meaning directly from the revelation of God in Christ. It is not a form of natural affection, however, intense, but a supernatural fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22). It is a matter of will rather than feeling (for Christians must love even those they dislike--Matt. 5:44-48). It is the basic element in Christ-likeness."[1]

The classic description of love is given in 1 Corinthians, chapter 13. Dr. George Mundell has outlined the qualities of agape love from this passage:

NEGATIVE

1. Self-sacrificing love never gets impatient. (V. 4)

2. Self-sacrificing love never gets jealous. (V. 4)

3. Self-sacrificing love never boasts. (V. 4)

4. Self-sacrificing love never gets conceited. (V. 4)

5. Self-sacrificing love never gets rude, discourteous, or unmannerly. (V. 5)

6. Self-sacrificing love never gets selfish. (V. 5)

7. Self-sacrificing love never gets irritated, touchy or resentful. (V. 5

8. Self-sacrificing love never thinks an unkind thought or pays attention to a suffered wrong. (V. 5)

9. Self-sacrificing love never is happy with sin or injustice. (V. 6)

POSITIVE

1. Self-sacrificing love is always kind. (V. 4)

2. Self-sacrificing love is always happy in the truth. (V. 6)

3. Self-sacrificing love is always gracious, overlooking faults in others. (V. 7)

4. Self-sacrificing love is always confident in the Word, believing the best in others. (V. 7)

5. Self-sacrificing love is always strong in faith. (V. 7)

6. Self-sacrificing love is always long suffering. (V. 7)

7. Self-sacrificing love is always victorious. (V. 8)

EXTRAS

1. Self-sacrificing love never worries.

2. Self-sacrificing love never criticizes, murmurs, or complains.

3. Self-sacrificing love never gets discouraged.

4. Self-sacrificing love always covers with silence.[2]

Although we admire this description, we may react to it with discouragement. "Where was that kind of love in my family, and among my social group?" Thankfully, in Christ we can discover the infinite, gracious love of God. The LORD declared through Jeremiah, "Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you" (31:3). And the New Testament celebrates divine love in salvation: "Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God!" (1 John 3:1) Although we have experienced painful disappointments with human love, divine love is a healing balm. Dr. Charles Solomon notes, "God's love is the all-pervasive antidote to rejection."[3]

Through this vital experience of God's love, we are called to intimate discipleship with the Lord Jesus, who declared: "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another" (John 13:34,35). No wonder Dr. Francis Schaeffer identified love as the mark of the Christian.[4]

If you sense that you can't live up to this standard, you're not alone. But there's hope! Pastor Bill Freeman observes how every new glimpse of God's requirements for believers should lead them to a deepened reliance on "the supplied life" of the indwelling Christ: "Sometimes when we hear the truth from the Scriptures or from others, we may take it as a personal demand upon us and feel threatened with thoughts like, I'm not like that. I could never do that. Or, I can't imagine that I could ever feel that way. I just can't live up to that. When we have these kinds of thoughts and feelings, if we do not realize that the Christian life is a supplied life, we may conclude that this life is not for us and give up.

"But listen to this: Every word that God has spoken in the Bible, whatever it is, whatever apparent demand it brings, God wants to supply that very thing into our being. It is not that we are expected to measure up, or come up with the ability to perform in ourselves. No, God intends to continually supply Himself to us. We must understand the Christian life in this way, it is a supplied life. From beginning to end, it is supplied to us"(Cf. John 15:5; Col. 1:27; Phil. 2:13; Gal. 2:20).[5]

The apostle Paul reminded the Corinthian believers, "For who makes you different from anybody else, and what have you got that was not given [supplied] to you? And if anything has been given to you, why boast of it as if you had achieved it yourself?" (1 Cor. 4:7, Phillips).

The popular songwriter has noticed "What the world needs now is love, sweet love; It's the only thing that there's just too little of." But, the only supernatural source of love is found in the One who is Love incarnate. This month and beyond, accept the supply of God's love in Christ and pass it on to those around you.

This is what the world needs now.

~~~~

[1] James Packer, Your Father Loves You, Harold Shaw Publishers, 1986.

[2] George Mundell, "Self Sacrificing Love" - tract from Osterhus Publishing House, Osterhuspub.com 1-877-643-4229.

[3] Charles Solomon, The Ins and Out of Rejection, Solomon Publications, p. 191.

[4] Francis Schaeffer, The Mark of the Christian.

[5] Bill Freeman, The Supplied Life, Ministry of the Word, Inc., P.O. Box 12222, Scottsdale, AZ 85267 USA. (480) 948-4050 / (800) 573-4105 MinWord12@aol.com http://www.thechristian.org

[6] Burt Bacharach, "What the World Needs Now is Love." Lyrics online at http://www.lyrics.jp/lyrics/B020800020001.asp

Grace Notes (c) 2004 by John Woodward. Permission is granted to reprint this article for non commercial use. Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, New King James Version (unless indicated otherwise) (c) 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.

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Posted by WildB (Member # 2917) on :
 
1Tim.2
[12] But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.
 

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Posted by Michael Harrison (Member # 6801) on :
 
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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Posted by WildB (Member # 2917) on :
 

quote:

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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, wooly B. 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 to. He ended up in Chinese prison where he would not quit preaching, where this atrocity took place. 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?

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Originally posted by Michael Harrison:
Who will awaken you to the truth?

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Jesus will!

http://www.mikewellsdownload.com/16k.htm
 

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Posted by Zeena (Member # 7223) on :
 

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Originally posted by WildB:
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.

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Originally posted by Zeena:

quote:

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Originally posted by WildB:
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.

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This delegated Authority is from God 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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Originally posted by WildB:
1 Tim 2
[12] But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. [/QB]

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This statement is part of a series of present commands in this chapter (“I urge,” or “I am urging,” 2:1; “I want,” or “I am wanting,” 2:8 and unspoken in 2:9; and “I do not permit,” or “I am not permitting”). Unfortunately, the translation reads as if Paul actually wrote, “I never permit a woman to teach.” Also, the grammatical order in Greek for this phrase carries less force than the English one (“To teach, a woman I am not allowing”) and completes the thought about attentive learning in verse 11. The women in the Ephesian church were allowed to learn, but not to teach. Given the tension between the influx and recognition of women as fellow heirs of Christ within the church on the one hand, and the serious problems being caused by the false teachers on the other, Paul was affirming one right (to learn) while withholding another right (to teach) because of the condition of the church at the time. They did not need more teachers; rather, they all needed to return to the foundational truths of the gospel (2:3-7).

Some interpret this passage to mean that women should never teach in the assembled church; however, other passages point out that Paul allowed women to teach. Paul’s commended coworker, Priscilla, taught Apollos, the great preacher (Acts 18:24-26). In addition, Paul frequently mentioned other women who held positions of responsibility in the church. Phoebe worked in the church (Romans 16:1). Mary, Tryphena, and Tryphosa were the Lord’s workers (Romans 16:6, 12), as were Euodia and Syntyche (Philippians 4:2).

More likely, Paul restrained the Ephesian women from teaching because they didn’t yet have enough knowledge or experience. The Ephesian church had a particular problem with false teachers. Both Timothy’s presence and Paul’s letters were efforts to correct the problem. Evidently the women were especially susceptible to the false teachings (2 Timothy 3:1-9) because they did not yet have enough biblical knowledge to discern the truth. Paul may have been countering the false teachers’ urging that women should claim a place of equality for prominence in the church. Because these women were new converts, they did not yet have the necessary experience, knowledge, or Christian maturity to teach those who already had extensive scriptural education. In addition, some of the women were apparently flaunting their newfound Christian freedom by wearing inappropriate clothing (see 2:9). Paul was telling Timothy not to put anyone (in this case, women) into a position of leadership who was not yet mature in the faith (see 5:22). This deeper principle applies to churches today (3:6).

(Life Application Bible Commentary: 1 & 2 Timothy & Titus)

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Originally posted by Zeena:

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Originally posted by WildB:
1 Tim 2
[12] But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.

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Romans 16:3
Greet Priscilla and Aquila my helpers in Christ Jesus: [/QB]

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Originally posted by WildB:

quote:

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Originally posted by Zeena:

quote:

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Originally posted by WildB:
1 Tim 2
[12] But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.

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Romans 16:3
Greet Priscilla and Aquila my helpers in Christ Jesus:

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Your not helping anybody but yourself to a off topic argument. [/QB]

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See the above commentary beloved.
 

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Posted by WildB (Member # 2917) on :
 
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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Posted by Zeena (Member # 7223) on :
 

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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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Originally posted by Zeena:

quote:

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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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Posted by Zeena (Member # 7223) on :
 

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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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Posted by Zeena (Member # 7223) on :
 

quote:

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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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Posted by Zeena (Member # 7223) on :
 

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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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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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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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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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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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Posted by Carol Swenson (Member # 6929) on :
 
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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Posted by Zeena (Member # 7223) on :
 

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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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Posted by Zeena (Member # 7223) on :
 

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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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Posted by Carol Swenson (Member # 6929) on :
 
Michael

Since this jumped to a new page, you'll need to read the last few posts on the previous page for this to make sense.

This is quoted from Troy Brooks website:

"The reason we have the blood is because we will even be accused of the truth. Nee was clearly osas arminian. Anyone who reads his writings knows this as it is recounted as a fact in his words thousands of times. The purpose of this distinction is to show that the little flock (who refuse subsequent cults) are not calvinists..."

http://www3.telus.net/trbrooks/neeosasarminian.htm
 

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Posted by Michael Harrison (Member # 6801) on :
 
Dear Carol:

In spite of sounding like I am well versed in Watchman Nee, I have only read one or two books by him. It is enoght to know where he stands, such that I am able to recommend him. I have actually read more Norman Grubb, and Charles Trumbull. There are others, but these are the solid ones (including Nee).

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. And the word reveals what that is. So I never discovered Nee's position on osas. But I have discovered the word's position on osas, and have revealed it. For when even a single scripture verse such as, "If a man shall say to his brother, 'Thou Fool', he shall be in danger of hell fire," then it is clear. That does not sound like osas. For Jesus said 'brother'. That means, present tense, that if you 'criticize' you brother foolishly, you may be in danger of damnation. It is the end of the argument, disregarding an abundance of other scriptures.

Simply, what one understands as osas is an understanding problem. One has not grasped the reality of what is being said and is drawing feelgood 'conclusions'. For if osas were true, there would be no consequence. And the passage we just reviewed shows clear and definate consequence for behavior. Nuff said. By the way, nice sky picture in that other post.

So, Though I hold Watchman dear, he is not the final authority, though he has something undeniable to say, not only in his books, but with his life.[]]

christunione@gmail.com
 

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Posted by Eden (Member # 5728) on :
 
Hi, Michael Harrison, you wrote

quote:

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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 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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The person that is being quoted knows. Stay tunned for your answer.
 

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Posted by Michael Harrison (Member # 6801) on :
 
The key words in this verse woodb are 'brother', concerning a brother to brother activity, and hell fire, whatever the action is determined to be. It is simplified down to a matter of there being 'consequences' for behavior, which in this case cannot occur if osas is true!

Thanks, michel
 

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Posted by Michael Harrison (Member # 6801) on :
 

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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.
 

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Posted by Zeena (Member # 7223) on :
 

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Originally posted by Michael Harrison:

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eden

quote:

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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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quote:

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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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Posted by Zeena (Member # 7223) on :
 

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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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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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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?

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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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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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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

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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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• 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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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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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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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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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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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!

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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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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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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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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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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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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.

Just as we become saved by faith when we see from the Bible that God saves us if we believe that Jesus died for us, if we believe that Jesus is Lord, and if we believe that God raised Jesus from the dead, then when we believe this, we are saved by faith in what God said. "No CRISIS experience required". Everything is acquired by faith in what God said He did for us.

And likewise, when we see from the Bible that God has crucified our old man with Christ back there on the cross, when we believe it because God said so, then we experience the death of our old man. Again, "no CRISIS experience required". Everything is acquired ONLY by faith in what God said He did for us.

love, Eden
 

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Posted by Zeena (Member # 7223) on :
 
"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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Posted by WildB (Member # 2917) on :
 

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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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Originally posted by WildB:

quote:

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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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Posted by Zeena (Member # 7223) on :
 

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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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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

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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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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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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Posted by Eden (Member # 5728) on :
 
Michael Harrison wrote

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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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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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Well, knowing one's self to be dead comes only with the revelation that Christ is their life.

When Watchman Nee says that they are 'trying to recon themselves dead' they are trying in the flesh. They are trying to grasp it, but the revelation comes only from the one, and they can have it. (By the way, Norman Grubb talks about "God's making one safe to receive this revelation.") But they can think they are believing it, yet not experience the manifestation, or the reality. Even worse, they are 'claiming' it, but without the fruitfulness of understanding. (But most are not even considering it.)

Now, there are those who read scripture and see the passage about reckoning themsleves dead, who do not have very good reckoning. And they settle for what they know, the way they know it. They are lying to themselves, and God. I do not say this to beat up on them, but that they may be sincere towards God whether they are really in, or not. For who would lie to himself about such?


zeena eena na, do dah, do dah!!! The point is not that it happens that way to everyone. But it is true for a large group of people who come into the "Life that IS Christ." The point of Nee's illustration is that Jacob struggled in the flesh against God. He resisted the grace of God and needed to be broken so that God could move on. Therefore God dislocated his thigh so that he would be dependent upon God.

It was Jacob's natural strength upon which he relied rather than God's wisdom. We all have some kind of breaking so that the new man created in righteousness in Christ Jesus can come forth. Until that time, we are what Paul called 'carnal Christians', not fully yielded to His will, therefore the fountain of flesh interrupts the 'flow of the Spirit'. Therefore, one has not understood the reckoning that they are dead. Most likely this is because they still cling to something worldly, which they will not turn loose of..

It is all the same, said differently. The old man not being dead because one does not know how reckoning works; or being a carnal Christian because one does not understand the LIFE that IS Christ! Not being broken comes under this same banner. It is all the same reference. In other words, there is something to discover beyond one's self which one will not discover without brokenness happening. It implies that the old man still governs instead of the Spirit of God even though one is 'regenerated' by the Spirit of God. So one should seek to 'breakthrough'. Mel Tari calls this "getting out of the nursery." This hails from the books of Corinthians about milk, and Hebrews, where meat belongeth to those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern between good and evil.

In short, Paul is exhorting believers to become broken that they may realize the life of Christ, rather than suffer the sort of spiritual, carnal hot and cold condition that so many do.
 

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Posted by Zeena (Member # 7223) on :
 
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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Galatians 3:24
So the law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith.
 

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Posted by Michael Harrison (Member # 6801) on :
 
I always say that living 'for' Christ has no value, but that living 'by' Christ is just what it is!

Imitating Christ has no value, for no one can imitate Him. But letting Christ be who He is has everlasting value.

We are born again 'by' Christ; we therefore live by Him. If we do not know what it means to live 'by' Him, we do not know the fullness that He provides for us to walk in. Because to imitate Him, or to 'try' to live for Him is self justification, self-willing. It is works, not out of faith, but rather of 'trying', therefore of willingness. But our trying can only fail! Therefore we need to know in our heart the grace of God, that in the believing, Jesus becomes our heart. That is because Jesus is the 'doer', and we are the haver, if we understand His Majesty!

We cannot 'live' by trying!


 

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