AN
"I" FOR AN "I"
GALATIANS 2:20
Miles
J. Stanford
Opportunity --
The Purpose of this Paper is to briefly explain the believer’s identification
with and position in, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is our Life (Colossians
3:3).
You may wonder why so few
Christians know of their position in Christ. This material may provide an
opportunity for you to do something about it, i.e., pray, and share.
Galatians 2:20
-- In order to help rectify this debilitating lack in the Body, we share some
thoughts based upon Paul’s celestial and comprehensive statement, Galatians
2:20. In this awe-inspiring portion of the Word, the Apostle refers to
himself, and every believer, eight times. These components must be
properly delineated if there is to be scriptural understanding of, and practical
benefit from, this heart of identification and position truth.
This morning my bride was reading
some devotional writing by a well known and highly talented contemporary
writer. One sentence struck me as somewhat deficient: "God always
completes what He begins. That includes you. He started working on
you years ago, long before you became a Christian." It would have
been helpful had the author begun a bit further back. Way back! All
the way back! Such as:
Anterior To All
-- Once upon eternity there was but infinite non-existence-- no atom, no
universe, no world: nothing, nothing, nothing...but GOD. The
Eternal Triunity of Love: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit.
"For thus saith the high and lofty One who inhabiteth Eternity, whose name
is Holy" (Isaiah. 57:15). [Contrary to fickle scientific theories,
the time, space, and the universe are not eternal.]
Let your heart, dear friend, be
drawn back There, and contemplate the Beloved Son eternally in the bosom of the
loving Father, receiving and reciprocating that Divine Love in all of its
unutterable purity and ardor, in the Spirit of Love.
Back
there in Eternity
Before anything had been brought
into being
Environed
in the pure essence of Divine Life, Light, and Love
In the mind of the Father, heart of the Son, and hands of
the Spirit
By and for His love, God conceived YOU!
Thought of in Eternity past
Brought forth in time
For Eternity future
Forever Loved.
"In the secret place of the
Most High"; "in the bosom of the Father" (Psalms 91–1; John
1:18), before anything was created --the Father fashioned YOU in His heart of
love. "Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unformed; and in
Thy Book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when
as yet there was none of them" (Psalms 139:16).
When the Giver of the Gift thinks
and speaks, even in Eternity past, it is done! While He may not choose to
carry it out immediately, it is forever completed. "For He spoke, and
it was done." "That which hath been is now, and that which is to
be hath already been" (Psalms 33:9; Ecclesiastes 3:15).
The perceptive Elizabeth Barrett
Browning said it in verse:
Ere suns and moons could wax
and wane,
Ere stars were thunder girt, or piled
The heavens, God thought on me His child,
Ordained a life for me, arranged
Its circumstances every one
To the minutest; aye, God said,
This head this hand shouldest rest upon
Thus, ere He fashioned star or sun.
Eternal Surety
-- Here is your eternal security and assurance; your source of rest and
confidence in your sovereign Father. What He has decreed concerning YOU in
eternity past, He is carrying out here in the present and on into eternity
future. All is based upon scriptural truth; nothing is predicated upon
chance, or speculation.
"And we know that all
things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called
according to His [eternal] purpose. For whom He did foreknow, He also
did predestinate [mark out, determine beforehand] to be conformed to the image
of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.
"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. What shall we say to
these things? If God be for us, who can be against us? He that
spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with
Him also freely [grace] give us all things?" (Romans 8:28-32).
Dr. Lewis Sperry Chafer clearly
stated:
In the areas stated above, the
Holy Spirit, the divine Author, asserts that precisely what God purposes in
eternity He brings to glorious fruition. By specific steps and by wholly
adequate means He realizes all that He purposes.
Whom He predestinates, He
calls. Whom He calls, He justifies; and whom He justifies, He
glorifies. These are among the things which "work together for
good" to those who are called according to His purpose.
Divine election is
absolute. If this seems to be taking things out of the hands of man and
committing them into the hands of God, it will at least be conceded that, when
thus committed to God, things are in better hands and this, after all, is God’s
own universe in which He has sovereign right to do after the dictates of His
own blessed will (Systematic Theology III, p.350).
Rest
-- Is it not a great comfort and surety, among the exigencies of everyday life,
to realize that your sovereign Father is governing all according to His eternal
will for YOU?
"Who hath saved us, and called
[same as elected] us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but
according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus
before the world began" (2 Timothy 1:9).
"Knowing, brethren beloved,
your election [same as called, chosen] of God" (I Thessalonians
1:4).
"According as He hath chosen
us in Him before the foundation of he world" (Ephesians 1:4).
"God hath from the beginning
chosen you to salvation" (2 Thessalonians 2:13).
"That He might make known
the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy, which He hath before prepared
unto glory, even us, whom He hath called" (Romans 9:23, 24) .
Position Is Preeminent
-- Here is the eternal truth concerning YOU--an elect, chosen, and called
individual. This is your family position in Christ. which is
inexorably settled forever "it is written"; established in eternity
past in the heart and purpose of your Father. Regardless of your
condition, or your experience, this is the truth upon which you are to rest and
rely.
"In whom [Christ] also we
have obtained [not attained] an inheritance, being predestinated according to
the purpose of Him who worketh all things after the counsel of His own
will" (Ephesians 1:11).
"Blessed be the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy, hath begotten
us again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the
dead, to an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not
away, reserved in heaven for you" (I Peter 1:4).
These are the eternal, positional,
truths upon which your faith is to be founded. Think Position!
"We look not at the things
which are seen, but at the things which are not seen [spiritual, eternal]; for
the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are
eternal" (2 Corinthians 4:18).
Adam The First
-- According to His eternal plan and schedule, God called [spoke, fiat creation]
the world into being. And He created Adam to be head, source, of the human
race for that world. With the rest of humanity, you were created in
Adam--he became your life, as yet unborn (positional).
Had you somehow been aware of that,
your reaction may have been something like this:
Hey! Wait just a minute,
here! On the authority of God’s personal Word, I am a unique and
eternal person, elect, called and chosen in the Last Adam, from before the
foundation of the world, the first Adam, or anything else!
He has chosen me "in
Christ" (Ephesians 1:4), the uncreated, Eternal Son of God, and
predestinated me to be conformed to His image. He has positionally
justified, sanctified, and glorified me (Romans 8:28–32).
But here I am, at the very
outset, positioned in a life-and-death relationship with the wrong, the first,
the created, the sinful, earthly Adam!
Position Vs. Experience
-- But did I not tell you to "think position"? Here is the principle
of position, to be learned and adhered to, right now! Your personal
faith is to be centered upon what God has said to you, and about you, in His
eternal Word. Your faith is not to be governed by your experience, or
situation and condition, what you think He is doing, or not doing.
Condemned
-- But hold; you ain’t seen nuthin’ yet! Adam sinned against God, and
was therefore condemned to death--dead to God. Hence, Adam being your head
and life, the same goes for you!
"Wherefore, as by one man
[Adam] sin entered the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all
men, for all have sinned [in Adam]" (Romans 5:12).
"Therefore, as by the
offense of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation"
"For as in Adam all die" (Romans 5:18; 1 Corinthians 15:22).
Enemy Of God -- You
think this is the ultimate catastrophe, that it can’t get any worse than
this? Oh? The time came when you were born into this world in the
life and image of the first, the fallen Adam. You grew up in the Adamic
family, a lost and condemned sinner, without hope and without God in the world.
"Dead in trespasses and
sins"; "without Christ...having no hope, and without God in the
[condemned] world"; "condemned already" (Ephesians 2:1,12; John
3:18).
As if that weren’t enough, you
were, by your very Adamic life and nature, at enmity against God!
"The carnal [Adamic] mind is
enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither, indeed,
can be. So, then, they that are in the [Adamic] flesh cannot please
God" (Romans 8:7, 8).
Now that it is obvious that there
is nothing you can do to undo all this, let’s see how God brings about His
original purpose as to your ultimate perfection in Christ.
According to His own particular
schedule for you — the elect, chosen, called, and totally unique one-of-a-kind
person — God drew you to the Saviour.
"No man can come to Me,
except the Father draw him .... no man can come unto Me, except it were given
unto him of My Father" (John 6:44, 65).
Saved! -- The
Spirit of God convicted you of your sinful and lost condition, and as a result
you carried out your responsibility to believe, and placed your trust in
the Saviour. By your hearing and believing, you were
regenerated, born again. [This "hearing and believing" is the means,
not the cause.]
"Being born again
[regenerated, enlifed] ... by the Word of God"; "Faith cometh by
hearing, and hearing by the Word of God"; "As many as received
Him, to them gave He the power to become the children of God, even to them
that believe on His name"; "Of His own will begat He us with
the Word of truth" (I Peter 1:23; John 3:3; 1:12; James
1:18).
Covenant Error --
There is a realm to be avoided, which teaches just
the opposite of this, i.e., Reformed-Calvinist-Covenant theology. This
movement insists that unsaved man is so entirely dead that he cannot
believe, and that God must first regenerate him before he can exercise the gift
of faith which is given him, to be saved. He must be born again in order
to be born again!
As the late Dr. John Murray, highly
esteemed Covenant theologian, wrote:
It should be especially noted
that even faith that Jesus is the Christ is the effect of regeneration.
We are not born again by faith or repentance or conversion; we believe because
we have been regenerated" (Redemption Accomplished &
Applied, p. 103).
Dr. John F. MacArthur’s Covenant
trek has brought him to the same:
The unsaved are dead; incapable
of any spiritual activity. Until God quickens [regenerates] us, we have
no capacity to respond to Him in faith. Believing is therefore the first
act of an awakened spiritual corpse; it is the new man drawing his first
breath" (Faith Works, pp. 67,69).
Covenantists fail to understand
that death means separation, not extinction. Separated from God,
dead to God, yet man is alive enough to reject the Saviour.
Consequently, he is alive enough to accept Him.
Also see SOVEREIGNTY
PLUS RESPONSIBILITY
Irresponsibility
-- This initial Covenant error removes the sinner’s
responsibility to exercise his faith in order to be regenerated,
born again. Dr. Chafer and Dr. Dick set forth the sovereignty of
God, and the responsibility of man, as to salvation:
Having designed that man shall be
possessed of an independent will, no step can be taken in the accomplishment
of God’s sovereign purpose which will even tend to coerce the human
volition. God does awaken the mind of man to spiritual sanity and bring
before him the desirability of salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ.
If, by His power, God creates new
visions of the reality of sin and the blessedness of Christ as Saviour, and
under this enlightenment men choose to be saved, their will is not coerced nor
are they deprived of the action of any part of their beings" (Systematic
Theology 111:284).
When God by His Spirit inclines a
called one to the Saviour, that one, in so doing, acts only in the
consciousness of his own responsibility and choice. It is obvious that
to present a convincing argument to a person which leads that one to make a
decision, does not partake of the nature of a coercion of the will.
In such a case, every function of
the will is preserved and, in relation to the Gospel, it remains true that
"whosoever will may come"; yet back of this truth is the deeper
revelation that no fallen man will accept Christ until enlightened, convicted
[not regenerated] by the Holy Spirit" (Lectures on Theology, p.
186).
Charismatic Error
-- There is yet another realm of error to be
shunned, i.e., Arminian-Charismatic. Here God supposedly provides man with
"general grace" to believe, hence all hinges upon his choice.
It is maintained that God in His
foreknowledge sees whether or not one will choose salvation, and/or reject the
Saviour. If he decides to be saved, God elects, chooses, and calls him on
that basis. In other words, man is
sovereign, not God. Hence all is man-centered: Jesus, make me happy, make
me wealthy, make me healthy...me, me, me! "Not Christ, but I."
The sinner’s choice of God, and
not God’s choice of the sinner, is the ultimate factor in Arminian soteriology
[salvation]. Those elected by God are chosen only in the sense that He
foresees their faith and good works--which arise from themselves.
The human will is exalted to the
place of sovereignty and, according to this system, man becomes his own saviour.
As Dr. A.H. Strong wrote, "It is important to understand that, in Arminian
usage, grace is simply restoration of man’s natural ability to act for
himself; he is never actually saved by grace, but it only enables him to save
himself ... if he will."
However, the hard and fast
principle is that nothing can be foreknown that has not been foreordained.
Romans Seven -- Fear
or faint not; we will yet arrive at Galatians 2:20! After a period of time
in your new Christian life your first love and zeal for the Lord began to wane,
and your life and service became more and more of a chore, and struggle.
You had entered Romans Seven, the realm of defeat in bondage to the law of
God--which is "holy, and just, and good" (Romans 7:12).
"For that which I do I
understand not; for what I would, that do I not; but what I would, I do not;
but the evil which I would not, that I do" (Romans 7:15, 19).
More Covenant Error
-- Within this realm, Reformed-Covenant theology is
again in error regarding the "law". They say that one is saved
by grace, but that one must live the Christian life by the law--"the
law as the rule of life." [The truth of the matter is that all
non-dispensational Christians, whether Arminian, Reformed or other, establish
the law as the believer's "rule of life".]
Hear a leading contemporary
Covenant contender, Dr. James I. Packer:
In its application to believers,
the word "holy" implies devotion and assimilation: devotion, in the
sense of living a life of service to God; assimilation, in the sense of
imitating, conforming to, and becoming like the God one serves. For the
Christian, this means taking God’s moral law as the rule of life.
The only way to show respect for
God’s real purity is by realistically setting oneself against sin.
That means not only a wholehearted purpose of pleasing God by consecrated
zeal--keeping the law; it also means repentance. It is a matter of
Spirit-led law-keeping" (Rediscovering, Holiness, p. 19,146).
In that the member of the Body of
Christ has died to the law (Gal. 2.19), the Spirit of Christ will never lead the
believer to law-keeping, to have the law as his rule of life. Never!
The Goal -- Keep
in mind that we are but sketching the truths involved, in order to provide an
outline picture of your position in, and identification
with, the glorified Lord Jesus Christ. Further
and more comprehensive treatment is provided in The
Green Letters; and when you are ready, more thoroughly still in The
Complete Green Letters. In light of this, we will now enter
the blessed realm of Galatians 2.20.
"I1
AM [HAVE BEEN] CRUCIFIED WITH CHRIST; NEVERTHELESS I2 LIVE; YET NOT
I3, BUT CHRIST LIVETH IN ME4; AND THE LIFE WHICH I5
NOW LIVE IN THE FLESH I6 LIVE BY THE FAITH OF [IN] THE SON OF GOD,
WHO LOVED ME7 AND GAVE HIMSELF FOR ME8."
The superscript numbers, shown next
to "I" or "me" above, refer to the corresponding numbered
explanations provided below in sections below.
1) "I Am
[have been] Crucified With Christ" -- It
is extremely important that you get this first "I" correctly
identified and correlated. It is, for one thing, you, as a
Christian. It is you, whom God conceived in His heart, and chose "in
Christ" before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4).
Same, but Different
-- You are the identical being, entity, of the
Father’s personal choice and making, and that will never change throughout
eternity--a forever-person! When God
positioned you in union with Adam, and when Adam fell, you--being Adamic--were
born into this world a dead-unto-God and alive-unto-sin, lost
soul. The same original person, but your life and nature were Adamic.
Back On Track -- Then
you were saved you became Adamic in another sense: Christ, the Last Adam, became
your life and nature. So here you are, finally, "in Christ,"
the chosen one conceived in eternity. Right back where you started from!
Just how did God get you from the
condemned Adam, to the "accepted in the Beloved" Adam (Ephesians
1.6)? Understandably, you might reply, "Well, Jesus saved me by
paying for all my sins in His own Blood on the Cross; Jesus paid it all."
INFINITELY MORE!
-- But, dear friend, if you are going to halt
there, and settle for that (as most of the Church has), you might just as well
eradicate Galatians 2:20 from the Book--not to mention Romans 6–8!
It is blessedly true that the
Saviour died on the Cross to pay the death-penalty, and forgive all your
sins--past, present, and future. But what about you--the Adamic source
of all those sins? If God had forgiven
you while in Adam, you would have been nothing more than a forgiven
sinner. And neither God nor heaven can accept a sinner, whether forgiven,
or otherwise.
Condemnation -- You
as an Adamic sinner were not forgiven; that would simply mean starting
all over as a first-Adam person. "As in Adam all die" (1 Corinthians
15:22). Instead of forgiving sin, "God sending His own
Son in the likeness of sinful [Adamic] flesh, and for sin, condemned sin
in the flesh" (Romans 8:3).
Identification --
The means by which God accomplished this
"transfer" from Adam to Adam, was to make His Son, while on the Cross
(not before), to be made your sin. "For He hath made Him, who knew no
sin, to be sin for us" (2 Corinthians 5:21). God
identified your sin, and you, the sinner, with His Son who was made to be
sin on Calvary. Under the condemnation and judgment of SIN, not
sins, Christ was crucified and died. And you likewise, as identified with
Him: "Likewise, reckon ye also yourselves to have died indeed unto
sin..." (Romans 6:11a).
As has been well stated:
Our sins were dealt with by the Blood,
we ourselves were dealt with by the Cross. The Blood procures our
pardon, the Cross procures our deliverance from what we were in Adam.
The Blood can wash away my sins, but it cannot wash away sin, my
old Adamic man; I need the Cross to crucify me--the sinner.
From Old To New
-- Thus we have our first "I," you,
crucified with Christ. And when you were taken down into that death unto
sin, you were thereby separated from Adam.
Once separated, freed from your
relationship of death to the first Adam and his sin, God re-created you in
Christ, the Last Adam, "that we might be made the righteousness of God
in Him" (2 Corinthians 5.21). "Therefore,
if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation; old [Adamic] things are passed
away [positionally]; behold, all things are become [positionally] new" (2 Corinthians
5:17).
Actually, you are a
trinity: the eternal you, the first Adam you, and the Last Adam you.
Initially, the eternal, elect, chosen one; then, identified with the first and
fallen Adam; and finally, in union with the Last Adam--while remaining one and
the same eternal person.
Sacrificial Life Out Of Death
-- As a Christian, with Christ as your Life, you
constitute a crucified individual. As such you are positionally
dead to sin and your sinful Adamic life (Romans 6:11); dead to the world
(Gal. 6:14); and dead to the law (Gal. 2:19).
The nature of your new life is that
of your sacrificial Lord. "For we who live [in Christ) are always
delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus might be
made manifest in our mortal flesh. So then death worketh in us, but life
in you [others]" (2 Corinthians 4:11, 12). Life out of death--the way
up is down.
The Living Dead
-- Do you remember how Adam died positionally?
God said to him, "But the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou
shalt not eat of it; for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely
die" (Genesis 2:17).
And the very day that Adam sinned
he died spiritually, judicially, positionally. He became
dead to God and alive to sin, but he lived on for seven centuries (!) before he
died physically. By this one man "sin entered into the world, and
death by sin, and so death passed upon all men" (Romans 5:12).
The same positional principle
applied to you as an Adamic individual. That old life was judged,
condemned, and crucified with Christ on the Cross. However, God allows
that old life and nature to live on in you as a born-again believer--and it will
continue to do so until your death (not quite 700 years), or the Rapture,
whichever comes first.
Norman Douty explains the facts in
this matter:
The NT teaches that the old
Adamic man is positionally dead in virtue of the Cross of Christ, but
it nowhere says it will become experientially dead by faith in that
fact. What it does say is, that when counting on that fact the
indwelling Adamic life will lose its governing power over me.
In Romans 6 we find that through
the death of Christ unto sin, sin shall not have dominion over you--the
thought is one of bondage, ruling, governing, dominating, reigning.
There is no such view presented in the Word as the eradication of its
presence, but the loss of its governing ability, by faith.
In the death of the Cross the old
man was crucified (Romans 6:6). It is not annihilated, but it has lost
its throne. We will feel it there, but we are to reign in life--His
Life. It is a greater testimony to the grace and power of the Father to
let that old life be in us and give us dominion over it, than to remove it to
begin with.
We want to get clear that the
Father does not mean to improve that old life on the one hand, nor eradicate
it on the other. The fact that it does not improve is not a sign that we
are not growing in the new life. And the fact that it is still within
does not mean that we are not growing in Christ, who is our Christian Life.
More Irresponsibility
-- Error breeds corruption, in that a little leaven
leaveneth the whole lump (Gal. 5:9). Reformed-Covenant error "A"
spawns their error "B". Their first error is that man is so dead
that he cannot believe in order to be saved, unless he is first regenerated and
given the gift of faith. This
eliminates responsibility to believe the Word of God and accept the Saviour for
salvation. But the Lord Jesus said, "He that heareth My word, and
believeth on Him that sent Me, hath everlasting life" (John 5:24).
Eradication
-- The second error (B) is an eradication which eliminates the believer's
responsibility for the sinful activity of the indwelling old Adamic man.
Romans 6:6 states that the old man was crucified--a positional fact,
completed at Calvary. But Covenantism disregards positional truth and
considers this verse to be experiential.
For them, therefore, the old man
having been crucified, is dead and gone--extinct. But, death is not
extinction [annihilation].
In Romans 6:6 it says,
"knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him." In
other words, the old man is dead, destroyed, removed ... it isn’t around.
You don’t have an old man any more. The
moment we believed in Christ, by a miracle our old man died." --John
F. MacArthur (Tape G.C. 2147)
Your old self and your old man
are gone forever. He is dead, buried, gone forever." --Neil
Anderson (Victory Over the Darkness, p. 77).
With the old man extinct, sin in
the life of the believer is designated as "old habits,"
"residual sin," "old grave clothes," etc. Some
eradicationists put the blame on Satan. It is not, "Satan made me
do it," but "Satan did it"!
Satan accomplishes his goal
through your thought life, masquerading as the now defunct 'old
man." It will seem as if the old man were alive and well.
But if he is, God’s Word is not true. The Evil One’s strategy is
to disguise himself in your thought life as your old man.
Listen to me: there is no such
thing as "positional truth." The Bible speaks only of truth
and deception. The term positional truth is simply Satan’s
deception. --Bill Gillham (Lifetime Guarantee, pp. 81,92).
Doctrinal Delinquency
-- When it comes to doctrine, the
intellectually-inclined Covenantists operate on an embarrassingly low level of
intelligence. They do not realize that death never means extinction, but
that it ever means separation! Physical death is the separtion of
the immaterial part of man from his material body. It does not mean that
the person has become non-existent.
Ongoing Adam --
The Adamic old man is in the same position as its
original source. God pronounced and considered the first Adam
spiritually, positionally, dead on the very day that he sinned.
"The wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23). In
that position of being dead to God and alive to sin, Adam lived on for
centuries, producing an entire race of dead-to-God people, before he died
physically, experientially.
The same positional principle
applies to your life. You are related to Adam in your Adamic self-life,
and were positionally crucified when identified with Christ in His
death, not for sin, but unto sin.
As a Christian, God has chosen to
have that old condemned and crucified life live on in your mortal body.
While you are not responsible for its presence, you are responsible for its
ever sinful activity in your daily life.
"Thou Art, The Man"!
-- It is essential to carefully identify this
fleshly old man within. He is not just "the old grave clothes"
(MacArthur), nor "energy force," nor "residual sin"
(Solomon, Stanley, Kroll), nor Satan and his demons (Anderson, George, Gillham,
Needham). Not at all! The old
man is YOU--none other! It is your unconverted life; the fleshly,
seething, ever-present source of sin in your Christian life.
Paul said, "For I know that
in me (that is, in my [Adamic] flesh) dwelleth no good thing" (Romans
7:18). Even if you were saved at the tender age of four, that
pre-conversion old (young) Adamic life has all the potential of Galatians 5:19–21!
The Adams -- There
are but two sources of life--the first Adam of sin, and the Last Adam of
holiness. As a Christian, you have each of those lives and natures
[propensities] in residence. At the same time, you are no longer in
union, in relationship, with your old Adamic life--your death with Christ
having resulted in positional separation.
Faith In The Facts
-- Your death on Calvary's Cross broke the power
of the old man, broke the power of sin as personified by your Adamic
life. But the Christian life is one of faith, and the power of sin and
self yields only to the exercise of faith [not law!--"for the power of
sin is the law"--1 Corinthians 15:56] in compliance with the Word of
God and reliance upon the Spirit of God.
The Word says to reckon yourself
as a new creation in Christ, having died to sin. It is a matter of
relying upon the finished work of the Cross to free you from the defeating
power of sin and Adamic self (Romans 6:11).
It is the Holy Spirit who
responds to that faith, by applying the death of the Cross to the source of
indwelling sin. As Paul stated, "This I say then, Walk in [reliance
upon] the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the [Adamic]
flesh" (Gal. 5:16).
Although your old Adamic life
remains within you, you are no longer in the fleshly Adam. "Ye are
not in the flesh but in the Spirit" (Romans 8:9). At the same time,
the Spirit of Christ maintains the life of the Last Adam within you.
As you exercise faith to be free
from the sinful activity of the indwelling first Adam, you are free to center
upon the glorified Lord Jesus Christ in heaven-the Source of your Christian
life (Colossians 3:3).
Think Position!
-- You are to count upon your union with Christ
above--reckoning yourself to be alive unto God in Jesus Christ (Romans
6:11b). That is now your position in Christ--far more real
than your condition, your experience. Therefore Paul says,
"(God) hath raised us up
together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus"
(Ephesians 2:6).
"If ye, then, be risen
with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the
right hand of God. Set your affection on things above [in Christ], not
on things on the earth. For ye died [positionally crucified], and your
[new creation] life is hidden with Christ in God" (Colossians 3:1–3).
As you rest in your position in,
and your identification with, Christ where He is, looking upon Him in faith
and fellowship (2 Corinthians 3:18), the Spirit gradually manifests Christ’s
life in you, i.e., "the fruit of the Spirit" (Gal. 5:22, 23).
2) "Nevertheless
I Live." -- Now
free from Adam the first, God recreated you in Christ, the Last Adam, and that
is the life you now live as a Christian--the new Adamic "I".
3) "Yet
Not I" -- The old
"I", you as you were in Adam, is no longer your life--Christ is now
the Source of your Christian life--"For to me to live is Christ"
(Phil. 1:21). The old "I" lives in you, but you as a new
creation in Christ are no longer related to it.
4) "But
Christ Liveth In Me." -- You,
the new-creation "me," are indwelt by Christ. It is not Christ
living instead of you (mysticism
not allowed), but rather He is the Source of your new life as a recreated
person--the eternal, chosen and elect entity. "Christ in you,
the hope of glory" (Colossians 1:27).
5) "And
The Life Which I Now Live In The Flesh." -- It
is the new you living the Christian life in your body of flesh.
"I beseech you therefore,
brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living
sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God."
"Neither yield ye your
members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, but yield yourselves
unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as
instruments of righteousness to God" (Romans 12:1; 6:13).
6) "I
Live By The Faith Of [in] The Son Of God." -- You
do not live by Christ’s faith. Neither do you live your Christian life
by faith in the Saviour for the new birth. By
that faith you enter the Christian life. But the Christian life
is lived and developed by faith in the Son of God as your Life--of spiritual
growth. That faith results in the Spirit’s manifesting the life
of Christ in and through you.
7) "Who
Loved Me" -- The
"me" that Christ loves is the you whom the Father
elected, chose, and called, back in eternity. He continued to love you,
even when you were at enmity toward Him, dead in trespasses and sins as
related to the first Adam.
8) "And
Gave Himself For Me." -- You
are the chosen eternal "me"--for whom He gave Himself, in
order to redeem you from Adamic death and have you for Himself both
now and throughout all Eternity.
"That in the ages to come
He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His
kindness toward us through Christ Jesus" (Ephesians 2:7).
To God Be The Glory
-- The divine perspective must ever be held
to. Although the Lord Jesus Christ loved you and gave Himself on the
Cross for you, He accomplished that work for the glory of God.
He went to the Cross primarily to vindicate His Father’s honor, justice,
and to glorify Him.
"Then said I, Lo, I come
(in the volume of the book it is written of Me) to do Thy will, O
God." "I have glorified Thee on the earth; I have finished
the work which Thou gavest Me to do" (Hebrews 10:7; John 17:4).
And He will continue to glorify
the Father through us, as we center upon Him as our Life.
"Know ye not that your
body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom ye have of God,
and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price; therefore glorify
God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s" (1 Corinthians
6:19, 20).
"If any man speak, let him
speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister, let him do it as of the
ability which God giveth, that God in all things may be glorified through
Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion forever and ever. Amen" (I
Peter 4:11).
"Not I, But Christ!"
May we ever maintain, the divine
perspective, for His glory:
If the need of man were
the sole measure of the grace of God, then man only would be thought of, the
work of the Lord Jesus would be simply for man, and the power of God
expended merely in rescuing man and securing his relief. Man would be
the object and end of it all and not the Father. --J.B. Stoney
When I rest in the Lord Jesus,
then I begin to find all my joy and strength in Him, and I occupy myself
with Him. This is the first step, or foundation, to true devotedness.
I do not become devoted in the
true sense until I have found my rest in Him. I am, up to this, rather
looking to receive from Him. I am more of an object to myself; but
when I find how fully I am an object to Him, then my heart is at liberty to
make Him its Object, He having made me His. --J.B.S.
The Father has given us His
Beloved Son to be the joy of our souls, the Object of our hearts, telling us
that we shall soon see Him and be with Him and like Him forever. He is
saying, "Behold My Servant, whom I uphold; Mine Elect, in whom My soul
delighteth!" (Isaiah 42:1).
The Father would have us find
our joy where He is finding His, and that is in that Beloved One at His own
right hand. He is saying, "Rejoice in the Lord always, and again
I say, rejoice."
May we know the rest and
blessedness of this joy at all times; so shall we glorify Him as we
pass through this world of darkness. Happy ourselves, we shall help
others to be happy. -- J.H. Taylor
Position Or Paucity
-- As you advance in your Christian life, you are
going to realize that there is someone very familiar keeping pace with
you. And that is none other than your old Adamic life.
You are going to find that your
only escape from its sinful power and tyranny is your position; your
position in and identification with Christ in His crucifixion, burial ,
resurrection, and ascension. It must be the rest of faith in the
facts, i.e., counting upon your death to sinful self, and your being alive
in Christ above (Romans 6:11). Otherwise you are going to flounder, if
not founder.
All depends upon this-- the
simplicity with which my soul receives the truth that, all that I was in
Adam was judged and crucified on the Cross. Now there is a new man
before the Father, and a new Man before me--Christ risen from the dead and
ascended to Glory.
Now I am entitled to say, that
there is the One in whom I am seated before the Throne of God. We are
now by grace in Another, even the risen and ascended Lord Jesus
Christ, in order to give us our family position in the very presence of the
Father. -- Wm Kelly
Who — Where — What
-- You are going to have to know, and rely solely
upon, your position in Christ. That is WHO you are (a new
creation in union with Christ as your Life) (2 Corinthians 5:17; Colossians
3:4); WHERE you are (raised up and
made to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, your new-creation
life hidden with Christ in God) (Ephesians 2:6; Colossians 3:3); and WHAT
you are ("thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an
heir of God through Christ" - indeed, a joint-heir with Christ")
(Galatians 4:7; Romans 8:17).
As H.J. Hewlett put it:
"We see the Lord Jesus
Christ ... crowned with glory and honor" (Hebrews 2:9). This is
all our need. "The Lord Jesus Christ is all that we need for
all that we are." Let us rejoice in the vision and fellowship
glorious, and with pilgrim steps down here rest in the Captain of our
Salvation up There.
"For God who commanded
the light to shine out of darkness, hath shone in our hearts, to give the
light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus
Christ" (2 Corinthians 4:6).
No future but glory, Lord
Jesus, have we,
For man is in glory, already with Thee;
The brighter the glory that shines from Thy face,
The clearer our title to glory through grace.
And Hamilton Smith adds
encouragement:
The more we realize and rest
in our position before the Father within the veil, the better we
shall be able to face the path with its dangers through the wilderness
down here. Thus the exhortation, "Let us draw nigh,"
followed by "Let us hold fast the profession of our hope" (Hebrews
10:22, 23)."
Hence your blessed hope, your
daily desire and expectation will be that expressed so eloquently by Gerhardt
ter Steegen, some three centuries ago:
‘Midst the darkness, storm,
and sorrow
One bright gleam I see;
Well I know the blessed morrow
Christ will come for me.
‘Midst the light, and peace, and glory
Of the Father’s Home,
Christ for me is waiting, watching,
Waiting till I come.
O the blessed joy of meeting,
All the desert past,
O the wondrous words of greeting
He shall speak at last!
He and I, together, entering
Those bright courts above;
He and I, together sharing
All the Father's Love
He, who in the hour of sorrow
Bore the curse alone;
I, who through the lonely desert
Trod where He had gone.
He and I, in that bright glory,
One deep joy shall share;
Mine to be forever with Him,
His, to have me There!"
Mr. Stoney, once again, in
closing:
We are not according to our
Father’s pleasure, nor are we in simple restfulness as to our acceptance,
if we do not enter by faith into the new position to which He in His
grace has placed us.
A further fact is, that we have
no place but that; and when we get even a glimpse of it, it alters
immensely this place; this world through which we are but passing, and all
things in it, appear in another color [desaturated] altogether.
Can anything
affect the heart so much as the way the believer is received in his new position?
What I press now is the right that we have to be in that place, and
it is not only that I delight to be There, but the ineffable thought
is that the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ delights to have me
there in His place, sharing His joys in Christ."
Article in .pdf format here >
http://withChrist.org/GalatiansTwoTwenty.pdf
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