When I think back to my history in Christ, I see a very clear pattern. First the blush of joy and relief to have found a Saviour, then the search to know Him. How grateful I am to have been accepted into His family. Anyone who knows me can I'm sure see, and certainly when I look in the mirror, I have no trouble to recognize, a man who sins. And it was this very nature that brought me closer to my Lord. To think that God used who I am in Adam, the very sin nature that we carry, which turned away from Him, to show me my new creation in Christ, a new nature. In those early days of course I did nor see that positional truth, I simply struggled along, as we all do, looking forward to going to Heaven. It seems to me, that is more or less the message the institutional church reinforced. By that I mean, there was no teaching of how we might come to see ourselves in the image of Jesus Christ, He was held up and displayed, admired, but there was no sense of our being His very nature, us in Him, except from a sort of admiration for what He had done in our life, for us. Now that I can look back with new knowledge I think, oh if only I had been challenged to think of entering into the new creation defined in the person hood of Jesus Christ, perhaps all the suffering of trying to develop my dead old man into what the church held up as an example of the christian ideal would have been unnecessary. Now I know this suffering was in fact used by God, and therefore, quite necessary!
My friend J. B. Stoney said it best. " My taste is formed in glory, and there it is nurtured and strengthened, and as it is so I find nothing here in keeping to my taste. Association with the Son of Man, the One most perfect, and in every way the most beautiful, develops my new nature, which is the same as His. Where He is, is my home, there I feed and rest; but here on earth, I am learning to set aside in death everything which hinders the manifestation of the life of the Lord Jesus." The key words here my friends are "setting aside in death." My human nature is far from one which could be recognized as that of the Heavenly Jesus and my works here could never measure up with the image and works of His life when He was on this earth. It is for this reason, the church being in much the same condition, I believe is why it has fallen short in guiding us to our true abode.They, in their institutional well meaning manner tried to form a more perfect union with displays of grandeur, good works and feelings to be experienced. All of which will never satisfy us in our understanding of that which God has accomplished in His Son; because the church often defined christianity by a understanding which was most pleasing to a worldly audience. No my friends, it is in the Knowledge of our death in Christ, formed in our conscious mind [ spirit/soul], where our home will be found, which will then display our new creation life, in these mortal bodies.
It always struck me as a fascinating phenomena how the natural man clings to this life. The truth is, if the Bible is to be believed, all of man kind will be always alive; some will however live that existence forever outside of Gods presence; this the Bible defines as death, the condition Adam [and we] found himself in his natural fallen state. Where as eternal life is enjoyed in the presence of The Father, the condition Adam was in before the fall [and us, now positioned in Christ] in his mortal body's. But what about the present experiential condition we find ourselves in; still so very influenced by the condition of the natural man in our flesh? And really, now is the only experience we can relate to. I have no idea what Heaven is like and when I look closely at myself I see I do not deserve it. So my question and need to discover is how can I have that realized experience of eternal life and Heaven now?
" For we who live are always, delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in out mortal flesh" 2 Cor. 4:11. To me this verse says it all, we who live are those of us with a born again spirit and the delivered UNTO,[ not to] speaks of a permanent condition of the believer. The for Jesus' sake is not for His need, but because of what He accomplished in His death on the Cross, death UNTO mankind's sin nature. In our awareness, understanding, and knowledge of this position we find our spirits as defined in, "the life of Jesus" and by this we will find ourselves living out the glories of freedom of our identification in Him. But lets not leave out the most important part! How are we delivered [brought to knowledge of, or the place of] to this permanent condition in our understanding and way of life here now?
Every believer is regarded by God as alive from the dead. The Adam personality and condition [sin] can not be even considered as a effect in relationship with the Father, as it is dead. God has completely dealt with it by putting it into a dead condemned position on the cross.The question is not forgiveness for our sins here, they are impossible to be seen by God in a dead man, no judgment ever for the Christian, freedom, joy and peace our our permanent gift, by Christ's representative act. "He died UNTO sin for us all." How then shall we live? Well this my dear friends is the million dollar question is it not? If "we died and our life is hidden in Christ" Col. 3:3, it surely cannot be our works, could it be a feeling, how about church and bible study attendance? Perhaps we can derive a feeling of accomplishment from these things; but if those things and feelings are carried by the dead man they cannot be the answer! My friends, the answer is clear and written down for us all. If we are to know Jesus Christ, and move about on this earth in His Glory, in all that we do, including the above church activities, and not be just hearers of the Word; we must develop a mind which can appropriate from the Son, a mind where we define our very being as identified and positioned in Him. The condition in the depth of my heart must be "alive in Christ." And that will only be found by faith in what the Word so prominently displays, our death realized, unto the Adamic natural man as the only life left, and that can only be found and lived in Jesus Christ, who on the Cross died representing us, in our natural sinful state, and we were set aside by that act in the economy of The Father's view of us now and forever. We the Christian, if we do not grasp this positional Biblical truth will live out a life of death [in the flesh] on this earth, not life [our Heavenly position], if we do not come to realize that is is our identification in Jesus Christ, which is the defining depth of our personal being!
My dear blog buddies, I'm going to get a bit personal here. Its hard for me to write this blog and not encounter my resentments. Why? Because these writings are the result of a deep personal struggle with my flesh and sin for some many years now; but today I can I thank my God for showing me the truth of position/identification and I'm very aware I have a long ways still to go. But all of this struggle, and relief found, leaves me in a place of heart break for my fellow Christian, as I observe their struggles and even their satisfaction with the status quo. In the early days of this blog that pain came through, as I wanted and expected some acknowledgement by seeing some fruit coming my way, in the form of a hoped for response from my readers. However, it was in the absence of the kind of attention my ego desired that I found my calling was simply to glorify my Lord by studying to show myself approved. I now write for Him, I am not a teacher, minister are care to hold any responsibility for the growth and challenge to grow, are lack there of, by you my blog victims. Don't get me wrong, oh how I hope you will take to heart the necessary deep contemplation and study God requires of us all in realizing the truth of His Word, and maybe, just maybe, I will have played some role in that. May God bless you with the depth of His wisdom and knowledge in your search for His identification in you!!
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