I believe the greatest loss for the Christian may be when one day he realizes the theft he perpetrated upon himself; the loss of days not spent living a life in a cognizant perception, seeing himself in the Man who died in his stead, the potential life not apprehended gone unappropriated that resides in The Son! It is in His death where our life is found; how weakly I understood this for so many of my, not so fruitful years. I learned late in life that my true Christian experience consists of a measure of apprehension of that which is already true of myself in the Lord Jesus Christ. " For we which that live are always delivered unto death for Jesus sake" 2 Cor. 4:11. This is really saying: the life of our indwelling faith, the source of our liberation, is to be recognized by the means of the Cross, by us counting as true the finished work of His death on that Cross; and in that reckoning we will be dealing progressively with our self, our soul's personality changing to His image. On that basis alone then the life of Jesus will be manifested in our mortal flesh. Now I am also beginning to learn " It is no longer I that live, but Christ lives in me" Gal. 2:20. And that,"the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free" Rom. 8:2. I must have read those verses a thousand time, with little impact, except for perhaps a momentary joyful feeling, or perhaps a renewed call to duty, or to no longer sin. Now the clouds are parting, I came to know that life lived for my self centered existence held no value, it did not really contain life, experience yes, not life! Then I became a believer in a revelation, by a new bold faith in the Words written by God as being true, and in which I could now live by, in the mortal flesh of my mind. This was accomplished by learning of and counting as true that Jesus death was indeed mine, me a Adam a self centered man; a new life was mine by His Resurrection. I was re- created, a new me, a new Adam, beheld in glory in the form of the One and only Man who could accomplish the desire of God for me, Jesus Christ. Thank you my God and Saviour for the unbound joy you have brought by my realization of the position I hold in heaven before you in your Son. And thank you Lord that position may be counted as my life here and now by faith! And that in my new perception of the loss of my Adamic old life you are becoming my new life.
The title of my blog, our identification found in Christ, in order to be realized, must be foremost and firstly considered by its application to the death of the natural life of our soul. "For if we have grown together in the likeness of His death, indeed we will also be in the likeness of His Resurrection" Rom. 6:5. In the intent of the Greek language here, this is not referring to a future resurrection at the end of times, but to the present process of growth, in likening ourselves to Him or how the Christian by applying Christ's death to our natural man we can live the life intended by God a resurrected life now in this place. How do we do that? Lets read on. "Knowing this, that our old man has been crucified with Him in order that the body of sin might be annulled, that we should no longer serve sin as slaves" Rom. 6:6. The first word knowing, in the original language refers to a outward objective knowledge. As we gain this knowledge we will learn that the "old man" is referring to the natural life of the soul. The first Adam or mankind, created and loved by God, became fallen by his own volitional sin. We are not talking here of the soul's essential being/personality itself, but the life we manifested in and from that soul or the propensity to sin, which the bible refers to as the old man or flesh; which had to be rejected by God as hopeless and was put on the cross crucified with Christ. The bible therefore refers to this His representative act, as death unto the flesh. Please note, the word unto which the bible uses, not to. Unto connotes a sense of His entering into that very thing "sin", [He became flesh] and doing away with it completely by death, in a Judaical representative manner.Of course we are left with the capacity to continue in sin, as I am sure we all know. God could have certainly left us in another state, but He in His wisdom choose for us to remain with the reminder of sin, so that we would never fall victim to pride and would remain humble, as by our weakness He is made strong.
Let us continue down freedoms road with Rom. 6:6, and look at the reference to the "body of sin": Which by the original intent of definition here is meaning; not the sinning person, but the sinning instrument, a self centered mind set, utilized by the old man to express himself in sin. In this concept the propensity becomes reality or flesh a action man performs, carried in the body. So mankind was guilty of a crime, God cannot accept, so He proposed to crucify sin, and thereby sin was "annulled"; which means made jobless, inactive, because in God's economy, His view, it has been crucified, made dead by His Son. Thus we are free from sin, not under any bondage what so ever, sin has nothing to do in us in God' sight. Yes as we said it still exists, but remains unseen by the only eye's that count, God's.This fact has brought me great joy to realize and live by. In order to hold that place of freedom I must always and forever keep my mind centered on the object which made this true truth possible Jesus Christ!
This line of reasoning given to us by God leads to a conclusion, which is found in Rom. 6:11, " So also reckon yourselves to be dead to sin, but living to God in Christ Jesus". The word reckon used here is not a mere technique, but a spontaneous believing fact to be recognized, we are in fact dead to sin and living to God. We may enjoy that, not by the reckoning, but by faith in Christs all inclusive death and His Resurrection and power, which we can know more of as we read on in Romans through Chapter 8. All this given by grace can be made real in practical experience, requiring our fellowship and enjoyment of Him as the object by faith. "Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God" Rom. 10:17. So we read God's word and we see this faith which is required to enjoy freedom, and is made clear. When we understand this we may walk in the Spirit, this is really, I think best defined as maturity. In other words it is the mind of the Father which is influencing our life, and not the things surrounding us, including our own sin. All that we are, as to being left in this body of sin, including the worlds influence and occupation we have in it, is the rival of God; and we are not safe from it. That is why it is imperative the believer know His place, which is by God's Word spiritual, heavenly, "living to God in Christ Jesus". Chapter 8 of Romans has much to say about that.
In Romans 8:1 there is the all important reference to "now no condemnation" The word "now" is important as it refers to our position or standing, as seen in Rom. 6. But it also refers to our daily experience as regenerated new creatures in Christ, which is "now" our condition. "The law of the Spirit of life". Life is the issue, and the Spirit is the manifestation of the Triune God after he has manifested Himself through incarnation, death and Resurrection, and has now become a indwelling mind/Spirit which gives life to all believers. We are thus delivered from the law of sin and death, which dwells in our members our fallen nature our body. It is the spontaneous power of the Law of Life however that enables us to gain God and therefore freedom from our flesh. So my friends it seems by God's Words we have two laws working in us. It just remains for us to choose which we are to stand in. We know which one we want to have power in our life, this goes without saying. It cannot be denied evil is embodied in mankind, we know where that comes from, but how do we shed its control and influence? The Word of God says it is by entering into the loss of our life subjectively seen in the objective death unto sin of Jesus Christ, and coming to know Jesus as the resource of a new life to govern to us, a heavenly position. We as Christians are a entirely new kind of men and women, we have a new lineage found in Jesus Christ, who is the beginning of all-His very life. It is in the loss of our life where we will find Him. I must give credit to the Watchmen Nee Recovery Bible for opening up some of this truth. Many have gone before us in discovery of the simplicity of true Christianity and to them I am grateful.
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