As I think back on many of the sermons I have heard in Church the word justification comes to mind. Praise God that through our Saviour Jesus Christ we are. I was truthfully told for many years how Jesus has done it all, thank God. We cannot out sin God's grace as Paul said. By my justification I could know I was sanctified [separated] by the Cross of Christ into salvation, and what a wonderful thing to realize! Many of these sermons comforted me, to know that in the long run I would go to heaven. I was safe and sound in that; but somehow that wasn't enough to give complete satisfaction. I was told over and over everything would be OK just keep the faith; but I needed sanctification with a capital S. The conviction of guilt and the weight of the world still prevailed, with what for me, was a unbearable weight. No I needed experiential knowledge, something which would enliven my faith; which to be quiet frank had become routine. I became bound up in a life style of Church/bible study and a hour or two a week of good old fashioned uplifting worship/entertainment, which begun to claim my faith, not a bad thing, but much more was needed to complete me! How could I find the prize, the upward calling and live above my quilt and sin and rise above this evil world? Not by my performance, that had already been proved worthless. No evidently I as a self centered man could not fill the void, someone else must do it for me. I must have a new experiential knowledge, but was incapable in myself .
The experiential knowledge it turned out I needed was firstly of myself. In order to live in the Sanctification provided by another as experience. I had to discover that the man I meet each morning was not in any way worthy of the sacrifice of our Lord, and what was worse he would always be me. Then I was lucky enough to come to understand that if by faith I could see myself [identification] in another, who was in fact perfect before God, and that somehow I could come to apply that as experiential at least in thought; then I might have a chance here. For that I needed a firm object to rely upon. I began to learn this object of my life had to become Jesus Christ as my self defining reality. My subjective personality centered on self was not capable of even maintaining a simple faith adequately. Along with my brother Paul I was a indeed a wretched man, who learned by weakness he "could do all things through Christ."
The Lord has been impressing upon me lately this new experiential knowledge. I have found it in my own weakness, "in our weakness He is made strong" which has proved true for me. I find that even in my doubt and despair as to the reality of this faith I have endeavored to live in, He is there. I have not been able to overcome myself and become a spiritual giant, my self effort is all to no avail! It is the spirit that is sanctified says 2 Thess. 2;13 not myself the man. I in my flesh am irrecoverable fallen. Knowing this has served to strengthen me in spirit. There is now seen more clearly in myself a old and new creation that I can known of by His word. It is through the troubles of the old man that the path opens to the new, by making me weak. Any effort to strengthen the self life by moral determination or positive self talk has proved fruitless; as the spirit is absolutely separate from the flesh. The spirit must become the driving force if I am to serve the living God, in Christ. The spirit must occupy this mortality. That is our task my Christian friends, "the upward calling of God in Christ Jesus" all other things will burn, and really have no value; let us rest our thoughts on the life in the Spirit, not the flesh. We will find that new existence waiting for us in Jesus Christ the recovered object of our life. We just have to leave ourselves alone, reckoned as dead just like the bible says!
For The sake of understanding the two natures it might help to confront them. If one were to come upon Dr Jekyll [the fictional split personality character in literature] while he was in the Mr Hyde manifestation and ask him: How dear Sir is Dr Jekyll? Mr Hyde might respond; how should I know I hardly know the man. This is the same case for the natural man when presented the position of the personality we have in Christ as a spiritual man, as true doctrine. That's why the Bible tells us in no uncertain terms to count the natural man as dead. Oh he is alive in deed, and always ready to refuse the spiritual mans manifestation; except unlike Mr Hyde we need to know him and consider him as dead. Our job is to believe the word in faith that this old man, the natural man, is indeed dead, by the action of Jesus Christ. And in fact our second personality, the spiritual man was made alive at Christ's Resurrection and is now the identification God holds of us, and the identity we must come to hold of ourselves. Take a self evaluation my friends. Is your life time spent occupied with self centered things? Are you seeking to serve Christ by a moral behavior or a good deed/works path? Is you Christian existence primarily made up of a few hours a week as a dutiful attendee? If you said yes to these questions then like Mr Hyde, you would too turn away when asked of the welfare of the spiritual man in you. In fact you would be turning away from the very life God holds dearest for you in the sacrifice of the object of His love, His Son!
The truth of the spiritual man will only be reveled by the acknowledgement of the natural mans death, shown to you by the Holy Spirit. Being born again is only the beginning. To be a true active aware organic member of Christ's Body requires the supreme sacrifice of the self! "Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh" 2 Cor 4:11. This life of Jesus we may carry is not in the emulation of His good works while on earth, but the practice of our presence in His place of glory in heaven; which we may occupy in our mind. This is a mature faith: He is manifest in our life to the extent we identify ourselves dead to the world in thought and deny any value to our human nature for the purpose of pleasing God in our salvation. We must come to see our selves as positioned in Him in glory! Conversely He is made un- alive to the extent we align ourselves with the natural-self and the affairs of this world. Few will venture there even though the Word could not be more clear; as they are attached to worldly things and its affairs, in fact blinded by them. Heaven bound perhaps, but walking dead men, unaware that a active conscious aware eternal life begins on this earth. Yes the spirit is made alive by the grace of God for all who believe, but they turn away from a experiential knowledge. They dwell in the subjective, living in the provocative place provide by Satan in this world and their own natural self centered nature. This carnal Christian is not a bad man, or a unsaved man, and certainly not without hope; if I am any example at least. He simply is one who has not allowed the need to die to self to be his calling. He for the most part remains unchallenged by the Church. The contemporary life style, the victimization we have volunteered for in our desperate search for security in this world has put a protective supporting wall around the self that many other past generations did not have; they were honed by weakness and suffering, which of course no one wishes upon themselves. Never the less, it is need which most often opens the door to the spiritual place we hold in Christ, and you can be sure need will come. By need a new desire, then growth begins......on to spiritual maturity, always seen and found in weakness. Yes He has truly done it all! So let us my friends stop trying in the self mode and embrace His provision, and let Him provide the experiential knowledge we will find in our own death and weakness: which is so desperately needed to live in the life and identity of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
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