Man has the distinct proclivity to always look to his own understanding and feelings, and that is where perception and fact clash. "There is a way which seems right to the mind of men, but the end is death". "Give your mind to the things above" Col. 3:2. Yes how wonderful it is to feel the inner working of emotion declaring our Lord. But feelings/experiences are like sand, easily altered by the flood of stimulus which constantly flows on the river of life. So how must we perceive our Christianity to stay on a solid foundation of truth based only upon the Word of God?
I recently came upon the writings of C.H. Mackintosh. What a privilege to read the thoughts of such a man. He has done a masterful job of making real [as in reckon] the Spirits Biblical gift to us, "that we might know Him" Phil 3:10. No need to run to and fro hoping for understanding. The Word has made available the simple truth. I hope to use Mr Mackintosh's writing as inspiration to express God's greatest gift to His children: the position we have attained and which has been made real in us by His Spirit; which we hold in heaven, in the Fathers mind; us seen in His Son. Come follow The Spirit as He declares by The Word, eternal life; accomplished for us by God's own beloved New Man. The Man who was begotten in the same form as the Father's human creation, yet was the living image of God and His exact representation; made so that He may then view Him [the Son], and in His [the Father's] mind will then only see perfection when He looks upon His children; for the image of the Son bears our reflection as a new creation in His sight, mind, determination and sovereign will.
"If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: [because this man is seen in Christ by the Father] old things have passed away; behold all things are become new" 2 Cor. 5:17. Our old nature has not been pardoned but completely set aside [annulled in God's sight] in death. By the actions of Christ on the Cross we have become transferred into a new spiritual creation. The old which is flesh [not spiritual] for the purpose of The Father [who is Spirit], has been obliterated in any regard He has of us! By living out in faith that truth as a mental/spiritual perception we can enjoy the gift of a new life, "all things are of God", we are seen only in Christ, nothing of man in the natural state remains of us in the Fathers mind. Also likewise He sees the true Church [all believers] as fully accepted in His beloved Son. In the sames sense as us as individuals identified wholly in Christ, we all are now new creatures.
Can it be possible that any true Christian could not have at least some inclination of himself as a new creature? The immature Christian looks to the clouded hope of heaven and the Saviour's pardon of his sins and has a measure of reliance on the mercy of God.. But still may have no sense of everlasting life, not know himself as a new creation. Not understand that the old position in Adam has been done away with in the Fathers sight and reckoning. Thus his eternal life is limited to the earth, as a current position, for lack of knowledge. Therefore he continually seeks to perform life in the flesh as a natural duty bound man, in order to perceive himself as a Christian. Remember, obedience is not faith, but Law, and trying to please God by action places us under the Law. "Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith".
Most Christians I come in contact with never use the term "the old Adam nature", which is also know as the flesh or the old creation. These are biblical descriptions of humankind, not to be overlooked. As we read in Romans Six, "Our old man was crucified [co-crucifixion] with Him [Christ], that the body of sin [our old nature] might be destroyed [nullified], that henceforth we should not serve sin [by a awareness of our new nature]". This is not to describe a necessity to not commit sins to make God happy and then live a upright life: but for us to know of the death of the original Adam nature in God's perfect judicial judgement; otherwise we will always live under condemnation and the need to please Him, which eliminates our need for His Grace.
This old man is the life we inherited from the original man Adam. The "body of sin" is the whole system or condition in which we stood in that unregenerate, unrenewed, unconverted standing and state, which is the condition of all men in his flesh. "But I see another law in my members [flesh], warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members" Rom. 7:23 This old position was destroyed-by the Lord Jesus in His death unto [out of the realm of] sin. The old Adam is then crucified and is looked upon by The Father as totally set aside in death. We Christian believers, as to what we were in the old nature are dead and buried! This really is not in any way something we can feel, or hope to achieve recognition of by accomplishments and good works: but can only be counted on by faith in His Son's accomplishment for us, as declared by the Word. Nothing of a sinful man is seen in God's sight. God has abolished forever for the believer the old Adam relationship. As a matter of biblical fact we have been co- resurrected and co- ascended with Christ also in God's sight. And because our Father tells us so we are to reckon it as true. Its a matter of faith in facts, not feelings or behavior, as our physical life continues to reside in the flesh condition. So where is the hope then?
If we look at ourselves from a self centered view or judge our feelings, we shall never understand this truth or have hope. Why? Because we feel ourselves to be subject to the same sinful nature as ever, we sin, we worry, we have doubts, we must perform a certain manner of living. No matter how moral we are, sincere or Innocent and well intentioned. We by our mere association with the flesh [mankind, human nature] can not justify that we are in of ourselves obtaining any righteousness what so ever. There is simply no behavior we may perform that will justify us before God. No ritual or rite which will qualify us despite our earnestness.
Most believers have great difficulty at this point as we always look to ourselves, and the institutional church has reinforced our fate by substituting traditions feelings and experience as Christianity. We use the natural tendency of reasoning [intellectual self-centered] upon what we feel and experience to guide the way, instead of truth from the Word. This is where reckoning comes in; counting the Word as true, to make our Christian lives be consistent with The Father's desire for us. Alas we often find it difficult to make the inward way we feel to reconcile with the Word of God and lets face it inwardness is our constant natural condition. And as well as where we meet our new Christian life in Christ. However to enjoy our inward self-consciousness of Christ and harmonize it to truth, we must become well acquainted with the Father's revelation of our position/identity in Christ found in scripture. We must only rely upon what is written in His Word. This is not literalism, but simply objective truth, which we must become subject to: and then with clarity of thought embrace as a spiritual condition which is real and true.
But we must remember that faith takes God at His Word. In other words I believe what He says because He said it. So if He tells me my old man [Adam nature] was crucified and that God no longer sees me in the old Adam position [a sinful lost creature], but positioned anew in the risen and ascended Lord Jesus Christ then I am to believe it like a little child. Then walk in faith of that fact day by day. If I look to myself for some evidence of what the Father says about my position, then that is not of faith."Without faith it is impossible to please God".
You may say how can this be? How can I be considered dead, as to my Adam sin nature, by the Father? I have feelings, I know only too well my tendencies to sin which are continually within me. Yet the Word declares that if I believe in my heart in the Saviour, then all of my co-experience with Christ is true of me right now right here, I have eternal life. I am a new creature, completely justified, and all thing are new. In a word I am in Christ "as He is [in heaven, a Resurrected Man] so are we in this world" 1 John 4:17.
This is much more than the mere pardoning of sins, the canceling of your debts, or even the salvation of our soul. And if so then, we must ask upon what authority are the great privileges of the new creature we are positioned in Christ granted? Is it because we realize it or understand it? No; but because it is written. As to salvation the Word says "To Him all the prophets witness, that through His name whosoever believes in Him shall receive remission of sins" Acts 10:43. We all must rely on that truth in faith or we are simply lost. Well then it is precisely on the same authority and faith that we are to believe [reckon] "that our old man has been crucified", that we are not in the flesh [natural man before God] and that we are not in the old creation and not in the old Adam relationship in God's perfect estimation or judgment; but we are viewed by our Father as actually in the risen and glorified Lord Jesus Christ..........that He looks upon us just as He looks upon His beloved Son! See 2 Cor. 5:17. What Christian would not wish for such a living position as a conscious dwelling place for his soul? We my friends only need develop it in our mind, by His Word!
Yes we are still subject to the flesh, because it is in us. But we are not in it as one born again in spirit. We have a condition in which we live physical life true, "sin is in the flesh". But listen to what is written in regards to our eternal life our spiritual position which is established by Jesus in heaven and in no other way; "They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world" John 17. Our paramount Christian goal should be to discover what that means, all else is more or less meaningless without positional /identification doctrines being known and trusted in faith. Because it is written we must read and study to become aware.
Then my friends, as Mr Macintosh said; "if you simply bow to your Father's Word. Set aside what you see, and what you feel in yourself and what you think of yourself, and simply believe what is written, you will enter into the peace and liberty flowing from the fact that you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit under grace; not of the world which is the flesh, but of God. You have passed clear off of the ground which occupied you as a child of nature and a member of the first Adam, and have taken your new position on new heavenly ground as a child of God and a member of the Body of Christ". Because it is written it is so! The question is, do we have the knowledge of the Word processed within us to gain the faith to live like it is true? Ask yourself; what is your priority the affairs of self and the world or the things of God, written for all to see?
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