There is something of immense importance all Christians must know: the Adam nature man has been fully judged and ended before God. Many know this on some level at least. Even if only that they perceive they are justified before the Father, by Jesus' death on the cross. Having relief that they are saved.
Very few however identify within themselves His death as a co-death [that they died with Christ] which must be renewed daily in faith in order to have His life actively alive in their mind and spirit. A objective biblical fact that when perceived by faith produces the Christian life. "Of Him are you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us....sanctification" 1Cor. 1:30. It is the required acknowledgement of our own natural mans crucifixion "take up you cross daily" which then opens the door to our consecration in Christ's life. In death we are a living sacrifice with Jesus and must even be partakers of His suffering, by our recognizing we are weak and incapable of living His life, carried out in the natural Adam. This is the order by which The Holy Spirit's life grows within. All else is a vain effort to live the Christian life.
Many Christians do not have a confident personal awareness that the death of our Saviour has been applied to them. That the sinful Adam nature as a race and thereby their own natural human Adam man is dead in God's judgement. By His death taking on our death the door opened to us becoming entirely new creatures. Newly alive by faith, contained wholly in Jesus Christ. Which is all made true by the death of the Adam man and the flesh accomplished by Him on the Cross. The entire race redeemed by one act; it's death, then converted to newness by belief. We are then transferred or re-made in spirit, born again from death, when we believe this is true. We are now seen as perfect in the Fathers estimation. His judgement of our sin nature completed. Our perfect heavenly position as new creatures is provided to God exclusively in His son, from redemption to eternal heavenly life.
There can be no application of Christ Jesus life to our Adam nature in any way. Yes our soul becomes transformed by knowledge, but any life we have is all His by Christ's federal representation, His substitution. Therefore we simply must be done with any reliance upon the natural! This is the crux of the biblical orthodox positional truth doctrines. Rom. 6,7,8. Further more this positional truth in very certain terms tells us, all that we are as a saint of Christ is entirely seen in the Son and can only be lived in our mind/spirit by faith of its truth. God will honor us by His grace in this approach.
The Christian died as a child of Adam in a co-death with Christ that is positional in nature. Meaning that Jesus Christ the Son of God in His death and also in His Resurrected glory, is seen by the Father as the objective representation of the very man we are by the new birth. First the dead Adam then the newly alive new creation in Christ. Mans old dead nature, which is still active in him, can have no part of the perfect sacrifice or the new life. Therefore we must come to see ourselves entirely in Christ as a spiritual position, sanctified into a new spiritual life which is Christ's and His alone and by faith alone. Both as to death and life. Our part in this truth is our belief that this is true, nothing more!
All that is applied by God to The Son in Glory is applied to us who have believed. Including His Sons own death to the flesh and old nature. As well as eternal life with God in heaven. Jesus is the object seen by the Father, then His life is transferred to us by God's Spirit through our belief and by faith in the position we hold in Him. This is according to the God's divine authority. All that Christ Jesus is and was is given by grace to His new creation. He is the object for all that we ever will be. No action on our part, behavior or display of enthusiasm, will ascertain or confirm His life as the object before God which accounts for our presence there. He is all there is. His work is finished and we are established in it.
Many seem unaware that despite the work of the Cross they still carry with them this same old man, as a permanent fixture which cannot be remade by any Christian virtue. Yes the man who was judged is still with us and is even capable of doing good things. But the sin in the Adam nature, sin in our flesh, is not forgiven. But is forgotten; it has been judged in the Sons death. Adams nature will never be improved. Many Christians simply acquiesces to waking up with the old nature each morning. Allowing its control and it is there they stay throughout the day. Only a refreshing by the washing of the Word each day will serve to put our heart and soul where it belongs. In the death of all that is natural. Then we become alive in the supernatural, which is Christ's life."So that we can no longer spend the rest of our natural life living by human appetites and desires but for what God wills" 1 Pet. 4:2 amp.
I believe this fact is the most difficult dichotomy [division into two mutually opposed groups] we will ever face as Christians. We will spend the balance of our Christian lives dealing with it: that is if the Holy Spirit is not grieved and held back by our settling for a natural Christian Adam life in the sinful Adam personality. All because we lack the benefit of a great suffering in our Adam natures incapacity for holiness, and thereby do not see its utter worthlessness. If so one may become satisfied with the formality of a active self accepted Christian life as a mere behavior, tradition, obligation or happy comfortable church life style, albeit perhaps lived with great sincerity.
What are we to do then? First we must know from the Word that it is only by faith we may display the new nature in Christ, it is wholly internal. "God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh" Rom. 8:3. Where sin brought us, love brought the Lord Jesus Christ....even to death; and His death is the end before God of all that we were as children of Adam...men in the flesh. Only faith will live this true Christian condition out in the quietness of the inner man. The Holy Spirit will then live Christ's life by grace within His saints. No natural effort is required. His will, will be done.
Secondly we must see by faith in order to please God, that this death in the flesh of Jesus Christ is always and only positional. Which means it is objective. In other words it is a view and condition we are held in, in God's eye's and His only. We cannot live it out in our natural behavior! Or in any physical/mental format or designed program. No matter how godly or uplifting it seems.
Thus by adopting God's approach, our spiritual new nature is completely taken out of the hands of the first Adam personality; which we are all subject to at all times while on earth. It is by positional faith, wholly a Spiritual condition, which we are in. This objective position, His Sons place and life, has fully satisfied God. We are there in Christ's life by being placed positionally in spirit in Him, we are put on God's ground. One of Spirit, His Sons and our final completed destiny together. "You were set free from the tyranny of sin" Rom. 6:18
By the title we now have in Christ Jesus He has granted us, who remain in our sinful nature, as Adam men a new life. A life which may be lived only by faith in a positional fact: we have been replaced by another, Jesus Christ Himself. He holds us in heaven in His life, a eternal position, a federal position. There is nothing more to know or to do than this; for us to realize our new creation spirit is in Christ life. "For we are His workmanship [He positioned us in His Son] created in Christ Jesus" Eph. 2:10.
How then shall we live? We are dead as a Adam personality before God and manifested to the Father positionally in representative glory by Christ. But on the other hand we are here. So now simply by faith we must live in another life.... a life of, "A Man who is risen from the dead". In this marvelous act God has included us, His new creation. The Father has granted us His Sons very life. A Man in the flesh of a human became glorified. God's choice, His method, His way, to our benefit forever.
We did belong to the race of which Adam was the head, the sin nature. But the death of Christ in God's reckoning is applied now, in positional or representative-objective-sanctified form. Christ's work is counted as true and final by God toward us. All thing are contained in Him. This is the termination of our history in Adam, in God's sight. A new head has been provided for us, and we have been transferred by divine grace from Adam to Christ! This is entirely a spiritual heavenly condition which can only be recognized by faith of it's truth; and must be lived that way by God's design. This is the normal Christian life. This is being a over comer.
This transfer is in Spirit and made aware to our mind only by faith. It is seen by the father and applied to us as a new creation life, the very life of Jesus His Son. His life in heaven is applied to our very being and essence. The Father still fully recognizing our individual creation, [our soul] but grants us a new spirit.... created for us in the very person of His Son to live by. By Knowing this truth renewed in our mind daily in faith we may experience Christ as life on earth.
In God's estimation this new spirit or life is not only positioned in or represented by His Son within His person; but in fact is His Son. This is God's perfect will in the reconciliation of the Adam man. Christ Jesus life then enters us by the Holy Spirit. A perfect God can see us no other way except in His Son a perfect Man. We as a new creation hold the exact same esteem as His son at His right hand. A position we are spiritually contained in! We of ourselves no matter how sincere or good will never qualify for His life. This is His method of reconciliation of mankind to Himself. He became a Man and took us with Him from death to life. We are not to question this work or try and live up to it, but to accept it by faith. We now have and are in God's life. "If any man is in Christ [positioned there by God] he is a new creation" 2 Cor. 5:17. Attempting to enact this truth in our flesh is the total downfall of the Christian man. And is a condition every Christian group has been guilty of.
Well now what? We still must deal with the old Adam each day. Can we make our new man of faith the leader in our physical/mental life on earth in the old Adams body and personality? Do we act a certain way, are we now empowered because we know by faith the new nature in Christ? Can adopting a new countenance by our knowledge please God?
No my dear brothers and sisters in Christ this is not possible. But the Word does tell us all we need for certain victory in this new life is faith. "He died for all, that they that live [in faith of their position in Christ in glory] should not henceforth live unto themselves [the old Adam personality]; but unto Him" 2 Cor. 5:15. Only by faith! Yes this truth will "thank God" effect our life here in transformative behavior. But our behavior does not prove faith or make us worthy of His life in any way. It is a free gift to be partaken of in our hearts and it is there it must rest.
We do not live unto Him by hard work, studies, meetings and especially feelings. Man will never be successful in creating a proper environment for Jesus Christ. His life is found by faith in the facts of God's declarations at our fingertips each morning. His word contains the only revelation we will ever need. We must study it, know the doctrines of His revelation. Only the dedicated shall find His positional truth as life and experience and take rest in that life. We must count all things as loss for faiths discovery. This is the only way we may touch the reality of Spirit. "For He has made Him sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him" 2 Cor. 5:21. Glory be to God that He has provided a way across the divide by placing/positioning us in the Righteousness of Jesus the perfect Man.
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