Everything in the spiritual history of the Christian depends upon the truth he has received. No one can know the liberty in which Christ has made him free who does not know first, that God has removed in the Cross to the fullest extent and relief of the heart of the believer, and to the endless glory of God Himself; that the man who was under judgment, the sinful Adam man, is received in the full acceptance of His beloved Son who is now before Him: the Lord Jesus, the glorified Man, a perfect man in the flesh, the object of all salvation; who is to be identified as such and personally applied to the faithful Christians mind as such, seen as fully representing men before God In Heaven. Making us "accepted in the Beloved".
The place of acceptance and our true identification for all who believe in faith is the new creations thoughts of himself, as that of being positioned in Christ Jesus, his true spiritual Christian conscious self appraisal. "Have this mind in you which was also in Christ Jesus" Phil. 2:5. Which can be known only by and in a walk of faith of that fact as a explicit truth in God's Word. This spiritual fact is made alive as we come to know the Crosses true meaning and its application to our Christian life in God's sight, not ours. "I have been crucified with Christ" Gal. 2:20. Thus our inner man and moral conscience is to be attuned to this the greatest and unalterable acceptance. You will know this, God's way for the Christian, as your existence only by and only in faith. You will live it out by the Holy Spirit, requiring trust and rest as being established before God as one who is positioned in Christ..
The Cross must become the paramount reference point for the Christian life view. The starting point for both Christ Jesus' glorification as well as ours. Why is this so little taught or even mentioned in much of our contemporary churches today?
There is a deadly disease inherent in the Adam mans personality. We are captured by our learned self appraisal. Unfortunately not God's estimation of His creature, which is fully made know in His Word. Our leaders have the same sickness. Its a amalgamation of their biblical quantified conscience with worldly thought which calls for the compromise of adjusting the circumstances of the flocks exposure to truth to that of a level in which they will be most comfortable. It's really political/bureaucratic thought, the same as the world's. If one challenges another with the truth he must be prepared to explain it and take the time to nurture the listener and also suffer perhaps his loss of attention. Few leaders will, as the institution becomes the whale in whose stomach they reside. This is simply human nature and a necessity of worldly thought. Or a conscience not fully attuned to the Christian life, which is to be fully objectified in Christ Jesus, for any validity to be assumed.
The above all to common occurrence is the exact opposite in description as to the bibles clear straight forward teaching and explanation of one who is a actual born again new creation in Christ. "For we which live [Christ as a recognized life by faith] are always delivered unto death [our co-death with Him] for Jesus sake" 2 Cor. 4:11. Why are we not seemingly aware of this? It is because we do not hunger for, or even know and promote the Words most important doctrinal teachings. Namely that of Paul's encouraging even commanding, Christians to adopt Christ as the meaning of their inner man? In other words the bibles commands of faith through knowledge for a new conscience, a awareness of the place we hold in the Fathers mind, our position and identification in Christ. "Being made conformable unto His death" Phil. 3;10. Could it be we have forgotten or worse never learned the elementary step to knowing our own place in Christ and have not taken to heart the meaning of the Cross?
Lets review the implications of the Cross: God's work in and by His Son on the Cross is one of exchange. Remember God is changeless Eccl.3:14, He predestined us to be seen in His Son and only His Son. We changed in the Garden [became sinful natural men] therefore He who predestined us to be conformed to the image of His Son needed to be true to Himself and the calling He had for us which could and can never take place by a changed natural human's morals, works or nature, of itself. Namely to be before Him justified, and also glorified, in other words perfect, just as he predestined us to be, Rom. 8:29,30. We simply had to be exchanged, not changed as so many try to do, which is frankly, impossible.
God is above all things unalterable, including in His demand for justice. As He is perfect. The principal of His Law must be accomplished, sin must die a judicial death, therefore we as Adam men had to die. Because God is overridingly Love He chose to accomplish His perfect justice by taking upon Himself the wrath that evil and sin must be dealt by death, therefore a exchange had to take place and for good reason. "The natural man cannot receive the things of God; for they are foolishness to him; neither can he know them" "Having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God" 1 Cor. 2:4; Eph. 4:18. By the way the natural man is all of mankind including Christians in their human condition! Leaving only faith in another to establish God's vision for His creation. This is why it is "impossible to please God" outside of faith itself.
The changeless God applied His principle of exchange when He said; "God Commands His love toward us in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" " For when we were without strength in due time Christ died for the ungodly Rom. 5:8,6. The exchange. Then "He made us alive together with Christ" Eph. 2:3-5. This is the co-death and co-life God planned for us, we in His perfect just mind were seen by His perfect love for us as the predestined child of God, made that in spiritual reality by the accomplish judicial death of His Son. A exchange in perfect love. But there must be more, it's realization applied to life in the here and now. How may we do that?
We advance spiritually by finding out what and who we really are in Christ, not by trying to become what we hope to be. "Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ our Lord" 2 Pet. 1:2. Christ came not to ally Himself with the world and mankind, but to take it all into death by the Cross. In our regeneration realized by a born again faith He by the Holy Spirit comes not to ally himself with Adam [mankind] and the world but to hold it in the place of death by the same means, the Cross, a forever ongoing power, a Godly principal. That's why we must change our minds for this realization to take place in our self estimation. Become new creations by thought. His thought applied to our being. This Is God's way. " But may it never be mine to boast of anything but the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ by which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world" Gal. 6:4.
"I have been crucified with Christ, and I myself [the Adam man] no longer live" Gal. 2:20. If this is in any way true of the Christian then we simply must come to a deep and new understanding of our nature as one of Spirit. We must learn by His Word to stand upon this new truth in a way which is independent and individual. Not in dependence and comfort upon a group encounter no matter how godly. Few do and fewer still will ever take the time privately to do so, "study to show yourself approved". I fear most Christian still, though born again, live with the condition of their natural Adam nature as ruler and the diversion of the world as there life partner. "Sinners are not saved until they trust the Saviour, and saints are not delivered until they trust the Deliverer. God has made both possible through the Cross of His Son".
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