The following is a series of excerpts from a variety of sources describing the process our Lord has used through our union with Him to deliver us from the old life to the freedom of our new life in Christ. I pray that what these authors say will help you see the glory of what has happened to us in Christ and how we can enter into the reality of what has been provided in Him.
All we will see in this study is summed up in all its parts in the following verse, so as you go through these notes, please re-read this verse frequently.
“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20)
Jesus rose from the dead to give His life to me, to live his life through me; but He can only do that if I am prepared to die to my own program. There’s only Person capable of living the Christian life and that’s Jesus! If we try to do what only Jesus can do, we just do our best for Him and wear out.
Dying to self is a wonderful position to be in, because dead people do not have problems. Every time you give yourself the right to have a problem or the right to worry about something, you give yourself the right to live your own life. However, if you adopt an attitude of total dependence on the Life of the Lord Jesus in you, then no matter how threatening a situation may be, you can relate it back to Him. You can say, “Thank You, Lord! This is no longer my problem or my worry; it is Yours.”
This is the quality of life that gives you “the peace of God that passes all understanding” (Philippians 4:7). To be wholly and completely and exclusively dependent on the competency and sufficiency of Christ – that is the Christians life.
The Christian and the Savior are one. “He that is joined to the Lord is one spirit” (1 Corinthians 6:17). We are His body. The crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection, ascension and session at the right hand of God, of one, was the crucifixion, death, burial, resurrection, ascension, and session at the right hand of God of the other. Here you have the backbone of Paul’s theology as regards the Christian life.
Even at their best (Christians) find the example of Jesus to be an ideal infinitely beyond their reach. The trouble lies in the fact that they are proceeding on the wrong basis. God does not expect them, as a result of their own efforts, to be like Jesus. He expects them to realize the utter impossibility of such a thing (see Romans 7, where Paul came to the end of himself). He expects them to receive Christ as their very Life, disowning any other. He expects them to realize their position of utter oneness with Christ.
The Christian no longer strains over an impossible role like an actor in a play who has failed to learn his lines. He simply lives quite naturally what his Lord and Savior directs. He walks as Jesus walked, for Christ is now his Life; “For me to live, is Christ” (Philippians 1:21).
In the Savior’s resurrection the life of the new creation was brought forth. Human merit or ability could not approach it in a billion years. It is of a divine order and source. Just as all men were involved in Adam’s fall; so those in Christ are involved in the Last Adam’s resurrection and ascension. All that is lacking for it to become actual in experience is faith.
The Christian’s position in Christ is of such a glorious nature as to beggar all description. He has been literally, actually, really enthroned in spirit with Christ his Lord. With Christ the Christian is now on the throne of heaven. When he accepts this by faith, the Holy Spirit makes it a reality in experience and he begins to reign in life, by one, even Jesus (Romans 5:17).
In the experience of the Christian, there cannot be one (the resurrection) without the other (the cross). We would all gladly share the resurrection and participate in the life of the throne. But we cannot have co-resurrection without co-crucifixion. The throne is not for our pride and self-life. The rivalry of the flesh must be consigned to the cross if we are to experience newness of life at the right hand of God. We must choose which life we will live.
Here are the two outstanding obstacles that keep Christians from the enjoyment of their heritage in Christ in the fullness of its possession. They are not willing to accept the humbling it details. The price is too great. The loss of our lives to gain a new life in Him. The admission of our helplessness and acknowledgment of His sufficiency. The cross which stands at the threshold makes too great a demand. They are not willing to be nothing that Christ may be all. They may be willing that the “bad” of the old life go, but they desire to keep the “good”. But it all must go; every hair and feather.
On the other side, what an obstacle that overwhelming sense of unworthiness can be. How can one so wretched as I merit so exalted a position? But let us halt and consider. Were it a question of human merit, of course, it would be ridiculous to think of such a thing. But it does greatly honor my God out of His exceeding great goodness to put me there. It is all of grace.
One final comment on entering this life empirically: Regarding what we have been saying, does it work? No “it” doesn’t. This is not an “it”. This is a Person whose life we share. This is not a theology, it is a relationship of faith and dependence on the life of Another Who indwells us to “work in us both to will and to do of His good pleasure” (Philippians 2:13).
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