Reflections
But we all,
with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord.
(2 Cor 3:18)
Righteousness Apart from the Law |
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What the Law Says |
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Rewarded According to Works |
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The Reward of the Saint |
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Revealed by Fire |
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The Free Gift of Grace |
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The Sovereignty of God |
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By the Grace of God |
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Born of the Flesh |
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The Nature of Love |
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Legalism, License, or Liberty |
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The Power in Preaching |
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The Power of God Unto Salvation |
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Living From Out of Faith |
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What Really Matters |
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Reverence vs. Being Afraid |
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The Testimony of Jesus |
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Living Epistles |
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The Evidence of God |
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Overcoming by the Blood |
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His Victorious Life |
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Jesus Christ is Victory |
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Victory Through Surrender |
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Normal vs. Abnormal |
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Seeing Jesus Christ |
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What is The Mind of Christ? |
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Enticement to Sin |
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Temptation vs. Sin |
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Fake Faith |
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The Way of Escape |
Righteousness Apart from Law
But now the righteousness of God completely apart from law keeping is manifested. (Rom. 3:21)
There are
thousands of professing Christians today who believe that grace is the desire
and power to do God’s will – i.e., the power to keep right with God through
works. But unwittingly, they are
saying grace puts them back under law – only now with the power to keep it.
There are many such errors in the church.
Some state this error directly as a doctrine.
Others simply think and live that way, without realizing it.
The grace
of God is not given as a power to keep God’s law -- so that we can stay right
with God by works. In reality, we
are right with God solely by His grace through faith completely apart from
works. That is because the grace of
God is not a power, a thing, or a classification.
The grace of God is a Person – Christ Jesus – He is the One who is, “full
of grace and Truth.” (John 1:7)
And if Christ is in us, then because He is in us, and only because He is
in us – we are right with God APART from any law-keeping.
Jesus Christ IS
our righteousness. (I Cor. 1:30)
Did our works earn us Christ?
Can our works add to Christ or subtract from Him as the living
righteousness of God in us? Does
grace, or faith, merely give us power to keep God’s law so we can keep right
with God through our works? Paul
said, “The law is not of faith.”
(Gal. 3:12) What could be more
clear? Read the phrase again:
“Righteousness apart from law.”
That one phrase tells us that Christ as our righteousness has NO
connection to our works whatsoever.
What the Law
Says
Now we know that what things the law says, it says to them who are under the
law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before
God. (Gal. 3:19)
What does the
law say to those who are trying to keep right with God by obeying it?
It says, “You are guilty. In
fact, you are dead. So your mouth
had better stop speaking about the possibilities of your own righteousness.”
The more we try to obey God’s law, the more we are exposed as dead.
Why? Because the fundamental
problem with man is not simply found in what he does or does not do.
The problem is what man IS.
The Adam race is spiritually dead – dead to God.
You cannot cure a dead person by giving them laws to keep.
You have to give him life.
Christ, the Life, must give them Himself.
God’s law was
given to expose the Truth about us.
It was supposed to show us our dead condition so that we would finally realize
that it is only through grace in Jesus Christ that we have any hope.
What folly, therefore, to continue on, “under the law.”
Rewarded
According to Works
There are a
number of places in scripture that SEEM to say we are, “rewarded according to
works.” But isn’t that contrary to
grace? Does God save us solely, “by
grace through faith,” only to then put us under another law –
a law of earning rewards?
Let’s realize
what it would mean to be rewarded according to our works:
It would mean that our eternal reward is based upon -- not some of our
works; not only upon our good works; but upon ALL of our works – both good and
bad. Included must be, yes, outward
works, but also inward thoughts, intents, and attitudes.
It would mean that for every good work, our reward goes UP.
For every bad work, our reward goes DOWN.
Ask: How much of a reward do
you think you will receive if this is the case?
In addition, ask:
What is a good work? And how
good is good enough? And will God
be so grateful to us that He will REWARD us for doing good?
If we are honest, we will see that since God has given us all things
freely in Christ that nothing we receive can be based on our works.
That would be contrary to everything He has revealed in Christ.
A short answer
to this question is found in John 6.
There Jesus said, “This is the work of God, that you believe….”
(John 6:29) This is a play
on words. FAITH is like a work – it
certainly is a choice -- it is the one, “work,” that pleases God because faith
puts aside our works and rests in Christ.
All that God has for man is IN Christ – and thus, it is only through
faith in Him that we can receive what God has for us.
The Reward
of the Saint
Most of us
easily agree that we are not saved by works.
But many believe that once we are saved, that the amount of our eternal
reward is based upon our works. Yet
do we realize that the Christian life that would emerge from such thinking is
one that would be, “under the law?”
Sure. Instead of trying to earn
salvation by works we would be trying to earn our eternal reward through works.
Either one is outside the Truth.
We find the key
to this question in the words of Jesus.
He said, “He that would save His life will lose it, but he that loses his
life for My sake will find it. (see
Matt. 16:24) What is included in
this LIFE that we ought to lose?
Everything – including any question of reward.
In fact, we could rightly substititute the word REWARD in Jesus’
statement in place of the word LIFE – and be absolutely correct in doing so, for
LIFE includes any thought of reward.
In that case it would read, “He that would try to save his reward will
lose it, but he that loses his reward for My sake will find it.”
This is, in fact, the principle of Truth that governs everything having
to do with this thought of reward.
God has freely
given us all things in Christ. Indeed, Jesus said, “Freely you have received,
freely give.” It is God’s will that
we do good works. But if we love
Him, we will do them without any strings attached – we will leave any rewards to
God. That is what it means to LOSE
your life for Christ’s sake. And it
is what it means to FREELY GIVE.
Revealed By
Fire
Now if any man build upon this foundation (of Christ) with gold, silver,
precious stones, wood, hay, stubble, every man's work shall be made manifest:
for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire
shall try every man's work of what sort it is.
If any man's work abide which he has built thereupon, he shall receive a
reward. (I Cor. 3:12-14)
In
the picture Paul gives, what determines the reward?
What the person DID? No.
The reward is based on whether what he BUILT is able to abide through the
fire. You do build by DOING – by
working. But when you are done
building, all of the work that went into it is in the past.
All that stands at that point is what you have built by what you have
done. And in this picture the
question is whether what you have built through your works is able to survive
this fire – this determines the reward.
What is built is
divided into two categories in this picture:
That which is of Christ – gold, silver, and precious stone, as opposed to
that which is of man (wood, hay, and stubble.)
What is of Christ cannot be burned up, indeed, it is all the more purifed
by the fire. What is of man will be
burnt up – although the person himself is still saved.
Note that the
PERSON passes through the fire, not merely his works or service.
Thus, this is about the materials of which WE are made.
Have we been built up in Christ, or is our Christian life composied of
natural materials? Is Christ formed
in us? Christ is built if we
lose everything that is of US; of man – then He is manifested.
His life in us is the work that will survive the fire because that alone
is of Christ.
God doesn't
merely give us at THING called, "grace."
God gives grace in that He gives HIMSELF.
Grace is really God's heart attitude towards all.
There is actually no basis upon which God deals with us today except
grace in His Son.
One of the
greatest ironies of all is that God must bring us to the place where we can
freely receive what He freely gives.
Rather than make us strong, He shows us we are weak.
Rather than empower us to be good, He gives us Christ whether we are good
or bad. All the while most of us
are trying to be righteous, God is seeking to show us that we will never be, but
that Christ is our only righteousness.
God saves
us solely by His grace in Jesus Christ because that is the only way in which He
could save us. Indeed, God created
humanity to be recipients of His grace.
There was never any other basis upon which God intended to fellowship
with man.
Grace is not
merely a doctrine or a dispensation.
Grace is God -- God has given us grace and Truth in the Person of His
Son.
“The Sovereignty
of God,” speaks of God’s power to put His hand on anything or anyone and to
bring to pass His will. But that
same sovereignty means that God can take His hand off and allow human beings to
make their own choices. This is
what God has done during this age -- within His sovereignty.
In fact, God has ordained that within His sovereignty people be allowed
to reject Him.
A weak God would
have to make sure things come out His way.
But an all-powerful, indeed, a loving God, will allow people to reject
Him. He will nevertheless have His
will, with them, or without them.
But He will have it.
Within His
sovereignty, God had to give man a free will, including the freedom to reject
Him, in order for God to have what He really wants – a voluntary love and
worship. To get a voluntary love
God must risk a voluntary rejection.
Faith that is
pre-programmed is not real faith.
Love that is pre-programmed is not love.
By definition, all of the values that God is seeking to build in man are
voluntary. And the only way they
can become voluntary is if we grow to know Him.
Thus, God must take the initiative in all of these matters – not to
pre-program man – but to bring light and conviction so that we may choose.
We will love Him only to the extent that we see His love for us.
(I John 4:19)
What God is
doing is an amazing thing. He is
bringing humanity, through Christ, back to the original design and relationship
of a voluntary love and fellowship.
Paul said, "I am what
I am by the grace of God." (I Cor.
15:10) In other words, except for
the grace of God, Paul would be NOTHING.
Can we see that right in this short statement, Paul states what is
repeated throughout the NT: All
that is of value in a Christian is of Christ -- received from above?
Sure. If you are born from
above, you have life from above -- Christ within you.
And IN CHRIST is all that God has to give; that is of any value
whatsoever. Thus, anything we have
and anything we are -- that is of value to God -- He has given it in Christ.
We did not contribute anything from out of our old man in Adam.
Paul also said, "Know
ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be
reprobates?" (II Cor. 13:5)
A reprobate is useless. For
the believer, all that is of value is in the Christ who has come to dwell in us.
All that is of
value is found in Christ, and this is NOT simply because we are saved sinners.
It would be true if we never sinned -- it was true for Adam.
True Christianity is not about who I am or what I have to offer God.
It is about who HE IS and what He has done for me.
This is a foundational Truth that today has given way to so much teaching
about ME, MYSELF, and I. No.
Paul said, "Yet not I, but Christ."
(Gal. 2:20)
That which is born of the flesh is flesh.
(John 3:6)
In the final
analysis, we are all made of the same flesh – that which belongs to the old
creation in Adam. Built into that
nature is the same potential for sin.
But because each of us are born into a different family, into a different
environment, and exposed to different situations – with differing temperaments
-- we each develop our flesh uniquely.
Our personal choices mold and shape our flesh, but in the end, it IS
flesh. We each have a unique
version of the SAME fallen man or flesh nature.
And this is all we can ever have and ever be, as to nature, if left to
ourselves.
There are those who are born
into a terrible family. They are
abused. Perhaps they have a
difficult gene pool. Maybe they are
born with a strong tendency towards this or that manifestation of the flesh.
Others have willfully indulged themselves in those tendencies – they know
it is wrong. But the question is
NOT whether our, “version,” of the flesh is worse than another.
Nor is the question HOW we got there.
The question is what we are going to do about it.
No matter what damage life has dealt us, and no matter how unfair it is,
and no matter how much to blame we are for what ails us, the solution is the
same: The renunciation of the old
life and the new birth in Jesus Christ.
One of most lame
excuses today is that I am the way I am because I was born that way – leading to
the conclusion that I should just accept is and indulge myself.
No. We are all, “born that
way,” in the sense that we are all born with a sin nature and have some version
of the flesh. All of us need to be
BORN AGAIN. None are excluded.
We love him, because he first loved us. If a man say, I love God, and
hates his brother, he is a liar. (I
John 4:19-20)
We do not make
ourselves disciples – “a taught one” – by loving others.
Rather, if we are a discples – somone who has learned Jesus Christ – we
are going to want to love others.
We can even love someone with God’s love without liking them – we need to put
our personal reactions aside – love means we want God’s best for them.
The flow of love is first down from God, into our hearts, and then out to
others.
The very nature
of receiving the love of God is that we will desire that others likewise receive
His love, grace, and Truth. If God
desires all men to be saved and come into the knowledge of the Truth (I Tim.
2:4), then His love in us will desire the same.
This will do away completely with any attitude of exclusivity – God has
chosen me rather than chosen you; I am better than you; I am holding the love of
God to myself, etc. – that is not the Truth, and neither is it ever the nature
of love. The love of God is
redemptive in nature. It is a
commitment to God’s highest for all.
You will often
hear that life in Christ is a balance between legalism and license.
This is patently false. The
Truth is outside of both. Life in
Christ is not defined by whether or not you must keep rules.
Life is Christ is exactly what the phrase suggests:
It is LIFE. But most folks
are blind to the fact that Christ is in us, and that He is to be our life – that
is, that we are to live from out of Him by faith.
And frankly, if I am blind to that I can practice either legalism or
license until I am blue in the face and it will avail me absolutely nothing.
Paul said
exactly that: “For in Christ Jesus
neither circumcision avails any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature.”
Circumcision was the OT sign that you belonged to God – saved under the
Old Covenant. Thus, in Paul’s time,
it represented whether you were under the law.
You will note that not only does Paul say the circumcision avails
nothing, but he says the same thing about uncircumcision.
There are lots of folks around who define their Christianity by they they
DON’T do. They may not live in
blatant license, but they are, in fact, under the law – they are under the law
of having no law. The point is, it
really doesn’t matter what false gospel we are under – we are living by the
means of our own natural strength.
Regardless, the solution is the same – a new creation in Christ – Christ must BE
our life and our means for living.
Christianity is
not a, “life-style,” pattered after the teachings of Jesus.
Neither can you solve this problem by sorting out theology.
No. We will never have a
clue as to how to live by the means of Christ as our life until we come to the
end of our own means and own life.
We must see and embrace the fact that there is no good in us – and take up the
Cross. Then we will begin to, “win
Christ, and be found in Him,”
(Phil. 3:8-9), not having a righteousness of our own, but begin to learn what it
means to have have Christ as our life and our righteousness.
It is neither legalism or license, but liberty.
And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power: That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. (1 Cor 2:4-5)
Picture Paul,
rather weak and trembling, standing before the Corinthians speaking to them the
Truth of Jesus Christ. Paul was not
faking this to appear humble.
Neither was this a style Paul adopted so that God could be powerful through him.
No. This was real.
Paul WAS weak, and he looked and sounded weak.
But this did not weaken God.
The power of God
is not found in the words used. It
is not increased by any
emotionalism – or the lack thereof.
Neither is it increased by brain power.
God doesn’t need our marketing techniques.
The Truth is the Truth, and the gospel of Truth is the power of God unto
salvation to those who believe.
Jun 13
For I am not ashamed of
the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that
believes. (Rom 1:16)
Why is there so
little power today? Because the
Truth of Jesus Christ – the entire revelation of which is the gospel – is not
preached. Why are there so few
miracles today? Many are claimed,
but most are an illusion. There are
few miracles today because Christ is the power of God and you almost never hear
about Christ as the power of God.
Instead, we are told that the power of God is in some anointing that floats
around in the air.
Today, people
have come up with gimmicks to convert people and to grow churches.
We have, “the seeker friendly, “churches, and, “the purpose driven, “
movement, and a list of preachers who tell folks that they want to hear.
There are also those who use fear and condemnation to try to stampede
people to the altar. But read the
Bible. Peter gave the first sermon
in Acts 2 to the same mob that crucified Christ seven weeks prior – and three
thousand people received Christ.
This was not because Peter was persuasive or stirred their emotions.
It wasn’t because He had come up with a new idea on how to spur church
growth. It was because the power of
God is in the Truth of Christ.
Peter preached Christ.
The Truth of
Jesus Christ is more than a message – it is a revelation of Christ that carries
the convicting power of God – and
can work through one in whom Christ dwells.
That power is not of us. It
is in the One whom dwells in us and whom we must preach.
For therein (the gospel)
is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, “The
just shall live by faith.” (Rom
1:17)
The words in the
original language here are much more profound that the English translation.
Paul actually says, “The just shall live from OUT OF faith.”
Of course, this is the same thing as saying, “The just shall live from
OUT OF Christ, by faith.”
What does that
mean? It will only make sense if we
realize that Christianity is CHRIST IN US – that Jesus Christ has joined us to
Himself in resurrection union. This
means that CHRIST IS OUR LIFE.
Thus, “to live from out of Christ by faith,” means to draw from Christ His life
for all that I need and all that I am.
His life is resurrection life, which is life that has conquered all – and
thus, the implications of drawing from Christ are immense.
I will never
draw from Christ by faith if I am still clinging to and trying to hold onto MY
life. This is why we must pick up
our Cross if we want to follow Christ in the life of faith.
What
Really Matters
For in Christ Jesus
neither circumcision avails anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature.
(Gal 6:15)
During Paul’s time,
there was a contention as to whether converts to Christ ought to be circumcised.
Under the Old Covenant, circumcision was the sign that you belonged to
God. Paul often used
circumcision to represent the works of man – anything we could do to the flesh
or in the flesh that would supposedly show we belong to Christ.
We must read
this verse with that in mind. It does
not matter what you do, or what you refuse to do.
It doesn’t matter to whom you belong, or refuse to belong.
None of that can cure what ails you or gender in you the life of Christ.
Neither avails anything because in the end you must be born from above.
You must lose all of that as part of losing your life for Jesus’ sake and
become a new creature in Christ Jesus.
In Philippians
3, Paul tells us that he had to lose his self-righteousness.
This is certainly what this is getting at in this verse – it is deception
to think I am being made righteous by what I do or don’t do.
I must renounce all of that through the Cross, and become a new creature.
A new creature in Christ is a person who has no righteousness of his own
– but Jesus Christ is his righteousness.
This was the real cure for the false gospel that had bewitched the
Galatians.
“The fear of the
Lord,” as stated in the Bible, is never, “being afraid of the Lord.”
No, being afraid of God is the wrong kind of fear of God.
The true, “fear of the Lord,” is a REVERENCE of God.
All of the wrong
kind of fear of God goes back to somewhere that I have embraced a lie about Him.
The Truth about God is, “God is love.”
Furthermore, “there is no fear in love.”
(I Jn. 4:18) So there can be
nothing about God that could make us afraid. Indeed, perfect love casts OUT fear
– and so that means that the presence of God, knowing God, and believing God
will cast out fear – rather than bring into us the wrong kind of fear.
If I know God in Truth, I will revere Him, but will never be afraid of
Him.
Paul wrote, “For
God has not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a
sound mind.“ (2 Tim 1:7)
Fear is not merely an emotion – although it can affect our emotions.
Fear is a spirit – a spirit that is of the kingdom of darkness.
The first impact upon Adam of his sin and alienation from God was fear –
he was afraid and hid from God.
Being afraid of God makes us want to hide from Him.
But reverence for God makes us want to draw near to Him.
Paul is saying that the spirit of fear is never from God.
Thus, if I am afraid of God, I believe a lie about Him, or I have let in
the spirit of fear.
And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See you do it not: I
am your fellow servant, and of your brethren that have the testimony of Jesus:
worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.
(Rev 19:10)
The testimony of
Jesus is evidence of Jesus – it is the manifestation of Him.
We are told that the saints have the testimony of Jesus.
This means much more that having a story to tell about Him.
“Christ in us,” is that testimony – provided that He has come to be
manifested in us and through us. If
Christ is being formed in us, and being manifested through us, He is our
testimony. And we are His living
witnesses.
This tells
us what Jesus meant when He said, “But you shall receive power, because the Holy
Ghost is come upon you: and you shall be witnesses unto me.“ (Acts 1:8)
A witness unto Christ is one who IS a true testimony to Christ.
This is the work of the Holy Spirit – to form Christ in us so that we
might be living epistles – people who ARE evidence to the Risen Christ.
It also says
here that, “the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy” – not prophesy in
the sense of foretelling the future -- but prophesy in the sense of proclaiming
the Truth. A life of a saint is
supposed to be DEFINED by their devotion to, dedication to, and their dependence
upon Jesus Christ. The spirit of
prophecy is a proclamation – through such a life of faith – of the Truth of
Jesus Christ.
You are manifestly
declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink, but
with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshly tables
of the heart. (2 Cor. 3:1-3)
What is the
testimony that God is writing in and through us?
Is it a testimony about US -- or about all WE have done for God?
No. A living epistle of
Christ is about HIM – and all HE has done for us.
The Spirit of God is
writing living epistles – that tell the Truth About Jesus Christ.
But in order for this to be genuine, that living epistle must be MADE
TRUE TO GOD. This is just another
way of saying that we must be changed by the Truth so that we can be evidence of
Jesus Christ without the corruption of our own bias, agenda, or flesh.
God writes
living epistles through the work of the Cross.
The result are people who are, “always bearing about in our body the
dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of the Lord Jesus might be made
manifest in our mortal bodies.” (II
Cor. 4:10) That is how God writes
His living epistles. The result is
a life that give evidence to who Jesus Christ is TO a person, and IN a person –
living epistles who are living witnesses to Him.
The Evidence of God
If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater: for this is the
witness of God that he has testified of his Son.
He that believes on the Son of God has the witness in himself…and
this is the record that God has given to us eternal life, and this life is in
his Son. (1 John 5:9-11)
In this passage,
the words, “witness,” “testified,” and, “record,” are all from the same Greek
word. We could replace each of them
with the word EVIDENCE.
Some skeptics
demand evidence that Jesus was God and rose from the dead, but God answers them
with silence. Have you ever
wondered about that? Well, God has
a secret – He wants to form the evidence of Christ IN HIS PEOPLE.
Jesus Christ IN US is the evidence of God, and if He is formed in us,
then we will become His living witnesses of that evidence.
Paul says this
directly. He says, “If Christ is in
you through faith then you have the evidence of God IN YOU.
The evidence of God is CHRIST IN YOU.”
And they overcame him by
the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not
their lives unto the death. (Rev
12:11)
These are not
three methods by which we overcome.
They are all the same Truth. They
all point to the fact that we overcome, not by fighting Satan, but by coming
under the One in Whom is all victory, Jesus Christ.
The key to all victory in the Christian life is the losing of my life for
Jesus’ sake in order to find Him as my life.
Jesus
said, “If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his
cross, and follow me. For whosoever
will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake
shall find it.” (Mat 16:24-25)
This verse from Revelation is this same Truth.
Victory is HIS resurrection life.
I have to lose mine in order to find HIS.
This verse tells us
that overcoming must be based upon the foundation of the Cross; the Blood of the
Lamb. This is not a matter of
merely believing the doctrine – rather, it is a matter of picking up my cross
daily. The access point of Satan is
natural man, and the Cross crucifies natural man, completely disarming Satan.
“The word of testimony,” in the saint is CHRIST IN US – which is
resurrection life. If we lose our
lives by picking up the cross daily, there comes a greater release of His life
in us -- a living testimony in us of His Son.
Against such Satan has no power.
Finally, we see the necessity of abandonment to God.
If I ask God to do whatever it takes to bring me into the fullness of
Christ, and then believe and obey when He does, I am standing upon the One in
whom there is already the eternal victory.
I have overcome through faith in Christ.
Jesus Christ has
finished every victory that will ever need to be won for humanity.
This finished victory, however, is not given to us as a THING.
It is not merely a legal document.
No. The finished victory is
the risen Jesus Christ Himself, that is, all victory is found IN HIM – it is HIS
LIFE. And He is IN US.
God has given us
all things freely IN Jesus Christ.
Notice: IN Christ.
God has not given us things BECAUSE of Christ – as things apart from
Christ. No.
God has given us Christ Himself.
And all that God has to give is IN the Person of Christ -- fundamental to
which is HIS resurrection life: “I
am the resurrection and the life.”
(Jn. 11:25)
How has God
given us life in Christ? By making
us One with Him. At salvation,
Jesus Christ joined us to Himself – making us one spirit with Him.
(I Cor. 6:17) Thus, if
Christ is in us, His resurrection life is in us -- all that is in Christ is in
us, freely by His grace.
But this does
not obliterate our natural man.
Rather, it creates a separation between that natural man and our union with
Christ. This is the separation of
soul from Spirit. It likewise
creates the need for the work of the Cross upon our natural man.
We must lose our lives under the work of the Cross, so that His
resurrection life in us might be formed and released.
So what is the
Christian life? What is the
overcoming life? The Christian life
IS the overcoming life -- because the Christian life is His resurrection life in
us. As we lose our old life, Christ
is formed within us (Gal. 4:19).
The life we find is His resurrection life in which there is all victory.
ALL resurrection life
is found in Christ, and if we are joined to Him, that resurrection life is
already given to us IN HIM. The
necessity of the work of the Cross, and the finding of His life, are not added
to Christ. Rather, they are the
result of His life in us.
For whatsoever is born of
God overcomes the world: and this is the victory that overcomes the world, even
our faith. (1 John 5:4)
New life
in Christ is victorious by nature – it is life that was raised out of death,
having conquered it. A person in
whom Christ dwells has His life in them.
Thus, if we are in Christ, we have victory over death IN HIM – over all
that is earthly. This is why to
overcome, we need NOT to fight death or the earthly.
No. We need to forsake it –
by losing our lives to Christ.
Victory is never the result of turning in on ourselves and fighting sin –
indeed, this could be unbelief.
Rather, victory is a matter of abandoning myself to God and, by faith, losing
myself fully into the hands of the Victor.
But thanks be to God,
which gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
(1 Cor. 15:57)
Once we receive
Christ as Savior and He joins us to Himself, we are united with Him in both in
His death and resurrection. (Rom.
6:4-5) Our resurrection union with
Him is the basis for all victory.
For through His resurrection, He has destroyed the last enemy – death.
Thus, it is in HIS LIFE that His victory is finished for us.
Christ is in us,
through the joining of our spirit to His spirit.
(I Cor. 6:17) This
resurrection union is the new creature in Christ.
But if we were to draw an imaginary circle around this new creature, all
that is outside of that circle would be our natural man.
This distinction is the separation between soul and Spirit within each
believer. But it is also the
separation between victory IN CHRIST – which resides in our union with Him – and
our natural man in which there is no victory.
Here is see why
we must LOSE our lives – hand over our natural man to the Cross – in order to
experience the victory Jesus has won.
Victory in Christ is not handed to us as a THING – merely because we say
we believe. No.
We must become one with Him in His death in order to be raised with Him
in His life. You must LOSE your
life in order to find His life -- and the victory that is found in His
resurrected life. The potential for
this is already in each saint. But
in order to experience it, we must pick up the Cross.
We need not win
any victory. Rather, we must
abandon the life in which there is no victory.
For us, victory comes through surrender to Jesus – surrender to the
Victor.
Before we see
Christ, we know only darkness.
Imagine being born into a race of beings that are naturally blind.
You would not even know you are blind, because you would not know what it
is to see. Blindness would be all
you have ever known – and because you are the same as everyone else – to you --
blindness would be NORMAL.
Look around you at
your fellow man. Look at the world.
Is this NORMAL? To most
people it is. And yet, in the eyes
of God, fallen man is absolutely ABNORMAL.
Thus, what is NORMAL to us, is ABNORMAL to God.
And what is NORMAL to God, is ABNORMAL to us.
Jesus is God’s
NORMAL – the light of God. And when
we begin to know Him, all that is ABNORMAL begins to be exposed because we see
it in the Light of Christ. This is
why we often do not understand God.
We are for the first time seeing the NORMAL. Our eyes are being opened:
“Unless you are born again you cannot SEE.”
(Jn. 3:3) Seeing Jesus means seeing He who is from above (Jn. 8:23) –
God’s true normal.
But the natural man
receives not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him:
neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
(1 Cor. 2:14)
Natural man
cannot receive the things of God – he has no frame of reference --because
natural man, left to himself, does not know Jesus Christ.
Natural man will instead accept as the Truth whatever his makeup tells
him is the Truth.
Natural man will
create God in the image of natural man.
If I do not allow God to adjust me to fit Christ -- or don’t know to do
that -- then I am going to adjust all things to fit myself.
This is why there are so many people, including many professing
Christians, who believe some of the most blatant errors.
There is something in their makeup to which error appeals – either in a
positive way or a negative way. The
error makes sense to them. It seems
to help them. It makes them feel
good. So they accept it as the
Truth. This is total deception
because it is man using himself as the basis to determine the Truth.
This is not a matter of brains – but of spiritual darkness.
If natural man
cannot see or receive the things of God, then it stands to reason that in order
to see you must be born from above – which is exactly what Jesus said.
(see John 3:3) There is no
value in two blind folks arguing over what they see – neither can see.
Until we are born from above – and begin to see Jesus – we can see
nothing else. Discernment is the
result of knowing Jesus Christ, and thus, seeing the Truth about all else in the
light of Him.
But God has revealed them
unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things
of God…we have the mind of Christ.
(1 Cor 2:10, 16)
Assuming we have
a single eye to God and embrace the Truth, the result of the Spirit of Christ
revealing to us the Truth is that we will, “have the mind of Christ.”
Sure. The purpose of the
Spirit of God is to form Christ in us, and if Christ is being formed in us,
surely His mind is being formed in us.
But what is, “the mind
of Christ?” It is not the
brainpower of Christ. No.
It is both the perspective of Christ and the intent of Christ.
The mind of Christ is the result of Christ being formed in us – as Christ
is formed in us, and we grow to know Him, we gain His perspective and have His
intent – His mind is formed in us.
The mind of
Christ knows the Truth. However,
knowing the Truth requires that you be made true unto God.
In other words, to know the Truth we must repent of all untruth that is
in our hearts. The mind of Christ
is based in a heart that is made true to God.
Let no man say when he is
tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither
tempts he any man: But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own
lust, and enticed. Then when lust has conceived, it brings forth sin: and sin,
when it is finished, brings forth death.
(James 1:13-15)
The picture here
is one of bait in a trap. A
creature is not attracted to the bait unless the bait appeals to it in some way.
Likewise, the reason we sin is that the bait is able to entice some
unresolved sin or ignorance that is in our heart.
People sin, and are deceived, because they are attracted to bait that
appeals to their natural makeup.
Bait can appeal
to us in a positive way by offering us food that seems to please our natural
religious makeup. Maybe the bait is
that we will be closer to God.
Maybe it will offer us a path that makes us feel good, or enhances our
self-worth. But bait can also
appeal to people in a negative way.
Many people are attracted to bait because they are afraid of what will happen if
they don’t take the bait. But
whatever the methods of the enemy, the reason for taking the bait is found in US
– sin and error appeals to our natural, religious nature.
The only solution is to open ourselves to Jesus Christ so that He can
expose those areas of vulnerability and reveal to us the Truth.
Why does God
allow such temptation? Well, first
of all, it is not a matter of whether we have wrong desires or motives in our
makeup. Rather, it is a matter of
what kind. Thus, when we encounter
bait, the potential for sin is not being created, but rather brought out.
Can we see that this is God’s way of exposing us so that we can be set
free? That this is God using a
temptation to expose our great need for Christ?
This is how God
uses Satan. He allows Satan to
tempt us on our weak points, so that we might see we are weak and rely upon
Christ by faith. Thus, this is one
way God turns our weak points into places of strength in Christ.
This will, of course, not happen if we continue on a path of darkness and
refuse to turn. But it is God’s
purpose in allowing temptation, because God is a redemptive God.
But every man is tempted,
when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust has
conceived, it brings forth sin.
(James 1:14-15)
Temptation TO
sin is not sin. A person can be
under great temptation but yet NOT sin.
Jesus underwent great temptation in the wilderness and all through His
life – He was tempted in all points, yet without sin.
Temptation to
sin can be turned into a positive because it not only exposes our weakness, but
is an opportunity to turn to Jesus Christ as our victory.
Wherefore let him that
thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.
(1 Cor 10:12)
Paul is not
exhorting us to make sure we are strong enough to stand.
Rather, he is telling us to make sure that our faith is in Jesus Christ
-- rather than in ourselves, or in something else.
If your faith is in yourself, you may for a time think you stand.
But your faith is NOT real.
It is fake; a façade. The only real
faith is faith in Jesus Christ, because He is the only One who is faithful and
true.
God is faithful.
Therefore, if our faith is fake – not in Christ – God will be faithful to
expose us. He will let the crisis
come – and the storm will topple our façade.
This might seem terrible, but it is God’s faithfulness to show us the
Truth. It is the only way in which
we can build faith anew upon the solid Rock.
The trial of
faith is like gold tried by fire.
(I Peter 1:7) When gold is tried by
fire, all of the impurities come to the surface and can be discarded.
What remains is a purer gold.
In like manner, if our faith is fake, or not pure, God will let a crisis
come that is beyond what that fake or impure fake can bear.
It will collapse. But God is
showing us the Truth so that we can stop putting fake faith in ourselves and
begin putting it in His Son.
The Way of Escape
There is no temptation
taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer
you to be tempted above that you are able; but will with the temptation also
make a way to escape, that you may be able to bear it. (1 Cor 10:13)
What is the purpose
of, “the way of escape,” within a trial of faith?
We might assume that this way of escape is a way to get out of the trial.
But this is not what the verse says.
It says that the way of escape is so that, “we may be able to BEAR IT.”
Does that sound like the way of escape get us out of the trial?
No. This is an escape from
the effects of the trial -- while we remain IN IT.
God will always make THAT possible.
Jesus Christ –
our life in Him by faith – is the way of escape.
God does not remove the trial from us.
Rather, He removes us from the trial – not circumstantially – but by
revealing to us His Son in a way that enables us to live in Christ by faith
above the trial – so that we might be able to bear it without ill effects to our
faith. In short, we ESCAPE the work
of the enemy in a trial through the resurrection life of Christ.
Is this not what
it means to, “overcome?” We don’t
overcome in Christ by avoiding trouble.
Neither do we overcome by defeating the trouble.
We overcome by, “coming under,” i.e., entering into the death of Christ
by losing ourselves to Him. And we
escape the death that is in the trial by the resurrection life that is in Him.
This happens while we remain in the trial and despite it.
In short, we don’t get OUT of the trial – He comes IN.