Christianity Oasis Forum

[Netchaplain]

2-8. SUBTLE SELF

"Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me" (Psalm 51:10).

A healthy spiritual birth results in the falling away of many of the more obvious works of the flesh, often causing the new believer to claim 2 Corinthians 5:17 or Galatians 2:20 as his testimony. However, for the Lord Jesus to be fully manifested, it is going to involve a lifetime of the Holy Spirit's deep dealing with the more subtle and deadly characteristics of the self-life"always delivered unto death" (2 Corinthians 4:11).

"By the daily 'supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ' (Philippians 1:19), the believer united to his Risen Lord 'grows continually to a more perfect knowledge and likeness of his Creator,' and grows up 'after the image of Him that created him, in the sphere where 'Christ is all, and in all.'

"The child naturally grows up in the likeness of his father, and the new life communicated to the redeemed grows up in the likeness of Him who is the Creator of the new creation if so be that the death with Christ is unflinchingly recognized, and 'old things' are truly allowed to pass away to make room for the growth of the new man 'which is after God . . . created in righteousness, and holiness of truth' (Ephesians 4:24)."

"How many earnest and religious people belong to 'the Old Adam Improvement Society.' It is the recognition of the Christ-life, it is union with the Risen Christ, that men need instead of the culture of the religious self-life." -E.H.

"Unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ" (Ephesians 4:13).

[Netchaplain]

2-9. EXPERIENCE SUPERSEDED

"And they who know Thy Name will put their trust in Thee" (Psalm 9:10).

Our experiences must be judged by God's Word, never the Word judged by our experiences. Normally, the Spirit of Truth will reveal a truth to us from the Scriptures and, as we exercise faith in what we have been shown, will begin to take us into the experience of it. Abnormally, a Christian will yearn for an 'experience,' and then attempt to find corroboration for it in the Word.

"Knowledge must carry the torch before faith." Always give God's Word first place, "for the Word of God liveth and worketh, and is sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, yea, to the inmost parts thereof, and judging the thoughts and imaginations of the heart" (Hebrews 4:12, Cony.).

"A person may easily know his sins forgiven, but it is a further truth to know that he himself has 'died to sin.' He finds this conflicts with his experience. Suppose I tell you a debt of a thousand pounds which you owed was paid by someone, it would not be a question of experience, but of simply believing my statement. Just so with God. He tells us our sins are forgiven, and it is a question whether we believe Him. But when He tells us we have died to sin, we look inside and say, 'Ah, sin is still at work; how is that?' A person must be taught of God to know really the truth that he has died to sin." -J.N.D.

"It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God" (Luke 4:4).

[Netchaplain]

2-10. PEACE AND REST

"The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me" (Psalm 138:8).

After the believer enters into life by faith, he wonders why it was so difficult for him to see that it was all of grace--the humble reception of a finished work. And yet he goes through the faithless struggle once again before he sees that his daily Christian life is also a finished work--complete in Christ.

"'God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord' (1 Corinthians 1:9). What believers need is the simple faith that the establishing in Christ, day by day, is God's work--a work that He delights to do, in spite of all our weakness and unfaithfulness, if we will but trust Him for it. To the blessedness of such faith, and the experience it brings, many can testify. What peace and rest, to know that there is a Husbandman who cares for the branch, to see that it grows stronger; who watches over every hindrance and danger, who supplies every needed aid!

"What peace and rest, fully and finally to give up our abiding into the care of the Father, and never have a wish or thought, never to offer a prayer or engage in an exercise connected with it, without first having the glad remembrance that what we do is only the manifestation of what our Father is doing in us! The establishing in Christ is His work: He accomplishes it by stirring us to watch, and wait, and work." -A.M.

"Now He which stablisheth us with you in Christ, . . . is God" (2 Corinthians 1:21).

[Netchaplain]

2-11. PROFIT

"Heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ--sharing His inheritance with Him; only we must share His suffering if we are to share His glory" (Romans 8:17, Amp.).

The term "profit and loss" is reversed in the Christian life to "loss and profit." The principle never varies: our losses are all in the realm of the old, never the new. Every loss in the life of self brings greater gain and profit in the new--our life in Christ. And, conversely, every gain for the self-life is loss for our growth and His glory. "But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ" (Philippians 3:7).

"It is not the design of God to deprive His children of happiness, but only to pour the cup of bitterness into that happiness which the believer has in anything outside of Christ." -F.F.

"Everything that tries us, that is a check upon us, that causes exercise of heart, and makes us sensible of weakness in ourselves, is of the nature of chastisement (child-training). It may come in the way of difficulties in the path of faith; or in the shape of such trials and sorrows as are common to all men--loss of property, loss of health, or bereavement; or it may be as the governmental consequences of sin; but in one way or other all have it. It is 'for our profit, that we might be partakers of His holiness' (Hebrews 12:10). That is, it serves to break down that which is not of God in us, that the life of the Lord Jesus might be made manifest." -C.A.C.

"When He hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold" (Job 23:10).

[Netchaplain]

2-12. THE CROSS FOR SELF

"I have been crucified with Christ" (Galatians 2:20, ASV).

The Cross is the height of paradox; it is at once God's greatest agony, and His eternal glory. For the growing believer it means daily crucifixion, and at the same time freedom from the penalty and the power of sin and self. "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!" (Galatians 6:14, Wms.).

"We need to enter deeply into the truth that Christ the Beloved Son of the Father could not return to the glory of Heaven until He had first given Himself over to death. As this great principle opens up to us, it will help us to understand how in our life, and in our fellowship with the Lord Jesus, it is impossible for us to share the fullness of His life until we have first in very deed surrendered ourselves every day as having died to sin and the world."

"Many believers appear to think that when once they have claimed Christ's death in the fellowship of the Cross, and have counted themselves crucified with Him, they may now consider it as past and done with. They do not as yet understand that it is in the crucified Christ, and in the fellowship of His death, that they are to abide daily and unceasingly. The fellowship of the Cross is to be the life of a daily walk--His taking the form of a servant, His humbling Himself and becoming obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross; this mind that was in the Lord Jesus is to be the disposition that marks our daily life."

"Have this mind [attitude] in you, which was also in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 2:5, ASV).

[Netchaplain]

2-13. CONVICTED, OR FILLED?

"And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts" (Galatians 4:6).

When the Holy Spirit convicts us of our sin, it is to remove self from the throne of our hearts. When the Holy Spirit fills us, it is to place the Lord Jesus on the throne of our hearts. Ours is the choice--"not I, but Christ" (Galatians 2:20); His is the work, for He is "the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus" (Romans 8:2).

"The great secret of the Christian life is found in ceasing from self, in which the power of the Cross manifests itself in us. We all know how our Lord Jesus, ere He could receive the new life from the Father in glory, and the gift of the Holy Spirit through whom He could impart His life to His people, had first to give up the life He lived upon earth. He had to take His place among the dead in utter weakness and helplessness before He could live again by the power of God. His death on the Cross was indispensable to the life of the Spirit.

"And as it was with Christ, so it must be with us. As we yield ourselves to be united with Him in the likeness of His death, we can share with Him in the glory and power of the life of the Spirit. To know what the Holy Spirit means, implies the knowing of what death means. The Cross and the Spirit are inseparable. The soul that understands that the death to self is in Christ the gate to true life, is in the right way to learn what and who the Holy Spirit is." -A.M.

"If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit" (Galatians 5:25).

[Netchaplain]

The way of the cross ended for Christ at His death but continues with us--with our old nature, even after our rebirth. Being born again is an irrevocable occurrence (Rom 11:29) and involves our being positioned with Christ through co-crucifixion first (Gal 2:20), then co-resurrection and co-ascension with Him (Eph 2:5, 6).

Christ’s cross effected atonement for sin and our initial co-crucifixion effected freedom from the guilt of sin (Rom 8:1) and its’ ruler-ship (Rom 6:12, 14). Being void of sin’s guilt allows us to be in a state of being freed from its’ rule--by the on-going co-crucifixion of our old nature (“take up his cross daily” and “die daily”).

It has been said that “religion is man reaching out to God but Christianity is God reaching out to man”. Well intentioned as they may be, many attempt to establish acceptance with God through their own means but as we know, “There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death” (Pro 16:25). We must continually remind ourselves the way of acceptance is the way of the Cross. I like explaining the Cross in that the vertical axis has an arrow pointing downward, bringing God down to us and the horizontal axis brings us to one another. The vertical axis is maintained when the horizontal axis is performed (1Jo 4:20; Mat 22:37-40).

“He must increase, but I must decrease” (John the Baptist; John 3:30). Our new nature from Christ will increase, as He Himself cannot vary (Hbr 13:8; Mal 3:6), “strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner man” or new nature (Eph 3:16), as we decrease in our old nature by the ongoing co-crucifixion.

God loves us and who we are, with the identity of our personhood apart from the old nature. It isn’t the person He wants to decrease but the person’s old nature because the person is eternally indwelled with the Spirit (John 14:16) in our “divinely-partaken” (2Pe 1:4) new nature.

“We know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is” (1Jo 3:2), in our co-glorified body (Phl 3:21; Rom 8:23) upon “the redemption of our body (Rom 8:23). -NC


2-14. CONTINUOUS CROSS

"For we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake" (2 Corinthians 4:11).

The indwelling Lord Jesus is the source of our life of liberation; the Cross is the means to it. As we abide in Him and He in us, we are to reckon upon the finished work of Calvary to deal progressively with self. It is on this basis alone that the life of Jesus will be manifested in our mortal flesh (2 Corinthians 4:11).

"God has taken the old creation and has condemned it in Christ, and is now working on the new creation. There is no place in the plan of God for the betterment of the old creation. He does not bring about some kind of transformation of the old man so as to produce some kind of resemblance to Christ in Christian character and conduct. There is only one place for the old creation, and that is the Cross.

"But it is not enough for us to say it is there crucified with Christ. Crucifixion was a lingering death, and while we stand once for all upon the fact of God, which is eternal and unchangeable, when our Lord Jesus Christ went to the Cross He took more than our sins with Him; He took our old man and dealt with the source of all our sin, and dealt with it satisfactorily. While we stand on that fact, there has to be the daily working out of the victory which Christ has won for us; there has to be the daily dying to this old self. The Holy Spirit has to work into us the death of the Lord Jesus Christ in all its wonderful power and purpose." -G.W.

"Being made conformable unto his death" (Phil 3:10).

[Netchaplain]

2-15. INDWELT TO BE FILLED

"But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you" (Romans 8:9).

The believer knows that he is indwelt by the Holy Spirit on the testimony of the written Word; others know when the believer is filled with the Holy Spirit by the growing manifestation of the Living Word.

"There are believers who need the reminder that deeper than mind and feeling and will, deeper than the soul, where these have their seat, in the depths of the renewed spirit, there comes, at re-birth, the Holy Spirit to dwell forever. His indwelling is there, first of all, and all through, to be recognized by faith. Even when I cannot see the least evidence of His working, I am quietly and reverently to believe that He dwells in me. In that faith I am restfully and trustfully to count upon His working, and to wait for it. In that faith I must very distinctly deny my own wisdom and strength, and in childlike self-abnegation depend upon Him to work.

"His first workings may be so feeble and hidden that I can hardly recognize them as coming from Him; they may appear to be nothing more than the voice of conscience, or the familiar sound of some Bible truth. Here is the time for faith to hold fast the Master's promise and the Father's gift, and to trust that the Holy Spirit is within and will guide. Out of the hidden depths His power will move and take possession of mind and will, and the indwelling in the hidden recesses of the spirit will grow into a being filled with His fullness." -A.M.

"Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His" (Romans 8:9).

[Netchaplain]

We do well to know that the Christian life is to be the vicariously-lived Christ-life; not us trying to live the Christ-life but a “yielded life to God” (Rom 6:13), so that Christ can un-hinderingly live His life in and by us—through His Spirit. This involves understanding that we partake of all godly attributes, e.g. righteousness, justification, sanctification, holiness, etc., by way of imputation ((1Cr 1:30), not impartation, because everything we have in Christ originates from and is permanently retained (Jude 1:24) by Him. –NC


2-16. LEGAL CONFLICT

"Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ" (Romans 5:1)

If we are weak in understanding the principle of complete justification by faith, we will be strong in seeking to produce our own sanctification.

"In Romans Seven Paul is describing the inevitable conflict that every believer knows when he undertakes to lead a holy life on the principle of legality. He feels instinctively that the law is spiritual, but that he himself, for some unexplained reason, is fleshly, carnal, and in bondage to sin. This discovery is one of the most heart-breaking a Christian ever made. Yet each one must and does make it for himself at some time in his pilgrimage.

"The believer finds himself doing things he knows to be wrong, and which his inmost desires are opposed to; while what he yearns to do he fails to accomplish, and does, instead, what he hates. But this is the first part of a great lesson which all must learn who would matriculate (enroll) in God's school. It is the lesson of no confidence in 'the flesh'; and until it is learned there can be no true progress in growth. The incorrigibility of the flesh must be realized before one is ready to turn altogether from self to Christ for sanctification, as he has already done for justification." -H.A.I.

"As conviction of guilt goes before known justification, so the experiential knowledge of self before sanctification. No effort clears the guilt; no effort effects the growth."

"That they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith" (Acts 26:18).

[Netchaplain]

The enemy of the believer can hinder his fellowship with God but cannot produce anything against his union with God (John 10:29; Rom 8:35, 38, 39). Understanding our position in Christ helps us to properly deal with our condition in life.

The Father has identified the believer’s spiritual life with His Son in where He is—in Heaven with the Father (Eph 2:6) and what He is—Son of the Father (Rom 8:16).

Our condition on Earth—victorious or not, cannot effect our position in Heaven because “it is finished” (John 19:30). Regardless of our understanding, the knowledge of our place in Heaven can always be used as an aid while we “endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ” (2Ti 2:3), “because as He is, so are we in this world” (1Jo 4:17).


2-17. HIGHLY PLACED

"O our God . . . we have no might against this great company that cometh against us; neither know we what to do: but our eyes are upon Thee" (2 Chronicles 20:12).

Many believers have gone only as far as justification can take them--spiritual birth, and a bit beyond. There they stagnate, in dire need of the fresh streams of living water that come from seeing their position in Christ. "God . . . hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ" (Ephesians 1:3). "Always begin with your position, where you are; and then think of your condition, what you are." -R.P.

"Christians are at their wits' end. Many have given up the fight. They still go to church; but secretly they feel that victory is out of the question. They have no weapons for such an hour. Frankly, they have capitulated to the prince of this world, for all their efforts to rout the foe have failed.

"But victory is the believer's right, as truly his as the air he breathes. However, he must understand the conditions. He must see himself enthroned with Christ. He must see himself according to God's own Holy Word, as crucified with the Lord Jesus, dead, buried, raised and made to sit in heavenly places with his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Without this he will go down in ignominious defeat in spite of all his strivings and his prayers. With this position he is more than conqueror through Him who loved him and gave Himself for him." -F.J.H.

"For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith"(1 John 5:4).

[Netchaplain]

Our decisions are based on what we desire and for the believer, the Father—through the Spirit, is ever at work causing us to choose rightly. “For it is God who works in you both to will and to do for [His] good pleasure” (Phil2:13). “Therefore choose life that both thou and thy seed may live” (Deu 30:19).

Self cannot cast out self anymore then “Satan can cast out Satan”, so it must be done by an external entity—the Holy Spirit. “For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would” (Gal 5:17).

This accomplishment is not a legal matter, such as our good works overcoming the indwelling sin, because our good works are for the sole purpose of acknowledging God (Mat 5:16). It’s a matter of Grace, by just being aware of our old, Adamic nature and continually yielding it to Christ’s atonement, then“casting your care” of it on Him (1Pe 5:7). The Spirit through the Cross’s power will “bind the strong man” (Mat 12:29) and you will noticeably grow in your fellowship with the Father and the Son. -NC

“Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the LORD (Zec 4:6).


2-19. NOT OBLIGATED

"The carnal mind is enmity against God" (Romans 8:7).

Early in the Christian life we naturally feel that it is our obligation to overcome self and become spiritual. We do not yet realize that time and processing are required before we are able to give up self-effort for our growth. It is the work of the Holy Spirit, not our obligation. "God hath chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit" (2 Thessalonians 2:13).

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The self-life is surely our first and most bitter foe, and the believer who will serve God acceptably must learn His way of victory over this subtle and dangerous enemy. The flesh is irrecoverably fallen and you and I make no real progress in the Christian life until we have learned in experience to say with the apostle: 'For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh dwelleth no good thing' (Romans 7:18)." -J.C.M.

"Paul's great endeavor, in all his great struggle of Romans Seven, was to make 'the flesh,' his old self-life, consent to do that holy law which his new self approved. Paul had not yet despaired of himself. The fact is, he had not yet realized the absolute distinction between the old and the new creations. And it was through this terrible experience that he found the new or 'inward' man to be distinct from the old man; that the realm of 'the spirit' was absolutely separate from that of 'the flesh', that all of the old self, with its life and energy, was to be despaired of, not sanctified."

"For it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be" (Romans 8:7).

[Netchaplain]

2-20. SAFE BEYOND QUESTION

"Neither give place to the devil" (Ephesians 4:27).

To a large extent, we will be pawns of the devil until we stand on the specific facts of the Bible and assert, "I belong to the Lord Jesus Christ, and am a new creation in Him on the basis of the finished work of Calvary. He is my life; my death in Him on the Cross separated me from the dominion of all the old creation. As far as my Lord and I are concerned, Satan, sin, self, the world, and the law, all are on the other side of that death." "We never get into conflict with Satan until we realize our privileges in Christ. We cannot cross the Jordan without finding the Canaanites in the land."

"Satan may challenge my clearance and my acceptance; he may raise all kinds of questions about what I am and what I have done, but he can raise no questions as to the worthiness or acceptance of my Savior. The forgiven man is on an altogether new ground with God; he is on the ground of grace--grace which is set forth in Christ. The apprehension of this is redemption, and it puts the soul beyond the reach of the oppression and harassing of the enemy." -C.A.C.

"If the first step in the Christian course were definitely understood the saints would have a happier time. If they saw that the power of the old man was broken on the Cross, and that in Christ they are new creations before God, they would walk here in deliverance. 'You will know the truth and the truth will set you free.'" -J.B.S.

"Your great accuser, the Devil, is going about like a roaring lion to see whom he can devour. Withstand him, firm in your faith" (1 Peter 5:8,9, Wey.).