Scripture does not speak of our being conformed to Christ here; it says we are to walk as He walked. But the place of conformity to Christ is the glory, and he "that hath this hope in Him purifieth himself"; that is to say, he is not pure, he has not attained it. The place where I shall be like Christ is the glory; He has obtained it for me: and then, my eye looking upon Him by faith, I am changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Lord the Spirit.
I find this the great truth which Scripture does give me—not only that Christ died for my sins, but that I died with Christ. In the epistle to the Romans, in the first part (chaps. 1 Through 5:11), you get all the sins dealt with—the great truth of Christ being substituted for us on the cross, bearing our sins in His own body on the tree—He is delivered for our offenses. And in the subsequent part (chaps. 5:12 Through 8) the question is taken up, not of sins, but of sin—not the fruit, but the tree—and we are shown not to be in the flesh if the Spirit of Christ is in us.
I do not live by the life of Adam but by the life of Christ, and that is where the total difference is for the Christian. But it is not only that I have a new life as quickened by. Christ, the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, nor that He has been crucified for me so that my guilt is removed; but I am crucified with Christ.
In Colossians we read, "Ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God"—dead therefore in this world. This is God's declaration of our state as Christians. In Romans, "Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be destroyed." "In that He died, He died unto sin.... Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God [not in Adam, but] through [or in] Jesus Christ our Lord." This is faith's estimate of it, and this is where you find real deliverance and freedom from the bondage of sin. It is not "no condemnation" to them whose sins Christ bore, but "to them which are in Christ Jesus." God condemned sin in the flesh; He did not forgive it; He condemned it. If I get the law, it condemns me; but Christ? Does He condemn me? No; for He has taken the condemnation for me, and in Him God has condemned sin in the flesh, and I reckon myself dead because it was in death He did so. Christ's death is, as indeed all that He has wrought, available for me, and therefore I reckon myself dead. In 2 Corinthians we get the carrying this out in practice: "Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body." And then he speaks of the exercises which God sends for our ()pod to test this realization in us and make it effectual: "Alway delivered unto death," etc. We all fail for want of watchfulness, but that is what our life ought to be.
Suppose I have got a man in my house who is always at mischief; I cannot turn him out but if I lock him up he can do no harm; he is not changed, but I am free in the house. If I leave the door open, he is at mischief again; but we are to keep him locked up. That is what we are called to do—what God calls us to do. The world will not have this; it will mend and improve man, cultivate the old man, as if it could produce good fruit, because it does not see how bad it is. The world would dig about the old tree and dung it. This has been tried. God cuts it down and grafts us with Christ. This condemning and cutting down was in the cross of Christ; not of course that He had any sin, but as made sin for us; and I know not only that my sins are cleared away, but that I am crucified with Christ, and my life hid with Him in God.
And this is available for power if I carry it about in my heart. Supposing we honestly held ourselves dead—can Satan tempt a dead man? But in order for this it must not be putting one's armor on when the danger is there, but living with Christ, the heart full of Him.
Would a woman who had heard that her child was killed or hurt at the other end of the town, be thinking of what she saw in the shop windows as she ran toward him? No; she would have just enough sense to find her way. If your hearts were fixed like that on Christ, nine-tenths of the temptations that come upon you would be gone; you would be thinking of something else, and outward things would only bring out sweetness as they did with Christ, for we are never tempted above that we are able.
Saints, if in earnest, have got to realize not only the putting away of their sins, but also the having died with Christ; and this delivers from the power of sin.
I find in Phil. 3, a Christian with one object, knowing that Christ has laid hold of him for glory, and his heart running after Christ. I am to have no other object, though I may have lots of things to do. He is "in all" as the power of life, and He is "all" as the object of that life. He is in all. "Christ liveth in me" (see Col. 3:1111Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all. (Colossians 3:11)). This is again summed up in Gal. 2:2020I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20). "Not I, but Christ liveth in me"; and then the object, "I live by the faith of the Son of God." Then there is the sense of His perfect love; "Who loved me, and gave Himself for me." The heart is fixed on Him, and follows hard after Him.
Then in chapter 2 There is another thing—the spirit and character in which we walk down here; the place a Christian is called to (a wonderful thing, I grant) is to go out from God and be an epistle of Christ. I joy in God, have got the blessedness of what He is, and go on in communion with Him to show out His character in the world.
Ought I to walk as Christ walked? Every Christian will own that; "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus." Suppose my soul has tasted this perfect love, and it is well we should recollect it (God's love shed abroad in our hearts), and is conscious down here that we are loved as Jesus was loved, what do I believe about God? What put it into His heart to send Christ down here? He knew how He would be treated. Did the world suggest it to Him? It would not have Him when He came. It was all in His own heart! Perfect love! His heart! the unsuggested origin of every blessing. What character did it take in Christ? Was it staying up in heaven and saying, "You behave well and come up here"? No! we all know that. But He who, in the form of God, in the actual same glory, thought it riot robbery to be equal with God (mark the contrast with the first Adam), made Himself of no reputation; and what brought that about? Purest love, love coming to serve.
For Christ took the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of man. He emptied Himself of all the glory—the very opposite of the first Adam. Divine love came to serve; a new thing for God—the only new thing. And this is what I learn! I know this love; I know that I am made the righteousness of God in Him, so that I stand before Him, and then I come out from Him toward the world to bring out this blessed character. I have learned the love, and now I must come out and show it. "Be ye... followers of God, as dear children." You are children; that is all settled. Now you go and give yourself as Christ did. The spirit of love is always lowliness because it makes itself a servant.
And here I find what is entirely beyond law. Law tells me to love others as myself; grace tells me to give myself up entirely for my neighbor or for anybody. Did not God forgive you? You go and forgive your enemies. Is He kind to the unthankful and the evil? You go and be the same. It tests all the fibers of our hearts, all the pride and vanity and selfishness that are in us.
We like doing our own will. "He humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death"; He went so low down that He could go no lower, "unto death, even the death of the cross." But then "God... hath highly exalted Him." He was the grand example of "he that humbleth himself shall be exalted."
Blessed be His name! He will never give up His service; it is the very thing He shows us, and in which He would that our hearts should see the perfection of His grace. It is what He was doing in John 13. He had been their servant down here, but now they might think there was an end of His service. No, He says, as it were, I cannot stop with you, but I must have you with Me; "If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with Me." He does a slave's work; and that is what He does now. We pick up dirt as we go—there is no excuse for it. There is Christ up there, the Advocate with the Father. And, even in the time of glory, "He shall gird Himself,... and will come forth and serve them"; He will be there to minister the blessing Himself. Our hearts want to learn the perfection of that love in which He came always down, always down, till He could come no lower.
Are we willing to walk in that path? No one would deny we ought; but are we disposed to do it? Would our heart be glad of the power of that grace which, holding the flesh as dead, can say, Here I am in the power of that love to walk as everybody's servant? We are to esteem others better than ourselves. If my heart is full of Christ, I judge myself of everything not like Christ; I judge the evil in myself because I see the blessedness in Christ. But what do I see in my brother? I see Christ in him. The effect of being full of Christ is to make me think little of self and much of my brother; there is no real difficulty about this, if full of Christ.
"Do all things without murmurings." etc. If you take every single part of this passage you will find it a statement of what Christ was here. He was blameless and harmless, the Son of God, without rebuke in the midst of this evil world; He was the light of the world, and He was the Word of life.
If I reckon the flesh dead, only the life of Christ comes out; if only that came out, we should be a very wonderfully blessed kind of people! To him that hath shall more be given. If I yield myself to God as one alive from the dead, I have got fruit here unto holiness, as well as fullness of blessing hereafter.
What I would ask you, beloved friends, is, Do you propose to be Christians? Are you willing to yield yourselves to God as not having one bit of will of your own? There is power in Christ, not to say "I am pure," but always having my eye on Him, to purify myself.
I am going to be like Christ in glory; then I must be as like Him now as ever I can be. Of course we shall all fail, but we are to have our hearts set on this.
Remember this, that the place you are in is that of an epistle of Christ. We are set for that, that the life of Christ should be manifested in us. Christ has settled the question with God; He appears in the presence of God for us, and we are in the presence of the world for Him. "At that day ye shall know that I am in My Father, and ye in Me, and I in you." If I know He is in me, I am to manifest the life of Christ in everything. If He has loved us with unutterable love which passes knowledge, I feel bound in heart to Him; my business is to glorify Him in everything I do. "Bought with a price"; that is settled: if bought, I am His. But beloved friends, I press upon you that earnestness of heart which cleaves to Him, especially in these last evil days when we wait for the Son from heaven. Oh! if Christians were more thoroughly Christians, the world would understand what it was all about! There is a great deal of profession and talk, and the activity of the Spirit of God—thank God there is—but do you think if a heathen came here to learn what Christianity meant, he would find it out?
The Lord give you to have such a sense of the love of Christ that, as bought with a price, the only object of your souls may be to live by Christ and to live for Christ; and for those who do not know Him, that they may learn how He came down in love to seek us and, because righteousness could not pass over sin, died to put it away.
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