A believer is looked upon by God as dead, buried, and raised up together with Christ. Not merely Christ a Rock in the desert to which I flee and find refuge, but I get in Him a vivifying power by which to walk in newness of life. "He that is dead is freed from sin"-not that the law of sin and death is out of his members, and that he has not still to watch against it, but the Spirit of God comes in as the seal of the truth on my heart, that the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death (Rom. 8:22For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. (Romans 8:2)). It is still there, but which is stronger-Christ in heaven, or that which remains in me? Which is stronger to overcome-the Holy Spirit sent down as a well of water springing up, or the weakness in man?
Paul was a man of strong passions, and what is the testimony of the Spirit in connection with him? "To me to live is Christ." Is Christ my life? What is the effect of that life on my life? It is a most blessed thing to be able to say that Christ, at God's right hand, is my Life, and that God looks at me only in Him, and I can be talking to God about Him. The consciousness of being brought where I can have that communion, puts perfect peace into my soul down here.