A CHRISTIAN is one who has been brought by grace and power out of his old standing and condition in the first Adam into an entirely new place in Christ, the second Man, the last Adam. We read in Ephesians that " God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ,... and hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus." This gives 'us our place before God as " accepted in the Beloved," a place which is ours now as fully as it will ever be, for nothing can add to or take from the value and perfection of Christ in the sight of God; and this is the measure of our acceptance.
Before we go further, let us see how this wonderful deliverance out of the old condition and its consequences, into the new one with all its blessed associations, has been accomplished. The word of God reveals the fact that man, as man, is a sinner, dead in trespasses and sins, without strength, an enemy to God, without hope, without God. In this terrible condition, when man had neither the ability nor the desire to turn to God, God came down to man in the person of His own Son, whose presence here in this world, though " full of grace and truth," only served completely. to establish the fact of man's utter alienation from and enmity against God. The cross was the answer to the display of perfect love and grace; and whilst in it we see the final breach between the world and God, it became the occasion for the display of all the boundless resources of grace which were in the heart of God, for it was there that " God made him to -be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." He became " obedient unto death, even the death of the cross," and there, " being delivered for our offenses "-for all that we had done as sinners- was raised again for our justification," " bearing our sins in his own body on the tree," making propitiation and purging us from them before God, so that, " being justified by faith, we have peace with God." But more than this: " God made him to be sin for us; " as made thus sin for us, He endured the, forsaking of God. Here, then, is much more than the purging of sins. The root and spring of all the evil is dealt with; sin in the flesh is condemned and judged in the person of the One who is our substitute, so that, having part in His death, we are not only forgiven, but delivered out of our old Adam state. We have been " crucified with Christ," and, having been so dealt with, have been raised and seated in Him in resurrection life. Thus He Himself is Our indefeasible title to all that God's heart has purposed for us, whilst the Holy Ghost, sent, down and dwelling in us, makes good that title to us now, as "the earnest of our inheritance," as well as being our power of life and walk, while we are still down here.
Thus we are forgiven and delivered, and on our way to the glory, the glory which the Father has given to Christ, and which He has given to us. We who had no part nor lot in that work, whereby God was perfectly glorified as well, as redemption wrought, are destined to share the glory of the Son who accomplished it, and for this we are predestinated to be conformed to His image. " When he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is." Wonderful grace, which can thus take up the vilest to be vessels in which His glory shall be manifested! and wonderful, too, the person and work of that blessed One who has made it possible for God to be just and yet the justifier, and, even more, the glorifier of those who believe in Jesus.
Now, we have already seen that we have been " predestinated to be conformed to the image of God's Son, that he might be the first-born among many brethren." Accepted now in the Beloved, " as he is, so are we in this world," heirs of God, joint-heirs with Christ, our living associations in heaven, although not yet there, sons of God awaiting our manifestation, but with the knowledge that " when he shall appear we shall be like him." All this excludes and forbids the thought of attainment of perfection here, whilst " he that hath this hope in him purifieth himself even as he is pure." Still, the goal set before us is outside the circle of this earth, and hence Paul, who so well understood it, says, "not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus. Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus'."
Now, when we are conformed to the image of His Son, God can and will manifest us, and not before; for then, and then only, shall we be in every way a true expression of Christ. " When Christ who is our life shall appear, then shall we also appear with him in glory." The Lord Himself says, " I am glorified in them; " John, that " we shall be like him; "
Paul, that " he shall be glorified in his saints, and admired in all them that believe." Thus, introduced as we shall be into " redemption spheres " in company with heaven's beloved One, sharing His glory, and knowing that we are loved of the Father as He is (which is also true now), it will be Christ who will be displayed in us. In all the glory and happiness and perfection of that scene we shall never be independent in any sense of the One " who loved us and gave himself for us," either for our own eternal enjoyment or for that which makes us fitted for heaven. Blessed thought indeed, and blessed hope too, in the midst of all our failure here, that the day is coming when we shall not only see Him, but " his name shall be in our foreheads! "
But while here in the body we are waiting, for this, and, indeed, for the accomplishment of all the purposes of God, save redemption, upon which all is based. By the accomplished work of Christ on the cross we have been made "meet to share the portion of the saints in light." We have been " delivered from" the power of darkness, and translated into the kingdom of the Son of his love." We are " reconciled to God." Still we are in these bodies of humiliation in which sin dwells, though it should never be allowed to act. We are not yet what we shall be—" conformed to the image of his Son; " nor yet where we shall be-in heaven; but in the world, surrounded by everything that is not of the Father. What then is our responsibility while here 2 To walk as Christ walked, independent of the world; wholly dependent upon God; answering to our acceptance by walking acceptably:-" worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing; " and, as towards the world, to be a testimony to Christ as He was to the Father. He could say, "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father."
For us to live it should be Christ. Our part is to exhibit Christ, and in order to this it is important that we should clearly understand that there is nothing in self to be cultivated. The moment we attempt this it will not be Christ, but ourselves, we shall be seeking to exhibit; an improved self, if you like, but still self. It is not that a Christian is not to be amiable, and the like, but whatever he displays should be a fruit of the Spirit which indwells him, a, result or outcome of the life in him, so that he is an expression to all around of that life which is of Jesus and not of himself; and to- this end we are exhorted to " bear about in the body the dying (putting to death) of Jesus," which is the reverse of cultivation, since it is keeping the cross on everything which is of ourselves.—We-have the treasure in earthen vessels, not to display the vessel, but the surpassingness of the power of God. Hence, the weaker the vessel, the greater the Manifestation of the power; the thinner the lantern, the better the light it carries is seen; and thus we become the exhibitors, not of natural amiability and so forth, but of Christ; the life of Jesus is manifested in the body.
But there is yet another thing we have to learn, and that is the grace that can and does help us in this direction when the will is broken. " We which live," says the apostle, "are alway delivered into death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh." This no doubt had reference primarily to himself as the Lord's servant, made to realize in his own surroundings what death was, in order that The life might be manifested and work in the Corinthians by him; but there is a divine principle of grace here which has an application beyond the particular case of Paul, and that is that God helps us' to manifest Christ by this delivering to death in some form or another, be it by sorrow, trial, or difficulty, so that the life of Jesus may be manifested even in the mortal flesh. Thus we realize, as Paul did, what death is.
Now, are we in earnest about this? Do we so enter into the purposes of God as to us in connection with His beloved Son, and are we so filled with Himself as we gaze on the unveiled glory, that we ourselves are, as it were, passing the sentence of death upon all that is not connected with that purpose? Do we meditate upon, and, in measure though it be, enter into the immensity of the grace that has predestinated us to be conformed to the image of His Son, so that we are seeking in a moral sense to blot out the image of the earthly by putting death upon it, or, in other words, by putting down the flesh?
These are serious questions, and must receive a true answer in the affirmative from ourselves, each one, before we can expect to occupy the place given to us down here, as exponents of an absent and rejected Christ.
J. G. H.
The intense need of the soul is present association with Christ in heaven. I must get to, His person; and then I am filled with joy. But I say when I see it, If I am to have that, it will cost me everything. And so it will; and that is the very reason why I must have the Holy Ghost first. It is " changed into the same image from glory to glory by the Spirit of the Lord." The Holy Ghost says, I can take you up into heaven. I could never get there by myself-; He takes me in; and, if I grieve Him in any way, I at once lose heaven for the time.
(E. P. 'C.)