CHRIST IS OUR LIFE.
This eternal life that is in us was, and is, in Christ. In 1 John 5:1111And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. (1 John 5:11) we read “this life is in His Son.” There is the source; but in 1 John 3:1515Whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer: and ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him. (1 John 3:15) we read “Ye know that no murderer hath eternal life abiding in him” which necessarily infers that there are others who have. It has been manifested once in all its divine perfectness, in the walk of the man Christ Jesus. In us it is only shown in broken bits, and very imperfectly. Now Christ is this life, and He is also its object. This is expressed in Colossians 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). “Christ is all (as object), and in all” (as life). This life gives a capacity of communion with the Father and the Son (1 John 1).; also necessarily (being the same life in all) with one another.
Fellowship
“With the Father.” This life on earth was the object of the Father’s perfect complacency. “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” There was none then to share the Father’s joy, because Christ must be in us before He can be all to us. We must have the life, before we can understand or appreciate it. Now, however, we have fellowship with the Father in His pleasure in Christ. Again, “With the Son,” God was ever His object. We, too, have now an object outside ourselves. His will is ever our delight. In this we have fellowship with the Son. “With one another,” in our life, our hopes, our aspirations, our objects, our worship. Now, if God has given us no less an object than that which fills His heart, it is evident it must overflow ours. Therefore, if occupied with Christ, our hearts must overflow, and the overflowing of the heart is called worship and praise.
The Conscience and Heart
Now the life of Christ was manifested in two ways, as grace and truth, or, in other words, as love and light. We, on the other hand, are complex beings, having both a conscience and a heart. The life is thus beautifully adapted to control the entire man, the conscience being guided by the light, and the heart ruled by the love. Oh, beloved reader, well may we ask “What manner of persons ought we to be in all holy conversation and godliness!” Consider, for a moment, our present glorious position: all our sins forever gone before God, justified and sanctified in Christ Jesus, and thus, made meet for the inheritance of the saints in light, having a new, a perfect, an endless life, strengthened by the constant presence of an almighty Friend and Comforter, Christ’s love using and filling and swaying our hearts, His light guiding and controlling our consciences. Listen for a moment to these words, and think that we “ought to walk even as He walked.” Christ was at once a conqueror, a sufferer, and a benefactor. What moral glories shine in such an assemblage! He overcame the world, refusing all its attractions and offers. He suffered from it, witnessing for God against its whole course and spirit. He blessed it, dispensing His love and power continually, returning good for evil. Its temptations only made Him a conqueror; its pollutions and enmities only a sufferer; its miseries only a benefactor. Jesus did good, and that, hoping for nothing again. He gave, and His left hand did not know what His right hand was doing. Never, in one single instance, as I believe, did He claim either the person or the services of those whom He restored and delivered. Jesus loved, and healed, and saved, looking for nothing again. Surely there is something beyond human conception in the delineation of such a character.
One cannot leave a subject like this without a sigh, as one thinks of how far, how very far, we come short of such a glorious example, and of the purpose God has in leaving us in this world. We see many men, godless men, men who deny everything we believe, seeking to lead upright, noble lives. Not knowing God, yet they are seeking to live unselfish lives for others, to spend and be spent for mankind; and shall we, with the whole horizon of our life lightened up with these eternal realities, live for ourselves? or shall we live for Him who died for us and rose again? “He that saith he abideth in Him ought himself also so to walk even as He walked.” May the Lord seal home to our hearts in living power the subject we have been considering, and give us each to feel the controlling power of the love of Christ that passes all understanding.
In our next paper, the Lord willing, we will consider some of the qualities of this eternal life and new nature.
(To be continued.)