Part 28 (1/2)
What abundance of grace is received with His indwelling presence!
_Forgiveness._--”If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9.
_Deliverance from the Flesh._--The cleansing by Christ's indwelling power means that the old life of self is subdued. ”Our old man is crucified with Him.” Rom. 6:6. ”Ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of G.o.d dwell in you.... And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.” Rom. 8:9, 10.
_A New Heart._--”A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you.” Eze. 36:26.
_A New Life._--”Be renewed in the spirit of your mind; and that ye put on the new man, which after G.o.d is created in righteousness and true holiness.” Eph. 4:23, 24. It is in blessed fact Christ Jesus living the life in the believer by faith, as the apostle Paul says:
”I 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 G.o.d, who loved me, and gave Himself for me.” Gal.
2:20.
_Righteousness and Justification._--”This is His name whereby He shall be called, THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.” Jer. 23:6. Well does the King James Version print the blessed name in capital letters. It is the great name of salvation to every believer. By faith we receive Him, and by faith His righteousness is imputed unto us. His life of obedience covers all the believer's surrendered life, past and continuous, and in G.o.d's sight the life of the believer in Jesus is justified from all sin. It is the triumph of Him who was not only ”delivered for our offenses,” but was also ”raised again for our justification:”
”Therefore as by the offense of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.” Rom. 5:18, 19.
Christ died and rose again to bring this experience to sinners who have struggled helplessly under condemnation. As Christ Jesus with all His righteousness is received by faith, ”there is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” Rom. 8:1.
Praise the Lord! It is all of Christ, and not of any works that we have done. Therefore it is as sure as the oath and promise of G.o.d. We can lose the experience only as we let Christ go out of the life by unbelief. G.o.d forbid that we should do this; and help us to be quick to repent and again lay hold of Him by faith if ever we find we have let Him go and have lost the covering of His righteousness.
”Jesus, Thy blood and righteousness My beauty are, my glorious dress; 'Mid hosts of sin, in these arrayed, My soul shall never be afraid.”
[Ill.u.s.tration: THE LAST PRAYER
”That whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16.]
Christ's righteousness is, of necessity, the righteousness demanded by the law of G.o.d. He lives that law in the believer. This is what justification is. ”Not the hearers of the law are just before G.o.d, but the doers of the law shall be justified.” Rom. 2:13. Justification by faith makes the man a doer of the law by faith, Christ living every one of its sacred precepts in the believer's life. This is what He died to accomplish, to bring the righteousness of the law to the sinner who could never attain to it himself.
”What the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, G.o.d sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.”
Rom. 8:3, 4.
Christ writes G.o.d's law in the new heart: ”I will put My laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts.” Heb. 8:10. It is the rule of His own righteousness. For before He came into the world to work out perfect righteousness for us in human flesh, He said, through the psalmist, ”I delight to do Thy will, O My G.o.d: yea, Thy law is within My heart.” Ps.
40:8.
It is a perfect righteousness and a full salvation that Christ brings into every believer's heart. In Him all fulness dwells, ”and ye are complete in Him.”
The wondrous plan of salvation is so deep that only ”in the ages to come” will G.o.d be able to ”show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.” Eph. 2:7. But thank G.o.d, even here below sinners saved by grace may ”know the love of Christ, which pa.s.seth knowledge.”
”The wonders of redeeming love Our highest thoughts exceed; The Son of G.o.d comes from above, For sinful man to bleed.
”He knows the frailties of our frame, For He has borne our grief; Our great High Priest once felt the same, And He can send relief.
”His love will not be satisfied Till He in glory see The faithful ones for whom He died From sin forever free.”
--_R.F. Cottrell._
[Ill.u.s.tration: THE BAPTISM OF CHRIST