Volume Two

The Relation Between Christ and the Christian


By Ruth Paxson

CONTENTS

1 Grace Triumphant over sin

2 Christ our Saviour - The bridge crossed

3 Christ our Head - A new creation formed

4 Christ our Lord - A New Sovereign in a New Sphere

5 Christ our Life - A Perfect Oneness Effected

6 Christ our Sanctification - A People for His possession and use

7 Christ our Captain and Conqueror - Conflict and Conquest

8 Life on the Highest Plane

9 Carnal or Spiritual

10 The Christian's Choice - Self or Christ?

Chapter One - Grace Triumphant over Sin

The most triumphant words ever spoken were those which fell from the lips of the Lord Jesus Christ when on the cross He said, "It is finished." It was the divine proclamation that grace had triumphed over sin. It was God's pronouncement to the world that all that had been lost both to Him and to man through the first Adam had been regained through the last Adam.

Romans 5:20, "But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound."

Romans 5:12, 15, "By one man sin entered into the world. Much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many."

THE CHALLENGE OF GRACE ---- IN ADAM OR IN CHRIST

So far in our studies we have considered God's dealings with the human race representativelythrough two men, the first and the last Adam. Through the federal headship of the first Adam, God established a union with the whole human race in creation. All that Adam was in creation God intended all mankind latent in him to be.

But Adam sinned and thereby received a sinful nature, becoming a sinner both in desire and in deed. He came into bondage to sin, self and Satan. He became a subject in the kingdom of Satan and entered into the sphere of death, darkness and disorder. He became "flesh" and descended to life on the plane of the natural. There was upon him a sinner's guilt, Over him a sinner's condemnation, and before him a sinner's doom.

Through his federal headship Adam bequeathed to the human race latent in him all that became his in the Fall. He became the progenitor of a race "begat... in his own likeness after his image" (Genesis 5:3). His posterity inherited his sinful nature and shared in the consequences of his sin. Every man by physical birth is "In Adam."

In Adam's creation God had established a union with the human race on the basis of personal communion and governmental cooperation. In Adam's Fall that union was broken and mankind was alienated from God. Sin an impassable chasm between a righteous, holy God and guilty, sinful men.

But as God dealt representatively with the human race in the first A so did He also in the last Adam. What was ruined in the Fall of the man God redeemed in the victory of the second Man. The loss that God and the race sustained by the sinful act of the first Adam was covered by the righteous act of the last Adam. The union that was broken through His first man God reestablished through His second Man. The impassable chasm made by the first Adam's sin was bridged by the Adam's sacrifice.

On the cross of Calvary Christ Jesus, the divine-human Mediator, the sinner's place and became the sinner's Substitute. The sinner's was borne, the sinner's condemnation was removed, and the sinner's was met, by the Sin-bearer. Adam's sin was put away and all of its sequences were borne by God's Son.

Through His federal headship Christ made potential for all sinners that became His through the victory of His death and resurrection. men have been united to the first Adam in creation and in the Fall, men may be united to the last Adam in grace through faith. As all are "In Adam" so all men may be "In Christ."

Through the death, resurrection, ascension and exaltation of the Jesus Christ mankind waspotentially redeemed and God re-established a relationship with the race "by grace through faith" so that all men may come out of bondage to sin, self and Satan into the glorious liberty of the children of God and into the bounteous inheritance of the heirs of God. "In Christ" all men may now find a way of escape from the sphere of death, darkness and disorder and an abundant entrance into the sphere of life, light and liberty and they may be delivered from the kingdom of Satan and translated into the Kingdom of God's dear Son. "In Christ all men may now leave the plane of the natural and rise to the plane of the spiritual. Every man by spiritual birth may be "In Christ."

God deals representatively with the whole human race in these federal headships. It may be said, that judicially God has relation to two men in all the universe, Adam, the first and Adam, the last.

Romans 5:18-19, R.V., "So then as through one trespass the judgment came unto all men to condemnation; even so through one act of righteousness the free gift came unto all men to justification of life. For as through the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the one shall the many be made righteous."

But through these two men God has a personal relationship with every individual on earth because every person is now either "In Adam" or "In Christ," either still is alienated from God through sin or is accepted by God through His Son.

Sin entered, abounded, and reigned (Romans 5:12, 20-21); on Calvary's cross grace entered and did much more abound and now reigns wherever God's gift is accepted by faith.

Romans 5:21, "That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord."

And now every living person is challenged by grace to come out of the life of sin, to leave the life "In Adam" for the life "In Christ."

Chapter Two

Christ Our Saviour ---- The Bridge Crossed

In this book we are writing, as it were, the spiritual biography of Our story encompasses his life in creation, in the Fall, in grace, a glory. We have seen what God meant him to be in creation, what came in the Fall, and what God has done for him through grace. we now come to the most crucial point in his whole history. A choice made that will give direction to all that lies beyond both for time eternity. It is a decision that determines destiny. Will the natural man remain on the plane of the natural or will he choose to live on the on the spiritual? Will he receive or refuse God's gift through grace? cling to his sin or lay hold upon God's Son?

THE INEVITABLE CHOICE ---- YOUR SIN OR GOD'S SON

God's first gift to man is that of a Saviour because this is man's need. It was God's love for sinnersthat led Him to give His Son to us (Romans 5:8). Christ was born into this world a Saviour.

It was Christ's love for sinners that brought Him from heaven to By His own testimony He came to seek and to save the lost.

Christ crucified is the sinner's only way back to God. He is the sinner's only door of access into the presence of God and God's only door of access into the heart of the sinner.

The initial relationship of the natural man to God must be that of a sinner penitently acknowledging his sin and accepting God's gracious gift of a Saviour. The sinner must come to God through the crucified Christ, or he cannot come to God at all.

This is an exceedingly humiliating position for the natural man to take, it knocks the underpinning from beneath his entire life for it strikes at the very root of his self-will, self-love, self-trust and self-exaltation. By it he is compelled to acknowledge that he has made an utter failure, that he is wholly incapable of living his own life in his own strength, but more than that, that he is absolutely unfit to live in the presence of One who is righteous and holy. It brings him altogether to the end of himself, to the foot of the cross to acknowledge his sinful, helpless, hopeless condition, and to look up in simple faith to the crucified Saviour, who alone can lift him to a higher plane of life.

Many sinners in the world today will not go thus far. They will acknowledge their lack of light and their need of a teacher; they will confess they do not know the right way of life and need a leader; they will admit the low level of their standards and their need of an example; but they will not acknowledge that they are out-and-out sinners needing a Saviour. They simply place themselves outside the class for which Christ died. But the Lord of glory did not leave the bosom of His Father and the joy of heaven for the suffering and sorrow of earth and the shame and scourging of Calvary's cross merely to receive the patronizing admiration of men and to help them to live a somewhat more intelligent, respectable, useful life as sinners on the plane of the natural man. He came only because men were lost and must be found: because they were sinners and must be saved. He came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.

Through Christ, as Saviour, God has provided the only way back to Himself that He deems effectual: He has opened the only door from earth into heaven. Through His Son, as Saviour, God had made salvation from Sin a potential gift to all sinners so that since Christ died and rose again all men everywhere are shut in to an inevitable choice-the choice between their sin and His Son. "Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved."

Since the shedding of the precious blood of His only begotten Son on the cross of Calvary, God the Father sees every person on earth either with or without a Saviour.

THE GRACIOUS INVITATION

God not only provided a Saviour for every sinner but He has through the Gospel sent forth an invitation to those 'of every tongue, and people, and nation' to accept His gift, to partake of His feast, to inherit His riches, to share the blessings of His heavenly home.

His infinite grace, His tender love, His compassionate mercy, have made room for all. He declares that none is too good to come, for if he is, the salvation provided for him in Christ is useless, and that none is too bad for salvation would thereby be proved ineffectual. Not one who has put his trust in the shed blood of the Saviour, however long he has lived in sin or however deep into it he has sunk or however crimson is its stain upon his life, will be turned away from the Father's heart or home. To the weary and heavy laden; to the hungry, thirsty and poor; to the wandering and the wayward; the loving Father says, Come unto me.

Dear reader, are you still among the number who have not accepted God's gracious invitation to come unto Him? Are you troubled, perplexed anxious, restless? Christ says, "Come unto me, for in me ye may have peace."

Are you unhappy, discontented, and dissatisfied, and is your heart de void of joy? Christ says, "Come unto me, my joy shall remain in you that your joy may be full."

Does life seem intolerable to you because of its burdens, its sufferings, its tribulations? Christ says, "Come unto me, in the world ye shall have tribulation but I have overcome the world."

Are you discouraged by the repeated temptation at the same vulnerable spot which you are utterly powerless to resist? Christ says, "Come unto me, and in me ye shall be more than conquerors."

Is your heart filled with an insatiable hunger which no one and no thing has ever been able to satisfy? Christ says, "I am the bread of life, he that cometh to me shall never hunger."

Is your soul parched with a thirst that you have tried to quench in a thousand ways and have failed? Christ says, "If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink."

Is your path strewn with disappointments, afflictions, trials, and does the road ahead seem to be dense darkness? Christ says, "I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life."

Are you terrified at the sin stains on your soul and doubt if ever they can be removed? Then the Saviour says, "Only come unto me, though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool."

Do you really wish to be free from sin, to end the despotic rule of self, and to sever your partnership with Satan? You may come out of this threefold bondage into the glorious liberty and the bounteous inheritance of a son and heir of God if you will avail yourself of God's gracious invitation. Christ Jesus is able to save you to the uttermost of your sin and to satisfy you to the uttermost of your need. The first step out of the natural into the spiritual is such a very simple one that even a little child may take it for it is just the choice of God's Son instead of your sin; it is the personal acceptance of God's wondrous gift of a Saviour.

THE RESPONSE OF FAITH ---- THE BRIDGE CROSSED

Man has had nothing whatever to do with the building of the bridge of salvation. That was God's work and His alone. God furnished both the material and the workmanship by which this wondrous bridge was builded. "By grace are ye saved."

But God leaves it to the sinner to decide whether he will cross this bridge or not. What God's grace has provided man's faith must possess. The salvation made potential by grace God expects to be made experiential by faith. Salvation is not something to be purchased or earned or gained through merit of any kind, for salvation is a gift and a gift is received. Salvation is for all men but only those who believe and receive are saved. "By grace are ye saved through faith."

While man has had nothing to do with the building of the bridge yet he has everything to do with regard to the use of it for he decides whether or not he will cross it. Have you crossed this bridge? Has God's gracious invitation met with a glad response on your part? I must press the question home for it is one that will have to be answered either here and now, or yonder at the great white throne. No decision you will ever be called upon to make can begin to compare with this one in importance because upon it hangs your happiness and usefulness in this life and your destiny in the life to come.

Perhaps among the readers of this book are some earnest inquirers who are saying in their hearts, But what does crossing the bridge involve? and What must I do to be saved? Let us together now consider these questions in turn.

Crossing the bridge means a decisive break with all that pertains to the old creation in the old sphere. If, then, one decides to become a Christian, his first step will be to turn his back on sin, and turn his face toward Christ his Saviour. In that first step he will renounce his sin and receive God's Son. The first step out of the life on the plane of the natural into life on the plane of the spiritual involves a twofold reversal in the sinner's relationship to God which the Bible calls repentance and faith.

The cross of the Lord Jesus Christ is the place at which this decisive break with the old life is made. It is the birthplace of real repentance and true faith.

In the parables of the Kingdom (Matthew 13:1-52), Christ likened the Kingdom of heaven to a field in which there were both wheat and tares, and to a net in which were both good and bad fish. He states that no attempt will be made to separate them until the harvest time at the end of the age. False professors and true possessors are in the visible church today and will continue to be until Christ comes again.

The false professor has never genuinely repented, for let us remind ourselves that repentance means a change of mind, a complete reversal of attitude toward God and consequently a change of mind toward all that is opposed to God. There is much in Christian experience today that is called repentance which is sheer camouflage. It is not genuine abhorrence and loathing of sin as something hateful and heinous in the sight of God, but is selfish and sinful regret in having sin exposed or in having to suffer its punishment. It is not a real turn about-face but it is a pretense at looking Godward while walking sinward. A repentance that makes one a possessor of God's gift through grace is born of a consciousness of sin that deepens into conviction and compels one to cry out in honesty of heart, "What must I do to be saved?"

Such a repentance has its birth at the cross of Christ. Gazing upon the spotless, sinless, Son of God crucified upon a criminal's cross, bearing the sin of the world with all its stain; drinking the cup of suffering even to its bitter dregs; enduring the penalty and punishment of sin even unto death; the sinner comes to a realization of the sinfulness of sin. With the light of God's holiness and the warmth of God's love streaming into his own soul the sinner has his first real revulsion toward sin. Repentance which is "not only a heart broken for sin but from sin" follows. To see sin as God sees it in the light of the cross is to have the taste for it and the delight in it taken away.

Neither has the false professor ever truly believed for let us remember that to believe is to receivea Person into the life to possess and to control it as His own. There is much in Christian experience today that is called faith which is not faith at all. Sometimes one is deceived into thinking emotional feeling is faith. The emotions are played upon by sentimental appeals and a superficial response is made. But the seed sown has not taken root so a change of feeling results in a casting away of faith. That is sometimes called faith which is merely the assent of the mind to the great historical facts regarding Jesus Christ but is wholly divorced from any intention of accepting Him as Saviour, yielding to Him as Lord, and appropriating Him as Life. But, a faith that makes one a possessor of God's gift through grace is born of a consciousness of helplessness and hopelessness that compels the sinner to cry out in sincere Longing of heart, "God, be merciful to me a sinner."

Such a faith has its birth at the cross of Christ. The Holy Spirit having brought the sinner to acknowledge his own helpless and hopeless condition then fixes his gaze upon the all-sufficient Saviour. He points him to the One who bore his sins in His own body on the tree; to the Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world which included his sin. He reveals Christ Jesus as the One who tasted death for him and enables him to say, "He loved me and gave Himself for me." He assures the sinner now burdened by the guilt and pollution of his sins that there is forgiveness and cleansing for him in the blood of the slain Lamb. Then He leads him to put his trust in Jesus Christ as his own personal Saviour and by an act of his will to receive Him into his life as such.

Having considered what is involved in a genuine crossing of God's bridge of salvation let us now turn to the other question, "What must I do to be saved?" God's Word gives an abundant answer to this question.

God wishes the poor, the unfortunate, the illiterate, the young and the untalented to come to Him and to have the blessings of salvation, as well as the rich, the favored, the learned, the aged, and the gifted. He has made the way of salvation so simple that all may walk in it and nobody need be excluded because of any lack in himself. Salvation is all wrapped up in a Saviour who is a gift of God to be received upon the one condition of faith. "Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed."

Faith is very simple yet it is a very comprehensive thing and involves in its operation the mind, the heart, and the will. Faith includes belief which is the assent of the mind to the things written in God's Word concerning the Saviour. We believe that He is the Christ, the Son of God, who died for our sins. Faith includes trust, which is the consent of the heart to the gracious work of Christ. We not only believe the things which the Word teaches about Christ, the Saviour, but we believeon Him. We put our trust and our dependence upon Him alone for our salvation. But faith also includes appropriation which is the decision of the will to receive Christ Jesus. Faith enables me first to perceive Christ as the Saviour of all men and then to receive Him as my own personal Saviour. Faith leads me to believe that "God so loved the world that whosoever believeth in him should not perish" and then leads me to receive Him who loved me and gave himself for me.

We see, then, that salvation is far more than mere assent to the doctrinal truth of the Bible, for one could believe every word in the Book and still not be saved. It is also far more than mere church membership for one could perform every ordinance and ceremony the church requires and still not be saved. Salvation centers not in a doctrine nor in an ordinance but in a Person and he only is saved who has put his trust in Christ as Saviour to the point of receiving Him into his whole being as the Saviour from his sins.

Such salvation is typified for us in the redemption of the children of Israel from their awful bondage to Pharaoh and their deliverance from the terrible judgment of death in Egypt. Because of Pharaoh's rebellion toward God, the firstborn in all the land were to be smitten with death. God gave definite instructions to the children of Israel through Moses as to what they were to do to avert this terrible sentence of death upon their households. They were told to take a lamb without blemish, slay it, and put the blood upon the two side posts and on the upper doorpost of the house. As God passed through the land of Egypt at midnight He would pass over every house upon which He saw the blood and into that home the plague of death would not come. "When I see the blood I will pass over you." The only thing that saved the firstborn in any household on that memorable night was the blood of the lamb on the doorpost.

Since God's dear Son laid down His life in death on Calvary's cross the sinner's only shelter from the wrath of God is under the cover of His precious blood. God has told us that we are "redeemed with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot" and asks us to take by faith the blood of Christ to cover all our sins. As He looks upon each of us today He sees us either with or without that covering.

The cross of Christ is the only place where God and the sinner can meet and the Lamb of God is the bond of union. The sinner looks up and trusts in the shed blood of the Saviour. God looks down and says "I see the blood and will pass over you." Faith has responded to grace and the Saviour and the sinner are made one at the cross.

My friend, whoever and wherever you are, have you crossed God's bridge of salvation? Have you responded to the unsearchable riches of God's grace as manifested in Christ, through faith? Have you believed on Him and received Him into your life as your own personal Saviour? Are you resting safe and secure today under the sheltering cover of the blood of the Lamb of God? If not, will you not lay this book down and right now look up in faith to him?

THE FIRSTFRUITS OF FAITH

The inheritance into which the believer enters as a son and heir of God is a very rich and beautiful one and includes every spiritual blessing in Christ. But the blessing primarily coveted is relief from the burden of sins, the sense of forgiveness, the assurance of pardon. The circumstances of conversion vary greatly and people come to God in vastly diverse ways. Some are born of Christian parents and are nurtured in an atmosphere surcharged with the love and worship of God. The name of Jesus is on the lips almost as soon as the name of "Father" or "Mother." Sometimes one cannot tell when that personal choice of Jesus Christ as Saviour was made, for love to Him seems always to have been in the heart. With others the new birth has meant a decided and definite break in the life. Not all have the keen realization of the awful sinfulness of sin nor does the guilt and condemnation of it rest on them as a terrible burden as it did upon Pilgrim in Bunyan's classic story, but to almost everyone there is the bondage to some besetting sin from which he seeks release. So the first blessing of which the sinner is conscious and the one in which he primarily rejoices is the forgiveness of sins.

The moment the sinner acknowledges his sin and turns in real faith to Christ as Saviour, that very moment God grants perfect and permanent pardon for all his sins: his past is blotted out and he will not be judged for sin that his Saviour has borne to the cross. But lack of assurance regarding forgiveness is a very common thing even in the lives of some who have been Christians for years. Because of ignorance of God's Word when perchance one falls again into some besetting sin, doubt comes into the heart and robs it of the joy of salvation. In order that the believer may rest in the conscious assurance of full acquittal, God unfolds in His Word the completeness of forgiveness. Are you resting today in the assurance of sins forgiven? If not, may God speak to you in these precious statements of His Word and enable you to claim each for yourself.

All my sins behind God's back! Out of God's sight! Never to be seen again! 0! the comfort of knowing that the sins God has forgiven He will never see again!

All of my sins put the distance of the world's circumference from me! Out of my sight as well as out of the sight of God! While in China I received a cable telling of the death of a dearly loved sister in America. During the weeks that followed in which I waited for a letter giving further particulars of her death, I realized how far the east is from the west and there came a new, sweet experience of the assurance of my salvation in these precious words, "As far----so far. " O! the comfort of knowing that the sins which God has forgiven I shall never see again!

All my sins cast into the depths of the sea! Not only out of sight but out of reach! A few years ago the steamship Titanic built at a cost of millions of dollars and carrying a cargo valued at many millions more went to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean. So far as I know no attempt has ever been made to bring either the Titanic or her cargo from the depths of the sea. 0! the comfort of knowing that the sins forgiven by God are out of reach, pardoned for time and for eternity!

All my sins blotted out and forgotten! Not only out of God's sight and out of God's reach, but out of God's memory! But in the unsearchable riches of His grace God has blotted out my sins so completely that there is not a trace of them left to remind Him that once they were. 0! the comfort of knowing that the sins which God has forgiven He has also forgotten!

But the forgiveness of sins is but half, and that the negative half, of the first fruits of faith. Merely removing the penalty for and the punishment of sins does not undo all the work of sin. For the natural man is not only a sinner: he is a rebel and an outlaw as well. He needs not only to be redeemed but to be reinstated to favor with God. A criminal may be pardoned and released from prison but he returns to the community in which he lives as a pardoned criminal. No human judge has the power to reinstate him into society as one who never sinned. What man cannot do God can. Justification is the positive half of the first fruits of faith.

Christ, our Saviour, not only pardoned our sin but He gave us the standing before the Father of one who had never sinned. The only way in which He could do this was to exchange places with us. He took our place upon the cross becoming sin for us that we might take His place before the Father becoming righteousness in Him. His death was one act with a double blessing. The negative side was forgiveness which took something from us, the penalty of our sins; the positive side was justification which gave something to us, the righteousness of God. The death of Jesus Christ accomplished a twofold work in the believer: it unclothed him by removing the filthy rags of sin and it clothed him by bestowing the pure garments of His perfect righteousness. "For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin" here Christ Jesus is saying to His Father, Put their sins to my account. That we might be made the righteousness of God in him" here Christ Jesus is saying to His Father, Put my righteousness to their account Through His death upon the cross Jesus Christ not only took us out of the old standing in Adam, but He brought us into a new standing in Christ. The grace of God provides for justification, the blood of Jesus Christ procures it, and the faith of the believer possesses it.

Through justification certain definite and glorious blessings are secured to the believer. Chief among these is peace with God. Resistance and rebellion through self-will have ceased and the heart rests in the assurance of God's favor.

All distance between God and the sinner is obliterated. All barriers are torn down. The believer is made near to God's heart through the blood of Christ.

THE GREAT REFUSAL

Jesus Christ spoke some very sad and solemn words during His earthly ministry but among the saddest and the most solemn are these:

These words were spoken to men who professed to believe and to love the Scriptures and who even searched them in the hope of securing eternal life. The very Scriptures that they searched pointed everywhere to Jesus Christ as the Author and Giver of life, yet Him they stubbornly and persistently refused and rejected. To Him they would not come acknowledging themselves sinners needing Him as their Saviour. These men were guilty of the great refusal. They rejected God's Son as their Saviour. The cause of their refusal was self-will. Please note Christ said "ye will not come to me" Their rejection of Jesus Christ was not due to inability but to unwillingness. They couldcome but they would not. Note too that all Christ asked them to do was to come to Him that He might give them that which they needed more than they needed anything else.

Their decision determined their destiny. God left it with them to make the choice between their sin and His Son but having made it He determined what the result of that choice should be.

To refuse grace is to invite judgment. To retain a sinner's guilt is to receive a sinner's doom. If the natural man chooses to live and to die on the natural man's plane then he must expect the natural man's destiny.

The Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ has been preached all over the world yet millions upon millions of those who have heard it are living as though Christ had not died, as though God had not taken up the sin question and settled it in such a way as to provide salvation for all men. Throughout the world today are multitudes who are guilty of the great refusal, who are choosing to remain in their sins rather than accept God's Son as their Saviour.

Out of this number are some who apparently have no concern whatever over their souls. Their minds and hearts are set upon the pursuits and pleasures of this life as though there were no God to reckon with and no life beyond this to prepare for. There are others who through self-righteousness and self-exaltation refuse God's way of the cross. It is an offense unto them. They indulge in very shallow and superficial sentiments about the love of God which they think too great to ever condemn anyone to separation from Him forgetting altogether that the love of God spent itself on that very cross. Up to the cross God has infinite love for the sinner but if in self-exaltation he passes it by and rejects the Saviour, then on the other side that very love is wrath. There are others who say they want to believe but cannot. Unbelief is never due to inability. It may be due to unwillingness. Thomas was an honest doubter and said, "I will not believe except I shall see." God gave him to see and he believed. It may be due to ignorance of what faith is and requires. The all-important thing in faith is not its measure but its object. Christ Himself stated this when He said "Come unto me." Anyone can come.

There are countless sins of which every sinner is guilty but there is one above all others for which God is today condemning him and holding him accountable and that is the sin of refusing Jesus Christ as his Saviour. Wrapped up in that sin are all the others. That is the sin of sins. It is upon that sin the Holy Spirit puts all the pressure of conviction to bring a soul to God. This is His initial work in the sinner.

God gives clear and unmistakable warnings to those who are facing the inevitable choice between their sin and His Son. The great refusal means death.

The great refusal means the wrath of God abiding upon the unbeliever.

The great refusal means the judgment of the great white throne.

The great refusal leads to eternal separation from the presence of God.

God invites you to receive Christ into your life as Saviour today. To drift is to refuse; to ignore is to refuse; to postpone is to refuse; to face the claim of Christ and to turn silently away is to refuse. The rich young ruler refused and is never mentioned again. A young official in China faced the claim and call of Christ one night but he said, "Tomorrow, wait until tomorrow." He refused; that night he was assassinated.

"Choose ye this day whom ye will serve."

The cross of the Lord Jesus Christ is the great divide. On which side of it are you today? The choice is inevitable your sin or God's Son.

Chapter Three

Christ Our Head ---- A New Creation Formed

Crossing God's bridge of salvation begins with the believer's justification but it does not end there for justification in its twofold aspect deals largely with our past and carries us only over the borderline into the new sphere. It gives us a new standing before God, but it does not equip us to live in a state becoming our standing. It paves the way for us into the presence of a holy God but it cannot make us holy. It opens the door for the establishment of the new order in Christ but it needs regeneration to furnish the certificate for membership in that order. Justification and regeneration are simultaneous in experience.

THE RISEN CHRIST ---- HEAD OF A NEW ORDER

In Christ crucified God made an end of the old creation and all that pertained to it; in Christ risen, He made the beginning of a new creation. Through His resurrection Christ Jesus became the Head of a new order of beings, who are to be as heavenly and holy, as pure and as perfect as He is; the Progenitor of a new race of redeemed men whose ultimate glory through grace is to be complete conformity to His image.

But life in the new order requires a wholly new equipment which Scripture clearly describes.

THE IMPLANTATION OF A NEW LIFE

The first necessity for fellowship with the living God is life; the first requirement for union with the divine Head is divine life; to live in the sphere of the Spirit one must have spiritual life. To belong to the new order one must have the same kind of life as the Head of the order.

But the natural man is "without Christ" therefore he is without "life." By nature every sinner in Adam whether rich or poor, literate or illiterate, moral or immoral, religious or irreligious, is spiritually dead. Every child born into this world, whatever his parentage or position in society, enters it entirely destitute of the divine life of God.

The primary need, then, for membership in the new order, for citizenship in the new Kingdom, for sonship in the new family, is life that fits one for his new relationships and environment. To be related to God either as a son in His family or as a subject in His Kingdom necessitates the possession of His eternal, divine, spiritual life. But how would a dead man become possessed of this life? The answer to this all-important question our Lord Himself gives in His conversation with N icodemus recorded in the third chapter of John's gospel.

Nicodemus was a man of the Pharisees. So great was his fear of his coreligionists, yet so insistent was his desire for something the Lord Jesus possessed, that he came to Him under cover of the night. As a ruler of the Jews also he occupied an influential position yet despite his religious privileges his heart was unsatisfied and craved something which Phariseeism was unable to give him. Without question Nicodemus came to the Lord Jesus driven by a deep sense of need. What then did he come for? The answer to this question is important in the light of what Christ Jesus gave him; it may also help some reader to interpret his own greatest need and to understand the right method of approach to the One who alone is able to meet it. We are not told directly why he came but John 3:2 suggests a clue.

Nicodemus was himself a teacher but perhaps he recognized in Jesus' teaching an authority and attractiveness which were lacking in his own. He was a great religious leader yet he had no such miracle-working power as had Jesus. He was a ruler of the Jews and Jesus was only a humble itinerant preacher yet God was not with him as He was with Jesus. Did Nicodemus come seeking light upon the secret of such wisdom and power which possibly even for unselfish reasons he craved to possess? Did he come as a teacher to a greater teacher merely to be taught? As a leader to a greater leader simply to be led? Was the deepest need he felt in his life the need oflight? Had he who professed to be the physician of others' soul-sickness failed to diagnose correctly his own? If so, there are many in similar positions today who have made the same mistake.

The conversation that follows shows that the Great Physician instantly went to the seat of Nicodemus's trouble. He who "knew what was in man" diagnosed his case aright and saw a much deeper and more imperative need than that of which Nicodemus himself was yet conscious. Nicodemus came for light but he needed life: and the light he wanted could only come out of the life he needed.

Nicodemus wanted divine wisdom and spiritual power, these are the fruit of divine, spiritual life. Nicodemus came to Him who said, "I am the light of the world" to receive light but he had not come to Him who said, "I am the life" to receive life. Nicodemus came only as a teacher to be taught. The Lord Jesus saw that he needed to come as a sinner to a Saviour to be saved. So in His reply He met not the desire but the need of Nicodemus. He went to the core, He touched the quick of his need.

The proof that the Lord was right in His diagnosis and that Nicodemus was devoid of the life of God is plainly seen in his utter lack of spiritual apprehension of the Master's words. He had not the faintest idea of the meaning of the words "born again" as his perplexed question to Jesus revealed.

What could Nicodemus have thought a man could gain through a second physical birth that he had not received through the first? What additional inheritance could be given him through the same parents in a second birth? The very question he asked revealed his need of light, but of spiritual light that is the product of spiritual life. Nicodemus was blind because he was dead. The thing which Nicodemus did not know, but which Christ did know, was that he was still in the sphere of death, out-side the Kingdom and family of God, and living on the plane of the natural man.

Consequently Nicodemus did not know that nothing which he had through the flesh could be put to his account in the realm of the spirit; that the position, possessions and privileges, upon which he prided himself in the sphere of the natural, were like counterfeit coins in the sphere of the spiritual. Nicodemus did not apprehend that nothing which he could have received through a thousand physical births could make him eligible to citizenship in the Kingdom of God or to sonship in the family of God.

The whole purpose of Jesus' conversation was to show Nicodemus that he was an alien and that citizenship in the Kingdom of God required naturalization through regeneration. Is it any wonder that the perplexed cry came from his heart, "How can these things be?" For was he not a Jew by birth, therefore was he not born into the Kingdom of God? Had he not scrupulously and punctiliously observed every ordinance and ceremony and fulfilled every religious duty, therefore had he not earned his way into the Kingdom of God by good works? Was he not a man of the Pharisees, even a ruler of the Jews, therefore was he not eligible to citizenship in the Kingdom of God by his religion? Nicodemus was all that he claimed to be by birth, by good works, and by religion, yet Jesus told him that none of these things in itself or all of them put together would serve as naturalization papers in the Kingdom of God. One thing was absolutely essential in a Kingdom that was built upon the supernatural, and that one thing was supernatural life. Without this no one, whatever his parentage, privileges or position, could qualify for entrance.

Seeing the perplexity of Nicodemus's mind, yet understanding the hunger of his heart, Jesus repeated and amplified His words on the absolute necessity of the new birth.

Is it possible that some reader of these pages is, like Nicodemus, trusting to his godly parentage, his good works, his exemplary morality, his inherited religion, for entrance into the Kingdom of God? If so, will you not heed the words which Jesus spoke to Nicodemus for He is speaking them to you as well?

The absolute necessity of the new birth as a requirement for entrance into the Kingdom of God could not have been expressed in more emphatic words, than the Lord uses here. If you will trace His conversations in the gospels you will notice that He never employs the use of the words "Verily, verily", except when teaching something of paramount importance. In John 3:5, 7, He uses three very emphatic words, "except," "cannot," and "must." The Lord of the Kingdom is declaring the first and fundamental requirement of life in the Kingdom when He says "Ye" ---- no matter who you are ---- "must be born again." There are absolutely no exceptions to this law of the spiritual realm.

If anyone could have hoped for exemption from this requirement Nicodemus would have been that man. Yet his high moral character, his clean, upright life, his orthodox religious creed, his influential social position, his membership in the Sanhedrin, his faithful performance of religious duties, and his acknowledgment of Jesus as a great teacher and a good man, were insufficient to gain an entrance for him into the Kingdom of God. Jesus Christ, who looks at men from the viewpoint of heavenly standards, told Nicodemus that even he could not see, much less enter, the heavenly Kingdom except this divine miracle of the new birth was wrought in his spirit.

THE IMPARTATION OF A NEW NATURE

Jesus has expressed to Nicodemus the imperativeness and the inflexibility of the necessity of a new birth for the implantation of the new life. But has Jesus made an arbitrary, perhaps even an unreasonable demand, or has He only stated a law of the spiritual Kingdom, which admittedly is as reasonable as the law which governs the physical kingdom?

In the physical realm we recognize two laws which operate everywhere and always; physical life is the result of physical birth, and the thing that is born partakes of the nature of that which gave it birth. Like begets like. Natural begets natural. Jesus told Nicodemus that the same kind of a law prevails in the spiritual realm; the spiritual life is the result of spiritual birth and that which is born of God partakes of the nature of God. Like begets like. Divine begets divine.

In these verses Jesus has stated with intentional conciseness and clarity four profound truths:

• There are two distinct spheres in which men live.

• Entrance to each sphere is by birth.

• Flesh begets flesh and Spirit begets spirit.

• Anyone who wishes to pass out of the sphere of the flesh into the sphere of the Spirit can do so only by a second birth.

Again Jesus goes to the very heart of the difficulty and shows the utter impossibility of making the flesh spiritual. "That which is born of the flesh is flesh" and it can never be anything else. It may be educated flesh, cultured flesh, traveled flesh, moral flesh, yes, even religious flesh, but it is still flesh.

Even God makes no attempt to make the flesh anything but flesh. He tells us why in His Word.

The flesh is God-hating and God-defying. It is irreconcilably hostile to God. Because the flesh is what it is, it is unchangeable and unimprovable. So God makes no attempt either to repair the ruin or to reconcile the enmity of the old, corrupt, defiled, rebellious, lawless nature. Even when outwardly clothed in the beautiful garments of geniality, amiability, kindliness, generosity, courtesy and gentleness, it is still at heart God-hating and God-defying. "They that are in the flesh cannot please God."

How then could God permit one to enter His family as a son, or His Kingdom as a citizen, who hadonly the old nature of the flesh? How could one obey the laws of a spiritual Kingdom with only a fleshly nature? How could a corrupt, defiled nature that loved sin and hated holiness ever make a man holy? Upon what would God have to build to conform the natural man into the image of His Son? Or what enjoyment would heaven offer to an unregenerate soul? If on earth those living in the flesh find no pleasure in the companionship and converse of those living in the Spirit surely this would be even more true in heaven. The pursuits and pleasures, the desires and the deeds of the natural man, are the exact antitheses of those of the spiritual man. If Nicodemus were to possess and enjoy the spiritual thing for which his heart hungered he must have a spiritual nature.

"That which is born of the flesh is flesh." The old, fleshly nature equips one to live in the sphere of the flesh but nowhere else. So Jesus held out to Nicodemus no hope of his heart's desire and need being met and satisfied through any change either sudden or gradual in his old nature. Jesus makes no proposal to reinvigorate or reinforce the old nature by the addition of spiritual gifts and graces or by the subtraction of evil tendencies and practices. Jesus will not put a new piece on an old garment. Jesus shows unmistakably that "there is no process, even of divine alchemy, by which the base metal of the flesh can be transformed into the fine gold of the Spirit." The flesh cannot be improved, changed or utilized by God. There is nothing in it which God can accept.

What then does God purpose to do to equip a repentant, believing sinner for membership in the new order of heavenly holy men? He purposes to endow him with a new nature that fits him for citizenship in His Kingdom and for sonship in His family. He purposes to bestow upon him his own divine nature which will fructify in a supernatural life. To live the life of God one must have the nature of God, therefore through the new birth God plants his own seed in the spirit of man to abide there.

The believer in Christ Jesus becomes the possessor of something which he never possessed before the nature of God Himself. The eternal life of the uncreated God is implanted in the innermost part of his human personality and his whole being throbs with the divine energy of a new life. The new birth is the impartation of a new intellectual, emotional, volitional nature which produces in man a totally new life and fits him to live in a totally new sphere.

In the light of the Lord Jesus' conversation with Nicodemus it is a self-evident fact that God cannot accept any substitute for the new birth. Reformation cannot be substituted for regeneration. If God makes no attempt to reform "the old man" surely He cannot accept any fragmentary improvement man might effect. Reformation is purely man's work; it leaves the flesh flesh, for it is the human trying to better itself. Reformation may improve the character of the flesh by the lopping off of certain evil habits but it cannot change flesh into spirit. Reformation may make a man somewhat more kind, generous, courteous, but it cannot make him holy, and "without holiness no man shall see the Lord." Reformation may help a man to better the condition of his living on the plane of the natural but this does not meet God's requirement for a totally new life on the plane of the spiritual.

Respectability cannot be substituted for regeneration. Many people are deluding themselves into thinking that if their character and conduct conform to the moral standards of the best society, that is a sufficient passport into the companionship of an altogether holy God. But God's standards are as far above man's as the heavens are above the earth.

Religion cannot be substituted for regeneration. Nicodemus was an ardent, active religionist but he was not a son of God or a citizen in the Kingdom of God. Over the doorway to the Kingdom of God no one will ever see written, "Admittance granted to those who have been baptized, who have been punctilious in church attendance, who have partaken of the Holy Communion, who have read the Scriptures and prayed, who have given their tithe." In His holy Word God has already written these solemn and irrevocable words over that doorway, "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." Jesus Himself, the righteous Judge, bars the gate of heaven to the unregenerate. "And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie; but they which are written in the Lamb's book of life" (Revelation 21:27). "Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again." (See Diagram 10.)

THE HOLY SPIRIT ---- THE AUTHOR OF THE NEW LIFE

But Nicodemus did marvel at what our Lord was saying and could only reply "How can these things be?" Nicodemus like many others today had preconceived ideas and prejudices which made it difficult for him either to understand or to accept the divine simplicity of God's plan of salvation. "He had to descend from the lofty heights of Rabbinical learning and traditionary religion and learn the alphabet of the Gospel in the school of Christ." Then, too, it would be a most humiliating thing for this prominent leader in religious circles who was supposed to teach others concerning the Kingdom to admit that he himself could not enter the Kingdom except he came as a sinner to a Saviour, confessing his need of a new nature.

But the Lord Jesus takes infinite pains to throw light into the darkened mind of Nicodemus because He knows that He is dealing with a hungry soul. So He tells him the "how" of the new birth.

As in justification so in regeneration God takes the initiative and does the work. BY grace are ye saved. The spiritual man is born of the Spirit. The new birth is God's work alone. It is a birth from above.

"Born" ---- "not of blood." Regeneration has no connection with natural descent. Recently I asked a gentleman if he were a Christian. Instantly he replied, "Certainly, I was born a Christian." I have a friend who felt quite sure that her first baby was born a Christian but now she has come to be more sure that not one of her seven could have been born Christians. God says distinctly that the divine, eternal, spiritual life of God is not passed to son but is implanted by God, the Holy Spirit, directly in the spirit of man. "Salvation does not run in the blood." Eternal life is not an inheritance from godly parents but it is the gift of God in Christ His Son.

"Born" ---- "not of the will of the flesh." Regeneration has no connection with natural volition. The will of the flesh is hostile to God and left to itself it would never move Godward. Did not Christ say to those who opposed Him, "Ye will not come to me that ye might have life"? Self-will would never abdicate in favor of God. But even if it would choose to do so it is altogether "without strength" (Romans 5:6). Good resolutions made when the heart is touched by an emotional appeal, or the turning over a new leaf on one's birthday, or at the beginning of the new year, or the fixed determination to cut one's self loose from an evil practice, do not constitute regeneration. Except grace takes the initiative and the Holy Ghost operates on the will of man he would never desire a new nature or be able to obtain one. "So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth; but of God that sheweth mercy" (Romans 9:16).

"Born" ---- "not of the will of man." Regeneration has no connection with natural relationships. God uses the faithful preaching and teaching of the Word by pastor and Sunday school teacher, the believing prayer of parents and friends, the earnest exhortation, warning and pleading of the personal worker to show another his need of a Saviour and to teach him the way of salvation, but no effort of theirs can beget in another the divine, supernatural life of God. No ordinance or rite, however sacred and holy, administered by priest or preacher has life-begetting power.

"Born" ---- "but of God." Regeneration is solely the work of God. It is patent that no one can give the life of God to another but God Himself. To become a son of God one must receive the life of God from God. God, the Holy Spirit, is the sole author of this new life which He implants by a creative act in the sinner.

Sin's first devastation was wrought in the human spirit. So here is where the Holy Spirit begins His work in regeneration. In the human spirit of the believer is implanted the life of God.

Into this renewed human spirit the Holy Spirit comes to dwell. Here He will operate to make the implanted life a living reality. So the believer will be transformed into the image of Christ from glory to glory.

In regeneration the Holy Spirit uses both a divine and a human instrument. The divine instrument is the Word of God.

To place the Word of God in the hands of those not yet born again or to unfold its truth to them God uses human instruments.

THE CROSS ---- THE PLACE OF SPIRITUAL BIRTH

The Lord Jesus has told Nicodemus of the necessity, the nature, and the Author of the new birth, but he still said, "How can these things be?" Was it a personal question? Did Nicodemus want to know how such a miracle as regeneration could be wrought in himself even though he might still be unwilling to admit the need of it? Whether this be true or not Jesus now used the Scriptures with which this master in Israel was very familiar to tell him how he could be born again.

The Old Testament incident was well known to every Jew. The Israelites were murmuring against God and Moses. The Lord sent fiery serpents among the people, they were bitten by them and large numbers were dying. Moses prayed for their deliverance and the Lord told him to make a serpent of brass and to put it upon a pole that every one who was bitten, when he looked upon it, should live.

The serpent of sin has put its deadly poison into every descendant of Adam. But God lifted up His Son, "made in the likeness of sinful flesh" to the cross where He put away sin and all its deadly effects by the sacrifice of Himself. One believing look at the serpent meant life to the death-smitten Israelite. One believing look at the crucified One means life to the one dead in trespasses and sins.

The cross of Christ reveals to us the Son of God dying as our Saviour. We look to Him in faith and the Holy Spirit implants in us the life of God and imparts to us the nature of God and we are born again. The cross of Jesus Christ is the believer's spiritual birthplace.

At the cross of Christ through the new birth the sinner leaves the family of Satan and becomes a son and an heir in the family of God. The new birth causes a radical reversal in his filial relationship.

At the cross of Christ through the new birth the rebel, the alien, the outlaw, becomes a citizen in the Kingdom of God.

A NEW CREATION FORMED

The new birth entitles the believer to membership in the new order of beings of which the risen Christ is the Head. Through the implantation of the divine life and the impartation of the divine nature in the believer a completely new entity is formed. The man in Christ is a new creation.

In this new creation everything must partake of the character of the new nature which is its fountainhead; therefore the old things must pass away. Members of the new order have a new ambition which is to be altogether well pleasing unto the Lord, its Head (2 Corinthians 5:9). To be like Christ is their supreme ambition. To attain this they are willing to count all things belonging to the old life but loss.

Members of the new order have new affections. The object of their affections has changed from self to Christ. The Holy Spirit has made the Lord Jesus so attractive and so satisfying that they can say from the heart:

The love of Christ constrains them to live unto God instead of unto themselves and to love God with all the mind, heart, strength and soul.

Loving God in this way with every faculty of the whole being means loving the things He loves and hating the things He hates. The expulsive power of this new affection removes the old things that grieve and displease Him; the things which are not to His honor and glory. The creative power of the new affection produces within us love for the things He cares for most, His Word, His house, His people, His day, His Kingdom.

Love for the Father includes love for all His children. The love of the Head of the new order constrains every member to love all the other members. Love for our brothers and sisters in Christ is one proof of our own rebirth.

The new order demands a new standard of life. Self-exaltation was the norm of the old life. Sin was less sinful than it really is and holiness was less holy than it really is.

In this new creation there is a new conception of sin. Things that before seemed altogether right now seem altogether wrong. Habits, haunts, practices, pursuits, pleasures, companionships, conversations, clothes, that were harmonious and suitable in the old sphere seem wholly out of place in the new. Their presence in the new sphere spoils its harmony and vitiates its atmosphere. After breathing the fresh, pure air of the higher altitude, the truly born-again one finds the atmosphere of the natural plane reeking with worldliness, selfishness and sin, stifling and sickening. The one born of God cannot go on sinning as he once did: he cannot continue in the practices which he knows to be contrary to God's will and Word. He has now a conception of sin which makes him loathe them.

In the new creation there is also a new standard of measurement. In the old life the sinner measured himself by himself or by others like himself. But in the new order the victorious, obedient, holy life of the incarnate Son becomes the believer's pattern for his own life on earth and all his living is measured by that perfect standard.

Christ's unchanging and unchangeable teachings and principles are now the rule by which he lives and he rejoices in being free from the despotism of the constantly shifting customs and styles of worldly society. The new creation in Christ has a new standard of values. Time becomes an extremely precious thing, the use of which is to be sacredly guarded and prayerfully made. Money becomes invested with new meaning and power, for consecrated to the Lord and used in His service it may be the means of saving souls infinitely precious in God's sight. Men and women, boys and girls, become vastly more than flesh and blood; they are seen as God sees them, human souls lost in sin, redeemed by the precious blood of the Son of God, and waiting to be saved through faith in Him. In all things Christ the Son becomes the believer's Example.

But need we continue to enumerate the things made new through the new birth when God says so plainly that "all things are become new"? Indeed, they must become so because we have a new spring from which all things in our life come. "All things are of God" (2 Corinthians 5:18). The source of all our thoughts, feelings, motives, ambitions, aspirations, actions, affections, purposes and plans, is God Himself. The new birth is just the beginning of a new life. "It is a crisis with view to a process; a rebirth with the prospect of a constant renewal."

Have you, my friend, been born again? Are you a member of the new order? Are you a new creation? If not, will you not begin that new life just now by one believing look at the crucified One?

But perchance, you have professed to come into the family of God through faith in Jesus Christ and yet you are discouraged today because of the countless old things that still persist in the new life. Is yours the case of new pieces on an old garment?

One day on the streets of Peking I saw an old countryman. He had on an old, faded, worn-out garment. It had been blue once but it was blue no longer. Right across the front and across the back of his faded garment were big, bright blue, new patches. On seeing the innocent old countryman's garment I laughed aloud. I could not help it for it looked so funny. But why did I laugh? The patches were all right. They were big and new and bright and blue and covered the whole of his garment, front and back. There was nothing the matter with the patches! Then why did I laugh? I will tell you why. Because the garment and the patches were out of harmony with each other. The garment was old and faded and worn out; the patches were new and bright and blue. The garment and the patches did not belong to each other.

I wonder if as God looks down upon us today He sees some patched Christians! Some professors of Christianity rather than possessors of Christ! Perhaps you go to church, read your Bible, have daily prayer, partake of the Holy Communion, all of which are part of every genuine Christian life. But in your life are these things like new patches on an old garment? Are they simply good habits added on to the old life of sin and self? Are you a patched Christian? A professor instead of a possessor? Or have the old things passed away and all things become new because you are in deed and truth a new creation in Christ?

Chapter Four

Christ Our Lord ---- A New Sovereign in a New Sphere

Crossing God's bridge of salvation the believer enters into a totally new sphere which requires the enthronement of a new Sovereign over his life. The Head of the new creation must become its Lord if all things are to become new.

When the risen Christ ascended to heaven His Father exalted Him to the place of Lordship over the universe and He included within that sovereignty the enthronement of Christ as Lord over the individual believer. To understand better the absolute necessity for such a change of sovereigns let us study these two spheres more in detail.

THE CHARACTERISTIC MARK OF EACH SPHERE

These two spheres are the exact antitheses of each other so that life in the one precludes life in the other. They may be readily distinguished because each has a characteristic mark.

The characteristic mark of the old sphere is the "flesh" and of the new the "Spirit." The unbeliever is "in the flesh" and the believer is "in the Spirit."

The Bible teaches very plainly that "the flesh" and "the Spirit" are mutually irreconcilable enemies in totally diverse camps.

Man became "flesh" through Adam's sin.

The flesh is the whole natural man, the life of nature, whether good or bad, received though the first birth. It is the earthward, sinful life received through human generation. It is all that I am as a son of Adam.

God invariably describes "the flesh" as the cause of sin's power, of the Law's weakness, and as enmity toward Himself. God declares "the flesh" to be irreconcilably lawless.

God sees nothing good in "the flesh." Even the very best product which physical generation can produce He casts away as altogether useless.

Romans 7:18, "For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth NO GOOD THING: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not."

Paul's estimate of the flesh as given in this verse is God-inspired as anyone must readily admit who knows his former high regard for himself (Philippians 3:4-6). Through human generation Paul was indeed richly endowed. Yet inspired by the Holy Spirit he wrote "I know that in my flesh dwelleth no good thing." When he entered into the sphere of the Spirit he saw that the finest and best thing in him, his righteousness, was as "filthy rags" because it, too, was permeated and defiled by sin----it was self-righteousness. No, God sees no redeeming feature in any son of Adam. The flesh offers nothing which is acceptable to God. Indeed the flesh is the soil in which Satan works to keep the sinner alienated from God.

So there is but one possible attitude which God can have toward the flesh. It is the attitude of condemnation and rejection. God refuses to deal with the flesh on any terms for it is irretrievably displeasing to Him. "They that are in the flesh CANNOT please God" (Romans 8:8).

Regeneration opens the way for man to become spiritual. At the new birth, as we have already seen, it is the Holy Spirit who quickens our human spirit and then comes to dwell therein to make our entire life spiritual and supernatural, heavenly and holy. It is the Holy Spirit in us who causes sin's power to be broken, God's law to be kept, and love of God to be supreme.

THE REIGN OF THE OLD MAN

In each of these spheres is a sovereign who purposes to rule with undivided authority.

The sovereign in the old sphere is "the old man." The very essence of the flesh is self-will in the form of this God-resisting, God-rejecting nature. The heart of the flesh is this deep-dyed traitor which hates everything that God loves and loves everything that God hates.

The expression "the old man" is used but three times in the Bible, in Ephesians 4:22, Colossians 3:9, and Romans 6:6. It has an equivalent in the "I" of Galatians 2:20 and in the word "sin" as used in Romans 6. The term commonly used is "self." Through the first Adam's fall, "self" usurped the throne of man's personality and has held it in its control and use ever since. Every child is born into the world with king "self" on the throne, a fact which is made evident before he can even walk or talk.

"The old man" on the throne determines what the whole life from center to circumference shall be. His evil desires become evil deeds; his unholy aspirations are transmitted into unholy acts; his unrighteous character manifests itself in unrighteous conduct; his ungodly will is expressed in ungodly works.

"The old man" demands an environment that is in full accord with his tastes and inclinations, all of which are earthborn. He feeds on the things that are seen, he walks by sight, he revels in "the lust of the flesh," "the lust of the eyes," and "the pride of life." So the only atmosphere in which he could live and breathe is that of the world. "The world" is "the old man's" native heath.

1 John 2:16, "For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world."

THE DETHRONEMENT OF THE OLD MAN ---- CO-CRUCIFIXION WITH CHRIST

The vast majority of Christians stop short in their experience of the blessings of salvation with the joy of forgiveness of past sins and with the hope of heaven in the future. But the present is a forty-year wilderness experience full of futile wanderings, never enjoying peace and rest, never arriving in the promised land.

The history of God's dealing with the children of Israel is full of helpfulness and instruction for us at this point. Indeed it is typical of every phase of our deliverance from the old sphere and our entrance into the new. Egypt is the type of the world; the oppression of Pharaoh typifies the bondage to Satan in which the sinner is held; Canaan, the promised land flowing with milk and honey, typifies the heavenlies in which the believer has every spiritual blessing.

God purposed not only to bring the children of Israel out of Egypt but into Canaan, not only out of bondage but into rest. There are three distinct stages recorded of this deliverance; while still in Egypt they were delivered from the judgment of death through the sprinkling of the blood of the Paschal lamb upon the doorposts; then they were delivered out of Egypt and from the enemies who pursued them by the miraculous passage of the Red Sea. Due to their rebellion and unbelief the forty long, weary years of futile wandering in the wilderness followed, during which all of the people, except Caleb and Joshua, died, never having "possessed their possessions." Then came the last stage in their deliverance when the two, who had wholly followed the Lord, led the new generation of Israelites into the promised land through the miraculous passage of the river Jordan. There they had victory over their enemies, entered into the possession of their inheritance and had rest.

God purposes not only to bring the sinner out of the world but into the heavenlies: not only out of sinnerhood but into sainthood. There are three distinct stages in this deliverance which represent three different aspects of the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. They are not stages in the sense of being marked off in point of time for they all belong to the believer through his relationship to the crucified, risen, exalted Lord and are his in experience the moment he apprehends and claims them by faith.

While still in bondage God speaks to the sinner telling him the way of deliverance from death, through faith in the shed blood of the Lamb of God. This results in the joy and peace of forgiveness, this covers the past. But the sinner needs much more than this for he needs to be taken out of the old sphere and to be freed from the grip of his old enemies, the world, the flesh and the devil. This is the passage of the Red Sea----the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ which makes a way clean out of the old sphere for the believer and at the same time swallows up the pursuing enemies in utter defeat and destruction. This is the believer's justification which gives him the standing before God of a freed and justified man and places the cross and the open tomb between him and his enemies.

Just here many believers stop; satisfied with release from the servitude of Pharaoh's land but not seeking the delights and rest of God's land of promise. They stop short of the last stage of the journey; hence the years of wilderness wandering, constantly going but never getting anywhere. They have been taken out of Egypt but Egypt is still in them. They hanker for the things of the world and of the flesh. Their lives are characterized by selfishness, murmuring, defeat, dissatisfaction, rebellion and fruitlessness. The Jordan crossing is still ahead for them. I wonder if this book has found such a wilderness wanderer in you? If so, may it come as God's Joshua to lead you over the Jordan into the land of your perfect inheritance in Christ Jesus. Through justification and regeneration the believer is separated from the old sphere of the natural man and all that pertains to it; through identification with Christ in His death, resurrection and ascension, he is brought out of the wilderness wanderings of the carnal life and into the victory, peace and rest of the spiritual life. Let us study together now what the crossing of the Jordan typifies for the believer.

Few people are willing to admit that "the old man" sits upon the throne and rules the whole being with despotic power. Even among Christians there are gross ignorance of and indifference to the subtle, insidious workings of the old "I." If the grosser "works of the flesh" are absent from the life, the individual rests in a complacent sense of goodness failing altogether to apprehend how obnoxious to God are the more refined and less openly manifest sins of the spirit and how they separate one leagues upon leagues from His pure holiness. No man living, except the one who through the enabling Spirit has seen Christ in His righteousness and holiness, will ever willingly say, "I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing."

Let us, then, pause for a moment to take a full-length portrait of this hideous, heinous self; let us face honestly his manifold operations and see if we are not forced to accept God's estimate of him and to acquiesce in the method of deliverance from his sovereignty. The foundation of life in the natural man is foursquare; self-will, self-love, self-trust, and self-exaltation, and upon this foundation is reared a superstructure that is one huge capital "I." Self-will is the cornerstone and self-exaltation is the capstone.

Self-Will----"We have turned every one to his own way." The flesh wants its own way and is determined to have it even if it defies and disobeys God and overrides others. "I will" is the alphabet out of which self fashions its language of life.

Self-centeredness----"the old man" feeds upon himself. He is the beginning and the end. Life presents little that interests or affects him except as it relates to himself. He is the center of the world in which he lives and moves and he always looks out for number one.

Self-assertion----"the old man" believes that everyone is as interested in him and as fascinated by him as he himself is, so he protrudes and projects himself into the sight, hearing and notice of others continually. He monopolizes conversation and the theme is always "I," "my" and "mine." He walks with a swagger and expects the world to stop work and look at him. And he never dreams how offensive his self-importance is to others.

Self -depreciation----"the old man" is very versatile and sometimes it suits his purpose better to clothe his pride in a false humility. He curls up in his self-depreciation and shirks a lot of hard work which other people have to do. He magnifies his littleness and feebleness to his own advantage, yet with strange inconsistency he resents others' taking his professed estimate of himself and treating him accordingly.

Self-conceit----"the old man" lives so much in himself that he does not know how big the world is in which he lives and how many other really intelligent people there are in it, so he has little regard for the opinions of others, especially if contrary to his own. He looks with proud and supercilious pity upon those less favored and gifted than himself.

Self-love----"the old man" loves himself supremely, one might say almost exclusively. He loves God not at all and his human love for others is tainted more or less with selfishness, jealousy, envy or impurity. Indeed "the old man" makes an idol of himself which he not only loves but worships.

Self -indulgence----"the old man" eats, drinks, and is merry. For him to want anything is equivalent to having it. He pampers and coddles himself; he can even indulge his extravagant, fleshly appetites while others starve to death before his eyes.

Self-pleasing----"the old man" chafes under discomfort and deprivation and is grumpy and peevish unless everything in the life of his day ministers to his real or imagined needs. He lives unto only one person whose name is self.

Self-seeking----"the old man" is on a quest: he is after whatever will advance the cause of self. He seeks with feverish ambition and activity praise, position, power, prominence, and anything that checks his gaining them is attributed to others.

Self-pity----his love for himself often creates within "the old man" rebellion against his circumstances or relationships; he exaggerates his own possible suffering, discomfort or sorrow and makes himself and others miserable by his habitual murmuring.

Self-sensitiveness----"the old man" is extremely hard to live with because he is covered with wounds and is continually being hurt afresh. He is not very companionable because usually he is dissolved in tears, shrouded in silence, or enjoying a pout.

Self-defense----"the old man" is very jealous of his rights and busy avenging his wrongs. He indulges freely in lawsuits. In his pursuit of his own vindication and justification in cases of disagreement and estrangement with others he is blinded by his own sin.

Self-trust----"the old man" is very self-confident and feels no need of one wiser and stronger than himself. Trusting in his own powers and resources he is prone to say "Though all men shall deny Thee, yet will not I."

Self-sufficiency----the self-confidence of "the old man" fosters an egotistical, smug self-satisfaction which leaves him stagnant. He has neither desire nor sense of need for anything beyond what he already possesses.

Self-consciousness----"the old man" never forgets himself: wherever he goes he casts a shadow of himself before. He is constantly occupied with photographing himself and developing the plates. He is chained to himself and as he walks one hears the clank of the chains. He is often morbidly self-introspective.

Self-exaltation----"the old man" is absorbed in his own excellencies: he overestimates himself and his abilities: he thirsts for admiration and praise and he thrives on flattery. He secretly worships at the shrine "self" and he wishes others to do so publicly.

Self-righteousness----"the old man" loves to dress himself in the garments of morality, benevolence and public-spiritedness. He even patronizes the church and often assists in drives for raising money for philanthropic and religious purposes, heading the list of donors with a handsome gift. He keeps a double entry account book----both with the church and with the world and expects a reward both on earth and in heaven.

Self-glorying----perhaps "the old man" resents this plain delineation of himself as he really is and thinks the condemnation too sweeping. Immediately he begins to enumerate his good qualities, his amiableness, geniality, tolerance, self-control, sacrificial spirit and other virtues. In doing so he takes all the credit to himself for what he is, exhibiting ill-concealed pride and vanity.

All that we have desired to say of this hideous ugly self is said most tellingly by Gerhard Tersteegen in the following lines:

Is this delineation of self true or untrue? You have three ways by which you may judge and decide; what God's Word says of him, what you have seen of his manifestation in other lives, and what you know to be true of yourself. In the light of our own experience is there one of us who would not have to confess to every one of these hateful manifestations of self at some moment in a greater or less degree? We each of us know what a hydra-headed monster that old "I" is. Luther knew it and said "I am more afraid of my own heart than of the Pope and all his cardinals. I have within me that great Pope Self."

What, then, shall be done with this most stubborn foe? this most tyrannical sovereign? this bold usurper of God's place? God has declared very plainly in His Word what He has already done with him. He has but one place for "the old man" and that is the cross, and but one plan for the termination of his despotic rule and that is by his crucifixion with Christ.

Two things explicitly stated in these verses should be noted; first, that the crucifixion of "the old man" is an already accomplished fact, and second, that it is a co-crucifixion.

Notice the tenses: "was crucified"----past, and "have been crucified"---- past perfect. The judicial crucifixion of "the old man" took place centuries ago. Whether or not a single soul ever accepted this glorious fact that the entire old creation in Adam was carried to the cross and there crucified with Christ, it is as gloriously true as the fact that Christ Himself was crucified.

"One died for all."
Substitution----the Saviour on the cross for the sinner.

"Therefore all died."
Identification----the sinner on the cross with the Saviour.

It is part of the flawless provision of God's grace for the believer that everything that pertains to the old nature should terminate its sinful course at the cross. Whether from "sins" or from "self" the cross is God's only place of deliverance. But as surely as Christ Jesus "bore my sins in His own body on the tree" just so surely was my "old man crucified with Him" there. If I accept and act upon the one fact by faith, consistently I must accept and act upon the other fact by faith.

Deliverance from the old sphere "in the flesh" and entrance into the new sphere "in the spirit" demands the dethronement of self. It is very evident that a house divided against itself cannot stand. No house can entertain two masters without unceasing conflict. If the Lord Jesus is to take the throne and rule over the human personality then "the old man" must abdicate. That he will never do. So God must deal drastically with him. He is a usurper whom God has condemned, and sentenced to death. In His infinite grace God carried out that sentence on Calvary's cross. And now God declares to every person who cries out for deliverance from the tyranny of self, "the old man was crucified with Christ." Do you believe it and find it increasingly true?

I was once leading a series of meetings in a school in China and was showing the way of deliverance from both the penalty and the power of sin through the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. One message was particularly on the theme we are now considering. The most attentive listener in the audience was a man who had been the classical teacher in that school for eleven years. Although he had daily heard the Gospel in chapel and had attended church he had never become a Christian. But during those days the Spirit of God worked mightily in his heart convicting and convincing him and finally leading him to an open confession of Christ. In conversation with a missionary afterward this teacher said that, although he had believed the Gospel truth that Christ died for his sins, he had never accepted Him as Saviour because this did not seem to fully meet his need. He said that he was under the dominion of sin, and was governed by that old sinful nature and that not until he learned that God in Christ's cross had dealt with that root, sin, out of which came the fruit, sins, did he believe it was a salvation sufficient to deliver him. But he found in this glorious truth of the crucifixion of "the old man" that God is able to save to the uttermost those that come to Him in Christ and accept the full work of His cross.

The second fact which these verses make clear is that this is a co-crucifixion. "Our old man" was crucified with Christ. This declares both the method and the time of this crucifixion. There is often confusion at this point.

Paul says, "I have been crucified with Christ." He did not try to crucify himself nor did his crucifixion take place at some special point in his spiritual experience through some act on his part. With that death Paul had no more to do than he had with the death of Christ Himself. The crucifixion of that old "I" was not self-crucifixion neither did it take place in Damascus, Arabia, or when Paul was "caught up to the third heaven." But the death of the "I," which was Saul, took place on the cross when Christ died there.

The truth becomes easy of apprehension if we but remember that God sees every person either in Adam or in Christ. He deals with the human race through these two representative men. When Adam died the human race died in him. You died in Adam. So did I. Through that spiritual death "the old man" found birth and usurped God's place on the throne of man's life. Christ came as the last Adam to recover for God and for the race all that had been lost to them through the first Adam. God's method of defeating death is through death, so Christ died and the race of sinners died in Him. "One died for all: therefore all died." When the last Adam died "the old man" died with Him. The old "I" in you and in me was judicially crucified with Christ. "Ye died" and your death dates from the death of Christ. "The old man," the old "self" in God's reckoning was taken to the cross with Christ and crucified and taken into the tomb with Christ and buried.

The perfection of God's grace is marvelously manifested in this glorious fact of co-crucifixion-the sinner with the Saviour on the cross. It needs only the perfection of man's faith to make it a glorious reality in his spiritual experience. Assurance of deliverance from the sphere of the "flesh" and of the dethronement of "the old man" rests upon the apprehension and acceptance of this fact of co-crucifixion.

THE CREATION OF THE NEW MAN. CO-RESURRECTION WITH CHRIST

Co-crucifixion opens the door into co-resurrection. Death is the gate to life. Identification with Christ in His death and burial is but the beginning of the believer's union with Him in endless life. Death is both an ending and a beginning, an exit and an entrance.

Identification with Christ in His quickening, resurrection and ascension, takes the believer into the new sphere of the "Spirit" and begins the life of "the new man."

"Together with Christ" on the cross, in the tomb, in the heavenlies! Thus would the exalted Lord of glory, Head of the new creation, share with every believer the glorious victory of His death, the mighty power of His resurrection, and the regal bounty of His throne.

THE NEW SPHERE ---- THE BELIEVER IN CHRIST

The moment a penitent sinner puts his faith in the atoning blood of the crucified Christ that moment he steps out of life "in Adam" and enters into life "in Christ." Forever after he is ensphered and environed by the Lord of glory. He is "in Christ Jesus" and will be through the ages upon the ages to come. All that he is and has he is and has "in Christ." In God's reckoning the believer has no life apart from His Son. Christ is the ground in which he is rooted and planted. Through the new birth the believer became a new creation with a new nature which demanded a new environment, a new atmosphere, as it were, where the new life could mature into an ever deepening conformity to the image of Jesus Christ. This new environment is "in Christ."

Let us read a few passages out of scores in the Bible in which this expression "in Christ" is used to show that from the eternity of the past through our present life on into the eternity of the future God thinks of who have accepted Christ as Saviour only in this relationship to His Son.