Please turn to 2 Corinthians 5:17-18.
Wherefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature: the old things are passed away; behold, they are become new.
But all things are of God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ, and gave unto us the ministry of reconciliation.
Turn also to Romans 8:1-4.
There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.
For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free from the law of sin and of death.
For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God, sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:
That the ordinance of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
Then 2 Corinthians 4:7-12.
But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the exceeding greatness of the power may be of God, and not from ourselves;
We are pressed on every side, yet not straitened; perplexed, yet not unto despair;
Pursued, yet not forsaken; smitten down, yet not destroyed;
Always bearing about in the body the dying of Jesus, that the life also of Jesus may be manifested in our body.
For we who live are always delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus may be manifested in our mortal flesh.
So then death worketh in us, but life in you.
And finally, John 10:10, the second part:
I came that they may have life, and may have it abundantly.
Let us look to the Lord.
Lord, we have just read Thy Word, and now we look to Thee to quicken Thy Word to our hearts, that truly Thy words may be life and spirit to us. To Thee be the glory, in the name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
We have been considering together this matter of life—eternal life. We find that God always puts this issue before men. It is always the issue of life.
In the garden of Eden, we find that when God created man, He put man before the tree of life. God planted the tree of life in the midst of the garden, and by doing so, He indicated that God’s desire for man is life.
And, of course, beside the tree of life there was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God wanted man to make a choice. There is no doubt about God’s will: God’s will for man is life.
But man has to make a choice: whether he wants life, as God desires him to have, or whether he would rather have knowledge—the knowledge of good and evil—so that he may develop himself and become a god to himself.
The tree of life leads to eternal life, but the tree of the knowledge of good and evil leads to death. God put these two trees before man and let man choose.
But unfortunately, we find that our forefather Adam chose knowledge instead of life. He chose death unknowingly instead of life.
Throughout human history, you find that God has always put this issue before man: life and death. Which will you choose?
Especially when our Lord Jesus came upon this earth, in Him was life, and the life was the light of men. He came that we might have life and have it more abundantly.
He also gave His life on Calvary’s cross, on that tree. To Him, that tree was death; but to us, the tree is life. And He calls us to come to Him to have life.
Brothers and sisters, we do thank God. We do not know why, but in His mercy He has enabled us to choose life instead of death.
Now, having chosen this life, we need to understand the law that governs it. Every life is governed by its law, and that law is the law of nature.
The old life, the life in Adam, has its law, and that law is the law of sin and death. But the new life that we have received in Christ Jesus has its own law too, and that law is the law of the Spirit of life.
In other words, the Holy Spirit, who indwells us, will bring life to us. He will enable us to know Christ more and more, because Christ is our life.
When the Spirit of life is working in us, we mentioned yesterday morning that first of all there is bound to be revelation—there is bound to be light and enlightenment. After the enlightenment, there will be separation, which is holiness.
As the Holy Spirit works to bring more life to us, invariably He will lead us to the cross. There will be the mark of the cross there, and the cross will inevitably lead to glory.
In other words, Christ will be formed in us, life will be abundant, and God will be satisfied.
Now this morning, we would like to go a little further. We would like to consider together the battle for life.
In the first passage that we have just read, we find: “If anyone be in Christ Jesus, there is a new creation. Old things have passed away. Behold, everything is new, and everything is of God, who has reconciled us to Himself.”
If anyone be in Christ Jesus—now, are we in Christ Jesus? Thank God, it is God who has put us in Christ Jesus. 1 Corinthians 1:30 says, “But of Him are ye in Christ Jesus.”
Now, if this is where we are, then, brothers and sisters, what are we? We are a new creation.
“If anyone be in Christ Jesus”—that is, if this is where you are—then you are a new creation. That is what you are.
And what is a new creation? A new creation is entirely new. All things have passed away. All the old things that belong to the old creation have passed away.
The old creation is Adam. In other words, all the Adamic habits, the Adamic disposition, the Adamic concepts, the Adamic behavior, the Adamic thoughts and feelings—everything that belongs to the old creation, everything that belongs to Adam—has passed away. They are all gone.
And everything is new. The new here is really new, and the new is of God. In other words, everything that is not of God has passed away, and everything that is of God is now here.
And we are reconciled to God. Formerly, there was separation between God and man; there was disagreement. But now we find that we have been reconciled, completely restored to harmony with God. This is the beauty of the new creation.
Of course, in 2 Corinthians 5, this refers to individuals: if anyone is in Christ Jesus, he is a new creation. But one day even the whole universe will be a new creation.
In Revelation 21, John heard a great voice, a loud voice, saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men.” And the One who sits on the throne said, “Behold, I make all things new.”
In other words, one day everything that is old will disappear, and all that is new will be of God. That will be a glorious day.
Brothers and sisters, are we a new creation? We are.
Did the old things all pass away? There seems to be some hesitation.
All right, let us go back to the Word of God. What does God say? If you are a new creation, then there is nothing old remaining there. If there is something old remaining, it is not a new creation; it is a mixture.
But God says, “No, it is a new creation. Old things have passed away. Everything is new. Everything is of God.” Now, do you believe that? Do you really believe that?
Well, if we are honest with ourselves, even after you believe in the Lord Jesus, even after you have received His life in you, even after you know that you are in Christ Jesus, there is no doubt about it.
And yet, you discover that in your daily experience, thank God, there are some new things. That is true. But unfortunately, you find that in your daily experience, lots of the old things still seem to be there.
They do not seem to have passed away. Furthermore, you find that probably the old things seem to have a greater part in your life than the new things.
You find that old things seem to linger on with such strength. They do not seem to have passed away. They are there, and that bothers you.
Now, is there any contradiction here? The Word of God says you are a new creation. Old things have passed away. Everything is new. And you believe it.
But when you come to your own experience, you find that it is not so. You find that many old things still cling to you, and the new thing seems to be rather weak. Do you know why?
Here you find two things. One is what we call objective truth; the other is what we call subjective experience.
What is objective truth? An objective truth is something which God has done in Christ Jesus.
Subjective experience is something which the Holy Spirit does in us.
Here you find God has done something in Christ Jesus. What He has done is once and for all. What He has done is a finished work. What He has done is of eternal effect. It never changes.
When Christ died on the cross, God did something. God put away the old creation. God put away Adam. God put away everything that is connected with Adam.
Everything that is old, God put away on the cross of Calvary. It is done. It has passed away.
And on the cross, through the resurrection of our Lord Jesus, God made a new creation. Everything is new. Everything is in God. Everything is of God—a new creation.
Brothers and sisters, remember this: the cross of Calvary, the cross of Christ, is a tremendous thing. There on that cross, God has done a tremendous work. The old creation has passed away, and a new creation has come into being. That is what happened on Calvary’s cross.
This is something that has been done in Christ Jesus, something done once and for all. It is an eternal fact.
Brothers and sisters, when Christ died on the cross, He bore our sins in His body on that tree. Because of that, we are delivered from sins and are made alive unto righteousness. This has been done.
Our sins have all been remitted. It is done once and for all.
When Christ Jesus died on the cross, He took you and me with Him. He was the last Adam, and when the last Adam died, the race of Adam was terminated.
So here you find that Adam’s race is terminated in Him. And He is the second Man, the beginning of a new race.
You and me—the old man was crucified with Him. This is what God has done in Christ Jesus. It was done two thousand years ago. It was done, and it is of eternal effect. It never changes.
That is the reason why it says, “If anyone be in Christ Jesus, there is a new creation.” You cannot be in Christ Jesus and be in the old creation. It cannot be, because God has done it in Christ Jesus.
It is an eternal fact. It is an objective truth which we must believe. We must receive it. This is our foundation, the foundation upon which the Holy Spirit can build.
Now, when you come to subjective experience, you find that whatever God has done in Christ Jesus on Calvary’s cross—that fact has to be made real in each one of us.
When the Holy Spirit is working in us, He is making real all that has been done and is an eternal fact in Christ Jesus. He makes everything real, living, and personal to each one of us. That is subjective experience.
Subjective experience is based upon objective truth. If there is no objective truth, there can be no subjective experience.
In other words, if Christ had not finished the old creation and brought in the new creation, then, brothers and sisters, no matter how we tried to experience the passing of the old creation and the coming of the new creation, it would never come. There would be no foundation for it.
The Holy Spirit can only take hold of that which Christ has done and apply it to us personally.
So we need the objective truth. Objective truth is something that we must believe. Believe it. Accept it. There is nothing you can do about it, and God does not require you to do anything to it.
You cannot add anything to it, and you cannot take anything away from it. It is simply something ready, all prepared, and God says, “Take it.” We take it by faith.
When we take it by faith, then the Holy Spirit has the ground to work it into us. Whatever the Holy Spirit has worked into our lives becomes our subjective experience.
Now, what is spiritual growth? Spiritual growth is when the distance between the objective truth and the subjective experience becomes nearer and nearer, closer and closer. That is spiritual growth.
In other words, as the Holy Spirit brings what God has done in Christ Jesus and makes it real in our lives, we are drawing closer and closer, nearer and nearer, to what Christ is.
Until we are transformed and conformed to His image. That is spiritual growth.
So what is eternally true in Christ Jesus must be made real now to us. This is the work of the Holy Spirit.
Sometimes people emphasize objective truth very strongly and neglect subjective experience. The result is that they become very legalistic, self-righteous, presumptuous, dogmatic, hypocritical—like the Pharisees.
But other people emphasize subjective experience and overlook objective truth. The result is that they can become very emotional, unstable, blind, and self-deceived.
So the truth is that we need to maintain a balance between objective truth and subjective experience.
Now, by way of explanation, let us use Romans again. We find Romans chapters 5, 6, 7, and 8. These four chapters are very important chapters.
That does not mean that other chapters are not important. Every word of God is important. But here, in Romans chapters 5, 6, 7, and 8, may we say that chapter 5 is in Adam, chapter 6 is in Christ, chapter 7 is in the flesh, and chapter 8 is in the Spirit.
Chapters 5 and 6 speak of our position—objective truth. Chapters 7 and 8 speak of our subjective experience, our condition.
So far as our position is concerned, before we knew the Lord Jesus, we were in Adam. How did we come to be in Adam? We were born into Adam.
You had no choice. You were simply born into Adam. And because you were born into Adam, whatever Adam is, that is what you are.
If Adam dies, and you are in Adam, you die. Because of the sin of one man, death came upon all. Why? Because we are in Adam.
We share the same life with Adam. We share the same destiny with Adam. We exhibit all the characteristics of Adam, and we are bound by the law of sin and death that operates in Adam. This is where we were: hopeless and helpless.
But thank God, in chapter 6 we find that we are in Christ. Now, how did we come out of Adam and come into Christ?
There is no way of coming out of Adam except through death. You enter into Adam by life, and you get out of Adam through death.
So here you find our Lord Jesus. He represents us. He embraces us. He contains all of us in Himself, and He died.
By His death, we are delivered out of Adam. Through His resurrection, we are born again into Christ.
In the same way, there is no way you can get into Christ except by being born into Him. That is the reason why you cannot manufacture a Christian. A Christian has to be born.
It is through the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus that we came out of Adam, and thank God, we are now in Christ Jesus.
We share the same life with Christ. We share the same destiny with Christ. All the characteristics of Christ belong to us.
Because the law of the Spirit of life operates in Christ Jesus, therefore it operates in us. This is the glorious position that God has given to us.
No matter how we change, no matter what condition we are in, that position never changes.
God has not only done it in Christ, but God has put us in Christ, and nobody can change it. Thank God for that. We have a position that is unchanging and unchangeable.
But when you come to chapters 7 and 8, you find the scenery is entirely different. Why? Because in chapter 7, you find it is in the flesh; and in chapter 8, it is in the Spirit.
Adam is not only a person. Adam is a corporate term. There was a man called Adam, created by God, but he is more than just a single person. He is the federal head of a whole race.
So Adam is a corporate term. All who are in Adam are called by the name of Adam; we are Adam’s sons. Because it is a corporate term, it is an objective term.
Now Christ is the same way. Christ is a person. He came into this world. But Christ is more than a single person. We find that Christ is the Head of the Body.
So, in one sense, Christ is also a corporate, objective term. There is only one Adam, and there is only one Christ.
You do not have two, three, or millions of Adams. No, there is just one Adam. The Bible says our old man was crucified with Christ, and the old man is singular in number.
It is not that you have an old man and I have an old man and everybody has an old man. No, we share one old man—Adam, only one man.
So whatever happened to Adam happened to all of us. The same thing is true with Christ. There is only one Christ.
If anyone says, “Here is Christ,” or, “There is Christ,” do not believe it. It is a false Christ. There is only one Christ, and we are all in Christ. So whatever happened to Christ happened to all of us.
That is the objective truth. You do not need to experience it yourself in order to get into that objective truth. Even if you have no experience, that position is yours. You are already there. The potentialities are all there. Thank God for that.
But when you come to the term flesh, in Romans 7 Paul says, “In me, that is, in my flesh.” In other words, flesh is the personal term of the corporate Adam.
Self is the experiential term of the objective truth of Adam. So every one of us has his or her own flesh. Your flesh is different from my flesh.
In a way, we all inherit from Adam, but somehow, according to the law of heredity, you inherit certain genes from Adam and I inherit another combination of genes. So we find that we are all different.
Every one of us has his own, her own, flesh. Your flesh is different from my flesh, and my flesh is different from your flesh. Maybe your flesh is better than mine because you have more good than evil from Adam. But nevertheless, it is flesh.
Remember one thing, and that is a great discovery. Certainly, the flesh of Paul was much better than mine. I have no doubt about it. But one day he discovered that in him, that is, in his flesh, there was no good.
Thank God for that discovery. So he is no better than I. Everybody has his own flesh. Flesh is the experiential term of the objective truth of Adam.
So far as Adam is concerned, he is finished. At the cross of Calvary, the old man was crucified, and thank God for that. But when you come to the experiential side, you find that the flesh is still there.
Why is it there? It is there because when you believed in the Lord Jesus, so far as you were concerned, the bad flesh you rejected, but the good flesh you wanted to keep.
Not only do you keep it, but you want to use the good flesh to serve God. And that is the problem.
If, on the day you believed in the Lord Jesus, you saw that the old Adam was crucified and gave up your flesh completely, brothers and sisters, you would save lots of problems.
But unfortunately, nobody seems to do it. Why? Because we love our flesh too much. You know, it is our pride.
Even though mentally we may know Romans 6:6: “Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him,” mentally we do know. We have heard about it. Mentally, we know it.
And yet, when you come to Romans 7, it says, “Are ye ignorant?” You know, and you are ignorant. In other words, mentally you know; spiritually, you are ignorant.
You do not accept God’s verdict. God says there is no good in Adam; let him be crucified. But you say, just like Saul, “I will kill all the Amalekites, all the cattle and all the sheep; but the good of the flock and of the cattle, it is a pity to kill them. Why not take them and offer them to God?”
That is exactly what we do. We try to use the good flesh to serve God’s purpose.
Then we discover, to our surprise, that not only does God not appreciate it, but we find that we are bound. We are bound by the law of sin and death.
We thought we were out of Adam. We thought that law did not apply to us anymore. But we discover that we are still under that law because, as long as we live according to the flesh, all the Adamic things return.
The old things come back, and the law of sin and death comes back. What we know we should do, we cannot do. That is death. What we should not do, we do. That is sin. We are still bound by the law of sin and death.
It takes some experience of defeat and failure to come to the point of seeing that in me—that is, in my flesh—there is no good.
Agree with God that what He has done is right. We believe it and thank God. As we let go of the flesh to the cross, we find that we are in Christ, and we find a new law begins to operate.
In Romans chapter 8, it is in the Spirit. Verse 1 says, “There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.”
Now, the word condemnation can be used in two different ways. If you use it legally, it is condemnation—you go to a court, and there is condemnation. That is the legal use of it.
But there is also a practical use of it, and it simply means disability or weakness. There is no more disability, no more lack of strength, to those who are in Christ Jesus.
In other words, you come to realize your position in Christ, and you stand in that position by faith. As you stand in that position by faith, you find that another law begins to operate in you.
So in verse 2 it says, “For the law of the Spirit of life set us free from the law of sin and death in Christ Jesus.” You are in Christ Jesus; therefore, you find that a new law begins to operate. It is the law of the Spirit of life.
This law of the Spirit of life sets you free from the law of sin and death.
Now, we are earthbound. The law of gravitation is very strong upon us. It will not let us go. You may jump up, but you will come down.
But suppose you get on an airplane or a spaceship. You find that the rocket or the engine sends you up into the sky. The law of aerodynamics is working.
Here you find another law at work, and that law overcomes the lower law. The lower law is there, but there is a higher law, and it sets you free. There is a lift; you go into the sky. There is liberty.
And, brothers and sisters, have we been lifted up?
This way of life is a gate and a way. Just as in Matthew 7, the Lord said, “The gate is narrow, and the way is narrow, but it leads to life.”
In other words, in our Christian life we need to receive a revelation from God: a revelation of seeing that our old man was crucified; a revelation that there is no good in my flesh.
We need a revelation not only to believe that when Christ died, we died, but a revelation to see that we deserve to die. That is the best thing for us.
We need such a revelation. When we receive that revelation, then we are set free.
Just like our dear brother Watchman. After he believed in the Lord Jesus, for seven years he was searching—searching for a life that is victorious, that is free.
He knew about Romans 6, knew that our old man was crucified, and knew about Romans 6:11: that we are to reckon ourselves dead unto sin, but alive unto God in Christ Jesus.
And he said that the more he reckoned, the more alive he was unto sin. He did not understand why he could not die. Nobody can put himself to death.
One morning, as he was praying, suddenly the Lord showed him his union with Christ. Because he was in Christ, therefore when Christ died, he died. He did not need to put himself to death.
You may hate yourself. You may try to kill yourself, but you cannot. There is one kind of death you cannot do to yourself, and that is crucifixion. You cannot crucify yourself. That is impossible.
But you do not need to do that. You were already crucified.
One day, when that revelation came to him, our brother was so filled with joy that he ran down the stairs. He met a brother in the kitchen and laid hold of him, saying, “Brother, do you know that I died?”
And the brother looked at him and said, “What is it?”
We need a revelation. Because then we begin to see, thank God, that we are in Christ Jesus, and the law of the Spirit of life sets us free from the law of sin and death. We get a lift.
But, you know, it is also a long way. Do not think that because you enter into that gate, therefore you are safe forever.
Unfortunately, all these spaceships and airplanes have to come down. When they come down again, you are bound by the law of gravitation. You need another lift.
We need to be kept in Christ.
We have already mentioned that it is by the teaching of the anointing. That is the reason why you find Romans chapter 8 says, in verse 3:
For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God, sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:
That the ordinance of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
There are people who have experienced this uplift, and what a glorious experience it is. But unfortunately, they do not walk according to the Spirit. If you do not walk according to the Spirit, you come down.
But as long as you walk according to the Spirit, then you are there. You are there.
So it is of extreme importance that in our daily life we listen to the teaching of the anointing within us and walk according to the Spirit.
So far as our daily experience is concerned, brothers and sisters, there is a tug of war going on within us all the time. Two laws are in battle.
The flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, so you cannot do what you want to do.
Now, brothers and sisters, there is a difference between Romans 7:15 and Galatians 5:17.
In Romans 7:15, Paul says:
For that which I do I know not: for not what I would, that do I practice; but what I hate, that I do.
In other words, in Romans 7, I cannot do what I should do, but I do what I should not do. It is being bound by the law of sin and death.
But Galatians 5 is a different story. In Galatians 5, it says that if we walk by the Spirit, we shall in no wise fulfill the lust of the flesh.
It is true that the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh. These things are opposed to one another, so that you may not do the things which you desire. And the things you desire are actually what the flesh desires.
In other words, you are able not to do what the flesh desires because you are walking after the Spirit.
But the war is there within you. Whenever you begin to lean toward the flesh, give ground to the flesh, or indulge your flesh, immediately you find that you are bound by the law of sin and death.
But when the Holy Spirit is working in you and you follow the Holy Spirit, when you walk by the Spirit, you find there is life there. The law of the Spirit of life is there; it is working.
It is a battle for life. The more you walk by the Spirit, the less the flesh is able to hold you down. This is the way that life grows.
Another thing: we not only have the battle for life within us. The flesh wants to bring us to death; the Spirit will bring us to life. The devil goes on.
But we find that there is a battle for life even around us. You know, life grows through battle. Look at plant life.
Plant life is subject to its environment—different weather, different environments—and you find that plant life is really battling for life. If it is overcome by the environment, it dies. If it overcomes its environment, it lives.
That is how life grows. Life grows by struggling.
It is the same thing with our spiritual life. Brothers and sisters, we are living in a hostile world. Our enemy is called the prince of this world.
In other words, today we are living in a very hostile environment. Everything around us is pressing upon us, trying to crush us, trying to make us die.
But thank God, there is a life within us, and that life is battling against the death around us.
So Paul says, “We have this treasure in an earthen vessel.” You see, we are an earthen vessel, and an earthen vessel, of course, is very fragile.
But we have a treasure in the earthen vessel, that the surpassing greatness of the power may be of God and not of ourselves.
We are pressed on every side, but not crushed. We are at our wits’ end many times, but not at our life’s end. You know, that is Phillips’ translation.
We are persecuted, but not abandoned. We are knocked down, but not knocked out. Now, is that not our spiritual life?
Life is a battle, and we are battling against the environment around us. But thank God, because there is a life within us—that resurrection life within us—we find that even though we are pressed, we are not crushed.
As the psalmist said in Psalm 4:1, “Thou hast enlarged me when I was in distress.” Instead of being crushed, we are enlarged.
Yes, we come to our wits’ end many times. We do not know what to do. Whenever we come to a situation, our minds begin to work like a computer, trying to find a solution. But many times we come to our wits’ end.
But thank God, it is not the end of life. It is the end of the natural life and the beginning of the spiritual life.
Paul said, “We ourselves have had the sentence of death within ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God who raiseth the dead.”
We are knocked down, true, many times, but never knocked out. Brothers and sisters, the more we go into this kind of battling, the more the life within us increases. This is how life grows.
If you try to cultivate a plant in a hothouse, you may have a beautiful flower, but it does not last. It cannot endure. There is not that quality within it.
Thank God, He puts us in this kind of world. Sometimes we think, if we were born in the garden of Eden before man fell, how good that would be.
But God knows what is the best environment for each one of us.
Life grows best in its proper environment. But we do not know what our proper environment is. God knows.
What we think is good may not be good to us. What we think is bad may not be bad to us. God has arranged our environment and circumstances in order to bring forth the strength of that resurrection life in us.
Brothers and sisters, we need to thank God for our environment, because this is the way life grows, and it grows best.
So do not murmur anymore. God knows best.
I have to borrow a little time. There is one verse we have to consider: John 10:10.
The Lord Jesus said, “I came that they may have life, and may have it abundantly.”
Now, brothers and sisters, the Lord came into this world for one purpose: that we may have life.
How do we have this life? Is there any battle for us? No.
We receive that life freely, without any cost, without any battle. Why? Because the battle was done by the Lord Himself.
He battled it on the cross. It was a severe battle, and He won that battle.
So He releases life and gives it freely to us. Thank God for that. We now receive life by faith.
But remember: to have it more abundantly is a different story.
You may have life without battling. It is given. But to have it more abundantly, brothers and sisters, requires obedience.
It requires submission. It requires denying yourself. It requires taking up your cross and following the Lord. It requires the dying of self.
It is costly. That is the reason why you find that many have received life, but few have it more abundantly.
If we want to have that life increase in us, we have to battle. We have to battle for it.
Brother Fox said, “It is not that you get more of Christ; it is that Christ gets more of you.”
Christ is a complete Christ. You cannot have Him more. You cannot make Him more. He is complete.
But what is needed is that He needs to get more of you. He needs to empty you more. He needs to reduce you more in order that He may fill you more.
Life is there. That life is abundant life. The life of Christ is not a legal life, a barely-living life. No, the life of Christ is an abundant life.
But why is it that we do not have Him more abundantly? It is because there is too much of ourselves, too much of other things there. They squeeze the life of Christ in us.
He needs to be expanded in us, and the only way for that is the cross.
Brothers and sisters, the cross is the only way to abundance, to fullness. If we try to avoid the cross, then we will stay lean.
But if we want to be abundant, we have to deny ourselves, take up the cross, and follow. This is the only way.
Thank God, the battle of life was already won by Christ. He said, “I am the resurrection, and the life.”
That resurrection life has gone into death, overcome death, and come out of death in glory.
Because He has already won that battle, the same life is now in you and me.
There is no reason why that life cannot win. It always reigns, if you let it.
Shall we pray?
Dear Heavenly Father, we do praise and thank Thee that Thou hast put such a glorious resurrection life in us. We praise and thank Thee that Thou dost arrange circumstances to bring out the strength of that life.
O Father, we pray that we may know more of that life, that we may depend more on that life, that we may truly say, “Christ is our life.”
For us to live, it is Christ. To Thee be the glory. Amen.