Will you please turn to the book of Romans?
We read from verse 31 to the end.
What then shall we say to these things?
If God is for us, who is against us?
He who spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not also with Him freely give us all things?
Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect? It is God who justifieth;
who is he that shall condemn? It is Christ Jesus that died, yea rather, that was raised from the dead, Who is at the right hand of God, Who also maketh intercession for us.
Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or anguish, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
Even as it is written,
“For Thy sake we are killed all the day long;
We were accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”
Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us.
For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,
nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Let us have a word of prayer.
Dear Lord, we are a grateful people. We thank Thee for reminding us that Thou hast covenanted with us by Thy blood. We are Thy covenant people. We belong to Thee, and we are to glorify Thy name.
So, dear Lord, we are here, presenting ourselves before Thee, to pray that by Thy Spirit Thou wilt speak to us and bring us to the place where we truly shall glorify Thee. Thou knowest our condition. Thou knowest where we are. Bring us to where Thou wantest us to be.
We commit this time into Thy hands and trust Thee to do Thy work. We pray in Thy precious name. Amen.
Yesterday morning, we shared on our position in spiritual ascendancy. We find that our spiritual ascendancy is not in us; it is in Christ Jesus. It is He Who has attained for us that spiritual ascendancy because of what He has done, because of His obedience to His Father, even unto death, yea, the death of the cross.
Therefore, the Father has highly exalted Him and has given Him a name that is above every name. At that name every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess that Jesus is Lord.
He is in that ascendant position. God has made Him Head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him Who filleth all in all.
He has quickened us together with Him. He has raised us up together with Him. He has seated us together with Him in the heavenlies. So, brothers and sisters, spiritual ascendancy is given to us through Christ Jesus.
He has not only given us that position, but with that position, life, in order that it will not be just a position to us, but that it will be a reality to us.
Now, brothers and sisters, it is very important for us to see our position, to know where God has put us in Christ Jesus.
So far as position is concerned, this is an objective truth. By objective truth, it means this is something that God has accomplished for us in Christ Jesus. It is not something that is accomplished by us. It is something that God has done in Christ Jesus for our sake.
It is objective. In other words, it is something that has been done. It is an accomplished fact in Christ Jesus, and it is something that is always true. It cannot be affected by circumstances or conditions. It is forever true in Christ Jesus. Now, that is objective truth.
Objective truth is important because it is the basis for our subjective experience. Our experience is based upon objective truth. In other words, we have to see what God has done for us in Christ Jesus before we can ever experience what He has done for us in our lives.
Subjective experience is something that the Holy Spirit today is working into our lives. In other words, the Holy Spirit takes what Christ has accomplished for us and brings it to us, making it real, living, and experiential in our lives. Now, that is subjective experience.
These two things cannot be separated. First of all, we must see the objective truth, and then the Holy Spirit will apply what Christ has done two thousand years ago for us to our lives even today.
Brothers and sisters, we all see our Lord Jesus dying on the cross, shedding His blood for our sins. This is something that was done two thousand years ago. It is done in Christ Jesus. We were not there, but Christ, on the cross, bore in His body all the sins of the world, and He atoned for our sins. An objective truth has been established.
Now, if you do not see this, you will never experience the forgiveness of your sins. Why do we experience the forgiveness of our sins today? It is based upon what Christ has done for us on the cross two thousand years ago.
The Holy Spirit just applies what God has done in Christ Jesus and brings it into our lives, so that we experience what Christ has done for us.
Brothers and sisters, we need first to believe the objective truth. Somehow the Holy Spirit just opens our eyes and gives us faith to believe what God has done in Christ Jesus for us. As we believe, immediately it becomes subjective experience in our lives. Now, I think we have all experienced this, and we all understand it.
Now, in the very same way, we need to have a revelation, a vision, of the objective truth of the ascendancy of Christ. We have seen Christ on the cross, but have we seen Christ on the throne?
We need to have the vision that John saw in the book of Revelation.
In the life experience of John the Apostle, he was one of the first who followed the Lord Jesus. Among the twelve disciples, he was the last living one who had followed the Lord Jesus. He was the one who laid upon the bosom of our Lord Jesus. He was the one whom Jesus loved. In other words, he knew the Lord Jesus on earth so well.
When our Lord was crucified on the cross, he was the only disciple of the twelve who was at the foot of the cross. He was the one who testified that when the soldier thrust his spear into the side of our Lord, there came out blood and water.
He had an intimate relationship with the Lord. But, brothers and sisters, he needed a further vision of the Lord—not only the Lord on earth, but the Lord in heaven, the ascended Lord, a Lamb in the midst of the throne.
Because he had that vision, therefore he experienced the Christ in heaven. Brothers and sisters, we need to ask the Lord to open our spiritual eyes and give us a vision of the ascended Lord.
We need to see that He is seated at the right hand of God. We need to see that all authority and power have been given to Him in heaven and on earth. We need to see that God has put everything under His feet, and He has been made Head over all things. We need to have such a vision of our Lord Jesus.
The reason why we do not experience spiritual ascendancy in our daily lives is because we lack that vision. That is the reason why the Apostle Paul prayed for the saints in Ephesus, that God, our Father, would give us the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the full knowledge of Him.
So first of all, brothers and sisters, we need to pray, asking the Lord to give us such a vision. Now, maybe you say, “You have heard it. You know it.” I grant that you do—that we have heard it, and mentally we know that our Lord Jesus is highly exalted.
But that is not enough. In spiritual things, we need revelation—vision. We need to humble ourselves before the Lord and ask Him to open our spiritual eyes, that somehow it is not just in our minds, but that somehow we can say, “Once I heard, but now I see.”
This is extremely important. This is something that cannot be done by reading, nor can it be done by hearing. This is something for which we have to humble ourselves before the Lord and ask for a revelation.
But thank God, it pleases Him to reveal His Son in us. God is most willing to do that. What is needed is that we really have a desire, a heart, for knowing the Lord in ascendancy. So that is the very basis of everything.
Now, having seen our position in Christ Jesus—that we have been given that position—it is not something that we attain. It is something that Christ has attained for us, something that we just obtain and receive by faith from our Lord Jesus.
This morning we will move into this matter of our possession. How can we really experience spiritual ascendancy in our daily lives?
As believers, I believe this is our greatest problem: How can I live in that ascendant position? God has made Christ Head over all things to the church.
In other words, He is Head over all things, and all things are under His feet. This is to the church. Why? Because the church is His body. That ascendant position of the Head is to the body, that in the body the same ascendancy will be experienced.
Now, how do we get into that subjective experience?
Before we go into it, I would like to share with you a chapter from Hudson Taylor’s life. I believe most of us probably know who Hudson Taylor was. Hudson Taylor was one who was greatly used by God to open up inland China to the gospel.
In the nineteenth century, when missionaries came to China, most of them were in the treaty ports. I wonder whether you know what treaty ports were.
In other words, China made treaties with certain Western nations to open up certain ports—seaports and southern cities—for Westerners to come and trade. Not only to trade, but in these treaty ports, the Westerners who lived there were not subject to Chinese law; they were under their own country’s law.
So, in the early days, when missionaries came to China, they stayed in these treaty ports. Not only could they be protected by their governments, but at the same time they were not welcome by the Chinese if they tried to go inland. They were in danger.
But Hudson Taylor felt that, in order to preach the gospel to the Chinese, he had to live with the Chinese. He had to go into inland China to preach the gospel.
So, in the China Inland Mission that he founded, all the missionaries dressed as Chinese. They moved outside of these concessions to live among the Chinese, and they penetrated into inland China.
If you read the story of these early missionaries, it will make you weep. But for the love of God, they did it.
Hudson Taylor had been in China already for a number of years. He had fellow workers with him, and he was used by the Lord. But this dear brother was not satisfied. He felt that he worked among the Chinese, but he did not live up to the Christian life that he knew he should live.
He was bothered by it. “How could I preach to the Chinese, and myself not live as Christ lived on earth?”
So, at one time, he was so exercised by this problem that he devoted himself earnestly to prayer and fasting. He read the Word of God more diligently, and he tried to work up his faith in the Lord Jesus. But it did not work.
Then something happened. You know, in that two-volume set of his biography, written by his daughter-in-law, Mrs. Howard Taylor, the first volume is called The Growth of a Soul. There is a chapter entitled “The Exchanged Life.”
He had a wonderful experience that released him into spiritual ascendancy. He wrote a letter to his sister in England, and this is the gist of it.
It was on September 4, 1869. One of his fellow workers, Mr. McCarthy, wrote him a letter. Mr. McCarthy, just like Hudson Taylor, was searching and seeking for that ascendant life.
Hudson Taylor received a letter from Mr. McCarthy, and this part of the letter touched him deeply.
How then shall we have our faith increased?
By looking at all that Jesus is, and what He is to be—His death, His life, His work, He Himself—as revealed to us in the Word.
He is to be the subject of our constant thought.
Not by striving to have faith, or to increase faith, but by looking off unto the Faithful One.
That is all we need.
These words touched Hudson Taylor deeply. He said, “Now I see the secret.”
You know, in the past, he was trying very hard. “If only by faith I can draw that power from the Lord Jesus to myself, then I will live a transcendent life.” But somehow it did not work.
So he saw in that letter: not by trying to draw the sap of the vine into myself, but by realizing that He is the Vine—the root, the stem, the branches, the twigs, the leaves, the fruit. He is all of that and much more. He is the soil, the sunshine, the rain. He is everything.
“I am in Him, one with Him, and with all His fullness. Not trying to have more faith to bring in holiness, but to realize that He is holiness. One with Him—whatever He is, that is what I am.”
He said later in the same letter, “I am no better than before, but I was dead and buried, and raised and ascended with Christ.”
He said, “God says faith is the substance of things hoped for. Faith rests on substance, not on shadow. Sight only shows the outward form of things, but faith rests in substance.”
Brothers and sisters, on that day he saw one thing: he saw that he was in Christ. Because he was in Christ, all that Christ is was his. It is not by striving, but by resting—resting in what Christ has done.
Now, brothers and sisters, this is the secret of how we are going to transfer, as it were, from position to possession.
In other words, the position is already there. What is needed is to maintain that position.
You know, our problem is—and this is also the strategy of the enemy—what is temptation? He is trying to lead us away from the position that we have in Christ Jesus.
As long as he is able to draw our eyes away from Christ and into situations, he is successful.
So, brothers and sisters, the important thing is that we really need to have a very firm foundation, a real seeing of our position—what an ascendant position we have in Christ Jesus.
When we are tempted, all we need to do is stand by faith in that position, and we will experience that ascendancy.
Now let us go to Romans 8. We know Romans 8:31–39. This is the conclusion to the preceding eight chapters. It is a victory song, a triumphant cry.
Paul says, “What shall we then say to these things?” Now, what are these things? These things are described to us in the preceding eight chapters.
We know these things show us the mercies of God. They show us what God has done for us in Christ Jesus.
The book of Romans tells us that we were sinners. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. There is no exception. We were all under judgment. The wrath of God was upon all of us.
No matter how we try to do good or to keep the law, we fail. No one could be justified by the works of the law, whether it is written law or unwritten law written upon our conscience. No one could be justified.
But God has made His Son the mercy seat. There is blood on the mercy seat. Because blood is on the mercy seat, our sins are forgiven.
Not only are we delivered from the penalty of sin, which is eternal death, but here we find that our Lord Jesus, as He was crucified on the cross, not only bore our sins in His body; He bore every one of us and was crucified on the cross.
In other words, by His death, we were dead. When He was crucified, we were crucified, because He took us in Him. His death is our death.
Because we were dead to sin in Christ Jesus, when He was raised from the dead, we were alive unto God in Christ Jesus, and we live in newness of life.
He has not only justified us, as if we had never sinned, but He has also sanctified us, set us apart, and given us a new life that we may live for God. He also glorifies us, transforms us, and conforms us to the image of His beloved Son.
Now, all these things God has done for us in Christ Jesus: not only justification, but also sanctification and holiness; also glorification, change into His likeness.
All these God has already done in Christ Jesus for us. These are objective truths. These are what God has done for you and for me in Christ Jesus. These are eternal facts. They cannot be affected by any condition or any experience. They are forever true, forever firm, forever certain.
Now, having seen these things, what shall we say?
So here Paul says, “If God is for us, who is against us?” There is absolutely no doubt that God is for us. Can you doubt that God is for you anymore?
Having done so much for us in Christ Jesus, God is for us. Who can be against us? It is a challenge to the whole world. It is a challenge to every situation. It is a challenge not only to men, but to angels, to principalities and authorities—not only of this age, but even of the age to come. If God is for us, who can be against us?
He Who has not spared His own Son, will He not give us all things in Christ Jesus?
Who shall bring an accusation against God’s elect? Brothers and sisters, you are elected by God. Even before the foundation of the world, God chose you in Christ Jesus.
How do you know? Because today you are His. That proves that you are elected. If you are elected, who can accuse us? It is God Who justifies us. The enemy’s mouth is shut. The accuser cannot accuse us anymore, because it is God Who justifies us.
Now, who can condemn us? The only One Who can condemn us is our Lord Jesus.
You remember John 8. The Pharisees and the scribes—the self-righteous ones, the hypocrites—took a woman who was caught in adultery. They brought her to our Lord Jesus, trying to put her to shame before the public. They asked the Lord Jesus, “What should we do with this sinful woman?”
The Lord said, “What did Moses say?” They said that Moses said if one is caught in adultery, she should be stoned to death.
The Lord said, “He who is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.” Then our Lord bowed down and wrote on the ground. Nobody knows what He wrote; there are many guesses.
Then, from the oldest to the youngest, one after another slipped away. Their consciences were pricked. Only the Lord was there.
So the Lord said to the woman, “Is there nobody to condemn you?” She said, “No.” But there was One Who had the right to condemn. Yet the Lord said, “Neither do I condemn thee. Go thy way; from henceforth sin no more.”
Why? Because the only One Who could condemn was willing to take that sin upon Himself and be condemned.
Our Lord Jesus has died for us, but He has also been raised up. He was raised up for our justification. The work is done. He is also at the right hand of God, ascended, and He intercedes for us without ceasing.
Now, brothers and sisters, who can separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus? Any imaginable agent—whether man, angel, devil, or whatever you can imagine—tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, sword, death: nothing.
Because we are more than conquerors in Christ. Brothers and sisters, this is spiritual ascendancy. God has done it in Christ Jesus for us.
There is absolutely nothing that can put us down. In other words, the spiritual ascendancy that Christ has attained for us cannot be defeated.
But why is it that we find ourselves more defeated than victorious? Why?
You remember Luke 21:28. The Lord said, when you see all these things happening—now we see all these things happening today; we are at the end of the days—when you see all these things happening, look up, lift up your heads, for your redemption draweth nigh.
Why do we look up? Because we have hope. We look up. But, you know, in spiritual warfare, it is not looking up; it is looking down.
I believe some of you have already heard of this. One day, our dear brother T. Austin-Sparks went to see his friend F. B. Meyer.
When he arrived in his study, before his friend F. B. Meyer came, he just looked around, as everybody does. While he was looking around, he saw there was a plaque with the words, “Look down.”
He wondered, “What does that mean?” So when F. B. Meyer came in, he was still looking at it. Of course, F. B. Meyer asked him, “Now, what are you thinking?”
Brother Sparks said, “This is wrong. It should be ‘Look up,’ and not ‘Look down.’”
But F. B. Meyer said, “It is right. If you are in a high position, you look down.”
You know, as you read Song of Solomon 4, you get the same impression. Here you find the Beloved calling His loved one to look down from Lebanon.
In other words, you are in that ascended position with Christ Jesus. When you are in that ascended position in Christ Jesus, you look down. This is the secret of victory.
Think for a moment of the life of our Lord Jesus. When He came to be a man, He was tempted in all things, yet without sin. As God, He could not be tempted; but because He was the Son of Man, He was tempted in all things—whatever you can think of.
The temptation was to move Him away from the position, the place, He took. He took the position of a man, and man should be subject to God. That is the position of man. When our Lord was on earth, He took that position.
When He was twelve, He knew He must be occupied with His Father’s business. He was not to live for Himself, but to do His Father’s business.
After He was baptized, He was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted. Satan tried to tempt Him away from the low position He took as man, to return to that exalted position of God as the Son of God. But our Lord refused.
If you look into the life of our Lord Jesus, you will find that because He took that low position before God in all things—“My Father’s will, not My will, but My Father’s will”—therefore, in His life, He was in control over all things.
You never see Him under; He is always above. Even when He challenged His own people, the countrymen and natives of Nazareth, and they wanted to push Him down from the cliff, you remember that He walked away safely and quietly.
Even when He was on a boat and there was a storm, His disciples were fishermen, but they were fearful for their lives. He got up and spoke a word, and there was a calm.
He gave His own life voluntarily for our sake. Because of this, He attained to that exalted position as the Son of Man—but for us.
Now look at Paul. You know, when you study the life of Paul, it may give you a wrong concept that Paul attained to spiritual ascendancy.
That is not true. It is true that Paul experienced spiritual ascendancy in his life, but look at the way he got into it.
You remember Romans 7. He used the word I. It is his personal experience. It is the experience of a person who has a new mind, who knows the will of God, and has a heart to do the will of God.
Now, is that not true with all of us? We are born again. We have a new mind, a new heart. We know what God’s will is, to a certain degree, and we do want to do the will of God.
But Paul, like us, said, “I know what is good. I want to do it, but I do not do it. I know what is wrong. I do not want to do it, but I still do it.”
Because he failed the first time, the second time he made a stronger determination not to do it, or to do it. But again, he failed. He tried to attain to spiritual ascendancy over the power of sin. Could he do it? He could not.
It was only after many failures that he discovered that in him—that is, in his flesh—there was no good thing. You know, he had such confidence in himself. He had such a strong, determined will.
If anyone could achieve that ascendancy over the power of sin, it would be Paul. But he testified that he failed. You cannot attain to spiritual ascendancy by yourself.
Not until he said, “O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me out of the body of this death?” “I am wretched. I cannot do it. I try, but now trying is no use. I am not going to try anymore. Now, who can deliver me?”
Thank God, through our Lord Jesus Christ! Brothers and sisters, that is the secret.
We have all been trying too hard. We say, “Well, if we do not try, then what will happen to us?” Well, try. But try to the point that you begin to realize that it is not by the power of your flesh.
That ascendancy is already given in Christ Jesus. Only let go of your trying and, by faith, take that position in Christ Jesus: you were dead to sin in Christ Jesus and alive to God in Christ Jesus. You overcome.
Now look at 2 Corinthians. At the beginning of 2 Corinthians 1, Paul says, “When we were in Asia, we despaired even of life. The sentence of death was upon us.”
Now, we do not know exactly what happened, but anyway, you find Paul and his fellow workers so attacked on every side that they gave up even the hope of living. The sentence of death was upon them.
But then he says that it was not from themselves, but from God Who raises the dead. In other words, he was brought into death in order to learn one lesson: that the only way to overcome death is in Christ Jesus, not in himself.
Our position is not real until it is tested.
That is the reason why, when we believe in the Lord Jesus as our personal Saviour and are saved, it is once and for all. Why? Because this is entering the door. It is very quick, even though sometimes it takes longer. It took me a year to get through the door.
But after you get through the door, when you go the way—the narrow way—to life, it is a daily matter. That is why you wonder, “Is it a different faith that you have to have?” Not at all. The same faith: believing in the Faithful One. That is it.
But the thing is, you are being daily challenged—challenged from all directions.
You will even be challenged by Satan himself. If you read 2 Corinthians 12, you will find that Satan thrust a stake into the life of Paul. It was a stake.
Now, if a stake is thrust into your body, how terrible that is. For this, Paul prayed three times, asking the Lord to remove it so that he might be strong. How can you preach the gospel if you are so weak?
He wanted to be strong, but the Lord said, “No. I will keep you weak, that My strength may be perfected in your weakness. My grace is sufficient for you.” You get the word, brothers and sisters?
You know, we are daily being tested by many things—sometimes by people, sometimes by things, sometimes by events and environments, sometimes by our own temperament. We are being tested in all these things.
Satan is trying very hard to contest the supremacy, the ascendancy, of Christ in our whole life. That is the reason why you find that to be a Christian is not a smooth feeling.
But thank God, He is trying to bring out the spiritual ascendancy of Christ in us. It is there, but it needs to be brought out. So it is being wrought out through testing and through challenges from the enemy.
Is there anything in your life in which you are still under and not above?
If there is, just remember: with you it is impossible, but with God all things are possible.
Look off unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith.
So, dear brothers and sisters, actually it is very simple: just by faith, denying yourself, stay in the position that Christ has gained for you.
The Holy Spirit is working in that way. He is the One Who arranges our circumstances. Nothing happens to us by chance. Even the very hairs of our heads have been numbered.
The reason is that, on the side of God, He is arranging everything to test what He has already put in us, to bring it out. From the side of the enemy, he is trying to draw out our flesh.
So, if we are willing to deny ourselves and just stand in the ascendant position that Christ has given to us, you will find there is victory. It is something we can experience every day.
So do not be discouraged. Just continue to abide in Christ. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
Let us pray.
Dear Lord, we want to thank Thee for that eternal spiritual ascendancy that Thou hast attained for us within Thee, and that Thou hast even put in the life Thou hast given to us.
O teach us how to deny ourselves and just look off unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith. Lord, may Thou be glorified in the life of every brother and sister. In Thy precious name we pray. Amen.