Marvelous day. Another day that the Lord has given to us, that we might prepare for His soon return. And we are thankful for that, and we look forward to that soon return.
My message is on Living the Life, a message that I should actually have started a number of weeks ago. It is interesting that, in speaking on living the life, today I am going to be sharing on, “I am crucified.” So we will have to see how that works out in God’s economy.
Lord, we come to Thee. This song said that our abiding place is in the shadow of the cross. Lord, today we want to say that the cross only has value because of the One who died upon it, and because of its significance and what it means to us.
Lord, we have been purchased by the precious blood shed on that cross. We are Thine, Lord. We have been given to Thee. We are Your captives, Lord. Lord, we are Thy bondservants, purchased with that blood.
Lord, so much has been done on Calvary’s cross, and we have entered into so little of it. I do pray, Lord, that today will be the day of salvation. Today will be the day that we will hear the good news, the gospel of Jesus Christ, and be able to enter fully into all that You have done on Calvary’s cross.
Lord, grant us, by Your grace, that we might have hearing ears and seeing eyes today. Our eyes are upon Thee, Lord Jesus. May Your words be a sharp sword to divide asunder soul and spirit, that, Lord, we might truly receive what You have for us. For we look to Thee in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Well, let us begin this morning by reading a few scriptures. If you will turn to the book of Romans.
Romans 1:16-17:
For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ:
for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth;
to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.
For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith:
as it is written, The just shall live by faith.
Romans 4:3:
For what saith the scripture?
Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness.
Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness.
Romans 5:1:
Therefore being justified by faith,
we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Romans 6:1-7, 11-12, 14:
What shall we say then?
Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?
God forbid.
How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?
Therefore we are buried with Him by baptism into death:
that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father,
even so we also should walk in newness of life.For if we have been planted together in the likeness of His death,
we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection:Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him,
that the body of sin might be rendered ineffective, unemployed.
King James says “destroyed,” but that is not exactly the true sense of that word. It is more that it is rendered ineffective, that henceforth we should not serve sin.
For he that is dead is freed from sin.
Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin,
but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body,
that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.For sin shall not have dominion over you:
for ye are not under the law, but under grace.
Romans 8:1-2:
There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus,
who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free
from the law of sin and death.
Romans 8:28-29:
And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God,
to them who are the called according to His purpose.
For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate
to be conformed to the image of His Son,
that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.
We have been predestinated to be conformed to the image of His Son.
Romans 8:31:
If God be for us, who can be against us?
Romans 8:38-39:
For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers,
nor things present, nor things to come,
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.
Galatians 2:20:
I am crucified with Christ:
nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me:
and the life which I now live in the flesh
I live by the faith of the Son of God,
who loved me, and gave Himself for me.
Tremendous scriptures. Tremendous work that Christ has done.
As I come this morning, what I am concerned about, what I am burdened about, is that, brothers and sisters, we have been called to a life of joy, rest, communion, separation from the love of the world, ascendancy over our circumstances, and a life of victory.
But often we find ourselves full of fears and doubts. Our communion with the Lord is broken, and often we sense a very distant relationship with Him. We find ourselves under the circumstances of our life rather than above them. They seem to be controlling us, and our lives may seem to be out of kilter.
Certainly, we often find ourselves in a state of weakness and living a defeated life, with sin still having dominion over us. Though we may have progressed as Christians in our Christian walk, there may still be a sin that just seems to keep coming back, that seems to defeat us so easily.
We are Christians, and our desire is to live the life that the Lord wants. But we find that we are not often living the Christian life. We are called and saved, but we find ourselves still falling short of God’s glory in our lives.
Now, I do not know how many of us that describes, and I do not know to what degree we are living the life that the Lord calls us to. But I know we all struggle, and we all have our difficulties.
But the good news—and that is what the gospel is, good news—is Jesus Christ. In Jesus Christ, the way has been made that we can live the life that God has called us to, the life into which we have been born. We do not have to live a weak and defeated life. That is not God’s intention.
In Romans 8:28, that verse that I read, it says:
And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God,
to them who are the called according to His purpose.
For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son. That is God’s purpose: that we might be conformed to the image of His Son; that we might come into sonship.
And that is what it means to be conformed to His image: to come into sonship, that we might become joint heirs with Christ in the kingdom. Even more, brothers and sisters, our life could be so conformed that we could be a part of that bride of Christ which is one heart with the Head, the Lord Jesus Christ.
I think it is very interesting that this scripture concerning God’s purpose for your life and for my life—being conformed to the image of Christ, conformed to His character and to His nature—is preceded by eight chapters of what is referred to as the gospel.
In other words, God has not only determined an eternal purpose for your life, but in the first eight chapters He shows us the way to that life. He shows us all that Christ has done, that we might enter into that life and be transformed.
If you read those eight chapters, you find that we are transformed from being sinners—lost sinners outside of God’s promises, outside of the promises He gave to the nation of Israel. We find that we were already under the judgment of God: lost sinners, under His wrath, awaiting the wrath of God, awaiting the fires of hell. That is what we were.
We did not know it, probably, until the Lord, through His grace and mercy, worked in our lives. You began to see that there was something really missing, and you began to reach out. Somehow, the Holy Spirit was able to touch you and speak to you about Christ and begin to convict you of sin and the condition that you were really in.
Most of the world has no idea that they are under judgment and under the wrath of God. It takes the Holy Spirit to really show you that. And if you have seen that and come to Christ, it is only because God, in His great love, has been able somehow to reach through and touch you.
We should give thanks all day long just for that simple act of God: for His being able to touch us and bring us to that knowledge and revelation that we are sinners, lost and without hope in this world.
But in these first eight chapters of Romans, we are taken from being lost and hopeless sinners, and we find that through the work of the cross that Christ did on Calvary’s cross, we can be forgiven for our sins. Not only that, we can be justified in Christ, as if we had never sinned.
You know, if somebody goes out and commits a crime, they may go and serve their time in jail. They may have served their time, but they are not justified.
Brothers and sisters, we have sinned against God. We are sinners, and yet we are justified in Him. Just as the word says—some people say, “Just as if you had never sinned.”
God so respects the sacrifice of His Son and that blood—the blood shed by the unblemished Lamb of God. He so values Him and His work on Calvary’s cross that when He sees you and me and finds that we are in Christ, and that we have accepted Christ as our Lord and Savior, He says, “Justified.” Just as if you had never sinned. Clean, white as snow.
Amazing work that He has done to us poor, hopeless, lost sinners: that we can be justified before God. And as we read, brothers and sisters, it is like Abraham. We were not justified because we cleaned up our lives and did a lot of great works in the name of Christ. We were justified simply by faith, because God gave us that faith in our hearts to believe in Jesus Christ—Who He is and what He has done.
God says, “You are just simply because you believe in My Son and in the work that He has done on your behalf on Calvary’s cross.” Justified.
Not only that, but we find in the book of Romans that we have been freed from the power of sin. Sin is still in us, but we have been freed from the power of sin, that sin might no longer have dominion over us.
We have found in Romans that we have been crucified with Christ. In other words, not only has God forgiven us for the sins we have committed, but He has dealt with the sinner himself.
And, brothers and sisters, glorious news: not only has He done all that, but we are now His children. He considers us His children, born not of blood but of Spirit.
He has done such a work on Calvary’s cross that He says, “Look, I want you to be joint heirs with My Son. One day all things will be subjected to Him. All things will be returned, and I am going to give it all to Him. He is to inherit all things. That has been My plan from the beginning. That is why I created everything, this universe and everything. It is all for Him.”
And you know what? Out of that simple faith that you had in My Son, one day I want you to be joint heirs with Him. You are. I have signed you up for heirship. You are in My will—joint heirs with Christ.
We find that our spirits have been redeemed. We can now have communion with God. He is not a distant Person.
We find that He is transforming even our souls—our mind, will, and emotions—to be in agreement with His mind, will, and emotions. And Romans 8 also goes on to say that one day even these physical bodies will be transformed into glorious bodies. There will be no more sin there, no more sin nature, no more self-life to control us. We will be truly at full liberty in Christ.
This is like a crescendo that Paul goes into in Romans 8. Not only has all this been accomplished through Christ’s work on the cross, but He says, “One day, I am going to bring you into conformity with the life, character, and nature of My Son.”
Think of the distance we have traveled, the impossible leap that has been made by God through Christ’s work on the cross: from being poor, helpless, hopeless sinners under the wrath and judgment of God, to those who are to be heirs with Christ.
But even more than that, we will have the character and nature of the Heir, of Christ Himself: to be conformed to His image, a work that is going on even at this very moment. In this, the Father will be glorified.
In the corporate aspect, we will become the bride of Christ.
The reason Christ has not returned yet is, brothers and sisters, we have not been conformed to His image. We are not ready. In His patience and love, He has waited.
And this is the hour we are challenged to. As our brother said this morning, “Receive.” We need to receive what has happened in these first eight chapters of Romans, brothers and sisters, because it is not by works. It is indeed by faith that we receive what Christ has done on Calvary.
In Romans 8:28, it says this: all things, all things have been worked in your life for good to those who are called according to His purpose. His purpose is that we might be conformed to the image of His Son.
Now, is that your purpose? If it is your purpose, then He is working all things in your life to bring that about. Everything that happens to you, even things that we consider tragic, devastating, and out of character with what we think our Christian life is going to be like—all these things are being used that the cross might work in our lives, that we might be conformed to His image.
That is what He says. Can you think about that a moment?
I think back to my childhood. My own personal testimony is that when I was an infant, only a few weeks old, I was dying in the hospital.
In those days, they did not have all the miraculous things and really the knowledge that they have today to take care of infants. But I was dying.
My mother told me this story only a few years ago. She said, “Jerry, I went outside, and I looked up, and I told God that if He would spare your life, I would give him to You, and I would raise him as best I can for Your service.”
All I can say is, God honored her request.
If I had not been sick and on the verge of death, I do not know if my mother would have prayed that prayer. But all things work together for good to them that love the Lord and are called according to His purpose.
I think, because of the teaching that we have had over the years here, many of us have realized there is an eternal purpose—not just your purpose in life, what you want to do, or what you think your profession is, but God’s purpose, for what He has created all things.
That in the end, He would sum up all things that are in Christ, including the Christ-life in you and me. Marvelous purpose.
Brothers and sisters, just think about who you were: a lost sinner, awaiting the wrath of God and the fires of hell. And He has brought you, through the work of the cross, all the way to this glorious thing of being heirs with Christ, and so glorious to be considered to be transformed to His image, the image of His Son.
Paul is so overwhelmed at this point. He says, “If God be for us, who can be against us?” And he goes on to say, “What can separate us from the love of God?”
For I am persuaded, neither death nor life. Brothers and sisters, often we think we are under this bondage of the fear of death. But in Christ, we live in resurrection, not death.
Then he says life cannot separate us from the love of God. Now, is your life separating you from the love of God? Are the things in your life that God is trying to use to work together for good, to conform you to the image of Christ—are you looking at them that way?
Or are you looking at it this way: “God does not love me. God has allowed these things, and I am having a terrible time. I do not understand, and I doubt the love of God.”
Most of us will not say that outwardly. I am not sure we should say it outwardly. But I think there are times in our lives when we wonder and when we doubt.
Life, nor death, nor angels, nor principalities or powers that are arrayed against us—we know there is a whole realm out there that is against us. They try to influence your thinking, your emotions, and your body. He says they cannot separate you from the love of Christ.
Things present and things to come will not separate you from the love of the Lord. Height, nor depth, nor any creature—nothing can separate you from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus.
It kind of makes your life look a little different, does it not, when you really see what your life is all about from God’s perspective? It does alter the way we see things, and it should deeply touch our hearts.
Worship should not be something we struggle at. It really should not. It should be pouring out of us, should it not? But we are blinded. We get blinded at times by life. But thank God, His love will not let those things separate us.
So it is His love that we count on, brothers and sisters. He is working everything in your life to conform you to His image.
In the first eight chapters of Romans, He reveals to us what He has done and how He is going to bring that about. Simply said, it is through the work of the cross.
It is the work of the cross. The work of the cross is God’s means to bring this about, to bring His eternal purpose about. It is not the end.
It is not the end, but it is the means. It is God’s way, and the only way God brings about His purpose in your life is by using the cross of Calvary and what Christ has done.
And you know what? It has all been done by Christ. Our responsibility is to receive it, to believe what He has done, and to accept it.
Thank God. Give me grace to finish. I know, I know.
Brothers and sisters, I do not want us to miss what Christ has done on the cross. Often we live a very unstable Christian life, and we find ourselves in defeat because we have not yet truly accepted what Christ has done on the cross.
You say, “Well, yes, I have. He is my Savior. I have accepted Him as my Savior.” Yes, you have.
But is sin still having dominion in your life? Are you still struggling with these things? If you are, then we have not fully accepted the provision, the full work of Calvary’s cross. Because there He has delivered us completely, and we need to enter into that by faith.
It is by faith. Remember, it says, “The just shall live by faith.” God wants us to live by faith.
Not only that your sins are forgiven, not only that you are justified—I think we believe that. That is why we can take this table. That is why we can come before the Lord: because we do believe that we are justified before Him because of what Christ has done on the cross.
But do we believe? Have we really received the eternal truth and fact that we have been crucified with Christ?
We hear it. We hear the language. We hear the doctrine. Our minds agree to it. But it is interesting: the Lord says, in talking about receiving the Lord Jesus Christ, “Believe with your heart and confess with your tongue.”
I wonder if we sometimes just believe with our minds, and it is not really in our hearts.
Not only have we been crucified with Him, but we have been raised with Him. Often our lives do not reflect that resurrection life that is in us.
Galatians 2:20, the theme verse—what does it say?
I have been crucified with Christ.
I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me.
And the life that I now live, I live by the faith of the Son of God.
That is the very beginning of Paul’s declaration about the secret that he had discovered in living the Christian life.
Now, the last time I shared, which has been quite a number of weeks ago, my emphasis was on the last part of Galatians 2:20:
I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.
The exchange life is what I shared on. I referred to those scriptures about the sin that so easily besets us. Why is that happening in your life? Why is it still there?
Brothers and sisters, consider strongly that the reason it is still there, still defeating us, is that we have not yet exchanged His life for ours. We are still trying to live the Christian life in the strength of the old.
Paul says it has been crucified. We say, “Hmm, sure. But really, all I need is some adjustment, Lord. Just this one sin—if You can take that one from my life, I will be all right.”
What we do is deceive ourselves into thinking that we can really get this old life straightened out, get it corrected so it can live the Christian life. “I am almost there. There is just this one sin.”
Often, brothers and sisters, the Lord leaves that in our lives not just to keep us humble, which often it does, but to show us that we are still trying to live by the wrong life.
You know, the Lord gave Israel the law, the nation of Israel the law. And they said, “Ah, this is just what we needed. It is from God. It is from His hand. All we need to do is follow it and live up to everything in the law.”
Well, we all know that the purpose of the giving of the law was to really show them that they could not do it. Though they had the law, they did not have the power to live the life. That is what God wanted to show them.
And He knew it would take a long time to convince them. Brothers and sisters, tragically, most of Israel never was convinced. They are still trying to live by that law today, at least the Orthodox ones are—the ones that have not cast it aside totally.
They never really discovered that they just could not do it and that they needed Christ.
Now we are doing the same thing, even though we have accepted Christ as our Savior. Have we really accepted Him as our life? That was what I was trying to get at last time: the exchange life.
I used the example of the wood, remember? Well, if you were not here, I will briefly say.
You go down to Lowe’s and you tell a guy, “Hey, I want to build my house, and I need some lumber.” He says, “Well, look, I have a real deal for you. There is a pile of lumber over there. You can just take it home. If you will just move it off the lot, you can have it. What a deal.”
He says, “There is only one problem: it is infested with termites.”
And so you might think, “Well, maybe if I just spray it real good with some termite spray, I can kill those termites and still use the wood.” You would not do that. You would not dare build a new house with termite-infested wood.
Do you think that God is going to build His house with termite-infested wood? Now, I know it is stones, but just bear with me a little bit on the analogy.
No, you are not going to build your house with termite-infested wood. I used the term, “You are going to use Hardie board.” That is that cement board that will not rot, will not have termites, and all that in it.
Well, brothers and sisters, this is often the very life that we are bringing to God, asking Him to build His house with. It is that old life. We still have a problem trying to live by the old life and not accepting the Lord’s life.
Let me put it very succinctly, because Kenny said it so well in his ministry: the Lord does not want to just give you victory in your life over sin. He may do that. He wants you to learn that His life in you is the victory.
That was the lesson with Lazarus, when He let Lazarus die and be put in the grave. They said, “Well, you know, what is going on here, Lord? If You had been here, he would not have died. You should have been here.”
And He said, “Well, in the resurrection, he will live.”
I am the resurrection, and the life.
They said, “Well, we know. We know that one day there is going to be resurrection.” They saw resurrection as an act that would occur in the future, and often we look at it that way.
He says, “No. The point is, I am the resurrection and the life. You can have it now. That resurrection life will act now in you.”
And then He raised Lazarus from the dead to prove His point, obviously. He was the resurrection and life. Do you want resurrection life? You cannot have it apart from taking Christ as your resurrection life.
Now, you can pump the old guy up pretty well. You can make him look presentable. But he will never have the life that overcomes death. It is resurrection life.
Now, I have just gotten through what we shared previously. The emphasis last time was on that exchange life.
But, brothers and sisters, before that occurs, before you can really know resurrection life, there is something that precedes it, and it is Calvary.
Now, we have said before that Calvary precedes Pentecost, but Calvary also preceded the resurrection. You can never experience resurrection life unless you first experience Calvary.
Before you can experience the living, new life, you need to experience the death.
We still want to clean up the old and make it acceptable. Brothers and sisters, I do not know how many of you—most of us have not been around farms anymore. We have gotten too sophisticated, too educated. But all my family were farmers, and I remember the pigs.
I remember going out to the pigpen. It was awful. How many of y’all ever smelled a pigpen? Oh, we have some older folks here. I can see that. Well, it is terrible.
And nothing they love more than a mud hole. They just get in that mud hole and wallow around and live in it.
Well, let me tell you what. I know people have pigs for pets, and they can clean those pigs up and shine them up, put little bows on their necks, and walk them around the house. But if you give that pig a chance to get back in the mud hole, he is going right for it. You just cannot take the pig out of it.
That is what it is. That is the way our old life is. We are like that pig. We have pig life. You want to say that? That is not a new doctrine, by the way.
We need to see, like Paul saw. You know, Paul at one point was saying in Romans 7, “Look, I am carnal. I am sold under sin.” That was his testimony: “I am carnal. I am living a carnal life under the power of sin. Who can deliver me?”
It is Christ, of course.
Then Galatians 2:20 sums it all up. His real deliverance came when he saw, “I have been crucified with Christ.” Hallelujah. Paul was rejoicing because he finally realized that the old life had been taken care of in Christ.
That old pile of lumber full of termites, so to speak, had been burned up in Christ. And he had a new life in him, and that is the life that he was learning to live by.
In fact, Paul says in Romans 6, he starts out Romans 6 saying, “Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Christ.”
Well, often we know this doctrine, but do we really know it? Paul says, “Knowing this.” It is just like, “Hey, it has already been done. Do not worry about it. You already know this. You have been crucified with Christ.”
That the body of sin might be made unemployed.
I think our brother Stephen uses that expression for the word.
In other words, in his old life Paul was saying, “This old life, this old man of mine, is under the dominion of sin which is in me.” The old “I,” the original “I,” the “I” that you are born with.
Do you get the “I,” who the “I” is? It is the “I” that you get from your parents. It is a slave to sin.
You are born with an old “I,” and the “I” is already under the power of sin. Sin begins to move in you in the form of lust. The “I,” you, which is under its power, responds and tells the body to carry out the orders of sin. That is kind of the way it works.
This old “I”—I need to be real clear on this—the “I” you receive from your parents, that old life, began with Adam.
Now, if you could trace your lineage, and some people do this, and we had all the records, which we do not, every one of us would find that our lineage goes back to Adam. He was the first man, and all of mankind has come out of Adam.
You sin because fundamentally you are a sinner. You are born that way. But Adam was not born that way.
Adam, at that point, is referred to as being innocent. He had not yet taken of the tree of life, nor of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He had not yet disobeyed God. He was in a state of innocence.
But when he disobeyed God, he became a sinner. Now something happened—something tragic happened, brothers and sisters. I cannot describe the tragedy that happened on that day. Because not only did Adam disobey God and sin, but something happened in Adam. His whole nature changed.
In fact, according to Romans 8, the whole world came under corruption. Romans 5:12 explains it very well:
By one man sin entered into the world,
and death by sin;
and so death passed upon all men,
for that all have sinned.
In other words, the fact that you sin proves that you are already a sinner. I do not know if you followed Paul’s logic, but what he is saying is that you were born a sinner, and your lineage is traced back to Adam.
It is the old Adamic life you are born with. Bottom line is, you are born from stock that is termite-infested, and therefore you have the termites in you, in this old life of yours.
Now, do you understand why you need to be born again? Because your lineage is traced back to Adam. You were born out of Adam by your parents. You had that same nature that Adam had. It has been passed from generation to generation, and it is a sinful nature. It has sin in it, and it has been passed on. You were born with it.
That is why you are a lost sinner before you come to Christ. That is why Christ said to Nicodemus—Nicodemus wanted to get into the kingdom of heaven. He said, “I just need to know what I need to do.”
And He said, “You do not need to do anything, Nicodemus. You need to be born again.”
It is not that you need to adjust your life or get rid of this one last sin that is gripping you. What you need is to be actually born again, out of a new lineage, from a new Man, from Jesus Christ.
That is why, in Corinthians, it says that Adam was the first man. Jesus Christ was the last Adam and the second Man. There is a new Man on the scene.
He said Christ was the last Adam.
In Christ, that lineage—everything that has come out of Adam—has been crucified. In God’s eyes, it is gone: dead, crucified.
Actually, when you were born, you already died. Did you get that? Because God has ended the Adamic race in Christ on the cross.
When Christ went to the cross, He took you and me. He took all that was out of Adam, and He calls it the old man.
In other words, let me say it another way: there is really only one old man in God’s eyes. There is only one old man. You are part of it. I am a part of it. Everybody from Adam, who has been born out of that lineage, is a part of it.
And He put it in Christ, and when He was crucified, it was ended. The Adamic life has been ended.
Now, we are still being born, but one day, brothers and sisters, hallelujah, what God has done in Christ will be fully effected on this earth, and there will be no more Adamic life. Hallelujah. It will be Christ.
You have to realize that in God’s eyes there are only two men: there is Adam, and there is Christ. Now, where is your lineage from?
On one hand, your lineage is of Adam. On the other hand, because you have accepted Christ as your Lord and Savior, your lineage is now out of Christ.
So how are you going to get rid of this Adamic lineage? Well, the good news is, it has already been done in Christ.
That old Adam has been ended in Christ two thousand years ago on the cross, even before you were born.
Now, do not get hung up trying to fully understand this, because there is a certain sense in which this really is a mystery—how God did this. And that is okay, because God has not called us so much to understand, even though He wants us to understand, as He has called us to believe what He has done in His Son.
His Son was your sacrifice, and you have accepted that. That is the truth. It is from God. God did it. He is your substitute, and you have accepted that.
But brothers and sisters, God has also done something else on the cross in His Son. He has crucified you. He has crucified that old man in you.
How will you ever come into the reality? We were born out of Adam, and now we have been born in Christ. Brothers and sisters, the only way to make it real in your life is through faith.
I do not know how else to do it. I have struggled a good bit of my life trying to get this old man dead, and he just does not seem to die.
The problem is, I was not believing—not really. Even though I accepted the doctrine, in my heart I really had not somehow seen and really believed that what God has done is what is real.
What I may feel or experience in my life is not the reality. God’s reality is reality. We have to learn to live in God’s reality. And in God’s reality, you have been crucified in Christ. We need to lay hold of that by faith, accept it by faith.
Now, I said that in Christ it is true. It is not true in you. If you look inside, you are going to see the old man very lively.
I know Stephen, in a recent ministry, was talking about Brother Nee. For seven years he struggled with this matter. He saw that scripture in Romans that says, “Reckon yourselves dead,” and he reckoned and reckoned and reckoned until he was wrecked. He just could not do it.
The more he reckoned, the livelier the old man got. And one day the Lord opened his eyes to see that it had already been done in Christ two thousand years ago.
When the Lord gave him that revelation, he saw it, and he just rushed out saying, “Hey, you know I am dead in Christ!” They probably were wondering what was going on with him. But he had come to this tremendous revelation. Finally, the old man was out of the way. He was dead in Christ.
This is objective truth. And if you can believe it, have faith and accept it, God will make sure that it is worked out in your life daily.
Now, God will do it. How will God do it? That is the work of the Holy Spirit.
It says:
Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.
It says the Spirit lusts against the flesh, and the flesh against the Spirit. That should tell you something. That sin nature is still there.
God did not do away with the sin nature. He did away with the slave to sin, the old man. That is what has been taken out. Until we are transformed and have that new body, that sin nature will still be there.
So often we are confused because, instead of looking at Christ on the cross and that great work that He did in taking care of the Adamic race, we look inside. It does not match up, and so we say, “Well, we cannot believe.”
Well, you will never know the reality until you do believe. If you keep looking inside and not looking at Christ, you will never be able to have faith to believe. You really have to see what Christ has done.
Now, some people struggle with the fact that it has been done in Christ, and, like I have said, it is not really done in you—it is done in Christ. So you have to enter into the subjective truth.
What is the subjective truth? The subjective truth is making what was real in Christ and what was done in Christ real in your life. And that is going to happen through faith. It has to be through faith. It is by faith.
Remember, in a previous ministry I shared on faith and truth. In that ministry I said, “Look, there is spiritual truth, and then there is truth that is earthly in nature.” Spiritual truth is what Christ is and what Christ has done on the cross. That is the truth that sets you free.
Now, it may be true that you are in sin and having problems, but that is not the truth that is going to set you free. It is not what you see inside that will ever set you free.
The truth that sets you free is what Christ has done and what God has done in Christ on the cross. That is what we have to apprehend, and that is what we have to lay hold of.
It is eternal truth. It is real. It is fact. It is not altered whether you believe it or not. It is still true whether you have entered into the experience of it or not. It is still true.
The problem is, we still look at our feelings. The great example, I do not know what Brother Nee or some other brother used, is like this: there is fact, faith, and feelings walking along the top of a narrow wall.
As long as faith continues to look at the fact, he is okay. But if he turns around to look at feelings, to look at what is inside, he falls off the wall because his eyes are not looking ahead.
Brothers and sisters, God has done a tremendous work on Calvary’s cross. Until that foundational work is real in our lives, we cannot really go on to the full transforming work of being conformed to the image of Christ.
So we do need faith. I am trying to rush through this now. We need faith—real faith, not in ourselves, but in Christ.
I would say, ask the Lord to open our eyes, to give us a believing heart, that what is real in Christ will be made real in you.
Paul said, “I have been crucified with Christ.” The old “I,” the old man, the Adamic life—he said, “In me, has been crucified in Christ.”
I live. I do live. But there is a new “I” in me.
I live, yet not I—not the old “I,” not the old Adamic life, but Christ. So the new “I” is Christ in you. That is the new “I.” It is Christ in you.
So, brothers and sisters, in Galatians, in this scripture, this precious scripture, the secret of the Christian life, there are two important things. I would say death and resurrection—life, I mean death and life.
The first one is the death side: “I have been crucified.” The other one is the life side.
I choose not to live by that old life or exercise that old life. I refuse to live by it, to be a Christian—even in reading this Word.
Have you ever run across a person who was knowledgeable in the Bible, and you talk with them, and somehow you do not touch Christ?
That is the old man apprehending this Word of God. He can do a great job of dissecting it, organizing it, and finally coming to the conclusion, “Hey, there is no God.”
That is the old man. He wants to be God. The old man wants to be God in your life.
So, brothers and sisters, not only do we need faith to see that we have been crucified in Christ, we also need to be willing to give it up, to let go of that old life, and to accept Christ as our life.
I said it before, but I need to reemphasize it.
Often we look for victory in our lives. We want the Lord to give us victory, and sometimes He does. But you know what? Unfortunately, that often actually strengthens the old man. That actually gives strength to that old “I,” because it wants to feel in charge and in control.
And he says, “Now I have got it. I understand. Hey, all I have to do is pray and ask God to give me the victory, and then I can have the victory.”
Boy, is it subtle. But there is a tremendous difference between that and seeing the exchange life—seeing that Christ is your victory. You have the victory with you all the time. It has always been there since you accepted Christ. The victory is already there.
He is your victory. He is your strength. Bottom line is, it is all Christ.
He is the way, the truth, and the life.
It is all Christ.
Lord, we come today. We thank You, Lord Jesus, for Your great purpose for our lives. Lord, I want to thank You personally. Lord, I was a sinner, lost with no hope. I thank You for that prayer of my mother and that You honored it.
Lord, I thank You that You have done a great work on Calvary’s cross, a work so tremendous that we have a hard time accepting it. We have a hard time believing it. Lord, forgive us for our unbelief.
Lord, we do not want unbelief to beset us. We do not want unbelief to keep us out of the promised land. We want to be a people of faith who lay hold of God’s truth, accept it, and believe it.
Lord, do that work in our hearts. Lord, where we need revelation, give us revelation. Oh, Lord Jesus, may we not be a weak and defeated people, but indeed, Lord, may we learn to live by the life of Christ. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.