Let us have another word of prayer.
Lord, I think we are captured this morning by this privilege: we have been brought into a place of fellowship with You. We who were far off have been brought near. You purchased us and brought us into the fellowship of the Godhead.
Lord, we are thankful that it is because of this place we have in You—the place of fellowship, the place of an open heaven, the place of nothing between us—that we can continue in Your presence, for Your Word to speak to us and to strengthen and encourage us for the days in which we find ourselves living.
In Your wonderful name, amen.
Today is part two: Why Has the Grace of God Appeared? I told Jack earlier that I am not too creative with my titles, so this is part two.
If you remember last month, as we considered verses from Titus, we looked at why the grace of God appeared. To refresh our memory, let us read Titus 2:11-13:
For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men,
instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires,
and to live sensibly, righteously, and godly in this present age,
looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory
of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus.
Thank the Lord. When the grace of God appeared—our Lord Jesus Christ, the personification of the grace of God—He brought us salvation. But it did not stop there. He wanted to instruct us, teach us, and disciple us, conforming us into His image, so that because of Christ in us, there would be a desire and a hope set before us: looking for that blessed appearing of our Lord in His second return.
These are very comprehensive verses. They capture the heart of this epistle, and they capture the very heart and essence of the entire gospel, because they show us the full working of the grace of God. That grace of God is Jesus Christ Himself, the personification of this grace, and it has appeared to us.
Saving us, instructing us, discipling us, giving us hope, and making us His own possession with a purpose—this is the work of grace. I thank the Lord that it says the grace of God appeared to all mankind. It was not a selective appearing. He came because God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. He made His presence known to the entire world.
His desire is that all mankind would be saved and would respond to this grace. In the same way that He instructs us by His grace—Christ in us—He wants each one of us to be conformed into His image: not merely saved, but becoming His disciples and having that hope set before us in Him.
Then there is Titus 2:14, which follows those three verses and, in many ways, sums up what they are saying:
Who gave Himself for us,
that He might redeem us from every lawless deed,
and purify for Himself a people for His own possession,
zealous for good works.
Speaking of our Lord Jesus Christ, He gave Himself for us to redeem us from every lawless deed and to purify—to sanctify, to set us apart—for Himself a people for His own possession, zealous for good works.
What I appreciate about these verses, and particularly this one, is that whatever God does, He always has His end in view. We look at what we get out of it, and we are so blessed. But when He is doing something, He always has an end in view. He has His possession, and He calls us His own possession—a possession that reflects the very character and nature of His Son.
The beautiful thing about the grace of God is that when the grace of God works, God gets the glory. When man works, man gets the glory.
In actuality, the same events can occur and the same words can be used. But when it is the grace of God coming forth, He gets the glory. We see many men using very religious words, Christian words, quoting Scripture and all of that. But who is getting the glory?
Tragically, in the days in which we are living—and it has been this way through history—man often gets the glory because he is doing it for himself, for his little kingdom, for his self-interest. But when the grace of God is working, we are thankful that it is God who gets the glory.
What He is looking for is those who answer to His heart.
We began this morning in Genesis. When God created man and brought forth Eve, what did Adam say about Eve?
This is now bone of my bones,
and flesh of my flesh.
Really, that is what the Lord Jesus is looking for in all of us—not so much in the physical aspect, but a life within us of which He would say, “Oh, that is My character. That is My nature. That is bone of My bone and flesh of My flesh spiritually.” There is that expression of Him.
He is looking for that corporate expression, the fullness of His expression. It says, “a people for His own possession.” This phrase is translated in many different ways. Some call it “a special treasure.”
It is interesting to consider where this phrase, “His own possession” or “special treasure,” is first used. Is it simply a New Testament term? Praise God, it is not. We see it from the beginning, back in Exodus.
When God brought the people of Israel out of Egypt, after they had passed through the Red Sea and seen all the miraculous works of God, they came to Mount Sinai. This was just before the Ten Commandments were first given. God called Moses aside and told him what He wanted to say to His people.
The Lord declares in Exodus 19:4:
You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians,
and how I bore you on eagles’ wings
and brought you to Myself.
I love that phrase: “I brought you to Myself.” He brought them out of Egypt, but He could have said only, “Look how I brought you out of Egypt.” Sometimes we can leave something, but do we know where we are going? Do we have a destination?
God said, “I brought you out.” Why? For this or that? No—“I brought you to Myself.” What a price He paid to bring us to Himself. That was the call of Israel: to come to Him.
Then He continues:
Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice
and keep My covenant,
then you shall be My own possession among all peoples,
for all the earth is Mine;
and you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests
and a holy nation.
We know Peter uses these verses when he describes the church. What caught my attention is that so often we focus on being a kingdom of priests and a holy nation—and how great that is. But what did He first call His people? “My special treasure. My treasured possession.”
He brought them into this relationship and fellowship that we have been hearing about this morning. The calling here is not merely an individual calling. The treasured possession, the kingdom of priests, and the holy nation are each a corporate expression of His life among His people.
Individually, we can each manifest the life of Christ in a marvelous and wonderful way. But thank the Lord, when there is a corporate expression of His life, there is something fuller, higher, and deeper. There is a richness to it and more completeness in all that God is doing.
We are studying this now as we go through the book of Acts on Friday nights. When we see the manifestation of that corporate expression, it touches us deeply. It touches us concerning God’s amazing grace.
We touched last time on the amazing grace of how He transforms us. In Titus 1, these people are described as worthless for any good deed. Really, that is a picture of ourselves. Before we knew Christ, we were worthless. But praise God, He came in. He transformed us. He put His life in us, with the desire that we would be zealous for His good deeds and zealous for what He is doing.
What a miracle—His desire to do this in us.
We ended last time with the question: How are we transformed? This is not an exhaustive list, but three keys touched my heart: Christ in us, the cross, and the Holy Spirit.
In my great wisdom and plan, I thought I would do this in one more message. Well, it has evolved into two more. Today we will look at Christ in us.
For many, that can sound simplistic. Actually, it is. It is very fundamental and foundational. Sometimes it is good to go back and review the foundation, to review the basic truths. We can use a phrase and say it so often that it loses its preciousness and value. As we go through life, we can begin neglecting it and taking it for granted.
But it is a precious treasure: Christ in us.
Because we have Christ in us, as we look back at Titus 2:12, Christ in us is instructing us to deny those evil things and to live sensibly in this present age. Praise God, He is doing this work. He has taken us, purchased us, and redeemed us. Now He is discipling us and instructing us how to live in this age, but also in the age to come.
There are many Scriptures we could use concerning Christ in us, but I picked two familiar passages. First, Colossians 1:27:
To whom God willed to make known
what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles,
which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
Christ in you, the hope of glory.
Then Colossians 3:3-4:
For ye died,
and your life is hid with Christ in God.
When Christ, who is our life, shall be manifested,
then shall ye also with Him be manifested in glory.
What a foundational truth. Not only has He saved us, but now He is our life. Praise God: Christ in us.
We have heard that we are in Christ, and praise God for that. But Christ is also in us. We have this wonderful life within us. As we sang last time, “Not I, but Christ in me.” It is not our effort; it is simply allowing that life to come forth and to work in us.
These verses speak not only of the present tense—“Christ in you,” and “Christ, who is our life”—but also of the future glory when He is revealed.
By the grace of God and by the love and work of God, we are not only in Christ, but Christ is in us. He has become our life. Again, this can become so familiar that we lose its preciousness, but it is one of the keys to our life with Him.
I am always hesitant to say there is only one key, because we see the fullness of Christ. But this is one of the keys and one of the secrets of the life into which we have been called. He purchased us, redeemed us, and took us out of this fallen world. His life is now in us, desiring to come forth in a fuller and greater way.
Not only is His life in us for this present time, but there is a life in us that touches us and says, “There is something else ahead. There is a glory.” There is a whisper from glory. We begin to hear that life whispering, “There is a glory. The King is coming. The King is coming soon.”
I love that hymn too. I know Shirley loves it; she always asks for it. But I love it too, and I was glad she asked for it today.
His life is in us to prepare us, redeem us, and transform us. Sadly, as you look at so much in Christianity—and as I look at my own life—often it can become Christ plus something else.
Like the church in Colossae, it can be Christ plus Gnosticism or various other things. Today, it may be Christ plus knowledge: a focus on doctrine and teaching without His life. We can have the written Word without having the Spirit of the Word.
Remember what the Lord Jesus said in John’s Gospel:
Ye search the Scriptures, because ye think that in them ye have eternal life;
and these are they which bear witness of Me.
Obviously, the Scriptures are there to lead us to Him. They can bring us into eternal life; that was their purpose. But those people were merely seeking knowledge with their minds. They could quote the Scriptures. They knew where the Messiah was to be born. They knew the prophecies and various details. Yet they missed the very heart and essence of what God was saying through Scripture.
We can be content simply to gain knowledge. That is what we inherited from Adam and Eve. They chose the tree of the knowledge of good and evil rather than the tree of life. There is still a battle over that within each of us today.
Sometimes we can have Christ plus works. There can be much activity. At the end of the Sermon on the Mount, people came to the Lord and said, “Lord, we did such-and-such in Your name.” But He said, “I never knew you.” They did it all out of their own strength. He had never asked them to do it.
Then there can be Christ plus certain experiences. We can pursue emotional highs in worship because they make us feel good. We can seek miracles and outward manifestations. “Christ plus the second blessing; Christ plus this and that.”
Oh, but the Lord Jesus is Christ enough for us.
The origin of Christ plus is our own self—our soul. It is the mind searching for something, the will searching for something, and the emotions searching for something. The origin is not His life; it is our own self.
It may come from good intentions, but the best of ourselves is still as filthy rags. As our brother mentioned this morning, the best righteousness we can produce in ourselves does not qualify us to be called the righteousness of God. Only He is our righteousness.
The Lord calls us this day simply to return to Him. Sometimes that can seem too simple, but He wants to be Lord and King of our lives.
As we return to Him, He begins this amazing work of the salvation of our souls. That is what Peter calls it. We are not going to go extensively into it today; we will refer to it and address it more later. But it is simply our soul coming under the government of Christ. He becomes our new Master rather than our old master—the self-life.
There is a transforming and transferring of power over our soul, bringing it under His headship in a living way. This is where our minds are renewed, and our wills and emotions receive a new Master. His life is lived out within us.
It comes about as we enter into that personal and intimate relationship with Him. Praise God for that.
When we speak of Christ as our life, what are we really saying? What does that mean to us? Do we merely use this beautiful phrase, one that rolls off our tongues in eloquent ways? What does it really mean? Do our lives reflect it?
How do you even begin to explain His life? You say, “Christ is our life.” What does that mean? How do you explain it?
When you stop and consider Christ as our life, suddenly you are overwhelmed. You see the immensity of it, the unsearchableness of it, and the indescribable nature of it. You run out of words trying to show how vast it is, because it is infinite. There is an infinite life there.
There are many characteristics of it: undefiled, unfading, incorruptible, and on and on we could go.
The sisters are studying the “I am” statements on Tuesdays. When Jesus says, “I am the resurrection and the life,” or “I am the good shepherd,” these are beautiful testimonies. But hear me clearly: even the “I am” statements in the Gospel of John are not exhaustive. There is more to the fullness of who He is.
When the Lord told Moses to go back to Pharaoh, Moses asked, “Who shall I say sent me?” The Lord simply said:
I AM THAT I AM.
Many people have illustrated this by saying that you can put a blank after “I am,” because however you need Him and whatever you need Him to be in that moment, He is.
“I am your Redeemer. I am your Comforter. I am your refuge. I am your strength.” On and on it goes. You cannot reach the end of it.
I love those posters that list all the names of Christ. We try to comprehend Him in our minds, but I think God, in His mercy, shows us another aspect just when we think we comprehend. He keeps us humble, because we cannot fully comprehend in our natural minds the fullness of the life of Christ.
It is an overwhelming fact. To use a phrase from the 1960s and 1970s, it should blow your minds. Most of the people here understand that phrase.
This life is altogether other. It is divine, not natural. It is uncreated life—not created like us. It has existed throughout eternity. It has a completely different purpose from our natural life.
There is also a quality to this life, not merely a quantity. Sometimes we think eternal life means simply that we are going to live forever, and that is true. But “eternal” speaks of the quality of that life, its divine character. It is so other than anything we possess naturally.
As we touch upon Christ our life today, we are only considering aspects of it. Job, in Job 26:14, speaks of touching “the edges of His ways”—the borders, the fringe of His ways. We cannot touch the fullness, but we can touch the borders.
Amy Carmichael has a wonderful devotional called The Edges of His Ways. It is like touching the hem of His garment. When the woman touched the hem of His garment, she received the fullness of His power. Often we receive only a little touch of Him, but even that little touch overwhelms us in such a wonderful way.
Today, we desire simply to touch the edge of the garments of His life.
How did Christ become our life? We have this table before us every week, and there is a foundational truth here that is so important. This is not an exhaustive explanation of how He became our life, but we are focusing on the thought before us today.
He became our life by a divine intervention. It was not of ourselves. It was purely a divine intervention. A life came from another kingdom and invaded this fallen world.
He was a citizen of another kingdom, and He came into this fallen world. He was actually an illegal alien here—probably the only good illegal alien there has ever been. But we will not go there.
He invaded this fallen world, and praise God, through all that He did, He transferred us out of the domain of darkness and into the kingdom of the Son of His love. Now we are citizens of that new kingdom, strangers and aliens here. This earth is not our home.
Again, these words can flow off our tongues, but do our lives reflect them? Sometimes we battle more over the things of this earth than we do over the things of the kingdom of God. May our focus, desire, and inner drive be for His kingdom to come and His will to be done.
Consider all that He did to redeem us. We are not going to try to cover the fullness of it today. Hebrews calls it “so great a salvation.” What a miracle has occurred within each one of us. What a great salvation. What a miracle He wrought within us. What a costly price was paid.
Every Lord’s Day, when we have this table, we try somehow to realize the reality of the price He paid to redeem us out of this fallen world and out of our fallen nature. Again, we are only touching the edge of it, because that price was so great.
It is far beyond simply saying that He came and died for us. We can speak about it, and it can touch our hearts, but there is a fullness that has yet to be revealed. Still, we see something of its magnitude. We see His great love.
It is so great a salvation. It was a tremendous power: power that overcame the world, overcame sin, overcame the enemy, and overcame self—our own self—to save us. What tremendous power that is.
Each of us, having been saved through so great a salvation, has received the fullness of His life. We now have Christ in us—not merely a part or portion of Him. Each one of us has Him. Christ is in us.
Sometimes we look at those whom we call spiritual giants and say, “Oh, look at [Watchman Nee], [T. Austin-Sparks], and others. They have so much of His life. I could never be like that. I am just a little one-talent person.”
No. At the moment we were saved, each one of us received Christ in us. By the grace of God, the life we all received was the same measure. We have Christ in us.
Yes, there are diverse gifts, but when it comes to life—the very essence of life—we all received the same life. The difference is how we respond to that grace. Often, those we call giants may simply have responded in a fuller, greater, and deeper way than we have responded to the grace of God.
That is what He is calling us to in this hour: to respond. This is the very foundation of our life. That life is the same, and He wants it to be manifested within us.
This almighty, divine life is within us, desiring to break forth. We have One living within us who is like an old steam engine, wanting to break forth. He is simply looking for us to say, “Yes, go ahead. I am not going to stand in Your way. Break forth within me.”
As we consider all that Christ did by His death and resurrection, we begin to receive a fuller sense of this great salvation. When we think about being prepared, being made ready, and being transformed, Christ in us is the hope we have. That is how He is working within us.
What occurred when we were born again? Again, this is a simple overview. One aspect is that our spirit, which was dead or asleep—depending on how you want to look at it—was born again. It was awakened and made alive. We received His life in our spirit.
Our spirit is where we have conscience, intuition, communion, and the consciousness of what is of Him and what is not. It is the intuition of knowing His heart, the place of communion and fellowship with Him. How that has been quickened.
Before, it was under the dominion of our own self and our own life. But He is bringing us into the experience of this in a fuller and greater way.
When we were born again, we still had the same old body. Nothing changed. You may have had a smile on your face rather than a grumpy old growl, but it was the same body. Praise God, one day we will receive a new one.
The older we get, the more we appreciate that. We look forward to not needing knee replacements, cancer treatments, and all the other things that come with this present body. Praise God, there will be a new body.
When we were born again, we also retained the same soul. It may have begun changing, but this is where the Lord begins His work. As mentioned earlier, Peter refers to this as the salvation of our soul. He begins transforming and conforming us into His image.
As many say, our spirit has been saved, our soul is being saved, and our body will be saved. This is the great salvation into which we have been brought.
I am preaching to the choir. These are very fundamental truths that we know, but it is good to reflect upon them periodically. We thank the Lord that Kenny has been going through Romans, which deals with these matters in such a full and extensive way.
The question is: Do we live in the good of His life? He desires the opportunity to express Himself.
One of the beauties of His life is that it has stood every test throughout the ages and has proven itself victorious every time. Whatever His life encountered while He was on earth, and whatever it has encountered in His people through the ages, He has proven Himself faithful.
That is why we can sing, “Great is Thy faithfulness, O Lord our God.” Truly, we have tasted and seen how good He is. But do we live in the good of it?
Many of the problems, challenges, and issues we face every day are because we do not have a clear understanding of all that Christ has done for us at Calvary. Many problems come back to our foundation. It is not the complicated things; it is the basic foundation of all that Christ did for us at Calvary that gets to the root of many problems in our lives.
We are not speaking merely of understanding with our minds, but of knowing the reality of it in our hearts. If we do not know that reality, we become susceptible to the temptations and accusations of the enemy, and to the influence of sin, self, and the world.
But praise God, what He did at Calvary allows us to live in the good of His life.
What happened at Calvary? Again, this is not exhaustive, but He took our sins upon Himself. He cancelled the certificate of debt. He set the prisoner free. He concluded the past and set us free from tyranny and accusation. He set us free from the bondage of the kingdom of darkness, under which we had lived for so long. He set us free from bondages of which we were not even aware.
He became our life—a new life within us.
Have we settled these things in our hearts? Have we really come to know them? Or do we sometimes feel under guilt, burdened by the past, unworthy, and conscious of failures?
Do we listen to the accusations of the enemy, the accuser? The enemy is always accusing us, and none of us is exempt from this.
I think I can speak for probably every person who has ever stood up here to share God’s Word: sometime before you were ready to share, the enemy said, “You are unworthy.”
That shows one way the enemy works: he accuses us with the truth.
That may sound funny, but when the enemy says, “You are unworthy to share,” what is the answer? “Yes, that is true. But God. But I have a new life.”
The enemy will lie at times, but often he brings up something from our past. “Remember when you did that. Remember when you said this. Remember that.” Those things may be true, but they are under the blood of the Lamb. They are settled. They are concluded. That shuts the mouth of the enemy.
You never win an argument with the accuser of the brethren. You simply say, “Nope. That was settled at Calvary.”
The enemy may accuse you of being a weak Christian, of failures and unfaithfulness, and of all kinds of things. You can say, “Yes, that is true. But they are under the blood of the Lamb, and we are new creatures in Him.”
Thank the Lord for that. Do not try to argue. Do not try to justify yourself. Stand in all that He has done.
Many things with which the enemy accuses us are simply intended to get our eyes off the Lord and onto ourselves. We must not let that happen.
At times, he does not even need to accuse us. We know we have done something wrong. If we have sinned, we should accept responsibility: “Yes, Lord, I did that. I repent. I confess my sin, and I accept Your forgiveness.”
One of the greatest testimonies of this is David’s life with Bathsheba. Nathan the prophet said, “David, you are the one who sinned.” David said, “I have sinned against the Lord.”
But that did not stop David. He allowed the Lord to meet him, cleanse him, and enable him to continue. That is the man after God’s own heart.
A man after God’s own heart knows the preciousness of the blood of the Lamb in a far greater way than many others. David became a man after God’s own heart because he recognized the great salvation that the Lord had accomplished for him.
David was a mortal man whose failures were blatant and open, but he had a heart for God. He accepted responsibility for his actions. When he sinned again, he said, “I fall into the hands of the living God.” He repented and continued on.
There were consequences to some of David’s sins, obviously. But they did not hinder the Lord from fulfilling all He wanted to do through David to bring in the kingdom and to have a son who would carry on that testimony and build the temple.
Thank the Lord, there is a solid and sure foundation. We have the great foundation of Christ our life: the objective and fundamental truth that we are in Christ and Christ is in us as our life.
He is the foundation that enables us to live in this present age. By the grace of God, we can live amid all the chaos in this world. Why? Because we have a solid and sure foundation.
Now, here is an accountant speaking about foundations, so you probably have the wrong person up here. But a solid and sure foundation withstands the natural disasters and everything that comes upon it.
We have all probably seen pictures of storms in which some buildings stand while others collapse. It is a foundational issue. A home can stand through the midst of a hurricane because of its foundation.
You can have a perfect stormproof roof, strong siding, hurricane-proof windows, and all of the superstructure needed to withstand the hurricane. But if you do not have one thing, eventually none of the other things will help you: a solid and sure foundation.
Much of a foundation is hidden. It lifts you up off the earth and, spiritually speaking, gets you into the heavenlies. It separates you from the earth so that you are lifted above some of the things of life.
The foundation we have in Christ lifts us up above the things of this earth. Praise God, this foundation enables us to stand when all else collapses.
No weapon formed against us can ultimately stand because of the blood of the Lamb. No storm that comes upon us can destroy us. It may do some damage. We may lose a few shingles. We may suffer a little. But He holds us. He holds us steady.
We are thankful for the foundation we have. Many may say, “It will not hold,” but yes, it will. He is there to hold us through whatever we face.
That is why I appreciate being part of the body of Christ. At testimony times, I hear so often how He held many of you through the midst of storms, and it encourages all of us. Ever thankful for that.
Not only has He given us this sure and solid foundation, but as we reflect upon this great salvation, we see all that He has set us free from. Romans describes the glorious liberty of the sons of God.
Praise God, we have been brought in and set free into this glorious liberty. But how are we using this newfound freedom? Are we using it for ourselves, or are we using it for Him?
What have we been set free from, and what have we been set free to be?
Sometimes we hear people say, “Oh, the great freedom I have in Christ! I am so free now. I do not have any bounds. I can meet here, worship there, serve here, wear this, and I do not care what people think.”
Someone might say, “I do not care if, as a woman, I wear something that tempts men. I am free in Christ.” Or, “I can watch anything—movies, television, the internet, video games. I am free. I am a Christian, and I can do what I want because I have Christ.”
Is that really the freedom for which He set us free?
When we consider the way He set us free, we see that He set us free from sin, the world, and corruption in order to become bondservants to Him, serving one another.
There is no Scripture in the New Testament that says we are free to do our own thing. There is no Scripture saying He set us free to do whatever we want. No. He set us free with a purpose.
Romans 6:18 says:
And having been set free from sin,
ye became servants of righteousness.
Praise God. He is our righteousness. He is our Master, and we are servants of His righteousness. What freedom we have—not relying upon ourselves or our own righteousness, but being free from sin.
First Peter 2:16 says:
As free, and not using your freedom for a cloak of wickedness,
but as servants of God.
A bondservant is a servant who loves his master. Though he is set free, he says, “No, I want to stay in your house. I love you forever. My family and I will stay here.” Then his ear is pierced.
Praise God, we are set free from all of this to live in harmony and to live together as brothers and sisters according to what He has done.
Galatians 5:13 says:
For ye, brethren, were called for freedom;
only use not your freedom for an occasion to the flesh,
but through love be servants one to another.
We have been set free to serve one another—to get our eyes off ourselves, loving and serving one another.
Finally, 1 Corinthians 8:9 says:
But take heed lest by any means this liberty of yours
become a stumblingblock to the weak.
Paul addresses this clearly. You may be free to do something, but are you aware that what you are doing might cause someone else to stumble? There is a consciousness of your brethren—not bondage that says, “Oh, I cannot do this or that,” but love that says, “I do not want to do this. I deny myself.”
As we think of this precious truth of Christ our life, I always like to look for quotations from A. W. Tozer because he speaks the truth rather bluntly. Speaking of truth, Tozer said:
If truth does not impact our lives, what value is it?
It simply puffs you up.
The truth of Christ our life—is it impacting our lives?
It is vital for Christ in us, the objective truth, to become spiritual reality in our lives. How does He do this? Through the process we call transformation.
There are many technical terms for transformation, but it is simply the process of transferring control and influence from our previous master—the soul or self-life—to our new Master: His life, Christ, the Holy Spirit in us.
Before we were saved, our self-life controlled our spirit. Now we have a new Master living within. Our spirit has been born again, and it goes through a transforming process. This is progressive throughout our whole lives as we come increasingly under the headship and lordship of our new Master.
I mentioned both Christ and the Holy Spirit in us because we know that in the Godhead there is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. They have distinct functions, but there is one life in each of them.
It is not as though the Father has one life, Christ has another life, and the Holy Spirit has yet another life. There is one divine life in all of them.
Sometimes the way we speak separates the life of Christ from the life of the Holy Spirit. We say, “We have Christ in us, but the Holy Spirit has to do it.” There are distinctions, yes, but let us be careful and aware that it is one life within us. The Holy Spirit is at times called the Spirit of Christ.
When we speak of this work being done, let us not become overly concerned whether we call it the life of Christ, the Holy Spirit, or the Spirit of Christ. It is His life. That is what is being worked within us. There is a divine life dwelling within us and doing this work.
How does this process begin? Does it begin with a desire? Perhaps there is a desire: “Lord, I see You. I want this desire.”
The Lord encouraged us that if we want to be His disciples, Luke 9:23 says:
If any man would come after Me,
let him deny himself,
and take up his cross daily,
and follow Me.
To learn of Him and be His disciple, there must be desire. But where does desire come from?
Let us use John the Baptist as an example. We are familiar with John 3:30:
He must increase, but I must decrease.
We know this phrase and say it often. But where did this emphatic desire within John’s heart come from? What touched John and caused him to make such a tremendous statement: “He must increase, and I must decrease”?
Look at the context, the verse immediately before it. Desire to be conformed to the image of Christ and to be about His will comes from vision and revelation of who He is.
John 3:29 says:
He that hath the bride is the bridegroom:
but the friend of the bridegroom, who standeth and heareth him,
rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice:
this my joy therefore is made full.
John first saw our Lord Jesus and declared Him to be the Lamb of God:
Behold, the Lamb of God,
that taketh away the sin of the world.
What a revelation that was. Others saw Jesus merely as a physical person. John saw beyond that.
But as John kept his eyes and heart upon the Lord Jesus, he saw more. He saw beyond Jesus simply as his Savior and beyond Jesus merely as the Lamb of God. John declared Jesus Christ to be the Bridegroom.
He saw the Bridegroom. He heard the Bridegroom’s voice. Once he had seen the Bridegroom and seen God’s heart and purpose, he knew what he had to do: “I must decrease. He must increase.”
He could not hold back. He knew what had to happen for him to enter into the fullness of that joy.
John the Baptist’s heart had seen the Lord. He saw God’s heart, God’s purpose, and God’s end. It enabled him to continue going on. What a great revelation.
To use the phrase the Lord used with Peter, it was not flesh and blood that revealed this to John the Baptist. It was the Father in heaven.
As John had a heart toward the Lord Jesus and saw Him as the Lamb of God, he saw more. He saw behind the outward appearance and said, “This is the Bridegroom. This is the One looking for that bride. We are simply friends of the Bridegroom.”
Brothers and sisters, if we have a desire to go on and follow the Lord in a fuller and greater way, it comes from knowing Him in a fuller and greater way. May we desire for His life to do that transforming work in us.
When He has shown us something of what He wants to do, with His end in view, and we surrender and say, “Yes, Lord, do this. You must increase in my life, and I must decrease,” we give the Lord permission for the cross and the Holy Spirit to begin the transforming work.
The Lord is a perfect Southern gentleman. He never forces Himself upon us. He says, “Here I am. Behold Me.”
Romans 12:1 speaks of consecration in the light of the mercies of God. Consider and behold the mercies of God—all that He has done. He does not say, “You must present yourself as a living sacrifice.” No, it is a freewill offering.
If we want to be transformed and conformed to the image of Christ, it is a freewill offering of ourselves to Him as we see Him. John saw Him, and he could not resist.
Can we resist the transforming work? How we need each one of us to have a fuller and greater revelation of Him, that He may conform us into the image of the One who first loved us and died for us.
Next time, we will consider more practically the working of the cross and the Holy Spirit in transforming us. But today, let us reiterate that the Lord would make real to us the truth of Christ in us.
As we conclude, there are several matters upon which we should pray.
May our prayer be that the Lord would give us greater revelation of Christ in us. Who is He? Consider all that flows from that truth.
May we know His purpose for us as His special treasure. We are His special treasure. Do we know that? Do we know His purpose for us?
May we know the reality of our solid and sure foundation. When we face the temptations of life, may we know that we have a solid and sure foundation that holds us against accusations of the enemy, temptations of the flesh, temptations of the world, and the issues of life.
When we receive notice that we have lost our job, when a wedding has to be postponed, when there is illness in our bodies, or when something happens to someone we love, how do we keep going on? Do we know that solid and sure foundation? It has been tested and proven. May we know more of its reality.
May we know more of the glorious liberty of the sons of God: what we have truly been set free from and what we have been set free to do—to be servants of the living God.
May we be willing for Him to transform us into His image. He does not force us.
But praise God, the grace of God has appeared to mankind, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us how to live in this present age, and giving us a living hope for His glorious return.
May the Lord continue to work in a real way in each of our hearts and lives in the days in which we are living.
Let us pray.
Lord, we come to You with worshipful hearts.
Lord, as we said earlier, when we touch Christ our life, we feel that we are only touching the edges, the fringe of Your garment. But Lord, would You come and give each one of us, in the specific things through which we are going in life, a greater revelation of Yourself?
We are thankful that You meet us right where we are. In the all-sufficiency of Your grace, reveal more of Your Son to each one of us, getting our eyes off ourselves and onto You.
You alone have the words of eternal life, and that is whom we look to, Lord.
Lord, we have a desire to be transformed into Your image. As that desire begins touching us in particular ways, we want a greater revelation of You that would keep that desire burning within us, so that we could go on through and not pull back.
Lord, we are thankful for Your love and mercy that have redeemed and called each one of us with a glorious purpose. It is an amazing thing to think that we are Your own possession, Your special treasure.
We worship You, Lord, in Jesus’ name.