To the embarrassment of Christians everywhere

To the embarrassment of Christians everywhere, prominent Christian figures are regularly being exposed for their involvement in drug use, pedophilia, homosexuality, fornication, adultery, pornography and fraud of all kinds. Many of these men have openly grieved over their failure as though vexed by some Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde phenomena. Simultaneously, a growing apathy has crept over the Christian masses. Either we have grown so accustomed to such failings and don't expect anything more or we are simply afraid of what we might discover if we pry too deeply. Dare we ask why? Why is an institution whose basic message to the world is "Accept Christ and be changed for the better" proving to be on no higher moral footing than the world it hopes to impact?

From a purely logical point of view, one of two things must be true. Either Christianity is powerless, meaning that Christ and His teachings are false, or the problem is due to man's failure to appropriate the power that Christ promised. It is evidently not enough to be able to quote the Bible from memory or accurately articulate particular tenets of faith, since many of those found wanting in recent days could do this better than most. If the church today has proven anything, it has proven that more than mere head knowledge is required to live above the passions that drive the world around us. What can lift God's people above this amoral jungle? Do we need a greater firmness of purpose? Do we need to double our efforts?

How did the early believers escaped their "untoward generation" (Acts 2:40) and still turn the world up-side-down (see Acts 17:6)? It is one thing to overcome the world by escaping to a monastery and shutting yourself away from all its negative influences, but quite another thing to possess the greater

influence when rubbing shoulders with it daily. The scriptures reveal such an overcoming Church. If we dare to believe them, we may take heart, because they also foretell the glory of the latter house (the end-time Church) that will far exceed the glory of the former house (the early Church).

This will not happen without the recovery of the dynamic that alone can restore godly activity and productivity to the church. Glory as revealed in the scriptures is nothing more than the visible presence and power of almighty God! Such glory has little to do with the greatness of men, but emanates from the Lord Himself and is "the glory of the Lord." When Solomon's temple was dedicated, "the glory of the LORD had filled the house of the LORD" so "that the priests could not stand to minister. . ." (1 Kings 8). Ezekiel shows us in his vision the appropriate human response to such glory. "Then he brought me by way of the north gate to the front of the house: and I looked, and, behold, the glory of the LORD filled the house of the LORD: and I fell upon my face" (Ezekiel 44:4 KJ2000). God's glory brings an end to the need for mediators between God and men. In His glory the priest cannot minister and the prophet cannot stand.

Whether we see it around us or not, such a glorious church is in the making. Christ is building, sanctifying and cleansing it even now. "That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish" (Ephesians 5:26-27 KJ2000). The Church that Christ is presenting to Himself is, in the scriptural definition of the word, glorious, "filled with the glory of the Lord"--God Himself.

The purpose of this article is not to criticize or expose anyone, for all of us fall short of the glory of God in one way or another. I am not above or separate from the rest of the body of Christ as though I were already living in the absolute good of what I am about to share. In the ultimate sense, such things are corporately realized. No man lives to himself. We are members one of another. It is my absolute conviction that everything that is wanting in the church today is proportional to the degree that we have, unwittingly or otherwise, abandoned the Life that makes an individual a victorious Christian and a group of such individuals, a glorious Church.

Jesus spoke of the true Christian life to Martha whose brother, Lazarus, had been dead for four days. "I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believes in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?" (John 11:25-26 KJ2000). Consider Jesus' question. Do we believe this? Do we believe that the dead shall live and that living believers will never die? Was Jesus simply talking in riddles and empty platitudes or was He describing a realm beyond natural limitations? He demonstrated the reality of His words moments later when He stood before the tomb of Lazarus and commanded, "Lazarus! Come forth!" At His word, all that science deems certain, fatal and irreversible was overruled, and he who was shut away in the grave, beyond all hope of recovery, came forth alive. (Talk about violating the second law of thermodynamics). Jesus' next command to those who stood by is also very significant, "Loose him, and let him go."

Some might say, "Yes, believers will live forever but this only applies to the afterlife; 'the sweet by and by.' This has little to do with our daily existence." Such unbelief is not unique to our day, since this was Martha's initial response as well. When Jesus told her, "Your brother shall rise again" (John 11:23), she immediately did the acceptable theological thing. She put everything off into the future. "I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at the last day" (John 11:24). Satan doesn't tremble at our faith in God's ability to act sometime in the future, because tomorrow never comes. When tomorrow comes, it is no longer tomorrow but it is now today; so the religious mind replaces it with another tomorrow and Satan is once again spared. He is, however, terrified at the prospect of God acting today; being present and glorious now, this moment. Satan is clearly behind the present theological attempts to demythologize and strike all that is miraculous from the biblical record while downplaying the need to be born from above today and empowered by the Spirit of God now.

In a theological environment that only dares to believe that God has acted in the past and may again act sometime in the future, Jesus invites all who have the courage to believe Him and to join Him today in a life that is every bit as miraculous as the resurrection of Lazarus. He who has life in Himself (John5:26) bids us to come forth in resurrection life. The rest of the story does not depend on us, but is the consequence of a miraculous receiving and sharing of Divine Life, which transforms even the most physical aspects of our daily lives (Romans 8:11).

In Hebrews we read this very admonition with a warning that we as Christians can fail by our lack of dynamic faith in the power of God:

This speaks of a daily confidence, of Today, of daily hearing and obeying His voice and most of all of walking with and obeying the living God, for we have been made part of Christ Himself as His body and He is alive!

This article is dedicated to those believers who long for something that transcends the ordinary, which can lift them above the droning dirge of contemporary dispensational theology.

The New Testament is the record of a new Genesis or beginning. Matthew begins with words that hark back to the book of Genesis. "The book of the generation (GK. biblos genesis) of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham" (Matthew 1:1 WEB).

We find the same words in the Greek translation of the Old Testament (Septuagint). Genesis 5:1 reads, "This is the book of the generations (biblos genesis) of Adam. In the day when God created man, He made him in the likeness of God."

This first genesis was preceded by the Spirit of God moving over the face of the deep. In the new genesis of Jesus Christ, the angel declared to Mary, "the Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you…" (Luke 1:35). Again, this reminds us of the first verses of Genesis, which say, "And the Spirit of God brooded over the face of the deep."

The first Genesis began with "Adam the son of God" (See Luke 3:38). The New Creation begins with the Last Adam, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the firstborn of a new Spirit-birthed race, "born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God" (John 1:13).

The first Adam bore offspring in his image (Genesis 5:3). It was Paul who first introduced Christ as "the Last Adam," the progenitor of and entirely new, Spirit-birthed lineage bearing His image. Paul compared the old creation in the first Adam with the new creation, in the last Adam. First the natural . . . then the spiritual. "The first man is of the earth, made of dust: the second man is the Lord from heaven. . . As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly." The inherent promise of the new genesis is, "And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly" (See 1 Corinthians 15:45-49).

Any honest student of the New Testament cannot help but notice the repeated reference to these two representative men and the people resident in them. There is no middle ground. Every living human being is either in Adam or in Christ.

The sinful nature of Adam works within everyone who is in Adam and leads to death.

The righteous nature of the last Adam, Christ, works within everyone who is in Him leading to life.

For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. (1 Corinthians 15:21-22 WEB)

I deliberately left out the first half of the above passage for effect. It reads, "For since death came by man, the resurrection of the dead also came by man." We have all born the image of the earthy man but the promise to all believers who are in Christ Jesus is that we shall also bear the image of the heavenly man. In Adam all die . . . In Christ all will be made alive!

As the representative of a new lineage, Christ, the Last Adam, had to be tested and proven victorious in every area where the first Adam failed. He learned obedience through the things that He suffered, and through His proven faithfulness, believers are delivered from the long legacy of sin, failure, suffering, sickness and death that all mankind inherited from the first Adam. Judgment came upon all men to condemnation through the offence of the first man (Adam). Everything was set right by the obedience of the heavenly man (last Adam), Jesus Christ. By His righteousness the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life. This is not a merely legal or purely conceptual redemption, to be batted around and comprehended only by theologians. No. This salvation requires of one and all that they assume a repentant, receptive and yielded posture as sinners needing righteousness and as beggars needing grace. Only "they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by One, Jesus Christ." (See Romans 5:17-19).

Everything is dependent upon who we are in. In Adam all die. In Christ all will be made alive. If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new" (See 2 Corinthians 5:17).

According to Paul, every true believer has put off the old man (carnal humanity) and has put on the "one new man" in Christ (see Ephesians 2:15).

Don't lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old man with his doings, and have put on the new man, that is being renewed in knowledge after the image of his Creator, where there can't be Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bondservant, freeman; but Christ is all, and in all. (Colossians 3:9-11 WEB)

Here Paul exhorts us as a new creation, the offspring of the last Adam, to live lives consistent to our new position in Christ. All distinctions of ethnic or religious division are not in Christ, but in our sinful old natures and are to be put off like a filthy garment. In Christ, the last Adam, there can't be Greek and Jew, because this new creation in Christ takes us back before Judah and the Jews came into being, back before the confusion of tongues at Babel--the beginnings of ethnic enmity--back before the first Adam gave in to temptation in the Garden. There were no Jews and Greeks in Eden and there can't be such ethnic or religious division in this new creation because they are the product of Adam's sin. Christ is the Head of a new creation and in Him old things have passed away and all things are made new (2 Corinthians 5:17). The great difference is that Christ is all, and in all! This is how all things become new. Regarding this Lightfoot wrote, "Christ has dispossessed and obliterated all distinctions of religious prerogative and intellectual preeminence and social caste; Christ has substituted Himself for all these; Christ occupies the whole sphere of human life and permeates all its developments." (J.B. Lightfoot, Saint Paul's Epistles to the Colossians and Philemon)

What a gloriously accurate statement this is! It is without doubt God's intention that His Son should indeed occupy the whole sphere of human life and development. This magnificent New Covenant is distinguished by the fact that Christ does indeed have the preeminence in all things. He is all and in all.

The object of all God's dealings with us is that His Son would be the "All" in our lives. He must increase and we must decrease. The enemy of our souls constantly battles to prevent this fullness. Being the thief that he is, he tries to rob us of Christ's fullness. By appealing to the old Adamic nature in us and reviving all its prejudices, he divides the body of Christ along ethnic, religious and intellectual lines. Such divisiveness belongs exclusively to the earthly man, Adam. To hold such distinctions is to resist the preeminence and fullness of Christ. We must put off all these doings. All that can come of such practices is death. Death reigns in Adam. Everything that is of his lineage produces death. God will not stand for a mixture because that is poison--death working to subdue a healthy body. The Father has only one standard He measures all things in His creation by, and that is His very own Son.

"You have put off" refers to the initial deliverance from the old Adam nature and its deeds. What a deliverance this is! I will never forget the immediate lifting of what seemed like the weight of the world from off my shoulders. All that was of the old Adam was passing away. For the first time in my life sin was no longer my master (Romans 6:14) and I began to experience the mystery expressed by Paul in Romans 6:5-6. Being united with Christ in the likeness of His death, I was beginning to experiencing the "likeness of His resurrection." My old self was crucified with Christ that day and I became a new creation, seated with Him in heavenly places, far above principalities and powers, far above the governing (rudimentary) principles of this world. For the first time in my life I began to learn what it means to reign with Christ. "Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us" (Romans 8:37 KJ2000).

Jesus spoke of this reigning-life often. Speaking of himself, He said, "He who is from above is above all." This is the foundation of true victory. With words pregnant with promise, Jesus allayed the fears of his disciples, "Fear not! I have overcome the world." Elsewhere He said, "The prince of this world comes but he can find nothing in me." He who is from above is above all! Be it religious, political, economical or otherwise, nothing of this kosmos has any hold on Him. None of it is in Him. Jesus didn't say "Fear not, you will overcome the world." He said, "Fear not, I have overcome the world." His victory is everything and this is the victory that overcomes the world! (See 1 John 5:4). If we are seated with him, resting in His victory, we also are above all--above all principalities and powers--above the governing principles of the kosmos-system--above the law or the need for law (See Galatians 5:18). That is our position in Christ. In Him we are seated (positioned) far above all these things. He has indeed overcome the world and to the extent that we are seated together with Him, His victory is expressed in our lives. Fear not! Though your condition might sometimes be bleak, remember, He has overcome the world! Having been crucified, buried, resurrected and seated with Him in heavenly places, we are destined to reign in life through Christ--the quickening Spirit. The abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness have one end in view, that we should reign in life, not as lords but as victors through Him (see Romans 5:17).

Through co-death, burial and resurrection with Him, we are seated above the influence of the sinful nature, which we inherited from the first Adam (see Romans 6:6-11). Could it get more glorious than this? In Christ we reign in life, not by our own resolve but by sharing in His likeness and nature. This is the victory that overcomes the world--being renewed in knowledge after the image of our Creator. This is the "revival" that God wants--the recovery of His image and likeness. He is not interested in the recovery of a proper ecclesiastical order or the right and magical ceremonial formula. Neither is He interested in the height of the spire, the elaborateness of the sanctuary, the plush-ness of the pews, the quality of the carpet or even the size of the congregation. He is intent on one thing--"the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His person" seen in the face of Jesus Christ and set on display through His new creation--that He might bring many sons unto glory (Hebrews 1:3, 2:10). The obligation of all who are called according to His purpose is to live in keeping with this great mystery, "Christ in you the hope of glory" (see Colossians 1:27).

In Galatians 6:15-16, Paul exhorted the Galatians believers to walk by, be empowered by and governed by this great new covenant reality, The New Creation Rule. The nature and scope of this guiding rule will become exceeding clear as we go on.

For in Christ Jesus neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. As many as walk by this rule, peace and mercy be on them, and on God's Israel (Galatians 6:15-16 WEB).

In this verse Paul contrasts two rules (kanōn) by which men endeavor to approach God and to live lives that are pleasing to Him. In Paul's day, a rule (kanōn) was a straight piece of rounded wood fastened to crooked objects like a splint to make them straight and keep them straight. As it applies here, "rule" refers to the particular standard or core understanding that affects every thought and guides every action in our lives.

One of these rules that Paul mentions in the passage above is prevalent everywhere we look today. Just like the Judaizers who vainly tried to live up to an external ideal (rule), most of what is called "Christianity" today also concerns itself with conformity to an external standard. But the rule that Paul speaks of here is in the lives of those who are enlivened by the Second Adam. It is an internal, living standard, by which everything that is crooked, not meeting the standard of that life, is made straight or overwhelmed by the workings of that Life. The first rule leads to frustration and condemnation, because if you try to keep part of the law, you must keep it all and that is impossible (see Acts 15:7-11). Mercy and peace are upon those who live by this final rule. Only those who live as new creatures by the renewing and transforming power of God can know the peace and mercy of God. Only those who walk or progress by this rule are capable of worshiping God in the Spirit, for they are the circumcision who "rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh" (Philippians 3:3). Circumcision speaks of the putting away of the filth of the flesh, and these two rules represent two different ways that men try to do that. Religious man tries to deal with the flesh and it passions (outward in the flesh) by the strength of the flesh, "don't touch, nor taste or handle." True circumcision in the eyes of God cannot be done by man but is "of the heart, (inwardly) in the spirit not in the letter; whose praise is not from men, but from God" (Romans 2:28-29).

The true circumcision of God worships Him in, by and through His Spirit. What they become through God's transforming power is greater praise to Him than anything they could ever say or do. They are living demonstrations of His transforming power. Old things have passed away and all things have become new! There is no greater witness than a truly changed life!

"Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new. But all things are of God, who reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ, and gave to us the ministry of reconciliation; (2 Corinthians 5:17-18 WEB)

In this passage we notice the repeated use of the words "all things." In them we see the what and the how. What: "all things have become new." How: "all things are of God." All things cannot be new until all things are of God. The great difference between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant is that, in the New Covenant, nothing is of us! All things are of God! We can no more be new creatures by our own piety than Adam could have fashioned himself out of the dirt and breathed into himself the breath of life. All things are of God! Our sufficiency is of God! We have no confidence in the flesh, ours or anyone else's. Conforming to external rules, "Touch not, taste not, handle not," is the old Adam's way of trying to re-create himself and reenter the paradise of God by his own doing. Talk about frustration. An angel with a flaming sword still blocks that path. Only by embracing God's rule and workmanship in our lives as His new creatures and by cooperating with His nature in us can we make any true progress.

Mercy and peace are upon all who walk (progress) by this rule! You didn't become a Christian by struggling to change yourself, trying to put to death the deeds of the flesh by hand, but by believing and receiving the Spirit of Christ. "For if you live after the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live" (Romans 8:13 WEB). Neither do we live the Christian life by agonizing and straining. "As you have received Christ Jesus, so walk in Him." You cannot lift yourself up by your own bootstraps and you cannot change your inward self. God look upon the heart and only He can change it. Just as we are "reconciled to God through the death of his Son . . . we will be saved by his life" (See Romans 5:10). Here is the sum of all God's provision and expectation as far as we are concerned. It is this "saved by His life" that we so often stumble over. We are reconciled through the death of the Son. We are saved by the life of the Son.

Since Martin Luther nailed his 95 thesis on the Wittenberg Church door, we in Protestantism have had 500 years of teaching on the atoning death of Christ. What a wonderful truth it is! We are reconciled through His death. We dare not stop there because reconciliation is a ticket to ride. Reconciliation is an invitation to embark on a grand journey.

Not only did Christ redeem us from being bad sinners; He also wants to redeem us from the fruitless effort of trying to be good Christians. We did not reconcile ourselves; neither can we save ourselves in any ongoing sense. Christ's death was required for reconciliation. His ever-present and empowering life is required for salvation. To view salvation as a past event, something that happened to us years ago when we first believed, is a great theological blunder. We are saved moment by moment, by His life within us. His life in us meets every challenge. "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."

I had a conversation with a young collage student recently that almost moved me to tears. She, being a recovering agnostic, had now come to believe that there is indeed a God and that He created everything but having done so, He left and is now watching from afar to see how it will all turn out. All I could think to say, initially, was, "That is so sad!" But as I pondered her words I realized that they reflected not only the state of her life and mentality toward God but were, from her perspective, the only explanation for the condition of Christendom today. Thankfully, I was given opportunity to share with her what makes true Christianity so exceptional. That is simply this: Jesus is Emanuel, God with us! He is an ever-present help in time of trouble, a Friend that sticks closer than a brother! The words of an old hymn come to mind. "He Lives! He lives! Christ Jesus lives today! He walks with me and He talks with me along life's narrow way. He lives! He lives, salvation to impart! You ask me how I know He lives; He lives within my heart!"

This is the key to everything. We have not been left to see how well we will do without Him. Jesus promised, "I will come to you." Christ's Spirit in us is passionate to please the Father. Think of it! God has sent into our hearts the Spirit of His Son (Galatians 4:6) who, in the face of horrendous sorrows, cried out "Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will" (Mark 14:36). The Spirit of God's Son, in our hearts still cries, "Abba, Father." The Spirit of the Son creates within us His passion for the Father's will. More than earthly comforts, more than physical life itself, the Spirit of the Son seeks Abba's will. This is what distinguishes Christianity from all religions and believers from religious men.

The most basic instinct in man is self-survival. It is this very self-saving instinct, rooted in the nature of the first Adam that Satan uses to control men. He is banking on one thing, "Skin for skin! All that a man has he will give for his life" (Job 2:4). Jesus said, "He who finds his life will lose it, but he who loses his life for my sake shall find it."

The very first change that occurs when the Spirit of the Son takes up residence within the hearts of believers is that the spirit of fear is vanquished (Romans 8:15, 2 Timothy1:7). Perfect love casts out fear (1 John 4:18). Through death, Christ destroyed the one who had the power of death, the devil, and delivered all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery (see Hebrews 2:14-15) The fear of death enslaves, but the Spirit of the Son lifts us up above that cowering existence. We cannot reign with Christ as long as the fear of death keeps us hiding in Gethsemane, asking for our cup to be removed. The book of Revelation records the secret of the reigning-life. "And they (those reigning in Christ) overcame him [the devil] by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death (Revelation 12:11 emphasis mine). The fear of death hinders the overcoming and reigning-life that is ours in Christ. We have not received the spirit of fear unto bondage but the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus! That Spirit has set us free! The deeds of the flesh are mortified by that Spirit.

You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you. So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, "Abba! Father!" (Romans 8:9-15 ESV)

Everything that God hopes to accomplish in your life He intends to do through His Spirit who dwells in you. He will put to death the deeds of the body by the Spirit.

The Spirit is life! (See Romans 8:10). We are saved by his life--by His working within. The riches of the glory of this mystery is this, "Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Colossians 1:27).

Jesus promised that out of your innermost being will flow rivers of living waters. Is this not being saved by His life within? In every situation the correct response flows out, from the seat of His throne in our innermost being. Do you struggle to love that difficult brother or sister with little or no success? Christ in you is the hope. Christ in you is longsuffering and kind. Christ loves! Walking according to this rule frees us from constantly missing the mark. Only the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus can free us from the law of sin and death. The sooner we see that we cannot live the Christian life, the closer we are to the reigning-life--where Christ lives out His passion for the Father's interests through us. When we understand that we died with Him, were buried with Him, raised with Him, there is still one more revelation to come. Having accomplished all this on our behalf, has Jesus now left us to reign without Him? Not hardly! It is crucial that we understand the with. We are called to reign with Him! This is what it means to be seated with Him in heavenly places. Seated implies the end of all work. "It is finished!"

I don't often visit Christian book stores anymore, but when I do I am always shocked by the titles on the shelves. It seems that about 90% of them are self-help in their approach to the Christian life. Seven steps to victory, how to live the Christian life, how to be a witness, how to, how to, how to. What the covers of these books are telling us is, "You can do it and here is how." The Christian life is infinitely more blessed than this! We are not orphans, left to beg for food in the streets. "We are made partakers of Christ" (Hebrews 3:14). It is His life that lifts us above the Romans 7:15-18 struggle to overcome sin. "I don't practice what I desire to do; but what I hate, that I do. . . For the good that I want to do, I can't do. . . A law is in my members, warring" (Romans 7:23). I can't do! Who will deliver me from this constant cycle of failure and death? "Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! . . . There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death" (Romans 7:25, 8:1-2 NRS).

We are saved by His Life! Through the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, all that pertains to life and godliness is now ours as a free gift. He offers us His victorious life in exchange for our defeated ones. Paul expressed it this way, "For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God. I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faithfulness of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me" (Galatians 2:19-20). Please dwell on these words, because they are key to the reigning-life. Take them out of the past in your thinking and see them as present So He can be glorious here and now!

When we finally realize that we are crucified with Christ, we quit trying to live the Christian life and give Christ permission to live out His faithfulness through us. We are suddenly buoyed up far above the realm of law, sin, and death and relieved forever of the onus to perform. The Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus ends our struggles, for, "now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter" (Romans 7:6 NASB).

In Romans 8 chapter 13, Paul introduces a foundational truth that, by all appearances, is little understood today.

For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. (Romans 8:13-14 NKJV)

What does it mean to live according to the flesh? Is it not to live by the desires and the energies of the flesh? Such fleshliness is easy to spot when it concerns the obvious works of the flesh--anger malice, drunkenness, adultery, witchcraft and so forth. However, not every fleshly desire is so easy to see. Much that is of the flesh looks good on the surface. For instance, the flesh is intensely interested in "doing the will of God" and is seemingly willing to go to any and all lengths to do so. This coupled with carnal man's inordinate ambition to be like God--self-sufficient--manifests within him a powerful preoccupation with buying salvation with obedience. God's judgment upon all our hard-earned goodness is, "No one does good, not even one." Initially, His dealings with all men are designed to get them to accept His judgment on this matter. "All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one" (Romans 3:12 ESV). There is nothing good that the flesh can offer God. Regardless of how good it looks, "That which is born of the flesh is flesh."

On the day of Pentecost Peter's answer to the religious plea and cry, "What must we do to be saved?" was "Repent and be baptized." These two simple acts of obedience are the gateway to all that pertains to life and godliness. "Repent and be baptized and you shall receive . . .. " It is a mistake to focus only on external forms here as though God honors a blind participation in rituals. God looks on the heart and these two acts of obedience expose heart ambitions and beliefs that must be set right before anyone can receive from Him. Repentance initially addresses man's ambition to purchase salvation by his own merit by requiring him to do the unthinkable, i.e., stop doing!

No one can fully embrace the finished work of Christ and receive the gift of His righteousness while they are working to affect redemption through good behavior. Consequently, the author of Hebrews defined repentance more fully by writing, "the foundation of repentance from dead works." A dead work is any work that is not birthed, sustained and brought to fruition by Divine Life. The beginning of repentance is not to do but to stop doing all things that do not emanate from God's Life. Before any true fruitfulness can mature in our lives God must first bring each one of us to a place of full repentance where we are gripped with the awful reality that all our goodness is as filthy rags in His sight and that the first required step of obedience before us is to cease, desist, and otherwise stop trying to do it ourselves. Perhaps the best description of repentance I have ever read was written by Robert Farrar Capon.

"The gospel of grace is the end of religion, the final posting of the CLOSED sign on the sweatshop of the human race's perpetual struggle to think well of itself. For that, at bottom, is what religion is: man's well-meant but dim-witted attempt to approve of his unapprovable condition by doing odd jobs he thinks some important Something will thank him for.

Religion, therefore, is a loser, a strictly fallen activity. It has a failed past and a bankrupt future. There was no religion in Eden and there won't be any in heaven; and in the meantime Jesus has died and risen to persuade us to knock it all off right now." (Between Noon and Three, p. 166)

When we come into full agreement with God on the foundational issue of repentance and knock it all off right now, then we are ready for baptism and all that it signifies. Having ceased from our dead works, we are truly ready to receive from God.

By its very nature, baptism is the confession of your faith in the working (operation) of God. Baptism is a type of circumcision. The only difference is that this circumcision is made without hands, without our help. "In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead" (Colossians 2:11-12 NKJV).

Here is the central issue that distinguishes true Christianity from mere religion. Religion focuses on putting off the sins of the flesh by the hands of man (willpower). Not long ago a disturbing statistic came to the forefront. For the first time in the history of the western Church, the divorce rate is equal and sometimes higher in the church than it is in the world that it hopes to save. This caused quite a stir among Christian leaders, since it seemed to reflect directly on how well they are doing. Amazingly the issues of repentance and faith toward God were not among the topics of discussion.

Contemporary Christianity is fast becoming just another religion and is resorting to the way of religion. In religion, when a man sins (fails the group expectation), the prescribed answer is always to deal with the sins of the flesh by hand--tightening controls and garrisoning the poor weak sinners away from temptations that lead them to sure failure--"touch not, taste not, handle not." In all reality, the putting away of the sins of the flesh is not done by human hands. God's way is to go to the root by the circumcision of Christ--our great high priest. It was the job of the Old Testament priest to circumcise the newborn. Likewise it is Christ who does the circumcising--the putting away of the sins of the flesh. Right behavior does not bring life but Life produces right behavior. It is not a matter of willpower but of receiving and yielding to a new nature within.

When you are baptized, you are not merely confessing "I have decided to follow Jesus," as in the old baptismal song of the 70s. Rather he who is baptized is publicly declaring his reliance on the working of God to accomplish all that baptism typifies. Just as Christ was raised from the dead by the power of God, we too are raised by that same power, through faith in the working of God. This is how all things become new! All things are of God! We do not save ourselves. Neither do we cleanse (sanctify) ourselves. Jesus is not only the Author of our faith but the Finisher as well (Hebrews 12:2). All is done without hands. Our part is to have faith in and rely on the operation of God. Considering all these things, God requires of us the only reasonable thing--to present our bodies a living sacrifice. Only then can the good acceptable and perfect will of God be realized (see Romans 12: 1-5).

If we are to experience the working of God, the first thing we must die to is the fleshly struggle to do or be good. For even the good works that we are called to do are the result of God's planning and are achievable only by His enabling power. "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them." (Ephesians 2:10 NKJV). Walking in His works that He has prepared for us to do implies that we walk them out in HIS timing and power, not ours. Good intentions on our part often get in the way of His best (see John chapter eleven). So many read in the Bible about some good work that Jesus or the disciples did and then think that they have to go do the same to be a "good Christian" (like witnessing). This is filled with presumption and dead works. You don't see Jesus or the disciple handing out tracts, but rather they were living examples of the kingdom of God among men. It is better to pray and wait on the Lord for His direction and divine appointment in His timing like Jesus did with the woman at the well.

True repentance demands that we cease from dead works (all that is not God working in us to will and to do) and put our complete trust in the finished and ongoing work of Christ, our Savior and Great High Priest.

All that is not Him living and doing in and through us is dead and must be repented of. We are crucified to that old Adamic self-dependence! In Christ we are dead to all the doings of that old man. Having been crucified we have also died to the demands of the old husband, the law in order that we might be married to Christ and bear his fruit (See Romans 7: 1-). Let's look for a moment at the latter aspect of that redemption.

One of my favorite poems goes something like this, "'Do this and live' the law commands but gives me neither feet nor hands. A better way the gospel brings, it bids me fly and gives me wings!" (Author unknown) In Christ we no longer live by the "do this and live" rule. We live by the new creation rule, the life of wings, in the newness of the Spirit!

". . . if there had been a law given which could have given life, truly righteousness would have been by the law. (NKJV)

If Life could have come by the law then righteousness also could have come by the law. Why? All that is good and right springs from Divine Life.

"Goodness for ever and ever can only belong to God, as essential to him and inseparable from him, as his own unity." (An Affectionate Address to the Clergy)

All that our eyes can survey of the world and the heavens bear witness to this fact! All "good" things had their beginning in the Life of God (Christ) and are now held together by Him--"by him were all things created . . . and in him all things are held together." (See Colossians 1:16-17). After God created all visible things by His Son, He looked and saw that it was good. Everything in our lives that is not brought into being by the breath of His Spirit is not the goodness that God values and longs to survey in our lives.

The Spirit of God quickened the first Adam, making him a holy creature in His very image and likeness. Adam had no goodness of his own, He was a true offspring of God by virtue of the fact that he sprang from the very loins of God. He was utterly God's creation and workmanship. Likewise, true goodness comes solely from God's immediate birthing, working and creating His likeness within us, just as it was with His first creation. "Let us make man in our likeness and image . . . and God saw that it was good."

All that is not God's making, God's doing, is not good. Only what is done in us by the divine nature can rightly be called good, holy and righteous. Redemption in its fullest sense is the restoration of this Life that Adam lost when he chose to live instead by the life of his own soul, "If you eat of this tree you will be like God." This was the beginning of religion as we know it and man has tried to replace God ever since.

Thank God! What was lost in Adam is now restored in Christ. "His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust" (2 Peter 1: 3-4).

The objective of all God's promises is to connect us to the Wellspring of all that is living and godly, the Divine Nature. This is the aim of all His dealings with us-- that through these promises we may be partakers of the divine nature within. Boasting (the consequence of man's pride in his own achievements) is excluded (Romans 3:27)! Why? "His divine power has given to us all things." Nothing originates in us! Everything is a free gift from Him! All that pertain to life and godliness comes from Him. We, like Isaac, are simply heirs of this righteousness.

Isaac's was a miracle birth, entirely from God. Likewise, his life as an heir of the promise was one of receiving the goodness and constant provision of his father, Abraham. By contrast, Jacob's was a life filled with strife and scheming. As God's children of promise, we are called to live as Isaac did. "In Isaac shall your descendants be called" (See Hebrews 11:18). Paul saw this and exhorted believers, "Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise" (Galatians 4:28 KJV).

What does it mean to be a child of promise as Isaac was? Isaac gives us a picture of the life that God intends for every Christian to live. Isaac did not labor or toil to receive the inheritance. Abraham freely gave all that he had to Isaac (Genesis 24.36; 25. 5) by inheritance, as a birthright. Isaac inherited everything in a single gift of grace. He didn't work for one thing. Isaac inherited the promise because of God's faithfulness to keep His promise to Abraham. All was bestowed upon Isaac because he was Abraham's son. Watchman Nee wrote,

"As the God of Isaac He comes to us and gives us everything in His Son. . . The secret is receiving, not doing. . . Victory, life, salvation, all is bestowed, not attained. When you are born into a wealthy home, it is very difficult to be poor! You are rich; you were born that way.

We never worked for our salvation, gradually scaling the heights until we attained to it. The Lord sought and saved us. Victory over sin is the same; it is received, not worked for. Oh, may we learn to praise God that He has provided for us such bounty in Christ!

Some of us force ourselves to do things we don't want to do and to live a life we cannot in fact live, and think that in making this effort we are being Christians. That is very far removed from what Isaac was. The Christian life is lived when I receive the life of Christ within me as a gift, to live by that life. It is the nature of the life of Christ not to love the world but to be distinct from it, and to value prayer and the Word and communion with God. These are not things I do naturally; by nature I have to force myself to do them. . .

But God has provided another nature, and He wants me to benefit from the provision He has made. . .

Everything that is demanded, God Himself gives: that is the experience of Isaac. Strength, life, grace from God, all are ours to receive that we may measure up to the divine standard of a vessel for testimony. . .

Isaac received everything, and by his very passivity sets forth God's bountiful grace." (Watchman Nee - Changed into His Likeness)

"And if you are Christ's, then are you Abraham's descendants, and heirs according to the promise." (Galatians 3:29 KJ2000)

Paul wrote to the Corinthian church, "All things are yours, you are Christ's and Christ is God's" (see 1 Corinthians 3:22-23). Christ abides in His Father and because of that we can abide in Christ. As a result or our abiding, everything belonging to the Son belongs to us. Just like Isaac, we are heirs together with Him, born into the wealthy home of a faithful and loving Father. God gives us everything in His Son. Life, Salvation and Victory are bestowed as a single Gift, and out of His indwelling life or nature comes an effortless obedience. I don't have to force myself to obey anymore. God works in me both to will and to do his good pleasure.

If I find myself struggling in a particular area of obedience it is because I have forgotten that as Isaac was, so are we. Everything that God demands for righteousness, He provides. I might have the knowledge of His will but I am struggling to do it on my own. It is this very thing that cuts us off from His passion, provision and power. All I need do is present myself a living sacrifice and He does the rest (see Romans 12:1&2). He has provided a new nature--a new heart and new desires and ability through the gift of the Spirit of Christ. The good, acceptable and perfect (full grown) will of God is imparted, nurtured and brought to fruition through that Spirit.

The rudimentary issue of worship is this--the one doing the work gets the praise. Our lives cannot possibly praise God if we are building by the might of our own power and for the honor of our own majesty. If God is to be glorified in our lives He must be able to look at them and say, "Didn't my hand make all these things?"

He must do the work, if our lives would truly be to the praise of his glory (Ephesians 1:12).

True worship is about Him doing all and receiving the credit for all. It is about our receiving everything on Christ's merit and yielding to the ongoing work of the Holy Spirit as He builds His temple with His hands from living stones. "For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. . ." Least we think that God's work ends at salvation and we are somehow left to walk piously on our own, we should read the rest of this verse. "For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them" (Ephesians 2:8-10).

Paul clearly shows the origin of that salvation. It does not come of ourselves, but is a gift from God. "His divine power has given to us all things . . ." This understanding is not only key to worship but to faith also.

True faith is a deep persuasion that what God has promised He also will do. Take Abraham for instance. "He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; and being fully persuaded that what he had promised, he was able also to perform. And therefore (for this reason) it was imputed to him for righteousness (Romans 4:20-22 KJV- emphasis mine).

Faith is being fully persuaded that the promise-giver is the doer. This simple understanding is foundational to both praise and righteousness. Every test is designed to challenge and strengthen this persuasion in our lives. Do we receive power to bring forth fruit unto God because we regard Him faithful who has promised? (See Hebrews 11:11)

God does not promise us something so we can go out and do it ourselves. Abraham and Sarah, in a moment of weakness, tried this and it didn't work out well. Ishmael was the result and the world is still being torn apart and terrorized by his descendants to this very day. When my children were small I did not promise them a candy bar and then make them get a job, work for it, walk to the store and buy it with their own hard-earned money. No, I kept my promise. I did it all. I did the work. I paid the price and I purchased and delivered just as promised. Is this exceptional? No. I would have been considered a bad father, let alone a liar, had I not followed through. Likewise, God has promised and He will perform. The Promiser is the Performer, not Abraham, not Sarah, not you or me. We cannot honestly give glory to God and praise Him when we are taking matters into our own hands and attempting to complete in our own energies what He has begun in the Spirit.

There can be no righteous without faith and there can be no faith without being fully persuaded that He is able to perform even when the promise is severely tested and precariously stretched across the altar under the shadow of a long knife. Regardless of everything, the Lord Himself will provide. He is faithful who has promised! He will do it! It was this faith that God imputed to Abraham as righteousness.

Paul repeatedly made such declarations of faith, "Faithful is he who calls you, who will also do it" (1 Thessalonians 5:24). Do what? All! Let's back up a verse and see just how complete and faithful God's work is in our lives.

"May the God of peace himself sanctify you completely. May your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ" (1 Thessalonians 5:23 WEB).

Here again we see what it means to be saved by His life. Who is doing the sanctifying here? Are we sanctified through personal discipline? No! It is Himself, the God of peace, that sanctifies us completely, not in part but through and through in every area of life, body, soul and spirit. Our part is simply to yield to and trust in His work and give all the glory to Him. We do this by ceasing from our dead works and counting Him faithful who has promised and trusting Him to do it.

In the Book of Acts, we see this dependency on the faithfulness of God for salvation and sanctification lived out by the early Church. Before long however many of them began to abandon this new and living way and turn again to the rudimentary principles of the world--the oldness of the letter. Remember the Greek word for world is kosmos which means a system. Paul addressed this carnal tendency to return to the governing principles of the world in virtually every one of his letters. He asked the foolish Galatians, "Who has bewitched you. . . Having begun in the Spirit, are you now completed in the flesh?" (See Galatians 3) These foolish Galatians were trading life for a failed system; the weak and beggarly elements of the order of the Judaizers (See Galatians 4: 9).

"Let no one rob you of your prize by a voluntary humility and worshipping of the angels, dwelling in the things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, (19) and not holding firmly to the Head, from whom all the body, being supplied and knit together through the joints and ligaments, grows with God's growth. (20) If you died with Christ from the elements of the world [kosmos – system], why, as though living in the world [kosmos], do you subject yourselves to ordinances, (21) "Don't handle, nor taste, nor touch" (22) (all of which perish with use), according to the precepts and doctrines of men? (23) Which things indeed appear like wisdom in self-imposed worship, and humility, and severity to the body; but aren't of any value against the indulgence of the flesh." (Colossians 2:18-23 WEB)

If we labor, let us labor to enter God's rest. He has finished the work and provides the grace needed for us to be full beneficiaries. Like Isaac, we have been given an unthinkably rich inheritance as co-heirs with Christ. It simply remains for us to enter, to apprehend what we were apprehended for. Our high calling is to be to the praise of His glory as creatures before our Creator, no longer bearing the image of the earthly Adam, but of the heavenly Man. Each one of us should experience this salvation that surpasses mere head-knowledge and begin to reign in life by One, Jesus Christ. We are redeemed by His death. We are saved by his life (Romans 5:10).

As the offspring of the last Adam, born from above, we are called to live lives consistent to our new position in Him. All the power of heaven comes to our aid to lift us and transform us into creatures fitted for such a heavenly environment. We are a new race. All things are becoming new. All distinctions that divide humans are removed in Christ. No Jew, no Greek, no little people, no big people, just one new race (man) in which He is all and in all.

The sufficiency of this glorious new covenant is not of us (out from us) but of Him! In it we are made partakers of Christ. "And of him are you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: That, according as it is written, He that glories, let him glory in the Lord" (1 Corinthians 1:30-31 KJ2000).

This is the rule, the kanōn, that governs all progress in this glorious new covenant! These are not whimsical platitudes. Everything is achieved by divine life. Everything is accomplished through His Spirit who dwells in you. We can be to the praise of His glory only when we are every bit His creation, His workmanship, living by His life. Peace and mercy are reserved for those who walk by this rule. "And as many as walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon the Israel of God."