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Positive Words Newsletter#77/ 6th April 2004
----- http://www.peterwade.com/ -----
He Identifies With Me
"I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me" (Galatians 2:20 NKJV).
Our emphasis has for a number of years been on "in Christ" and "Christ in". By this we mean who we are in Christ, the power of our position, and the reality that Christ is in us, the power of His presence. A vital study is the use of prepositions associated with the word "Christ", and "in" is perhaps the most important of all. However, at the Easter season, it is profitable to discuss the preposition "with" -- always used concerning past events or future events. In the present, "with Christ" is irrelevant and inaccurate, since we have Him "in" us and we are "in" Him.
Here are some of the "with" statements that refer to what Christ did for us in His complete work of redemption. Our text states that when Christ was crucified, spiritually I was there. I was crucified with, together with, Christ. The same truth is stated in Romans 6:6, "Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him". This matter of identification is sometimes difficult to comprehend, but we will see the greatness of it as we work through the events of that time. It is a great spiritual truth that in God's sight, when Christ was crucified, I was crucified with Him. When He was nailed to the cross, I was identified with Him in what was happening. I was crucified with Him when God in Christ reconciled the world unto Himself.
In Romans 6:8 we read that we died with Him: "Now if we died with Christ..." Notice verse 5: "For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death..." Also verse 7: "For he who has died has been freed from sin." We died with Him. When Christ died upon the cross, I was identified with Him at that moment of time. His dying for sin was not for Himself, it was as a sin-offering to God for all who would believe. We were identified together with Him. Further information concerning this truth is found in I Peter 2:24, "Who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness--by whose stripes you were healed..." We were tied up with Him in His death. II Timothy 2:11 says it plainly: "This is a faithful saying: For if we died with Him..." So not only were we crucified with Christ but we died with Christ also.
In Romans 6:4 it states that we were buried with Him: "Therefore we were buried with Him through [His] baptism into death..." We were identified with Him in all those tremendous things He was doing on behalf of all who would believe in Him. In Colossians 2:12 it states the same truth: "Buried with Him in [His] baptism..."
In Colossians 2:13 we find the next step in our identification with Christ: "And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him..." The fact that Christ died, the major emphasis of most Christian churches, is not enough. I Corinthians chapter 15 was written to tell us that death was not sufficient; there had to be a resurrection. If Christ died and was not raised, verses 17-19 state that you are yet in your sins and are of all men most miserable. We were crucified with Him, we died with Him, we were buried with Him, and thank God we were also made alive together with Him. We read this also in Ephesians 2:5, "Even when we were dead in trespasses, [He] made us alive together with Christ..." It is past tense, a completed act. When did He do it? When He made Christ alive, when He quickened Christ. At that time we were identified with Him. Notice also I Corinthians 15:21-22, "For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive." In His quickening, you and I were identified with Him. There is one more tremendous step we need to consider.
Ephesians contains the highest revelation ever given to man. It is no surprise to discover the final step of our identification with Him exclusively recorded in this epistle. Ephesians 2:6 reads: "...and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus." We are right now seated together in heavenly places in Him. When God accepted the work of Jesus Christ, He accepted it as being that which was necessary to redeem mankind. The Word tells us that God gave Him seating at His own right hand, in Ephesians 1:20: "Which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places." He gave Christ seating at His own right hand, indicating the completeness of the work that God had done for us in Christ. This great truth is followed by the outstanding truth that we are seated together with Him (Ephesians 2:6).
Not only was I identified in His crucifixion, in His death, in His burial, in His quickening, but right now I am identified with Him in His seating at the right hand of the Father. That is why I can boldly stand up and say that I am what God says I am. This is a wonderful position, and we need to constantly remind ourselves of its greatness. If we see ourselves seated together with Him, we will start looking at things from God's viewpoint instead of from our own earthly viewpoint. This will make a lot of difference in the joy and exuberance of our life. Either we will feel like we are walking on air or we will feel like we are wearing heavy boots covered in thick mud. Unfortunately, too many believers are pushing a wheelbarrow in a muddy barnyard laden with everybody's burdens, instead of seeing themselves seated in heavenly places in Christ.
-- Peter Wade
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Insights From Every Chapter Of The Bible
G. Campbell Morgan was a well-known preacher and writer of over 60 books from the first half of the 20th century. In each issue of this newsletter he gives a comment from one verse in every chapter of the Bible. We continue with Paul's Roman letter.
"Let each man be fully assured in his own mind" (Romans 14:5).
This is a far-reaching word. Its application in Paul's argument was to such very disputable matters as the observing of days, and the eating of foods. It is really passing strange how these and similarly unimportant matters have been, and continue to be, reasons for much bitterness between the children of God. Two matters are contained in this instruction -- first, that of a man's personal duty; and second, that of his attitude toward all other men. The first is explicit; the second is implicit.
The personal duty is that a man be fully assured in his own mind. That means, first, that he is to have an opinion. He has no right to be guided in these things by the opinions or habits of others. That way lies the paralysing of the powers of personality, and therefore weakness. It may be that coming to full assurance will demand time and thought, and in the process he may be helped by conferring with others; but at last he must find his own stand. This being so, it follows that he will recognize the right and obligation of every other man to the same process. Therefore no man can have any right whatever to impose upon any other man his own convictions. All this is important and reasonable, because one man may be helped by the observance of a day, while another is not; one may find strength in abstinence from certain forms of food, and another weakness.
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(c)2004 Peter Wade
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