In light of the times in which we are living, we feel that it would be timely to introduce this article with a few lines that we pray will cause you to never accept any substitute for hearing the voice of our Lord. It seems that at no other time in human history has there ever been so much information available on any given subject. Thanks to modern technology, many of us have an ever increasing amount of data at our fingertips. Despite the great advantages this may afford us, information alone is impotent in the arena of true spiritual edification. Andrew Jukes once stated that "There is perhaps nothing which more clearly proves the divine origin of Christianity, than this,--- that it must be taught by God, or else cannot be learnt at all." In the same sermon he went on to say, "without His blessing even the Bible itself is but a mirror to the blind, and the voice of ministers but a warning shout in a dead man's ear."
We cannot ignore the urgency in our spirits to challenge the reader to prayerfully pursue the voice of the Lord. We pray the following subject concerning our union in Christ will not become just one of the many things of which we are well informed. For often this subject has fueled many down the path of reveling in their liberties, as so many do when they have nothing more than theological hand-me-downs.
A good theologian may stimulate the mind, but it is that divine arrow of the Spirit that will pierce the heart and leave the soul passionately yearning for more! In fine detail we may describe the cherubim wrought on the beautiful purple, blue, and crimson veil of linen, yet those who enter beyond the veil will find their hearts in awe as they are humbled by the manifest presence dwelling in the most holy place (2 Chron. 3:14). The informative words that describe the veil can never do what the transforming radiance that abides on the other side of the veil does (2 Cor. 3:15-18). The best this article can do is whet the appetite of the heart. From that point on, dear reader, the ball is in your court.
When a person's life has ended, a eulogy is often given. As far as the modern day definition of eulogy goes, it is defined as a commendatory formal statement or set oration, as well as high praise. It is like a summation of all the good things about a person's life. We in the body of Christ have a eulogy, too. However, our eulogy does not come at the end of our life. It comes at the beginning.
"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ" (Eph.1:3). The Greek word for blessings in this passage is ulogia. This word is translated ten times as blessing, once as fair speeches, twice as bounty and twice as bountifully. This is a compound of two Greek words u (#2095) and logos (#3056). The Greek word u is translated as well done, well, and good (Matt. 22:21, 23, Mark 14:7, Luke19:17, Acts 15:29 & Eph. 6:3). The word logos is often translated as word or words. Logos speaks of communicating. For example, when God wanted to communicate Himself to mankind, "the Word (logos) was made flesh" (John 1:14). Therefore, this word used in Ephesians 1:3 for blessings means "to be well spoken of by our Heavenly Father."
The Lord has impressed upon our hearts the significance of our being well spoken of , i.e. eulogy. We pray that all who read these lines would be stirred to go back and reconsider some vital points that can easily be taken for granted. The first and foremost point that has weighed heavy on my mind is the fact that it is simply due to our present state of being in Christ that we are well spoken of by our Lord and Father. On the surface, this point may sound very basic. We will be the first to confess that it is a point that should be grasped at the start of our life in Christ. But too often in the Christian experience we tend to give a mental acknowledgment to the truth and gloss over the implications of truth. Then, our knowing something on a merely intellectual level, rather than knowing through a heart piercing revelation given by the Spirit, comes back to bite us in our times of testing and spiritual conflict.
It is important to note that according to Ephesians 1:3 we already have these spiritual blessings. The eulogy has already been given. It is not something given later on down the road after we have made certain achievements or merited it. This is a stumbling block to the religious mind. This is the sort of thing that caused great tension between the Jewish community and the Christian community. More importantly, it was not only the case with non-Christian Jews, but many Christians who were Jewish had problems with the implications of these truths. Many people would agree that it makes no sense to speak well of some one who has yet to develop a mature character. However, God in His wisdom knows that without the apprehension of this eulogy we have been given, there is no way we can fully develop a mature character.
The most crucial point that we must consider is that when it comes to what we know, it is what we have been given by the Spirit that really counts. In Ephesians 1:18, Paul said that it is his prayer that the eyes of our understanding would be enlightened. If it was enough for the Ephesians to simply read what Paul wrote to them, then his prayers for them to apprehend these things were pointless. The fact is that it is not enough to simply read what has been written, nod our heads in agreement, then go on our merry way. If the truth be known, that is one of the great dilemmas in the western world, when it comes to Christianity. We have no shortage of information. We have no shortage of study tools. But, with or without those things, we cannot grow one iota without true revelation. We cannot even settle for riding on the coat tale of another person's revelation. We don't want to be misunderstood. We can receive confirmation from others. We can certainly be used to give revelation. In a word, it is a matter of our hearts hearing what the Spirit is saying. That is far different from mentally acknowledging what is being said.
Religious institutions have literally been built upon man's natural understanding of that which cannot be fully embraced and appreciated apart from true spiritual understanding. Men and women who are spiritually dead and untouched by the convictions of the Holy Spirit can go into training to be in the "ministry." But only the Spirit can minister life. The Lord accurately described this same condition to the religious leaders of His day when He told them, "Ye have neither heard his voice at any time, nor seen his shape" (John 5:37). We must remember that Jesus was talking to men who had the scriptures in their possession (John 5:39). But, beloved, these men were faithless. When anyone is in that condition they have no choice but to evaluate and measure things by their natural reasoning. Natural reasoning is not evil in and of itself. But due to its limitations, it cannot take you beyond the letter, which is so often like a veil (2 Cor. 3:6-16).
We must never separate the concept of faith and hearing. They are inseparable. "So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God" (Rom.10:17). If we heard the Word every time we read the scriptures, then we would be further ahead in our understanding of the heart of God. We are not advocating the dismissal of reading the scriptures. We are simply stating the facts about the indispensable need for a hearing relationship with our Heavenly Father. If we do not develop a hearing ear in the Spirit through intimacy, then we may only know of Him as a Father in theory.
In light of the above comments, we would like to share this quote concerning E. W. Kenyon's experience when he came to know God as "Father."
"He was just God to us, and He was a theological God at that. Most of our young preachers in the early days when I began my ministry, were theological preachers. They had cold philosophy from Germany which had gained the mastery over our Theological Institutions.
They gave us a theological Christ, a theological Spirit, a theological Bible, and a theological God.
No one ever called Him "Father" in those days.
No one knew Him as Father except here and there where someone had been led by the Spirit into the Love Life of the Father.
One day John 17:23 came to me. It seemed as though it were like a person that has suddenly come out of the bosom of the Father and come down to my level and enwrapped me in the consciousness that I had never dared to believe.
'That the world may know that thou didst send me, and lovest them, even as thou lovest me.'
At first I held back and said, 'No, it can't be true.'
But the music was so entrancing it drew me against my will.
I kept whispering. 'No, it can't be true. He can't love me as He loved Jesus. I know how unlovely I am. I know how unworthy I am.'
Then He came nearer to me. He drew me to Himself.
I heard a voice whisper to me softly, 'What business have you to say that you are unclean, after I have cleansed you ? What right have you to declare yourself unrighteous after I have made you righteous? How dare you voice judgement on the new creation which I have created in my Son.'
I could not keep the tears back.
I said, 'Forgive me, Lord. Forgive me, Father. I knew not what I was saying. I have been held in the bondage of Sense Knowledge for so long that I cannot think in terms of Spiritual Truth' (The Two Kinds of Life, p. 88).
The vast majority of believers have no problem accepting the fact that sin came upon the entire human race due to the actions of Adam. "Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned" (Rom. 5:12). It has been said that death begins working in a child the moment it is born. This rings true with the Concordant Literal translation of 1 Corinthians 15:22 : "For even as, in Adam, all are dying." You see, death begins to work at once after our natural birth. When Adam earned the wages of sin through his transgression, it not only insured death for himself, but for all of mankind (Rom. 6:23), for Adam carried all of mankind in his loins. Within his very being, God placed the capacity to take out a woman and populate the earth.
Therefore, I was born into a state of being that would always come short of the glory of God. Due to being in union with Adam, it is a state of being, not actions and deeds, that defines a sinner. This is the point we must get. It is not our actions that make us what we are, it is who we are in union with. By virtue of being in the Adam family, sin is hereditary.
The religious mind and the mind that is strictly guided by human reasoning cannot fully accept the flip-side of what we have just stated. Nevertheless, it is high time to look at the other side of God's marvelous plan. In as much as sin is hereditary for the sinner, holiness is hereditary for the saint! As a matter of fact, the Greek word hagios (#40), which is translated as saint throughout the New Testament, is translated first as Holy in Matthew 1:18. "Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise: When as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost." This is highly significant in light of the fact that it is used in the context of the miraculous virgin birth. You see, being a holy, set apart saint, comes by way of a miraculous spiritual birth.
Unfortunately, most saints do not know they are saints! We have been led to believe that unless you are immortalized in stained glass, or are an angel, or are among an elite few, there is no way you can be a saint. Truth has come to challenge the idea that sainthood hinges on our actions. Is it really a case of our spiritual progress and our deeds that makes us a saint? It certainly was not the case for an extremely carnal bunch of believers to whom Paul ministered. We would like to consider the way Paul greets these immature, problem ridden Christians in Corinth."To the Church of God which is at Corinth, to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, saints by calling, with all who in every place call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours" (1 Cor. 1:2, NASB).
Sainthood certainly hinges on ones actions alright! It hinges on the action of our Lord Jesus Christ, who by the Spirit quickened us out of spiritual death (Eph. 2:1-6). The saints at Corinth were no less saints than the saints at Ephesus (Eph. 1:1). Before I was delivered from the power of darkness and translated into the kingdom of God's dear Son, I was no less a sinner than Adolf Hitler (Col. 1:13). It had nothing to do with what I did. It had everything to do with who I was in! Likewise, the principal follows with Christ. The trouble is that we don't benefit from this truth when we cannot believe it.
We would like to consider the implications of the actions of Christ when He went to the cross. We need to be gripped by what this has accomplished. We need to see how it has reconstituted who we are and what we are! William Barclay's New Testament translation gives us wonderful insight into this:
"For us there is no escape from the love of Christ, for we have reached the certainty that one died for all men. And, if one died for all, we cannot escape the conclusion that all were dead. So he died for us, and therefore all through life men must no longer live for themselves, but must live for him who for them died and was raised to life again.
"The consequence of all this is that from now on we evaluate no man on purely human standards. There was a time when we evaluated Christ by human standards; we no longer do so. When a man becomes a Christian, a new act of creation happens to him. His old life is gone for ever; a new life has come into being. And the whole process is due to the action of God, who through Christ turned our enmity to Himself into friendship, and who gave us the task of helping others to accept that friendship. The fact is that God was acting in Christ to turn the world's enmity to Himself into friendship, that He was not holding men's sins against them, and that He placed upon us the privilege of taking to men who are hostile to Him this offer of His friendship. We are therefore Christ's ambassadors. It is as if God was making His appeal to you through us. As the representatives of Christ we appeal to you to accept the offer of friendship that God is making to you. For our sakes God identified Christ, who was entirely innocent of sin, with human sin, in order that we through Him might be identified with the goodness of God." ( 2 Cor. 5:14-21).
The above passage is a radical departure from the way many people, well meaning as they may be, present the Gospel. Although it may not be the intent, a lot of the messages that are shared in Christendom convey that we are no more than recovering sinners. We understand that most people will insist that having a mortal body leaves us at a great disadvantage. For many, this is the main thing that guarantees our identification as a sinner, hence we will always sin. When this sort of reasoning is followed to its full conclusion, we have a message that exhorts us to live as Christ, who was without sin, yet says that we cannot really do so. But still we are exhorted to do the best we can until we get to heaven, or until the resurrection, or whatever our eschatology may be. It would be more honest to just exhort one another not to get into the "big stuff" like adultery, and so on. Perhaps no one would put it into those words, but in essence, many hold to the idea that having a physical, fleshly body in and of itself will keep us from growing and maturing in the Spirit unto the stature of the fulness of Christ (Eph. 4:13).
Our focus in this writing is not intended to be a study on ceasing from sin. Our convictions of the corporate Christ walking without sin while in their mortal bodies, just as the individual Christ did, is another study in and of itself. However, we will simply state that we are persuaded by the Spirit and the witness of the scriptures that it will happen. As weak as they may be, our fleshly bodies are not a great disadvantage. The great disadvantage is our fleshly understanding."For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace" (Rom. 8:6 NASB). We need a personal rhema word spoken by the Spirit concerning the great advantage of the new creation.
The idea that having a physical body in and of itself makes us sinful is Gnostic in its origin. One of the beliefs that the Gnostics held was that all matter is evil. Therefore many of these Gnostic sects had a very difficult time reconciling Christ existing in the flesh. Some of them came to the conclusion that since the body was evil, Christ did not have a body, therefore He was not crucified. Other Gnostic sects concluded that since the body was evil, Jesus was not the Christ. After all, He had a physical fleshly body. These ideas were confronted in the first epistle of John, as well as Paul's epistle to the Colossians. "Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God . . . Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son . . . For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell" (1 John 4:2, 2:22 & Col. 1:19).
Mankind did not inherit sin and death due to the existence of physical bodies. "Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life" (Gen. 3:17). Adam was blessed to begin with. Everything in creation, including the soil from which Adam was formed, was very good in the sight of the Lord (Gen. 1:28 & 31). The curse mentioned in Genesis that came upon the earth was the result of the disobedience of Adam. The blessing, our eulogy, that God has given us was the result of the obedience of Jesus. If Jesus had not been crucified, buried and resurrected, then we would have no such eulogy. We would remain dead to the life of God. Likewise, if Adam would not have disobeyed God, then there would have been no curse.
We must keep in mind that we did not merit or earn the curse. Nor did we merit or earn the spiritual blessings mentioned in Ephesians 1:3. Adam, as untried as he was, came on the scene as a blessed man (Gen. 1:28). He became a sinner through his actions. Jesus Christ came on the scene in the likeness of sinful flesh (Rom. 8:3). Through the actions Christ took, humbling Himself, becoming obedient unto death, even the death of the cross, He became highly exalted and now has a name which is above every name (Phil. 2:7-9). Therefore, due to the actions of these two men, it is a little too late for us to earn or merit the curse we are born into through natural birth and the blessing we are born into through spiritual birth.
Being quickened by the Spirit and brought into God's family does away with the status that we had under the curse. The Greek word, ulogia, which we mentioned earlier in reference to Ephesians 1:3 is also translated ten more times as blessing. One of the times it is used is in Galatains 3:14. It is used to show a sharp contrast between the curse and the blessing, hence our eulogy. "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree: That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith" (Gal. 3:13 & 14). It is easy to look at ourselves, seeing that we have this mortal body, and still feel that we are under the curse. Indeed, the body is dead because of sin (Rom. 8:10). Nevertheless, the weakness of the flesh and past experiences of failure do not determine our identity.
God does not pronounce the blessings we find in Ephesians 1:3 over cursed people. The condition of our bodies does not determine who and what we are. If we really want to grow, we will let what God says determine our state of being. " However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him" (Rom. 8:9 NASB). We cannot strive toward the mark of the prize of the high calling unless we take every step in belief, trust, and full confidence in the blessing God has already spoken over our beings. How can we even begin to possess our inheritance if we do not believe there is an inherent blessing to begin with?
If the truth be known, one of the greatest stumbling blocks in the religious arena today is simply accepting what Christ has already accomplished on the cross. We have no problem accepting the forgiveness of sins. But many stand in darkness, void of any light, when it comes to grasping the full implications of our union and identity with Jesus in His death, burial, and resurrection. We are so accustomed to looking at everything through our own lens, which leaves us with a limited and often tainted viewpoint. We often base what we feel to be the truth on nothing more than our natural senses. Yet, those of us who would go on to develop the spiritual faculties that are inherent by virtue of being born from above will go on to see things from God's viewpoint.
If we look at Israel after the flesh, we see a carnal, undeserving multitude of complaining people. Many of them fell in the wilderness (Heb. 3:17). Nevertheless, they were blessed, not due to their behavior, but simply because they were chosen. This is also the case with the body of Christ today. We are not blessed on the basis of our behavior. In Ephesians 1:3, we find our eulogy and the next verse shows us the basis of our blessing. Now, this eulogy is in no way connected to our previous life in Adam, for God has nothing good to say about that. We receive this eulogy because God chose us before the foundation of the world (Eph. 1:4).
Balaam was hired by Balak to curse Israel. But we read in Numbers 23:19-21 that Balaam could not accommodate Balak. "God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? Or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good? Behold, I have received commandment to bless: and he hath blessed: and I cannot reverse it. He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath he seen perverseness in Israel; the Lord his God is with him, and the shout of a king is among them. God brought them out of Egypt; he hath as it were the strength of a unicorn." You see, the issue here is not Israel's actions. The real issue is what God said about Israel and what God did for Israel.
This principal is no different for those in the body of Christ. The New Testament counterpart to this passage is found in Hebrews 2:10-12. Do we not have the shout of a King in our midst? Have we not been brought out of the bondage of sin by the strength of the Lord? "For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings. For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren, Saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee." The principal is the same. The above passage has nothing to do with our actions. The shout of our King, the singing of praise, has everything to do with what has been made true in us by cleansing and identification. In the unselfish act of identifying with mankind, Christ became our exodus out of sin.
The hardest thing for many of us to do is to stop living in our past. We desperately need to see and hear by the Spirit that Christ has obliterated our past life. The cross of Christ brings everything back to zero. Our beginning in this life of faith should be more than just an event or a moment in time. It should be a person. The marginal notes for Hebrews 12:2, which speaks of Christ being the author and the finisher of our faith, reads "Looking unto Jesus the beginner . . ." God has not brought us into this new spiritual life as an old creation that must try to do better. It is not our Father's plan to have us climb a ladder with rungs made of self-effort that will take us from the flesh to the Spirit. "Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?" (Gal. 3:3). The normality of our life in Christ Jesus is meant to be an existence that goes from glory to glory, from faith to faith, and grace for grace (2 Cor. 3:18, Rom. 1:17, & John 1:16).
As we stated, this Greek word, ulogia, is also translated as bounty and bountifully. In a passage in which the word is translated as bountifully, we find a law that the Lord has set in motion. This law is highly significant in relation to God's investment in humanity. "He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully" (2 Cor. 9:6). This verse is found within the context of scriptures that many like to use to encourage giving, often when it is time to take an offering. However, there is something bigger than the issue of meeting temporal needs lurking behind this exhortation to be a giver with the right motive. It is unquestionable that when God gave, He gave His very best, His only begotten Son (John 3:16). Therefore, we are persuaded that He shall indeed reap bountifully! How else could Christ look into the eyes of His followers and say, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father" (John 14:12)? Before He could go to the Father, He had to be sown. He was that seed that went into the earth. Through the death, burial and resurrection of our Head, Christ Jesus, we are now a part of His body. He alone is the Head. Christ is now many, in the sense of the body having many members (1 Cor. 12:12). In the final analysis, through the cross, God shall reap all things (Rom. 11:36 & Col. 1:20).
If you'll suffer the term, the unbelieving believer is judged by what he comes into agreement with. We have conflicts with our flesh and accusations from our adversary. Our only hope to combat the lie that says we cannot win, is to embrace the truth that the victory resides in us through Christ (1 John 4:4). But like Israel in the wilderness, they judged themselves unable to enter the promised land (Num. 13:31). In essence, the Lord said to them, "According to your faith be it unto you" (Matt. 9:29). We are no different. We start our journey blessed and victorious, yet so tempted to come into agreement with doubt and defeat.
The camp of Israel is so typical of today's Church. The unbelieving multitudes in the camp will embrace the evil report before they consider the good report that the few among us carry in our hearts. The few who believe remind me so much of some comments a coach once made to his team in the locker room before a tough game. "You guys know we are going to beat [them] today. The only problem is the only people in the whole wide world who believe it or know it are us here in this locker room." And so his team, who were the underdogs, went onto the field to upset the home team. If we view ourselves starting our spiritual journey in defeat, we should not be disappointed if defeat is all we experience. But there will be the Joshuas and the Calebs that believe, because they know Who has identified with them. They know that He became like us so that we can become like Him. They look not to themselves, but unto Him (Heb. 12:2). Their actions, works, and so on will spring out of the life they already have in Christ. They will not have the cart before the horse, in thinking that their works will cause them to be more like Christ. They will discover that only knowledge gained and gleaned through spiritual intimacy will impact their lives.
We would like to take one last look at this Greek word where it is translated as fair speeches in Romans 16:18. In this passage it is used in the context of a warning about those who deceive others with their words. "Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them. For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple" (Rom. 16:17 & 18). It is highly significant that a similar phrase is used in Philippians 3:19 when Paul described those who are opposed to the faith. "For many walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ: Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things" (Phil. 3:18 & 19). Enemies of the cross of Christ . . . whose God is their belly. The most fierce opposition Paul ever faced was those who were in a state of mind that he was once in (Phil. 3:6). The work of Christ would never suffice in their minds. They wanted to win converts to their legal system to feed their appetite for self-gratification.
We need to take note that Paul calls them the enemies of the cross of Christ, not enemies of good works. In specifying that it was the cross of Christ, he alluded to the work of Christ, not our work. It is just as much an act of the flesh to produce a system of works to merit the Father's acceptance as it is to indulge in the lusts of the flesh. We do not work for our acceptance. We do the works of God because we are accepted (Eph. 1:6). We would do well to consider the history of these men that opposed the cross of Christ. They insisted on a legal system to sustain and insure salvation. These devout religious Jews could not embrace the New Covenant. Yet, as a nation, they were in a state of utter lawlessness and chaos when Jerusalem was destroyed in 70 A.D.
We in no way have completely covered the full implications of this subject. It is impossible for one person to exhaust what the Spirit has quickened. However, we feel that we need to close with some comments that we pray will cause us to keep the right perspective when we behold this wonderful facet of truth. Without a holy reverence toward God, many serious Christians may have resentment stirred up in their hearts when we share the truth of our identification in Christ. Others embrace the message, but have presented it in a perverted way. Many happily, or at least, haphazardly, paint the image of a Sugar-daddy that ever lives to spoil his kids. Far too many times, as well meaning as people may be, this truth has been painted with a broad brush in a sloppy fashion. Many will boast in their liberties with a flippant, light hearted attitude that does nothing to edify the spiritual man. Before everything is said and done, they would have you believe that grace is a magic word that absolves us from any type of process that would bring true growth in the Spirit. It is as if they feel that growth comes by sitting around and listening to their philosophy. Forget about conviction. Never mind accountability. If you feel good that is all that counts.
One man even made the statement that since he is under grace, rather than the law, he does not have to drive the speed limit. He had better be able to convince the police officer of his revelation. If not, when he is caught, he will be under the penalty of the law.
Christ did not identify with us so we could lead a lawless life (Rom. 13:1-10). If any man had a revelation concerning grace, it was the apostle Paul. How did this man of God exhort Christians to live in society? "Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself" (Rom. 13:9). That is Paul under the anointing of the Holy Spirit writing to Christians who had been placed in the economy of the New Covenant through spiritual birth. Furthermore, the principal of sowing to the flesh and reaping of the flesh did not end when we were redeemed (Gal. 6:8).
There is one thing we pray that the Lord will utterly clarify in
this hour concerning our
identification in Christ in the context of many messages that are being
taught on "the finished
work." There are those that have pitted the terms provision
and process against one another.
Now, we most certainly agree that if we don't know who we are in
Christ, then we can take a
long hard road to the truth of our identification in Him. However, if
we feel our provision in
Christ will spare us from the growing pains of sonship and the fiery
trials of our faith, then we
are sadly mistaken! Our identification in Christ is by no means an end
in and of itself. It is a
vital truth that was meant to determine a healthy start in our race
toward the mark of the
prize of the high calling! Hear again your eulogy: "Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in
heavenly places in Christ" (Eph.
1:3).