ONE of my go-to verses when struggling, either within myself or attempting to help another is Col 2:6:
“As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him”
THIS always begs the question, “So how did you receive him?” The answer is always “by faith” – faith in His finished work on the Cross. Next, “So what is the lesson to be learned here?” Well, as you received Him by faith, so you are to continue in that same mode, “By faith in His complete and finished work on the Cross.” This is that “so great salvation” where we are saved no only from the condemnation of sin, but it’s power and dominion as well.
TODAY’S reading from None But The Hungry Heart repeats this theme, that Freedom’s Foundation is just that, a foundation upon and built within the souls construction site, “Not I but Christ.”
WE often think freedom in faith is a one-time victory, but true liberation only emerges when we return again and again to the Cross, the source for the much sought out victory over sin and self; where-in resides that on-going principle of life out of death – Phil 3:10.
WITH that introduction, here’s today’s Morning Greeting from NBTHH #2-4 – Freedom’s Foundation.
IN the inexorable riches of Christ,
Joe
Neh. 8:10; Isa 30:15; Job 2:10; Jas. 1:2; Prov. 21:30
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2-4. Freedom’s Foundation
“I have been crucified with Christ, and I myself no longer live” (Gal. 2:20, Wms.).
Upon conversion, the new believer feels that every opposition to a joyous, fruitful Christian life has been overcome once for all. Later, when the world and self begin to insinuate themselves once again, he thinks that determination and self-effort will keep him free. Finally, after a seemingly endless struggle, the defeated believer is brought back to the Cross. Here is the source of liberation from the power of self and the world. “Sinners are not saved until they trust the Saviour, and saints are not delivered until they trust the Deliverer. God has made both possible through the Cross of His Son.” -L.S.C.
“The believer can never overcome the ‘old man’ even by the power of the ‘new’ apart from the work of the Cross, and therefore the death of Christ is indispensable, and unless the Cross is made the basis upon which he overcomes the ‘old nature,’ he only drops into another form of morality; in other words, he is seeking by self-effort to overcome sin and self, and the struggle is a hopeless one.” -C.U.
“Just as the Lord Jesus came into this world where this old humanity was and came into it not to ally Himself with it but to take it into death by the Cross, even so He now by the Holy Spirit, in regeneration, comes into us where there is this old fallen life and not to ally Himself with it, but to hold it in the place of death by the same means-His Cross.” -N.D.
“But may it never be mine to boast of anything but the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ by which the world has been crucified to me and I to the world!” (Gal. 6:14, Wms.)
