….. nowhere are we more dependent upon the principle of position than in the understanding of our identification with the Lord Jesus in His death unto sin and resurrection unto God. As in all positional steps, identification is not experiential, but is a matter of placing our faith in the facts of the Word. Whereas justification has to do with birth, identification has to do with growth, which is to continue until we see Him face to face.
….. Because of our grace-given position in the Heir, we are “heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ” (Rom. 8:17).
THE above are two opening statements in this Chapter 6 on Identification and Growth we’ve been looking at the past couple of weeks. It is good to be reminded of them as well as to remember that God provides the facts before He calls for faith. One of the great facts of Scripture is that we have every spiritual blessing hidden away in Christ Jesus that we will ever need and more, they are inexhaustible (Eph. 1:3; Col 3:3). Where we fall short so many times is in our failure to count these things as so. It’s a failure of belief. ….Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!” Mark 9:24 The Christian life is one of on-going progressive growth in grace and knowledge (2Pet 3:18). It is a constant that never stops on our way to Christ. Part of that growing in grace is the trial of our faith, to be tested that our faith might be strengthened and grow in the Lord (1Pet 1:6-9).
I REPEAT all this because of a remarkable statement our author made in last week’s consideration, something that needs repeating:
…..it is in the clear light of our identification with Christ in His death and resurrection that we are directed to “reckon ye also yourselves to be dead unto sin, but alive unto God in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 6:11, ASV). It would be utterly impossible for our Father even to suggest that we count ourselves as having died unto sin and become alive unto Him in the Lord Jesus if it were not already true of us! Nor could He ever call upon us to consecrate ourselves to Him “as alive from the dead” (Rom. 6:13) if He had not already made us “new creations” in the risen Christ (2 Cor. 5:17).
However, true as our identification with the Lord Jesus is, if we are not fully aware of the facts concerning it, we will derive little benefit from this truth in our daily life. And that is where we need them. Moreover, unless we realize our need of the separating (sanctifying) power of our death and life in Him, there will be no motivation for our faith to reach out and receive. To reckon upon a positional fact is to see it clearly, to believe it, to count upon it, to receive and appropriate the practical reality of it with thanksgiving. “Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving” (Col. 2:7).
I THINK it good to just park here another week, and consider just what is being said here. I recall a few years back, when Pastor Shisko spoke at our OPC Family Camp, and a brief conversation that he and I had after he brought up the Cross of our Lord and our identification to Christ in one of his talks. In that talk he spoke of the Cross and its many implications, saying we just don’t talk enough about the meaning and application of these things. –Paul prays for three things that the Church –every believer- would understand with all understanding and wisdom in Ephesians 1. First – the hope of their calling, second – the riches of their inheritance, and thirdly – the exceeding greatness of God’s power as demonstrated in the raising of Christ from the dead and his exaltation on high. As we have seen so far, Positioned in Christ – in our union and identification with Him, we are already seated in heavenly places in Him, Col. 3:1. How do these things translate into our victory now in our condition, our daily experience? How is the resurrection power to be demonstrated in our daily life in our identification to Him, to His honor and glory?
MAYBE a glimpse at next week’s consideration will help answer that question:
That which we reckon in our position becomes experiential in our condition. As we count ourselves to have died unto sin on the cross, the effect of that cross is applied by the Spirit to the sinful self-life. “For we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake…” (2 Cor. 4:11). Self is crucified, held in the place of death, as we are led into sacrificial paths for His glory. As self is thus dealt with by the cross, our condition reflects progressively the facts of our position in Christ. “…That the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh” (2 Cor. 4:11).
…….to be continued
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WELL, I took a little different approach today in this consideration. But here is something to think and pray about in light of the statement above. Our greatest enemy is our Christian walk is within (Rom. 7: 17ff). When I’m faced, confronted, with my own shortcomings –sinful failures or crisis of faith- where do I turn? Not to self, but to the cross where “self” has been properly dealt with, where I have been crucified with Christ, Gal 2:20. There I see that it is no longer I but Christ that must be manifest, and I count myself as having died in Him that His life might be lived out in me. Reckoning myself (counting it so by faith) crucified (Rom 6:10ff) I find the Spirit enabling liberty over sin’s dominion to walk in the righteousness of our Lord. This is consistent with the first principle of our calling – “And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith (1John 5:4), and “As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him” (Col. 2:6).
AGAIN the reminder, that God provides the facts before He calls for faith. We need to reckon, account it so!
IN the joy of the Lord,
Joe
Neh. 8:10, Isa. 30:15 & Job 2:10
