I MENTIONED in the previous comment New Growth Press. It was suggested that I add their link to my blog. …Done! There are excellent books and studies to be found there with an array of vital Christian growth topics to be enjoyed!
WE are currently looking at Think Position with three subheadings: Position Unknown, Position Appreciated, and Position Accepted. We’re looking at Position Appreciated in this comment.
ONE might question the order of this. Position Unknown … okay that makes since, most are unaware of this vital truth. But wouldn’t “accepted” come before “appreciated?” …Not necessarily. For one thing, to really accept this and apply it, one truly needs to appreciate what is being taught here. As the author will show us, The Holy Spirit knows what processing is required for each individual to learn that self deserves nothing but death, and that the Lord Jesus Christ is his life. Sometimes that process takes time before one is ready to accept the life out of death principle of “not I but Christ” (Gal. 2:20). It is when we truly appreciate this fact, that it will become an embraced reality; and even then we still only understand darkly (in part) on this side of the mirror. (1Cor. 13:12; 2Cor. 3:18)
WITH that said, let us press on to Position Appreciated.
In the inexorable blessings of Christ,
Joe
Neh. 8:10, Isa 30:15, Jas 1:2
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Chapter 56 — Think Position! – Part 3
Position Appreciated
It is the captive, dominated by the wretched self-life, to whom the identification truths call. This struggling one, who has long been plagued by doubt, defeat, discouragement, and depression, is being prepared to enter into the reality of the provision set forth in Romans 6–8. Through the practical experience of prolonged personal failure, he has been made aware of self’s bankruptcy.
In the light of that realization he is able to appreciate the positional truth that self, the old man, was identified with the Lord Jesus in His crucifixion (Rom. 6:6). This is the gospel for the Christian! (emphasis jlg) Our Savior dealt not only with the symptoms but with the disease, the root as well as the fruit. We have His substitution for our sins; we have identification with Him in His death for sinful self.
Our Father takes us down until the self-life is uncovered, and then up as the truth of the Christ-life is discovered. This spiritual principle cannot be circumvented. To attempt to “climb up some other way” is futile. God’s truth, ministered in God’s way by God’s Spirit, alone frees. And that freedom is centered in our invulnerable position “in Christ.”
The Holy Spirit knows what processing is required for each individual to learn that self deserves nothing but death, and that the Lord Jesus Christ is his life. To learn all the truth about the former takes a lifetime, to say the least; all the truth about the latter will not be exhausted throughout eternity. Hence He patiently teaches enough about self through failure to enable us to learn of Christ for triumph.
Position Accepted ….to be continued
