In contrast to the popular exhortation to “keep looking up” (from ourselves to Christ), we are to “keep looking down” (from our position in Him) upon our circumstances here on earth.
Think of the faithfulness of the Holy Spirit, as He works patiently and thoroughly in the life of the growing Christian. He ministers the Cross, and He ministers Christ. It is the finished work of the Cross for the old nature, and the abundant life of the Lord Jesus for the new nature.
Of the Holy Spirit’s ministry in the life of the believer the Lord Jesus said, “He will honor and glorify Me, because He will take of (receive, draw upon) what is Mine and will reveal (declare, disclose, transmit) it to you” (John 16:14, Amp.). He not only reveals the scriptural truths concerning Christ and the Cross to our faith, but also transmits their reality to us.
SO, once again I repeat the above – how Miles Stanford opens this important chapter Keeping Looking Down. As already noted, he proceeds to explore motivations to our Christian walk, starting with the Love Motive, then the Hate Motive and Faith Motive where we see the necessity to look less and upon our self and more and more upon Christ as our all in all by the Holy Spirit’s ministry to “the hungry heart, that of conforming him to Christ’s image,” the goal of Rom. 8:29
LAST time we took a look at the faith principle of Col. 2:6, As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him. Therefore, walking by faith in the Word that sanctifies, – as our Lord prayed, Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth (John 17:17). So now, let’s see how our author closes this important lesson with the final two points: The Death Motive and Life Motive as we learn to Keep Looking Down.
In the inexorable blessings of Christ,
Joe
Neh. 8:10, Isa 30:15, Jas 1:2
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Chapter 57—Keep Looking Down! Part 4, conclusion
Death Motive
Even the new life, the Lamb-life, is taken into death in the growing Christian’s daily walk. This “newness of life” is a sacrificial life, in contrast to the old life of self-preservation. Sacrifice is the very nature of his new life. As he grows, that life is manifested to the Father’s glory, and for the sake of others. “So then death worketh in us, but life in you” (2 Cor. 4:12).
Here is the principle of the grain of wheat, the paradoxical principle of growth. The Holy Spirit works it out in the daily life and ministry, whatever the calling may be. “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains [just one grain; never becomes more but lives] by itself alone. But if it dies, it produces many others and yields a rich harvest” (John 12:24, Amp.).
Life Motive
The Spirit of Christ carries on this development process throughout our being, in our everyday life here below, “that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh” (2 Cor. 4:11). But our life-source, our home, our position, is the Lord Jesus at the Father’s right hand. The Spirit has placed us in Christ, in the light above. “Truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ” (I John 1:3).
In this invulnerable position above we are developed, matured, and used for His glory in the darkness of this age. We are in the world, but not of it. Our life-resources which are from above are more than adequate to meet the needs found in this sphere of death. There are innumerable influences in this sinful world that would draw us to a level below that which is ours, “hid with Christ in God” (Col. 3:3). The Spirit of God has but one standard for the growing believer: God’s very best as it is in Christ Jesus. Nothing lower, nothing secondary.
“By which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all… But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God… Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest, by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, his flesh, and having an high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith… Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering” (Heb. 10:10, 12, 19–23).
In these pages we are seeking to set forth the glorious position and spiritual resources of the Christian, and to examine some teachings and life-levels which are current today. It isn’t a matter of whether or not these are wrong—some of them are—but whether or not they are at His level. Anything less than that which He has given us in Christ risen is too low. In Him we are to abide above, and keep looking down.
