AT this junction, I hope you are still with me. After reading the previous posting, a lengthy section from Chapter 40—Principles of Reckoning, I fear I may have lost you. It all may have sounded somewhat strange. But I would submit, that what was expressed there has been expounded in other places, in somewhat different terms and phrasings. In Ephesians 4:20-24:
But you have not so learned Christ, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.
THERE are several other scriptures I could quote, but taking up our Westminster Confessions of Faith, rehearsing Shorter Catechism Q35 followed by Larger Catechism Q’s 75, 78 and 77 in just that order, expresses the same pattern principles that Miles Stanford described. It can also be seen in a little different wording in the Westminster Confession of Faith, Chapter XIII.I-III (Of Sanctification)
XIII.I. – They, who are once effectually called, and regenerated, having a new heart, and a new spirit created in them, are further sanctified, really and personally, through the virtue of Christ’s death and resurrection, by his Word and Spirit dwelling in them, the dominion of the whole body of sin is destroyed, and the several lusts thereof are more and more weakened and mortified; and they more and more quickened and strengthened in all saving graces, to the practice of true holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord.
NOTICE, in the above Confessional Statement: through the virtue of Christ’s death and resurrection, by his Word and Spirit dwelling in them. Herein resides the key to understanding “Not I, but Christ” – Gal 2:20. We are to “reckon” by faith “Not I but Christ” not only for initial salvation but for our continual daily walk and growth “in Christ.” As Stanford put it in the previous section:
The Source of all true life and service [is] both the written and the Living Word.
…identification with the Lord Jesus Christ in His death and resurrection. We saw that He not only freed us from the guilt and penalty of sin, but also from the power and domination of the principle of sin.
Thus the pattern is completed: our failure in the identification realm parallels our failure in the earlier justification phase.
WE do not hear much about our “identification” to Christ, but it is critical to our thinking and view of who we are “in Christ” and all the benefits therein. I recall a Family Camp speaker, a noted OPC Pastor and respected teacher briefly touching upon the Cross and the identification truths in his presentation. I asked him during a conference break why we do not hear more of this vital teaching in our circle. He said it is not a teaching that has been developed within our corridors of discussion, and by our nature we are not prone to wander or venture outside our accepted comfort zones. When I hear that kind of thing, I can’t help but think of Paul’s words to the Corinthians: Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers through whom you believed, as the Lord gave to each one? I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the increase. So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase (1Cor. 3:5-7)
To that, this quote comes to mind:
“It seems odd that a man who would speak so often of what the Holy Spirit had revealed to him, would completely ignore what the Holy Spirit had revealed to others.” – Charles H. Spurgeon
Well, I’ve gone long in this review of our past reading, and will stop here and pick where we left off in the previous posting.
In the inexorable riches of Christ,
Joe
Neh. 8:10, Isa 30:15, Jas 1:2; Prov. 21:30
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