AS I was reading our previous consideration and today’s in this section – Chapter 26, Sins and Conscience, I was again struck how precious these truths are, needful and refreshing in our daily struggle. In these days where there is so much noise about, disharmony, rancor and uncertainties, Gods word remains constant and unchanging, addressing and meeting our daily needs and condition like nothing else can. Truly, the Lord:
….knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust. As a father pities his children, so the LORD pities those who fear Him. He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor punished us according to our iniquities. For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward those who fear Him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us. Bless the LORD, O my soul; and all that is within me, bless His holy name! Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits: Who forgives all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases, Who redeems your life from destruction, Who crowns you with loving kindness and tender mercies, Who satisfies your mouth with good things, so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s. Bless the LORD, all His works, in all places of His dominion. Bless the LORD, O my soul! Psa 103 – select.
LET us give thanks for what He has done, is doing, and will do in bringing us to glory (Rom 8:29-30; Heb. 2:10). With that, let us get to today’s consideration and these precious truths and reminders related to our position in Christ – picking up our reading where we previously left off.
IN the joy of the Lord,
Joe
Neh. 8:10, Isa. 30:15 & Job 2:10
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Chapter 26—Sins and Conscience – Part 3
The fact that we need constant advocacy before our Father in no way detracts from the truth of our perfect and eternal standing in the Lord Jesus. The Word makes it clear that each of us, at the moment of our new birth, is fully accepted in the Beloved. We are complete in Him, perfectly and forever forgiven, justified sanctified, and glorified—through His death, resurrection and ascension—never to come into judgment, but have passed from death to life as new creations in Christ Jesus. Before God, we are not in the flesh (the fallen, first Adam race), but in the Spirit (the new, Last Adam creation). Having died unto sin, self, Satan, the law, and the world, we are now and forever alive in our risen Lord “after the power of an endless life” (Heb. 7:16).
Condition
Although we are not in the flesh as to our position, we are in the body pertaining to our condition. While we are complete in Christ who is our life, as new creations in Him we have to be matured in the midst of the pressures and exigencies of everyday experience. Moreover, all is carried on in this “body of death” which is indwelt by the principle of sin. Therefore, we need the two faithful Advocates who undertake to fulfill God’s purpose in and through us, despite the power of the world, the flesh and the devil.
The negative and positive aspects of our spiritual growth could be summarized in these words: (1) We are to reckon ourselves to have died unto sin, thus giving the Holy Spirit freedom to apply the finished work of the Cross to indwelling sin, so that it may be progressively held inoperative. (2) At the same time, we are to reckon ourselves (as new creations) alive unto God in Christ Jesus, abiding in Him as a branch in the True Vine.
Praise the Lord that, if and when we do sin in thought, word or deed, consciously or otherwise, “we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: and he is the propitiation for our sins” (1 John 2:1, 2). …….to be continued
