“…Yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.” Galatians 2:20
Dear Ones:
In two of Jesus’ parables, or illustrations to teach us the meaning of “newness,” He speaks of new wine put in old wine skins, and new cloth sewed to old clothing. In both cases, He speaks of that which is NEW being put into, or onto, that which is old. His point is that there is incompatibility between the two. New wine requires new wine-skins to hold it, and new cloth needs a new fabric onto which it is sewed to resist the possibility of tearing away with use. Why does the Lord Jesus use these two illustrations? Most certainly in part it is to illustrate that what He gives, does, and accomplishes, is “new” in every sense of the word. It is new because it does not belong to the oldness of this creation, and it is new by virtue of His indestructible and holy life. Christ, by His Spirit, is always NEW, fresh, never ceasing to be the source and essence of life. He never diminishes in every quality of the Divine, never deviates in His purpose and means, and never ceases in His love towards us. As Paul so simply, and eloquently wrote, “…He cannot deny Himself,” what He IS and ever shall be. The issue then becomes, what is the relevance of this knowledge to us whose feet are of clay, and whose “natural” tendency is downward? It is this. He brings us to Himself, that the newness of His life, power, and love, should be revealed and lived in us. Christ is not only the hope of glory, but the very present LIFE of the believer. The cross made possible an exchanged life, for in that cross is declared a work whereby I, we, died to ourselves, sin, the world, and the devil, to live by His life unto God. His life, by the Spirit has become ours to live by faith. “And if Christ be IN you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.” (Romans 8:10)
The story is told of a certain general Gordon, a soldier, who was a Christian. When the enemy had breached the compound, and penetrated into his office, declaring that they had come to “take his life,” he answered: “You cannot take my life, for my life is hid with Christ in God.” The Lord Jesus said, “And whosoever lives and believes in Me shall never die.” (Jn. 11:26) Here we have an illustration of oneness with Christ, a work so perfect and eternal that nothing can separate the believer from the love of God…not even death. We have also a declaration by Christ that there is not a moment of cessation of LIFE in the believer’s heart, again by virtue of the union of the soul of the believer with the Savior. When the Lord Jesus died on the Cross, He paid for all of our sin, to set us free from the weight of guilt and shame, providing for us a perfect righteousness in His life so that we are accepted before God. But that was the prelude and the preparation for the full effect of the Gospel…His indwelling. He has become our life to live by the Spirit…Christ IN us the hope of glory.
Dear Father, enable us to see ourselves in Christ, and Him in us. Give us to grasp Thy way of victory, that way of appropriation of Christ by faith, so that He works in and through us, enabling us to live HIS victorious life for Thy glory. We praise and thank Thee for such a great salvation, truly real and lasting. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
Love, Dad