“And Joseph answered Pharaoh, saying, ‘It is not in me…God shall give Pharaoh an answer of peace.'” Exodus 41:16
Dear Ones:
Christianity has nothing to do with “self,” only with Christ, in union with us by the Spirit, working in and through us to show forth the excellencies of His person, accomplishing His will and purpose. And yet, we ALL have that “natural” tendency to seek to derive something from ourselves, rather than all from Christ. In Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, he writes: “By the grace of God I am what I am; and His grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all, YET NOT I, but the grace of God which was with me.” (15:10) In his letter to the Galatians, he uses somewhat the same terminology to illustrate the same point: “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; YET NOT I, but Christ lives in me.” (2:20) What do we discover here? I is an exchanged life, our weak, failing, sinful and selfish life (…the center of which is “I” or “me”), exchanged for that of Christ, His good and perfect life, a life of power, love, and goodness. It took Joseph a good deal of time to learn his utter dependence upon God, and corresponding faithfulness of God to respond to that faith. Paul learned the same lesson. He would write to the Romans, “…For I KNOW that in me (that is in my flesh,) dwells no good thing.” (7:18). Again, Jesus would say, “…the flesh profits NOTHING… It is the Spirit that quickens (or gives life.” (John 6:63) Trusting in the flesh has NOTHING to do with the kingdom of God. If what we live is not of the Spirit, having its origin and realization by the Spirit, it is nothing in God’s sight. There is an old hymn, one stanza of which declares: “The arm of flesh will fail you; you dare not trust your own.” How many times great men and women of faith have all had to learn the lesson that to trust in themselves is like leaning on a sharp reed, which, instead of giving support, wounds the hand that puts its weight on it.
What then is the problem, and the reason for which so few believers do not live victorious lives? It is first in a lack of the knowledge of the truth. And secondly, there is the lack of faith in the appropriation of that truth, of Christ Himself, according to the truth. In the spiritual realm, the knowledge of the truth is fundamental to the corresponding blessing of God. The summation of the truth of our union with Christ, and His all-sufficiency to “dwell in our hearts by faith,” is expressed by a phrase of a hymn: “…for I am nothing, You (Christ) are all, I would be daily taught.” Where there is a knowledge of the great truths of the Gospel, there must of necessity be also true FAITH to appropriate the blessing, the very life of Christ by this Spirit. This is why Paul prays for the Ephesian church, that they would be “strengthened with might by the Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith.” (3:17) The heart that seeks God for the strength to believe, and to grasp, that which is true of them, is that one who will know what it means to “live by the faith of the Son of God,” and to know the reality of “NOT I, BUT CHRIST.”
Dear Father, give us to live this exchanged life, and life worthy of You, a life well-pleasing and glorifying to You. Give us to know the truth of this union with Thy Son, and strengthen us in our hearts to lay hold upon Christ as our life, our all. We praise, and thank you in the name of the Lord Jesus, Amen.
Love, Dad