Wednesday, November 23, 2016

A Tremendous Truth

In the death of Christ, we died. True?
Just as we cannot have salvation if we do not see that
He bore our sins on the Cross, so we cannot have
sanctification if we have not seen Him bearing us on
the Cross.

How did you receive forgiveness? You realized that
the Lord Jesus died as your substitute and that He
bore your sins away. Do you not praise and thank
Him for saving you? In the same way that we
received salvation, we receive sanctification--by
faith. Thus there is no need to pray, "I am a very
wicked person. Lord, please crucify me! That is all
wrong. Just as your sins were dealt with by His
blood, you were dealt with by His Cross. It is an
accomplished fact. All that is left for you to do is to
praise the Lord that when He died, you died also.

Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)
Our old man was crucified with Him (Romans 6:6)
We died with Christ. (Romans 6:8)

What died with Christ? Our old man died.

When Christ died, YOU died. You are done with.
You are ruled out. The self you loathe is on the
Cross in Christ. And, 'he that is dead is freed 
from sin. (Rom 6:7) This is the Gospel for the
Christian!

Man's way is to try to suppress sin by seeking to
overcome it; God's way is to remove the sinner.
If we are preoccupied with the power of sin and
with our inability to overcome it, then we
naturally conclude that to gain victory over sin,
we must have more power. So we plead with God
to strengthen us that we may have more self-control.

But this is not Christianity. God's means of setting
us free from sin, is to make us weaker. God set us
free from the dominion of sin, not by strengthening
the old man, by by crucifying him. The discovery
of your helplessness and His victory will bring an
end to human striving, self hate and self-effort.
(Watchman Nee, The Normal Christian Life)

Reader, I pray for each of you that you will grasp
the incredible freedom that is waiting for you in
Christ.

Happy Thanksgiving!

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