- Overcomer Literature Trust
- Swindon
- Wiltshire
Christ . . . our life. (Col. 3 v4)
By Mrs Jessie Penn-Lewis.
Being clothed with the Lord Jesus Christ (Rom. 13 v14, Gal. 3 v27).
“If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come. All this is from God” (2 Cor. 5 v17-18).
This transition into Christ as the sphere of life, is sometimes imperceptible and sometimes a crisis. The soul seems to be emerging from the tomb into a new world of which it has hitherto had but glimpses, and now it understands His word, “You are in Me” (John 14v20).
The Cross is the gate of life in every stage, but it is not until we have surrendered our own life and activities to the grave of Christ that we can truly say “ the old has gone, the new has come”.
Now the language of the heart is “For me to live is Christ”, for He must be the source of life in every action, that we may live by Him, as He lived by the Father.
The life established
“Now it is God who makes us stand firm in Christ” (2Cor. 1 v21).
United to Christ, and clothed with Him, the spirit of faith so possesses the soul that the life of faith becomes as easy as breathing. It is natural for a child to trust its Father. The life of God in the soul will flow back into God in simple child-like faith. There is now:
1. An effortless reckoning back to the Cross, and the grave of Christ, as the foundation of continuous deliverance from the old life. Now the soul can say, ‘I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I that live, but Christ lives in me: and that life . . . I live in faith’ (Gal. 2 v20).
The Holy Spirit now bears witness and we see the Cross of Christ severing us from ourselves and the past, so that the accounting it true is lost sight of in the
knowledge that it is true, according to the Word of God. We may sin and disobey the indwelling Lord, but the cost is so bitter that we cry, ‘How can I?’ We then fear nothing so much as to grieve the Holy Spirit of God, whereby we are sealed unto the day of redemption. The soul also knows that it stands simply by faith, but it is ‘the faith wrought in you by God’ (Col. 2v 12).
2. A continuous dependence upon Christ as the Living One, not by effort or by definite acts of faith, so much as by a restful abiding in Him.
It is no more I that live, but Christ is living in me; and my outward life which still remains, I live in the faith of the Son of God (Gal. 2v 20).
I can do all things in Him Who strengthens me (Phil. 4 v13) (2 Cor. 13 v37).
I will speak only of the works which Christ has wrought by me . . . with the might of the Spirit of God (Rom. 15 v18-19).
The transition into Christ through His Cross and grave, is a work done in the very springs of our being, down in the secret depths. As we live in Him by faith, His life will rapidly bring the ‘earthly house of our bodily frame’ (2 Cor. 5 v1) under His control.
3. A thankful resting under the shelter of the blood sprinkled upon the Mercy-seat, with a deep sense of its momentary need for unbroken communion.
If we walk in the light, as He is in the light . . . the blood of Jesus . . . cleanses from all sin (1 John 1v7).
In sanctification of the Spirit unto obedience and the sprinkling of the blood (1 Peter 1v2).
Only as we walk in the light of God, which is intensified day by day, can we really abide under the power of the cleansing blood. The soul may walk with a clear conscience and know nothing against itself, yet it is not thereby justified. It never draws near in specific access to the Throne without reminding the Father of the sprinkled blood. In any conscious transgression there is the same instinctive instantaneous application to the fountain opened for sin, with honest confession of sin and deep humiliation before the Father’s footstool.
4. A keen appetite for the written Word as Spirit-food for the new life.
The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are life (John 6 v63).
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly (Col. 3 v16, John 1 5v7).
The Word of God is now spirit and life to the soul, as day by day it is unveiled in fresh beauty by its Author. It is illuminated with the light of the Spirit, and is truly the voice of God to the heart seeking to know Him. The soul is deeply conscious of the necessity of implicit obedience, and a sensitive walk in all the will of God.
5. An intense longing to press on to know the Lord, and enter into all the deepest purposes of God.
I count all things to be loss for the . . . knowledge of Christ (Phil. 3 v8).
I press onward that I might lay hold on that for which Christ also laid hold on me (Phil. 3 v8-12).
I hold not my life of any account . . . in comparison of accomplishing my course (Acts 20v24).
The life of union with Christ has been well described to be a series of ever advancing goals. As the soul presses on, the vision widens, and its cry grows deeper, ‘that I may know Him.’
There is no finality, and no state of experience to rest upon, short of the hour when we shall see the glorified Lord face to face, and be like Him perfectly.
The life manifested
In my body I bear about continually the dying of Jesus that in my body the life also of Jesus might be shown forth. For I, in the midst of life, am daily given over to death . . . that in my dying flesh the life whereby Jesus conquered death might show forth its power (2 Cor. 9 v10-11).
Deeper and deeper yet the principle of life out of death works, until at the appearing of Christ ‘what is mortal may be swallowed up by life’ (2 Cor. 5 v4).
Paul adds, ‘He who prepared me for this very end is God, Who has given me the Spirit, as the earnest of my hope.’(2 Cor. 5 v5).
It was eternal life for the sinner out of the death of the Son of God, when we were reconciled to God; ‘life out of death’ for the believer, when we saw that we had died with Him, and were thus set free from the claims of sin. The heavenly life sprang out of death in more abundant measure as the earth-life was surrendered to His grave, and now it is ‘life out of death’ to other souls as the believer, in the ‘power of His resurrection’, is brought still deeper into the fellowship of His sufferings, ‘being made conformable to His death’ (Phil. 3 v10).
Death working in me works life in you (2 Cor. 4 v12), is the secret of continued and ever-deepening life to others through vessels of fragile clay.
Much of the suffering in the earlier stages was suffering from blows on the self-hood in its many phases, but now it is suffering in fellowship with Christ.
Counted as a deceiver, yet being true, as unknown (by men) yet acknowledged (by God). As ever dying yet behold I live; as chastened by suffering yet not destroyed; as sorrowful yet ever filled with joy; as poor yet making many rich; as having nothing yet possessing all things (2 Cor. 6 v9-10).
The body is presented to God to be a living sacrifice, bound with the cords of His love to the horns of the altar, poured out upon the sacrifice and service of others’ faith. ‘In all these things we are more than conquerors.’ The life whereby Jesus conquered death shows forth its power in carrying the vessel of clay - broken and weak - in the train of His triumph.
The language of the soul is now, ‘Through . . . the supply of the Spirit of Jesus, according to my earnest expectation and hope . . . Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether by life or by death’ (Phil. 1 v19-20).
Wherefore we faint not, but though our outward man is decaying yet our inward man is renewed day by day . . . our light affliction . . . works for us . . . an eternal weight of glory (2 Cor. 4 v16-17).
In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor . . . things present, nor things to come, nor things above, nor things below . . . shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (Rom. 8 v37-39).
From: ‘The Pathway to Life in God’.
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