- Overcomer Literature Trust
- Swindon
- Wiltshire
THE LIFE THAT IS CHRIST.
By Ruth Paxson.
“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God,
who loved me and gave himself for me” (Gal. 2 v20).
There are certain principles that governed the life of Christ when He lived upon earth, very definite principles which are very clearly indicated in the Word of God. I believe that if Christ lives out His life in us He’ll be living it exactly according to these same principles. No different principles govern Him now than those that governed Him when He lived His life on earth, “for even the Son of Man did not came to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10 v45).
Firstly, He lived purely for the glory of God. There was not one trace of self glorification in the life of the Son of Man. He said in that high priestly prayer, “I have brought You glory on earth”. He said it even before He said, “by completing the work You gave me to do” (John 17 v4). This teaches that even before the desire to do the Father’s work and to finish the work given Him, the passionate desire of His heart was to glorify His Father. The primary principle in the life of our Lord was TO GLORIFY GOD. No self glorification.
Secondly, He lived only to please His Father. There was no self pleasing in anything in His life. “I always do what pleases Him” (John 8 v29) our Lord said, always, not sometimes. It was an abiding principle of His life to live to please His Father.
Thirdly, He lived in complete obedience to His Father. There was no trace of self will. He continually said, ‘‘Not my will, but Yours be done” (Luke 22 v42). In all things and at all times this was the primary principle, the abiding principle, in the life of the Son of Man on earth.
Fourthly, He lived in obedience and in absolute dependence upon His Father. There was no self trust. He said, “The Son can do nothing by Himself; He can only do what He sees His Father doing” (John 5 v19). There was no self trust, but a complete, continuous dependence upon His Father.
Fifthly, He lived only for His Father. There was not only no will of His own, but no way of His own. “My food” said Jesus, “is to do the will of Him who sent me and to finish His work”.
Christ, who lives in us, means to live according to those same five principles, so that in our lives there will be the glorifying of the Lord Jesus Christ, no self glorification. We will be living only to please Him. We will be always doing the things that please Him, no self pleasing. It will be a life with no self will, but with a will completely given over in submission to the Lord Jesus Christ, no will of our own. We will indeed be His bond slaves. It will be a life lived with no self trust, never doing anything of ourselves. Believing this, our dependence will be wholly and utterly upon Him, this One Who lives out His life in us.
There will be no way of our own. We will live for the Lord Jesus Christ only, seeking every bit of our direction in life and in work from Him. “Christ lives in me”. Paul made it very personal.
The same Christ is to live the same life in us. It is so profound and yet so utterly simple, just a divine Person living out His life in a human person. It is not that Christ is going to live His life in us with our help. It is not that He is going to help us to live this Christian life. It is exactly what the verse says, it is Christ living out His own life in us.
Is that the life we live to-day? Have we been conscious that there is a divine Person within us, actually living our lives? That’s what it means. It couldn’t be stated more simply. Has He shown Himself in that way, through us, to those with whom we live and work? We still have our human personality, but there is another Person doing the living, and doing the living in every part of our lives. Not in some small corner, but in every part of our lives. He is to live out His life in us. The old ‘I’ is crucified and is to be put off, as we read in Ephesians. The new “I” which is Christ in us, that supernatural life of a supernatural Person, is to be lived out in us.
People of the world are asking, just as the Greeks did when they came to Philip, “We would see Jesus”. Do we reveal Him because He is living out His life in us? Our human personality is to be re-centred and re-inhabited. It is to be God’s possession for His use and there is to be an exchanged life. Where the old “I”, our sinful nature, ruled, now Jesus Christ is to rule. The only way He can live and rule in us is for that old ‘I’ to be put out. It can only be put out according to God’s plan and purpose by crucifixion with Christ upon the Cross of Calvary. That is the choice that we have to make. The crucifixion has happened, we don’t make the choice of having it done. That was done two thousand years ago. As truly as Christ went to that Cross, He took us to that Cross. It is the great purpose of salvation, to have Christ living His life in us, instead of having our old sinful nature in control. We have to make that choice. And we have to make the choice that now it will be Christ and not self ruling, it is to be an exchanged life. The old ‘I’ going out by crucifixion and Jesus Christ coming in by resurrection, to live out His own divine, supernatural life in our lives.
Listen to what the verse says, this Christ life, this life that Christ is going to live in us, this life that I now live in the human body, “I live by faith in the Son of God”. I now live it on earth, in the same kind of a home perhaps in which our Lord had to live, in the same kind of community, the same circumstances, I now live that life. A life that is heavenly, that’s supernatural, that’s spiritual and that’s divine. Unbelief says that it is utterly impossible, unbelief will always say that it is impossible. But this life is not lived by unbelief, it is lived by faith. Someone says, ‘I haven’t that sort of faith’. No, you haven’t. This faith is the faith of the Son of God, the One who is living within us. It is His faith, and His faith is sufficient. It is not by anything that we do or are. It is by all that He is and does that this life is lived. It is to be lived in confidence in the One who has come into our lives for the very purpose of taking over and living out His own life in us. He, who as Paul said, “Who loved me and gave himself for me”. Himself for myself, with no reservations.
It will literally mean an exchanged life, Christ in the place of self. Do we want it? Do we choose it? Christ in the centre, Christ in the circumference and Christ all in between. Again as Paul put it, ‘‘Christ is all and is in all’’. That’s the standard. Are we ready to accept it? Intelligently, deliberately, purposefully, not just for now, but for all the rest of our lives?
“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.’’ This Christ will come and live out His life in our human life that we give over to Him. Yielded as His glad, joyous bond slaves, so that He will have no hindrance whatever in living out His life in its fulness in our everyday life. This is the standard of Galatians 2 v20.
From and old magazine.