OUR
POSITION IN CHRIST.
BY CARRIE F. JUDD.
It is essential
for us all, in order that we may exercise an intelligent faith, to realize our
position in God’s sight. We all know that in coming to God we must come in the
name of our Redeemer, and yet how few of us have realized the depth of meaning
contained in this truth-that approaching God in the name of Jesus means far
more than to take that holy name upon our lips in prayer-that it means to come
in the position of Jesus, in the life of Jesus, and to be,
therefore, accepted by the Father even as our Meditator and Advocate is
accepted for us.
Christ Jesus came
to this sad, lost world as it “lay in darkness and in the shadow of death,” and
took upon Himself our nature that He might become our Representative, and then
this God-man, as representing or sinful condemned race, gave Himself up to
death, suffering for us the full penalty of the law. Consider then, my fellow
believers, our position in God’s sight. In Jesus our Substitute, the just and
terrible sentence pronounced upon our fallen race, has been executed, with the
utmost rigor; in our Representative we have been crucified and therefore are
we not dead in the sight of that eternal Judge Who is so holy that He
cannot look upon sin? Listen to Paul, the great “apostle of Jesus Christ,” humbly taking his true position upon the
cross; “I am crucified with Christ.”
By faith every
one of us must likewise confess this, and what an infinity of meaning in this startling
declaration. The by acknowledging ourselves too sinful to have lived, we
confess that our miserable existence found an end in the agonizing death of Him
Who though “He knew no sin” was yet “made sin for us.”
Too many cling to
the erroneous idea that we have escaped our merited punishment, but with
Paul we must acknowledge that in the person of our Representative we have been
punished to the full extend of God’s righteous law-that we are “crucified
with Christ.”
But there is a
new aspect in which our position is to be viewed; crucified we have been
undoubtedly, and our former sinful, pitiful existence is dead and buried, put
out of God’s sight forever, but, praise be to His mercy! He has brought forth
from that dark grave of dead humanity another life beyond the power of sin and
death, even the resurrection-life of His Son, our Lord, Who, though He “was
delivered for our offenses,” “was raised again for our justification.”-(Rom.
iv: 25.)
How could Jesus’
resurrection avail for our justification except in the glorious truth that the
power of “Him Who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead,” raised us up with
Him, not bringing again from the dead that corrupted creation which had been
destroyed, but creating us anew in Christ Jesus. “Therefore if any man be in
Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed away; behold,
all things are become new.”
This we hear Paul
triumphing over the sad ignominy of his crucifixion, and rising with the
resurrection-life of Him Whose all-conquering life destroyed the hold of death;
“I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live.” Then, as speedily
recognizing the source of that triumphant life, the apostle adds with
loving, thankful joy, “yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.”
Dead, and yet
alive from the dead, is then the position which we must acknowledge; living,
and yet not living, but Christ living in us. By faith we are continually to
take this position reckoning ourselves to be “dead indeed unto sin,” but “alive
unto God through Jesus,” and as we thus take our stand upon God’s truth, the
Holy Spirit will bear witness to the truth, working in us the fruit of this
resurrection-life. We are commanded to reckon ourselves dead unto sin, and no
less are we commanded to reckon ourselves alive unto God.-(Rom. vi: 11.) Our
part is very easy, simply to “reckon” that this is true because God
tells us so; we have no part of the work to do, for that was done for us
long ago, and we have only to “reckon” that it is done, and done for us
individually.
Another faithful
admonition is added that we may have “full assurance of faith” in the
Christ-life which we “now live”: “Yield yourselves unto God as those are
alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto
God.”-(Rom. vi: 13.)
How our hearts
thrill at this bold suggestion of faith, presenting ourselves unto God as
already alive from the dead, as daring even to forget the “old things” which
have “passed away,” and willing to “yield ourselves in joyous, loving obedience
to every command of the Lord of Righteousness.
“Our old man is
crucified with Him that the body of sin might be destroyed, that
henceforth we should not serve sin, for he that is dead is freed form
sin. –(Rom. vi: 6,7)
Can faith rise to
a position higher than this? After our Lord’s resurrection followed His
glorious ascension. Shall we dare to follow our ascended Lord beyond the skies,
even into the Holy of Holies where He has now appeared in the presence of God for
us?
Listen once again
to the inspired apostle assuring the Ephesian stains of his continued prayers
for them that the “Father of Glory” might enlighten the eyes of their
understanding and reveal unto them the exceeding greatness of His power towards
those who believed, “according to the working of His mighty power, which He
wrought in Christ when He raised Him from the dead, and set Him at His own
right hand, in the Heavenly places;” and then- wonderful glory!-he tells
us how God of His great mercy and love “hath quickened us together with Christ,”
and “hath raised us up together in Heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” –(Eph.
i: 20; ii:6.)
O, beloved, let
our faith reach out to apprehend that for which we have been apprehended of
Christ Jesus; let us realize that in Him we have suffered for our sins, and the
law can demand no more; that being dead we are “freed form sin”; that being “risen
with Christ,” we must “walk in newness of life,” and, again, that God “hath
blessed us with all spiritual blessings in Heavenly places in Christ.”-(Eph. i:
3.)
We are to claim
these glorious truths by faith and not by feeling, we are to
stand firmly on the finished work of our Atoning Sacrifice, and thus basing our
belief on the solid foundation of God’s never-changing truth, we may ask and
expect that the Holy Spirit will bear witness to the truth. Should we
ask Him to “bear witness with our spirit that we are the children of God,” before
we are willing to believe that Jesus has accomplished his all-sufficient work
for us, we should be asking the Spirit of light and truth to witness to a lie!
But when by faith we take our true position in God’s sight, and maintain this
position by a continued trust, we are setting to our seal that God is true, and
He will give us His Holy Spirit, “which is the earnest of our inheritance
until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of His glory.”
