IN HIM

IN HIM



                We all start life in the Old Covenant. We are born under law. We are born as children of the first Adam and so we are citizens of a fallen kingdom. Everyone on this planet is born as a child of fallen Adam and we are all born under the Law.



                From this standpoint we can understand that the Law cannot be done away. The fact of the matter is that everyone who is not born again into the second Adam, Jesus Christ is still a child of the first Adam and part of a fallen race that is not destined for heaven or any kind of a future that anyone would choose if they understood it. We are born as sinners with a sin nature and from our very first breath and onward, we belong to this kingdom that was given over to Satan on that traitorous day in the Garden of Eden.



                You cannot do away with the Law because in fact there are millions of people living in it and by it. Humanity is under a curse and so is all of creation. This is a doomed planet and it is headed for a cleansing fire that will put to an end all of the works of men and demons and time, even time shall be no more. There is no escape from the destiny of this sold out planet and there is absolutely no where we can turn to find relief from its destiny as a fallen system.



                But into this fallen and broken darkness came One who was from a different source than us. Yes He was born into our fallen world and He was born in the likeness of sinful or doomed flesh, but there was something in Him. There was the life that came before the fall. It was the tree of life from which Adam had been banned, but it was more than that… It was the very Source… the very Creator of heaven and earth… the very substance of God Himself. That is what was in Him and with that infinite Seed of eternity He would rescue all who would come to Him in faith.



                Like I said, we are all born under the Old Covenant whether we keep it or not… whether we like it or know it or not, we are under it and it holds jurisdiction over every single citizen of this dark kingdom. There is only one way of escape from it and that is through death.



                Few people ever stop to contemplate what it actually means to pass through that tiny pin hole of death and to emerge into God’s kingdom of light and power and grace that lies on the other side. Few realize just how complete our death is to that other kingdom and the laws that rule it. Yes the Law pointed forward. It told us the principles of the New Covenant in types and shadows and various instructions. It provided a Law for citizens of that darkness to live by, but ultimately that Law could only do one thing and that is to bring us to the death that we must die in order to escape that kingdom of darkness and to enter into the kingdom of Christ.



                Very few Christians fully understand the extent and completeness of that death to which the Law brings us. We tend to see it only as a sort of rite of passage… a ticket to a better life… the adding of something better… a slice of bread to which the butter of grace is added. And so we go on in life, being sort of caught between two covenants… not fully dying to one and yet not fully living in the other.



                This condition Jesus calls being lukewarm. We are caught between two opinions… two separate and in some ways opposite systems, one being a system leading to death, while the other brings infinite life. The Old Covenant Law is the instrument that leads us to the place of execution, but it is the cross that kills us and when we enter into that cross we leave our total history behind. Whatever came before the cross is now rubbish. Even the best that we could do has ended in death.



                It is the cross that brings us to that absolute and total death and it is not just any old death. The death we die in the cross is greater than the death we die physically. Physical death does not kill the spirit and the soul, but the death we die on the cross is actually the second death. Jesus died the second death for us and when we enter into His cross, we enter into that second death, so that when we are raised up to new life by the power of His resurrection we are no longer subject to the second death. He gives us a new eternal spirit and a new life. by the power of His resurrection.



                Yes, most of us will yet die the natural death of the body due to old age, sickness or accident, but in Christ we will not have to face the second death. So it is within this context that Jesus said:



                “Therefore do not fear those who kill the body, but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.”



                If they only kill our body, then our soul goes to be with God and as such according to Paul, “For me to live is Christ and to die is gain.” And Paul was more than a bit anxious to die and to be with the Lord, but He, as one submitted to God, was also willing to stay on as long as He was needed by the people he had brought to the Lord. He said:

               

                “ I am hard pressed from both directions having the desire to depart and be with Christ for that is very much better, yet to remain in the flesh  is more necessary for your sake.” Phil. 1:23-24



                 These statements by Paul should forever put to rest any doctrines or traditions to the contrary. In Christ we have completely died to the kingdom of darkness and we have been infused with eternal life and John agreed with Paul by saying: “And the witness is this that God HAS given us eternal life and this life is in His Son. He that has the Son has the life and he who does not have the Son does not have the life.”         1 John 5:11, 12.



                                Eternity dwells in us and we have passed from death into life. We have that life in us now and it is this life that will raise us up on the last day. IN fact Paul said in 1 Thess. 4:14. “For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus.”  And listen to this vital fact in Romans 8:10, 11:



                “And if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. But if the spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who indwells you.”



                This is what we receive when we receive Jesus and that alone should make Christians a group of happy campers. It is not a joy based upon worldly circumstances, but it is a joy unspeakable and full of glory, brought forth from our innermost being like rivers of living water. Friends… we need to learn how to get into the flow of that river and to drink of it and to live by it and to overcome by it and to never get out of it.



                We have become temples of the Holy Spirit and that brings us to something else that few Christians comprehend as they should. 1 Cor. 6:19, 20 says this:



                “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body.”



                When we died in His cross and received His eternal salvation we gave up ownership of our bodies. Jesus bought them to become His dwelling place to carry out His will and to complete His mission in the world. And while pork laws may no longer apply, the idea of glorifying God in our bodies remains the same and even more so because God now dwells inside of us and so our outside becomes a reflection of Him who indwells us.



                We like to mow the lawn and trim the shrubs at church and we like to maintain the building because it represents the house of the Lord. How much more should this apply to us who have actually become His living temples. God doesn’t dwell in the building… He dwells in us. How then are we representing Him to the world? To be sure, we are not all dealt the same measure of health and in this world we each have to deal with the challenges we each face. What we are talking about here is attitude. Are we living as if we belong to ourselves or as if we belong to Him?



                Some brides to be will go on a crash diet before their wedding to lose those extra pounds to look nice for the wedding. After the wedding some brides will continue to honor their husbands by maintaining to the best of their ability the body that God has given them, while others will let it all go as if it no longer matters since they have won the prize. As Christians do we live to please and honor Him or only ourselves? Is our marriage to Him worth our best?



                So the idea here in 1 Cor. 6:19, 20 is that Jesus bought us… redeemed us with His own blood and death. He came to dwell in us by His Holy Spirit. The two of us have become one flesh; therefore we must do all within our power to glorify Him in these bodies. We believe that God is our healer, for instance. Well, how do we show forth His healing power? Are we prospering and being in good health even as our soul prospers? 3 John 1:2



                We are in Him and He is in us and so we don’t need to ACT happy. Rather we need to learn how to get into the river that flows from our innermost being and to become truly happy and full of joy. If our apparent happiness is an act that we put on in the flesh, then we are not really living in the river are we? 

                We have been treating these temples as if we own them and can do what we want with them. We fail to operate in the temperance or self-control that is one of the fruits of the Spirit… we often forget to live in love, joy and peace for the same reasons. We lose patience with people, we are unkind, unfaithful, or whatever simply because we have not fully gotten into the river… that river that flows from the throne of God and out of our innermost beings like rivers of living water. It is there, but we so often fail to live in its flow.



                Also, we must realize that trying to live in the Old covenant means that you will be trying to do in the flesh that which Jesus does in and through us by His Holy Spirit. I know this is a challenge that we all face and our flesh is at war with our spirit and the flesh wants one thing and the spirit wants another… but that is all a part of the battle we fight as long as we live in enemy territory… for even though we live in Christ’s kingdom and His kingdom lives in us, we are still passing through and dealing with this fallen kingdom… but we have an overriding purpose. Earth has become our training ground for greater things.



                All of creation is waiting anxiously for the revealing of the sons of God… and we are those who are destined to overcome by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of our testimony and no you don’t have to have a perfect body. Such a thing is nearly impossible in this world, but above all we must remember that we belong to Him and so to the best of our ability we must seek to glorify Him in these bodies… and all the more so should we glorify Him by our love, our forgiveness, and our joy. We are carriers of His presence. We are the Ark of the Covenant. His law is written in our hearts and His glory rests between the wings of the cherubim as we dwell in the secret place of the Most High.



                Wow… some things are hard to say and even harder to live, but I believe our awareness needs to be poked a little. We tend to fall short of the glory of God and largely because we don’t fully understand the completeness of our death in the cross as well as the completeness of Christ’s ownership of us in this New Covenant. We tend to hang out somewhere in between carrying the guilt of the old while failing to live in the fullness of the new. It is those who are led by the Spirit of God that are the sons of God. Rom. 8:14



                It was Jesus Himself who said: “He who believes in Me as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water.” John 7:38. We must make it our goal to learn how to live in that river. It is real and if we belong to Him, that river is in us and we are in Him.