By
Arthur J Licursi
Romans
5:10 For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled
to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we
shall be saved by his life.
There
occur two crises in the life of every matured Christian. This first is a
crisis in life by which we realize that we need a savior to save us from
perdition, judgment and damnation. It may be of our self-interest, but
since God also has interest in us, He uses this motive to draw us to His
self. By grace we are eternally saved from judgment and penalty of
eternal separation from Him. Yet, beyond our initial salvation from
damnation that all Christians enjoy, God desires to satisfy the hungry
hearts; to save them further, this time from the emptiness and waste of
life that is our portion when we live life apart from relationship
and union with Him.
This
paper concerns the second crisis every Christian faces, that is if they
are to go on to see and enjoy the full salvation that is ours, by
Christ’s work through the cross, which was according to the eternal
purpose that God purposed in Him. I am writing of a genuine second work
of grace, which actually is based upon the simplicity of Christ
indwelling the believer; this is ever so powerful and life-changing.
Christ’s first work on our behalf was reconciliation (past
tense) through His shed blood and death, for us. Now
Paul speaks of this second work as something yet future for
believers, by using the words “shall be” in
Romans 5:10b.
Though
a second work of grace, it has been made possible from the time of the
cross. Each believer already has the deposit of this second work of
grace right now in their spirit, but…it has not yet necessarily been
revealed to them in order to make it beneficial to them. All of God’s
work on man’s behalf was finished through the cross of Christ.
This second work of grace may only become visible to us some time after
being “reconciled” to the Lord. That reconciliation
came by Christ’s death for us. We had a debt that we
could not pay – Christ death paid that debt for us. This
payment reconciled us to God.
But
additionally, and somewhat by contrast, Paul writes here, in Rom 5:10,
of a “much more” than reconciliation. In
contrast, this “much more” comes not by
His death of Christ but by the deposit of His
resurrection life into the believer’s spirit. This
further salvation comes “by His life.” Sadly,
most Christians have not yet gained much beyond reconciliation and
salvation from perdition, since that’s almost all we hear preached. We
all know we are saved from hell by what He did for us.
But some have also to come to see and know who Christ is within
them as their life.
This
second work of grace comes to benefit us only by having received divine “revelation;”
it’s a life-changing revelation to believing seekers who desire an
ever deepening relationship with Christ.
You
might ask, “Revelation, what actually is to be revealed?” To
answer this we must first interpret the word “saved”
in Romans 5:10 as it was originally written in Greek. “Saved”
here is the Greek word sozo, meaning, to make whole,
or make complete. From this one might conclude that
apparently the reconciled Christian believer is not yet complete,
however, we know from Paul’s Col 2:9-10, Christ is “the fullness
of the Godhead bodily” and “ye are complete in Him.”
Well, are we or are we not “complete in Him”? The answer is
that we in fact are complete by the indwelling of Christ taking
residence within our spirit, to be our new and only core-life (Gal
2:20). We already possess all of Christ, but …we don’t necessarily
know this by revelation of the Spirit. If we don’t know this,
then we will not yet believe this to the pint of trusting Him in all
things; then we can not yet become true expressions of this Christ who
is in us as our life.
But
how do we get such a powerful revelatory knowing as to make us
really, really see and believe that Christ lives in us as the new us?
Revelation is divine; only God, by His Spirit, controls and dispenses
such revelation. Even the mighty Apostle Paul could not dispense
revelation; thus, he prayed to God that the Ephesians would receive “the
spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him” – such
that they might “know the riches of the inheritance (Christ’s
Spirit of life) that (presently) is in the saints (believers)”
(Eph 1:15-18). I believe God the Father reserves
the revelation of His Son indwelling the believer until such time
as we are desirous to know Christ, and ready to appreciate Him, and the
grace of His indwelling life. God knows our heart.
It
is God who goes about working in our lives to prepare us for receiving
such revelation. Philip. 2:13 For it is God which
worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. This is
where the word “crisis” comes in, such as I have used in the
title of this paper. In the opening paragraph I briefly described the first
crisis of life that drives us to receive the Lord initially. Yet, we
need a second crisis of life in order to drive us to receive this most
powerful of all revelations. This second crisis is simply…a
realization that we, in ourselves, can’t in all honestly, live the
Christian life – that we are hopeless and helpless in and of our
selves – even though we are already saved from judgment..
Such
a realization only comes at the hand of the Lord, who has known our
present impoverished condition all along, but now He is making us aware
of our impotence toward God and true righteousness. We must see that God
is not expecting anything of us – out of our resources at all. He
knows that we are bankrupt in and of ourselves. The second crisis is to
push us turn to God to now see the inheritance of Christ in us, Christ
being the riches that God has deposited in us. Gal 2:20
I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ
liveth in me… Thus, we may now see that we’ve become literal
partakers of God’s life, which is in Christ, as the resurrected
Spirit of life in Christ Jesus (Rom 8:2a), come to dwell in us, in place
of our old self.
1.
The first work of Christ that we saw was His sacrifice at the
cross. In that seeing and receiving, Christ’s righteousness was
imputed or counted to us,
saving us from perdition.
2)
Now, the second work of Christ is seen by us – we see that Christ’s
life and righteousness have actually been imparted
to us. It is in seeing and trusting this that our self-soul is
being saved, as it is renewed to a mindset of Christ-dependence (Philip
2:5).
Christ
thereby renews our soul. You see, since we are already complete in our
regenerated spirit, we already possess the very life and righteous
nature (2Pet 1:4) of Christ, but our soul-selves needs renewal to
righteousness. Paul expresses the fact of our ongoing soul renewal here.2
Cor 4:16 … though our outward man perish, yet the inward
(soul) man is renewed day by day. Our “outward
man,” our physical body man, is dying without doubt, but our inward
man, our soul, is being renewed to a new paradigm for living – one
of simply trusting that the life and righteousness of Christ at work in
us, to be expressed as the new us, through our vessel. Our vessel is
soul with its organs of mind, emotion and will.
For
we who now know Christ a life in us, there’s no more trying or
imitating – just trusting. Then Christ’s righteousness may be
expressed through us as we simply abide in our union with Him.
We
never become righteous in our soul-selves – our souls never become
righteous – we still enjoy being counted as righteous; but now
we learn to bear His righteous life by co-operating with Him, by
permitting His life to flow through our whole being and flow out of our
vessel as we were made to be. Being simply living vessels of His
righteous life, we never become Him; but we do bear His life as a branch
bears the life of the tree. Yet, it can be said that we are one with
Him, as the cup and the coffee may be considered “a cup of
coffee.” We are a living containers who possess Him (1Cor 6:19),
who alone is our content of worth. Ephes. 1:18 The eyes
of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know
what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of
his inheritance in the saints. It is by this revelation
knowledge that we genuinely come to know Him in us, as the new us. Col.
1:27 To whom God would make known what is the
riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which
is Christ in you, the hope of glory:
A
Personal Note:
Permit
me now to share my personal experience in such a realization by
revelation of Christ in me. I had a most wonderful and remarkable
preparatory experience one day in 1975, which was from my Father, to
once and for all time deliver me from seeking Him in outward
experiences.
At
this point in my Christian life I had been saved about 7 years and was a
founding teaching elder in a church we and three other couple had
founded. Yet, I still had a burning desire to know Him in a deeper way,
at any cost.
One
weekend I had been reading a little booklet someone had given me six
years earlier, but I had not yet read it. It was called “A
Simple Way to Touch the Lord”. The premise was that if I
wanted to touch the Lord in reality I could just call or breathe out His
name – “Lord Jesus.” The writer cited the many scripture
references of the people of God who “called upon the name of the
Lord.” He said by example, if one wanted to have the presence
of their mate elsewhere in the house, they could call, as I do my wife -
“Linda”. Well, this sounded too simple.
Nevertheless,
it was the Monday following that weekend in which I had read the little
booklet and I was driving on an overnight business trip from my home in
Foxboro
,
Massachusetts
to
Connecticut
. I recall that it was early morning with the sun rising as I drove past
two lakes on either side of US Route 6 in Rhode Island, when I said to
myself – “Well I’ve read this booklet long enough – let’s
try it.”
So
then, alone but feeling conspicuous, I simply called upon His name –
and breathed out the words from deep within “Lord Jesus.” I
immediately sensed an almost liquid presence of the Lord welling up
within me. The tears flowed as I pulled my car over to the side of
the road. I recall then saying to myself in my head “I can’t wait
to get back tomorrow night to tell my fellow elders of this new
“experience” – BUT as I was speaking, I heard what seemed to
be the audible voice of God speaking to me saying, “I did not do
this so you would have yet another experience… but to show you that I
live in you and I am as close as your breath.”
This
realization of His literal indwelling altered my Christian walk forever.
I felt I could no longer sing songs like “Reach Out and
Touch the Lord as He passes by,” because in now KNEW that
He dwelled in me. I no longer bought into the idea that I
needed to pray for God to go with me as I drove on trips – because I
now KNEW lives in me and every believer. 1
John 4:13 Hereby know we that we dwell in him,
and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit.
I
cannot say that this one experience has brought me to a complete trust
in the Lord, but it has introduced me to the fact which I now believe;
CHRIST LIVES IN ME AND HE ALONE IS MY ALL. My focus and perspective has
been forever altered from the outer realm of self-effort, to see the
indwelling Christ, to trust Christ who indwells my spirit.
Ephes.
4:20 “But ye have not so
learned Christ.” Now I can truly learn who indwells and speaks
within me. Till this revelation of Christ in me came, I had known
mostly about Jesus of Nazareth (outside of me), who I tried
unsuccessfully to imitate. I had never learned the indwelling One, who
all that time was so close at hand. I’m being saved (made whole) by
His life in me. Romans 5:10 For if, when we were
enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more,
being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.
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