By
Arthur J Licursi
All
genuine Christians have come to know “justification by faith” –
a key doctrine of the faith that Martin Luther brought to light in the early
1500’s. Ephes. 2:8-9 For by grace are ye saved through
faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9Not
of works, lest any man should boast. Romans
4:5 But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him (God)
that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for
righteousness.
Justification
means to be rendered innocent, acceptable in the sight of the God.
This is a first aspect of our salvation. We see in Eph 2:8-8 that salvation
comes “by grace, through faith”, without our working to earn it.
We place our faith in the blood and death of the Lord Jesus Christ, offered
on our behalf, and thereby we are reconciled to God. It is God who has saved
and justified every believer, simply through that believer’s faith in the
Cross work of Christ for the believer. But there’s more, “much
more” (Rom 5:10).
Some
of those Christians have gone on to later see that the resurrected “Spirit
of life in Christ Jesus” (Rom 8:2a) literally lives within them –
within their human spirit (1Cor 6:17). Col. 1:27 To whom
God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery (musterion,
secret) among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:
…Here, “glory” can be better understood as “expression”.
But there’s more.
At
this point one has not necessarily yet come to know of their union with
the Christ who indwells them. We may still only know Him and us as two
separate entities – we’ve not come to consciously know of our literal union
with Him. We must come to know Him within us as our life - He is our
new self.
Gal
2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live;
yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now
live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and
gave himself for me.
Paul
forgave others “in the person of Christ”, Paul’s new self (2Cor
2:10). He told the Ephesians they had yet to “learn Christ”
(Eph 4:20), not “learn about Christ” – but “learn Christ”
in them, the Christ who is their new self. Paul noted that we have had an
exchange of life “not I, but Christ liveth in me”; we need to
live by Him.
Note
a paradox in Galatians 2:20 – within this unity there
still is a duality – it is Christ not only in
me (as two), but now also “Him as me” (as one) – this
is union. Norman Grubb suggests; “To help us see this truth we might
restate this verse using a big “I” and a little “i”
in the appropriate places.” for emphasis. (In the
original Greek text there was no punctuation or capitalization at all.) Gal.
2:20 i am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I
live; yet not i, but Christ liveth in me:
and the life which i now live in the flesh I live by
the faith of the Son of God... Thus, we see that it is our little
“i” soul-self who may give a means for Christ, who is our
indwelling “I AM” spirit-self, to be gloriously
expressed in our human flesh, in the course of our daily living upon
this earth.
When
we not only see this fact, of Christ being the Operator within
us…and that we merely as His co-operator giving Him a vessel as a means of
expression, but it has become real to us, by faith, it then
permeates how we view our daily living. We are then freed from the
down-pulls of self-concerns as a being human on earth; we enter into a new
adventurous realm of living – we then have a basis for launching out to
live in Him, who is our innermost governor (Lord). We then
believe and begin living a life that is lived by “faith in the
operation of God” (Col 2:12), faith that our old man is dead in
Christ, and we are now His literal living expression, His witness, His
loving, His response to others, as He moves within us, to
prompt or restrain us in all our doings.
The
secret for living the genuine Christian life is that it is no longer
i, but Christ living His life in me; being
expressed …as “the me” who God had always intended, since
“before the world began” (Eph 1:4).
Thus
John writes concerning the indwelling; 1John 4:17b…as
He is, so Are we in this world. Notice that it does
not say “as He is, so Ought we to be”, or “we Should
be” For too long, religion has told us what we ought to “do this,
and don’t do that; then you will be like a Christian” – the
pitiful WWJD thing. Paul reveals a deeper truth to us, he tells us who we in
fact “are”- His vessels for His expression; “i
am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live;
yet not i, but Christ liveth in me”. We
are simply His living vessels for the expression of His life. In this way we
are humans who have been completed by the indwelling Christ. Col.
2:9-10a For in him (Christ) dwelleth all the fulness of
the Godhead bodily. 10And
ye are complete in him…<END>