Category: Teaching Tracts

“Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout in triumph, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold your King is coming to you!” Zechariah 9:9 (see Matthew 21:5)

   Jesus Christ is King! The prophets heralded the coming Messiah King (Isaiah 9:6-7; Daniel 7:13-14).  The wise men hailed Christ’s birth as King (Matthew 2:2).  Jesus Himself said, “I am a King… for this reason I have come into the world (John 18:37).” The disciples declared Jesus was King (John 1:49; Luke 19:38).  The apostles “upset the world” when they boldly proclaimed “King Jesus (Acts 17:6-7).” The angels in heaven worship Jesus as the King of kings (Revelation 17:14).  At Calvary, Jesus proved He is a King worthy of our devotion (Revelation 5:12).  Jesus Christ is God the Savior King who came not only to die for His Kingdom but to reign over His Kingdom (Philippians 2:8-11).  The Kingdom was at the heart of Jesus’ ministry (Mark 1:14-15).  Jesus told His disciples to seek His Kingdom, pray for His Kingdom and proclaim His Kingdom (Matthew 6:10, 6:33; 24:14).  Since God the Father has appointed Jesus as King, the Kingdom of God is the realm of Christ’s Sovereign rule (Ephesians 1:22).

   The Kingship of Christ is not an option for Christians.  Jesus said, “Why do you call Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I say (Luke 6:46)?”  God wants to give us His Kingdom but we cannot receive it unless Christ is our King (Luke 12:32; Acts 4:12).  We cannot receive Christ’s Spirit apart from Christ’s Sovereignty.  The focus of the early disciples was on Christ their risen King and His Sovereign Kingdom.  They knew when they were born again they had changed kingdoms; God had rescued them from Satan’s dominion and transplanted them into Christ’s Kingdom (Colossians 1:13).  They did not just outwardly change their old worldly lifestyle for a new “Christian” lifestyle. They knew Christianity meant Christ reigned in their lives. They knew discipleship meant they were bondslaves of Jesus Christ because He had ransomed them with His own life (Romans 6:22; 1 Peter 2:16; 1 Corinthians 6:20).

   Jesus told His disciples a parable of a king who was far away and whose servants did not want him to return and reign over them (Luke 19:11-27).  As long as the king remained away, his sovereignty did not threaten them.  In the same way, many professing Christians want Jesus to remain a far off King so they can honor Him with their lips from a safe distance but not be threatened by His Sovereign demands on their life. They want to enjoy the benefits of belonging to Christ’s Kingdom without the cost of losing their soul-life to serve Christ the King (Matthew 10:38-39).  At the end of the parable, Jesus said when the king finally returned, he ordered all those who rejected his reign over them to be slain.  This is really a story of the end of the age.  When Christ returns, He will gather out of His Kingdom all those who practiced lawlessness and never made Him King and throw them into the eternal fire of hell (Matthew 7:21-23; 13:36-50; 25:41).

   The desire to submit to Christ’s Kingship should motivate every child of the Kingdom. But who can free us from our soul’s primal need for self-preservation, self-autonomy and self-fulfillment? We cannot possibly free ourselves from our sinful nature; only Jesus Christ is able (Romans 7:24-25). If we think we are able, in our natural strength, to be Christ’s bondslaves in spirit, soul and body, it is because we have never honestly tried.  It is impossible for us in the natural to turn away from preserving and promoting our soul-life and live a life of absolute surrender to Christ.  First, we must acknowledge this truth.  Next, God must open the eyes of our heart to see what Jesus Christ has already fully accomplished for us by His death on the cross. 

   The revelation of the cross of Christ is the secret to coming under the sovereignty of Christ.  When we see that God has included us in His Son’s death on the cross, we are freed to be Christ’s bondslaves (Romans 6:6-22).  When we know our old sinful nature has been crucified with Christ, then Christ our King can fully reign in us (Galatians 2:20).  If we do not know we have died with Christ, we will never fully experience Christ’s Sovereignty.  Christ will not force His Sovereignty on us if we are busy trying to be good “Christians” and fulfill ourselves in “Christian” ministry.  The Kingdom and the cross are inseparable; we cannot know the King and possess His Kingdom except by the cross.  But God will not share His precious revelation of the cross of His Son if we still want to maintain self-control and self-sovereignty over our lives.  As long as we still think we are able in our own strength to do Christ’s work, we will be blinded by our own self-confidence to the power of the cross of Christ.  God will only reveal the truth of the cross to us when we finally come to the end of ourselves and are truly ready to receive His Son’s Sovereignty in our lives.

   Jesus said His Kingdom would be given to a people who produce its fruit (Matthew 21:43).  He compared His Kingdom to planting a seed (Mark 4:14-20).  When we first receive the word of Christ’s Kingship into our heart, it is only a small seed.  If His seed doesn’t find a heart of faith in us, it shrivels and dies in the heat of affliction and persecution or is choked out by the pleasures and worries of this world.  However, if the word of Christ’s Sovereignty finds a heart of faith in us, it grows like a mustard seed into a mature tree.  It takes over the whole garden of our life and bears much fruit.  Christ our King died for us and included us in His death so He might sovereignly live in us.  If we know we have died with Christ, let us now suffer with Christ in this life so that we might also reign with Him in the age to come (2 Timothy 2:12; Revelation 20:6).  Let us lay down our lives and prepare the way for the coming of our King!  Come soon King Jesus!

“Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever.  Amen.” 1 Timothy 1:17

“And God placed all things under Christ’s feet and appointed Him to be head over everything for the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.” Ephesians 1:22-23 “… Stay connected to the head, from whom the entire body, being supplied and held together by the joints and ligaments, grows with a growth which is from God.” Colossians 2:19

    In God’s divine order, everything reproduces after its own kind. Plants reproduce plants, animals reproduce animals and humans reproduce humans.  In the same manner, just as earthly seed reproduces the image of the earthly; only heavenly seed can reproduce the image of the heavenly.  According to God’s plan of redemption, Christ is the heavenly seed that reproduces His church.  Jesus said, “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit (John 12:24).”  Jesus spoke here of His death on the cross by which He would birth His church.

   We see two kinds of church today – the false church, which bears the image of the earthly (man) and the true church, which bears the image of the heavenly (Christ).  “You have come to… the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem… the church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven (Hebrews 12:22-23).”  The primary evidence that separates the true church from the false church is life.  In Biblical terms, there are three different kinds of life.  First, there is physical life.  In the New Testament Greek, this is called bios, from which we get the word biology, the study of physical life.  This is the life Jesus portrayed when He said the Word of God can be “choked with the worries and riches and pleasures of this life (Luke 8:14).”  Next, there is soul-life or psyche, from which we get psychology, the study of soul-life.  This is the life Jesus described when He said, “He who has found his life will lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake will find it (Matthew 10:39).”  And finally, there is spiritual life or zoe.  Of the three kinds of life, only zoe life is eternal.  This is the divine life Jesus described when He said, “I have come that they may have life, and have it more abundantly (John 10:10).”  This is the life John referred to when he wrote, “He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life (1 John 5:12).”  Before we were saved, we had no zoe life.  Jesus said, “You have no life within yourselves (John 6:53)… That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit (John 3:6).”  Our life before we received Christ consisted of our physical life and soul life, both of which we inherited from our natural parents, and our inward sinful nature, which we spiritually inherited from Adam, the first man.  But when Jesus Christ died on the cross, God performed a divine heart transplant and replaced our terminally sinful heart with His Son’s divine heart.  Now that we have been born of the Spirit, we have God’s DNA (Divine Nature from Above) and Christ’s zoe life.

   Therefore, the true church is a divine organism.   She is the church of the living God – the body of Christ. “Now you are Christ’s body and individually members of it (1 Corinthians 12:27).”  In the natural, when any of the body’s major organic systems such as the nervous system or cardiovascular system is obstructed, the body quickly loses its vitality.  Its immune system is compromised; its members stop functioning; and the body itself can die. Likewise, if the church relies on her natural ability instead of abiding in Christ, she blocks Christ’s life from nourishing her.  The church must stay connected to Christ’s headship in order to be sustained by His life.  Jesus emphasized this vital aspect of knowing Him when He said to the churches in the Book of Revelation, “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the church.”  When the church fails to hear and obey Christ’s voice, her fellowship and connection to Him is lost.  The result is spiritual degeneration, death and a form of religion without real zoe power.  The only way the church can stay united to Christ is to know she has died in Christ and she now lives in Christ.  This is the divine order.  Death always comes before resurrection life.  When the church does not know she has died, she tries to do in the natural power of her soul what she can only do in the power of Christ’s death.  Unless the church abides (believes and acts on) on the power of Christ’s crucifixion, she cannot express the power of His resurrection life.

   Jesus said we would know the true church by its fruit.  What is the true fruit of the church with Jesus Christ enthroned as her head?  The primary fruit is a love for Jesus Christ and His body.  The Bible says, “Though you have not seen Him (Jesus), you love Him (1 Peter 1:8).”  And Jesus said, “By this everyone will know that you are My disciples, if you love one another (John 13:35).”  The Greek word here for love is agape, the only love that is from God.  “We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren (1 John 3:16).”  When the church is disconnected from Christ her head because she does not abide in the truth and tries to live by her own power, she is incapable of producing Christ’s life and love.  The other prime fruit of a church under the headship of Christ is holiness or sanctification.  Jesus Christ will produce a holy church because He is the holy seed.  Therefore, the Lord has called us to come out and separate from the world (2 Corinthians 6:17).  If you belong to Christ’s body, there is no exception to this call.  “Like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior; because it is written, ‘You shall be holy for I am Holy (1 Peter 1:15-16).’”  Thus the witness of the true church submitted to Christ is God’s life, love and holiness.  And the church can only produce this fruit if she abides in Christ – knowing and living in His death and resurrection. 

“We will in all things grow up into Him who is the head; that is, Christ.  From Him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.”  Ephesians 4:15-16

The Big “If”

“He who overcomes shall inherit these things.” Revelation 21:7

   The Bible says God “has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises so that by them we might become partakers of His divine nature (2 Peter 1:4).”  However, all God’s priceless promises are conditional upon our obedience.  This is what the Bible calls the obedience that comes from our faith (Romans 1:5; James 2:26).  We can only receive God’s promises if we obey God’s Word.  We might call this the big “if.”  Even in the Old Covenant, the promises of God were conditional upon His people’s faithfulness. God promised the Hebrews they would be a holy nation and a kingdom of priests to Him if they obeyed His voice and kept His covenant (Exodus 19:5-6).   

   In the New Covenant, the promises of God start with the new birth.  God promised us salvation if we receive Jesus Christ as our Lord (Romans 10:9). Christ is able to save you forever if you draw near to Him (Hebrews 7:25).  God promised to forgive our sins if we confess our sins and forgive others their sins (Matthew 6:14; 1 John 1:9). God promised to give us His Holy Spirit if we obey Him (Acts 5:32).  God promised to give us His grace if we humble ourselves under His mighty hand and love Jesus with an undying love (Ephesians 6:23; 1 Peter 5:5-6). God promised us His love if we love and obey Him and we do not love the world (Daniel 9:4; 1 John 2:15).  Jesus Christ promised we would be His disciples if we deny ourselves, carry our own cross, give up everything for Him and lose our life for His sake (Matthew 16:24-26; Luke 14:27-33). Jesus’ teaching on discipleship reminds me of the time a young man excitedly said to me, “Isn’t it great that salvation is free!”  His face fell when I replied, “Yes, and it will only cost you your whole life.”  By this, I meant that God offers us His gift of salvation freely because His Son paid the price for our redemption.  However, after we receive His gift, it will cost us everything to follow Christ.

   Christ promised to reveal Himself to us if we keep His commandments (John 14:21).  Christ promised to answer our prayers if we keep His commandments (1 John 3:22). God promised to meet our basic needs if we seek His Sovereignty in our life (Matthew 6:33).  God promised we can know Him if we obey His commandments (1 John 2:3).  Christ promised we would know His truth if we are willing to do God’s will (John 7:17).  Christ promised to set us free if we abide in His word (John 8:31-32).  God promised we would be His Sons if we are led by His Spirit (Romans 8:14).  Christ promised we would bear much fruit if we stay rooted in Him (John 15:5).  Christ promised we will not see death, if we keep His word (John 8:51).  God promised we would live in Him if we do not practice sin (1 John 3:6).  God promised we would live and not die if by the Spirit we are putting to death the sinful actions of our body (Romans 8:13). Christ promised we would enter the kingdom of heaven if we do God’s will (Matthew 7:21). 

   God promised us His rest if we trust Him and cease from our works (Hebrews 4:1-11).  God promised us His inheritance if we suffer with Christ (Romans 8:17). God promised that we would have fellowship with Him if we walk in His light (1 John 1:5-7).  God promised us His reward if we endure affliction by faith (Hebrews 10:35-39).  God promised we would be members of His household if we hold fast our confidence in Christ until the end (Hebrews 3:6). God promised us His kindness if we continue in His grace; otherwise, we would be cut off (Romans 12:22).  God promised us His eternal life if we obey His Son (John 3:36).  God promised we would reign with Christ if we endure and overcome with Him (2 Timothy 2:12; Revelation 2:26).

The Bible says only those who overcome will inherit these promises.  But how can we possibly overcome the big if?  It is impossible for us to overcome the big if in our own ability.  Many have tried but all have failed. We cannot overcome the big if; only Jesus Christ can.  The Bible says Christ died so that we might receive His eternal promises (Hebrews 9:15).  The way we overcome the big if is in Christ.  “For as many as are the promises of God, in Christ they are yes (2 Corinthians 1:20).”  We receive the promises of God by abiding in Christ.  How do we abide and live in Christ?  The apostle Paul said, “Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him (Romans 6:8; also 2 Timothy 2:11).”  The way we live in Christ is to know (believe and act) that we have died in Christ.  The fact is we have already died in Christ.  God has already overcome the big if for us by including us in Christ’s death.  “Therefore, when one died, all died (2 Corinthians 5:12).”  When Christ died, we died with Him and our old sinful nature was removed from us.  “For we know that our old self was crucified with Him so that our body of sin might be done away with (Romans 6:6).”  However, we must believe this divine truth in order to overcome the big if.

   The Son of God has died for us and He now wants to overcome in us.  As the apostle Paul declared, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live but Christ lives in me, and the life that I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself up for me (Galatians 2:20).  Believing we have died with Christ and that Christ lives in us is the secret to overcoming the big if and receiving all the promises of God.

“Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him and he with Me.”  Revelation 3:20

You are my hiding place; You will protect me from trouble. You will surround me with songs of deliverance.”  Psalm 32:7

   God the Father has given us His Son to be our hiding place in time of trouble.  This is a great promise but if we do not know Christ as our hiding place, we will not be able to experience God’s provision when we need it.

   Understanding the secret of how Christ is our hiding place starts at the cross.  Everyone who professes to be a Christian knows Christ died for our sins (Romans 5:8).  However, many Christians do not know that we died with Christ (Romans 6:8).  Yet this was the central purpose of Christ’s Atonement. When Christ was crucified, He not only bore our sins on the cross; He bore our old sin nature on the cross with Him (2 Corinthians 5:21).  Therefore, when Christ died, our sinful nature died with Him (Romans 6:6).  Not only have we died with Christ, we have been raised with Christ (Colossians 2:12).  By the grace of God the Father (the cost was the crucifixion of His only Son), our sinful nature has been removed and replaced with His Son’s divine nature (2 Corinthians 13:5).  This is the divine exchange that God has provided for us in His New Covenant through the blood of Christ.

   We might call this a divine heart transplant. Of course, Jesus had to willingly die for this heart transplant to take place.  When Jesus died on the cross, God exchanged our terminally sin-sick heart with His Son’s divine holy heart to save us from the power of sin and certain doom (Romans 6:1-11).  Thus God included us in His Son’s death so that His resurrected Son might now live in us (Colossians 1:27).  The Bible also describes this divine surgery in terms of spiritual circumcision: “In Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the removal of the sinful nature by the circumcision of Christ… When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your sinful nature, God made you alive with Christ (Colossians 2:11-13).”  There’s another Scripture that sums up this divine transaction that has taken place in us: “For you have died and your life is now hidden with Christ in God (Colossians 3:3).”  Why is our new life hidden with Christ?  The operation that was done as a result of Christ’s death on the cross was spiritual not physical.  In other words, Christ’s divine exchange occurred in our spirit not our body.  Since it was spiritual, it was invisible to the human eye.  However, that doesn’t make what God did any less true.  “For we walk by faith not by appearances (2 Corinthians 5:7).”  Although a miraculous, inward transformation has taken place in our spirit, who we are in Christ is not yet visible.  “When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you will be revealed with Him in glory (Colossians 3:4).”  Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, we no longer merely recognize them by their outward, natural personality but we see them by faith as a new spiritual person in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:16-17).

   Jesus Christ personally revealed this mystery of the cross (we died in Christ so Christ might live in us) to the apostle Paul (Galatians 1:11-16; Colossians 1:25-27).  This is the gospel Paul lived and preached: “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live but Christ lives in me and the life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God (Galatians 2:20).”  Since Paul knew the mystery of Christ’s “exchanged life,” he knew Christ was his hiding place.  This is what Paul meant when he said he had learned the secret of being content in Christ in every situation whether he was in prosperity or in adversity (Philippians 4:11-13).  When we know we have died in Christ to the world (Galatians 6:14) and Christ is now our life (Colossians 3:3), we can live in the midst of this hostile world without being spiritually harmed by our enemy, the devil (1 John 5:18).   We can function very effectively here on earth in body and soul while our spirit is firmly fixed in the heavenly realm where we are seated with Jesus Christ (Ephesians 2:6).  “Therefore, if you have been raised with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is seated at the right    hand of God.  Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth (Colossians 3:1-2).”

   Just because Christ is our hiding place does not mean we will not suffer physical or emotional pain and loss.  However, if Christ is our hiding place, His divine life within us will always be sufficient. When Paul proclaimed nothing could separate us from Jesus Christ – neither trouble, persecution or peril (Romans 8:35), he spoke out of his personal experience. He had suffered hunger and homelessness, shipwrecks, beatings, lashings, imprisonments and stoning for Christ’s sake.  Yet he overcame all these difficulties in the strength of Jesus Christ, His hiding place (Philippians 4:11-13).  

   Jesus said great trouble would come upon the earth in the last days and warned us to be ready (Matthew 24:21-44).  The only secure way to prepare for the trouble ahead is to know we have been crucified with Christ and make Christ our life each day.  If we practice living out this truth of the cross, Jesus Christ will be our hiding place in time of trouble.  This is similar to getting ready for a great storm.  We must prepare beforehand by securing our house.  Jesus said, “Everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on the rock… And the rain fell, the floods came and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock (Matthew 7:24-25).”  If we wait to secure our house during the storm, it is too late.  In the same way, if we think we can get spiritually ready and find the hiding place when the trouble is already on us, it is too late.

“For in the day of trouble He will hide me in His shelter; in the secret place of His tabernacle He will hide me; He will lift me up on a rock.”  Psalm 27:5

“I have been crucified with Christ and
I no longer live but Christ lives in me,
 and the life which I now live in the body, I live
by faith in the Son of God who loved me and
gave Himself up for me.”  Galatians 2:20

   This simple but profound statement sums up the promise of the New Covenant, the purpose of Christ’s Atonement and the power of Christ’s gospel.  This is the gospel that Jesus Christ revealed to the apostle Paul and this is the   gospel that Paul spent his life proclaiming (see 1 Corinthians 1:17-2:5; Galatians 1:11-16; Ephesians 3:8-10; and Colossians 1:25-29).  In the middle of this verse, Paul defines the Christian life as “I no longer live but Christ lives in me.”  This can be summarized as “not I but Christ.”  Take a moment to reflect on these four words “not I but Christ.”  Such a life is the clearest witness of Jesus Christ the world could ever see.  This should be the Christian life we aspire to live.  Here Paul declares not only can Christ fully live His life in us, he provides two conditions for us to experience this divine life.

   The first condition is found at the beginning of the verse and the second one is at the end. The first condition is to know “I have been crucified with Christ.”  This is the secret to living the Christian life.  Before we can hope to live such a life, we must know our sinful nature has been crucified with Christ (Romans 6:6).  This is crucial.  We needed forgiveness from the penalty of our sins but we also needed deliverance from the power of our sin nature.  Christ’s death has provided full provision for both our forgiveness and our deliverance.  Since we came into sin by birth, we could only be freed from sin by our death (Romans 6:7).  However, we could not put ourselves to death; therefore God has crucified us with Christ.  When Christ died, we died and God performed a divine heart transplant and replaced our terminally sin-sick heart with His Son’s divine heart.  However, the death of our sin nature will never become real to us by our will or effort but only when we believe we have already died in Christ.  Our sinful nature has once and for all time been executed and removed. That wretched self-centered “I” whom we loathed has died and been buried (Romans 6:3-6).  This is the Biblical truth.  But if we don’t know the truth, then we cannot be set free from sin (John 8:32).  That’s why Paul said, “Do you not know you have died to sin… for he who has died has been freed from sin (Romans 6:2-3, 7).”

   The knowledge that we have died with Christ can only be seen by God’s divine revelation opening our spiritual eyes.  If we do not know we have already died with Christ, we will mistakenly try to live the Christian life by the best of our ability.  We may think God will honor our dedication and meet our effort halfway to help us.  However, God’s way is not to help our natural man do the work of the Spirit.  Jesus said, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit (John 3:6).”  Only the Spirit gives life; our soul has no power to overcome sin (John 6:63).  God’s way to permanently deal with our sins was to remove the sinner (the sin factory) from within us and substitute Christ in his place.  When we know we have died, then who is left?  Only Christ is left.  Just as Paul said, “I no longer live but Christ lives in me.“ Christ has now become our identity (Colossians 3:3-4). 

   The second condition for experiencing God’s ordained life of “not I but Christ” is found at the end of the verse: “The life which I now live in the body I live by faith in the Son of God.”  Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not yet seen (Hebrews 11:1).  Although we know our salvation required no work on our part, we mistakenly think our sanctification depends on our best effort.  However, the Christian life is not one of trying but of trusting, for the Bible says, “The righteous one will live by faith (Romans 1:17).”  By faith, we work out our salvation and substantiate God’s truth that we died in Christ and Christ now lives in us.  We are freed from sin’s power the same way we know our sins are forgiven – by believing God’s Word.  “In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus (Romans 6:11).”

   Knowing we have already died in Christ, we acknowledge we are inadequate and incapable. We no longer try to live the Christian life by our own strength but we trust Jesus Christ to live His life in us.  We believe Jesus is all we need – He has become our wisdom, our righteousness, and our sanctification and redemption (1 Corinthians 1:30).  We stand firm by faith in the glorious truth that our old man of sin is gone and Christ now lives in us despite the accusing lies of that deceiver, the devil.  The Holy Spirit then confirms and establishes this powerful liberating reality in our life until Christ is fully formed in us (Galatians 4:19; 1 Peter 5:8-10).  Knowing we have died and Christ lives in us, we present ourselves each day as a living and holy vessel for God’s use (Romans 12:1-2).  We gladly yield our soul-life (our natural attitudes, affections and abilities) to His Sovereignty so His life might be manifest in us (Mark 8:34-35).  For the joy of knowing Christ and the desire to lay down our lives for the brethren and by faith in what He has done, we resist the carnal desires that wage war against our soul (1 Peter 2:11; 4:1-2). We refuse to act independently apart from Christ’s authority (John 5:19, 30; 15:5).  Instead, we rest by faith in Christ’s completed work on the cross.  We then wholeheartedly take whatever action Jesus Christ initiates in us by relying on “His power that works in us (Ephesians 3:20).”

   Jesus Christ died in our place and since we also died in Him, He wants to live in our place.  Thus the first step for us to experience a life of “not I but Christ” is to know we have died in Christ.  The next step is to trust Jesus Christ to sovereignly live in us.  May God give us divine revelation to know Jesus Christ and all He has accomplished on the cross so we might grow into the fullness of His Son (Ephesians 4:13).

“For to me, to live is Christ.”  Philippians 1:21

“Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.  So then, you will know them by their fruits.”   Matthew 7:19-20

A few years ago, the Lord gave me a vision. I found myself high above the earth looking down on a vast forest.  As I descended, I could see all the trees were lush with green leaves.  As I drew closer, I could see beneath the canopy of leaves.  I suddenly asked the Lord, “Where’s the fruit?”  Out of thousands of trees, only a few trees in the entire forest had any fruit.  Most of the trees had no fruit.  The Lord then gave me the interpretation of the vision. The forest was the church.  The leaves were its gifts and ministries and the fruit was the expression of Christ’s life. Although the church was flush with gifts and ministries, it had precious little of Christ’s life.

   We often mistake the spiritual gifts described in 1 Corinthians Chapter 12 as the evidence of Christ’s abundant life in the church.  However, Jesus said not everyone who ministers spiritual gifts in His Name will enter the kingdom of heaven (Matthew 7:21-23).  Although we should desire to use the spiritual gifts as tools to build up the body of Christ (1 Corinthians 14:1), we should also remember the gifts, in themselves, are not an accurate reflection of the spiritual health of the church.  If the gifts are not clear evidence of Christ’s life, then what about the fruit of the Spirit?  Galatians 5:22-23 describes this fruit as love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.  These are attributes of God’s divine character.  They are the fruit of the Spirit and not human behavioral traits.  Therefore, we cannot develop spiritual fruit by our human efforts.  We cannot grow in God’s love by trying harder to be kinder and gentler.  We cannot get more of God’s patience by determining to be more patient.  We cannot overcome pride by trying to be more humble.  We cannot overcome lust by resolving to have more self-control.  We may think if only we were stronger we could become more holy and overcome sin.  But God’s way of salvation wasn’t to make our “old man” stronger.  Instead, His righteous verdict for our old man was execution not reformation.  Therefore, our old man of sin was crucified with Christ. He completely destroyed and removed that sin factory, which continuously caused us to sin (Romans 6:6).  This was God’s wisdom and power in the cross of Christ (see 1 Corinthians 1:18, 23, 24). By His crucifixion, Jesus Christ exchanged our sinful nature with His divine life (2 Corinthians 5:21). Therefore, when Christ died, we died with Him  (1 Corinthians 5:14).  Our old sinful nature was spiritually removed (Colossians 2:11) and Christ now lives in us (2 Corinthians 13:5).  Now that Christ’s new nature has replaced our old sinful nature, we are freed from sin and no longer have to sin (Romans 6:7).  After we are saved, God’s way of spiritual growth is not to make us stronger in our natural self.  Instead, God’s divine power is revealed in our weakness as we learn to rely by faith in His Son who lives in us (2 Corinthians 12:9).  

   Have you ever seen imitation fruit in a store display?  Although it looks real, it lacks the fragrance of true fruit.  That’s the same way it is with imitation spiritual fruit.  Many of us have, by means of our natural personality and strength of will, changed our behavior to create imitation fruit.  This can be called “behavioral Christianity” since we have modified our behavior to conform to Christian virtues. However, this is false Christianity.  Satan can, through man’s soul-power, imitate almost everything in the church, including the gifts and fruit of the Spirit.  However, the one thing the devil cannot counterfeit is the fragrance of Christ’s life (2 Corinthians 2:14-16). The appearance of imitation fruit is no substitute for Christ’s life.  We may be gentle, peaceful and disciplined but   if these “virtues” spring from our natural personality instead of our living by faith in Christ, they are not true fruit and do not have the aroma of Christ’s life (John 6:63).

   If we still think we can bear spiritual fruit by our own doing, then we don’t need the power of the cross of Christ (Galatians 2:20-3:3).  When Jesus said, “Apart from Me you can do nothing (John 15:5),” He didn’t mean we couldn’t do anything.  By our own initiative and talent, there are many things we could do.  Jesus meant we couldn’t produce anything of true spiritual value without His initiative and His power.  Although God may use our natural talent, He does not want us to have any confidence in our natural ability to produce spiritual fruit (Philippians 3:3).  Our faith must rest in His Son alone to accomplish His work through us.  If we rely on our natural talent to do Christian work and produce Christian fruit, we may look healthy and productive to others but Jesus Christ won’t recognize our fruit.  

   However, if we abide (stay rooted by faith) in spiritual union with Jesus Christ, His fruit will flow naturally from us (Romans 7:4).  This is the same way the life of the vine flows through its branches to bear fruit.  If we abide in Christ and He abides in us, we will bear fruit that has Christ’s fragrance (John 15:5).  How do we abide in Christ?  God has already put us in Christ (1 Corinthians 1:30).  Our response is to fix our eyes on Jesus and His completed work on the cross (Hebrews 12:2).  Jesus is not only the author of our faith; He is also the finisher of our faith.  If we know in our spirit that we have been crucified in Christ so that Christ might live in us (Galatians 2:20), we will see the futility of our natural efforts to produce fruit.   We will then look by faith for Christ to produce His fruit in us that we cannot possibly produce ourselves (2 Corinthians 3:5-6).  May God open our eyes to see what His Son has accomplished on the cross so we might bear His lasting fruit with His sweet smelling aroma.

”Abide in Me, and I in you.  As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me.  I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.”  John 15:4-5

“According to the grace of God which was given to me, like a wise master builder I laid a foundation, and another is building upon it.  But each man must be careful how he builds on it.  For no man can lay a foundation other than the one which is laid, which is Jesus Christ.” 1 Corinthians 3:10-11

   Whenever the church in Corinth met, the spiritual gifts seemed to abound (1 Corinthians 1:7).  Yet the spiritual gifts, which are received spontaneously by an act of faith, do not reflect the character of spiritual fruit, which is produced over time by an abiding faith.  The Corinthians mistakenly thought they were spiritually mature because they did not lack in the gifts.  However, the apostle Paul, who had spiritually fathered them in the Lord, rebuked the Corinthians for being worldly-minded and remaining immature infants in Christ (1 Corinthians 3:1-3).  Paul then had to instruct them once again on the foundation for their Christian life and growth.  Paul’s need to go “back-to-basics” with them works to our benefit since it enables us to also receive the apostle’s foundational teaching.

   Paul reminded the Corinthians that the power of God and the foundation of their faith was in the message of the cross (1 Corinthians 1:18).  He emphasized that the gospel he preached to them was Christ crucified (1 Corinthians 1:23).  According to the New Testament record, what did Paul teach about the power of Christ’s crucifixion?  Paul taught that Christ’s death on the cross had provided believers with a “divine exchange.”  In other words, Jesus Christ, through His crucifixion, exchanged our sinful life with His holy life.  Christ became cursed that we might be blessed (Galatians 3:13-14).  Christ paid for our sins that we might be forgiven (Ephesians 1:7).  Christ became sin that we might become righteous in Him (2 Corinthians 5:21).  Christ died so that we might live through Him (2 Corinthians 5:14-15).  Paul’s apostolic mission was to establish the church on this revelation of Jesus Christ and the power of His crucifixion.  That’s why he declared, “I am determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified (1 Corinthians 2:2).”  Paul taught everything we need to live the Christian life has been provided for us in Christ (Ephesians 1:3).  As Christians, we know Christ died on the cross to provide us forgiveness for our sins.  However, this is not the only divine provision given to us by Christ’s death.  For Christ’s crucifixion also provided the way for us to become members of His body (Ephesians 2:23).  This is the central purpose of the New Covenant, which was made possible by God including us in His Son’s death and resurrection (Romans 6:5).  Christ not only died for us (Romans 5:8), we also died with Him (Romans 6:8). Our sinful nature has been crucified and removed from us so we would be freed from the power of sin and Christ could live in us (Romans 6:6-7; Colossians 1:27).  In this sense, God performed a divine heart transplant by replacing our terminally sin-sick heart with His Son’s divine holy heart.  Paul sums up this all-important consequence of Jesus Christ’s crucifixion by his testimony, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live but Christ lives in me (Galatians 2:20).”

   The Corinthians were not the only ones who had to be reminded that Christ crucified is the precious foundation of our faith – both our justification and our sanctification.  Paul had to constantly appeal to the early church that true spiritual growth could only be based on Jesus’ completed work on the cross.  Tragically, it is a common problem for Christians to not know (because of ignorance or unbelief) what Christ fully accomplished for us by His crucifixion.  That’s why Paul had to regularly ask, “Did I not clearly explain Jesus Christ’s crucifixion to you? Do you not know you have been immersed into Christ’s death?  Do you not know your body is a temple of God and the Holy Spirit lives in you?  Do you not know Jesus Christ lives in you?”

   Some might say this is the ABCs of the gospel.  Yes, it is the ABCs but it is also the XYZs. Our faith must begin and end at the cross. The trouble is many of us have bypassed the cross and are trying to be moral by our willpower and effort rather than trusting in the power of Christ to transform us (Galatians 3:3).  But if we attempt to build our spiritual life by any other foundation than Christ crucified, we are doing so by our natural strength.  Paul compared this to building with wood, hay and straw.  If we rely on our natural resources, we only produce dead works, which will not stand the test of fire at the judgment seat of Christ (1 Corinthians 3:12-15).   If we are trying to be good Christians by the best of our ability, we are living as mere men, perhaps even moral men, yet still inherently incapable of living the overcoming Christian life (1 Corinthians 3:1-3).

   Why did Paul focus his foundational teaching on Christ crucified rather than Christ risen?   It’s not a question of relative importance but of divine order. Death always comes before resurrection (Romans 6:5). The basis for experiencing the power of Christ’s resurrection is to abide (stay rooted by faith) in the power of Christ’s death on the cross.  Until we see by divine revelation that God has dealt a deathblow to our sinful nature and removed it, we may think we possess some usefulness to Christ within ourselves.  However, when God reveals to us the divine purpose and verdict of the cross was to also make sure we were crucified with Christ so that we would be taken out of the way, we will cease to have confidence in our natural ability to do His work and bear His fruit.  Indeed, if we don’t get out of the way, we become a hindrance to God and He cannot and will not work   through us.  The foundation of the New Covenant is Christ crucified.  Our faith will only rest in the power of God (and not the power of our personality) when we know we have died and trust Christ to sovereignly live in us.

 “May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.”  Galatians 6:14

“Do you not know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?” Romans 6:3

   When Jesus Christ gave His Great Commission, He commanded all new disciples to be water baptized. “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19).” Water baptism outwardly expresses the divine transformation that occurred in a believer when they were born again of the Spirit. Through baptism, new believers declare their union with Jesus Christ and His death and resurrection. Thus water baptism is the betrothal or commitment ceremony of new members of the bride of Christ to Jesus, their Bridegroom.  Our actual marriage ceremony to the Lamb of God will take place at the end of this age.  Whenever anyone was saved in the early church, they were normally water baptized the same day.  This was God’s way for new disciples to be taught that their old sinful nature had died and they were now a new creation in Christ.  Knowing you have died with Christ is crucial if you want to become Christ’s disciple and overcoming bride. This is the spiritual lesson that God wants every Christian to learn from water baptism.

   The Greek word for baptize is baptizo, which means to immerse.  When you receive Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, the Bible says you are spiritually immersed into Christ’s death so that you might have His new resurrection life (Romans 6:3-5).  Therefore, in water baptism, there are two stages that express this truth of the gospel.  First there is a burial and then there is a resurrection. Whenever anyone was baptized in the early church, they were immersed under water, which represented the burial of their old man.  “We have been buried with Him through baptism into death (Romans 6:4; see also Colossians 2:12).”  This burial in water baptism confirms that when we were born again, our old sin nature died.  Burial also signifies that God has removed that old man of sin from us.  Therefore, our sinful nature not only died; it can never come back to haunt us since God has taken it away.  “For we know our old man was crucified with Him in order that our sinful nature might be done away with so that we would no longer be slaves to sin (Romans 6:6).”

   In this way, water baptism reveals the heart of the New Covenant.  God knew we needed forgiveness for our sins; He also knew we needed deliverance from our sin nature.  Otherwise, we would remain captives to sin.  Therefore, when Jesus Christ died, He bore not only our sins on the cross; He also bore our sin nature on the cross with Him.  “God made Christ who had no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him (2 Corinthians 5:21).”  Since our bondage to sin came when we were born sinners; our deliverance from sin came  when God included us in Christ’s death.  “We are convinced that one died for all, therefore all died (2 Corinthians 5:14).”  “Because anyone who has died has been freed from sin (Romans 6:7).”

   In the next phase of water baptism, we are raised in new resurrection life out of the watery grave. This demonstrates that Jesus Christ now lives in us (2 Corinthians 13:5; Romans 6:4-5).  But we must always remember our old man of sin had to be buried before we could be raised up a new man in Christ.  Before God could make us a new creation, He had to first deal with the old creation.  God had to take care of not only its fruit (our sins); He had to remove its very root (our sinful nature). “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come (2 Corinthians 5:17)!” Thus water baptism demonstrates how God replaced our sinful nature with His holy nature by including us in the death, burial and resurrection of His Son, Jesus Christ. We might consider this new birth a divine heart transplant by which God exchanged our terminally sin-sick heart with His Son’s divine heart to save us from the power of sin and certain doom.

   This divine exchange is not a future promise reserved for us when we go to heaven; it is God’s present reality that He wants us to experience now if we will receive it by faith.  The intent of Christ’s crucifixion was to produce this total transformation within our inner being so we would no longer be defeated by sin but live daily in Christ’s resurrection power.  Since water baptism is for new disciples, we can mistakenly think teaching on water baptism is elementary and not for older Christians.  However, we cannot grow into Christian maturity unless we abide by faith in God’s truth that we have died with Christ and Christ is now our life (Colossians 3:3-4).  In fact, God knows it is impossible for us to live the Christian life and follow Christ in truly devoted discipleship if we do not know our old sinful nature is dead and gone.

   Therefore, we cannot realize we are dead to sin (Romans 6:11), if we do not truly know we were crucified with Christ (Romans 6:6).  This is the way faith works.  The Bible says Jesus Christ died for the whole world but if you do not know He died for you, you cannot be saved.  In the same way, the Bible says Christians have been freed from sin but if you do not know you have died with Christ, you cannot overcome sin.  This is why instruction on the spiritual meaning of water baptism is so essential.  Each time God adds new believers to the church, they act out through baptism their inclusion in the death, burial and resurrection of Christ.  In this way, water baptism always reminds the church of this great provision of Jesus Christ’s death on the cross.

“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live but Christ lives in me, and the life which I now live in the body I live by faith in the Son of God.” Galatians 2:20

“We speak God’s wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God predestined before the ages to our glory; the wisdom which none of the rulers of this age has understood; for if they had understood it they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.”1 Corinthians 2:7-8  “God has chosen to make known… the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Colossians 1:27

   Jesus Christ lives in us!  This is God’s glorious mystery, hidden for ages and now revealed to His church through the New Covenant.  Imagine what God’s people of the Old Covenant would have thought if they had known the Messiah would live in them.  This is why the Bible calls the New Covenant a better covenant. To understand this divine mystery, which the apostle Paul called the mystery of the gospel (Ephesians 6:19), requires divine revelation. Unless we receive divine revelation that Jesus is the Christ, we cannot be born again.  In the same way, without divine revelation we cannot understand the mystery of how Jesus Christ can live in us.  “For beyond question, great is the mystery of godliness (1 Timothy 3:16).”  

   The cross is at the heart of this mystery.  The crucifixion of Jesus Christ is the triumph of the ages.  God’s eternal purpose was for His Son to live in fullness in His church, which is His body (Ephesians 1:22-23). Jesus fulfilled His Father’s desire by willingly coming to earth to die on the cross for us.  Jesus Christ not only gave His life to forgive us from the penalty of sin (Romans 5:8-9); He also gave His life to free us from the power of sin (Romans 6:6-8).  Since we were born into sin, God freed us from Satan’s dominion and sin’s captivity by including us in His Son’s death. To do this, God spiritually immersed everyone who is born of the Spirit into Christ’s death (Romans 6:3).  Thus the mystery of the gospel is also the mystery of the cross.  Like two sides of a precious coin, there are two divine facts that compose the mystery of the whole gospel.  The first divine fact is “we died in Christ” and the second is “Christ lives in us.”  These are the undivided facts of Christ’s completed work on the cross.  Without the first divine fact, there would be no second.  Before God’s Holy Son could inhabit us, God had to first remove our unholy nature.  Thus God used the death of His only Son to perform a divine heart transplant.  When Christ died on the cross, God replaced our sinful heart with His Son’s divine heart (Romans 6:1-11; Colossians 2:11-3:4).  God then raised Jesus Christ from the dead and exalted Him as the eternal King of glory.  Thus God incorporated us into His Son’s death so that His resurrected Son might live in us (Romans 6:5; Colossians 1:27).  Therefore, the whole gospel can be stated as “Christ died for us and included us in His death so He might live in us.” Paul personally expressed it this way, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me; and the life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God (Galatians 2:20).”

   In another sense, these two divine facts of the gospel form the two sides to the door of salvation.  Jesus said, “I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved (John 10:9).”  The front of this divine door is “we died in Christ.”  The other side of the door is “Christ lives in us.”  Of course, these two spiritual transactions occurred simultaneously at our new birth when by faith we entered into Jesus Christ, who is our door of salvation.  The Bible says when we were born again of the Spirit we were spiritually united with Christ in both His death and resurrection (Romans 6:5).  Although we may not comprehend this mystery of the gospel when we are initially saved, we must embrace both these divine facts by faith to walk in the gospel of Christ after we are saved.  In order to overcome the world and inherit the kingdom of God, we must abide by faith in Christ’s death and resurrection.  First, we must believe when Christ died we died with Him.  Next, we must believe Christ now lives in us.  Our glorious redemption in Christ is only limited by our unbelief.  For example, what if we believe we died in Christ but we do not believe Christ lives in us?  Then Christ’s ability to sovereignly overcome in us is limited by our unbelief.  Or, what if we believe Christ lives in us but we do not believe our sinful nature has died with Christ?  Then Christ’s ability to live His overcoming life in us is still limited by our unbelief.  For as long as we continue to believe that sin still has power over us, God will not overrule our free will and unbelief.

   We cannot just mentally consent to the facts of the gospel that Christ died and rose again and then expect to be saved.  The eyes of our heart must first be enlightened by divine revelation and then we must receive the Son of God as our Lord (Romans 10:9).  This is true faith that saves us.    In the same way, we cannot just mentally agree with the facts of the gospel that we have died in Christ and then expect the Son of God to live His overcoming life in us.  Unless we know in our hearts by divine revelation that our sinful nature has died, we will be stuck in Romans 7:24 crying, “What a wretched man I am!  Who will set me free from this sinful nature?”  If we don’t believe in our spirit that we have died in Christ, we will try to live as though Christ is our life by our natural ability.  We will mistake our positive attitude, passionate energy, and personal attributes for Christ’s life.  This is tragic and grievous since only the Holy Spirit gives life; our natural soul-life has no spiritual power (John 6:63).

   Therefore, walking in the power of Christ’s resurrection life requires two stepping-stones of faith.  We cannot just lightly skip over the first (we died in Christ) and hope to stand firm on the second (Christ lives in us).  We cannot count ourselves to be alive in Christ (Romans 6:11) unless we first believe and act on the truth that we have died in Christ (Romans 6:6).  This is the mystery and power of the gospel of Christ.

“For you have died and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.  When Christ, who is your life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.”  Colossians 3:3-4

The Mystery and Majesty of God

   The Holy Spirit has commissioned the church to serve God’s eternal purpose by revealing the mystery and majesty of Christ’s crucifixion.  The crucifixion of Jesus Christ is the most momentous event in history and the triumph of the ages.  God the Father planned this epoch event from before the beginning of time.  In Christ’s crucifixion is hidden God’s perfect wisdom and power.  God’s eternal purpose was for His Son Jesus Christ to be revealed in glory to all heaven and earth through His church, which is His body.  Christ’s death on the cross is the door into God’s heavenly realm and eternal purpose.  Salvation is just the beginning not the end of God’s divine plan.  God predetermined to use His Son’s death on the cross to redeem the body of Christ from this fallen world.  God also predestined to use His Son’s death to prepare the bride of Christ for eternal union and co-rulership with His risen Son in the age to come. If Satan and his forces of darkness had understood God’s glorious purpose in His Son’s death, they never would have incited fallen mankind to crucify Jesus.

   Through His death on the cross, Jesus Christ provided us with not only forgiveness from the penalty of our sins but also deliverance from the power of sin.  On the cross, Jesus drank the cup of God’s wrath for our sin so we might drink His cup of salvation.  God used the sacrificial death of His only Son to perform a divine heart transplant and save us from the power of sin and certain doom.  When Jesus died on the cross, God exchanged our terminally sin-sick heart with His Son’s divine holy heart.  God then raised Jesus Christ from the dead and exalted Him as the eternal King of glory.  Thus God included us in His Son’s death so that His resurrected Son might now sovereignly live in us.  This divine heart transplant is the promise of the New Covenant, the purpose of Christ’s Atonement and the power of Christ’s gospel.  We have been born of the Spirit through faith in Christ’s sacrifice on the cross and we now live by the Spirit through faith in Christ’s victory on the cross.  From His Son’s death and resurrection, God has created a new man in His Son’s image – the church, the body and bride of Christ, who is destined to triumph over Satan and fulfill God’s eternal purpose.  

   At the end of this age – at the marriage supper of the Lamb, God the Father will present the overcoming body of Christ as a glorious bride for His Son.  This bride will then become the Son’s eternal companion and sit with Him on His throne to rule the universe.  Having brought many sons and daughters to glory by His death and resurrection, the Son of God will present this heavenly family to His Holy Father so that God might be all in all.  Since God is the Lord of history, this is the glorious consummation and purpose of history (“His story”).  “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them…  And there will be no more night.  They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light.  And they will reign forever and ever (Revelation 21:3; 22:5).  To this end we preach Christ crucified.