"Swans" Addendum

     I'd like to summarize our consideration of the last few weeks by offering a number of Biblical conclusions that can be drawn from the truths we've proposed.

1.  Salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ effects great internal change in every recipient of grace, namely, God births a "new man, created in righteousness and true holiness" (Ephesians 4:24).

2.  The spiritual dynamic by which such change takes place involves - through spiritual union with Christ - a death and a resurrection in the innermost temple of our being.  "Reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Romans 6:11).

3.  The Spirit of Christ provides the life of the new person birthed through spiritual union.  He dwells within us, we are in Him, and we must view ourselves accordingly.  "In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent His only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through Him" (I John 4:9).

4.  We retain the earthly faculties and members of our bodies inherited from our original forefather Adam.  A "law of sin" remains in this part of us referred to in Scripture as our "flesh" (Romans 7:22-25).  Left to itself, this law will always lead us in a downward spiral of unbelief and disobedience to God.  "The flesh lusteth against the spirit" (Galatians 5:17).

5.  Before Christ, our fleshly and earthly being inherited from Adam comprised our fundamental person and being.  "That which is born of the flesh is flesh" (John 3:6).  After the new birth, our newly birthed spirits in Christ comprise our person and being, referred to as our "inward man".  "That which is born of the Spirit is spirit" (Romans 7:22; John 3:6).

6.  Experience and expression of the new person we are in Christ requires knowledge of the truth, and our trusting acceptance and belief of who Christ is, and who we are in Him.  "What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into His death? Therefore we are buried with Him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life" (Romans 6:1-4).

7.  We must view ourselves in the light of God's Word, affirming the new person we are in Christ, while recognizing that the law of sin remains in our earthly faculties and members.  "If ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify (put to death) the deeds of the body, ye shall live" (Romans 8:13).

8.  Rightly thinking about ourselves in these terms leads to a greater faith and focus upon the Lord Jesus because we recognize and affirm our deepest delight to be His glory and will.  "I delight in the law of God after the inward man...He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord" (Romans 7:22; II Corinthians 10:17).

9.  To effect such change in us, the Lord Jesus experienced an inexplicable horror on the cross of Calvary in which He became everything He is not in order to bear the wrath of God for our sakes.  "He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him" (II Corinthians 5:21).

10.  Thus, we seek to walk in the truth of the Swan as a matter of love, that is, of more and more realizing the love of God for us, and more and more responding in love to Him through the recognition that such love dwells within us.  "The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts through the Holy Spirit which is given unto us" (Romans 5:5).

   

   In the book to come, we will address these truths in greater detail, provide  more practical illustrations and applications, and more thoroughly emphasize and explain the importance of a faith in Christ that includes the Biblical theme of rightly believing God's truth about ourselves in Him.  Thanks for your patience during this long series, and may our Lord lead us in the newness of life He freely provided at such great cost to Himself.

"His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that hath called us to glory and virtue."

(II Peter 1:3)

Weekly Memory Verse

  Being confident of this very thing, that He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.

(Philippians 1:6)