"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)

"Swans" Conclusion

     Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ changes not only what we believe, but also the way in which we determine truth and reality.

    "Thy Word is truth" (John 17:17).

   Before Christ, we trust in our own rational and sensory faculties as our determiners of truth.  These often fail us, but they are what we have, and we use them to the most effective degree possible.  After we trust in the Lord Jesus, however, the Bible becomes our guiding Light.  "Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path" (Psalm 119:105).  We still use our mind and senses (with far greater skill and effectiveness, actually).  However, we recognize their fallibility, and thus do not trust them as our lamp and light.  "Trust in the Lord with all thy heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding.  In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths" (Proverbs 3:5-6).

   This new basis of Truth begins with our view of God.  We seek to know Him, believing that "In Thy light shall we see light" (Psalm 36:9).  We also view others differently, realizing that God's love in us constitutes our Christ-centered new existence in terms of servitude not only to our Lord, but to people.  "We preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake" (II Corinthians 4:5).  Finally, we choose to view ourselves in the light of Scripture rather than in the twilight and darkness of our human perspectives, experience, emotion, and appearance.  "Reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Romans 6:11).

    We have primarily addressed the latter point in our consideration of believers existing as swans rather than ugly ducklings.  However, such attention to ourselves, rightly understood and assimilated, does not lead to self-emphasis and absorption.  On the contrary, the new person we are in Christ exists in the "righteousness and true holiness" of our Lord (John 4:24).  Therein, we delight in Him and in His will rather than in ourselves.  Moreover, the indwelling Spirit of Christ provides and infuses this God-centered focus by working in us "both to will and to do of His good pleasure" (Philippians 2:13).   Thus, we rightly perceive ourselves in Biblical terms not in order to dwell upon ourselves, but to rejoice in our redemption from self-centeredness through the God and others focus of our new personhood in Christ.

   To experience such "newness of life," we must believe in newness of Truth, both factually and structurally.  What does the Bible declare about you and me?  This must become our Light and our Lamp.  No longer do we base our convictions on earthly sensation, emotion, appearance, and experience.  What does the Bible say about us?  It tells us we are swans in Christ, as it were, swans who still possess the fleshly faculties and members of ugly ducklings, and who can still live accordingly.  It tells us to overcome sin and failure by believing the truth about both God and ourselves.  In the Apostle Paul's terms, we gaze upon ourselves in the mirror of God's Word to view ourselves as not merely ourselves.  We are rather ourselves, as inhabited by the Spirit of Christ.  This is truth.  Our Heavenly Father beckons us by His Word and His Spirit to believe, and to increasingly and more consistently experience the wonder of so great a gift, purchased at so great a cost…

"I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live.  Yet not I, but Christ liveth in me, and the life I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me."

(Galatians 2:20)

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)

"Swans" Part 11

(Friends: the bulk of today's message was actually written in 2011, when I addressed the theme we've been considering in a similar series of messages.  It's a bit longer than usual, but I think it provides a practical illustration that may prove helpful.  Thanks, Glen).

     It is very easy to live as who we were before Christ, as opposed to who we now are in Christ.  

  

"Who is Christ?"  This is by far the most important issue of our lives.  God calls us to "walk even as He walked," that is, to live in accordance with the character, nature, and way of our Savior (I John 2:6).  In order to accomplish this highest of all callings, we must know His character, nature, and way.  We must know Him.  Moreover, we must know that the Holy Spirit dwells within our new and redeemed selves for the purpose of revealing Christ in us and by us.  Thus, "Who is Christ?" supplies the present and eternal occupation of the redeemed.  "This is life eternal, that they might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent" (John 17:3).

    The New Testament, however, also addresses the matter of the believer's identity.  Who are we in Christ?  Are we nothing more than sinners saved by grace?  Or are we saints, spiritually changed and enabled by grace, but still possessing fleshly members subject to the temptations of the world and the devil?   Our answer to this question greatly impacts our walk of faith and faithfulness.  Knowing that we "live in the Spirit" (regardless of contrary appearance, sensation, or experience) goes far in enabling us to more consistently "walk in the Spirit" (Romans 8:9; Galatians 5:25).  

Consider the ugly duckling who became a swan.  He didn't act accordingly until He saw his reflection in the mirrored surface of the lake and realized the change that had taken place in him.  This precisely reflects Paul's teaching in II Corinthians 3:18:

   

   "Beholding as in a glass (Greek: "mirror") the glory of the Lord, we are changed into the same image, from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord."

The more we see and affirm who Christ is, as well as who we are in Him, the more we will live as swans rather than ugly ducklings.    Christians must believe and affirm with the Apostle Paul that the "delight" of our innermost being involves love for God, His will, and the blessing of others (Romans 7:22).  We do not disregard or discount the lust of our flesh, of course, but we do direct our focus, as did Paul, to who we most deeply are.  Thereby we find a greater enabling to overcome the lusts of the flesh through the power of the Holy Spirit.  And thereby we live far more as who we are, rather than as who we were.

I frequently illustrate this truth by my personal experience with those who follow too closely on the roads, namely, tailgaters.  Throughout my lifetime, these folks have tempted me with irritation at the very least, to road rage at the very worst ("Hmm, I wonder how much it would cost to have a .50 caliber gun mounted on the trunk of my car?").  The Word of God and the Spirit of God, of course, counter such notions with the commands to "love your enemies"  and to "bless them that curse you" rather than follow my fleshly inclinations (I John 2:6; Matthew 5:44).

The problem in such times is that I don't usually "feel" the love of Christ for tailgaters, nor do my thoughts immediately flow in the direction of blessing them.  Often it seems that nothing exists within me but the aforementioned irritation, anger, and itchy trigger finger.  I seem to desire only that which my flesh indicates.  But is this true?  Am I nothing more than flesh?  Is the Spirit of Christ in me dormant?  Is the Holy Spirit not working in me "both to will and to do of His good pleasure?" (Philippians 2:13).  Such questions are not merely rhetorical.  They rather comprise the crux of the matter as to how I will relate to that troubling tailgater.  Will I believe the Word of God in the face of all contradictory evidence, including the emotional, mental and physical sensibility that seems to be all that I am?

Many years ago, I began to respond to the Biblical truth that the delight of my spirit, as united to the Spirit of Christ, is to love the tailgater whose face looms so close in my rearview mirror (Romans 7:22).  Feelings, thoughts, and trigger finger (!) notwithstanding, the person I am most deeply am in Christ is perpetually subject to the infusion of His delight for obedience to our Heavenly Father.  As a gift of the most marvelous and transformative grace, He freely grants to me the blessing of being a "partaker of the Divine nature" (II Peter 1:4).  The character and inclination of Christ resides in my redeemed "new man, created in righteousness and true holiness" (Ephesians 4:24).  His delight is my delight, including the desire to bestow grace rather than wrath upon the tailgater.

       Accordingly, in times of temptation, an opportunity for faith presents itself.  The contrary feelings and thoughts of my flesh provide opportunity to believe in the Lord Jesus, that is, to trust He is so present and active within me that I really do desire to love, forgive and pray for the tailgater rather than being swallowed up by anger and resentment.  I reckon myself to "be alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Romans 6:11).  I seek to believe the Word of God rather than the tempting influence of the world, the devil and the flesh.

This led to the conviction that God allows tailgaters to come my way for the purpose of granting to me an altar of prayer for them (indeed, who needs prayer more than tailgaters?! :)  ).  I cannot recount the the times of joy I have experienced when walking this path of faith in the knowledge of how present and dynamic the Lord Jesus is in our trusting spirits.  I often still feel the feelings and sense the contrary thoughts and even physical sensations.  More and more, however, the conviction grows that our Savior is indeed a great and glorious Savior - even in traffic!

I suggest this perspective not as a mere method for seeking to walk with God, nor does it provide a spiritual panacea that guarantees we will always trust and obey the Lord.  Choices of faith and submission to God must still be made, and we remain free to either trust or distrust Him.  However, the truth we consider does have great impact  regarding challenge in our lives.  It provides opportunity to know the Lord Jesus in very personal and vibrant terms as we recognize that His grace impacts us far more dynamically than we often consider.  Not only has He forgiven us.  Not only has He promised us Heaven.  Not only has He made God a Father to us, and birthed us into "the whole family in Heaven and earth" (Ephesians 3:15).  As blessed as these gifts are, we must press on further, much further.  Through Christ and the indwelling Holy Spirit, our Heavenly Father changed the very essence of who we most deeply are when we believed.  He made His delight our delight.  He calls us to believe in "so great salvation," and then to be amazed by the grace of our Lord as He increasingly works in us and walks in us to foster the same quality of life He lived.  We are swans, and our Father would have us to know it.  Or as the Apostle Paul humbly, but confidently declared...

"By the grace of God I am what I am: and His grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me."

(I Corinthians 15:10)

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)