Put On The Lord Jesus Christ
It is one thing to know the truth of oneness with Christ, and Christ as our Life. It is quite another to partake of Him by faith, abiding in Him, receiving from Him all that pertains to life and godliness. To know Christ is not to just know about Him, but to know the reality of His power, His working in and through us. As we are to abide in Him, He will abide in us, to reveal His glory to the world.
Patterns Of Promises
Scripture tells the believer that Christ is his Life, His eternal Life. The believer belongs to Christ, and Christ belongs to him. The call of God is to abide in Christ, to live by faith in Him, deriving all from Him. How is this to be done? The position of faith is taken according to the truth of God in Christ, and His finished work. However, God's provision of His promises gives to the believer the means and method whereby he can, by the grace of God, partake of Christ by the Spirit. It is all by faith, faith in the faithfulness of God who has promised.
Three Revelations
The revelation of God in creation, and in Christ, is given so that men might truly know Him. This knowledge is not only according to the absolute truth of the revelation, but by the power of Christ. Knowledge of the truth is essential, but knowing the saving life and power of Christ by the Spirit is also essential.
Three Revelations
God reveals Himself in many ways to the believer, and this, according to the need of the believer at that time. The ways of knowing Christ are revealed to the believer in Scripture by the Spirit so that the believer can know Christ, and the power of His indestructible and blessed life. Every fresh and specific revelation is a call to know Him according to the truth. The Spirit of God strengthens the believer to believe Christ to be all that He reveals of Himself to the heart.
The Importance Of Waiting Upon God
What does it mean to wait upon God? Is it not to live in the expectancy of true fellowship with Him, believing Him to all that He desires, working and moving to save souls, and build up His church? Is it not living in the perspective of Him responding to faith, accomplishing His purposes in the life of the believer, and working through the life by His power to reveal Himself to others? Those who wait upon Him are renewed and strengthened to believe Him for the wonderful thing.
The Great Opportunity
In these last days before the Day of the Lord, His mercy and grace is immeasurably great in declaring to the world the basic truth concerning Himself, and that is that He is God, the only true and living God. On the basis of this truth is built up for the believer the very basis of faith, faith in the unchanging faithfulness of God to reveal his power and glory in the salvation of men. The great opportunity is now before mankind, to make known the gospel of Christ, and then pray for its mighty effect upon the souls of men.
The Cross And Fruitfulness
What does the cross of Christ declare to us of the fruit that He desires to bear in and through us by the Spirit? The whole of that picture of His dying love declares to the believer that He paid such a price, not only to save, but to fill the believer with Himself, so that for time and eternity, His glory, the revelation of His nature and person should be known on earth, as it is in heaven.
Christ's Ever-Focused Resolve
There were many ways in which the power of God was revealed in Christ. One of these ways was the quiet, yet fixed resolve that He had to do His Father's will. His mission was clear to Him, and the means by which it would be accomplished was to have ever before Him the objective. Christ's resolve was the focused commitment to finish the work that He had come to do, and this to please the Father.
Beginning That Which Is Finished
Christianity begins with that which Christ has accomplished and finished. The perfect work of salvation which He accomplished on the cross is complete. It cannot be improved upon, nor altered in its truth and God the Father's acceptance of it. The first thing the believer is to do in this life of following Christ, to know Him, and live for the glory of God, is to sit, to rest one's whole being upon Christ alone to save, sanctify, and glorify His name. In Christ there is completeness, for there is the fulness of His blessed and perfect life and work.
The Shining Forth Of God
When God commanded the light to shine forth in creation, He did so by His predetermined will, His power, and His authority. All these elements go forth and are manifested when Christ shines into the heart of a lost man, even in that of a believer. By a knowledge of His will, the believer is called upon to believe God for the exceeding, abundantly above all that one could ask or think. Should we not believe Him for His light and power to be shone forth beyond all that we could every grasp, and this, for His glory?