Wednesday November 29
Christ in You
What does it mean "Christ in you"? We need to answer this very plainly. There can be no mistake here, for when Christ is in us, we have salvation, when He is not, there is no salvation. " And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life." 1 John 5:11,12. How can Christ be in you? He cannot be in you literally, for He is bound by His human body and cannot be in all places at the same time. But, the Holy Spirit, His representative can be. When we are truly converted, born again, the Holy Spirit takes possession of the heart as long as we cling to Christ, as long as the heart is fully surrendered (the whole heart) to Christ. When we are abiding in Christ then He through the Spirit is in us. This is how Christ is in you. If we sin, it reveals that Christ is not in us, but He does not forsake us. He stands at the door of the heart, calling us back to Him. He wants the heart, the whole heart. We cannot serve Christ with a divided heart. We must love Him with the whole heart. "And to love him with all the heart, and with all the understanding, and with all the soul, and with all the strength, and to love his neighbour as himself, is more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices." Mark 12:33.
Paul continues his theme, contrasting the two possibilities that people face in how they live: either according to the Spirit - that is, the Holy Spirit of God, which is promised to us - or according to their sinful and carnal natures. One leads to eternal life, the other to eternal death. There is no middle ground. Or as Jesus Himself said: “ ‘He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters’ ” (Matt. 12:30, NKJV). It’s hard to be plainer, or more black and white, than that.
You would think so, but Satan will quote this and still mean something else. "With me" can be twisted to allow for being with Jesus, but not having given the whole heart to Him. Thus, one is with Jesus, but still sins.
Read Romans 8:9-14.
In Romans eight beginning with verse one and going through to verse fourteen, we see a very strong point being made. If we do not acknowledge this, then we do not understand the battle we are in, we do not see the great deception that has taken hold in the church. Let's look at these verses once again in context. We will add verse 7:25 because it is actually the opening statement for these verses. Many have perverted the meaning of the verse just as Martin Luther did.
All of these verses work together to tell us who has salvation and how does not. There is a verse that is impossible to twist, especially in its context. We shall take notice that the lesson was silent on it. This is very sad, but does tell us that the truth that is revealed in this verse is not important to their understanding, for it appears to contradict their understanding and therefore what they teach. It is verse nine in chapter eight. It is very narrow and hard to misunderstand.
7:25 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.
Chapter 8
8:1 [There is] therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
8:2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.
8:3 For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:
8:4 That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
8:5 For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.
8:6 For to be carnally minded [is] death; but to be spiritually minded [is] life and peace.
8:7 Because the carnal mind [is] enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.
8:8 So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.
8:9 But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.
8:10 And if Christ [be] in you, the body [is] dead because of sin; but the Spirit [is] life because of righteousness.
8:11 But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.
8:12 Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh.
8:13 For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.
8:14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
What is promised to those who surrender themselves fully to Christ?
Eternal life. But, let's look at what Paul is really saying. He has a burden to save souls. He knows intimately what Satan had done in Israel. He so deceived the people that they put to death the Son of God. He is making sure that there is no room to misunderstand from his teaching what it means to be "in Christ." He has seen how clever Satan is and how deceived the leaders had been. He is attempting to tell us how we can know when we or someone else is "in Christ."
The lesson does not address Romans 8:9, even though it makes mention of it.
The life “in the flesh” is contrasted with life “in the Spirit.” The life “in the Spirit” is controlled by the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit. He is in this chapter called the Spirit of Christ, perhaps in the sense that He is a representative of Christ, and through Him Christ dwells in the believer (Rom. 8:9, 10).
When does the Spirit dwell in the believer? Is He in the heart when the "believer" sins? How can we tell if He is in the believer? What does verse 8:9 mean? "But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His." It’s hard to be plainer, or more black and white, than that. But, again, Satan does not rest. He takes a lot of truth and then perverts it.
How can we tell if we have not His Spirit? We walk in the flesh. Simple, is it not? Yet, many will still object because they have been taught otherwise. They believe they have life when they sin, walk in the flesh. What does Jesus have to say about this? Can we have life if we walk in the flesh? He says "That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again." John 3:6,7.
And, when God sent a prophet into the church, what did she say about walking in the Spirit? "When we live by faith on the Son of God, the fruits of the Spirit will be seen in our lives; not one will be missing." The Desire of Ages, pg 676.
In these verses, Paul returns to a figure he used in Romans 6:1-11. Figuratively, in baptism “the body of sin” - that is, the body that served sin - is destroyed. The “old man is crucified with him” (Rom. 6:6). But, as in baptism, there is not only a burial but also a resurrection, so the person baptized rises to walk in the newness of life. This means to put to death the old self, a choice that we have to, of ourselves, make day by day, moment by moment. God does not destroy human freedom. Even after the old man of sin is destroyed, it still is possible to sin. To the Colossians Paul wrote, “Mortify [put to death] therefore your members which are upon the earth” (Col. 3:5). Thus, after conversion there still will be a struggle against sin. The difference is that the person in whom the Spirit dwells now has divine power for victory. Furthermore, because the person has been so miraculously freed from the slave master of sin, he or she is obligated never to serve sin again.
"Obligated to never sin again"? How can that be? The lesson has led us to believe we cannot be sinless, nor faultless, nor perfect. So how can we be obligated to never sin again? I guess obligated has be redefined? Yes, we can sin, but something must happen to the true believer before he will sin. If the Spirit is in the heart, he will not sin. But, if he lets his mind wander away from Christ, then the Spirit will not stay in the heart. Then the believer has no power to not sin. We must, as the lesson says, moment by moment" choose to cling to Christ. It is only when we abide in Him and He in us, through the Spirit that we will not sin. And if we wander away, then we will sin.
Dwell on this idea that the Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from death, is the same one dwelling in us if we allow Him to. Think about the power that is there for us! What keeps us from availing ourselves of it as we should?
How can we avail ourselves of Him if He is not in us? If He is there, then we have the power to resist sin. We will not sin if we are living for Christ at the moment. If we allow our minds to wander away from Him, then He is not there to help us. We must re-connect with Him. He is not far away. He stands at the door of the heart, knocking. Why not let Him in?
Think of the lamp and the plug. The power is close by, but if the lamp is not plugged in, then there will be no light. The power is close by, but it does no good until it is plugged in. The power is available to those who are not in Christ, but we must first make a full surrender before we have the power. To think that we will not sin, when apart from Christ is faulty thinking. When the temptation comes, and we are not abiding in Christ, we will sin, for we have no power. We must put the horse in front of the cart before we will glorify God. We will not resist sin if Jesus is standing at the door of the heart. We must let Him in, then we will have power to resist all temptation that comes to us. "There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God [is] faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it." 1 Cor. 10:13.
This is the simplicity of the gospel. A child may understand. But, those long in "religion" have been so filled with error that it is not easy to pull up the weeds that block the reception of truth. The Holy Spirit will lead all into truth if they love Jesus supremely. If they do not, then the first work is to learn of Him who gave all for us while we were yet sinners. Then when we are fully surrendered it will be "Christ in you" that will empower you to not sin.