DEATH
[p. 115] DEATH
The Holy Spirit has come from the glorified Man at the right hand of God, to “testify of me”, that is, of Christ in glory. He is against the man in the flesh - but “He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you”. This was fulfilled in Acts 2, when He sat upon each of them and filled all the house where they were sitting. He belongs to the company. My proper portion now is to have conscious knowledge - possession of eternal life by the Spirit. Every believer is clear about getting eternal safety through the work of Christ, but every believer is not clear about the excess of grace - that he has passed from death into life. Are you living the life of the second Man? That is the excess of grace. If your soul is not learning what it is to be dead to sin you are making no progress. You can make no acquaintance with Christ until you learn what it is to be dead to sin. You must become acquainted with Him on the other side of death. You have to travel through death as they travelled through the Red Sea. Paul was three days there, and now in your own individual path each soul must pass that way. You get it experimentally in Marah - you find death to drink, and the only thing that makes it palatable is the cross; arm yourselves therefore with the same mind. You see the apple, you would like to take it. It is sin to wish for it, but if you do not take it you have suffered in the flesh. No christian ever went astray yet but at that point. I have to die to sin in order to live in the Spirit, practically I die to reach life. Christ’s death is the measure of your death, Christ died for that desire, His death alters the whole thing and practically you cannot allow in yourself anything for which Christ died. It does not change the circumstances, but it [p. 116] changes you; this is the way in which the cross is the power of God, it gets rid of your selfishness, makes the bitter water sweet. If you know what it is to be dead to sin, you come to Him, and the practical result is bearing about in your body the dying of Jesus. You do not give place to that for which Christ died, for He “loved me, and gave himself for me”. Some of us know what it is, but we do not live up to it, and the result is there is no personal intercourse with the Lord. Christ died for us, that is the first thing. The second is we died with Him. He has opened the way through death for us. He is in resurrection outside of death; Romans 6. Death with Christ, dead unto sin (not sins), you have to accept by faith the fact that you have died with Him and to travel by faith through death to reach Him where He is, to take the journey that Elijah took. Elisha tears his own coat in two, because he is going to have another, he gets rid of the old one first. We have to walk about refusing the things that invite us, learning always to refer to the Spirit of God, proving that you have no friend in this world but the Spirit. If you live in the Spirit, walk in the Spirit. He has the Lord before Him and nothing else. Now do not sow to the flesh. If you have been made partakers, companions of the Holy Spirit, and leave it, there is no hope for you; the christian has everything against him in this world, his only help is from the Spirit of God, and if he does not walk in the Spirit he is worse off than a good moral man of the world. You have to refer to the Spirit of God for everything, the moment you want any other help you are in danger. But if I know the love that the Lord has for me, I am seeking personal intimacy with Him in accordance with that love. May we desire it more for His name’s sake!