AS I SEE CHRIST; SO AM I

AS I SEE CHRIST; SO AM I

How blessed that we are to remember all the way by which He has led us, and it is an immense cheer to our hearts that He who was down here and made the path of life up to glory where He is, is the same as He was down here. The result of His work is that, “As he is, so are we in this world” (1 John 4: 17), a statement which unfolds the countless blessings at this present time, for it is in this world.

We do not see Him alone in His greatness as angels do, but as we see Him, we see what is ours in Him, so that I am not occupied with what I may feel I have, but whenever I see Him I know that I have what He has as Man. It is from the sun that all light comes; I can never keep the light of it (except artificially) after it has set; but if every time I had received light from the sun, that light remained in me as my own, this would in a feeble way explain the effect of my seeing Christ by the Spirit. When I see Him, I see that He is not only everything in Himself, but that I am complete in Him, and I enjoy this in the measure that I see Him, not as I find it in myself. With the sun, the light and heat are gone from me as soon as the sun disappears, but with Christ every sight I have of Him is true in me for ever, for it was true for me in Him before I had enjoyed it. This has a most wonderful effect because I am not looking in to see what I possess, but I am looking full at my treasure — Christ, and as I behold Him I comprehend what I possess in Him, and I receive what I see in Him without in any way lessening what is in Him. The ^[p. 156] light of the sun is not lessened by all that I appropriate of it, but it does not remain with me as the grace of Christ does. Beholding Him by the Spirit, I am formed in Him. Wondrous grace! and that I should be conformed into the same image. It is not only that He makes me at ease in His company, but He assimilates me to Himself!

He gives not as the world but shares
All He possesses with His loved co-heirs. (249:2)

It is very interesting to trace how we learn, that wherever we see Him, determines our portion at the moment and for ever, from the first dawn of the soul’s eternal day, when the eye is opened, to see Him as the Saviour, like the thief on the cross. Jonathan beheld David when he slew Goliath. He death in death laid low. But our David — the greater than David — not only has borne my judgment, but I see Him risen from the dead, and alive for ever more. He is the joy of my heart and I am as He is; not only is the judgment gone in the place of judgment, as with Israel in the night of death (Exodus 12) when sheltered by the blood of the lamb, but I see Him raised from the dead by the glory of the Father. And that as He has risen out of judgment I am not only safe from judgment, but I am on entirely new ground, the ground of righteousness which He is on. I see Him there and therefore I am there. He has rescued me from the man under judgment and now I am the righteousness of God in Him who bore the judgment. When I see Him, I see where His infinite grace has set me, and I see His acceptance and I share it. Next, I am in liberty because He is; the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death, and as to my path here my power for everything through the Spirit is in keeping with the place in which I see Christ. If I see Him on a pillow in the ship in a storm the effect of it is that I am restful — as He is. If I see Him walking on the water, I can walk there too, for His power is mine. Hence, as I see Him ascended, I see that I am in the same relationship to His God and Father as He is, as He said to Mary Magdalene, “I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God” (John 20: 17).

^[p. 157] Again, as I see Him as Head of His body the church, I fall into my place in His body because I hold the Head; I know myself to be a component part of His body; and lastly, the same power that set Him on high now “worketh in us”; and when He appears “we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is” (1 John 3: 2).