IN ADAM, OR IN CHRIST?
[p. 357] IN ADAM, OR IN CHRIST?
A WORD TO ALL CHRISTIANS
DEAR FELLOW-CHRISTIAN,
Let me ask you in true brotherly love, Do you understand that by the grace of God, there is in the gospel the setting aside of one man, Adam and all his race, and the bringing in of another Man, Jesus Christ the Son of God, risen from the dead?
In Adam all die, even so in Christ all shall be made alive; 1 Corinthians 15: 22. The man who was under the judgment of God, the first man, was removed in judgment in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, so that the believer in Christ is, to his ineffable joy, through God’s grace and consistently with His righteousness, no longer in Adam before God, but in Christ; and on your side the Holy Spirit has been given as an indwelling Spirit, to make real to you that which is already true to God, i.e., that you are not in Adam but in Christ, that you have been turned from the old man, the wretched, fallen man - that is yourself, to the risen Man, Christ Jesus. So that in Christ there is now no condemnation, “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death”, Romans 8: 1, 2.
The light of God’s grace is often obstructed in souls, from reluctance to accept this truth of the change of man before God, and to see that the work of Christ was not to improve the first man, but to set him aside in judgment, to bring in a Man of a new order - that is Himself, “The second man, out of heaven” (see 1 Corinthians 15: 47). The believer is of Him; “Both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren”, Hebrews 2: 11. They are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones; Ephesians 5:30. We are thus wholly His - our bodies are the Lord’s,
[p. 358] and are to be presented a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, our intelligent service; Romans 12: 1.
In Leviticus 16 we get the earthly or millennial family represented by the congregation of Israel, for whom the two goats were offered (verse 8), and the heavenly family, the church, by Aaron and his sons, whose offering was a bullock (verses 6 - 14). In the one case, that of the earthly or millennial family, the law will be written in their hearts (see Jeremiah 37: 33), the inclination to do evil will be superseded. In the other family, the heavenly, that is christians, Christ is written in their hearts by the Spirit of God; evidently a great and important distinction, and indicating that the christian blessings are in association with Christ who has gone within the veil.