CHRIST MY LIFE
CHRIST MY LIFE
The more I, as a partaker of the life of Christ, enter on the new path opened to me, the more must I know, not only that He has opened the way, but also that every stage of it is unknown to me, unless He leads me into it; and according as I see Him in it, I see that He has borne the judgment on me, which was death; and having done so, He, according to the Father’s will, connects me with His life, a life entirely new to me, and yet now, through grace, my life. But I know nothing of the position and power into which this life will lead me; and I must learn all from Him who is our Head as well as Life.
If I ever lose sight of Him I know not where my life would lead me; for it is not life in me apart from Him, but He Himself is my life; therefore I need always to see Him, a real Man in the power of His life; and as I see His position and power, I at once see the position and power to which my life through Him reaches.
If I lose sight of Him, I lose sight of the Man Christ Jesus in the power of life, who is the source of life, and the witness of its power. I have no independent place. When I lose the sense of my connection with Him, I lose sense of the power and position of life, because I am not holding the Head. I have still the instincts of life; but if I cannot see Him in the power [p. 240] in which I may even desire to be, I cannot reach it, for He is the source of power; and my warrant as to assurance to my heart of my right to occupy and enjoy His place with Him. He is “the beginning of the creation of God” (Revelation 3: 14), and it is only as I see Him Head of this new race, Firstborn among many brethren, that I am able to see, understand, and receive a clear sense of what I am in Him.
Wherever I see Him, I get a sense of power; for I realise that in Him I am there too.
If I, once a lost prodigal, want to know the measure of my acceptance with God, He alone defines it for me. It is only as I know what He is to God in glory, that I can in any degree truly estimate my own acceptance. Had He my sin laid on Him? How is He now accepted? For as He is now accepted, so am I; and therefore it is the gospel of the glory of Christ. Try for your own acceptance, and it will always be a dubious and imperfect thing. Get to understand His, and your soul will be enlarged into all the fulness and blessedness not only of His, but of your own, because you are in Him.
If I want to hold fast my profession as a heavenly man, it is by knowing that He has passed into the heavens. I have not passed there myself yet, but I am, in the joy of faith, in the reality of it when I see Him there, having surmounted everything; not merely, Caleb-like, exhorting me to go up, but from the utmost height assuring my soul of His success for me.
Do I want to know the power of resurrection? It is as I see Him raised up that I apprehend or realise myself in it. The more I apprehend Him in it, the more I naturally connect myself with Him therein as source of life and Head, to whom I am united by the Holy Spirit as a member of His body. Do I think of the judgments coming? It is as I see the keys of hades and of death in His hand that I, even though the beloved disciple, am delivered from fear; and if I would pursue [p. 241] my race in patience, doing the will of God, I must be “looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith” (Hebrews 12: 2).
If the Holy Spirit would fill Stephen’s soul with glory, He shows him Jesus in the opened heavens. It is ever the same. Whenever the soul gets a glimpse of Him, difficulty vanishes, because I know that He is my Lord and my life, and the sense of union and identity with Him transports me over all obstacles, whatever they may have been. They are not seen, because my eye is occupied with Him who is above them all.
May we know more abundantly through the Spirit now, our Lord’s place and power respecting every difficulty, or trial, or emergency down here; and may we so carefully and constantly watch for Him, when in any way pressed, that we may see where He is, and be assured that if we get a glimpse of Him, our own deliverance in Him will be realised.