BEING IN THE TRUTH

BEING IN THE TRUTH

I am not consciously “in Christ” until I learn that I have died with Him out of the old order, but God is dealing with me all the time as He sees me in Christ, or rather as He is able to do because of Christ, that I may reach being in Him. God is working from Christ to me to place me in Christ, and then that the old man may ^[p. 459] be set aside. I am freed from sin because of Christ, I get the life of Christ and the Spirit of Christ, I am of Christ’s stock. I am to be conformed to His image, not a remnant of the old to be found.

I thank the Lord for your desires after Him, and they help me. Our entering into His life where it is at home is very interesting, and our magnifying Him in our bodies now. I find the nearer we get to the Lord the nearer we get to the real good in one another. It is the natural sentiment that checks the ever-flowing and ever-expanding love of the Lord, and it is only as one is really for the Lord that one can be truly for any of His own. Be assured that He is leading you nearer to Himself, and that this is more than any service. The mark of the deepest affection to Christ is that, if you look here, ‘sorrow hath filled your heart’ because He has gone, He has died here; while on the other hand, if you know Him where He is, you have power to testify of Him in this place in His absence, you see the world’s estrangement from Him, but you are above all its power. We first see the truth, but then we have to be in it. Light precedes the Spirit’s work; we must not only see that there is manna for us, but we must feed upon it.

You have an interesting field of service where you are, but when people are lame we must take care to make straight paths for our own feet.