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WHAT IS CHRISTIANITY?

^[p. 151] WHAT IS CHRISTIANITY?

The Galatians had received the gospel, and they had also received the Holy Spirit, but had gone back. “Ye ran well; who has stopped you?” (Galatians 5: 7). “Having begun in Spirit, are ye going to be made perfect in flesh?” (chapter 3: 3). This is applicable to many in this day. The first thing we have to see tonight is, What is christianity? Many do not apprehend christianity. Christianity is so peculiar, it is not merely having to do with the people of God. In the word we read again and again of the people of God, that is, a people turned by divine power to God. Christianity is that we are in the place where Christ has been rejected. The Saviour is not here. He has been rejected, as Psalm 110 sets forth - “Sit at my right hand”, etc. I am in the place where the Lord is not. The question may arise, How is it possible that we should be on earth where He is not? We have to do with the man that rejected Christ. There are two things that mark christianity. I am not talking merely of believers, or of saints, but of christianity. First, I am morally apart from the man here; secondly, I am morally apart from the place where he is. I say morally, for I do not own the connection. I belong to the Lord Jesus in another place, and that place is heaven. I did belong to the man here, the man that rejected Christ. I am morally apart from the man, and the place where that man is. The earth is not my home, I am a stranger here; christianity is not merely forgiveness of sins. The way we limit the truth spoils it. Christianity is, Christ is gone to the right hand of God, and He has left His own on the earth where He is not: we are therefore morally apart from the man, and the place where that man is; first we are saved,

^[p. 152] then justified. In Romans 5 I am clear of all guilt, the question as to my sins settled; but how can I be clear, morally apart from the man here? I need deliverance. I get justification, then deliverance, then liberty. Deliverance is being clear of the thing that did the sin, not merely clear of sin, but clear of the thing that did it. The saints failed, but the very failure led to the writing of the different epistles. The Corinthians did not seek to put aside the old man. The Galatians were trying to mend the old man, to improve the flesh. “Having begun in Spirit, are ye going to be made perfect in flesh?” (Galatians 3: 3).

The illustration is used of a farmer, heavily in debt, and in arrears with his rent. One comes in and pays his debt, settles all for him, but what is to be done with the farm? He is cleared so far, but soon the rent-day will come again, and he will be unable to meet it. What is to be done? Well, if the landlord would come in and say, ‘You are no longer a tenant at all, but a son’, it would alter the whole case. He is in a new position now, and as a son has power to act in the new relationship in which he is called. The landlord says he is no longer a tenant at all. He is in a new place altogether. In christianity it is more than forgiveness, I am out of all I was in before, and am in an entirely new order altogether. After justification in Romans 5 comes deliverance in chapter 6. What is deliverance? Deliverance is that all of me, all of the first man, is gone at the cross. I am cleared of all against me, because I believe in Him who died there. Now I am reckoning myself dead indeed unto sin, etc. (Romans 6: 11). In Exodus 15 we get practical deliverance - verse 13, I am cleared of sin, all the sins are gone. Rent and arrears all paid up and settled; but deliverance is that I really accept Christ’s death. Our old man is crucified with Him (Romans 6), gone in Christ’s death; and what we have to do is to appropriate that death. How? It is gone there, and it is my ^[p. 153] privilege to say, I died there. If so, how can I continue in it? The Galatians tried to improve the flesh. Oh, you say, I have a bad temper and I must try to improve it. But that is not reckoning it to be gone in Christ’s death. Marah sets forth the waters of death. The tree is the cross of Christ, Christ’s death for me.

I am now placed on a new footing altogether. The farmer is no longer a tenant, but a son, and in such a case the farmer would be uncommonly glad to have the new footing, and to be in the new relationship; but we are not like this, we have rather a liking for the old relationship still. Pray about deliverance.

Though it may not be laid hold of by all tonight, yet pray about it. The flesh does not like it, it is not good to the flesh. If I am dead I shall not think about it. If I have actually died, I should not mind it; but I am dead with Christ, and I so reckon (Romans 6: 11). “I am crucified with Christ, and no longer live, I, but Christ lives in me”, Galatians 2: 20. The more you get the liberty, the more you shrink from all that you have been delivered from. That which you are most delivered from, you shrink from the most. You will keep away from it, and be most careful not to stir it up in any way. “I am crucified with Christ, and no longer live, I, but Christ lives in me”. This is not so much the expulsive power of the new life, but the expulsive power of the new Person. “Christ lives in me”. The Galatians were trying to put the flesh under law, that they might correct it. The apostle now refers to Isaac and Ishmael (chapter 4). He says in chapter 4: 19, “My children, of whom I again travail in birth until Christ shall have been formed in you”. Would you rather have Christ formed in you, or improved flesh? This is the question. He is to have the rule over everything in you. Are you willing for this? Not merely a rule of life, or a principle of life, but a Person ruling there in your heart, not myself but another Person. “Christ lives in me”. When Isaac was weaned (Genesis 21: 8), Abraham was very glad to have him as heir of all his house. He made a great feast the day Isaac was weaned. There was joy in all the house. Christ is the heir. I mean, He is the one who is entitled to everything. Is He to have the right place? It was a festive day the day Isaac was weaned, and not one of the 318 servants in the house but was glad to acknowledge his rights as heir. Can you acknowledge Christ as the One who has the right to rule in your heart? If you do acknowledge Him, you will soon find out what does not acknowledge Him. Out of the 318 servants not one objected, but a child of fourteen years, who had been brought up in the house, and knew all about it - religiously brought up, if you like. It is an awful thing to discover that religious flesh will not have Christ. It is not Romans 8 here. That was flesh not competent to keep the law, but here it is religious flesh, and the religious flesh that hates Christ. If you want to have real enjoyment you must own this. The more religious the flesh is, the less liking it has for Christ, for it reviles Christ. Sarah saw Ishmael mocking and said, “Cast out this handmaid and her son”, etc., and was quite right in saying it. The flesh does not like it though. This is just where the holiness by faith people are. They are having Christ to improve the flesh. Paul may have had a quick temper. No doubt he had, but he did not get the quick temper made into a good temper, but he got a good one. He could beseech the Corinthians in chapter 10 “by the meekness and gentleness of the Christ”. The old man was not improved, but he got a new. The coronation day must come. By this I mean that the day will come when I own the right of Christ to rule in my heart. No one has any right to dictate to me or to rule me but Christ alone. He alone rules and has His place there. He lives in me. If we want to understand the greatness of it all we learn ^[p. 155] that the Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith (Ephesians 3). But here it is He lives in me. When Isaac gets his right place in the house and it is acknowledged, then Ishmael must go out. Abraham did not like it, it is true, and neither do we, but it must be so. It is true we have two natures, but am I to own both? No. One must go out. One must be master. You have only to acknowledge His right, and the moment you do, you must cast out the one that disputes His rights. “I am crucified with Christ”. The old then is gone in the cross. “Far be it from me to boast save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom the world is crucified to me, and I to the world”, Galatians 6: 14. I am outside the whole thing now. But someone may say, Ishmael, though cast out of the house, knows the way in perfectly well. He has lived there these fourteen years. If Christ and His rights are acknowledged, then everything else is to be treated as an intruder. He knows the house so well, though, that if you put him out of the door he will come in through the window. Yes, but there is a greater power than Ishmael inside the house now. I must own that there is a greater power in me than the flesh. “Stand fast therefore, and be not held again in a yoke of bondage”, Galatians 5: 1. Christ must have the house all to Himself. He will not share it with another. If Christ is actually enthroned in my heart, and He has the best place there, then everything is given up to Him. Now keep the intruder out. We never get deliverance unless we own that Christ has the right to be there, and then the intruder must go out (Galatians 5: 17). I know we are subject to an intruder, but here we have the power to keep him out. “The flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these things are opposed one to the other, that ye should not do those things which ye desire”. The power within us is the greater. We are to walk in the Spirit, and live in the Spirit. The flesh ^[p. 156] is in us, but it is no friend to you, and the Spirit is the power that brings in Christ. Why should we do wrong? We have a greater power now, and should not do it. Live in the Spirit; and so in chapter 6 we get sowing to the Spirit. If ye sow, ye shall also reap. “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace” - these are inside; then longsuffering, etc. (chapter 5: 22). How many there are in these days who know the truth, yet depart from it! The apostle Peter says, “Arm yourselves with the same mind”. I should be continually bearing about in my body the dying of the Lord Jesus. If actually dead all the trouble would be over, but meanwhile I am bearing about in my body His dying. If Christ has His place in the heart, we shall resent any intrusions. We shall treat all the things that come as intruders; and now we have the greater power within, let us live in the Spirit and walk in the Spirit.

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