CONSCIOUSLY IN CHRIST JESUS

^[p. 532] CONSCIOUSLY IN CHRIST JESUS

All christian consciousness is in the Spirit. Faith consists in having light with regard to God and Jesus Christ. The gospel brings the light, but faith alone gets the benefit of it. Faith lays hold of what divine Persons are in grace to men, and there is ability to appreciate it because all who have faith have been born anew. Then we learn further that by the work of God we are not only born anew and have faith, but we are in Christ Jesus ... under a new headship according to which we have administered to us the full blessing of God ... . An act of sovereign love has put us in Him, and in order that we may have the consciousness of this God has given us the Spirit. The “in Christ Jesus” of Romans 8: 1 is that we are there consciously so that we are no longer under condemnation as in chapter 7. The Spirit is the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. We have life in Christ Jesus and the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of that life, and He is given to bring in a new dominating principle — the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free: it is all consciously known. The dominating principle of sin and of death is dispossessed. We do not now walk according to flesh but according to Spirit. The Christian as such is according to Spirit — consciously so — and he minds the things of the Spirit. By the Spirit we put to death the deeds of the body; we are led by the Spirit; we have the Spirit of sonship and the Spirit witnesses with our spirit that we are children of God. It is all consciousness.