This positional victory over sin through grace is perfect. In Christ, God has taken the believer beyond the necessity of sin’s lordship. In Christ, sin’s power is broken, and its claim is canceled. Several times in Romans 6 God declares the believer’s perfect freedom from the power of sin. Romans 6:18, 22 “And being…
Entrance into the new sphere involves a decisive, clean-cut reversal of every relationship obtained in the old sphere. What the sinner was alive to the saint becomes dead to, and what the sinner was dead to the believer becomes alive to. The radical change wrought in the believer’s position demands a complete reversal in…
A holy God must have a holy people. That which God has taken to be His own, which He has separated unto Himself must be holy even as He is holy. God took Israel out of Egypt into Canaan that they might be made a separate people shut in to Himself that through His…
When, where, and how is the believer sanctified? At what point of time, at what stage in spiritual experience, and through what means is the believer wholly separated unto God and set apart as the special possession of the Lord? There has been much confusion on these points that has led to bewilderment on…
The Christian is a new creation, in a new sphere with a new Sovereign, living a new life, which speaks of differentiation and distinctiveness. The Christian is a marked man. There is a distinct line of cleavage between the man “in the flesh” and the man “in the Spirit.” There is a definite boundary…
The spiritual history of a believer could be written in two phrases, “Ye in me” and “I in you.” In God’s reckoning, Christ and the believer have become one in such a way that Christ is both in the heavenlies and upon earth, and the believer is both on earth and in the heavenlies….
Christ Jesus was made like us so that we might be made like Him. In the incarnation was the union of Deity with humanity; in regeneration, there might be the union of humanity with Deity. When the Holy Spirit begat in the believer a new nature, He opened the door to a living, organic…
The believer enters the Kingdom of God through the new birth, where God’s will is supreme. The life of every loyal subject is lived wholly in the will of God. The government of God has spiritual laws that operate beneficently for the well-being of both the individual and society in every department of life….
In Christ Jesus, the believer shares with Christ all His possessions. Every spiritual blessing is ours in Christ. Dare we believe it? All things are ours in Christ. Dare we act as though we believe it? Ephesians 1:3 “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with…
The believer in Christ is where Christ is. Christ is in His Father’s immediate presence, at His Father’s right hand, and in His sight; so is the believer in Christ. Ephesians 2:6 “And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ.” Colossians 3:3 “For ye are dead,…
The moment a repentant sinner puts his faith in the atoning blood of the crucified Christ, that moment he steps out of life “in Adam” and enters into life “in Christ.” Forever after, he is ensphered and environed by the Lord of glory. He is “in Christ Jesus” and will be through the ages…
Co-crucifixion opens the door into co-resurrection. Death is the gate to life. Identification with Christ in His death and burial is but the beginning of the believer’s union with Him in endless life. Death is both an ending and a beginning, an exit and an entrance. Romans 6:5 “For if we have become united with him in…
What, then, shall be done with this most stubborn foe? This most tyrannical sovereign? This bold usurper of God’s place? God has plainly declared what He has already done with him in His Word. He has but one place for “the old man,” and that is the cross, and but one plan for the…
Self-trust—”the old man” is very self-confident and feels no need for one wiser and stronger than himself. Trusting in his own powers and resources, he is prone to say, “Though all men shall deny Thee, yet will not I.” Self-sufficiency—the self-confidence of “the old man” fosters an egotistical, smug self-satisfaction that leaves him stagnant….
Let us, then, pause for a moment to take a full-length portrait of this hideous, heinous self; let us face his manifold operations honestly and see if we are not forced to accept God’s estimate of him and to acquiesce in the method of deliverance from his sovereignty. The foundation of life in the…
The vast majority of Christians stop short in their experience of the blessings of salvation, with the joy of forgiveness of past sins and the hope of heaven in the future. But the present is a forty-year wilderness experience full of futile wanderings, never enjoying peace and rest and never arriving in the promised…
In each of these spheres is a sovereign who purposes to rule with undivided authority. Colossians 3:9-10 9 ”Lie not one to another; seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds, 10 and have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him.”…
Crossing God’s bridge of salvation, the believer enters into a totally new sphere, which requires the enthronement of a new Sovereign over his life. The Head of the new creation must become its Lord if all things are to become new. When the risen Christ ascended to heaven, His Father exalted Him to the…
The new order demands a new standard of life. Self-exaltation was the norm of the old life. Sin was less sinful than it really is, and holiness was less holy than it really is. In this new creation, there is a new conception of sin. Things that before seemed altogether right now seem entirely…
The new birth entitles the believer to membership in the new order of beings, of which the risen Christ is the Head. The implantation of the divine life and the impartation of the divine nature in the believer form a completely new entity. The man in Christ is a new creation. 2 Corinthians 5:17…
The Lord Jesus has told Nicodemus of the necessity, the nature, and the Author of the new birth, but he still said, “How can these things be?” Was it a personal question? Did Nicodemus want to know how such a miracle as regeneration could be wrought in himself, even though he might still be…
What then does God purpose to do to equip a repentant, believing sinner for membership in the new order of heavenly holy men? He purposes to endow him with a new nature that fits him for citizenship in His Kingdom and for sonship in His family. He purposes to bestow upon him his own…
Jesus has expressed to Nicodemus the imperativeness and inflexibility of the necessity of a new birth for the implantation of the new life. But has Jesus made an arbitrary, perhaps even unreasonable, demand, or has He only stated a law of the spiritual Kingdom, which is as reasonable as the law that governs the…
John 3:4 “Nicodemus said unto Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” What could Nicodemus have thought a man could gain through a second physical birth that he had not received through the first? What additional inheritance…
Crossing God’s bridge of salvation begins with the believer’s justification. Still, it does not end there, for justification in its twofold aspect deals mainly with our past and carries us only over the borderline into the new sphere. It gives us a new standing before God but does not equip us to live in…
THE GREAT REFUSAL (2) Every sinner is guilty of countless sins, but there is one above all others for which God is today condemning him and holding him accountable, and that is the sin of refusing Jesus Christ as his Savior. Wrapped up in that sin are all the others. That is the sin…
THE GREAT REFUSAL (1) Jesus Christ spoke some very sad and solemn words during His earthly ministry, but among the saddest and the most solemn are these: John 5:40 “And ye will not come to me, that ye may have life.” These words were spoken to men who professed to believe and love the…
THE FIRSTFRUITS OF FAITH (2) But the forgiveness of sins is but half, and that is the negative half of the first fruits of faith. Merely removing the penalty for and the punishment of sins does not undo all the work of sin. The natural man is a sinner, rebel, and outlaw. He needs…
THE FIRSTFRUITS OF FAITH The inheritance into which the believer enters as a son and heir of God is a very rich and beautiful one and includes every spiritual blessing in Christ. But the blessing primarily coveted is relief from the burden of sins, the sense of forgiveness, the assurance of pardon. The circumstances…
THE RESPONSE OF FAITH Faith is very simple, yet it is a very comprehensive thing and involves in its operation the mind, the heart, and the will. Faith includes belief, which is the assent of the mind to the things written in God’s Word concerning the Savior. We believe He is the Christ, the…
THE RESPONSE OF FAITH In the parables of the Kingdom (Matthew 13:1-52), Christ likened the Kingdom of heaven to a field in which there were both wheat and tares, and to a net in which were both good and bad fish. He states that no attempt will be made to separate them until the…
THE RESPONSE OF FAITH — THE BRIDGE CROSSED Man has had nothing to do with building the bridge of salvation. That was God’s work and His alone. God furnished both the material and the workmanship by which this wondrous bridge was built. “By grace are ye saved.” Titus 2:11 “For the grace of God…
THE GRACIOUS INVITATION God not only provided a Savior for every sinner, but He has, through the Gospel, sent forth an invitation to those “of every tongue, and people, and nation” to accept His gift, to partake of His feast, to inherit His riches, to share the blessings of His heavenly home. His infinite…
In this book, we are writing, as it were, the spiritual biography of man. Our story encompasses his life in creation, in the Fall, in grace, and glory. We have seen what God meant for him to be in creation, what he became in the Fall, and what God has done for him through…
THE MOST TRIUMPHANT WORDS ever spoken were those which fell from the lips of the Lord Jesus Christ when on the cross He said, “It is finished.” It was the divine proclamation that grace had triumphed over sin. It was God’s pronouncement to the world that all that had been lost both to Him…
THE RESULT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT’S BAPTISM Through His death, resurrection, and exaltation, the Lord Jesus removed the penalty of sin and broke its power. Through union with Him by faith, He made it possible for the believer on earth to live the same life of victory, power, and holiness as He lived in…
THE PROMISE OF CHRIST FULFILLED Christ had promised that if He went away, the Holy Spirit would come, and His promise was fulfilled literally. He died and rose again. He met the disciples individually and collectively several times, revealing Himself to them as their risen Lord. He gave them a last commission, then repeated…
There remains yet one thing to be done to perfect God’s gracious plan of salvation. A connecting link between the Savior in Heaven and the sinner on Earth is needed. The finished work of Christ by some means must be made applicable to and operative in the souls of men. A way must be…
The Sympathetic Advocate God cannot condone sin nor company with it, whether that sin is in the sinner or in the saint. Sin always, everywhere, separates from God. When the believer sins, his fellowship with God is broken, but he cannot restore himself any more than the sinner could save himself. As the sinner…
THE PRESENT WORK OF THE LIVING CHRIST There are three tenses in salvation: past, present, and future. Three statements may be made regarding the sinner, which are apparently contradictory yet absolutely true: the believer has been saved, the believer is being saved, and the believer will be saved. There is a salvation that is…
There remains but one double span to complete God’s wondrous bridge of salvation. The God-man, crucified, buried, and risen, must go back to His Father in glory and be exalted to the place of honor and power at His right hand. Only then would His work be completed. At the resurrection, Christ Jesus was…
THE RESURRECTION — A SURE PLEDGE The body that had been specially prepared for Him in the incarnation (Hebrews 10:5), that had been laid down in death upon the Cross (Hebrews 10:10) was now raised and came forth from the tomb. Matthew 28:5-6 5 “And the angel answered and said unto the women, “Fear ye…
THE RESURRECTION — A CONSUMMATED VICTORY Acts 2:23 “Him, being delivered by the determinate will and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain.” In undertaking the reconciliation and redemption of the world, God obligated Himself to deal fully and finally with sin and all its consequences. Every…
Having granted that incarnation and crucifixion are necessary spans in the bridge of salvation, one is driven to the acceptance of resurrection as the third span or all that has been gained through the other two will be lost. The intimate relationship between these three fundamental truths, their unbreakable connection in fact, is brought…
THE CROSS OF CHRIST — THE PLACE OF DECISION THAT DETERMINES DESTINY “The cross of Christ has measured out the moral distance between God and man and has left them as far asunder as the throne of heaven and the gates of hell” (Sir Robert Anderson, The Gospel and Its Ministry, p. 25). Scripture…
THE CROSS OF CHRIST — A DIVINELY PREPARED TURNING POINT A double barrier separates God and the sinner. Sin has caused man to be offended toward God as truly as it has caused God to be offended toward man. The cross of Christ shall have failed to deal adequately with sin if it only…
But how could a righteous God be just and the justifier of sinners (Romans 3:26)? How could God maintain His holiness in His dealing with sin and at the same time manifest His graciousness in mercy toward the sinner? How could God provide such a meeting place and not deny Himself through compromise? Before…
THE CROSS OF CHRIST — A DIVINELY PROVIDED MEETING PLACE In becoming the Sin-bearer, Jesus Christ fully met and solved the problem of sin. “In His death, everything was made His that sin had made ours . . . everything in sin except its sinfulness” (James Denney, The Death of Christ). The cross of…
THE CROSS OF CHRIST — THE GREAT DIVIDE The cross of Christ makes a clean-cut cleavage between the two spheres, the sphere of death, darkness, and disorder, and the sphere of life, light, and liberty, and it challenges sinners to decide in which they purpose to live. The cross of Christ is the battlefield…
But the weight and wickedness of the world’s sin was not all the “cup.” Sin separates from God. God cannot stay in the presence of sin even when that sin is upon His own beloved Son. The Son of Man in the garden faces this awful consequence of Saviorhood. Could He assume this consequence…
But, would the death of Christ also deal with the sin question in such a way as to bring satisfaction to God? God has an unalterable, irrevocable attitude toward sin, which is most clearly revealed in His judgment upon it. ” The wages of sin is death.” Death is the expression of God’s implacable…
But why should He dread the inevitable “hour” or shrink from its approach? But an hour or two before, He had said, “Now I go my way to him that sent me.” Would not death be to Him an hour of glorious release from a life environed by sin, suffering, and sorrow? Would it…
Christ Jesus not only came into the world to die, but He knew that He came for that purpose. From the very beginning of His public ministry, the Son of Man had a brooding anticipation of “an hour” that was to come — an hour which, in some eventful way, would be the culmination…
Incarnation brought God to man, but it could not bring man to God. The first span in the bridge of salvation demands a second. In the incarnation, God had not yet dealt with the sin question. He could go no further through the revelation of His own sinless, perfect life than to show men…
The revelation of God in Christ to man and the redemption by God in Christ of man were undoubtedly the preliminary and the primary purpose in the incarnation. But they do not exhaust the exceeding riches of God’s grace in salvation nor complete His purpose in sending His only begotten Son into the world….
But the temptation in the wilderness was humanity’s test as well as Christ’s. God was giving man another chance, a last chance. Therefore, the victory was humanity’s victory. The Lord Jesus was there as God’s second Man qualifying to become man’s Savior and as the last Adam preparing to become the Head of a…
In coming into the world, Christ Jesus declared that the purpose of the incarnation was to do His Father’s will. John 6:38 “For I came down from Heaven, not to do Mine own will, but the will of Him that sent Me.” Part of His humbling in becoming the Son of Man was His…
God’s second Man had a tripartite human nature. Luke 23:46 “And when Jesus had cried out with a loud voice, He said, “Father, into Thy hands I commend My spirit.” And having said thus, He gave up the ghost.” Matthew 26:38 “Then He said unto them, “My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death;…
God was faced with two necessities in any effectual plan of salvation: first, the sending forth of a second Man who would fulfill His original intention in man’s creation; second, the providing of another Adam who would act representatively for the human race as the Head of a new order. The Man Christ Jesus…
That Christ Jesus was a divine-human Mediator is not only a fact of revelation but of history as well. Not only the words of Scripture but the A.D. on our desk calendar tells us that at some point in time, “The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us.” Luke 2:11-12 11 “For unto you…
In no book of the Bible is the person of Christ Jesus, the God-man, and His work as the divine-human Mediator more clearly set forth than in the Epistle to the Hebrews. In it, we can trace back to glory the unfolding of truth regarding His glorious person and follow from Heaven to earth…
A perfect reconciliation was brought about within God’s being by synthesizing His holiness and His love, by which each claim was satisfied. God’s holiness and righteousness compelled Him to pronounce the curse upon the serpent, the man, the woman, and even upon the earth. God had said, “For in the day that thou eatest…
God has taught one truth beyond all contradiction in His Word. It is that sin has created an awful chasm between Himself and man. Man may ignore or condone sin, treat it very lightly, and even be so foolish as to deny its reality, but that does not alter the unalterable fact that sin…
Since we have already studied the “three parts” of man, let’s look at the impact of sin and death on each of these parts. The first “part” of man to be touched by the devastating breath of death was the human spirit. Sin shut the windows of the spirit Godward and made it a…