It was never God's intention to confine his blessing to the Israelites. The promise was open to all who would enter into it through faith. Everyone, regardless of his ethnic background, who put his faith in the promised Messiah that would come through Abraham's seed, became an heir of the promise. The sign of such faith was circumcision. Before Jesus, this sign was given to all males in Israel. But in Christ, physical circumcision is also obsolete:
Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything: what counts is a new creation. [Gal. 6.15]
Since Pentecost, according to Paul, we have all received the true
circumcision:
For it is we who are the circumcision, we who worship by the Spirit of God, who glory in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh. [Phil. 3.3]We are the true Israel of God, who have believed in the full revelation of God that came through Jesus Christ and was confirmed by the Holy Spirit through the new birth. We are the inheritors of the promises of God, and in us the true destiny of the People of God is being fulfilled. What a claim!
Moreover, in Christ, we have all become heirs of God and coheirs with Christ.[Rom. 8.17] Under Jewish law, women could not inherit anything, neither could they learn the ways of God from the Rabbis. They were segregated in the synagogues and the Temple, and were non-persons, in terms of the promise. But in Jesus, all have been brought into the inheritance. As Paul says in Galatians:
You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. [Gal. 3.26-28]
This is a marvelous truth: there is nothing to prevent anyone from inheriting the promise of God and entering fully and equally into the new Israel of God. Jesus said that the Law would not pass away, and under law, only sons can inherit: daughters have no rights. Therefore, nowhere in the New Testament does it say that God has daughters! There are two places where daughters are mentioned, but in both cases, Old Testament prophesies are being quoted. On Pentecost, Peter cited the Prophet Joel, saying that the promise of the Father, the baptism of the Holy Spirit, would be poured out on both sons and daughters and that both would prophesy. [Acts 2.17] Second Corinthians 6.18 also speaks of the promise of God to his people:
Therefore come out from them and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you. I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.
Both these Scriptures promised amazing things to the Israelites: that the promise of God would apply to both male and female alike. The promise is fulfilled in Jesus. As Paul says, you are all sons of God, not sons and daughters, but just sons. Because it is the sons who inherit, and, in Christ, we are all heirs of God and coheirs with Christ: men and women alike and equally.
The true Israel of God, therefore, consists of all those who have experienced the new creation by the Holy Spirit: they are those who worship God in the Spirit and put no confidence in the flesh. This means that, for every single man and woman who is in Christ, "no matter how many promises God has made, they are 'Yes' in Christ". [2 Cor. 1.20] Every Christian, male or female, is a priest before God. Now, this is not to say that all believers have the same ministry, or perform the same role in the Body. Just as there are pastors, evangelists, preachers, etc., so each person has his or her own place in the Body. But no-one can deny a believer any role or place in the Body based on gender. That would not be scriptural, and the tradition of denying women their place in the Body has led to dreadful weaknesses and losses in the Church. Jesus raised women from their subservient role in Judaism, and Christians put them right back there again by ignoring and distorting the Word of God.
Therefore, as we examine what it is to be part of the true Israel of God, let it be understood that the promise is for all believers, not just a chosen few, or a chosen many.
The Body of Christ, the true Israel of God, is the fulfilment of the Old Testament: the fulfilment of the promise made to Abraham and the Patriarchs. God emptied himself and became a servant, being obedient even to death on a Cross so that we might enter into this promise. We know that he did it to save us from Hell and bring us back into fellowship with God; that he restored what had been lost in Eden. But did he do all that just so that we could sit back and wait to go home to heaven? Is there more to our salvation than that? What is the promise given to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, and which we have now received? Paul gives us a very strong word in Philippians:
I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me...I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. All of us who are mature should take such a view of things. [Phil. 3.12,15]
Christ Jesus took hold of you for a reason, he has a purpose in mind for you, and that is what Paul wanted to find. He wanted to live up to the full potential of what Christ had made possible in his life. What is that purpose? There are those who believe that Paul is talking about salvation, that what Christ took hold of me for, was to save me and bring me to heaven. But look again at what is being said here.
When he wrote these words, Paul was already a Christian. He had been saved, made an apostle, had been preaching the gospel throughout the gentile world, and had established churches in many cities as he travelled. Yet he specifically says:
Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect...Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it.[Phil.3.12-13]
This is so important. Paul is saying that there is more to his life in Christ than being saved and going to heaven; more than being an apostle or establishing churches; more than preaching the gospel and receiving spiritual gifts. And it is this other aspect of life in Christ that he is willing to give up all to achieve. It is to gain this that he is pressing on, forgetting what is behind and straining towards what is ahead.
How many Christians would be more than happy to be like Paul: doing great things for God, getting the word of God out to the lost and seeing new churches spring up wherever he went? And many teach that this is what we should be aiming for. Their gospel is that we are saved, going to heaven, and should spend whatever time is left to us on this earth being nice people who witness to as many others as possible about salvation. We want others to get saved too, and be like us. But Paul tells us that this is only a small part of the gospel of Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus did not go through all he did simply so that we could be nice people who are going to heaven when we die. The tearing of the veil in the temple did not signify that now we can become respectable citizens who go to church every Sunday in our best clothes and spiritual smiles. We have cheapened the gospel and made the sacrifice of Jesus to be a small thing indeed.
Because we don't know in our own lives what it is that Paul found in his, we can only repeat the salvation message again and again. Sunday after Sunday, some hear the same salvation call, even when everyone present has already responded! We give altar calls in rooms full of Christians! Why is that? Because we don't know what else there is to say. We turn back to "testimonies" to make us feel better and to fill in the time. We swop stories about how dreadful we were before we were saved, and how wonderful and dramatic our conversion was. We can even compete to see who has the most dramatic testimony, and we write books and make videos to tell the story again and again. And yet, Paul says that he moves ahead "forgetting what is behind". So many of us concentrate on what is behind, because we don't know that there's anything ahead other than heaven when we die.
Let us be honest with ourselves: our idea of being a Christian is roughly as follows. Once upon a time, I accepted the Lord Jesus as my personal Saviour. He forgave my sins and I was born again. When I die, I am going home to be with the Lord. In the meantime, I look to his grace to help me overcome the weaknesses of the flesh which continue to bother me and prevent me being as good-living and holy as God wants me to be. I try to pray and read my Bible regularly, and I witness whenever I can. By getting into the habit of reading my Bible and praying, I will become a better person and more pleasing to God who saved me by his grace, and who will bring me home when I die.
It is getting repetitive already, isn't it? Now I have no wish to demean what the Lord has done for us, and the incredible grace that has brought salvation to such undeserving wretches. We have already seen what salvation for mankind cost our loving God, and how completely unworthy we were, and are, of such love. But knowing this, how can we patient with such glib phrases as "accepting Jesus as our personal Saviour"? It is he who has accepted us! We must first of all recognize the nature of the relationship which he has come to establish with his people. He is Lord. If we are new creations, born-again Christians, it can only be because we have died to the old self. We have submitted ourselves to God, and have thrown ourselves entirely on the mercy and grace of God in Jesus. Once again, Paul has stated it most clearly:
You are not your own; you were bought at a price.[1 Cor. 6.19- 20]
If we take that verse seriously, we must admit that we have no rights, we cannot set out conditions under which we will serve the Lord. It is for him to tell us what to do, where to go, what to say, and how to say it. In other words, we are sent as Jesus was sent, to be servants and to remain in submission to the Father. This is the power of the Scriptures that say:
Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.[1 Jn. 1.6]
But, surely this is beyond all but the most spiritual saints, especially in the world we have to deal with every day? The challenge seems so far beyond our abilities, far above what we could hope to achieve. And we would be right to say this. In our own strength, this life we are called to is impossible. We could press on and strive and labour and deny ourselves forever, and still fall short of the calling. Trying to live like this produces only frustration, discouragement and condemnation. Paul laid his finger on the problem in Romans 7:
I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do...I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. [Rom. 7.15,18]
Now it must be emphasised once again that Paul was a Christian when he wrote this. In fact, he specifically notes that it is his new nature that is warring with his sinful nature, thus causing this dilemma. In Christ, he has the desire to do God's will, but his sinful nature cannot co-operate. There is a war taking place within the Christian, and the Christian is losing. Paul cries out in frustration: "What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?" [Rom. 7.24]
If we left Paul at this point, we might be forgiven for thinking that life is a losing battle against the flesh, the sinful nature. And for many Christians, it is. But Paul did not stop there. He knew the secret of overcoming, and he immediately follows his cry of frustration with a shout of victory: "Thanks be to God - through Jesus Christ our Lord!" [Rom. 7.25] The answer is there: but the problem is also clear: "So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in the sinful nature a slave to the law of sin". Paul has learned that the battle which rages within him is one that has been won by Jesus Christ. The fallen nature cannot please God. We knew this: it is why Jesus had to redeem us, we were powerless. The new nature, brought to life by the Holy Spirit in us, has set us free from the law of sin and death, so that we no longer have to obey the sinful nature. We now have a choice! We can submit to the Spirit, or we can indulge our sinful nature.
Many Christians get confused at this point. They believe that a different way of life is required of them, and so they set out to become better people. They try to love more, to be more patient and understanding. They try to deny themselves through fasting or spiritual activities, so as to develop a stronger spiritual stamina. Depending on the strength of their personalities, all they tend to develop is spiritual indigestion. Sooner or later, they run out of patience, love, joy or even desire for God. The reason is simply that they are trying to overcome the sinful nature by using the sinful nature. They think that they can overcome by trying harder, or praying longer, or smiling through increasingly clenched teeth. But Paul is very definite about such attempts:
..the sinful mind is hostile to God. It does not submit to God's law, nor can it do so. Those controlled by the sinful nature cannot please God. [Rom. 8.7-8]
What is the sinful nature, or what the King James Version calls "the flesh"? It is quite simply you, in your normal, natural state. The "you" who was born as a baby and grew up in this fallen world with a fallen nature and a complete inability to please God. The sinful nature is what you were before you were born again and received a new nature from the Holy Spirit. If you have never been born again, then you are not Christ's. It does not matter whether you have grown up in a Christian home, gone to Sunday School, Bible Camp, attended services, meetings or worship all your life. If, as a mature, thinking, responsible human being you have not submitted to the Lordship of Jesus and surrendered yourself to him, then you are none of his, and do not have his Spirit.
But if you have known this new birth, and have known what it is to be forgiven by God and brought into the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, then you know how completely it was a work of grace. You called out, admitted your inability, and God moved in response to your cry for help. You added nothing to what Jesus had done already on Calvary: you simply accepted that it was enough. Now you want to live for him, and so you fall back on your own abilities and energy. What a tragic waste of effort. A great classic of Christian teaching is Thomas A'Kempis' The Imitation of Christ. It shows us that we must become like him in his complete submission to the Father and his willingness to be totally available to do the will of God. But there are those who mistake the title of this work to imply that we must imitate Christ in his behaviour. In other words, that we should act like him, mimic him, as we live our lives here as Christians. The Galatians were like that: they entered joyfully into Christ by throwing themselves on his mercy and grace. Then they tried to mature as Christians by working hard at being loving and good and spiritually minded. Paul, with no apologies, calls them foolish:
You foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you? Before your very eyes Jesus Christ was clearly portrayed as crucified. I would like to learn just one thing from you: did you receive the Spirit by observing the law, or by believing what you heard? Are you so foolish? After beginning with the Spirit, are you trying to attain your goal by human effort? [Gal. 3.1-3]
If human effort - obeying the Law, performing spiritual exercises, etc. - could not save you, why do you think such things will enable you to achieve God's purpose for you? Do you think that you will become more loving by trying to love? Will you become more Christ-like by acting the part long enough? The Galatians were told to simply believe what they heard. And what did they hear? "It is finished!"
Our sins have been forgiven. We have been brought into the family of God, adopted as heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ. We have been set free from the law of sin and death, and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God. We can choose to serve the Lord, or to follow our own ways, our eternal destiny already secured through the blood of Jesus. It is finished: there is nothing more to be added. We are saved and going to heaven, and that is an accomplished fact. There is another meaning to this phrase: we are dead. Paul says that we have been crucified with Christ. He is very definite on this point, and we must recognize what he has said:
For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. [Col. 3.3]
So, why are we so hard at work making ourselves worthy? Why do we spend so much energy and time on being "good" and "Christian" if we are dead? Maybe, because we are so like the Galatians. They were saved like all good orthodox Christians, but they felt compelled to "attain their goal by human effort".
What is this goal they were reaching for? Paul speaks about it, as we have seen, in his letter to the Philippians. "I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus." [Phil. 3.14] There is that word "goal" again. The Galatians were trying to attain the goal, and Paul was pressing on toward the goal. Peter mentions a goal in his first letter. He told the Christians that they were receiving the goal of their faith, the salvation of their souls.[1 Pet. 1.9] This is odd, is it not? The Christians to whom Peter was writing were saved, they were Christians. Peter opens his letter by addressing them as "God's elect..who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling by his blood".[1 Pet. 1.1-2] You cannot get more saved than that: each member of the Trinity playing a part in our salvation. Why, then, were they still receiving the salvation of their souls? Paul also gives this strange view of things in his talk about pressing on to the goal. He says that he is pressing on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of him, but he also says that he has not yet taken hold of it. [Phil. 3.12-13]
For those who believed that "getting saved" simply means "being born again", that getting into heaven is the main point of getting saved, this approach by Paul and Peter may come as a surprise. Christians will often say: "I am saved, praise the Lord. I am going to heaven when I die". But there is a certain vagueness about what is meant to come between the moment of salvation and the moment of arrival at the heavenly throne. If we are saved only so that we can go to heaven, why are we left here? Paul, Peter and the unanimous testimony of Scripture attests that salvation is much more than this. Paul tells us to "continue to work out your salvation in fear and trembling",[Phil. 2.12] while the Letter to the Hebrews encourages us to "persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised".[Heb. 10.36] For those who have come to understand what it means to repent and place your faith in God, to be baptized and rejoice in the promise of heaven, this call to persevere, to press on, to work out your salvation can be confusing. Some think it means that we should try to live a good life for the sake of our witness in the world. Some think that it means "witnessing" to others about the Lord and getting as many people as possible to hear the gospel. The so-called Great Commission is seen as the main occupation of Christians in this world: to go and preach the gospel to the ends of the earth.
But Paul speaks of "taking hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me". What is he taking hold of? Even more important, why did Christ Jesus take hold of him? There is a hint in the next verse of Philippians: "All of us who are mature should take such a view of things".[Phil. 3.15] This is supported by the Letter to the Hebrews. We are told there to "leave behind the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity". What are those elementary teachings? According to Hebrews, they are: "repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God, instruction about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment".[Heb. 6.1-2] It may seem remarkable, but Hebrews is saying that the doctrines which most Christian churches spend their time discussing and preaching are merely elementary and should be left behind as we mature. Not left behind, in the sense of forgotten, but in the sense that we have laid that foundation and are building something else on it. Once a foundation is laid, it is covered over and forgotten, while the work of building the house progresses. The foundation is not left alone to be discussed, debated, admired. It is not torn up and re-laid again and again. No, once the foundation is laid, the real work of building can begin. It is a sad fact that very many Christians have lain a foundation and stopped. They have been led to believe that the foundation is all there is to the building of their lives in Christ. But it is only the beginning: we are building the house of our lives, a building which will be scrutinized by the Lord on the Day of the Lord, and for which we are responsible. Have we committed ourselves to the building, or are we content to admire the foundation for the rest of our lives? We splash about in the shallows of God, and never learn to swim freely in the depths. Jesus saved us for more than playful splashing around in the waves. He calls us to the deep things of God.
Quite simply, the Scriptures tell us that we need to grow up as believers, to mature and enter fully into the salvation Christ has supplied. We need to remember that, when we are saved by Jesus, cleansed and forgiven and brought into the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, we are only back where we should have been from the beginning. We have only reached the starting point on our journey, a place we ought to have been were it not for the Fall. God has restored us to our rightful place, and now he wants to do what he intended from the beginning. This is not an opinion, this is the entire message of the Scriptures.
No, we speak of God's secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began.[1 Cor. 2.7]
Listen to what Paul prays for the Christians in Ephesus, men and women who had already come into a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ:
I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. [Eph. 1.18]
We have been called to a great hope, a secret wisdom has been kept hidden for our glory since before time began! But the wisdom is hidden no longer: the mystery has been fully revealed in Christ Jesus, and we can enter into what he has called us to.
I have become its [ie., the church] servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the word of God in its fullness - the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the saints. To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.[Eph. 1.25- 27]
This is the great mystery, the wonderful promise that God has fulfilled in our day: that we can know him, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom he has sent. That we can know Christ in us, the power to live as he did in this world, not in our own abilities, but in his power. That we have the hope of glory: not the promise of heaven alone, but something even more glorious.
In the Old Testament, the Spirit came upon the prophets, the judges, and other leaders of the people. But the vast majority of the people never knew that blessing. They depended on their leaders to tell them about God and his ways. In the Book of Judges, we find that, following the death of the leader appointed by God, the people invariably fell away from righteousness and had to be called back by the next man or woman raised up by the Lord. The people had no personal relationship with their God. This is the pattern throughout the history of Israel.
But God gave a tremendous promise to his people through Jeremiah. He promised that he would make a new covenant with his people, unlike the old one he made with them when he brought them out of Egypt. The new covenant would be this:
I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. No longer will a man teach his neighbour, or a man his brother, saying, 'Know the Lord', because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest. [Jer. 31.33-34]
The law of God will be in our minds and written on our hearts. God's ways will be "put" in our minds, that is, we will be able to understand his ways and grasp what his will is. But it will be written on our hearts, that is, it will be revealed to us, it will become our desire to walk in his ways. What is even more wonderful, there will be no need of a prophet or judge or king to reveal the ways of the Lord to us. No-one will need to teach us to know the Lord, for he shall reveal himself to us directly, by his Spirit. All - male and female, young and old, Jew and Gentile, - will know him, from the least to the greatest.
Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. [Jn. 17.3]
This is part of what Paul was pressing on to take hold of, part of the reason Christ Jesus took hold of him: "I want to know Christ". He prays for the Christians in Ephesus "that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better".[Eph. 1.17] The Spirit of wisdom and revelation speaks of the mind and the heart, just as Jeremiah did. We have been promised such an outpouring of the Spirit so that we can come to know God better. Not in the future life in heaven, but right here and now. That is part of the promise, part of the mystery that has been revealed in Jesus. We can know God.
God wants us to know who he is, and part of that is knowing his love for us. He wants us to understand the depth of his love, the all-consuming extravagant love he has for his people. Again, Paul states it best:
I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge - that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.[Eph. 3.17- 19]
"Rooted and established in love": that is the foundation on which we can build. Knowing how much God loves us, and seeing the amazing lengths to which he went in Jesus to redeem us, we can have such confidence in him. This knowledge surpasses knowledge, that is, it is only known by revelation, and not through intellectual analysis. It is available to "all the saints", not just a select spiritual few. All are to know how wide, long, high and deep is this love which God has for them. Knowing means being sure, realising that it is the truth, truth that sets you free from fear and guilt and condemnation. This is a truth that should also set you free from striving and struggling to be worthy, or from trying to serve in your own strength.
The Lord wants us to know, along with Paul, that nothing we meet with in this world or in the next can ever overcome those who know their God and how much he loves them.
No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.[Rom. 8.37-39]
This is not to be simply a doctrine which meets with our intellectual approval, it is to be written on our hearts, a matter of revelation by the Holy Spirit. That is the knowledge God wants us to have of him. Then we will know our God, that he loves us and has given himself for us to bring us back into fellowship with him and with our brothers and sisters.
That is the first step in the great mystery that has now been revealed in Christ. But there is a further step: that is experiencing the reality of "Christ in you, the hope of glory". It is possible that we can come to know the Lord and his love for us, and still be unaffected by this deeper truth. God has saved them and cleansed them, and they rejoice in their salvation and in the love of God. But they have not come to understand this other word: "Christ in you, the hope of glory". But it is vital that we understand what this means for us. Because, when we come to know God, and see the immense love he has for us, we may become discouraged. It may result in a feeling of utter unworthiness and condemnation. After all, how could we hope to serve such a wonderful Lord, weak wretches that we are?
In fact, one of the immediate results of coming to know the Lord by revelation is that we come also to see ourselves clearly. Isaiah had this experience. He had been a great prophet in Israel, and God had shown him many wonderful things, including the beautiful prophecy concerning the Vineyard. He had received revelations regarding the coming Messiah and the Day of the Lord, but he had not ever really known his God in this way. Then, in Chapter 6, we read of how he saw the Lord, high and lifted up, and Isaiah despised himself, a man of unclean lips living among a people of unclean lips. The prophet, who spoke the words of God, saw that he had unclean lips. What a shocking revelation. But he knew the forgiveness of God and was re-established in his prophetic ministry.
Job was a righteous man who always took care not to deviate from the ways of the Lord. He took pride in his diligent devotion to God and believed that his actions made him good enough to stand before the Almighty. But he, too, came to see the Lord and, as a result, to see himself for who he truly was.
My ears had heard of you but now my eyes have seen you. Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.[Job 42.5- 6]
Saul was a dedicated Pharisee, devoted to God and his Law, eager to defend God's honour against heresy and blasphemy. His motives were good, but his knowledge was deficient. Then Jesus met with him near Damascus, and Paul was reborn. He could later write:
But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things.[Phil. 3.7-8]
This is what happens when men and women come to know their God: they are immediately convinced of their own unworthiness. How could we possibly call ourselves "Christians"? How could we ever presume to preach and teach such a wonderful gospel, when we are so aware of our sinfulness? Paul found the answer to that question. He could actually advise the Philippians:
Whatever you have learned or received from me or heard from me, or seen in me - put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you? [Phil. 4.9]
This was not arrogance: Paul was not telling people to imitate him in his behaviour or actions. He was telling them to put into practice the secret that he had learned: "Christ in you, the hope of glory". Here is his secret:
I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.[Gal. 2.20]
Paul understood the mystery. I am a sinner. God so loved me, that he gave his only Son to die in my place. I am no longer my own, I have been bought with a price. I was saved by grace to do the works God had prepared in advance for me to do, I can no more do those good works by my own efforts, than I could save myself through my own efforts. How, then, am I supposed to live? This is the great difficulty Paul discusses in Romans 7: the war between the sinful nature and the spiritual nature. The answer he found was this: I was saved by faith, I must continue to live by faith. As Paul said to the Galatians:
After beginning with the Spirit, are you now trying to attain your goal by human effort? [Gal. 3.3]
But, it might be asked, how can we do God's work other than by acting, by making the effort to be loving and good and patient, etc. The Letter to the Hebrews says that there is a place of rest for God's people. Just as Joshua and the Israelites were given the Promised Land, so we have been brought out of Egypt and into the glorious freedom of the children of God. When they entered Canaan, they submitted to the leadership of the Spirit, who told them how and when they should go up against the strongholds of the land and overcome them. Likewise, we too need to submit to the Spirit's leading, if we are to overcome. The Israelites could have rested from their own plans and schemes and allowed God to lead and guide them forever, but they would not. They chose to go their own way, and so lost the rest.
But, although the Israelites failed to enter the Rest by their refusal to trust in the Lord and obey his word, there was One who did enter that place of Rest. Jesus rested from his own work and submitted himself to the Father's calling. His nourishment was obeying the Father:
My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work. [Jn. 4.34]
So we, too, have a place of Rest available to us, if we choose to
trust God with our lives. But,
anyone who enters God's rest also rests from his own work...Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest.[Heb. 4.10-11]
Here we reach the crux of the issue: the apparent contradiction which lies at the centre of the mystery: how to make every effort to rest. A famous pagan writer, with a great deal of insight into human nature, was once asked what he had been doing. He replied: "I am hard at work being idle!" There is something in our sinful nature that finds it extremely difficult to let go and give up control of our lives. We always want to be in charge, in control. We believe we have to "pull our weight", "do our part". Behind much of this attitude is the belief that only we know what is best for us. It is extremely hard for us to admit that there is nothing we can do, that we are powerless to accomplish anything of ourselves.
We resist strongly anyone else exercising authority over us, or ordering us around. Prison is a place of punishment for us, because in prison we have no freedom: we cannot come and go as we please, we cannot decide when to turn off the light and sleep, when to eat, what to eat, when to go outside and enjoy the daylight, etc. We have no control.
But this is the life to which Jesus has called us. He has invited us to put aside our own work, and take on his. We are to lay aside our own plans, refrain from our own efforts, and join with him in his work. Only there will we find the promised rest:
Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.[Matt. 11.28-30]
Are you weary, burdened by the load you are carrying for the Lord? Do you find the work you have taken on for him too much to bear? Put it down! There is rest for you in Jesus. Take his yoke upon you. This means joining with him in his work, learning from him and allowing his gentleness and humility to ease away the hardness of our hearts and the burdens of our days. Is this your experience of Christian life? Have you learned the truth found in Isaiah?
Even the youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.[Is. 40.30-31]
Now we are faced with the Word of God, which tells us that we are dead, that we must cease from our own work. It acknowledges that it is hard for us to do so. Whereas a truly dead person has no opportunity to act as though it were alive, we are still physically active and have the choice of living in the sinful nature, or walking in the Spirit. That is why we are called to become living sacrifices: our bodies must be given over every moment for the exclusive use of the Lord. That is what it means to be holy. Just as the vessels used in the Temple were considered holy only because of the use to which they were put, so we are holy because we are for the use of a holy God. Do we agree that we are dead to this world, and alive in Christ, or do we insist on making the decisions regarding our lives?
I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. [Gal. 2.10]
I no longer live. That is the secret of "Christ in you, the hope of glory". The love I show, the things I do, the life I live, must all be his. Not an improved version of mine, but his. I must cease to do anything, so that he may do it in me.
This is what Paul meant when he wrote to the Galatians. They were trying to attain their goal by human effort, instead of allowing the life of Jesus to flow through them. Consider what he said: just as you were saved by grace through faith, so you must continue to live by grace through faith. You must surrender completely to what God has done in Christ Jesus, and allow that life to be made flesh in you, too. Remember the words Paul addressed to the Philippians about working out their salvation with fear and trembling? Let us quote the entire verse:
Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed - not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence - continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose. [Phil. 2.12-13]
Paul has just finished describing the work of Jesus: how he emptied himself and took the nature of a servant, becoming obedient even to death on a cross, and so was exalted to the highest place. This is to be our attitude: to be obedient to death, and to become servants of God. We must continue to work out our salvation in obedience, like Jesus. But in the Greek, this "working out" means completing, or bringing to fulfilment. It does not imply that we toil away at our salvation. Paul is telling the Philippians to bring to fulfilment that which Jesus Christ began in them. Or, as he put it later in the letter, to press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of them.
But this working out, this pressing on, is made possible by God. We are told that it is God who works in you to will and to act. There's the word "work" again; but this time the original Greek word means "makes effective". Summing up, we must bring to fulfilment the salvation achieved for us by the death of Jesus, through obedience, by allowing God to will and act in us according to his own purpose. Our work is to allow God to work.
This same message appears elsewhere in Paul's writings. When he wrote to the Colossians about his missionary work among the Gentiles, he repeated the same idea of allowing God to use him to preach the gospel.
We proclaim him, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone perfect in Christ. To this end I labour, struggling with all his energy, which so powerfully works in me.[Col. 1.28- 29]
The first sentence describes clearly the desire of all believers who are concerned with preaching the gospel. It sums up the missionary role of the church. We desperately want to proclaim him, to present everyone perfect in Christ. But the dynamic is shown in the second sentence. Paul states the relationship of the believer and the Lord: I labour...with all his energy. It is the life of the Lord which is being allowed to express itself. And this labour of Paul's is made possible by God's energy "which so powerfully works in me". There is that word "work" yet again. This is the same Greek word we found in Galatians, "it is God who works in you". In other words, Paul may preach, admonish and teach, but it must be with the energy, the life of Jesus. And it is God who makes his labour effective.
The only way that Paul can be fruitful in his life and ministry is to consider himself dead and to allow the Lord to live through him. "Unless the Lord builds the house, its builders labour in vain." [Ps. 127.1] Everything that we are asked or commanded to do as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ is with this truth in mind. It is impossible for us to walk in obedience as Jesus did, to act and speak and think as Jesus did, unless we allow him to do all this himself, through us. It is his love that must flow from our hearts, his words that come from our lips, his way of thinking which informs our every moment and attitude. That is the hope we have, the hope upon which we base our entire lives. That it is Christ in us, and not we ourselves, who makes our salvation effective. That is the power behind Paul's statements to the Corinthians:
But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all- surpassing power is from God and not from us.[2 Cor. 4.7]
This is the awesome truth of the mystery that has remained hidden since before time began, which God destined to revealed for our glory: he is changing us to become like Jesus. The power that will convict the world, that will reach into the hearts and minds of unbelievers, that will shine like a light through our weak and sinful lives, is the very life of Jesus. Christ in us, the hope of glory. Paul was often overwhelmed by this truth:
And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit. [2 Cor. 3.18]
What an amazing statement! Our faces are unveiled: we see clearly, unlike unbelievers, who are blind to the mystery of godliness. We reflect the Lord's glory, as the jars of clay contain the treasure, making it visible and accessible to the world. But what can we say about the fact that we "are being transformed into his likeness"? That word "transformed" is the same word used about Jesus when he went to the top of the mountain and was transfigured before the Apostles. The glory shone out from him, as he was transformed before them. So we, too, are being transfigured, changed with ever-increasing glory, as we allow the life of Jesus to be made flesh in us.
And what is it to which we are being transformed? His "likeness", which means his image, his portrait. The Greek word used here is eikon, where we get the term for a picture, an icon. We are being changed into his image, his portrait. The Word is being made flesh in us. Paul saw this as the main aim of discipleship: to have Christ formed in us. This was the goal to which the Galatians were aiming, albeit by human effort. Paul's letter to them was to show them the proper way of attaining that goal, and it grieved him to see them go astray and misunderstand the mystery:
My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you. [Gal. 4.19]
This, then, is the core of the Christian calling, that high calling towards which Paul had fixed his hopes. Jesus died to save us, but that great salvation involved so much more than restoring fellowship between God and man. Ensuring our eternal place in heaven was only the beginning of the blessing, for we have been adopted as sons, heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ. We are no longer our own, to do with as we please. For we died, and the life we now live in the body we live by faith in the Son of God. We must enter that Sabbath Rest which awaits the People of God, where we rest from our own works. Then we can be completely available to him, vessels containing a great treasure, holy and set apart for his exclusive use. He will do as he promised, and come and live his life in us. Listen to the words of the Lord. Is it not very clear that our salvation is to involve so much more than going to heaven? Do you now see that your life as a Christian involves so much more than going to church on Sundays, trying to find ways to make the gospel attractive to unbelievers, condemning yourself for your failure to love, forgive, pray, worship, think and feel as you know you were called to by the Word of God? We need to feed off the Word, we need to realize exactly what it is that we have been brought into by the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, our only Sovereign and Lord.
I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe.[Eph. 1.17-19]
Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him and he with me. To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.[Rev. 3.20-22]