Fearlessly Courageous
Desk of Dennis Piller
5/19/2022
Sanctification – Christ's experience is our spiritual history.
We have been talking about how God's gifts have become ours by faith alone, but what of the urgency of our sanctification? How can we know deliverance in our daily lives from sins reign? Exactly how is our old man, who has troubled us for years, to be crucified and put away? God wants to save us from the power of sin; this is sanctification.
Once again the answer is not in walking, not in striving, not in laboring but
"in sitting": Interesting, it is something that was already done. “We died to sin. We were baptized. .. Unto his death. .. We were buried with him.
God… Quickened us together with Christ”
Rom 6:2, 3, 4: Ephesians 2:5 All these statements are in the past. Why? Because Jesus was crucified 2000 years ago and I was crucified with him.
This is a great historical fact.
By that fact, "His experience now becomes my spiritual history", and God can speak of me as already having everything "with him!" Think of that for a moment… all that we have now, we have, “with Christ”.
“With Christ” – crucified, quicken, raised, set in the heavenlies: To the human mind, these ideas are beyond our capability to understand. Look at the words Jesus spoke to Nicodemus in John: 3 He was asked the question of how can one be born again. What? Can we return to our mother's womb? The truth is, we can’t understand that with our natural mind, we can only do that by being reborn in the spirit. We were not born with Christ, but we were “Crucified with him" Galatians” 2:20. Our union with him began with his death. God included us "in him" We were “with him”, because we were, “in him”.
So how can I be sure that I am, in Christ?
If you put a dollar bill between the pages of a magazine and burn it… where is the dollar bill? It is part of the same ashes! Where the one goes the other goes too. Their history has become one. But, just as effectively, God has put us “in Christ”. What happened to him… happened also to us.
Our old man was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, so that we are no longer in bondage to sin. Romans 6:6 That is not an exhortation to struggle! That is history!
Our history was written “in Christ” before we were born. Our crucifixion with Christ is a glorious historical fact., Even if you can’t get your head around it.
Our deliverance from sin is based, not on what we can do, not even on what God is going to do for us in the future, but on what he has already done for us “in Christ”. When that fact dawns upon us, and we rest back upon it (Romans 6:11) then we will have found the secret of a holy life.
Consider an example. If someone makes an unkind remark about you in your presence how do you react? You compress your lips, clench your teeth, and take a firm grip upon yourself: and if with a great effort, you manage to suppress all signs of resentment and be reasonably polite in return… you feel you have gained a great victory. But the truth is, the resentment is still there…
It is merely covered up. And at times we don’t even succeed in covering it up. So what is the trouble? It is that you were trying to walk, (do something yourself)… before you sat down, and that way of thinking and action caused your defeat. Let me repeat.
No Christian experience begins with walking but always sitting down.
The secret of deliverance from sin is not to do something but to rest on what God has already done. It is His power in you… the Hope of Glory.
But none the less we think to ourselves, I must do something. But there is another side, a spirit side, that asks the question… what can I do? God is waiting till you to “cease to do!” And when you cease doing…Then God can begin.
Lastly, have you ever tried to save a drowning man? The trouble is that his fear prevents him from trusting himself to you. That means you must either knock him unconscious and drag him to the shore or you must leave him to struggle and shout until his strength gives way before you can rescue him. If you try to save him while he has any strength left, he will cling to you and drag you under and you will both be lost.
God is waiting for your store of strength to be utterly exhausted before he can deliver you. Once you have ceased to struggle, he will do everything. Once you “sit” /surrender to God, he will always meet you there. In effect, God is waiting for you to despair…to give up in your stiving of will and determination, and let go and let God. For everything has been done, "in Christ". Surrendering to a holy God who loves you. It is all about “sitting down” before him.
Surrendering to Him.
Lord help me today to see what Nicodemus came to see. It is by your Spirit saith the Lord, by surrendering all that I am and all that I desire to the one that loves me like no other. Lord, I say YES today, I surrender all and give it over to you. I know I can trust you.
Glorious Day-Kristian Stanfill/Passion
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1s4UblPViiI
Excerpts taken from Watchman Nee's book Sit Walk Stand 1957
