Chapter 8: Bought out and set free
"God
forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ."
Galatians 6:14
"We have seen that Paul says that the cross
has put him in an entirely new position -- that he was crucified with
Christ [and] when Christ died, he died.... All who believe in Christ
-
"If the cross is
not central to you, you are not a Christian. You may say that you admire
Jesus and his teaching, that does not make you a Christian. You can do
that and be a Mohammedan. You can do that and still remain in the Jewish
religion. You can do that and remain just a moralist.
"No, the cross is vital, the cross is central,
everything comes out of it. Let me put it to you like this. The Apostle
tells us that the cross governs his view of himself and that he
has a new view of himself as a result of the cross."
[page 199]
"For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the
flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and
for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: that the righteousness of the
law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but
after the Spirit."
Romans 8:3-4
"It was on the cross that God condemned sin and the flesh in order that
the righteousness of
the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after
the Spirit. In other words, the cross gives a man an entirely new
outlook upon how to live life in this world.
"And this is how it does it. Before a man sees the
meaning of the message of the cross, he thinks in terms of good and bad,
he thinks in terms of actions, but he cannot get any further, and
because he cannot get any further, he cannot do what he wants to do. But
the cross gives us an entirely new view of sin, and it shows us that sin
is our greatest enemy. It shows us things we like and things we are fond
of, and things
the world dazzles before us, as the enemies of our souls. They are the
things that put us in jeopardy.
"It shows us that
what the world glories in is what has brought us to our present
misery. It is the thing that makes us unhappy, it is
the thing that produces all the problems. The thing that seemed so
wonderful is the thing that makes us afraid to die and afraid of
God—that is what it really is. The cross strips it of all its gaudy
colouring and reveals it unto us in its vileness and foulness.
"And it does it in
this way. What was it that brought the Son of God to the cross? The
answer is sin. Sin. Rebellion against God. This principle of evil. The
selfishness of man." [211]
"What shall we
say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly
not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Or do you not
know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were
baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through
baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by
the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of
life.
"For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death,
certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection,
knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the
body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be
slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin.
"Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with
Him.... For the death that He
died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He
lives to God. Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be
dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
"Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should
obey it in its lusts. And do not present your members as instruments
of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being
alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness
to God. For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not
under law but under grace."
Romans 6:1-13
"...your sanctification is governed by your
view of the cross. ... You are contradicting your own initial beliefs if
you continue in sin and are not living the holy life, or, in the words
of the apostle John,
‘Beloved, now
are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be:
but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we
shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him
purifieth himself, even as he is pure."
1 John 3:2-3
"Once a man sees the message of the cross,
he has an entirely new view of everything. He is not just trying to live
a good life now; not just trying not to do harm; not trying to live just
on the edge of the law.... That is all finished.
"He is a new man. He has been bought
with a price, he is a son of God. He is being prepared for him. He has a
new motive. ... He says, I [will no longer sin]. I have been bought with
a price. I have no right to do it, I am not my own. I belong to him. I
am a slave of Christ as I used to be the slave of the devil and of
sin....
He has a new conception of sin, he has new
motives for living a holy life, and thank God, over and above
all, he has got new power whereby to do it. For the Christ of God
died not only that we might be forgiven but that we might receive the
gift of the Holy Spirit and his power."
[213]
"According to my
earnest expectation and my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed,
but that with all boldness, as always, so now also Christ shall be
magnified in my body, whether it be by life, or by death. For to me
to live is Christ, and to die is gain."
Philippians 1:20-21
"...out of this cross come
all these wonderful things. Man is delivered from his petty self,
he is taught how to live and enabled to live in that way. He is
taught how to suffer whatever may come. He is taught how to die
victoriously and triumphantly, because he knows that Christ by dying
conquered death and his death led to the glory of the resurrection, the
ascension, and his sitting in the
glory at the right hand of God.
"It is not surprising is it, that this man
says, ‘God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of the Lord
Jesus Christ’? What else is there? This is everything. Every good thing
comes out of this. Without this there is nothing. With this there is
everything—in this world, in life, in death, and in the glory
everlasting, which awaits the children, the people of God."
[217-218]
"Are you glorying in the cross of Christ? Or are you still glorying in
yourself? Have you seen yourself? Look to the cross, and you
will see yourself, you will hate yourself, and you will pray to
be delivered and he will tell you that he has delivered you. He
died that you might say,
"I live, yet not I, but
Christ lives in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I
live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself
for me."
Galatians 2:20
"For you were bought at
a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit,
which are God’s."
1 Corinthians 6:20
O Lamb of
God, still keep me
Close to Thy piercèd side;
’Tis only there in safety
And peace I can abide.
What foes and snares surround me,
What lusts and fears within!
The grace that sought and found me
Alone can keep me clean.
Soon shall my eyes behold Thee
With rapture face to face;
One half hath not been told me
Of all Thy power and grace.
Thy beauty, Lord, and glory,
The wonders of Thy love,
Shall be the endless story
Of all Thy saints above.
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