Putting on the Lord Jesus Christ Putting On

Putting on the Lord Jesus Christ

Putting On the Lord Jesus Christ I. Introduction II. Phase 1/Phase 2 Distinction III. Phase 1 – Salvation Foundation IV. Positional Truth V. Phase 2 – Spirituality VI. Conclusion

Position in Heaven Eph 1: 3 -14 Eph 2: 4 -6 In Christ Identification with Christ Acts 16: 31 Gal 2: 20 believe Rom 8: 29 Abiding In Christ Col 2: 6 confess & reckon 1 John 1: 9 6: 11 Rom John 15: 4 -5 1 Cor 3: 1 1 John 1: 7 Gal 5: 16 1 John 3: 6 a, 9 Condition on Earth

YIELD!

Presen t!

“It is a serious mistake to presume that the Christian can maintain a neutral or passive attitude toward error. Contrariwise, he must oppose error as definitely as he embraces truth. Error is never static or stagnant, but is always aggressive. For that reason it has never died a natural death, nor can we ignore it to death. “Error ceaselessly seeks to corrupt, efface, and neutralize the truth, and to destroy all whom it enmeshes in its tentacles. The grand reason then for opposing error is to retrieve precious souls from its blight, and to deliver them from bondage to freedom, from darkness to marvelous light. ”—W. D. Miller, Modern Divine Healing, p. 9. Part Five: A Guide to Spiritual Growth, Chapter 67, “Psychic Healing, ” p 304

“Conditionally, almost all believers are to some extent under the principle of law ‘as a rule of life. ’ The all-too-general attitude is: I must love the Lord and others; I must maintain my testimony; I must witness and work for Him; I must resist self; I must stop this sinning. ” Part Four: The Realization of Spiritual Growth, Chapter 46, Romans 7 Reckoning, p 207 “Too many Christians today are seeking to live for the Lord on the basis of the principle of love… Such a motive is good, high, and altruistic; but it is neither the best, nor the highest, nor is it spiritual. Our love is far too weak and vacillating for such an undertaking… “There is only one true and adequate motivating power for living the Christian life, and that is the very life of the Lord Jesus - ministered within by the Spirit of Life Himself. This is not a motivation of love, but the empowerment of life. ‘For to me to live is Christ’ (Philippians 1: 21). It is not, ‘Only what is done for Christ will last, ’ but rather, ‘Only what is done by Christ will last. ’” Part Four: The Realization of Spiritual Growth, Chapter 47, Romans 8 Reckoning, p 213

Results of Law—Negative: (1) The law says, Don’t sin, so he struggles to keep from sinning. The law says, Do righteousness, so he struggles to be righteous. But the law does not give the Christian power over sin—it gives sin power over the Christian!. . . (2) The Christian who is walking after the flesh is walking under law, and therefore is doomed to failure… The carnal believer is depending upon fleshly means for deliverance from fleshly failure; he is looking for strength to the very source from which he is seeking deliverance. (3) The Christian life becomes a burden, and a continuous up-and-down experience… (4) As to service, where there is any at all it is mainly by means of self-effort—whether it be preaching, teaching, or personal witness. Flashy gimmicks and neat little methods are employed, but the flesh can only spawn more of its own kind. The problem is compounded. Part Three: The Ground of Growth, Chapter 32, In-Law, pp 153, 154

“Not law, but grace; not I, but Christ. The principle of law applied to the believer dooms him to Romans Seven, while the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus delivers him to Romans Eight… “Spiritual growth does not involve effort on the part of the Christian, for the indwelling Spirit transmits the life of the Lord Jesus from source to servant. Neither is there struggle connected with the daily deliverance from the tyranny of self, for the Spirit transmits the finished work of the Cross to that sinful element. “Where these death-dealing and life-giving identification truths are unknown to the believer, he finds no alternative but to try to keep the law as a ‘rule of life. ’ This erroneous expedient consists of applying the principle of law for the control of conduct—its prohibitions for self, its commands for life… Part Five: A Guide to Spiritual Growth, Chapter 58, Law Versus Life, pp 261, 262

“Most of the depressing law-burden placed upon believers emanates from Calvinism and its Covenant theology. Many are unaware of the legalistic aspect of this teaching, since its tenets are well known for providing the Christian with the solid scriptural foundation of justification and eternal security… “The Covenant theologians have ever remained well within the scope of Reformation doctrine. We can be thankful for this with regard to justification by faith, but when it comes to sanctification via Christ our life, it is a different matter. Substitution is clearly proclaimed; identification (our death to the law and our life in Christ) by and large has not been recognized… “In thus merging Israel with born-again believers, the law is brought right on past Calvary and fastened upon the Christian…This theology prevents the Christian from seeing and freely taking his stand as having died unto the law and being now alive unto God in the Lord Jesus. ” Part Five: A Guide to Spiritual Growth, Chapter 58, Law Versus Life, pp 261, 262

Perseverance of the Saints “Once justified and regenerated, the believer can neither totally nor finally fall away from grace, but will certainly persevere therein and attain everlasting life. ” Easton’s Bible Dictionary

(1 April 1886 – 15 July 1952) Arthur Pink “Is the disciple to be above his Master, the servant superior to his Lord? Christ was ‘made under the law’ (Gal. 4: 4), and lived in perfect submission thereto, and has left us an example that we should ‘follow His steps’ (I Peter 2: 21). Only by loving, fearing, and obeying the law, shall we be kept from sinning. “There is an unceasing warfare between the flesh and the Spirit, each bringing forth ‘after its own kind, ’ so that groans ever mingle with the Christian’s songs. The believer finds himself alternating between thanking God for deliverance from temptation and contritely confessing his deplorable yielding to temptation. Often he is made to cry, ‘O wretched man that I am!’ (Rom. 7: 24). Such has been for upwards of twenty-five years the experience of the writer, and it is still so. ” (The Doctrine of Sanctification, pp. 71, 121. ) Part Five: A Guide to Spiritual Growth, Chapter 58, Law Versus Life, p 263

gotquestions. org “In the same way, Keswick [Higher Life] theologians take a very real and biblical distinction between justification and sanctification and press it too far. Scripture tells us that all those who are saved (justified) are also being sanctified. God promises to finish the work He began in us (Philippians 1: 6). “‘But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification’ (Romans 6: 22, NASB). We are freed from sin by Christ’s sacrifice on the cross, but our freedom must lead to holiness (sanctification), not further sin. Rather, Paul tells us that we are ‘to consider [ourselves] to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus’ (Romans 6: 11, NASB). The picture that we see painted in these verses is that it is impossible for the believer to persist in sin, once he or she has truly entered into a relationship with Christ. [Higher Life] theology says that one could be a genuine Christian and still say something like, ‘I have been justified, but I am not being sanctified, because I don’t see the need to be right now. I’m a Christian, surely; I’m just not as dedicated as others might be. ’ Of course, Scripture tells us that such an attitude is really evidence that the person speaking is not a believer (1 John 2: 3– 4). As a result, [Higher Life] theology may give false assurance of salvation to those who refuse to submit to the Word of God but still want to think of themselves as truly saved. “Sanctification is a long, gradual, and sometimes tortuous process, and it is something that all believers will experience, not just those who have a ‘second touch’ of the Spirit. ”

(May 1821 – 27 March 1906) William Kelly “Every believer is regarded by God as alive from the dead, to bring forth fruit [not works] unto God. The law only deals with a man as long as he lives; never after he is dead. ‘For ye died, and your life is hid with Christ in God. ’ And that is not at all what is said of us after a ‘second blessing, ’ … or any other step of imaginary perfection. We begin with it… I am identified with Christ dead and risen. It is no longer the law dealing with me to try if it can get any good out of me. I have relinquished all by receiving the Lord Jesus, and I take my stand in Him dead and risen again … as one alive from the dead, to yield myself to God. “The Gospel supposes that, good and holy and perfect as the law of God is, it is entirely powerless either to justify or sanctify. It cannot in any way make the old nature better; neither is it the rule of life for the new nature. The old man is not subject to the law, and the new man does not need it. The new creature has another object before it, and another power acts upon it, in order to produce what is lovely and acceptable to God—Christ the object, realized by the power of the Holy Spirit. ” (Galatians, pp. 125, 137. ) Part Five: A Guide to Spiritual Growth, Chapter 58, Law Versus Life, pp 264 -265

(May 1821 – 27 March 1906) William Kelly “Some good men who in grievous error would impose the law as a rule of life for the Christian mean very well by it but the whole principle is false because the law, instead of being a rule of life, is necessarily a rule of death to one who has sin in his nature. Far from a delivering power, it can only condemn such; far from being a means of holiness, it is, in fact, the strength of sin (1 Cor. 15: 56). ” (The Holy Spirit, p. 197. ) Part Five: A Guide to Spiritual Growth, Chapter 58, Law Versus Life, p 265

(August 19, 1843 – July 24, 1921) C. I. Scofield “Most of us have been reared and now live under the influence of Galatianism. Protestant theology is for the most part thoroughly Galatianized, in that neither the law nor grace is given its distinct and separate place as in the counsels of God, but they are mingled together in one incoherent system. “The law is no longer, as in the divine intent, a ministration of death (2 Cor. 3: 7), of cursing (Gal. 3: 10), or conviction (Rom. 3: 19), because we are taught that we must try to keep it, and that by divine help we may. Nor does grace, on the other hand, bring us blessed deliverance from the dominion of sin, for we are kept under the law as a rule of life despite the plain declaration of Romans 6: 14—‘For sin shall not have dominion over you; for ye are not under the law but under grace. ”’ (The Fundamentals for Today, Vol. 2, p. 367. ) Part Five: A Guide to Spiritual Growth, Chapter 58, Law Versus Life, p 265