How did Jesus Overcome?
THE THIRD ANGEL’S MESSAGE – 17
A.T. Jones
Now as to Christ’s not having “like passions” with us: In the Scriptures all the way through He is like us and with us according to the flesh. He is the seed of David according to the flesh. He was made in the likeness of sinful flesh. Don’t go too far. He was made in the likeness of sinful flesh, not in the likeness of sinful mind. Do not drag His mind into it. His flesh was our flesh, but the mind was “the mind of Christ Jesus.” Therefore it is written: “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.” If He had taken our mind, how, then, could we ever have been exhorted to “let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus?” It would have been so already. But what kind of mind is ours? O, it is corrupted with sin also. Look at ourselves in the second chapter of Ephesians, beginning with the first verse and reading to the third, but the third verse is the one that has this particular point in it: {February 25, 1895 ATJ, GCB 327.1}
Now I refer you also to page 191 of the Bulletin, to the lessons we studied on the destruction of that enmity. We studied there where the enmity came from, you remember–how it got into this world–the ground is covered in this that I have just read. Adam had the mind of Jesus Christ in the garden; he had the divine mind–the divine and the human were united, sinlessly. Satan came in and offered his inducements through the appetite, through the flesh. Adam and Eve forsook the mind of Jesus Christ, the mind of God that was in them, and accepted the suggestions and the leadings of this other mind. Thus they were enslaved to that and so are we all. Now Jesus Christ comes into the world, taking our flesh, and in His sufferings and temptations in the wilderness He fights the battle upon the point of appetite. {February 25, 1895 ATJ, GCB 327.2}
Where Adam and Eve failed and where sin entered He fought the battle over and victory was won and righteousness entered. He having fasted forty days and forty nights–perfectly helpless, human as ourselves, hungry as we–there came to Him the temptation, “If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.” He answered, “It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” {February 25, 1895 ATJ, GCB 327.3}
Then Satan took another turn. He argued: You are trusting in the word of God, are you? All right. Here the word of God says: “He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.” Now you are trusting in the word of God: you jump off here, for it is written, “He shall give his angels charge concerning thee.” Jesus answered again: “It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.” {February 25, 1895 ATJ, GCB 327.4}
Then Satan took Jesus upon an exceeding high mountain and showed Him all the glory of them too–the glory, the honor, the dignity–he showed Him all that. And there at that moment there was stirred up all the ambition that ever appeared in Napoleon or Caesar or Alexander or all of them put together. But from Jesus still the answer is: “It is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.” {February 25, 1895 ATJ, GCB 327.5}
Then the devil departed from Him for a season, and angels came and ministered unto Him. There was the power of Satan conquered in man on the point of appetite–just where that power was gained over man. This man at the first had the mind of God; he forsook it and took the mind of Satan. In Jesus Christ the mind of God is brought back once more to the sons of men, and Satan is conquered. Therefore, it is gloriously true, as the word reads in Dr. Young’s translation and in the German, as it does in the Greek: “We know that the Son of God is come and has given us a mind.” {February 25, 1895 ATJ, GCB 327.6}
Read the last words of 1 Cor. 2:16: “We have the mind of Christ.” Put the two transactions together. The German and the Danish and also the Greek are alike. Put the two together: “We know that the Son of God is come and has given us a mind” and “We have the mind of Christ.” Thank the Lord! {February 25, 1895 ATJ, GCB 327.7}
Read in Romans now. I will read from the Greek, beginning with the twenty-fourth verse of the seventh chapter. You remember from the tenth to the twenty-fourth verses is that contest: The good I would do, I do not; and the evil I hate, that I do. I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. There the flesh has control and draws the mind after it, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind. Now.– {February 25, 1895 ATJ, GCB 328.1}
O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then I myself with the mind indeed serve the law of God [or rather serve God’s law, literally here]; but with the flesh, sin’s law. There is then now no condemnation to those in Christ Jesus who walk not according to flesh but according to Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus set me free from the law of sin and of death. For the law being powerless, in that it was weak through the flesh, God having sent his own son in likeness of flesh of sin, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh, that the requirement of the law should be fulfilled in us, who not according to flesh walk, but according to Spirit. For they that according to flesh are, the things of the flesh mind; and they according to Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For the mind of the flesh is death; but the mind of the Spirit [that is, the Spirit’s mind; the one is the flesh’s mind, and the other is the Spirit’s mind], life and peace. Because the mind of the flesh is enmity toward God: for to the law of God it is not subject; for neither can it be; and they that in flesh are, God please can not [that is, cannot please God]. But ye are not in flesh, but in spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you; but if any one the Spirit of Christ has not, he is not of him: but if Christ be in you, the body is dead, on account of sin, but the Spirit life [is] on account of righteousness. {February 25, 1895 ATJ, GCB 328.2}
Our minds have consented to sin. We have felt the enticements of the flesh and our minds yielded, our minds consented and did the wills and the desires of the flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind. The flesh leads and our minds have followed, and with the flesh the law of sin is served. When the mind can lead, the law of God is served. But as our minds have surrendered, yielded to sin, they have themselves become sinful and weak and are led away by the power of sin in the flesh. {February 25, 1895 ATJ, GCB 328.3}
Now the flesh of Jesus Christ was our flesh and in it was all that is in our flesh–all the tendencies to sin that are in our flesh were in His flesh, drawing upon Him to get Him to consent to sin. Suppose He had consented to sin with His mind–what then? Then His mind would have been corrupted and then He would have become of like passions with us. But in that case He Himself would have been a sinner; He would have been entirely enslaved and we all would have been lost–everything would have perished. {February 25, 1895 ATJ, GCB 328.4}
I will read now from the new Life of Christ, advance copy, upon this very point: {February 25, 1895 ATJ, GCB 328.5}
It is true that Christ at one time said of himself, “The prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me.” John 14:30. Satan finds in human hearts some point where he can gain a foothold; some sinful desire is cherished, by means of which his temptations assert their power. {February 25, 1895 ATJ, GCB 328.6}
Where does he start the temptation? In the flesh. Satan reaches the mind through the flesh; God reaches the flesh through the mind. Satan controls the mind through the flesh. Through this means–through the lusts of the flesh, the lusts of the eyes, the pride of life, and through ambition for the world and the honor and respect of men–through these things Satan draws upon us, upon our minds to get us to yield. Our minds respond and we cherish that thing. By this means his temptations assert their power. Then we have sinned. But until that drawing of our flesh is cherished, there is no sin. There is temptation, but not sin. Every man is tempted when he is drawn away thus and enticed, and when lust has conceived, when that desire is cherished, then it brings forth sin, and sin when it is finished bringeth forth death. {February 25, 1895 ATJ, GCB 328.7}
Some sinful desire [with us] is cherished, by means of which his temptations assert their power. But he could find nothing in the Son of God that would enable him to gain the victory. Jesus did not consent to sin. Not even by a thought could he be brought to yield to the power of temptation. {February 25, 1895 ATJ, GCB 328.8}
Thus you see that where the victory comes, where the battlefield is, is right upon the line between the flesh and the mind. The battle is fought in the realm of the thoughts. The battle against the flesh, I mean, is fought altogether and the victory won in the realm of the thoughts. Therefore, Jesus Christ came in just such flesh as ours but with a mind that held its integrity against every temptation, against every inducement to sin–a mind that never consented to sin–no, never in the least conceivable shadow of a thought. {February 25, 1895 ATJ, GCB 328.9}
And by that means He has brought that divine man to every man on earth. Therefore every man for the choosing and by choosing can have that divine mind that conquers sin in the flesh. Dr. Young’s translation of 1 John 5:20 is: “Ye know that the Son of God has come, and hath given us a mind.” The German says the same thing exactly and the Greek too–“has given us a mind.” To be sure he has. That is what He came for. We had the carnal mind, the mind that followed Satan and yielded to the flesh. What was it that enslaved Eve’s mind? O, she saw that the tree was good for food. It was not good for any such thing. The appetite, the lusts of the flesh, the desires of the flesh, led her off. She took of the tree and did eat. The appetite led, and enslaved the mind–that is, the mind of the flesh, and that is enmity against God; it comes from Satan. In Jesus Christ it is destroyed by the divine mind which He brought into the flesh. By this divine mind He put the enmity underfoot and kept it there. By this He condemned sin in the flesh. So there is our victory. In Him is our victory, and it is all in having that mind which was in Him. {February 25, 1895 ATJ, GCB 328.10}
O, it is all told in the beginning. There came in this enmity, and Satan took man captive and enslaved the mind. God says, “I will put enmity between thee and the woman and between thy seed and her seed.” Who was her seed? Christ. “It [her seed] shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise his” head? No, sir. No, sir. “Thou shalt bruise his heel.” All that Satan could do with Christ was to entice the flesh, to lay temptations before the flesh. He could not affect the mind of Christ. But Christ reaches the mind of Satan, where the enmity lies and where it exists and He destroys that wicked thing. It is all told there in the story in Genesis. {February 25, 1895 ATJ, GCB 329.1}
The blessedness of it is, Satan can only deal with the flesh. He can stir up the desires of the flesh, but the mind of Christ stands there and says, No, no. The law of God is to be served and the body of flesh must come under. {February 25, 1895 ATJ, GCB 329.2}
We shall have to follow this thought further. But even only so far there is blessing, there is joy, there is salvation in it for every soul. Therefore “let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.” That conquers sin in the sinful flesh. By his promise we are made partakers of the divine nature. Divinity and humanity are united once more when the divine mind of Jesus Christ by His divine faith abides in human flesh. Let them be united in you and be glad and rejoice forevermore in it. {February 25, 1895 ATJ, GCB 329.3}
Thus you see the mind which we have is the flesh’s mind. It is controlled by the flesh and it came to us from whom? Satan. Therefore it is enmity against God. And that mind of Satan is the mind of self, always self, in the place of God. Now Christ came to bring to us another mind than that. While we have Satan’s mind, the flesh ruling, we serve the law of sin. God can reveal to us His law and we can consent that that is good and desire to fulfill it and make resolutions to do so and sign bargains and make contracts even, “but I see another law in my members [in my flesh], warring against the law of my mind [against that desire, that wish of my mind, that delights in the law of God], and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am!” But Christ comes and brings another mind–the Spirit’s mind–to us and gives us that. He gives us a mind and we have His mind by His Holy Spirit. Then and therefore with the mind–the Spirit’s mind, the mind of Christ which He hath given us–the law of God is served. Thank the Lord. {February 25, 1895 ATJ, GCB 329.4}
So see the difference. In the seventh of Romans there is described the man in whom the flesh rules and leads the mind astray, against the will of the man even. In the ninth chapter of 1 Corinthians, verses 26, 27, is described the man in whom the mind has control. This is the Christian. The mind has control of the body and the body is under, and he keeps it under. Therefore it is written in another place (Rom. 12:2): {February 25, 1895 ATJ, GCB 329.5}
Be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind. {February 25, 1895 ATJ, GCB 329.6}
And the Greek word is the same word exactly as that: “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation,” he is a new creature–not an old man changed over, but a new-made one. So this is not an old mind made over but a new-created mind. That is the mind of Christ wrought in us by the Spirit of God, giving us the mind of Christ and so making an entirely new mind in us and for us. {February 25, 1895 ATJ, GCB 329.7}
This is shown in Romans, eighth chapter: “They that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh,” because they do the works of the flesh, the mind follows sin that way. “But they that after the Spirit [mind], the things of the Spirit.” And “if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.” That which brings to us the mind of Jesus Christ is the Holy Ghost. Indeed, the Spirit of God brings Jesus Christ Himself to us. By the Holy Ghost the real presence of Christ is with us and dwells in us. Can He bring Christ to us without bringing the mind of Christ to us? Assuredly not. So then in the nature of things there is the mind of Christ which He came into the world to give us. {February 25, 1895 ATJ, GCB 329.8}
Now see how this follows further, and what it cost to do that, and how it was done. This mind of the flesh is the minding of self. It is enmity against God and is controlled through the flesh. Jesus Christ came into this flesh Himself–the glorious One–He who made the worlds, the Word of God–was made flesh Himself and He was our flesh. And He, that divine One who was in heaven was in our sinful flesh. Yet that divine One, when in sinful flesh never manifested a particle of His divine self in resisting the temptations that were in that flesh but emptied Himself. {February 25, 1895 ATJ, GCB 329.9}
We are here studying the same subject that we have been studying these three or four years, but God is leading us further along in the study of it, and I am glad. We have been studying for three or four years, “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus,” who emptied Himself. That mind must be in us in order for us to be emptied, for we cannot of ourselves empty ourselves. Nothing but divinity can do that. That is an infinite thing. Can the mind of Satan empty itself of self? No. Can the mind that is in us, that minding of self, empty itself of self? No. Self cannot do it. Jesus Christ, the divine One, the infinite One, came in His divine person in this same flesh of ours and never allowed His divine power, His personal self, to be manifested at all in resisting these temptations and enticements and drawings of the flesh. {February 25, 1895 ATJ, GCB 330.1}
What was it, then, that conquered sin there and kept Him from sinning? It was the power of God the Father that kept Him. Now where does that touch us? Here. We cannot empty ourselves, but His divine mind comes into us and by that divine power we can empty ourselves of our wicked selves and then by that divine power the mind of Jesus Christ, of God the Father, comes to us and keeps us from the power of temptation. Thus Christ, emptying His divine self, His righteous self, brings to us the power by which we are emptied of our wicked selves. And this is how He abolished in His flesh the enmity and made it possible for the enmity to be destroyed in you and me. {February 25, 1895 ATJ, GCB 330.2}
Do you see that? I know it takes close thinking, and I know too that when you have thought upon that and have got it clearly, then the mind cannot go any further. There we come face to face with the mystery of God itself, and human, finite intellect must stop and say, That is holy ground. That is beyond my measure. I can go no further. I surrender to God. {February 25, 1895 ATJ, GCB 330.3}
[Question: Did not Christ depend on God to keep Him? Answer: Yes, that is what I am saying. That is the point.] {February 25, 1895 ATJ, GCB 330.4}
Christ depended in the Father all the time. Christ Himself, who made the worlds, was all the time in that sinful flesh of mine and yours which He took. He who made the worlds was there in His divine presence all the time, but never did He allow Himself to appear at all or to do anything at all that was done. That was kept back, and when these temptations come upon Him, He could have annihilated them all with the assertion–in righteousness of His divine self. But if He had done so, it would have ruined us. To have asserted Himself, to have allowed Himself to appear, even in righteousness, would have ruined us, because we who are only wicked never would have had anything before us then but the manifestation of self. Set before men who are only wicked, manifestation of self, even in divine righteousness, as an example to be followed and you simply make men that much more confirmed in selfishness and the wickedness of selfishness. Therefore, in order that we in our wicked selves might be delivered from our wicked selves, the divine One, the holy One, kept under, surrendered, emptied all the manifestation of His righteous self. And that does accomplish it. He accomplished it by keeping Himself back all the time and leaving everything entirely to the Father to hold Him against these temptations. He was Conqueror through the grace and power of the Father, which came to Him upon His trust and upon His emptying Himself of self. {February 25, 1895 ATJ, GCB 330.5}
There is where you and I are now. There is where it comes to you and me. We are tempted, we are tried, and there is always room for us to assert ourselves and we undertake to make things move. There are suggestions which rise that such and such things are “too much for even a Christian to bear,” and that “Christian humility is not intended to go as far as that.” Some one strikes you on the cheek or breaks your wagon or tools or he may stone your tent or meetinghouse. Satan suggests, “Now you send those fellows up. You take the law to them. Christians are not to bear such things as that in the world; that is not fair.” You answer Him: “That is so. There is no use of that. We will teach those fellows a lesson.” {February 25, 1895 ATJ, GCB 330.6}
Yes, and perhaps you do. But what is that? That is self-defense. That is self-replying. No. Keep back that wicked self. Let God attend to the matter. “Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.” That is what Jesus Christ did. He was spit upon; he was taunted; he was struck upon the face; his hair was pulled; a crown of thorns was put upon his head and in mockery the knee was bowed, with “Hail King of the Jews.” They blindfolded Him and then struck Him and cried: “Prophesy, who is it that smote thee?” All that was put upon Him.And in His human nature He bore all that, because His divine self was kept back. {February 25, 1895 ATJ, GCB 330.7}
Was there any suggestion to him, suppose you, to drive back that riotous crowd? to let loose one manifestation of His divinity and sweep away the whole wicked company? Satan was there to suggest it to Him, if nothing else. What did He do? He stood defenseless as the Lamb of God. There was no assertion of His divine self, no sign of it–only the man standing there, leaving all to God to do whatsoever He pleased. He said to Pilate: “Thou couldst have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above.” That is the faith of Jesus. And that is what the prophecy means when it says, “Here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.” We are to have that divine faith of Jesus Christ, which comes to us in the gift of the mind which He gives. That mind which He gives to me will exercise in me the same faith it exercised in Him. So we keep the faith of Jesus. {February 25, 1895 ATJ, GCB 331.1}
So then there was He, by that self-surrender keeping back His righteous self and refusing ever to allow it to appear under the most grievous temptations–and the Spirit of Prophecy tells us that what was brought upon Him there in the night of His betrayal were the very things that were the hardest for human nature to submit to. But He, by the keeping back of His divine self, caused human nature to submit to it by the power of the Father, who kept Him from sinning. And by that means He brings us to that same divine mind, that same divine power, that when we shall be taunted, when we shall be stricken upon the face, when we shall be spit upon, when we shall be persecuted as He was–as shortly we shall be–that divine mind which was in Him being given to us will keep back our natural selves, our sinful selves and we will leave all to God. Then the Father will keep us now in Him, as He kept us then in Him. That is our victory and there is how He destroyed the enmity for us. And in Him it is destroyed in us. Thank the Lord! {February 25, 1895 ATJ, GCB 331.2}
I will read a portion now from the Spirit of Prophecy that will help in the understanding of the subject. {February 25, 1895 ATJ, GCB 331.3}
First from an article published in the Review and Herald of July 5, 1887. It is so good that I will read a few passages to go into the Bulletin with this lesson so that all can have it and so that all may know for certain that the steps we have taken in this study are exactly correct: {February 25, 1895 ATJ, GCB 331.4}
The apostle would call our attention from ourselves to the Author of our salvation. He presents before us his two natures, human and divine. Here is the description of the divine: “Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God.” He was the “brightness of his glory and the express image of his person.” {February 25, 1895 ATJ, GCB 331.5}
Now of the human: He “was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death.” He voluntarily assumed human nature. It was his own act, and by his own consent. He clothed his divinity with humanity. He was all the while as God, but he did not appear as God. He veiled the demonstrations of Deity, which had commanded the homage and called forth the admiration of the universe of God. He was God while upon earth, but he divested himself of the form of God and in its stead took the form and fashion of man. He walked the earth as a man. For our sakes he became poor, that we through his poverty might become rich. He laid aside his glory and his majesty. He was God, but the glories of the form of God he for a while relinquished. Though he walked among men in poverty, scattering his blessings wherever he went, at his word legions of angels would surround their Redeemer and do him homage. {February 25, 1895 ATJ, GCB 331.6}
When Peter, at the time of Christ’s betrayal, resisted the officers and took the sword and raised it and cut off an ear of the servant of the high priest, Jesus said, Put up your sword. Don’t you know that I could call twelve legions of angels? {February 25, 1895 ATJ, GCB 331.7}
But he walked on the earth unrecognized, unconfessed with but few exceptions by his creatures. The atmosphere was polluted with sin and with curses instead of the anthems of praise. His lot was poverty and humiliation. As he passed to and fro on his mission of mercy to relieve the sick, to lift up the oppressed, scarce a solitary voice called him blessed, and the greatest of the nation passed him by with disdain. {February 25, 1895 ATJ, GCB 331.8}
Contrast this with the riches of glory, the wealth of praise pouring forth from immortal tongues, the millions of rich voices in the universe of God in anthems of adoration. But he humbled himself, and took mortality upon him. As a member of the human family he was mortal, but as God he was the fountain of life to the world. He could, in his divine person, ever have withstood the advances of death and refused to come under its dominion, but he voluntarily laid down his life, that in doing so he might give life, and bring immortality to light. He bore the sins of the world and endured the penalty which rolled like a mountain upon his divine soul. He yielded up his life a sacrifice, that man might not eternally die. He died, not by being compelled to die, but by his own free will. {February 25, 1895 ATJ, GCB 331.9}
This was humility. The whole treasure of heaven was poured out in one gift to save fallen man. He brought into his human nature all the life-giving energies that human beings will need and must receive. {February 25, 1895 ATJ, GCB 331.10}
And He brings it into my human nature yet, to your human nature, at our choice, by the Spirit of God bringing to us His divine presence and emptying us of ourselves and causing God to appear instead of self. {February 25, 1895 ATJ, GCB 331.11}
Wondrous combination of man and God! He might have helped his human nature to stand the inroads of disease by pouring from his divine nature vitality and undecaying vigor to the human. But he humbled himself to man’s nature. He did this that the Scripture might be fulfilled. And the plan was entered into by the Son of God, knowing all the steps in his humiliation that he must descend to make an expiation for the sins of a condemned, groaning world. What humility was this! It amazed angels. The tongue can never describe it; the imagination can never take it in. {February 25, 1895 ATJ, GCB 331.12}
But we can take in the blessed fact and enjoy the benefit of that to all eternity and God will give us eternity in which to take in the rest. {February 25, 1895 ATJ, GCB 332.1}
“The eternal Word consented to be made flesh. God became man.” He became man; what am I? A man. What are you? A man. He became ourselves and God with Him is God with us. {February 25, 1895 ATJ, GCB 332.2}
“But He stepped still lower.” What, still lower than that yet? Yes, sir. {February 25, 1895 ATJ, GCB 332.3}
“The man,” that is Christ, “must humble himself as a man.” Because we need to humble ourselves, He not only humbled Himself as God, but when He became man, He humbled Himself as a man, so that we might humble ourselves to God. He emptied Himself as God and became man, and then as man He humbled Himself that we might humble ourselves. And all that we might be saved! In it is salvation. Shall we not take it and enjoy it day and night and be ever just as thankful as a Christian? {February 25, 1895 ATJ, GCB 332.4}
But he stepped still lower. The man must humble himself as a man to bear insult, reproach, shameful accusations, and abuse. There seemed to be no safe place for him in his own territory. He had to flee from place to place for his life. He was betrayed by one of his disciples; he was denied by one of his most zealous followers. He was mocked; he was crowned with a crown of thorns. He was scourged. He was forced to bear the burden of the cross. He was not insensible to this contempt and ignominy. He submitted, but O, he felt the bitterness as no other being could feel it! He was pure, holy, and undefiled, yet arraigned as a criminal. The adorable Redeemer stepped down from the high exaltation. Step by step he humbled himself to die, but what a death! It was the most shameful, the most cruel–the death on the cross as a malefactor. He did not die as a hero in the eyes of the world, loaded with honors, as men die in battle. He died a condemned criminal, suspended between the heavens and the earth–died a lingering death of shame, exposed to the revilings and tauntings of a debased, crime-loaded, profligate multitude. “All they that see me laugh me to scorn: they shoot out the lip, they shake the head.” Ps. 22:7. He was numbered with the transgressors and his kinsmen according to the flesh disowned him. His mother beheld his humiliation and he was forced to see the sword pierce her heart. He endured the cross, despised the shame. He made it of small account in consideration of the results he was working out in behalf of not only the inhabitants of this speck of a world, but the whole universe–every world which God had created. {February 25, 1895 ATJ, GCB 332.5}
Christ was to die as man’s substitute. Man was a criminal under sentence of death for transgression of the law of God as a traitor, a rebel; hence a substitute for man must die as a malefactor, because he stood in the place of the traitors, with all their treasured sins upon his divine soul. It was not enough that Jesus should die in order to meet the demands of the broken law; but he died a shameful death. The prophet gives to the world his words: “I hid not my face from shame and spitting!” {February 25, 1895 ATJ, GCB 332.6}
In consideration of this, can men have one particle of self-exaltation? As they trace down the life and humiliation and sufferings of Christ, can they lift their proud heads as though they were to bear no shame, no trials, no humiliation? I say to the followers of Christ, Look to Calvary and blush for shame at your self-important ideas. All this humiliation of the Majesty of heaven was for guilty, condemned man. He went lower and lower in his humiliation, until there were no lower depths he could reach in order to lift up man from his moral defilement. {February 25, 1895 ATJ, GCB 332.7}
How low down were we then when, in order to lift us up from moral defilement He had to go step by step lower and lower until there were no lower depths He could reach? Think of it and see how low we were! All this was for you who are striving for the supremacy, striving for human praise, for human exaltation–you who are afraid you will not receive all that praise, all that deference from human minds, that you think is your due! Is this Christ like? {February 25, 1895 ATJ, GCB 332.8}
Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus. He died to make an atonement, and to be a pattern for every one who would be his disciple. Shall selfishness come into your hearts? and shall those who set not before them the pattern, Jesus, extol your merits? You have none, except as they come through Jesus Christ. Shall pride be harbored after you have seen Deity humbling himself, and then as man debasing himself, until as man there were no lower depths to which he could descend? Be astonished, O, ye heavens, and be amazed, O ye inhabitants of the earth, that such returns should be made to your Lord. {February 25, 1895 ATJ, GCB 332.9}
What contempt, what wickedness, what formality, what pride, what efforts made to lift up man and glorify himself, when the Lord of glory humbled himself, agonized, and died the shameful death on the cross in our behalf. {February 25, 1895 ATJ, GCB 332.10}
Who is learning the meekness and lowliness of the pattern? Who is striving earnestly to master self? Who is lifting his cross and following Jesus? Who is wrestling against self-conceit? Who is setting himself in good earnest and with all his energies to overcome Satanic envyings, jealousies, evil-surmisings, and lasciviousness, cleansing the soul-temple from all defilements, and opening the door of the heart for Jesus to come it? Would that these words might have that impression on the mind that all who read them might cultivate the grace of humility, be self-denying, more disposed to esteem others better than themselves, having the mind and spirit of Christ to bear one another’s burdens. O, that we might write deeply on our hearts, as we contemplate the great condescension and humiliation to which the Son of God descended, that we might be partakers of the divine nature. {February 25, 1895 ATJ, GCB 332.11}
Now I read a few lines from the advance pages of the new Life of Christ. {February 25, 1895 ATJ, GCB 332.12}
In order to carry out the great work of redemption, the Redeemer must take the place of fallen man. Burdened with the sins of the world, he must go over the ground where Adam stumbled. He must take up the work just where Adam failed, and endure a test of the same character, but infinitely more severe than that which had vanquished him. It is impossible for man fully to comprehend Satan’s temptations to our Saviour. Every enticement to evil which men find so difficult to resist, was brought to bear upon the Son of God in as much greater degree as his character was superior to that of fallen man. {February 25, 1895 ATJ, GCB 332.13}
When Adam was assailed by the tempter, he was without the taint of sin. He stood before God in the strength of perfect manhood, all the organs and faculties of his being fully developed and harmoniously balanced; and he was surrounded with things of beauty, and communed daily with the holy angels. What a contrast to this perfect being did the second Adam present, as he entered the desolate wilderness to cope with Satan. For four thousand years the race had been decreasing in size and physical strength, and deteriorating in moral worth; and in order to elevate fallen man, Christ must reach him where he stood. He assumed human nature, bearing the infirmities and degeneracy of the race. He humiliated himself to the lowest depths of human woe, that he might sympathize with man and rescue him from the degradation into which sin had plunged him. {February 25, 1895 ATJ, GCB 333.1}
“For it became him for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the Captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.” Heb. 2:10. “And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him.” Heb. 5:9. “Wherefore in all things it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succor them that are tempted.” Heb. 2:17, 18. “We have not a high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.” Heb. 4:15. {February 25, 1895 ATJ, GCB 333.2}
It is true that Christ at one time said of himself, “The prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me.” John 14:30. Satan finds in human hearts some point where he can gain a foothold; some sinful desire is cherished, by means of which his temptations assert their power. But he could find nothing in the Son of God that would enable him to gain the victory. Jesus did not consent to sin. Not even by a thought could he be brought to the power of Satan’s temptations. Yet it is written of Christ that he was tempted in all points like as we are. Many hold that from the nature of Christ is was impossible for Satan’s temptations to weaken or overthrow him. Then Christ could not have been placed in Adam’s position, to go over the ground where Adam stumbled and fell; he could not have gained the victory that Adam failed to gain. Unless he was placed in a position as trying as that in which Adam stood, he could not redeem Adam’s failure. If man has in any sense a more trying conflict to endure than had Christ, then Christ is not able to succor him when tempted. Christ took humanity with all its liabilities. He took the nature of man with the possibility of yielding to temptation, and he relied upon divine power to keep him. {February 25, 1895 ATJ, GCB 333.3}
The union of the divine with the human is one of the most mysterious, as well as the most precious, truths of the plan of redemption. It is of this that Paul speaks when he says, “Without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh.” 1 Tim. 3:16. While it is impossible for finite minds fully to grasp this great truth or fathom its significance, we may learn from it lessons of vital importance to us in our struggles against temptation. Christ came to the world to bring divine power to humanity, to make man a partaker of the divine nature. {February 25, 1895 ATJ, GCB 333.4}
You see, we are on firm ground all the way, so that when it is said that he took our flesh but still was not a partaker of our passions, it is all straight; it is all correct, because His divine mind never consented to sin. And that mind is brought to us by the Holy Spirit that is freely given unto us. {February 25, 1895 ATJ, GCB 333.5}
“We know that the Son of God has come, and hath given us a mind” and “we have the mind of Christ.” “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.” {February 25, 1895 ATJ, GCB 333.6}
THE THIRD ANGEL’S MESSAGE – 18
A.T. Jones
We will begin our study this evening with Rom. 7:25: “With the mind I myself serve the law of God.” I repeat the expression that I made in the previous lesson–that it is in the realm of the thoughts where the law of God is served, where the contention against sin is carried on and the victory won. {February 25, 1895 ATJ, GCB 347.1}
The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life–these tendencies to sin that are in the flesh, drawing upon us–in this is the temptation. But temptation is not sin. Not until the desire is cherished is there sin. But as soon as the desire is cherished, as soon as we consent to it and receive it into the mind and hold it there, then there is sin; and whether that desire is carried out in action or not, the sin is committed. In the mind, in fact, we have already enjoyed the desire. In consenting to it we have already done the thing so far as the mind itself goes. All that can come after that is simply the sensual part, the sense of enjoying the satisfaction of the flesh. {February 25, 1895 ATJ, GCB 347.2}
This is shown in the Saviour’s words in Matt. 5:27,28: {February 25, 1895 ATJ, GCB 347.3}
Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: but I say unto you that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart. {February 25, 1895 ATJ, GCB 347.4}
Therefore the only place where the Lord could bring help and deliverance to us, is right in the place where the thoughts are, at the very root of the thing that is sin, the very point where the sin is conceived and where it begins. Consequently, when tempted and tried as He was–when He was spit upon, when they struck Him in the face and on the head in the trial in Jerusalem and in all His public ministry when the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the scribes, and the priests in their iniquity and hypocrisy, which He knew, were all doing everything they could to irritate Him and get Him stirred up–when He was constantly tried thus, His hand was never raised to return the blow. He never had to check any such motion, because not even the impulse to make any such motion was ever allowed. Yet He had our human nature in which such impulses are so natural. Why then did not these motions manifest themselves in our human nature in Him? {February 25, 1895 ATJ, GCB 348.1}
For the reason that He was so surrendered to the will of the Father that the power of God through the Holy Spirit so worked against the flesh and fought the battle right in the field of the thoughts, never, in the subtlest form of the thought was there allowed any such thing to conceive. So that under all these insults and grievous trials He was just as calm, our human nature in Him was just as calm, as it was when the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove overshadowed Him on the banks of the Jordan. {February 25, 1895 ATJ, GCB 348.2}
Now “let this mind be in you.” It is not enough for a Christian to become all stirred up and say a few spiteful words or raise the hand in resentment and then say to Himself, “O, I am a Christian; I must not say this or do that.” No. We are to be so submitted to the power of God and to the influence of the Spirit of God that our thoughts shall be so completely controlled that the victory shall be won already and not even the impulse be allowed. Then we shall be Christians everywhere and all the time under all circumstances and against all influences. But until we do reach that point, we are not sure that we shall show a Christian spirit under all circumstances and at all times and against all insults. {February 25, 1895 ATJ, GCB 348.3}
As stated in the previous lesson, the things that were heaped upon Christ and which He bore were the very things that were the hardest for human nature to bear. And we, before we get through with the cause in which we are engaged are going to have to meet these very things that are hardest for human nature to bear, and unless we have the battle won already and are Christians indeed, we are not sure that we shall show the Christian spirit in these times when it is most needed. In fact, the time when the Christian spirit is most needed is all the time. {February 25, 1895 ATJ, GCB 348.4}
Now in Jesus the Lord has brought to us just the power that will give us into the hand of God and cause us to be so submitted to Him that He shall so fully control every thought that we shall be Christians all the time and everywhere, “bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.” {February 25, 1895 ATJ, GCB 348.5}
“The kingdom of God is within you.” Christ dwells within us and He is the King. The law of God is written upon the heart and that is the law of the kingdom. Where the King and the law of the kingdom are, there is the kingdom. In the inmost recesses, the secret chamber of the heart, at the very root, the fountain of the thought–there Christ sets up His throne; there the law of God is written by the Spirit; there the King asserts His authority and sets forth the principles of His government and allegiance to that [sic.] is Christianity. Thus at the very citadel of the soul, the very citadel of the thoughts, the very place, the only place, where sin can enter–there God sets up His throne; there He establishes His kingdom; there He puts His law, and the power to cause the authority of the law to be recognized and the principles of the law to be carried out in the life, and the result is peace only and all the time. That is the very thing that Christ hath brought to us, and which comes to us in the mind of Christ. {February 25, 1895 ATJ, GCB 348.6}
Let us look at that a little further. When Christ had our human nature, He was there in His divine self but didn’t manifest any of His divine self in that place. What did He do with His divine self in our flesh when He became ourselves? His divine self was always kept back–emptied–in order that our evil, satanic selves might be kept back–emptied. Now in the flesh He Himself did nothing. He says: “Of mine own self I can do nothing.” He was there all the time. His own divine self, who made the heavens, was there all the time. But from beginning to end He Himself did nothing. Himself was kept back; He was emptied. Who, then did that which was done in Him? The Father that dwelleth in Me, “He doeth the works, He speaks the worlds”–Then who was it that opposed the power of temptation in Him in our flesh? The Father. It was the Father who kept Him from sinning. He was “kept by the power of God” as we are to be “kept by the power of God.” 1 Peter 1:5. {February 25, 1895 ATJ, GCB 349.1}
He was our sinful selves in the flesh, and here were all these tendencies to sin being stirred up in His flesh to get Him to consent to sin. But He Himself did not keep Himself from sinning. To have done so would have been Himself manifesting Himself against the power of Satan, and this would have destroyed the plan of salvation, even though He had not sinned. And though at the cross the words were said in mockery, they were literally true: “He saved others; Himself He cannot save.” Therefore He kept Himself entirely out. He emptied Himself, and by His keeping Himself back, that gave the Father an opportunity to come in and work against the sinful flesh and save Him and save us in Him. {February 25, 1895 ATJ, GCB 349.2}
Sinners are separated from God, and God wants to come back to the very place from which sin has driven Him in human flesh. He could not come to us, in ourselves, for we could not bear His presence. Therefore Christ came in our flesh and the Father dwelt with Him. He could bear the presence of God in its fullness, and so God could dwell with Him in His fullness and this could bring the fullness of God to us in our flesh. {February 25, 1895 ATJ, GCB 349.3}
Christ came in that sinful flesh but did not do anything of Himself against the temptation and the power of sin in the flesh. He emptied Himself and the Father worked in human flesh against the power of sin and kept Him from sinning. {February 25, 1895 ATJ, GCB 349.4}
Now it is written of the Christian: “Ye are kept by the power of God through faith.” That is done in Christ. We yield to Christ; Christ abides in us, giving us His mind. That mind of Christ enables our wicked self to be in the background. The mind of Christ–“let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus”–puts our wicked selves beneath and keeps ourselves back and keeps us from asserting ourselves, for any manifestation of ourself is of itself sin. When the mind of Christ puts ourselves beneath, that gives the Father a chance to work with us and keep us from sinning. And thus God “worketh in you, both to will and to do of his good pleasure.” Thus it is always the Father and Christ and ourselves. It is the Father manifested in us through Christ, and in Christ. The mind of Christ empties us of our sinful selves and keeps us from asserting ourselves in order that God, the Father, may join Himself to us and work against the power of sin and keep us from sinning. Thus Christ “is our peace, who hath made both [God and us] one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us; having abolished in his flesh the enmity . . . for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace.” So it is always the Father and Christ and we; we, the sinners; God the sinless; Christ joining the sinless One to the sinful one and in Himself abolishing the enmity, emptying self in us, in order that God and we may be one, and thus make one new man, so making peace. And thus the peace of God which passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through, or in, Jesus Christ. {February 25, 1895 ATJ, GCB 349.5}
Is it not a most blessed thing that the Lord Jesus has done that for us and so takes up His abode in us and so settles that question that there can be no more doubt that the Father will keep us from sinning than there is that He has kept Him from sinning already? No more doubt; because when Christ is there, He is there for the purpose of emptying self in us. And when ourselves are gone, will it be any very great difficulty for the Father to manifest Himself? When ourselves are kept from asserting ourselves there will be no difficulty for God to assert Himself in our flesh. That is the mystery of God: “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” God manifest in the flesh. It is not simply Christ manifest in the flesh; it is God manifest in the flesh. For when Jesus came in the world Himself, it was not Christ manifest in the flesh; it was God manifest in the flesh, for “he that hath seen me, hath seen the Father.” {February 25, 1895 ATJ, GCB 350.1}
Christ emptied Himself in order that God might be manifest in the flesh, in sinful flesh, and when He comes to us and dwells in us, upon our choice, bringing to us that divine mind of His which is the mind that empties self wherever it goes, wherever it can find an entrance, wherever it can find any place to act, the mind of Christ is the emptying of self, is the abolishing of self, the destruction of self, the annihilation of self. Therefore, when by our choice that divine mind comes to us, the result is as certain that ourselves will be emptied as that the mind dwells in us. And as soon as that is done, God works fully and manifests Himself, in sinful flesh though it be. And that is victory. That is triumph. {February 25, 1895 ATJ, GCB 350.2}
And thus with the mind we serve the law of God. The law is manifested, it is fulfilled, its principles shine in the life, because the life is the character of God manifest in human flesh, sinful flesh, through Jesus Christ. It seems to me that that thought ought to raise every one of us above all the power of Satan and of sin. It will do that as certainly as we surrender to that divine mind and let it abide in us as it abode in Him. It will do it. {February 25, 1895 ATJ, GCB 350.3}
Indeed, the word to us all the time is, “Arise, shine.” But we cannot raise ourselves; it is the truth and the power of God that is to raise us. But is not here the direct truth that will raise a man? Yes, sir; it will raise Him from the dead, as we shall find before we get done with this. But this thought was necessary to be followed through, that we may see how complete the victory is and how certain we are of it as surely as we surrender to Christ and accept that mind that was in Him. And thus always bear in mind that the battle is fought against sin in the realm of the thoughts and that the Victor, the Warrior, that has fought the battle there and won the victory there in every conceivable kind of contest–that same blessed One comes and sets up His throne at the citadel of the very imagination of the thought, the very root of the thought of the heart of the believing sinner. He sets up His throne there and plants the principles of His law there and reigns there. Thus it is that as sin hath reigned unto death, even so now in this way might grace reign. Did sin reign? Certainly. Did it reign with power? Assuredly. It reigned. It ruled. Well, as that has reigned, even so grace shall reign. Is grace, then, to reign as certainly, as powerfully in fact, as ever sin did? Much more, much more fully, much more abundantly, much more gloriously. Just as certainly as ever sin did reign in us, so certainly when we are in Jesus Christ the grace of God is to reign much more abundantly, “That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.” That being so, we can go on in victory unto perfection. {February 25, 1895 ATJ, GCB 350.4}
From that height–for it is proper to call it a height–to which this truth raises us, we can go on enjoying, reading with gratitude, what we have in Him and receiving it in the fullness of the soul. But unless we have the Lord to take us to that height and seat us there and put us where He has possession of the citadel so that we are certain where He is and in that where we are, all these other things are vague, indefinite, and seem to be beyond us–sometimes almost within our reach and we long to get where we can really have hold on them and know the reality of them, but yet they are always just a little beyond our reach and we are unsatisfied. But when we surrender fully, completely, absolutely, with no reservation, letting the whole world and all there is of it, go, then we receive that divine mind of His by the Spirit of God that gives to Him possession of that citadel, that lifts us to that height where all these other things are not simply within reach–O, no, they are in the heart and are a rejoicing in the life! We then in Him have them in possession and we know it and the joy of it is just what Peter said, “unspeakable and full of glory.” {February 25, 1895 ATJ, GCB 350.5}
So then, as the Lord has lifted us to this height, and will hold us there, now let us go ahead and read and receive, as we read, what we have in Him. Begin with Romans 6:6. That is the scripture that comes most directly in connection with this particular thought that we have studied so far this evening. “Knowing this.”–Knowing what? “Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him.” Good! In Jesus Christ, in His flesh, was not human nature, sinful flesh, crucified? Whose? Who was He? He was man; He was ourselves. Then whose sinful flesh, whose human nature, was crucified on the cross of Jesus Christ?–Mine. Therefore, as certainly as I have that blessed truth settled in my heart and mind, that Jesus Christ was man, human nature, sinful nature, and that He was myself in the flesh–as certainly as I have that, it follows just as certainly as that He was crucified on the cross, so was I. My human nature, myself there, was crucified there. Therefore I can say with absolute truth and the certainty and confidence of faith, “I am crucified with Christ.” It is so. {February 25, 1895 ATJ, GCB 350.6}
We hear people so many times say, “I want self to be crucified.” Well, we turn and read the text to them, “Knowing this, that our old man is crucified.” And they respond: “Well, I wish it were so.” Turn to the next text and read, “I am crucified with Christ.” It says I am. Who is? Are you? Still they answer, I don’t see that I am. I wish it were so, but I cannot see how I am crucified and I cannot see how reading that there and saying that that is so will make it so.” But the word of God says so and it is so because it says so and it would be true and everlastingly effectual if that were all there is to it. But in this case it is so because it is so. God does not speak that word to make it so in us; He speaks that word because it is so in us, in Christ. {February 25, 1895 ATJ, GCB 351.1}
In the first chapter of Hebrews you remember we had an illustration of this. God did not call Christ God to make Him God. No. He called Him God because He was God. If He had not been that, then for God to speak to Him the word of “God,” and lay it upon Him, would have caused Him to be that, because that is the power of the word of God. But that is not it. That would be so if that were all there were to it, but it is so also in another way. He was God and when God called Him God, He did so because that is what He was. So in that double sense it is everlastingly so. It is so by “two immutable things.” {February 25, 1895 ATJ, GCB 351.2}
Now it is the same way here. Our old man is crucified, yet when God sets forth His word that it is so, we accepting that word and surrendering to it, it is so to each one who accepts it because the word has the divine power in it to cause it to be so. And by that means it would be everlastingly so, even if that were all there is to it. But that is not all there is to it, because in Jesus Christ human nature has been crucified on the cross, actually, literally, and that is my human nature, that is myself in Him that was crucified there. And therefore God sets down the record of everyone who is in Christ, “He is crucified.” So that by the two immutable things, by the double fact, it is so. Therefore, we can say with perfect freedom, it is no boasting, it is not presumption in any sense; it is simply the confession of faith in Jesus Christ, “I am crucified with Christ.” Is not He crucified? Then as certainly as I am with Him, am I not crucified with Him? the word of God says so. “Our old man is crucified with Him?” Very good. Let us thank the Lord that that is so. {February 25, 1895 ATJ, GCB 351.3}
What is the use, then, of our trying, longing, to get ourselves crucified, so that we can believe that we are accepted of God? Why, it is done, thank the Lord! In Him it is done. As certainly as the soul by faith sinks self in Jesus Christ and by that divine power which He has brought to us to do it, so certainly it is done as a divine fact. And it is only the genuine expression of faith to tell, to acknowledge, that divine fact that “I am crucified with Christ.” Jesus sunk His divine self in our human nature and altogether was crucified. When we sink ourselves in Him, it is so still, because in Him only is it done. It is all in Him. We call attention to the thought we had in the lesson a few evenings ago, that it is not in Him in the sense of His being a receptacle to which we can go and take it out and apply it to ourselves. No. But it is in Him in the sense that it is all there and when we are in Him, when we go into the receptacle, when we sink into Him, we have it all in Him as we are in Him. {February 25, 1895 ATJ, GCB 351.4}
Therefore, now let every soul of us say by the faith of Jesus Christ, “Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with Him.” “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.” He is alive again. And because He lives, we live also. “Nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith”–in the Son of God? “the faith of the Son of God,”–that divine faith which He brought to human nature and which He gives to you and to me. We “live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me, and gave himself for me.” Gal. 2:20. O, He loved Me! When He gave Himself in all His glory and all His wondrous worth for me, who was nothing, is it much that I should give myself to Him? {February 25, 1895 ATJ, GCB 351.5}
But there is more of the verse. Rom. 6:6 still: “Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed that henceforth we should not serve sin.” Good! In Him we have the victory, victory from the service of sin. There is victory over the service of sin, in this knowing that we are crucified with Him. {February 25, 1895 ATJ, GCB 351.6}
Now I say that this blessed fact which we find in Him lifts us right to that place; yea, and the fact holds us in the place. That is so. There is a power in it. That is a fact. We will have occasion to see it more fully presently. {February 25, 1895 ATJ, GCB 352.1}
When He was crucified, what followed? When He was nailed to the cross, what came next? He died. Now read in this same chapter, eighth verse: “Now if we be dead with Christ”–well, what else can there be? As certainly as I am crucified with Him, I shall be dead with Him. Being crucified with Him, we shall be dead with Him. {February 25, 1895 ATJ, GCB 352.2}
Dead with Him? Do we know that? Look back at the fourth verse. When He had been crucified and had died, what followed? He was buried–the burial of the dead. And what of us? Now, “therefore, we are buried with him.” Buried with Him! Were we crucified with Him? Did we die with Him? Have the Father and Christ wrought out in human nature the death of sinful self? Yes. Whose? Mine. {February 25, 1895 ATJ, GCB 352.3}
Then do you not see that all this is a gift of faith that is to be taken with everything else that God gives of faith? The death of the old man is in Christ, and in Him we have it and thank God for it. With Him the old man was crucified. With Him the old man died, and when He was buried, the old man was buried. My human, old, sinful self was crucified, died and was buried with Him. And with Him it is buried yet when I am in Him. Out of Him I have it not, of course. Every one that is outside of Him has none of this. In Him it is–in Him. And we receive it all by faith in Him. {February 25, 1895 ATJ, GCB 352.4}
We are simply studying now the fact that we have in him, the facts which are given to us in Him and which are to be taken by faith. These are facts of faith. {February 25, 1895 ATJ, GCB 352.5}
We thank the Lord that all this is literal fact–that our old man is crucified, dead, and buried with Him and that in Him we have that gift. In Him we have the gift and the fact of the death of the old man–the death of the human, sinful nature and the burial of it. And when that old thing is crucified and dead and buried, then the next verse–the seventh: “He that is dead is freed from sin.” {February 25, 1895 ATJ, GCB 352.6}
So then, knowing “that our old man is crucified with him” that henceforth we should not serve sin, we are free from the service of sin. Brethren I am satisfied it is just as much our place day by day now to thank God for freedom from the service of sin as it is to breathe. I say it over. I say it is just as much our place, our privilege and our right to claim in Christ–in Him only and as we believe in Him–and to thank God for freedom from the service of sin as it is to breathe the breath that we breathe as we get up in the morning. {February 25, 1895 ATJ, GCB 352.7}
How can I ever have the blessing and the benefit there is in that thing if I do not take the thing? If I am always hesitating and afraid that I am not free from the service of sin, how long will it take to get me free from the service of sin? That very hesitating, that very fear, is from doubt, is from unbelief, and is sin in itself. But in Him, when God has wrought out for us indeed freedom from the service of sin, we have the right to thank God for it and as certainly as we claim it and thank Him for it, we shall enjoy it. “He that is dead is freed from sin” (margin, “is justified from sin”). and it is in Him, and we have it as we are in Him by faith. {February 25, 1895 ATJ, GCB 352.8}
Let us therefore read the first verse of the sixth of Romans: {February 25, 1895 ATJ, GCB 352.9}
What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein. {February 25, 1895 ATJ, GCB 352.10}
Can a man live on what he died of? No. Then when the man has died of sin, can he live in sin? can he live with sin? A man dies of delirium tremens or typhoid fever. Can he live on delirium tremens or typhoid fever, even if by a possibility he should be brought to live long enough to realize that he was there? The very thought of it would be death to him, because it killed him once. So it is with the man who dies of sin. The very appearance of it, the very bringing of it before him after that is death to him. If he has consciousness enough and life enough to realize that it is there, he will die of it again. He cannot live on what he died of. {February 25, 1895 ATJ, GCB 352.11}
But the great trouble with many people is that they do not get sick enough of sin to die. That is the difficulty. They get sick perhaps of some particular sin and they want to stop that and “want to die” to that and they think they have left that off. Then they get sick of some other particular sin that they think is not becoming to them–they cannot have the favor and the estimation of the people with that particular sin so manifest and they try to leave that off. But they do not get sick of sin–sin in itself, sin in the conception, sin in the abstract, whether it be in one particular way or another particular way. They do not get sick enough of sin itself to die to sin. When the man gets sick enough–not of sins but of sin, the very suggestion of sin, and the thought of sin–why you cannot get him to live in it any more. He cannot live in it; it killed him once. And he cannot live in what he died of. {February 25, 1895 ATJ, GCB 352.12}
We have constantly the opportunity to sin. Opportunities to sin are ever presented to us. Opportunities to sin and to live in it are presented day by day. But it stands written: “Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus.” “I die daily.” As certainly as I have died to sin, the suggestion of sin is death to me. It is death to me in Him. {February 25, 1895 ATJ, GCB 353.1}
Therefore, this is put in the form of a surprised, astonished question, “How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?” Baptism means baptism into His death. {February 25, 1895 ATJ, GCB 353.2}
“Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death; that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.” {February 25, 1895 ATJ, GCB 353.3}
Turn to Colossians. There was the word you remember that we had in Brother Durland’s lesson one day. Col. 2:20: {February 25, 1895 ATJ, GCB 353.4}
Wherefore if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world [the elements of the world, worldliness, and this thing that leads to the world–the enmity], why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to the world? {February 25, 1895 ATJ, GCB 353.5}
That is simply speaking of our deliverance from the service of sin. It is simply saying, in other words, what is said in Rom. 6:6, “Our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.” Why, as though living outside of Him are we still doing those same things? No, sir. Rom. 6:14, “For sin shall not have dominion over you.” The man who is delivered from the domination of sin is delivered from the service of sin. In Jesus Christ it is a fact, too. So read on from Romans 6:6-14. {February 25, 1895 ATJ, GCB 353.6}
Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin. Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him. {February 25, 1895 ATJ, GCB 353.7}
Is He alive? Yes. Thank the Lord! Who died? Jesus died, and we are dead with Him. And He is alive, and we who believe in Him are alive with Him. That, however, will come more fully afterward. {February 25, 1895 ATJ, GCB 353.8}
Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead, dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him. For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. {February 25, 1895 ATJ, GCB 353.9}
Let us hold to this. Let us thank God this moment and henceforward, day by day, with every thought, “I am crucified with Him.” As certainly as He is crucified, I am crucified; as certainly as He is dead, I am dead with Him; as certainly as He is buried, I was buried with Him; as certainly as He is risen, I am risen with Him, and henceforth I shall not serve sin. In Him we are free from the dominion of sin and from the service of sin. Thank the Lord for His unspeakable gift! {February 25, 1895 ATJ, GCB 353.10}
God bless
