Putting on the Lord Jesus Christ

1. Putting on the Lord Jesus Christ

2. Identification Truth • Spirituality: A Complete Package by God’s Plan • Phase 1/Phase 2 Crosswork Distinctions • Reality through Reckoning • The Question of Yielding • Spirituality and Obedience: The Law Problem

6. The Believer’s Two Natures Romans 8:2-8 “For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.”

7. “To ‘walk in the light’ is a metaphor for following Jesus. Imitating Jesus with the Spirit’s help, John insists, is the sign that we have joined with the apostles in the fellowship of faith. We are authentic Christians. But, he continues, let’s not be deceived: We will make wrong choices at times. Nevertheless, grace is given in full measure: We can take what forgiveness we need.”

8. “By faith in the work of the cross, the old man is put off; by faith in our heavenly position in Christ, the new man is put on.” Part Two: Foundations of Spiritual Growth, Chapter 19, “Position Defined and Illustrated,” p 82

9. “We cannot become what we already are in Christ, until we know what we were in Adam. Therefore it is important that we personalize the facts: this is my history! Everything in Adam is the ground of sin and death, everything in the Lord Jesus is the ground of growth and life. Our responsibility is to keep off the old ground, and to live on the new ground—our position in Christ.” Part Three: The Ground of Growth, Chapter 29, “Our History in the First Adam,” p 139

10. “A close look at Galatians 2:20 may further clarify the distinction between what we were in the first Adam, and who we now are in the Last Adam. ‘I have been crucified with Christ: and it is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me: and that life which I now live in the flesh I live in faith, the faith which is in the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself up for me’ (Gal. 2:20, ASV). “There are vital distinctions here that, when seen, make a world of difference. (1) I, the old man in Adam, have been crucified with Christ; (2) it is no longer the old I that lives, but Christ lives in me, the new creation; (3) the life which I, the new man, now live in the flesh (body), I the new man live in faith; (4) this faith is in the Son of God, who loved me as a lost individual and gave Himself up for me, a sinner. “The oft-quoted words, ‘Not I, but Christ,’ tend to give the believer the impression that he as a person is crucified, and out of the picture, and now there is only Christ as his new life. He is wont to feel that he must somehow get himself out of the way, that Christ may be all. Granted, the old self must go down—but the new self must grow up.

11. “It is true that He is our risen life, but it is also true that His is the life and nature of our newly created life. ‘For to me to live is Christ.’ ‘Christ, who is our life’ (Phil. 1:21; Col. 3:4, italics mine). We are not to become lost in Him, but He is to be found in us. ‘That the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh’ (2 Cor. 4:11). He lives IN me, not instead of me; He is the source and motivation of my Christian life. “I am to realize and rest in the fact that it is my being, my personality, which is enlifed by the human-divine life and nature of the Lord Jesus. I am the same person, but with a new life in union with His life. By the ministry of the indwelling Holy Spirit I will grow in grace and increasingly be conformed to His image.” Part Three: The Ground of Growth, Chapter 30, “Our History in the Last Adam,” pp 145-146

12. “Unless we see the extent to which the Cross separated us from the old, we will not be able to keep clear of the enslaving flesh and walk freely in the Spirit.” Part Three: The Ground of Growth, Chapter 31, “Diametric Differentiation,” p 147

13. “Many hungry-hearted believers are struggling to get into the experience of Romans Eight when they are not yet resting in the facts of Romans Three. They feel guilty because they fall far short of the heights of Ephesians and Colossians, when in fact they do not adequately know peace with God in Romans Five, to say nothing of identification with Christ in Romans Six. The experience of Romans Seven is well known, however. It is absolutely necessary to allow the Holy Spirit to take us along in God’s sequence of Scripture, as each plane of truth is foundational for the next. Skip over one, and firm footing for the next is lost.” Part Two: Foundations of Spiritual Growth, Chapter 22, “Completeness and Security,” p 95

14. “It is here that the first major mistake in our Christian life is often made. In taking the position of justification by faith in the Lord Jesus, this new standing of life began to make a marked difference in our state. Because of this, we shifted the basis of our assurance from eternal position to temporal condition. We looked, and felt, and sounded saved, hence we were assured of our salvation. But then, one morning came the dawn! We didn’t look very saved, we didn’t feel at all saved, and so we didn’t sound saved either. All day long everything and everybody went wrong, and by nightfall we found ourselves at the end of our assurance. Thoroughly shaken, we determined to rectify matters on the morrow. The next day we strove to look saved, to feel saved, and to sound saved. But, because we were centered in our condition, all was wretched failure. We even began to question our salvation.” Part Two: Foundations of Spiritual Growth, Chapter 20, “Justification and Assurance,” pp 86-87

15. “We are given a glimpse of the glory and reality of the truth reckoned upon, and then we are taken into God's processing in order that the truth may be as real in us as it is to us.” Part Four: The Realization of Spiritual Growth, Chapter 43, “Spirit-Applied Reckoning,” p 196