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When we are reborn we are imparted with eternal salvation (the only kind there is – Heb 5:9), and all that is yet to come is unceasing growth in our faith—for the purpose of drawing nearer to God, encouraging the saved and being used of Him to “draw” the lost!
We Are As He Is
If we are born of God we are abidingly His children, and we have the right to take our position as that before our Father. It is now our privilege to think of ourselves according to what we are as being in the Lord Jesus Christ; and this is always maintained by Him (being also the “Finisher of our faith” - Heb 12:2—NC). That is eternal; it is unchangeable. The Lord Jesus is ever before the face of the Father. He is our Life and Advocate there.
What we are by grace, as in Him before the Father, is unchangeable (Rom 11:29; Num 23:19—NC), and our interests are in His hands. He has a righteous claim to be our representative there. Do our failures, our sins (unlike an unbeliever, the sins of a believer are never “willful” – Heb 10:26—NC), in anywise alter what He is there for us before the face of the Father? What He is there is what we are, not of course in ourselves, but as being in Him. Our standing before our Father is not according to what we are in ourselves. By the grace of God we have been made partakers of the Son. We have His nature (Col 3:10; 2Pe 1:4—NC), we partake of His life (Col 3:4). As having it, for the Father we are characterized by it, “that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.”
What the nature and life are in Him determines what they are in us. Our bodies are yet to be conformed to His body. In this respect we are not yet “as He is,” but as regards the life that has been given to us, it is even now while we are still in this world what it is in Him. If we speak of ourselves as characterized by the life that has been imparted to us we may say, “We are as He is”; that is simply saying we have community of life with Him.
But if we are participators with Him in life, the abiding character of that life does not depend on us (in the new nature we are completely “conformed in His image” and our maturing will progressively manifest it—NC). Whether we are faithful or not (unfaithfulness manifests a babe-in-Christ maturity because all who are reborn eventually matures in Christ’s image by the Father’s “work in you,” via the Spirit using the Word of course – Phil 2:13—NC), the character of the life is unchanged. If we sin, He remains the same, and the believer, however troubled he may be about his sins, has the privilege of looking at Him and to say, by my sins I may have falsified the life He has imparted to me, but in Him it abides in its perfect eternal character. He is before the face of my Father for me, my Life there. In Him my relation to the Father is maintained in righteousness. “The Blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, cleanses us from all sin.”
As regards our sin, then, our Advocate with the Father is “propitiation.” This does not mean that He has to make propitiation for our sins. He is not now making propitiation; Himself is the propitiation (1 Jhn 2:2). And since He is ever before the Father’s face, He is in the place of favor. And He is appearing “in the presence of God for us” (Heb 9:24). He is in the position of favor for us. This means that the Father’s attitude toward us is based upon Him. We are the objects of the favor of the Father as being in His Beloved.
The Lord Jesus then, is the Father’s satisfaction concerning our sins. It is not that He does not abhor them; He surely does; but His Son having glorified Him concerning our sins has an undisputed claim on Him for being looked upon as fully appeased respecting the sins of those who through grace have come to be in Him. What comfort in knowing, when I have been ensnared and overcome, that as I turn to look upon my Representative before that face of my Father, His gracious attitude towards me has not been affected; that He still looks upon me, not according to what I am in myself (one with a sin nature—NC) but according to the One in whom He has accepted me.
-C Crain
Excerpt from MJS devotional for June 6:
“Often the lapidary will polish the jewel with its own dust. Just so our Father makes use of the weak and beggarly element of our nature to produce the mirror-like luster in which His image is finally reflected for all to see. “They shall be Mine. . . in that day when I make up My jewels” (Malachi 3:17).” - MJS
“Those who know the Lord best are those who have gone the deepest way. Those who go the deep way of trial do so because God puts the premium upon their knowledge of Him. They are the people who are shut up to God. But this knowledge is firstly, constitutional: that is, it is to constitute a certain kind of person and character; and secondly it is vocational: it does not end with the person concerned, but is the essence of service, in time and eternity. God is very practical, and requires that things in His service are never merely theoretical but real and true to life.” -T. A-S.
None But The Hungry Heart
We Are As He Is
If we are born of God we are abidingly His children, and we have the right to take our position as that before our Father. It is now our privilege to think of ourselves according to what we are as being in the Lord Jesus Christ; and this is always maintained by Him (being also the “Finisher of our faith” - Heb 12:2—NC). That is eternal; it is unchangeable. The Lord Jesus is ever before the face of the Father. He is our Life and Advocate there.
What we are by grace, as in Him before the Father, is unchangeable (Rom 11:29; Num 23:19—NC), and our interests are in His hands. He has a righteous claim to be our representative there. Do our failures, our sins (unlike an unbeliever, the sins of a believer are never “willful” – Heb 10:26—NC), in anywise alter what He is there for us before the face of the Father? What He is there is what we are, not of course in ourselves, but as being in Him. Our standing before our Father is not according to what we are in ourselves. By the grace of God we have been made partakers of the Son. We have His nature (Col 3:10; 2Pe 1:4—NC), we partake of His life (Col 3:4). As having it, for the Father we are characterized by it, “that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.”
What the nature and life are in Him determines what they are in us. Our bodies are yet to be conformed to His body. In this respect we are not yet “as He is,” but as regards the life that has been given to us, it is even now while we are still in this world what it is in Him. If we speak of ourselves as characterized by the life that has been imparted to us we may say, “We are as He is”; that is simply saying we have community of life with Him.
But if we are participators with Him in life, the abiding character of that life does not depend on us (in the new nature we are completely “conformed in His image” and our maturing will progressively manifest it—NC). Whether we are faithful or not (unfaithfulness manifests a babe-in-Christ maturity because all who are reborn eventually matures in Christ’s image by the Father’s “work in you,” via the Spirit using the Word of course – Phil 2:13—NC), the character of the life is unchanged. If we sin, He remains the same, and the believer, however troubled he may be about his sins, has the privilege of looking at Him and to say, by my sins I may have falsified the life He has imparted to me, but in Him it abides in its perfect eternal character. He is before the face of my Father for me, my Life there. In Him my relation to the Father is maintained in righteousness. “The Blood of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, cleanses us from all sin.”
As regards our sin, then, our Advocate with the Father is “propitiation.” This does not mean that He has to make propitiation for our sins. He is not now making propitiation; Himself is the propitiation (1 Jhn 2:2). And since He is ever before the Father’s face, He is in the place of favor. And He is appearing “in the presence of God for us” (Heb 9:24). He is in the position of favor for us. This means that the Father’s attitude toward us is based upon Him. We are the objects of the favor of the Father as being in His Beloved.
The Lord Jesus then, is the Father’s satisfaction concerning our sins. It is not that He does not abhor them; He surely does; but His Son having glorified Him concerning our sins has an undisputed claim on Him for being looked upon as fully appeased respecting the sins of those who through grace have come to be in Him. What comfort in knowing, when I have been ensnared and overcome, that as I turn to look upon my Representative before that face of my Father, His gracious attitude towards me has not been affected; that He still looks upon me, not according to what I am in myself (one with a sin nature—NC) but according to the One in whom He has accepted me.
-C Crain
Excerpt from MJS devotional for June 6:
“Often the lapidary will polish the jewel with its own dust. Just so our Father makes use of the weak and beggarly element of our nature to produce the mirror-like luster in which His image is finally reflected for all to see. “They shall be Mine. . . in that day when I make up My jewels” (Malachi 3:17).” - MJS
“Those who know the Lord best are those who have gone the deepest way. Those who go the deep way of trial do so because God puts the premium upon their knowledge of Him. They are the people who are shut up to God. But this knowledge is firstly, constitutional: that is, it is to constitute a certain kind of person and character; and secondly it is vocational: it does not end with the person concerned, but is the essence of service, in time and eternity. God is very practical, and requires that things in His service are never merely theoretical but real and true to life.” -T. A-S.
None But The Hungry Heart
