Victory and Vocation

(from The Saving Life of Christ – Ian Thomas)

Jesus Christ and eternal life are one and the same term. (1 John 1: 1-2) Eternal life is none other than Jesus Christ Himself, of whom it is written in – “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.” (John 1:4) We have been called out by God for the purpose of becoming an instrument {or vessel} of Christ’s life – the firstfruits of His eternal life.

Jesus walked as a man, indwelt by the Father, through the power of the Holy Spirit. Of Himself He said, “I can of mine own self do nothing.” (John 5: 30 KJV) And then He says the same of you: “Without Me you can do nothing.” (John 15: 5)

How much can you do without Him? Nothing! So what is all that work you are trying to accomplish through fleshly human effort and wisdom? Nothing! This is why Jesus told His first disciples to wait. They were not to begin their ministry for the Lord until He had come back to manifest Himself from within their inner being. They needed to have a personal knowledge of the firstfruits of His eternal life. And like those first obedient disciples, we too need to wait for our own Pentecost – the “Feast of Firstfruits.”

Even after the first disciples had given up everything to follow Jesus, had received personal instruction by Him for three years, had the Spirit breathed into them, and had visibly witnessed His resurrected life, they still had to wait to be clothed with power from on high. With all of their intellectual knowledge, they still were not yet qualified to be true witnesses of His resurrection life. If they had not waited to enter into a union with Christ’s divine nature through the resurrection power of the Holy Spirit, the first-century church would have looked like the modern church of the flesh. And so they waited, because Jesus had promised to come back for the purpose of manifesting His life and nature from within their inner being.

…He {Jesus} commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father {the gift the Father had promised throughout the Old Testament which would establish God’s undivided kingdom-life in the hearts of New Testament believers}…for John truly baptized with water {for repentance}, but you shall be baptized {or immersed into the divine nature} with the Holy Spirit not many days from now. (Acts 1: 4-5)

I will not leave you orphans {to work out the life and glory of God through human effort}; I will come to you. A little while longer and the world will see Me no more, but you will see me {as an inner manifestation of divine life}. Because I live, you will live also {by following Me through the cross and into resurrection-life}. At that day, you will know {in conscious reality} that I am…in you. (John 14: 18-20)

Many Christians profess to be “filled” with the Spirit of divine life simply because they live after Pentecost. Although we know there are people in the church who have experienced spiritual regeneration because they do have a hunger to be like Jesus Christ, we can also see the clear marks of a carnal nature. They are still worried and upset about many things as they continue to live by fleshly human effort like “mere men.” They still live by the worldly ways of self-sufficiency and independence and have a natural tendency to elevate themselves in the pride of life. These conditions just naturally flow out of a nature that has never been “crucified with Christ.” They are signs of life in the desert testing period.

You must not worship the Lord your God in their way {through the strength of the flesh}. But you are to seek the place the Lord your God will choose…To that place you must go…There, in the presence of the Lord your God, you…shall eat and shall rejoice in everything you put your hand to, because the Lord your God has blessed you.

You are not to do as we do here today {in the desert wilderness}, everyone as he sees fit, since you have not yet reached the resting place and the inheritance the Lord your God is giving you. But you will cross the Jordan and settle in the land the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, and he will give you rest from all your enemies
around you {your sinful [self-willed] nature that keeps you “under the sway of the wicked one” (1 John 5: 19) and bound to the thought processes of this fallen world} so that you will live in safety. (Deut. 12: 4-10)

Therefore, since the promise of entering his rest still stands, let us be careful that none of you be found to have fallen short of it…There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the {regenerate} people of God; for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from his own work…(Heb. 4: 1, 9-10)

It is amazing how busy you can be working in the flesh while still doing nothing! Did you ever find that out? “The flesh” – everything that you do apart from His divine life – “profits nothing.” (John 6: 63)

And there is always the awful possibility, if you do not discover this principle now, that you may spend a lifetime in the service of Jesus Christ living through the power of the flesh – doing nothing! You would not be the first, and you will not be the last.

Each one’s work will become clear; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is {whether it was done by human effort in the strength of the flesh, or whether we yielded ourselves to be vessels of the life and works that God wanted to manifest through our weak mortal bodies through the power of His Spirit}. (1Cor. 3: 13)

The Lord Jesus Christ has a claim on the use of your body. He expects to use your whole being, your complete you. As you give yourself to Him by living under the control and power of the Holy Spirit, He will give Himself to you through His eternal “Spirit of life.” (Rom. 8: 2) In this way, all your activity as a human being on earth may be His activity in and through you. If you will follow this Spirit-controlled way of life, every step you take, every word you speak, everything you do, everything you are, may be an expression of the life of Jesus Christ through your mortal body.

If it is of Him and through Him and to Him, where do you come in? You do not! That is just where you go out! That is what Paul meant when he said, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.” (Gal. 2: 20) “For to me, to live is Christ.” (Phil. 1: 21)

I pray that God will open up your heart to an understanding of the urgent need for having a church body filled with disciples who have given up the carnal works of the flesh. Until this transformation has taken place, the light of Christ’s divine life and work will not be displayed in this world. Truly, in this day, Christ has an extreme need for disciples who will “become blameless and pure, {Spirit-controlled} children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe as you hold out the word of life…” (Phil. 2: 15-16)

Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the {one true} faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you {with His submissive nature of self-sacrificing love} – unless, of course, you fail the test? (2 Cor 13: 5)