When the gates of the Spirit are swung open wide,
when we come to the end of the trail of self,
and we invite Him in, who is not only our Savior,
but our Lord and Christ, and we turn over the
government of our lives and the conduct of our
understanding to Him, then a new life in spiritual
freedom begins. A glorious life. It's the beginning
of freedom for the first time. And for the first
time, the concept of what real Christianity is
bursts. over the horizon of our souls. I would
ask every self -righteous person to stand with
me by the grave which once held the body of Hume,
who is my light and my salvation. For every miracle
of every age is included in what happened there.
We stand in the presence of a conquest over every
dominion that affects human life. Every force
in heaven and earth, forces natural and physical,
material and mental, temporal and eternal, were
all under the dominion of the power that brought
again the Lord Jesus Christ from the dead. From
that moment, a new order of life, had been inaugurated.
Jesus Christ was the first begotten out of the
dead. For having died into sin once, he dieth
no more. Even his resurrection body was totally
different from the body of his humiliation and
his shame. He had entered a sphere which was...
superior to the material limitations of the flesh.
A new order of life was instituted, the like
of which had never been known either in heaven
or in earth. But let me remind you that it was
to be shared by all who should be planted in
the likeness of his glorious resurrection. Whenever
we speak of the miracle of the resurrection,
we forget it was a miracle that included you
and included me. We forget that. A new order
of life was instituted. Heaven and earth had
never before. known the existence of this new
life. Again, let me remind you of something that's
vitally important to each of us. His resurrection
was to be shared by all of us who should be planted
in the likeness of His. glorious resurrection.
We speak of it as his resurrection. It was not
only his resurrection. It was not only limited
to him, the son of the living God. That resurrection
included you. It included me. That risen Jesus
is the very heart of the gospel. The resurrection
is the crux of the whole situation. But remember
that the resurrection was something more than
a physical fact. Let the angels sing their hallelujahs
and let the redeemed of earth join in the anthems
of praise to his glory. For that resurrection
means my spiritual identification with him who
died and rose again for me. For if he died and
rose again for me, it must remain that I was
with him in what he did. It means that you were
included too. That you were there. Let that truth
burn itself into your soul. Never forget it.
For when once you behold it, you will stop your
struggling. Oh, if I could get questions to just
stop their struggling. It isn't a struggle. You
can't attain these things through struggling
or your own self -effort. He's the one who did
it. When once you behold what I'm trying to say
to you, if once the Holy Spirit gives you this
glorious revelation, you'll stop your struggling,
your agonizing. you wish to attain has already
been attained. The thing for which you are grasping
is now in your possession. The thing for which
you hope you can possess, it's not beyond your
reach or your possession. It is finished. That's
what Jesus tried to get us to understand when
he cried those words after dismissing his own
spirit on the cross. It is finished. Your struggling
is finished. My struggling is finished. The whole
thing has been bought and paid for. The work
was made perfect and complete. You cannot add
to perfection. When a thing is perfect, it's
perfect. It is incorrect to say that something
is more perfect or that you can add to perfection.
You cannot. The work that Jesus did was perfect.
The work was made perfect and complete. For you
cannot add to perfection. No matter were you
to live a thousand lives and every day of every
life were filled with the struggle to attain,
it would be impossible for you to do so. It is
when we learn to reckon is when you find out
how to count yourselves. that the light from
the heels of God will stream through your being
and banish every doubt and take away every fear.
Know ye not that when he died, we died? When
he was buried, we were buried. When he rose again,
we rose with him. When he ascended, we ascended.
and we're dwelling today with him in heavenly
places. When he returns, we also shall be manifested
with him in glory. This marvelous identification
with Jesus induces the believer with a dynamic
and a power which makes the atomic bomb seem
very small. in comparison. We are identified
with Him. Identified with Him when He died on
the cross. Identified with Him in that moment
of resurrection. Identified with Him when He
ascended and went back to glory. identified with
him when he comes back to rule and reign upon
the earth. All power is given unto him anyway,
not only in earth but in heaven above. When they
nailed Jesus to the cross, the penalty of your
guilt was paid right there and then. All on earth
that a sinner has to do is to reach out and accept
for himself, personally, that which was bought
and paid for by Jesus on the cross. No man can
redeem himself. I don't care how righteous you
may feel you are or how good a life you may be
living. No man can redeem himself. It's not your
goodness. Sin was atoned for when they nailed
Jesus to the cross. The penalty of your guilt
was paid for right then and there. It was completed,
perfected, consummated, finished. and you cannot
add to that could my tears forever flow could
my zeal no resp know these for sin cannot atone
thou must save and thou alone In my hand, no
price I bring, simply to thy cross I cling. When
they placed him in the grave, you were placed
there. When he came out in triumph from the tomb,
you came out also. You died when he died. In
the moment the last atom was made a quickening
spirit, then every redeemed sinner rose with
him. That's the reason he could cry. Because
he lives, I too shall live. He was my resurrection.
I am identified with him when he arose from the
dead. And this identification of man with his
Lord is only realized, however, when it is personally
appropriated. It's a personal thing. You personally
must... Appropriate that identification and accept
your inheritance in Christ Jesus. I cannot do
it for you. Another cannot do it for you. It's
a personal thing. It's a personal transaction.
You must personally appropriate it. Oh, the Holy
Spirit would somehow illuminate our understanding
so that we would stop. playing with the toys
in our little theological interpretations and
entered to this abundant life. Sometimes I get
the feeling that we're just playing at this thing.
Just playing with it. A synthetic life. Just
toying with something that is so majestic that
can only be understood in the spirit because
it's something that's spiritual. If only the
Holy Spirit would somehow open our understanding.
Out of the grave of Jesus springs our eternal
life. The self -same power that brought again
the Lord Jesus Christ from the dead quickens
the spirit of the receptive believer into everlasting
and eternal life. Listen to his words as recorded
in the fifth chapter of John. Verily. verily
i say unto you he that heareth my word and believeth
him that sent me hath eternal life and cometh
not into judgment but hath passed out of death
into life in other words he has already passed
from death across to life now. He does not have
to wait until death comes to the physical. He
does not have to wait until the heart stops beating.
He has already passed from death across to life.
Should we not realize that the miracle of conversion
includes in the one act the salvation and the
redemption of the whole man? Sometimes I think
that we fail to see everything that's included
in that moment of salvation, of conversion. We
speak of it so lightly. We say, have you been
born again? But, beloved, we must realize the
miracle of conversion for it includes the redemption
of the whole man if because of our blindness
and our unbelief we cannot comprehend this we
cannot blame our lord who never returned to his
father unto the glory from which he came and
which he laid aside until his work was consummated
and made perfectly complete he never went back
to glory he never left this earth until he was
sure the whole thing had been completed there
can be no doubt in your mind in my mind whether
or not the whole plan had been consummated and
made perfectly complete. You know, so many are
willing to talk about the likeness of his death,
but comparatively few enter into identification
with Jesus in the glory and the power of his
resurrection. Oh, read it there in the sixth
chapter of Romans. For if we have become united
with him by the likeness of his death, we shall
be also by the likeness of his resurrection.
Our hearts throb when we realize that the Christ
who rose from the dead was the same Christ who
was buried and yet how different was he. He was
now released from those confining limitations
of natural law. One moment we find him along
the road going to Emmaus, walking beneath the
light of the Passover moon. But the next moment,
he's in Jerusalem, appearing suddenly in the
midst of the disciples who were congregated there
behind the locked doors. He appeared before them.
They'd listened to his voice. One of them, at
any rate, reached out his hand and touched the
place that the cool nails had entered. Then,
in an instant, he was gone. Time or space seemed
nothing to him after. He had risen from the dead.
There was no limitations. No conditions. of the
mortal life. What a glorious picture. The person
who lives in the power of the resurrection of
Jesus is also raised to a plane of life which
is outside the boundaries of natural law and
outside the boundaries of the natural man. He
begins to live under a divine law. He becomes
possessed with a divine nature. He begins to
manifest the beauties of a divine character.
The standards by which his life are governed
are all divine. Our trouble is that we hang on
and hang on and continue to hang on to the flesh.
Oh, but beloved, while we do so, we're closing
the door because of our unbelief on those glorious
spiritual possibilities that are ours and can
be ours through Christ Jesus. That's why Jesus
said, take no thought for the morrow. Don't worry
about your food. Don't become overly anxious
about your clothing. Your father fully recognizes
the need of your bodies in this respect. You
ought not to be living on a plane so low that
you are being affected by material things. Don't
be robbed of your spiritual inheritance.