There is a difference between Christ our life and physical life.
In this topic I will endeavour to define Christ Our Life, and explain how to maintain Christ our Life and the moral associations that are inseparable from Christ our Life.
I will further deal with Christ our Life an infinite possession and
God’s design for obtaining Christ as our life.
Sermon by Dr. Joseph Halliday
22nd April, 2011
Christ Our Life
I am not referring to natural life or the duration of physical life. Life in the New Testament is used as a principle or belief on which thoughts and actions are based.
This is life in its absolute real life or perfect life. It is life as God has it. It is that which the Father has in Himself and which He gave to His incarnate son to have within Himself.
John 5 v 26 states ‘For as the father has life within Himself so He has granted the son to have life within Himself.’
This the son was manifested in the world according to 1 John 1 v 2 ‘ The life was manifested and we have seen, and bear witness and declare it to you, that eternal life which was with you, and was manifested to us.’
Because of the fall, man, was alienated from this life according to Ephesians 4v 18. ‘Having their understanding darkened being alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them because of the blindness of their heart.’
Of this life man can become partakers through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. John 3 v 15. ‘That whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life.’
Furthermore in order for Christ to be our life we must be crucified with Him. Gal 20 v 20 ‘I am crucified with Christ: 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 of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.’
Christ as man’s substitute was crucified for sin and transgression. By faith man must own the “I” that man in the physical flesh to which sin and the law are attached was crucified with him. Jesus died in the place of the man in the flesh. Man’s condemnation fell on Jesus.
Man in the flesh is yielded to sin and all his members as instruments of unrighteousness, thus bringing forth fruit unto death. Man is worthy of death and guilty, but alive because the penalty was borne by Jesus.
Christ now lives in the believer, so he does do not live unto himself but unto God. The flesh escapes condemnation and the New ‘I’ or Christ lives in Him. By faith man reckons himself to be dead to all in which he once lived and alive unto God.
Jesus is the Author of Life to all who trust in Him. Act 3 v 15 states ‘And killed the Prince of life, whom God hath raised from the dead; whereof we are witnesses.’ Therefore Jesus is said to be the life of the believer according to Colossians 3 v 4 ‘When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. ‘
It is only by surrendering absolutely to Christ that He becomes our life.
The Maintenance of Life
When we have Christ what else do we want? He save1 He keeps! He satisfies! He tells us how He maintains that life that He gives us.
In John 6 v 35, 36 ‘And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.'
John 6:63 ‘It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.’
All who have accepted Christ as Lord and Saviour have accepted a new standard of living. Boys and girls come to the Saviour accept this new standard of living. By the world’s criteria, Christianity is dull and boring. The Christian might experience animosity, hostility and a world in which Satan has energized suffering. But you will make new discoveries as you walk with Christ and know His love and care. Best of all you will have the Son. 1 John 5:12 ‘He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.’
To the young, the not so young and the older ones, there is a great responsibility to maintain ‘Christ our life’ You are a disciple or disciplined one.
Maintaining Christ your life requires the following.
1. Prayer: When god breathed into man the breath of life he became a living soul. When he breathed into the creature the breath of Spiritual life he became a praying soul. Luke 18 v 1 tells us that 'men ought always to pray, and not to faint’. It’s a privilege. It’s a life line to God. In every situation, be it sorrow, pain, or prosperity, pray. Our mighty God can bear the burden of the whole world. Philippians 4 v 6 admonishes us to ‘Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.’
2. Obedience: Be obedient and faithful to God. The work of God would progress much faster if all Christians were obedient and faithful. The bible teaches, ‘To obey is better than to sacrifice.’
3. Read God’s Word: Eat of the bread of life and drink at the living fount. The word is food for the soul that needs to be nourished as the body does. It gives you direction and keeps you from sinning and it comforts you. That is why you should store it in your hearts.
4. Fellowship: Fellowship with one another provided encouragement to pursue and maintain the Christian life. Fellowship with God keeps us focused on the truth and helps us to walk in the light. 1 John 1v 6. ‘If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth’
5. Moral Associations are inseparable form Christ your life. Since Christ is our life, there must be moral associations which are inseparable from it. Christ your life must be associated with holiness and righteousness.
Romans 6:22 ‘ But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.
Hebrews 12:14 ‘Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord:
Matthew 6:33 seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.
A Christian should be like an exotic plant. This plant grows best in its own climate where it can truly and fully develop itself. If placed elsewhere it repels and braves all to maintain itself and its strength. It manifests it rarity and value of its nature. Similarly the Christian longs for the right environment where he can bloom and blossom. He will repel and brave all the immorality and muck and mire of the World. The more like an exotic plant you are the more useful you will be as true witnesses for Christ and the healthier and happier you will be, Your Christian life will proclaim, radiate and maintain ‘Christ’ in your life.
Christians must also exercise faith to maintain Christ our Life. It is by faith that we reckon ourselves dead unto sin. Yet it is in the physical body that the life of Christ expresses itself.
With Christ our Life, we can live by faith. Christ is above all the difficulties that line our pathway on earth. He frees us from the law of sin and death and the temptations that would hinder the New Life. ‘Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.’ It is faith the enables us to be occupied with the true object our Faith – The Lord Jesus. Faith in Jesus is what prevents us from stumbling. Christ strengthens our faith when we are yielded to Him.
Conclusion
Life, life abundant life, Jesus alone is the giver
Life, life eternal life. Glory to Jesus forever.
The more we think of Christ our Life the less we think of ourselves. As the years roll by we take lower and lower estimates of ourselves. As we stands beneath the Cross this Easter we acknowledge our worthlessness and yet there we bow in humility and awe as Christ says to us ‘Thou art all fair my lover, there is no spot in Thee.’
Fellow believers, ‘it is not you but Christ who liveth in you and we can do all thing through Christ who strengthens us.’ We can roll our confidence on Jesus. We are safe in His care. He alone can give eternal life and maintain it. We are nothing we can do nothing of ourselves. We can make nothing of ourselves unless there is absolute surrender to Christ.
Eternal life is the present actual possession of the believer. In John 5 v 24 Jesus says 'Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.’
O glory to God! This eternal life will or does extend to my frail and weakened body and to yours because of the glorious fact of the resurrection or the change.
Listen to what 2 Corinthians 5 v 4 says ‘For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life.’ It is on the power of that life we shall behold; we shall be like Him and see Him as He is.'
1 Corinthians 15 v 19 says ‘If in this life only we have hope we are of all men most miserable.’
Christ alone gives infinite life. There is no one else to whom we can go.
God’s Design For Obtaining Life.
Roman 5 v 12 tells us that ‘Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.’
Sin involved forfeiting blood. Leviticus 17 v 11 ‘For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.’
The impartation of life to the sinner must be by death caused by shedding the life of the flesh. The separation from God caused by the forfeiting of life could only be renewed by a sacrifice in which the victim and the offerer were identified. That is what Christ did by His voluntary and vicarious death on Calvary, this for he was sinless.
Isaiah 53:5 is well known. ‘But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.’
In this sacrifice He endured the divine judgment due to man’s sin. By means the believer becomes one with Him in His deathless life through His resurrection.