In Christ

"We saw how prominent is the word 'I' throughout Romans 7, culminating in the agonized cry: 'O wretched man that I am!' Then followed the shout of deliverance: 'Thank God... Jesus Christ!' and it is clear that the discovery Paul has made is this, that the life we live is the life of Christ alone. We think of the Christian life as a 'changed life' but it is not that. What God offers us is an 'exchanged life,' a 'substituted life,' and Christ is our Substitue within. 'I live; yet no longer I, but Christ liveth in me.' This life is not something which we ourselves have to produce. It is Christ's own life reproduced in us.

How many Christians believe in 'reproduction in this sense as something more than regeneration? Regeneration means that the life of Christ is planted in us by the Holy Spirit at our new birth. 'Reproduction' goes futher: it means that new life grows and becomes manifest progressively in us, until the very likeness of Christ begins to be reproduced in our lives. That is what Paul means when he speaks of his travail for the Galatians 'until Christ be formed in you' (Gal. 4:19)."

The above is an excerpt from Walkman Nee's The Normal Christian Life... Maybe the best book I've read besides the Bible. Anyways, I find it fascinating that after reading Romans 6, 7 and 8 at least 30 times since I was saved that I could not figure this passage out for what it really meant. I thought I knew what it meant to be 'In Christ' but I had no idea what that meant to me in everyday life.

When Paul says repeatedly "You have died" and with and in Christ to our old selves as sinners and risen again in the newness of life in Christ Jesus, he means just that. If you have accepted Christ as your saviour and been born of the Spirit, your baptism is a symbol of just that... You are dead! and now, your life is to be found altogether in Christ. The problem we all face is that we cannot ever seem to know this well enough, we constantly forget who we are really in Christ, we constantly forget Him, and we constantly make Him commonplace... He is everything, and He is the only thing we have to look to. Where He is, our life is to be found, in who He is, our life has its strength, in what He's done, we have God's grace, and in His Spirit, our lives constantly can have strength... The work of Christ on the Cross and our reception and believing in it, is more than just the blood of Christ to cover our sins, but the very crucifixion of our old selves into the body of Christ. We no longer live but in Christ. This is why it becomes such misery for a true Christian to backslide and turn to the world, absolute misery.

Also, the end of Romans 7, I believe, seems to point directly to our struggle as Christians when we know we have to live to Christ, but forget on who's strength we are to rely. It is such a common thing for us to look to 'I', thinking in us is the means for sanctification, holiness, and love, but by no means is this the case. When we recognize just how poor we are in terms of our ability to obey Christ and turn to Him, saying 'O, wretched man that I am!', and then look to Christ, we are in the Christian life. We must always know how completely incapapble this 'I' of ours is and we need always to look to Christ, to His life lived through us. Rest on Him and know that your life is not the life to be lived anymore, but Christ's life is to be lived through you, so look to Him, pray always, feed on Him, and abide in Him. This is our strength and hope, all good things are in Christ. Rejoice always, giving thanks for the truth that you are dead in Christ and alive in Him too! This is true. Now, let us know this and walk in this, the Spirit of life, knowing that we are bought to Him and it is no longer our own life that we live, but Christ's.