Christ Not
the Minister of Sin
Jesus
Christ is "the Holy and Righteous One." Acts 3:14, R.V. "He was
manifested to take away our sins; and in Him is no sin." 1Joh.3:5. He not
only "did no sin" (1Pet.2:22), but He "knew no sin"
(2Cor.5:21). Therefore, it is impossible that any sin can come from Him. He
does not impart sin. In the stream of life that flows from the heart of Christ,
through His wounded side, there is no trace of impurity. It is "a pure
river of water of life, clear as crystal." He is not the minister of sin,
that is, He does not minister sin to anybody. If in any one who has sought--and
not only sought, but found--righteousness through Christ, there is afterwards
found sin, it is because the person has dammed up the stream, allowing the
water to become stagnant. The Word has not been given free course, so that it
could be glorified; and where there is no activity, there is death. No one is to
blame for this but the person himself. Let no professed 82 Christian take counsel
of his own imperfections, and say that it is impossible for a Christian to live
a sinless life. It is impossible for a true Christian, one who has full faith,
to live any other kind of life. "How shall we, that are dead to sin, live
any longer therein?" Rom. 6:2. "Whosoever is born of God doth not
commit sin; for His seed remaineth in him; and he can not sin, because he is
born of God." 1Joh.3:9. Therefore "abide in Him."
What Was
Destroyed?
"If I
build up again those things which I destroyed, I prove myself a
transgressor." We ask again, What was destroyed, the building up of which
will prove us to be transgressors? Remembering that the apostle is talking of
those who have believed in Jesus Christ, that they might be justified by the
faith of Christ, we find the answer to the question in Rom.6:6: "Knowing
this, that our old man is crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be
destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin." Also Col. 2:10,11:
"Ye are complete in Him, which is the head of all principality and power;
in whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in
putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ."
That which is destroyed is the body of sin, and it is destroyed only by this
personal presence of the life of Christ. It is destroyed in order that we may
be freed from its power, and may no longer need to serve it. It is destroyed
for everybody, for Christ in His own flesh has abolished "the enmity,"
the carnal mind; not His own, for He had none, but ours. Our sins, our 83
weaknesses, were upon Him. For every soul the victory has been gained, and the
enemy has been disarmed. We have only to accept the victory which Christ has
won. The victory over all sin is
already a reality; our faith in it makes it real to us. The loss of faith puts
us outside the reality, and the old body of sin looms up again. That
which is destroyed by faith is built up again by unbelief. Remember that this
destruction of the body of sin, although performed by Christ for all, is,
nevertheless, a present, personal matter with each individual.
"Dead
to the Law."
Many seem
to fancy that "dead to the law" means the same as that the law is
dead. Not by any means. The law must be in full force, else no one could be
dead by means of it. How does a man become dead to the law?--By receiving its
full penalty, which is death. He is dead, but the law which put him to death is
still as ready as ever to put to death another criminal. Suppose, now, that the
man who was executed for gross crimes should, by some miraculous power, come to
life again, would he not still be dead to the law?--Certainly; nothing that he
had done could be mentioned to him by the law; but if he should again commit
crimes, the law would again execute him, but as another man. We say now that I,
through the law, am dead to the law, that I might live unto God. By the body of
Christ I am raised from the death which I have suffered by the law because of
my sin, and now I walk "in newness of life," a life unto God. Like
Saul of old, I am by the Spirit of God "turned into another man."
1Sam.10:6. 84 This is the Christian's
experience. That this is the case is shown by what follows.
Crucified
with Christ
"I am
crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in
me."
Gal_2:20
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 was
crucified; He was "delivered for our offenses, and raised again for our
justification." Rom.4:25.
But unless
we are crucified with Him, His death and resurrection profit us nothing. If the
cross of Christ is separated from us, and outside of us, even though it be but
by so much as a moment of time and an hair's breadth of space, it is to us all
the same as if He were not crucified. No one was ever saved simply by looking
forward to a cross to be erected and a Christ to be crucified at some indefinite
time in the future, and no one can now be saved simply by believing that at a
certain time in the past Christ was crucified. No; if men would see Christ
crucified, they must look neither forward nor backward, but upward; for the arms
of the cross that was erected on Calvary reach from Paradise lost to Paradise
restored, and embrace the whole world of sin. The crucifixion of Christ is not a
thing of but a single day. He is "the Lamb that hath been slain from the
foundation of the world" (Rev.13:8, R.V.); and the pangs of Calvary will
not be ended as long as a single sin or sinner exists in the universe. Even now
Christ bears the sins of the whole world, for "in Him all things
consist;" and when at the last He is obliged to cut off the irreclaimably
wicked in the lake of fire, the anguish which they suffer will be 85 only that
which the Christ whom they have rejected suffered on the cross.
Where the
Cross Is
Christ
bore our sins in His own body on the tree. 1Pet.2:24.
1Pe
2:24 Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we,
being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were
healed.
He was
"made a curse for us," in that He hung on the tree. Gal.3:13.
Gal
3:13 Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a
curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree:
On the
cross He bore not only the weakness and sin of humanity, but also the weakness
of the earth. Thorns are the sign of the curse, the weakened, imperfect
condition of the earth (Gen. 3:17,18; 4:11,12);
Gen
3:17 And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of
thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou
shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou
eat of it all the days of thy life;
Gen
3:18 Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou
shalt eat the herb of the field
Gen
4:11 And now art thou cursed from the earth, which hath opened her mouth
to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand;
Gen
4:12 When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto
thee her strength; a fugitive and a vagabond shalt thou be in the earth.
and on the
cross Christ bore the crown of thorns. Therefore, all the curse, every trace of
it, is borne by Christ,--by Christ crucified. Wherever, therefore, we see any
curse, or wherever there is any curse, whether we see it or not, there is the
cross of Christ. This can be seen again from the following: The curse is death,
and death kills; the curse is in everything, yet everywhere we see life. Here
is the miracle of the cross. Christ suffered the curse of death, and yet lived.
He is the only one that could do it. Therefore, the fact that we see life
everywhere, also in ourselves, in spite of the curse which is everywhere, is
positive proof that the cross of the Crucified One is there bearing it. So it is
that not only every blade of grass, every leaf of the forest, and every piece
of bread that we eat has the stamp of the cross of Christ on it, but, above
all, we have the same. Wherever there is a fallen, sinscarred, miserable human
being, there is also the Christ of God crucified for him and in him. Christ on
the cross bears all things, and the sins of that man are on Him. Because of
unbelief and 86 ignorance the man feels all the weight of the heavy burden, but
the load is on Christ, nevertheless. It is easy for Christ, but heavy for the
man; if the man will believe, he may be relieved of the load. In short, Christ
bears the sins of all the world on the cross. Therefore, wherever sin is found,
there we may be sure is the cross of Christ.
Where Sin
Is
Sin is a
personal matter. A man is guilty only of his own sins, and not of those which
another has committed. Now I can not sin where I am not, but only where I am.
Sin is in the heart of man; "for from within, out of the heart of men,
proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness,
wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness;
all these evil things come from within." Mark 7:21-23. "The heart is
deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked." Jer.17:9. Sin is in
every fiber of our being by nature. We are born in sin, and our life is sin, so
that sin can not be taken from us without taking our life. What I need is
freedom from my own personal sin,--that sin
which not
only has been committed by me personally, but which dwells in the heart,--the
sin which constitutes the whole of my life.
Bound by
Sin
"His
own iniquities shall take the wicked himself, and he shall be holden with the
cords of his sins." Prov.5:22. "For though thou wash thee with niter,
and take thee much soap, yet thine iniquity is marked before Me, saith the
Lord." Jer.2:22. My sin is committed 87 by myself, in myself, and I can
not separate it from me. Cast it on the Lord? Ah, yes, that is right, but how?
Can I gather it up in my hands, and cast it from me, so that it will light upon
Him?--I can not. If I could separate it but a hair's breadth from me, then I
should be safe, no matter what became of it, since it would not be found in me.
In that case I could dispense with Christ; for if sin were not found on me, it
would make no matter to me where it was found. If I could gather up my sins so
as to lay them upon Christ crucified apart from me, then I would not need to put
them on Him. They would then be away from me, and that would clear me. But no
works of any kind that I can do can save me; therefore, all my efforts to
separate myself from my sins are unavailing.
Christ
Bears the Sin in Us
It is
evident from what has been said that whoever bears my sins must come where I
am, yea, must come into me. And this is just what Christ does. Christ is the
Word, and to all sinners, who would excuse themselves by saying that they can
not know what God requires of them, He says, "The Word is very nigh unto
thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it."
Deut.30:11-14. Therefore, He says, "If thou shalt confess with thy mouth
the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from
the dead, thou shalt be saved." Rom.10:9. What shall we confess about the
Lord Jesus?--Why, confess the truth, that He is nigh thee, even in thy mouth
and in thy heart, and believe that He is there risen from the dead. "Now
that He ascended, what is it but that He also descended first into the lower
parts of the earth?" Eph.4:9. The risen Saviour is the crucified Saviour.
As Christ risen is in the heart of the sinner, therefore, Christ crucified is
there. If it were not so, there would be no hope for any. A man may believe
that Jesus was crucified eighteen hundred years ago, and may die in his sins;
but he who believes that Christ is crucified and risen in him, has
salvation. All that any man in the world
has to do in order to be saved, is to believe the truth, that is, to recognize
and acknowledge facts, to see things just as they actually are, and to confess
them. Whoever believes that Christ is
crucified in him, which is the fact in the case of every man, and confesses that
the crucified Christ is also risen, and that He dwells in him by and with the
power of the resurrection, is saved from sin, and will be saved as long as he
holds fast his confession. This is the only true confession of
faith. What a glorious thought that,
wherever sin is, there is Christ, the Saviour from sin! He bears sin, all sin,
the sin of the world. Sin is in all flesh, and so Christ is come in the flesh.
Christ is crucified in every man that lives on earth. This is the word of truth,
the Gospel of salvation, which is to be proclaimed to all, and which will save
all who accept it.
The Glad
Tidings
By E. J.
WAGGONER
(Excerpt- To be continued)
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