The Faith Rest Life

Dying with the Lord Jesus is not something we can do. Our crucifixion with Him is an accomplished fact, which took place when we died unto sin in Him on the Cross. Our responsibility is merely to count upon this fact by faith. How does this work in practical experience?

First, where do I look if I am to know that my sins are forgiven? When I look to Calvary I see Him dying for me — wounded for my transgressions. The Holy Spirit Himself showed me this wonderful pardon given because of the death of Another. On the same principle of faith, if I am to know my union with the Lord Jesus in His death unto sin as a growing experience I must once again come to Calvary.

There, I look at the Cross, and say, "Lord, I accept from my heart not only the fact of your death for me, but also my death with Thee." It is by that means of faith that the Holy Spirit will take the veil off, showing me the truth, and leading me into its reality. It is not a question of our dying, but of the Father having planted us into the death of His Son.

Self-effort is so subtle in its workings that there are many believers who have wearied themselves out "trying to die," and found unavailing the "reckoning" of their minds, seeking to grasp a fact, which can only be understood as it is revealed to the heart and mind by the Holy Spirit through the Word. The Cross has freed us from our old man, that we may see ourselves as new men in Christ Jesus.

When we are really learning the secret of heart acceptance of our Father's plan in the destruction of that which comes to us from the first Adam, and His design to bless only that which is bestowed upon us in the Last Adam, we come into "the rest of faith." The stress and strain which are the hallmarks of modern Christian life and service begin to fade away.

No longer do we need to cry out that we may be "used"; no longer need we be involved in a constant effort to keep our haloes at the right angle; no longer are we to be swayed this way and that by circumstances and the impact of the shifting currents of the opinions of others. As under the gentle touch of the Spirit we seek, as time goes by, that the fact of death with the Lord Jesus is applied in an ever deeper way – so, spontaneously and "unselfconsciously." His life is manifested in our mortal bodies.

In Spring, nature is clothed with its new beauty after the Winter by secret springs of God-given life. If you and I will only wait humbly on the Holy Spirit of God, that the Lord Jesus' death may do its liberating work in us, the streams of life will flow of themselves.

Many are concerned these days with questions such as – power for service, the authority of the believer, etc. These basic principles of faith will bring such questions into proper perspective, and provide that humble-minded sanity and balance, which is indicative of true spirituality. The great concern of the Enemy is either to hold us back from the realization of our full union with the ascended Lord Jesus by persistent accusation, and the reiterated harping on our own inability or to push us into some over-balance because we seek to lay hold in the realm of the old Adam, of those blessings and promises that belong exclusively to the new man in the Lord Jesus Christ. "Set your affections on things above… for ye died, and your life is hid with Christ in God" (Col. 3:2, 3). – J .C .M. g

This article was excerpted from the devotional, "None But the Hungry Heart," which was compiled by Miles J. Stanford.