Faith that is Solely in Christ
By David A. DePra
Throughout the NT, and even in type and shadow in the OT, we find that the
essential for relationship with God is FAITH.
That is not because our faith accomplishes anything.
No. Rather, it is because BY
FAITH we live in, and out from, the One who is all:
Jesus Christ.
There are a number of ways to state this same Truth.
For example, our faith is NOT our contribution to our salvation, or our
contribution to Christ. No.
Rather, real faith emerges from the realization that we have NO
contribution -- but are utterly barren of resources.
Yet seeing this Truth about ourselves is not the end – it is UNTO an even
greater realization. Real faith
emerges from seeing that the Truth about Jesus Christ – that He is ALL -- and
offers Himself to us solely by grace.
Seeing that we are nothing and that Christ is all are really two sides to the
same TRUTH. And that Truth, if we
will embrace it will lead us no where else but to FAITH that is solely in
Christ.
It is understood that all that God has for the believer is possible only because
of the finished work of Jesus Christ – His death and His resurrection.
The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ were actual historical events.
Without them we have nothing.
But the gospel is not, “the message of the Cross,” and it is not, “the
message of His resurrection.”
Rather, the gospel is the good news of Jesus Christ the Person – who is today
alive and desires to live in His people.
Jesus Christ is, “Christ crucified,” and, “Christ risen.”
He carries in His Person all of the power and victory of His death and
resurrection. Thus, the true gospel
of the Person of Christ, rather than minimize what Christ did, all the more
brings out the reality and impact of His finished work through His very presence
and purpose today.
This is why our faith is not to be, “in the Cross,” but to be in the One who
hung on it and was raised from out of the dead to live and rule in us today.
Seeing Truth
Most believers know the doctrines of faith, righteousness by faith, and fallen
man. But simply knowing doctrines
is not the same as knowing the Truth.
Knowing the Truth – in the way the Bible means, “knowing” – is the result
of experiencing a Person, Jesus Christ.
If we experience Christ, we begin to SEE, for HE IS the Light.
Humanity is born spiritually blind.
We CANNOT see. There is no capacity
born into a member of the Adam race to know God, or to see the Truth.
It is not a matter of poor intelligence or a lack of religious training.
No. The Adam race is a kind
of human being – since the sin of Adam – that cannot see the Truth.
Most people do not know they are blind.
That is because they are born of a race who are naturally blind.
But when everyone is blind then blindness is the NORMAL.
Few question it. Most do not
even realize that there is such a thing as seeing God.
Even many professing Christians have no frame of reference for seeing
Jesus Christ. To most, Christianity
is a list of doctrines; Truth on paper – with many associated practices.
This is why the first necessity is that a person realize that they are blind.
They do not yet see – but they do, “see,” that they are blind.
In effect, they have begun to see the Truth – the Truth being that they
are blind.
No one can cry out to the God, “Lord, that I may see!,” if they are so arrogant
that they think they already see.
We have to come to the place where we realize we are blind, or realize that no
matter how much we do see, that there is always more of Christ Jesus to see.
The first step to being able to see is that you must be born from above.
Jesus said, “Unless a man is born from above, he CANNOT see….”
The Adam creature cannot see.
Thus, to be able to see, a person must be born from above as a NEW
creation in Christ Jesus.
We must be born again as new creations in Christ that have the capacity to see.
But that alone does not immediately mean we will see.
It will take time for God to open our eyes so that we can know and define
what we see. God will have to do a
work in our hearts so that we will embrace the Truth.
But none of that is possible unless we are born from above.
Until then, we may know we are blind.
We may even carry an intellectual understanding of the things of God.
But until we are born from above we cannot SEE.
The fact that the first thing we must see is that we are blind gives us a
suggestion of what it will mean to see the Truth.
It will mean that we will see the Truth about ourselves – we will see
that we are utterly and completely corrupt and without hope.
We will see that the life onto which we hold so dearly is worth nothing.
But as we see these terrible Truths about ourselves, we will also see
that Jesus Christ is the answer, and that God offers Him freely by grace.
This is the Truth. It is the
only Truth. But it is Truth that we
must EXPERIENCE – not merely memorize in doctrinal form.
God must do a work in us whereby we are exposed – in the light of Christ.
For if we see and embrace that Truth about ourselves without Christ,
losing our lives will not be a debate.
We will desire to lose our lives to Christ.
And because we are seeing Jesus Christ we will run to Him and want Him
with all of our heart.
How does a person get to the point where they lose their lives to Christ?
To where they actually put their entire faith upon Jesus?
It will never happen by study.
At best, study will tell us that this is what we must do.
But the only way in which I will voluntarily and with my whole heart give
myself to Christ – and then walk with Him by faith – is if I see and embrace the
Truth.
Is there anything we have to do to get started?
Yes. We have to give to God
that which we possess by nature – ourselves.
We must say to God, “Lord, do whatever it takes to bring me to where I
see Jesus Christ; to where I see the Truth; to where I lose myself to You.”
And God will do whatever it takes.
What will it take? The work
of the personal Cross. And when God
begins that work of the Cross, we must then follow up our commitment and desire
by picking it up and allowing Him to have His way in us.
What Faith is NOT
In order to understand what faith in Jesus Christ really IS, it is helpful to
understand what it is NOT. This is
necessary because each of us begin blind.
There is much false teaching around us.
Counterfeit Christianity, and counterfeit faith, abounds today.
Therefore, a clear understand of faith must include a clear understanding
of the errors that surround it.
Perhaps the foundational Truth about faith in Jesus Christ is the most obvious –
and yet the most misunderstood. It
may not be misunderstood in doctrinal form, but it is so often misunderstood in
PRACTICE. And that foundational
Truth is this: Real faith is solely
in Jesus Christ. It is not in
myself. I cannot trust my works, and I
cannot even, “have faith in my faith.”
Real faith puts myself aside and is a complete reliance upon Jesus Christ
to the complete disregard of myself.
What does it mean to disregard oneself as it pertains to faith in Christ?
It means that I rely upon Christ regardless of my sin.
It means that I rely upon Christ regardless of my good works.
It means that I rely upon Christ to the complete disregard of anything
about myself. In short, faith is
solely in Christ – nothing about me makes my faith stronger, and nothing about
me makes my faith weaker. I am not
even in the equation.
Earlier we saw that we must lose ourselves to Jesus Christ.
But often we make the mistake of thinking that this means THINGS or
SITUATIONS. No.
We must lose ourselves. Can
we see how this goes hand in hand with faith?
I must lose myself with regards to faith – I must put myself aside and
trust in Christ for all. Only then
will I find Him.
We must lose ourselves and put ourselves aside because that is exactly what God
has done. He has put humanity aside
and give us His Son. He has told us
that all of our sins were buried with Christ.
But likewise He has told us that all of our supposed righteousness is
buried with Christ. In short, WE
are buried with Christ. Thus, to
attach something about ourselves to our faith is contrary to the finished
redemption. It is NOT the Truth.
So much of what God is doing in believers is to bring us to the place where we
will lose ourselves to Christ – to where we will see that there is NOTHING in
us, and that there is NOTHING we can do about it.
Most often, the way in which God opens our eyes to this Truth is by
allowing us to fail. Then – if we
will embrace this Truth – we will lose ourselves.
We will not forever be stumbled in faith because of our failings.
But neither will we be stumbled in faith because of good works.
We will realize that faith that is attached to ourselves is error.
We will know that faith that is solely in Christ is the only Truth.
God says, “Leave yourself alone.
Stop trying to be good enough. Stop
thinking that you must be good enough to believe.
Believe because you have seen that Christ alone is the righteousness of
God.”
Have we learned that NOTHING is possible unless we FIRST believe – to the
disregard of ourselves? And that
all things are possible if we have faith solely in Christ?
Sure. There is nothing in
ourselves from which we can draw.
But God has freely given us all things in His Son.
It is therefore only if our faith is solely in Christ that we can enter
into the purposes of God.
Entering His Rest
After God delivered Israel out of Egypt – through a series of great miracles –
He brought them to the Promised Land.
But they refused to enter.
Why? Because they had discovered
that there were giants in the land – and concluded that they were not able to
overcome them. Worse, they blamed
God for bringing them to such a place.
They even wondered if they were better off in Egypt.
God inspired the
epistle to the Hebrews. And in it
He uses the example of Israel to warn His people.
To day if ye will hear his voice,
Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of
temptation in the wilderness:
When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty
years.
Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do
alway err in their heart; and
they have not known my ways.
So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.)
Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of
unbelief, in departing from the living God.
(Heb. 3:7-12)
Let
us labor therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same
example of unbelief. (Heb. 4:11)
Now ask:
Was God unaware of the giants in the Promised Land?
No. Did He not realize that
it was impossible for Israel to defeat such enemies?
Yes. Yet He told them to
enter the land REGARDLESS. They
refused. It is this example of
unbelief against which He warns His people.
He tells us to enter into the fullness of Christ to the complete
disregard of our sins, failures, weakness, and deficiencies.
He tells us to enter in by FAITH – faith in His Son.
The message here is clear: “The land,” is given.
God has freely given His people all things in His Son.
He does not ask us to be good enough or strong enough.
In fact, God will do a work in us to show us our corruption and weakness.
But then He will say, “Enter by faith anyways.
Enter into relationship in My Son and leave yourself behind.”
This is not only a great promise but attached to it is a warning.
If you and I will not take possession of what God has given because we
are unworthy – we are in unbelief – the same unbelief exhibited by Israel.
Likewise, if we rush to take possession because we think we ARE worthy –
we are in unbelief – we will fall.
There is only ONE basis for entering into the fullness of Christ – faith in Him
and in what He has done. We must
put our faith in the One who is, “other than ourselves.”
We must step outside of ourselves; step around ourselves – putting aside
all of our sins and all of our supposed good – and enter into Christ solely by
faith IN HIM.
This is the Truth. But as we have
seen, we cannot put faith in Christ – will be blind to doing so – until God
begins to reveal to us the Truth about ourselves.
We will only put faith solely in Christ if we see we are nothing and He
is all. True faith must be based on
seeing the Truth, yes, about ourselves, but about HIM.
The Wilderness
When Israel would not believe God and enter the land that He had given them it
became necessary for them to wander in the wilderness for forty years.
This was NOT a punishment.
Rather, it was a necessary judgment intended to bring them to where they WOULD
believe and enter His rest. In
short, the judgment upon Israel was a redemptive act by God that eventually made
it possible for them to enter the land by faith.
The first time Israel was told to enter the land they refused – they would not
believe God because they were occupied with themselves; with their own weakness.
But the second time, under Joshua, that Israel arrived at the Promised
Land they DID enter by faith. What
happened in between those two times?
The wilderness happened.
What did the wilderness accomplish?
Did it make Israel strong? No.
It exposed their total weakness.
The wilderness is the experience wherein God exposes the Truth about us –
that there is nothing in us. But it
is all intended, if we will embrace this Truth, to get us to where we put
ourselves aside and enter His purposes BY GRACE THROUGH FAITH.
Are you asking God to make you strong?
He never will. He wants to
show you that you were never created to possess strength.
You were created to be empty, weak, and dependent – naked of any assets
within yourself. But that is all
unto the end that you will finally see, confess, and live the Truth that Paul
stated in Galatians: “Yet not I,
but Christ…” (Gal. 2:20)
God shows us the Truth that we are empty so that we might go on to put
faith in Christ. This is why He
allows us to wander in our wilderness.
So again – God says, “I know all about your sin and weakness.
I know that it is impossible for you to overcome them.
I am not asking you to do anything before you abide in Christ.
Rather, I am asking you to see and confess the corruption in yourself
that I already see. And I am asking
you to abide in Christ regardless – solely on the basis of HIM.”
When Israel ended their forty year wandering in the wilderness they were once
again brought by God to the land.
This time they did enter by faith.
Note that it was the SAME land, populated by the SAME giants – and that Israel
was as unable to conquer them as always.
What had changed? Israel now
believed God. Rather than figure
themselves into the equation of whether they could live in the land, they put
themselves aside and put their faith in God.
The wilderness – if we yield to God – will make us able to enter His rest.
But it will do that by reducing us to NOTHING.
Then we will enter His rest on the basis of Christ.
Thus, rather than think we must overcome our failings BEFORE we enter His
rest, we need to see that we must enter His rest despite them – for to enter His
rest by faith in Christ despite everything about ourselves is exactly the place
that God wants to bring us.
Have we realized that anything else is UNBELIEF?
That to neglect to enter His rest for ANY reason is UNBELIEF?
There is no valid reason to neglect entering His
rest. The victory of Christ is
finished – it is in place. God
says, “Enter into the fullness of Christ – by FAITH.”
The fact is, this is the ONLY Truth, and the ONLY basis that God will accept.
We cannot enter into the fullness God has for us on any other basis.
Indeed, we are warned against neglecting to do so -- and against trying
to enter on any other basis. “We
that believe DO enter His rest.”
That is a statement of Truth.
Living by Faith
It is essential that believers see that Christianity is infinitely much more
than a list of doctrines to believe in and follow.
Rather, Christianity is CHRIST IN YOU (Col. 1:27) – and the life that
emerges from this oneness in spirit with Christ.
We are saved by grace through faith.
But we are to live by faith.
What does that mean? That we are to
simply rest in the fact that we are forever forgiven?
That every time we sin we can turn to Christ?
No. Those dynamics are
included. But to LIVE by faith
means that we continually abide in Christ as OUR life – and continually draw
upon Him in dependence for all that we need in this age.
There are not two kinds of faith.
There is one faith in Christ Jesus.
Thus, the same faith by which we believe Christ for salvation remains the faith
by which we live. Christ is our
ALL. We are NOTHING.
That is an absolute, and if we would realize it, faith would flow.
Paul the apostle said, “Christ, our life.”
(Col. 3:4) That doesn’t simply mean that Christ died to give us a,
“thing,” called life – or a ticket to heaven.
No. It means that because
the believer is ONE IN SPIRIT with the Lord (I Cor. 6:17) that Jesus Christ is
actually our life, that is, we are partakers of HIM.
That is why we are saved; born from above.
It is why we are raised in Him from out of the dead.
So rather than say we have been given life because of Christ it is more
correct to say that we have been given Christ Himself – and HE IS THE LIFE.
To live by faith means that we live from
OUT OF Christ. But you see, this
again brings us to the great necessity of seeing what the Truth is NOT – so that
we might see what the Truth IS. To
live from OUT OF Christ means I do not live from out of myself.
This distinction is vital to grasp.
For most believers think that they are supposed, “to look like Jesus.”
We think that God has given us power and ability BECAUSE of Jesus.
We have this idea that because of Christ God has somehow infused our
natural man with the Holy Spirit so as to make our natural man behave like a
Christian and be able to live for God.
All of this is false. It is
not Christianity.
The Truth is, rather than make us look like Jesus, God wants to crucify us so
that Christ might be made manifest through us.
Rather than give us power or ability BECAUSE OF Jesus, God wants to show
us that we are weak – and instead of giving us power, God wants to give us
Christ, who IS the power of God.
And rather than infuse our natural man with Christ, God has joined us in spirit
to Christ, and has put our natural man under the Cross.
So much error and confusion in the
Christian church comes back to blindness to Christ – a blindness to the reality
of Jesus Christ in us. Many are
blind to the fact of Christ in us to begin with – but even those who know the
fact are often blind to what it means.
It means that Christ is all and we are nothing – and that we must live
like it. It means that we must lose
our lives in order that Christ can be our life.
All Given in Christ
It is vital that believers understand that God has freely given ALL in His Son.
(Rom. 8:32) Now, that is
such a simple statement. But most
don’t realize what it means. It
means exactly what it says – God has freely given ALL in His Son – but it also
means that God has given NOTHING outside of Christ.
Now, the usual misunderstanding on this matter is that God has given all BECAUSE
of Christ. Folks believe that since
Christ died and that all that has been given is by grace that the things of God
are simply there for our use and appropriation.
From this misunderstanding come such heresies as The Word of Faith,
positive confession, etc. No.
That is not the Truth. God
has not given anything BECAUSE of Christ.
That which is of Christ is not there for our use.
Rather, He has given all IN Christ.
In short, God has not given us THINGS.
Rather, He has given us His Son, IN WHOM are all things that God has to
give.
For example, we
know that God gives His grace. But
He gives His grace ONLY in Christ.
There is no grace outside of Christ.
That is why it is absurd to go around confessing victory, claiming divine
miracles, and believing the nonsense that you can possess what you confess.
No. These gifts are NOT
given to believers simply because they ARE believers.
They are not given as THINGS to claim or use.
No. Again – God has NOT
given us things or power or rights.
Rather, He has given us CHRIST – in Whom are all things.
Thus, it is only as Christ is unfolded to us, and we abide in Him, and
become one with His mind and will, that what is in Christ can be experienced –
and then according to the will of God.
Because God has blessed us with ALL spiritual blessings IN CHRIST – solely by
grace – it means that it is only as we discover Him, and live in and out from
HIM, that we can experience who Christ is and what He has made possible.
For example, do you want healing?
Is the key to confess your healing because Christ died?
Do you have financial needs? Do
you simply name it and claim it? It
ought to be clear to any sane person that this simply does not work.
Most of the time God’s answer will be silence.
Losing One’s Life
All that is IN CHRIST can only be experienced by experiencing Christ Himself –
in His will and according to His purpose.
We are wasting our time otherwise.
This fact goes back to a basic principle that Jesus clearly stated to His
disciples in Matthew 16:
If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his
cross, and follow me.
For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose
his life for my sake shall find it.
(Matt. 16:24-25)
It is amazing that Jesus could say, “IF anyone wants to follow ME..,” and yet
His statement continues to be either ignored or misinterpreted by many who claim
to follow Christ. But His teaching
is clear: If you want to follow
Jesus Christ you must LOSE your life into His hands under the work of the
personal Cross. What does that
mean? It means that we must
relinquish our self-ownership. We
must fully give ourselves to Him.
We must give to Him our right to ourselves.
We can begin by making an, “all in,” commitment to Him by saying, “Lord,
do whatever it takes to bring me to lose my life.
Do whatever it takes to bring me into the fullness of Christ.”
The fact is, anything short of that commitment is NOT real faith.
Real faith is going to bring us to such a surrender – where else would we
come if we actually believe that God is faithful, and that He wants only the
best of us? This statement of Jesus
is not a law to keep, or a command He is giving under threat of punishment.
It is simply a statement of TRUTH.
Indeed, it is His direction to us as to deliverance from out of bondage,
and out of the greatest sin of unbelief.
Now, if we focus in on one word is Jesus’ statement in this verse from Matthew 16 you will see that the issue is LIFE. There are two kinds of life that He mentions. There is OUR life – the Adam life – and the fact that Jesus describes it as OUR life certainly points out the fact that we possess ourselves in our life. The Adam race belongs to itself – we are naturally born that way. When Adam declared independence from God that is what he got – self-ownership. Thus, the sin nature is self-ownership; the natural life is OUR life. This is our nature – it is what humanity is without God. But the other LIFE Jesus mentions is HIS LIFE. He says that we must lose OUR life in order to find HIS LIFE.
So, if we understand this basic Truth that we must lose ourselves to Christ in
order to find Him as our life, it brings clarity to what God means when He says
that He has given us all things freely IN CHRIST.
How many see that IN CHRIST is all life?
Sure He IS the Life. Thus,
to put is simply, the life that we will find if we lose our life is the life of
Christ – in which God has given all things.
Gather all of this up and what it means is that God has given all things freely
in Jesus Christ who is THE LIFE – THE LIFE that can only be found if we lose OUR
life. Therefore, if we do NOT lose
our lives – whether it be through ignorance, neglect, or refusal – we will not
find Christ as our life. And we
will not be able to discover or experience that which God has given by His
grace.
Right there is a description of so many professing believers.
It is also one reason why heresies like the Word of Faith are deception
and do not function as false teachers promise.
If I do not lose my life under the work of the personal Cross – as Jesus
said I must do if I want to follow Him – and as Jesus said I must do if I want
to find Christ as my life – then I will be living in and out from my natural
life. It may be a religious natural
life, but it will NOT be the life of Christ.
So if I am operating from the WRONG LIFE – the life that God wants me to
LOSE – how can I expect to find what is only in the life of Christ?
Millions of Christian people have been taught that God wants to bless them – but
they are never told that it is only IN CHRIST
-- in the NEW life – that God can bless them.
Thus, they focus mostly on earthly blessings having to do with the Adam
life. Millions continue to think
that Christianity is a blessed Adam life.
Unwittingly, they strive to find God’s blessings upon the very life He
tells them to LOSE – upon the very life that was condemned under the Cross .
In effect, many seek to save their life for themselves – and have been
given teaching as to how to get God to help them.
Can we see that such a path is really deception?
It is actually, whether the people realize it or not, a denial of the
Cross. Indeed, it is the gospel of
Satan. Satan wants a Christianity
based upon the Adam life. That is,
“the man,” Satan seeks to save. It
is the definition of antichrist.
So, God has indeed blessed us with all
spiritual blessings – but only IN CHRIST – only as we are one with Him in His
life. And the only way to be one
with Christ in His life is by continually losing our life.
But we will not likely do that unless we see the Truth about our life –
that there is nothing of value in it; that God has already judged it in His Son.
Then, and only then, will we lose our lives and enter into Jesus Christ
BY FAITH that is real.
The Example of Paul
Throughout the life of a Christian there are going to be challenges to faith.
Some of those challenges will be outward situations.
But the most subtle challenges will come from ourselves.
Perhaps the greatest temptation is to fall back on our own works, or lack
thereof. We could, as the
Galatians, stray from faith that is solely in Christ, and begin to live before
God on the basis of something we think that we are.
This is, of course, self-righteousness.
But we could also stray from faith that is solely in Christ because we
cannot seem to make ourselves behave.
We may not realize it, but this too is self-righteousness.
The Pharisee is one who is self-righteous because he or she believes they are
righteous through works. But those
who stumble over their own sin are every bit as self-righteous – it is just that
they are striving to achieve it and failing.
Both are unbelief.
We continue to try to keep right with God based on something about ourselves
because we have NOT seen the Truth about ourselves.
Allow God to take you through a wilderness and expose you, and you will
no longer have yourself in the picture.
Your faith will be solely in Christ.
Faith that is solely in Christ is so vital that Paul said that it is the key to
everything else in the Christian experience:
I count all things but loss for
the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have
suffered the loss of all things, and do count them
but dung, that I may win
Christ,
And be found in him, not having
mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith
of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:
That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the
fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;
If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.
(Phil. 3:8-11)
If you read this passage from Philippians 3, you will find that when Paul spoke
of losing ALL things he was NOT talking about material possessions.
Rather, he has talking about all of the aspects of self-righteousness
that he had accrued to himself as a Pharisee.
In fact, this passage in Philippians 3 is a description of Paul losing
his own life to Jesus Christ.
Paul had to lose, renounce, and relinquish his self-righteousness.
He had to bring under the Cross every part of himself that he might have
otherwise used to stand before God.
He did this because God showed Him the Truth about self-righteousness.
Self-righteousness is SIN.
It is unbelief. It is contrary to
Christ. And like Paul, for many
professing Christians, it is the greatest manifestation of the SELF LIFE that is
operating in them.
Every person has a particular manifestation of self-ownership.
Not that there is just one – for it is the spirit that governs humanity –
but usually there is one or two that characterize it that are more prominent.
For Paul it was self-righteousness.
How many realize that self-righteousness is self-ownership – howbeit in a
religious way? Again, it is sin and
unbelief. It is contrary to faith
that is solely in Christ.
Paul said he had to LOSE himself to Christ, and that fundamental to this was
that he had to lose his self-righteousness, because it was the core of what made
him tick as a sinner. But he said
that losing himself to Christ; that losing his self-righteousness – he said that
this opened him up to experience Christ in fullness.
Why? It was not just the,
“losing,” as a thing unto itself.
No. Rather, it was the FINDING that
Jesus Christ promised – Paul LOST and then he found Christ – he found Christ in
a way that was impossible otherwise.
Paul said he lost all things, “that he might win Christ and be found in Him.”
That is nothing more than another way of stating what Jesus promised –
“he who would lose his life will find it.” (in Christ)
But then Paul tells us what characterized being found in Christ:
“Not having a righteousness of his own, based on law, but the
righteousness that is by the faith of Christ.”
That was basic to what Paul found.
And this, in turn, opened up all else to Him in Christ.
If we put our faith solely in Christ, God will not only legally IMPUTE to us the
righteousness of His Son, but God will IMPART to us Christ Himself.
We will be joined in spirit to Christ and He will BE our righteousness.
(I Cor. 1:30) But all of
that goes back to the essential of putting ourselves aside – losing ourselves to
Christ – and putting our faith solely in Him.
Because Jesus Christ has promised to guide us into all Truth by His spirit, we can be sure that He is continually working us towards THIS TRUTH – for it is so fundamental. May God give us the grace and willingness to open ourselves to Him so that we might – through faith - - experience all that God has freely given IN CHRIST.