God Imparted Life — Major Ian Thomas

Thank you very much. And that's what the Gospel's all about. Because the life that the Lord Jesus lived 1 ,900 years ago only condemns us. The Christian life is the life that he lived then, lived now, by him, in us.

Because the life that he lived qualified him for the death that he died. But the death that he died qualifies us to receive the life that he lived. And this was the tremendous discovery that the apostles had to make.

For as we saw last evening, though for three solid years they were exposed to the teachings of the Lord Jesus and to the supreme example of the Lord Jesus, without exception, every one of them, at the end of three years, were a total abject failure.

They neither wanted the cross, nor did they believe in his resurrection. But in the upper room, after the Lord Jesus was risen from the dead and he appeared to them and was in their midst and showed them his hands and his feet and they touched him, in the rediscovery of the risen Lord, they found a new joy, a new Bible, a new message, a new responsibility, and were promised by the risen, living Lord Jesus the new enabling, whereby they were to enter into the good of his atoning death by becoming the recipients of his resurrection life.

That's where we closed our session last evening, and if you'll turn with me now to the first chapter of the Acts of the Apostles, Acts chapter 1, we're going to talk for a little while at the outset of this evening session about the fulfilment that the promise made the Lord Jesus, the promise the Lord Jesus made to them, in the upper room, which was but a reiteration of the promise that had already been made and recorded for us in the fourteenth chapter of John's Gospel.

The Risen Christ Continues His Work Through the Church

In the first chapter of the Acts, the former treatise, Have I Made O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began, both to do and to teach, and what Luke is here quite obviously conveying is that having recorded in Luke's Gospel the things that the Lord Jesus began to do and to teach, he's now about to put on record the things that the Lord Jesus continued to do and to teach.

And the only essential difference between the record of the Acts and the record of Luke's Gospel is the humanity that was used by the Lord Jesus for the accomplishment of what he wanted to do and teach.

But it was the same Lord Jesus Christ, the same life, but instead of his activity being clothed with his own humanity as in Luke's Gospel, now his activity was clothed by the redeemed humanity of the Apostles and the disciples.

But the activity recorded was not the activity of the Apostles, it was the activity of Jesus Christ. It's a misnomer to call it the Acts of the Apostles. In point of fact, it's the record of the continued Acts and the continued teachings of the Lord Jesus clothed with the humanity of forgiven sinners who on the basis of his atoning death had entered into the good of his God-imparted resurrection life.

The former treaties have I made, O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began both to do and to teach until the day in which he was taken up after that he, through the Holy Ghost, had given commandment unto the Apostles whom he had chosen.

To whom also he showed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God. And being assembled together with them, eating together with them, he commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which saith he, you have heard of me.

For John truly baptized with water, but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence. Verse 8, ye shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you, and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and in Samaria and unto the uttermost part of the earth.

So that during this period of forty days from the resurrection of the Lord Jesus until his ascension, when he went to be again to share with the Father the glory that had been his before ever the world was, he instructed his disciples.

It was a six weeks short term Bible school, and it preceded that climactic event whereby the disciples became the recipients of the indwelling resurrection life of the Lord Jesus through the gift to them of his other self, the Holy Spirit, or Paraclete, the Comforter.

Which the Lord Jesus describes here as the baptism with the Holy Ghost. And which Peter, as we shall later discover, describes as the beginning for him and the beginning for the other apostles and the beginning for the church.

In other words, between the upper room experience where the Lord Jesus stood in their midst and showed them his hands and his feet and they touched him, and the day of Pentecost when the promise that he gave them there was fulfilled, there was a time lag in which they were intellectually convinced of his resurrection but had not as then entered into the good of it.

But they were commanded to tarry in the city of Jerusalem until this endowment of power came upon them. Now we want to focus our attention for a few moments tonight upon this which is here described as the baptism with the Holy Ghost and about which today there is considerable confusion.

Pentecost and the Baptism of the Holy Spirit

We have to recognize that until Pentecost the disciples were not spiritually regenerate in the New Testament sense. This is something about which folk are a little bit confused. The church was born at Pentecost.

That was the beginning. For it was on the day of Pentecost that the Lord Jesus fulfilled the promise that he gave to them that he would on his ascension to the Father, pray the Father that he would give the Holy Ghost who was then with them in his person but who as from the day of Pentecost would be in them.

And by the baptism of the Holy Spirit they were to be added to that new body corporate called the church in which the Lord Jesus himself, the same Lord Jesus, the very same Lord Jesus would continue to do and to teach as in his own humanity he had already been doing and been teaching.

What happened on the day of Pentecost was simply that these 120 men and women on the grounds of Christ's redemptive act entered into the regenerative purpose for which Christ died, the restoration of the life of God to the soul of man.

An entirely new and unique situation was created on the day that the Holy Spirit came to take up residence within the redeemed humanity of these 120 men and women. For the Lord Jesus now instead of having the body that the Father had prepared for him miraculously conceived of the Holy Spirit and fashioned in the womb of Mary and born at Bethlehem, instead of having that body now the Father had presented to the Lord Jesus a new body, a body made up of 120 men and women, each of whom as forgiven sinners became members of that body in particular.

And this was the baptism of the Holy Spirit, which of course must not be confused with what elsewhere in the New Testament is described as the fullness of the Holy Spirit. If you turn with me to the first epistle to the Corinthians in the twelfth chapter, one Corinthians and chapter 12, here we read in the twelfth verse, as the body is one and have many members and all the members of that one body being many are one body, so also is Christ.

The reference of course is being made to the human body, that just as you and I in our human body have many members in particular that make up that body, fingers and feet, ears and a nose and eyes, these members of the body being members in particular are nonetheless identified in one corporate whole.

And they are identified, as I mentioned to you the other evening, by the common possession of the same life and being subject to the same head. So also is Christ. Verse 13, for by one Spirit, the Holy Spirit, are we all baptized into one body.

If you and I have become members of the body of Christ, it is only because we have been baptized into that body by the Holy Spirit. This is the baptism with the Holy Ghost. For, as some of us have been discussing in some detail in the morning sessions, the essential consequence of man's fall into sin was the forfeiture of the life of God, which constituted death as the penalty of sin, for the wages of sin is the absence of life, death, the absence of what life, physical death, physical life, no, the wages of sin is the absence of God's life, so that you and I are born into this world totally destitute of the life of God, alienated from the life of God, physically alive, soulishly active, but spiritually dead.

We're cut off from God's life. This is the natural condition in which the natural fallen man is the fallen seed of a fallen Adam, is born into this world. On the grounds of redemption, being now reconciled to God through his atoning work upon the cross, God is prepared for his dear sake, whose death has made it possible, to restore those who claim by faith the good of his redemptive act.

God is prepared to restore to such his presence, by the gift to them of his Holy Spirit. And this is the regenerative purpose that lies behind the redemptive act. And the moment the Holy Spirit, the third co-equal member of the triune deity, in whose person the Father and the Son are equally comprehended, the moment the Holy Spirit comes to take up residence within the human spirit of the redeemed sinner, in that moment of time that individual, be it man, woman, or child of any nation, creed, or class, or color, is instantly the possessor of nothing other than the very life of Jesus Christ himself, and is by the presence of the Holy Ghost thus baptized into body membership.

Redemption, Reconciliation, and the Holy Spirit’s Seal

Now this is the beginning for any individual, as Pentecost was the beginning for the church in general, in the epistle to the Ephesians. Ephesians chapter 1 and verse 6. To the praise of the glory of his grace, G-R-A-C-E, God's riches at Christ's expense.

That's grace, the unmerited favor of God. To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he, God, hath made us, sinners, accepted in the beloved Jesus, in whom, Jesus, we have redemption. How do we have redemption in Jesus?

Through his blood. What's the result of the shedding of his blood? The forgiveness of sins. Because we deserve it? No, according to the riches of his grace. Now there's the redemptive act. This is the basis of our reconciliation to God.

In Jesus we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace. But that isn't salvation. That's our reconciliation. This is the premise of our salvation.

This is the prerequisite of our salvation, that we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins. But that wasn't the purpose for which Jesus died. Verse 13, in whom, the Lord Jesus, ye also trusted after that you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation.

In other words, having heard the gospel, or the good news of your salvation, having been exposed to the possibility of reconciliation to God on the grounds of redemption, having forgiveness of sins through the shed blood of Jesus as the vicarious and atoning sacrifice, you trusted, you entered into the good of his atoning work upon the cross.

In whom, the Lord Jesus, after that you believed, when you by faith had invoked his redemptive activity, you were sealed, how? With the Holy Spirit of promise. The moment you entered into the good of his atoning death, you received that for which he died, the restoration of God's life by the gift of his Spirit to your spirit, whose presence within you alone and exclusively, verse 14, is the earnest of your inheritance.

That word earnest is an old English word that simply means guarantee, stamp, hallmark, the only valid evidence that a man is redeemed, the presence of the Holy Ghost. In whom also after that you believed you were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise who himself is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession unto the praise of his glory.

Therefore, every redeemed sinner is sealed as the blood-bought property of Jesus Christ by the restoration to his human spirit of God the Holy Spirit. And this is the only valid hallmark of a true child of God.

And no matter how a man or a woman or a child may claim to be redeemed, may claim to be regenerate, may claim to be a child of God, may claim to be saved, if there is not the presence of the Holy Spirit within the human spirit of that individual, they are an imposter, they are a reprobate, they are a counterfeit.

Now this of course is the strength of what Paul had to say to the Corinthian church as we have already cited from the last thirteenth chapter of the second epistle, where Paul, having written two long letters to this particular company of professing believers, he says now in the light of all that I have to say to you, examine yourselves and prove yourselves whether you be in the faith or not.

And what was the criteria? That they were accredited by some religious society? No. That they had learned by heart a certain number of Bible verses? No. What was the criterion? That they had been baptized as believers?

Most certainly, no. What was the criteria? Examine yourselves whether you be in the faith. Prove your own selves. He said, know you not that Jesus Christ is in you, unless you are a counterfeit. Now how is Jesus Christ in you?

The Lord Jesus Christ comes to you in the person of his Holy Spirit, on the grounds that he has given himself for you upon the cross. The Lord Jesus takes up residence by his Holy Spirit within the human spirit of every redeemed sinner.

And this constitutes our body membership of the true church of Jesus Christ. If you turn with me to the third chapter of the epistles of the Galatians. Galatians chapter 3 and verse 8. The scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith before the gospel.

Unto Abraham. So by the scripture being the record of what God had to say, the gospel was made known to Abraham. In that God said to him, in thee shall all nations be blessed. So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham.

So God's saving purpose was explained to Abraham. And there was promised through his seed the blessing. Now we are left in absolutely no doubt of course as to the one indicated by God when he spoke of Abraham's seed.

This is indicated very clearly for us in the 16th verse of the same chapter. Galatians 3 verse 16. Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He said not unto seeds as of many but as of one. In other words what God had to say did not concern a race of men or some national culture that they would offer to mankind.

But specifically what God had to say to Abraham was to Abraham and to his seed singular. Not as of many but as of one. End of verse 16. To thy seed singular which is Christ. In other words whatever the blessing may have been that God promised should come through the seed of Abraham it was to come through the person of the Lord Jesus.

The Full Gospel: Receiving the Promise of the Spirit

Now what was the blessing that God promised should become yours and mine in the person of Jesus Christ? It was gospel. For the 8th verse tells us that the gospel this good news was preached right there and then to Abraham promising the blessing.

Now by your understanding of the gospel in your connotation of the word what would you have imagined God was promising by this gospel to Abraham and to be consummated in the person of Jesus Christ? Well of course you might imagine that what God was promising to Abraham to be fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ was the forgiveness of our sins.

Our deliverance from the punitive consequence of our guilt. That one day we would go to heaven and share his kingdom forever. But of course that isn't true. As Paul here specifically is at pains to explain.

Because it is at this very point that the Galatian Christians have got a weak gospel. And because at this point they've got a weak gospel they had a weak Christianity. And it was to correct the weakness of the lives they lived derived from the weakness of the gospel they had that Paul is writing this epistle to the Galatians.

Because Paul knew perfectly well that if these Galatian Christians insisted in a weak gospel they would destroy themselves in every future generation. Because Paul knew perfectly well that a weak gospel can never reproduce itself in strength.

It can only reproduce itself in greater weakness. And the Galatian Christians had completely missed the point of their salvation. And the situation as it applied to the Galatian Church then is by and large the situation as it applies to the Evangelical Church of Jesus Christ in the 20th century.

Our gospel today by and large is as weak if not weaker than the gospel that was being embraced by the Galatian Christians. And of course if we were to persist in our day and generation in propagating a weak gospel then we are sowing the seeds of inevitable calamity and disaster in the next decade.

And if we propagate a weak gospel we may anticipate that we'll have absolutely nothing but trouble with our children when they grow up in our Christian homes. And I believe that by and large the reason that there are so many rebel children of Evangelical believers is that they have only been exposed to a weak gospel.

And they've never been introduced to the true spiritual content of their faith. And it had only impinged upon them, projected upon them certain external patterns of Evangelical behavior and they've never been introduced to the dynamic of a living faith as calculated completely to revolutionize a man's character.

In other words, as I've sometimes described it, we have reared a whole generation of professing Christian boys and girls who are no more, quite frankly, no more than Evangelically house trained but without any real spiritual or moral convictions.

They've simply learned Evangelical language. And we're constantly being shocked at their bad behavior. And I'll tell you who's to blame. A generation of Christians who precede them. Who have simply perpetuated in their children a gospel as weak as the gospel they know.

That's why you may anticipate if you persist in a weak gospel that your churches will be half empty in 15 years time. And you'll have a whole amount of surplus real estate on your hands in another generation.

What was the blessing that God promised in the gospel that he preached to faithful Abraham? Verse 13 of Galatians 3. Galatians 3 verse 13. Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law. Being made a curse for us, for it is written, cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree.

Well, there you are, you say. There you are. There's redemption. That was the gospel. Christ died for our sins. That's exactly what we believe. That's exactly what we've been preaching. Christ died for our sins.

Yes, you're right. Christ died for our sins. But that wasn't the gospel. Nor was that the blessing that God promised to faithful Abraham. Because you haven't read the 14th verse. All you've read in the 13th verse is the premise, the prerequisite, the essential precursor.

All you've been introduced to in the 13th verse is the threshold over which everybody inevitably must cross if they are to enter into the good of that for which God sent the seed of faithful Abraham. Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law.

Being made a curse for us, for it is written, cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. That, to this end, the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ. Through the Jesus Christ who was made a curse for us in that he was nailed to a cross.

Through that Jesus who was the seed of Abraham came to implement the redemptive act. Through him there may now come upon us as the Gentiles the blessing of the gospel which God preached to faithful Abraham.

That, continuing in verse 14, we might receive the promise of the Holy Spirit through faith. So why was Christ made a curse for us? Why did he die upon the cross? Why was his blood shed? That you and I, having forgiveness of sins through his vicarious sufferings, might receive the seal of God the Holy Ghost and our humanity be reoccupied, re-inhabited and re-monopolized by God himself.

Nothing less than that is involved in gospel. And if I presume to stand before men and women and boys and girls and simply invite them to come to Jesus and have their sins forgiven and expose them to nothing more than that of God's total demands upon every area of their humanity, in every crack and crevice of their human personality, so that body, soul, spirit, mind, emotion and will, they become the unchallenged, blood-bought property of Jesus Christ in all that they are and all that they possess, I am doing violence to the truth that God has entrusted to me.

Christ redeemed you upon the cross so that in the power of his resurrection he might come and re-inhabit your humanity in the person of the Holy Spirit so that you might be added by his presence within you to that body corporate of which he is the head and you have become, on the grounds of redemption and through spiritual regeneration, a member in particular.

And this is the baptism with the Holy Ghost. Chapter 4 of the same epistle, verse 4. When the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.

There was a redemptive act that guilty sinners might be reconciled to a holy God and instead of being enemies they might become sons. But because you're sons, because you Galatian Christians have by faith invoked the redemptive activity of the crucified Jesus, because you're sons, what's happened?

God sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, who bears witness to your spirit from within that you are now children of God and you cry, Abba, Father. And that was why he died, to redeem you.

That restored to sonship you might receive the Holy Ghost. That your humanity might be re-inhabited by Jesus Christ himself. What then will be the only valid characteristic that distinguishes a true child of God from other unregenerate human beings?

Sonship Demonstrated by Life in the Spirit

Well, it's quite obvious. Romans chapter 8, verse 14. As many as are led by the Spirit of God. How many? As many as. Any more than that? No. Any less than that? No. Can you remember any other verse that commences that way?

John's Gospel, chapter 1, verse 12. As many as. How many? As many as. Any more than that? No. Any less than that? No. As many as. John 1, verse 12. As many as received him, to them gave he power to become sons of God.

Even to them that believe on his name. That's how you become a son of God. How do you become a son of God? You receive him. How do you have to receive him? As a great philosopher? As a supreme example?

As a wonderful man? As a supreme teacher? No, no. As many as received him, believing on his name. What's his name? Jesus. Why do they call him Jesus? Matthew 1, verse 21. Thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins.

In other words, there is a specific dimension in which you have got to receive him. You've got to receive him, believing on his name. And if you believe on his name, Jesus, for he saves his people from their sins, you simply credit him as you receive him with the office in which he came.

Redeemer. And that's what it means to receive him, believing on his name. You can't receive him as a teacher. Nicodemus did that. But it didn't redeem him. You can't receive him as an example because the life he lived will only damn you, as surely as the Lord damns you.

Because on the basis of your performance, you no more fulfill the life he lived than the Lord God gave. When you receive him, in order to become a child of God, you have to receive him in the office in which he came.

Behold the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world. And as many as received him, believing on his name. To them gave God power to become what by nature they weren't, sons of God. That's how you become a Christian.

Now, you may not yet have become a Christian. Because as yet you may not have received him, believing on his name. If I were in a strange city on vacation and was wanting to buy some bread, I'd find a baker.

And if I was in some little country district, perhaps in Europe, I'd see a little sign outside. It's a big brass dish. And Becker I, if it was in Germany, or Baker in England. And I'd go inside. And I'd say, I'd like some bread.

And the man would say, I'm sorry, I don't sell bread, I only sell cabbages and coal. And I'd say to you, but it says Baker outside. He says, yes, I know it says Baker outside, but I only sell coal and cabbages.

What would you say to that man? You'd say, you're not as good as your name. You're not faithful to your name. I came in here believing on your name. That's what it means. If you went into the hairdressers, because you saw barber outside, and the man came and stuck a thing around your neck, and then said, which is the tooth that hurts?

You might be a bit alarmed. And you would say, I came in here to have a haircut. And he'd say, I'm sorry sir, I only take teeth out. But it says barber outside. He says, I know, but I only extract teeth.

Well, you'd say, you're not as good as your name. You see. Now the wonderful thing about the Lord Jesus is that he is as good and as great as his name. Jesus is the sweetest name I know. And he's just the same as his holy name.

That's the reason why I love him, sir. And when you receive him believing on his name, God gives you, for his dear sake, the right to become. In other words, you've gone over the threshold. You have fulfilled the first prerequisite of salvation.

But only the first prerequisite. On the grounds of his death, you have been reconciled to God. But from now on, what is going to be the characteristic of your life as one who has become? Because you are numbered amongst the as many as who have received him.

Believing on his name, what's going to be the stamp and characteristic of your daily walk? The only thing that can ever add validity to your claim to have become. They that are led by the Spirit of God.

They are, in the process of being, the sons of God. As many as received him believing on his name, to them he gives the power to become. Crisis. But as many as are, process of being, daily walk, one step at a time, one day at a time, one breath at a time, as many as are led by the Holy Ghost.

But they are being sons of God. And you only have a valid claim to have become when it becomes patently obvious to everybody that you are being what you have become. Because everybody, without dispute, has to admit that you are being directed, controlled, educated and mastered by the Holy Spirit.

For to this end Christ died for you that being now risen from the dead, he by the Holy Ghost might come and live in you. And the presence of the Holy Spirit alone is the earnest of your inheritance. God isn't going to ask you whether you were baptized.

He's going to look for your name in the Lamb's Book of Life. As one who, as a sinner, claimed redemption through the blood of the Lamb and to whom there was given life. How are you given life? By the presence of Christ within you.

Who is your life? In the person of his other self, the Holy Ghost. That's why it's called the Lamb's Book of Life. Because all who claim the atoning, cleansing efficacy of the blood of the Lamb receive the Holy Ghost and by his presence share the life of Jesus Christ.

That's why there will be absolutely no mistakes in God's final round up. Because there is a double seal. Your name is recorded in heaven in the Lamb's Book of Life and your name recorded in heaven is countersigned by the Holy Spirit resident within your human spirit.

And if he is not there, you are none of his. And you can come banging on the gates of heaven saying, Lord God, let me in. And he will say, depart from me, you workers of iniquity. I never knew you. Oh, but we passed up devils in your name.

We did many wonderful works. We preached in your name. God doesn't recognize preachers because they're preachers. He doesn't recognize deacons because they're deacons. He doesn't recognize Presbyterians because they're Presbyterians or Baptists because they're Baptists.

God only recognizes forgiven sinners who've been washed in the blood of the Lamb and who bear the indelible stamp of the presence of God in the person of the Holy Spirit within their human spirits. And there are tens of thousands of accredited church members who are going to discover too late that they were never regenerated.

They were never born again. They never became the children of God and they never were the children of God they claim to have become. And there are some of you sitting right here who are kidding yourself.

And I hardly blame you. I hardly blame you because you have been encouraged to kid yourself. But God doesn't. God loves you too much. God cares for you too much. He loved you enough to send his son to die for you.

And he can't be satisfied with anything less than your redemption. He can't be satisfied with anything less than your spiritual regeneration. Romans, chapter 8 and verse 9. You are not in the flesh, spiritually destitute, but you are in the Spirit.

Here is the criteria. If so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. That is the criteria. You are not in the flesh, you are in the Spirit, only if the Holy Spirit of God dwells in you. If, continuing in verse 9, if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.

Jesus Christ will disclaim such individual. He can hammer as hard as he likes upon the gates of heaven. But he will be disclaimed by Jesus Christ. Because the only reason, the only reason why a person will not possess the Holy Spirit is that that person has not been redeemed.

And the only reason that a person has not been redeemed is that that person has never repented toward God and has never put his trust in Jesus Christ. He has never received him believing on his name. Now the coming of the Holy Spirit to indwell the human spirit, which is God's instant God-to-man would response, of man's man-to-God would repentance, and man-to-Christ would faith.

That is the baptism with the Holy Spirit. Because instead of being lifeless and destitute of God's presence, in the moment that you claim redemption and are forgiven for Jesus' dear sake, the Holy Spirit comes to take up residence and to stamp you and to seal you as the blood-bought property of the Saviour.

The Divine Nature and the Exchange Life

And by the presence of the Holy Spirit you possess nothing other than the very life of God. By the exceeding great and precious promises you have become a partaker of the divine nature. And if you don't know where that's to be found, it's the fourth verse of the first chapter of the second epistle of Peter.

And it is the coming of the Holy Spirit who shares with you the divine nature that gives to you all that it takes to be that for which man was created. The image of God. And this you will find in the preceding verse of the same first chapter of 2 Peter.

2 Peter, chapter 1, verse 3. According as His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and God-likeness. Through the knowledge of Him, Jesus. When you really come to know Him, God gives you, according to His divine, God-sourced power, all that pertains, all that it takes for life and God-likeness.

It doesn't derive from your ability. It is given. It is yours only by virtue of the fact that Jesus Christ Himself is living today in you the life that He lived then in His own body. For the Christian life is the life that He lived then in His own body, lived now in your body.

That's what constitutes a Christian. For Christianity is Christ-inuity. And if Christ isn't in you, you're a counterfeit. You're a reprobate. So you can see that the Christian life is essentially an exchange life.

It's Christ's life instead of your life. Because you have presented your body to Him with vacant possession. As once He, in the humanity that the Father prepared for Him fashioned in the womb of Mary, presented His body to the Father with vacant possession.

So the Christian life is an exchange life. And this is what Paul is emphasizing in the letter that he is specifically writing to a church in Galatia that is suffering from the consequences of a weak gospel.

Galatians 2 .20. I, the self that the old principle, the Adamic nature, the self-life. The I, the self that sin makes of me. I am crucified with Christ. God has written me off for what the sin principle within me can make of me as a total loss.

He's identified me with His Son, fit for nothing but the dung heap. Has nailed me to His cross and in His eternal and potential purpose has buried me with Him and intends to keep me in the place for which alone I am fit, the grave.

I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. Yet it is not the self that sin, the old Adamic principle makes of me. It is the self that Christ makes of me. When my mind, my emotions and my will are placed at His disposal as He indwells me by His Holy Spirit within my human spirit.

So I, the old nature, am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I, the new divine nature, live. Yet not I. I don't lay any claim to this life. It's a God-imparted life. It's the life of my Saviour Jesus, who not only gave Himself for me when He died, but has given Himself to me when He came by the Holy Ghost to indwell my humanity.

The life that I now live, I live by faith. That invokes the activity of a second party. Who is the second party? Jesus Christ. Now alive and living in me. I share His resurrection. I am crucified with Christ.