IMAG-INATION

The Doctrine of Biblical Self-Love

Miles J. Stanford

Spiritual Sharing Service (Tri-S-Series) Number 14 of 19

This is Section II  *  Go to Section I

In the second half of this paper we will seek to establish the scriptural basis of the true Christian self image and self-love. And in so doing we refer only to the growing believer, i.e., the one who is yearning to be free from the dominion of the sinful Adamic life, while hungering to "grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ" (2 Peter 3:18).

You remember the earthy adage, "No matter how you slice it, it is still baloney." Similarly, no matter what is done with the Adamic race, it will be forever earthly. That part of it which remains lost will be forever in hell; that portion of it which is redeemed will be forever on earth - first the renewed millennial earth, then the new eternal earth.

If you begin with Adam, you end with Adam. "The first man is of the earth, earthy.... As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy" (1 Cor. 15:47, 48). All of those who believed on the coming One and died before the Day of Pentecost, were saved--saved for the earthly kingdom, both millennial and eternal. All are either saved Israelites, or saved Gentiles--none are Christians, none are members of the Body of Christ: none are heavenly, no, not one!

Hence it is a serious matter for a believer to be locked into Adamic, earthly, law-oriented, kingdom-environed theology and thinking. One should have a heart for the welfare of these back-tracking Christians, and their name is legion--they are second in number only to the pitiable charismatics.

In deep, eternal counsels,
Before the world was made,
Before its deep foundations
On nothingness was laid;

God purchased us for blessing
And chose us in His Son,
To Him to be conformed,
When here our course was run.

In order to become heavenly, one must begin heavenly; in order to get to heaven, one must originate in heaven. That can never be said of the Adamic race, which began, and ever remains, earthly.

The believer is to have nothing to do with the first-Adam life; it has been rejected in crucifixion. "Reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin" (Rom. 6:11). On the contrary, the believer is to have everything to do with the Last-Adam life; it has been accepted in glory. Reckon yourselves to be "alive unto God in Christ Jesus" (Rom. 6:11, ARV).

The first recorded thing God did, back in eternity before creating anything, was to make a promise to the Son. God conceived and formulated, in His heart and mind, every single believer, and promised each one to His beloved Son. "in hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised before the world began" (Titus 1:2).

Our portion in life existed before the foundation of the world, not only in the counsels of God, not only in the Person of the Son, but in the promise made to the Son as our portion in Him.

It was the subject of those communications from the Father to the Son, of which we were the objects; the Son being their depository. Marvelous knowledge which has been given us of the heavenly pronouncement of which the Son was the object in order that we might understand the interest which we have in the thought and intent of God, of which we were the objects in Christ before all ages. --J. N. Darby

There, in eternity past, prior to all creation, each Christian began--not actually, but intentionally and potentially, in God’s heart and purpose, and in His Son, the Last Adam. Not in the first man, Adam, but in the Second Man, the Lord Jesus Christ.

"Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began." "According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world" (2 Tim. 1:9; Eph. 1:4).

The earthly, created Adam was but a step in the process of God’s eternal purpose for us in His heavenly Adam. We were identified with the unfallen first Adam, the federal head of the human race. That first man sinned, and we sinned and died unto God in him.

Doomed in Adam! "For as in Adam all die." "And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment" (1 Cor. 15:22; Heb. 9:27). "Wherefore, as by one man sin entered the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for all have sinned." "Therefore, as by the offense of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation" (Rom. 5:12, 18).

But God had chosen us in His Last Adam, eons before the first Adam was created. And to carry out His eternal choice, His promise to His Son, God set up the Cross of Calvary - the instrument of death to realize the intention of life.

In God’s foreordained time the Last Adam came to that Cross, to retrieve each called one from the first-Adam death, to the last-Adam life. The Father identified each one of us with His Son on the Cross, thereby making Him to become (our) sin. "For he hath made him, who knew no sin, to be sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him" (2 Cor. 5:21).

Hence the Lord Jesus died for our sins--and in that respect of His death sins were identified with Him, but not the sinner. At the same time, in His death unto sin, each one of us died unto sin with Him. "I have been crucified with Christ." "Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him" (Gal. 2:20; Rom. 6:6).

By His substitutionary payment for our sins, we were freed from our Adamic guilt and penalty. In our identification with Him in His death unto sin, we were freed from the fallen Adam life and nature. Therefore, in the resurrection from Calvary death, the Father was free to re-create us in His Last Adam. "If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation" (2 Cor. 5:17).

J.B. Stoney brings out the fact that while sins demand payment, sin requires a totally new creation.

Every believer knows that he is forgiven, that his offences are cleared away; but the lack is this, that while he knows that he was guilty, and that he is now clear of guilt, he does not really know what it is to be re-created.

We are not only guilty but lost, and we are not merely forgiven, but we are given a new place with God. As having been at the greatest distance, the lost one is made meet for the Father’s house.

In Luke Seven the woman who was a sinner, comes to Jesus; an affection is established between her and the Saviour; her sins are forgiven, but with no sense of a new place with God and fitness for it. That is where thousands are now; they know they are forgiven, but they have not the joy and assurance of having been brought to God.

In Luke Ten the sinner is cured, carried, and cared for all the journey, until "I come again." Very blessed, you may say; so it is, but there is no new place with God there; it is all man’s benefit in the place where he is. We must bear in mind that man was driven out of Eden, and in order that he should obtain a new place with God he must be a man after a new order, a new race.

As Paul says, "For God hath not appointed us to wrath but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him" (1 Thess. 5:10). When? Now! "And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus" (Eph. 2:6).

It is not only essential for the believer to know that there is an old creation and a new creation, but that he understand his relationship to each. The first creation was made by the Lord Jesus, with the first Adam as its head and source. The first creation began with the heavens and the earth, and culminated in an earthly man.

"For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions, or principalities, or powers--all things were created by him." "All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made" (Col. 1:16; John 1:3).

When Satan sinned the entire created universe went into ruin with him. When Adam sinned the entire race died in him, as did all the earth. "As in Adam all die." Cursed is the ground for thy (Adam’s) sake." "For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now" (1 Cor. 15:22; Gen. 3:17; Rom. 8:22).

All of this condemnation and judgment was positionally accomplished at the Cross in the death of the Lord Jesus. "God sending his own Son, in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh." "The heavens and the earth which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment" (Rom. 8:3; 2 Peter 3:7). "The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat; the earth also and the works that are in it, shall be burned up" (2 Peter 3:10).

Judicially, Calvary ended Adam and all of his creation. In God’s own time, the judgment of it will be carried out, The Last Adam did away with all of the creation that He produced in and for the first Adam.

After the total termination of the first creation on the Cross, the Last Adam was free to rise as the Head and life of the spiritual, eternal, all-new creation. And as such He stepped forth on resurrection ground bearing in His heart every single believer whom by death He has separated from the first Adam. Whereas the first creation began with the heavens and the earth, followed by the creation of the earthly man, the "new creation" began with the heavenly Man, to be followed by the new heavens and the new earth.

"These things saith the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God" (Rev. 3:14). The first creation was produced by the Lord Jesus as the groundwork for the new creation of God.

Each believer’s relationship to the fallen Adam race was terminated at the Cross. "Our old (Adamic) man was crucified with him." "For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection" (Rom. 6:6; 6:5).

Risen, the Lord Jesus "is the head of the body, the church; who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead" (Col. 1:18). No restoration, no reformation of the old, but a totally new beginning from death unto eternal life. "Therefore, we were buried with him by baptism into death, that as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life" (Rom. 6:4).

Now the Father has every believer whom He chose in eternity past, every single one whom He then promised to His Son, safely and eternally in His risen Son. "And this is the Father’s will who hath sent me, that of all that He hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day" (John 6:39).

And in His prayer to His Father in the Garden He said, "Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me; for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world" (John 17:2, 6, 24).

The Lord Jesus prayed this prayer on the eve of His death on the Cross. It was all settled, and had been settled since eternity past. It was there we were "chosen ...in him," the Father "having predestinated us unto the adoption of sons by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will" (Eph. 1:4, 5).

The Lord Jesus had to die in order to bring us to Himself, in order to fulfill the eternal calling of the Father who "hath chosen us in Him." "Except a grain of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone; but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit." "Of his own will begot he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures" (John 12:24; James 1:18).

In dying and rising again He begot us, recreated us, as His "first-fruits." No recycling, no reclamation, no restoration, no reformation--no first Adam at all. Now Paul says to each believer, risen in Christ, "seeing that ye have put off (in death) the old man (Adam) ... and have put on the new man, that is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him; where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free, but Christ is all, and in all" (Col. 3:9–11).

As believers we are "renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him," not in the image of him that was created.

Since we were cut off from Adam in the death of the Cross, and re-created in the Lord Jesus in the resurrection, Paul says that we are to reckon upon these facts and by faith "put off concerning the former manner of life the old (Adamic) man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts ... and that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness" (Eph. 4:22, 24).

Despite the reformation hopes of the light-fall folk, Paul says that we are to put off the old man which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts. "For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation." "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus" (Gal. 6:15; Eph. 2:10).

When the great Grain of Wheat emerged from the tomb and ascended into the eternal Harvest Home, He took His precious harvest of "new creations" back with Him. "Hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus." "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ" (Eph. 2:6; 1:3).

We can rejoice together in what these long-departed grains of wheat had to say about our new-creation position in glory.

The Lord Jesus come from God alone, but He has gone back to the Father as the Head of a new and blessed race, as One who has secured everything for God. He is the perfect contrast to Adam the first, who came from God’s creative hand, and then lost everything, and went to the dust. --C.A. Coates (Spiritual Blessings, p. 90.)

"If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation; old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new" (2 Cor. 5:17). Does this not mean a new sort of creature, as the Word implies? Do we go back to Adam, the innocent man in the garden in which God set him to dress and keep? No, that would be no creature new in kind. Adam even, pure and good before his fall, was yet of the earth, earthy.

Is the Lord Jesus Christ but the first man set up afresh? No. He is the second Man, the Lord from heaven! He is a heavenly man, the Last Adam--Head of a new race; beginning of a new creation--and you and I who believe are "in Him, seen and accepted before God in the Beloved! The full image of Him we have not yet: true. That will be ours in the day of His coming. The thing we are! --F. W. Grant (Leaves From the Book, p. 403.)

In creation God planted man in the garden in innocence; in redemption God planted a Man in heaven, in glory. There is a glory that excelleth! The glory in redemption leaves the glory that was once in creation as nothing. --J. G. Bellett (Hebrews, p. 23.)

At this point you may be tempted to ask what all of this has to do with your self-image and self-love. Just keep on taking in all these truths concerning yourself and your Lord, and you will soon see.

In paying the penalty for our sins, and taking us into death with Himself, the Lord Jesus dealt with the negative aspects of our need as lost Adamic sinners. As to the penalty: "Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus" (Rom. 3:24). And as to our death with Him unto sin: "In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ" (Col. 2:11). "There is, therefore, now no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus" (Rom. 8:1).

However, as we noted previously, clearing us from the negative would never qualify us for the Lord Jesus or for heaven. There had to be the positive. Innocence in itself would never do--that is but the basis for righteousness and true holiness.

Adam prior to the fall had the negative--no sin; but he did not possess the positive--the knowledge of good and evil as God knows it: that of loving the good, and hating the evil. That alone is holiness. "That ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness" (Eph. 4:24). It is not only that we have been forever Cross-cleared from the unholy first Adam, but we have been forever reborn into the righteous and holy Last Adam.

Having freed us from the fallen Adamic life and justified us, the Father brought us into newness of life. "And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son." "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, according to his abundant mercy, hath begotten us again unto a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead" (1 John 5:11; 1 Peter 1:3).

Once justified, we were sanctified simultaneously. "To them that are sanctified by God, the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ, and called" (Jude 1).

Further, it was necessary that we be glorified. "Whom he justified, them he also glorified" (Rom. 8:30).

Now the Father has the necessary work completed. "For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in him, who is the head of all principality and power" (Col. 2:9, 10).

Hence we are in the full benefit of His finished work on our behalf--fully and forever accepted. "To the praise of the glory of his grace, through which he hath made us accepted in the Beloved" (Eph. 1:6).

Intimacy with Himself is the marvelous thought of our Father concerning us, who, in the first Adam, hid ourselves from His voice; and who, until He gave us in His sovereign grace to believe on His Last Adam, dreaded the very thought of meeting Him.

Formerly the thoughts of His holiness were terrible; and the contemplation of Him as light made us shrink from His presence. But the Cross of His Son, the body of the Lord Jesus in death--the end of all that we were as children of Adam, in God’s sight--has calmed every fear, and therefore we are perfectly happy in the presence of our Father. --H.F. Witherby (The Serious Christian, Series II, Vol. II, p. 210.)

The Father accomplished all of this in His mind concerning us, and much, much more, prior to creation. Then He accomplished all of it for us in the Son, through His death, resurrection and ascension. Now He is accomplishing it in us, by His Spirit, for His Son. All will be actually completed in us at the Rapture, plus a few finishing touches at the Bema!

As co-working with the Father and the Son, think of the ministry of God the Spirit in all of this. Once He has each and every eternally chosen and called one complete and accepted in the risen Lord Jesus at the Father’s right hand in glory, once He has us positionally established there, down He comes to earth in order to place each believer there in his eternally decreed position.

On the Day of Pentecost He descended to earth and immediately began to baptize believers into their position in the Body of Christ. "For by one Spirit were we all baptized into one body" (I Cor. 12:13). And think of all that He has accomplished in order to place us in our position: He has to seek each of us in our sin, woo us, convict us, present the Saviour to us, and enable us to carry out our responsibility of accepting the Lord Jesus as our own personal Saviour.

Then, having hidden us in Him, He begins the patient, unseen, life-long work of causing us to grow in grace, and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus--slowly conforming us to His blessed image. It is the Spirit who works all things together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to the Father’s eternal purpose.

The Holy Spirit never rests nor hesitates until He has every single called one raptured and possessed of his glorified body--so shall we ever be with the Lord. Does the Spirit then stop to draw a breath of relief, so to speak? Not He! Back down to earth he descends, to seek out from the four corners of the earth every elect Israelite, to bring him to Jerusalem and to the Messiah-King and the glorious kingdom he has been longing and waiting for.

"And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplications; and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him." "And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh .... And it shall come to pass that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved" (Zech. 12:10; Acts 2:17, 21).

However wrong the self-love advocates may have proven to be thus far, they are perfectly right in the accusation that most Christians have a very poor self-image. We had better face up to this taunt, and look it in the face.

First of all there is the mass of up-front "born again" show folk, athletes, musicians, writers, TV stars, self-monument builders, and all of the other super-luminaries.

In this vast realm there is some talent, and much flash--all driven by a highly confident self-image and, for the most part, carnal to the core. Many of these, it seems, would have Christ conform to their image. This type of positive self-image and self-love is simply bizarre in comparison to the image of the Lord Jesus, in which the believer is to be conformed by the Holy Spirit.

Those who seek to build and maintain a good self-image by means of law-keeping seem to have a great advantage. Their lives for the most part are exemplary, and a great deal of good works are displayed in their walk and service. They feel good about themselves much of the time, and where sincere, make a good impression upon others.

Where the language of morality is that of rules, principles and laws, prescribing duties, asserting rights and enshrining obligations, we have moved out of the sphere of personal relations, with its emphasis on intimacy, attitudes and dispositions, and into the sphere of law, with its emphasis on generality, conformity and behaviour.

In law, as in legalistic morality, what ultimately matters is conduct, not character; as long as rules are obeyed, principles observed, laws followed, duties fulfilled and obligations met, it does not particularly matter what manner of person does them. It is more a matter of doing, than of being. --J. K.

There is only one problem. They are not like Paul, who said, "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" (Phil. 3:9). Paul also said, "The law is not of faith, but, 'The man that doeth them shall live in them.'" (Gal. 3:12). J.B. Stoney supplies us with a composite of this legal mode:

The mistake with many is that they begin with the attempt to control or correct their characters or nature. It is a matter of self-culture when the standard is law and not simply the Lord Jesus Christ. And hence, after much self-control and education, they do not make any true spiritual progress.

They may be able to attain an appearance among men, as the Pharisees had done, but there is really little growth in the Lord Jesus. Their knowledge and apprehension of or satisfaction in Him is not increased, and their own consciences are not satisfied by their attainments. Their old tendencies break out when they least expect it, and they feel they have to try all the harder.

With this class of legalists there is generally a better appearance, because the flesh is not so openly or manifestly opposed as when there is a distinct attempt to displace it. The lion would much rather be tamed than put to death. It may entail serious trouble to tame him, but he cannot be trusted. Just so with the flesh; while there is only a controlling or correcting of it, it never discloses its real animosity to the Lord Jesus. And in a way the flesh is flattered by its own apparent improvement.

J.N. Darby gives a further thought along this line from his Collected Writings, Vol. X V1, p. 158:

There is an extended stage in the growing believer’s progress when he is the epitome of the poor self-image, the very quintessence of all poor self-images. He is really the one the self-lovers are complaining about. And although they are right in their observation, they are totally wrong in their evaluation, their diagnosis--as we shall see.

Let’s trace the cause and development of this poor image of the growing believer. He, or she, becomes a Christian and starts out on the eternal path--in which, unknown to him, the way up is down. Before long he may be drawn into the charismatic error, a catastrophe from which he may never recover.

In the opposite erroneous direction the young believer may fall into the grip of a legal church or para-church organization. The result in either case is that he is organized, "disciplized," memorized--and put to work. And from this, humanly speaking, he may never recover- -although the law may accomplish its designated "Oh, wretched man" work, in the course of time.

The theological teaching since the Reformation has never set forth clearly our utter end in death with the Lord Jesus at the Cross. The fatal result of this terrible error is to leave the Law as claimant over those in Christ: for "law has dominion over a man as long as he liveth" (Rom. 7:7).

Unless you are able to believe in your very heart that you died unto the law in Him, and that you were buried, and that your history before God in Adam the first came to an utter end at Calvary, you will never get free from the claims of the law upon your conscience. --Wm. R. Newell

Now if we were to tote up these two present-day categories, there is nothing left but a minority--the truly "poor self-image" folk. And what of this type? This believer begins well, and makes good progress for the first year or so. He loves the Lord, himself, and everyone else. But, as the saying goes, you can’t live on love alone--especially if it is puppy-love.

From the new life within, there is a yearning to "grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ" (2 Peter 3:18). But the more he learns of Him in the Word, the more he realizes how unlike Him he is. Hence, meaning well, he begins to try harder. He has begun to place himself under law in his effort to grow in grace.

What would be effected by the law, if all its commands and precepts were carried out and maintained? It would form man in the flesh; it would make Adam what he ought to be for God in this world. The law would only form Adam in us. --C. A. Coates (The Believer Established, p. 36.)

But Paul states that "the just shall live by faith. And the law is not of faith" (Gal. 3:11, 12). As a matter of fact, "the strength of sin is the law," and "by the law is the knowledge of sin" (I Cor. 15:56; Rom. 3:20). It doesn’t take the law long to cool off his love, deplete his joy--and there goes his peace. Good riddance! This process usually covers years, and all the time the struggling believer is seeking to cover up his failure.

Although he may maintain an outwardly acceptable self-image, his self-love has turned to self-hatred. Good riddance for that, too! "He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal" (John 12:25). He is totally unaware that the Father has him well on the path of spiritual growth. All he can think of is his utterly desperate plight and condition.

It is under these conditions that the Spirit is apprising the believer of the growth truths. He begins to see the wonderful fact of his identification with the Lord Jesus in His death unto sin, and His resurrection and ascension to "newness of life." In time Romans 6:11 becomes his key verse, as he steadfastly seeks to reckon himself dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God in Jesus Christ. His expectations are high, but his new results are low.

He is making the common miscalculation. Having been saved by faith, he naturally expects to be liberated from the dominion of sin by faith. It is the Arminian error of "holiness by faith." What he does not yet realize is that while he entered into the new birth by faith plus nothing, instantly and eternally, he is to grow by the Holy Spirit--a measured, life-time process. "Walk (step by step) in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh" (Gal. 5:16). Faith in the facts, but dependence upon the Holy Spirit. And, let it be remembered, "if ye be led by the Spirit, ye are not under the law" (Gal. 5:18).

The Scriptures tell me what God gives me, but they do not give it to me. The Spirit applies the Word to me in its divine meaning, and then I possess what the Word tells me is mine through God’s grace.

For instance, Scripture tells me that if I behold the Lord’s glory I shall be transformed (2 Cor. 3:18). It does not transform me, however clearly I may see what it states. It communicates to me a very great thing, but the communication is in order that a very great thing may happen to me, and this can be only by the Spirit. "Even as by the Spirit of the Lord." --J. B. Stoney (Ministry, Vol. VIII, p. 467.)

In this frustration the growing believer neglects to reckon himself to be alive unto God through Christ Jesus our Lord, as he diligently works to reckon himself to be dead indeed unto sin. Since his reckoning does not seem to work, he continually works himself back under the principle of law in a futile effort to free himself from the reign of indwelling sin. As Stoney says:

When grace comes in, the new believer rejoices in the assurance of forgiveness.. and, as he knows atonement, his conscience constrains him to live to please God; but this is often taken up on the principle of law, so that self-improvement becomes his great aim, and the law his standard of conduct. (Ministry, Vol. VIII,  p. 397)

Now he is well submerged in the throes of Romans Seven, as the law irresistibly brings him to the realization that he is a totally wretched man. Now he has lost both his self-love, and his acceptable self image. He is not only being crushed by the relentless power of the external law, but he is also in helpless captivity to the law of sin which is in his members (Rom. 7:23).

We were born in the first Adam. He was responsible before God to stand in righteousness. He failed. We were responsible in him and we failed. We sinned in him (Rom. 5:12, 19).

What did God do with us? He gathered us up into the Last Adam, and we died with him. God allowed His holy law to condemn us utterly and the law seeking to slay us, found us in Christ on the Cross and set upon us and slew us. "I through the law died unto the law" (Gal. 2:19). --Wm. R. Newell

"The law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth" (Rom. 7:1), but when it has cursed him, and killed him, the law has no more to say to him; and we "are become dead to the law by the body of Christ" (Rom. 7:4), for we have died judicially with Christ. The new life which we have in Him comes to us from Him in heaven, the risen Man before God. --H. F. Witherby (The Serious Christian, Series II, Vol. II, p. 136.)

The struggling believer is in the process of seeing the truth that he has died unto the law in Christ on the Cross. In this conflict the Spirit increasingly reveals to him the awful facts concerning the old nature. He is being taken further into death, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in his mortal flesh (2 Cor. 4:11). The harder he tries to live the Christian life, the worse he proves to be. Consequently we have the classic poor self-image of the growing believer, which is exaggerated as it is compared to the legal believer and his good showing in the flesh. J.B. Stoney explains this unfair comparison to us:

The law addresses a man in the flesh, in the Adam-life. "Knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners" (I Tim. 1:9). "The law is good if a man use it lawfully" (I Tim. 1:8), but for the Christian to be under it is to use it unlawfully. I do not disown or ignore the old man by the law; rather, I cultivate and restrain him, and according as this is successful, I add to his self-respect and self-distinction.

On the other hand, as the Lord Jesus is known as life, man as he is in the flesh is ignored; and the Spirit, which controls and uses his body and mind as belonging to the Lord Jesus, is alone acknowledged and depended upon. The Lord Jesus is only known and maintained by His own Spirit. "Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh" (Gal. 5:16).

Now there is a great difference between these two standards; and not only so, but the effect or demand which each has on me is vastly different. In the one case I am required to exalt man to the only true, proper, and divine revelation for an Adamic man; on the other hand I am required to reckon on being a dead man and accept another and a higher life, and in the power of it to manifest Him who is the fountain and source of it to me. Surely the difference is immeasurable.

Therefore, if I analyze the history of a disciple of each of these standards, I cannot fail to see that the one who is required to exalt himself to his highest moral point makes a much better experience, and walks apparently with more consistency than the one who is called to set aside the old man at every point--which is the ground he has professed to take, i.e., "Not I, but Christ,"--and to walk outside that which is of the flesh, in the Spirit of Christ, as a heavenly man.

It is plain that if I make myself my study with any true purpose, I cultivate myself to exhibit a certain commendable appearance. The law was to set up the first-Adam life in its best estate. But if through grace I seek to live outside the first Adam, and to live in the Last Adam, I am infinitely worse off in appearance when I seek to do so by the principle of law, or when I fall back to my old nature, than the one who never abandoned the old man at all.

Another thing has to be taken into account. The man who cultivates himself obtains commendation from man in a measure that the one who cultivates the life of the Lord Jesus will never receive or elicit. The one cultivates what exalts man, and therefore what suits man; the other, that which ignores and condemns man and rises above him. We must not forget that that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God (Lu. 16:15).

Many a one. falling, or failing to fly, but still accepting no lower position, is more acceptable in the eye of God than one very fair in his conduct and walk among men, who seeks only to raise himself to the standard of the law, which is the first Adam’s highest elevation.

The inconsistency complained of arises in fact not from the high position to which we are called, but from our not walking according to it. There is no fault in the high position, but it is easier to nature to walk in the lower position. But then this lower law position, however commended by man, loses all its value before God when I find He has called me to a higher one, and not to the lower at all. "For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death" (Rom. 8:2).

A saint may be censured for not walking up to his high position, but one cannot be commended who excuses himself for taking a lower position to which God has not called him. "Now are we delivered from the law ‘having died to that in which we were held, that we should serve in newness of spirit and not in the oldness of the letter" (Rom. 7:6). (Ministry, Vol. IX, p. 21-23)

As the Spirit patiently takes the hungry-hearted believer through this poor-image processing of Romans Seven, he is slowly being brought to some all-essential realizations. He is beginning to see that the actual source of sin in his life is not himself as a new creation in Christ Jesus, but that it is the sinful old Adam-life. "Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me" (Rom. 7:20).

Many a justified man might describe his experience in words like this: "I fully recognize, and rejoice in the fact, that I am righteous before God according to Christ risen; and this being so, nothing but Christ can be my standard of holiness or rule of life. If I could only walk up to it I think I should be a perfectly happy man. But it is one failure after another; and when I think I have got on a bit, something turns up, and I find myself as bad as ever, and the thought of this damps all my spiritual joy."

In this stage of spiritual experience there are continual discoveries of the old man which make him more and more repulsive; and there is also the presentation of Christ again and again in which the soul finds increasing delight. Growth. "He must increase, but I must decrease."

This repulsion and attraction go on together until the soul accepts with God the reality of the incorrigible badness of the Adamic life. This fact prepares one to see that the death of Christ severs us from our old man, and that the Lord Jesus is our life. We are free. by the finished work of the Cross, from the dominion of the man who is now so repugnant to us, and we discover with untold delight that the One who has so attracted our hearts is our very life. --C.A. Coates

However valuable and essential it is for him to see the differentiation between these two indwelling Adams--the crucified first and the ascended Last--his misery is only accentuated because of the total captivity to the law of sin which is in his members (Rom. 7:23). But all of this wretchedness is carefully calculated by the indwelling Holy Spirit to bring him to the truth of these two following statements:

"Oh, wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ, our Lord" (Rom. 7:24, 25).

His Spirit-wrought wretchedness has finally brought him to understand that reckoning himself dead to sin does not liberate him from the power of sin itself, but rather it delivers him to the Deliverer.

I must not only see my position in the risen Lord Jesus, but I must come near to the One who set me there. Many are disappointed that after hearing the truth and reckoning on their position they are not more affected by it.

The reason is that they rest too much in the position and have not occupied themselves increasingly with their risen Lord; have not drawn nearer to Him, and recognized Him as the only One who can make it all experiential to them.

Conception of a truth is one thing, and execution is quite another. Grace may have furnished you with a true conception, but you must depend and wait on the Holy Spirit to carry it out. The working out of a true conception is the real discipline. --J. B. Stoney (Letters, Vol. II, pp. 200, 249)

Slowly the Spirit turns the believer’s attention to where and who he is in the risen Lord Jesus Christ, who is his Christian life. The Spirit speaks to his heart by means of the Word: "If then ye were raised together with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated on the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things that are above, not on the things that are upon the earth. For ye died, and your life is hid with Christ in God" (Col. 3:1–3, ASV).

It is a wonderful moment for the believer when by faith he occupies his position in the favor of his Father--when he knows that he is received by Him in all the acceptance of the Lord Jesus Christ.

He does not then think of himself, of his worthiness or unworthiness, at all. He thinks of the Lord Jesus--His perfections, His suitability to divine favor, His infinite acceptance with the Father--and by faith, he has access into the favor of which He is so worthy. --C.A. Coates (Spiritual Blessings, p. 34)

This is the spiritual watershed, the great turning point in the life of the growing believer. Knowing and counting upon the fact that he is "alive unto God in Jesus Christ" - that he is free to turn his full affection and faith upon the risen Lord Jesus in whom he is; yes, with Him where He is before the Father in glory.

The reality in the Christian life is in the measure in which the Lord Jesus is the Object. There is where the Christian is happy. His soul’s affections are set free and occupied with Him. He is the One we love and delight in, and we rejoice to be with Him, and hunger to be like Him.

If your heart is dragging through this world, and you are trying to get as free from all the spots as you can, you cannot be happy. This personal abiding life is real liberty of heart, and that is what happiness means. --J. N. Darby (Collected Writings, Vol. XXVIII, p. 283)

It is thus by occupation with, feeding upon, and contemplating the risen Lord Jesus that we are brought, by the Holy Spirit, into fellowship with our Father; enabled to enter into His own thoughts concerning, and even to share His own affections for, that blessed One who is now seated at His own right hand. Surely here, then, is the source of all growth, strength, and blessing! --E. Dennett (The Spiritual Christian, Vol. XVII, p. 88)

Rather than being wretched and distracted by what may be going on within him, he is progressively occupied with the One in whom he is. The Holy Spirit is establishing the growing believer in one of the principles of growth as set forth in 2 Corinthians 5:15--"And that he died for all, that they who live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him who died for them, and rose again."

The believer accepts the Lord Jesus, and finds life in Him, outside the life and being which is judged in the Cross; and as he lives in this life, now his in the Lord Jesus, he is consciously above and apart from all that man which was judged at Calvary; so that he seeks to live no longer unto himself, but unto Him who died for him, and rose again. --J.B. Stoney (Ministry, Vol. VII, p. 318.)

The Lord Jesus in glory, and He alone, is faith’s object; it knows no other. Ought I to have faith in myself? Ought I to have an object there? The Cross of the Lord Jesus, then, is the death of the old man. His grave its burial, that, burying my dead out of my sight, I may be free to concentrate upon the One who is not dead, but living, and in Whom I live. --F. W. Grant (Leaves From the Book, p. 216.)

The progressing believer is learning, by faith, to rest in his position in the Lord Jesus, in the presence of his Father. "But now in Christ Jesus ye who once were far off are made near by the blood of Christ" (Eph. 2:13). He knows that "God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son" (I Cor. 1:9).

What many legalists object to is the wonderful position in which grace sets us. I have often asked myself what is the measure of grace? No one can tell, because it is not the need which is the measure of grace, but the Father’s heart which is the measure.

He has removed everything to His entire satisfaction in the Cross of the Lord Jesus, so that He can now do His heart’s pleasure in taking this poor prodigal and conducting him into all the blessing of His own presence, and that not by and by, but now (Eph. 2:13). --J. B. Stoney (Ministry, Vol. V, p. 265.)

Further, the maturing one is given more light and assurance as to 2 Corinthians 5:17--"Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation; old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." By faith he has "put on the new man, that is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him" (Col. 3:10). He also has the spiritual awareness that he is predestinated to be conformed to the image of God’s Son, and that all things are working together for his good according to that purpose (Rom. 8:28, 29).

Walking in the Spirit, He leads our hearts to where we are in the risen Lord Jesus. The new man finds delight in Him, nowhere else. The Spirit is the living link between us and Christ Jesus in glory. He causes us to gaze upon Him, and we slowly become changed into the same image from glory to glory. This is true Christianity--the heart drawn off from things here, and lovingly occupied with the One who is our life. --W. W. Fereday (The Bible Treasury, Vol. N 1, p. 285.)

Now the believer knows who is his Christian life; he abides in and looks upon his Source of life. "For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shone in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ" (2 Cor. 4:6). As he looks upon and fellowships with the Father and the Son, the Spirit carries out His ministry within. "But we all, with unveiled face beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord" (2 Cor. 3:18).

We have finally arrived at the purpose of this paper! The growing believer understands that he is a new man in the Man, the glorified Man, Christ Jesus. "He that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit." "For we are members of his body of his flesh, and of his bones." (1 Cor. 6:17; Eph. 5:30). He knows that he is a new creation in Christ; that he has the divine nature of the very essence of the Lord Jesus’ glorified Manhood.

Just here we would make it very clear that our Christian life consists of the divine nature of the Lord Jesus’ glorified Manhood. We do not, nor shall we ever, partake of His Godhood. Further, we repudiate in toto the faith-fantasy theory of "holiness by faith," along with the no-nature teaching that "now I am Christ in human form"?

The believer is now before the Father, not in the man who was under judgment, but in the Man who has glorified God in bearing the judgment; and consequently, there is not a cloud between his soul and the Father, because the man who caused the distance has been judicially displaced in the judgment of the Cross. --J. B. Stoney (Ministry, Vol. VIII, p. 285.)

There can be no doubt as to the believer’s self-image. It is nothing less than the risen Lord Jesus Christ, who in turn is the express image of the Father. When the believer looks upon the Lord Jesus, via the Word, he is contemplating his own Christian image. That is how he is to see himself; that is how the Father sees him. There is his rest and his confidence--and the indwelling Spirit of Christ begins to reflect that image in his Christian walk and service.

The believer is positioned before the Father according to the beauty of the Lord Jesus, and is, according to the Father’s eye and heart, as His Beloved.

By faith, the believer has taken upon him the beauty of the Lord Jesus Christ. He has been made the righteousness of God in Him. He is "accepted in the Beloved" (Eph. 1:6). Faith alone gives him all this comeliness. He has been re-created in the Lord Jesus--he has "put on Christ. " This is the beauty of the believer; and he is lovely in the eye of the Lord Jesus. "So shall the king greatly desire thy beauty; for he is thy Lord, and worship thou him" (Ps. 45:17).

We can now forget the indwelling first Adam and his totally ruined and rejected self-image. We can also forget about him in his unrecoverable innocence--that is not our Father’s intention or purpose for members of the Body of His Son. We have been made free to fellowship with and rejoice in the Last Adam, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Since the Lord Jesus is our Christian life, to love Him is true Christian self-love. If you want to love and esteem yourself, love and esteem Him, who is your life!

MJStanford

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