The Legal and Vital Aspects of Redemption
Until one becomes conscious of these two phases of revelation, there will be cloudiness in their understanding and teaching and a lack of solidity in their thinking and living.
The legal side of redemption is what God did for us in Christ. It is in the past.
Romans 4:25 is a good illustration: 25 who was delivered up because of our offenses and was raised because of our justification.
Here is another:
1 Corinthians 15: 3 For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures.
These two Scriptures perfectly illustrate what God did for us in His redemptive work.
The vital can be illustrated.
Romans 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.
Colossians 1:14 in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.
The vital is what we really have now; what the Holy Spirit is doing in us today.
If one only had the legal side of the plan of redemption, it would lead him into cold, dead formalism.
It would make doctrines out of physical reality and physical sense knowledge would rule.
The vital teachings alone will lead into fanaticism, magnifying experiences above the Word.
When the vital aspect is understood, we know what belongs to us in Christ.
We know a son’s rights. We learn to take our place. We enjoy our privileges, and the vital side then becomes a reality.
All that is legally ours may become vitally ours by the ministry of the Spirit through the Word in us.
A little study of the legal side may help us.
2 Corinthians 5:21 For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
That is what God created in Christ for us.
He laid our sins upon Christ.
He was stricken, smitten of God and afflicted.
Isaiah 53:5 But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, And by His stripes we are healed. 6 All we like sheep have gone astray; We have turned, everyone, to his own way; And the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
He not only laid our sins on Jesus, but He made Jesus sin.
Romans 3:21–26 is perhaps the great master sentence illustrating this legal side of the plan of redemption.
Romans 3:21 But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed (unveiled, “brought to light”), being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, 22 even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference; 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, 26 to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
Here is a little touch of the vital in verse 24: “24 being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,”
In verses 25–26, we swing back again to the legal:
25 whom God set forth as a propitiation(or a mercy seat where the blood was sprinkled by the high priest) by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, 26 to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
Here we catch a indication of the vital:
“26 to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.”
You see, the Holy Spirit has based our present righteousness upon the work that had been accomplished in Jesus’ great substitutionary work.
Titus 2:14 is another Scripture showing the legal side: “14 who gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for Himself His own special people, zealous for good works”
Some vital facts.
One of the most priceless vital Scriptures is 2 Corinthians 5:17–18:
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. 18 Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation.
It is very important that we recognize this fact, that all that has been wrought for us by Christ in His substitutionary sacrifice, belongs to the individual believer.
Ephesians 1:17–23 is a part of the great charter of our redemption, and this is both legal and vital.
He reveals what He did for us.
And He reveals His process of building the very nature and life of the Father into our spirits.
He said, I want you to 18 know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, 19 and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power 20 which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come. 22 And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, 23 which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.
Here we have the legal background of His great substitutionary work, of His absolutely conquering the forces of darkness before He arose from the dead.
Colossians 2:15 says, 15 Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.
We have failed to recognize this blessed fact, that in the substitutionary work of Christ, it was as though we ourselves were with Him.
He not only was crucified, but in Romans 6:8, it says, 8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him.
Not only were we crucified with Him, but we died with Him.
In Colossians 2:12, we were buried with Him.
In 1 Timothy 3:15, we were justified with Him.
In Colossians 2:13, we were made alive with Him: “And you…hath he quickened together with him.”
Then, in Ephesians 2: 6 and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.
In these Scriptures, we get a living picture of the entire substitutionary work of Christ, in which we have a perfect identification. It was done for us.
It is the legal background of our redemption.
You can say, “Yes, I was crucified with Him. I was identified with Him in His shame and His deep agonies on the cross.
“More than that, God not only put my sin upon Him and made Him sin with my sin, but He put me upon Him.
“He was taking my place. He was acting in my stead.
“It was my sin that stripped Him naked.
“It was my sin that caused the crown of thorns to be put upon His brow.
“It was my sin that drove the nails into His hands and feet.
“It was love that was taking my place and suffering in my stead that I might be ransomed out of the authority of darkness and the power of sin and spiritual death.
“I can say I died with Him; that when He died on the cross, He partook of my spiritual death, and I was identified with Him in that.
“It was as though I had been there in person and we had left His body together.
“He was bearing my sin with me. He suffered there until the claims of justice against me had been satisfied and there was no longer any charge against me.
“My spiritual death and union with Satan were wiped out.
And then He was justified in Spirit.
“His justification was for you and me.
And as soon as He was justified, I was made alive in spirit, and in Acts 13:32 And we declare to you glad tidings—that promise which was made to the fathers. 33 God has fulfilled this for us their children, in that He has raised up Jesus. As it is also written in the second Psalm: “You are My Son, Today I have begotten You.”
This was made real for us when He had become the very righteousness of God for us.
And now we can understand.
Ephesians 2: 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus (Legal) for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them(vital).
In the mind of justice, we were recreated when he was raised as the firstborn from among the dead.
This was the legal work accomplished for us.
“Then, He conquered the adversary, but in the mind of justice I was with Him.
“When Jesus stripped Satan of his authority and dominion, it was your victory and mine.
We were there in the mind of justice.
We put our heels upon the neck of the enemy; we stripped him of his authority; we left him defeated and broken, and then we were raised together with Christ.
“Satan is now conquered.”
“The new birth has been accomplished.”
The new creation, in the mind of justice, has become effective, and now we are not only raised together with Christ, but we are seated with Him.
In the mind of justice, every member of the body of Christ is seated at the right hand of the Majesty on high.
In the mind of justice, we are utterly one with Him. We are complete in Him.
All what He did, He did for us. And now He is the Head of the body, and as the Head of the body, He cannot be exalted so high, but what the body is there with Him sharing in His glory, sharing in all of His victories.
Ephesians 1:4–6 gives us a preview of our redemption:
4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, we exist holy and without blame before Him in love, 5 having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.
The next verses swing into the vital:
7 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace 8 which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, 9 having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself.
Now we can see the background of a vital union with Christ.
We can understand what it means to have him say, 13 for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure. (Philippians 2:13).
We can understand Colossians 1: 28 Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. 29 To this end I also labor, striving according to His working which works in me mightily.
Paul’s dream in Christ was to present every believer perfect, Ephesians 5:27 that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish.
What a dream it must have been.
Now we can understand Ephesians 3: 16 that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man.
This hidden man of the heart has become a new creation.
Our spirit has received the life and nature of the Father, and now the Spirit through the Word is building into this “hidden man of the heart” (1 Peter 3:4) the ability to live as Jesus did in His earth walk.
You remember we are to walk in love; we are to follow after love.
You remember that love never fails, and it thinks no evil; always good thoughts, beautiful thoughts about everyone. (See 1 Corinthians 13.)
It never holds any enmity.
We treat the one who has lied about us, just as Jesus treated Peter after the resurrection.
Can you imagine Jesus tracking down the man who drove the nails into His hands and telling him, “I died for you”?
Finding the man who made the crown of thorns and pressed it upon His brow, telling him, “I am going to give you a crown of righteousness, a crown of glory, and a crown of life.”
Paul said, “That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith” (Ephesians 3:17).
You see, Christ and the Word are one.
When the Word dwells in a believer’s spirit, and then gains control of the rest of their being, that is Christ gaining control.
The lordship of Jesus over a life is in reality the lordship of the Word. The Word gains the ascendency in such an absolute way that it dominates the person’s thinking.
The lordship of Jesus and the lordship of the Word are really the lordship of this new kind of love- agape.
What beautiful lives this makes.
When this “hidden man of the heart,” becomes governed by the love nature of the Father, we take Jesus’ place in the world.
We become rooted and grounded in agape.
We do not hold it as a doctrine.
It is not a mental concept. It is the actual reality of our lives.
The Father has so filled us with His nature that we do love acts naturally.
We have received the ability to understand the nature of the love of Christ, which surpasses our physical sense knowledge apprehension, and now at last the dream of the Father for us is being fulfilled.
We are filled with all the fullness of God.
The love nature has swallowed us up, just as in 2 Corinthians 5:4: “But clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life.”
The life is zoe—the nature of the Father, and the nature of the Father is love.
We are swallowed up, immersed, overwhelmed in love.
Now we can understand Ephesians 3:20: “Now unto him that is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us.”
It is the ability of the Father unveiled.
Not only is it revealed, but it is shifting our perception from seeing things through our physical sense knowledge but seeing in the spirit realm the way our Father sees.
Our soul is the part of us that is interpreting what our physical body senses and (when our spirit is born from above) what our spirit senses in the heavenly places in Christ.
Now I know what Jesus meant when He said,
John 16:13 However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.
He meant the new creation things, the unveiling of the very nature of the Father, which He declares in Christ. First, 14 He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you.
This is resurrected life in us.
This is the Holy Spirit working in us through the Word; all that was purchased for us; all that is legally ours for our daily walk with God.
You see, the Father had a dream and destiny for us before he created the heavens and the earth.
In the new creation we can see the intense love of the Father for us, and how He is going to build himself into us.
He is going to take His righteousness and His holiness and His truth or reality and build them into us until we fit into His dream, and He could say, as He did “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17).
Then He would say, “These are my beloved sons, in whom my heart has found perfect rest and satisfaction.”