We have seen that the new creation is utterly one with Christ. We have seen that the new creation is one with love, one with Him, and love is one with the new creation.
The new creation is the body of Christ.
This living organism, God-dominated, God-filled, is here among men acting love, acting in His stead, and taking over His work.
In the first chapter of Acts, Luke says by the Spirit, “All that Jesus began both to do and to teach” (verse 1).
We began where He left off. We take up the work that He laid down; He was the burden-bearer, the lover. He is acting in us, through us, and with us.
BURDEN-BEARERS
We are now His burden-bearers. We carry His load with His strength. We do His will with His ability. He is living His life in us.
Though perhaps we do not realize it, we know, “It is no longer I that live, but Christ liveth in me” (Galatians 2:20).
We have lost the old landmarks of sense knowledge since we learned to walk the new way.
He said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life” (John 14:6).
It is not a road; it is a person. It is not a theory; it is a reality. It is not a doctrine; it is a life.
Dogma and doctrines have lost their significance. They are the worn-out shells of the yesterdays. They held us in bondage for years. Now we are swallowed up in Him.
We that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Let each one of us please his neighbor for that which is good, unto edifying. —Romans 15:1–2
This is the Jesus method. He was strong. He took our infirmities. Now His strength has made us strong. We take over the weaknesses of others.
We are not their critics. We do not condemn them because they have failed. We go down, take their burdens, and let them walk by our side, free men.
We do not condemn the one who is held in prison by Satan, for we remember that once we were slaves. We are the strength-givers, the burden-bearers, and the light-leaders in the world of darkness.
What a ministry it is to take Jesus’s place! What a life it is to bear the burdens of the weak, carry the loads that others should have had strength to carry, have faith for those who are faithless, courage for those who are whipped, and wisdom for those who have long walked in darkness.
We are the Jesus men and women of a new age.
Even as the Father hath loved me, I also have loved you: abide ye in my love. If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love. —John 15:9–10
We are to love as He loved and pour out our lives as He poured out His.
Paul saw the real issue and gave it to us:
For whether we are beside ourselves, it is unto God; or whether we are of sober mind, it is unto you. For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that one died for all, therefore all died. —2 Corinthians 5:13–14
Paul believed in love to the extent that he was believed to be beside himself. Paul’s answer was, “The love of Christ has taken hold of my heart. I realize that Christ’s death was every man’s death.” The same love that caused Christ to die for man had constrained Paul’s heart and was causing him to live for them.
The attitude of love is this, “I love them as though I had died for them.” Paul is even stronger in his description of love’s identification here:
I suffer endless anguish of heart. I could have wished myself accursed and banished from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my natural kinsmen. —Romans 9:2–3 MOFF
In reading this, we feel we can hardly come up to it. But it is not hard because He has made us love. He has made us like Himself. What He was in His earth walk, we are now in our earth walk.
He has taken us over in order that we might take over His dream for man.
It sounds strange, but it is beautifully true that we love as He loved.
We love with His love. We look upon people through love’s eyes. We used to say, “They are reaping what they have sown.” We used to see them through sense-knowledge eyes.
Now we say, “Father, help me to help them. I am taking Your wisdom and Your strength to carry the load that they have failed to take strength to carry. They have been deceived by sense knowledge. I take their place and carry their burden, as You have taken my place and borne my burden.”
We speak of them with love’s voice, with love’s message.
LOVE’S TRANSMITTERS
Our identification with Him put us on the throne. His identification with us puts us in the place of leaders, teachers, comforters, helpers, and burden-bearers. We bring God to man, just as He came to us. We boldly say, “Look on us.”
We are love as He is love. We are love’s lips, love’s hands and feet.
Without wires, the mighty generator of Grand Coulee Dam would be helpless. Those great generators are dependent on the wires. They and they alone can bear the current that can stir the motors and light the homes of the Northwest.
Without transmitters, God in all His ability is helpless. His love can find no expression except through the new creation. Can’t you see that if you fail Him, He is helpless? We limit Him…or we allow Him to be limitless.
For many ages, the power and ability of the mighty Columbia River was never utilized.
For nearly two thousand years, the limitless ability of God has been unused. The church has been weak and powerless. Sin has reigned as a master and the church has served as a slave.
Yet that church represents the new creation, which is a Satan-conqueror.
Shall we allow it to go on?
You have seen the truth in this mighty message of identification. What are you going to do with it?
WE HOLD THE KEY
Shall God be great among men once more? Shall He heal and save the multitudes? Shall the vast hordes of men once more hear the message of grace from lips set on fire with love?
Shall the Peters once more walk on the waves? Shall we hear them say, “Arise, walk” to the crippled?
Shall we see men set free from Satan’s dominion? Yes, I believe we shall. We are the masters. We have arrived. We have the thing the human spirit has craved.
We are whispering now, “Greater is He who is in us than any opposition or any lack that may confront us.”
Can’t you hear a voice saying, “This is God speaking?”
We remember what manner of men and women He has made us. We fear not. At last, we are masters.
We are the God-created, the God-indwelt, the God-empowered, and the God-guided.
We are the ones in whom love never fails.
Come, let us go up and take the land! We are well able!
Conclusion
When these truths really gain the ascendancy in us, they will make us spiritual supermen, masters of demons and diseases. This is an unveiling of what we are in Christ and how the Father sees us in the Son.
It will be the end of weakness and failure. There will be no more struggle for faith, for all things are ours. There will be no more praying for power, for He is in us. There will no longer be the awful bondage of sin consciousness, for we are the righteousness of God in Christ.
We know what we are in Christ. We know that He dwells in us.
We know the authority of His name. We are God-inside minded.
We have His ability. We have His wisdom. We have His love.
We are His righteousness. He lives in us. His lordship is a reality. His Word is present-tense to our hearts.
We have a standing invitation to His throne room. We are invited to come boldly into His presence. We are seated with Him in heaven and He is with us on earth.
In the presence of these tremendous realities, we arise and take our place. We go out and live as supermen indwelt of God.