Perhaps we have never majored in our own thinking, in our own inner consciousness, what we really are in Christ; what it means to have Jesus as the Lord of our lives. We read in Paul’s or John’s epistles what they say about it.
John said, “Beloved, now are we the sons of God” (1 John 3:2).
Again, “Whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world” (1 John 5:4).
We never associated that with ourselves.
We never seriously said, “Well, John is talking about me now,” or, “Paul is describing me.”
You know this Pauline revelation is like a family album. We pick it up and look at the first picture taken of us when we were but a babe.
I turn again and I see another picture.
Months have passed since that first one was put in the album, and I see that someone has written underneath it, “When by reason of time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need now that someone teach you the first principles of the rudiments of Christ; you still have to be fed on milk and not on the solid food.”
And I notice further: He calls my attention to the fact that I have never taken advantage of my righteousness.
I have lived as a mere man, when in reality I was a partaker of the divine nature.
I remember how all these months I had been afraid to acknowledge that I was a Christian.
I had not taken my stand.
My confession had been very uncertain, indefinite. Why? Because I had not studied to show myself approved unto God. I had not lived the Word.
I had not practiced the Word, and so I dared not confess that I was what the Word said I was.
The Word says I am redeemed: “In whom we have redemption” (Ephesians 1:7).
But I have no sense of redemption. Satan rules over me. I live a great deal like those about me.
I go to the same places they go.
I listen to their stories and talk.
I go to church, and when they preach a real heart-searching message and give an altar call, I usually go to the altar.
I cry a little and feel mighty sorry that I haven’t done any better, but I go out and go back into my old life.
Ah yes, I have eternal life, I know that.
I remember back yonder when one night God gave me eternal life and for a few months I lived in heaven. I had wonderful victory and led several people to Christ.
Then something happened and darkness came down over my life and since that time I have never walked in the light. I did not know how to do it.
I wish I did know how to get back into the old joy I once had.
And then someone whispers to me and says, “Haven’t you read in 1 John 1:9: ‘If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness’”?
I answer, “Yes, I know that Scripture. I have done it again and again but I get no relief.”
But the same voice whispers again, “Read it once more. ‘If we confess our sins’. You did that?”
“Yes.”
“What does it say next?”
“He is faithful and just [or righteous] to forgive us our sins.”
Well, if you have asked His forgiveness, don’t you think He is faithful and righteous enough to make His Word good in your case?
I wait a moment and I look into that Word again and read it once more: “faithful and just to forgive us our sins.” My heart leaps for joy.
Why, He has forgiven me! That lost fellowship is restored.
I see it now. I have lived in darkness all these months, when I could have walked in the light as He is in the light. I could have had fellowship with the brethren, and fellowship with heaven and I didn’t know it.
But I know it now, and before the world I confess that I am walking in the light.
I confess that God is my Father and I am His child; that I am in His family.
Satan’s dominion over me has been broken, and I have in me now the very nature and life of the Son of God. He gave it to me.
I am a partaker of the divine nature.
I have passed out of death into life.
I know I am a son of God, and if I am a son, then I am an heir and a joint heir with Jesus Christ.
If that is true, then I have a standing with the Father just like the Master had, because He has become my sponsor. He is my Savior and my Lord.
I see it now. He has made me His righteousness, and I can now stand in the Father’s presence just as I did in those first glad days after I accepted Him.
I have a right now to ask Him to come into my body and make it His home.
I remember He said, “If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him” (John 14:23).
I wonder if that doesn’t mean that He will come and live in me? Wouldn’t it be wonderful if He would live in my body, so wherever I went He would be with me; He would be in me.
Then Isaiah 41:10 becomes a reality:
Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.
This is mine, all mine, and I dare confess it before the world. Wonderful thing, isn’t it?
Romans 8:11, at last, is real:
But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.
Yes, quicken your body; heal it if it is sick; make it strong if it is weak; and pour into your spirit the consciousness of a victor, the sense of an overcomer.
Hebrews 13:20–21 then becomes a living reality:
Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is wellpleasing in his sight.
How vividly real this can become to the heart, and it all comes when one dares to confess what he is in Christ; and more than that: confess it in the face of everything.