How good it is to be able to take account of ourselves as in the life of Christ, the life in which He now lives to God 1 It is not to be assumed that because it is said that "in that He died, He died unto sin once; and in that He liveth, He liveth unto God," that He did not always, even when on earth, live to God; but when here on earth, in a world of sin and sinners, He had to do with sin, and was met with it at every footstep of His way, and every effort of men and Satan was to drive Him from the path of obedience, and on the cross He was made sin, and gave Himself a sacrifice for the putting of it away; but now He is done with it, and lives absolutely to God; and in His life by the Spirit we live to God, our whole life of flesh, our Adam life, in which we served sin is closed for ever in the judgment of the cross. I am privileged to take account of myself in this way, nay, I am exhorted to do so: "Reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus."
This being so, I am not to allow sin to reign in my mortal body. My body has not yet come under the quickening power of the life of Christ. As to it I am still connected with the old order. I wait for its redemption. It was once the vessel of sin, and my members were instruments of unrighteousness. In the third chapter every man is proven to be dominated by sin with all the members of his body. But now we are to yield ourselves to God, and our members are to be instruments of righteousness to God. We are to live to God as those that are alive from the dead. This is our happy privilege, and we have the assurance that sin shall not have dominion over us, for we are not under law, which would occupy us with ourselves, and with our responsibilities and shortcomings, and which would give sin the mastery over us, and leave us helpless under its yoke; but we are under grace, which ministers to us all the help we need for the fulfilment of the will of God, in which is all our delight; and which even though we fail, will impute nothing. J. B.
God is Sufficient.
There is no condition in which a Christian can find himself in which he may not count upon God. Is he crushed beneath the pressure of trial from external circumstances? Let him bring God's omnipotence, His resistless power, to bear upon these things. Is the heart oppressed by the burden of personal infirmity — truly a heavy burden? Let him draw upon the exhaustless springs of Divine compassion and mercy. Is the soul filled with horror, by the sense of sin and guilt? Let him have recourse to the boundless grace of God, and the infinitely precious blood of Christ. Whatever be the burden, the trial, the sorrow, or the need, God is more than equal to all, and it is the province of faith to use Him.
C. H. Mackintosh.