Called Unto Holiness # 10

Likeness To Christ (continued)

Fruit is Christ in us manifested in His glory. But there are so many Christians one can only describe as drab, and I do not like drab. Do you? You do not like a drab Christian either. We all like to see a glory Christian. Are you one?

Fruit is Christ in us manifested in the glory of holiness. Now let us bring these two great truths together; oneness in Christ - "Ye in me," and likeness to Christ - "I in you." The two are indivisible and inseparable. oneness in Christ demands likeness to Christ. Fruit is Christ-likeness, and much fruit is the fullest measure of Christ likeness; and Christ likeness is Christ in you, and Christ in you is manifested glory. Are you in Christ? Then what are you? Are you like Christ/ Are you bearing fruit? Can others see Christ in you? To what measure are you bearing fruit? Only fruit, or more fruit, or much fruit?  Would the members of your family know you are a Christian if you did not go to church? Would your friends know that you are a Christian if you did not testify or pray? Would any one know it if he just looked into your face?

Friends, it ought to be seen. If Christ lives in us, there should be something in the expression of the eye, something in the very lines of the face; we should bear the mark in our faces of the presence of the glorified Christ within. Would one know it from our conversation or from watching our daily walk? When you enter a room, do you cast a chill over the atmosphere or do you flood it with sunshine? A glory Christian will flood every place he goes with sunshine, the sunshine of the presence of the glorified Christ. Is Christ the very life of your life?

I am sure that we all want to be Christians who are bearing much fruit, who flood every place we go with the sunshine of His presence. Some of us came here for the very purpose of finding out how to live such a life. How, then, may we live it? Likeness to Christ through progressive sanctification requires two things of us: first, a right relationship to Christ, our sanctification; and second, a right adjustment to the Holy Spirit, our Sanctifier.

A Right Relationship to Christ

To be like Christ requires that we come into a full relationship to the Lord Jesus Christ. It is not enough just to accept Him as Saviour. That is simply taking the first step. We must go on to let Christ become the life of our life, and above all, to let Him be Lord of our life. We read in Romans 5 of three things that sin did. Sin entered, sin abounded, sin reigned. Sin reigned. Do you get the full force of the word "reigned"? Sin was the absolute dictator over your life and mine; sin possessed us, sin controlled us, sin used us.

But now Christ is our Saviour and we are in Him. Is sin still to reign over us? Are we to continue to live in sin? Inconceivable! Who but One has the right to reign, the One who has been made Head over all things to the Church and to the Christian? Christ now has the right to possess us fully, to control us completely, and to use us exclusively. In order that He may do so, He must become Lord. But sin, that stubborn old ruler, will contest His claim every step of the way. But did God make provision for the dethronement of that old master sin?

"Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin" (Romans 6:6).

What does that word "destroyed" mean? To be rendered inoperative. In modern terms, to be put out of employment, out of a job as ruler over your life. And for what purpose is this dethronement? That we might no longer serve sin. We have a new Master, the Lord Jesus, and Him only are we to serve now.

~Ruth Paxson~

(continued with # 11 - "A Choice Between Sovereigns")