BEARING THE MARKS OF HIS DYING 
                                  by 
                                    J W LUMAN 
 
It is a joy to share with you the Truth that is ever abounding in Christ, 
and I trust ever abounding in us who are His very Body. I think there is 
no greater joy in the hearts of those who are knowing Him, than the 
sharing of Him one with another; whether our sharing is in speaking or in 
listening. And believe me, it goes both ways. We must listen as much as 
we speak. What tremendous fellowship there is in the Lord's Body who is 
truly finding that fellowship in the knowing of Him! 
 
Turn with me to 2 Corinthians 4. We will be concerning ourselves with the 
sufferings of Christ. More than that - the wounds of the Cross - bearing 
evidence of His dying in the life which we are now living. The wounds of 
the Cross - bearing the wounds of the Cross - bearing the evidence of HIS 
DEATH. Not the evidence that He is dead, because He isn't dead, He's very 
much alive, but of His death. Bearing the evidence of His death in the 
life which we now live. A tremendous mystery is wrapped up in that - a 
mystery that I am finding is unknown to most believers. Friends - it is 
through His death that you and I are delivered from the power of 
darkness! In the fulness of His Life we are translated into the Kingdom 
of His dear Son - Colossians 1:13. Yes, but until there is a deliverance 
there is no translation. In Romans 5:9, "...much more then, being now 
justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him." That 
speaks of an ever ongoing process of His Life. But the thing that is ever 
present and ever evident, that releases us into that ever ongoingness of 
His Life, is being now justified by his blood. Verse 10 broadens upon it. 
"For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of 
His Son..." His blood - His death inseparably linked together, synonymous 
in these two verses. "...reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much 
more, (yes, being justified) we shall be saved..." (and that has to do 
with the fulness of salvation, and the fulness of growing up into Him). 
But the whole point that we in our hearts and in our minds, seem to jump 
over is the all consuming power of His death - in deliverance, in 
justification and in reconciliation. 
 
Dear friends, except you and I embrace Him in His death, as much as we do 
in His Life, we know very little of His Life; we experience very little 
of His Life, because it is the knowing Him in the fulness of His death 
that releases our hearts, our souls, our inner man to know Him in the 
fulness of His Life! As His Body in this earth, we are to bear the marks 
of His dying, bear the evidence of His dying, and manifest the fulness of 
His Life! We are to bear the marks of the Cross and manifest one to 
another, and to the earth, the fulness of His Life. But until we evidence 
the marks of His death, we will not minister His Life. That's a 
realization, and it first starts in you and I. You and I are the first 
ones liberated by this tremendous truth, by this tremendous working in us 
of His death. And I am finding to my great dismay, that most believers, 
and I'm not trying to be ugly, even most ministry, has not yet embraced 
Him, or been embraced by Him in the fulness of His death. They simply do 
not bear the marks of His dying; in their every day life, in their every 
day dealings, in their own thoughts and intents of their hearts, bear the 
evidence of His death. And what that does is cause us to spend our time 
striving to live like Him; struggling to be like Him. And there's just 
simply no manifestation of His Life. There's just a struggle to try to be 
good, to try to be like Him.  
 
Dear friends, until we come to embrace Him in His death, there is no real 
manifesting of His Life. Look at it in 2 Corinthians 4:7, "But we have 
this treasure (and undoubtedly this treasure is Christ in you, the hope 
of eternal glory; the realization, the expectation of eternal glory) in 
earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power (that is, the 
manifested life of Christ) may be of God, and not of us." That is not of 
our working, not of our trying and striving to be like Him. But rather of 
our manifesting who He is, not something like Him, but who He is. " We 
are troubled on every side, yet not distressed..." See, you have the 
outside pressures versus the inside comprehension and peace and 
realization. Most of us spend all of our life trying not to be troubled 
on every side. Sweetheart, trouble is on every side. The whole 
realization of Christ is on the inside and it is manifested in the midst 
of trouble. " We are perplexed, but not in despair..." See, I don't mind 
seeing believers troubled, but when I see believers distressed... I don't 
mind seeing believers or ministry perplexed, but when I see them in 
despair... "... persecuted, yet not forsaken." It isn't that much to be 
persecuted. Paul says, "For the sufferings of this present time..." We're 
going to be talking about the sufferings of Christ. But having Paul being 
in the fellowship of the true sufferings of Christ, he is able to say 
that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared 
with the glory which shall be, and is being revealed in us - that inward 
working of His Life. "...persecuted but never forsaken." 
 
I don't mind if I see ministry persecuted; believers persecuted, but when 
in their hearts they come to a point of desperation as though they are 
forsaken, then something is wrong. There is a lack of true comprehension, 
or a lack of the comprehension of The Truth in those cases. "... cast 
down but not destroyed." Now here's why. "Always bearing about in the 
body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be 
made manifest in our body." That is, a physical manifestation of His 
Life! A living of His Life goes along with a bearing of His dying. "For 
we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the 
life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. So then 
death worketh (where? On us? No!) IN US, but life in you." See, it is 
just that mystery that when we come, in an inward way, in a true inward 
comprehension of our union with Him in His death, His Life is released in 
us and through us to all who are around us! 
Now, we're going to find in this search that the sufferings of Christ are 
not the things which happen to us. Yes, Paul deals with things that 
happen to him - sufferings of this present time, and other areas. But the 
sufferings of Christ, the bearing, the evidencing of His death is what 
you do in the midst of those things. It has nothing to do with those 
things, whether they are good things, bad things, big things or little 
things. The evidencing of His death is in the midst of those things - it 
is not the enduring or suffering of those things, which we may well do. 
But you see there's a lot of people who suffer, but do not in the midst 
of it evidence His death. And there's a lot of sinners, and Christians 
alike, who suffer things, who endure things, but in the midst of it have 
no evidence of His death, and consequently, no manifesting of His Life. 
So the sufferings of Christ are not the things that happen to us, or 
rather we endure, but rather, the working in us of His death. And it is 
that working in us of His death that liberates us from all things. Think 
about this - ALL THINGS; things tangible, things intangible, things 
physical, things psychological, things spiritual, things mental, things 
soulish - all things. "Stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has 
made you free. Be not entangled again with the yoke of (human) bondage." 
His death working in us liberates us from all things, that in the midst 
of all things, we may manifest His ever living; that we may manifest Him 
who is ever living; that His Life, not mine, may be manifested. The 
mystery of His death is the key to the releasing of His Life. And not 
only to others, but within our own selves.  
 
I'm finding that most Christians need ministry within, as much as anyone 
needs ministry without. There is a great need for ministry of Life to be 
released within. The healing - oh, the healing that needs to take place 
within. The renewing that needs to take place within. The strengthening 
that needs to take place within. See, we try to busy ourselves with being 
"good little Christians", and we end up just being good little 
hypocrites. Maybe not maliciously, but that's what it amounts to. And we 
come to realize it from time to time and we get eaten up with remorse and 
guilt, and hate, division and strife, and envy and jealousy and here it 
goes. Because it just releases all of those qualities of the Adamic man 
that we've curbed from time to time, but have never quite found liberty 
from. I tell you, the liberty problem is in the comprehension of His 
death. Because His death is a real thing, His death is as real as His 
Life. But until we come to comprehend  that... So, we're not trying to 
make it up. No, we must come to truly believe; we must come to truly 
embrace and comprehend in the inner man, the soul, that which is The 
Truth. You don't try to make it true. We're not talking about mind over 
matter. We're talking about the comprehending of Him in His death, and 
the comprehending of Him in His Life!  But, HE IS UNTO US BOTH DEATH 
AND LIFE! As the old man, as the first creation, as that which is born 
of woman - He is unto us death. That's the truth. He is unto us death, in 
all of that realm and all of that creation. 
 
I know that's hard for most to receive, because most have their life in 
that realm and in that creation. I tell you that though that creation 
speaks of Him and points to Him, that creation is not Him. I wish that 
all those who get as occupied and wrapped up in the beauty of the first 
creation would get themselves as occupied in the beauty of the second. I 
wish that those that get involved in the things of the first creation 
would get as involved in the second creation. The first creation and all 
of its beauty and all of its stuff is simply set there pointing to a New 
Creation in Christ Jesus. And the hope of the first creation is not you 
and I getting involved in it. The hope and the only hope of the first 
creation is that we be separated from it in death, finding ourselves 
alive only in Christ, and ministering that Life back into the midst of 
the first. That's the only hope for it. You and I can get involved in its 
things, in its beauty, in its problems, we can get involved in its 
campaigns. We can get involved in all of that and think we're going to 
make a difference - and you are not going to. Because Christ settled all 
of that at the cross. And though you and I may not come to comprehend 
that Truth, we will never reverse that Truth. We will always just be 
working against that Truth, and it's never going to produce anything 
eternal. Now you can do that and you can die as confused and frustrated 
as most Christians are now. You can die as mentally and spiritually 
exhausted as most Christians are now - wondering why this and why that.  
 
Or, we can allow the mystery of Christ to be revealed in us. We can 
actually come to know Him in the death of the first, including ourselves 
in that first - the death of me. But you see, when I die, I die to all 
that is not Life. And there's only One who is Life, and that's Christ! 
And I die to all else. I die to all of the first - I die to the good of 
it, the bad of it, the beauty of it and the ugliness of it - I die to it. 
That I might be found in Him, where there it is NOT I, BUT CHRIST who 
liveth in me. Consequently I have a ministry now - out from the second, 
out from the reality, into the first. Seeking to bring the first to find 
also its fulfillment in His death and in His Life. We get into a realm 
where only the Lord can direct us, don't we? We get into a realm where 
only the Spirit of God can lead us. But I ask you to open yourself to 
that, because otherwise the frustration of trying to make something work, 
that you cannot make work, will simply consume you.  
 
Alright. "So then death worketh in us, but life in you." I want to give 
you some verses for your consideration in the days to come. 2 Corinthians 
1:5, "For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation 
also aboundeth by Christ." Philippians 3:10, "That I may know Him, and 
the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, 
being made conformable unto His death." Always His sufferings and His 
death are synonymously connected one to the other, because I tell you 
again, when we're dealing with the sufferings of Christ and the death of 
Christ, we are not dealing with things that happen to us, or even to 
things which we endure; we are dealing with the working in us of the 
power of His death, and the releasing, consequently, in us and then 
through us - the power of His Resurrection, the power of His Life! But 
the one always must precede the other. It will not work any other way. It 
is in His death you find your deliverance. It is in His death you find 
your liberty, justification, reconciliation. It is in His Life that we 
find fellowship and glory; that we find release of all that is Christ. In 
His Life we come to realize a New Kingdom - the Kingdom of His Dear Son! 
 
You see, we're always trying to find the one without the other - the 
things of the Kingdom, the things of His Life, the releasing of His life, 
and it just becomes an act of self effort on our part. Trying to live 
Kingdom principles, trying to be like Him - trying, trying, trying. My 
God, that's killing Christians individually and corporately, it's killing 
fellowship among Christians, it is forbidding the advancement of the true 
Kingdom of God in the earth - it is killing, killing. Lord help us! "... 
being made conformable unto His death." 1 Peter 1:11, "... searching 
what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did 
signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the 
glory that should follow." There's always a glory at the end of the 
sufferings! Whether it is suffering for Him, or His sufferings working in 
us - there is always a glory. The greater glory is as a result of His 
sufferings working in us. But there is a glory always connected with the 
sufferings, and it is always worked by the sufferings. Always, whether 
the sufferings are without - trials, tribulations, or whether the 
sufferings are the comprehension of His death within. It is this one that 
we are talking about, because it is this suffering that liberates us into 
the Life of Christ. You see, just the fact of suffering trials and 
tribulations and wrong doings - those things in themselves will not 
release you into the fulness of the Life of Christ. No, - there must be 
that inward working of His death first! That will determine how you 
handle the other; how you handle the trials, tribulations and good times. 
It will determine whether in the midst of them you manifest self effort 
or the Life of Christ - in peace, in liberty, in joy! It will determine 
the difference, because you will do one or the other. As a Christian you 
will do one or the other.  
 
1 Peter 4:13, "But now rejoice in as much as ye are partakers of Christ's 
sufferings, that when His glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also 
with exceeding joy." Remember, this glory that is to be revealed, is to 
be revealed in you. And it is the very full expression of Christ Himself! 
That's the glory - Christ having His expression in a people. Not a people 
trying to be like Him, but Him actually having His expression in a 
people, and the transformation that has to take place is that 
transformation worked in us by the comprehending of the Cross - of HIS 
DEATH, of HIS SUFFERINGS. 1 Peter 1:5, " The elders which are among you 
I exhort, who am also an elder, and a witness of the sufferings of 
Christ, and also a partaker of the glory which shall be revealed." And 
again, that glory that shall be revealed is to be revealed in you. It's 
not talking about some future date, but an ongoing realization. John 
20:25-28, "The other disciples therefore said unto him, We have seen the 
Lord. But he said unto them, Except I shall see in his hands the print of 
the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my 
hand into his side, I will not believe. And after eight days (do see the 
significance of this eight days) again his disciples were within, and 
Thomas with them, then came JESUS..." Notice He is coming after eight 
days here, so He is representing here a New Creation. He's representing 
not only Himself resurrected, but a whole New Creation coming forth upon 
the eighth day. That's what the eighth day stands for through the 
scripture. 
 
"Then came Jesus..." Oh my, who is it that comes in a New Creation? You 
and I? No, JESUS COMES IN THE NEW CREATION! "...the doors being shut, 
and stood in the midst and said, Peace be to you. Then saith He to 
Thomas, Reach out thy finger and behold my hands, reach hither thy hand 
and thrust it into my side, and be not faithless but believing. Thomas 
answered and said unto Him, My Lord and my God." The whole story here is 
just this - the greater evidence of the Resurrection is bearing the marks 
of the death. Here He presents His Body in a spiritual way, because He 
has come through the walls. He presents His Spiritual Body, yes, I know 
it's visible, but His Spiritual Body is also visible by manifestation of 
Himself. People may look at you and me and see white or black or brown or 
whatever. But if we as His Body are manifesting Christ, they are not 
seeing white, brown or black, but they are receiving a manifestation of 
Him! Here He presents His Body as a Spiritual Body through which Jesus 
comes forth in the New Creation. And what is it about that Body that 
bears the evidence of His Life? It is the marks of His dying! You see, 
to you and I these are not prints in our hands - they are not necessarily 
what has happened to us; but what we as His Spiritual Body are bearing. 
Now I know that there Thomas put his hand into Jesus' side, but you see 
the greater truth was that was not a physical body, it was a Spiritual 
Body appearing with the doors shut. And the true marks of His death were 
not physical marks, but spiritual marks, that everyone of these men would 
come to realize in a greater way in days to come, and what Paul realized 
and presented to the Church.  
 
We see a tremendous unfolding of the story here. Jesus isn't just trying 
to convince one disciple, but setting forth a tremendous truth by which 
His Body would manifest the fulness of His Life - shall evidence the 
fulness of His Life in the midst of the earth. Bearing in His Body, which 
Body we are; consequently then, you and I bearing - not necessarily marks 
and scars. We're not talking about those. His Body bearing the evidence 
of His death, that we may manifest the fulness of His Life! Give some 
thought to that.  
 
Then Galatians 6:17, "From henceforth let no man trouble me, for I bear 
in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus." Galatians 2:20, "I am crucified 
with Christ; nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and 
the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of 
God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me." Galatians 3:1, " Oh, foolish 
Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that you should not obey the truth, 
before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth crucified 
among you..." Not that the Galatian Church was there on the actual day of 
His crucifixion. No, Paul has set this truth forth in the midst of them, 
bringing everything of the flesh and of the law, and all that is not 
Christ to an end, that everything may be fulfilled in the Living Person 
of Christ! He has set before them Jesus Christ crucified and living! But 
what's the problem with the Galatians? Is their problem that they are 
abounding in life and in joy? No, their problem is that they are in 
bondage to flesh, wrapped up in self righteousness, full of schisms and 
divisions, because they have left the truth of the Cross, and have sought 
to find perfection in the flesh. This is the problem, and Paul hits the 
problem right at the root of the thing. 
 
"... Who hath bewitched you, that you should not obey the truth..." See, 
you can't change the Truth, friends. You can either obey it or not obey 
it. Dearly beloved, listen to me - you can't change the Truth! The Truth 
comes right into the Person of Christ! HE IS THE TRUTH! And incorporated 
with Him is His death, His Life, The Resurrection, The Glory. The 
sufferings, the reality - all of it is incorporated in Him. These are not 
things about Him. These are parts of Him; the experiencing of Him in the 
reality of His death, His Life. You cannot change the Truth. You and I 
can either obey it or disobey it, but you're not going to change it. You 
and I don't create the Truth. The Truth is alive! The Truth is eternal! 
Established in The Person of Him! We either come to embrace Him in the 
fulness of The Truth, or we take something less and try to make 
Christianity work. Please listen.  
 
Philippians 3:7-11, "But what things were gain to me, those I counted 
loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the 
excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord; for whom I have 
suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may 
win Christ, and be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which 
is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ..." Notice 
the faith of Christ. It's the same faith mentioned in Galatians 2:20 - 
"The life that I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of Christ," 
directly connected to the realization 'Not I, but Christ who lives in 
me.' 
"That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the 
fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable to his death; If by 
any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead." He isn't 
talking about an event, he's talking about a realization and a 
relationship. Philippians 3:13,14, "Brethren I count not myself to have 
apprehended; but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are 
behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press 
toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ 
Jesus." Then Romans 8:17, " And if children, then heirs of God, and joint 
heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him..." Again, this is 
not sufferings for Him. "...suffer with him, that we may be also 
glorified together (or glorified as one) with him." I want you to 
contemplate these verses and allow the Lord to speak to your heart. 
The verses I now want to exhort you on and share some along two or three 
particular lines begin with Galatians 2:20. "I am crucified with Christ, 
nevertheless I live, yet not I..." Do mark this, if not in the pages of 
your Bible, then do mark this in your heart. YET NOT I. The first mark 
of His death with which we will deal in this study is this mark - YET NOT 
I. The true mark of the Cross is the absence of ourselves in all our 
dealings and activities. We simply cannot deal with one another or the 
world; we can only be dealt with, each of us, by the Cross. This releases 
us to manifest His Life one to another. His Life - forgiveness; His Life 
- reconciliation; His Life - peace; His Life - ministry of joy; His Life 
- love; His Life - long suffering; HIS LIFE! We are never released to 
minister His Life while we are trying to deal with one another. We cannot 
deal with one another. Now I know that may be contrary to what Christians 
counselors tell you and what most ministry will tell you. But you look 
around and see if it's working; if it's ever worked. See if it's working 
with you, in you. You and I both know it's not! You cannot replace The 
Truth - we can either admit it or not; obey it or not; comprehend it or 
not. But The Truth stands, and will always stand there. And there's no 
other way to go than by Him Who is The Truth, The Way and The Life! No 
other Way! We can not deal with one another. We can only individually be 
dealt with by the Cross; dealt with by His death. Then we're released to 
minister that which is truly Christ one to another, and to all the earth. 
But it will not work any other way. 
 
The first mark then of His death that we must bear is this realization 
that is set forth here in Galatians 2:20, and Paul puts it here for a 
very real reason. It is preceded by his statement in the first chapter of 
Galatians. Remember we're reading a letter here to a Church, not verses 
of scripture upon which the Church has based doctrines. The first part of 
this letter is consumed with the realization of the indwelling Christ, 
"God revealed His Son in me that I may preach him..." Yes, but what is 
the realization by which all of this is released to the Galatian Church, 
and released into the life of Paul? The realization "I am crucified with 
Christ, nevertheless I live; yet not I, Christ liveth in me; and the life 
which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God..." 
That is, the comprehending of Christ in me. I live knowing it is not I, 
but Christ. I live knowing it is NOT I, BUT CHRIST! Dear friends, I 
point you to the fact that this is a tremendous knowing.  
 
So, I want to share with you along this line. The first mark of His dying 
is the realization - YET, NOT I! That's true, but not just that. The 
only way you and I are going to realize that it is Not I, is to realize 
that IT IS CHRIST! And the only way we can realize that it is Christ is 
to embrace Him in His death. Now what I'm saying is that it is not that 
"Not I", because many of us go around saying "Not I". Self denial, self 
excuse, and in some cases even self justification. 'Oh well, I didn't do 
that. I didn't say that. Well, I didn't mean that. Not me, not me, not 
I.' See? 'That wasn't me, that was the devil.' Oh friends, "Not I" is not 
a form of self denial. It is the realization that it is not I, BUT 
CHRIST! You see, here's the mystery of the thing. Death is not one thing 
and life another thing. Death is the same thing; life is the same thing - 
IT IS CHRIST! It is just that Christ is death to the old and life to the 
new! But it is the realization of Him wherein we realize, Not I. And it 
is the realization of Him by which we realize - BUT CHRIST! 
 
It is you and I having a heart for The Truth before God, rather than 
justifying ourselves, rather than trying to find a way out, rather than 
trying to find a reason for. There is no "reason for". There is no "way 
out". There is just the reality of Christ and a New Creation in Him. But 
the first thing He does is bring the first to an end. You don't have to 
bring it to an end and then go find it. No - He brings it to an end. Your 
whole search must just be to know Him; but it's got to be an honest 
search; it's got to be a heart rending search. It has to be a search that 
is birthed out of true godly contrition. It's got to be a search that is 
birthed out of a heart that is truly sick and tired and fed up with 
everything of the first. Because it doesn't make any difference how 
beautiful it is - it's not beautiful enough, is it? It's not so beautiful 
that man can't mar it, and the darkness can't hide it. No matter how bad 
it is, it gets better. No matter how good it is, it gets worse. Oh 
beloved Christians, quit trying to find your life and your happiness and 
your peace and your forgiveness in the first. Find it in Christ and then 
manifest it back to the first, that has none of that in itself and can 
have none of it for itself.  
 
Until you and I become those who evidence His death, bearing the marks of 
His death, we will never manifest His Life! And the first mark of His 
death which we bear is NOT I! It's not trying to keep yourself out of 
things either. No, it is the abolishment of yourself. It is an inward 
comprehending - Not I. Then it's gone. It doesn't make any difference 
what then it is. It doesn't make any difference what comes up or what you 
face - whether it's the past, the present, the future - it doesn't make 
any difference, because it's NOT I! I have found my liberty! I have found 
my way out, my escape from it - HIS DEATH - NOT I! There remaineth now 
only Him, who liveth in me. He is my Life! He isn't there giving me life. 
No - HE IS MY LIFE! He is remaining. My God, what a realization we are 
released into! That realization is ever abounding, and the reason we can 
not come to the mystery of it, and really once and for all and in fulness 
bring into the earth a true manifestation of Christ, is that hardly any 
of us have found the liberty yet of His death. 
 
Don't get mad at me, but I hear bleeding hearts all the time wanting to 
know why isn't He manifested in the earth more, why is the earth still 
suffering this way - why this, why that? I'll tell you - it's because you 
and I won't come to death. It's because the Christians, the believers, 
those for whom He died will not embrace that death. You can sit around 
and talk about it and blame God all you want to, and say how different it 
ought to be. It isn't going to be different until we evidence His death, 
which will release us to manifest His Life! The difference is in His Life 
being made manifest. But that's only made manifest out from a people in 
whom His death is working. And I tell you again - the first mark of that 
dying is NOT I! Yes, we can take this extremely, or the Spirit of God 
can take us extremely into it in a very deep fashion. I'd like for us to 
come to it here, and face the reality, that we may be ever consumed in 
the mystery of His death; and we may be ever involved in the releasing 
and manifesting of His Life - both within and without. "Not I" means BUT 
CHRIST! It doesn't mean I'm doing this, but it's really not me doing it 
- No! "Not I" means "BUT CHRIST!" It is a realization that is worked in 
you and I inwardly, definitely, in the comprehending of Him as our death.  
 
Oh my, the liberty that we find there. "Not I" brings us over to the 
statement of Paul which we read in Philippians Chapter 3 verse 7. "But 
what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. And do 
count them but dung that I may know Christ. That I may know him, and the 
power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings..." What 
things were gain to me. You see it's those things, beloved, that we try 
to bring over and incorporate into "But Christ" and they just have no 
place there. Because even the things that were gain to me, are still 
connected with me, and it is NOT I, BUT CHRIST. You can't bring those 
things over, you can't reckon the worse dead and keep the best. You see, 
this is the sin and the idea that surrounds Saul. 'Well, we got rid of 
the worst and we kept the best. Of course we're going to give the best 
and dedicate the best to God.' And this is when the Lord told Samuel to 
quit praying for Saul. 'I have rejected him from being King over my 
people. I have counted him as though he never existed.' That's what the 
word 'rejected' means there in 1 Samuel 16. I've kept the best. And the 
Lord said 'destroy it all!' Well you see, His Son, brought forth in type 
there in David, just as we in union with Christ as Son of Man are brought 
forth in type in Solomon; His Son in type in David dealing with Israel in 
the ways he did - well, he is obedient. And he destroys all. See, when 
Christ came to the Cross, David is the type of all that coming to Mt. 
Zion by way of blood. Yes, bringing a people victoriously into the full 
thought of God, but by way of blood. And you see, Solomon had nothing to 
do with the blood; the blood had already been taken care of. There is a 
work of God, there is a salvation that we must come to realize in Christ 
that is without sin. But let's set that aside. Because we must come by 
way of the cross to it. And that death must ever; that death that is 
against all that is not Christ must ever be working in us in order to 
release all that is Christ! 
When God's Son came to the Cross He didn't seek to save the best - HE 
DESTROYED IT ALL! The Truth of Christ relating to death is that He 
destroyed it all! The whole of the first creation, the whole of Adam. 
Why? Because it all fell short of the glory of God; it all falls short of 
the Person of Christ Himself. It all points to Him, but it is not Him. It 
speaks of Him, but it is not Him. It all falls short of Him. And He 
brought it all to an end - even the things that pointed to Him, not just 
things that pointed away from Him. He brought them all to the Cross, and 
in death fulfilled them; because in Life He far exceeds them; far exceeds 
everything that even points to Him; far exceeds even the goodness of it - 
HE FAR EXCEEDS IT! It is not comparable. He is much, much more. There is 
no comparison really between the first and the second, because the first 
is man, and the second is Christ! Friends, you and I have been brought by 
Him, through death, into LIFE! But you can't discount the death and 
expect to manifest the Life. All you'll do is manifest a self effort, 
trying to produce the Life. You don't have to produce the life. HE IS 
THE LIFE! All you and I must do is all we've ever had to do - come to 
Him with an open heart, with a turned heart, with an honest heart. 'Oh 
God, reveal your Son in me. Oh God, open my eyes that I may see.' That's 
all it's ever been, friends. But there you see, we have to be honest 
enough to say we're blind and that we need. Lord help us. 
 
But I must tell you, the things that are gain are suffered loss. All 
things. This is something the Lord has pressed on my heart, because I 
tell you we can talk about the King and the Throne and the Kingdom; we 
can talk about the reality of the Anointing, but all of this comes by the 
inworking of His death! You can't say 'Yes, I'm dead with Him. Yes, I've 
died. Yes, I'm crucified,' and not manifest the marks of His dying. You 
can not manifest His Life without giving evidence inwardly, outwardly of 
His death. And in so many there is great talk of His Life, great 
preaching and teaching of His Life, but there is absence of the mark of 
His death, the witness of His death. I don't mean the stench of death, 
the smell of death - I'm talking about His death! I'm talking about 
bearing the witness of His death. The witness of His death is that in me, 
in you, it is NOT I. And that that's a realization, and that NOT I is 
defined by BUT CHRIST. It's not defined by self denial, self pity - it's 
defined by BUT CHRIST! 
 
The second mark of His death - Philippians 3:13, and understand there are 
many marks of His death. Those marks are as numerous as the ways in which 
that death is evidenced in us. "Brethren, I count not myself to have 
apprehended..." The word "apprehended" here means to comprehend. It's the 
same word used when Paul says, "I would that you would comprehend with 
all saints what is the length and depth..." How do we apprehend a thing 
in Christ? By comprehension. What is comprehension? It is the Holy Spirit 
revealing Christ in us; revealing, bringing us to know; it is the faith 
of the Son of God by which we know. "...I count not myself to have 
comprehended, but this one thing I do; forgetting those things which are 
behind..." What is the 'forgetting of those things which are behind" 
except verse 14? "I press toward the mark..." See, you can't do one 
without the other. You can't press toward the mark without forgetting the 
things which are behind. You can't forget the things that are behind 
unless you are pressing toward the mark. Those two things cannot be 
separated any more than life and death, or death bringing forth life can 
be separated. You can't make your whole life trying to forget the things 
that are behind. No - how do you forget the things behind? By turning 
from them, to press forward to the mark! Not to press forward to better 
things or better days. "I press forward to the mark for the prize of the 
high calling of God in Christ Jesus." Again, NOT I, BUT CHRIST! Occupied 
with the "BUT CHRIST". Here forgetting things behind. How? I press 
forward! The prize! The high calling of God in Christ Jesus! But the mark 
remains to be that of forgetting the past.  
 
Most believers are ever looking backwards rather than ever looking unto 
Jesus. I think this is one of the things that grieves my heart most with 
believers and ministry - they cannot forget the past; even if the past 
were yesterday. Past is anything that is not looking forward unto Jesus. 
So it involves a great deal, friends - good and bad, big and little, but 
it is past nonetheless. You can't build on the past even if the past is 
all good. You certainly can't even if it's all bad or a mixture of the 
two. I'm telling you it will not work. "Looking unto Jesus the author and 
the finisher of our faith." Ever looking forward. You've not been this 
way before. Set the Ark out two thousand cubits. Why? Because you've not 
been this way before. Now you are forgetting the past. Now Egypt is truly 
sealed, now the wilderness wanderings which is not the same as Egypt, but 
that too is forgotten. You've not gone this way before. Would you walk in 
Him, friend? Would you know the fulness of His Life, Beloved? You can't 
bring the past with you! Good, bad or indifferent. It has no place in the 
ongoing, ever abounding revealing of the Son. You just can not do it.  
 
I see Christians today and most all bear the marks of mistakes, bear the 
marks of rebellion, bear the marks of hard times, bear the marks of sin; 
things that happened to us and left emotional and physical scars. Bearing 
those marks. But very few bearing the marks of the Cross, because you 
see, it is the Cross that liberates us from all others. When Jesus 
appeared in that room, and the full significance of that appearance - He 
appeared there as His Spiritual Body. He appeared there as the eighth 
day, the New Creation Man, made up of all believers in Christ Jesus, and 
yet it is Jesus who comes in that Body - mistake it not. And that Body 
bears what? It bears nothing but the mark of His dying! It doesn't bear 
all the other scars. No, it bears the mark of His dying! And what is the 
mark of His dying? It is the death of humanity. The only way you and I 
are ever going to forget the past and let it be done away is when we bear 
in us the mark of His dying, which is the death of humanity. But we don't 
want to do that - we want our humanity understood. We want our humanity 
dealt with. Well, it has been dealt with by the Cross! But we want to 
deal with it on a lesser plane. We want our humanity justified. We want 
our pound of flesh from each other.  
 
I'm not talking about heathen savages, sinners; I'm talking about God's 
children, ignorant of the Cross. You see there is no greater hate, no 
greater danger, no greater evil than the flesh justified. I'd rather be 
thrust into the hands of rank heathen than thrust into the hands of self 
righteous Christians. A self righteous Christian is worse than one who is 
not a Christian at all, because a self righteous Christian is Anti-Christ 
- substituting ourselves for Him, our righteousness for His. The only 
instrument that stands against and does away with the Anti-Christ, the 
self righteous Christian is THE CROSS! The Cross is our deliverance, 
friends. The Cross is our deliverance from things behind. "Forgetting 
those things which are behind..." Now, Paul was talking about yesterday, 
and his forgetting went all the way back to the time that he murdered 
innocent men and women and boys and girls. And do you realize, that he 
delivered Christians to the hands of the authorities who fed them alive 
to lions? My God! Forgetting things that are behind! Not only things that 
were gain to me, not only Pharisee of Pharisees, circumcised the eighth 
day - No - murderer of Christians! 
 
There were those in the Church of that day whose parents Paul helped 
murder. Can you imagine this man coming declaring to you heavenly places, 
declaring to you the reality of the Life of Christ, and you saw him drag 
your parents off to be eaten by lions? I'm just getting real with you. We 
like to read the scripture like it's some kind of a Mother Good rhyme, 
and it is not. It is a testimony of Jesus Christ being worked out in and 
lived through His Body, and all of these things are faced. And how can 
they be faced? Certainly not in the benevolence of the human mind that 
seeks only to justify itself. No, but in the realization of the Cross. Oh 
yes, I believe fully that Paul embraced physical sufferings because of 
the scars he had added to the Body of Christ. I believe he took pleasure 
in necessities for the Lord's Body for the harm he had done to it. But 
you see, all of that was only because there was a working in him of the 
true sufferings of Christ. He could only minister Life. Paul didn't go 
around ministering remorse to Christians whose families he had destroyed. 
He ministered Life - the Life of Christ! And that's got to come out of 
the realization of death. 
 
Now I'm telling you that's the realization into which each of us must be 
brought, and allow ourselves to be brought there by the Holy Spirit. To 
where His death is real in us, working in us; so that we are not walking 
around exhibiting the scars of mistakes and the scars of the past, and 
the scars of sin or of hardship, and what others have done unto me - 
manifesting those scars. Those are not the marks of the Cross. They are 
the absolute opposite of it. Those are the marks of humanity; those are 
the marks of sin. And I don't know that there's one individual who 
doesn't bear some of them. I know we all want to say that ours are the 
worse, but I doubt that they ever really are the worse. But even if they 
were the worse, Christ CONSUMES THEM ALL! He bears all of those marks, 
and brings them into one mark - the mark of the Cross. I think you and I 
as Thomas need to examine His hands and His side and His feet, in a very 
spiritual way - not in doubting the Resurrection, but that the true 
witness of His Resurrection - NOT I, BUT CHRIST - be made real in us. We 
need to allow the Holy Spirit to bring us to The Truth. We'll never be 
released into the fulness of The Truth until we come to the very 
foundation of it - THE CROSS! The Cross is indelibly; the Cross is 
irresistibly and eternally planted in the very midst of the Kingdom of 
God! It is out from the realization of the Lamb that is slain that the 
power of God is released in the lives of believers and manifested in the 
midst of the earth.  
 
You and I can continue to bear the scars of our hurts and of our 
successes; bear the scars of our mistakes, hard times, what have you. Or 
we can come to embrace Him in The Truth that He is, and find Him as unto 
all of that, find Him as our death - the death of ME! Because you see, 
when I die, all of that passes out with it. And come forth not bearing 
those scars, but bearing the one mark of the Cross - the mark which says, 
NOT I; the mark which says "forgetting that which is behind"; the mark 
that is fulfilled in Not I, BUT CHRIST! Forgetting the things which are 
behind, I press forward to the mark. 
 
And lastly just to mention the third mark - an all consuming mark, and a 
mark which you need to give a great deal of thought to. The mark of His 
death is found in the fellowship of His sufferings. Fellowship. We are 
released by His death into the sweet fellowship of His Life, and that's 
what most Christians and ministry are missing. The third mark, if I can 
call it that, is the mark of fellowship. Not acquaintance, not friendship 
after what we know that to be; not tolerance, not family. No - 
fellowship. It goes beyond all barriers of humanity and is found only in 
the realization of Christ. It is by this fellowship that we jointly, 
unitedly, corporately bear the witness of His death, and manifest the 
fulness of His Life. 
 
May God bring you and I into such a fellowship with Him, so that same 
fellowship may be shed abroad in us and manifested by us in the midst of 
all the earth. May God lead us and guide us and direct us into the 
fulness of that Truth which is Christ. Not having as its end result a 
doctrinal teaching or the knowing of another new thing. No - having as 
its end result you and I finding fellowship with Him and manifesting that 
fellowship throughout the whole earth. That's what we are set here for. 
"God is faithful who has called us into the fellowship of His dear Son, 
Jesus Christ our Lord." May God bring us into the realization of Christ 
through His death into the fulness of His Life. AMEN!