ONE SON - LESSON 2 THE SON THAT I AM IN CHRIST by JW LUMAN GOD HAS A CHOSEN SON We are continuing to deal with that Son that God has known, planned, and purposed from the very beginning. In Ephesians 1:3, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in Heavenly places in Christ." Now He has done this according to something. "According as He hath chosen us in Him." There is nothing said in this scripture, nor am I implying that this scripture is saying that He hath chosen us to be in Him, He hath chosen us not to be in Him. This scripture is dealing with an eternal plan of God, whereby He hath chosen us in Him. You are only chosen in Him. Many are called, few are chosen. I am not telling you that some are chosen. I am not telling you on the basis of this scripture that some are chosen to be in Him and some are not chosen. But rather that God has a chosen Son. He is a many-membered Son and yet He is no less one Son. That Son is chosen of God from the very beginning. We are chosen in Him from before the foundation or the disruption of the world that we should be holy without blame before Him in love. Not only is this Son conceived in the very heart of God after the type and name and nature of Elohim, not only is this Son saw there, not only is He planned there, not only is He chosen there, set forth there; this Son is brought about through the work of Jesus. We saw in the last session that this is a particular kind of Son; it is a Son that only the Holy Spirit can reveal. He is a many- membered Son, yet no less one Son. We must understand three things about Him, that this Son is of one seed, not seeds. This Son is one kind, not kinds. This Son is of one glory. He is the seed of one Father, He is the kind of one, and He is unto the glory of one. THE SON ACCORDING TO THE FATHER'S PLAN We dealt with just that much in the last session. This is the Son that the Father saw and it is the Son that you are in by virtue of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ and by virtue of the operation of the Spirit. You are not just out from sin, you are dwelling in the Son. That is all we have said up until this point - that by virtue of the operation of the Spirit and by virtue of the finished work, you are not just out from sin. You are not just out from Adam. You are not just delivered from the power of darkness, but also translated into a kingdom of His dear Son. That is - you are raised up together and made to be seated together in Heavenly places in Christ Jesus. So Paul starts out with that and says, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in Heavenly places in Christ Jesus." Then he says, "He hath done this according to a plan that is conceived in him before the disruption of the world. Whereby He chose us in Christ that we should be in Him, holy, without blame before Him in love. What I suggested to you in the last session in the scriptures is that God has not by the operation of the Spirit, He has not through the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, put us in a different place than He chose us. But He has brought you by the operation of the Spirit to be exactly where He chose you to be through the operation of the Spirit and that is in Christ Jesus - a many-membered Son. Yet each of whom, and all of whom are not other than that one Son. Because in Him there is neither male nor female, bond nor free, Jew nor Greek, circumcised nor uncircumcised, Barbarian nor Scythian; yet CHRIST ALL AND IN ALL. THE SON THAT I AM IN CHRIST What a Son! What a salvation! If you prefer that term. What a tremendous work of God, that we are not just saved from sinning; but rather brought into the life of the Son Himself. It is a Son that the Father hath desired and it is a Son that the Father hath received and you are that Son, by virtue of being in Him and by virtue that He is in you and by virtue that of God are ye in Christ Jesus who is made unto you all that He Himself is. He is made unto you wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption; made unto you all that He is, and in Him dwelleth the fullness. For it pleased the Father that such be the case. "And in Him dwells all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge and in Him dwelleth the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are in Him and He is in you." And with the coming of the Spirit of Truth and the ministry of the Spirit of Truth it is said, "that you will know in that day that I am in my Father, that you are in Me." There is more to this thing than just getting out of a pit. There is more to this thing than just not sinning. There is growing up into the fullness of Him who is our very life. There is the growing up into the fullness of Him in whom we live and move and have our very being. We are looking at that Son that we are, not the son I am! He is not J W Luman! But the Son that we are. Yet I am no less a part than you. It is not me, because I am crucified with Christ. This is an understanding we must come to based upon a reality and a work of God. "Nevertheless I live, but yet not I, Christ liveth in me. The life I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God." That is by His wisdom, His understanding, His knowledge; by the faith of the Son of God. I live realizing, it is not I but Christ. I live realizing, I have no life but Him. I am not suggesting to you that that Son is me, but that that Son is you and I IN HIM. More than that, that Son is Christ in you and I. THE FINISHED WORK So we are going to be talking about that Son now in the light of the finished work. We dealt with these three terms in the last session, in a very elementary way, that this Son is one seed, one kind, and one glory. But I want to take up now, the first of three terms dealing with this Son - descriptive terms, all of which describe a finished work. It is a work that Jesus not only finished, but He declared that it was finished, and a work that you and I are added to, joined to by the operation of the Spirit of the Lord. "He that is joined to the Lord is one spirit." We are joined to a finished work, to a complete work. "Even as in Him dwelleth the fullness of the Godhead bodily and ye are complete in Him." Yet we must grow up in Him who is our completeness. That is, we must know Him and learn Him and grow up in Him and be transformed. You see, the learning of Christ becomes the most practical life that there is. It effects you from the hair of your head to the shoelaces in your shoes. It is not a list of do's and don't's, but it is a life, 24 hours a day, living as those who understand, "It is not I but Christ." Let's look. "That we should be holy and without blame before Him in love." Now those are strong terms. He has chosen us in this Son that we should stand before Him accepted in the beloved, standing before Him in one Son, as one Son, through one Son, holy without blame, a manifestation of His love. THE SON FORGIVEN, RESTORED, RECONCILED There are three terms I want to look at. We will only look at one of those now. This Son is three things: He is forgiven. He is restored. He is reconciled. And that, in the absoluteness of each of those terms, because the work is a complete work. Whether I walk in the completeness of it or not, whether the Spirit of God has brought me to the light of that completeness, whether I have apprehended that for which I have been apprehended - "oh that I may know Him in the power of His resurrection, in the fullness of His life." May ministry continue and the work of the Spirit continue until we all come into the unity of the faith, the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man. That man there, who is one Son, the New Man, even growing up in Him to the fullness of the measure of the stature, that is the age, of Christ. It is a full work and it is a complete work. Now in most cases, you and I do not understand the fullness of it. We don't understand what it means to be FORGIVEN. UNFORGIVENESS IN THE CHURCH I suppose one of the chief problems of the Church today, not the world, but the Church, that it is full of unforgiveness. I know for a fact that one of the chief problems in the ministry today is that the ministry is full of unforgiveness - grudge holding. Almost seeming to be an inability to forgive or to accept forgiveness. I am of the opinion, and I think brought about by the scripture and by the Spirit, that you can only forgive to the degree you have received forgiveness or have accepted in your heart that you are forgiven. I believe that. I believe that you manifest to others what you know of the manifestation of God towards you. I believe you can only forgive to the understanding of forgiveness you truly have. I think that there is probably many of us; saved, sanctified, and filled with the Holy Ghost or whatever terms you want to use; who do not understand and therefore truly know that we are forgiven. We have applied it to things. We have applied it to deeds done, but we haven't truly seen yet the finished work of the cross. THAT I MAY KNOW HIM This Son is a result of the finished work of the cross. He is not the result of wishful thinking on the part of the Father. He is a result of the finished work on the part of the Son. He can only be revealed in you, who are in Him, by the Holy Spirit Himself. It is in the knowing of Him that you begin to comprehend with all saints what is the depth, the height, the fullness of your salvation in Christ Jesus. Only as we begin to comprehend that fullness, will we begin to manifest it in the earth, one to another and to the world. Until then, we will manifest what we know of Him, and we will be religious. Oh, there is that knowing of Him, folks. I trust that God will open our eyes and that He will spark a desire to truly search this matter out in the scriptures and in Christ Jesus. Turn with me now to Romans 5. We have found that by one man sin entered and through one man righteousness comes. Through one man death entered and through one man life is realized. We have seen in the Scriptures that you cannot compare one of these men to the other. It is incomparable. That is the reason the scriptures say, in verse 15 and 16, "Not as the offense, so also is the free gift; and not as it was by one, so is the gift." There is no comparison there. That is the reason it is written that way. You cannot gauge the fullness of salvation by the depth of sin. I say very often, you cannot measure the fullness of your salvation by the depth of the hole you were dug out of. The fullness of salvation is not comparable to sin, the fullness of salvation is only measured in Christ Himself. Salvation is much more than just not sinning. Also salvation is much more than just having sins forgiven. Paul starts off by saying that in verse 9, "Much more then, being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life." ADAM FELL SHORT There is a fullness that you and I have got to understand by the Spirit and must begin to grow in. There is life beyond birth! That is the growing up into Him. Understand what I am telling you? I want to show you. We have seen that God deals with sin in one man and that man is Adam. I want you to see that again. Adam fell short of the glory of God. He didn't fall out of the glory of God, he fell short of the glory of God. There is only one Son that has ever come out from glory and that is the Son that goes back to glory and He came out that He might bring many sons back with Him. Adam fell short of the glory of God and in him even those who have not sinned after the similitude of his transgression, have fallen short of the glory of God in that we have all sinned and become sinners. Why? Because we are in Adam. We are birthed in him. All that is in the first birth is in Adam. I know we talked about this in the last session, but we may need to stay with it again now, until you and I see ourselves prior to being in Christ, in Adam. We weren't just free agents running around out here, we were in Adam. TAKING CARE OF A SINNER That is why it doesn't make any difference how good you are or how bad you are. I have heard people say before, 'well I am just as good as so and so.' That doesn't make any difference. How good you are or how bad you are or how many s-i-n-s you committed, is not the problem here. It is not even the issue of the cross. The cross doesn't really care, as Jesus made some men with rocks in their hands to understand, the cross doesn't really care how many sins you committed. Because the cross is not taking care of sins, it is taking care of a sinner. You have got to understand, Jesus didn't write down a list of sins and nail those to the cross; He became sin and put it to the cross. He became the last Adam and took him to the cross. The cross doesn't just deal with things I have done, the cross deals with me. We have got to come to understand that, that before I am in Christ, I am in Adam; as guilty as sin, as undone as can be, an absolute zero, an absolute failure. I am going to tell you irrevocably, because that man must die!! Thank God through the work of Christ Jesus, that man did die! Everywhere, except in our hearts and in our understanding. So many of us who are born-again, filled with the Spirit, dwelling in Heavenly places, still see ourselves as being in Adam. Oh yes, they have cleaned up, doing the best we can, being religious, filled with the Holy Ghost - but we don't see ourselves out from Adam. Now you stay with me a minute. We still see after the flesh. This is the reason Paul said, "Henceforth know we no man after the flesh..." But you and I know good and well we know each other after the flesh; "neither do we know Christ after the flesh." But we are continually knowing Him that way. We sing and shout and dance and beat our drums, talk about New Creations and New Creatures; while all the time in the heart of our heart, we see ourselves after our first birth - white, male, over 21. Therefore I have got black brothers and brown brothers and yellow brothers. No sir, there is no such thing in Christ. THE WORK OF THE CROSS We preach the cross until our tongue falls out and we lather up with sweat, but we preach the cross, dealing with some sins and not with the sinner. We preach the cross dealing with some acts and actions, not with the cause of it. We never see ourselves crucified. So our concept of being forgiven deals with things, not we, ourselves. That is the reason we cannot forgive each other. "Oh, I forgive him, but I just can't forget. You just don't know what he did to me." Acts and actions. We can forgive some, but we just can't forgive others. We actually believe God is that way too, deep in our hearts. He can forgive some things but not others. We segregate ourselves. I know many precious dear saints of God that even right now are in agony, Holy Ghost filled saints, still tormented by something they did in their past lives and they are just not really sure God can forgive them or did. Oh brother, you just don't know what I did. Darling, I don't care and the cross doesn't care either. We have got to come to this folks. You see, this is a forgiven son, but that is not the same son that fell short of the glory of God. The son that fell short of the glory of God is taken to the cross as the last Adam and he is crucified. He just doesn't have a few characteristics dealt with. He doesn't just have a few deeds dealt with. The law dealt with deeds. Do you know that there was a law and almost a sacrifice dealing with every deed? Just about everything you could do. If you stole, it was one thing. If you did this, it was another thing. If you did that, it was another thing. There were so many sacrifices that you couldn't keep up with all of them, because everyone applied to something that was done, some other deed. Honey, Christ rolled them all into one. The law dealt with the doing of deeds. Christ dealt with the doer of the deeds. Adam is synonymous with sin and he fell short of the glory of God. There is no way in Heaven and in earth, in the mind and in the heart of God, that Adam as Adam can ever please God or can ever be the Man, the Son that God saw from the beginning. Take away even the sinning, because there are so many who don't believe they ever have. Take away even the sinning, and he is still many, he is still seeds, nations, times, colors, creeds; and none of that is found in that Son. He is not seeds, He is SEED. He is not nations, He is A NATION. He is not times, He is A TIME. He is not color, He is Spirit. He is not many, He is MANY WHO ARE ONE - each one member one of another, each one having no life but Christ. Adam at his best, cannot please God. This is something you and I may as well realize. Now we are reaching a little deeper than do's and don't's. A little deeper than straighten up here and act right, restraints and restraining. We are not dealing with restraints and restraining; we are dealing with a transformation. We are dealing with a NEW MAN. "Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free." Who is that truth? "If the Son hath made you free, ye are free indeed." It is not just talking about the work of the Son, but the revealing of the Son, the coming of truth who is the Son. We are not talking about learning something about him, we are not talking about a theology based upon him, or a doctrine that relates to him; we are talking about the knowing of Him by the Spirit of God. We are talking about that Son who is in you, being revealed in you, and becoming the truth of your salvation, the truth of your life, the truth of your forgiveness, the truth of your restoration, the truth of your reconciliation, and the truth of all that He is, being unfolded in you, and you beginning to walk in the truth of all that He is. For all that He is, He is made unto you. You, in and of yourself are absolutely nothing. You never have been and you never will be. "That no flesh should glory in His presence." I want you to see that in Romans 5, we are absolutely faced with all being in one or the other. We are either in Christ or Adam and there is no comparison between the two. The One being much more than the other ever could have been. BUT WE SEE JESUS Hebrews 2. Until we see our utter despair, we are not ready to see all things in Christ. As long as I think I can find some spark of goodness about me, you might as well know that I am going to hold onto it. Hebrews 2, verse 5. There is something said here about man. "Unto the angels he hath not put in subjection the world to come of which we speak. But one in a certain place testified..." He is speaking of an Old Testament speaking and writing. "What is man that thou art mindful of him or son of man that thou visitest him? Thou madest him a little lower than the angels. Thou crownest him with glory and honor, and did set him over the work of thy hands. Thou has put all things in subjection under his feet, for in that he put all things in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under him. But now we see not yet all things put under him." We look at man and we see everything except what God planned. We look at man and we see everything except what God purposed. The writer said, God, I don't why you mess with him. He is like a puff of smoke, he is like a piece of grass, he withereth up. You can read it! I don't even know why you mess with him. He is nothing that he is planned to be. He has followed through with nothing. He has accomplished nothing. This is true! Why? What is the hope? Why did you even mess with him, Lord. "But we see Jesus." Where do we see Him? What is God's answer to man? Yeah I know, but he is doing the best he can. I mean, we are only human. I don't want to sound like a complete raving lunatic, but it has always puzzled me how we sing and shout and dance and teach and preach. I have been in this since I was six years old, singing and shouting and dancing and speaking in tongues and through Bible college and the whole rout. The more and more I wondered how can we talk about New Creature and New Creation and new birth; and then when something happens, we fall back on "well brother, we are just human". Now what are we? Are we sons of God or are we human? I know we have got a body. I can see that. But what are we? Which birth are we going to blame this on? The first one or the second one? When are we going to make up our mind that we are born-again and quit blaming it on, well I am just human. Here we are, in Heavenly places, very truly seated in Christ Jesus, still seeing ourselves as earth beings. "Are ye not carnal and walk as men, glorifying one above another?" Here are Paul's words. I want us to see something about this man Adam - that he is an absolute and total failure. He is not acceptable to God. The only answer to him is Jesus. Jesus does not make him acceptable, Jesus brings him to an end. So that we are accepted in the beloved. But, it is not I, but CHRIST. It is not God finally changing His mind and accepting J W. It is here, J W coming by way of the cross, coming by way of death unto J W, into the life of Christ where it is not I, but Christ all and in all. In that place, I find acceptance in God. We have got to begin to get a view of this thing. There is a liberation to this. You want to talk about forgiving. How forgiving are you? You just forgive unto death, that's how forgiving you are. FORGIVING I dealt with a little old saint of God, 80 years old, that just broke my heart. She had gotten in with some people who were perverters of the Truth and drug up things she had done some thirty or forty years ago and if she didn't sit down and confess to them and make a clean break and all of this trash and corruption and stupidity. I sat and held her hand while she was sick in bed over this thing. She was a little old saint of God who once walked in Truth and heard her cry and moan, "Oh, Brother Luman, I can't feel Him anymore. I just don't know anymore." Why honey? "Oh, because you just don't know what I did." Go back and drag all that up, through the blood and drag all that up out of the grave and parade it around. I began to deal with her. I said, I don't care what you did. God doesn't care what you did. It is not a situation of sinning or not sinning, it is a situation of life and death. It doesn't make any difference what you did because you are dead - D-E-A-D, double barrel dead. There is only One who lives in you and by virtue of that, you live in Him and only by virtue of that, do you stand accepted before God. And if the Son is accepted, you are accepted! But you see, we can't say thank God and all of that and still mess around living our own life, because the two don't work. You can't see yourself in Adam and see yourself in Christ at the same time. Now you can be in Christ and see yourself in Adam, but the Truth must come. We are liberated from a whole lot more than our past; we are liberated from our present as well. We begin to walk as those who are truly in Him, who are truly heirs of salvation. FOR THE SUFFERING OF DEATH I am just talking to you about salvation, but the salvation I am talking to you about is a Person and you are in Him for the living of His life. "But we see Jesus..." Yes, alright, fine, but after what manner? It is not Christ Jesus we see here dealing with this man. It is Jesus, made a little lower than angels. It is Jesus born of the flesh. It is Jesus born under the law. It is Jesus, making of Himself no reputation. It is Jesus, taking upon Himself the form of a servant. It is not the resurrected Christ we are seeing here. He is not the answer to fallen man. He is not the answer to man coming short of the glory. "But we see Jesus, made a little lower than angels." Why? For the suffering of death. Why? That He might bring many sons unto glory. Who is it that we see? But have we seen Him after this fashion? Have we really seen Him? Oh yes, every one of us wants to find some secret formula for being identified to Him in the Heavens. "Brother, tell me how I can live in the Heavens." "Give me ten things to do and I'll do them tomorrow." You can't identify with Him in the Heavens until you have identified with Him here at the cross - an identity in your heart. I mean a transformation of the heart. I mean a God-given Holy Ghost revealed understanding of Christ and Him crucified, causing you to cry out as the apostles, "I am crucified, I am not on my way to being, I am crucified!" I know that continues to work until it reaches into every darkened area of my heart and routes out everything that I seek to hold back from the cross and keep back from the cross until the whole of it is reconciled there where in fact in Christ it is. We have got to come to a new view of the cross, not just one of dealing with sins, but one of dealing with me. And all that I am, not just all that I did. Who is freed from sin? He that is dead is freed from sin. I don't know if you can distinguish sinning from sin. Sinning comes out from sin. You can curb sinning, but sin has to be dealt with by the cross. You can curb doing, you can curb deeds, you can restrain; but the man has to be dealt with by the cross. If you are in Christ, that is so. You came by that way. Was not Israel delivered? Yes they were. My God, look at the deliverance - brought them out with a mighty hand, bore them out on eagles wings, brought them out - complete deliverance. But never, never could they see themselves delivered, never could they see themselves out, never did that come into their heart. Every time something happened, they wanted to go back; until they all marched around and died in the wilderness, having not possessed the fullness of the rest, simply because of unbelief. I want to know how many of us are marching around in our heart now in the wilderness, unable to receive forgiveness and give forgiveness, simply because we are ignorant of the finished work that got us where we truly are in Christ. But until the cross gets us off of Golgotha's hill, and gets up here as the work of the wisdom and the power of God in my heart. I am identified with Him in the reality of His death, not just the theology of it - the reality of His death, until it is a reality in me that I am dead. "Know Him in the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death. If by any means I might attain to the resurrection." He is not talking about a body coming out of the grave, but the fullness of Him who is the resurrection - the knowing of Him and the fullness of His life. "For which I press on to know." The sad fact is, so many of us in Church haven't even begun to know Him. We are still wrestling with those "things". We build doctrines around those "things". We preach holiness around those "things". The doing or the not doing, having no understanding of the being or the not being; having no understanding of the reality of the work. JESUS BECAME Adam never became Jesus. He (Jesus) became Adam. He became the last Adam. I am identified with him here - "yet not I, but Christ." But here, He is identified with me. This is not my doings, it is His doings. It is complete, because it is His doings. I didn't leave glory, He did. I didn't make myself of no reputation, He did. I didn't become obedient to death, even the death of the cross, He did. I didn't finish the work, He did. But I want to tell you, I am part of the work that He has finished. We may as well come to the understanding of our full salvation and begin to walk as those who are in Him! Instead of just continuing to be a mockery to salvation upon the face of the earth - religious. So many times we find ourselves being religious. Just for lack of the truth, just for lack of preaching a salvation in part and parts. He reaches into all the facets, He goes far beyond that and takes us into the fullness of His life. God give us understanding. We see Jesus. Jesus who became the last Adam. Jesus who identified with me and my inability to deal with Him - He identified with me. He did that totally and completely. He became the cursed of God, in that one died, all died with Him. And in that all died with Him, then He died as all. He didn't miss one. He became the thing we try to save and try to hold onto and He took it to the cross. So why don't we just turn loose of it? I COME TO DO THY WILL, O GOD Let's look just a little farther. Hebrews 10, verse 5: "Wherefore when he cometh into the world he saith, sacrifice and offerings thou wouldest not, but a body thou hast prepared me." Honey, He didn't come to make another sacrifice for sin and sinning. Now hear what I am saying. A sweet brother got upset with me one time and he just didn't hear what I was saying. I found out months later, he left a conference because he just didn't hear what I was saying. He came away saying, "Brother Luman is saying that Jesus didn't deal with sin." Oh come on here! I am telling you, he deals with more than sinning. He deals with the sinner, He deals with the man. He didn't come to give another sacrifice for sinning. He didn't come to butcher a sheep. He didn't come to kill a lamb or a goat or a red heifer or turtle dove. He didn't come offering more sacrifices and more offerings. He came to do away with a thing once and for all in Himself. That is what the writer is trying to say here, "you are not comprehending what He did here." He didn't come and just continue Old Testament practices and principles. He came and rolled it altogether in Himself. He didn't come to make another peace offering for you and another peace offering for me so we could stumble along another year doing our best." In burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin, thou hast no pleasure. Then said I, Lo I come in the volume of the book, it is written of me to do thy will, oh God." Well what is it? I come to do thy will. When he said "sacrifices and burnt offerings and offerings for sin, thou wouldest not. Neither hast pleasure in them that are offered by the law. Then he said, lo I come to do thy will oh God." Look at it. "He taketh away the first that He may establish the second." He doesn't give an offering for it; He takes it away. He takes the Adamic thing and He crucifies it. TAKE AWAY....ESTABLISH You and I, through that work of His cross, by faith, the operation of the Spirit, are brought here in Christ. And yet, in our hearts, we still see ourselves as part and parcel of what He has done away with. We still view ourselves after the first birth, to one degree or another. We think that all He did was just deal with some deeds. No sir, He dealt with me. He dealt with the first creation. He dealt with the first birth. "I come to take it away and to bring forth a second, to establish the second." In I Corinthians 15 Paul deals with what is first - the first man is after the earth, earthy. The second man is the Lord from Heaven. It is established there. Read those scriptures, verse 45. Understand who the first is that is taken away, that he might establish the second. Where does He establish the second? In the Heavens, He establishes the second in Himself, the Son that God saw from the beginning. "That which is first is not spiritual, but that which is after." Read it! It is a pattern throughout the Word of God. You know that as well as I do. It is just that we sometimes have a problem seeing who is that first and who is that second. The first is not me doing bad things and the second me doing good things. The first is me period, and the second is Him period. Salvation is not just me not sinning, salvation is essentially me not living. It is essentially walking in the understanding that He liveth in me and I have no life but Him. LEARN YE CHRIST Essentially the objectiveness is Christ set forth. The subjectiveness is essentially that it is not me living after what is good or bad, right or wrong; it is me living after what is Christ and what is not Christ. Honey, there are things that are good, that is allowable, but they are not Christ. They are allowable, they are lawful, but they are not Christ. We are not dealing now with doing right or wrong; we are dealing with living His life or not living. We are dealing with the motivation, the nature, the character. We are not dealing with what you say, we are dealing with the motivation behind your words. We are not dealing with what you do, good or bad, we are dealing with the nature and the character with which you do it - what you are projecting. We are stepping a little farther than just a restraining and we are beginning to learn the liberty of His Life and walking in the fullness of Him. We are not releasing anybody to sin. We are not releasing anybody to the flesh; we are telling you that it is brought to the cross. You have no life, but Christ. Now, learn ye Christ! We who are seated in Heavenly places have spent half of our lives trying to learn restraints; now let's learn Christ. We are trying to learn 15 rules, now let's learn Christ. We were trying to memorize the Bible, now let's receive the mind of Christ, through the operation of the Spirit. Let's get ourselves to knowing Him! You understand what I am telling you? You are not released to anything; except into the fullness of His Life and the understanding that you have no life but Him. Is that subjective enough for you? It is Paul saying, "For to me to live is Christ." So when I am dealing with my brother I can have all kinds of liberty. I can eat meat or I can not eat meat; but before I will offend my brother, I won't eat meat as long as the world lives. Why? It is not a case of right or wrong, it is a case of Christ or not Christ. Forgiving - it isn't a case of what he did or didn't do, it is a case of Christ or not Christ. There is no way I can see myself there and not see you there too. I can be up here and not see myself here with some sins forgiven; "but I didn't commit as bad a sin as you did. So yes, God forgave me and I am a good person, but I don't know about... Do you know what he did? Let me tell you something about this brother." Come on, can you hear it? I have heard it all my life until I am sick of it. "Oh yes, you know him now, but I know where he came from." Too bad you don't know where he is! Why? Because our concept of salvation deals with sinning, not the man. I am not giving you license for sin. I GLORY IN THE CROSS That is not what we are talking about here. If you hear that then you are missing the whole point of what I am telling you, the whole point of what the Scriptures set forth in Christ. Paul had a new view of the cross. Let's get a new view of the cross. Do you know what his view was? He said, "If I glory, I will glory in nothing save the cross." You mean it is an instrument of glory? Oh yes! "Whereby I am crucified to the world and the world is crucified to me." I am a zero to it and it is a zero to me. In my absence, He is made manifest. When the world is not seeing me, it is seeing Him. "I am crucified..." That is what Paul is saying, "I am crucified to the world and the world is crucified to me." When they are not seeing me, they are seeing Him. In my absence, they are seeing Him. On the other side of the thing, he is saying, I do not see myself as one who is in the world; I see myself as one who is in Christ and the old things, yes, the world has passed away, and I dwell in Christ Jesus. So I walk around the face of mother earth, realizing I am in Christ. This, he says, is a work of the cross. It is a far cry than just sins. This is a work of the cross, whereby I am crucified to the world and the world is crucified to me. No wonder he can tell the Corinthians; "And I, brethren when I came, came not..." No, I am not taking license there. That is the intent of the original. I came not in my nature, I came not in my words, I came not in my faith, I came not in my wisdom. When I came, I came not, that your faith should not be in flesh. The very fact that I could speak was a demonstration of the Holy Spirit. So great is this gospel that I handle, he says. In fact he goes on to say, we only speak wisdom to those who are maturing. For we speak these things with words, but not words which man teacheth; but which the Holy Spirit teacheth, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. This is a man who has a view of the cross. He understands that the cross is not dealing just with sins and sinning. It is dealing with Paul. And He is able to move into forgiveness. If I am dead, I am forgiven. If I am alive, I am not. DEAD THROUGH JESUS, ALIVE IN CHRIST Let the Truth begin to be applied. Until we can see one another dead here, through Jesus, we will never truly understand one another alive in Christ. We will continue to know and to judge and to deal after the flesh - with all sincerity, but after the flesh nonetheless. Oh, we will continue to make excuses for it, but we will do it nonetheless. We will have to continue to have our seminars on ten ways to love your fellow man. Let me just tell you this little story. I have been to a lot of funerals. I have had funerals in my own family, my close family; so I am not making light of funerals. But I have been to funerals where a man will be out here laying in a casket. I have actually seen people who two weeks ago was cursing him, two weeks was saying, he was the sorriest thing that ever walked on the face of the earth. Wouldn't trust him around the corner of the house. Then they stand and give eulogies. To hear them, you would think they were bosom buddies, never had a cross word and this was the greatest man that God ever created. Why? Because he is dead. But two weeks ago, he couldn't be forgiven, because their idea, I am talking about Christians now, their idea of forgiving is overlooking sins. That's not God's idea of forgiving - overlooking sins. I am not suggesting to you that it is. But that is their idea, dealing with sins, and I can't forget what he did to me. But when he died, all is forgiven. Why? Didn't he do that? Oh yes. What is the difference? Well, he was alive then, now he is dead. Whether you realize it or not, that is the only difference. If we could just in reality see each other - because we are deader than that dead. He not only became obedient to death, He became obedient to the death of the cross. There is two different deaths spoken of there. He became obedient to dying period - dying as a man, He was born of a woman, and He became obedient unto death. But beyond that, He became obedient to the cross. He didn't just die, he died as the last Adam. He died unto sin. He put Adam to death. He became obedient to that. There is a greater death than just being stretched out on a slab. That is the death you and I have got to come to realize with regard to one another and with regard to ourselves. Until we do, we will never see ourselves forgiven; maybe dealt with of God, but not really forgiven. There is always some sin that is paramount. The fact is, we are not laying out there on a slab deader than a mackerel; He had died, now we live. "Yet not I, Christ liveth in me." If you can't forgive me, then you can't forgive the Son, who is my life. So, you and I are dealing with Him, crucifying the Son of God afresh and new. That is why Paul got so upset with the Galatians. He came along and he said, you are forgiven, because ye are dead and ye have no life but Christ. The Jews came along and said, well you got to be circumcised. They crucified the Son of God! Paul was not teaching them a method, he was teaching them a Man. He was teaching them a life in Christ. Here comes along somebody with a sharp knife. ABSOLUTELY FORGIVEN SON This is an absolutely forgiven Son, because He is not the same son that fell short; He is a new Son. Read it in Romans 6. "Know ye not that so many of us as are baptized into Christ are baptized into His death. That being baptized into His death, we are being buried with Him, that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father; even so we should walk in newness of life." One man fell short, a New Man came forth. Who is forgiven? Not Adam, he is crucified. I want you to see this. This Son is who we are dealing with. We have been raised up together in this One, that we are in Him. He is the forgiven Son! Who is forgiven? The Christ that comes forth out of death is forgiven. The Son of God is forgiven. This one (Adam) over here is crucified. This one is killed. This one comes to nothing. This one is done away. But because He, Jesus, took upon Himself, and made Himself lower and made Himself nothing; God has given Him a name above every name. He is the forgiven Son. What did He do to be forgiven? He became me, He became you, He became the first thing. He did no sins, but He became sin. So forgiveness essentially, is not dealing with sins or sinning, but sin. He brought the man to the cross and He crucified Him that we may be released unto Him and come forth in Him a forgiven Son - a Son that the Father says, "Thou art My Son." What did I read to you while ago? "That we may be without blame before Him in love". Honey, we stand there in union with the Son without blame before Him in love. He is forgiven because He died and the Father brought Him forth in fullness of life. He became the cursed thing - "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" And He came forth, "into Thy hands commend I my spirit." Don't tell me He came up like he went down. Paul says, thou fool, don't you understand? And he uses those terms, don't you understand, the thing that dies, does not come forth in the body with which it died; but it comes forth in the newness of life. This is a body you have prepared for me, this body right here, you have prepared for me. But He comes forth the resurrected Son of God, bringing forth many sons in Him. When we come forth by new birth, it is in Him that we come forth; not in the thing that died. We come forth in Him, in newness of life. Who is forgiven? He is forgiven, the One that became sin is the One that is forgiven - the One that became nothing is the One that is forgiven and I am in Him and you are in Him. We must see each other there - with all the backbiting and the stabbing, criticizing, law- giving. When I fall and when you fall, because of ignorance, untruth, or whatever; we minister Christ to the fallen one. We minister to him as one coming forth - life out of death. We become ministers one to another - not dealing with what I did or what you did, but who He is! That is not overlooking sin, that is ministering forgiveness and ministering life. The law couldn't do that. The law could only expose and condemn, "but I come that ye might have life and that ye might have it more abundantly." We are in Him, ministers one to another. I trust you can hear that, and if you can't, then you consider it by the Spirit of God. I want you to know something; there is more to forgiveness than just dealing with sinning. Forgiveness is the finished work of the cross. It is not an old son coming forth, hoping that everything is alright with God. It is a New Son, coming forth in newness of life - life coming out of death, fully, totally, absolutely, irrevocably - FORGIVEN!