CHRIST OUR LIFE | AdventAI

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jul 14, 1898

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 24, No. 28.

CHRIST OUR LIFE.

As Jesus Christ is to us the righteousness of God (Rom. 3:21, 22), so He is to us the life of God (Rom. 5:18, 21); for righteousness—right being, right doing—is life. “In the way of righteousness is life; and in the pathway thereof there is no death.” “For as the Father hath life in Himself; so hath He given to the Son to have life in Himself.” Said Jesus again, “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.” He “did no sin.” In Him was “the law of the Spirit of life,” and so, possessing righteousness, He possessed life.

As the soul who comes to God obtains righteousness by faith, so also he obtains life by faith—“even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe; for there is no difference.” “And this is the will of Him that sent Me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on Him, may have everlasting life; and I will raise Him up at the last day.” “He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in him; he that believeth not God hath made Him a liar; because he hath not believed in the witness that God hath borne concerning His Son. And the witness is this, that God gave unto us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He that hath the Son hath the life; he that hath not the Son of God hath not the life. These things have I written unto you, that ye may know that ye have eternal life, even unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God.” “That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith.” “If any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His. And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.”

The above scriptures clearly teach that the righteousness of God comes to us by faith in Christ; that the life of God comes through the same One and by the same means; that that life is the Spirit of God and Christ, given only to them that believe. He who believes can therefore truly say, “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.”

As the Spirit, or life, of God must be in harmony with the righteousness, or law, of God, the Lord must first make us righteous before He gives us that life, or Spirit. This is taught in the following scriptures: “If Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.” “That the blessing of Abraham [righteousness by faith, Rom. 4:3–7] might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.”

The sinner who receives the Spirit of God dies. The sin perverts the life and makes it death. If that Spirit were given in its fulness, he would immediately die. It is life to the righteous only.

It is all by faith, and faith is harmony with God, yielding to God, believing what He says; receiving His Word.

Are we sinners before God, condemned by His law, convicted by His Spirit, disheartened in endeavoring to make ourselves better?—We need not wait for years, or months, or days, or hours, to become reconciled. Jesus Christ has purchased your reconciliation by His own perfect life, the righteousness of God, wrought out in His obedience. If we will accept that righteousness as ours, it is at once imputed to us, given to us, set to our account, and the sins are all forgiven.

More than this: If we desire to be His for all time, to serve Him with all the heart, anywhen, anyhow, anywhere, and so yield to Him, we are given His Spirit, or life, more abundantly, even as our hearts are submitted to do His service. For God gives life for fruit-bearing, for service. If we possess that life at all, we must receive it for His cause and work.