THE LIFE OF CHRIST RECEIVED THROUGH FAITH.
By Wm. Covert
AS MAN actually studies God through his Word and in his works, faith reaches forth and takes hold upon the life which is at work in all these things; a new creation is the result. Remarking upon this matter, the apostle announces these glad tidings, “Ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.” Gal. 3:26. Being a child of God is of itself an all-sufficient heritage. The apostle, when considering the character and the wealth of this relation, says, “If children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ.” Rom. 8:17. Man approaches this relation not only helpless and condemned, but he is even less than nothing, because his sins stand in the way of his being anything. The first application of the Gospel of Christ for the penitent soul is to pardon and justify him from guilt, that he may have joy and peace in his newly-found relation. “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Rom. 5:1. Justification is an act, on the part of the Lord, when a person believes, by which condemnation is removed, and he is in heaven declared to be conformable to the law of God. In this event the righteousness of Christ is given to the justified one, and he stands in that righteousness free from all his sins. The verb “to justify” is defined thus by Webster: “In theology to pardon and clear from guilt; to absolve or acquit from merited punishment, and to accept as righteous, on account of the merits of the Saviour or by the application of Christ’s atonement for the offender.” This is an inestimable favor, unmerited by man, which the Lord freely and gladly bestows upon all who will accept it by Gospel faith. “Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus; whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; to declare, I say, at this time his righteousness; that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.” Rom. 3:24–26. An intelligent faith in Christ embraces what Christ now is, and all that he has been, and all that he has done for man. Faith accepts both the life and the death of the Redeemer. The believer’s faith lets go of himself, and takes Christ instead. He stands apart from his own life and character, and by faith merges into the character and life of the Saviour. By faith he takes hold of the life of the Living One. From that moment onward the life in Christ is to be the source of his life. “The just shall live by faith.” Rom. 1:17; Hab. 2:4. Faith severs from death him that believes, and again joins him to life, and the flow of the living current purifies his nature from all defilement and imparts to him the righteousness of Christ. The glory of this way is announced in the following words: “In the way of righteousness is life; and in the pathway thereof there is no death.” Prov. 12:28. The same truth is also stated by Paul: “They which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.” And again, “As sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.” Rom. 5:17, 21. It is the part of Gospel faith to so completely deliver fallen man from his sinful nature that it will not reign over him, and to connect him so fully with Christ’s life that Christ will live in him and reign over him. This living is “newness of life,” or “living by faith.” The person who is thus related to Christ is represented in the Scriptures as having died with Christ, and after death to have been buried with him, so that he no more exists in that carnal, sinful name and relation. He, by faith in this death and burial, went with Christ into the grave, to join him in his (Christ’s) resurrection from the dead. Thus in his Christian relation he lives wholly in and through Christ. Christ lives in him; sin and death have been dislodged, and the Lord’s life is manifested through him.5 An Outward Form Showing This Relation.
The candidate who goes with the administrator of the divine rite into the baptismal grave is thereby giving a formal expression of his faith in Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection. In the same act he also declares that he accepts it all by yielding up himself and taking the name of Christ upon him. “Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death; that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. . . . Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. . . . Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him. For in that he died, he died unto sin once; but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through [or in] Jesus Christ our Lord.” Rom. 6:4–11. Thus the believer renounces all claim to his sin-polluted life, and has by faith connected with life eternal. The work accomplished by faith is in reality a new creation, and so it is written: “By grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God; not of works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.” Eph. 2:8–10. Re-creation in Jesus Christ places the Christian again in connection with the good works in which it was ordained that he should walk when first man was made. To perpetuate this vital connection Christ must be constantly present. For “the accomplishment of this the apostle prayed: That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God.” Eph. 3:17–19. This fulness of God in man is God’s power to work through faith. By this power the Lord is able to do for him “exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think.” Eph. 3:20. Faith is not a substitute for works, but faith works. It brings Christ within, to dwell and work the works of God. Faith embodies in the believer the nature of Christ. Its work is constantly conforming the life of the Christian to the law of God. It is the same influence, the same power, and the same life actuating the child of God here that will endow him in the eternal world,—the life of Christ from above. It abides in the mind, and fills it with the righteousness of Christ. WM. COVERT.