God has given to us perfect peace and joy through Christ. Do all Christians have perfect peace and joy? It is the will of God that every Christian stand perfect and complete in Christ, sanctified in spirit, soul, and body. Is this true of every Christian?

We cannot gain our inheritance in Christ other than by taking up our cross and following the Lord with total diligence. We must stake out our claim and then follow the Lord faithfully until we inherit all that God has promised.

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

But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints; Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient: but rather giving of thanks. (Ephesians 5:3,4)

For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. (Colossians 3:3)

But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof. (Romans 13:14)

In the above four passages we can observe the difference between the legal and the actual possession of the land of promise; between our legal position in Christ and our actual experience of living the Christian life.

Notice the emphasis on our position in Christ, in Romans 6:6 and Colossians 3:3 (quoted above). According to these two verses we have already attained the summit in Christ by simply believing in Him. Our "old man," that is, our first personality with all its strengths and weakness, its good points and its bad points, has been assigned to the cross of Christ.

God considers, and directs us to consider, that our first "self" has been crucified with Christ. By so regarding us, God is legally free (from the Law of Moses) to bring forth a new personality, destroying our fleshly, sinful nature in the process.

It is true that we are dead. Also, our new spiritual life, having already been raised in and with Christ, is now at the right hand of the Father, far above every other title, authority, and power in the universe.

The fact of our death and resurrection in and with Christ is very uplifting as we meditate on the consequences of it. It is spiritual reality. God has declared it to be true. It is His Word. Even though we may not see as yet the full outworking of what God has declared concerning us, that is, what we laid hold on in water baptism, yet we know our position in Christ is an established fact before God Almighty and we begin to live out the truth of it as the Holy Spirit gives us the wisdom and strength to do so.

If we should become proud spiritually because of our position in Christ, the next two passages bring us down to earth:

But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints; Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient: but rather giving of thanks. (Ephesians 5:3,4)

But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof. (Romans 13:14)

To be continued.