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The Daily Word of Righteousness
Death and Resurrection, continued
And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit [spirit—inner man] is life because of righteousness. (Romans 8:10)
"Life because of righteousness"—the righteousness ascribed to us because of our faith in the Lord Jesus.
Righteousness always is the basis for eternal life.
Our spirit, our inner man, is righteous. But our body remains dead, separated from God, because of the sin that dwells in it.
Little by little, through the Holy Spirit, we are able to put to death the sin that dwells in us. At the same time the Life of Jesus is increasing in us.
For if ye live in the appetites of the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify [put to death] the deeds of the body, ye shall live. (Romans 8:13)
But deliverance from sin is only part of the Divine redemption. The most important aspect of our salvation is deliverance from our self-will so we are free to obey God sternly and totally.
The solution to freedom from the authority of the Law of Moses, freedom from the guilt of sin, freedom from the power of sin, and freedom from self-will and disobedience, is our union with the crucifixion and resurrection of the Lord Jesus.
It is more than identification, it is union. It is an active, vigorous entering into the death of Jesus and the resurrection of Jesus. We enter death and resurrection each day as the Spirit of God guides and enables us, and the result is freedom from sin and disobedience and joyous participation in the will of God in every dimension of personality and behavior.
Toward the end of his life the Apostle Paul told how he had found the supreme goal and joy of life to be the possession of Christ, the knowledge of His resurrection and change into the likeness of His death.
Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win [gain] Christ, (Philippians 3:8)
Notice we are not dealing here with an abstract theological position, a philosophy, an assent to a concept. As a result of his union with Christ, Paul had experienced the loss of all things. Furthermore, his joy was so great because of what he was experiencing in Christ that he regarded every other accomplishment of his life as garbage.
And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith: (Philippians 3:9)
The "righteousness which is of God by faith" has little to do with belief in the theological facts of redemption. It is not mere belief in the death and resurrection of Christ. The righteousness that is of God by faith is our continual entering into the death of Christ and the resurrection of Christ accompanied by our evaluation of all else as trash.
To be continued.