Weekly Devotional 10-1-12 Securely Positioned In Christ
The following question was asked by one of the readers of this weekly devotional series. What does it mean to be securely positioned in holiness? The question was in response to our previous offering, “Beyond Our Understanding” written for 9-24-12 in which we wrote; Jesus Christ, God the Son, has made us, we whom have trusted in His provision perfect in the eyes of God our Father. Because of Jesus, we are holy; we are righteous because God sees us in Him.
The subject of that devotional was God’s holiness and our inability to understand the completeness of it. The reason for this is that we are finite and can only measure such things by the limitations of our being. We who are born again have a sense within us, granted by the Holy Spirit, of God’s holiness. However, we are unable to fully comprehend it. One thing that we who are born again (we who have been made spiritually alive) do know is that because of His holiness fallen man cannot be in His presence. Something has to be done in order for man to be able to be in the presence of holy God. Scripture tells us however that there is nothing man can do. Uh, oh!
But wait, because man can do nothing to qualify himself to be in God’s presence God Himself has moved on man’s behalf. He has placed those who come to Him in faith in Jesus Christ, His Son. When God looks upon the redeemed person He sees them standing in Jesus. They are positioned in Him.
God, speaking through Paul said, “1There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. 2For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. 3For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, 4that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 5For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. 6For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. 7Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. 8So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God. 9But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. 10And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.” 11But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you” (Romans 8:1-10).
Paul speaks of the “the righteous requirement of the law” in verse 4 and therefore our subject of being in a position of holiness (a position of being righteous) is a matter of spiritual legality. In verse one he writes, “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus”. Further on in this passage Paul wrote, “28And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. 29For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. 30Moreover whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.” We should note that the predestining, the calling, the justifying and the glorifying are all written in the past tense meaning that God has already brought those things about in the life of the person called. He is judicially positioned in Christ.
Because of that positioning Paul asks, “33Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. 35Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?— 37Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. 38For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, 39nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:33-35; 37-39).
We have a secure position in Jesus. But the proof of being in Jesus is one’s walk. Verse one makes this abundantly clear, “1There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit”. If we have been made spiritually alive (placed in Christ) we will not walk according to the desires of the flesh, but according to the dictates of the Holy Spirit. Does this mean that the one positioned (placed) in Christ will not sin? No, but sinning is a matter of his walk, not of his position.
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