ather will give it to you
by the Holy Spirit, if you are ready. Oh, come, and let your intercourse
with God be summed up in a simple prayer and answer--"My God, as much as
Thou wilt have of me to fill with Christ, Thou shalt have to-day." "My
child, as much of Christ as thy heart longeth to have, thou shalt have; for
it is My delight that My Son be in the hearts of My children."
DEAD WITH CHRIST.
IX.
_Gal. 2: 20_.--_I am crucified with Christ_.
The Revised Version properly has the above text "I have been crucified
with Christ." In this connection, let us read the story of a man who was
literally crucified with Christ. We may use all the narrative of Christ's
work upon earth in the flesh as a type of His spiritual work. Let us take
in this instance the story of the penitent thief, Luke 23: 39-43, for I
think we may learn from him how to live as men who are crucified with
Christ. Paul says: "I have been crucified with Christ." And again: "God
forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ,
through whom I have been crucified to the world, and the world to me." We
often ask earnestly: How can I be free from the self life? The answer is,
"Get another life." We often speak about the power of the Holy Spirit
coming upon us, but I doubt if we fully realize that the Holy Spirit is a
heavenly life come to expel the selfish, and fleshly, and the earthly life.
If we want, in very deed, to enjoy fully the rest that there is in Jesus,
we can only have it as He comes in, in the power of His death, to slay what
is in us of nature, and to take possession, and to live His own life in the
fullness of the Holy Ghost. God's Word takes us to the cross of Christ, and
it teaches us about that cross, two things. It tells us that Christ died
_for_ sin. We understand what that means, that in His atonement He died as
I never die, as I never can die, as I never need die; He died for sin and
for me. But what gave His death such power to atone? It was this: the
spirit in which He died, not the physical suffering, not the external act
of death, but the spirit in which He died. And what was that spirit? He
died _unto_ sin. Sin had tempted Him, and surrounded Him, and had brought
Him very nigh to saying, "I cannot die." In Gethsemane He cried: "Father,
is it not possible that the cup pass from me?" But God be praised, He gave
up His life rather than yield to sin. He died to sin, and in dying He
conquered. And now,
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