12-26. Cross Continuity
“That I may know Him. . . being made conformable unto His death” (Phil. 3:10).
The wondrous depths of the finished work of the Cross will always be adequate to deal with the terrible depths of the unfinished work of the old man. As we glory in the Cross, the flesh is denied.
“When we have apprehended our death-position with the Lord Jesus (Rom. 6:6; Gal. 2:20, etc.), we may have failed to see the on-going conformity to His death (2 Cor. 4:11; Phil 3:10, etc.). The absence of this brings the anomaly of the Cross being preached with little or no marks of the Calvary spirit.
“This is the problem of teaching the ‘identification’ truths without the consequent conformity of death which brings forth life. We may rely upon the fact that we ‘died’ with the Lord Jesus, and assume that it is entirely wrought in us at once, not realizing that ‘the fellowship of His sufferings’ follows the apprehension of identification. That ‘delivery unto death’ must become deeper and deeper, until the ‘conformity to His death’ in the path of the Cross becomes a very real characteristic of the life.”
“We are not to think that our exalted position in the Lord Jesus, seated with Him in heavenly places, frees us from the need of further application of the Cross. We never reach a point where we can leave the Cross. We are invincible, more than conquerors through Him who loved us, only as we are brought into ever deeper conformity to the Lord Jesus’ death unto sin. Otherwise the flesh reinstates itself and we once more fall prey to the old man’s reign. There are always remaining, however much we have advanced, hidden strongholds of the old man which must be rendered inoperative by the finished work of the Cross.” -F.J.H.
“Let him deny himself, and take up his Cross daily” (Lk. 9:23).