NONE BUT THE HUNGRY HEART

Tuesday, March 05, 2019

3-5. Substitute—Representative

“Crucified with Him” (Rom. 6:6).

Often when a believer finally sees his identification with the Lord Jesus in His death and resurrection, as set forth in Romans Six, he will then seek to experience it by self-effort. The net result: Romans Seven!

“As our Substitute He went to the Cross alone, without us, to pay the penalty of our sins; as our Representative He took us with Him to the Cross, and there, in the sight of God, we all died together with the Lord Jesus. We may be forgiven because He died in our stead; we may be delivered because we died with Him.

“God’s way of deliverance for us, a race of hopeless incurables, is to put us away in the Cross of His Son, and then to make a new beginning by re-creating us in union with Him, the Risen, Living One. It is the Holy Spirit who will make these great facts real and true in our experience as we depend upon Him; and so the plague of our hearts will be stayed, and we shall go on to be conformed to the image of the Lord Jesus Christ.” -J.C.M.

“The Holy Spirit so unites us to Christ that Christian experience becomes a reproduction in us of the essential facts of Christ’s fourfold revelation He died unto sin: with Him we died (Col. 2:20). He arose: with Him we are risen (Col. 3:1). He is in heaven: our life is hid with Christ in God (Col. 3:3). He will appear again: with Him we shall appear in glory (Col. 3:4).” -N.B.H.

“Risen with Christ” (Col. 3:1).