09 - CHAPTER 7: BURIED WITH CHRIST
WHAT IT MEANS TO BE BAPTIZED INTO CHRIST JESUS
"One of the bitterest moments of my life," said a missionary recently, "was when an earnest young Buddhist boy said to me, ’I want to believe in Christ, but I have never seen Him in those who profess Him. How can I believe in someone Whom I have not seen?’" Would that lad have spoken in the same way had he known us? At all costs we must have the fullness of the indwelling Christ. THE HOLY SPIRIT’S CHIEF WORK The chief work of the Holy Spirit is to reveal Christ. How often we have prayed, "O God fill us with Thy Holy Spirit." We hear the prayer again and again at prayer meetings with little apparent result. Why is it? Is God to blame? Are WE to blame? "He shall glorify ME," said Christ, "for He shall receive of Mine and show it unto you." So then it is the work of the Holy Spirit to see that Christ is "formed within" us (Galatians 4:19). If then God answers our prayer and fills us with His Holy Spirit, we shall indeed be wonderfully conscious of the indwelling Christ. So will others be!
Now let the writer confess that he has often spoken about this doctrine and has read the Gospel and Epistles of St. John again and again without really appropriating this indwelling of Christ. The Lord Jesus has been within the heart for many years, "for if any have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His" (Romans 8:9). But the Lord Jesus was not filling the WHOLE heart. There must be many believers in a like condition. Many have told me by letter and lip how they have agonised for this Victorious Life for 20, 30, even 40 years, without getting it. "For years I have agonised for this," wrote a clergyman to me. "What a difference it would make to my ministry! What a blessing it would prove to my people! Tell me how I can get it." How then can this fullness of blessing be secured? Only by letting Jesus Christ do what all our struggling and strivings have failed to do.
We cannot overcome any sin by TRYING to do so. Christ only has conquered sin. He conquered it not for Himself-the devil had nothing in Him. He conquered it for you-for me! He doesn’t ask me to do what He has already done. He DOES ask me to enter into His victory. We cannot grow by trying to grow. We cannot grow in grace by trying to grow in grace. It is all of Christ. How? A DIVINE SECRET REVEALED
St. Paul says that there was a great secret hidden from age to age, but which it pleased God to reveal to him. What is it? "Christ IN YOU the hope of glory" (Colossians 1:27). "God was pleased to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery"-that He "may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus" (Colossians 1:28). Heathen religions have tried to bring their gods down to man-with the passions and vices of humanity! Our Lord came Himself and lived as a man: Emmanuel, "God with us"! Isn’t it a stupendous thought that the high and lofty One that inhabits eternity, Whose Name is HOLY, should dwell not only in the high and holy place, but also "with him that is of a contrite and humble spirit-to revive [give new life to] the humble"? (Isaiah 57:15). Christ came to take us into Himself, and He Himself comes into us. He the Head; we His body. He the Vine: we the branches. Thus His life is IN US. This is the "overcoming life," the life more abundant, the Victorious Life. How do Christians come to understand how to enter in? Many, like the writer himself, found the "secret" entrance through careful and prayerful study of Romans 6:3-11. "Are ye ignorant that all we who are baptised into Christ Jesus...?" What is it to be baptised into Christ Jesus? Again and again Paul reminds believers that they are "in Christ"-that they have "put on Christ." When does this happen? It takes place the moment a man, woman or child accepts Jesus Christ as Saviour. Water baptism is a rite ordained by Christ, which expresses baptism into Jesus Christ. WHEN CHRIST IS RECEIVED This new life-the life from above, the regenerate life-is a miraculous life, and it is the result of our being taken into Christ. The instant we received Christ as Saviour, we were made part of Him. In Paul’s day, a man was apparently baptised immediately he believed in Christ. So Paul takes baptism to illustrate or even prove the fact that a believer is taken into Christ. We are made "members" of Christ -- a part of His body. So that Christ’s life becomes our life, and we can say, "Christ Who is our life" (Colossians 3:4). Get hold of this truth. An old lady who, late in life, accepted Christ as her Saviour, was always praising God and talking about her Saviour. One day a friend said, "You seem pretty confident about this Saviour of yours! I wouldn’t be too sure about it, if I were you. Suppose the Lord should let you slip through His fingers?" "But," said the old lady, "I am one of his fingers." Now she was perfectly right-she was indeed a member of Christ. We dare not say such a thing if it were not openly told us in Scripture.
It is all too wonderful for words. I, a poor sinner saved by grace, have been made a member of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. "I hope," said a critic of an address on this subject by the writer, "I hope the speaker is not making out that we are all little gods!" Far from it. But we do "make out" that we have a great God living in us and making us members of Himself.
BAPTISED INTO CHRIST
"Are ye ignorant that all we who were baptised into Christ Jesus were baptised into His death?" Are we "ignorant" as to what this means? Here, again, the writer must plead guilty of failing for years to grasp the import of these words.
"In Adam all die"-yes, we are conscious enough of that-"who is a figure of Him that was to come" (Romans 5:14). This surely means that we must in some way share the death of Christ? Every believer went to death with Christ on the Cross. "I have been crucified with Christ," says Paul.
"We were buried, therefore, with Him through baptism into death" (Romans 6:4). St. Paul is thinking of baptism by immersion. This is a symbol of burial (which means A PREVIOUS DEATH). As the believer went right under the water, he realised that he was dead and buried. Dead as regards the old life-dead to sin. Sin has no power over a dead man. No "dominion" over him. "For he that is dead is freed from sin. ... Reckon ye yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin... Sin shall not have dominion over you" (Romans 6:7). But death could not "hold" Christ, nor can it hold us, if we are in Christ. After death and burial-what? "That like as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life" (Romans 6:4). Jesus Christ did not raise Himself: God raised Him. Over and over again we are told this: God raised Him from the dead. And all the mighty power which God exercised in raising Christ from the dead is at our disposal. And to think that we should for a moment imagine that our feeble struggles are also needed!
St. Paul longed that believers in his day should realise this. He prays for them that "having the eyes of your heart enlightened, ye may know what is the hope of His calling, what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what the exceeding greatness of His POWER TO US-WARD who believe." What power? "According to the working of the strength of His might which He wrought in Christ when He raised Him from the dead" (Ephesians 1:18). THAT POWER GOD OFFERS YOU. A GIFT TO BE TAKEN
Isn’t it wonderful? Can we grasp it? Paul, seeing the stupendous nature of this gift, cries, "I count all things but refuse, that I may gain Christ: ...that I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection" (Php 3:8, Php 3:10). This mighty power in Christ is a gift to be "gained" by the removal of all hindrances. How can we "know Him and the power of His resurrection"? Simply by being buried with Christ-being dead unto sin. That is, not only claiming forgiveness of our sins, but by God’s help renouncing the world, the flesh and the devil-by forsaking all sin-and then looking to God in faith to raise us up to walk in newness of life.
Try to understand what death and resurrection meant to our Lord. There He is perfect God and perfect man nailed to the Cross. The sins of the world came upon Him. God cannot die, nor can He remain in contact with sin. So the Spirit of God in the perfect man "Jesus" forsook that body of clay. He "yielded up His spirit". And a dead MAN hangs upon the Cross. That perfect body is buried; and on the third day God raised Him from the dead. What happened? The Spirit of Christ came back into that dead human body and Christ Jesus rose again-once more perfect God and perfect man. That is what God wishes to do for every man. When we can indeed "reckon ourselves to be dead unto sin" and "buried with Him by baptism into death"; then we can look to Christ TO PUT HIS SPIRIT INTO US and to raise us up "to walk in newness of life." then "our life" is no longer ours but is the Christ-Life. Not an imitation of Christ, but Christ Himself dwelling in our hearts by faith. Then we can humbly say with Paul, "I have been crucified with Christ, yet I live, and yet no longer I, but Christ liveth in me" (Galatians 2:20).
What a glorious privilege! What a tremendous responsibility! "It pleased God to reveal His Son IN me"! (Galatians 1:16). WHEN SELF IS DEAD Is all this difficult to understand? It is all there on the page of Scripture. But praise be to God, it is not necessary for us to understand HOW God works-but just to believe that He will (and does) perform this work in us. The question is just this: Am I willing to give up all known sin and to put myself absolutely at the disposal of the Saviour? -- Myself, my talents, my possessions, my work, my future? Am I willing to surrender myself entirely to Him? Dr. Wilbur Chapman for some time hesitated to trust his future career to Christ, although he was then a noted missionary. Dr. Meyer said, "Are you willing to be made willing?" Dr. Chapman told Christ he was WILLING TO BE MADE WILLING. At once every difficulty was removed. Yes, we must even surrender our surrender to Christ. Our Lord did not crucify Himself-nor bury Himself- nor can we crucify ourselves. But when we have emptied ourselves of "self," Christ will crucify us-and will "raise us up to walk in newness of life." The Cross for you and me is just I (self) crossed out. The surrender must be absolute and entire. You remember the story of the goddess who, wishing to make her child Achilles immortal, dipped him beneath the waters of the river Styx. She succeeded with the exception of his ankles, by which she held him, thus preventing the water from laving that spot. His ankles were vulnerable and there he became mortally wounded. That fable has a moral truth.
There must be no part of us left unsurrendered in our burial with Christ through baptism unto death. When Satan sees a man accept Christ as his Saviour, he tries his level best to keep his hand upon some small part of him. He wants to have just a LITTLE control over us, so that he can bring about our downfall. He knows that if he can prevent full surrender, he will also prevent a Victorious Life.
HOW TO BE FILLED A man "full of the Holy Spirit" is a mighty power-which power almost vanishes when even a little of our surrender is withdrawn. That power is also impossible when a little of our surrender to Christ is withheld. But if with "full and glad surrender" we yield ourselves to our blessed Master, He will come and fill us wholly with His Divine Presence. Can we trust our all to Him, so that He may become "all in all" to us? "Jesus Christ is the Saviour of ALL the life as well as the Saviour of every life."