We Are Declared NOT Guilty by the Highest Court: by AW Tozer

 

Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. Ephesians 6:11

The Christian believer cannot be happy and victorious in the true liberty of the children of God if he is still quaking about his past sins.

God knows that sin is a terrible thing—yes, and the devil knows it, too! So the devil follows us around and as long as we will permit it, he will taunt us about our past sins.

As for myself, I have learned to talk back to him on this score.

I say, “Yes, Devil, sin is terrible—but I remind you that I got it from you! And I remind you, Devil, that everything good—forgiveness and cleansing and blessing—everything that is good I have freely received from Jesus Christ!”

Everything that is bad and that is against me I got from the devil—so why should he have the effrontery and the brass to argue with me about it? Yet he will do it because he is the devil, and he is committed to keeping God’s children shut up in a little cage, their spiritual wings clipped.

Brethren, we have been declared “Not guilty!” by the highest court in all the universe. It is good to know that on the basis of grace as taught in the Word of God, when God forgives a man, He trusts him as though he had never sinned.

The Bible does not teach that if a man falls down, he can never rise again. The fact that he falls is not the most important thing—but rather that he is forgiven and allows God to lift him up! That is the basis of our Christian assurance and God wants us to be happy in it.

 

Also check out the Book: I Talk Back to the Devil by AW Tozer

Here’s a Brief Excerpt:

 

I Talk Back to the Devil! Tozer

 

“The devil makes it his business to keep Christians in bondage, bound and gagged, actually imprisoned in their own grave clothes!”
WHY DOESN’T THE OLD DEVIL, SATAN, give up and bow out of the picture when a person becomes a believing Christian?
Although he is a dark and sinister foe dedicated to the damnation of humans, I think he knows that it is no use trying to damn a forgiven and justified child of God who is in the Lord’s hands.
So, it becomes the devil’s business to keep the Christian’s spirit imprisoned. He knows that the believing and justified Christian has been raised up out of the grave of his sins and trespasses. From that point on, Satan works that much harder to keep us bound and gagged, actually imprisoned in our own grave clothes.
He knows that if we continue in this kind of bondage, we will never be able to claim our rightful spiritual heritage. He knows also that while we continue bound in this kind of enslavement we are not much better off than when we were spiritually dead.
This is one reason why the Christians in today’s churches are behaving like a flock of frightened sheep—so intimidated by the devil that we can’t even say “Amen”!
I admit that occasionally you find a few who are just childishly happy about everything, but that is not what I mean. Often these are just like children playing in the market places, having never been seriously engaged in the conflict on the spiritual battlefield.
Show me an individual or a congregation committed to spiritual progress with the Lord, interested in what the Bible teaches about spiritual perfection and victory, and I will show you where there is strong and immediate defiance by the devil!

From A to Z... It's JESUS: by TA Sparks

 

From Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever! Romans 11:36

It is necessary that we should be quite clear that, in the Bible, there are not two distinct things, as represented by the two Testaments, the Old and the New, or even more, if the Old Testament is subdivided into eras. There may be two, or more, methods of expression, but throughout the Bible, from its beginning to its close, there is only one thing expressed. Our habit of handling the Bible by dispensations, and emphasizing the different characteristics of different times, may have had the effect of making us mechanically minded, just as can a preoccupation with typology and symbolism. I want, therefore, to underline this anew: that, in these several and varied forms of expression, God is actuated, from beginning to end, by one thought, and one thought alone: that everything throughout, at all times, shall express and be subservient to His Son.

HE governs everything, in the realities of His Person and of His redemptive and perfecting work. It is one Person and one Work, from the first book of the Bible to the last. The change from the Old Testament to the New is simply and only the change from the indirect to the direct; from the symbolic to that which is symbolized; from the temporal representation to the spiritual reality. That is all. It is not a change of purpose or object, not a change of basis or foundation; it represents no change of principle in any way. Perhaps you feel you know all that; but there is very much more in it than any of us have yet realized. For example, all God’s dealings with the patriarchs were, in principle, as much upon the basis of His Son as are His dealings with you and me. That was true also of Israel. Israel in the Old Testament was dealt with as much upon the basis of God’s Son as we are in this dispensation. God has never, at any time, by any means, worked on any other ground than that of His Son. His creative activities were on the ground of His Son. “In Him, through Him, by Him, unto Him, were all things created” (Col. 1:16); and from then everything has proceeded on that basis, and will be consummated in Christ. By whatever means, in whatever way God has worked, His ground has always been the same. And on into the ages to come, that ground will be unchanging. It is the ground of Christ. It is very important that we should remember this and be quite clear about it.

The Flesh Crucified: by Andrew Murray

 

And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.
—Galatians 5:24

Concerning the flesh Paul taught us, “In me [that is, in my flesh] dwelleth no good thing” (Romans 7:18). And again he said, “The carnal mind [the mind of the flesh] is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be” (Romans 8:7). When Adam lost the Spirit of God, he became ruled by the flesh. “The flesh” is the expression for the evil, corrupt nature that we inherit from Adam. Of this flesh it is written, “Our old man is crucified with Him” (Romans 6:6). And here Paul put it even more strongly: “And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh.”

When the disciples heard and obeyed the call of Jesus to follow Him, they honestly meant to do so; but, as He later taught them what that would imply, they were far from being ready to yield immediate obedience. Likewise, those who are Christ’s and have accepted Him as the Crucified One scarcely understand what that includes. By their act of surrender, they actually have crucified the flesh and consented to regard it as an accursed thing, nailed to the cross of Christ.

But unfortunately, many Christians have never for a moment thought of such a thing! It may be that the preaching of Christ crucified has been defective. It may be that the truth of our being crucified with Christ has not been taught. They shrink back from the self‑denial that it implies, and as a result, where the flesh is allowed in any measure to have its way, the Spirit of Christ cannot exert His power.

Paul taught the Galatians, “Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh” (Galatians 5:16); “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God” (Romans 8:14). The Spirit alone can guide us as the flesh, in living faith and fellowship with Christ Jesus, is kept in the place of crucifixion.

Blessed Lord, how little I understood when I accepted You in faith that I once and for all “crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts”! I humbly ask You, teach me to believe and to live in You, the Crucified One, in such a way that, like Paul, I may always glory in the cross on which the world and the flesh are crucified.

His Presence: from Jesus Calling by Sarah Young

 

Psalm 32:8
I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go;
    I will counsel you with my eye upon you.
Genesis 1:1
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

As you become increasingly aware of My Presence, you find it easier to discern the way you should go. This is one of the practical benefits of living close to Me. Instead of wondering about what is on the road ahead or worrying about what you should do if . . . or when . . . , you can concentrate on staying in communication with Me. When you actually arrive at a choice-point, I will show you which direction to go.
     Many people are so preoccupied with future plans and decisions that they fail to see choices they need to make today. Without any conscious awareness, they make their habitual responses. People who live this way find a dullness creeping into their lives. They sleepwalk through their days, following well-worn paths of routine.
     I, the Creator of the universe, am the most creative Being imaginable. I will not leave you circling in deeply rutted paths. Instead, I will lead you along fresh trails of adventure, revealing to you things you did not know. Stay in communication with Me. Follow My guiding Presence.

The Proper Perspective: by Oswald Chambers

 

Thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ… —2 Corinthians 2:14

The proper perspective of a servant of God must not simply be as near to the highest as he can get, but it must be the highest. Be careful that you vigorously maintain God’s perspective, and remember that it must be done every day, little by little. Don’t think on a finite level. No outside power can touch the proper perspective.

The proper perspective to maintain is that we are here for only one purpose— to be captives marching in the procession of Christ’s triumphs. We are not on display in God’s showcase— we are here to exhibit only one thing— the “captivity [of our lives] to the obedience of Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:5). How small all the other perspectives are! For example, the ones that say, “I am standing all alone, battling for Jesus,” or, “I have to maintain the cause of Christ and hold down this fort for Him.” But Paul said, in essence, “I am in the procession of a conqueror, and it doesn’t matter what the difficulties are, for I am always led in triumph.” Is this idea being worked out practically in us? Paul’s secret joy was that God took him as a blatant rebel against Jesus Christ, and made him a captive— and that became his purpose. It was Paul’s joy to be a captive of the Lord, and he had no other interest in heaven or on earth. It is a shameful thing for a Christian to talk about getting the victory. We should belong so completely to the Victor that it is always His victory, and “we are more than conquerors through Him…” (Romans 8:37).

“We are to God the fragrance of Christ…” (2 Corinthians 2:15). We are encompassed with the sweet aroma of Jesus, and wherever we go we are a wonderful refreshment to God.

It's Really ONLY HIM: by TA Sparks

 

Come out of her, My people, so that you don't participate in her sins and also suffer from her diseases. Revelation 18:4

What is the spiritual life in the matter of worship? Oh, it is not ecclesiastical architecture, it is not vestments, it is not ordinances, and it is not rites. They pass out with Calvary; the perpetuating of anything like that is a contradiction of Calvary. See where we are today. The maintenance of that sort of thing is because of a failure to perceive what the Lord Jesus has brought in.... Why, then, perpetuate a thing which God has dismissed in the Cross and, by keeping to the lower, fail to reach the higher? Do you see where things are astray today? I know how sweeping this is, but all this has to do with worship. Now note that when there is a failure to recognize the spiritual meaning of all this and to enter into it... and a maintaining of the old thing... you are still on a soul level, and you are open to deception; the whole thing may be a ghastly deception. And how does that deception work? In this way: that so many good Christian people are absolutely in bondage to a traditional system which is cutting clean across Divine revelation for them. It is their traditional system which is simply barring the way to spiritual revelation, whereas the Cross of the Lord Jesus represents the liberty in the spirit for God to lead into the fullness of His Life and Light.

That is the whole purpose of the Letter to the Hebrews. It was for that very purpose. Here were a people that had received light concerning the true nature of fellowship with God in Christ – that the Lord Jesus had taken the place of the Temple and the priesthood and the sacrifices and the ordinances... and even the Sabbath. Now it is no longer a matter of form, ceremony, external rites, buildings, priests, sacrifices; it is all Christ. They had seen that. The writer had called upon them to go outside the religious, formal, historic, traditional camp, and that brought persecution, ostracism, isolation, loneliness, and all manner of things. The official religious people made it very hard for them because of that. The price to be paid for what is truly spiritual and heavenly was... and is... great, and they were dangerously in peril of going back to the old thing. The Letter to the Hebrews was written just to save them from that peril and to tell them more fully about the great change that had come about in the Cross – the work of the Lord Jesus... to tell them that one system, the earthly representation, had passed and the other, the heavenly reality, had come in.... To know the Lord in Life, we must be free from the grave clothes of outward systems. Why, then, perpetuate a system? The Lord Jesus put all that away in His Cross; it is all gone.

Continual Repentance: from The Valley of Vision

 

Romans 2:4

Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God’s kindness leads you toward repentance?

O GOD OF GRACE,

Thou hast imputed my sin to my substitute,
      and hast imputed his righteousness
    to my soul,
  clothing me with a bridegroom’s robe,
  decking me with jewels of holiness.
But in my Christian walk I am still in rags;
  my best prayers are stained with sin;
  my penitential tears are so much impurity;
  my confessions of wrong are so many
    aggravations of sin;
  my receiving the Spirit is tinctured with
    selfishness.

I need to repent of my repentance;
I need my tears to be washed;
I have no robe to bring to cover my sins,
  no loom to weave my own righteousness;
I am always standing clothed in filthy garments,
  and by grace am always receiving change of
    raiment,
  for thou dost always justify the ungodly;
I am always going into the far country,
  and always returning home as a prodigal,
  always saying, Father, forgive me,
  and thou art always bringing forth
    the best robe.
Every morning let me wear it,
  every evening return in it,
  go out to the day’s work in it,
  be married in it,
  be wound in death in it,
  stand before the great white throne in it,
  enter heaven in it shining as the sun.
Grant me never to lose sight of
  the exceeding sinfulness of sin,
  the exceeding righteousness of salvation,
  the exceeding glory of Christ,
  the exceeding beauty of holiness,
  the exceeding wonder of grace.

1 Man's Sin: by Henry Blackaby

 

Get up, sanctify the people, and say, “Sanctify yourselves for tomorrow, because thus says the LORD God of Israel: ‘There is an accursed thing in your midst, O Israel; you cannot stand before your enemies until you take away the accursed thing from among you.'”      Joshua 7:13

Just as the obedience of one Christian can bring blessing to others, the sin of one Christian can bring harm to many others. The children of Israel were rapidly advancing into the Promised Land. They had experienced a miraculous victory over the city of Jericho, and they were continuing toward their next conquest. To their surprise they met decisive defeat as they attempted to capture the small town of Ai. They sought God’s explanation for their failure, and He provided it. He revealed that someone among them had disobeyed His clear command not to keep any possession from Jericho. The disobedience of one man and his family had paralyzed an entire nation! Achan thought he could conceal his sin and it would not affect anyone else. God chose to demonstrate the destructive power of one sin to His people. One act of disobedience cost Achan and his family their lives. It caused his countrymen to lose the battle; innocent soldiers were killed. His sin had serious repercussions for others, denying them the blessing, power, and victory of God.

Your sin will have an impact on others. Choosing to disobey God may cost your family God’s blessing. The power of God may be absent from your church because you are living in disobedience. Your friends may suffer because you are not living righteously. Diligently seek to obey every word from God, for you do not know how your disobedience could affect those around you. Scripture promises that if you will obey the Lord, your life will be a channel of blessing to others

Psalm 37:25–26

I was young and now I am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread.

They are always generous and lend freely; their children will be blessed.

Stay Close: from JESUS Calling by Sarah Young

 

Matthew 28:20
teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.

Try to stay conscious of Me as you go step by step through this day. My Presence with you is both a promise and a protection. My final statement just before I ascended into heaven was: Surely I am with you always. That promise was for all of My followers, without exception.
     The promise of My Presence is a powerful protection. As you journey through your life, there are numerous pitfalls along the way. Many voices clamor for your attention, enticing you to go their way. A few steps away from your true path are pits of self-pity and despair, plateaus of pride and self-will. If you take your eyes off Me and follow another's way, you are in grave danger. Even well-meaning friends can lead astray if you let them usurp My place in your life. The way to stay on the path of Life is to keep your focus on Me. Awareness of My Presence is your best protection. 

Hebrews 12:1-2
Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,  looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.

Set FREE! by Andrew Murray

 

The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death…If ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.
—Romans 8:2, 13

But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.
—Romans 7:6

In the sixth chapter of Romans, Paul spoke of our having been “made free from sin” in Christ Jesus (verses 18 and 22). We were made free from sin as a power, as a master. When we accepted Christ in faith, we became servants to righteousness and to God.

In the seventh chapter (verses 1–6) Paul spoke of our being made free from the law. “The strength of sin is the law” (1 Corinthians 15:56). Deliverance from sin and the law go together. Being made free from the law, we were united to the living Christ so that, in union with Him, we might now serve in newness of the Spirit (Romans 7:4–6). In these two passages (Romans 6 and 7:1–6), Paul presented being made free from sin and the law as a life to be accepted and maintained by faith.

In the account of the Christian life in the epistle of Romans, there is a distinct advance from step to step. The eighth chapter teaches us that when the Spirit empowers our life and walk, we can fully possess and enjoy the riches of grace that are ours in Christ.

The second verse of the eighth chapter is the key verse. It reveals the wonderful secret of how our freedom from sin and the law may become a living and abiding experience. A believer may know that he is free and yet have to mourn that his experience is that of a wretched captive. The freedom is entirely in Christ Jesus, and the maintenance of the living union with Him is distinctly and entirely a work of divine power.

The believer who wants to live fully in this freedom of the life in Christ Jesus will easily understand the path in which he must learn to walk. The eighth chapter of Romans is the goal to which the sixth and seventh chapters lead. In faith the believer will first have to study and accept all that is taught in these two earlier chapters of his being in Christ Jesus—dead to sin and alive to God, free from sin and the law, and married to Christ.

Godliness and Persecution: by Henry Blackaby

 

Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.      2 Timothy 3:12

Living a godly life will not insulate you from hardship. Paul said that the more blameless your life, the more likely you will be persecuted. According to Paul, “evil men and impostors will grow worse and worse” (2 Tim. 3:13). As the world increasingly embraces sin, worldly people are becoming increasingly intolerant of godliness. Darkness cannot tolerate light; the more your life illuminates the presence of Christ, the more you should expect opposition from the forces of darkness. Your Christlike nature will be offensive to those in rebellion against Christ’s Lordship.

You may have recently repented of your sin and taken a new step of obedience to God. Perhaps you expected to experience God’s blessing immediately as He demonstrated His approval of your obedience. Instead, you were met with opposition. The persecution may have come even from other Christians who misunderstood your motives. Perhaps you obeyed God, and still your actions were met with criticism instead of praise.

If you are sincerely following the Lord’s direction, don’t be discouraged. Paul warned that those who seek to live godly lives will suffer persecution. Do not be surprised when this happens to you. If the world crucified the Son of God, surely the world will be hostile to anyone who lives by the power of the Holy Spirit. Persecution may be the best evidence that your life is like that of Christ. Jesus warned that the world hated Him, the Savior, and so it would certainly misunderstand and mistreat His disciples (John 15:18).

He Is King + He Is Good: by CS Lewis

 

Psalm 10:16

"The LORD is king forever and ever; the nations perish from his land."

2 Chronicles 20:6

"O Lord, God of our fathers, are you not God in heaven? You rule over all the kingdoms of the nations

In C. S. Lewis's novel The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, of The Chronicles of Narnia series, four children, Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy, pass through the wardrobe's portal to find the kingdom of Narnia imprisoned under the spell of the White Witch. Aslan the lion, who is the king of Narnia, is nowhere to be found. Although rumor has it "He is on the move," he appears to have abandoned his kingdom to the White Witch, who spends her leisure time turning the inhabitants into lawn statuary.

The four children set out to explore this strange and somewhat frightening new country that is locked under evil's spell. They come upon Mr. and Mrs. Beaver, a husband and wife still faithful to Aslan. The Beavers assure the children that Aslan is about to return to set things right and that prophecy suggests that they have a very important, even central part to play in the drama about to unfold. Indeed, they learn they are to actually rule with Aslan from Cair Paravel itself, Aslan's royal city.

Faced with all this fearful yet exciting news, Lucy and Susan's thoughts go to what Aslan is actually like. If he is a king who is safe, they reason, that will certainly be of great comfort in light of the battle being all but lost.

"Is—is he a man?" asked Lucy.

"Aslan a man!" said Mr. Beaver sternly. "Certainly not. I tell you he is the King of the wood and the son of the great Emperor-Beyond-the-Sea. Don't you know who is the King of Beasts? Aslan is a lion—the lion, the great Lion."

"Ooh!" said Susan, "I'd thought he was a man. Is he—quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion."

"That you will, dearie, and no mistake," said Mrs. Beaver; "if there's anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, they're either braver than most or else just silly."

"Then he isn't safe?" said Lucy.

"Safe?" said Mr. Beaver; "don't you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King, I tell you."

Make ROOM for God: by Watchman Nee

 

"If that is the case, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us from your hand, O king" Daniel 3:17

 How does the Church reach her goal?  Only by traveling the pathway from pressure to enlargement, from poverty to enrichment.  You ask: What do we mean by enlargement through pressure?  When three are shut into a furnace and the three become four that is enlargement through pressure.  Some find a furnace rather close quarters for three, so they seek a way of escape; others accept the limitation, and in accepting it, make room for a Fourth.  Not to let difficulties shut us out from God, but to let them shut us in to him, that is enlargement through pressure.  Some, through pressure, reach God's end; others come to an end in the pressure.  Some die in straitness; others, through straitness, find fullness of life.  Some murmur when trials befall, finding in them only restraint, limitation and death; others praise God for the trials, and in doing so discover the pathway to enlargement, liberation, and abundance of life.

The Nature of Reconciliation: by Oswald Chambers

 

He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. —2 Corinthians 5:21

Sin is a fundamental relationship— it is not wrong doing, but wrong being— it is deliberate and determined independence from God. The Christian faith bases everything on the extreme, self-confident nature of sin. Other faiths deal with sins— the Bible alone deals with sin. The first thing Jesus Christ confronted in people was the heredity of sin, and it is because we have ignored this in our presentation of the gospel that the message of the gospel has lost its sting and its explosive power.

The revealed truth of the Bible is not that Jesus Christ took on Himself our fleshly sins, but that He took on Himself the heredity of sin that no man can even touch. God made His own Son “to be sin” that He might make the sinner into a saint. It is revealed throughout the Bible that our Lord took on Himself the sin of the world through identification with us, not through sympathy for us. He deliberately took on His own shoulders, and endured in His own body, the complete, cumulative sin of the human race. “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us…” and by so doing He placed salvation for the entire human race solely on the basis of redemption. Jesus Christ reconciled the human race, putting it back to where God designed it to be. And now anyone can experience that reconciliation, being brought into oneness with God, on the basis of what our Lord has done on the cross.

A man cannot redeem himself— redemption is the work of God, and is absolutely finished and complete. And its application to individual people is a matter of their own individual action or response to it. A distinction must always be made between the revealed truth of redemption and the actual conscious experience of salvation in a person’s life.

Crucified with Him: by Andrew Murray

I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me…But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world. Galatians 2:20, 6:14

While the Lord was still on His way to the cross, the expression—taking up the cross—was the most appropriate to indicate the conformity to Him to which the disciple was called. But now that He has been crucified, the Holy Spirit gives another expression: to be crucified with Christ. One of the chief elements of likeness to Christ consists of being crucified with Him. Whoever wishes to be like Him must seek to understand the secret of fellowship with His cross.

Paul said, “I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me.” Through faith in Christ we become partakers of Christ’s life that has passed through the death of the cross, and in which the power of that victorious death is always working. When I receive that life, I receive the full power of the death on the cross working in me in its never ceasing energy. “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ lives in me.” The life I now live is not my own life. The life of the Crucified One is the life of the cross. Being crucified is a thing past.

I have been crucified with Christ; I have crucified the flesh. If I am crucified and dead with Him, then I am a partner in His victory. There is still a great work for me to do. But that work is not to crucify myself. I, the old man, was crucified. But what I have to do is to always treat it as crucified, and not to allow it to come down from the cross. I must keep the flesh in the place of crucifixion.

I gave myself to my crucified Savior, sin and flesh and all. But here a separation took place. In fellowship with Him, I was freed from the life of the flesh. In the innermost center of my being, I received new life: Christ lives in me. But the flesh, in which I remain condemned to death, is not yet dead. It is now my calling to see that the old nature is kept nailed to the cross. All its desires and affections cry out, “Come down from the cross. Save yourself and us.” It is my duty to glory in the cross, to maintain the dominion of the cross with my whole heart, to make every uprising of sin dead, and not allow sin to have dominion.

God's Communication: The WORD: by TA Sparks

 Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days He has spoken to us by His Son. Hebrews 1:1,2

It says that in times past God spoke "in many ways," not only in different portions, but in different manners. It would take too long for us to go back to the Old Testament to see all the manners in which God spoke. He spoke by a thousand different means: sometimes by words and sometimes by acts. The manners were indeed "diverse." However, the statement here is that at the end He speaks in one way, one all-inclusive way, and that is in His Son. God's Son is His one inclusive way of speaking at the end. On the one side, no one is going to get anything from God apart from Jesus Christ. God will absolutely refuse to speak other than in His Son. If you want to know what God wants to say to you, you have to come to His Son. On the other side, in Jesus Christ we have all that God ever wants to say....

Yes, we have far more of God's speaking in His Son than we have yet come to understand. We have nothing apart from Jesus Christ, and we need nothing apart from Him. You can read everything that has ever been written on Christian doctrine and still be the same man or woman. God's ways are very practical, and He teaches us by experience. That experience is sometimes very difficult and is called here "the training of sons." May the Lord Jesus just impress our hearts again with these things! God is still speaking in His Son, and His speaking is in order to get companions of His Son. Companions of this heavenly calling and of Christ will go into the hard school and have to learn many hard lessons, but in learning them they will come to understand how great is their inheritance in the Lord Jesus.

Right Concept of Jesus—Savior and Judge: by AW Tozer

 In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel. Romans 2:16

What is your concept of Jesus Christ as Savior and Judge?

If the “ten-cent-store Jesus” that is being preached by a lot of men, the plastic, painted Christ who has no spine and no justice and is pictured as a soft and pliable friend to everybody—if He is the only Christ there is, then we might as well close our books and bar our doors, and make a bakery or garage out of the church!

But that Christ that is being preached and pictured is not the Christ of God, nor the Christ of the Bible, nor the Christ we must deal with.

The Christ we must deal with will be the judge of mankind—and this is one of the neglected Bible doctrines in our day!

The Father judges no man. When the Lord, the Son of Man, shall come in the clouds of glory, then shall be gathered unto Him the nations, and He shall separate them.

God has given Him judgment, authority to judge mankind, so that He is both the Judge and Savior of men.

That makes me both love Him and fear Him! I love Him because He is my Savior and I fear Him because He is my Judge.

God Almighty is never going to judge the race of mankind and allow a mistake to enter. The judge must be one who has all wisdom. Therefore, I appeal away from St. Paul; I appeal away from Moses and Elijah; I appeal away from all men because no man knows me well enough to judge me, finally! Only Jesus Christ qualifies as one who is able to be the judge of all mankind.

Abiding in Christ: by Andrew Murray

 1 John 2:6

Whoever claims to abide in him must walk as Jesus did.

Abiding in Christ and walking like Christ are two blessings of the new life presented here in their essential unity. The fruit of a life in Christ is a life like Christ.

To the first of these expressions, “abiding in Christ, ”we are no strangers. The wondrous parable of the vine and the branches, with the accompanying command, “Abide in Me, and I in you” (John 15:4), has often been a source of rich instruction and comfort. And though we feel as if we have only imperfectly learned the lesson of abiding in Him, yet we have tasted something of the joy that comes when the soul can say, “Lord, You know all things. You know that I do abide in You.” He also knows how often this fervent prayer still arises, “Blessed Lord, grant to me complete, unbroken abiding.”

The second expression, “walking like Christ,” is no less significant than the first. It is the promise of the wonderful power that abiding in Him will exert. As the fruit of our surrender to live wholly in Him, His life works so mightily in us that our walk—the outward expression of the inner life—becomes like His. The two are inseparably connected. The abiding in always precedes the walking like Him. Yet the desire to walk like Him must equally precede any large amount of abiding. Only then is the need for a close union fully realized. The heavenly Giver is free to bestow the fullness of His grace, because He sees that the soul is prepared to use it according to His design. When the Savior said, “If ye keep My commandments, ye shall abide in My love” (John 15:10), He meant this: the surrender to walk like Me is the path to the full abiding in Me. Many will discover that this is the secret of their failure in abiding in Christ: they did not seek it with the idea of walking like Christ. The words of John invite us to look at the two truths in their vital connection and dependence on each other.