How should we live our lives in light of our identity in Christ?

Mark the blessed consequence of this; now I have a new man, I have put off the old man. If I am a Christian, God looks at me (and faith takes this as a truth), not as a child of Adam at all in this world. What are you then? A child of God. The law was a perfect measure for the first man; and now, what measure do we get for "the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him"? I know God. As in Ephesians, "which of God is created in righteousness and true holiness." It is a new nature which is like God, in fact it is Christ as my life. It is the same kind of life as He had (we speak now of that which is communicated). What is the measure of this "knowledge"? Why, what is in God - true spiritual knowledge - I am called to walk according to that; we are to be followers of God as dear children. I get the knowledge of what God's nature and character are in Christ, in a Man; well, then that is the way I am to walk. Did not He love His enemies? You go and love your enemies. Was not He holy? You go and think holiness. Was not He kind to the unthankful and evil? You go and do likewise. There is of course growth in likeness to Christ. The Spirit of God takes of the things of Christ, and shows them to me; very well, that is the way you must walk. It is not merely that I avoid gross sins, but I have to put on the new man. This apprehension of how God has revealed Himself in Christ is a perfectly new thing. I have the mind and spirit of Christ, the new man, and Christ as my life, and the perfect pattern of it, according to which I am to walk. What I get in Christ is alone and unique, perfect goodness in the midst of evil - go and walk like Him.

We see then how blessedly the apostle refers to this for power and practice. He takes now the positive side - the spirit and path in which I walk. "Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering; forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye." That is, walk like Christ. Having now Christ as my life, and Christ as my object, I am given power over the motives that were mine before, and things that are around me have lost their force. I speak of what the life is in its character and principles. The one object that the new life has is Christ; that which alone forms and governs this life is Christ; and, the soul of the believer being filled with Him, the things of the outward world have lost their force: his mind is filled with something else. The life that is in him is occupied with Christ. The consequence of this is that outward things have no longer their influence over him. "The eye is single, and the whole body is full of light." Hence what excites the old man is not working now in that way, and the thing manifested is the effect of Christ as revealed to the new man - the new man living on Him. The apostle puts it thus: "Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved," etc. He does not say, You make out that you are "elect of God, holy and beloved." He says, This is your place: I want you to live in the consciousness of this; and you are now as such to do so-and-so. Such is the truth of all blessed affections. If I as a child doubted that my father were my father, how could I have the affections of a child? I should say, I wish I were sure of it; but I could not have the full flow of affection that follows from having no doubt about it.

“By their fruits ye shall know them” (Matt. 7:20), is a test so obvious that it needs no proving. If a young man or woman professes to be converted, it will certainly be evidenced by a change of life. It is true that salvation is by grace alone, through faith, “not of works, lest any man should boast” (Eph. 2:9). It is equally true that believers “are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to good works, which God has before ordained that we should walk in them” (Eph. 2:10). These works do not procure salvation in the smallest degree, but are the evidence that we are saved. They are the product, not of the old nature, not of the flesh, but of the new nature, the new man “created in Christ Jesus.” The very grace of God that has brought us salvation teaches us “that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world” (Titus 2:12).

Further, being divine, God's salvation and call are not according to our works but according to His own purpose and grace. Even the saint was to pray, "Enter not into judgment with Thy servant; for in Thy sight shall no man living be justified" (Ps. 143:2). There are good works in every saint: "For we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God before prepared that we should walk in them" (Eph. 2:10); they are not only to be fair morally but they ought to be such as suit those on earth who are united to Christ in heaven, responsible to reflect heavenly grace — no longer earthly righteousness merely. Such works alone are properly Christian. "Against such there is no law" (Gal. 5:23). But they are quite distinct from those of legal obedience, were it ever so exact. Nevertheless God's salvation is according to Christ's work, not ours. Nor is it of him that willeth nor of him that runneth but of God that showeth mercy (Rom. 9:16), according to His own purpose and grace, Who would thus perfectly honour the Son as we do in our measure by our faith.

The more fully we enter, by the power of the Spirit of God, into the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, the more decided will be our separation, and the more whole-hearted will be our devotedness. The effort to produce either the one or the other, until redemption is known, will prove the most hopeless labour possible. All our doings must be "because of that which the Lord has done," and not in order to get anything from Him. Efforts after life and peace prove that we are, as yet, strangers to the power of the blood; whereas the pure fruits of an experienced redemption are to the praise of Him who has redeemed us. "For by grace are ye saved, through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not of works lest any man should boast; for we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to good works, which God has before prepared that we should walk in them." (Eph. 2:8, 10) God has already prepared a path of good works for us to walk in; and He, by grace, prepares us to walk therein. It is only as saved that we can walk in such a path. Were it otherwise, we might boast; but seeing that we ourselves are as much God's workmanship as the path in which we walk, there is no room whatever for boasting.

The Christian's walk through this world is " by faith," not by sight (2 Cor. 5:7), for our eye rests upon Christ in His glory; "we look not at the things which are seen. but at the things which are not seen." Christ is the object of the eye and heart, and as engaged with Him where He is we take character from Him, and it is this that will enable us to "walk as He walked." With the Lord before us, we shall seek to "walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing " (Col. 1:10); yea "worthy of God" who has called us to His own kingdom and glory (1 Thess. 2:12).

"And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me." We have here, be it observed, no question of final security, but a descriptive explanation of a Christian's daily life and walk, the principle and motive-spring of which are both distinctly shown. The man who lives is still experimentally "in the flesh," but the life which he lives is both out of and above His natural self, for he both lives and walks by faith. When flesh and its claims were remembered by the apostle of the circumcision, it caused, as we have seen, a shameful interruption and a temporary contradiction of his previously upright walk. What preserved Paul from the like error was his more thorough realization of the newness and separateness of his life and standing as a man in Christ. We are shown in his case an example of a lively and effective, because Christ-fed, faith, as distinguished from a faith which, though right as to its object, is weak and stumbling in effect, through a mingling of vain traditions with "the sincere milk of the word," which is its proper food. Christ holds now, in his heart and mind, the place which was held in the days of his legal bondage by himself. It is Paul who lives, breathes, thinks and acts; but, by the grace of God, he does these things without any reference to himself or his own ends. Carried back in spirit to the cross as the alone ground and reason of his hope, and willingly abiding in adoring meditation of the love which there greets him in its full display, his language is according to his faith. He died when his Saviour died; he lives, in the light and power of His resurrection from the dead, as a glad confessor of the absolute and never-ending claims of this redeeming love upon his soul. It is the excellency of the name and person of the almighty Lover of his soul that commands and fills the mind and heart of the apostle, rather than the magnitude of the salvation which He wrought. It is the Son of God whose love he boasts; his glorying is such, therefore, as becomes the spirit of a prostrate worshipper (John 9:38). His liberator is his Lord, as well as his redemption and his life, and by His Spirit has possession and mastery of Paul's mortal flesh; subduing its wills to the dominion of His own good pleasure, and leading him in a joyfully consenting bondage by the cords of His exceeding love.

The Christian's practical life becomes thus a life of service. Self-seeking is no expression of the life of Him who humbled Himself and was meek and lowly. We are therefore warned against it. We are reminded of the nature and closeness of the tie by which we are bound to one another — a tie that makes us dependent on one another. Whatever the line in which the Spirit of God exercises us, and in which He leads us out, it is not for self-exaltation, but for the profit of others. The spirit of service then befits us. We should accept our gifts as being grace to us, and in humbleness of mind use them for the benefit of those whom love so urgently prompts us to serve. The spirit of service will find its justification in the need of the objects of love. Let each one then serve as prompted by love in the measure in which he finds he has capacity for it (vers. 3-8).

If we like Paul lived our lives in the light of that day, what a difference it would make. It is far easier to sing, “Nothing but Christ, as on we tread”, than to live it. For to live it means that it will govern what I wear, how I spend my money, where I take my holidays, how I speak to my wife or husband and my attitude towards my children, etc. Moreover, it will affect relationships in the home, at the workplace, and in the world. But what is most important, it will bring an atmosphere into the assembly which is Christ-honouring. This is really the mind of Christ, and having that mind equips us to face all dangers. It enables us to make the right spiritual decisions. We will then understand with whom we can have fellowship and when associations are defiling. True separation and holy living is found only then, when it is coupled with affection for Christ and obedience to His Word (2 Cor. 6:17-18). Then the question is never asked, “What's wrong with this or that?” but, “What is pleasing to Christ?”

If all things are lawful to the Christian, certainly all do not profit. As Christ never did what did not profit, so neither should the Christian. He is free, but it is only according to Christ for good, and this in love, the good of others. But there is another guard: if all things are lawful to the Christian, he refuses to be brought under the power of anything: were it not so, it would be bondage, not liberty. Thus to have regard for others' good must be kept up, as well the liberty itself intact. The Christian is called to serve others, never to be the slave of a habit in anything great or small.