I am crucified - Submit to God - Resist the devil!

Hello To All:

We come now, to look deeply at the victory, that we have over the third source of temptation, that can lead us to sin: the devil. Our beginning text, from the King's Book, is found at James 4:7. We find written: "Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you."

Our Lord Jesus Christ has taken us deeper into our understanding of and deeper into our application of, the reality of the truth that: "I am crucified with Christ." In this process, He has shown us, particularly, in the two previous postings, that our victory over the sinful influence of the world, and our victory over the sinful influence of our own fallen nature, is the result of this transcendental truth that we are, moment by moment, "crucified" with Him.

Our text, from James, seems not to say anything about our being "crucified." It does make a significant statement about what it means to submit: we cannot be free from the sinful influence of the devil, unless He flees from us; we cannot cause him to flee from us, unless we resist him; we cannot resist him, unless we first, as our text says: "Submit yourselves therefore to God."

There is a relationship between being crucified with Christ and being submitted to God, that needs to be understood. If we do not understand that relationship and apply that understanding, to our daily lives, we will not have the victory over either the world, the flesh or the devil.

Some of you, are now probably thinking, that I have contradicted myself. I have just been used by God, to remind all of us, that we have victory because we are crucified; and then, in the previous paragraph, I seem to take that statement away, by connecting being crucified with being submitted. The question, and rightly so, should be asked: What is the lesson here? Why does there seem to be a contradiction?

The answer rests in our recognizing, that the truth that we are crucified, is a positional reality; whereas, the truth regarding our being submitted to God is a willful reality.

Our daily crucifixion, has been and is accomplished, by the completed work of Jesus Christ. Thus our position in Christ, that is our identity in Christ, is fundamentally demonstrated by the truth that we are crucified with Him. This is a manifestation of His completed and on-going work, in the lives of all who belong to Him. But, this positional identity, in Christ Jesus, is not forced on us. The benefits of our being crucified with Christ, are not automatically manifested in our daily lives. As long as we belong to Jesus, we will be crucified with Him; but, this does not mean that the benefits of our crucifixion will always be evident, in the challenges that we daily face.

In contrast to our crucified, positional identity in Christ Jesus - being submitted to God is a Christ empowered act, of our Christ empowered will, to obey God. We submit ourselves to God by yielding to and surrendering to His absolute Lordship and Kingship of our lives. He is everything and we are nothing. In the words of John the Baptist: "He must increase and I must decrease." Simply put: to submit to God is to obey God; but, this is a level of obedience, that goes way beyond our natural abilities and strengths. Apart from Jesus Christ, we cannot submit to God.

Perhaps, the best way to understand this relationship between our positional identity, in Christ Jesus; and our Christ empowered willful submission to God; is to be reminded of Christ's own positional identity; and His willful submission to the Father, that affirmed His eternal identity.

We find written, in Matthew 26:36-39: "Then cometh Jesus with them unto a place called Gethsemane, and saith unto the disciples, Sit ye here, while I go and pray yonder. And he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, and began to be sorrowful and very heavy. Then saith he unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death: tarry ye here, and watch with me. And he went a little farther, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt."

Jesus of Nazareth is, eternally, the Christ, the Son of the living God. Fundamentally, this is His identity. As the Son of God, He comes (as recorded in the Matthew text), to a point in history, eternally determined by His Father. He faces a task, that causes Him to be: "exceeding sorrowful, even unto death." His task is to pay the price for all of humanity's sins for all of eternity.

The King's Book, tells us that Jesus is like us, in every way, except without sin. In the garden, in the perfection of His humanity, and in the fullness of His divinity, He is driven to His knees, as He cries out to His Father. He has become "exceeding sorrowful," because of the challenge, related to the burden, that He must carry to the cross, that has been eternally prepared for Him.

In this challenge, that He must endure, He shows us the eternal relationship between identity and submission. In a most compelling way, Jesus affirms His eternal identity, as the Son of God, when He cries out to His Father: "nevertheless - not as I will, but as thou wilt." He gives us, an absolute understanding of what it means to be totally yielded to, and totally surrendered to the will of God our Father. His eternal identity, as the Son of God, was affirmed by His absolute submission to His Father, as He said yes, to going to the cross, prepared specifically for Him.

Now, with God's help, let us apply this to our lives. If we are in Christ Jesus - then - we are "crucified with Christ." This is, fundamentally, our identity in Christ. But, the benefits of our identity, will not be manifested, without our yielding and surrendering to God our Father, by embracing the way of the cross and the crucified life that Jesus Christ has won for us; and offers to us. All we have to do, is to exercise our Christ empowered will to say yes to Him in all things.

As we say yes to Jesus Christ, our identity,of being crucified with Christ, is manifested in such a way, as to cause us to be able to submit ourselves to God, so that we can resist the devil, so that he will have to flee from us. Without our Christ empowered "nevertheless, not my will, but thy will be done," the benefits of our being "crucified with Christ," will not be realized in the challenges that we daily face. Our victory comes, in our submission to Jesus. As it is written: "Submit yourselves unto God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you." Can we say thank you Jesus? Amen and Amen and Amen.

Until next time, my beloved brethren, in Christ Jesus, I continue to be:

Your servant and your fellow pilgrim,
Elder Theophilus