. So since you are so anxious, I'll continue with our Wednesday Night Bible Study. This time we'll focus on what we talked about in chapters 8-10.Chapter 8 was entitled, "Identification". Our identification with Christ speaks of our union or joining with Him. The focus of this chapter dealt with the believer not only understanding that Christ died for our sin, but that we died with Christ. As we begin to understand this principle and that this is our position in Christ, we will begin to understand the fact that the old sin nature no longer has control or power over us. Romans 6:11 tells us to count it as true that we are dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. The position is ours as soon as we trust Christ as our Savior. The question is, are we counting it to be true?
Miles Stanford quotes James McConkey, "Because He died 'death hath no more dominion over Him.' and because of our union with Him 'sin shall not have dominion over you,' even though it is present in you. Our 'reckoning' ourselves dead to sin in Jesus Christ does not make it a fact-it is laready a fact through our union with Him. Our reckoning it to be true only makes us begin to realize the fact in experience."
Chapter 9 was entitled "Consecration". Consecration involves a dedication or devotion. Many times we hear of people dedicating or devoting their lives to the Lord. While this desire is not bad, many times believers proceed to consecrate themselves to God based on a wrong basis or motivation. The motivation is often that we will dedicate our lives to God because of all God did for us or because we love Him so much. While gratitude and love are certainly great to have, these things will not produce the power needed by the Christian to live a consecrated life. Our lives are to be consecrated to God because we recognize and see Him as our very life. And it is not the Christian trying real hard in the strength of his/her flesh to produce Christ's life in us, but rather the Christian resting in and yielding to the power of the Holy Spirit who lives in us. If our dependence is upon God and we are continually making the conscious decision to yield to the Holy Spirit, the a consecrated life will naturally be produced in our lives. The old self life cannot be consecrated to God, because even for the believer the old self life still holds nothing good.
Chapter 10 was entitled "Self". This chapter deals with a very important key in the Christian life: understanding self for what it is - worthless. The self life is who we were before Christ and involves the old sin nature. Now as Christians, we have a new nature and an old nature. The old nature has been rendered inoperative by our union in death with Christ. However, the old sin nature has not been eradicated from the life of the believer. And because God has given us free will, we can choose to depend upon self and allow the sin nature to have power in our lives. So we must come to see that in myself dwells no good thing as Paul reminds us in Romans 7. We must see that depending upon self will not produce anything that brings glory to God. Sure we can do a lot of good things through the power of self, but we will not be glorifying God by doing these things if it is in the power of self. God may receive glory in spite of our wrong dependence, but we will not be glorifying Him through our actions. Often for the believer, it takes time and going through the struggle experientially for the believer to begin seeing self for what it is. Life springs out of death. Stanford closes the chapter with a rather thought provoking and pertinent quote: "there are many 'separated from the world' Christians who are not 'separated from themselves' Christians."
So that brings you up to date on the Wednesday night Bible Study. Tonight we will look at Self Denial. And I hope to be able to keep you updated here on the CBC Youth Blog about our studies on a more consistent basis. Hope to see you tonight!!
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