PREFACE
Until we know our legal rights in the Family of God, we will never become outstanding in our faith life.
We should know that the Bible is made up of two legal documents: the Abrahamic Covenant and the New Covenant; and that Jesus’ death was a legal death to meet humanity’s legal needs; and that His sacrifice, His substitutionary work was accepted by the supreme court of the universe; and that man has a legal right to take Jesus Christ as his Savior and confess Him as his Lord which gives him a legal right to Eternal Life, the nature of God.
This makes him a son, and as a son he has a legal right to his Father's protection and care.
He has a legal right to all that Jesus purchased for him in His redemptive work.
He has a legal right to the use of the Name of Jesus in prayer and when dealing with demoniacal forces.
He has a legal right to the Holy Spirit's indwelling.
All promises and statements of fact in the Word are his.
He has a legal right to a perfect Redemption from Satan's dominion, from sickness and disease, from poverty and want.
He has a legal right to stand in the Father's presence because Jesus has become his legal Righteousness, and he has legally become the Righteousness of God in Christ.
He has a legal right to heaven as his home.
This takes prayer out of the realm of doubt and puts it into the realm of absolute certainty.
Chapter Five
FAITH IN YOUR OWN RIGHTS
The New Creation is based upon legal grounds. You have come into the Father's family because you responded to His call. You could never have gotten in there by your own efforts.
You had to be born of the Holy Spirit. You had to be recreated through the agency of the Word; for He says, "Of His own will have we been begotten through the Word." (James 1:18 and 1 Peter 1:23).
It is the Father's will.
It is through the Father's Word.
It is by the energy of the Holy Spirit that Eternal Life has been given to us, and we have become New Creations.
Of His own will He brought us forth.
It is not of man. It is not of the will of the flesh; it is of the will of our own Father. (John 1:13).
Romans 3:21-26 gives us the legal background of our Redemption. "But now apart from the law a righteousness of God hath been manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ unto all them that believe, for there is no distinction; for all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God; being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: whom God set forth to be a propitiation, through faith, in his blood, to show his righteousness because of the passing over of the sins done aforetime, in the forbearance of God; for the showing, I say, of his righteousness at this present season: that he might himself be righteous, and the righteousness of him that hath faith in Jesus." (Marg.)
It is a Redemption that gives us the Righteousness of God on the ground of faith in Jesus Christ.
It is a Redemption that gives us perfect Justification freely by His Grace, through the Redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
Grace is the Love of God in action, in manifestation.
It is Love doing things for us. It was Love that caused the Incarnation. Love caused this Incarnate One we call Jesus, to go on the cross and become Sin with our sin; become absolutely Identified with us, not only as a man (which He did in the Incarnation and in His earth walk, but He became Identified with our sin nature on the Cross.
God laid upon Him our iniquity.
"Him who knew no sin, God made to become sin.” That is a serious thing. The heart can hardly take it in. We were sinners, but He was made Sin.
He was so identified with the devil that God said He was Sin.
He actually went the limit for man. Being sin He was judged as Sin. He was condemned as Sin. He was sent to the place of suffering where Sin should go.
There He suffered until the claims of Justice against us were fully met. Then He was "Justified in spirit." "He was made alive in spirit." He was actually made as Righteous as He was before He was made Sin. (1 Timothy 3:16; 1 Peter 3:18).
He was made so Righteous that He who had cried, "My God, my God why hast thou forsaken me?" after His Resurrection entered into the presence of the Father with His own blood and sealed our Redemption.
"Nor yet through the blood of goats and calves, but with his own blood, entered in once and for all into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption." (Hebrews9:12).
He was so Righteous that He could sit down in the Father's presence as though He had never been Sin. On the ground of His finished work, when you accept it, you are made a New Creation.
You become the Righteousness of God in Him.
You stand in the Father's presence as though sin had never been. We have never been able to accept this even mentally, but it is coming slowly to the consciousness of the Church as they listen to the Word.
Romans 3:26: "For the showing, I say, of his righteousness, at this present season: that he (God) might be righteous, and the righteousness of him that hath faith in Jesus."
God actually becomes our Righteousness the moment that we accept Christ as Savior and confess Him as our Lord.
Men don't appreciate this, but the moment that a man becomes a New Creation, he can stand in the presence of the Father as Jesus did in His earth walk.
He is only a babe, but he has a perfect Righteousness and a perfect Redemption. That Redemption is God-wrought. That Righteousness is God Himself.
God paid man's penalty on legal grounds and met the demands of Justice absolutely.
It is not a problem of pity. It is not a problem of a mother's love that overlooks a son's disobedience and rebellion, but it is the Supreme Court of the Universe dealing with our rebellion and our sin, dealing with it so effectually that it can never become an issue again.
Another great fact: The New Creation is based upon absolutely legal grounds.
In the first three verses of Ephesians 2 He has shown the condition of natural man. "And you did he make alive, when you were dead through your trespasses and sins, wherein you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the powers of the air, of the spirit that now works in the sons of disobedience; among whom we also all once lived in the lusts of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest."
Natural man is spiritually dead. He is subject to the prince of the powers of the air. He is a child of disobedience. He is by nature a child of wrath.
Ephesians 2:12: "He is without God and without hope in the world." He had no covenant claims on God. He was a stranger to the covenant of promise. He was hopeless, Godless, spiritually dead, a child of the devil. That is the condition of lost man.
I know they do not like to have that told to them, but if they are not told, then they will never see the need of Eternal Life.
Ephesians 2:4-5: "But God, being rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us live together with Christ (by grace have ye been saved)."
In the plan of Redemption, God recreated us by faith.
Tenth verse: "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God afore prepared that we should walk in them."
By faith God recreated us in the Recreation of Christ when Jesus was made Alive after He had been made Sin; in that Recreation was our Recreation.
All we have to do is accept it. The moment we accept it, it becomes a reality to us in the mind of the Father.
Now you can understand what it means when He says that, "He raised us up with Him." (Ephesians 2:6).
When He was raised from the dead by God's faith, we were raised together with Him.
"And made us to sit with Him in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus."
We are seated now by God's faith at the right hand, of the Majesty on High. Do you see what mighty faith the Father had?
He believed that humanity would respond to the tug of His grace. Thank God, we have done it!
In this He shows "the riches of His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus: by grace have ye been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not of works, that no man should glory. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works." (Ephesians 2:5-10).
By faith He did all the work that is necessary for the Recreation of the whole body of Christ.
By the Father's faith we were New Creations in the Resurrection of Jesus.
When He said that He made us to sit down with Him at the right hand of the Majesty on High, do you realize what that meant? That when Jesus paid the price the Father's faith saw us perfect conquerors, perfect victors, enthroned by the side of His own Son at His own right hand.
I’ll tell you, that was faith!
I have faith in my Father's faith, that this is made good in me. Now you can understand 2 Corinthians 5:17-21.
"Wherefore if any man is in Christ, there is a new creation." The moment you accept Christ. You are in the New Creation. "The old things are passed away." This is the experimental part of it. "Behold, they are become new. But all things are of God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and gave unto us the ministry of reconciliation." This is the ministry of reconciliation for this world, that was redeemed from the hand of the enemy, but the world does not know it.
The Redemption is of no value to them as long as they are ignorant of it.
They cannot enter into those riches until we tell them.
Today God is not reckoning unto the world their trespasses. He has committed unto us the Word that is to reconcile them to the fact that they have been recreated in Christ Jesus in His substitutionary work.
All they have to do is accept Him as their Savior and confess Him as their Lord, and they enter into this new thing called the New Creation.
We are ambassadors with this new marvelous message of Grace.
We are saying to men, "Be ye reconciled to God—all you need to do is come to Him. He is waiting for you."
Eternal Life is yours. Fellowship with Him and relationship all awaits you. Hear what He says to climax it.
"Him who knew no sin, God made to become sin." Doesn't that break your heart? Doesn't that cause your heart to respond to a love like that? He was made sin to the end that you might become the Righteousness of God in Him.
This is masterful. You are led out of failure and weakness and sin, and Satanic relationship, into the New Creation where you have become partakers of the divine nature, actual sons of God.
God has made you Righteous so you can stand in His presence just as though you had never been a sinner, just as though sin has never soiled you.
You stand there complete in Christ.
This belongs to you. This is your legal right, and you can receive it yourself. If you believe in the finished work of Christ in you, and you believe in all God has done for you, it is yours; but it is not yours experimentally until you accept Him as your Savior and confess Him as your Lord.
You believe in your own rights in Christ. Then you are a conqueror.
Romans 8:14-17 gives us an insight into sonship rights and privileges. "For as many as are led by the spirit of God, these are the sons of God."
You have become a son. You have received not the spirit of bondage again unto fear. You have been delivered out of that. You have received the spirit of adoption. You are crying now, "Father, my dear Father."
The Holy Spirit Himself is bearing witness with your spirit through the Word that you are a child of God.
If you are a child, then you are an heir of God, and a joint- heir with Jesus Christ.
You see, you are taking your place now. You are responding to His challenge.
Romans 8:31-39 is the climax of this mighty truth. "What then shall we say to these things, (that I have given to you?)"
"If God is for us, who is against us?" God is for us. He is our Father now. "He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not also with him freely give us all things?"
How shall He not give to us as a Father, all that belongs to us as a son's inheritance, a son's rights in Christ?
Who shall lay anything to our charge now? We are God's elect. It is God who has declared us Righteous.
It is God who has made us Righteous. It is God who declared He is our Righteousness in Christ.
Now to climax it, Jesus is seated at the Father's right hand as our great Intercessor, Advocate, and Lord in the highest seat of the universe, the head of the body, the New Creation.
The New Creation is seated there with Him. No one can bring a charge against us. No one can conquer us.
Then He gives us a category of all the things that Satan can do against a man. Romans 8:31-37: "What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not also with him freely give us all things? Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth; who is he that condemneth? It is Christ Jesus that died, yes rather, that was raised from the dead, who is at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or anguish, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Even as it is written, For your sake we are killed all the day long; We were accounted as sheep for the slaughter."
Then he shouts this: "No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us."
We stand complete in His completeness. We are victors in His own victory.
NOT WHAT WE SHOULD BE-
BUT WHAT WE ARE NOW IN CHRIST!
The modern Christian does not object to my telling what they need, or my telling what they should do or be, but they can't understand me when I tell them what they are in Christ. They think I am bringing a new philosophy, a beautiful error, that will lead them astray.
I remember when I first saw this, I said, "If this were only true;" and then I said, "If I knew how to make it mine."
I didn't know that it was mine.
I didn't know that "He had blessed me with every spiritual blessing in Christ" and when I read it, it didn't register.
I remember I Corinthians 3:21 where He declares that all things are mine, whether the revelation was given to Paul, or Cephas, or Apollos, it was mine.
That everything that the Father worked in Christ in His great Substitution belongs to the individual believer.
It makes no difference whether the believer is educated or uneducated; whether he is rich or poor, the boundless grace unveiled in Christ, belongs to everyone of us.
Philippians 4:13 is absolutely ours: "I can do all things in him who strengtheneth me."
That is mine.
I can do anything that is necessary to be done because of His ability that has been imparted to me.
Psalms 27:1: "Jehovah is my light and my salvation; Whom shall I fear? Jehovah is the strength of my life; Of whom shall I be afraid?"
Note that carefully: "Jehovah is my light." That is wisdom.
He is my ability to use the knowledge of what belongs to me.
Now I am able to take advantage of what the Epistles tell me belongs to me.
He is not only my ability, but my salvation, my deliverance, my redemption.
I am as free from Satan's dominion in the mind of the Father as Jesus was when He arose from the dead, because His Resurrection has freed me
I have become a partaker of His Resurrection the moment I become a New Creation. Col. 3:1: "If then you were partakers of Christ's Resurrection." (Conybeare)
The ability of God that was exercised in the resurrection of Jesus belongs to the believer today.
Notice Ephesians 1:19-20. Let me give you a somewhat free translation: "I want to show you what the exceeding greatness of the ability of God on our behalf who believe. It is according; to the working of the strength of his might which he wrought: in the Christ when he raised him from the dead and made him sit at his right hand."
We have never grasped the significance of this.
The Father has given to us the ability that He exercised in the resurrection of Jesus.
Then we who have received Eternal Life, have in our possession today the resurrection power or ability of God.
I am convinced that before the Master returns, there will be groups of men and women who will recognize this and take their place and begin to show to the world a type of supernatural ability that will startle a sense-knowledge ruled world.
It is no idle thing to have God in you.
One day it seemed as though He were questioning me. He said, "Have I been so diminished, have I become so small and so weak and ineffectual that you can ignore Me?
He said, "The God who raised Jesus from the dead is dwelling in you and He has lost none of His ability or power."
When He enters your life to dwell there. He doesn't lay aside His glory and Majesty and might.
When God's Son took upon Him the garment of flesh, He laid aside some of His glory.
But when the Holy Spirit comes into you, He comes full-fledged. He is the same mighty Holy Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead.
Romans 8:11: "And if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwelleth in you, he that raised up Christ Jesus from the dead shall give life to your death-doomed bodies."
I like that translation. It is vivid. It is true.
Then I want you to begin to count on Him. I want you to say in the morning, "That mighty One is in me. He can put me over today. I can face any emergency. I can do all things in Him because He is my strength."
I can hear Him whisper, Isaiah 41:10: "Fear thou not for I am with you. ("I am in thee.") Be not dismayed for I am your (Father) God. I will strengthen you; yea, I will uphold you; yes, I am today all that you need: your helper, your wisdom, your strength, your ability."
You see, it is not what I should be. It is not what I can be.
It is what I am in Christ.
We are not trying to be righteous; we are.
We are not trying to be strong, for God is the strength of our life.
We are not trying to be wise, because Jesus has been made wisdom unto us.
We are what He says we are, so we can do what He says we can do.
GOD’S SUPERMAN
Jesus uttered some prophetic facts about believers.
Matthew 19:26: "But nothing shall be impossible unto God."
Jesus is uttering a fact, and here is its compliment: Matthew 17:21: "And nothing shall be impossible unto you."
Take this with Mark 11:24: "Therefore, I say unto you, All things whatsoever ye pray and ask for, believe that ye have received them, and ye shall have them."
Or take Mark 9:23: "All things are possible to him that believeth."
The word "believeth" means "a believing one."
There were no "believing ones" in the time while Christ, was preaching. They were Jews under law.
The "believing ones" came into being at Pentecost.
It meant a believer, a New Creation Man.
The new creation man is a partaker of God's nature.
He is really an Incarnation. He has received the nature and life of God.
Then he invites the Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead, who came on the day of Pentecost, to make His home in his body.
This man not only has God's nature, but has God actually living in him.
If this doesn't constitute a superman, then I don't know what a superman is.
But I am going to carry you one step farther.
This man with God's nature, and God dwelling in him, is given a legal right to the use of the Name of Jesus with the power
of attorney.
The question is: What is that Name worth? What authority is there back of it?
Matthew 28:18-20 Jesus said: "All authority hath been given me in heaven and on earth. Go you therefore, (with this authority) and make disciples, (or students), of all the nations; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the age."
You see what we have now?
We have the power of attorney to use the Name of Jesus; and all authority in heaven and on earth is invested in that Name.
Go over it just once more.
The believer is a new creation. The old things of weakness and failure have passed away and behold the old man has become a new man and all these things are of God. (2 Corinthians 5:17.)
This man is a partaker of the divine nature, Eternal Life.
"He that hath the Son hath the life."
He has the Son—he has the life.
Now he has the Holy Spirit indwelling him. "Greater is he that is in me than he that is in the world."
This believer, this new creation, is a child of Deity.
He stands before the world as a very branch of the vine.
He is taking Jesus' place in the world.
And if this isn't a superman, then I don't know the meaning of the term.
The Church has kept this "Samson" imprisoned by false teachings and by creeds and doctrines. They have not only held him a prisoner to their philosophies and dogmas, but they have actually put out his eyes.
But the Father is going to restore sight to him and break the bonds that hold him.
The bonds of false teaching are going to be broken, and this child of God, this superman, is going to come into his own.
He has two formidable enemies. The worst one is Sense Knowledge. (Read, "Two Kinds of Knowledge.")
Entrenched in all our universities, colleges and technical schools, backed up by the press and religious periodicals, the great mass of the ministry are the devotees of the achievements of the Senses in the realm called Science.
And this superman in Christ has been held in bondage by them. They are the jailers.
The Father is calling for His sons and daughters to come out of the foxholes of fear and doubt, and meet their enemies in open combat.
Satan can no more conquer this body of Christ when it knows its rights, than he could conquer Jesus on the day of the Resurrection.
We are partakers, sharers in His Resurrection.
Hear Weymouth, Col. 3:1: "If then ye have shared in Messiah's resurrection."
You see, we were raised together with Him in the mind of Justice.
We possess resurrection ability.
You doubt it? Read Acts 1:8: "But ye shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you."
The word "power" comes from the word "dunamis."
Young translates it "ability." "Ye shall receive ability when the Holy Spirit has recreated you."
Ephesians 3:20:1 have given you this Scripture several times in this book: "Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that you ask or think, according to the power (or ability) that abides in you."
If that doesn't make supermen out of common men, then the English language cannot convey God's thought.
The problem is this: How long are we going to be held in bondage by Sense Knowledge?
How long are we going to refuse to take our place as the sons of God?
How long are we going to be intimidated by the fears and doctrines of men, while the Word of God is ignored?
To them, it is a root out of dry ground. To most of the people it has been a useless vine, something they could hang their doctrines and creeds upon.
It is coming to be to us what it really is in the mind of the Father.
Here is the Spirit's challenge: that you who read this, take your rights in prayer!
Begin to act like sons and daughters of God.
You have all heaven back of you.
You have the very angelic forces to do your bidding.
God is your strength and ability.
All things are possible to you because you are daring to act on the Word of God.
You are daring to live as Jesus dared to live in His earth walk.
You are the righteousness of God—that makes you a master of Satan; that gives you access to the throne; that permits you to take your place as a victor, as a spirit-warrior, as a conqueror.
You can have the consciousness that you are taking Jesus' place.
2 Corinthians 2:1 is becoming a reality in your own life: "Thank God it is he who everywhere leads me in Messiah's triumph procession. By me he sends abroad through me in every land the knowledge of Jesus. The incense is of his triumphal march." (Way's Trans.) And you can shout, Yes, I am Messiah's incense uplifted to God in the sight of all.
I am a master in His Name, with His ability.
I can do what He planned the Church should do, for I am what lie says I am.
GOD'S REAL MAN
Spiritual things are as real as material things.
Spiritual forces are stronger than mental.
Spiritual forces govern disease.
Spiritual forces govern natural laws.
Satan caused the wind on the Sea of Galilee. Jesus caused it to be still.
The believer in his contact with material, spiritual and mental forces, is as Jesus was in His earth walk—He is a Master.
The believer is a new creation, created by God Himself.
He has God's nature, Eternal Life.
Jesus is made unto him wisdom.
God is his strength.
The Holy Spirit is his ability.
He has the love nature of God so that he does not and cannot act like common men.
Love makes him like Jesus.
He has the mind of Christ and the ability that Christ had in His earth walk.
This makes him a superman.
God gave to him a legal right to the use of Jesus' Name which has all authority in heaven and on earth; which has authority over all the laws of nature, over every demon and his work, over all spiritual forces as well as material.
That authority and that ability belongs to the believer.
The recreated man is supernatural.
He is a superman.
Then why live in the senses, seeing, hearing, feeling, tasting and smelling?
All the knowledge natural man has, came through these channels to his brain.
We have Revelation knowledge.
What men of faith this truth will make!
What men of prayer will arise and take their place in Christ!
Here is the foundation on which to build a Prayer Life.
Questions
1. How does this author define “Grace”?
Answer:
2. God laid upon Him our iniquity. How did God do that?
Answer: "
3. By faith God recreated us in the Recreation of Christ when Jesus was made Alive after He had been made Sin; in that Recreation was our Recreation. What is our part?
Answer:
4. The ministry of reconciliation for this world that was redeemed from the hand of the enemy, but the world does not know it. The Redemption is of no value to them as long as they are ignorant of it. How does that affect us?
Answer:
5. In the section “NOT WHAT WE SHOULD BE-BUT WHAT WE ARE NOW IN CHRIST!” go back over it and pick out at least 3 things that stand out as important to you.
6.How is God’s Superman” described?
Answer:
7. This “Superman” has two formidable enemies. What are they.
Answer:
8. What four things does “God’s Real Man” understand?
Answer:
9. What is the foundation on which to build a Prayer Life?
Answer:
Until we know our legal rights in the Family of God, we will never become outstanding in our faith life.
We should know that the Bible is made up of two legal documents: the Abrahamic Covenant and the New Covenant; and that Jesus’ death was a legal death to meet humanity’s legal needs; and that His sacrifice, His substitutionary work was accepted by the supreme court of the universe; and that man has a legal right to take Jesus Christ as his Savior and confess Him as his Lord which gives him a legal right to Eternal Life, the nature of God.
This makes him a son, and as a son he has a legal right to his Father's protection and care.
He has a legal right to all that Jesus purchased for him in His redemptive work.
He has a legal right to the use of the Name of Jesus in prayer and when dealing with demoniacal forces.
He has a legal right to the Holy Spirit's indwelling.
All promises and statements of fact in the Word are his.
He has a legal right to a perfect Redemption from Satan's dominion, from sickness and disease, from poverty and want.
He has a legal right to stand in the Father's presence because Jesus has become his legal Righteousness, and he has legally become the Righteousness of God in Christ.
He has a legal right to heaven as his home.
This takes prayer out of the realm of doubt and puts it into the realm of absolute certainty.
Chapter Five
FAITH IN YOUR OWN RIGHTS
The New Creation is based upon legal grounds. You have come into the Father's family because you responded to His call. You could never have gotten in there by your own efforts.
You had to be born of the Holy Spirit. You had to be recreated through the agency of the Word; for He says, "Of His own will have we been begotten through the Word." (James 1:18 and 1 Peter 1:23).
It is the Father's will.
It is through the Father's Word.
It is by the energy of the Holy Spirit that Eternal Life has been given to us, and we have become New Creations.
Of His own will He brought us forth.
It is not of man. It is not of the will of the flesh; it is of the will of our own Father. (John 1:13).
Romans 3:21-26 gives us the legal background of our Redemption. "But now apart from the law a righteousness of God hath been manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ unto all them that believe, for there is no distinction; for all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God; being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: whom God set forth to be a propitiation, through faith, in his blood, to show his righteousness because of the passing over of the sins done aforetime, in the forbearance of God; for the showing, I say, of his righteousness at this present season: that he might himself be righteous, and the righteousness of him that hath faith in Jesus." (Marg.)
It is a Redemption that gives us the Righteousness of God on the ground of faith in Jesus Christ.
It is a Redemption that gives us perfect Justification freely by His Grace, through the Redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
Grace is the Love of God in action, in manifestation.
It is Love doing things for us. It was Love that caused the Incarnation. Love caused this Incarnate One we call Jesus, to go on the cross and become Sin with our sin; become absolutely Identified with us, not only as a man (which He did in the Incarnation and in His earth walk, but He became Identified with our sin nature on the Cross.
God laid upon Him our iniquity.
"Him who knew no sin, God made to become sin.” That is a serious thing. The heart can hardly take it in. We were sinners, but He was made Sin.
He was so identified with the devil that God said He was Sin.
He actually went the limit for man. Being sin He was judged as Sin. He was condemned as Sin. He was sent to the place of suffering where Sin should go.
There He suffered until the claims of Justice against us were fully met. Then He was "Justified in spirit." "He was made alive in spirit." He was actually made as Righteous as He was before He was made Sin. (1 Timothy 3:16; 1 Peter 3:18).
He was made so Righteous that He who had cried, "My God, my God why hast thou forsaken me?" after His Resurrection entered into the presence of the Father with His own blood and sealed our Redemption.
"Nor yet through the blood of goats and calves, but with his own blood, entered in once and for all into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption." (Hebrews9:12).
He was so Righteous that He could sit down in the Father's presence as though He had never been Sin. On the ground of His finished work, when you accept it, you are made a New Creation.
You become the Righteousness of God in Him.
You stand in the Father's presence as though sin had never been. We have never been able to accept this even mentally, but it is coming slowly to the consciousness of the Church as they listen to the Word.
Romans 3:26: "For the showing, I say, of his righteousness, at this present season: that he (God) might be righteous, and the righteousness of him that hath faith in Jesus."
God actually becomes our Righteousness the moment that we accept Christ as Savior and confess Him as our Lord.
Men don't appreciate this, but the moment that a man becomes a New Creation, he can stand in the presence of the Father as Jesus did in His earth walk.
He is only a babe, but he has a perfect Righteousness and a perfect Redemption. That Redemption is God-wrought. That Righteousness is God Himself.
God paid man's penalty on legal grounds and met the demands of Justice absolutely.
It is not a problem of pity. It is not a problem of a mother's love that overlooks a son's disobedience and rebellion, but it is the Supreme Court of the Universe dealing with our rebellion and our sin, dealing with it so effectually that it can never become an issue again.
Another great fact: The New Creation is based upon absolutely legal grounds.
In the first three verses of Ephesians 2 He has shown the condition of natural man. "And you did he make alive, when you were dead through your trespasses and sins, wherein you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the powers of the air, of the spirit that now works in the sons of disobedience; among whom we also all once lived in the lusts of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest."
Natural man is spiritually dead. He is subject to the prince of the powers of the air. He is a child of disobedience. He is by nature a child of wrath.
Ephesians 2:12: "He is without God and without hope in the world." He had no covenant claims on God. He was a stranger to the covenant of promise. He was hopeless, Godless, spiritually dead, a child of the devil. That is the condition of lost man.
I know they do not like to have that told to them, but if they are not told, then they will never see the need of Eternal Life.
Ephesians 2:4-5: "But God, being rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us live together with Christ (by grace have ye been saved)."
In the plan of Redemption, God recreated us by faith.
Tenth verse: "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God afore prepared that we should walk in them."
By faith God recreated us in the Recreation of Christ when Jesus was made Alive after He had been made Sin; in that Recreation was our Recreation.
All we have to do is accept it. The moment we accept it, it becomes a reality to us in the mind of the Father.
Now you can understand what it means when He says that, "He raised us up with Him." (Ephesians 2:6).
When He was raised from the dead by God's faith, we were raised together with Him.
"And made us to sit with Him in the heavenlies in Christ Jesus."
We are seated now by God's faith at the right hand, of the Majesty on High. Do you see what mighty faith the Father had?
He believed that humanity would respond to the tug of His grace. Thank God, we have done it!
In this He shows "the riches of His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus: by grace have ye been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not of works, that no man should glory. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works." (Ephesians 2:5-10).
By faith He did all the work that is necessary for the Recreation of the whole body of Christ.
By the Father's faith we were New Creations in the Resurrection of Jesus.
When He said that He made us to sit down with Him at the right hand of the Majesty on High, do you realize what that meant? That when Jesus paid the price the Father's faith saw us perfect conquerors, perfect victors, enthroned by the side of His own Son at His own right hand.
I’ll tell you, that was faith!
I have faith in my Father's faith, that this is made good in me. Now you can understand 2 Corinthians 5:17-21.
"Wherefore if any man is in Christ, there is a new creation." The moment you accept Christ. You are in the New Creation. "The old things are passed away." This is the experimental part of it. "Behold, they are become new. But all things are of God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and gave unto us the ministry of reconciliation." This is the ministry of reconciliation for this world, that was redeemed from the hand of the enemy, but the world does not know it.
The Redemption is of no value to them as long as they are ignorant of it.
They cannot enter into those riches until we tell them.
Today God is not reckoning unto the world their trespasses. He has committed unto us the Word that is to reconcile them to the fact that they have been recreated in Christ Jesus in His substitutionary work.
All they have to do is accept Him as their Savior and confess Him as their Lord, and they enter into this new thing called the New Creation.
We are ambassadors with this new marvelous message of Grace.
We are saying to men, "Be ye reconciled to God—all you need to do is come to Him. He is waiting for you."
Eternal Life is yours. Fellowship with Him and relationship all awaits you. Hear what He says to climax it.
"Him who knew no sin, God made to become sin." Doesn't that break your heart? Doesn't that cause your heart to respond to a love like that? He was made sin to the end that you might become the Righteousness of God in Him.
This is masterful. You are led out of failure and weakness and sin, and Satanic relationship, into the New Creation where you have become partakers of the divine nature, actual sons of God.
God has made you Righteous so you can stand in His presence just as though you had never been a sinner, just as though sin has never soiled you.
You stand there complete in Christ.
This belongs to you. This is your legal right, and you can receive it yourself. If you believe in the finished work of Christ in you, and you believe in all God has done for you, it is yours; but it is not yours experimentally until you accept Him as your Savior and confess Him as your Lord.
You believe in your own rights in Christ. Then you are a conqueror.
Romans 8:14-17 gives us an insight into sonship rights and privileges. "For as many as are led by the spirit of God, these are the sons of God."
You have become a son. You have received not the spirit of bondage again unto fear. You have been delivered out of that. You have received the spirit of adoption. You are crying now, "Father, my dear Father."
The Holy Spirit Himself is bearing witness with your spirit through the Word that you are a child of God.
If you are a child, then you are an heir of God, and a joint- heir with Jesus Christ.
You see, you are taking your place now. You are responding to His challenge.
Romans 8:31-39 is the climax of this mighty truth. "What then shall we say to these things, (that I have given to you?)"
"If God is for us, who is against us?" God is for us. He is our Father now. "He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not also with him freely give us all things?"
How shall He not give to us as a Father, all that belongs to us as a son's inheritance, a son's rights in Christ?
Who shall lay anything to our charge now? We are God's elect. It is God who has declared us Righteous.
It is God who has made us Righteous. It is God who declared He is our Righteousness in Christ.
Now to climax it, Jesus is seated at the Father's right hand as our great Intercessor, Advocate, and Lord in the highest seat of the universe, the head of the body, the New Creation.
The New Creation is seated there with Him. No one can bring a charge against us. No one can conquer us.
Then He gives us a category of all the things that Satan can do against a man. Romans 8:31-37: "What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not also with him freely give us all things? Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth; who is he that condemneth? It is Christ Jesus that died, yes rather, that was raised from the dead, who is at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or anguish, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Even as it is written, For your sake we are killed all the day long; We were accounted as sheep for the slaughter."
Then he shouts this: "No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us."
We stand complete in His completeness. We are victors in His own victory.
NOT WHAT WE SHOULD BE-
BUT WHAT WE ARE NOW IN CHRIST!
The modern Christian does not object to my telling what they need, or my telling what they should do or be, but they can't understand me when I tell them what they are in Christ. They think I am bringing a new philosophy, a beautiful error, that will lead them astray.
I remember when I first saw this, I said, "If this were only true;" and then I said, "If I knew how to make it mine."
I didn't know that it was mine.
I didn't know that "He had blessed me with every spiritual blessing in Christ" and when I read it, it didn't register.
I remember I Corinthians 3:21 where He declares that all things are mine, whether the revelation was given to Paul, or Cephas, or Apollos, it was mine.
That everything that the Father worked in Christ in His great Substitution belongs to the individual believer.
It makes no difference whether the believer is educated or uneducated; whether he is rich or poor, the boundless grace unveiled in Christ, belongs to everyone of us.
Philippians 4:13 is absolutely ours: "I can do all things in him who strengtheneth me."
That is mine.
I can do anything that is necessary to be done because of His ability that has been imparted to me.
Psalms 27:1: "Jehovah is my light and my salvation; Whom shall I fear? Jehovah is the strength of my life; Of whom shall I be afraid?"
Note that carefully: "Jehovah is my light." That is wisdom.
He is my ability to use the knowledge of what belongs to me.
Now I am able to take advantage of what the Epistles tell me belongs to me.
He is not only my ability, but my salvation, my deliverance, my redemption.
I am as free from Satan's dominion in the mind of the Father as Jesus was when He arose from the dead, because His Resurrection has freed me
I have become a partaker of His Resurrection the moment I become a New Creation. Col. 3:1: "If then you were partakers of Christ's Resurrection." (Conybeare)
The ability of God that was exercised in the resurrection of Jesus belongs to the believer today.
Notice Ephesians 1:19-20. Let me give you a somewhat free translation: "I want to show you what the exceeding greatness of the ability of God on our behalf who believe. It is according; to the working of the strength of his might which he wrought: in the Christ when he raised him from the dead and made him sit at his right hand."
We have never grasped the significance of this.
The Father has given to us the ability that He exercised in the resurrection of Jesus.
Then we who have received Eternal Life, have in our possession today the resurrection power or ability of God.
I am convinced that before the Master returns, there will be groups of men and women who will recognize this and take their place and begin to show to the world a type of supernatural ability that will startle a sense-knowledge ruled world.
It is no idle thing to have God in you.
One day it seemed as though He were questioning me. He said, "Have I been so diminished, have I become so small and so weak and ineffectual that you can ignore Me?
He said, "The God who raised Jesus from the dead is dwelling in you and He has lost none of His ability or power."
When He enters your life to dwell there. He doesn't lay aside His glory and Majesty and might.
When God's Son took upon Him the garment of flesh, He laid aside some of His glory.
But when the Holy Spirit comes into you, He comes full-fledged. He is the same mighty Holy Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead.
Romans 8:11: "And if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwelleth in you, he that raised up Christ Jesus from the dead shall give life to your death-doomed bodies."
I like that translation. It is vivid. It is true.
Then I want you to begin to count on Him. I want you to say in the morning, "That mighty One is in me. He can put me over today. I can face any emergency. I can do all things in Him because He is my strength."
I can hear Him whisper, Isaiah 41:10: "Fear thou not for I am with you. ("I am in thee.") Be not dismayed for I am your (Father) God. I will strengthen you; yea, I will uphold you; yes, I am today all that you need: your helper, your wisdom, your strength, your ability."
You see, it is not what I should be. It is not what I can be.
It is what I am in Christ.
We are not trying to be righteous; we are.
We are not trying to be strong, for God is the strength of our life.
We are not trying to be wise, because Jesus has been made wisdom unto us.
We are what He says we are, so we can do what He says we can do.
GOD’S SUPERMAN
Jesus uttered some prophetic facts about believers.
Matthew 19:26: "But nothing shall be impossible unto God."
Jesus is uttering a fact, and here is its compliment: Matthew 17:21: "And nothing shall be impossible unto you."
Take this with Mark 11:24: "Therefore, I say unto you, All things whatsoever ye pray and ask for, believe that ye have received them, and ye shall have them."
Or take Mark 9:23: "All things are possible to him that believeth."
The word "believeth" means "a believing one."
There were no "believing ones" in the time while Christ, was preaching. They were Jews under law.
The "believing ones" came into being at Pentecost.
It meant a believer, a New Creation Man.
The new creation man is a partaker of God's nature.
He is really an Incarnation. He has received the nature and life of God.
Then he invites the Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead, who came on the day of Pentecost, to make His home in his body.
This man not only has God's nature, but has God actually living in him.
If this doesn't constitute a superman, then I don't know what a superman is.
But I am going to carry you one step farther.
This man with God's nature, and God dwelling in him, is given a legal right to the use of the Name of Jesus with the power
of attorney.
The question is: What is that Name worth? What authority is there back of it?
Matthew 28:18-20 Jesus said: "All authority hath been given me in heaven and on earth. Go you therefore, (with this authority) and make disciples, (or students), of all the nations; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the age."
You see what we have now?
We have the power of attorney to use the Name of Jesus; and all authority in heaven and on earth is invested in that Name.
Go over it just once more.
The believer is a new creation. The old things of weakness and failure have passed away and behold the old man has become a new man and all these things are of God. (2 Corinthians 5:17.)
This man is a partaker of the divine nature, Eternal Life.
"He that hath the Son hath the life."
He has the Son—he has the life.
Now he has the Holy Spirit indwelling him. "Greater is he that is in me than he that is in the world."
This believer, this new creation, is a child of Deity.
He stands before the world as a very branch of the vine.
He is taking Jesus' place in the world.
And if this isn't a superman, then I don't know the meaning of the term.
The Church has kept this "Samson" imprisoned by false teachings and by creeds and doctrines. They have not only held him a prisoner to their philosophies and dogmas, but they have actually put out his eyes.
But the Father is going to restore sight to him and break the bonds that hold him.
The bonds of false teaching are going to be broken, and this child of God, this superman, is going to come into his own.
He has two formidable enemies. The worst one is Sense Knowledge. (Read, "Two Kinds of Knowledge.")
Entrenched in all our universities, colleges and technical schools, backed up by the press and religious periodicals, the great mass of the ministry are the devotees of the achievements of the Senses in the realm called Science.
And this superman in Christ has been held in bondage by them. They are the jailers.
The Father is calling for His sons and daughters to come out of the foxholes of fear and doubt, and meet their enemies in open combat.
Satan can no more conquer this body of Christ when it knows its rights, than he could conquer Jesus on the day of the Resurrection.
We are partakers, sharers in His Resurrection.
Hear Weymouth, Col. 3:1: "If then ye have shared in Messiah's resurrection."
You see, we were raised together with Him in the mind of Justice.
We possess resurrection ability.
You doubt it? Read Acts 1:8: "But ye shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you."
The word "power" comes from the word "dunamis."
Young translates it "ability." "Ye shall receive ability when the Holy Spirit has recreated you."
Ephesians 3:20:1 have given you this Scripture several times in this book: "Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that you ask or think, according to the power (or ability) that abides in you."
If that doesn't make supermen out of common men, then the English language cannot convey God's thought.
The problem is this: How long are we going to be held in bondage by Sense Knowledge?
How long are we going to refuse to take our place as the sons of God?
How long are we going to be intimidated by the fears and doctrines of men, while the Word of God is ignored?
To them, it is a root out of dry ground. To most of the people it has been a useless vine, something they could hang their doctrines and creeds upon.
It is coming to be to us what it really is in the mind of the Father.
Here is the Spirit's challenge: that you who read this, take your rights in prayer!
Begin to act like sons and daughters of God.
You have all heaven back of you.
You have the very angelic forces to do your bidding.
God is your strength and ability.
All things are possible to you because you are daring to act on the Word of God.
You are daring to live as Jesus dared to live in His earth walk.
You are the righteousness of God—that makes you a master of Satan; that gives you access to the throne; that permits you to take your place as a victor, as a spirit-warrior, as a conqueror.
You can have the consciousness that you are taking Jesus' place.
2 Corinthians 2:1 is becoming a reality in your own life: "Thank God it is he who everywhere leads me in Messiah's triumph procession. By me he sends abroad through me in every land the knowledge of Jesus. The incense is of his triumphal march." (Way's Trans.) And you can shout, Yes, I am Messiah's incense uplifted to God in the sight of all.
I am a master in His Name, with His ability.
I can do what He planned the Church should do, for I am what lie says I am.
GOD'S REAL MAN
Spiritual things are as real as material things.
Spiritual forces are stronger than mental.
Spiritual forces govern disease.
Spiritual forces govern natural laws.
Satan caused the wind on the Sea of Galilee. Jesus caused it to be still.
The believer in his contact with material, spiritual and mental forces, is as Jesus was in His earth walk—He is a Master.
The believer is a new creation, created by God Himself.
He has God's nature, Eternal Life.
Jesus is made unto him wisdom.
God is his strength.
The Holy Spirit is his ability.
He has the love nature of God so that he does not and cannot act like common men.
Love makes him like Jesus.
He has the mind of Christ and the ability that Christ had in His earth walk.
This makes him a superman.
God gave to him a legal right to the use of Jesus' Name which has all authority in heaven and on earth; which has authority over all the laws of nature, over every demon and his work, over all spiritual forces as well as material.
That authority and that ability belongs to the believer.
The recreated man is supernatural.
He is a superman.
Then why live in the senses, seeing, hearing, feeling, tasting and smelling?
All the knowledge natural man has, came through these channels to his brain.
We have Revelation knowledge.
What men of faith this truth will make!
What men of prayer will arise and take their place in Christ!
Here is the foundation on which to build a Prayer Life.
Questions
1. How does this author define “Grace”?
Answer:
2. God laid upon Him our iniquity. How did God do that?
Answer: "
3. By faith God recreated us in the Recreation of Christ when Jesus was made Alive after He had been made Sin; in that Recreation was our Recreation. What is our part?
Answer:
4. The ministry of reconciliation for this world that was redeemed from the hand of the enemy, but the world does not know it. The Redemption is of no value to them as long as they are ignorant of it. How does that affect us?
Answer:
5. In the section “NOT WHAT WE SHOULD BE-BUT WHAT WE ARE NOW IN CHRIST!” go back over it and pick out at least 3 things that stand out as important to you.
6.How is God’s Superman” described?
Answer:
7. This “Superman” has two formidable enemies. What are they.
Answer:
8. What four things does “God’s Real Man” understand?
Answer:
9. What is the foundation on which to build a Prayer Life?
Answer: