STANDING AND STATE

Our "STANDING" is that of a SON. John 1:12-13. I John 3:1-2. And we are a "SON" NOW. I John 3:2. And this "Sonship" makes us "HEIRS." Rom. 8:17. And this "Heirship" guarantees our PRESERVATION. I Pet. 1:4-5; John 3:16; John 6:39. And no man shall be able to pluck us out of our Father's hand (John 10:27-29), for we are "Sealed" unto the Day of Redemption. Eph. 4:30, and our "Life" is HID WITH CHRIST IN GOD. Col. 3:3.

But while our "STANDING" is SETTLED and SURE, our "STATE" is VARIABLE. This is owing to the fact that after our our "New Birth" we have "TWO NATURES," where before we had but one. We do not lose the "Old Adam," or "Flesh Nature," when we receive the "New Adam" or "Spiritual Nature." For that which was born of the "Flesh" is STILL FLESH, and only that which is born of the "Holy Spirit" is "SPIRIT." John 3:6. This explains the "SPIRITUAL WARFARE" so vividly portrayed by the Apostle Paul in Rom. 7:14-25. This was the Apostle's own experience after his conversion, and reveals the fact that the believer has a DUAL NATURE, and he is sinful or sinless according to which nature is uppermost, for that which is "born of God" in him, his "Spiritual Nature," cannot sin. I John 3:9. As to "Experience," the believer may be in any one of three places.

(1) He may be in EGYPT, the "Type of the World." The Children of Israel were SAFE in Egypt the moment they sprinkled the "BLOOD" of the "Passover Lamb" on their doorposts. So the believer is SAFE, or SAVED, the moment he applies the Blood of Christ by faith to his soul, though he may in experience be still living in Egypt a type of the world.

(2) He may be in the WILDERNESS, the "Type of the Flesh." But as to experience living on the Egyptian side of the wilderness, longing for the leeks, onions and garlic of his old Egyptian Life, and murmuring, restless and unfruitful, fearing to return to Egypt, and yet not happy in his Christian life.

(3) He may be in CANAAN, a type of the "Rest of Faith." but fighting for the possession of the land against the Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, Perizzites, Girgashites, Amorites, and Jebusites of his soul. Joshua 3:10.

The scriptures mention three ways in which the believer may overcome the Flesh.

(1) By AMPUTATION.    Matt. 18:8-9.

(2) By MORTIFICATION.    Rom. 8:13; Col. 3:5-10.

(3) By LIMITATION.    Heb. 12:1.

From what has been said we see that our "Fellowship" with the Father may be broken, but our RELATIONSHIP never. I John 1:3, 7.

There  is a vast difference between a "SINNER'S SIN" and a "BELIEVER'S SINS." Not that God does not hate both alike, the believers it may be the most because he sins with greater light, but the difference is not in the SIN, but in the way GOD TREATS IT.

Here is a father who sends his son and his hired servant to do a piece of work. They are lazy and inefficient, and do not do the work. He bears with them, and tries them again, but it is no use. His son and his servant are good for nothing, his son perhaps the worse of the two. Now what does he do? He discharges the servant. He puts him out of the house. He will have nothing more to do with him. But does he discharge his son? Does he send him away from the house? Does he disinherit him? Nothing of the kind. He may rebuke him, cut off his allowance, punish him worse than he punished the servant, but he will not send him away because he is his son. We see then that "Sonship" is a REAL THING. Is "Sonship" make it safer for me to sin? Oh, NO! It simply gives me the blessed privilege of having an Advocate, and since it is inevitable that I will sin, it is better to sin as a SON than as an unbeliever.



          THE ATONEMENT WAS FOR YOU!!!!

"He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and the world knew Him not. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father), full of grace and truth." (John 1:10, 14).




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