Resurrection Unto Newness Of Life

If we have become united with him by the likeness of his death, we shall be also by the likeness of his resurrection (Rom. 6:5).

Now with resurrection the figure is different because something new is introduced. I am "baptized into his death", but I do not enter in quite the same way into His resurrection, for, Praise the Lord! His resurrection enters into me, imparting to me a new life. In the death of the Lord the emphasis is solely upon 'I in Christ'. With the resurrection, while the same thing is true, there is now a new emphasis upon 'Christ in me'. How is it possible for Christ to communicate His resurrection life to me? How do I receive this new life? Paul suggests, I think, a very good illustration with these very same words: "united with him". For the word 'united' (A.V. 'planted together') may carry in the Greek the sense of 'grafted'[6] and it gives us a very beautiful picture of the life of Christ which is imparted to us through resurrection.

In Fukien I once visited a man who owned an orchard of long-ien[7] trees. He had three or four acres of land and about three hundred fruit trees. I inquired if his trees had been grafted or if they were of the original native stock. 'Do you think', he replied, 'that I would waste my land growing ungrafted trees? What value could I ever expect from the old stock?

So I asked him to explain the process of grafting, which he gladly did. 'When a tree has grown to a certain height', he said, 'I lop off the top and graft on to it.' Pointing to a special tree he asked, 'Do you see that tree? I call it the father tree, because all the grafts for the other trees are taken from that one. If the other trees were just left to follow the course of nature, their fruit would be only about the size of a raspberry, and would consist mainly of thick skin and seeds. This tree, from which the grafts for all the others are taken, bears a luscious fruit the size of a plum, with very thin skin and a tiny seed; and of course all the grafted trees bear fruit like it.' 'How does it happen?' I asked. 'I simply take a little of the nature of the one tree and transfer it to the other', he explained. 'I make a cleavage in the poor tree and insert a slip from the good one. Then I bind it up and leave it to grow.' 'But how can it grow?' I asked. 'I don't know', he said, 'but it does grow.'

Then he showed me a tree bearing miserably poor fruit from the old stock below the graft, and rich juicy fruit from the new stock above the graft. 'I have left the old shoots with their useless fruit on them to show the difference', he said. 'From it you can understand the value of grafting. You can appreciate, can you not, why I grow only grafted trees?'

How can one tree bear the fruit of another? How can a poor tree bear good fruit? Only by grafting. Only by our implanting into it the life of a good tree. But if a man can graft a branch of one tree into another, cannot God take of the life of His Son and, so to speak, graft it into us?

God has done everything. There is only one fruitful life in the world and that has been grafted into millions of other lives. We call this the 'new birth'. New birth is the reception of a life which I did not possess before. It is not that my natural life has been changed at all; it is that another life, a life altogether new, altogether Divine, has become my life.............

God has cut off the old creation by the Cross of His Son in order to bring in a new creation in Christ by resurrection. He has shut the door to that old kingdom of darkness and translated me into the kingdom of His dear Son. My glorying is in the fact that it has been done -- that, through the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ , that old world has " been crucified unto me, and I unto the world"

(Excerpted from "The Normal Christian Life", Watchman Nee, pages 71-74)

First called "Christians" in Antioch!

By: Tripp Campbell

(repost)

Since the Church was birthed on Pentecost, many have only embraced a Historical Jesus versus The Indwelling presence of the "Anointed One." In-"Christ" (Christos-Anointed One)

Interestingly enough, The Disciples were first called "Christians" in Antioch............................Why?

It is well known that Saul, who was later to be called Paul, spent (14) fourteen years in Tarsus developing his trade as a (tentmaker). Moreover, as Saul was growing in a practical sense, he also was being given/ministered to, by the Holy Spirit a far deeper Revelation, which would ultimately change the World.

You may ask, well, what was this great "Revelation"? Listen to Paul's own words inspired by God in His Epistle to the Church of Ephesus.

For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles-- if indeed you have heard of the stewardship of God's grace which was given to me for you; that by revelation there was made known to me the mystery, as I wrote before in brief. By referring to this, when you read you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit; to be specific, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel, of which I was made a minister, according to the gift of God's grace which was given to me according to the working of His power. To me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Christ, and to bring to light what is the administration of the mystery which for ages has been hidden in God who created all things; so that the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places. This was in accordance with the eternal purpose which He carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and confident access through faith in Him. (Eph. 3:1-12) nasb

Again, what is this mystery?

I was made a minister according to the stewardship from God bestowed on me for your benefit, so that I might fully carry out the preaching of the word of God, that is, the mystery which has been hidden from the past ages and generations, but has now been manifested to His saints, to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in me/you, the hope of glory. (Col.1:25-27)nasb

Now, Saul/Paul, after (14) fourteen years, was hunted by Barnabas and brought from Tarsus to Antioch. And it was here, that a large number of people assembled over the course of a year, and Paul ministered this New found Mystery, which had now been revealed which is Christ In Me,the hope of Glory..............................and in Antioch the Disciples were first called "Christians" (Christ- In- Ones).

(It is my prayer, that "all" will begin to embrace,the Reality of Christ-In me, versus the Historical Jesus of the past, and the word "Christians" will be known,as it was known in Antioch... Amen)

Born From Above!

(Repost)

By Tripp Campbell

"We know that no one who is born of God sins; but He who was born of God keeps him, and the evil one does not touch him."
1Jo 5:18

Lately, I have been in many discussions with those who are still eclipsed within the confines of "sin/death." What they have failed to realize is that those who are born from above sinneth not. Somehow, many have bought into a mentality that they can please/displease God by their actions/inaction. Generally,what so many have missed, is that by their beliefs/understanding, they have now raised an illusionary Standard, something that can be measured, in order to relate to God.

I have found that in my personal walk every time I begin to relate to God by "Doing", within a short period of time my energy and ability begin to wane and I find myself devoid of Hope/Life. You see, "Hope deferred makes the heart sick, But desire fulfilled is a tree of life........" Moreover, as I have begun to rest in the Finished work of the Cross, everything begins to abound. It is not that my "life" is without challenges, it has many, but now it is centered in the only "Life" available to a believer, Jesus Christ. No longer do I live in the illusion of Doing for God, by the works of the Law which ultimately leads to death, but I continue to embrace "fullness" which already has been so gloriously provided for, In-Christ Jesus!

Rom 5:17-21 "If death got the upper hand through one man's wrongdoing, can you imagine the breathtaking recovery life makes, sovereign life, in those who grasp with both hands this wildly extravagant life-gift, this grandsetting-everything-right, that the one man Jesus Christ provides? Here it is in a nutshell: Just as one person did it wrong and got us in all this trouble with sin and death, another person did it right and got us out of it. But more than just getting us out of trouble, he got us into life! One man said no to God and put many people in the wrong; one man said yes to God and put many in the right. All that passing laws against sin did was produce more lawbreakers. But sin didn't, and doesn't, have a chance in competition with the aggressive forgiveness we call grace. When it's sin versus grace, grace wins hands down. All sin can do is threaten us with death, and that's the end of it. Grace, because God is putting everything together again through the Messiah, invites us into life--a life that goes on and on and on, world without end." (msg)