THE CLIMAX OF CHRISTIAN TRUTH. In the revealed fact that believers are married to the Son of God—Christ glorified in Heaven yet living in us — we have reached the high-water mark of teaching in the book of Romans. All that precedes leads up to, all that follows flows from, this marvelous fact. Married to Christ! Ours is His name and nature. We share His past triumphs, His present life, His future glory. The Father has taken the hand of His only-begotten Son and the hand of His newly-begotten child, and joined them together “for time and eternity.” Is there a man unmoved by these tremendous facts? Is there a believer so weak as to be unwilling to live up to such a gracious and glorious relationship? Married, not to an earl or duke, a prince or king of earth; but to the greatest, grandest person in all the universe. My brother, if you will let it, it will transform your life, as it has many other’s. Henceforth for you “to live is Christ.”
A NEW STANDARD OF CONDUCT. Not an external standard to live up to (law) but an inward Presence to please. Not an impersonal deciding of right and wrong; but a personal doing of His will. Life has found a new center, a new sphere, a new circumference. It is all “in Him,” occupied with Him, satisfied with pleasing Him. Does it make a difference? Yes, and the difference is this: Let a man, unmarried, spend his evenings at the pool hall. It is merely a question of the right or wrong of playing pool. But let him become married. If he continues as before, the question is no longer the wrong of pool-playing, but why he does not love his wife sufficiently to prefer her above the pool.
“Jesus saith to him, Lovest thou Me more than these?” (John 21:15.) “For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that one died for all, therefore all died; and He died for all, that they that live should no longer live unto themselves, but unto Him who for their sakes died and rose again” (2 Cor. 5:14, 15)
from "His Salvation as Set Forth in the book of Romans" by Norman B. Harrison
-Daniel |
