In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of understanding that as Christians, we are not meant to live the Christian life on our own. Instead, we are containers for Christ to live through us. Many Christians struggle and feel defeated because they try to live the Christian life in their own strength. The speaker encourages listeners to recognize that it is Christ who must live the Christian life in and through us. This is achieved through a union with Christ, allowing His nature to be expressed in and through us.

Week 6, Program 1. This is David Ord with today's Union Life broadcast. God is the chief executive in his kingdom, and he doesn't live by a book of rules or by a manual. He lives according to what he is. He loves, for example, not because a code of ethics tells him to love, not because he feels he ought to love, but because he is loved. Now that's what God desires to bring about in us. We're to be like him, like Christ. And how? Not by copying him and trying to be like him, but by actual union with him so that what he is will be expressed in and through us. So we partake of, as Peter said, we express his divine nature. Now how is this accomplished in us? How do we reach this? How can mortal man become an expression of Christ himself? Well, we're in a series of broadcasts which we've entitled, Who Am I? And our guest on this series of programs, to explain it to us, is a man who wrote the book by that title, Who Am I?, Norman Grubb. And we're talking now about the replaced life, and we've been considering together the way that we did express Satan's nature, because he manifested his life through us, but now we express the nature of Christ because he has become our replaced life. Norman? Norman, can you tell us, how is it that a person gets into a real grasp of their union with Christ and really knowing who they are? How does this become real to them? Because life isn't grasping, it's being grasped. And the fact is we're all spontaneous whether we know it or not. We didn't know that we were spontaneous expressions of the spirit of error and operating on his self-centered, self-interested ways of life. We just did it. We didn't even know it. We were, as it were, tempted by the spirit of God to do a few good things, but we merely responded to a momentary temptation and came back to who we were, self to self. Now the question is, how do we therefore find ourselves as equally spontaneous as expressions of Christ in his self-giving life, as we were aware of Satan in his self-centered life, his self-loving life? We were talking on our last talk on the redemption basis to this being a reality. And that was that Jesus Christ not only bore our sins, which were a product, but when he was made sin, sin is the spirit of error expressed through the human body. Therefore when his buddy Harold Calvary, the Bible says God made him to be sinned, in other words he was in God's own sight. God made him as if he were Satan expressed through all human bodies. And the point of that is, when the body does die, out goes the spirit. So the mindlessness of the body death of Jesus Christ, the burial of Christ was a demonstration out of God from that by representing our bodies as the spirit of error. And in the resurrection it came in, in the place of spirit of error, the spirit of truth. Now the point is, how did this become as spontaneous to us, Christ living his life by us, as it was spontaneous to us, Satan living his life by us? Now the first thing the Bible tells us is he gives us fact in the Bible, which in our minds and hearts we can recognize except. That's why he gives us this fact in Romans 6. In his dying he died to sin. In his precious blood he died for our sins. In his body death he died as to which made the spirit of error, which is Satan, who is Mr. Sin, went out. And in the resurrection his spirit came in. And there it says when you see that as a given fact, that is in the scripture, that it gives us an historical explanation of what he went through on our behalf, you reckon that. It says reckon it. Reckon means against appearances. You don't look at yourself and say well what about my deviations and weaknesses. That's not the point at the moment. He says it so, you say so. You don't feel it. It doesn't seem to be honest. It doesn't seem to be real. He says it, say it. That's what the Bible calls the obedience of faith. We make a big fuss about works of obedience don't get you there. You don't obey by reading the Bible or obey by praying or you obey in the end. It may come through the reading of the Bible and praying, but by believing means you you have inwardly said that's what I am. Obedience of faith is obeying, saying in faith what he says you are. And saying in faith, if he said reckon yourself dead under sin, alive under God's holy name Jesus Christ, I say I say so. It's all appearance, it's all feeling, that's because he says so. Of course by heart I wouldn't be interested. So I take that line. Now you don't live by reckoning, you live by realizing. I mean by that if you if you hold up say a book in your hand and you say to a person I reckon I've got a book in my hand, you say what's the matter with you? Well you won't say why do you reckon? Don't you know it's a book in your hand? What's wrong with you? Why do you put the word reckoning? Reckoning means you're not quite sure it is. So because you're not quite sure, I reckon I have a book in my hand. Of course you don't say I've got a book in my hand. In other words that's realizing. Then spontaneous I've got a book in my hand. So now in this case this doesn't become spontaneous fact until the reckoning I reckon that I'm crucified with Christ and Christ is me and I am. Something's got to happen in between the two. And this this is the the the phase in which our our faith in in this on this total level becomes fact. Our faith has become a fact concerning our sins level that shatters all from God sets us on the road to damnation. That went out and that's become a fact as we said by our process of believing which means the spirit of God came back and confirmed by the inner witness which is in our inner substance to us. Yes you are delivered. So we rest from the fact that we're saved by grace and free and so on. Now we have to move into another process of faith by which it becomes equally real to us that not only are sins forgiven but we're not really we at all that our humanity now is an expression of the living it's a living person in us living spirit living Christ living father operating by us and in spontaneous religion which we just be it and that's a fact. Now that that doesn't take place until we have had a shall I say a a revolutionary shake up on on on on the self-life because that's where we're to be selves that's the whole point ourselves to be a spontaneous representation representation of himself. Now therefore the self-life is the point now we said all along our problems our self-life we we were deceived in thinking there's a certain amount which we had which we run by self-effort uh self-action independence we should explain that but that's what satan lied to us he used this for self-independence self and caused us to think well we really are expressing him. So we have to go through a phase um it comes in every christian life it's put in the bible after romans 6. Romans 6 if you reckon yourself that Romans 7 said I don't know yet hadn't worked out yet Romans 7 it didn't work out and Romans 8 Romans 8 you move it it does work out so Romans 7 here is our where we're sending our attention and that's where until we have some hard knocks we can't get away from our compulsive idea of course I run my life haven't I that's all my life of course I'm responsible of course I can't fight my battles of course I have my failures I I I I as if I was independent which is a lie that's a lie there's no such thing as independence there cannot be it's not an existence so it's only a branch expressing whichever vine it is or the vessel express with whatever whichever the living or dead waters in it or a temple which god's in it so is the agency or body which is operating um so there isn't such a thing as independence it's a lie we don't know it's a lie so we have to go through a phase uh when we're dissatisfied because we think we should be better we think we shouldn't collapse in those sins and have these hates and fears and lusts and and dislikes and worries and concern all those those are or or um failure has the power of god the peace of god and the love of god we ought to have all those different or to's or to's or to's we've got to go through a phase um when we gradually become disgusted with ourselves maybe disillusioned with ourselves and uh self-condemning and hide it because we ought to be different we almost always see it in folks at meetings but when they hear victory yes they i'm they i'm not like that i'm not like that uh i oughtn't have the these these these these sex appetites or i don't i oughtn't have my my jealousy of the people i oughtn't be worried or then i said what i do underneath i hide it but i do i don't want to i thought i do so i've got a center it shows you our faces you saw the guilt it's all right to talk there but it's honest underneath i don't live like that now the the the says i think i ought i ought to live that's my snare not that i don't live but i think i ought to live is my life that's the lie and therefore well i think i i ought to uh as you see truth to spare i ought not to uh express these these fresh uh um activities uh i'm condemning myself now i've got to come to revelation i'm not that i'm not meant to now that's a revelation and we have to face the fact most of our churches and most of our teachers live give us the ought to life that's why the bible says a very profound thing in roman certainty says you're dead to the law but we're not dead to the law until we got this thing clear the law came to show me up not to make me right to show i'm wrong we said in the earlier teachings how the law came to show i'd committed sin not you had that you didn't commit them but you did commit them the law by the law came the knowledge of my sins i had done these things that brought me to see my knee in jesus christ now here says i'm i did the law i'm not dead to the law while i think i ought to now see in the old life and i've the law said you didn't now it says you can't now that's pretty deep because i've told i can i've taught for the whole life as i do it why i should i should keep this bond to god i should pray i should my whole church life i should keep my my church duties i should be decent in the home i should my whole life is built on this it's a lie so the law quietly says i'm here to show you not only you didn't but you can't now why can't i you see uh here's a uh i can't uh if i've settled in uh to take a further explanation uh if i've settled in uh to a inner reality that i'm not living my life but the deity is living it and that deity is changed and the new deity living life is jesus christ living his life but i've got to know that spontaneously not just threatening i've got to know it no i don't know it i don't know it because i never knew it was satan living in me that's why he tricked me that's why the bible says he deceived me i didn't know he lived in me i thought he influenced me i thought well i'm i said it was he lived in me so you see the interesting thing of self-dependence is a lie isn't that fulfilling my duties is a lie and we're going to be picking right up on this subject in tomorrow's broadcast we're on the same station five days a week at the same time you've been listening to our guests for this series of programs who am i norman grubb now we'd like to give you a booklet of norman's called the key to everything it was published by moody press we want to send it to you free of charge if you write to 4606 lamar avenue memphis tennessee 38118 or call area code 901-795-0121 that's 901-795-0121 the address again in just a moment mentioned the booklet the key to everything there's no charge no request for money until next time this is david ord program two this is david ord with today's union life broadcast paul of tarsus came to a tremendously profound realization when he said i have been put to death with christ on his cross so that it is no longer i who live but it is christ who lives in me this life he said that i now live i live by faith in the son of god who loved me and gave his life for me paul had begun to experience a way of life the very heartbeat of which was no longer himself but christ the whole motivation for all of his life the impulse for all he accomplished was christ living through him paul knew who he was now we're in a series of broadcasts which we've entitled who am i and one of the most important things any of us can come to understand is who we are in christ a man who wrote a book by the title who am i was norman grubb norman is with us in the series of programs and we've been talking about the replaced life and we're discussing at the present time how a person comes to an awareness of who they are in christ norman i want to ask you you began to talk in the last program about the whole subject of reckoning just what is the right kind of biblical reckoning well biblical reckoning is a it's a first stage to realizing that all faith is that um when i say i go to a person's home i i reckon i'm going to that home faith is caught to me when i'm there i realize i'm there so reckoning is the first stage uh moving into realizing because the realizing doesn't come from the faith it comes from the object when i say i'll i'll go to that home the realization doesn't come from i go it comes from the home and there the home says here you are you're in my home so reckoning is my relationship to something and the realizing is something because that's my relationship to you i've got you yeah this is the fact now the food is yours the home is yours whatever it is the difference between reckoning and realizing i take to be that and that's why we can't live a reckoning reckoning you live by realizing and um probably on a new birth level we've known that because usually the realizing comes pretty quick not always there are those who don't great many i say um when you have moved in uh know your sin condition and you receive jesus christ my faith back oh i am we don't i hope i am now realizing i don't have i believe i am oh i am christ is my savior i am forgiven i've moved quickly from reckoning to realization usually so quick now that's because of our problem isn't really my past sins in my future destiny it's my present self and i had to be forever a present self i'd live forever in the now there's no other text except for now in the end eternity is really now now now now now that's all it is that's why jesus says take no thought for anything else from today that's all you're living and so the real answer isn't that my past sins are out and my future is assured but my present life that's what isn't right so i'm not pertaining to my present as i am but my past is and my future destiny and that's what we're discussing now uh and you i i can't i can't find that spontaneity um till i've got it clear where the self fit in the spontaneity that's my problem my problem isn't christ didn't christ swore me across him it's me i don't seem to fit where i seem to go wrong where do i know i i don't fit and the importance that is life is mean operating see uh um in the relationship between a universal and its way of expression it's it's only explicit through it it's it's it's for it's it's seen through its form the forms in the foreground god didn't in foreground his creation in foreground and a light is in the lamp is in the foreground lamp through the lamp light expresses itself now the trouble therefore the point is we humans are to be in the foreground so we've got the right type of humans if we to be spontaneous god expressions god then is a background expresses his humanity expresses himself his deity through that humanity like unknown to me satan's expresses his deity through my humanity that's why i didn't know so my problem remains how uh self-exposure that's this chapter in romans romans 7 and my trouble is i've been deceived into thinking that self-effort is rather respectable and what i can say the worst thing is self-effort now i think the worst thing is lying or hating or fearing or no no no the self there are forms of self-effort really there are forms of of independent self uh my don't think about my independent self it fits in it does these things hates and fears and lusts and so on my trouble isn't the isn't the product it's my main problem is it's self-effort independent self that's my sin now that's what romans 7 uh shows you uh sin is uh try my best i think i ought to be better accepting condemnation of myself that's my sin my sin isn't it i did that lucifer temple or i did do that's not the sin that's just a detail the thing is i think i'm supposed to shouldn't do that that's the point that's why romans 7 says you're not true to the law because the law will remain while you've got a wrong perceptive yourself the law came to say you think you're right no you're not keep the commandments you couldn't until you found your lost sinner got saved now it says the law comes again yeah yeah you think you're right no you're not because you think you think you can not not then you you you thought you that you you thought you couldn't that you didn't do it now you can't do it you look and you can't till you can you can't and your sin is i can so my worst sins i can that's very subtle because all churches think you want to all church you want to pray you want to keep the bible you want her to do so and so and then it's built on the false consumption so our churches teach us wrongly and so it's very difficult to get wrong our very churches show are really continuous in the basic sin the basic sin is what sin dwells in me is self-centeredness in me it's self-reliance dwelling in me it it may take this form but i hate or do that that's just detail the sin is uh that uh i i i run my own show i ought to i can't and therefore i take a false guilt i say oh look you know i shouldn't have done that i shouldn't feel like i can i do and i said i shouldn't i shouldn't i shouldn't she said her whole life is false guilt false condemnation now see that's what paul found out uh he uh he he had it in romans 7 he said i learned by covetousness he's a very sensitive man i kept all the other commandments they're out there they're apparently out there shouldn't to you shouldn't so and so the last commandment you shouldn't even desire wrongly shouldn't desire other people's goods and so i shouldn't covet other people's things oh for home to that see he he still thought i he could be something it could be or could be not something he didn't of course yet know christ in him now immediately he's filled with covetousness that wasn't he he thought it was oh i fired aside everything i shouldn't have i was awful i thought oh i couldn't cover it i'm full of covetousness i called full of concubines he said sin arose that was sin sin slew me he didn't know it was he thought was himself he thought i was now being a rotten covetous person i shouldn't become as i am what's wrong with me he didn't know that he still thought he should be different he didn't know that he should is with sin that self-reliance is with sin and and it's a and you see um uh therefore he's in the hands of of of the spirit of of self-reliance says yeah and therefore you're what you want to be i'll make you you are my self-reliance is your covetous i'm i'm or in my self-reliance is all doing my own stuff all right you all suffer your covetousness it wasn't he at all it's a it's mr doing his own stuff he's a satan i'm a covetous person i'm a lustful person i do all things i shouldn't that's satan of course and i'm mere and sheer of my own ends therefore when i think i ought to i think i'm i really don't know it's satan and so my sin is i ought to and ought not to and should that's satan i've got you now what you should is you will do what i like which is your covet i got you and so he said i had to go through a whole day i had the door on me at last i want to do right because i'm born again i delight in the lord god not the old thing in the lord god but i can't because he thinks he can that's very subtle that's very subtle and lastly says oh why why is it i or i want to and don't why is it it says that uh uh the will is present with me but how to perform i don't know how i don't know i haven't i haven't got the power i ought to have he hadn't so the law is there why do you think you ought to and now i think oh no it's not even me i'm just a i'm just a container the the ought to person it's seen in me and therefore it causes me to go his ought to his ought to ways that do the thing the fish does that's his ought to and so while i think i'm all i'm in favor of the ought to person and can and self self uh active person and i i can't conquer my hates and fears and tempers and stuff and i think i think i ought not to i'm guilty so i live in this guilt as i say if you when you talk victory life uh 90 percent of the congregation look guilty because they're mistaken they think they shouldn't do it see they they they think i should be different that that's their sin not that they did it or tempted but i should it's their sin or i should not now that's that's the depth of roman 7 when suddenly paul said oh it's not i it's mr self mr ought to mr thinks he can do it yourself uh uh is in me because he's immediately has got me and therefore it's confused it's doing itself to me and i do these things i shouldn't do because uh until you know christ got you that you uh you said you're although you're born again you're in reach of that slavery because you don't know yourself yet you know your sins are out you don't yourself yet and the value is you've got to know yourself because until you do yourself you won't operate spontaneously rightly so you're living operate spontaneously wrongly because you're still in this you don't know the way out therefore still in i should be different which is part of the old thing so i've got to have an inner revelation it's not do i should be that's that stuff i'm just a vessel drop it i'm a vessel vessel does nothing that's what they drop it therefore in one sense we've got to come as i say from being a wrong self to a no self that's difficult especially for men because men think they can do things i think it's more difficult for men to come this way than women because women have that in them which they to some extent uh have a yielded life the men have the i run the show i run the wages i don't talk i can't do nothing it's ridiculous so the correct thing for a man to say i'm just an old pot i mean it there's a great breaking on our self-life there uh but i've got to come there i've got to be just a pot i've just to just be a branch of marshes just the agent of the vine i've just got to be a temple temple for god in it i just got to be a slave doing my boss's work that's all i am now we're going to be picking right off with this theme because we're beginning to get now to what really makes the difference in living this christian life not that i can live it but i'm a container to contain christ who lives the christian life through me this is very different to what many of us have often heard but it is why so many christians are discouraged defeated and don't know the victory life now be sure to hear the remainder of programs in this series we're going right on tomorrow we're on five days a week on this station and we'd like you to have norman's booklet published by moody press we want to send it to you free of charge it's called the key to everything right to 4606 lamar avenue memphis tennessee 38118 or call area code 901-795-0121 program three this is david old with another union life broadcast one of the most remarkable statements to be found anywhere in the new testament is in the words of jesus himself when he said i can of my own self do nothing god in the flesh said i can of my own self do nothing he was deeply aware of his own inability as a human being to accomplish the will of god then how could it be that so many of us as christians believe that we can live the christian life well we've been considering in a series of programs which we've entitled who am i what our inheritance is in christ what it means to live the life of christ now and we've been considering this with a man who wrote a book called who am i his name is norman grubb norman is here with us on the program for this series of broadcasts norman i want to ask if you just pick up right there with us and telling us why it is that jesus himself said i can of my own self do nothing well we christians don't believe that that of our own says we can do nothing we can't believe that until we've got the self in the focus you see i'm possibly brought up that i do do things how do i say i do nothing and the basic reason is that we've started life as we continually said under the illusion that we did things where the truth is the doer always wants the deity in us that we don't know the church has never been taught that we never operated by our own nature at all our own motivation but from the beginning we started by the false spirit of error in us who was a spirit of independent self running his own show and fitted us with the idea we could run our own show so as deep as we run our own show of course i can do things therefore uh to discover that i never did it i never did run my own things when i discover that then i may be conditioned to say now i change over and i still don't run them because as satan once ran them in him and now jesus christ run them in me but that's a revelation in between that and that revelation is in the chapter of romans 7 where we get the final issue it isn't our sins it's ourselves with this false concept that i i do things by myself i can do things by myself i do things by myself and that's satan that's what satan says to god i'll do things by myself i won't go your way i'll do things by myself they infected me i'll do things by myself i can do them i'll do them and that means i live under under the control of self-interest itself and i can't i can't escape the drives of self-interest itself therefore although i'm already saved now my past sins are out and i'm a new creature therefore i have the new new love in me for the ways of god and my future is assured while i still haven't got myself in focus i still under this point i think i could do better myself that's the that's the same that's satan so i'm still i i'm not meaning to be in the paths of satan so i can't then conquer my desire my uh i i shouldn't do this i should do that i shouldn't do that so i can't make it work because uh i'm i'm still under under the power of i i of independence which does what it wants what it wants if you want to do it it does a sin so the the uh the the the second radical revelation is uh that the self does nothing i got it when god said me you're a vessel as a young missionary i thought i ought to have more of god's love and more god's power god said you're all wrong love isn't a power a thing i'm that love i'm a person love isn't a emotion power isn't a thing i am the christ is the power i'm the power you don't get a thing you don't become something you're you're only a part you're the best you contain me i got my first door in right there you don't become something i hadn't quite as unclear as i had been operated by another uh person who operated me that was satan hadn't got that clear i had to get that clear later on now um therefore there is a uh there's a radical um second exposure and i doubt on the basis of the word of god anyone comes through merely on the first exposure of sins because sins are the act sin is self-relying self it isn't forms of sin it's self-relying self runs its own show that's what satan is and he's caught me to make me think i'm like that so i see this power of self-reliance which is sin that's sin dwelling in me it isn't losing my temper or beating somebody up or hate or something it's self-reliance self self-reliance in the end does what it is tempted to do what it wants to do if he can't conquer these things that's so well like his own ways of course that's what satan is so the second exposure on romans 7 on sin and the exposure it's sin that does him it's seen as self-relying self and that's why in that chapter it says the law will be there while you think you do it also do it now it says you can't before i say you didn't now i said you can't and uh well then paul says when i was that chapter when i would do good he was personally he got he couldn't do good or evil you see he hadn't got it i would do good so for myself and then it says when evil's present with me because you see i would do it still it's still evil good it's still self that i would do good it's still self self good that's the evil good so evil's present with me when i'm doing good that's evil because evil good because the human doesn't do the good or the evil the evil was satan expressing himself says the operation by me i'm just the agent and good is jesus christ operating his self self-giving life through me so there's a radical revelation a crack up has to come but somehow it dawned on me it's nothing more to do with me which is difficult person as i had to get to when we built on be what you can be do what you can do and when the church teaches like that to feel the duties that if life is my duties so it's a it's a often tear away from the very thing my churches are teaching me they are literally for me i i do nothing is what you say jesus said i myself i could do nothing now um when i when i get that which in roman 7 means i've got the negative oh it isn't i it seems worthy me that's the negative roman 7 it isn't i should do this shouldn't do that it's sin is the self-effort stuff in me and uh and he's got me when i think i'm self-effort he's all right you come my way sin self-effort ways self-reliance ways you're in my powers it's got me when i realized it said oh no no it gets me then oh no he's he's he's that's a liar now it's a lie if i know the back of roman 6 if i know that in christ's body that's went out and the error went out the spirit of truth went in if i know that that's the value of your truth first if i know it in christ's body died to sin up and spirit of error in resurrection he came spirit of truth not just his blood taking my sins away if i know that then like paul said oh i see he says i see it doesn't seem worthy because christ dwells in me i never saw that he said it's christ running as i am i'm under i'm a no nothing i'm a nothing i'm a vessel but uh uh now the the other spirit operating my vessel the spirit of the spirit of truth so spirit of error and so he said then paul said oh no i said law the principle spirit of life in christ jesus spirit of life is christ expressing the spirit of god spreading his life through me operates through me in christ jesus set me free from the other one so uh um in all life uh the the the the positive is built on the foundation of the negative which swallows up that's to say you couldn't get saved until you knew you were a sinner you didn't get saved just by having jesus you got saved because you were a sinner needing jesus you had to have your negative first i'm a lost sinner when i was a total negative i'm a lost sinner done for then jesus christ could build on that foundation said yes now i turn that into a person in which you're redeemed and your disappeared i've removed your sin and you know you'll now be a be a child of god he had to have the the negative sins to remove from it to put into me the christ consciousness of course i was saved now i had the second of the over the same about myself i've got to come somewhere to a negative recognition just say i was done for my sins i can then yes i took it for i've taken your place so when i've done for the self i say oh now i've got yourself you're a beautiful self i've got you now i i on the foundation of of you being free understanding you're no longer grasped by this self-centered stuff which you thought was you it's satan's stuff it's sin and then now i now that your self's beautiful i'll take your self but i'll come to now so uh level seven which is the exposure of the um um misunderstood self not of self people talk about dead so you can't be dead to self we're precious with god made us we're dead to self in his illusion which was it's a self-reliance something as i can do something by myself it's that which is seen that's the illusion i have to die to so i'm dead not to the self in its illusion in its illusion uh it's the mistaken concept and uh that that what i thought was self-reliance of satan in me now i died of that i died the spirit of satan self-reliance of in me now when i did that then i say no i'm alive myself self hasn't changed myself now it's alive now the spirit of self giving selves in me all spirit life has set me free now there you change the reckoning to realization that's a that that does hang around um a a a new uh area of of of faith and i doubt what it's done any other way the reason why is it it's more difficult to don that you don't do you did sins you may say you did your sins get them clear but whereas you don't do anything yourself it's a deeper thing therefore it takes a deeper area of faith to realize it isn't just your sins out your very self is in the wrong relationship and have that dawn on you as revelation before you have the replacement therefore there is an area here where there's a there's a new new uh stage of faith uh that's the one i think you quoted was it when you quote i'm i'm crucified with christ and so on uh it's the same process because faith always is in the in the same process but this time it means i'm moving in and saying now i understand what i am crucified not my sins i infected by this false lie of independence which was the sin now that spirit which was sin that's i'm crucified to that spirit of self self-activity self-reliance self-everything not myself not going to that spirit of self-relying self is out that's my crucifixion with christ because christ died to sin sin is self-relying self now when i've got that then i can say oh wait a minute i like i'm alive now he says i i my own life i know it was that self-reliance it was satan in me and there was a little bit like christed him now i know it's christly to me but satan was living in me now you've been listening to norman grubb in the series of broadcasts which we're doing on the subject of who am i and we'd like to send you a little booklet which is entitled the key to everything published by moody press written by norman grubb there's no charge for it there'll be no request for money we're happy to send it to you to give you a deeper fuller understanding of who you are in christ the union life broadcast has been made possible by people who want to share this message with other people because they've come to understand the glorious liberation and the victory life of knowing that christ is the one who lives the christian life in us now this booklet the key to everything is available to you if you write to four six oh six lamar that's l-a-m-a-r avenue memphis tennessee three eight one one eight four six oh six lamar avenue memphis tennessee three eight one one eight or call area code 901-795-0121 that's 901-795-0121 we're heard on this station five days a week at the same time the address again in just a moment mentioned the booklet the key to everything until next time this is david ord this is david ord with another union life broadcast we've been considering together the whole question of who am i in christ the most important thing any of us can understand as christians is that the fact that jesus christ is the one who must live the christian life and a man who wrote a book by the title who am i is norman grubb and he's with us for this series of broadcasts on the subject of who we are in christ we've been considering together the replaced life as christ now living in our life the scripture which really homes in on the heart of the message of christ being the one who lives the christian life is galatians 220 i want to ask norman if he will tell us how galatians 220 when he was a missionary in africa became a living reality to him well galatians 220 is i am crucified with christ no less i live yet not i but christ lives in me and the life i now live in the flesh i live by the faith of the son of god who loved me and gave himself for me now i've already been saying you you you can't enter into that until you understood what we mean by i am crucified with christ which means we discover that we live we're living under a great delusion delusion of apparent self-reliant self which really was satan which is his nature expressed by us and we we thought we could do it and we just did our own thing so we've come into our redeemed life although our sins are gone out we have eternal life we've still got the same thing there's something in which i can improve myself and i can fight my battles and i shouldn't do this and shouldn't do that and as if it hangs around my own responses i have to learn by by usually a period of failure that it doesn't work it doesn't work because uh that self-reliance isn't me at all it's spirit of self-reliance of its satan that sin that was in me didn't the sins i committed just i can do it now i'll do better i'll fight that very self-reliance is sin but that's what that's what i was living linked to and therefore it enslaved me therefore i was doing the will of self-reliance self and therefore i had to come to this this first dawning light that is no longer i'm just a vessel this was spirit of self-reliance self is is is out and if i'm out the whole concept of the law saying you ought to do this you should do that you've got the whole business nothing more to do with you at all which is a big separatate because against all our natural normal christian teachings and that's what it means that i'm crucified with christ when i realized that means that means that i now is just a vessel and that vessel which was governed by the the self-lying self uh causing me to uh uh operate on the the independent self level is now occupied by christ uh the self-giving self and that's the the secondary of that of that scripture which says i live in resurrection nevertheless i'm crucified with christ nevertheless i live no it didn't i live it's christ within me now uh we've been saying all along faith is only faith that it becomes substance faith is a my human uh moving into something which is to become substantial to me that's why the bible says faith is the substance of things hoped for we said all along you say by faith i go to a place you go there then the face place is real to you faith is dissolved because the fact here i am faith always becomes the consciousness and the thing you've moved into and when we're saved we moved into salvation that's the spirit of consciousness salvation of this of being saved moved into us now this has to happen the second i'm over um therefore it isn't enough that i've just said i reckon the fact if i've known that fact that i died in christ and so if i know the facts or if i quote that scripture that's not enough that's a first stage i took that took me about five hours to take that and i took it and fixed it that didn't mean i knew it i reckoned it i said it was so because i wanted to say so the bible said so that no longer i have a christ within me i signed it up i even drew a postcard the tombstone here lies norman grubb that's all i didn't know now faith that's my move into faith is that's my freedom faith moves back it means the thing i believe moving moves back to me the food you take takes you the chair you sit in holds you up you take jesus jesus takes you so there's a distinct second uh consciousness which is imparted to you quite apart from salvation conscious salvation conscious was a savior of whom you're to whom you're related in some separation this consciousness is that he's taking you over that the real you is he that's that's something that only he can impart to you he does impart so um uh unifying faith what we might call union life faith is is faith when faith not there i'm just a fact i i live now spontaneously it's the same principle by which any any trained person operates his profession you don't operate a profession by it's out by the outside tools outside knowledge you work at them until they get you you don't practice medicine from the book perhaps because i know how to do my surgery or something you don't cook from the book because i know how to cook it's become a know-how that's spontaneity now we had a spontaneity in salvation when we took him oh i know i'm saved so you don't keep getting saved or trusting you just know and bear witness that you know it's quite your savior this is the same on the second level the roman six to eight level i don't believe a person gets through until they it until it comes through to this i know i am that how do i know i didn't know i know i practice medicine i know inside myself i can do it not because i've got it because he's got me i know i can handle my tools as a carpenter uh not because they're two because he's got me i know i do it and your your i am with your confidence it's your your your affirmation that that's what you are now we say we're saved by grace now we say this other one we say i am no longer i i'm christ to being in my human form i am christ my human form the uh to those who don't know this life who got the self mixed up that seems unbearably uh presumptuous or boastful because if you think you should be different you say how am i christ over human form that means you never knew you're nothing you never come revelation nothing to do with you that self-effort stuff wasn't you at all but satan operating on you self-reliance stuff and you are literally nothing when you do that day it isn't difficult to say i was satan in my human form now i'm christ over human form because you laugh at this human form it's beautiful we're going on to see how god operates by that human form but basically move from wrong self to no self and come to the no self as jesus said i can do nothing i can do myself do nothing i can you now that's a revelation just the same as a revelation you're a lost sinner so it's a revelation that that you're what have you like a a uh just a container self not an operating self a container self and then when you're moved into that by faith then that comes back to the cautious he's a he's the one in you that's the that is the the the know-how know how i know it because i he's in me now you can't make it up and uh for some of us that has taken longer than the immediate consciousness when i'm saved the witness comes i'm saved in this case it's somewhere along the line this know-how knows until as it's only one john faith becomes knowledge faith of those becomes knowing now you can't make it up it's the same principle as it isn't it isn't you sitting in a chair it's the chair makes itself known to you the the consciousness comes from the object of faith not from the faith so if it doesn't come the fact i say i'm crucified i say christ saved me it's because he said it to me he's got to say back to me how'd you do that the spirit of his own way by hundreds of ways somehow settles me somehow i know don't try to pick it up don't try to build it up that's again you touch self self-effort stuff that's him getting you again self-effort stuff if you say i ought to i'm going to try and find out let's still slip on the old stuff so you don't know you do with me i'm out in this thing this is he in me his own way in time he'll convey to me this fact but the time fact isn't the fact my job is i'm that anyhow now that's the means of faith i say because god's word says i am that and the the the echo coming back as you are that doesn't come from you uh the the this the um basic scripture that's 1 john 5 10 he that believeth on the side of god hath the witness in himself it's in you but the witness is not you in yourself as you believe there comes the holy spirit yes i'm there christ there christ there spirit says that so you uh if we're in an area when we have moved into the reckoning and we've seen and passed through those phases romans 6 7 all you says i am that you may not yet know all right don't know then you say i am that because he says so i don't yet have a conscience that's not the point i've done my obedience which i said to the word bible says so as i do that in his own way i know now you just then you're spontaneous then you believe begin the spontaneous life under the new uh dimension which is the uh the spirit of christ it's a deity in place of the spirit of satan operating in you um so i can't trust that too strongly um i can't do that now but i should differentiate between for instance many precious people have had baptism to the spirit which is the spirit it's come to them in strong ways like with the gift of tongues which is very precious but i have to learn even there a difference between him coming as a power and me knowing him as a settled person maybe i need to talk about another time so the power is the first stage in but you don't live by the power you live by the person that's the total so relation to 20 is the final that's the total of the inner life when the crisis is the life which is living in me now we're talking with norman grubb who wrote the book who am i norman was a missionary with the worldwide evangelization crusade for many years he was its general secretary and on the mission field as he's been telling us he came to see the inadequacy of the christian life as many christians experience it and he realized that many do not know the fact that christ is now their life they don't understand that he has replaced the old operator who lived his life through them which was satan and they haven't caught that and because they don't know that christ is living now in their form and expressing his life through them they don't know the victory and they live in this trapped condition of roman 7 where they think they're still wretched people they haven't seen that christ now is the glorious life in them living that fulfilled victory life right now and so many are looking for a glory that's future but jesus in john 17 verse 22 said that we're to know glory now he said i have given you my glory now do you know this glorious life is that your life right now are you living the life of christ as paul says in second corinthians 3 are you right now a living letter so that christ is now being manifest in the flesh well we want to send you a booklet which will help you to understand this more thoroughly because it's so much uh of a help to read these things in print as to where as well as to hear them on the program now the booklet is called the key to everything it was written by norman grubb it was published by moody press it's been sent out in a great many copies all over the world and we want to send it to you free of charge a group of people got together who wanted to share this message and make it possible for all of you to have it without any cost it's called the key to everything it's yours if you'll just write to 4606 lamar avenue 4606 lamar avenue memphis tennessee 38118 that's memphis tennessee 38118 or call area code 901 795-0121 again that's area code 901 795-0121 now we're heard on this station five days a week at the same time be sure to tune in for the series of broadcasts with norman grubb which we've entitled who am i be sure to tune in to tomorrow's program we're getting into some interesting material now on how this life really works out in practice until then this is david ord program five this is david ord with today's union life broadcast our guest on this series of programs which we've titled who am i is norman grubb for many years the general secretary of the worldwide evangelization crusade a man who's had many years on the mission field and who over perhaps some 50 years of missionary work has seen that a great many christians do not know the glory of the life of christ now that they live in the trap condition of romans 7 where they are trying to fulfill the will of god but in reality they find they can't do it now norman's been explaining to us that in fact this is something god means to be in the life of every believer that is kind of like a second crisis we have to go through well we have to see that just as we couldn't save ourselves in our sins now we can't live the free of sin but rather christ as our replaced life lives that life in us so that we are the life of christ in all of its glory manifest right now norman i want to ask you if you'll now pick up with us in this series of programs and give us the story now about how this life really begins to work out and we know the the replaced life in reality well i was going to mention to you which i think is right um a relationship between what we're saying uh and what's been a way of god in millions today in what is often spoken of as the baptism of the spirit you know right through what we know is marvelous through the churches of christ all the way through what used to be called the pentecostals right right down to rome rome itself all have it uh and it's been a experience of the holy spirit usually accompanied by gifts of tongues or something like that um how does that relate to what we're now saying i suggest it is like this um spirit manifests himself to us on the level which uh which suits our present consciousness and in that manifestation of the baptism he has come in some form his power some form his gifts and we're conscious so conscious of it that we often think this is the whole thing um and it has been a means by which tens of thousands are um lifted right into um a new quality of uh uh life on on fire for jesus what i suggest is to understand that uh um the life we're speaking about is the actual person of the holy spirit the person of jesus christ himself living his life in us in other words it is more than uh he in some manifestation of his power it is he in himself and we won't find that just knowing him by a certain manifestation of power meets all our problems of life because only a person can do that the best illustration i know of that to put in focus is peter himself who we might call mr pentecost the very first who upon whom the holy spirit fell fell at pentecost and with the other 120 um now he was he was the god's first agent in the birth of the church and um in the first agent of the gentile church when he took the gospel to cornelius now the interesting significant fact is when a few years later god had broken through apostle paul and there'd been an outbreak of the holy spirit among the gentiles and the founding church among the gentiles was an antioch uh where they had great joy great liberty undoubtedly all the all the variety of expressions of the spirit peter came up from jerusalem to enjoy the fellowship with them and presumably some with him and by all accounts in the galatians he was enjoying the freedom is christ in christ with them but the church in jerusalem um born in that city which of course had been the heart of legalism was very conservative i won't say it's a legalistic church it's a conservative church um and there uh in all the among god's people there are um there are some some who have a more content conservative tendency and others more liberal tendency um and the church in jerusalem were concerned that they felt that there were indications in antioch of too much freedom one form it took was a freely with anybody of course the jews wouldn't do that here these three people would just eat anybody um because they they saw that christ came to die for the whole world and so they're enjoying that quality of liberty so the church in jerusalem set up its leaders um with the world from james the head of the church to warn peter to put a stop to this saying this will allow too much license into the church of christ and he must call them back to retain maintain some laws some differentiation between them as on the outer form of christians and others now the point is this if peter had known not just the power of the holy spirit if he'd known he was expression of the living person it was jesus himself living his life in peter's form when outer fears come peter was a fearful man like we're all the fearful men people but this suddenly fear came to him that uh this this was bringing a serious weakness into the church of christ and that he must take some stand against it when he felt like that which just came from from from the outer world from jerusalem he would have known how to refer back to who he really was he would refer back to speedy and of course the speedy and would immediately confirm liberty because the whole gospel ever since they'd been built on the liberty which we gained through as paul put the gospel out now he didn't know that and so he he he joined with even barnabas joined with him in uh uh cutting themselves off they wouldn't eat here along with the gentiles put this rift right in this free church paul rose up publicly then so i withstood him to the face because it was a a vital question see of of who does live the life in me is it self or christ now this is a form of self in peter and he hadn't known this replacement how do we know because that was the moment pete paul said to peter peter i spent three years in in in arabia i learned something more there i had another relation revelation wasn't christ dying for me but he replaced me that the truth is he's the one living his life in me and he explained that to peter that's when he brought out that famous scripture in quoting collation 220 i'm crucial with christ nevertheless i live yet not i but christ is in me that's interesting illustration again how the negative is the basis of the positive very negative of peter was the moment when paul made that perhaps greatest scripture there is for us believers uh and you say peter you don't know that peter if you know it that you just didn't have some baptism of spirit which was a was the holy spirit in power but the person himself has replaced you you know how when when the the tests on you like that you refer back and you know that you get the inner confirmation you go by the information which of course would be the confirmation uh confirming liberty so i think it's a um uh a helpful fact for many of us who have had meetings with the holy spirit they've been blessed to us and may have may have had a real baptism of the spirit and we are conscious of the spirit operating by us uh yet to recognize that this may be the next stage in uh the the the expansion of the one who's come in in some form of power to the place where he's um you in your form um which doesn't take place until you've got this self-business in in focus which peter hadn't got he hadn't got this differentiation between the helpless self which the evidence was on that and that in that situation i think it's good to mention that because to me i can't conceive how any um the people of god which they do reject what the holy spirit's doing in in coming in his in his in his power to so many uh i i can't because we know the who reject the the gifts of spirit and tongues as if it's not of the lord i can't do that um i've wholly one with all those of whom those met in in these in these mighty ways but um i think because many are meeting in as i talked in places uh have had experience with the baptism of the spirit it raised in their minds this question well how does that trip with what we're now hearing uh is it the same or not i say it's the first stage of the same it's the recognition that you have in you this in person who does operate in power by you but until you moved on into roman 7 and and got yourself into focus uh as as uh only the container and what we've been talking about all these days in which therefore um the old spirit of errors replaced by the spirit of truth you're you've not you've not moved into within which in which uh um uh the person who's come to you with expression of power is the whole of you and uh he's the one now living your total life so i think it's a it's a helpful to to um put that explanation so to seek to put those two together that's tremendously helpful to us norman i'm sure many people have wondered just how the baptism of the holy spirit as they call it uh fits in with this and of course it is jesus himself the holy spirit indwelling us and flowing out in power but there is also knowing him as our life as the person who is living by us it's the two things working together now that doesn't mean that the baptism of the spirit is trying to get something more to add some power or something of this kind it's not that at all you received the holy spirit he didn't come just an arm or a leg or an eye or an ear or something like that he came as a person and jesus christ through the holy spirit now indwells you and he is the baptizer with the spirit he is the one who from the rivers of living water within you now flows out in these gifts of the spirit however he wishes to express himself and it isn't me determining how although i may have a desire to be used of god in certain ways and he creates that desire but it is he expressing his life in me in power now we're going to be continuing in this series on who am i and understanding our inheritance in christ and we want you to have the programs and the gist of what we're saying in print form and you'll find it in a little booklet which is called the key to everything it's published by moody press the key to everything we want to send it to you free of charge if you write to 4606 lamar avenue memphis tennessee 38118 that's 4606 lamar avenue memphis tennessee 38118 or call area code number 901 795-0121 that's 901-795-0121 be sure to tune in each week we're heard on this station monday through friday five days a week at the same time be sure to tune in to the other broadcasts in this series on who am i with norman grubb until next time this is david ord