No Independent Self, Part 2
by Norman Grubb

Part Two

Free at Last

So now at last we are clear. We are free, because we know ourselves as nothing but the expresser, vessel, branch, temple, body member, and slave of the Deity self, his Spirit joined to our spirits. And we have moved in by the recognition of faith, as in Romans 8:2 and Gal 2:20, to being right self-conscious selves, conscious of ourselves being Himself in expres-sion. We act freely as ourselves because He has of His own choice by grace joined, fused, and identified Himself with us as ourselves. We are "driven" people, driven by His self-for-others deity nature. And we live freely in His keeping in our soul-body reac-tions as much as in our spirit (1 Thess. 5:23).

So then, what about those continual pulls that we still have to that old opposite—those invasions of fear, hate, worry, lust, self-seeking, and weak-nesses? Now we are alive to Satan’s subtlest assaults on us. The subtle trick occurs when we feel those constant pulls on us and we go back to the old habit of thinking we ought not to respond to them. Bang! We have been caught out in the old habit of thinking we are independent, and thus need to respond to an "ought to" or an "ought not". This is the subtle trick. Those pulls make us think we are independent human selves again, and the moment we think that, back comes the law say-ing, "No, you ought not to". And we are caught right up into false condemna-tion. That "ought not" only reaches us because we have slipped back into thinking we should be watching our-selves, running our own lives, and combating the wrong pulls. That is where Satan has his laugh on us. There we are, inwardly condemned as if we ought not to fear, hate, anger, lust, or to want or react to these negative desires. And there we are struggling and con-demned, or maybe following through to some actual sin.

Why? Here comes Satan’s final subtle trick. We are tricked into think-ing that having those pulls is sin; whereas, the real sin is the unbelief of thinking we are again independent selves who should not have these pulls. But independent self is really Satan-self again having his hold on us, and we then again "carnal sold under sin". That means we are back again under the law with its "thou shalt not". But we are bound and unable to keep that law because our false sense of independent self, to which the law addresses itself, is really Satan as us with his temporary control of us.

Paul puts the essence of Romans 6,7 and 8 into three verses to the Galatians—Galatians 5:16-18. "Walk in the Spirit," he writes, "and you will not fulfill the lusts of the flesh." We are Spirit people, but are still in our flesh humanity, and thus open to all Satan’s pulls on us in our soul-body emotions and appetites.

So now what happens? We become conscious of flesh pulls, for, says Paul, "the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, and these are contrary the one to the other." These contrary pulls make us conscious of the antagonistic opposites, "the tree of the knowledge of good and evil". We are Spirit people bearing Spirit fruit and loving to be so, but we now also feel the pulls and desires of the flesh—Satan’s agency in this Satan-filled world for attracting us back to his self-for-self ways.

This consciousness of the flesh-Spirit antagonisms is the danger spot. Satan thereby seeks to drag us back to that separation through the fall, in which we again think we are independent selves instead of Spirit-united selves. This independent self—outlook is really the touch of the old Satan-union on us. It also means that we immediately put ourselves back under the law again. And with what conse-quence? We are bound by that Satan-self in our separation and cannot respond to the law or Spirit, and so Paul says, "Ye cannot do the things that ye would." Thus we are under the con-demnation of the law and experience guilt that we cannot fulfill it. Being in the lie of independent self temporarily puts us back under Satan’s control. Therefore, we cannot do the things that we would. Properly caught, properly bound and condemned!

But now Paul says, "If ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law." In other words, if we are temporarily in unbelief, which has resurrected the lies of the independent self, we then sud-denly remind ourselves of who we real-ly are— Spirit bound and Spirit led, our self expressing Himself. We then say, "Wait a minute. Of course I am not an independent self feeling these pulls of Satan. That is his lie. No, I am Christ-self." I do not deny or fight the reality of my flesh pulls (and those are pre-cisely what my Elder Brother equally, continually had according to Heb. 4:15).

I accept and recognize the reality of these flesh pulls, but I am dead to them in Christ ("always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus" as in 2 Cor. 4:10). They can shout at me by temptation, but have no hold or right to me (Rom. 8:12). I am alive unto God, a Spirit person, and led by the Spirit. The only law on me is what I now instinc-tively fulfill, that "law of the Spirit" by which I spontaneously do the things of the Spirit. Through Christ, the Spirit has replaced that old "law of sin and death" by which I spontaneously did the things of the flesh. So I go free— back to who I really always was.

This is Paul’s definition of daily freedom under daily flesh-assaults or pressures. It is what James told us to be very thankful for—good constant prac-tice in the application of our faith walk. We admit those lying pulls back to unbelief, but now we are spontaneous-ly faith-conscious of walking as Christ as us. Therefore, we "stand fast in the liberty wherewith Christ has made us
free” (Gal. 5:1). By admitting Satan’s right to pull at us through the flesh, we are also free to affirm our right to our faith-consciousness of being Christ as us. Thus we express Christ’s nature of love, joy, and praising. We swallow up the negative pulls, or rather use those very pulls to express His pulls: love replacing hate, faith fear, rest strain, strength weakness, self-giving for self-gratifying, and so on.

What to Do about Temptation

Because of its importance, and because it is the main reason for this whole "walking in the Spirit" sharing, I will address again what we do in meet-ing the assaults of the flesh. The answer is that we do not fight temptation, nor take condemnation for it. The very opposite. We recognize that the real temptation is to make me think I am the independent self that I am not. Then I am again "under the law", yet cannot fulfill it, because independent self is really Satan as me (Matt. 16:23). It is the sin of unbelief. What then do I do? I quickly recognize that the problem is not my having flesh-temptation, but rather my temporarily forgetting (2 Pet. 1:9) that I am no longer an independent self. Who I am is simply and solely an expresser of Christ in His nature.

Therefore, as quickly as I can, I accept the fact of being tempted, for we live in a totally tempting world.

Accepting that, I don’t deny or resist the temptation. No, I resist the tempter (James 4:7) by saying, "That’s not I you are pulling: That’s only my outer soul emotions and body appetites, which of course are open to all that can reach me from your outer world, (for his is "the spirit of the world" – 1 Cor. 2:12). But I am not a bunch of outer responses, I am Christ as me. He is the real Self expressed by my human con-tainer self." As I do that, I am in fact doing what Paul said in 2 Cor. 4:10: inwardly recognizing my place of death in his death to those old pulls of Satan on my human self. In place of these temptations, I am seeing myself in my true self-relationship of Christ in me as me. As I do that, the conscious-ness of myself as a Christ-expresser swallows up the negative conscious-ness of Satan and his pulls on me. Satan flees (Ja. 4:7). I resist him by replacing false belief in him by true belief in who I really am – Christ as me. Light swallows up dark. We don’t fight the dark; we recognize its right to exist, but we replace it by turning on the light.

Our danger, then, is not the fact that temptation pulls us. We shall always have plenty of that on all levels. The danger is that it tricks us back into thinking we are the selves who must respond to these pulls. But now we know that trick of Satan. We accept the pulls as normal and right on our humanity. But then we say, "That’s not my real me. Those are only pulls on my outer clothing of soul-body. My ‘me’ is Christ as me, and light is on and the darkness swallowed up." And if we are tempted to think, "But yes, we are constantly assaulted by the same things," then we say, "And yes, that gives me continual practice in recog-nizing again and again who I am -Christ as me!"

More than Conquerors — Now Intercessors!

Now we are "more than con-querors" (Rom. 8:37), because we are freed from having to fight our own bat-tles and watch out for our human responses. We are "fathers," not just "young men" (1 Jn 2:12-14). We are co-laborers, co-saviors (1 Cor. 9:22), and intercessors. We now move out to meet the needs of others. We are more than just personal conquerors; we can lead others into conquest. We are the privileged ones to be "Knowers" by the Spirit of what is to us the total truth: That formerly we were Satan-I, but now through Calvary Christ-I, with no illusory independent self in between. This is such liberating light and the meaning of life in such fullness we have an unending drive of the Spirit to bring this "mystery hidden from ages and generations and now made mani-fest" (1 Col. 1:26) to all God’s people. We are taking our share in this world-wide, church-wide commission. We know it includes also our share in the offense of the cross where the sword of the Spirit pierces too deep and disrupts established convictions. But we also have the glory of seeing an increasing number in whom the light is lit in clari-ty. And we know our calling, as with Paul, is "to open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel," and to "speak boldly as I ought to speak" (Eph. 6:19,20). And by God’s enabling, this we will do.

For many years after his retirement as General Secretary of the Worldwide Evangelization Crusade, Norman Grubb traveled extensively sharing the truth of our union with Christ. He also carried on a huge personal correspon-dence with individuals throughout the world. He was the author of many books and pamphlets, a number of which are available through the Zerubbabel Book Ministry. Norman lived with his daughter, Priscilla, in Fort Washington, PA. Norman P. Grubb entered the Kingdom at 98 years of age.