I am pleased to submit this brief statement of what is for me the Total Truth of the "mystery which hath been hid from ages. . . which is Christ in you the hope of glory." Col. 1:26, 27. That I believe this Truth to be lived out, in, through, and as me is the subject of this statement. A friend has suggested that such a statement might help others understand what I and those who agree with me believe and therefore help "ease the tension" that some see existing between us.

I was born again twenty years ago, having received Christ as the Holy Spirit worked in me through a Sunday School teacher. The truth she shared set me free from the bondage of corruption (Romans 8:21) and made me Christ’s slave, or as the Scripture says "servant(s) of righteousness" (Romans 6:18). I was and continue to be enamoured with Him of whom the Scripture speaks (John 5:39). God immediately focused my attention on the Scriptures, soul winning, and right living. Then and now I take all I know from the Scripture–infallible, inerrant–as the Holy Spirit interprets it to me. From the first, my confidence has been: 

"And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness":

2 Timothy 3:15,16.

Soul winning, the Spirit’s work, followed my decision. Immediately, I was very active in all phases of church activity. My wife, children and I were regulars.

Although with Paul I found myself wanting to live right, no amount of Scripture reading, soul winning, rededication, surrender, quiet time, prayer, or submission worked. I just could not live right. I sinned when I didn’t want to and couldn’t do what I really wanted to do (Romans 7:15.) It seemed that the harder I tried to be what I knew inside I wanted and was intended to be, the more difficult and more impossible my life    became to operate (Romans 7:11).

Then I began to learn one of the key scriptural principles: "Christ is all, and in all" (Col. 3:11). In a very difficult time for me, when everything else had failed, I first decided that I would speak against what appeared to be true and say that indeed Christ was "all, and in all" and that "by Him all things consist" (Col. 1:17). I began to agree with God that having "begun in the Spirit" (Gal. 3:3) by grace (Titus 3:5), I would likewise live by grace–God in action.

When Christ was presented to me twenty years ago, soon I came to realize that I desperately needed a Savior. I knew what Paul meant when he said that "all have sinned" (Romans 3:23) and, when I received Christ, I rejoiced that I had been redeemed from under the law and had received the adoption of a son (Gal. 4:5). I knew putting "off the old man with his deeds" (Col. 3:9) and being reborn was the result of grace (Eph. 2:8,9). Yet soon after that glorious period so many enjoy immediately after being saved, Satan–the deceiver (Rev. 12:9: "a liar, and the father of it"–John 8:44)]–seduced me into believing that, although saved by grace through faith (Eph. 2:8,9), somehow I was called to live by myself. Thus, my life, begun in grace and ending in grace, had to be lived out in between by me.

Obviously (almost everyone I observe also experiences the same thing), I began to believe that the misery and defeat of Romans 7 was the "normal Christian life." I missed the Biblical principle that sin, through things which were described as good and which I believed were good, deceived me into believing that I could actually do those good things. The result was total death in me. Paul expressed it thus: "For sin, taking occasion from the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me" (Romans 7:11).

Then suddenly when I began to agree that God was all and in all, I could begin to say that He was not only my salvation but my sanctification. I came to understand that the problem wasn’t me, but the "law of sin which is in my members" (Romans 7:23).

The last several years that understanding has unfolded to me more and more. I came to know that I was a container and had always been a container; thus, I didn’t operate apart (independently) from the Deity which lives in my container, whether Christ as the True Deity or Satan masquerading falsely as "just me," although living in and operating me. What I mean is that Satan doesn’t identify himself to me as the one controlling me 

because he knows I am a child of God and I know it. (1 John 5:19). He knows then that I won’t believe him if he exposes himself to me so he masquerades as "just me."

Satan tells me:

 "that is just the way you are"

 "that is just the kind of person you are" 

 "you are certainly entitled to that opinion" 

 "you are certainly entitled to that thing" etc., etc.

Satan is deceiving me into believing that it is "just me." Then, when I go with that (James 1:14:15), I have fallen for his temptation and I agree with Satan by saying:

 "I am just that way"

 "that is just the kind of person I am" 

 "I am entitled, that opinion, that thing" etc., etc.

Thus, I have agreed with Satan that I am a "just me" and not joined to the Lord and I have fallen for his great trick. I have believed that I am an independent self. I have done so by my choice to believe his lie and sin (Satan) begins to operate me, a Christian. I’m not being operated from within by any "human" nature and certainly not by Christ, but I’m experiencing sin operating through my members (body and soul). Read Romans 7.

I pick up on Satan’s lie and believe it and thereafter Satan translates that wrong believing into action with him being the operator or doer of it–Romans 8:41-44. It looks like me, feels like me but it is actually Satan operating me–the reverse of the wonder by which I live: Christ as me!

Since this point is central to what I believe, I will cite some of the numerous passages which teach that I don’t now nor have I ever operated independently:

John 15:4, 5 Branch/Vine: Christ is the vine, I am the branch. As the branch I "cannot bear fruit" of myself.

Romans 6:17 Servants: We are always servants of a master–once of sin, now of Christ.

Romans 7:2-4 Husband/Wife: Christ is the Husband, I am the wife. I bear the fruit of the Husband.

Romans 9:22-23 Vessels of Wrath/Vessels of Mercy: The difference is what deity the "vessel" contains.

1 Cor. 6:19-20 Temple: Obviously the issue is which diety lives in your temple.

Eph. 4:15-16 Head/Body: The head of the body (me) is Christ. He controls the body which does nothing unless the head first tells it to act.

Col. 3:9-10 Old Man/New Man: The "old man" is Satan, the new man is "Christ." There is no middle man (or independent nature).

Prior to being saved, I had housed Satan, and it was his deeds that were being done through me (Col. 3:9, old man with his deeds). As Christ said to the unsaved: "Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do" (John 8:44a). Earlier in the same discourse Christ said, "Ye do the deeds of your father" (John 8:41). I was responsible for my wrong believing and agreement with Satan and his deeds and therefore deserved perdition and needed a Savior. My sin was in my believing; and as I believed incorrectly, Satan did his living out through me.

I previously believed that I had a nature of my own, independent of Satan operating me. The problem arose because I believed that my nature was "independent." I know that I am not some inanimate thing–I know I have a spirit or force serving as my constitution–the spirit that directs, controls and maintains me, or as Webster defines it, a "nature" (I paraphrase Webster’s defintion of "nature"). I now know I have no independent "human" nature–and live by the discovery of my "divine nature" (2 Peter 1:4). I know now that my nature which is the spirit or force that drives, directs and maintains me is the Holy Spirit joined with me (1 Cor. 6:17).

Continued in the next issue…