PART 11: WHAT DOES THE TERM “ CHRIST IN YOU” MEAN?


Many Born again believers tend to have it stocked in their minds that all God requires from us once one is Born again which means “Christ in us” is all God requires from us. The pill “Christ in us” is a starter pack for all those who receive Christ as their personal savior. At this stage we have just moved into the Outer Court being welcomed by the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit points us to the two furniture, the Brazen Altar and the Brazen Laver which has demands that must be satisfied before we are allowed entrance into the Holy place. The Holy Place is the place called “In Christ Jesus”. This is the reason the scripture states: “Christ in you” is a hope of glory. The glory is ahead which is in Christ Jesus. We have a choice to seek for that glory or to remain as Outer Court believers. “CHRIST IN US” IS ONLY A HOPE OF GLORY. The glory cannot be a reality until we are certified and approved by the Holy Spirit that we have fully satisfied the demands of the Brazen Altar meaning “Dead to sin” and Brazen Laver,” Dead to self”.
Jesus revealed this to us in Luke 9:23; And he said to them all , if any man will come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily , and follow me.
The Lord in this passage spells out these two conditions; that we must deny ourselves (dead to self) and take up our cross (dead to sin) and follow Him (that is move into the Holy place).
Every Born again child of God has only one option to make it into Christ Jesus. He must submit himself to the Holy Spirit as He leads him to the Brazen Altar.
WHAT HAPPENS TO ME AT THE BRAZEN ALTAR?
This is Calvary within man’s heart where the ram of man’s sinful life is being crucified. It is made of Shittim wood overlaid with brass. The dimensions of the Brazen Altar were 5x5x3 cubits having four horns at the four corners of the wood overlaid with brass. Wood is a type of humanity and of flesh. This shows that man born of the flesh would have to save man.
The scripture in Rom. 8:3 states: For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. Also, 1Cor.15:21 states: For since by man come death, by man comes also the resurrection.
Brass speaks of judgment. The Brazen Altar is overlaid with brass showing that at this Altar, sin must be judged. The Horns at the four corners of the Altar deflates the last energy of the bull not at bulls will thus it represents force. The High Priest and his sons the priest comes together after sanctifying themselves to perform their priestly duties.
Similarly our Great High Priest, who is our Lord Jesus Christ, takes over by the leading of the Holy Spirit to prepare us as the ram or bull is being prepared for the cleansing and the fire of the Brazen Altar. There are three operations and changes that take place at the Brazen Altar. First, the change that occurs through death, secondly, the changes that occurs through fire and thirdly the changes that will finally occur through the form it becomes assimilable.
As we yield our life to the Holy Spirit, He passes us through these changes in order to purge out the old life and replace it with the new life. Anyone who fails to submit himself to this process of transformation is yet to die to sin. The scripture in John 12: 24 states: Except a corn of wheat fall to the ground and die, it abided alone: but if it dies, it bringeth forth much fruit
CHANGE BY DEATH. As the bull was brought into the Tabernacle the High Priest runs a sharp knife down the throat of the bull as the blood for the sprinkling is collected. Here the old life expires giving way for a higher life through death. The knife is used to skin the bull and the dung removed from the inside of the bull and taken outside the tabernacle, out of the camp and then burnt with fire.
CHANGE BY FIRE. The fire at the Brazen Altar is lit by God and is the fire of judgment and death. As the flesh of the bull is placed on the Altar of fire so Jesus Christ was hung on the cross and His whole being aflame. Every old fluid in the flesh dries out and the beef is transformed to steak having broken down to assimilable forms so also the fire of the Holy Ghost destroys the old man in us thus preparing us as steak to be assimilable by our Great High Priest Jesus Christ , at the Holy place.
CHANGE BY ASSIMILATION. The meat at this stage becomes food to be eaten by the High Priest and the Priest at the Table of Shewbread in the Holy place. At this spiritual state we become dead in Christ, our Great High priest. We are no more seen but Christ.
The scripture states in Gal 2:20: I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I But Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me, and gave himself for me.
Therefore beloved, as we accept the work done by our Lord Jesus Christ and His death at Calvary we are being brought to the same position as the bull being worked by the Holy Spirit and the word which is the sword of the Spirit. Here as the High priest works on the bull to give up its life for a higher life in him so also we are meant to give up our natural, old life to gain the spiritual and higher life that is in Christ Jesus.
The scripture in Rom.6:6-7 knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin.
There are three major elements from this scripture, sin, the old man, and the body of sin. The process of sinning follows this order first, sin, next, the old man, lastly the body. Sin exudes its power to attract man and force him to sin. Since the old man delights in sin, he condones sin and bends to it, instigating the body of sin.
The Lord Jesus in going to the cross took not only our sins but our being along with Him that is our old man being crucified with Him. As the crucifixion of Christ is an accomplished fact so our old man crucified with him is an additional accomplished fact. So if we cannot doubt the reality of the crucifixion of Christ, why should we doubt the reality of the crucifixion of our old man?
Beloved we have to minister to God to give us the revelation of this scripture:” knowing this” in our spirit so that we may truly confess that “our old man has been crucified with him” .What is the consequence of the crucifixion of the old man? It is “That the Body of sin might be destroyed”. As believers we realize that when sin stirred, our old man responds and consequently the body practices sin. With the crucifixion of the old man and its replacement by the new man, sin may still stir within and attempt to exert its pressure but it fails to find the consent of the old man in driving the body to sin. Sin no longer tempt the believer because he is a new man, the old is dead.
One may ask: why God chooses to crucify our Old man with Christ and render our Body out of work? His strategy is plain, that we should no longer serve sin and sin should never exercise dominion over us. Praise the LORD for this great deliverance. Hallelujah, Hallelujah, Hallelujah!
Therefore beloved let us see ourselves enter into this realm of blessings daily to practice fully Rom.6:11 which states: Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Beloved we must believe His word and reckon ourselves as dead. One may ask: How do we die? Let us consider ourselves dead to sin and our relation to it broken. Then: How should we consider our selves alive to God? When God says that our old man is dead and buried we count ourselves dead also; when He insists we are made alive we should reckon ourselves as alive. If we can only believe His Word and become fully persuaded in our heart that what He has done is true, sure and certain, then the Holy Spirit shall give us the experience and would communicate to us our blessing in Christ Jesus.
Finally brethren, to ensure that a proper work has been accomplished in us at the Brazen Altar let us abide by what Rom.6: 13 states: Do not continue offering or yielding your bodily members and faculties to sin as instruments (tools) of wickedness. But offer and yield yourselves to God as though you have been raised from dead to perpetual life, and your bodily members and faculties to God, presenting them as implements of righteousness.(AMPLVS) LOUISADIKIBARASIKA BASSEY OKOKON.
TO BE CONTINUED.