Putting on the Lord Jesus Christ

1. Putting on the Lord Jesus Christ

2. Putting On the Lord Jesus Christ I. Introduction II. Phase 1/Phase 2 Distinction III. Phase 1 – Salvation Foundation IV. Positional Truth V. Phase 2 – Spirituality VI. Conclusion

3. Identification Truth • Spirituality: A Complete Package by God’s Plan • Phase 1/Phase 2 Crosswork Distinctions • Reality through Reckoning • The Question of Yielding • Spirituality and Obedience: The Law Problem

4. Identification Truth • Spirituality: A Complete Package by God’s Plan • Phase 1/Phase 2 Crosswork Distinctions • Reality through Reckoning • The Question of Yielding • Spirituality and Obedience: The Law Problem

5. The Christian Life (God’s Plan) Position Heavenlies Eternity Death/ Rapture Condition

6. The Christian Life (Man’s Plight) Heavenlies Eternity Death/ Rapture

7. “The babe in Christ has started to live for the Savior and to serve Him with all his heart. ‘He gave His all for me, now the least I can do is give my all for Him.’ The motive is right, but the motivation is wrong! He is seeking to live and serve on the basis of the birth truths and in the strength and ability of self, not yet understanding that God judicially condemned and crucified the old nature at Calvary…The well-meaning believer is seeking to ‘save his life,’ not comprehending the spiritual principle, ‘If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.’” Part Five: A Guide to Spiritual Growth, Chapter 57, Keep Looking Down!, pp 257, 258 “Although the Christian has been positioned above, he is unaware of this fact when he comes to the Savior at the foot of the Cross... The usual exhortation they are given is, ‘Now get busy and serve the Lord.’ This they seek to do on the basis of the birth truths. From this inadequate ground the majority of young Christians go down in defeat.” Part Five: A Guide to Spiritual Growth, Chapter 56, Think Position!, p 254

8. The Christian Life (Man’s Plight) (God’s Plan) Position Heavenlies Eternity Think Positi on ! ve ! Elemental Principles of the World Death/ Rapture Condition

9. “The Lord Jesus is ‘put on’ as we abide in Him by faith. Our risen Lord is full provision for our Christian life and service; and the cross is the only provision we have for the self-life. As we confidently rest in the Lord Jesus, the Holy Spirit gives us the things of Christ by means of growth. As a result, our condition begins to reflect what we already are in position.” Part Two: Foundations of Spiritual Growth, Chapter 22, Completeness and Security, p 97 “To abide is to remain where one has already been enlifed and positioned… It is when the Christian understands his death-position that he is enabled to see his life-position in the risen Lord Jesus…The believer’s enlightened faith follows effortlessly, because he now sees himself exactly where he has been positioned all along…” Part Five: A Guide to Spiritual Growth, Chapter 56, Think Position!, p 256) “Our object in sharing these truths of the Word is that we may be turned from all that God condemned unto a deep personal knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ...We are not to know the Lord Jesus in order to emulate Him as our example. Rather we are to behold Him in the Word and allow the Spirit of God to conform us to His image. Not imitation, but conformation.” Part Three: The Ground of Growth, Chapter 38, That I May Know Him, p 175

10. The Christian Life (typical) Position Eternity Heaven Death/ Rapture Condition

11. “When we first start out, hungry and zealous for Him, it is often imagined that extensive progress has been made when as yet we have barely begun. As our Lord takes us along through the years, it slowly dawns on us that there are vast, almost infinite, areas of development through which He must still lead us… In the beginning we are mainly taken up with the externals of our Christian life, and the Lord allows this for a time. Then, in order to get us and our externals out of the way so that the Lord Jesus Christ can be our all, our Father begins to take away much of what we thought we had. Here begins the long cross-centered transition from ‘do’ to ‘be.’” Part One: Principles Spiritual Growth, Chapter 18, Continuance, pp 72, 73 “He begins to show us that there is far more to this Christian life than just being saved and active for Him. And it is necessary for Him to engineer our exchange from carnal kernel Christians to fruitful fellowshipping disciples. “… sooner or later the grain of wheat finds itself, not high up on the stalk, but dropped to the earth, into the cold and strange darkness. And still worse, the earth smears and injures that nice, shiny golden coat. Worst of all, the coat begins to disintegrate and fall to pieces. All that is not Christ, no matter how nice in appearance and profession, is revealed for what it is—just self.” Part One: Principles of Spiritual Growth, Chapter 14, Process of Discipleship, pp 58, 59

12. “Hence, the Holy Spirit allows us to fail after our eager beginning. He applies the principle of need in every phase of our advance. The calculated failure is used to cause us to move beyond the early infant-enthusiasm to the place where we have to dig in and settle down upon the explicit truth of the Word. Before we can grow in any aspect of truth, we must be established in the knowledge of it. In every area of our spiritual development, it is one thing to begin on a new plateau, but it is quite another thing ‘through faith and patience to inherit the promises’ (Hebrews 6:12). “Our immaturity was understandable during the ‘milk-of-the-Gospel’ stage of our Christian life, but now it is time to face up to adulthood. We have partaken of the meat of identification. ‘Strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil’ (Hebrews 5:14). In our need and desperation we grasp a truth, but our initial knowledge is insufficient to enable us to persevere in it.” Part Four: The Realization of Spiritual Growth, Chapter 40, Principles of Reckoning, p 186

13. Process of Spirituality 1. Means 2. Need 3. Time 4. Order

14. Process of Spirituality 1. Means Need Time 4. Order

15. “In spiritual growth, the eye of faith is slowly transferred from our own point of view to His, from condition to position.” Part Two: Foundations of Spiritual Growth, Chapter 27, Sins and Light, p 128 “When we concentrate upon our condition, we are not living by faith but by feelings and appearances. The inevitable result is that we become increasingly self-conscious and self-centered. Our prime responsibility is to pay attention to the Lord Jesus, to rest (abide) in Him as our position. There will then be growth, and He will be more and more manifested in our condition. ‘But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the spirit of the Lord’ (2 Cor. 3:18). If the believer does not know of his position in the Lord Jesus, and how to abide in Him as his very life, there will be but one result. He will struggle in his un-Christlike condition rather than rest in his Christ-centered position.” Part Two: Foundations of Spiritual Growth, Chapter 19, Position Defined and Illustrated, p 78