The Exchanged Life

"That ye put off...the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts...and that ye put on the new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness." Eph.4:22-24.

The New Principle: The victorious christian living is not a method or technique; it is an entirely different, revolutionary principle of life. It is the principle of an exchanged life."..not I, but christ liveth in me."(Gal.2:20). This is the work of God. It is your living in the adequacy of the One who is in you, which releases His divine action through you.

One of the most remarkable episodes in the Bible is the story of how God brought His people Israel out of Egypt, through the wilderness and into the land of Canaan. Let us examine together what it means to be in the land of Egypt, what it means to be in the wilderness and what it means to be in Canaan.

From Egypt: The slavery, the suffering and the hopeless condition of the children of Isrel in Egypt is the picture God gives us of the unforgiven sinner. Just as the land of Egypt represents our natural condition of spiritual death, so the Egyptian taskmasters represent the flesh in its tyrrannical control over human behaviour, as Paul also writes in Romans 7:19,20. Now just as the Egyptian taskmasters were left buried in the place of death, from which the children of Israel had been raised miraculously by God, so as you and I, identify ourselves by faith with Jesus Christ, in God's economy we go with Him, spiritually into the place of death, leaving this old nature called the flesh buried with Him there. (Rom.6).Why then the wilderness ? This is the tragedy of christendom today, as it was the tragedy of God's people Israel then, for forty years in the wilderness.

Through the Wilderness: The carnal christian is the one who has received the Holy Spirit and all the fulness of Christ, yet ignores His presence and struggles to live the christian life as though Christ were not there. He is the one who constantly begs and pleads for all that God has already given him, but which he will not take. He is the one who will not step out by faith upon the glorious fact that Christ is his life, and therefore his victory!

Into Canaan: But we need to move on to the enjoyment of Christ's indwelling which is represented by the land of Canaan; the land of promise and of plentiful provision. As Romans 5:10 declares,He not only reconciles you to God by His death, but He saves you moment by moment by His life; that is to say,He died not only for what you have done, but He rose again to live in you, to take the place of what you are. They were brought out to be brought in. This was God's purpose for His people then, and this is God's purpose for His redeemed people now.

Are you still in Egypt? Then trust Christ now as your Saviour! By faith, now apply the precious blood of Jesus to your sinful heart and thank Him for redeeming you.

Are you still in the wilderness ? Then repudiate your unbelief! Start right now trusting the Lord Jesus for that for which His blood was shed - that He might live His resurrection life in and through you, and thank Him that He is all that you can ever need at any time, in any circumstances for "in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily,you are complete in Him."(Co1. 2:9,10).Hallelujah!