Saving Life of Christ
By Major Ian Thomas

      . . . . "Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God." As the "good, acceptable, and perfect will of God" was implemented by the Son through dependence on the Father, so that "good, acceptable, and perfect will of God" may be implemented by you through dependence on the Son.

      This divine vocation into which you have been redeemed, as "His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God has before ordained that you should walk in them" (Ephesians 2:10) can only be fulfilled in the energy and power of the One who indwells you now by His Spirit, as He walked once only in the energy and power of the Father who indwelt Him through the Spirit. Of Himself He said, "I can of mine own self do nothing" (John 5:19), and of you He says, in John 15:5, "Without me you can do nothing."

      How much can you do without Him? Nothing! So what is everything you do without Him? Nothing!

      It is amazing how busy you can be doing nothing! . . . "The flesh"--everything that you do apart from Him--"profiteth nothing" (John 6:63), and there is always the awful possibility, if you do not discover this principle, that you may spend a lifetime in the service of Jesus Christ doing nothing!

      . . . The life which you possess as a born-again Christian is of Him, and it is to Him, and every moment that you are here on earth it must be through Him--of Him, through Him, to Him, all things! "I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice" (Romans 12:1).

      The Lord Jesus Christ claims the use of your body, your whole being, your complete personality, so that as you give yourself to Him through the eternal Spirit, He may give Himself to you through the eternal Spirit, that all your activity as a human being on earth may be His activity in and through you; that every step you take, every word you speak, everything you do, everything you are, may be an expression of the Son of God, in you as man.

      If it is of Him and through Him and to Him, where do you come in? You do not! That is just where you go out! That is what Paul meant when he said, "For me to live is Christ" (Philippians 1:21). The only Person whom God credits with the right to live in you is Jesus Christ; so reckon yourself to be dead to all that you are apart from what He is, and alive unto God only in all that you are because of what He is (Romans 6:11).

      When the world looked at Jesus Christ, they saw God! They heard Him speak and they saw Him act. And Jesus said, "As my Father has sent Me, even so send I you" (John 20:21). The world again will hear God speak and see God act!

      Is is for you to BE--it is for Him to DO! Restfully available to the Saving Life of Christ, enjoying "the richest measure of the divine Presence, a body wholly filled and flooded with God Himself," instantly obedient to the heavenly impulse--this is your vocation, and this is your victory! (The Saving Life of Christ, pp. 150-52).