LIVING WATERS
For the proclamation of the Gospel and the edification of the Body of Christ
Life That Serves
The apostle Paul has given us an exceptional synthesis of what the Christian life and service are essentially about. In verse 2:20 of his letter to the Galatians, we find his definition of the Christian life: "I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me"; while in Philippians 3:3 we find his definition of service to the Lord: "For we are the circumcision, who in spirit serve God and glory in Christ Jesus, having no confidence in the flesh".
Both texts are intimately linked and express basically the same truth - both the life and the service of the children of God are the result of a substitution. Their natural, carnal life, given over to sin, has been replaced by the life of another -Jesus Christ, the Son of God- holy and without blemish, so that their service is the spontaneous fruit of the new life that inhabits them.
We can safely say that only those believers who have experienced and known this kind of life can be useful in God's work. We cannot underestimate this, for perhaps the greatest loss that the church suffers and has suffered in the past comes from Christians whose words and deeds do not have their origin in the life that comes from God, but in their own natural or carnal life.
Our old Adamic life cannot be saved, for it is corrupt from its very root. The only possible remedy is to uproot the evil tree completely. For many of us, the difficulty lies precisely at this point, for we still love our old life too much. Certainly, we want to get rid of our particular sins and we struggle ardently to do so, thinking that the problem is simply to do or not to do certain things.
Secretly we have a great esteem for ourselves, and God, in his patience, allows us to go on like this for some time. We have not yet seen what he has known all along: that our old man cannot be saved and must die so that we may live. This is his verdict on the old life: "He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life shall find it for my sake" (Matt. 10:39; 16:25; Luke 10:24).
We must first lose our own life so that the life that comes from God can take its place. It is necessary that in us the carnal self yields its place to Christ, for this is essentially Christianity: Christ living his life in us; not us trying to live his life, for that is impossible.
No one puts on a new suit over an old and worn-out garment. The normal thing is to first take off the old garment and then put on the new one in its place. In the same way, Scripture tells us, we must put off the old man, which is defiled and corrupt, and put on the new man, which is being renewed in the image of him who created him, until he has come to full knowledge (Eph. 4:20-24; Col. 3:9-10). This new man is Christ, the image of God, living and expressing his life in us.