What a strange concept, yet such a wonderfully glorious mystery!
Galatians 2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave Himself for me.
When you accept Christ as Lord and Savior, you are crucified with Christ (spiritually) and raised with Him. A wonderful exchange then takes place in your spirit. Isaiah 53 lays it out for us. Jesus was despised and rejected so we would be accepted. He carried our sorrows, griefs, sickness and became poor, so that would walk in divine health and be prosperous. He took the whooping we deserved as well as our judgment.
2 Corinthians 5:21 For He hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.
Ephesians 4:22-24 That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man (old lifestyle), which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.
You progressively put off the old man and put on the new by getting your mind renewed with the washing of the Word. Everything Jesus is, you are in your spirit. You are righteous, holy, pure, etc.
Colossians 1:25-29 Whereof I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfill the word of God; Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to His saints: To whom God would make known (reveal) what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory: Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect (mature) in Christ Jesus: Whereunto I also labour, striving according to His working, which worketh in me mightily. (His supernatural energy working in you and me.)
We participate by agreeing with Him and by His very own faith! (See Galatians 2:20 above.)
2 Corinthians 5:14-17 For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead: And that He died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto Him which died for them and rose again. Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we Him no more. Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. (In your spirit.)
Jesus went to His hometown minister to the people there, but they didn’t see the Christ in Him, only Jesus, the carpenter’s son. If we want to walk in the victory that Christ won for us, we need to acknowledge what is in us as new creations in Christ. Don’t see yourself after the flesh any more, but see you as the Lord sees you. This becomes easier as you renew your mind with the Word.
Philemon 1:6 That the communication of thy faith may become effectual by the acknowledging of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus.
This is basically agreeing with Him and what He says about you and walking in it by faith.
Don’t you just love a great mystery?
