But he answered, “It is written, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God’” (Matthew 4:4, ESV).
This verse reveals the profound nature of the cross in a believer’s life. Imagine having Almighty God speak to every thought, fear or anxiety and washing away their power. This is having “the mind of Christ” (1 Corinthian 2:16).
We are so unaware of how weighted down and preoccupied we are with ourselves. Jesus never had this. He lived from his earliest days, I am confident, with such a relationship with his Father that he was never on his own in his thinking. He lived, literally, by every word that proceeded out of the mouth of his Father. This is why he spoke with such authority. Even though he had taken the form of a man, he was still perfect in righteousness, and therefore His Father and He “were one” (John 10:30).
Still, it is hard for us to comprehend what this would be like because we do not know God very well. Most of us, even passionate believers, live the vast majority of our time in the darkness. Our preoccupation with ourselves separates us from God. This is why I said that this verse reveals the profound nature of the cross. The cross gives us the same access to God that Jesus had. I know that might sound far-fetched, but it is not at all an exaggeration. The cross allows us to abide in righteousness, even though we have none of our own (Philippians 3: 9-10).
We may wonder, well, if the cross is so powerful, why are so few believers living in Christ this way? To some extent, the answer is simple. We compromise on the message of the cross. We add to what Jesus has done on the cross’ we believe in the power of other things to save us. Ironically, our futile attempts to augment Christ’s offering not only diminishes but nullifies our access to very inheritance of His life in us.
It is that life that enables truly righteous motives in our doing. If we are not inheriting that life in the moment (because of our unbelief) we are unable to please or obey God (Romans 8:6-7). This is why, also, Paul says that “For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live” (Romans 8:13). C
Since we continue to depend on our own supplementations, most of us are rarely inheriting daily, the free gift of God. I want to emphasize the phrase, free gift. God places upon us no requirement other than to believe in Him. This is so very hard for us to understand and accept. This is, at least partially because, it is so contrary to the way we think as humans. Nothing is free for us; everything has strings attached. This is not so, however, in the kingdom of God. It truly is “freely given” (Romans 5:15-17).
What is the actual qualification required for us to inherit eternal life? Perfect righteousness! The problem, of course, is that none of us possesses such qualifications. Only Jesus qualified and He did so on our behalf. This is His kind of love. And so also, tangibly why his place is above all, because he is worthy of all honor and glory. He was God from the beginning.
This then is why it is only by us inheriting his righteousness as a gift that we could ever qualify. You might ask, therefore, how does this gift qualify us? It qualifies us in two ways. Firstly, it it gives us a standing before God, justified based upon what he has done and not our own condition of unrighteousness. Secondly, it qualifies us to tangibly inherit that righteousness of His life in us, the Spirit.
The second point is essential to understand. Because our positional righteousness is the foundation, a foundation of grace. However, if we are not daily receiving also the gift of righteous motives, Christ will not reign in our mortal bodies because He does not fellowship with darkness (1 John 1:5-7).
For decades I lived years as a Christian without this understanding, and I paid for it dearly. I understood justification by faith. Thus, I believed I was right with God based on my faith in Christ’s death. I did not, however, learn to rely on that justification to inherit the kingdom of God moment by moment. I just wavered back and forth between trying to be a good Christian (i.e. in my own strength, from human motives) and not trying at all, a sort of antinominalism. The latter was more of a hoping for some magical change to come “by grace.”
Neither solution brought about my sanctification. I finally realized I needed to have all my hope in the cross, remain in rest, acknowledge my helplessness to rescue myself from myself. From that place, I learned wait for His speaking the word of truth into my darkness daily, cleansing me from the old self, that real righteous obedience could come forth.
I was much like a man looking at himself in a mirror, and then I walk away from that mirror and forgot that His death qualifies me to inherit the kingdom of God right here and now, that my capacity to live from His life became possible. I was like a “forgetful hearer,” and thereby deceived myself. Such a man is “double-minded,” and will “receive nothing from the Lord” (James 1:22-25).
Therefore, as James tells us, we must not only look intently at ourselves in the mirror (i.e. of the truth of the gospel) but abide thereby, remain (James 1:21, 25) relying completely on Him, continually listening and receiving of his speaking (James 1:21,25). In this way we “imitate those who through faith and patience, inherit the promises” (Hebrews 6:12). So, as we learn to continue to “keep our eyes fixed upon Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith” (Hebrews 12:12), or said another way “keep our minds set on things above” (Romans 8:6).
Having carefully explained these things, I want to return to my initial point. That is, that we have available to us a most magnificent abiding victory that results in the love of God being poured out in our hearts, and our souls abiding in overflowing Thanksgiving.
Such a life is a prevailing life. It overcomes the darkest darkness, darkness from within and darkness from without. It prevails because the life is not a mere feeling or experience, (although it includes these things) but it is Christ in us. The most difficult aspect of this experience to describe is the reality of it.
This joy and this love is Christ, and He is God Almighty. We imagine heaven to be this magnificent place, and I have no doubt that it is but we fail to recognize that whatever that is, to some extent, it is available for us to experience now. The thing that so hard for us to comprehend is its nature, because He is so unlike us. He is from above, from glory. There is nothing that he lacks in any sense whatsoever. All things in Him are perfect and complete, and He overcomes all things.
This is the life that He has for those who put their whole hope in what Christ has done and abandon all hope in themselves, and others, or anything else. I pray that many more of God’s people will come to comprehend the overwhelming riches that are available in Christ for us every day!
