The Sanctified Life
{Chapter
4, From the Book – The Way to Eternal Life – Steve Bray}
And
you shall be holy to Me, for I the Lord am holy, and
have separated you …that you should be Mine. (Lev. 20:26)
Therefore
Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered
outside the gate. Therefore let us go forth to Him, outside the camp
{separating from the multitude}, bearing His reproach. (Heb. 13:12-13)
Jesus
shed His blood on the cross for the purpose of preparing a fully sanctified
life that He can share with His disciples. By choosing to follow Him through
the cross, we can enter into His sanctified life and find complete freedom from
the self-centered, self-seeking and self-exalting form of life that everyone
first receives from Adam. His indwelling life does away with the body of sin that
naturally lives for self, so we too may live for God’s will alone.
Knowing
this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body
of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of
sin… For the death that He died, He died to sin {living for self} once for all;
but the life that He lives, He lives to
God.” (
Those
who have truly chosen to follow Christ are easily recognized. They are not
necessarily identified by the testimony they give with their mouth, but by the
fact they no longer live for themselves. Many people insist they are Christians
but they are still living by their own will for their own pleasures. In other
words, the body of sin is still living on. But those who have truly received
Christ’s sanctified life into their heart will be found living for God alone.
“…Because we judge thus: that if one died for all, then all died; and He died
for all, that those who live should live no longer for themselves, but for Him
who died for them and rose again.” (2 Cor. 5:14-15)
Having died to their self-life, their whole being is given up to live for Him.
If
there is anything remaining in your life, in your household, or in your married
life that is not fully given over to the Lord to be used for a display of His
glory, you are resisting Christ and His way of the cross. That part of your
life that is not fully yielded to God is considered evil in His sight. It is
something that He needs to destroy before it destroys you. But you must make
the choice to have it done. “Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead
indeed to sin {the old self-originated form of life, the life in which you call
the shots – “of self,” “by self,” and “for self”}, but alive to God in Christ
Jesus our Lord.” (Rom. 6:11)
Christ
died for the purpose of gaining full possession of the vessel of your body. The
vessel belongs to Him whether you give it to Him or not. “Or do you not know
that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have
from God, and you are not your own? For you were bought at a price…” (1 Cor 6:19-20) What do you think He will say to you on the
great Day of Judgment if you have refused to give Him your body to be used as
He had originally purposed? The basis of His judgment of you will not be so
much on what you have done, but on whether or not you have given the vessel to
the Lord so He may display His life and works through it.
Christ
had only one purpose while walking in a mortal body. He lived for the will of
His Father alone. From the moment He recognized the necessity of being about
His Father’s business, even as a young child, there was never a moment when He
was not fully occupied with this one great purpose. And there is only one
reason why someone does not have this same innate desire. It is because they
are not partakers with Him in His fully sanctified life. They have not yet
followed Him outside the camp and taken His way of the cross.
For
the death that He died, He died to sin {to self-will} once for all; but the
life that He lives, He lives to God. (Rom. 6:10)
And
for their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may
be sanctified by the truth. (John 17:19)
And
whoever does not bear his cross {by choosing to die to self-will} and come
after Me cannot be My disciple. (Luke 14:27)
Christ
sanctified Himself so that He would have a sanctified life {a life set apart
for God’s exclusive use} to give to His disciples. And the life of holy love
that is in Him lives for God’s will alone. This is the Christ you must receive.
It does not do any good to believe in a Christ of your own imagination and
making. You will need to receive into your heart the true Christ, who has
sanctified Himself to provide you with complete freedom over the old
self-centered, self-seeking and self-exalting form of life.
Examine
yourselves to see whether you are in the faith: test yourselves. Do you not
realize that Christ Jesus is in you {with His fully sanctified life}—unless, of
course, you fail the test? (2 Cor. 13:5 NIV)
And
those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. (Gal. 5:24-25)
It
is written that Christ “through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot
to God.” (Heb 9:14) Jesus did everything through the Spirit. When we are living
through the Spirit as He did, we can expect the Spirit to also enable us to
walk as Jesus did. He takes of the things of Christ—His lowliness, His
humility, His submissive and lamblike spirit—and begins
to make them known to us. “He will bring glory to Me
by taking from what is mine and making it known to you.” (John 16:14 NIV)
Jesus
walked daily with His Father. He did not do anything according to His own
wisdom or will. He never even spoke His own words. When we come to that place
where we no longer have an independent life of our own but desire only to do
the Father’s will, we will know that we have become partakers with Christ in
His fully sanctified life. It is the mark of a purified heart. (Acts 15:8-9)
And
that is our heritage – not to be moved by the pressure of human opinion, human
love, or human ideas of duty, but to be moved moment by moment by the Spirit of
God. We must not permit anything or anyone to move us away from His purposes
for our life.
The
closer we are in harmony with His perfect will, the more we will enjoy His
indwelling Presence. In contrast, those who direct their own steps will find
they have separated themselves from His heavenly life. God will only make His
eternal life known within our inner being after we have begun to reckon
ourselves to be dead to self-will and have begun to live for His purposes
alone. “My sheep hear My voice…and they follow Me {by
taking the way of the cross}. And I give
them eternal life…” (John 10:27-28)
The
Lord needs disciples who will learn to wait on Him and listen for His voice. He
needs fully sanctified followers who are always at His disposal and remain
tuned to the voice of His Spirit. These are His true brothers and sisters—the
sons and daughters of God. (Rom. 8:14)
And
He stretched out His hand toward His disciples and said, “Here are My mother and My brothers! For whoever does the will of My
Father in heaven is My brother and sister and mother.”
(Matt. 12:49-50)
The
devil will tempt even earnest souls to step out in their own will and strength.
And he does not mind if these individuals remain in the church if he can
deceive them into living by their own resources. He understands how this
self-directed course leads to a self-exalting form of life. Knowing that it
spreads carnal darkness within the church, he uses these people to distort
Christianity and to hide the fully sanctified life that Jesus gives to His true
followers.
Jesus
set an example when He set His mind on the way of the cross and did not permit
anyone to distract Him. We will need to do the same. The devil will come to us
with many distracting thoughts to turn us back to the ways of the world. And
some of these thoughts will come from those we love. We must not permit the
wisdom of men to turn us away from God’s revealed will.
We
should note that Jesus’ own disciples tried to discourage Him and turn Him away
from the way of the cross. But the Father then led Him to the mountain where He
could speak with the ambassadors of the heavenly world. Moses and Elijah
“appeared in glory and spoke of His decease which He was about to accomplish at
Very
few ever find close relatives and friends to stand behind them and encourage
them when they set their mind on taking Christ’s way of the cross. In fact, the
way of the cross typically splits families apart. It was because of the
implications of this way of the cross that Jesus said, “For from now on five in
one house will be divided: three against two, and two against three.” (Luke
12:52)
It
was when Peter attempted to turn Jesus from the way of the cross that Jesus
said to him, “You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of
God, but the things of men.” (Matt. 16:23) Fallen man thinks in terms of
saving himself and living for himself. We can therefore expect others—those who
live by the “psuche” life—to do their best to turn us
away from Christ’s way of the cross. But we must not permit the wisdom of man
to change our direction.
Those
who choose to fully surrender to the Word of God will receive a vision of the
heavenly
The
carnal mind does not see the value in following Jesus. Because it finds its
life from the temporal realm, it just naturally thinks in terms of finding
spiritual support from the world and its things. It does not comprehend how a
person can experience an enjoyable spiritual life after dying to the
self-directed and self-seeking ways of this world. This is where we must have
faith in the God who can create worlds out of nothing and hold them up by what
appears to be nothing.
There
was a reason why Peter and the others did not want to encourage Jesus when He
set His mind on going to the cross. If they were to remain His disciples, it meant
they too needed to follow the same course. We therefore find Peter rebuking
Jesus in an attempt to save himself. It was at this point that Jesus began to
teach His disciples how each of them would need to lose their “psuche” life if they hoped to find His eternal “zoe” life. (Matt. 16:24-25)
There
is only one way to follow Jesus. We must voluntarily choose to lay down the old
“psuche” life that is developed through self-will.
This is the narrow path that Jesus established: “Therefore My Father loves Me, because I lay down My {“psuche”}
life… No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of
Myself….” (John 10:17-18) And if we truly desire to be lifted by His Spirit
into His eternal life, we too must choose to lay down our “psuche”
in the same way.
Jesus
warned His disciples in advance because He knew that it was not an easy course
to take. But He also wanted them to know that dying to the old self-originated
“psuche” life is the only way to find His heavenly “zoe” life. There is no way around it. And that is why there
are so few being saved from their old self-originated way of life. “Because
narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to {“zoe”} life, and there are few who find it.” (Matt. 7:14)
Christ
is very open and straightforward about His teachings. No one needs to be
deceived by the devil. He even instructs us to sit down and consider the cost
before we choose to follow Him. We gain nothing if we end up being like the
foolish man who begins to build a tower and never finishes what he starts.
(Luke 14:28-30)
Those
who have truly considered the cost from the very beginning are more prepared to
press through every trial. It was for this reason that Paul was constantly
trying to build Christians up in their faith. He knew that the path into Christ’s
eternal Kingdom-life—the way of the cross—would inevitably take every believer
through a period of suffering.
And
when they had preached the gospel to that city and made many disciples, they
returned to Lystra, Iconium,
and
Therefore
humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due
time… But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by
Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen,
and settle you. (1 Pet. 5:6, 10)
And
whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me
cannot be My disciple… So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he
has {from the self-originated form of life} cannot be My
disciple. (Luke 14:27, 33)
Up
on the mountain we find the Father comforting His obedient Son and rebuking
Peter. He said, “This is My beloved Son; hear Him.” The disciples were refusing
to listen to Jesus. Like many today who have heard the same words, they simply
do not acknowledge what the Lord has stated. Yes, they hear the words. But they
do not accept them into their heart. Where is the disciple who has truly denied
himself and lost his “psuche” life in order to find
our Lord’s heavenly life of perfect love?
When
Christ sanctified Himself, He died so that all His followers would have a means
for being fully sanctified with Him. No one can set themselves free from their
self-centered and self-exalting form of life. This old demonic way of life will
naturally rise out of the heart until the heart has been filled and purified
with the “zoe” life from above. Christ died so that those who are caught up in self-love and in their
own interests may find a real deliverance from their old self-seeking nature.
But each individual is still required to go into their own
Those
who are still depending on the temporal realm for their spiritual life will
naturally be worried about anything that separates them from their idols. There
will still be a sense of fear in approaching death. But once we are truly sharing
with Christ in His eternal life, we are completely delivered from the fear of
being separated from the world and its things. There is no longer any sting in
death.
Those
who have already died to the “psuche” life begin to glory
in the cross. “But God forbid that I should boast {in anything} except in the
cross of our Lord Jesus Christ {in His crucified and fully sanctified life}, by
whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.” (Gal. 6:14) This
mark of the cross is recognized on Christ’s true disciples by the way they live
for God alone. Because they no longer live for themselves, it becomes a sign to
others. It identifies them as the crucified ones who are receiving divine life
from the heavenly realms.
This
way of the cross is the means for becoming victorious in every hardship and
trial. When we are participating with Christ in His heavenly “zoe” life, we find that our spirit is lifted above all
other principalities and powers. Our spiritual life is no longer weighed down
by the darkness and oppression that surrounds this world.
We
must not be fearful of going too far in this way of the cross. Those who sink
the deepest will find themselves being lifted into the highest measures of the
spiritual life of heaven. There is no limit to how far we can enter into
Christ’s heavenly Kingdom-life through a yielded faith. While others may turn
back from the way of the cross for lack of spiritual vision, we need to realize
that it is the only means for finding a spiritual life that is able to satisfy
the soul “as with the richest of foods”. We pray that each of our readers will
have this same vision.
I
have seen you in the sanctuary, and beheld your power and your glory. Because
your love is better than {psuche} life, my lips will
glorify you… My soul will be satisfied as with the richest of foods; with
singing lips my mouth will praise you. (Ps. 63:2-3,5
NIV)
Have
you received this same heavenly insight into the promises of God? Do you
believe that He can do what He has promised? Then why not humble yourself under
His mighty hand by sinking down into your nothingness so He may exalt you in
due time? You will lose nothing when your ever-dying “psuche”
life ceases to be and you are living in the heavenly realms with Christ and
sharing with Him in His “zoe” life.
Most
assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and
dies, it remains alone. {It cannot be united with God in His heavenly life.}…
He who loves his life will lose it… If anyone serves Me,
let him follow Me {through the cross}; and where I am {in the heavenly realms},
there My servant will be also. If anyone serves Me {in
this way of the cross}, Him My Father will honor. (John 12:24-26)
We
must receive Christ and His life as He is – as the Lamb of God. The book of
Revelations consistently refers to Christ in heaven as the Lamb. The eternal
life that is in Him is the spirit of the Lamb. And it is by sinking down into
our nothingness and becoming “one spirit with Him” that we share with Him in His
heavenly life.
…These are the ones who follow the Lamb
wherever He goes. These were redeemed from among men,
being firstfruits to God and to the Lamb. (Rev 14:4)
So
the last will be first, and the first last. For many are called, but few
chosen. (Matt. 20:16)
While
the teachings of our Lord always sound difficult when first heard, let us
remember that we are not expected to live them out in our own strength. The
first disciples had this same problem. But once the glorified Lord filled them
with His sanctified life, they too were enabled to remain faithful to death.
The command never provides the power to
fulfill the requirement. There is no real power in the letter
of the law. The commands found in the Word of God continually contradict our
nature. The intent is to turn us to Christ. He is the One who has sanctified
Himself so that we may be fully sanctified in truth. His life—the Living
Word—does by nature what the law requires.
For
what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by
sending His own Son…that the righteous requirement of the law might be
fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the
Spirit. (
And
of His fullness we have all received {we all have access to His fully sanctified
life}, and grace for grace. For the law was given through
Moses, but grace and truth {the reality of the promise} came through Jesus
Christ. (John 1:16-17)
At
first it may sound strange to read how grace and truth came through Jesus
rather than through the laws that were written down for our understanding. It
is easier to understand grace being contrasted with law. But many wonder how
there can be a contrast between “truth” and the laws of God. And yet there is
the same contrast.
Here
is where we need to realize that “truth” is more than the “shadow” of what can
be learned by the mind through written laws. For divine Truth to be real, it
must have reality within our heart. It must come to us in the power of the
Spirit before the Living Word—Jesus Christ—will be displayed through our mortal
bodies.
The
letter does little more than condemn and kill the spirit. It is the “Spirit of
grace” who takes the truth and makes it a real part of our inner nature. He
takes of the Kingdom-life of Christ and reveals the life in power within our
inner being. “For the kingdom of God {our Lord’s
Kingdom-life} is not in word but in power.” (1 Cor.
4:20)
Not
that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from
ourselves {because there is nothing self-originated in the spiritual man}, but
our sufficiency is from God, who also made us sufficient as ministers of the
new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but
the Spirit gives life. (2 Cor 3:5-6)
God
requires His children to yield their whole being to the teachings He has
revealed through His inspired Word. And as we have shown, Christ has only
promised to reveal Himself within our inner being after we have fully responded
to His teachings. (John 14:21) But trying to live by law through our own
efforts does not supply eternal “zoe” life to the
soul. Those who are truly honest with themselves will find that the law does
not give life, but actually breaks the self-sufficient spirit.
Is
the law then against the promises of God? Certainly not! For if there had been
a law given which could have given life, truly righteousness would have been by
the law. But the Scripture has confined all under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who
believe. But before faith came {and the eternal “zoe”
life was available}, we were kept under guard by the law {as a means to
constrain sin}, kept for the faith which would afterward be revealed. Therefore
the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ… (Gal. 3:21-24)
The
words of George D. Watson may be helpful at this point. As he indicates, the
law of God requires us to be like God in holy love. And the law is insistent in
its demands. But in the end it must turn us to Christ if we truly hope to
fulfill all the righteous requirements of the law. (
Let
us remember that the law in its letter knows no mercy or deviation and,
although Paul says it is holy, just and good, and has an office to fill of
exacting righteousness, and is essential in God’s economy, yet it is not the
minister of grace; that is reserved for the personal Christ Himself, for the
law came by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ…
The
Holy Ghost administers the law of
There
is a fully sanctified life that can provide every believer with a real freedom
from that old nature that still desires to live for self. You should not look
at these truths as exaggerations. Christ sanctified Himself fully so that you
may be sanctified in the same way. You can now receive an abundant entrance
into His heavenly Kingdom-life if you will go to Him outside the camp where He
died to self-will once for all on the cross.
Therefore,
brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure, for if you
do these things you will never stumble; for so an entrance will be supplied to
you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ. (2 Peter 1:10-11)
For you
died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. (Col. 3:3)