| The following message was given at the New England Bible
Conference, September 18, 2007, hosted by the Middletown Bible Church. The things that Pastor Delany discusses in this message are of utmost importance to every believer. If you would like a CD copy of this message, please Contact Us. |
“And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is
my beloved Son,
in whom I am well pleased.” (Matt. 3:17)
The Father LOVES His Son. This fact is an integral truth in understanding the Christian life. We will never, even in eternity, fully grasp the extent or the depth of the Father’s love for His only begotten Son. Some of the Old Testament sacrifices illustrated the fact that the Son (His Person and His work) was a sweet smelling savor to the Father. The Son always did those things that pleased the Father (John 8:29). The Father loves His Son and anything that reminds Him of His Son is an absolute delight to the Father. Anything that has the look of His Son, the sound of His Son, that talks like the Son, walks like the Son, even smells like His Son - is an absolute DELIGHT to the Father.
The Father LOVES every expression of the LIFE of His Son in us. The wonder of wonders is that the Father has placed the believer of this age IN His Son and He has placed His Son IN us. By faith we have been wondrously UNITED to Christ with a oneness and a closeness that we will probably never fully comprehend. We have been BAPTIZED INTO His Body. We are united with Christ in His death, resurrection, and ascension… and are seated with Him in heaven. The ramifications of this wonderful truth cannot be overstated. It is the GLORY of our age.
In a very real sense, Godly Christian living is “Christ in you.” The Christian life is the life of the indwelling Christ manifested through our mortal bodies. In Philippians 1:21 Paul wrote, “For to me to live is Christ.” Again in Colossians 3:4 he wrote, “Christ who is our life.” The One in whom the Father delights lives IN us and He is our new life! This truth has to be taken by FAITH; a faith that rests upon the written revelation found in the WORD of God. We would never know this wonderful truth otherwise. No one ever could have imagined such a plan. But it is what God has revealed in His Word.
The goal of the Christian life is that Christ be FORMED in us. In Romans 8:29a we read, “For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son.” This was God’s plan before the world began. That plan WILL be carried out in the life of every true believer because He that hath begun a good work in you WILL perform it until the day of Jesus Christ (Philippians 1:6). Consider the apostle’s words in Galatians 4:19: “My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you.” Kenneth Wuest noted that the word translated “formed” (morphow) refers to the act of giving outward expression to that which is an inward reality. The life of Christ IN US is to be manifested outwardly. Consider the following passages:
Þ II Cor. 4:10-11 – “That the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body...that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.”
Þ Rom. 13:14 - “But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof.”
Þ II Cor. 2:14 – “Now thanks be unto God who always causeth us to triumph in Christ and maketh manifest the savor of His knowledge by US in every place.”
Þ I Cor. 2:16 – “We have the mind of Christ.”
Þ Phil. 2:5 – “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.”
The Word tells us that the believer is to look like Christ, be conformed to the image of Christ, to put on Christ and thus wear Him like a garment, be armed with the mind of Christ, and even to exude the savor of Christ. Truly, Christ is being formed in us. This is the ONLY thing that pleases the Father: CHRIST – His Beloved Son in you. The Father is DELIGHTED when He sees His Beloved Son in us.
The Father hates every expression of fallen flesh. This fact is also an integral truth in understanding the Christian life. God HATES the flesh… and just as we will never fully grasp the depth of the Father’s love for His Son, we also will never fully grasp the depth of the Father’s hatred for the flesh. Our hatred for the flesh falls infinitely short of the Father’s hatred for it. God hates every expression of fallen flesh. He hates the looks of flesh; He hates the sound of flesh; He hates the smell of flesh. He hates the way flesh thinks. He hates the logic of the flesh. He hates the way flesh works… the way it operates… the way flesh walks. He hates its selfish nature. He hates its subtlety and deceit. But what He especially hates is fallen flesh that attempts to pass itself off as spiritual or godly. He hates flesh robed in an outward cloak of godliness. Corruptible flesh likes to pose as a form of godliness, but it denies the TRUE power thereof, namely, the power of the Holy Spirit, and replaces FLESH for the Spirit. It is probably no accident that in the natural realm, there is probably nothing more nauseating and disgusting than the stench of rotting flesh. Could this be a divine object lesson? No cloak can ever cover up the smell of rotten flesh before God. Corruptible flesh emits an odor so rancid that it cannot be covered up. It has to be put away… God’s way.
When the corruptible, fleshly nature operates in our mortal bodies, it is not a sweet smelling savor to God. It emits a nauseating odor. Consider what the Word says about flesh:
Þ Gen. 6:12 – All flesh was corrupt and worthy of total destruction. That’s hard for us to believe, but true.
Þ Rom. 3:10-12 – There is none that doeth good, no not one.
Þ Rom. 7:18 – In my flesh dwells NO good thing.
Þ Rom. 7:5 – The flesh brings forth fruit unto death.
Þ Rom.8:7 – The fleshly carnal mind is enmity with God.
Þ Gal. 5:17- The flesh lusts against the Spirit – they are always contrary the one to the other.
It is HARD for us to believe just HOW MUCH God hates our fallen flesh. We demonstrate unbelief when we seek ways to make it look “not so bad,” to dress it up a little… cover it up… so it won’t smell so bad. But God is never fooled. It comes as a hard and crushing blow to us all, when it finally sinks in that “in my flesh dwells NO good thing,” and that MY flesh is nauseating to the Father.
The Word of God has given us ample warning concerning the DEPTH of God’s hatred for fallen, corrupt, human flesh. But it is not natural for us to think that way. It takes time – often years… for our thinking to really be in agreement with God on this matter. Naturally, a believer will instantly recognize that something is not quite right about the flesh, but rarely would we condemn it as utterly worthless, as God does. Apart from divine revelation we would never draw the conclusion God does concerning our flesh: no good thing. There is such a tendency in us all to try to salvage something of the flesh, repackage it, dress it up, and offer it up to God. What God has said in His word is very surprising to us, and runs contrary to the natural grain of our thinking. Unless our minds are saturated with God’s Word… saturated in God’s estimate of self and flesh, our view of SELF will be inflated and erroneous.
This leaves the believer of this age in a serious dilemma. Christ dwells in us… whom the Father loves. But the flesh also dwells in us… the fallen sinful human nature inherited from Adam… which the Father hates. At any given moment, one or the other will be manifested through our mortal bodies. Even with the best of intentions, if we are ignorant of God’s method of dealing with our fleshly nature as revealed in the WORD – we will struggle and fail. God has revealed a comprehensive plan for dealing with the flesh in His Word. By virtue of the new birth and new nature the will to obey is present with us, but we need to know “how to perform that which is good” (Rom.7:18) or we will not experience victory.
The only way of experiencing truly godly living is through the divine revelation of the mystery. Such a plan eye had never seen, nor ear heard, neither arose in the heart of man. Only by means of divine revelation in the WORD can we know these deep things of God. God’s plan for godly living involves the mystery of godliness.
Godly Living and the Word
In one sense, God’s WORD to the believer of this age is a revelation of the mystery of Christ.
One of the major themes of the epistles is the fact of the mystery: truths relating to Christ and His Body – truths hidden from ages and generations, but now made known to the sons of men. In I Timothy 3:16, Paul speaks of the mystery of Christ in us and its relationship to godliness (vs.16) and to behavior (vs. 15). God’s plan is to reveal His beloved Son IN human flesh. This was true in the Person of Jesus Christ in the incarnation; it is true in Body of Christ, the church; and it is also true in individual members of the Body of Christ. The existence and makeup of the Body of Christ (Jew and Gentile on equal footing) was a mystery. Its birth was a mystery; its exodus in the rapture was a mystery. The new relationship to Christ was a mystery: “Ye in Me and I in you.” This mystery is the basis of godly living today: The indwelling life of Christ manifested in human flesh… through individual members of the Body of Christ.
“To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” (Colossians 1:27)
The glory of the mystery refers to the dazzling splendor of the truth concerning this new relationship to Christ. The “riches” of that glory speaks of the richest and best part of it… the most dazzling portion of the blazing splendor of the mystery! Paul states that the richest part of this glorious mystery is Christ in you! The mystery had MANY different facets, all revolving around the believers’ new relationship to Christ: our union with Him; the rapture; the fact that Jew and Gentile are on equal footing in the Body… all are part of the glorious mystery. But the RICHEST part of this glorious mystery is the fact that Christ dwells in us.
The fact that Christ lives IN us means that godly living in this age has been radically transformed. It is an entirely new rule of life - one never imagined by saints in the Old Testament. This rule of life is infinitely superior to anything ever experienced by anyone under the Law. His indwelling presence means the cup is being cleansed from the inside out. Religion attempts to clean the cup from the outside in… but is unable to clean the inside, and thus settles for cleaning the outside. That is mere external conformity… a whitewash… that never gets to the heart of the matter. It is an attempt to cover up the flesh. Religion leaves the inside of the cup filthy… and condemned. It cleans the outside of the grave and garnishes it, but inside it is full of dead men’s bones. It is spiritually dead. Christianity is completely different. It places CHRIST IN US at the moment of saving faith. And that indwelling LIFE guarantees a gradual change… from the inside out. Christ is being FORMED in us… slowly, gradually, often imperceptibly, but SURELY.
The Mystery of Christ is the BASIS of Christian Living. The mystery of godliness is an entirely new means of godly behavior that is unique to this dispensation. Godly Christian living is “Christ in you.” Anything less, or anything else is a counterfeit… a deceptive work of the flesh… which the Father hates.
So, in a sense, the word of God for believers of this age is the revelation of this mystery – and all of its ramifications… including HOW God planned to reveal His Son in us. This mystery is not to be a mystery any more. It was revealed for us to KNOW, appreciate, and experience. To the degree that this truth is ignored or treated lightly in Christian circles, godly living will become but an elusive dream. The mystery was revealed 2000 years ago, yet in some circles this truth is shunned as something “new.” God’s method of sanctification is not some new theory. No, it wasn’t invented by the brethren… or the folks at Keswick… or theologians at Dallas… or Moody, or at a deeper life conference. That’s not where it came from. It was part of the glorious mystery, hidden in the mind and heart of God, searched out by the Spirit, and revealed to the holy apostles and New Testament prophets and recorded in the epistles, and illuminated by the Spirit to the minds and hearts of Spirit filled believers… to those willing to do His will. It is straight out of the Bible. Understanding and applying it requires MUCH labor in the Word… and it is worth far more than rubies. God help us if we treat the riches of the glory of the mystery lightly.
In another sense, the Word of God is the Word of the cross. (I Corinthians 1:18)
The CROSS is God’s method of dealing with the flesh. Our identification with Christ on the cross is the ONLY way that saved sinners like us can live a godly life before the Lord untainted by flesh. The cross is God’s method of providing forgiveness of sins (justification) and His method of dealing with indwelling