Photograph of "A Man in Christ" by J. Sidlow Baxter

Yesterday I started reading His Deeper Work in Us by J. Sidlow Baxter and am enjoying it thoroughly.  Now here is a man who knows and breathes the inspired truth of scripture.  No fluff or quaint cliches here:  just meaty, thought provoking words worthy of being meditated upon because they are from God's Word.  Directly after reading these words I found it necessary to read them again because there is too much to digest in a single pass:

Holiness, as taught in the New Testament, is no mere negative concept--a being freed merely from the disfigurements of sin.  Besides the negative aspect of being rescued from the tyranny of hereditary depravity, there are all those wonderful positive traits which accompany the Holy Spirit's deeper renewal of the mind into the image of Christ.  According to the New Testament picture of holiness, the garden is not only cleared of ugly weeds, it is filled with fragrant flowers and rich fruits...

In other words, the New Testament emphasis is not so much on our being ridded of something (though that is necessarily included) but rather on our being filled with a spiritual vitality and health which leave the sin-disease no environment in which to thrive.  That life of victorious fulness is the shining challenge of the written Word to every Christian believer.  It is a fulness of new spiritual life which is positive holiness--brought about through an invasion of our being by the Holy Spirit Himself (wonderful mystery!).  One has only to glance through the New Testament to know whether many or few Christians today are living according to the divine standard.

Look again at the New Testament photograph of "a man in Christ".  He has within him "the peace of God which passeth all understanding (Phil. 4:7).  He "rejoices with joy unspeakable and full of glory" (1 Pet. 1:8).  He has "the wisdom that is from above" (Jas. 3:17).  He "walks in the light as God is in the light", having continuous "fellowship with the Father and with His Son (1 John 1:3, 7).  He is "renewed in knowledge after the image of God" (Col. 3:10), and is renewed into "true holiness" (Eph. 4:24).  He "beholds with unveiled face the glory of the Lord, and is changed into the same image" (2 Cor. 3:18).  In him "perfect love casts out fear" (1 John 4:18).  He "dwelleth in God, and God in him" (1 John 4:16).  He is "filled unto all the fulness of God" (Eph. 3:19).  He lives the "more abundant life" (John 10:10).

In his prayer-life he "asks and receives", till his "joy is full" (John 16:24).  He finds God "able to do exceedingly abundantly above all he asks or thinks, according to the power that worketh in him" (Eph. 3:20).  To his praying heart the risen Lord "manifests Himself" (John 14:21).  In him, "the Spirit beareth witness that he is a child of God" (Rom. 8.16).  The "Spirit of life" has "set him free from the law of sin and death" (Rom. 8:2).  He knows by experience that he is "sealed" with the Holy Spirit, and that he has the inward "earnest" of the Spirit as a foretaste of the heavenly "inheritance" (Eph. 1:13, 14).  He is "endued" by the Spirit with "the power from on high".  His character is beautiful with "the fruit of the Spirit:  love joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness..."

When "troubled on every side" he is not "cast down" but the life of Jesus is "manifested" through him (2 Cor. 4:8, 10).  In "tribulations" he is "more than conqueror through him that loved us" (Rom. 8:37).  In "infirmities" and "reproaches" he sings, "when I am weak then am I strong" (2 Cor. 12:10).  "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me" (Phi. 4:13).  He has "full assurance of hope" (Heb. 6:11) and "full assurance of faith" (10:22).  In a word, he is "filled continually with the Holy Spirit (Eph. 5:18).  (Baxter, J. Sidlow. His Deeper Work In Us. London, Marshall, Morgan & Scott, 1967, pp. 16–18.)

This photograph of those who are in Christ is not theoretical or a fantasy only to be enjoyed in the distant future.  Here are qualities of followers of Jesus Christ because the Holy Spirit has indwelt and empowered us by the grace of God.  A young aspiring bodybuilder hangs posters of muscled, ripped bodies in his makeshift gym because he hopes to work towards the body he idolises as an ideal:  God provides the true picture of the reality for believers in Christ we never dared to dream.  Faith in Jesus Christ and obedience to Him is the path to glory.  It is not the glory of the muscle-man who feeds and flaunts the flesh but humility and submission to God and by His using these weak, broken vessels the glory of Jesus Christ will shine through, and people will catch a glimpse of Him.