Life Into Christ-Introduction-By Michael Clark and George Davis

Life Into Christ
http://awildernessvoice.com/LifeIntoChrist.html

Introduction

By Michael Clark and George Davis

Jesus not only gave His life on the cross to take away our sins, but He gave Himself to us that He might live His life through us. We are not doomed to live out a life of sin in our sin-prone weakness. Paul wrote to the Roman saints, "Know you not that so many of us that were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into His death?" Notice the two into's. These are that same word in the Greek, eis. Yes, Jesus died once for all who were placed by the Father into Him, but that is not all....



"As long as we expect God to do for us what we ask or think, we limit Him. When we believe that as high as the heavens are above the earth, His thoughts are above our thoughts, and wait on Him as God to do unto us according to His Word, as He means it, we shall be prepared to live the truly supernatural, heavenly life the Holy Spirit can work in us—the true Christ life."

Andrew Murray

The Two Covenants, 1898



"The greater danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we hit it."

Michelangelo



Introduction


This has been a difficult book to write. On the one hand we have seen something supernatural and heard the Spirit call unto us, "Come up here," and we have set out to describe that call we have heard. How do you put in human words those things that the Spirit speaks to our spirits? Language at best is the result of the fall of man. It was called Babel because they were cast into confusion by not speaking the same language to one another. When we wrangle with doctrines, the result is the same.


If you minister or write with a motive of building something temporal (to make a name, or build a legacy on this earth), you are doomed to add to the confusion of Babel. All fleshly motivated builders reject the Cornerstone, the tried and true Stone on which and by which all eternal habitations are built. Sooner or later that Stone not cut with hands falls from heaven and strikes this unholy mixture of iron and clay in its feet and its glory fades from memory or becomes a living example of everything that is wrong.


The other thing that makes a book like this difficult is the awareness that when you set out to illuminate a truth that is beyond where most of us exist, you can be seen as setting forth an exclusive calling. This is not our heart. The call is to whosoever wills. The question is, are we willing to leave those things built by men, those comfortable doctrines that say, "I'm okay, you're okay." Will we go humming on down the path, content with our mediocrity as nominal believers, or will we press on into the depths of the Son of God? The goal of the gospel of Jesus is summed up in His final prayer to our Father: "That they all may be one; as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be one in us." To exist as Christians that are divided into sects and denominations, to even be divided against one another inside these groups, even in our own congregations, is a blatant testimony that we are living in Christian mediocrity and have fallen short of the goal of the high calling of Christ. Jesus is one with the Father and extends that same wondrous existence unto us.


One final word. This document is not a treatise on proper usage of Greek or Hebrew. We are not scholars, but brothers who have set out early in our lives to have hearing ears tuned to the voice of God. We have set out to leave everything that attracts and fortifies our sinful selves and live lives that require constant repentance as God shows us His more excellent ways. With Paul we can say,


I'm not saying that I have this all together, that I have it made. But I am well on my way, reaching out for Christ, who has so wondrously reached out for me. Friends, don't get me wrong: By no means do I count myself an expert in all of this, but I've got my eye on the goal, where God is beckoning us onward--to Jesus. I'm off and running, and I'm not turning back. So let's keep focused on that goal, those of us who want everything God has for us. If any of you have something else in mind, something less than total commitment, God will clear your blurred vision--you'll see it yet!

(Philippians 3:12-15 MSG)


Let us press into the Son and we will walk together in His love.

Chapter 1: What is Salvation?
Chapter 2: Saved by Jesus' Life
Chapter 3: Christ's Body, "Bone of His Bone"
Chapter 4: Identification in Jesus' Walk
Chapter 5: Christ Crucified - the Logic of God
Chapter 6: Identification in the Cross of Christ
Chapter 7: The Cross of Christ, Our Cross
Chapter 8: Identification into His Glory
Chapter 9: Into All Truth
Chapter 10: Power of His Resurrection - Identity in Jesus' Life
Chapter 11: Let Us Go On
Chapter 12: Christ's Righteousness is Our Righteousness
Chapter 13: Identity in Christ, Our Wisdom and Knowledge
Chapter 14: Power in God's Kingdom - Laying Down Our Lives
Chapter 15: Thou in Me and I in Thee
Appendix
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