"Apprehended Of Christ Jesus" -3

"Arise, shine; for the Light is come, and the Glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: But the Lord shall arise upon thee, and His Glory shall be seen upon thee." (Isaiah 60:1 & 2) Regurgitate and chew it some more; that is what we must do as we get our nourishment for our souls from God's Word. This portion of Scripture was used before to show our need to be a Light to the world, but now it is being referenced to show our deliverance from the darkness. Dreams of perfection in the flesh would be little entertained if we kept clearly in view the distinction between what we are in Christ and what we are in ourselves. To be in Him is to be saved once and forever from the condemnation of sin, but not immediately from the presence and the inworking of sin, as the lives of the highest and the lowest Saints alike will testify. We are saved from the guilt and power of sin, but not from it's presence while in this body and world. Christ had sin upon Him, though there was no sin in Him; therefore, he that is in Christ has no sin upon him (in the sense of condemnation), though he still has sin in him in the form of the sin-nature in the mortal body. And just in proportion to the completeness of the Believer's abiding in Christ by communion and obedience, he will be free from sin within him as he is free from sin upon him. In other words; the Believer is unconditionally saved from sin and is conditionally saved from the power of sin; victory is conditioned in proportion to the Believer's unequivocal obedience to Christ and His command. The Light has come upon us!!! Which really means that there is no sin upon us, because of what Jesus has done. Now, what we must do is to walk in His Light (newness of life in Christ, free from the condemnation of sin), just as He was in the Light (He had no sin within Him); which is our daily goal and the thing which we try to apprehend in Christ Jesus. And we continue to press forward, knowing that we have not attained it, nor are we in any means made perfect in trying to achieve it; but that pressing forward will cause us to count more and more upon Him, and will strengthen our abiding in Him. With this goal in mind, our light that is shinning forth from within us, should match the Light that is shinning upon us; which is what we are pressing towards. "I press toward the 'Mark' for the prize of the High Calling of God in Christ Jesus. Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal even this unto you. Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing. Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so as ye have us for an ensample. For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His Glorious Body, according to the working whereby He is able even to subdue all things unto Himself." (Philippians 3:14-17 & 20-21)