Christ By Choice

But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you.  Now if anyone does nothave the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.  And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.  But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.

Romans 8: 9-11 NKJV 

Our Sunday morning small group has recently entertained a very interesting question among ourselves.  For along with our study into the realization of  the indwelling Christ Jesus within us comes the question of just when it was that Jesus came to be in His Fathers children.  As far as I can tell, we are left with two possible scenarios for this transformation to have taken place.  First, Christ Jesus was always within us, having secured His place upon His death and resurection.  The other scenario has Christ coming to be within the believer the moment which they make that choice to accept Him as such.  Of course, we also have scripture as our guide to just when this process took place.  And so, I would suggest that we are left with but one possible answer to this question.

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 he who has dies has been freed from sin.  Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more.  Death no longer has dominion over Him.  For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.  Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.  Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts.

Romans 6: 6-12 NKJV 

Now, should anyone wonder just how I concluded that there is one possible scenario as to how Jesus came to be within Gods children, I present to you the apostle Pauls letter in Romans 6.  For it is here where Paul layed out the truth which seems a bit difficult for many a christian to accept.  This "Mystery among the Gentiles" which Paul preached {Colossions 1:27} he must have named a mystery for a very good reason.  For even though I was a christian, I did not come to this realization until it was revealed to me through scripture and my freind Dennis.  Now, did Jesus come to dwell in me the very moment which I came to this realization?  No, for I believe that He was always there, it took me to accept this realization.  How do I know this?  As the apostle Paul tells us, that our "Old man" was crucified with Christ Jesus on that cross.  That old man was our very sin nature which we were born with, the remnants of the fall of Adam and Eve in the garden od Eden.  For without Christ, we indeed would be lost in our sins, slaves to our sin nature.  However, Jesus took our sins upon Him, He Himself becoming sin in our place {2 Corinthians 5:21}.  Indeed, we are now a new creation in Christ Jesus as a result of having died to our sins {2 Corinthians 5:17}.  

Even today, I hear well meaning christians claiming our need to daily bring our sins before God for forgiveness.  Really?  Friends, if indeed our sins have been cleansed by the selfless sacrafice of Christ Jesus, what need have we to continually seek our Lords forgiveness?  For when Christ became sin on our behalf, all of our sins past, present and future were cleansed.  We are no longer slaves to that sin we once walked in.  Christ Jesus having given Himself for us, we are left with a choice.  Will we accept His sacrafice or not?  Will we accept Jesus within us or not?  Jesus has always been within Gods children, it is up to us to accept Him.

~Scott~