Not I, But Christ

“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.”

I wrote a bit of material some years ago for use in Vacation Bible School. It was designed for the 4 year olds! Below are a few excerpts from that writing. It seems rather fitting to use them here.

“I almost forgot about the goldfish! He lives in your house, too! But he has his own special house. It doesn’t have rooms like the place where you live. He doesn’t have a kitchen, he doesn’t have a living room or den or family room, he doesn’t have a bedroom; why, he doesn’t even have a bathroom where he can wash his fins or take a bath! That’s silly, isn’t it! What about the goldfish? He has no kitchen; he doesn’t cook his meals; he doesn’t do dishes. He waits for you to sprinkle some fish food in his bowl. But if he doesn’t eat it all; if there are any leftovers: well, he for sure cannot take out the garbage. And the garbage is not in a trash bag. It’s not in his kitchen, either. It’s in his whole house!

What about your goldfish? He cannot take his dirty clothes off; his mother doesn’t have a washing machine to wash them. He doesn’t have a bed – well, he does, sort of. It’s a waterbed! He doesn’t have a bathtub. All of the water in the bowl is his tub. He has to live in his bathwater. Poor fish! His little one room house is his kitchen, his garbage can, his wash room. He can’t sweep or clean his house: it gets dirtier and dirtier. And you know what? He can get very sick - even die. So - somebody has to remove the dirty water and replace it with the clean. He can do neither. We are like the fish’s house; the kitchen, the den, the bedroom, the bathroom - are all together. If one is dirty, then they all are dirty. Jesus wants to keep His house clean. He does that by “the washing of water by the Word” Eph. 5:26. “Now ye are clean through the Word which I have spoken unto you” John 15:3.

I recently heard a prominent TV pastor who was speaking on this same subject. He was quoting yet another renowned minister. His thoughts were something like this: that our hearts, as believers are as houses, comprised of several rooms. All may be well in the house - except one room - and it may not be a room as such; perhaps only a broom closet. Christ may have free access and be welcomed in all the rooms - except that closet. We may have some secret sin hidden away there, and we want to keep it from His view.

This may sound good, it may seem right; but if we compare it with what is said in the little story of the goldfish’s house - the theology falls apart. It may bring a few folk down the aisle; some “rededications” may take place, but much harm may be done: we may well be found lacking in our understanding and discernment of important cardinal doctrine.

The Christian may arise from an altar, “Well, I got that sin taken care of; I must be all right now!” What sort of mentality is that? A believer is led to believe that he was 90 percent righteous - and now the unrighteous 10 percent is taken care of? My heart can no more be divided into cubicles, some of righteousness, some of unrighteousness, than can the fish divide the water in his one room fishbowl, one section becoming dirty while the other remains clean! We have a misconstrued picture of sin. It is not as we might suppose; that it lodges in a corner of our heart. No, it spans us, it reaches forth with its net to completely enclose us. There is no, not a threads width of space that is not touched. I am almost embarrassed to include here that well worn text: “But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away” Isa. 64:6.

“Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the WHOLE LUMP?” I Cor. 5:6.

Sadly, the church in general seems to have little knowledge of, and thereby has forsaken the doctrines of grace. In conjunction, the teaching of imputed righteousness has become obscured. When basic Truth has lost its footing, how shaky the foundation on which stands the house.

Not I, but Christ.

“But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption” I Cor. 1:30. My dear friend, the wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption spoken of here is not some abstract thing: it is spiritual creation. More, it is not a thing, it is a person, Christ Himself! Moreover, He is not just the Power; He is the Eternal Presence! “Thus saith the Lord, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches: But let him that glorieth glory in this, that heunderstandeth and knoweth me, that I AM the Lord which exercise [ ‘asah, accomplish, have charge of, execute] lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the Lord” Jer. 9:23-24.

Not I, but Christ.

“No, Lord, if I am not condemned, it is Your free grace, for I have deserved to be condemned a thousand times since I sat down to write this. When I am on my knees and I am not condemned, I am sure it must be sovereign grace, for even when I am praying, I deserve to be condemned. Even when we are repenting, we are sinning, and adding to our sins while we are repenting of them. Every act we do as the result of the flesh is to sin again, and our best performances are so stained with sin that it is hard to know whether they are good works or bad works. So far as they are our own, they are bad; and so far as they are the works of the Spirit, they are good. But then, the goodness is not ours, it is the Spirit’s, and only the evil remains to us. Ah, then, we cannot boast! Be gone, pride! Be gone!

Charles H. Spurgeon, Faith, Whitaker House, publisher

Not I, but Christ.

A closing thought. Three times in Galatians 2:20 we find these words: “I live, I live, I live! yet, Not I, but Christ liveth in me.