The Exchanged Life
Hermano Cisco BABYLONFALLS.ORG
Table of Contents
Is it possible to consistently enjoy an abundant, victorious Christian life? We offer testimony and explanation from two sources which affirmatively answer this question.
Friends, the time is short.
Let us pray for each other to understand these crucial testimonies,
to believe them, and to make them our own.
J.
Hudson Taylor (1832-1905), founder of the China Inland Mission. The following quotes were taken from a
biography written by his son and daughter-in-law, entitled Hudson Taylor’s
Spiritual Secret (bold emphases added):
June, 1849 Conversion, followed by call to life service.
[From
[Regarding a life-changing letter] Amid a pile of letters awaiting Mr.
Taylor in Chinkiang, had been one from
[McCarthy
wrote to
I
do wish I could have a talk with you now about the way of holiness. At the time you were speaking to me about it,
it was the subject of all others occupying my thoughts, not from anything I had
read…so much as from a consciousness of failure—a constant falling short of
that which I felt should be aimed at; an unrest;
a perpetual striving...
[but now he realizes]…Abiding, not striving or struggling; looking off unto Him;
trusting Him for present power;…resting in the love of an almighty Saviour, in
the joy of a complete salvation, “from all sin”—this is not new, and yet
‘tis new to me. I feel as though
the dawning of a glorious day had risen upon me. I hail it with trembling, yet with trust. I seem to have got to the edge only, but of a
boundless sea; to have sipped only, but of that which fully satisfies. Christ literally all seems to
me, now, the power, the only power for service, the only ground for
unchanging joy….Not a striving to have faith…but a looking off to the Faithful
One seems all we need; a resting in the Loved One entirely, for time and for
eternity.
[after reading
McCarthy’s letter of
Andrew Murray (1828-1917), South African
minister, author, revivalist.
Several quotes from his book, Abide in
Christ (bold emphases added):
Observe
especially, it was not that He said, “Come to me and abide with me,”
but, “Abide in me.” The
intercourse was not only to be unbroken, but most intimate and complete (p.
12).
No
less essential than it is for the commencement is faith for the progress
of the spiritual life. Abiding in Jesus
can only be by faith…There are earnest Christians who do
not understand this; or, if they admit it in theory, they fail to realize its
application in practice. They are very
zealous for a free gospel with our first acceptance of Christ, and
justification by faith alone. But after
this, they think everything depends on our diligence and faithfulness. While they firmly grasp the truth “The sinner
shall be justified by faith,” they have hardly found a place in their scheme
for the larger truth “The just shall live by faith (p. 35).
Often
the believer struggles hopelessly
for years, until he listens to the teaching of the Spirit as He
glorifies Christ again and reveals Christ, our sanctification, to be
appropriated by faith alone (p. 62).
How
many there are who can witness that this faith is just what they need! They continually mourn the variableness of
their spiritual life.…Could they but understand that their very
efforts are the cause of their failure—because it is God alone who
can establish us in Christ Jesus—they would see that, just as in
justification they had to cease from their own working and to accept by faith
the promise that God would give them life in Christ, so now, the
matter of their sanctification, their first need is to cease from striving
themselves to establish the connection with Christ more firmly and to allow
God to do it (pp. 79-80).
The
way in which souls enter into the possession may differ. To some it may come as the gift of a
moment…To others it comes by a slower and more difficult path. Day by day, amid discouragement and
difficulty, the soul has to press forward.
Be of good cheer; this way too leads to the rest. Seek but to keep your heart set upon the
promise, “I THE LORD DO KEEP IT, night and day” [Isa. 27:2-3] (p. 88).
It
was an act of wondrous though simple faith in which the soul yielded itself at
first to the Saviour…In that same wondrous faith, wondrously simple but
wondrously mighty, the soul learns to abandon itself entirely to the keeping
of Christ’s almighty power … (p. 201).
Matthew 11:28-30 (NIV)
“Come to me, all you who are weary
and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take
my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and
you will find rest for your souls. For
my yoke is easy and my burden is light."
Deuteronomy 33:27 (NIV)
The eternal God is your refuge,
and underneath are the everlasting arms.
Psalm 46:10 (NASB)
Cease striving and know that I am
God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.
Isaiah 30:15a (NIV)
This is what the Sovereign LORD,
the Holy One of Israel, says:
"In repentance and rest is
your salvation,
in quietness and trust is your
strength….”
Hebrews 4:9-11 (NIV)
There remains, then, a
Sabbath-rest for the people of God; for anyone who enters God's rest also rests
from his own work, just as God did from his. Let us, therefore, make every
effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following their example
of disobedience.
"I am the vine; you are the
branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart
from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a
branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown
into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask
whatever you wish, and it will be given you. This is to my Father's glory, that
you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.”
Galatians
I have been crucified with Christ
and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I
live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
“Do not work for food that spoils,
but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.
On him God the Father has placed his seal of approval." Then they asked
him, "What must we do to do the works God requires?" Jesus answered, "The
work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent."
Bibliography (please consider purchasing the following:)
Taylor, Dr. & Mrs. Howard. Hudson Taylor’s Spiritual
Secret.
Press, 1989.
Murray, Andrew. Abide in Christ. Fort Washington, Pa.: CLC Publications,
2003.