Our Spiritual Richness

I am again going to share what Norman Grubbs has posted on Face book, as he deals with Romans 6-8 in which he reveals our own dependency on GOD within us by way of His revelation and doing.

Romans
By Norman P. Grubb

"When you know that the real Person in you is Christ, then it becomes a “know-how” to you. You know that your real Person is Christ. When you have moved into the new life, when it becomes conscious to you that the real you is "Christ in you," the Spirit of God in you, you don’t listen to this independent self. Why? Because, you live a life under Christ’s control—under this new union (which a restored union). When things turn up that are contrary to the, instead of saying, “I shouldn’t do so and so,” you say, “Well, that is just my outer reaction.” Then I go back to Christ and Christ handles it. So, you aren’t fighting that “You shouldn’t do that.” You accept it. You accept your temptations as a springboard for faith. They used to be a springboard for self-effort. That was our trouble. We were always “I shouldn’t, I shouldn’t,” and then the Law said, “You should.” Then we were caught. Romans 7 is an illusion. We have moved from an old marriage to a new one. In the old marriage, there was sin and Law. In Jesus Christ you are dead, not only to sin, but to the Law. We are not under “your ought, you ought.” That belonged to us when we were the wrong persons.

You cease to be in that condition now. In the New Life the Person in you is Christ. Now, you are to realize this: there will come to you all kinds of temptations. Now you no longer say, “You ought,” you say, “I have it clear now, this is Christ’s management. So, you accept your temptations as your springboard. If you are worried, you don’t say, “I ought not to be worried.” That is not you. My humanity is pulling at me. What temptation does is it pulls me back to an illusory self. You see when I have got this thing right “my union” is “not I, but Christ.” I have moved over now into Galatians 2:20 which is mentioned in other terms in Romans 6.

My new self is this law of the spirit of life, the principle of the spirit of life; the Spirit of Life is He in me. He is the Spirit of Life, my life is me. The Spirit of Life is me. It came through Christ delivering me from the old through His death and resurrection. It says that you are not in the flesh, you are in the spirit. The Spirit of GOD dwells in you, which is Christ. He has replaced you. Sins went out with the shed blood of Christ. Now by the death and resurrection of body, sin went out. He was the spirit of error. So, now when temptation comes, I say and know that I’m not managing this, YOU are managing it. You accept the temptations and say, “I’m worried.” Okay, GOD handles that. You are not there fighting your body. Your body turns right around and your body becomes precious to you. It becomes an asset. But, temporarily in the area you haven’t got so far as to see the positive body. You tend with Paul to see the negative. You have been through that stage; you have been fighting against your failures and your weaknesses and your strains and stresses, and you are more conscious of the failing self than you are of Christ in you. You haven’t got that settled yet. This is Romans 7 and 8.


If you know that you were indwelt by Satan, and that he was the one running your life, it is easier to move over and say, “Now I’m indwelt by Christ. He is handling it through me.” There is a change of union. And an accompanying change in direction in character.

We have to go through a miserable period because we keep thinking that we are a person. We are indwelt by Christ. We have to go through a period when we think that we are there. We are sort of in a semi-guilt conscience state. “We aren’t different and I ought to be.” Ought, NO! I move over to a daring thing. I am different. I move over into a “I am” out of the “ought to.” I am different. I was in Satan, now I am in Christ and Christ is the me in me. At this spot in Romans, the most total verse is that of Galatians 2:20 to go with it. Because Galatians 2:20 says, “I’ve been crucified with Christ.” I have got that, in Christ my human self is no longer dominated by Satan, who was running me. I am out.

Now the all important thing is that you get that, first. You reckon yourself dead unto sin. Get that? Get that clear. Now you haven’t got it so clear that you are alive unto GOD through our Lord Jesus Christ. It is more than that. Alive unto GOD isn’t a complete statement because he had not gotten to Romans 8 yet. This is a relationship. It is not a relationship, it is union. It is replacement. It isn’t a relationship unto GOD through Lord Jesus Christ. It is a replacement. Christ has taken me over. That is a deeper thing. You can’t quite get that yet, because you have this false concept, “I’m a person—a kind of independent person,” which is a lie. And, so Paul seeks to show that to us in Romans 7 by a statement, “You are dead to the Law, because if you are there, the Law shouts at you, and this shows that you are not there. While you are under the Law (in many cases it is self imposed because) you are under false illusion. It means that you are there. If you are dead to the Law, it means you are not there, because the Law will shout at you.

Now I move over. Now this was the complete thing that Paul did. He said, “Not only am I crucified with Christ, yet I live.” That is where he replaced it. That is the important point. Galatians 2:20 says, “I was crucified with Christ, yet not I,” No, “nevertheless, I live, yet not I,” because it isn’t me. My living self is not I. Get it? “I am crucified with Christ.” I am not in my old relationship. Now I am no longer “I” flapping about here. “I live, no I don’t, Christ lives in me.” That is replacement, that is restoration. That means my real "I" now is the living deity. Christ Jesus is the Person living in me.” Now, you see, if I get that and I have been disillusioned about this false idea of self-running-self, if I get that under my new life, I begin to be free, because I begin to be myself because I am not I. I am really Christ in me. Which is GOD in me.

Now you are coming to the new thing. That Paul goes on to say, “I’m crucified with Christ,”—out—“I live, no I don’t live, Christ lives in me.” That is the middle change over. You have changed over from wrong self in Satan to no self; not you but Christ. Then you come back to the right self—I now live in the flesh. I live it by the recognition of that fact. Faith is always substance—by recognition “of the faith of the Son of GOD, Who loved me and gave Himself for me.” Now I have come out. Now then what happens? The new free life is: I am GOD’s precious person. He owns this, my body. Every bit of me is beautiful. It is under new management. My body, my appetites, I am all new. I begin the “I am all new. I begin the “I am” life that is what I am.


Now in the middle of that, here comes these training grounds. In the middle of all that, all the time, there is a certain area of life when we just enjoy ourselves. Everything is wonderful.
But, in the middle, there are things that bug us all the time, family relationships, tiny details, big details, we have got our problems at home, our problems with ourselves, problems pour out, problems in business and work. Now then, your happy self in Christ just remains happy because He has got you. Watch. If you have come to this new relationship and you say, “This is settled in me. I know now”—you live spontaneously. You have the inner consciousness; it is not I, but He. Now then when these strains, any kind of strains or the negative comes, being human you start to be negative. You work like that, you know. Wait a minute. It may take a little time. “Wait a minute, I’m not running that.” Don’t fight it. It is not there. You don’t take Law. “YOU handle that GOD; YOU replace my worries by YOUR confidence. YOU replace my strain by YOUR release. YOU ARE there. I am in YOUR release.”

You see, in place of the temptation which is not sin—the temptation to feel worried, feel strain, feel tense, feel insufficient, feel so and so—all that feeling stuff, that is your practicing ground (in our emotional being). That is your adventure of faith. You say, “Now is my chance to say of course I am weak, but He is strong. Of course I am worried, but He has the answer. Of course I am having problems. He has the solutions.” And, you begin to live a new habit life in which your human negative becomes your jumping off point for the positive. In ordinary life a certain amount of it is just released, you are just enjoying things. All right, that is just an area. That is just GOD around us, in us. But, in the midst it is always coming to you—things that you don’t enjoy. Either small or large. I know it for myself. The moment something bugs me, I know that something negative is getting at me, and what it is doing, is to try to pull me out to forget that "I am Christ. I am Christ in me." I forget that I am Christ in me and I am back in Romans 7. Then I am in trouble at once. So it is necessary for me to get this practicing ground, when I am pulled (as if I am a bit elastic, an old gumby figure) out to be—I fear, I resent, I am worried, I am tense, I can’t handle that, what shall I do with this situation. I, I, I, I. I am back where I was. I have to learn the new I. I am not I. I am not I. That is the bunk. Where have I got it wrong?

Go back to “Christ, You meant that to be because You want to show Your peace through here. You are here.” And, so the Law is not in it because Christ is the Law. Because, the Law of Christ is the Law which is the Law of love. So, there is no more Law on you at all. Law is only on you while you think you are independent. So when the temptation comes to be independent, you stop. Oh you will start by Law—“Oh, I ought too.” Watch it. You will start that way. You see the moment I am independent the Law says, “I’ve got you.” It is a lie. It is an illusion. So Romans 7 is an illusion. There is no such thing as an independent self. It said in the beginning that you were married; you were dead to the old marriage. Romans 7:1 says “Law had dominion over you as long as you lived.” If the husband is dead she is loosed from the Law of her husband. If she marries while he is still alive, she is an adulteress. If the husband is dead, she is free from that law; she can remarry again. Now you have become dead to the Law by the body of Christ and through the blood our witness, our identity of character is changed. So, you have a new marriage. We have moved out of that whole illusion of independency, back from a false dependency, to the right dependency. Then we say, “It is Christ in me. It is GOD in me. The Holy Spirit is in me.”