notice I have removed from this presentation any pictures that may still be under copyright. As far as I know all the pictures that remain are in the public domain. If you find a copyright picture, please let me know, and I will remove it. Thank you.

A study in real living by KEN CHANT A study in real living by KEN CHANT

Text: Romans 5:10 – “For if, when we were his enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, how much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life!”

People are often deterred from embarking upon Christian life because of a fear that they will not be able to live it out; or that they will backslide.

They might then find themselves in a worse position on the day of Judgment than they would have been if they had never tried to be Christians!

They are, of course, quite correct, for no one can live a Christian life! Only one Man has ever been able to do so, and that was Jesus.

But our text shows us that Christ, having reconciled us to God by his death (thus giving us eternal life in heaven), now wants to save us on earth (that is, give us daily victory) by his life.

Thus he died to save us from what we have done; that is, the Cross is adequate to rescue us from all the guilt of our past sin; but...

... he lives to save us from what we are; that is, he wants to supplant our natural life with his own resurrection life.

So he calls us to a life of righteousness. But since we cannot possibly fulfil that call unaided, he wants to subdue our mortal life beneath his eternal life, and to live through us himself.

There are four steps we need to take so that Christ may be fully alive in us each day –

See John 5:19; 6:57. Jesus himself consistently acted on the premise that without the Father he could do nothing. MAKE YOURSELF COMPLETELY DEPENDENT UPON CHRIST

If that was true of him, how can we hope to live independently of his indwelling grace and strength?

Hence Christ made his own experience the basis of his promise of life to his disciples. As the Father had dwelt in and acted through him, so now he will do the same for those who trust him.

See John 15:5, which shows that we are to be as dependent upon Christ as a branch is to a vine. Or, to change the simile, as dependent as your arm is to your body – or, even better, as the body itself is to the head.

Think of a chicken able still to run around for a time, even after its head has been cut off! There are Christians like that – running around, seemingly active and alive, yet it is all a sham, for they are cut off from the Head.

How obedient was Jesus to his Father’s command? See John 8: His obedience was perfect and absolute. SET YOURSELF TO OBEY THE FATHER’S WILL

It never entered his mind that he would do either more nor less than the Father asked of him. It was unthinkable that he would defy the Father’s purpose.

How far are you willing to obey God? Do you have any reservations, any limits, any exclusions?

This matter must be faced by every believer, and settled once and for all. We should all test ourselves on this question from time to time.

Have I fallen away from full obedience? Am I still daily listening for the Father’s voice? Absolute surrender is demanded from us all; if he is not Lord of all, then he is not Lord at all.

Without this full yielding to God, there can be no true experience of the indwelling and empowering life of Christ!

How much of God do you want? How much of his blessing? How much of his promise? BECOME AVAILABLE TO ALL THAT GOD HAS FOR YOU

In the end, it must be everything or it will be nothing. We are not free to pick and choose. We cannot embrace one promise but disdain another.

We cannot express willingness to obey God here, but not there. We cannot desire this blessing from God but reject that.

How long will a marriage last if one spouse says to the other: “I want only some of your love, some of your care, some of your strength”?

Two people who love each other want all of each other – they cannot be content either with a half- given or half-received love. It must be all or nothing, else their protestations of true love are a mockery.

There are two powerful elements in a long-lasting marital union – two things that probably express the greatest gifts that the partners expect from and can give to each other –

1.There is the gift the husband gives to his wife: a total commitment both to the permanency of the union and to the happiness of his wife –

(1.1) A good wife wants to know that her husband truly meant it when he vowed to – “cleave only unto her, for better for worse, for richer for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death us do part.”

(1.2) She is entitled to the security that comes from knowing that her husband is absolutely committed to the permanency of their marriage.

(1.3) Her love for him will flourish best in an environment of knowing that his deepest desire is not to extract happiness from her, but rather to bring it to her.

(1.4) When he fulfils these things, a godly husband makes himself a type-picture of God. (1.5) He becomes to his wife what Christ wishes to be to the Church.

2.Then there is the gift the wife gives to her husband: a loving abandonment to the desire of her husband, knowing that she can trust him utterly to do her no harm.

(2.1) There is no more sacred, nor prized gift that a virtuous woman can give to her husband than an uninhibited abandonment to his love.

(2.2) She offers him a yielding that he knows she would rather die than give to any other man.

(2.3) In this she shows both the depth of her love for him, and the degree of her trust in him.

(2.4) Thus she becomes a picture of the relationship that the Church should have with Christ ― nothing allowed to come between them!

There is no limit to what God can do for you, through you, with you, if you are available to everything he has for you!

Just as we by faith have appropriated the efficacy of what Christ has done for us, so we must also by faith seize the adequacy of what Christ is in us. CONFRONT EVERY SITUATION IN THE ADEQUACY OF CHRIST

In every new situation in life, develop the habit, before you confront it, of pausing for a moment, long enough to unite yourself deliberately with Christ.

The scripture speaks truly: you can do all things in Christ, if you allow him to infuse you with his own indestructible life!