Thus far our studies have been from the objective standpoint. We now consider the subjective aspect.
A word of caution is necessary in connection with this portion of our course. The teacher should not permit the class to take up these lessons until the truths presented in the first and second sections are really perceived. Frequent reviews are necessary that the teacher may be able to ascertain how much has been grasped by the individual members of the class, as all subjective teaching must rest upon a solid objective basis. If the objective is weak, the subjective will not be able to stand the strain of fierce, long continued temptation, or the subtle influence of error and fanaticism.
Perhaps it will be well to explain the reason for the use of the word “appropriate” in this section. If we study the derivation of the verb to appropriate, we shall find that it indicates the act of taking something for one’s own use. The mental picture is an outstretched hand receiving something that has been given, to be put to a certain definite use. It does not indicate self-effort beyond that of reaching forth the hand to receive a gift; therefore it seems a fitting word to use in reference to the extended hand of faith, receiving the Gift of God.
Now let us consider what we are to appropriate. In answering this question, we must again call attention to the representative aspect of Christ’s Death and Resurrection. All that is included in His Death and Resurrection, with the exception of His substitutionary work, is true of all those who are identified with Him. In Him, we died to sin. We arose in Him, alive unto God. (See Rom. 6:1-11.) Those who share the Life of the Last Adam are to be conformed to His Image. Positionally, every redeemed human being arose when Christ arose; thus manifesting His victory over sin and death. Positionally, they ascended with Him; thus manifesting His victory over Satan and all the powers of darkness. God reckons upon this Representative aspect of Christ’s death; therefore He speaks of the redeemed as if they were already experimentally what He knows they will be. In this connection read Ephesians 2:4-6 and Romans 8:28-30. Because God reckons upon what the Life of the Last Adam in a human being who has appropriated Him will accomplish, He can consistently say to one who is conscious of failure and weakness, “Thou art all fair, my love; there is no spot in thee.” Someone has truly said-God was the first being to put faith in Calvary.
The teacher must lead the class to see that God does not have to wait for the historical manifestation of anything before He sees it. Notice that “He chose us in Him (Christ) before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without blame before Him” (Eph. 1:4). He saw the redeemed, i.e., those who should appropriate the Life of the Redeemer, before He created the world, as plainly as when in a yet distant future the entire host of the redeemed, conformed to the glorified humanity of the Last Adam, will stand in His presence.
We must remember that God has no past, no future. It is always present tense with Uncreated Life. God IS.
God has His own unique constitution of Being. He is the Eternal God and therefore independent of all time-He is the “I AM,” to whom past, present and future are equally today, who is alike without beginning and without end, without succession of days or change of condition. (Dr. A. T. Pierson)
In the light of the present day discussion of the theory of relativity, these statements seem perfectly logical and may be apprehended, although never comprehended. Concerning Creation and Redemption, we may say in the language of an old-time writer-“God speaks and it is done-thousands of years ago-but lately found out by me.”
We are now able to perceive that we are to appropriate a measure of the very same Life that infills the glorified personality of the Lord Jesus Christ. This Life is the Uncreated Life of God, permeating a human personality. Have the class read 1 John 5:11 and then fasten a small gilt disc containing these words, upon the large disc symbolizing Uncreated Life. (See Fig. 8.) Explain that a human being can never have the Life of God except through the Eternal Son. Uncreated Light is stored in Him for us. Light existed before the sun, but in the account of God’s Reconstructive Work as recorded in the first chapter of Genesis, we find that God prepared the sun to be a light-holder or container, that light might be diffused throughout the earthly atmosphere. Even so God prepared the Son-the Word-Christ Jesus, to be a Holder or Container of Uncreated Life and Light; “In Him was Life and the Life was the Light of men” (John 1:4). In this connection Christ said of Himself, “I am the Light of the world” (John 9:5). We now understand what God means when He says, “He that hath the Son hath the Life; and he that hath not the Son hath not the Life” (1 John 5:12); “the Life,” referring to His Life-Uncreated or Eternal Life, which He has stored for us in the Son.
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