We all realize that Jesus died on the cross for our sins. So, through His death we received forgiveness from our sins, and we were reconciled to God. But after His death, He was resurrected to become the Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45) to live within us. Now He lives within us as our life. It is by this indwelling life of Christ that we are daily being saved. We are daily saved from our bad temper, our shortcomings, our dissatisfactions with our husband or wife, and so many other things. I can testify that even today I have been saved at least eighteen times. I was not saved by His death, but by His indwelling life.
Once today something came to me from the enemy. A few days ago I had cast away that burden. Psalm 55:22 tells us to cast our burden upon the Lord. In the original language it means to throw away your burden. So I did throw away this burden to the Lord, and the burden was gone. But today Satan tried to bring the burden back to me. I turned to the Lord and said, “O Lord Jesus, O Lord Jesus, You are my life.” Immediately the burden went away. So I was saved from this burden by the living Jesus who lives in me.
I will give you another testimony of being saved by His life. This evening when my wife called me to dinner, a little temptation came to speak negatively about someone to my wife. But again I began to call on the Lord. “O Lord Jesus, O Lord Jesus!” Immediately I had the deep sensation that I should not say those things. So I was saved again by the indwelling Christ. Much more we shall be saved by His life! I said that I was saved eighteen times today, but it may have been more than eighteen times. Not only today, but every day I am saved by Jesus living within me as my life. The more I take Him as my life in my daily walk, the more I am saved.
Now let me say something to the sisters. I hope they will not be offended. We know that all human beings like to gossip. But the sisters are experts in gossiping. It would be very difficult for the most spiritual sisters not to gossip. But if the sisters would take Jesus as their life, this living Jesus would save them from their gossiping. Then they could save their strength for praying. There is no need for us to waste our time and strength in gossiping. We can be saved by the living Jesus within us. Then we will have more time and strength for prayer. “Much more we shall be saved by His life.”
Then Romans 5:17 says, “For if by one man’s offense death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.” We are not only saved by His life, but we can also reign as kings in life. A king is one that is above all. Everything is under him. Praise the Lord that we can reign in life! All things will be subdued under our feet. We are reigning in Jesus who lives in us as life. This Jesus living within us is even the kingdom. He is the kingdom, and within Him, we can be a king subduing and conquering all things. Hallelujah!
Sometimes a brother will say, “By God’s mercy I was barely saved from losing my temper.” Well, this is good, but it is too poor. What we need is to be king over our temper, not to be barely saved from our temper. Then we can tell our temper, “Be quiet. I’m the king over you.” All people like to be a king, but no one can be king over his temper. Our temper is usually a king over us. But by Christ living in us as our life, we have the position to reign in life over our temper. We are not only saved, but also reigning in life.
From Romans five we must go on to Romans six. Here we see how we can be saved in life and how we can reign in life. The reason is that we all have been baptized into Christ. “Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him” (Rom. 6:3-6).
Here is one place where I appreciate the King James Version. It says that we all have been baptized into Christ. It is not unto, but into. We all have been baptized into Christ, and this means to be baptized into His death. So by burial we have been put into death. This means that the baptism into Christ is a kind of termination. Hallelujah! We all have been buried into Christ. We all have been terminated in Christ. This gives Christ the opportunity to live in us. Our termination is His germination. We are terminated in Him, and He is germinated within us. Now He lives within us, and we walk in newness of life. We were first buried into Him and then we were resurrected with Him to walk in newness of life as He lives within us. This is the indwelling of Christ.