Legal and Actual Possession
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God has given Christians many things to possess: their own spirit, soul, and body, the nations, the earth, the heavens, all of God’s creation. All things belong to those who are coheirs with Christ. "He that overcometh shall inherit all things" (Revelation 21:7).
Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours; (I Corinthians 3:22)
God has given all things to uslegally through the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ. Inactuality , however, many of the good parts of our inheritance are still occupied by a hierarchy of wicked spirits. The only answer to the illegal occupying presence of wicked spirits is war—Spirit-led, determined, consistent, never-say-die war!
How else can one take possession of an occupied territory?
There can be a difference between the legal and the actual possession of something. In most instances we actually possess the things we own legally—our car, our house, our clothes. But when the car is stolen or the house burns to the ground or the clothes are lost, we can see at once that there may be a difference between legal and actual possession.
We still own the car but someone else is driving it. We still own the house but it is a blackened ruin. We still own the hat but we left it somewhere and it no longer can keep our head warm. When someone steals our car we still own it but we no longer possess it. We cannot drive the certificate of title to work.
The state government may authorize the funds to provide a college education for every citizen of the state. The state "gives" each young person and adult a college education, so to speak. But the state does not give him or her a diploma. The person must go to school before he can claim to be a college graduate.
The King of England granted certain rights of settlement to pioneers in what is now New England. The king gave them a charter but the settlers had to set forth and possess the rocky and forested land by years of backbreaking labor. They encountered severe hardships and fierce opposition while making their homes in the New World.
The difference between thelegal and theactual possession of a place or thing is an important distinction and must be understood by anyone who wishes to make a success of the overcoming Christian life.
God hasgiven us all things by Christ. Do wepossess all things?
Christ died for the sins of all men. Do all men have their sins forgiven?
The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. (II Peter 3:9)
And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world. (I John 2:2)
Through the lashes laid on Jesus all of us were healed from every sickness. Have all been healed?
Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases; (Psalms 103:3)
The Holy Spirit is ready to enter the dead spirit of every person. Does everyone have the Spirit of life from God?
All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. (John 6:37)
God has given to us perfect peace and joy through Christ. Do all Christians have perfect peace and joy? It is the will of God that every Christian stand perfect and complete in Christ, sanctified in spirit, soul, and body. Is this true of every Christian?
And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. (I Thessalonians 5:23)
We cannot gain our inheritance in Christ other than by taking up our cross and following the Lord with total diligence. We must stake out our claim and then follow the Lord faithfully until we inherit all that God has promised.
Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. (Romans 6:6)
But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints; Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient: but rather giving of thanks. (Ephesians 5:3,4)
For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. (Colossians 3:3)
But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof. (Romans 13:14)
In the above four passages we can observe the difference between thelegal and theactual possession of the land of promise; between our legalposition in Christ and our actualexperience of living the Christian life.
Notice the emphasis on ourposition in Christ, in Romans 6:6 and Colossians 3:3 (quoted above). According to these two verses we have already attained the summit in Christ by simply believing in Him. Our "old man," that is, our first personality with all its strengths and weakness, its good points and its bad points, has been assigned to the cross of Christ.
God considers, and directs us to consider, that our first "self" has been crucified with Christ. By so regarding us, God is legally free (from the Law of Moses) to bring forth a new personality, destroying our fleshly, sinful nature in the process.
Itis true that we are dead. Also, our new spiritual life, having already been raised in and with Christ, is now at the right hand of the Father, far above every other title, authority, and power in the universe.
The fact of our death and resurrection in and with Christ is very uplifting as we meditate on the consequences of it. It is spiritual reality. God has declared it to be true. It is His Word. Even though we may not see as yet the full outworking of what God has declared concerning us, what we laid hold on in water baptism, yet we know our position in Christ is an established fact before God Almighty and we begin to live out the truth of it as the Holy Spirit gives us the wisdom and strength to do so.
If we should become proud spiritually because of our position in Christ, the next two passages bring us down to earth:
But fornication, and all uncleanness, or covetousness, let it not be once named among you, as becometh saints; Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient: but rather giving of thanks. (Ephesians 5:3,4)
But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof. (Romans 13:14)
If we are striving to be a Christian, most of our daily living is occupied with resisting the world, our fleshly nature, and the devil. We battle against lust, hatred, covetousness, pride, idolatry, jesting, unthankfulness, selfish ambition, and so forth. Such temptations are common to people—Christians and non-Christians alike.
When we overemphasize our legalposition in Christ our testimony may become intellectual, doctrinaire, static. There is too much fussing about words and verses and not enough pressing forward in the spiritual combat that characterizes the Christian warfare.
When, on the other hand, we overemphasize our actualexperience of living the overcoming life, we may tend to lose the anchor, foundation, and regenerative guiding force and principle of Christianity, which is identification with the crucifixion and resurrection of the Lord Jesus. If we are not careful we can become discouraged while struggling against sin, not accepting the victory won for us by Christ.
If the Christian is to live the overcoming life, one of conquest over temptations, challenges, and pressures, and if he is to progress toward the character transformation and consistent dwelling with the Godhead that are part of the plan of redemption, then he must develop a balance in his life between the legal position in Christ and the actual experience in Christ.
The correct concept of the position of our old nature is that we have been crucified with Christ. Our task is to maintain by faith this attitude toward ourselves and our problems whether or not our actual circumstances and patterns of behavior reveal that we indeed are dead and risen with Christ.
It does no good to keep "digging up the grave" in order to see if we really have been planted in death with Christ. We are to take by faith the legal, doctrinal, visionary position that our natural man, our old nature, has been crucified with Christ and our new born-again inward nature has been raised with Him. Then we are to leave the rest with God. We have been obedient to His Word. The remainder is His responsibility.
Growing in grace means we are closing the gap between what God has declared about us and what other people can see to be true. Maturity in Christ is that condition in which our legal position before God is identical with our actual experience of being crucified and resurrected with Christ; of being in the image of Christ; of being in Christ and Christ in us; of being fruitful; and of possessing dominion over every aspect of our inheritance in Christ.
As we follow the Spirit of the Lord, legal possession becomes actual possession; the position becomes the experience.
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