What is true of each person who is in Christ?...

He or she is without condemnation. This means there is a continuing verdict of not guilty proceeding from God, the Judge of the bench of Heaven.

The key phrase is, "in Christ." All of the workings of the new covenant depend directly on our being in Christ.

If our redemption depends directly on our being in Christ we ought to pay close attention to what this expression means to us as an individual. If our freedom from condemnation is founded on our being and behaving in Christ, we must seek to live in this manner.

Being in Christ means we are an inseparable, integral part of His death on the cross and an inseparable, integral part of His triumphant resurrection from among the dead.

When the Lord God of Heaven views the death of His beloved Son, Christ, He beholds each of us as being part of that death. When the Lord God of Heaven views the triumphant resurrection of His Son, He beholds each of us as being part of that resurrection.

What must we do to maintain perfect union with Him in His death and resurrection, in practical daily living? We must maintain the attitude, in all that we think, say, and do, that we are in continuing union with His death on the cross and with His victorious resurrection. One day the atoning death and triumphant resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ shall fill the heavens and the earth with His Person, influence, and Glory.

We are crucified to the world and the world is crucified to us. We are crucified to our whole first personality and our whole first personality is crucified to us. We are crucified to sin and sin is crucified to us. We are crucified to our ambitions and our ambitions are crucified to us. We are crucified to being anything and doing anything, and being anything and doing anything are crucified to us.

Christ is being formed in us and is dwelling in us. All that we are doing, saying, and thinking is to be proceeding directly from His resurrection life.

The Holy Spirit presses us into the death of Christ so our personality and behavior spring from His resurrection life rather than from our flesh and blood life.

As long as we are abiding in the Person and will of Christ we continue to be without condemnation in the sight of almighty God.

The part of our personality that is proceeding from Christ is actually and practically righteous because Christ is God’s righteousness. The only righteousness that exists under the new covenant is Christ.

The part of our personality that has not as yet come into actual union with the death and resurrection of Christ is accounted as being righteous because of the principle of the firstfruits. The principle of the firstfruits is that if part of a harvest is set apart as holy to the Lord God the whole harvest has been set apart as holy to the Lord God.

For if the firstfruits be holy, the lump [the entire substance] is also holy: and if the root be holy, so are the branches (Romans 11:16).

When we place our faith in Christ for salvation we become born-again of the Spirit of God. Our new born-again nature takes its place in Christ at the right hand of the Father. A "firstfruits" of our personality has been harvested and then "waved" before the Lord (Leviticus 23:11).

The waving of the firstfruits sets apart the whole harvest as holy to the Lord.

When we continue to walk in the light of God’s Presence and will, the blood of Christ keeps on sanctifying us in the sight of the Lord.

But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin (I John 1:7).

Because a firstfruits of our life already has been harvested and presented to the Lord, all of our personality has been set apart as holy to the Lord. Therefore, through the blood of the righteous Jesus we continue to be without any condemnation whatever in the sight of God.

When the Holy Spirit points out a sin in our life we are to confess it and turn away from it through the wisdom and power that the Holy Spirit provides.

We are to turn our attention to coming to know the power of Christ’s resurrection, to sharing His sufferings, to being changed into His death, if by any means we may arrive at the resurrection that is from among the dead.

Our task is to keep ourselves in the love of God, in the Presence and will of Christ. We do this through faith as we pray, study the Scriptures, assemble with the saints, exercise our individual responsibility and ministry in the Kingdom of God, and press into all other aspects of the Christian discipleship.

God’s promise to us is that if we will continue to walk in the light of His Presence He will continue to view us as being without condemnation in Christ. This is the true grace of God in which we stand and the manner in which the new covenant brings us to fullness of stature in Christ.

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