The death of Christ reconciles the believing sinner to God. Men are by nature the enemies of God, and this enmity consists in lack of subjection to His law. "Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." (Romans 8:7)
God's law is His life, and His life is peace. Therefore Christ is our Peace, because in Him we are made the righteousness of God, or, in other words, are conformed to the life of God.
In laying down His life, Christ gives it to everyone who will accept it. Those who do accept it, so that they can say, "I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me," (Galatians 2:20) are reconciled to God, because they have the same life. They have simply made an exchange, giving up their life to Christ, and taking His life instead.
When Christ gives himself to a man, He gives the whole of His life. Each individual who believes gets the whole of Christ. He gets His life as an infant, as a child, as a youth, and as a mature man. The man who acknowledges that his whole life has been nothing but sin, and who willingly gives it up for Christ's sake, makes a complete exchange, and has Christ's life from infancy up to manhood, in the place of his own.
So he must necessarily be counted just before God. He is justified, not because God has consented to ignore his sin because of his faith, but because God has made him a righteous man--a doer of the law--by giving him His own righteous life.
That the forgiveness of sins is by receiving the life of Christ in the place of the sinful life, is shown by the statement concerning Christ, that "we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins." (Colossians 1:14) "It is the blood that makes an atonement for the soul, for the life of the flesh is in the blood." (Leviticus 17:11)
So we have redemption through the blood of Christ, and are reconciled to God by His death, because in His death He gives us His life. The receiving of that life by faith makes us stand before God as though we had never sinned. The law scrutinizes us, and can find nothing wrong, because our old life is gone, and the life that we now have--the life of Christ--has never done anything wrong.
But what about the future? As we have been reconciled to God by the death of His Son, so now we are to be saved by that life which He gave us in His death. How are we to retain that life? Just as we received it. "As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him." (Colossians 2:6)
How did we receive Him? By faith. Therefore we are to retain His life by faith, "for, The just shall live by faith." (Galatians 3:11)
Faith in Christ supplies spiritual life just as surely as the eating of nourishing food supplies physical life. The Saviour says to us, "Whoso eats my flesh, and drinks my blood, has eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed." (John 6:54-55)
We eat His flesh, by feeding upon His word, (John 6:63; It is the spirit that quickens; the flesh profits nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life) for it is written that man shall live "by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God." (Deuteronomy 8:3) "Much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life." (Romans 5:10)
"Saved by His life." What will be the nature of that life? It will be without sin, "for in Him is no sin. ... Sin is the transgression of the law." (1 John 3:5,4)
Therefore that life will be the righteousness of the law: "That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us." (Romans 8:4) "Jesus Christ [is] the same yesterday, and today, and for ever." (Hebrews 13:8)
And so life the He will live in us now will be the same life that He lived when He was upon this earth eighteen hundred years ago. He came here to furnish a complete example to men of the life of God. Whatever He did then He will do now in those who accept Him, and whatever He did not do cannot be done by those who fully receive His life.
Let us notice some of the particulars of the conformity of His life to the law of God.
Tenth Commandment
To begin with the tenth commandment, "You shall not covet." (Exodus 20:17)
So far was Jesus from manifesting any trace of covetousness, that He did not even insist on having the things that belonged to Him. "[He,] being in the form of God, counted it not a thing to be grasped to be on an equality with God, But emptied himself, taking the form of a bondservant." (Philippians 2:6,7,RV,margin)
Therefore the one in whom Christ dwells will not covet that which is not his, and will not even insist on always having his "rights." Love, which is the filling of the law, "seeks not her own." (1 Corinthians 13:5)
Ninth Commandment
Take the ninth commandment. "You shall not bear false witness." (Exodus 20:16)
Nothing more need be said than that: "[He is] the faithful and true witness." (Revelation 3:14) "[He] did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth." (1 Peter 2:22)
Those in whom Christ dwells will speak the truth, and will be characterized by: "the love of the truth." (2 Thessalonians 2:10)
Eighth Commandment
"You shall not steal." (Exodus 20:15)
As for the eighth commandment, Christ's fulfillment of that is sufficiently indicated in the reference to the tenth. He who would willingly give up that which was His own would be the farthest from taking that which was another's. His whole life was one of giving. He was rich and became poor that others might be made rich. (2 Corinthians 8:9)
Seventh Commandment
"You shall not commit adultery." (Exodus 20:14)
Christ could say, "The prince of this world comes, and has nothing in me." (John 14:29)
Therefore there was not the slightest trace of impurity in Him. He knew no sin. (2 Corinthians 5:21.)
Sixth Commandment
"You shall not kill." (Exodus 20:13)
His life was the perfection of the sixth commandment. He said, "For the Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them." (Luke 9:56) "[He] went about doing good." (Acts 10:38)
He came to abolish death, and to bring life and immortality to light through the Gospel. ( 2 Timothy 1:10) So He will live a life of love and good will to all men, in the soul of everyone who receives Him. There will be no anger, no strife, no jealousy nor envy, in the life of those whose life is Christ's.
First, Second, and Third Commandment
"You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make unto yourself any graven image ... [Nor] bow down yourself to them, nor serve them. ... You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain." (Exodus 20:3-5,7)
There can be no idolatry in those in whom Christ dwells, for when He was tempted by the devil He resisted him with the words, "It is written, You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only shall you serve." (Luke 4:8)
Instead of having any other gods before the One God, His meat was to do the will of His Father in heaven. (John 4:34)
Fifth Commandment
"Honor your father and your mother." (Exodus 20:12)
Those in whom Christ lives His own life will reverence the aged, and be obedient to parents. Although Jesus was found by His parents sitting in the temple with the doctors, asking and answering questions, and astonishing the learned men by His wisdom, He did not deem himself above obedience to parents. "He went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject to them." (Luke 2:51)
Fourth Commandment
"Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy." (Exodus 20:8)
And what about the fourth commandment? "As His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up for to read." (Luke 4:16)
He recognized the law of the Sabbath, saying, "It is lawful to do well on the Sabbath days." (Matthew 12:12)
He called himself the Lord of the Sabbath day, because He made it. Not a Sunday was ever kept by Him. Therefore there is no Sunday-keeping in His life, to give to those who believe in Him. His life can impart only the keeping of the Sabbath day. As He kept the Sabbath when He was on this earth, so He must keep it now in those in whom He lives. For He does not change. "[He is] the same yesterday, and today, and for ever." (Hebrews 13:8)
When on this earth He lived the same life that He lived in heaven before coming to earth, and He lives the same life now that He did then.
There are multitudes who love the Lord, who do not yet know that the keeping of Sunday is no part of His life, and consequently have not yet submitted themselves to Him in this respect. But as they grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they will learn that the keeping of the Sabbath--the seventh day--is as much a part of the life of Christ as is obedience to parents or telling the truth, and they will let Him live this precept in them also.
As we let Christ dwell in us in His fullness, we become the sons of God, because it is Christ's life that we live; and the Father will be pleased with us even as He was with His only begotten Son.--Present Truth, October 6, 1892.