that condemns? It is
Christ who has died." "There is therefore now no condemnation to those
in Christ Jesus." We have perfect Peace with God. Peace has been made in
the blood of the cross. It can never be unmade. We have peace with God
through our Lord Jesus Christ. He is our Peace. So many Christians think
their peace with God depends on their walk and service. If they sin,
they think they have lost their peace and their standing before God and
unless they are restored, they will be lost forever. Not our walk and
service, not anything we have done, we do or shall do, is the ground of
peace with God, but what God has done for us in Christ's atoning on the
cross.

Then we have a perfect acceptance and standing before God; perfect
nearness and access to God. We are made nigh by the blood. With no more
conscience of sins, we can stand in God's own presence, purged and
cleansed, complete in Him, as near to God as He is.

His blessed work on the cross has made an end of the old man. We are
dead to the world, to self, to sin, to the law. The old man was
crucified with Christ. "Sin shall have no more dominion over you." This
is the blessed message from the cross. We have deliverance from the
power of darkness and a perfect title to an eternal inheritance. No
uncertainty is attached to all this. We have salvation, are saved,
forever secure, Sons of God, Heirs of God indwelt by the Holy Spirit,
and much else, on account of the finished work of Christ on the cross.

And to all this we add that on the cross He loved the church and gave
Himself for it. There He died for Israel and as a result the remnant of
that people will some day be delivered from iniquity and perverse-ness,
as Balaam, beheld them, "no iniquity in Jacob and no perverseness in
Israel" (Numbers xxiii:21). Groaning creation will ultimately be freed
from the bondage of corruption and brought into the liberty of the sons
of God, because He shed His blood on the cross. All things in heaven and
on the earth (not things under the earth) will be reconciled in virtue
of the death of Christ on the cross.

Ye are not Your Own.

Let us remember as such who have been reconciled and have redemption
through His blood that we are bought with a price. "Ye are not your own
for ye are bought with a price, therefore glorify God in your body, and
in your spirit, which are God's" (1 Cor. vi:20). Through His death we
are positionally dead; all who believe on Him have died. We are