I am grateful for the ministry of Major Ian Thomas. A highly decorated British soldier in World War II, Major Thomas went on to become a mighty soldier in God's army, declaring the truth of the "Christ Life." I shall never forget the day my pastor placed his classic work, "The Saving Life of Christ" into my hands. Immediately, I was confronted with truth that was completely new to me. It was truth that I had never be exposed to before. Being raised in a rather "legalistic" environment, I was taught that we are saved by grace, and then the Christian life is evidenced by a list of "do's" and "don'ts." Little did I know that what had been implanted in me was the belief of a "third work of grace." (Although my Baptist brethren/teachers would never admit it)
Then came the day when the Spirit of God shined the light of Bible truth upon my heart. I came to see, know, understand and finally (after much resistance) appropriate the life of Christ in me, for me, and through me. So often before I would live in disgust, defeat and discouragement seeing how miserably I was doing in attempting to live the Christian life. What a glad day when the realization came that I wasn't responsible for living the Christian life, because I COULDN'T LIVE IT! The Christian life was nothing more, nothing less than Jesus Christ Himself living through me. It is called the "exchanged life," and thanks be to God for the day that an exchange took place in my life.
Below is an except from this classic work from Major Ian Thomas' "The Saving Life of Christ." I will let the Holy Spirit speak through him to you, as He did to me.
"Christian living is not a method or technique; it is an entirely different, revolutionary principle of life. It is the principle of an exchanged life" not I, but Christ liveth in me" (Galatians 2:20). I would like to explore with you what is the true spiritual content of our Gospel not just heaven one day, but Christ right now! Christ in you, on the grounds of redemption this is the Gospel! To preach anything less than this must inevitably produce "Evan-jellyfish" folk with no spiritual vertebrae, whose faith does not "behave!"
Do you remember what James says in his epistle? "As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead" (chapter 2:26). The "spirit" there means breath, and a body without breath is dead. Stop breathing and folk will bury you! In other words, a living body breathes, and a living faith breathes, and a living faith breaths with divine action. A living faith breathes with the activity of Jesus Christ. That is why the Lord Jesus, in John 6:29, said, "This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom He hath sent." That is the work of God. It is your living faith in the adequacy of the One who is in you, which releases His divine action through you. It is the kind of activity that the Bible calls "good works," as opposed to "dead works."
"Good works" are those works that have their origin in Jesus Christ - - whose activity is released through your body, presented to Him as a living sacrifice by a faith that expresses total dependence, as opposed to the Adamic independence (Romans 12: 1,2). It is only the life of the Lord Jesus -- His activity, clothed with you and displayed through you, that ultimately will find the approval of God."
Grace and Peace,
Pastor Steve
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