The following occurrence was published in a recent newspaper, and I reproduce it here to illustrate a Christian truth too little understood, and still less practiced by Christians in general.
"William Igo, formerly of —, who was recently declared legally dead by the Surrogate of Union County, entered the law office of Abe J. Davis to-day and asked that action be taken to rescind the Surrogate's order, which deprives Igo of a share in his dead sister's property, valued at $448.
"Igo had been missing for ten years. When his sister Catherine died in E—, last January, steps were taken to make her sister Elizabeth administrator. Igo was legally declared dead. Davis will apply to Chancery for a bill of partition."
This man, declared legally dead, is not satisfied to be considered so, but seeks an order from the court resurrecting him, so to speak.
We would use this as an example of a numerous class of Christians who, though declared by God's Word to be judicially dead (see Rom. 6:3-13; Gal. 2:20; Col. 3:1-3), would be brought back as it were from the grave. They have in the eyes of God and the law died with Christ; they have, in their baptism, "been planted together with Him in the likeness of his death;" they are by this act declared to be dead to sin, dead to the law, and dead also to the world.
This last is graphically stated by the apostle in Galatians 6:14:"God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world." This is the Christian's status before God:he is judicially considered dead to the world, and is therefore called upon to reckon himself so.
But this calls for complete renunciation of the world as a system away from God, and in opposition to Him-a renunciation of the world as a system away from God, and in opposition to Him-a renunciation, not merely of its openly bad or wicked things, but of all that system which Scripture calls "the world." The "world" crucified Christ, and is antagonistic to God, and the Cross has separated the children of God from all association with the world. Identified with a crucified and risen Christ, the Christian is for ever severed from all connection with "this present age"-its expectations, its pleasures, its politics, its fraternities, etc. Our Lord's earliest and choicest witnesses met only with scorn, imprisonment, and death from the world.
"God does not ignore the cross, if Christians do," writes one of His servants of a later day. "The very same cross of Christ that is my salvation, my deliverance from the law and the flesh, shows me that I have no part with this world, save as a blessed stranger passing through it. We may have occupations that are all quite right; but that is not at all what is called 'the world.' The Lord lived here, died here, rose here, ate and drank in this world, but He never was of the world; and so it is, and should be with the Christian. Our Lord did not form such a part of this world as that His appearance in it or departure from it would have been missed in the world; and when a Christian becomes an integral part of the world's motive power, all is out of course, as far as his allegiance to Christ goes. A Christian ought to be the means of constant blessing in this world; but how, and of what character?-bearing the testimony of Christ his Saviour. He went about always doing good, yet doing it as the will of His Father-always acting upon motives that were not of the world, but from above-never uniting with men's plans for the purpose of bettering man; realizing that the world was God's enemy, and yet that God's love was sending Him into it to do them good:such was Christ, and so should it be with the Christian. The Christian is the present witness of Christ, and is not of the world, although in it. This is the great means of trying our ways, and thus finding out how far we glory in the cross."
But why is it that this elementary truth of Christianity is so little known among the children of God today? Or, if known to some degree, why is it so unwelcome, and so feebly or so seldom acted upon? There seems to be but one answer-it cuts so deeply at the roots of selfish interests and leaves one so completely out of most of what the world esteems and considers essential to success and human happiness.
Why did the man of our parable seek a court order declaring him to be alive? It was that he might not be deprived of an interest in his deceased sister's property. And it will be found, almost without exception, that where Christians refuse to accept and act upon the truth of God's verdict on the world-on me, as a man in the flesh -they are taking part more or less with the world-in its best things, most likely, but "the things of the world."
Of what worth, really, are those things for which so many Christians sell their birthright, so to speak? Of what value, after all, are the world's best gifts, its sought-for prizes, its coveted rewards? The estate of which Igo sought a part was valued at $448!-barely worth the expense and trouble to obtain a bill of partition. "Let him take all," exclaimed the happy Mephibosheth concerning Ziba and the disputed property, on the return of his loved benefactor, David. Having him and his companionship he was content to waive all claims and rights of things, merely. What was it all in comparison with having David himself, and sit at his table in blessed communion! Infinitely more is Christ to the Christian; and having Him what need have we of this world's friendships-often so false, and always opposed to Him and to His Cross?
May we glory in it, then, as did His servant Paul; and glorying in it, we will by it be separated in heart and in ways from that world to which faith recognizes we are crucified, as the Cross stands between it and us. C. Knapp