Difference between revisions of "Be Born Again 10"

Latest revision as of 21:15, 16 February 2011

To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. (Colossians 1:27-NIV)

All the commandments and promises of the Old Testament look forward to the day when Christ will be formed in human beings. All the commandments and promises of the New Testament are for the purpose of bringing forth Christ in the human being. Circumcision was part of the Divine covenant made with the Jews. Circumcision is not part of the Divine covenant made with the Christians. But the old covenant leads to the new. And the ultimate goal is the forming of Christ in the believer.

When the new creation in us comes to maturity, many of the problems that currently trouble us are solved. We no longer can be brought into bondage by religious systems because we perceive them as scaffolding, as means that have brought us to Christ Himself.

Our struggling to overcome the world, Satan, and our flesh are assisted greatly (although never eliminated completely) by the maturing of the Life of Christ in us. The pull of the world weakens and we long for the city that has foundations, the city of God . The new creation is the fruit of our travail, the fulfilment of our hope, the accomplishment of our desire to please God.

It is important to understand it is Christ who is being formed in us. This is not a figure of speech meaning we are beginning to grasp the principles of Christianity. It is Christ who is being formed in us, not Christianity, not religion, not Christian character, not good works, but Christ.

Christ is brought forth through the travail of the ministries and gifts of the Spirit of God. The world, Satan, the human soul, the lusts of the flesh, organized religion-all war against the efforts of the soul to endure faithfully as the Spirit of God brings forth Christ in us. Multitudes fall by the way. Only a few, it seems, bear lasting fruit. Some bring forth a hundredfold, some sixty fold, and some thirty fold.

The transformation from Adam to Christ, from the caterpillar to the butterfly, is a gradual, not always understandable or evident, process. Bit by bit, rule by rule, commandment by commandment, Adam undergoes the metamorphosis from living soul to life-giving spirit. This is the fundamental nature of the new covenant.

But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. (2 Corinthians 3:18)

We scarcely can overemphasize the fact the new creation is not human, not born of man, not a repairing of the human being.

Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. (John 1:13)

The new man is born of God's holy Seed. It is Divine Life that has come to us. The Divine Seed brings forth the offspring of God. For all that is in God is in the holy Seed just as all that is in a tree is in the seed from the tree. The human being serves as the ground that supports the germinating Seed.

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-For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. (Luke 9:24-NIV)
+To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. (Colossians 1:27-NIV)
-It is impossible, apart from the direct assistance of the Spirit of God, for the soul to conform to the Words of the Lord Jesus. But if the soul sets itself to diligently and consistently do what is written in the Scriptures, the Holy Spirit will give assistance (which is His role) and the new man will be formed in the soul.
+All the commandments and promises of the Old Testament look forward to the day when Christ will be formed in human beings. All the commandments and promises of the New Testament are for the purpose of bringing forth Christ in the human being. Circumcision was part of the Divine covenant made with the Jews. Circumcision is not part of the Divine covenant made with the Christians. But the old covenant leads to the new. And the ultimate goal is the forming of Christ in the believer.
-The new man serves God by nature. He cannot sin. That which the godly soul longs for, the ability to serve God in holiness and righteousness, is made possible by the Substance and Virtue of Christ that have been formed in it.
+When the new creation in us comes to maturity, many of the problems that currently trouble us are solved. We no longer can be brought into bondage by religious systems because we perceive them as scaffolding, as means that have brought us to Christ Himself.
-Peter speaks of the soul adhering to the Scriptures until Christ is brought forth:
+Our struggling to overcome the world, Satan, and our flesh are assisted greatly (although never eliminated completely) by the maturing of the Life of Christ in us. The pull of the world weakens and we long for the city that has foundations, the city of God . The new creation is the fruit of our travail, the fulfilment of our hope, the accomplishment of our desire to please God.
-We have also a more sure word of prophecy (the Scriptures); whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts: (2 Peter 1:19)
+It is important to understand it is Christ who is being formed in us. This is not a figure of speech meaning we are beginning to grasp the principles of Christianity. It is Christ who is being formed in us, not Christianity, not religion, not Christian character, not good works, but Christ.
-At some point in our experience the old man, the Adamic nature, may decide to attempt to preserve his life. He may desire to serve God and be blessed of God. But the concept of setting aside his appetites and desires so the newly conceived man may come to full term may prove to be offensive to him. He may rebel at the deaths that are coming upon him from the Lord and decide to enjoy himself in an outward show of religion, or to abandon Christ altogether.
+Christ is brought forth through the travail of the ministries and gifts of the Spirit of God. The world, Satan, the human soul, the lusts of the flesh, organized religion-all war against the efforts of the soul to endure faithfully as the Spirit of God brings forth Christ in us. Multitudes fall by the way. Only a few, it seems, bear lasting fruit. Some bring forth a hundredfold, some sixty fold, and some thirty fold.
-This soul centeredness, the desire of the old man to make Christianity into a religion that saves and blesses him, is the motivation behind the current emphasis on serving the needs of the human being, the welfare and fulfilment of the person being central. Jesus will help me do this, that, and the other thing.
+The transformation from Adam to Christ, from the caterpillar to the butterfly, is a gradual, not always understandable or evident, process. Bit by bit, rule by rule, commandment by commandment, Adam undergoes the metamorphosis from living soul to life-giving spirit. This is the fundamental nature of the new covenant.
-The concept that Jesus has assigned our first personality to the cross, to death, and that a new man has been conceived in us and is coming to the day of birth, must be brought into prominence in Christian thinking if people are to enter eternal life, into the Kingdom of God .
+But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. (2 Corinthians 3:18)
-The difference between Christ being conceived in us, and bringing to birth a new son of God, is revealed in Paul's admonition to the church in Galatia :
+We scarcely can overemphasize the fact the new creation is not human, not born of man, not a repairing of the human being.
-My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you, (Galatians 4:19 )
+Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. (John 1:13)
-The Galatians had been saved. The Galatians had received the Holy Spirit (Galatians 3:2). Christ had been conceived in them. But Christ had not been formed in them. Here we can observe plainly the difference between Christ being conceived in us and Christ coming to the level of maturity required for the full achievement of God's plan for us.
+The new man is born of God's holy Seed. It is Divine Life that has come to us. The Divine Seed brings forth the offspring of God. For all that is in God is in the holy Seed just as all that is in a tree is in the seed from the tree. The human being serves as the ground that supports the germinating Seed.
-Jewish teachers had followed Paul into Galatia and were demanding that the Christian converts adhere to the Law of Moses, particularly to the rite of circumcision. Paul knew once the new creation had been formed in the Galatians they would understand why neither circumcision nor uncircumcision is essential to the Kingdom of God ; that only the new creation is of eternal significance.
-For in Christ neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature (creation). (Galatians 6:15)
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