Difference between revisions of "Be Born Again 11"

Latest revision as of 21:15, 16 February 2011

Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever. (1 Peter 1:23)

When Christ finally is formed in us it is the birth of a son of God, a son of God who has all eternity to grow into the image of His Father.

It is the responsibility of the soul to make certain all that is written in the New Testament is obeyed. The words of Christ and His Apostles govern the conduct of the soul, commanding the soul to present its body a living sacrifice to God so the soul may prove the will of God and perform it.

The soul must give itself to prayer and the reading of the written Word, setting aside sufficient time each day for vital communion with the Lord Jesus in order that Jesus may feed the new man of the heart with His body and blood.

As necessary as the written Word is for our successful transformation into a life-giving spirit, it is the living Word, Jesus, who is of supreme importance. The fatal error of the religionist is to place the written Word ahead of the living Word. The religionist, as did the Pharisee of old, attempts to find eternal life in the written Word. He will not come to the living Word and receive life.

We are born again, not of human seed but by the living and abiding Word, by the Lord Jesus Himself.

For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you. (1 Peter 1:24-25)

Adam is as grass. Mankind is as grass. Flesh and blood is as grass. Our human existence is as grass that one day is full of the most beautiful flowers and the next day is suitable only as food for cattle. One of the greatest truths at which any human being can arrive is that the present age is temporary, having significance only as it prepares creatures for the ages to come.

The Word of God is eternal; the heavens and earth are temporary. They will pass away. The Word of God, that which has been made flesh in the Lord Jesus Christ, never will pass away. It is eternal. Those who have experienced the transformation from Adam to Christ, from the man of the earth to the Lord from Heaven, are eternal.

What is the resurrection? The resurrection is Jesus. Adam never will be resurrected except to be judged. When Christ is formed in us, that is the resurrection; that is the life.

The new man will not be resurrected at a future date; he is eternally alive now.

The resurrection (except for the raising of our mortal body from the dead) is not something that will happen to us sovereignly and suddenly at a later date. The resurrection is the change from Adam to Christ.

The resurrection is taking place in us now if we are decreasing and Christ is increasing. We inwardly attain the resurrection now (Phil 3:11 ). The goal of the Christian is to inwardly attain the resurrection from the dead so the outward man, the mortal body, may receive immortality at the coming of the Lord from Heaven.

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-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)
+Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever. (1 Peter 1:23)
-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 Christ finally is formed in us it is the birth of a son of God, a son of God who has all eternity to grow into the image of His Father.
-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.
+It is the responsibility of the soul to make certain all that is written in the New Testament is obeyed. The words of Christ and His Apostles govern the conduct of the soul, commanding the soul to present its body a living sacrifice to God so the soul may prove the will of God and perform it.
-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.
+The soul must give itself to prayer and the reading of the written Word, setting aside sufficient time each day for vital communion with the Lord Jesus in order that Jesus may feed the new man of the heart with His body and blood.
-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.
+As necessary as the written Word is for our successful transformation into a life-giving spirit, it is the living Word, Jesus, who is of supreme importance. The fatal error of the religionist is to place the written Word ahead of the living Word. The religionist, as did the Pharisee of old, attempts to find eternal life in the written Word. He will not come to the living Word and receive life.
-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.
+We are born again, not of human seed but by the living and abiding Word, by the Lord Jesus Himself.
-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.
+For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away: But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you. (1 Peter 1:24-25)
-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)
+Adam is as grass. Mankind is as grass. Flesh and blood is as grass. Our human existence is as grass that one day is full of the most beautiful flowers and the next day is suitable only as food for cattle. One of the greatest truths at which any human being can arrive is that the present age is temporary, having significance only as it prepares creatures for the ages to come.
-We scarcely can overemphasize the fact the new creation is not human, not born of man, not a repairing of the human being.
+The Word of God is eternal; the heavens and earth are temporary. They will pass away. The Word of God, that which has been made flesh in the Lord Jesus Christ, never will pass away. It is eternal. Those who have experienced the transformation from Adam to Christ, from the man of the earth to the Lord from Heaven, are eternal.
-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)
+What is the resurrection? The resurrection is Jesus. Adam never will be resurrected except to be judged. When Christ is formed in us, that is the resurrection; that is the life.
-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.
+The new man will not be resurrected at a future date; he is eternally alive now.
+The resurrection (except for the raising of our mortal body from the dead) is not something that will happen to us sovereignly and suddenly at a later date. The resurrection is the change from Adam to Christ.
+The resurrection is taking place in us now if we are decreasing and Christ is increasing. We inwardly attain the resurrection now (Phil 3:11 ). The goal of the Christian is to inwardly attain the resurrection from the dead so the outward man, the mortal body, may receive immortality at the coming of the Lord from Heaven.
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