A New Creation

(Rom. 3:22, 10:11-17, 1 Cor. 1:30, 2 Cor. 5:17, Eph 2:4-9, Heb. 11:6)

If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.  How do we get into Christ?  It is by faith.  Faith itself is a gift and work of God.  Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.  The Greek rema refers to a spoken word.  We know that the written words in the Bible, as inspired by the Spirit, can be heard by the spirit of a man.  The word of God itself carries the ability to open a heart to hear.  So why is it that, as I experienced as a young man, that we can read, memorize, and be taught the words in the Bible and faith does not occur?  The actual presence of the Holy Spirit makes all the difference.

It is all a work of God, by the Spirit.  When faith comes, we have no basis to boast.  I searched the scripture for the following thought which I read somewhere.  Of God are you in Christ Jesus, it is the gift of God lest any man should boast.  The closest actual Bible passage I found is the reference from Ephesians 2.  Please read that for yourself.  I think it is safe to say the thought I shared is true.  It is a work of God that we are in Christ.  It was His intention, before the world existed, that He would gather a people for and to Himself in His Son.  As we believe into Christ, His history becomes ours.  His death, His resurrection, His ascension, becomes our story.  Our life is bound with His, by the working of God.  Then we can bear witness, give a testimony as we might say, of what He has done in our lives.  His story becomes our story.  Our story is wrapped up in His.

This is the gospel, the good news.  In Christ, all things become new.  At the first instance of receiving the Spirit, we may know unbridled joy.  At some point we all will experience that if we follow Jesus.  It touches our emotions but does not begin there.  The kingdom of God is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.  When we first receive the kingdom, we taste all three.  As we go on, and are growing in grace, we know more and more.  We are led further and further into the kingdom.  Our hunger for it increases.  We have tasted the new creation and we are wrecked, crucified, for this world.  The old things pass away.  That is the work of holiness, that we are separated to God.  That is His work, a changed heart.

The new creation is in Christ Jesus.  The Son was with our Father at the creation of the cosmos, the universe.  All we see was created by, through, and for the Son.   He worked with the Father.  Who can explain such things?  No one.  By faith we know that the world was created by God.  He created it out of who He is.  That is why David could write Psalm 19.  Another assignment for you.  As wickedness increased in the world, because mankind was dead in trespasses and sins, God sent His Son in the form of a man, Jesus.  God was beginning the work of the new creation.

As I pondered the new creation one day, it came to me that the new is in reverse of the old.  In the first creation, the universe, the earth, the plants, the animals were all created and then man.  Adam was the finish of the natural creation.  First the natural was created, then, in Christ, the spiritual, the new creation was begun.  When Adam was formed, the Lord already knew He would draw Eve out of Adam’s side.  So with Christ, the church, His bride, was born out of His side.  Jesus Christ is the first born from the dead, the first born of a new creation.  When He returns in fulness, we will see mankind resurrected, made new and we will see a new heaven and a new earth. Now, while we honor the law and the prophets, Moses, David, Elijah, Daniel, and all those of faith, may we move fully into all that Christ is in the new covenant.  He has fulfilled all and is gathering us all into that one new man.  He is doing the new thing He spoke through Isaiah and others.  The Spirit is the river that Ezekiel saw and was led into until it was over his head.  Let the Spirit lead you deeper into Christ that His currents would carry you into all he has purposed for you.  Along the way, you will lose the old and Jesus will make all things new.

Repentance

Metanoia is the Greek word we translate repentance.  It means a change of mind.  John the Baptist preached repentance as he prepared the way for Jesus.  And Jesus said the same as He began His public ministry.  It strikes me that the beginning of it for any of us is to hear God speak to us through Jesus.  It may begin with the prophets, with reading the Bible, but at some point we realize it is Jesus that we need to listen to.  Before we change our behavior, we realize some behavior, sin, is not what we want.   As I have struggled with sin, I have said, “Lord, you didn’t make me for this.”  And I have also prayed, “Lord, what is my problem?”  Our old nature or, as a pastor called it, our self-life, dies hard.  It is stubborn like a tough weed.  I have found that we can talk to the Lord, and better yet, pour out our heart, over it.  We can grieve.  O’ur failures and the grief that comes is part of Jesus work on the cross for us. The very grief of our failures is something He bore on the cross.  He has carried our griefs and sorrows.  Thank you, Lord Jesus.

I heard a message in which the pastor led us to a simple prayer.  Purify me, Lord.  The Lord hears and responds.  The first step is a removal of guilt and shame as we draw near to Him.  He is always faithful to welcome us into His presence when we stray.   Remember the Father’s response to the wayward son who was returning.  While he was still far away but had decided to return, to repent, the Father ran to meet him and restore him quickly.   No purgatorial type  of time lap here. I think it matters that this was a wayward son.  Without debate this one knew the Spirit, was a child of our Father, our Abba.  He was restored quickly with joy and given authority.  May we note the hardness of the elder son who had wandered more seriously even as he ‘served’ in our Father’s house.  He had lost heart connection.  Who had wandered more seriously?

Beholding Christ, we are changed.  Eternal change is a work of the Spirit from the inside out as we say.  An encounter with Jesus, the living Christ, brings us to know the love of God.  We then want to respond and please Him.  It includes a change in our emotions, thoughts and will.  The Spirit will bring us through situations and testing so that we will see who we are, that He has called us to be His in every part of our lives.  He is our redeemer,  the One who loves us and brings us home.  Think of that son who left home, wasted his life, and woke up one day to return to his Father’s house.  He is welcomed home with a hug, a robe of righteousness and authority.  He responds by serving in His Father’s house with joy.  Repentance is a matter of growing to know the heart of our Father and guarding our hearts from offense and growing cold.  It is continual and a process.

Son of Man, Son of God

(Phil. 2:5-9, 2 Pet. 3:14-16, Heb. 1:1-3, Matt. 11:28-30)

One of the amazing, wonderful aspects of God’s love for us and the Good News is that the Son of God took on humanity.  He became fully one of us.  Do we fully believe He is God incarnate, God taking on human flesh?  Paul wrote He emptied Himself.  Peter acknowledged that Paul wrote things hard to understand.  He may not have meant Paul’s words to the Philippians in particular but we can all admit that we cannot of our own thinking explain the incarnation.  It must be believed and known and comes by a revealing by the Spirit.  If we hunger for it, the Lord is pleased to open our eyes.

Many discuss the concept of the three persons of the Godhead.  Our words fail us.  The Lord is the Spirit.  The Father and the Son are one.  Jesus said, “Before Abraham was, I am.”  He used the name that God used for Moses, and those who were blind to the truth were incensed.  He offended their understanding, their identity as spiritual elites. The Bible includes other statements of Jesus identifying Himself as God.  I know that people of good intention have written on the subject of explaining, or considering, the Trinity.  That is of value.  Yet, I would rather help people to meet Jesus for themselves and to go on following Him.

The best comment I have ever heard concerning Jesus’ dual nature was at a Denny’s.  Jesus shows up wherever hearts are seeking Him.  A group of men were having breakfast and fellowship.  I spoke to the elder of the group about these issues and he responded, “It is a mystery and a marvel.”  That is the best, simplest, and yet, profound comment I have ever heard to describe the nature of the Son of God who is the Son of Man.  We understand, He had to be man to represent and literally die in our place so that we might have life that will never die.  And He had to be born as a man by the Spirit so that He would be void of Adam’s sin.  Yet He was tempted in every way as we are but overcame by following the truth.  Back to a mystery and marvel.  My limited mind cannot explain it.  I believe He is all I need spiritually and by the Spirit I receive grace upon grace.  I do not have to, nor can I understand it all.

Jesus most often referred to Himself as the Son of Man.  I have found myself in a word study of the various words used for child and son throughout the New Testament.  John prefers to use the Greek word teknon regarding believers as His children. I understand that word to imply a “born one.”  With true faith in Christ, we are born again to a living hope.  Jesus Christ becomes our hope for all things spiritual, in this life and the age to come.  John also uses the Greek, huios, which infers a mature child, a son, who is prepared to have and exercise authority.  John uses that word when he refers to Christ.  True authority is always in submission to a higher authority.  The Son of Man was subject to earthly authority as well as to our Father in heaven.  It is a mystery that He was always in subjection to His Father as a man, like us, and He knew His purpose, as the Lamb without blemish.  No one compares to Him.  No one.  So, God gave Him all authority and all are now subject to Him.  All means all.  Do we believe that? We are not in control, He is.  When we try to control a situation, we get in the Lord’s way, and typically, we will get stressed.  Jesus calls us to come to Him when we are stressed, or burdened.  There, with Him, we find relief and rest for our souls.  And, He says, to take His yoke on us.  That means we get joined with Him and we learn to walk with Him and handle things in our life His way.  And what did He say in the middle of that passage recorded in Matthew?  “For I am gentle (meek) and lowly in heart.”  Jesus is the full expression of God and His nature is not proud and controlling.  God is meek and lowly.  And He is all powerful.  Jesus set that aside to come as the Son of Man.  And He invites us to join with Him as sons alongside Him.

Adam is Dead, Jesus Christ Is Alive

(Gen. 1:16-17, Rom. 8:1-14, 2 Cor 5:14-17)

We often hear that Adam and Eve fell.  We might say that is true, but it is more than that.  They died, in their ability to fellowship with God.  By fellowship, we mean they were removed from His presence, from closeness, or intimacy with Him.  Their failure to listen and follow God’s instruction brought about great loss.  It was the start of the fact that humanity, apart from Christ, is dead in disobedience and sin.  I reread a message I had read a long time ago.  The writer clarifies this that Adam died.  The Lord had said if they ate of that fruit of knowing the difference between good and evil, they would certainly die.  They died spiritually.

Paul describes Christ Jesus as the last Adam.  When He died, Christ died for all, and all died.  That addressed physical death.  He destroyed the devil who had the power of physical death, because of the failure in the garden.  Christ restored spiritual life that we might have fellowship by the Spirit.  In Christ, God did a great work and cut it short in righteousness.  Jesus life on earth was the most intense battle of human history.  It culminated at the cross and exploded in the resurrection.  In about 33 years, the Lord God violently and beautifully turned all of human history from death to Life.  And that life is in His Son, Jesus.

That is why Jesus said, “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life.”  Many still have trouble with this “exclusive” sounding statement.  The truth is that Jesus is God’s Son, His gift to the world so that all may come to God.  We must receive Him.  This is not a formula but we can be helped with different suggested prayers.  After the initial reception, the new birth, we may, and most do, experience joy, peace, or some other emotion in a way we have never known it before.  That is a birth, a beginning of a spiritual life.  Some do not ”feel” anything immediately but become more and more aware that Jesus is alive and active in their lives.  We can find no set pattern in the new birth but we know when we have been born of His Spirit.

While Christ died for all, we must receive His life, we must receive the Spirit.  The man Jesus has left this earth as we know.  He said it was better for Him to leave so that He could pour out the Spirit on all flesh.  When we receive Jesus, we receive the Spirit.  We get the whole package, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  He is Holy Spirit.  Not some religious spirit that makes us spiritual.  We all have a spirit but that spirit must be made alive by the Spirit of Christ.  This is that same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead.  Like Him, the Son of Man, we were raised together with Him, so that we might learn to walk as he walked.

As we seek to understand the time in which we live and learn to walk by the Spirit, the word “replacement” shows up in controversy.  Has the church replaced Israel?  We miss the point of the resurrection.  Adam was finished and “replaced” with Christ.  Perhaps that is not the best way to express it.  Rather, when Jesus was raised from the dead, a new creation began.  He is the first born from the dead.  He is the first born of a new creation.  He is the first of a new race of man.  Therefore, we can see that in Him, no sense of earthy culture or identity exist.  Spiritually, He is completely heavenly, no longer bound by any earthly restraints.  It is not so yet with us.

We, who live in this world are not yet in resurrected bodies, but in our spirits, we are each, and together as His body, a new creation.  We are His body and interdependent on one another to fulfill all His purpose in the earth.  If we think we can operate independently, we are deceived and can find ourselves in trouble if move out of relationship.  To be sure, we must see that we are members of the body that is Christ.  We are branches of the vine that He is.  Our mental analysis cannot comprehend such truth.  Jesus said, I am the true vine, and you (we) are the branches.  Abide in me, He says.  By the Spirit, we experience that.