How do I form a factual faith to an expected end, that is the question? If being born again is only about going to heaven, then it seems my expectations have been meant. But no my friends, the Bible says there is more, much more! The incidents here on earth are mine, but the end was accomplished by another, that end is not the by and by only, but life lived here and now, a different kind of life, one born from above, a complete change realized through faith's facts.
My born again experience, was just that a experience, for me it could be defined no other way. The problem was my attempt to remain in the experience. I learned the hard way that is not the way in which God would have us form our faith. Faith also is not merely hope, although it provides great hope, thank God! Some in the world might describe faith as a mist, coming and going without a firm base, or even believing in something that your natural self tells you is not true, as in having a love crush on the prom queen and dreaming of her attention toward you; never going to happen, but never the less persisting in the dream, against all odds. No, now I know that the faith that will endure is carried in the knowledge of the one in whom it is placed; not available to the natural man, who cannot understand the things of God, and held in weakness by the carnal [milk fed] Christian, and therefore bringing much falling away and struggle to maintain his place.
Let us always remember that the Word of God tells us "without faith it is IMPOSSIBLE to please God". If our faith formed after the initial reception of truth to please Him, requires knowledge, then my friends we have some work to do. We know God's Grace takes us into His salvation with the first blush of belief, but to please our heavenly Father we must grow in the formation and understanding of that completed act. After all if mere belief was the final appeal then many, including Satan, would qualify for the Gift. No the Christian, belief leads to faith, also a gift from God, the question is will we unwrap the present? Or will we continue to trudge the road of happy destiny satisfied with defining our faith in the weakness of our flesh, [the first Adams personality] enjoying the experience along the way perhaps, but continually suffering the consequences of not growing into the spiritual mature personality we are called to be.
Transformation is our constant condition, even though we are often unaware of it taking place. Through the facts found in faith by God's word, we have the privilege of His knowledge available to us. The fact is we are described and defined by His Word and can realize by faith to be in a new condition upon the earth, perhaps sometimes on a unsettled quaking platform, so that we might discover through our weakness our completeness in our heavenly position. His reveled truth about my privilege and responsibility before Him, has led me to ask; is my Christianity just a stagnant ritual an empty vocabulary or has faiths facts, which tell me I am a entirely new creature in Christ, my life's motivation?
In order to be motivated I needed need, then I could acquire desire, but I was still held back from becoming all that I could be in finding myself in Christ, held in check on the road to factual knowledge by my great enemy fear. Well just what was I afraid of you ask? I suppose you could say the requirement I would be under once enlightened, as in success breeds responsibility. You see the things I was learning about my position in Christ were fearful because my eyes were still on the visible things, the judgement of men, I found no assurance there. In my first Adam's fear I was held back.
Faith is held in abeyance by our earthly personality. When released by the Holy spirit however faith works and reckons on the things of God only. Having this kind of faith is not ordinary to man, not found in strength in the first Adam personality, where we tend to spend our time you could say. We now are called upon to close our eyes to the visible and in a new light acquire a divine judgement about all that we are. Faith's facts now act to separate us from the usual and must be maintained by the diligence of seeking growth in Gods word. If we do not seek this new order, and strive to maintain it we will revert to our old self and again find the world as our master. We cannot serve two masters its either gain under the control of God or leave our feet plunged in the muddy waters of the earth.
There is a complicity in inaction, in the lack of striving to find the facts of our true being in Christ we enable the first man and remain weak and ineffectual in our Christian adventure and settle for a place of satisfaction of a worldly view, the carnal Christian. I for 35 years, and I believe many, bathe in the luke warm waters of contemporary comfort. The radical path growing weeds and not smoothed because of so few travelers trudging its road of discovery. But wait if a ordinary fleshy weak man such as I can find the new creation and have his eye opened to the New Man in him there must be hope! What is it that we must discover to find our way into the joy and peace promised for all who live in heaven under the spiritual heritage given us by blood, in Jesus Christ the Second Adam.
Our Lord knows the nature of the obstacle He has to overcome in our first Adam; who in us is always available if honored. This first man was our federal representative, in whom the whole human race dwells. The Adam personality which is carried in our mind, and for the natural man is in control unto death, never to be in the presence of God as to life eternal. Because this first man could not be accepted he was sentenced to die in a representative form by the Cross of Christ and by asking Jesus into our life we are given the Holy Spirit and Christ death is federally ours also. We are dead indeed by that act , not dead in our selves, but in Christ as the representative before the Father of His loved children. When we are born again we abide [live forever] in that representative reality. God has done this work in Christ and not in us as individuals. His death and resurrection were all inclusive but accomplished fully apart from us. It will be that by this formed fact of this truth we can experience a mature spiritual personality. It is our history in Christ which must be experienced and that is the history we must acknowledge as their is no spiritual experience apart from Jesus Christ. All that Christ experienced is ours, not of ourselves, but in association with Him. We are the vine he is the branch. All that we can be and will ever be is found in Him. It is not our exclusive personal experience. Any thing that we are is already true in Christ. These facts formed will lead to a life lived in Christ our new man the second Adam now our federal representative. A life lived in biblical pursuit of the faith formed by a positional /identification factually occupied mind will lead to the peace that passes all understanding. I know because the Bible tells me so.
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