Faith is a word often misused and even abused and rarely contemplated, at least as fact. Faith really has no measurable value to the unbeliever, and aside from hope for salvation has little practical worth to the Christian; unless that is of course, he knows his faith to be a fact which may be relied upon for life itself. Few see their Christian faith in this mode.
Our Christian power for the reckoning of eternal life rests not upon a faith which is merely a hope or wished for blessed life in the now, or a relief from what we were. Or even a belief in a soul aware life beyond the grave. No if the bible is truly the Word of God the facts therein will give us the strength we need to discover faiths true power. Which then strengthens us to live a life in Christ awareness; which is eternal in scope, and includes living the now in a active eternal position and reality by faith alone. A new birth to a new dimension, [eternal/heavenly] as entirely new creatures. "But you are not in the flesh [a natural person], but in the Spirit [the mind of Christ in you], if the Spirit of God dwells in you" Rom. 8:9. Which is what a Christian is really called to discover. Albeit it seems quite often he has no strength for the task. "I press forward for the high calling of God in Christ Jesus" Phil. 3:14. Just how do we find the faith to be the Christian the Word tells us we can and must be, but can not seem to become, no matter how hard we strive of our own effort?
There has been a virtual plethora of books on how to be the Spirit filled Christian man or women you are meant to be. But how about a book that tells you that you cannot be that person, in and of yourself [self effort] no matter how much you learn or how hard you try; at least within the self centered beings we are on the physical observable/experiential results oriented path most tread. "He [the Spirit] makes intercession for the saints according to the will of God" Rom. 8:27. There is such a book. The bible clearly states: what we have become to God has been accomplished completely and exclusivity by His Son. "If Children then heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ....if so we suffer with Him, [see/know His death is also our death to the flesh nature] that we may be glorified together [co-Resurrection and ascension]' Rom. 8:17. Our total roll in that action is only to believe by faith this is true and even that faith is a gift given by grace from God. We as natural humans played no part, except to merely exist. And the reward is being a privileged member of the Body of Christ before God in heaven.
So if we accept this truth about ourselves what is our life quest to be? How are we then to feel justified? We as Christians must be seeking by His Spirit, not our efforts feelings and experiences, a faith by which we become more self identifiably a person aware of oneness with God Himself "He in us we in Him". Him living in our conscience in faith backed by the facts of the Word. First we must concede to the fact. He is the Creator and before we were a spark of life he chose to enter His life into our souls consciousness: so we may become self actualized, mentally aware of His presences; making us who we are right now.... a child of God represented by His Son's image. And also inheritors of all that His Son Jesus Christ is to Him, as we are seen for all we can or ever will be to Him, in His Son. We will not learn by any means, to live naturally [performance/behavior] in such a position, we must simply accept it in faith held in knowledge. We must see ourselves as heavenly beings. Feelings, no matter how joyful, as definition do not enter into this equation.
This might be more simply put by saying: the relationship I am to be involved in my Christ life and define my Christianity is to be interpreted like meeting another person and knowing and understanding, immediately and deeply, that this individual belongs in my life, and in fact He is my life, by faith. And then to come to know that the person in this case is Jesus Christ and that by God's design I am to become self aware that my life is found in Him. "As we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly" 1 Cor. 15:49. One will only find this kind of life by the revelation of God in His Word. "That you may be filled with knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding" Col. 1:9.
It really does come full circle. Always back to faith; therefore by previous definition, back to the discovery of the facts needed to build the mental image necessary, which can be arrived at only by faith. That new picture of our existence is the ideal and reality of our Christian life. "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty" 2 Cor. 3:17. How may we accomplish this day by day?
Just as with our creative endeavors in our worldly existence we require a vision for accomplishment, the same is true of our God ordained life in spirit, or you could say our heavenly life. So a vision must be formed in our mind before this new life can be lived. God has purposed in His Word to show us the way. "That I may know Him" Phil. 3:10.
The reality and vision available to us is God's, and He is full of all possibilities, His Spirit will guide. What enhances our view and vision and makes Christianity stand out for us is that reality/vision is written down in the bible. "Without a vision my people perish". The Word explains our existence and draws a picture of who we are and will become. Then why is it so difficult to live this way? Or worse; why do so many seem not to try, or even want to know? The answer is lack of knowledge on one hand, but the real culprit holding us back from the Christ life is our self. 'Walk in [dependence upon] the Spirit. and you shall not fulfill the lusts of the [self] flesh" Gal. 5:16. Remember the flesh is a person [old Adam] to be overcome by the Spirit of God in us, as the new Adam which we are in Christ, by faith.
I ran across a million dollar word for this condition "solipsism".....a egocentric view of life where reality is defined as a individuals own mental perception and constructs. This word perfectly describes the condition of man in the old nature or the natural human. The condition Christ died unto [out of the realm of], expressly for the Father, that He [the Father] might now view us anew in Him [Jesus Christ] the representative Resurrected New Man. He died unto what we were and are in the flesh, [egocentric] and now He lives in heaven to what we have and may become by faith as seen in God's ideal Man. We were given a new creation life in spirit [The Christ mind transferred to us]; a eternal living spirit. A life which is spelled out in the Word, which we may approach and live only by faith in the facts of that Word. "Humble yourself, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time" 1 Pet. 5:6.
This faith life is a supernatural life, not works or experiences. It is well defined by another valuable word's description; sedulously....preserving under constant effort. That effort consistently being necessary because we live on this earth in the flesh [natural sinful] condition, which proposes that most of our faith effort to be self centered. We trust Him for this or that and believe as best we can, we will receive. That is not the faith the father seeks in the mature saint. The faith the Father has provided for us by His Spirit is one which has been first acquired in a mental image [vision] of the position we have been identified in the Lord Jesus. "God has raised us up together, and made us to sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus" Eph. 2:6. Not in a hoped for blessing for our personal enjoyment. No our constant effort must be in the cultivating of a admiration for the Lord and the supernatural biblical fact we are contained within Him. " Complete every activity of your faith, so that the Name of our Lord Jesus might be glorified in you" 2 Thess. 1:11. He is not a figure to be placed upon the alter and be seen from afar: but we become by this new-found supernatural faith appropriators of His presence before the Father and see His life as ours. We are His and He is ours.We are irrevocably amalgamated together "made complete in Him" Our presences is nothing less that His place. " Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the Holiest by the Blood of Jesus, by a new and living way, which He has consecrated for us, through the veil" Heb. 10:19,20. By knowing the Word, we see this truth, admire it, desire it, enjoy it and therefore by faith may receive it as vision and reality.
This faith truth can only be a realized life by the fundamental knowledge of the positional death of our old Adam nature. Then we may rest in the contemplation of the course of the New Adam the Father has chosen for His children. Jesus Christ will then become our life. Could any Christian wish for more?
Friday, September 26, 2014
Saturday, September 6, 2014
BECAUSE IT IS WRITTEN
Man has the distinct proclivity to always look to his own understanding and feelings, and that is where perception and fact clash. "There is a way which seems right to the mind of men, but the end is death". "Give your mind to the things above" Col. 3:2. Yes how wonderful it is to feel the inner working of emotion declaring our Lord. But feelings/experiences are like sand, easily altered by the flood of stimulus which constantly flows on the river of life. So how must we perceive our Christianity to stay on a solid foundation of truth based only upon the Word of God?
I recently came upon the writings of C.H. Mackintosh. What a privilege to read the thoughts of such a man. He has done a masterful job of making real [as in reckon] the Spirits Biblical gift to us, "that we might know Him" Phil 3:10. No need to run to and fro hoping for understanding. The Word has made available the simple truth. I hope to use Mr Mackintosh's writing as inspiration to express God's greatest gift to His children: the position we have attained and which has been made real in us by His Spirit; which we hold in heaven, in the Fathers mind; us seen in His Son. Come follow The Spirit as He declares by The Word, eternal life; accomplished for us by God's own beloved New Man. The Man who was begotten in the same form as the Father's human creation, yet was the living image of God and His exact representation; made so that He may then view Him [the Son], and in His [the Father's] mind will then only see perfection when He looks upon His children; for the image of the Son bears our reflection as a new creation in His sight, mind, determination and sovereign will.
"If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: [because this man is seen in Christ by the Father] old things have passed away; behold all things are become new" 2 Cor. 5:17. Our old nature has not been pardoned but completely set aside [annulled in God's sight] in death. By the actions of Christ on the Cross we have become transferred into a new spiritual creation. The old which is flesh [not spiritual] for the purpose of The Father [who is Spirit], has been obliterated in any regard He has of us! By living out in faith that truth as a mental/spiritual perception we can enjoy the gift of a new life, "all things are of God", we are seen only in Christ, nothing of man in the natural state remains of us in the Fathers mind. Also likewise He sees the true Church [all believers] as fully accepted in His beloved Son. In the sames sense as us as individuals identified wholly in Christ, we all are now new creatures.
Can it be possible that any true Christian could not have at least some inclination of himself as a new creature? The immature Christian looks to the clouded hope of heaven and the Saviour's pardon of his sins and has a measure of reliance on the mercy of God.. But still may have no sense of everlasting life, not know himself as a new creation. Not understand that the old position in Adam has been done away with in the Fathers sight and reckoning. Thus his eternal life is limited to the earth, as a current position, for lack of knowledge. Therefore he continually seeks to perform life in the flesh as a natural duty bound man, in order to perceive himself as a Christian. Remember, obedience is not faith, but Law, and trying to please God by action places us under the Law. "Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith".
Most Christians I come in contact with never use the term "the old Adam nature", which is also know as the flesh or the old creation. These are biblical descriptions of humankind, not to be overlooked. As we read in Romans Six, "Our old man was crucified [co-crucifixion] with Him [Christ], that the body of sin [our old nature] might be destroyed [nullified], that henceforth we should not serve sin [by a awareness of our new nature]". This is not to describe a necessity to not commit sins to make God happy and then live a upright life: but for us to know of the death of the original Adam nature in God's perfect judicial judgement; otherwise we will always live under condemnation and the need to please Him, which eliminates our need for His Grace.
This old man is the life we inherited from the original man Adam. The "body of sin" is the whole system or condition in which we stood in that unregenerate, unrenewed, unconverted standing and state, which is the condition of all men in his flesh. "But I see another law in my members [flesh], warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members" Rom. 7:23 This old position was destroyed-by the Lord Jesus in His death unto [out of the realm of] sin. The old Adam is then crucified and is looked upon by The Father as totally set aside in death. We Christian believers, as to what we were in the old nature are dead and buried! This really is not in any way something we can feel, or hope to achieve recognition of by accomplishments and good works: but can only be counted on by faith in His Son's accomplishment for us, as declared by the Word. Nothing of a sinful man is seen in God's sight. God has abolished forever for the believer the old Adam relationship. As a matter of biblical fact we have been co- resurrected and co- ascended with Christ also in God's sight. And because our Father tells us so we are to reckon it as true. Its a matter of faith in facts, not feelings or behavior, as our physical life continues to reside in the flesh condition. So where is the hope then?
If we look at ourselves from a self centered view or judge our feelings, we shall never understand this truth or have hope. Why? Because we feel ourselves to be subject to the same sinful nature as ever, we sin, we worry, we have doubts, we must perform a certain manner of living. No matter how moral we are, sincere or Innocent and well intentioned. We by our mere association with the flesh [mankind, human nature] can not justify that we are in of ourselves obtaining any righteousness what so ever. There is simply no behavior we may perform that will justify us before God. No ritual or rite which will qualify us despite our earnestness.
Most believers have great difficulty at this point as we always look to ourselves, and the institutional church has reinforced our fate by substituting traditions feelings and experience as Christianity. We use the natural tendency of reasoning [intellectual self-centered] upon what we feel and experience to guide the way, instead of truth from the Word. This is where reckoning comes in; counting the Word as true, to make our Christian lives be consistent with The Father's desire for us. Alas we often find it difficult to make the inward way we feel to reconcile with the Word of God and lets face it inwardness is our constant natural condition. And as well as where we meet our new Christian life in Christ. However to enjoy our inward self-consciousness of Christ and harmonize it to truth, we must become well acquainted with the Father's revelation of our position/identity in Christ found in scripture. We must only rely upon what is written in His Word. This is not literalism, but simply objective truth, which we must become subject to: and then with clarity of thought embrace as a spiritual condition which is real and true.
But we must remember that faith takes God at His Word. In other words I believe what He says because He said it. So if He tells me my old man [Adam nature] was crucified and that God no longer sees me in the old Adam position [a sinful lost creature], but positioned anew in the risen and ascended Lord Jesus Christ then I am to believe it like a little child. Then walk in faith of that fact day by day. If I look to myself for some evidence of what the Father says about my position, then that is not of faith."Without faith it is impossible to please God".
You may say how can this be? How can I be considered dead, as to my Adam sin nature, by the Father? I have feelings, I know only too well my tendencies to sin which are continually within me. Yet the Word declares that if I believe in my heart in the Saviour, then all of my co-experience with Christ is true of me right now right here, I have eternal life. I am a new creature, completely justified, and all thing are new. In a word I am in Christ "as He is [in heaven, a Resurrected Man] so are we in this world" 1 John 4:17.
This is much more than the mere pardoning of sins, the canceling of your debts, or even the salvation of our soul. And if so then, we must ask upon what authority are the great privileges of the new creature we are positioned in Christ granted? Is it because we realize it or understand it? No; but because it is written. As to salvation the Word says "To Him all the prophets witness, that through His name whosoever believes in Him shall receive remission of sins" Acts 10:43. We all must rely on that truth in faith or we are simply lost. Well then it is precisely on the same authority and faith that we are to believe [reckon] "that our old man has been crucified", that we are not in the flesh [natural man before God] and that we are not in the old creation and not in the old Adam relationship in God's perfect estimation or judgment; but we are viewed by our Father as actually in the risen and glorified Lord Jesus Christ..........that He looks upon us just as He looks upon His beloved Son! See 2 Cor. 5:17. What Christian would not wish for such a living position as a conscious dwelling place for his soul? We my friends only need develop it in our mind, by His Word!
Yes we are still subject to the flesh, because it is in us. But we are not in it as one born again in spirit. We have a condition in which we live physical life true, "sin is in the flesh". But listen to what is written in regards to our eternal life our spiritual position which is established by Jesus in heaven and in no other way; "They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world" John 17. Our paramount Christian goal should be to discover what that means, all else is more or less meaningless without positional /identification doctrines being known and trusted in faith. Because it is written we must read and study to become aware.
Then my friends, as Mr Macintosh said; "if you simply bow to your Father's Word. Set aside what you see, and what you feel in yourself and what you think of yourself, and simply believe what is written, you will enter into the peace and liberty flowing from the fact that you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit under grace; not of the world which is the flesh, but of God. You have passed clear off of the ground which occupied you as a child of nature and a member of the first Adam, and have taken your new position on new heavenly ground as a child of God and a member of the Body of Christ". Because it is written it is so! The question is, do we have the knowledge of the Word processed within us to gain the faith to live like it is true? Ask yourself; what is your priority the affairs of self and the world or the things of God, written for all to see?
I recently came upon the writings of C.H. Mackintosh. What a privilege to read the thoughts of such a man. He has done a masterful job of making real [as in reckon] the Spirits Biblical gift to us, "that we might know Him" Phil 3:10. No need to run to and fro hoping for understanding. The Word has made available the simple truth. I hope to use Mr Mackintosh's writing as inspiration to express God's greatest gift to His children: the position we have attained and which has been made real in us by His Spirit; which we hold in heaven, in the Fathers mind; us seen in His Son. Come follow The Spirit as He declares by The Word, eternal life; accomplished for us by God's own beloved New Man. The Man who was begotten in the same form as the Father's human creation, yet was the living image of God and His exact representation; made so that He may then view Him [the Son], and in His [the Father's] mind will then only see perfection when He looks upon His children; for the image of the Son bears our reflection as a new creation in His sight, mind, determination and sovereign will.
"If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: [because this man is seen in Christ by the Father] old things have passed away; behold all things are become new" 2 Cor. 5:17. Our old nature has not been pardoned but completely set aside [annulled in God's sight] in death. By the actions of Christ on the Cross we have become transferred into a new spiritual creation. The old which is flesh [not spiritual] for the purpose of The Father [who is Spirit], has been obliterated in any regard He has of us! By living out in faith that truth as a mental/spiritual perception we can enjoy the gift of a new life, "all things are of God", we are seen only in Christ, nothing of man in the natural state remains of us in the Fathers mind. Also likewise He sees the true Church [all believers] as fully accepted in His beloved Son. In the sames sense as us as individuals identified wholly in Christ, we all are now new creatures.
Can it be possible that any true Christian could not have at least some inclination of himself as a new creature? The immature Christian looks to the clouded hope of heaven and the Saviour's pardon of his sins and has a measure of reliance on the mercy of God.. But still may have no sense of everlasting life, not know himself as a new creation. Not understand that the old position in Adam has been done away with in the Fathers sight and reckoning. Thus his eternal life is limited to the earth, as a current position, for lack of knowledge. Therefore he continually seeks to perform life in the flesh as a natural duty bound man, in order to perceive himself as a Christian. Remember, obedience is not faith, but Law, and trying to please God by action places us under the Law. "Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith".
Most Christians I come in contact with never use the term "the old Adam nature", which is also know as the flesh or the old creation. These are biblical descriptions of humankind, not to be overlooked. As we read in Romans Six, "Our old man was crucified [co-crucifixion] with Him [Christ], that the body of sin [our old nature] might be destroyed [nullified], that henceforth we should not serve sin [by a awareness of our new nature]". This is not to describe a necessity to not commit sins to make God happy and then live a upright life: but for us to know of the death of the original Adam nature in God's perfect judicial judgement; otherwise we will always live under condemnation and the need to please Him, which eliminates our need for His Grace.
This old man is the life we inherited from the original man Adam. The "body of sin" is the whole system or condition in which we stood in that unregenerate, unrenewed, unconverted standing and state, which is the condition of all men in his flesh. "But I see another law in my members [flesh], warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members" Rom. 7:23 This old position was destroyed-by the Lord Jesus in His death unto [out of the realm of] sin. The old Adam is then crucified and is looked upon by The Father as totally set aside in death. We Christian believers, as to what we were in the old nature are dead and buried! This really is not in any way something we can feel, or hope to achieve recognition of by accomplishments and good works: but can only be counted on by faith in His Son's accomplishment for us, as declared by the Word. Nothing of a sinful man is seen in God's sight. God has abolished forever for the believer the old Adam relationship. As a matter of biblical fact we have been co- resurrected and co- ascended with Christ also in God's sight. And because our Father tells us so we are to reckon it as true. Its a matter of faith in facts, not feelings or behavior, as our physical life continues to reside in the flesh condition. So where is the hope then?
If we look at ourselves from a self centered view or judge our feelings, we shall never understand this truth or have hope. Why? Because we feel ourselves to be subject to the same sinful nature as ever, we sin, we worry, we have doubts, we must perform a certain manner of living. No matter how moral we are, sincere or Innocent and well intentioned. We by our mere association with the flesh [mankind, human nature] can not justify that we are in of ourselves obtaining any righteousness what so ever. There is simply no behavior we may perform that will justify us before God. No ritual or rite which will qualify us despite our earnestness.
Most believers have great difficulty at this point as we always look to ourselves, and the institutional church has reinforced our fate by substituting traditions feelings and experience as Christianity. We use the natural tendency of reasoning [intellectual self-centered] upon what we feel and experience to guide the way, instead of truth from the Word. This is where reckoning comes in; counting the Word as true, to make our Christian lives be consistent with The Father's desire for us. Alas we often find it difficult to make the inward way we feel to reconcile with the Word of God and lets face it inwardness is our constant natural condition. And as well as where we meet our new Christian life in Christ. However to enjoy our inward self-consciousness of Christ and harmonize it to truth, we must become well acquainted with the Father's revelation of our position/identity in Christ found in scripture. We must only rely upon what is written in His Word. This is not literalism, but simply objective truth, which we must become subject to: and then with clarity of thought embrace as a spiritual condition which is real and true.
But we must remember that faith takes God at His Word. In other words I believe what He says because He said it. So if He tells me my old man [Adam nature] was crucified and that God no longer sees me in the old Adam position [a sinful lost creature], but positioned anew in the risen and ascended Lord Jesus Christ then I am to believe it like a little child. Then walk in faith of that fact day by day. If I look to myself for some evidence of what the Father says about my position, then that is not of faith."Without faith it is impossible to please God".
You may say how can this be? How can I be considered dead, as to my Adam sin nature, by the Father? I have feelings, I know only too well my tendencies to sin which are continually within me. Yet the Word declares that if I believe in my heart in the Saviour, then all of my co-experience with Christ is true of me right now right here, I have eternal life. I am a new creature, completely justified, and all thing are new. In a word I am in Christ "as He is [in heaven, a Resurrected Man] so are we in this world" 1 John 4:17.
This is much more than the mere pardoning of sins, the canceling of your debts, or even the salvation of our soul. And if so then, we must ask upon what authority are the great privileges of the new creature we are positioned in Christ granted? Is it because we realize it or understand it? No; but because it is written. As to salvation the Word says "To Him all the prophets witness, that through His name whosoever believes in Him shall receive remission of sins" Acts 10:43. We all must rely on that truth in faith or we are simply lost. Well then it is precisely on the same authority and faith that we are to believe [reckon] "that our old man has been crucified", that we are not in the flesh [natural man before God] and that we are not in the old creation and not in the old Adam relationship in God's perfect estimation or judgment; but we are viewed by our Father as actually in the risen and glorified Lord Jesus Christ..........that He looks upon us just as He looks upon His beloved Son! See 2 Cor. 5:17. What Christian would not wish for such a living position as a conscious dwelling place for his soul? We my friends only need develop it in our mind, by His Word!
Yes we are still subject to the flesh, because it is in us. But we are not in it as one born again in spirit. We have a condition in which we live physical life true, "sin is in the flesh". But listen to what is written in regards to our eternal life our spiritual position which is established by Jesus in heaven and in no other way; "They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world" John 17. Our paramount Christian goal should be to discover what that means, all else is more or less meaningless without positional /identification doctrines being known and trusted in faith. Because it is written we must read and study to become aware.
Then my friends, as Mr Macintosh said; "if you simply bow to your Father's Word. Set aside what you see, and what you feel in yourself and what you think of yourself, and simply believe what is written, you will enter into the peace and liberty flowing from the fact that you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit under grace; not of the world which is the flesh, but of God. You have passed clear off of the ground which occupied you as a child of nature and a member of the first Adam, and have taken your new position on new heavenly ground as a child of God and a member of the Body of Christ". Because it is written it is so! The question is, do we have the knowledge of the Word processed within us to gain the faith to live like it is true? Ask yourself; what is your priority the affairs of self and the world or the things of God, written for all to see?
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)