Most believers remain earth bound in their view and concept of the Christian life, few have spiritual wings to be free as they are tethered to this world in deed and thought.
It seems, by observation at least, mans accumulated purpose is simply to establish a cultural and a personal reality which suits his expected or perceived present circumstance and worldly needs, in order to please himself or others. Christian are no different in this propensity. But is this God's way, His desire for His Children? "The carnal mind [a mind absorbed by personal and world issues]is enmity against God" Rom. 8:7.
If a man were really spiritually free what would his relative functional world perception/actions look like? Actually, outside of his inner spiritual concept, probably not much different than those who remain earth bound. Why? Because inherent within the fall of man is his obligation toward sin, "sin is in the flesh". This is our, both Christian and secular mans, unescapable condition. Then where is the peace and joy that is promised by God to His believing children to come from? And why make any effort to rise above the carnal worldly and traditional position most Christians have found their present comfort in?
The answer is found in the acquiring of the biblical promised spiritual emancipation we all should be seeking of course. Which is discovered first by our weakness and desperate need then a openness to His Spirit, followed by knowledge in the the gathering of a intelligent faith. This sounds simple and direct enough but very few bother to put forth a effort toward these vital and Godly ideologies with their divine spiritual freedom in mind. Why?
Because they remain satisfied to be earth bound, self-centered, enthralled and occupied by what they see and feel all around them. Seeking fulfillment in the temporary comfort of self-centered feelings, captured. It is simply their self imposed preferred world view, what they know. But God's Word in no way supports this common view, for He declares; "When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then we also appear with Him in Glory" Col. 3:4.
But surely we cannot be with Him in the apprehension of our mutual glory without also having His attitude, gaining His insite. That of His own presence before the Father and us inclusive in His place with Him. "God is faithful, by whom you were called unto the fellowship [like mindness] of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord" 1 Cor. 1:9. Yes this important message [Col. 3:4] is equally a future promise [in glory] and a present position [Who is our life] according to God's Word. But in order to see its fulfillment in the now we must be looking down from Him, God's perspective. "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus" Phil. 2:5. However most are looking up from themselves, their own mind's perspective. So how and where will we find Him in order to have His view?
God....has made us alive together with Christ and has raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus" Eph 2:4-6. Note we are together with Him, according to the Father. Where? In heaven. This can only be learned as a spiritual faith reality from the Word. We were dead [sin restricted in the fallen Adam race] and now we are alive [in the new spiritual Christ identify or new creation], but only "in Christ". Found in Him by faith, His view revealed.
In other words we are in Him a new creation [have gained a new mind] by a spiritual all new perception based entirely on the [our] reckoning by faith of the Word's narrative, as to our status before God represented by His Son; this is also God's reckoning. We are there in heaven with Him or so God says "we are citizens of heaven". If this is true then we must redefine ourselves within our very conscience as to our Christian existance. We are to stop praying and lookin upward toward Him from ourselves, ever asking for relief and blessings, and come to see downward from His throne with the eye's of Word based faith. But How can we do this we might wonder?
The revelation by Paul from the Father tells us. Therefore we must discover what he [Paul] means when he tells us over one hundred times we are in Christ. "For He has made Him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him" 2 Cor. 5:21. By this new realization, from the Spirit, we will rise above the mere existence in the world of experience and good works where most Christians trod. Our thoughts therefore must change based upon His Word.
The real life difficulty for us will be to find rest in His full provision for us as ones "in Christ" because of our old identity or thinking. So to pave the way, first must come great need, then a diligent pursuit, and finely a full reliance upon faith in His word by the knowledge of it, or new thoughts. This will make our way clear to see His life. Few will go there however as feelings [present old thoughts] and compliance with the world drowns out their desperate need, and apathy and present circumstances satisfaction hold then down. But for those that have the sacrificial desire [a individual personal approbation steeped in weakness and need] for the discovery of what it means to be "in Christ" there will be a great reward. That of eternal freedom known here and now!
In order for us to understand what it means to be "in Christ" we turn to Paul's mind as revealed by the Holy Spirit in the Word. What does in Christ mean? In Christ Jesus' Words, [John 15:4] He says we are to abide [in thought and concept] in Him. In context in the Greek mind this would mean we are to be fully encompassed, as within a sphere, within Him, a part of Him, partakers making up the whole of Him. This is our present position in God's mind even with no actions of our own. Second Paul uses a certain word as description of our divine status and presence before God; that of being "in Christ" [within His sphere] which connotes the exclusivity of our identification in Him. That word is Pleroma.
In Colossians we find a Greek word that cannot be translated in the usual sense, as it is relegated to the philosophical [as in search for the truth of life] realm. In English we call this the Pleroma of God. The thought, as expressed by Paul is: In Christ we have the Pleroma [fullness] of God....the idea is that all this fullness dwells in Christ Jesus and may [does] dwell in us by His Spirit and by our dwelling [seeking Him for life's identity in our understanding of who we are] within Him, His sphere of living Spirit. Or "the law of life in Christ Jesus".
I hope this explanation takes some of the mystery out of the positional and identification doctrines [Rom. 6,7.8] to make you curious enough to contemplate and perhaps even desire a freedom that only comes by faith in a understood truth. God has made it simple in concept we make it difficult by our action and self-centered expectation's. Rest in the truth my Christian brothers and sisters, He has made our way easy and light. We now may cease from worry and strife as well as alignment with the world. Wait upon His Spirit in your weakness to fulfill your new desire for life with unending joy found only within His sphere, "In Christ".
Monday, March 27, 2017
Thursday, March 2, 2017
THE HEAVENLY GOSPEL
The long and continued attempt to apply Christianity to the world as an aid to it's culture and it's civilization has led to the loss of the spiritual/heavenly appropriation so urged by Paul in his revelation from God to His children. "He Himself equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen" Heb 13:21. Over time the aspect of a internal Christian life by Spirit, derived from intelligent and individual biblical faith, has become offensive to many, that is to the "dwellers of the earth". Because many see their primary roll as Christians in a accomplishment on the earth, a interpretation by and of their own feelings, not God's Word.
The assertions of the heavenly Gospel, the peculiar privileges and special hopes of the Church as explained so thoroughly by Paul to be heavenly [spiritual] in its identification toward us, as that of Christ Himself, have been set aside to promote works and experiences or merely to improve mankind and it's culture. Men of the earth [carnal Christians] think and are taught this is what God wants of them. Urged to become workers before becoming spiritual. "The carnal mind is enmity against God" Rom 8:7.
The testimony of the Holy Spirt and the sufferings of the Lord and the glories extended to us, in making us new creatures in spirit, have been forgotten by the Christian earth dwellers whom we have been made into by poor teaching and our own attachment to the world. "Therefore, brethren we are debtors bound not to the flesh [works, accomplishment, culture etc.] that we should live after the flesh [but to the Spirit and faith] Rom. 8:12. There is a obvious lack to take into account the spiritual absorbing and heavenly power of His Cross, which has been exchanged for the all absorbing physical, emotional, and experiential power of the earth.
"They are enemies of the cross of Christ...who set their mind on earthly things" Phil. 3:18,19. "If you then are risen with Christ [have taken on his life by spirit in new birth]...set you affections [minds in the Greek] on things above [spiritual/heavenly], not on the things of the earth" Col. 3:2. These biblical revelations written by Paul to the early Church simply cannot be ignored as fully applicable today, but they are by most. Why?
The fact of our position as that of being found by the father as only in His Son, by faith in that fact, is not often explored or made clear to the believer. Yes many of us had a foretaste of it's power when we felt the great relief in our first blush of justification/salvation/sanctification, when we were born again. But because of our own institutional church nurtured self centeredness we fail to thoroughly translate the biblical available apprehend truth into a mindful/spiritual definition of our Christianity. Thereby morally affecting our character and walk. We simply do not live, nor are we taught, what we truly are in a spiritual new creation. Which by we might become one with who He is [positioned in Him], in conscious/faithful apprehension; as a personal identification of our divinely defined [God's thoughts of us] character. "Christ who is our life" Col. 3:4.
The Christian may advance spiritually only by seeing what he really is in Christ, not by trying to be what he hopes or is encouraged to be by his behavior or his feelings. Seeing the accomplished fact of our co-death, co-burial and co-resurrection and ascension with Christ by the Word, ministered by His Holy Spirit to our minds enlightenment, brings us His life. This end is discovered in seeing by faith, not by feelings or working. The only possibility of spiritual progress lies in seeing the truth just as God sees it, the truth concerning Christ, the truth concerning ourselves in Christ, as a faithful image within our mind. "For you died and you life is hid with God in Christ" Col. 3:3. What holds us back?
The answer lies in our world view! Or who and what we place our personal value in. God and His Word or our own self centered thoughts and those of others we may listen to. We must learn that the Cross has effectively cut our connection to the world and the Resurrection has brought us into a new reality, a new wholly immaterial association above. The world rejected Christ, God exalted Him, and therefore us, as He is the representation of the believer before Him "hid with Christ". Man and the world gave Christ Jesus the very lowest, God ascended Him to Glory. In as much as the believer is in full fellowship with the Fathers thoughts of His Son, by faith in His Word, he is enabled to turn from the world to He who is above; in identification within his own mind and heart, contained in that very same Glory as Christ Himself. "He has created us through our union with Christ Jesus" Rom. 8:37.. Why is this truth so ignored?
Because so very few of our church leaders know the meaning of the identification doctrines, as their Christian life, which are so clearly taught in Romans 5,6,7 and 8. They therefore cannot teach or even encourage us to find a growing inner spiritual life by faith in the Word. Perhaps they have learned the word identification in their academic studies to consider. But because they to often remain in the reformed first man of the earth, experience and feelings, works and law, becomes their apprehension model for the Christian life. They are taken captive by the bread and butter supplied by their institutional obligations and the experiential pleasures so needed by their carnal flock. In short many are simply dwellers of the earth, or carnal. As a result many Christians who claim to believe the Bible is God's Word, do not read it and sadly many never study it. We claim it's God's divinely inspired inerrant message to us, yet despite this, we have not made it or Him our life by His Word in spirit. Why?
A recent LifeWay Research study found only 45 percent of those who regularly attend church read the Bible more than once a week. Over 40 percent of the people attending read their Bible occasionally, maybe once or twice a month. Almost 1 in 5 churchgoers say they never read the Bible—essentially the same number who read it every day. Few Christians are challenged from the pulpit. Even fewer have any idea of a need for a biblical proper [literal] and constant hermeneutic [a method or theory of interpretation] to study it by. Without which there is little chance to honor God in any in-depth understanding of His Word! Whose fault does this great shame fall upon?
Yes our leaders have a burden to bare in the biblical illiteracy we have grow comfortable with. But it is us as individuals who have simply become satisfied with our own self centeredness who are really to blame. The world, politics, creature comforts, family, sports, work and cultural ministry all take center stage in the lives of the average Christian. Not God's truth as to identification and resurrection and ascension of the saint. Therefore most remain first Adam creatures, carnal ["sin is in the flesh"] in nature, as to their spiritual life. This is not the life God has directed us too. Then why is it the dominant Christian apprehension of the Gospel?
It really quite simple. We have not reached a place of deep enough sorrow and loneliness, in reliance upon self, to gain the opportunity the Lord has for us in His heavenly life by Grace. If our affections are true to the Lord Jesus they will make this world a barren wilderness in our estimation of all around. This is the place He will speak to our hearts. But we and the institutional church avoid such at all costs in order to maintain the status quo. Jesus Christ was utterly rejected by man and the world systems. We must realize that we have taken up that very same position in spirit. This is our place of true spiritual life according to Paul; God's biblical revealer of heavenly positional and identification gospel truth. "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ " Eph. 1:3. Whose side and life will you abide within, the worlds or the Lord Jesus Christ?
The assertions of the heavenly Gospel, the peculiar privileges and special hopes of the Church as explained so thoroughly by Paul to be heavenly [spiritual] in its identification toward us, as that of Christ Himself, have been set aside to promote works and experiences or merely to improve mankind and it's culture. Men of the earth [carnal Christians] think and are taught this is what God wants of them. Urged to become workers before becoming spiritual. "The carnal mind is enmity against God" Rom 8:7.
The testimony of the Holy Spirt and the sufferings of the Lord and the glories extended to us, in making us new creatures in spirit, have been forgotten by the Christian earth dwellers whom we have been made into by poor teaching and our own attachment to the world. "Therefore, brethren we are debtors bound not to the flesh [works, accomplishment, culture etc.] that we should live after the flesh [but to the Spirit and faith] Rom. 8:12. There is a obvious lack to take into account the spiritual absorbing and heavenly power of His Cross, which has been exchanged for the all absorbing physical, emotional, and experiential power of the earth.
"They are enemies of the cross of Christ...who set their mind on earthly things" Phil. 3:18,19. "If you then are risen with Christ [have taken on his life by spirit in new birth]...set you affections [minds in the Greek] on things above [spiritual/heavenly], not on the things of the earth" Col. 3:2. These biblical revelations written by Paul to the early Church simply cannot be ignored as fully applicable today, but they are by most. Why?
The fact of our position as that of being found by the father as only in His Son, by faith in that fact, is not often explored or made clear to the believer. Yes many of us had a foretaste of it's power when we felt the great relief in our first blush of justification/salvation/sanctification, when we were born again. But because of our own institutional church nurtured self centeredness we fail to thoroughly translate the biblical available apprehend truth into a mindful/spiritual definition of our Christianity. Thereby morally affecting our character and walk. We simply do not live, nor are we taught, what we truly are in a spiritual new creation. Which by we might become one with who He is [positioned in Him], in conscious/faithful apprehension; as a personal identification of our divinely defined [God's thoughts of us] character. "Christ who is our life" Col. 3:4.
The Christian may advance spiritually only by seeing what he really is in Christ, not by trying to be what he hopes or is encouraged to be by his behavior or his feelings. Seeing the accomplished fact of our co-death, co-burial and co-resurrection and ascension with Christ by the Word, ministered by His Holy Spirit to our minds enlightenment, brings us His life. This end is discovered in seeing by faith, not by feelings or working. The only possibility of spiritual progress lies in seeing the truth just as God sees it, the truth concerning Christ, the truth concerning ourselves in Christ, as a faithful image within our mind. "For you died and you life is hid with God in Christ" Col. 3:3. What holds us back?
The answer lies in our world view! Or who and what we place our personal value in. God and His Word or our own self centered thoughts and those of others we may listen to. We must learn that the Cross has effectively cut our connection to the world and the Resurrection has brought us into a new reality, a new wholly immaterial association above. The world rejected Christ, God exalted Him, and therefore us, as He is the representation of the believer before Him "hid with Christ". Man and the world gave Christ Jesus the very lowest, God ascended Him to Glory. In as much as the believer is in full fellowship with the Fathers thoughts of His Son, by faith in His Word, he is enabled to turn from the world to He who is above; in identification within his own mind and heart, contained in that very same Glory as Christ Himself. "He has created us through our union with Christ Jesus" Rom. 8:37.. Why is this truth so ignored?
Because so very few of our church leaders know the meaning of the identification doctrines, as their Christian life, which are so clearly taught in Romans 5,6,7 and 8. They therefore cannot teach or even encourage us to find a growing inner spiritual life by faith in the Word. Perhaps they have learned the word identification in their academic studies to consider. But because they to often remain in the reformed first man of the earth, experience and feelings, works and law, becomes their apprehension model for the Christian life. They are taken captive by the bread and butter supplied by their institutional obligations and the experiential pleasures so needed by their carnal flock. In short many are simply dwellers of the earth, or carnal. As a result many Christians who claim to believe the Bible is God's Word, do not read it and sadly many never study it. We claim it's God's divinely inspired inerrant message to us, yet despite this, we have not made it or Him our life by His Word in spirit. Why?
A recent LifeWay Research study found only 45 percent of those who regularly attend church read the Bible more than once a week. Over 40 percent of the people attending read their Bible occasionally, maybe once or twice a month. Almost 1 in 5 churchgoers say they never read the Bible—essentially the same number who read it every day. Few Christians are challenged from the pulpit. Even fewer have any idea of a need for a biblical proper [literal] and constant hermeneutic [a method or theory of interpretation] to study it by. Without which there is little chance to honor God in any in-depth understanding of His Word! Whose fault does this great shame fall upon?
Yes our leaders have a burden to bare in the biblical illiteracy we have grow comfortable with. But it is us as individuals who have simply become satisfied with our own self centeredness who are really to blame. The world, politics, creature comforts, family, sports, work and cultural ministry all take center stage in the lives of the average Christian. Not God's truth as to identification and resurrection and ascension of the saint. Therefore most remain first Adam creatures, carnal ["sin is in the flesh"] in nature, as to their spiritual life. This is not the life God has directed us too. Then why is it the dominant Christian apprehension of the Gospel?
It really quite simple. We have not reached a place of deep enough sorrow and loneliness, in reliance upon self, to gain the opportunity the Lord has for us in His heavenly life by Grace. If our affections are true to the Lord Jesus they will make this world a barren wilderness in our estimation of all around. This is the place He will speak to our hearts. But we and the institutional church avoid such at all costs in order to maintain the status quo. Jesus Christ was utterly rejected by man and the world systems. We must realize that we have taken up that very same position in spirit. This is our place of true spiritual life according to Paul; God's biblical revealer of heavenly positional and identification gospel truth. "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ " Eph. 1:3. Whose side and life will you abide within, the worlds or the Lord Jesus Christ?
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