Our souls are only secure from the efforts of the enemy and the rudiments of the worlds influence when they are in intelligent apprehension of the fullness of our Lord's divine grace. We must come to know how His Grace affects us by coming to know Him as the object of Grace. Which is in Him, as He Himself is Grace. A Grace taken up and wholly contained in Him in glory. A grace we may truly and fully enjoy and participate in only as we come to understand our position and identification in Christ as faiths object. Him seen in our mind in knowledge, as He occupies our life in Spirit; which is His Grace given to us from His position in heaven by the mind of God as He considers His Son just as He considers us in our new creation being made by Him. As His Son is before Him in a Body in representation of us. He is there in Glory and we in divine Grace in the Fathers sight. We are now conformed to His Son by Spirit. And it is our faith that finds Him Himself as the object for Grace living His life here by faith, in our mortal bodies, as He makes our path by Spirit in heaven and we listen to His voice which defines us anew via His Word. "For we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus" Eph. 2:10.
Knowing the Word and counting it as true will take us intellectually first to that place of true redemption of our new creation being held in Christ Jesus by His Grace. Then by spirit to His Grace and a eternal life to be lived out here in a conscious awareness. The place He has made for us in Glory before the Father is His Grace, which is also ours now by His actions and His presence before God: He there in Bodily representation of all Christians providing the grace we must have for a internal consciousness of His life becoming our life. A new creation life given to us by God while we are here in the flesh. But how do we access and experience His life which is in heaven while we are here?
The world and the current religious cultural interpretation of the Christian life [works, programs, emotional stimulation] will seek by its very nature to destroy the individuality necessary to know Him in personal/private life experience as our grace in glory before God. A Grace made in Him by God to take us up to Glory into our provided position in spirit. We lose that Grace effect or experance by conforming to the cultures patterns expectations and traditions, or counting on the created rather than the creator. But the grace bestowed upon us as seen in Him in heaven is a life found by knowing His Word in heart felt contemplation of a specific truth as individuals. And is really our true destiny in conforming us to Him. Really to His image in thought. Not at the loss of our individuality but by the gain of His nature and character as our conscious identification in that individuality. In other words we are separated [sanctified] unto and within His Son by Spirit or thought as we in our flesh cannot qualify for holiness no matter our actions on earth. "Having died to that wherein we were held; so that we serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter; Rom. 7:6.
It is as the Lord is in the vision of his soul that His word fully affects the child of God! The traditionalist is thinking how he should act in the group. The contemplator, by the individual realization of the Word, is looking for the life of the Lord within himself. A wholly immaterial existence of thought based upon the Words defining truth. "Not after the law of carnal commandants, but after the power of a endless life" Heb. 716.
Personal salvation is the primary object of the churches efforts as it should be. But it has also become its aim and end with the majority of Christians. Who are caught up in todays programed institutional church environment which stifles growth with its lack of challenge. We have been encouraged by our self centeredness to be attracted to that which seems essential to our own needs and todays church often provides as its plays to the world. We have left aside that which is essential to bring glory to the Lord Jesus Christ individually however; as we are caught up in the experiential group dynamic atmosphere so prevalent today. These are not bad things, and yes His Grace does prevail, they just bring no glory to whom we have been made into in Christ Himself as individuals.
Most are unaware that anything that they can do or experience, with themselves as originator, will never satisfy God. No all that we are, can be, or ever will be, is found in the simple faith of the activity of another, Christ Himself. This is the identity seen by the Father. We are not placed here as workers for Christ improving the world or ourselves, but to contain Christ in our thoughts both morally and as to His character as we view Him as our object of life itself, which ultimately will effect our actions and service. Few are ever taught that simple truth as the institution [community] has become the collective experience of all things Christian, and above all, as with all institutions, the status quo must be preserved.
If the believer proves himself false to the Lord Jesus to the same degree that he has fellowship with the world then todays churches perhaps have some culpability in that. We are to be dead to the world by the declaration of the Word. "As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord so walk in Him" Col 2:6. But we are often trapped in a church atmosphere seemly dedicated to the presentation of a emotional and entertaining experience adopting worldly trappings for the saints satisfaction and comfort. As the presentation of a feeling of community is seemingly the paramount goal and not individual intelligent spiritual growth.
The system that God ordained during the law dispensation lasted for fifteen hundred years "carnal ordinances" which could be seen with the eyes and please the natural senses for the godly encouragement of the natural man. But in the new dispensation ushered in upon the death and Resurrection of Christ Jesus we are presented a entirely new way, "one of Spirit" under Grace and the priesthood of every believer, with Jesus being our high Priest in heaven. It is no longer sights and sounds but the eternal, the unseen things discerned only by the eye of faith, based upon a intelligent understanding of the Word of God. Eventually the Temple itself was pulled down and now we live in the age of the individual as the true temple; the Spirit of God in our mortal body by apprehensive objective thought of a truth. We are to not only provide welcoming sanctuary for others in love but also as priority develop a like mind in fellowship of identity in Christ. Mans needs must be set aside to glorify God in what He has made us to be wholly in His Son. "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God" Rom. 8:14.
The Lord did not come here to affiliate Himself with fallen humanity by the gain of a mutual objective. He did not place Himself in a position to work with mankind to a common end. While here He did not engage in any affiliation, by nature, with either the Adam man or the world, no never! He came to separate man from his old nature, to Cross it out. Then by His Resurrection to regenerate man by a common thought: Himself the object of life and us within that life by a faith that says in sincere objectification and inclusion, that His life is also ours. "Rooted and built up in Him, and established in faith as you have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. Col. 2:7.
