It may seem like some sort of new age teaching to many who read my writings. Such is the revolution in the revelation given to Paul the Apostle. The natural man does not receive the things of the spirit for they are spiritually discerned.
When Christ Jesus came to earth He did not come to simply pay for our sins so that we could then try to repay Him by our good works.
At the core of the New Covenant is OUR DEATH and RESURRECTION.
The first stage in knowing is Forgiveness of sin. But as we go on with God, He shows us that we died with Him.
Until we see this vital truth we try to live for God…we try very hard to be loving, to be kind, to be patient. We try very hard to know His word, to study it, to memorise it. We stop doing certain things we see as sinful. We promise God that we will follow Jesus always. We make resolutions to give more, witness more, pray more etc etc.
All of that kind of living is DEAD RELIGION. Yet it is normal and necessary for us to experience it. It is Law based and depends upon us to be able to do it….with Gods help-so we reason. So we ask God daily for His help, to help us to be a good witness for Him. And for a time, God shows us some help. Yet the goal of God is to bring many sons like Jesus to Himself.
So the help gradually stops coming to us in our efforts to please God. He is wanting us to come to the next stage is seeing where we see Christ in us is our strength and life. He wants us to see that all the help we need is in us by the Spirit we received.
Yet even then we still think He is separate from us even though He is in us. So we ask Him to strengthen us inwardly so that we may please Him in what we do. We pray more to strengthen the spirit man, we fast, we read scripture to strengthen our spirit. Again, this is all works and unbelief….well, not unbelief, but ignorance. Yet it is all normal for us to experience this until we are brought to see the next level of faith.
All this is the work of the Holy Spirit in us….and nothing of our selves. And it is all a work of faith on our part until we receive the redemption of our body.
While we still see ourselves as two separate people – me serving Jesus with His help- we are still clinging to self righteousness. It is all vanity and filthy rags.
The death of Christ, was also our death. When we got born again it was our passover. Forgiven. When we went through baptism into Christ, like Israel through the Red Sea, we died in that water and came up on the other side resurrected in Christ. But just as Israel wandered around for years in the desert as God removed Egypt from them so it takes us varied amounts of time for God to renew our minds to what He has done.
We are actually only one person.
Read the revelation of Paul and take it by faith as true of you–FOR IT IS!!
Gal 2:19 For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God.
Gal 2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
Gal 2:21 I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.
Take it by faith means first of all to speak it about yourself.We believe therefore we speak. A lot of doing can sometimes be a mask for our unbelief.
You were crucified with Christ. You died!
Nevertheless you live…BUT not that old you, but CHRIST liveth in me. In other words Christ is the new you, resurrected as you by faith in Jesus.
The life which you (this new you/Christ as you) now live in the flesh…
You live by His faith…. His faith is now the only faith that you live by.
It is not up to you as if you had any ability in and of yourself to please God…you don’t!
The Son of God is your new heart and new life. He rests in the Father–you rest in the Father. He can do nothing of Himself-You can do nothing of yourself.
So what does this look like?
Just be yourself! Be who you are right now and speak those things that are true of you. You are righteous, holy, blameless, perfect, forgiven, alive, pleasing, acceptable to the Father. It is only out of that place of rest and acceptance of your death and resurrection in Jesus that any thing of value comes forth. Anything else is dead wood. Yet God loves us and is working to bring us to see the tree of righteousness that we already are in Jesus.
Never mind about the rapture and if you qualify. Never mind about the Mark of the Beast and the Anti-Christ and whether you can stand. You died on the cross already, and now live by the life of the Son of God. Not only His life, but also His faith, so that whatever you are today–a mum, a dad, a son , a slave, a daughter, a truckie, an office worker, whatever you do, you and He do it together.
Just rest in Him and glorify Him by agreeing with what He has done in you.
