Redemption

     As Christians, we've mostly read the Word of God as a future tense book and not a now tense book.  We read the Word as though we're still sinners who are waiting for all these things to happen in our lives.  We continue walking mostly by our senses and not our spirit.  We still "feel" unworthy and still walk under the condemnation of who we were more than who God has made us to be.  Our five senses are more in charge of our lives than the truth of God's Word.
     This has been where most of us have made our stand for God and our walk in His covenant.  Few have reached into the truth that's revealed by the redemption provided by the Blood of Jesus.  When we read His Word through the eyes of redemption, the whole of His Word takes on a new light.  We read the scriptures, we mentally understand the words, but because His Word is Spirit and truth, our minds don't receive the revelation of the Spirit.
     Paul wrote in Romans 12:2 (Amplified), "Do not be conformed to this world (this age), (fashioned after and adapted to its external, superficial customs) but be transformed (changed) by the (entire0 renewal of your mind (by its new ideals and its new attitude)."  I believe that when we begin seeing ourselves like God sees us, we will begin changing into who we are and cease seeing ourselves as who we were.  In order to do this, we must begin looking into the Word of God as a mirror that reflects the new man who is the redeemed of the Lord.
     Since we are in a new covenant and are a new creation, new things are ours by this covenant.  Everything under this new covenant is received by faith.  Everything in this new covenant is for everyone who will be born again, but to each of us, it must be something that's believed and received by faith.
      Every person who is born again is a new creation according to 2Corinthians 5;17 (Amplified) which says, "Therefore if any person is (ingrafted) in Christ (the Messiah) he is a new creation ( a new creature altogether); the old (previous moral and spiritual condition) has passed away, Behold, the fresh and new has come."
     Every believer is now a new creation.  We've all read this scripture and have believed it, but only to a point.  Because it's the Word of God, some will say, "Yes, it is true," but will not accept it as a "now" things by faith.  Although it's clearly in the "now," we put it off to a future event.  Even though it's theirs now, if they will not mix faith with this scripture, then they do not walk it as a "now" thing.  So, this new creature continues to walk in the same state of mind.  Even though he has been born again, he still sees himself as the "old man of the flesh."
     When we actually believe what the Word says about us in the now sense, then we can begin walking in the manifestation of our new lives.  When Paul wrote to the Church in Rome by the divine guidance of the Holy Spirit, he gave an invitation to use our faith from salvation into the rest of the truth about our sacrifice.  Romans 1:17 (Amplified) says, "For in the gospel a righteousness which God ascribes is revealed, both springing from faith, and leading to faith (disclosed through the way of faith that arouses to more faith) as it is written, the man who through faith is just and upright shall live and shall live by faith."
     We, by faith and grace, are now just (or justified by faith in Christ).  Romans 3:24 (Amplified) says that, "(All) are justified and made upright and in right standing with God, freely and gratuitously by His grace (His unmerited favor and mercy) through the redemption which is (provided) in Christ Jesus."
     According to this scripture, we who believe in Christ Jesus are already justified and righteous before God by His grace through Jesus.  This is not a  future tense scripture, but a now scripture to the believer.  Everyone who has been born again is now already counted as righteous and justified by God.  If we will put faith in this scripture and renew our minds by the Word, then it will change every part of our relationship with our Father.
     When Jesus rose from the dead and was received into the presence of God, "All who are in Christ Jesus (by faith in salvation) were raised and received with Him at the same time."  Because this  is done in the spirit realm, we make the mistake that it's still in the future tense.  If this was true, then our sins would not be forgiven until we die,our prayers wouldn't be effective because we're still dead in trespass and sin and we wouldn't be the sons of God until we die.
     When we see ourselves like God sees us, then we have boldness (by faith) to believe what Jesus did on our behalf and can receive what God has made available for us.  Paul writes in Romans 4:24-25 (Amplified), "But (they were written) for our sakes too (Righteousness, right standing, acceptable to God) will be granted and credited to us also who believe in (trust in, adhere to, and rely on) God, Who raised Jesus from the dead, Who was betrayed and put to death because of our misdeeds and was raised to secure our justification (our acquittal) (making our account balance and absolving us from all guilt before God."
     According to Paul's writings, those of us who believe are now counted by God, as righteous, justified and free from sin and guilt and our account of debt before God is balanced.  If we dare believe (and we say that we are believers), then all that Jesus did for us is a done deal.  By faith in Christ Jesus, we are now already righteous, justified, new creations, son, joint heirs, in His favor, already in His blessing, already redeemed, already raised by His Spirit and now are seated with Him.
     These aren't future events for the believer.  We have put off what Jesus has done as something that isn't attainable until we die.  Because of this, we have walked far below the place where children of the Most High were ever called to be.  We've still allowed the devil to tell us that even though Jesus went to the cross for us, it didn't help us until after we die, thus making everything Jesus did for in the future.
     We still see ourselves as those who have to be redeemed instead of those who are redeemed already.  We've allowed the enemy to blind our eyes to who God has made us to be.  What good would the sacrifice (even under the old covenant) that was offered up be if it was only counted to your credit until you die?  Would it make you any closer to God here?  If all that Jesus did for us is only to be counted to us after we leave here in death, then nothing on this earth was changed by His sacrifice.  We're still unrighteous, condemned and unable to receive until some future time.
     How we ever allowed the Blood of Jesus to be counted lower than the blood of a bull, I will never understand.  Even by the blood of a bull, the old covenant people had faith that God was on their side and they could walk in peace and harmony with Him.  They had confidence that their sacrifice gave them right standing with God (at least on a temporary basis).
     Perhaps, because we've never been taught to see God's Word as a "Now Word," we still walk in darkness.  Even now,  some will read this and declare that it's untrue just like those in Jesus' day did.  They are still unsure of the future events that are to come.  We struggle and fight about what Jesus has done and then say we believe in His finished work.
     Romans 6:11-12 (Amplified) says, "Even so consider yourselves also dead to sin and your relation to it broken, but alive to God (living in unbroken fellowship with Him) in Christ Jesus."  Verse 12 says, "Let not sin therefore rule as King in your mortal (short lived, perishable) bodies, to make you yield to its cravings and be subject to its lusts and evil passions."
     Even though we're still dwelling in this natural body, we are now living in the Spirit and not the flesh.  As far as God's concerned, you have already died.  As a matter of fact, God considered us dead already in trespass and sin.  Ephesians 2:1 (Amplified) says, "And you (He made alive) when you were dead (slain) by (your) trespasses and sins."
     We've always looked at life from our viewpoint and not God's.  And, because we still see life from the flesh and not the spirit, we still see our redemption in the future after we die.  The two kinds of death described in the Bible aren't something we've given much thought to.  Unfortunately, we have never been taught on this subject.
     When Adam transgressed in the Garden, he died or was separated from life (Who is God).  Genesis 2:17(Amplified) tells us, "But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and blessing and calamity you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die."  Genesis 5:5 (Amplified) says, "So altogether Adam lived 930 years, and he died."  930 later, Adam's body succumbed to death too.   The reason we miss the truth of what God has done is we still see things from the natural instead of the spiritual.  We think of this life as being "real" and what we call "the next world" as being a somewhat life after death experience.
     The real you is spirit because you were created in God's Image and likeness and God is Spirit.  You are a spirit, you live in a body and you have a soul.  Your mind, your will and your emotions make up the soul of a being.
     2Corinthians 1-5 (Amplified) says, "For we know that if the tent which is our earthly home is destroyed (dissolved), we have from God a building, a house not made with human hands, external in the heavens."  Verses 2-4 say, "Here indeed, in this (present abode, body) we sigh and groan inwardly, because we yearn to be clothed over (we yearn to put on our celestial body like a garment). So that by putting it on we may not be found naked (without a body) For while we are still in this tent (body) we groan under the burden and sigh deeply (weighed down, depressed, oppressed) not that we want to put off the body (the clothing of the spirit) but rather that we would be further clothed, So that what is mortal (our dying body) may be swallowed up by life (after the resurrection)."
     So, we see that the real you is the spirit which lives in this tent or mortal body.  You're a spirit just like God's a Spirit.  You live in this body (your earth suit) in order to stay here.  When this earth suit decays and passes away, your spirit will be given a glorified body like Jesus has now.  It'll be immune from sickness, death, hell and the grave like Jesus'.  While He was in His fleshly body (His house of flesh), Jesus' body was alive to God because He was sinless.  Jesus became sin with our sin and that's what caused His body to die.  As Jesus walked about in His body, He lived by His Spirit.  He always lived (even in the body) as One led by the Spirit.
     We've been trained throughout the years to look at this life as the real life.  The Word says that the spirit is the real and world and this life is sustained by the Spirit.  Once we were separated from God (from His life), we were considered dead.  When we received Jesus as our Lord, God restored life to us.  And, now that we're alive to Him, we can walk in the Spirit.
     We've looked upon life from a backward point of view, so it's difficult to see our redemption as a "now thing."  We look at the Word as something that's going to happen and God looks at it as something that has already happened.  We look at it as something for after we die and God looks at it as though we've already died.  Romans 6:2-3 (Amplified) says, "Certainly not! How can we who died to sin live in it any longer? Are you entered from the first, before the fall of Adam."
     Jesus was the perfect example of how a Spirit Man lives in a flesh and blood body.  This is how we are now supposed to live in our new birth.  As the redeemed of the Lord, we are to be led by the Spirit.  Romans 8:14 (Amplified) says, "For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God."  Only those who are born again can be led by the Spirit of God.  Those who are unsaved are spiritually dead and separated from God by sin.
     Jesus was always led by the Holy Spirit even when the flesh opposed Him.  He was the Last Adam and would have lived forever in His flesh and blood body like God intended Adam to do.  Jesus was without sin and He would not have died even in His flesh body.  Romans 5:12 (Amplified) tells us, "Therefore, as sin came into the world through one man, and death as a result of sin, so death spread to all men (no one being able to stop it or to escape its power) because all men sinned."
     Since the wages of sin is death, until Jesus yielded Himself to take our sin, He was exempt from death like the first Adam was.  When Jesus yielded Himself to take our sin, death entered in and sin caused Him to die in His flesh and blood body.  He was separated from the Father (with our separation) because of sin.  This separation because of sin, brought about death.  Had Jesus not take our sin, death could not come to Him.