2Corinthians 5:16-17 (Amplified) says, "Consequently, from now on we estimate and regard no one from a (purely) human point of view (in terms of natural standards of value). (No), even though we once did estimate Christ from a human viewpoint and as a man, yet now (we have such knowledge of Him that) we know Him no longer (in terms of the flesh). 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."
Many Christians struggle today in their walk with the Father, because we have been taught more about who we were before being saved rather than on who Jesus has made us to be. We've been preached to more about the outward weakness of our old man than on the holiness and power of our "new creation." We're more conscience of the things we can see, instead of on the things "not seen" by faith in what God has done.
Paul wrote, under the Holy Spirit's influence, in the above Verse, but we've somehow failed to place much faith in his words. We continue viewing ourselves and others through the eyes of the flesh, instead of after the Spirit. It's easier to see the outward man and our weaknesses, than seeing the new creation and our new strength and holiness in Christ.
We try obtain righteousness by works, rather than receiving righteousness by faith. Every time we fail to obtain what we believe is righteousness, we fail to understand what God has done in His Righteousness. We've been taught to judge our own righteousness by works. We must remember that is it His Righteousness and not our own. We think once we're "saved by grace," we obtain our own righteousness by works.
Paul spoke to the Church in Galatia about this very subject. In Galatians 1:6 (Amplified) he says, "I am surprised and astonished that you are so quickly turning renegade and deserting Him Who invited and called you by the grace (unmerited favor) of Christ (the Messiah) (and that you are transferring you allegiance) to a different (even an opposition gospel)." Paul went on in Verses 11-12, "For I want you to know, brethren, that the Gospel which was proclaimed and made known to me is not man's gospel (a human invention, according to or patterned after any human standards). For indeed I did not receive it from man, nor was I taught, but (it came to me) through a (direct) revelation (given) by Christ Jesus (the Messiah)."
Paul continued to admonish the Galatians in Galatians 3:1-3 (Amplified), "Oh you poor and silly and thoughtless and unreflecting and senseless Galatians! Who has fascinated or bewitched or cast a spell over you, unto whom right before you very eyes Jesus Christ (the Messiah) was openly and graphically set forth and portrayed as crucified?" Verse 2 says, "Let me ask you this one question; Did you receive the (Holy) Spirit as the result of obeying the Law and doing its works, or was it by hearing (the message of the Gospel) and believing (it)? (Was i from observing a Law of rituals or from a message of faith)?" Verse 3 goes on, "Are you so foolish and so senseless and so silly? Having begun (your new life spiritually) with the (Holy) Spirit, are you now reaching perfection (by dependence) on the flesh?"
These are eye opening statements for the entire Church and should be read much in these last days. We've been behaving like we placed our life into God's hand, were saved by grace and then God placed everything into our hands again. Not so! God has never set man as his own righteousness or as his own savior.
It's unbelievable how we've allowed the devil to bring us back under the bondage of religion and Law. I'm not sure how that happened, but it has. We've taken what God gave by grace and have determined what we "think that means." We get people born again "by grace and faith," like Ephesians 2:8 says, and then teach them that the works of man's laws will hold them in grace. We've created a giant nurser of Baby Christians and have fed them entirely on skim milk, so that they do not grow up in Christ.
We rarely hear teachings on righteousness, unless it's taught from the point of our sin. We haven't overcome the flesh nature that was in the old man who is already dead and we judge God's righteousness from a purely human viewpoint. We find ourselves doing what Paul cautioned us not to do in 2Corinthians 5:16 and see ourselves more from who we were, rather than who we are now. A new creation doesn't mean we fix the old man, but it's making something new.
We fail to teach about the new creation to the Church, while constantly reminding them who they used to be. The term "just an old sinner, saved by grace" gives us insight into how we seem ourselves and others in the Church. You were an old sinner. By grace, you were saved and are now a new creation brought about by faith in Christ Jesus. We've had split personalities in our walk with the Father, never knowing who we really are. We've struggled with and Identity Crisis in our own lives and have been kept in bondage to condemnation and the world.
It's difficult to see what God has done in us, when we know more about our past, rather than we do in our present. This hinders our prayer life, our witness and our own acceptance in the Father's House. We continue feeling unworthy in our own eyes and fail to see our worth in His eyes. It required the greatest price ever paid for our ransom from death and satan. The only way to judge something's worth, is by judging what it cost. We cost God's Own Son and God's Own Blood, to ransom us back into His House. Don't judge yourself based on what you think or what someone else thinks of you. Judge your worth by what God paid to get you back.
As I begin this new lesson on "Who we are to God in Christ Jesus," I will undoubtedly say something that religion will wish to argue about. I'm not dealing with religion and man's doctrine, but with the message Jesus Himself taught Paul. Since it was Jesus Who gave Paul this revelations of the new creation, surely He must know what it is about. We're not going to deal with what man thinks about it, but only what the Father has done in Christ.
This doesn't mean that we can "just live any way we want," but don't allow "Baby" mistakes disqualifying you and prevent you from being show God made you to be. When you read God's Word, read it through the Holy Spirit and read it not as "a sinner," but as one who is a new creation. Being born again is for the world, while being led by the Spirit, is for the born again. Demonstrating that we were sinners is for the sake of the lost and showing them that Jesus has removed our sin. Declaring that we are righteous through Jesus, is for those new creatures to grow in to maturity in Him. We don't read the Word to reveal our old sin nature that is dead, but the new righteousness nature that is alive. We're learning how to live in this new creation with Jesus.
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