If we try establishing our own righteousness by works, instead of receiving it by faith, then we cannot please God. When we believe we are truly what God says we are, simply because that's what God said, then it is by faith. When we believe we are what God says we are, after we work hard to be that, then it is by the flesh. The "proof of our righteousness" is what Paul speaks about in 2Corinthians 5:19 (Amplified) saying, "It was God (personally present) in Christ, reconciling and restoring the world to favor with Himself, not counting up and holding against (men) their trespasses (but cancelling them) and committing to us the message of reconciliation (of the restoration to favor)."
Much of the Church and the unsaved world, have never heard this message. Mostly, we've pointed out the faults of men, instead of the goodness of God. Many Christians seem to be miserable in the way they walk with God. We're always more aware of our own shortcomings and failures, than of His great Mercy and Grace. We've lost sight of Him and seemingly have a difficult time knowing if God is our problem or if He is our answer. It would seem that no matter what happens, we simply determine that, "It must be God's will."
The misinterpreting of Who our Father is, arrives from not knowing the "correct and precise knowledge of Who He is." Peter said in 2Peter 1:2 (Amplified) that, "All these things will be multiplied to us by the (full, personal, precise, and correct) knowledge of God and Jesus our Lord." When I was unsaved and living in the world, I didn't rely on someone's word about who my earthly Father was. I knew him from "correct and precise knowledge" of him personally. By knowing him in that manner, I didn't have to believe what someone else thought about him. I knew who he was.
When we seek out a relationship with God on our own and approach Him on His terms, not our terms or the terms of others, we can come to know the "correct and precise knowledge" of Him for ourselves. When we come to know that we are already a new creation people and are already in right standing with Him, then we are already "one with Him as He was with Jesus," according to John 17:21. Then we can know that we don't have to "beat ourselves up" all the time, in order to please Him and we can follow Hebrews 4:16 (Amplified) which says, "Let us then fearlessly and confidently and boldly draw near to the throne of grace (the throne of God's unmerited favor to us sinners), that we may receive mercy (for our failures) and find grace to help in good time for every need (appropriate help and well timed help, coming just when we need it)."
The confidence to "come boldly to God's throne of grace" and the faith to receive from God when we need it, comes from "knowing Him precisely and correctly." If we cannot believe we have right standing or righteousness, then how can we believe God will even grant our prayers or petitions? If we try approaching Him in our own way, then it is not faith, but works and that doesn't grant entry into God's presence.
You are already a new creation, you are already a child of God and you are already His beloved. This isn't a "someday" message, but a "now" message to God's family. 1John 3:2 (Amplified) says, "Beloved, we are (even here and) now God's children; it is not yet disclosed (made clear) what we shall be (hereafter), but we know that when He comes and is manifested, we shall (as God's children) resemble and be like Him, for we shall see Him just as He (really) is."
I don't know what Jesus really looks like or what our Father God really looks like, but I do know what Paul said in 2Corinthians 5:16 (Amplified), "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)."
When we think of Jesus, we mostly still see Him as the Man Who walked on water and healed the sick and raised the dead. This was the "Earthly Tabernacle" Jesus lived in, while He was here on earth. We also have an earthly body, that we live in while on earth. We too, are like He is-a Spirit being who is eternal, outside of this body. We got a small glimpse of what He might truly look like on the Mount of Transfiguration, as the glory began to shine out even through His flesh. We will resemble Him in His heavenly body as well.
I don't have a pattern to refer to, when seeing what we were created to be as new creatures or the new creation, because we are a brand new creation. I do know, however, that in this tabernacle of flesh or this earthly, natural body that my new self lives in, I look like Him. We only need this body of flesh, in order to inhabit this temporal earth or world. Once this flesh is no longer needed to house our new creation spirit, then we will be "changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye," according to 1Corinthians 15:51-52 (Amplified) which says, "Take notice! I tell you a mystery ( a secret truth, an even decreed by the hidden purpose or counsel of God) we shall not all fall asleep (in death) but we shall all be changed (transformed) In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the (sound of the) last trumpet call, For a trumpet will sound, and the dead (in Christ) will be raised imperishable (free and immune from decay) and we shall be changed (transformed)."
What we will be transformed into, remains a mystery, as far as "knowing what we might look like," but knowing who we are is no longer a mystery to the believer. We already know that we've been born again into a new creation. When this house of flesh that we are now living in is removed, we can then see what we only know by faith now. 2Corinthians 5:1,3 (Amplified) says, "For we know that if this tent which is our earthly home is destroyed (dissolved), we have from God a building, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." Verse 3 says, "So that by putting it on we may not be found naked (without a body)."
We will still be the new creation that God has made us to be, but we will not put off this house or body until we leave this earth and then we will look like He is now. 2Corinthians 5:7 (Amplified) says, "For we walk by faith (we regulate our lives and conduct ourselves by our conviction or belief respecting man's relationship to God and divine things, with trust and holy fervor, thus we walk) not by sight or appearance."
For now, we don't see this new creation, but only see the house we live in. But, now through faith, I no longer only see this house of flesh, but the new creation that lives in this house. This new creation is the one that is made in God's Image and Likeness. And, God is a Spirit, according to John 4:24 (Amplified) where Jesus says, "God is a Spirit (a Spiritual Being) and those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth (reality)." Did you notice that Jesus said, "Spirit and Truth are reality?" The "real" things of God and the Spirit are not so much "what we see," but what is real when you cannot see it.
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