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."
This scripture doesn't say, "Behold, it will come," but that it has come. We've put off the reality of who we are now in Christ Jesus, until somewhere in the future or when we get to heaven. We've overlooked the promise of the new creation, by continuing to view ourselves and others after the natural man of the flesh. The new creation cannot be seen with the natural eye, only with the eyes of the spirit in the Word of God. We're continually being brought back to the same realm with the unsaved, because we're only seeing with the eyes of the world.
Paul said in 2Corinthians 10:3-5 (Amplified), "For though we walk (live) in the flesh, we do not carry out our warfare according to the flesh, and using mere human weapons." We are still living in this flesh body (or house), but the real you is the one living inside the house. When driving down the street and pass a friend or family member's house, you say, "That's where so-and-so lives." You don't say that the house is them, but say that's where they live. When you received Jesus as our Lord and Savior, the real you was created at that exact moment. Your body became the house that the new creation resides in.
That's why Paul said in 2Corinthians 5:16 that we now "Know longer know man after the flesh, but after the spirit." We've been conditioned by the world's way of thinking to see only with our eyes and not our spirit. Some Christians seem ashamed of being called sons of God. I'm honored to be called God's Son and I believe it honors Him to proclaim it. I wouldn't like my sons or daughters to speak about me, the way some speak about our Heavenly Father.
God has declared that He made us to be in right standing with Him, by our union with Jesus, but some people still don't believe it as true. We are so trained to see ourselves the way the world sees us, that we actually allow their way of seeing us to affect how we see ourselves.
We are born again by a super-natural Seed, which is the Word of God, the very same Word that was made flesh and walked among us. We were born again of the same Seed that brought forth a new creation into the family of God. We've been so intimidated by the flesh, that we have denied the new creation nearly altogether. You are now the righteousness or in right standing with God. It's not our flesh (or house), but our new creature (the spirit), that has been made once again in the Image and Likeness of God.
When I look at a Christian, I can't see his salvation with my eyes. You might say, "I don't drink or cuss of dress inappropriately any longer, so you know I'm saved. I know unsaved people who are moral in their conduct and dress, but still aren't new creations because of these things. We've been trying to show the world the glory and holiness of God, by our conduct and not our spirit. It's God's presence in our spirit, that reveals Him to the world.
It is right that we "buffet the flesh," like Paul says, and keep it under control. But, that isn't what reveals Jesus to the world. People of other gods abstain from certain food and beverages, in order to reveal their gods, but it doesn't change who they are. Healing, life and discipline all come from the inside out and not from the outside in. Should Christians lead moral and clean lives? Of course, we should, but we should do so by our spirit and not from the behavior modification of the flesh. Galatians 5:16 (Amplified) says, "But I say, walk and live (habitually) in the Holy Spirit (responsive to and controlled and guided by the Spirit) then you will certainly not gratify the cravings and desires of the flesh (of human nature without God)."
The above scripture doesn't mean that we don't have God, but that we don't recognize Him enough to allow our new creation to live and control the flesh through Him. We become born again and then conduct the same warfare with the flesh, just like the world does. Paul wrote to the Church in Rome about this very thing happening in his own life. We erroneously dwel on his struggle, rather than his words of victory. We determined that there was no way out for Paul, but that's not what he said. Listen, to what he said about his struggling with his flesh.
Paul was wpaking about his weakness to "Go back under law and rituals." He was raised under the Law and taught by the Law that living under the Law was the way to stay in right standing with God. The pull of rituals was stronger on Paul, at that point, than his new creation man and faith in righteousness through Christ Jesus.
Paul had depended upon the Law and it's rituals all of his life, in order to maintain a right relationship with God. Now, Paul was "fighting the good fight of faith" to walk in the Spirit of the Word, more than the desires of "fleshly" religion. Like Paul, we are born into a new creature of the covenant of promise, but are drawn back into the "fleshly" way of worship and religion. We've always heard that's the way it should be and have been taught by our culture for our entire lives to do so.
The struggle Paul was having was in this area of his life and not with hidden sins or dirty thing, like some have determined. Paul speaks about his fight to abstain from the Law and walk by the Spirit in Romans 7:15-25 (Amplified) saying in Verse 22, "For I endorse and delight in the Law of God in my inner self (with my new nature)." In his spirit, Paul wished to walk in the Laws of the new birth. Verse 23 goes on, "But I discern in my bodily members (in the sensitive appetites and wills of the flesh) a different law (rule of action) at war against the law of my mind (my reason) and making me a prisoner to the law of sin that dwells within my bodily organs (in the sensitive appetites and wills of the flesh)."
The warfare plaguing Paul was the desire of his fleshly, human way of serving God by the Law of the flesh (rituals, sacrifice, feast days, washing of hands, and works of the flesh) and using these things to subjugate the flesh to the spirit. Paul struggled with not relying on these things to be in right standing with God, instead of walking in what the Lord showed him about the new covenant and Jesus being the Final Sacrifice. Once Paul finished his discourse about this struggle and how he was delivered from his dilemna, he declared in Verse 25, "Who will deliver me from this man that I am? O, thank God! (He will) through Jesus Christ (the Anointed One) our Lord! So then indeed I, of myself with the mind and heart, serve the Law of God, but with my flesh the Law of sin."
Paul also spoke about how other believers endured the same warfare. He spoke of food, drink, ceremonies and religious training and summed everything in Romans 14:23 (Amplified) saying, "But the man who has doubts (misgivings, and uneasy conscience) about eating, and then eats, (perhaps because of you) stands condemned (before God) because he is not true to his convictions and he does not act from faith. For whatever does not originate and proceed from faith is sin (whatever is done without a conviction of its approval by God is sinful)."
Paul did not say that a covenant man (old covenant convert) should eat things that are unclean under the Law. But, if the man eats of it now, without knowledge of what Paul had been preaching, it would convict and make him feel unrighteous, because he didn't have faith in the new revelation of the Spirit realm in which he was born again.
In religious circles, we've been taught things that matter not in our new creation with God. But, when we violate one of these religious laws, without the knowledge of our liberty in Christ, we are still brought under condemnation and believe we've sinned. There are things from the new covenant that have been called "sin," in today's Christian venues. Many are afraid to accept or step out into these things, because they believe it's not pleasing and acceptable to God.
We wish to please God and be acceptable to Him, but our flesh still holds to religious traditions, because our faith in the new covennat hasn't grown yet into the new creation God has made us to be. Paul said in Romans 7:25 (Amplified), "Who can set him free from this condemnation of the flesh and release him into the liberty of the Spirit?" Only Jesus, and faith in who He has made us to be rather than faith in who we once were, can liberate us. For years, we've allowed the world to determine who or what we are as Christians. We've been afraid to "go too far," lest they would fail to recognize us. For this reason, we've been held in bondage by religious tradition and haven't been free to express the super-natural being God has made us to be.
Many consider it sacriligious to say we're righteous. The flesh refused to accept this truth and has kept us under guilt's burden. Our prayers have been tainted with our unbelief and it's become difficult to put faith in our prayers. The flesh, which was ruled by sin and death, still holds supremacy over our new spirit and will not allow us to rise above our past. This is now a fight between the desire of our spirit (which is to serve God completely) and our lower life (our natural man) which desires to maintain control over the new creation (spirit).
It requires a renewed mind, the mind of the Spirit which promotes faith in the Word, to walk with god in Spirit and Truth and maintain dominance over the flesh. Remember, "Greater is He Who is in youm, than he who is in the world!"
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