2Corinthians 5:17 (Amplified) says, "Therefore, if any person is (ingrafted) in Christ Jesus (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."
Our natural body still mostly controls our new creation body. We continue living by Law, rather than by grace. We listen more to the unrenewed mind, rather than the mind of Christ. "Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God," but we've primarily been taught only a small portion of the Truth of the Gospel. Our faith cannot rise above our hearing.
We all acknowledge the sins of the flesh are wrong, even under grace. But, we haven't allowed the Holy Spirit to guide us into the place where our spiritual actually dominates our natural body. In Numbers 13, we see people respond by faith in what they've heard and it kept them in the Promised Land for more than forty years. Only ten of the preachers telling the Israelites that, "We cannot take the Land" had ever even seen it. The others placed faith in what they heard from those saying, "We cannot take the Land." Joshua and Caleb agreed with what the Lord had told them, while the majority placed their faith in, "We cannot take the Land."
Because we've only preached certain things from the Word about the new creation, the faith of the people has never risen above what they've heard. Most of our preaching has been more about what God has done in the past and what He will do in the future. We've failed to preach much about what God can and will do in the here and now. When we hear the "Now Word of faith," then our faith in the true and Living God can do what He is ready to do now.
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."
Our faith is a living thing through the Word of God, that should grow from day to day,as we come to understand who we are now in the Gospel. Paul said that, "In the Gospel a righteousness which God ascribes is revealed by faith." When faith understands righteousness, faith will grow into the life of faith, that reaches into the realm of understanding. Until we begin to understand (by hearings and studying) what God has done for us in the Gospel, we can't actually walk in it by faith.
Even after reading from 2Corinthians 5:21 (Amplified) that, "Christ was made to be sin with our sin, so that we, in and through Him, might become (endued with, viewed as being in, and examples of) the righteousness of God," we still just quote from Romans 3:10 (Amplified) which says, "As it is written. None is righteous, just and truthful and upright and conscientious, no not one." We didn't have the understanding that now, through Jesus, God has made us to be righteous with His righteousness. And, because not much has been preached on it, we operated more in Romans 10:3 (Amplified), "For being ignorant of the righteousness that God ascribes (which makes one acceptable to Him in word, thought, and deed) and seeking to establish a righteousness (a means of salvation) of our own, they did not obey or submit themselves to God's righteousness."
This might be the greatest starting point of what Paul was saying in Romans 1:17 (Amplified), "Until we, by faith, can understand righteousness by grace, our faith cannot rise into the place of understanding living by faith." Those of us who have been saved and born-again, are already living by faith, according to Galatians 2:20 (Amplified) which says, "I have been crucified with Christ (in Him I have shared His crucifixion) it is no longer I who live, but Christ (the Messiah) lives in me; and the life I now live in the body I live by faith in (by adherence to and reliance on, and complete trust in) the Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself up for me."
So, whether or not we understand it, we (the new creation people) are already living by faith. We sometimes have a difficult time putting our faith in this, because it hasn't been preached much. e continue trying to establish our own righteousness, instead of going "from faith to faith." We find our faith "stuck" in one place, as we try to grow into Him.
Many of us were taught that we will be new creations, after we arrive in Heaven to spend eternity with Him. And, this prevents our taking our rightful place here on earth. Growing up into faith with our Father, is simply believing what He says, more than what our senses and others say about us. Hebrews 5:14 (Amplified) tells us, "But solid food is for full grown men, For those whose senses and mental faculties are trained by practice to distinguish evil and contrary either to divine or human law."
We continue being swayed by the world's idea of what "morally good and evil and what is divine or human law." What man thinks about divine law and what God thinks about divine law is spiritually discerned. In the eyes and thoughts of the world, all things are acceptable. Because we haven't "trained by practice" what the Word says, we find ourselves being drawn into the world's way of thinking. This is establishing our own righteousness in the Word of God. We are called to not only do differently, but to think differently.
No comments:
Post a Comment