2Corinthians 5:17-18 (Amplified) tells us, "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. Behold, the fresh and new has come. But all things are from God, Who through Christ Jesus reconciled us to Himself (received us into favor, brought us into harmony with Himself) and gave to us the ministry of reconciliation (that by word and deed we might aim to bring others into harmony with Him)."
What is the new creation man supposed to look like and be like? Are we really "new," or are we the same as before being born-again, changing only when we die and go to Heaven? Are we really different than other people or are we simply carnal-minded people who are trying to stop our sinful ways? Have we allowed the world to dictate "who we are," rather than the Very Lord Who created us?
For centuries, the Church has struggled to be different from our old selves, by not drinking, not cussing, and being nice to others. All of these are good things and should be things that we try to adhere to in our Christian walk. I believe that, if we really knew who and what this new creation man is, then these old habits of the flesh wouldn't be such a struggle to abstain from. If we developed the new creature from within, then walking in Love and forgiveness wouldn't be as difficult for us. We're still trying to develop these spiritual forces, by natural means.
Love is the real true nature of the new creation man and is his very Life Blood, given from the Father. The Father's characteristics are already in us, given when we became born-again from the Spirit. It's nearly impossible to walk in this new creation, by natural ability. We try living the way the Father expects us to, but we try doing so by natural means and this leaves us falling short of this and leaves us under condemnation for our failures.
We have nothing to compare or draw from, as to what this new creation man is supposed to be. Most of what we know about the Church, has come from what we've observed from others, throughout the years. Please, allow me to be bold enough to say this, "Jesus is and was, our only True Example of what God says, "And those who belongcreated this new creature to be."
Many will believe it to be "sacrilegious" to compare ourselves to the Son of God, but Jesus Himself told us to "be like He is." Many people will react like the religious people of Jesus' day did. I'm not saying that we're to be the Messiah. I'm not saying that we're the Savior of the world. This isn't what I mean.
We've been talked out of our own birthright, by the religious minds of those around us and we've remained "mere men who are trying to live right." Righteousness is a Gift that the Father bestowed upon us, when we were created by the Holy Spirit and His Word. It's not something we can gain through good works, but is the Very Nature of the Father Who gave us Life. All of the Fathers characteristics, have been born into His new creation family. It's like the Prego commercial says, "It's in there."
Romans 5:5 (Amplified) tells us that, "The Love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit Who has been given to us." This Love is a product or character of our Heavenly Father and is already in our new creation being. We've never developed the new man, but have tried walking in this new kind of Love, by the old way of the flesh. This struggled has caused many believers to quit trying and accept that "it's for when we get to Heaven."
Some people are harder to love than others, in this natural world. We must learn to develop this Love in your spirit and not in your flesh. The only way to Love the unlovely, is by the new nature of the "born from Above child of the Father." Galatians 5:22-25 (Amplified) says, "But the fruit of the Holy Spirit (the work which His Presence within accomplishes) is Love, joy, (gladness) peace, patience (an even temper, forbearance), kindness, goodness (benevolence), faithfulness, Gentleness, (meekness, humility), self-control (self-restraint, continence) against such there is no law (that can bring a charge)." Verses 24-25 go on, "And those who belong to Christ Jesus (the Messiah) have crucified the flesh (the godless human nature) with its passions and appetites and desires. If we live by the Holy Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit, (if by the Holy Spirit we have our life in god; let us go forward, walking in line, our conduct controlled by the Spirit)."
The Fruit of the Spirit is the Life that only abides in the Holy Spirit of God and the new creation spirit that we've now become. These characteristics cannot be found in or operated in the by the flesh, despite our greatest efforts. This is why Verse 24 says, "And those who belong to Christ Jesus (the Messiah) have crucified the flesh (the godless human nature) with its passions and appetites and desires."
The only way we can walk in line with and having our conduct controlled by the Spirit, is by becoming serious about developing the potential of our new creation man. Then, we can move beyond the fleshly struggle to make our body perform by its old desires and do what's right. Everything that's needed to walk in line with the Holy Spirit and God's Word, is already in the new creation man and woman.
Trying to walk in the new creation man by managing the flesh, is foolish. We might be able to modify certain fleshly traits in our lives, but only our new creation man can make our walk with the Father, what it should be. Most of what we know about the new creation, hasn't come from the Holy Spirit, but from men who were carnal in their thinking. We've tried containing and governing the old flesh by rules, regulations, rituals and man-made laws. We came at the new man (the inner-man_ from the outside and not from the inside.
We read how the Father dealt with the old covenant people and believed this is how He deals with us. God had to deal with them from the outside (the flesh nature), because they weren't born-again persons. They were still dead in trespass and sin and their spirit man wasn't alive, by the Life of the Holy Spirit.
We sometimes forget this differentiation, between the old covenant people and the new creation people. We aren't just covenant, we are family. The new creation people are unlike anything or anyone else on this planet. We are new creations. The only Example of what this new man is, is Jesus. Jesus was the Only Man Who was led by, controlled by and directed by the Spirit. Some seem to believe they are "caught between two covenants," but that is not true.
We are not under the Law, but we are in Christ Jesus. Our new man is likened unto God, as having fulfilled the Law, in Jesus. We've not trying to become righteous by sacrifice and self-disciplines, but we've actually been made righteous in this new creation. All that we will ever to become what the Father intends us to be, is already birthed into us by His nature in the new creation family. We might not have developed this new man or woman, but that's because we've failed to seen who the Father created us to be, in His House.
The Law was Spirit, but the people were not. The flesh, carnal man couldn't walk in line with the expectations of the Spirit, because the flesh wasn't strong enough to do so in itself. We though, are a new creation, who are are now Spirit people alive unto God. We're a new species of being who never existed before and never seen before on earth. We're not only "covered by blood," but we've actually died to sin with Jesus, raised up together with Him. We're not only alive to God in our spirit, but we've been infused together with the Holy Spirit in our spirit. We are actually one with Him.
The new creation man that we've become, isn't just exempt from the flesh, according to Romans 6:3-5 (Amplified) which says, "Are you ignorant of the fact that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? We were buried therefore with Him by the baptism into death, so that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the Glorious (power) of the Father, so we too might (habitually) live and behave in newness of Life."
Verse 5 continues describing the new creation being, saying, "For if we have become one with Him by sharing death like His, we shall also be (one with Him in sharing) His resurrection (by a new Life lived for God)."
Jesus makes is plain, that we must be born-again in John 3:3-6 (Amplified) saying, "I assure you, most solemnly I tell you, that unless a person is born-again (anew, from above) he cannot ever see (know, be acquainted with, and experience) the Kingdom of God. Nicodemus said to Him; How can a man be corn when he is old? Can he enter his mother's womb again and be born? Jesus answered, I assure you, most solemnly I tell you, unless a man is born of water and (even) the Spirit, he cannot (ever) enter the Kingdom of God. What is born (from) the flesh is flesh, (of the physical is physical) and what is born of the Spirit is Spirit." We've read this scripture before, without discerning that we've actually been "born of the Spirit" and "we are actually now Spirit." We still see ourselves as flesh, but Jesus said that we "are Spirit living in a fleshly house."
We've tried walking in the Spirit, by controlling the flesh with rules. This is how the old covenant people lives. It didn't work for them either, because the "flesh was weak." Romans 7:14 (Amplified) tells us why they couldn't walk under the Law completely, saying, "We know that the Law is Spiritual, but I am a creature of the flesh (carnal, unspiritual) having been sold into slavery under the control of sin."
As new creation beings, we not only died in our spirit (that death came by Adam's sin), but our old flesh remained alive and disobedient. In this new creation man, our disobedient body has died too in Jesus and has been delivered from the body of sin by its crucifixion with Jesus. It was buried with Jesus in His death and has been resurrected with Jesus in His resurrection, by a new Life lived for God.
This doesn't mean that sin no longer matters and we can do whatever we want. It means that this new creation man has the Holy Spirit living in it and thus, is made stronger than the flesh. The spirit man is now in control of our fleshly body. We haven't developed the potential, that the Father has breathed into our new creation man by His Spirit (which now lives in our new creation man), because we haven't fully understood what the new creation man is. Jesus said, "It's not Me,but the Father in Me, Who does the works." We say, "It's not us, but the Father in us, Who does the works." Jesus is the Only Example and Pattern, we (as new creation people) have. He was the Only Spirit filled Man on this planet, to actually be One with God. He was the Firstborn of many brethren, us.
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