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! All things are made fresh and new. But all things are from God, Who through Christ Jesus has 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)."
We've read and heard sermons about the new birth, but when revelation of the new birth and the new creation came, we tried walking it out in the flesh, instead of the spirit. When we do this, we place ourselves back into the arena of darkness, which is flesh and blood and can never inherit the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom must came into the spirit, and the spirit will bring the flesh into subjection to Kingdom Law.
The new Law of Liberty in the Holy Spirit is exactly that: The Law of the Spirit of Life and Liberty. Many have said that "Paul's problems came from God, in order to humble Paul." But, Paul wrote, telling us to "humble ourselves under the Mighty hand of God." Did you ever wonder why God would assign Paul the task of preaching the Gospel and then send turmoil into Paul's life, in order to stop him? Why would Jesus give Paul the revelation that only he knew, charge Paul with the mission of teaching that revelation and then try stopping Paul from doing this? That wouldn't be very bright, would it? If God didn't want this revelation published or preached throughout the world, then He only needed to keep the revelation to Himself. Paul says that the Gospel was a "Mystery hidden in God," so we know God could have simply let it remain a mystery. God charged Paul with revealing the mystery to the world, so it wouldn't remain a mystery, but would be a revelation of the new creation through Jesus.
In Romans 6:3-4 (Amplified) Paul 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 the newness of Life."
In the heart and Kingdom of God, the Law of Sin and Death has been fulfilled in the death and resurrection of Jesus. Jesus bore our sin and our death by His Own Sacrifice. When Jesus "became sin with our sin" and died in our place, the Law of Sin and Death was reckoned to be fulfilled, in the lives of all who will receive Him and are in Him. We've been justified in Him, according to Romans 6:10-11 (Amplified) which says, "For by the death He died, He died to sin (ending His relation to it) once for all; and the Life that He lives, He is living to God in unbroken fellowship with Him. Even so consider yourselves also dead to sin and your relationship to it broken, but alive to God, living in unbroken fellowship with Him in Christ Jesus."
Even in our newness in Jesus, we've somehow never grabbed hold of this Truth and and we continue expecting "the other shoe to drop." We're still expecting to be judged for our sin, without realizing God doesn't see or recognize the Law of Sin and Death, in the new creation. This Law has been completely fulfilled in Jesus. Sin brought absence from God and demanded death (God is Life). Man was separated from God by sin, which resulted in death. It was and still is a Law and because "all had sinned, all had died." Romans 5:18-19 (Amplified) says, "Well then, as one man's trespass, one man's false step and falling away led to condemnation for all men, so One Man's act of righteousness leads to acquittal and right standing with God and Life for all men. For just as by one man's disobedience (failing to hear, heedlessness and carelessness) the many were constituted sinners, so by One Man's obedience the many will be constituted righteous (made acceptable to God, brought into right standing with Him)."
The new creation family has lacked this revelation, spending two-thousand years trying to "become" what God through Jesus, already made us to be. We don't need to try and become a new creation, anymore than we have to try and be a human being. We were born human beings. We dib't need to struggle with it or work at it, because that's simply the way we were born. It depends on how we were raised and taught as children, as to what sort of human being we become. We will be human beings, no matter how good or bad we "turn out to be." There are those who have strayed so far from seemingly being human, by their demonic and ungodly impulses and deeds. Without God, man is almost resorting to the animal nature of beasts.
When you received Jesus as your Lord and Savior and received His Sacrifice, you became a new creation. You don't have to try being what God has already made you to be. How you walk your Christian walk, will be determined by how you're raised and taught as a child of God. When we don't have the revelation of the new creation family, we go on a quest, trying to become what we think God made us to be, instead of learning what God's plan for us is and following that plan.
There are numerous and varying opinions about what the new creation child of God should be, but most involve trying to become. When you know who you already are in Christ Jesus, you can rely on God's Word and the Holy Spirit to develop the desired son and daughter God created us to be, in your spirit. Many believe this to be an impossible thing, but the Holy Spirit inspired Paul to write in Ephesians 5:1-2 (Amplified), "Therefore, Be imitators of God (copy Him and follow His Example) as well beloved children imitate their father). And walk in Love (esteeming and delighting in one another) as Christ Loved us and gave Himself up for us, a slain offering and sacrifice to God (for you, so that it became a sweet fragrance)."
Paul didn't say that you would "be God," but that we should learn "as children" from our Father. He said, this new creation should learn, be trained, and grow up into, by imitating our Heavenly Father. Jesus said, "When you see Me, you see the Father." Jesus was imitating the Father, to the point where He could truthfully and boldly say, "It's not Me, but the Father in Me that does the work."
Some would says, "Yes, but that was Jesus." We might never grow into the full and clear Image of the Father, like Jesus in His earthly ministry, but we can (like Him) learn and grow from "glory to glory and faith to faith" from the Holy Spirit's training. We can strive to become as close to our Fathers Image as we can. We've been graced with the Mind of Christ. He has now become our Wisdom, our righteousness, our sanctification and everything we'll ever need to be what the new creation family was born to be. If we allow the Holy Spirit to "train up a child in the way that he should be," then we will fulfill our destiny in Christ Jesus.
We don't need to try and become a new creation, because we are already a new creation through Christ Jesus. Now, what we will grow into, depends on how or by whom we're raised and trained, according to 1Corinthians 4:15-16,17 (Amplified) which says, "After all, although you should have ten thousand teachers (guides direct you) in Christ, yet you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the glad tidings (the Gospel) So I urge and implore you, be imitators of me."
Like God is, Paul was jealous over you like a father is jealous over his children. "Jealous" here, means desiring the very best for you and of you, to your fullest potential and ability. Paul went on in Verse 17, "For this very cause I sent you Timothy, who is my beloved and trustworthy child in the Lord, Who will recall to your minds my methods of proceeding and course of conduct and way of life in Christ, such as I teach everywhere in each of the churches."
Paul imitated Jesus as closely as he could. He taught the Church from his revelation and relationship with Christ, how to walk with the Father. This was what he taught to "each of the churches, everywhere he went."
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