2Corinthians 5:17-18 (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. Behold! the fresh and new has come. But all things are from God, Who through Jesus Christ has reconciled us to Himself (received us into favor, brought us into favor 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)."
In the previous blog, we learned how the new creation being has been created new in righteousness and without sin. It's impossible for the religious, carnal mind to understand this. We weren't just forgiven, but we actually died with Jesus and were raised as new creations, with Jesus in His resurrection. The wages of sin is death, so when we died with Jesus, the debt was paid (through Him). All who died with Him, are also free from the Law of Sin and of Death.
We're still living and functioning in our bodies, so we're never truly seen ourselves as having died with Christ (or as being raised with Him either). God sees us that way, though, if we've received Jesus as our Lord and Savior. We were created without sin and God declares us, "Just, holy, righteous, pure and without iniquity." This might be the hardest stretch of our faith in Him, to actually see ourselves as "without sin." We've all sinned in our bodies, after being born-again, but we now have a place of being purified and remaining in righteousness, through our union with Jesus, according to 1John 1:9 (Amplified) which says, "If we freely admit we have sinned and confess our sins, He is Faithful and Just, True to His Own nature and promises, and will forgive our sins, dismiss our lawlessness and continuously cleanse us from all unrighteousness, everything not in conformity to His will in purpose and thought and action."
We've sinned after being born-again, because our flesh and blood bodies have been trained in unrighteousness, by our union with the world. Even in the growing process, we allow the flesh (carnal minds) to to against the spirit. Most of us have walked in the world, longer than in the Word. Having not been renewed, our minds continue thinking like they did, before we were saved. Our flesh is led by our unrenewed mind and only does what it is either told to do or is allowed to do.
Like a young child, your flesh and carnal mind are learning to become obedient to the will of the new creation. If we only walk in the religious aspects of our new creature, then we will always be in conflict with the unrenewed mind. Your new creation spirit wants to walk upright with the Father, but the unrenewed mind (the flesh) wants to continue in the things it did before being saved. It's like a spoiled child, not wanting discipline or change.
Many of the teachings we've received as Christians, only make it easier for the flesh to continue in it's old ways. We make excuses for our failures saying, "It's God's way of teaching us" or "It must be God's will." The Holy Spirit reveals this in 1John 5:18 (Amplified), "We know absolutely that anyone born of God does not deliberately and knowingly practice committing sin, but the One Who was begotten of God carefully watches over and protects him. Christ's Divine Presence within him preserves him against the evil, and the wicked one does not lay hold or get a grip on him or touch him."
The above scripture is inline with 1John 2:27 (Amplified) which says, "But as for you, the anointing, the sacred appointment, the unction which you received from Him, abides permanently in you, so then you have need that anyone should instruct you. But just as His anointing teaches you concerning everything and is True and is no falsehood, so you must abide and live in, never depart from Him, being rooted in Him, knit to Him, just as His anointing has taught you to do."
Through the Presence of the Holy Spirit within us, we have His anointing to know the difference between the Truth of God's Word and the lies of the wicked one. As we mature in Jesus and in the Word, the old things of the world will pass away from us. The fight of the flesh will subside with the renewing of our minds, by God's Word. So long as we live in this house of flesh, we will constantly need to train it by the Word and not allow it to do like it did before being born-again. This is the job we have to do on our own, in obedience to the Spirit.
2Timothy 2:20-21 (Amplified) says, "But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also utensils of wood and earthenware, and some for honorable and noble use, and some for menial and ignoble use. So whoever cleanses himself from what is ignoble and unclean, who separates himself from contact with contaminating and corrupt influences, will then to himself be a vessel set apart fro honorable and noble purposes, consecrated and profitable to the Master, fit and ready for any good work."
We're to take God's Word and His Spirit as instructions in growing up, into mature sons and daughters of God. It's not the pastor's job, nor is is Jesus' job, but it's your responsibility to do what the Word teaches and reveals to you. It's the indiivdual's job to appropriate the Truth of God's Word and hear the Holy Spirit's Voice, in order to be used by the Master.
We make excuses why certain people are walking in a different place with the Father. We also make excuses why certain things happen to some and not to others. We've drifted away from the Truth in His Word and have followed differing opinions about why things "don't work for us today." The Word says, "Not all of God's children are walking in the same Light of revelation knowledge." Some choose not to enter in, because of what we've learned from carnal minded teachers. Some choose not to enter in, because they don't believe they "need to know these things, in order to go to Heaven." The Truth is still the same. We either choose to advance in knowledge, in order to be a vessel fit for the Master's use. Or, we choose to be a menial vessel. Timothy teaches us, "Whoever cleanses himself, will then be a vessel set aside for honorable and noble use."
It depends on the diligence of the one who hears, to cleanse himself "by the washing of water by the Word." Some are simply content to just "Live right and go to be with the Lord someday." There's not really anything wrong with this. Some people strive to become better husbands, wives, friends, and children, attending to their affairs while here on earth. Others though, like myself, wish to continue in our knowledge and revelation of God's Fullness. In Philippians 3:10 (Amplified) Paul tells us, "For my determined purpose is that I may know Him, that I may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him; perceiving and recognizing and understanding the wonders of His Person more strongly and more clearly, and that I may in some way come to know the power out flowing from His resurrection which it exerts over believers, and that I may so share His sufferings as to be continually transformed in spirit into His Likeness, even to His death, in hope. That if possible I may attain to the spiritual and moral resurrection that lifts me out from among the dead even while I'm in the body."
Paul goes on the encourage and draw us more into the depths of Jesus, in Philippians 3:15 (Amplified), So let those of us who are spiritually mature and full grown have this mind and hold these convictions, and if in any respect you have a different attitude of mind, God will make that clear to you also."
There have always been those who carry the stretchers, and those who need to be carried. This is a part of life, that will always be with us. I might need to be carried in the future, but for now, I choose to carry, and teach others how to carry people who need to be carried. I will continue to raise up those who will trust God and will "Take the Land," like Joshua and Caleb.
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