Many believers won't or can't accept the Truth of God's Word about Righteousness, because they've been taught that it's prideful. It's impossible for some to think of themselves as being righteous in God's eyes, because they're under condemnation and still feel guilty about their prior lives. We've been rightly taught that being prideful is against God' Word. Accepting God's Word though isn't pride, but Grace.
Our unrenewed minds continue holding onto the sinful lives we lived before receiving Jesus as our Savior. God Promises in His Word that, "Your sins and iniquities I will remember no more." We can't stand in faith on what God's Word says about us, while clinging to the things our unrenewed minds say. James 1:8 (Amplified) says, "For being as he is, a man of two minds, hesitating, dubious, irresolute, he is unstable and unreliable and uncertain about everything he thinks, feels, decides."
The "man of two minds" is someone who has received Jesus as our Lord, after living in the world. He/she has the mind of Christ, but still has an unrenewed mind of the world and the past. This persons reads God's Word which says "we've been made righteous in God's eyes, through Jesus," but the old sense ruled mind refutes that Truth, by carnal thinking. We know that we're not righteous in ourselves. Satan tries condemning and shaming us about our former lives, leaving us to feel hypocritical about being righteous. The righteousness we've received through Jesus' Sacrifice, allows us to come boldly and stand in peace before God's Throne of Grace. The enemy tries stealing the peace with have with the Father, by making us feel unworthy.
If you've truly received Jesus as your Lord and Savior, then you've been made righteous in the new creation being and born into God's family. Denying this righteousness, doesn't make you unrighteous. Righteousness has already become your Spiritual DNA, through the new birth. Denying righteousness will keep your from confidently fellowshipping with the Father and standing in faith that He hears and answers your prayers. Being double-minded and believing you're unrighteous and unworthy, will prevent your faith to fully work on your behalf. Reading God's Word which says you are righteous and knowing you're unworthy, is being double-minded.
Your faith must be established in Grace, in order to receive Truth instead of condemnation. Your faith must be established in Grace, in order to walk in what Jesus provided, instead of what we think we deserve. We don't deserve to be righteous, but Grace didn't give us what we deserve, Grace gave us what God chose for us.
Ephesians 2:8 (Amplified) says, "For it is by FREE GRACE (God's unmerited favor), that you are saved, delivered from judgment and make partakers of Christ's salvation, through your faith. And this salvation is NOT OF YOURSELVES (of your own doing, it came not through your own striving), but it is the Gift of God." Romans 5:17 (Amplified) says, "For if because of one man's trespass (lapse, offense), death reigned through that one (Adam), must more surely will those who receive God's overflowing Grace (unmerited favor), and the FREE GIFT OF RIGHTEOUSNESS, putting them in right standing with Himself, reign as kings in life, through the One Man Jesus Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One)."
Listening to the dictates of the flesh and rejecting God's Gift of Righteousness, will result in your not having the faith it takes to "reign as kings in life." We can't overlook the Truth that we're not just forgiven sinners, but we were created new in Jesus. The new creation man/woman doesn't have a past life. If we don't renew our minds by God's Word, then our unrenewed minds will continue holding us under condemnation and shame, which keeps us from enjoying our new place of right standing with the Father and from reigning as kings and queens in life. Righteousness is our doorway into God's Presence and since Jesus became the Door, we can't enter God's Presence or receive His Promises. If we don't have faith that we're righteous in the Righteousness of Jesus, then we won't have the confidence to come boldly before God's Throne Room of Grace.
Our minds, will, emotions and flesh weren't changed when we were created new in Jesus. Our dead spirits were created in the Life of God. It's up to us to renew our minds with the Truth of God's Word and His Spirit. Your mind was trained by the world and will resist the Truth of God's Word and cause you to draw back from that Truth. Romans 8:7 (Amplified) says, "That is because the mind of the flesh, with its carnal thoughts and purposes, is hostile to God, for it does not submit itself to God's Law; indeed it cannot."
Your new creation spirit delights in its new found relationship with the Father, while the carnal mind will not change and will stand against the Truth of God's Word. The carnal mind will fight against the Truth, using carnal weapons of guilt, shame, condemnation, rebellion and pride. The old shame and pride will keep us from having unbroken fellowship with the Father. These things must be put under subjection of our new creation person. Righteousness is a Gift and must be received. God will never force it upon you. You must by faith, receive this Awesome Gift in humility, in order to enter into God's Presence.
Our pride will keep us from receiving what God has done for us, by Grace. The reality of the Spirit tells us it's not prideful to confess the Righteousness we've been given, but it's pride that makes us unwilling and unable to receive the Gift. Everything Jesus did for us, must be received in humility and faith. How do you humble yourself to God's will and Grace, when your carnal mind is hostile to what you're trying to accept and become the Truth of what God's Word says about you?
Renewing our minds isn't a religious things we're to act out. It's accepting what the Father says about us, rather than what the flesh says about us. This is a personal relationship with the Father, instead of a denominational relationship. It's relationship and not religion. We can't believe what others and other denominations say, if these things are contrary to the Truth of God's Word.
This is exactly what the people in the Wilderness did in Numbers 13, when twelve men went to spy out the Promised Land. Joshua and Caleb believed God, while ten spies didn't. Nearly one million people believed the ten spies and never entered into God's Promised Land, but died in the Wilderness. We can't allow the opinion of others, to prevent our entering the Father's House, as His family. Let's dare to see ourselves as our Heavenly Father sees us, through Jesus. He sees us as being Righteous, pure, holy, sanctified, justified and bought back by the Blood of Jesus. Colossi ans 1:22-23 (Amplified) says, "Yet now has Christ (the Messiah), reconciled you to God in the Body of His Flesh, in order to present you holy and faultless and irreproachable in His (the Father's) Presence. And this He will do provided that you continue to stay with and in the faith in Christ, well grounded and settled and steadfast, not shifting and moving away from the Hope which rests on and is inspired by the glad tidings (the Gospel), which you heard and which has been preached as being designed for and offered without restrictions to every person under Heaven and of which, I Paul, became a minister."
The Church has been taught to focus more and to point out our faults and misgivings, instead of being taught what Jesus has done and who the Father created us to be. We still have things to work on in our Christian walks, but it's much easier to work on them from God's viewpoint, instead of the world's carnal viewpoints. Our spirit man/woman is perfect in the new creation. Our flesh and carnal minds will still oppose the Spirit, so long as we're here in these bodies. We must use the weapons of the Spirit and bring the mind and flesh into subjection.
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