Monday, May 4, 2020

Lesson 7 The Church's Identity Crisis

     The Church stands as the children of the Most High God, but we've failed to see ourselves through the Father's eyes.  He sees us as, "holy and pure, righteous with His Own Righteousness, without blame, and justified in Jesus.  We've mostly seen ourselves after the world, with it's carnal nature.  We're not just forgiven sinners, but we're God's new creation family.  We've become new creations in our spirits, by the Holy Spirit and the Incorruptible Word of God.
     Just as surely as the Father created the heavens and earth, He has created a new species of being, the Church.  Our soulish man/woman has suppressed our seeing the True identity we've become in Christ Jesus.  Our emotions, mind, and will that come from our soulish man/woman, prevent our believing that our old selves are no longer relevant in God's eyes because He has made us new.  We've been taught that it's "prideful," to believe we've been made the righteousness of God, but the scripture says that we indeed have been made the righteousness of God in Jesus.
     Jesus didn't think it was proud or boastful, when declaring, "The Father and I are One" and that He "Only says and does what the Father says."   John 3:34 (Amplified), "For since He Whom God has sent speaks the Words of God (proclaims God's Own Message), God does not give Him His Spirit sparingly (by measure), but boundless is the Gift God makes of His Spirit."
     Jesus declares several times in the Gospels that, "The Father and I are One."  Is this boastful or is it Truth?  Many would answer, "Yes, but that was Jesus."  Is it Truth that we are sons and daughters of God and are the Temple of the Holy Spirit?  2Corinthians 6:16 (Amplified) says, "What agreement can there be between a Temple of God and idols? For we are the Temple of the Living God; even as God said, I will dwell in and with and among them and will walk in and with and among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be My people."
     The above scripture doesn't remove the responsibility we have to deny sin in our bodies and live any way we desire to live, but if we're truly in Love with Jesus, then we won't be looking for ways to sin.  We are now bringing our body and soul into subjection to the new creation man/woman, by obedience to God's Word.  Before coming to earth, Jesus had never been flesh and needed to learn to walk in the flesh, while being led by the Spirit.  We though, had never known anything other than being led by the flesh and must now learn to walk in the Spirit.
     While Jesus walked as a Man on earth, His flesh was subjected to the same things we are.  Jesus had to bring His flesh into subjection to the Word and the Holy spirit, just like we must do.  You can bet your last dollar that satan didn't give Jesus a break, because He was Jesus.  If anything, then satan pressured Jesus, more than any other person before.  Jesus had to make a stand on Who He was, by the same Word that we are subject to.  Moreover, Jesus was born under the Law and was subject to the Law.  No man had ever completed the Law, but He did it perfectly for us, according to Matthew 5;17 (Amplified), where Jesus says, "Do not think I have come to do away with or undo the Law or the prophets; I have come not to do away with or undo but to fulfill them."  Jesus fulfilled the Law of Sin and of Death, which had the Curse attached to it.  Jesus Redeemed us from the Curse of the Law and in God's eyes, we have also fulfilled the Law.
     We must see ourselves the way God sees us, instead of the way the world and our carnal minds dictates.  Jesus was the Only Man Who has ever fulfilled the Law.  If we try walking by the Law, without fulfilling it, then we place ourselves back under the penalty for not completely fulfilling it.  James 2:11-12 (Amplified) says, "For whosoever keeps the Law as a whole, but stumbles and offends in one single instance, has become guilty of breaking it all. For He Who said, You shall not commit adultery, also said, You shall not kill, if you do not commit adultery, but do kill, you have become guilty of transgressing the whole Law."  Galatians 5:4 (Amplified) says, "If you seek to be justified and declared righteous and to be given a right standing with God through the Law, you are brought to nothing and so severed from Christ. You have fallen away from Grace (from God's Gracious favor and unmerited Blessing)."
     This is a serious indictment against our trying to perform works, in order to become what God has already made us to be.  It's not by works, but by God's Grace.  Grace is a Gift in Jesus, that qualifies us to receive by faith in His Sacrifice.  Trying to obtain God's Blessing, aside from Grace, is being subject to the Curse again.  Does this mean we can kills, steal, or commit adultery by Grace?  Of course not, but God's Grace will hold us  and keep us in righteousness, while we grow in our salvation.
     There is no person who has walked in these flesh and blood bodies, without sinning and deserving punishment for that sin.  God, by His Grace though, has made our spirit man without sin and has made us perfect in His eyes.  God looks on the heart or spirit, not the outer-man.  We're to take God's Word in our new creation spirit and bring the soul and body into subjection to God, by faith in His Word and His Holy Spirit.  Only God's Grace and faith in His Grace, can keep us above the Curse that still operates in this world.
     This is still a fallen planet and the world system is designed by the god of this world.  Only Grace and faith in God's Grace, can keep us in the place of righteousness in the Father's eyes.  The enemy can't hold us under the condemnation of our old sinful lives, once we understand and have faith in the Righteousness that Grace provided through Jesus' Sacrifice.  It's not that we didn't deserve punishment and the Curse of the Law, but faith in Jesus Christ activates the Grace that holds us in God's Blessing, as we grow from the milk of the Word to the meat of the Word.
     No baby, spirit or natural, came into existence fully grown.  Luke 2:51-52 (Amplified) tell us, "And [Jesus] went down with [Mary and Joseph] and came to Nazareth and was habitually obedient to them and His mother kept and closely and persistently guarded all these things in her heart. And Jesus increased in Wisdom (in broad and fully understanding), and in stature and years and in favor with God and man."  Even Jesus had to learn and grow before God and man.  We are not to remain babes in Christ.  Things that were permissible when we were babes, aren't permissible when we become adults.  You can't expect someone else to feed you for the entirety of your Spiritual life, but you're expected to read God's Word, heed the Voice of God's Spirit and grow in the Father's Presence.
     Paul directed Timothy to "Rightly divide the Word of Truth" and not to eat everything that is placed on the table before him.  God's people aren't to consume everything that is said.  There are many things that sound "Good," out there, but they don't all come from God's Word.  There are so many voices in today's world that try to get out attention, so we must insure we know what we are hearing.  Jesus admonished His followers in Mark 4:24 (Amplified), "Be careful what you are hearing. The measure of thought and study you give to the Truth you hear, will be the measure of virtue and knowledge that comes back to you-and more besides will be given to you who hear."
     Jesus was giving, "The Parable of the Sower," in the above scripture and tells us that "All words are seeds and all seeds will produce, in they're received in good soil."  Your spirit, through the new creation, has become good soil and will produce whatever seed you allow to be sown in it.  We must know the True Seed and allow only that, to be sown into our hearts.  1Corinthians 3:2-3 (Amplified) says, "I fed you with milk, not solid food, for you were not yet strong enough to be ready for it; but even yet you are not strong enough to be ready for it. For you are still unspiritual, having the nature of the flesh, under the control of ordinary impulses. For as long as there are envyings and jealousy and wranglings and factions among you, are you not unspiritual and of the flesh? (behaving yourselves after a human standard and like mere unchanged men?)"   

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