2Corinthians 5:16-17 (Amp) says, "Consequently, from now on we estimate and regard no one from a purely human point of view (in terms of natural standards of value). No, even though we once did estimate Christ from a human viewpoint and as a Man, yet now we have such knowledge of Him that we know Him no longer in terms of the flesh. Therefore if any person is ingrafted in Christ (the Messiah), he is a new creation (a new creature altogether); the old previous moral and Spiritual condition has passed away. Behold, the fresh and new has come."
Jesus' disciples only knew Him as a Man, during His earthly ministry. They had no idea what His Resurrection and Blood would mean for mankind. They thought He could be the long awaited Messiah, but then watched Him die on the cross and placed in a tomb. These men and women didn't have the Revelation that the New Testament provides us today. They didn't know about the new birth, the new creation, or about the remission of sin and Righteousness. They still functioned under the Law of Moses and the old covenant. Jesus' followers could know Him, only through the flesh and blood Man they walked with.
They had no knowledge about believers being made Righteous with Jesus' Righteousness or that we're the temple of the Holy Spirit, because 1Corinthians 6:19 wasn't written yet and their carnal unrenewed minds couldn't have imagined these things. On the Day of Pentecost, they began to understand the Spiritual aspect of our becoming new creation beings through Jesus.
After knowing about the new covenant, Peter still tried bringing Christians into circumcision and the old Law of Moses. In 2Corinthians 5:16 (Amp), Paul confronted Peter about this and shared the Revelation of "knowing no man any longer only by natural standards." Jesus said in John 10:10 (Amp),
I am come that you may have and enjoy Life, and have it in abundance (to the full, till it overflows)." The disciples didn't understand that Jesus was speaking about the Life of Almighty God living in the new creation persons.
It was unthinkable that God would actually Live in someone and that they would live in Him. They couldn't comprehend that they actually were crucified and buried with Jesus and that they were raised from Spiritual death and made new creation beings, until the Holy Spirit brought that Revelation to them. Many Christians today, still see Jesus after the flesh and as a Man, instead of seeing that they're in Him and are as He is now. 1John 4:17 (Amp) tells us, "In this union and communion with Him, Love is brought to completion and attains perfection with us, that we may have confidence for the day of judgment with assurance and boldness to face Him, because as He is SO ARE WE IN THIS WORLD."
Very few believers see themselves like the Father sees us. In His eyes, we are everything that Jesus brought to pass in His Sacrifice and death. We still see ourselves after the natural man/woman, with our imperfections of the flesh, instead of the miraculous perfection of the Spirit. Peter said in 1Peter 2:2 (Amp), "Like newborn babies we should crave (thirst for, earnestly desire), the pure unadulterated Spiritual milk of the Word, that by it you may be nurtured and grow into completed salvation."
We've been taught more by the world's view of what a Christians is, rather than by the Holy Spirit and the Revelation of our new creation being. The world and religion, can only see the natural man/woman and can't see the Truth of the Spirit. The Truth is that we're born into God's Own family and have been translated by and in the Spirit, into the citizenship of God's Kingdom. We're truly new creation persons and have new Life and new identities, in Christ Jesus. This doesn't happen in the future, but is a Truth that occurred the moment we accepted Jesus as our Lord and Savior. It's true that our glorified body is yet to come, but the Spirit man/woman and the new creation being, is already perfect in Jesus.
2Corinthians 5:20 (Amp) says, "So we are Christ's Ambassadors, God making His appeal as it were through us. We, as Christ's personal representatives, beg you for His sake to lay hold of the Divine favor now offered you, and be reconciled to God." The new creation is exactly this. We have been created new, with a new Life, a new citizenship, a new family and part of God's Kingdom. We have a new purpose, which is to bring about God's Kingdom here on earth. We are new creatures altogether and have been given the privilege of revealing God's Kingdom to those in darkness.
We've been delegated the Authority of our King, in order to rule over the darkness and the one who has set himself up to be the god of this world. We're to retake everything he has stolen from the first creation man, Adam. We're still living in this flesh and blood body, but we have Life of Jesus in us, with the authority of Jesus' Name. We have accepted the totality of the Spirit, that the Father lives in us, just like He did in Jesus' earthly ministry.
Jesus was aware of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit within Him and always listened and followed God. Jesus never did anything of Himself, but only did what the Father told Him to do. We're busy with jobs and family matters that require attention here on earth, but we're filled with the Same Holy Spirit and are supposed to listen and heed His Word. Sadly, we're too busy to hear Him. Jesus spoke about this in Mark 4:18-19 (Amp), saying, "And the ones sown among the thorns are others who hear the Word Then the cares and anxieties of the world and distractions of the age, and the pleasure and delight and false glamour and deceitfulness of riches, and the craving and passionate desire for other things creep in and choke and suffocate the Word, and it becomes fruitless."
How many of us today have learned many things from God's Word, that we've let slip and become fruitless? When we first got saved, we frequently read God's Word, and the things of God were first in our hearts. As time went on, we weren't in the Word and didn't spend time in God's Presence, so we fell back into the same old religious routine. We became comfortable in these things and God's Word became fruitless in our lives.
The things we were doing weren't sinful or bad. We work hard all day to feed our family and pay our bills, so when we get home, we sit down for rest. These things are wrong or sinful, but we've fallen into the trap and say, "I know these things already, so I don't need to read them." We haven't forgotten these things, but we're not purposefully practicing them, like when we first got saved and were on fire for God. We can still quote the scriptures, but they're now without power, because we don't place faith in them.
The enemy has laid this same trap before God's people throughout time, so we lose our identity. We're still saved and are God's children, but we've lost some of the Truth of who we were created to be. The only time we fellowship with the Father is at church. We no longer have a personal relationship and conversation with the Father. We worship and praise Him at church, but we don't have the intimacy with the Father, that we had when we first got saved.
We've adapted to the "humdrum and routine" Christianity. Remember when you first heard the teachings about having what you say and the power of our words? We began to do like Jesus did and "Only say what the Father says." But, then we began speaking doubt and unbelief, that the world programmed us to say. When we were first born-again, we spoke in tongues more than we spoke in English, but after awhile, it became fruitless, because we seldom spent time to purposefully converse with God in tongues.
Jesus didn't say that the things of God "were fruitless, but said that these things "became fruitless."
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