2Cor. 5:17 (Amp) says, "Therefore if any person is ingrafted in Christ Jesus (the Messiah), he is a new creation (a new creature altogether). The old moral and Spiritual condition is passed away. Behold, the fresh and new has come."
The Church has never truly understood the above scripture, which says "the old moral and Spiritual condition has passed away" and "the fresh and new has come." Believers of the Lord Jesus aren't just "forgiven sinners," but we are new creations. There is nothing about the old person we once were, because we've been made new.
We've spent years trying to change the old man/woman, only to find that he/she was crucified with Christ. You can't change a dead man/woman, so we must renew our minds with God's Word and develop the new creation person we've become, into maturity of who God created us to be. The mind or soul is still undeveloped to the truth of who the new creation is in Christ. We condemn ourselves over what a dead man/woman used to do, instead of teaching the new person how we're to live.
The newborn child of God or Baby in Christ, has no idea of what his/her potential can do or become. We've never lived in the realm of the Spirit before being born-again, so we don't know how this new man/woman is to be. Jesus said in John 6:63 (Amp), "It is the Spirit Who gives Life (He is the Life-Giver); the flesh conveys no benefit whatever (there is no profit in it). The Words (Truths) that I have been speaking to you are Spirit and Life."
Jesus tells us that, "The old traditions and rituals many practice even today, are the works of the flesh and don't benefit the Spirit Life we're born into." We've been instructed by carnal minds to worship only on certain days and not to wear jewelry or certain clothing. These are all things of the flesh and have no benefit in developing the new creation we've been born into.
The only way to develop a spirit being, is by Spiritual things. Jesus said that, "God's Word is food and education for the spirit." 1Peter 1:23 (Amp) says, "You've been regenerated (born again), not from a mortal origin (seed, sperm), but from One that is Immortal by the Ever Living and Lasting Word of God." Peter continues in 2Peter 2:2 (Amp) saying, "Like newborn babies you should crave (thirst for, earnestly desire) the pure, unadulterated Spiritual mile." The (KJV) says, "You should crave the milk of the Word, that by it you may be nurtured and grow unto completed salvation."
What is completed salvation? The word "salvation" doesn't only mean that our sins are forgiven, but that they no longer exist in the eyes of God, our Father. Under the Law, the blood of animals could cover the people's sin, but it couldn't eliminate the sin, so the sacrifice needed to be continually offered up, in order to keep the people's sin was covered. The Blood of our Lamb Jesus didn't just cover our sins, but completely removed them. The old man/woman has been crucified with Christ Jesus, because the wages of sin is death. The sin brought death to the old you at the cross and the Life of Jesus brought forth a new creation person, who is sinless.
We've now become new creation children of God, with no sin and faults. The only way to develop the new creation person and bring him/her into the mature sons and daughters of God and into completed salvation, is the raise him/her in the Life-Giver or the Spiritual Life of God, which is God's Word. Paul writes in Gal. 2:20-21 (Amp), "I have been crucified with Christ (in Him I have shared His crucifixion); it is no longer I who live, but Christ (the Messiah) lives in me; and the Life I now live in the body, I live by faith in and by adherence to and reliance on and the complete trust in the Son of God, Who Loved me and gave Himself up for me. Therefore, I do not treat God's Gracious Gift as something of minor importance and defeat its very purpose, I do not set aside and invalidate and frustrate and nullify the Grace (unmerited favor) of God. For if justification, righteousness, acquittal from guilt comes through observing the rituals of the Law, then Christ (the Messiah) died groundlessly and to no purpose and in vain (His death was then wholly superfluous)."
We keep trying to become what our Sacrifice Lam has already made us to be. We foster new laws and rituals, in order to become righteous, when Jesus died and was raised again, to set us free. We're to "grow into the Truth of the Spirit and completed salvation, by the milk of God's Word," according to 2Peter 2:2. Completed salvation is the Truth that Jesus' Sacrifice has completed everything we're trying to become by our fleshly works. We can't teach a dead person to do good works and be justified by those works.
We accept the covenant of Grace, by faith in what Jesus has already done for us. This is completed salvation. If we don't accept the Truth that Jesus has completed our salvation, by Grace, then our faith in Him is incomplete. This leads us to trying to follow self-inflicted traditions and rules. Paul says in Gal. 2:21 (Amp), this will "Set aside, frustrate, nullify the Grace and unmerited favor of God, and try to validate righteousness and acquittal from guilt by observing rituals and traditions of men to make it valid."
We will never accept by faith, the Truth of our completed salvation and will continue in the flesh, trying to finish what Jesus has done for us, unless we renew our minds with God's Word. This is a miserable place to be. This leaves us under condemnation and guilt of the old man/woman, even though he/she was crucified with Christ. It's awful to continuously live with the memories of the dead man/woman and be bound to the guilt of the old person.
I know many people who are bound to the memories of the old man/woman. These people are tortured by these memories, even though the old man/woman who was responsible for these things, is dead in Christ. The old man/woman is dead, but if satan can haunt us with the memories of life prior to being saved and born-again, then he can keep us in bondage. We must learn to forgiven ourselves and walk in the forgiveness of the cross. This is how we learn to love ourselves, not the old person who is dead and gone, but the one who now lives in the Truth of completed salvation.
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