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 previous moral and Spiritual condition has passed away. Behold, the fresh and new has come."
When looking at both our past and present lives, we realize that we're far from being perfect. We continue trying to produce righteous, instead of accepting the Righteousness of God gave us by Grace when we received Jesus as our Lord and Savior. Rom.8:1(Amp) gives us insight into how to live by faith in Christ Jesus, saying, "Therefore, there is now no condemnation, no adjudging guilty of wrong for those who are in Christ Jesus; who live and walk not after the dictates of the flesh, but after the dictates of the Spirit."
The dictates of the flesh will keep us bound by our past lives and the mistakes we make in our new creation life with God. We know that we don't deserve God's Promises, His faithfulness or the Love He has for us. We try coming to a place in our flesh, where we deserve His Blessing. The flesh will always hold us in condemnation, but when we learn to listen to the dictates of the Spirit of Grace, we can by faith, accept what Jesus has done for us, instead of trying to do so by works.
This isn't an invitation to continue in sin and what the old man/woman used to walk in. This is an invitation to leave our old man/woman and develop the new creation person who has been made righteous in Jesus. Grace is something that we don't deserve. It's a free Gift from God, that we receive by faith in Jesus. If we do works to "deserve it," then it's no longer Grace.
The dictates of the Spirit will always remind us what Jesus has done and not what we have done. We must spend time in fellowship with our Heavenly Father and in His Word, in order to walk after the dictates of the Spirit. We shouldn't read only The Old Testament, identifying with those in the old covenant who were disciplined for their failure. We need to identify with what Jesus did, when He bore the chastisement for our iniquities and took our punishment. The people in the old covenant had to walk by the blood of animals, which only covered their sin, but our covenant is based on the Blood of Jesus, which completely removed even the stain of sin and made us righteous before God.
When we sin, we need to confess it before God, instead of allowing the flesh to condemn us. We need to listen to the Holy Spirit Who is "Righteous to forgive and cleanse us from all unrighteousness," according to 1John1:9(Amp), which says, "If we freely admit that 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 will continuously cleanse us from all unrighteousness, everything not in conformity to His will in purpose, thought and action."
This isn't an invitation to live in sin, but it's the bridge that will keep us in His Perfect will, so His Blessing can continue to do what He purposes in our lives. The Holy Spirit will always point us to God's Word and who we've now become by the Sacrifice of Jesus and not to who we once were in this flesh and blood body. We all still make mistakes as we grow in this Grace and faith in Jesus. Paul instructs us to renew our minds with God's Word, so we can forget who we once were in Rom.12:2(Amp), which says, "Do not be conformed to this world (age), fashioned after and adapted to it's external superficial customs, but be transformed, changed by the entire renewal of your mind, by it's new ideals and it's new attitude, so that you may prove for yourself what is the Good and acceptable and Perfect will of God, even the thing which is Good and acceptable and Perfect in His sight for you." In order to renew our minds to the new creation being we've become in Christ, we must study God's Word and listen to what His Holy Spirit says about us.
Some use Grace as an excuse to continue living in the sin they lived in before being born-again and never renew their minds to the new man/woman they are in Christ Jesus. This is being conformed and adapted to the world with it's external and superficial customs. Others have adapted to the customs of the world. They don't listen to the dictates of the Spirit and refuse to believe the Truth that they're no longer just unworthy sinners. These aren't God's will for our lives.
Those who use Grace to continue sinning, are deceiving themselves by the world's idea of Grace. Those who receive Grace, but continue to hold onto the condemnation and guilt of who they once were, haven't allowed Grace to renew their minds by the Word and Spirit. These fall short of what God's Grace came to do in our lives. Psalm23:3(Amp) says, "He [God] refreshes and restores my life (myself). He leads me in paths of Righteousness (uprightness and right standing with Him), not for my earning it, but for His Name's sake."
We represent God to the world and it's for His Name's sake that we follow after and listen to the Spirit, in our earthly walk with Him. When we conform and adapt to the world's ideals and customs, we bring reproach to His name, not ours. We must be willing to develop into what God has created us to be, refusing to walk after the dictates of the flesh and walking after the dictates of the Spirit. We must study God's Word, in order to learn who this new creation being is and how we're to act in today's world. We don't need religion, but relationship with God. We're part of a royal family, born of God and living in God and His Word.
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