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.
Paul writes to the Church (including us), in Rom.12:2(Amp), saying, "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 yourselves 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."
Paul understood that before we were born-again, our lives were fashioned and formed by the world, without God. We had functioned by our senses and emotions, instead of by God's Word and His Spirit. Our senses and emotions can't conceive or understand the Spiritual things of God's Kingdom. The only way to understand Spiritual things, is by the Spirit. Jesus told His followers in John6:63(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."
We can read God's Word without having the Spiritual Revelation of the Truth, not understanding they are Spirit and Life. Most opinions about God and His Word, have come from what Paul describes in the above scripture as the "external, superficial customs of man." Many rituals and religious traditions that we've been taught, have very little to do with the new creation man/woman of God.
Many only see God as being angry and often displeased at the new man/woman He has created. Many too, believe that God spends much of His time putting sickness and hardships on us, in order to teach us how to do right. We must truly understand that God has created us in Righteousness and that He sees us that way. We try making ourselves righteous enough to deserve God's Goodness, without understanding that He has already made us righteous and that His Goodness has already been given to us to enjoy.
Through faith in Jesus, we've already become new creation beings, without sin or the remembrance of sin, in God's eyes. The world would have us live like we are still sinners and need to try becoming good enough to deserve God's Grace. We have already become heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus. God has given us our inheritance to enjoy, but it must come into the new creation person, by Revelation from His Word and the Holy Spirit, not by the carnal way of man's thinking.
Prov.4:7(Amp) says, "The beginning of Wisdom is, get Wisdom, skillful and Godly Wisdom. For skillful and Godly Wisdom is the principal thing. And with all you have gotten, get understanding (discernment, comprehension, and interpretation)." We became new creations, when we were born-again and whether or not we know it, we received Wisdom. 1Cor.1:30(Amp) says, "But it is from Him (God) that you have your Life in Christ Jesus, Whom God made our Wisdom from God, revealed to us a knowledge of the Divine Plan of Salvation previously hidden, manifesting itself as our Righteousness, thus making us upright and putting us in right standing with God, and our Consecration, making us pure and holy, and our Redemption, providing our Ransom from eternal penalty for sin."
God says that, "Wisdom is the principal thing" and Jesus is our Wisdom from God. We've been given Wisdom by God, but lack the Revelation and discernment that Proverbs tells us will bring us understanding. This was all provided for and to us, when we received Jesus as our Lord and Savior, but we haven't understood it. God instructs us in the above scripture, saying, "With all that you have gotten, get understanding." If we don't understand the Spirit and Truth of God's Word, then we will lack understanding and fail to receive what our Heavenly Father has provided for us. We will fall into the "external and superficial customs" of man and miss out on the inheritance given us, through Jesus.
We don't strive to earn this. This is an inheritance God's new creation family receives, by faith in the Finished Work of Jesus. An inheritance is something that another has obtained by their life's labor and then leave to those he/she loves. Gal.3:14-16(Amp) tells us, "To the end that through their receiving Christ Jesus, the Blessing Promised to Abraham might come upon the Gentile, so that we, through faith might receive the realization of the Promise of the Holy Spirit. To speak in terms of human relations, brethren, if even a man makes a last will and testament (a merely human covenant), no one sets it aside or makes it void or adds to it when once it has been drawn up and signed (ratified, confirmed). Now the Promises (covenants, agreements), were decreed and made to Abraham and his Seed (his Offspring, his Heir)." God doesn't say that it was given to "his seeds, descendants," as if to many persons, but says, "And to your Seed, your Descendant, your Heir," obviously referring to One Individual, Who is none other than Christ Jesus, the Messiah. Rom.8:16-17(Amp) says, "The Spirit Himself thus testifies together with our spirit, assuring us that we are children of God. And if we are His children, then we are His heirs also, heirs of God and fellow, joint heirs with Christ, sharing His inheritance with Him; only we must share His suffering if we are to share His Glory."
Jesus' suffering was denying Himself, so we could gain Him. In order to deny ourselves, we must renew our minds by God's Word and Spirit, and following what the Spirit says, at all costs. Jesus needed to get Himself off His mind and putting us on His mind, in order to go to the cross for us. We're new creation children of the Most High God, heirs of God and part of His family. We must renew our minds to the Spirit, so we can carry out His will for our lives. If we remain carnal minded, having only ourselves on our minds, then we will be taking the easy road, instead of the one that doesn't require self- denial.
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