Start here at the Introduction: The Journey Begins
The Journey: Part 4 - The Two Natures of a Believer in Christ
As we progress in this journey, we need to keep two things in mind,
First, to provide us hope, strength, and passion to continue, we must know what our destination is. We are making our way to that destination of being adopted sons of God and being glorified beyond measure in our Head, Jesus Christ. The vehicle to get us there is the Word of God, and our fuel is studying the Word so that it becomes part of us, quickening us in spirit and energizing us to growth.
Second, we need to keep in mind what we have experienced and learned up till now. We have experienced salvation through the gospel of grace, (see part #1). We have also learned that the Word is the means to our destination, and that understanding and believing what God's Word tells us, provides us a solid foundation of faith to appreciate God's incredible work of our salvation, through propitiation and imputation of the life of Christ to us, (see parts #2 and #3).
Having a fundamental understanding of our two natures will become important to receiving truth regarding our justification. I'm taking this small detour because where we are going stirs up fiery debates and arguments from people who are unsaved, since they are dead to spiritual matters and their understanding is darkened to it, or it triggers questions and doubts from babes in Christ, who are saved, but they have not yet learned and understood their spiritual position in Christ, a direct result of not reading the Word and gaining personal insights to these matters of faith.
To understand aspects of our positional standing in Christ in the next post, I'd like to draw attention to the fact that you are created as a three-part being. Every human that has ever lived has a spirit, a soul, and a body, (1Thess.5:23). You were born into this world in a flesh body that lives by the grace of God for the allotted time given to you. Then, deep within this shell of flesh is the breath of God, your spirit, which is utterly separated from God, dead to God's life-giving Word and His Fatherly love, because of Adam's imputed sin (Rom.5:12). Lastly, at your natural birth, and up to the moment you get saved by the gospel, your soul, the part that shapes your character, and makes you unique from everyone else, and which, at this point, is connected only to your body, starts to gain knowledge and understanding from this natural, corrupt, and sinful world you live in, forming your carnal persona and sinful morality through the choices you make and the experiences you learn from.
Through the connection your soul has to your flesh, your body, with its five senses, feeds your soul with experiences, all within this cursed and worldly environment, all outside of the realm of God, far away from the source of His life and love. Since you are dead to the source of God's Word, your understanding cannot comprehend the mind of God. You are blind to spiritual matters, and you are darkened in your understanding to the will of God and His thoughts for you, (1Cor.2:14).
However, when you get saved and the grace gospel instantaneously floods your spirit with the life of Christ, your spirit wakes up, and it is at this moment that the mind of your spirit (Eph.4:23) gets connected to your soul, which is your persona, your character, and your current morality and choices. Your spirit now contains the life of Christ, you are alive to God, and His Word and desires for you are now available to you, (1Cor.2:10-12). It is when this brand-new connection between your soul and your living spirit is activated, that the work of faith must start to operate, as Paul prays for the believers at Thessalonica,
2Thess.1:11 Wherefore also we pray always for you, that our God would count you worthy of this calling, and fulfil all the good pleasure of his goodness, and the work of faith with power: 12 That the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you, and ye in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.
There is a lot of reshaping to do, a lot to learn, a lot to process. Your soul, now connected to a living spirit within you, needs to start the task of being retrained and renewed in the things of God. The Word of God, the Bible, is the ONLY thing that can do this work. At this point in your salvation, it is the milk
Your soul is the part that must be 're-trained' by the truth of the Word, (Rom.12:2). This is where old habits will start to be systematically changed, not by your own doings, but by the life and desires of truth that spring from the renewing of your morality and choices. The Word of God provides the life and power to replace those old inner workings. The more Word you get into you, the more it will affect your character and choices, and the more it will effect changes in your patterns of living. This is where you start to see a clear divide in who you were, versus who you are slowly becoming.
Rom.6:4 Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
This is the beginning point of the development of Christ in you, and with continued growth in spirit, through exposure to the Word of God, this process will see you becoming more and more mature, reaching out and attaining to God's perfect will for you (Rom.12:2 b), ... an adopted son of God.
Romans 8:14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. ... 19 For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.
Philippians 2:15 That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world;
With this detail in mind, I will move into the topic of justification in the next post. Knowing a bit more about the three parts of a person, and also the connection between the soul and body versus the soul and spirit, will help to understand the positional aspects of justification. I'll see you in the next post.
God bless.
No comments:
Post a Comment