2 Corinthians 5:17-18 says,
"Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are
passed away; behold, all things are become new. And all things are of
God, who has reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and has given to us the
ministry of reconciliation.”
This week, Michael writes: When
we were saved from hellfire and damnation, God created within us a new spirit. The
word “saved” is defined as: Preserved
from evil; injury or destruction; kept frugally; prevented; spared. To be
saved is to be “born again” of God's Holy Spirit. To be saved means to be made
complete. The first time we were born, we were born incomplete. We were
born of the flesh: of body and soul. Soul is biological life that we
inherited from our parents and ultimately from Adam. We were incomplete
because we were missing God's Holy Spirit. When we were “born again”, we
were born not of Adam's corruptible seed, but of God's incorruptible seed by
the Word of God. We were “born again” of God's Holy Spirit and we received
Christ in us the hope of glory. Salvation means to be made whole.
According to Romans
10:9-10, “If you confess with
your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him
from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto
righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”
If any man or woman is in
Christ they is a new creation. However, even though God gave us a new
spiritual nature when we were saved, when we were “born again” of God's spirit,
the new birth is not an instantaneous transformation from the old nature of the
flesh to the new nature of the Spirit. As newborn spiritual babies, we
need to grow up in Him. We cannot perfect our sinful nature, we need to
turn from our old sinful flesh desires and unto the new nature of the spirit of
Christ in us. All (new spiritual) things are of God; God help us. If our honest
and wholehearted prayer is, "God I know I'm not the person I want to be,
Please Lord make me that person," God will run to answer our prayer.
To forsake our sin nature,
like King David of Israel, we must come to the Lord with a broken and a
contrite heart. Repentance is to turn from myself and unto God. Salvation is
not of works lest any man should boast. Most Christian men and women think that
they will deserve to have salvation by their own works. We forget about
our many sins. However, by grace are you
saved though faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.
Not of works lest any man should boast. Because of our sin, we cannot earn
our way out of Hell and into Heaven; we do not deserve forgiveness and
salvation. It’s redemption by grace through faith only.
According to the lyrics of
the hymn: "Rise up oh men of God, the song declares: “Have done with
lesser things. Give heart and soul and mind and strength to serve the King of
Kings." This is God's call to men and women of every age. To “rise up”
means to understand what it means to be a "man or woman of
God." Until "Man or woman of God" is your identity, you'll
never rise up. We will naturally rise up and come to them when we know
that they're approving and accepting of the new nature that God created within
us. To be done with lesser things is to rise up to the mark of the high
calling of God in Christ Jesus. For
we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against spiritual wickedness from
on high.
To “rise up” is to pray,
"God teach me through this trial and through this challenge in front of
me." We're sheep in the midst of the spiritual battle. Sheep have no
offensive weapons; just a shepherd. Our strength and our power is in Him
and not in us. The weapons of our warfare are not carnal but spiritual, to
the pulling down of spiritual strongholds. In Ephesians 6 there are five pieces
of defensive armor for spiritual warfare. The two offensive weapons are “the
sword of the spirit”, which is the Word of God and prayer. Use them.
Let's continue Michael's message on "rising up" in the next post.
In Christ, Brian
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