Welcome To The Arena Of Indubitable Truth! Topic: In Christ (Part 15)

Welcome To The Arena Of Indubitable Truth!

Topic: In Christ (Part 15) By Chukwuemeka C. Asiegbu

Text Of Interest:

“But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect, And to Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel.” 

        Heb 12:22 – 24 (KJV)

One of the things the believer should come to terms with is that in Christ he has received a new nature; I mean a nature that wasn’t there before. This nature is not like a refurbished item, or a modification of something, no, it is a new nature entirely and has no link with whatever that was there before this time. It is important to note that the unbeliever lives a life that is powered by his senses or naturals as it were, so he sees and conducts his life by what he sees and observes. So the unbeliever is a product of his flesh or environment and therefore must conduct his life by what gave birth to him because “That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”(Jn 3:6). The flesh in this quotation doesn’t mean body but natural born, so an unbeliever is a natural man, who goes about living within the whims of what nature offers to him. This natural man cannot and will never understand the things of the Spirit as Apostle Paul puts it this way “But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”(1Cor 2:14).

However, once this natural man receives and accepts the message of the finished work of Christ which is anchored on His death, burial and resurrection. The acceptance of this message catapults him to the realm of spiritual birth, instantly he is born of the spirit. (For better lucidity see last episodes on this blog or our facebook ‘salvation in the lord evangelical ministry’). This transfer takes place because of the seed of the message which is spiritual and abides in him, he is now lives by what the seed in him bears and produced out of him. Therefore, he is born of the spirit and as a result he is spiritual. The currency to operate in this realm is called faith and it is powered by knowledge (the lack or the availability of knowledge can make a believer to be weak or strong in faith, this we shall discuss if time permits), so he doesn’t live his life based on what he observes and that which his eyes can see but based on what his spiritually enlightened eyes can see which is always beyond the sensory realm.  Now, this man will start talking differently from the man he used to be, and also his attitude towards things begin to change from the usual. This starts to take effect because the Spirit inside him carves out a culture for him called spiritual culture which is entirely a visible paradox from what is obtainable from a man born of the flesh.

This spiritual culture unfolds and exhibits some characters that produce a kind of unique disposition out of him, in that he is found demonstrating the qualities of the Spirit residing in him. These qualities are called the fruit of the Spirit which includes as Apostles Paul stipulated them in Galatians 5:22-23 and I quote “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.” The manifestation of these qualities from him is an indication that really, his mindset has been reconfigured and made different from his old mindset. That is why the Bible calls this man a new creation, which implies that he is now a creature that has never existed before, he cannot be linked to who he used to be. One of the benefits the law of the Spirit of life in Christ offers the believer is that his mind is renewed. It is the Holy Ghost that has the power to renew the believer’s mind by reconfiguring it to the standard He wants it to be. By this process, the deportment of his mind takes a drastic transformation that gaps the mouth of people in utter awe; because of what they see manifesting from him.

Actually, the believer can only be evaluated by the product of his mind and because he is born of the spirit as stipulates here ““That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.”(Jn 3:6). This statement or quotation is an indication to express the fact that a believer can only be understood through the spiritual perspective and trying to understand a man that is in Christ through the lens of the flesh will give a wrong result. Let’s see what Apostle Paul says to the Corinthians and I quote “Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more.”(2Cor 5:16). Those who knew Christ after the flesh missed Him and that was why they gave Him wrong identity, in the same way anyone weighing someone in Christ after the flesh will definitely miss him or her.

To be continued…..

Till I come your way again, keep on basking in the Arena of Indubitable Truth!

Chukwuemeka C. Asiegbu