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 was not 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 or she 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 living 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 will begins to
change from the usual. This starts to take effect because the Spirit inside him
will carve 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. Therefore, one of the benefits of 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 re-configuring 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 is being
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
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