WHAT IS MAN : CHRIST, THE IDEAL MAN
We have seen that scripture identifies man as spirit, soul and body. It requires all three to be in operation for man to fulfil the purpose for which God created him. There are three basic faculties that function within the spirit of man. (1) Conscience (2) Communion or fellowship with God (3) Intuition or spiritual knowledge. These give man spiritual comprehension, perception and realization. The soul also has three main functions. (1) Reason (2) Emotion (3) Will or determination and purpose. It is in the soul that man functions in human life. In the soul, man's relationship is with his environment. The three elements of the body are (1) Flesh for physical substance (2) Bone for structure (3) Blood for the residence of the physical life.
Now, while we can identify these three aspects of man, it is not correct to separate them into three isolated parts of man. Man IS spirit, soul and body. Anything less is not man. In a similar way that God is a trinity, man is also a trinity and not three separate men in one body. When God created man, he was primarily spirit. It was in spirit that man had his relationship with God. There may be at least a seven fold aspect to this relationship. (1) Image and likeness. (2) Communion or fellowship and sharing. (3) Spiritual understanding (4) Obedience. (5) Worship (6) Co-operation with God in His purpose (7) Authority for man's dominion and to carry out God's purpose.
The result of the fall in Genesis 3 was that man died in his relationship with God in the spirit. The function of spirit as God created it to function ceased or died. When the soul gave in to the deception of the Devil, it came under the dominion of Satan and was perverted from it's God designed purpose. The body that was created to carry out the will of God on the earth now was subject to the perversions of the soul. GEN 6:3 Then the \Lord\ said, "My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh; nevertheless his days shall be one hundred and twenty years." Instead of being spiritual, man was now called flesh. Romans 7 and Galatians 5 explain how the flesh now responds to God. We also see that the main rebellion of the soul and body (or flesh) is to be hostile to the spirit. Instead of being in subjection to the spirit as God created it to function, the flesh now wars against the spirit.
Because of this disruption within the man he is no longer the same person that God created. He lost his image and likeness to God. He no longer had the faculties for fellowship with God. Therefore he lost the voice of God causing confusion and ignorance of the purpose of God. His spiritual knowledge was darkened. Since man lost the function of the spirit, he also lost his dominion and authority, and the attributes of spirit.
Man could only function on a natural basis out of his own cleverness. Therefore he was subject to Satan's total deception and came under the dominion of the god of this world system. Because the man of flesh is under the deception of Satan, he also is hostile to spirit and spiritual things and hostile to the God who created him. He is constantly attracted to the occult spirits, which function as the counterfeit spirit, to lead man farther astray from the purpose of God.
Man, as we know him in his fallen state, is no longer acceptable in the Kingdom of God and unusable in God's eternal purpose. The extent of man's uselessness is understood in the fact that God can only pass judgement upon him. God has passed the sentence of death upon the old man or the fallen man. The natural man has the sentence of death upon him and there is no escape, no pardon and no probation. We cannot post bond and be free.
Man can only be accepted by God on the basis of Christ and His righteousness. Even if man believes, the natural man is still condemned to death. Therefore the natural, soulish man must be included in Christ's death and burial. There seems to be an over-emphasis in the scripture on death. Death has a very important place in the economy of God. The Old Testament is saturated in death. The sacrifices are a testimony of death and the fire a testimony of destruction of the old. What the Old Testament lacked was the resurrection into a completely different kind of "Life". That hope is reserved exclusively for the New Testament.
The all inclusive perfection of Jesus Christ is the basis of resurrection life. Christ, in His resurrection, has made resurrection available to all men who are "in Christ". This alone is the foundation of the Christian Life. However, death and burial of the old, natural man must precede resurrection in every case. The new man in Christ has his life exclusively in resurrection. It is not possible to speak of the new man prior to resurrection. The sting of death is destroyed when we understand that without death there can be no resurrection.
So much is lost to the church when there is ignorance of the "Cross of Christ". The cross of Christ is God's judgement upon the natural, soulish or fallen man. That man who is no longer the one that God created. The cross surely has it's basis in sins and lawlessness and handles both. However, the Cross of Christ provides for Christ Himself to replace and substitute for the natural, soulish man who is condemned to death. That is why it is "Christ in us the hope of glory". As many as received Him, He gave the right to become the sons of God. The only remedy that God has for the old man is Christ crucified.
Even in the church, the natural man has become a spectacular imitation of the "new man in Christ". The old man can fake spirituality. This is identified as "religion".
God has clearly given His declaration concerning the natural man but the natural man refuses to accept God's judgement. Even in the church we have courses in "Self-expression", "Self- realization", "Self-worth" and all aspects of the old soulish man exalting himself. Counseling is provided for the old man that he may improve himself and become a better natural man. The old, soulish, natural man is taught how to act like a Christian. This is just the natural man building a monument to the natural man and declaring his natural power, authority, ability, honor and glory. The natural man seeks to inflate himself to be like God, knowing good and evil.
It is only when the natural man gets the revelation of his uselessness to God that he will give himself to death and burial that he might receive the impartation of the new man through resurrection. The new man cannot exist prior to resurrection. Resurrection is the basis of life of the new man. Without that life, the new man is just a theory or a doctrine.
The psychological movements in "the natural church" inflates the attributes of the natural man, exaggerates by overstating the natural man's ability to heal himself, and teaches the natural man how to assert himself to take control of his life and situation. These are the foundations and superstructure of the "mind sciences" and "psycho-therapy" and self improvement cults that have always existed as a counterfeit "truth", but as another wing of the church. Only blinded fools who are ignorant of God's judgement upon the old man can present some kind of impractical scheme for social regeneration which is outside the work of God through Jesus Christ. God's regeneration means coming to a new geneses. A completely new and exclusive beginning again on the original basis. Calvary is ground zero for this regeneration and requires the death and burial of all that is natural, soulish and of the old man. Not the death of the soul but the death of soulishness. That means where the direction of life is from the soul and the soul decides the issues of life. Where the soul is master and lord.
The death of soulishness means that we must begin anew to learn everything over again from a new basis of spirit. In this we all begin as babies. Growing in education and knowledge and familiarity with scripture is not the same as growing in spiritual training. The former may just be another exercise of the soul and result in another form of soulishness. Spiritual training, that has laid aside the natural means, cannot supersede the cross of Christ in our personal life. Whatever replaces the cross as our means of spiritual growth should be recognized as a deception. Jesus said "No one can be My disciple who does not take up his own cross daily and follow me". The cross is interpreted as negative because it means the death of all that is old. The positive aspect of the cross is that it means resurrection of the new. It is not possible to supplant the cross and still experience resurrection. This is the basis of the lie of the mind cults. The mind cults are really soul cults. When the soul has freedom of self expression, they call that spiritual growth. This is anti-cross and therefore anti-Christ.
None of these devices that promote the soul are related to Jesus Christ and the example that He gave us. The Devil's temptation of Jesus focused upon the soul and body. He is using the same tactics today. Jesus overcame the temptation because His spirit was not in subjection to the soul and body (or the flesh). Both the soul and the body were subjected to "the cross" in the wilderness temptation. The spirit, in communion with God, stood fast against the desires of the soul and the needs of the body. In the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus withstood the desires of His soul and the escape of His body and said " Not My will but thine be done". If His soul was in control He would just have insisted "Take this cup from Me". LUK 22:41 And He withdrew from them about a stone's throw, and He knelt down and {began} to pray, LUK 22:42 saying, "Father, if Thou art willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Thine be done." LUK 22:43 Now an angel from heaven appeared to Him, strengthening Him. LUK 22:44 And being in agony He was praying very fervently; and His sweat became like drops of blood, falling down upon the ground. It was certainly not that there was no struggle but that the spirit stood firm and the soul submitted. The struggle was in both body and in soul but He overcame, being strengthened in His spirit.
2CO 4:4 in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. The deceiver of this world works his deception in the minds of the unbelieving. It is certainly not that believers are immune from his deception if they are unbelieving. The Devil assaults the soul. That means the emotions, the will, the reason and the desires. The history of the person who has been deceived is the history of the natural man. His history is of one lie after another, creating goals and purpose foreign to the Creator. He has a false hope, a false faith, a false salvation, creating a false religion. Satan's own kingdom rules by deception in the soul. Therefore he is the enemy of our souls. Whenever he can access the natural man, the fallen man, the soulish man, he presses his advantage and establishes his government. This government permits all kinds of perversion and immorality so that the person thinks he is free. Man seeks satisfaction and identity in this counterfeit freedom but must strive after further deceptions, vanity and illusions. Reality eludes fallen man so he seeks greater perversion until his life is so disgusting that death is welcome.
The Devil tailors his deception to fit every kind of person. The religious person is deceived by rituals and candles and robes and a counterfeit of God's desire to be worshiped in the spirit. Truth is also perverted into a lie. The immoral, the heathen and the ungodly are deceived with a whole system of perversion. Those who lean toward an intellectual vanity are deceived by "deeper truths" and complicated doctrines that are difficult to understand. Those who have been wounded and hurt by others are deceived by alcohol and drugs as the way of escape. Those who are "psychic" are deceived by a counterfeit light. 2CO 11:14 And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. He counterfeits the true church with his "synagogue of Satan". He counterfeits the work of God with false signs. 2TH 2:9 {that is,} the one whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders, 2TH 2:10 and with all the deception of wickedness for those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved. 2TH 2:11 And for this reason God will send upon them a deluding influence so that they might believe what is false, 2TH 2:12 in order that they all may be judged who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in wickedness.
Most of us have witnessed a false Christian life or counterfeit conversions with counterfeit guidance. We have heard counterfeit teaching which present the doctrines of demons as the truth. There is a counterfeit "baptism of the Holy Spirit" with false tongues. As long as man has in himself that which corresponds to Satan he is subjected to deception. That is one reason God has designed the true church as a safeguard for the immature.
The real deception is the original deception. That is that man can have the knowledge of good and evil separate from and independent of God, Himself. It is this "knowledge" that has subjected man to the prison of his mind and has made man a slave of his appetites. This knowledge has excluded man from the real knowledge. JOH 17:3 "And this is eternal life, that they may know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent. Rather this knowledge has led man into darkness. EPH 4:17 This I say therefore, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, EPH 4:18 being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart; It is startling that Paul is writing this warning to the church. ACT 26:18 to open their eyes so that they may turn from darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God, in order that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among those who have been sanctified by faith in Me. 2CO 4:6 For God, who said, "Light shall shine out of darkness," is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.
The Devil is engaged in an all-out war to destroy the gospel or the messengers of the gospel in order to extend his kingdom through deception and ignorance. Those who lean towards the soul as their source of knowledge are open game for the Devil. He works in the ego, the soul, the self-life. He deceives through the reason, the will and the emotions. This does not just apply to those who are unregenerate but to those who are born again but still live out from the soul. That is out of their will, their reason and their emotions. In some ways the born-again , who are living out from the soul, are more dangerous to the church than the unregenerate because they become religious and unteachable. They arrive at unscriptural and unreasonable conclusions and form ideas out of their own minds that are hostile to the Kingdom of God. Both their knowledge and their understanding are defective but they cling to their ideas out of the emotion. Even though the scripture is clear, they insist it ought not be that way.
Since even children of God, who live out from the soul, are subject to the Devil's deception it explains how false doctrines, cults, extremes, legalism and soulish preaching are birthed. All these arrive at unsound, untrue, weird and far-out doctrines and experiences. They point to their doctrines or their experience as proof that they are correct. It is out of the soul that counterfeit revelations come and are taken up and developed out of the intellect. They then hold to these "revelations" with the emotions.
There is hardly any end to the possibilities of deception in the natural, soulish and immature man. No book would hold them all because new ones are devised daily. The point is this: Jesus Christ is "The Man" who was not and now cannot be deceived. Man's only security is to be "in Christ" and to be subject to His Lordship and His Headship. "In Christ" means in His Kingdom and under His government, walking within the laws of the Kingdom. These laws are put into our minds and are written upon our hearts. HEB 8:10 "\For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel\ \After those days, says the Lord\: \I will put My laws into their minds\, \And I will write them upon their hearts\. \And I will be their God\, \And they shall be My people\. HEB 10:16 #"\This is the covenant that I will make with them\ \After those days, says the Lord\: \I will put My laws upon their heart\, \And upon their mind I will write them, These laws are spiritual laws that are read and obeyed out of the spirit of man.
The deception of legalism is that it seeks to apply it's own laws that supersede the laws of the New Covenant. They devise outward laws that replace the inward laws. If you obey the outward laws you are acceptable to the group even if you are ignoring the inward laws. Legalism, therefore, must work within the soul and toward the natural, soulish man. The spiritual man will reject legalism because his confidence is in God and His laws. Legalism is just another deception of the Devil.
It is not reasonable to separate the victory of Christ over the world, the flesh and the Devil from the person of Christ. It was the Person that produced the victory. It is out of the mercy and grace of God that He permits us to participate in Christ's victory by being "In Christ". It is also out of God's mercy and grace that "Christ is in us" producing a similar victory experientially. That is experimentally, as based in personal experience, rather than doctrine or theory. The first victory is imputed while the latter is imparted. Possessing the victory by personal experience is the result of Christ working His victory into us. The power to change is from the Holy Spirit who has been given unto us. The Holy Spirit works within our spirit and the Spirit of Christ works His character and victory in us through our spirit. The soulish person isolates himself from this inward work and suffers loss for eternity. The soulish person may participate in Christ's victory that is imputed but isolates himself from the imparted victory.
God's purpose is to bring many sons to the same glory as Christ. To do that He is working to conform us to the image of Jesus. That requires that we grow up in all things into Christ. We then will come to the measure of the stature and of the fullness of Christ. All this requires that we come to His measure and stature and image experimentally in personal experience.
The fact that Jesus Christ was authentic man and triumphed over the world, the flesh and the Devil is our hope that we also may succeed "in Christ" by Christ being in us. The fact that the Holy Spirit has come to dwell in us and to teach us and to lead us is our down payment upon that hope. God has done for us exceedingly, abundantly above all that He did for the first Adam. The first Adam had the opportunity but chose the way of the soul. Now to participate, we must choose the way of the Spirit and the way of spirit. Now that we have begun in the spirit, will we then be perfected by the flesh? Not a chance! Only the spirit is the way of life, the flesh is the way of death. There is a way that seems right to man, but the end of it is death. That is the way of the flesh. (soul and body in control)
When we ask this question: "What is man", we must see the answer in "what is Christ". First He is God's ideal man. Looking for anything less than "the man Christ Jesus" will give us a distorted view of "What man is". Only the new creation "in Christ" can identify what man is.
Jesus Christ came into this world completely innocent and without a sin nature. However, He was not perfected as a man. HEB 2:10 For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to perfect the author of their salvation through sufferings. HEB 5:8 Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered. HEB 5:9 And having been made perfect, He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation. While Jesus Christ was innocent in every way, He was perfected by the obedience and moral choices that He made moment by moment. He transposed innocence into Holiness by the life that He lived. It is not correct to separate holiness from life experienced. In that case holiness is just a doctrine. Jesus gave us the pattern for all time of how a holy life was to be developed. Jesus' life and doctrines were synonymous. His actions were a demonstration of His words. Holiness was made visible in His life. The Kingdom of Heaven was seen here on the earth. True holiness for the believer must be the manifestation of His life through us. We live by the life of another. That life is the life of Holiness. It is manifested only when we walk in harmony with that life and in the same obedience by which He was perfected. Some man designed holiness that requires a certain outward appearance is not even close to the Holiness of Christ or true Holiness.
We are once again restored to innocence through faith in the cleansing and redeeming blood of Jesus Christ. Christ's death on Calvary is sufficient to return man back to innocence. Now a process must begin to bring man to the same measure and stature as Christ. Man must grow up in all things into Christ. God must continue His work until Christ is formed in us. The only standard of the Christian life is Christ Himself. All man's counterfeit standards are hopeless, helpless and futile. No matter how lofty they may seem, they have no power to change man into their likeness.
The problem with starting with man to design a system of growth and maturity and holiness is that man only has his own wits and philosophy to guide him to his desired end. Man addresses his own weaknesses and then devises a system to improve himself.
Today it is popular to offer a system of " Christian psychology" to solve the problems of man and to help him take a step upward in life and holiness. Psychology is the study of the soul or of natural life. Christian psychology should be the study of the life of Christ and not of man. The study of man is just psychology. Natural psychology is an introspection (or the soul-searching of the person. Even if they find out what is wrong, they have no power to change the person. To understand ourselves is of no benefit. We should be understanding the Life and Spirit of Christ that is in us and seeks to manifest Christ to us and through us. Our faith then is directed toward Christ who is in us rather than the failure of our own natural life. Psychology is more the study of first Adam and his offspring. It seeks to identify and correct man's failures and his bad attitudes and low character by identifying that Adam is not all that he should be. The scriptures already have declared that fact as eternally true. Adam cannot be changed by counseling or by pointing out his failures. No matter what his failures, he is incurable. God has only ordained death and burial for the first man and all his offspring. Counseling or strengthening the natural man is counter-productive. Death and burial is the only thing that will solve his problems.
In God's economy there are only two men. The first Adam and the last Adam. There is the first man and the second man. There are no other men. All of the human race then is divided into two groups, those who are in the first Adam and those who are in the last Adam. Within all humanity there are two races, Jews and Gentiles. Whatever is not Jew is Gentile. God's eternal purpose is to combine these two races into one new man.
EPH 2:14 For He Himself is our peace, who made both {groups into} one, and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall, EPH 2:15 by abolishing in His flesh the enmity, {which is} the Law of commandments {contained} in ordinances, that in Himself He might make the two into one new man, {thus} establishing peace, EPH 2:16 and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by it having put to death the enmity. That NEW MAN is Jesus Christ. Those who refuse the transition will remain in the first Adam and be included in his fate. Those who do make the transition into the last Adam will be included in His rewards and His glory. Then it is necessary that we understand these two men.
THE FIRST MAN THE SECOND MAN
(1) Natural man (1) Spiritual man.
(2) Carnal mind (2) Mind of Christ
(3) Living soul (3) Life giving spirit
(4) From earth.Earthly (4) From heaven.Heavenly
(5) Death (5) Resurrection.
(6) Flesh and blood (6) Kingdom of God
(7) All die (7) All made alive
(8) Perishable (8) Imperishable
(9) Sin (9) Righteousness
1CO 2:14 But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised.
1CO 2:15 But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no man.
1CO 2:16 For \who has known the mind of the Lord, that he should instruct Him\? But we have the mind of Christ.
ROM 5:17 For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.
1CO 15:45 So also it is written, "The first \man,\ Adam, \became a living soul.\" The last Adam {became} a life-giving spirit.
1CO 15:47 The first man is from the earth, earthy; the second man is from heaven. 1CO 15:50 Now I say this, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.
1CO 15:21 For since by a man {came} death, by a man also {came} the resurrection of the dead.
1CO 15:22 For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive. The first Adam was made "a living soul". As a living soul Adam, had the ability to function and to fulfill the purpose of God. Adam had the capacity to rule over the earth. He was given dominion over all the works of God's hands. He was not given dominion over himself. God was to be his Lord and Master. This was all within Adam's capacity as an innocent and natural man. God's design seemed to be for Adam to turn his natural life into spiritual life by obedience in a similar way that Jesus Christ was perfected. Adam had to reject eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and eat freely from the Tree of Life. When Adam assumed dominion over himself, he corrupted God's whole design and lost his dominion over creation. Satan immediately assumed that dominion. He was not given it by God but assumed dominion by default. There was no one to challenge his rulership.
Adam's sin immediately introduced them to self-realization. They knew they were naked. They feared God's presence. They knew that the relationship was broken. They had self-knowledge of good and evil. They didn't have to depend upon God to define what was good and what was evil. God had made that distinction for them when He defined the two central trees. Now self-knowledge made man independent of God.
One error of human psychology is that it seeks to help man "find himself" and "define himself" and to "accept himself" the way he is. It seeks to help man stand on his own two feet and make his own decisions. To take dominion over himself. I have the right to myself and to design my life to fulfill my own goals. These are the very things that got him into trouble in the first place. All this is counter-productive to bring man back to his normal state. One of the requirements to be Christ's disciple is to forsake yourself and your right to make decisions for yourself. Sin is man entering into decisions that God has not ordained. This sets up a breach in the relationship between God and man. Man independent of God is on his own. If this is temporary freedom, man has it. However, nothing works like it was designed to function. Man is independent but lost. The basic nature of Adam's sin was that he assumed the right to himself and to use God's creation for his own end.
If this was just Adam's problem we could look at it objectively, however, this is every man's problem so we must look at it subjectively. If we refuse to see the subjective nature of sin, we reject the solution.
The great difficulty in assessing sin is that man is now just natural. He is earthly and he is dead in trespasses and sins. As an earthly being, he is only conscious of earthly things. The natural man does not receive the things of the spirit because spiritual things are only comprehended by spiritual people. How then can God break through and reveal the Truth to the natural man? The Holy Spirit has been sent to convict of sin, of righteousness and of the judgement that is to come. Then man must make his decision to repent or to continue on the same course toward destruction. Repentance, without changing from the first Adam to the Last Adam, is not conversion. Without the transition from the natural to the spiritual there is no conversion. Joining the church as a living soul without receiving the Life Giving Spirit is not conversion.
This Life Giving Spirit is not a reformation of our ways where we join the church and start living right. It is the entrance of the Spirit from God who has come in transforming power. Conversion is not man trying harder to live a better life. It is the Life of God in man, manifesting His Life. We have depreciated God's salvation down to a ritual of "say these words after me". In most cases we might as well say the pledge of allegiance to the flag for all that happens. We can "say these words" with no revelation of sin, with no repentance and with no conversion. Unless there has been a transition from the natural to the spiritual, from the earthly to the heavenly, from death to life and from the first Adam to the last Adam we should seriously consider whether there has been a genuine conversion.
If Light is not dispensing the darkness within a life, we might wonder what went wrong. If all things are not becoming new we should wonder why. If the old man is alive and well and strong to continue to function, we might ask why. If the new man is comatose something went wrong. If our old habits are not being remolded into a new manner of life by the new spirit under the anointing of the Holy Spirit, we should seek for an answer. If we have not been raised up and seated with Him in heavenly places there must be a reason. If there is no knowledge or revelation of the Kingdom of God something has gone wrong. JOH 3:3 Jesus answered and said to him, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." If he is born again, he should see the Kingdom Of God. JOH 3:5 Jesus answered, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. If the person does not submit to the government of God through obedience he surely has not entered the Kingdom of God.
Sin does dwell in all human nature and we all may be subject to many failures but we have to see from scripture that sin is abnormal and cannot be accepted as necessary. When we see sin as normal, we will also see holiness as abnormal and strange. The danger is to become sympathetic to sin and to feel sorry for the weak. True conversion is supposed to make strong and equip for overcoming. If a person continues to practice sin it means something has gone wrong with the conversion.
1JO 3:6 No one who abides in Him sins; no one who sins has seen Him or knows Him.
1JO 3:7 Little children, let no one deceive you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous;
1JO 3:8 the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, that He might destroy the works of the devil.
1JO 3:9 No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.
1JO 3:10 By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother.
The natural, earthly and soulish man will cling to natural, earthly and soulish relationships. The spiritual and heavenly man will cling to spiritual and heavenly relationships. Natural and earthly relationships are seen in LUK 14:26 "If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple. LUK 14:27 "Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.
These all represent the natural and earthly affections that attract and hold the natural and earthly person. It is just not possible to cling to both the earthly and the natural and the spiritual and the heavenly. They are of different realms. His own life is also in the same category of all the rest. We certainly can't ignore our own life but we can sacrifice it for the heavenly call. This sacrifice is related to carrying our own cross. To be a disciple of the Lord means to be taught by Him. His teaching is of another realm that is spiritual and heavenly. The natural, earthly and soulish are oblivious and unaware that He is saying anything. Whatever is holding us in the earthly realms must be sacrificed. If a clash comes between the earthly and the heavenly, the natural and the spiritual, we must sacrifice whatever is holding us back from being discipled. That includes our own life also. Let me hang around with the earthly that I might win the earthly is a deception. It is the separation that gains their attention and permits the Holy Spirit to begin his work of conviction. It is true that we should count the cost but we also count on God.
Some of the cults point to Jesus as our example and deceive many as being Christian. In Christian Science, Mrs. Eddy says that Jesus was the best man to ever walk on the face of this earth and He manifested "the christ" in a greater degree than any other man. This acknowledges Jesus but is not Christian. Even if we pattern our lives after Jesus, that does not make us Christians according to scriptural conversion. The first Adam can pattern his life after all sorts of men and still just be Adam. We can pattern our lives just by common sense out of the intellect and a desire to improve ourselves. The goal is still ourselves. To sacrifice ourselves is quite another thing. The transition from the earthly to the heavenly is more than patterning our lives to honor another. It requires the power of God to blast us from the natural into the spiritual. It also requires our permission, our co-operation and our obedience.
When we seek to know Christ, we must know more than bible facts about Christ. To know Christ is more than logical research. Faith is very much a part of our search. Spiritual discernment and revelation are essential to know Christ. The scholars of Jesus' day were constantly searching the scriptures but never recognized their messiah. They read the words but had no revelation. It just requires more than the intellect of man to receive spirit and life from the scripture. Those who " totally surrender" to a requirement of consecration are not equal to those who surrender to Jesus Christ out of revelation of who He is. Devotion to a system is not the same thing as devotion to Christ. There are great sermons preached on following in the foot steps of Jesus but who can do that out of their own strength or their own cleverness.
The New Covenant begins in all that God does for us and puts into us. The power is all from God and is received on the basis of faith. Man can not generate any thing out from himself that empowers him to fulfil the New Covenant. Since man is just dust, God can't get anything out of man that He didn't first put into man. Only what God pours in can then be poured out. First the infilling from God and then the outflow to others. When man tries to exceed that principle he is in the flesh. It is obvious that this is true of the Holy Spirit. We must first be filled with the Spirit before there can be a manifestation of the Spirit. If we are constantly being filled with the Spirit there would be a constant outflowing of the Spirit to others. This could be in deliverance or evangelism or miracles or healings or discerning of spirits or whatever manifestation was necessary to meet the need.
The New Covenant must begin in us as the "LIFE" of Christ in us. No life that we possessed before the new birth will help us in fulfilling the New Covenant. The "life" of the Lord Jesus Christ is the LIFE of God. In LIFE they are one. Jesus Christ is not two personalities in one body. He is the Son of God and the son of man but He is The Ideal man. His life is from God and His body and soul ( natural life ) were from the Holy Spirit overshadowing Mary. In "LIFE" He was always God. In the body and soul ( psuche ) he was the son of man. It was His psuche that He laid down and poured out at Calvary unto death. The "LIFE" of God is beyond death. It is eternal LIFE. He poured out His soul unto death. He gave His back ( body ) to the smiters.
The doctrine that says that Jesus was a man who developed until He became God is a serious error. Jesus was the Word of God that took on the body of flesh. In His body He set His soul to do the will of God. HEB 10:5 Therefore, when He comes into the world, He says, "Sacrifice and offering Thou hast not desired, But a body Thou hast prepared for Me; HEB 10:7 "Then I said, 'Behold, I have come (In the roll of the book it is written of Me) To do Thy will, O God.'" It was in His body that He carried out the will of God. His body became the sacrifice of God for the sins of men. " Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world". MAT 26:38 Then He *said to them, "My soul (psuche) is deeply grieved, to the point of death; remain here and keep watch with Me." JOH 12:27 "Now My soul (psuche) has become troubled; and what shall I say, 'Father, save Me from this hour'? But for this purpose I came to this hour. MAT 10:39 "He who has found his life (Psuche) shall lose it, and he who has lost his life (psuche) for My sake shall find it.
ROM 5:10 For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. (Zoe) COL 3:4 When Christ, who is our life, (Zoe) is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory. In scripture psuche is used as the life of man and Zoe is used as the Life of God. JOH 1:4 In Him was life, (Zoe) and the life (Zoe) was the light of men. Jesus possessed both psuche and Zoe. JOH 5:26 "For just as the Father has life (Zoe) in Himself, even so He gave to the Son also to have life (Zoe) in Himself; The psuche came via. Mary while the Zoe was the Life of God. JOH 11:25 Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life; (Zoe) he who believes in Me shall live (Zao) even if he dies,
Jesus Christ was complete man. Spirit, soul and body. His Life, in which He was one with the Father, was the uncreated, eternal Life of God. As the Word Of God He always possessed the Life of God. The Word was God.
Unredeemed man has life ( soul, psuche) and a body. His spirit is not functioning. The redeemed man has spirit, soul (psuche, life) and a body. What makes the redeemed man unique is that he also has Life (Zoe). He has received the Spirit of Life (Zoe) in Christ Jesus. ROM 8:2 For the law of the Spirit of life (Zoe) in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. No matter how religious a man is, if he has not received the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus, he is still unregenerate and therefore is lost. He has not made the transition from the first Adam to the last adam. The last Adam is the Life giving Spirit.
This complete and ideal man, Christ Jesus, was also anointed with the Holy Spirit and with power. ACT 10:38 "{You know of} Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and with power, and {how} He went about doing good, and healing all who were oppressed by the devil; for God was with Him. In that same way, we also must be born again and receive the new spirit so that we are spirit, soul (psuche) and body. We must receive the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus. This is the Spirit of Christ. ROM 8:9 However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. It is by the Spirit of Christ ( the Spirit of Life) that we receive His Life (Zoe). Then it is God's plan for us to also be filled and anointed with the Holy Spirit and power.
The disciples were regenerated in John 20:22 when Jesus Christ breathed or blowed his Spirit into them. His Spirit is also Holy. JOH 20:22 And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and *said to them, " Receive the Holy Spirit. Then He told His disciples to wait until they received the Holy Spirit and were endued with power from on high.
In the same way that Jesus Christ, the son of man, was equipped to serve God and do the will of God, we are equipped with His Life, His Spirit, and the Holy Spirit. It is by his Spirit, the Spirit of Christ, that we recognize and acknowledge God as Father. GAL 4:6 And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!" ROM 8:15 For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, "Abba! Father!" 1PE 1:11 seeking to know what person or time the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating as He predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow. However, the gospel of Christ is not preached by the Spirit of Christ under the New Covenant. 1PE 1:12 It was revealed to them that they were not serving themselves, but you, in these things which now have been announced to you through those who preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven-- things into which angels long to look. The Holy Spirit has been sent to reveal Christ through the anointed preaching of the gospel by those who are filled with the Holy Spirit.
Another error that has been presented is the we can understand Jesus Christ by understanding ourselves. It is not possible to dissect man and discover Christ any more than we can dissect a frog and discover man. Man cannot know God, Christ or himself except by revelation of the Holy Spirit. All rationalization of "What is man" is headed for error. Man of dust who has fallen from the original creation cannot discover man through the rationalization of the soul. The only way open for us to discover "What is man" is through the revelation of Christ, the ideal man. This revelation only comes to us by the Holy Spirit. JOH 16:14 "He shall glorify Me; for He shall take of Mine, and shall disclose {it} to you. JOH 16:15 "All things that the Father has are Mine; therefore I said, that He takes of Mine, and will disclose {it} to you. The disclosure or revelation is the work of the Holy Spirit. JOH 15:26 "When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, { that is} the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, He will bear witness of Me, JOH 14:26 "But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you.
Jesus was limited in His ministry and miracles in the same way we are. LUK 5:17 And it came about one day that He was teaching; and there were {some} Pharisees and teachers of the law sitting {there,} who had come from every village of Galilee and Judea and {from} Jerusalem; and the power of the Lord was {present} for Him to perform healing. He had to minister with the anointing in the same way that we do, because He ministered as the son of man. Jesus was teaching but discerned that the Holy Spirit was releasing power to heal. Jesus stopped teaching and began healing. ACT 10:38 "{You know of} Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and with power, and {how} He went about doing good, and healing all who were oppressed by the devil; for God was with Him.