The Question: WHAT IS MAN?
What Is the Ideal Man? Christ Jesus!
The Son of God and The Son of Man
God’s Design: All Things are in Subjection To Man
Man Will Be Crowned With Glory and Honor
May 9, 2018
The Question is this; What is man? How did he get here? When did he arrive? Was he left here by space travelers? This questions are endless.
God says that Man was created to rule over the World Yet to Come! In fact God says He appointed man to rule over all the Work of His Hands. God created man to be lower than the Angels. God says that He left nothing that was not subjected to man!
Eph 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, 4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love , He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved. 7 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace 8 which He lavished on us.
God did all this before He laid the foundation for the earth, before time was created, God chose us in Christ and appointed “man” over all the work of His hands! He put all things in subjection to man. God did NOT put everything under or in subjection to the natural man. Every man, that has been redeemed, is restored to dominion over the earth; IN CHRIST!
Christ Jesus (the man) has already obtained all authority over heaven and earth. What waits for us is to be brought (to grow) to that Glory and Honor. Jesus Christ was that man that was made lower than the Angels and that God has put all things in subjection to Him. This came about by Jesus’ (the Christ), suffering of death and then being cr0wed with Glory and Honor! By all these things He was made Perfect and became the Author of Our Great Salvation!
Heb 2:5 For He did not subject to angels the world to come, concerning which we are speaking. 6 But one has testified somewhere, saying, "WHAT IS MAN, THAT THOU REMEMBEREST HIM? OR THE SON OF MAN, THAT THOU ART CONCERNED ABOUT HIM? 7 "THOU HAST MADE HIM FOR A LITTLE WHILE LOWER THAN THE ANGELS; THOU HAST CROWNED HIM WITH GLORY AND HONOR, AND HAST APPOINTED HIM OVER THE WORKS OF THY HANDS; 8 THOU HAST PUT ALL THINGS IN SUBJECTION UNDER HIS FEET." For in subjecting all things to him, He left nothing that is not subject to him. But now we do not yet see all things subjected to him. 9 But we do see Him who has been made for a little while lower than the angels, namely, Jesus, because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone. 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.
God has revealed His Eternal Purpose concerning “man” and His Eternal Purpose mirrors His purpose concerning the First Adam; That is for “Man” to have dominion over the earth and the things on the earth.
For in subjecting all things to him, He left nothing that is not subject to him. But now we do not yet see all things subjected to him.
What God has revealed to us, concerning His Eternal Purpose, is Jesus Christ, God’s Ideal Man. God has reveled Jesus as the prototype Son and revealed that every man (person) is to grow up to this Standard Of Man. To accomplish this purpose God has made a New Covenant with us, provided the Spirit of Christ and sent the Holy Spirit to dwell in us!
Christ Jesus has appointed various Ministries such as Apostles, Prophets, Pastors, Evangelists and Teachers to accomplish this growth and development in all true believers! No Christian should be satisfied with anything less than God’s predestined goal for man! That is to grow up to be like Christ Jesus and to be prepared to rule over all the work of His hands! Jesus Christ has already been seated on His Throne in Heaven.
Eph 4:11 And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fulness of Christ.
Christ Jesus IS GOD’S Ideal Man and God has designed and planned for “functioning Christianity” to develop all believers until they obtain to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fulness of Christ.
Therefore, Jesus is the Prototype Man, God’s Ideal Man, to which all true believers must grow up to duplicate. Even to the fullness of Christ!
prototype >noun 1 a first or preliminary form from which other forms are developed or copied. 2 a typical example of something.
Christ Jesus has become out Great High Priest. The Kingdom is a Kingdom of Priests. We are supposed “to grow up to be like Him” to become a part of His Body. That, now, is the body of our Great High Priest. We must grow up to “become like him” to become a part of His Body
Bible teachers, in the past, have tried to identify the natural “man,” by his natural functions, but as Christ’s body. This cannot be not be true of the natural person, simply because true Christianity is not of the natural man. Why? That is because the natural man is just the natural descent from the first Adam. Therefore, our present “ministry in the Church” is focused upon the New Creation Inner Man. This MAN is invisible to the natural eye. This man is neither Greek, nor Jew nor male and female, he is a new kind of being! A New Species who was born of God, by God’s Sperma.
Now the real question is this; Does the new species of man have a spirit soul and body? The new man is not poor or rich, he is not Greek or Jew and he is not natural nor is he male or female, so how much like the former man is he?
1Thes 5:23 Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
This is the scripture that has confused this issue of man being a three part person. Whether or not the natural man is a three part person is not the real issue! Why? The natural man is eliminated in the Water of Baptism. This is confirmed by scripture in Romans 6 chapter! Never the less, this “three part person” has been the central focus of many books from the past.
We have seen that scripture identifies man as being sanctified (set apart) in spirit, soul and body. It is assumed that all three areas of man had to be in operation for man to fulfil the purpose for which God created him.
As the doctrine continues it declares; 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 by the soul that man functions in human life on this earth. In the soul, man's relationship is with his environment and the earth in particular. In other words the original soul is of the natural man and for the earth realm.
The three elements of the body are (1) Flesh for physical substance (2) Bone for structure (3) Blood for the residence (location) of the physical life. (The life is in the blood). The physical body was created to function on this earth and to carry the soul and the spirit around with it.
Now, while we can identify these three aspects of visible man as being spirt, soul and body, we must ask if it is correct to separate them into three isolated parts of the New Man. According to scripture Man IS spirit, soul and body. Can anything less than this be considered as created man? No! This obviously is normal for the natural man.
The doctrinal argument continues; in a similar way God is also a trinity, the same as man is also a trinity. However, not three separate beings in one body. When God created man, man was primarily spirit. It was in the spirit that man had his relationship and communion with God. According to the doctrine, 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 fulfilling His eternal purpose (7) God given authority for man's dominion and to carry out God's will and for fulfilling His purpose.
The result of the fall in Genesis 3 was that man died in his spirit and therefore, in his relationship with God who is Spirit. The function of “spirit in man”, as God created spirit 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 diverted 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 death and to the perversions and deceptions 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."
Following the fall, instead of being spiritual, man was now called flesh. Romans 7 and Galatians 5 explain how the flesh now responds in hostility to God. We also see that the main rebellion within the soul and body (or flesh) is to be hostile to the spirit. Instead of man’s person being in subjection to the spirit, as God created it to function, the man of flesh now wars against the spirit! (This is still a visible fact today among the natural man)
Because of this Genesis 3 disruption and the ultimate death of Adam life, which is the life of natural man, then this man, is no longer the same person that God created. The man, in rebellion to God, lost his image and likeness of God. He no longer had the spiritual faculties for fellowship with God. Therefore he lost the voice of God speaking to him!
This (survival of natural man) caused confusion concerning man’s calling and man’s universal ignorance of the purpose of God for man. His spiritual understanding and knowledge was darkened. Since man lost the function of the spirit, he also lost his dominion and authority, and the communication that was related to the spirit of man.
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 “God’s Spirit” and to spiritual things and hostile to the God who created him.
Man is constantly attracted to the occult spirits, which function as the counterfeit human spirit, to lead man farther astray from the purpose and Life of God.
Man, as we know him in his fallen state, is no longer acceptable in the Kingdom of God and unusable to function in God's Eternal Purpose. The extent of man's uselessness, in God’s Future Plan, is understood by the fact that God can only pass eternal judgement upon the natural man because of his uselessness.
God has enacted the sentence of death upon the old man, the natural man or the fallen man. The natural man, having the life of Adam, because he is of the genealogy of Adam, has the sentence of death upon him! There is no escape, no pardon and no probation from the earth realm except by death and burial. There is NO plea deal and no earth person can post bond and set man free.
This “doctrine” has been accepted by millions of Christians for several years! We have no questions about this concerning the natural man and consider the “doctrine” to be valid and relevant to the church! We consider that most of this doctrine is true.
However, should the present “church” be that concerned about the spirit, soul and body of the natural man? Yes! Why? It is a genuine concern as an evangelistic Kingdom message. The Natural man has a natural body, a natural soul and a natural spirit!
Man can only be accepted by God on the basis of Christ Jesus and His Sacrifice and His righteousness. Even if man believes in the sacrifice of Calvary and is born again, the outward and natural man is still condemned to death. That may still be “someday” as is known by the natural man.
Heb 9:26 Otherwise, He would have needed to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now once at the consummation of the ages He has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. 27 And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment, 28 so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, shall appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await Him.
Therefore, in the New Covenant Times, the natural, soulish, old man must be included in Christ's death and burial. There seems to be an special emphasis in the scripture on the necessity of “death” when referring to the natural man! Death has a very important place in the economy of God.
Romans 6:5 For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death,
certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, 6 knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; 7 for he who has died is freed from sin. 8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, 9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him. 10 For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. 11 Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
The be “Christian” it is essential that we enter into death and into burial to free us from our connection to the first man. But after that we need to receive Resurrection Life; ZOE!
Rom 6:22 But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life.
The Resurrection Life is Eternal Life because it has already passed through Death and Burial. It LIVES forever.
The Old Testament is saturated in death. The many sacrifices are a testimony of the necessity of death and the fire is a clear testimony of the destruction of the old life. This provides a “type” for the New Covenant believer. What the Old Testament believer lacked was “the resurrection life” into a completely different kind of life, the Resurrection "Life; Zoe." That hope of the “Function” of a New Creation Inner Man having received a Resurrection Life is reserved exclusively for the New Covenant person who has experienced the first Seven Outer Court Foundations.
God gave Israel the Tabernacle of Moses and He has given the New Covenant believer Tabernacle of God. The Tabernacle of Moses is a copy and type of the Tabernacle of God. Jesus Christ has entered into the Tabernacle of God and is seated at the right hand of God. The Tabernacle of Moses has three places. The Outer Court in which the Priests were prepared, The Holy Place where the Priests functioned and the Most Holy Place where God dwelt. There were VEILS between all three of the locations.
The Tabernacle of God is revealed in Revelation 21 as New Earth, New Heaven and as New Jerusalem. All these three of these places are Heaven! All New Covenant believers will end up in one of these three places. The New Earth or the New Heaven or the New Jerusalem. At calvary the Veil between the New Heaven and the New Jerusalem was torn from top to bottom. Now since Calvary, the New Covenant believers who have grown up in all things into Christ, will have access to the New Jerusalem. These will rule with the MAN, Christ Jesus!
The death of Christ Jesus on Calvary and the all inclusive provision of His Sacrifice, which was accepted by God, has been attributed to us! THIS Perfect SACRIFICE is the basis for our Death and Burial and our Receiving His Resurrection Life! This is available to us if we have participated in Christ Jesus’ sacrifice. Why?
Christ, in His resurrection, has made resurrection available to all men who are "in Christ". This New Creation Inner Man, having received the New Resurrection Life and becoming the New Species of Person, who has been born of God, is alone the foundation for the Christian Life. Anything less than this is NOT Christian!
However, death and burial of the old, natural man and of the old life, must precede the receiving of the New Resurrection Life. This experience is what transforms us into a New Species of Person, called Christian! All True Christians have received the New Resurrection Life! This is what takes place in Proper Baptism. There are no exceptions to this required exchange of life! This exchange of natural life for His Resurrection Life are received in Believer Baptism according to the Scripture.
The New Man in Christ has received HIS New Resurrection Life! The New Man in Christ has experienced a Personal Death and burial of the Old life. That comes about when we enter into Christ Jesus’ Death, Burial and Resurrection! This Resurrection Life, the Christian receives, is the Life that has already passed through death. It is not possible to speak of the “New Creation Inner Man” prior to his receiving Resurrection Life.
The “sting of the next death” is destroyed when we understand that without the death of the old man and his life and existence, in Romans Six, there can be received no genuine Life of Resurrection. Christianity is by receiving Christ’s Resurrection Life! Why? There is no other Eternal Life available to us!
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, carnal and fallen man. That dead natural man, who is dead in trespasses and sin and residing in darkness, is no longer the one that God created for His purposes. The necessity for the Cross surely has it's basis in sins, sin, rebellion and lawlessness and it alone handles the death to the natural man problem.
However, the Cross of Christ provides something more for us in Christ Jesus than forgiveness of sins! He makes the Living and Abiding Word of God, the Spirit of Christ, available for The New Inner Man to receive”! This Spirit of Christ and His Resurrection Life come into us to replace and substitute for the natural life, soulish man who is condemned to death. That is why it is "Christ in us, the hope of glory".
As many as received Him, the Word of God, He gave the right to become the sons of God. The only remedy that God has for the old man and his sins and perversions is Christ crucified on Calvary.
Even in the visible church, the natural man has become a spectacular and visible imitation of the "new inner man in Christ!" It is this New Man that God has designed to function in the Church He is Building. The old natural man can fake spirituality and offer prophetic knowledge. The Natural man can learn to preach the Scriptures! This natural and carnal operation produces a counterfeit religion. This “effect” is what we identify as "the current religious system."
God has clearly given His formal statement concerning the natural man but the natural man refuses to accept God's judgement. Even in the visible church we have courses and discipleship in "Self-expression", "Self- realization", "Self-worth" and all aspects of the old soulish man exalting himself! He exalts himself “as being a Christian.” However, True Christianity can only be related to the New Inner Man in Christ Jesus!
The disgrace is that counseling is provided by the natural man, and is for the old natural man, in the visible church, so that he may improve himself and become a better natural man.
In some places the old, soulish, natural man is taught how to act like a Christian. This is just the natural men building earthly monuments to the natural man! They do that by teaching the natural man how to improve himself by exalting his natural power, authority, ability, honor and glory. The natural man still 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 commit himself to death and burial that he might receive the impartation of the Resurrection Life! This IS the new LIFE of the New Inner Man, so that he may become a new Species of Person. Christianity IS this New Life received through death and Burial. This experience produces the New Inner Man cannot continue to exist prior to receiving Resurrection Life. Why? Resurrection Life is the source of the Life of the New Inner Man. Without that Resurrection Life, the new man is just a concept, a theory or a doctrine that has no basis in reality. Psycho-babble seeks to confirm the natural man is Christian if he will validate and believe their doctrines.
The psychological movements in "the natural church" inflates the attributes of the natural man by exaggerating, or by overstating, the natural man's ability to correct or even to heal himself by psychological means! It teaches the natural man how to refocus his thoughts and assert himself to take control of his life and situation. These are the foundations and superstructure of the "mind science religions" and "psycho-therapy" and “ the self improvement cults” that have always existed as a counterfeit religious system. The problem is that these “religious systems” have been accepted and their doctrines are offered as another active ministry of the visible church.
Many large churches have Psychologists on staff as ordained Christian Ministers. Only blinded fools, who are ignorant of God's judgement upon the old man, can present this kind of ministry! There are different methods of producing some kind of impractical scheme for social regeneration and social engineering which is outside the work of God through Jesus Christ. They become blinded to the work of the Cross of Christ, the provision of the Sacrifice Of Calvary, the impartation of the Spirit of Christ and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in our life.
God's regeneration in Christ Jesus means coming to a new Geneses. A completely new and exclusive new “beginning again” by being BORN Again. Calvary is ground zero for this regeneration and requires the death and burial of all that is natural, soulish and connected to the old and outer man. Not the death of the soul but the death of soulishness. That means where the substance and source of life is from the soul and the soul decides the issues of life. In other words, where the soul is master and lord of the person and determines his destiny.
The “death of soulishness” means that we must Begin Again by being Born Again! This requires that we learn everything about Eternal Resurrection Life from the operation of a New Inner Man Creation. The New Inner Man, who is born by the Word of God, the Spirit of Christ, is the New Christian man. This New Man requires the experiential Foundations and the development or the growth, of the New Inner Man. Real Christianity must be evaluated from a new insight into Authentic Spiritual Realms of understanding that originate in the New Inner Man.
In this new restoration of True Christianity, we all begin as Christian babies.
Growing in education and knowledge and in the memorizing and the becoming familiar with scripture, is not the same result as growing up into Christ Jesus by spiritual training. The former and popular training in preaching the knowledge, facts and informational kind of meetings,, can be totally devoid of the anointing of the Holy Spirit!
Growth is, therefore, just limited to the administration of the knowledge of the Pastor and the soulishness of his ministry. The result is advancing the knowledge and soulishness of the congregation. This is reverting back to the Tree of Knowledge, which brings death to the persons.
Spiritual training, that is the result of laying the proper foundations in each believer’s life, is essential to the beginning of the True Christian Life and to entrance into the Holy Place activity. I am guessing that this is the way to begin our activity in the Kingdom Government of God!
In rejecting the natural means, of natural ministry, requires the growth and the building up of each minister in the basic foundations of the Christian Life and the New Covenant structure of Spiritual Ministry! None of this can supersede the Cross of Christ in our personal life. Whatever replaces the Cross of Calvary, as our means of conversion and spiritual growth, should be immediately recognized as a deception. One of the tools of this deception is Psychological help for the natural man, rather that the elimination of the natural man through death burial and resurrection.
Jesus said "No one can be My disciple who does not take up his own cross daily and follow me". His Cross, as our own experience, is interpreted as negative because it means the death of all that is of ourselves. The positive aspect of the Cross is that it means resurrection into the new dimensions of True Christian Life and function. It is not possible to ignore the Cross, as personal experience, and still experience the benefits Resurrection Life.
This absence of the Experiential Cross and the death of all that is natural, is the basis of the lie of the natural mind cults. The mind cults are really soulish cults. When the soul and body has freedom of self expression, they call that spiritual growth. This is anti-cross and therefore anti-Christ.
None of these “spiritual devices” that promote “the function of the soul in the natural man” are inherently related to Jesus Christ and not related to the examples that He gave us. The Devil's temptation of Jesus focused upon the soul and body. The devil did that with Adam and Eve and he did it, again, with Jesus in the wilderness.
Why is he still using those tactics today? That is because they are still working in us! He is using the same tactics today in these popular soulish ministries. The TV religious shows are mostly soulish ministries!
Jesus overcame the temptation of the devil 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 needs of His body and said " Not My will but thine be done". If His soul had been in control He would have insisted upon his rights and demanded "Take this cup from Me".
Luke 22:41 And He withdrew from them about a stone's throw, and He knelt down and {began} to pray, 42 saying, "Father, if Thou art willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Thine be done." 43 Now an angel from heaven appeared to Him, strengthening Him. 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 His personal spirit stood firm and the soul submitted. The struggle was in both body and in soul but He overcame, being strengthened in His spirit.
2Cor 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 (souls) of the unbelieving. It is certainly not possible that believers are immune from his deception if they are still “unbelieving.” The Devil assaults the soul and the body. That means the emotions, the will, the reason and the desires.
The history of each person, who has been deceived, is the history of the natural 0man. His history is of believing one lie after another, creating goals and purpose foreign to the one set into action by our Creator.
He, Satan, has a false hope, a false faith, a false salvation, creating a false religion. Satan's own kingdom rules by deception in the soul of natural man. 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, but always within a false “religion.”
This government permits all kinds of perversion and immorality (well, I am only human) so that the person thinks he is free to practice his immorality. Man seeks satisfaction and identity in this counterfeit and deceptive freedom! This freedom causes man to still try to strive after further deceptions, vanity and illusions. These deceptions are manifested, by the natural person, in the body. Christian Reality eludes the fallen, carnal and the natural man so he seeks to practice a greater perversion! This is recorded in Romans the first chapter. In the end his life is so disgusting that death is welcome.
The Devil tailors his deception to fit every kind of personality. The religious person is deceived by rituals and candles and robes and a counterfeit of God's desire to be worshiped in the Spirit and in Truth. Truth is also perverted into a lie. The immoral, the heathen and the ungodly are deceived with a whole systems of gross perversions. 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.
2Cor 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.
2Thes 2:9 {that is,} the one whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders, 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. 011 And for this reason God will send upon them a deluding influence so that they might believe what is false, 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! This false conversion is produced by a counterfeit doctrine with a counterfeit guidance with a counterfeit ministry. We have heard a counterfeit “Christian” 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 natural man still has in himself that “first Adam” which has not been set free from Satan, he is subjected to easy deception. That is one reason God has designed the True, Pure Gold Church! “Jesus is building it” and the gates of Hell cannot withstand it. This is the “CHURCH” that is the goal and a safe haven for the immature.
The real deception today is just 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 carnal "knowledge" that has subjected man to the operation of his natural mind. It is this natural mind that has made man a slave of his appetites. This “carnal, natural knowledge” has prevented man from receiving the real Spiritual knowledge that is from above!
All this, that is natural, has made the natural man subject to psycho-babble prevalent in the mind-science groups and the natural cults.
John 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 human knowledge, that the devil has used to deceive us, has led the natural man into greater and greater 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, 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 confusing that Paul is writing this warning to a “spiritual” church or at least “spiritual” according to Bible experts!
Acts 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.
2Cor 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 of the Kingdom or to deceive the messengers of the Gospel of the Kingdom into preaching a different Gospel. Satan is always seeking to extend his kingdom through various deceptions and through ignorance of God’s Plan. Those who lean towards the soul and natural mind, as their source of knowledge and understanding, are open game for the Devil.
0 The devil works freely in the ego-centric, the soulish, in the selfish persons and also in the self- centered “Christian” ministers. The carnal ministry person promotes the body as the basis of beauty. Even the carnal person, with intellect, will deceive us with the mind, through the reason, the will and the emotions.
We should be clear here! This devilish carnality does not just apply to those who are still unconverted, with Adamic life, the unregenerate, but to those who are born again but still live out from the soul. That means, out of their will, their reason and their emotions and serving themselves. In some ways the born-again, who are living out from the soul, are more dangerous to the church than the unregenerate because they reject the Holy Spirit and become religious and unteachable.
Because of that, 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 their emotions and by self-pride. Even though the scripture is clear, they insist it is not really that way today with the God they know!
Since even the children of God, who live out from the soul, are subject to the Devil's deceptions, it explains how false doctrines, cults, extremes, legalism and soulish and self-centered preaching is birthed. All, who are deceived, arrive at unsound doctrines, untrue, weird and far-out doctrines and experiences. They point to their doctrines or their experience or even to the church fathers as proof that they are correct.
It is out of the soul that counterfeit revelations come to us and are accepted as true! These counterfeits are accepted in the mind, taken up and developed out of the intellect. They then they hold to these "revelations"as being from God with the mind, emotions, ego and then add an extreme and false authority to the revelation.
There is hardly any end to the possibilities of deception in the natural, soulish and immature man. No book or tape or ministry would hold all the deceptions that are available because new ones are devised daily.
The point is this: Jesus Christ is "The Ideal Man" who was not deceived by the devil! He is now is concerned about our being deceived. Man's only real security is to be "in Christ" and to be constantly subject to His Lordship and His Headship and to live in accordance with His Kingdom Government. "In Christ" means in His Kingdom and under His government, walking within the laws of the Kingdom. These laws of the Kingdom are put into our minds and are written upon our hearts at the receiving of the New Covenant experience.
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, related to the New Covenant, that are read, understood and obeyed out of the NEW Spirit, of the New Inner Man.
The deception of legalism is that it seeks to apply it's own laws, that supersede the laws of the New Covenant. The carnal church devise outward laws that replace the inward laws. If you obey their outward laws you are acceptable to the “religious groups” even if you are ignoring the inward Kingdom laws. Religious Legalism, the counterfeit laws, therefore, must work within the soul of man and be toward the natural, carnal man. They generally seem to involve the body and laws involving the body, like dress! In some visible churches they use a human style legalism and laws! This is just another deception of the Devil. The carnal Christian can easily be attracted to this deception.
The spiritual man will reject “religious legalism and laws” because his Eternal Confidence is only in God and His Governmental laws. He will receive, into his experience, the Laws of the Kingdom of God, inherit within the New Covenant Experience! Human religious laws are just earthly and at best just temporary. The Kingdom Laws are of God and are eternal.
It is not reasonable to separate the victory of Christ over the world, the flesh and
the Devil from the person of Christ Jesus. It was the Person of Christ Jesus that produced the victory of Calvary. 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 purpose, mercy and grace that "Christ is in us" producing a similar personal victory, experientially.
“Christ in us”is NOT Jesus in us but the Spirit of Christ, the Living and Abiding Word that is in us. We are “Born Again” by the Spirit of Christ. If we don’t have the Spirit of Christ, we don’t belong to Him.
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.
That “victory” is experientially achieved, as based upon our personal experience, rather than just upon a universal church doctrine or a spiritual theory. If there is no personal victory, experientially, we have no personal hope of advancing into the Kingdom Government of God. The first Victory of Calvary, by Jesus Christ, is providing our forgiveness of sin! This forgiveness of SINS God imputes to us by faith in Jesus’ sacrifice on Calvary! The many other blessing of Calvary are imparted through the Seven Experiential Foundations for the Christian Life! It is these Outer Court Seven Foundations that leads us to the Holy Place Life.
When we possess and manifest the victory inherent in the Cross of Calvary, by personal experience, this is the result of Christ working His victory into us. The power to make the change is from the Holy Spirit who has been given unto us within the New Covenant experience. The Holy Spirit works within our spirit! The Spirit of Christ, the Word of God, works Jesus character and victory into us, experientially. The soulish person isolates himself from this inward work of God and suffers a personal loss for eternity. The soulish person may participate in Christ's victory that is imputed but isolates himself from Christ Jesus’ greater victories that are imparted as Life through the inward workings of God.
God's purpose is to bring many sons to the same glory as Christ Jesus. To do that He is working to transform us into the image of Jesus, the Ideal Man. That requires that we grow up in all things into Christ. We then must grow to come to the measure of the stature and of the fullness of Christ. All this not just doctrinal truth but requires that we actually come to His measure and stature and image, experimentally, within our personal experience.!
While sins, plural, are forgiven, by His sacrifice on Calvary, the SIN, singular, is not forgiven. SIN, singular, is only handled by Death and Burial in the Waters of Baptism. SINS, plural, are what we have done. SIN, singular, is what we are by and in the life of Adam. SIN, singular, produces Eternal death and burial for the natural man. Christ Jesus Resurrected out of death and now has Resurrection Life to distribute. In proper Baptism we receive His Resurrection Life for the New Inner Man, who is the Christian. The fact that Jesus Christ was authentic man, like us, and that He triumphed over the world, the flesh and the Devil, HE indwelling us, is our hope that we also may overcome the world, the flesh and the Devil, experientially. Since we are "in Christ" and by Christ “being in us,” this seems reasonable and possible. 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, who are in the New Covenant, exceedingly, abundantly above all that He did for the first Adam. The first Adam had the opportunity but chose the Tree of knowledge and the way of the soul life. Now, to participate in the New Covenant, we must choose the Way of the Spirit and the Way of Life it provides. Now that we have begun in the spirit, will we then be perfected by the flesh? Not a chance!
Only the New Spiritual Inner Man is in the Way of life! The man of flesh is still in 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.
(The flesh is soul, mind, natural intellect, emotions and with the body and its needs in control)
When we ask this question: "What is man", we must look to the prototype man and ask "what is Christ Jesus". He is the Man, Christ Jesus! However, He is God's Ideal Man who has overcome the whole Earth Dimension and is seated at the Right Hand of God. Christ Jesus, the Ideal Man, has made it to Mount Zion! He has overcome and is restored to God’s Ideal Purpose, for Man to Rule over all the Works of His hands!
Looking for anything less than "the Throne of the man Christ Jesus" will give us a distorted view of "What man is to become." Why is Jesus God’s Ideal Man?
Heb 2:9 But we do see Him who has been made for a little while lower than the angels, namely, Jesus, because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honor, that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone. 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.
Only the New Creation of the New Inner Man, the New Species of Man, who after Christ is in the image and likeness of God, and are "in Christ Jesus" can identify with and agree with God’s Eternal Viewpoint of “What IS man.”
Jesus Christ came into this world completely innocent and without a sin nature. However, He was born of Mary who was subjected to SIN, singular! Therefore, He was Baptized and received the Holy Spirit. However, He was not perfect as This Man of God’s Choosing and He was not prepared and perfected for God’s Eternal Purpose! .
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. 8 Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered. 9 And having been made perfect, He became to all those who obey Him the source of eternal salvation.
While Jesus Christ, the man, was innocent in every way, He was perfected by the sufferings and 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, in the New Covenant times, to separate holiness from life because Holiness is experiential. Doctrinal Holiness, without the experience, may be acceptable in the visible church but we need to experience “Real Holiness that is according to God’s Viewpoint!”
Jesus gave us the pattern, for all time, of how a holy life was to be developed by obedience. Jesus' life and His 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. The Laws of God became visible. However, true holiness, for the believer, must be the manifestation of His life, by His Life being lived through us. Christianity is living by the Life of another; by the Resurrection Life provided by His Sacrifice on Calvary, but now received in Water Baptism.
That Resurrection 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 / earth designed holiness that requires a certain outward appearance in the body is not even close to the Experiential Holiness of Christ or the True Holiness that God accepts.
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 Sacrifice to permit God to return man back to real innocence.
Now a process must begin, at Calvary, to bring man back to True Holiness and to the same measure and stature as Christ. Why? Man must grow up in all things into Christ. Why? God must continue His work “in us” until Christ is formed in us. Why? The only standard of the Christian life is Christ Himself. Why? That is because God has included us in His Eternal Purpose and predestined us to a place in His Eternal Kingdom. Why?
All man's “counterfeit religious standards” are worthless, hopeless, helpless and futile for Christianity. No matter how lofty they may seem, they have no power to change man from his earthly existence to a Heavenly Existence. Why is that necessary? That is because of Our Eternal Destiny, or our participation in the Tabernacle of God, and is our fulfilling the Eternal Purpose of God, that He established for us!
The problem with starting with man to design a system of growth and spiritual maturity and holiness, is that man only has his own wits and philosophy to guide him to his own perceived and desired end. Natural Man, first, recognizes and then addresses his own failures and weakness and then devises a mechanical system to improve himself. This can be religious but that is still just natural, carnal, fleshly and “SOULISH.”
Today it is popular to offer a system of " Christian psychology" to solve the problems of “ the natural man” and to help him take a step upward into a Christian life and holiness.
psychology: noun 1 the scientific study of the human mind and its functions. 2 the mental characteristics or attitude of a person. 3 the mental factors governing a situation or activity.
Psychology is the study of the soul / mind / mental factors or of natural life. Christian Psychology (the knowledge from above) should be the study of the life of Christ and of Spiritual and Eternal things and not of natural man. The study of natural man and his mental functions is just a natural psychology. Natural psychology is an introspection (or the soul-searching of the natural person to find reality.)
introspection >noun the examination of one's own thoughts or feelings. From Latin introspicere 'look into', or from introspectare 'keep looking into'.
Even if they may discover what is wrong with the natural man, they have no power to change or even adjust the person to become better. To understand ourselves, the old man, through introspection is of no spiritual benefit.
Rather, We should be encouraged to understand the New Inner Man ,the New Resurrection Life, the Holy Spirit that is in us and Spirit of Christ that is in us! It is these things that seeks to manifest Christ for others to see. This, when it is completed, is Christian Evangelism that works! Our Christian faith then is directed toward Christ who is in us, and works in us, rather than the failure of our own natural life.
Psychology is more the study of first Adam and his offspring than it possibly can be of God’s offspring, His Born Children. Why? That life, they can receive, is a Higher Christian Resurrection Life! This LIFE is of a different realm and a different dimension than earth life!
It is this realm that Earth Psychology cannot touch. Why? Psychology seeks to identify and correct man's failures and his bad attitudes, his low self esteem, his character problems. The result is that they discover that the Adam life is not all that it should be.
The scriptures already have declared this fact as eternally true. Adam cannot be changed by counseling or by pointing out his failures or by being encouraged to try harder. No matter what the natural man’s failures, he is incurable by any earthly or natural means.
It is for that reason that God has only ordained death and burial for the genealogy of first man and all his offspring. Counseling or strengthening the natural man is counter-productive to the Christian Life. Death and burial is the only thing that will solve his problems by elimination of his fallen being, sin, through death and by burial. From God’s Eternal Viewpoint, the natural man, the Adam man, the flesh man, the carnal man, cannot be Christianized. Why?
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. However, BOTH must make the transition to the New Man to be “saved.” God's eternal purpose is to combine these two races (Jew and Gentile) into one new man. That One New Man is Christ Jesus.
Eph 2:14 For He Himself is our peace, who made both {groups into} one, and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall, 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, 16 and might reconcile them both in one body to God through the cross, by it having put to death the enmity.
That ONE NEW MAN is Jesus Christ. Those who refuse the transition will remain in the first Adam and be included in his life and his eternal fate. Those who do make the transition into the last Adam will be included in His Life and in His rewards and His glory. For this reason, 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
1Cor 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. 15 But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no man.
1Cor 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.
1Cor 15:45 So also it is written, "The first man, Adam, became a living soul." The last Adam {became} a life-giving spirit.
1Cor 15:47 The first man is from the earth, earthy; the second man is from heaven.
1Cor 15:50 Now I say this, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.
1Cor 15:21 For since by a man {came} death, by a man also {came} the resurrection of the dead. 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 man, Adam, (AFTER eating from the Tree of Life) would have had the ability to function and to fulfill the purpose of God. Adam had the potential to rule over the earth. He was given dominion over all the works of God's hands. He was not given dominion over himself or over other men.
God was to be, man’s, Lord and Master. This dominion 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 EATING from the Tree of Life! By obedience to the Lord and Master of MAN. This was, in a similar way, that Jesus Christ was perfected.
Adam must reject eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, but he could 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. Satan was not given dominion by God but assumed dominion by default, through Adam & Eve . With the failure of both Adam and Eve, there was no one left to challenge Satan’s 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, man’s 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. It attempts to define how man can take dominion over himself. It helps man to promote “him self” by self knowledge.
Psychology, the knowledge from below, now encourages man to govern himself and to exercise his human right to design his own life, to fulfill his own goals.
However, these are the very things that got man into trouble in the first place. All this is counter-productive but still seeks to bring “the natural man” back to a “normal” fallen state. We, Christians, are designed to seek the Wisdom from ABOVE! The difference between receiving the “wisdom from below” and New Covenant Christian ministry is tremendous!
One of the requirements to be Christ's disciple is to forsake yourself and your right to make decisions for yourself. Philosophy promotes an attitude that encourages man to enter into areas of decision making that God has not ordained. This increases the breach in the relationship between God and man. Man, independent of God, is on his own as was experienced in Genesis 3. Any attempt to provide a valid method of increasing man’s freedom to act on his own is anti-Christ and not helpful to and committed Christian!
The natural man is now born to fail. Whenever any person chooses independence from God Kingdom Government, nothing works like it was designed to function. Yes! All men, born of woman, have independence from God but few realize they are eternally lost. The basic nature of Adam's sin was that he assumed the right to govern himself and to use God's creation for his own pleasure and purpose.
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, singular, as independence from God, we reject any possibility of discovering a real solution to SIN, singular. That is handled in Believer Baptism.
Then, that, living Christian Life is living in the Internal Kingdom Government of God! This Internal Government is what the New Covenant has provided for the Christian Experience! This Government is the Laws imparted to us in the New Covenant experience.
The great difficulty for natural man to assess his natural condition and his personal SIN, singular, is that man is now just natural with no ability to understand God’s purpose nor His eternal realms.
Since man is just earthly, he is dead in trespasses and sins and is alienated from God. As an earthly being, he is only conscious of earthly things.
John 3:31 "He who comes from above is above all, he who is of the earth is from the earth and speaks of the earth. He who comes from heaven is above all.
The natural man does not receive the things of the spirit of God because spiritual things are only comprehended by spiritual people who are living in the New Covenant Reality.
How then can God break through this “barrier” and reveal the Truth to the natural man? No help can from earthy systems nor from mind sciences nor can help come from anything in the earth realm. Therefore, all help must come from ABOVE and from outside of fallen man.
For us Christians, the Total Sacrifice of Calvary and its new provision, including a New Covenant, and a personal return to God’s Revealed Solution for a total elimination of natural man and his natural planning and his natural concepts, to God’s only Eternal Solution, is just natural, earthly, and tremendous ignorance!
The Holy Spirit has been sent to convict of sin, of righteousness and of the judgement that is to come. Then the “natural man” must make his decision to repent and turn to God OR to continue on the same course toward a total destruction. Repentance, without making the transition from the first Adam to the Last Adam, is not Christian conversion. Without the transition from the natural and earthly realms to the spiritual and eternal realms there is no real Christian conversion. Joining the church as Adam who is just a living soul, but without receiving the resurrection Life of Christ and the Holy Spirit, is not a real Christian Conversion.
This Life Giving Spirit of Christ has not come to reform or repair the Natural Man or to modify his old ways! He, Christ Jesus, is not encouraging the natural man to join the church and start living right. It is the entrance of the Spirit of Christ, forming a New Spiritual Inner Man, that our real conversion begins. Then through Proper Baptism the natural man is laid aside. Then, also, through the Baptism into the Holy Spirit that conversion continues. These “transforming Spirits” have come in transforming power to begin a totally new Creation. This New Creation Man (the new Species) is basic reality to Christian Conversion.
Messianic teaching about Christ, without Christian Conversion, is just another deception.
Christian Conversion is not man trying harder to live a better life. It is the Life of God, in man, manifesting His Government within the New Inner Life Man, resulting in obedience to the Holy Spirit and receiving the New Covenant Experience, that is Christian Conversion. The visible church has reduced God's “so great a salvation” down to a ritual of "say these words after me and believe our doctrine.” In most cases we might as well repeat the pledge of allegiance to the flag for all that happens in the spiritual transition.
We can "say these words" with no revelation of sins, plural of SIN, singular with no repentance and with no real Christian Conversion1 Then we can be accepted, as Christians, into the visible church to become members.
Jesus said “No one can come unless the Father draws” so The Father is actively involved is all Christian 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, from Darkness to Light, we should seriously doubt if there has been a genuine conversion. This is NOT judging others but should become a personal responsibility to judge our own “Conversion.”
If “His Light” is not overcoming the darkness that is inherently within us, we might wonder what doctrine failed to produce a genuine conversion! If all things are not becoming new we should wonder why. If the “old man of flesh” is alive and well and strong and to continues to function, we might ask; Why.
If the new man is comatose and inactive something went wrong. If our old habits are not being remolded into a new manner of life by the introduction pf the New Spirit of Christ, 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, or at least to SEE the Kingdom, something has gone wrong in our conversion. If there was NO BIRTH in Water Baptism, something went wrong or was not complete.
John 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 we are genuinely born again, each of us should at very least be able to “see the Kingdom Of God.”
John 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 internal government of God, through obedience, he certainly has not yet entered the Kingdom Ream of God’s internal Government.
The old nature of Sin certainly does dwell in all human nature, all before and some after the conversion process begins! Therefore, sins, plural and SIN, singular, flesh, lawlessness, rebellion and disobedience is “normal” in the visible church!
While it is true that we all are subject to many defects, disappointments and failures but we have to SEE, from a basic scriptural understanding, that sin is not normal and we must NOT accept sins as necessary because, after all, we are just human beings and we are still flesh. When we see sins, plural, as normal, we will also see holiness and obedience as abnormal and strange. The danger we all face is that we can become sympathetic to sins, plural and to SIN, singular, and so we feel sorry for the weak and understand their failures.
True conversion produces a Christian Superiority and is designed to make us strong, mature and a ministry to equip each of us for growing up in all things into Christ! We are developed to Overcome. If a person continues to practice sins, it means something has gone wrong with the conversion. This must be boldly proclaimed as subnormal for any True Christian who is developing and growing. The SIN, singular, must be put to death and SINS, plural, must be forgiven.
1John 3:6 No one who abides in Him sins; no one who sins has seen Him or knows Him. 7 Little children, let no one deceive you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous; 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. 9 No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed ( Sperma; Semen) abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. 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, casual, carnal and earthly relationships, (which are often common in church relationships) should be seen as conflicting with Christian Life! While, in many places, anything but “basic Christianity” is viewed as too radical and extreme for the modern world, there seems to a radical refocusing upon Asthenic Realms of Christian Life! Many, who have rejected the visible church have seen beyond the casual and lukewarm experiences and concepts accepted by so many within the visible church.
Luke 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, (PSUCHE; breath) he cannot be My disciple. 27 "Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.
These, intimate relations, all represent the natural and earthly affections that attract and are accepted by the natural and earthly person. Forsaking our own psuche or natural breath life to receive the uncreated Life of God is essential!
It is just not possible to cling to both the earthly and the natural and to experience the spiritual and the heavenly. These are of different and conflicting realms. However, in the realms of true Christian Conversion, NOTHING can be permitted that will interfere with us doing the whole will of God!
Forsaking OUR own old life is also in the same category of all the other attractions. We certainly can't ignore our own life but can we really “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 not natural but is of another realm that is spiritual and heavenly.
The persons who are just natural, casual, earthly and soulish are oblivious to His voice and unaware that He is saying anything. Whatever is “holding us in the earthly realms” must be sacrificed. If a conflict comes between the earthly and the heavenly, the natural and the spiritual, we must sacrifice whatever is holding us back from becoming a disciple. That includes our own life (psuche) also. Another great deception is this; Let me conform to the earthly that I might evangelize the natural man and to be of interest to the World! It is the separation of these realms 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 to work in us and with us.
Some of the cults point to Jesus as our example and deceive many! With using the name of Jesus, they are thought to be a Christian group. For example; 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. She also said that the blood of Jesus was no more efficacious to cleanse from sin when it flowed in his veins or when it was shed on the cursed cross.
That is not Christian and is wrong and it is ignorant, if we read the scriptures! Even if we pattern our lives after Jesus, that does not make us Christians according to scriptural True Conversion. The first Adam can pattern his life after all sorts of men and even other gods but Adam is still Adam. We can readjust our lives just by common sense, out of the intellect, and with a genuine desire to improve and change 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 Jesus. 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 to participate in Genuine Christian Conversion.
When we seek to know Christ, we must know more than bible facts about Christ. To know Christ is more than a logical research into facts and information about Him. Faith, which connects us to a higher realm, is very much a part of our search for a Higher Truth. Spiritual discernment and revelation are essential to know the Eternal Christ.
The scholars of Jesus' day were constantly searching the scriptures but never recognized their messiah when He appeared. They read the words but had no revelation nor spiritual understanding. It just requires more than the intellect or the mind of man to receive Spirit, Truth and Life from the scripture.
Those who " totally surrender" to the “doctrinal requirements of consecration” are not Spiritually Equal with those who surrender to Jesus Christ out of an inner revelation of whom He is. He is our High Priest and our King, Eternal.
Devotion to a religious system is not the same thing as devotion to Christ. There are great sermons preached on following in the foot steps of Jesus Christ but who can do that out of their own ability, strength or from their own cleverness?
The New Covenant begins when we experience all that God has provided for us and is activated by what God puts into our experience. The power is all from God and is received on the basis of faith but is activated by our experience of the provision of Calvary. Man can not generate any thing out from himself, that empowers himself or improves himself to fulfil God’s Eternal Purpose! 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 into us can then be poured out from us. First the in-filling from God and then the outflow to others. When man, in ministry, tries to exceed that principle, he is deceiving himself!
It should be obvious that this is true also of the Holy Spirit and His manifestations. We must first be filled with the Spirit before there can be a genuine manifestation of the Spirit. He first manifests Himself in Ministry by the anointing. Most of us has witnessed the counterfeits. Especially in ministry. If we were 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 specific need All this is by the Anointing of the Holy Spirit!.
The New Covenant must begin in us as the "LIFE" of Christ (ZOE) in us, experientially. No “life” (Psuche) that we possessed before the New Birth and the New Inner Man, will help us in fulfilling the New Covenant promises. The "life" of the Lord Jesus Christ is the Resurrection LIFE; ZOE. In LIFE Christ Jesus and the Father are one. Jesus & Christ is not two personalities in one body. He is both the Son of God and the son of man but He is The One Ideal man. His Zoe life is from the “Semen; Sperma” of God! By this “semen” He is the Son of God!
His body and soul ( natural life, Psuche) which was sacrificed were the Son of Man. These came from Mary through natural birth. In the dimension of "LIFE" He was always the Son of God. In the body and soul (psuche ) he was the son of man. It was His (psuche) life that He laid down and was poured out at Calvary unto death. The "LIFE" of God (Zoe) goes beyond death. Why? Because it cannot die, 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 grew and developed until He became God is a serious error. The Spirit of Christ 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; 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 and life, psuche, ( as the Passover Lamb) 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."
John 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.
John12:25 "He who loves his life (psuche) and he who hates his life (psuche) world shall keep it to life (Zoe) eternal.
Romans: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.
John 1:4 In Him was life, (Zoe) and the life (Zoe) was the light of men.
Jesus possessed both psuche and Zoe.
John 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 life came by the way of Mary, birth, while the Zoe was the Life of God.
John 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. That is because The Word was God.
Unredeemed man has life ( soul, psuche) and a body. As unredeemed man His spirit is not functioning.
The redeemed man also has spirit, soul (psuche, life) and a body. What makes the redeemed man unique is that he also has God’s Life (Zoe).
The Redeemed man has received the Spirit of Life (Zoe) in Christ Jesus.
Romans 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 is, also, “lost” if he has not made the transition from the first Adam to the last Adam. The last Adam, Jesus Christ, has the Life giving Spirit.
This complete and ideal man, Christ Jesus, was also anointed with the Holy Spirit and with power.
Acts 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 new spirit, soul (psuche) and body. We must receive the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus. This is the Spirit of Christ.
Romans 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 Resurrection Life (Zoe). Then it is God's plan for us to, also, be filled and anointed with the Holy Spirit and with power.
The disciples were regenerated in John 20:22 when Jesus Christ breathed or blew his Spirit into them. His Spirit, the Spirit of Christ, is also Holy.
John 20:22 And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and *said to them, " Receive the Holy Spirit. However, 50 days later He told His disciples to wait until (Pentecost) when they would receive the Holy Spirit and be endued with power from on high. That is why we say they FIRST received the Spirit of Christ and 50 days later were Baptized into the Holy Spirit.
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 Resurrection Life, His Spirit of Christ, and the Holy Spirit, so we can do the will of God and fulfill His Eternal Purpose! It is by his Spirit, the Spirit of Christ, that we recognize and acknowledge God as Father.
Galatians 4:6 And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!"
Romans 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!"
1Peter 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. 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.
However, the Gospel of the Kingdom of Christ is not preached by the Spirit of Christ under the New Covenant.
1Peter 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 and preach by the Holy Spirit.
Another error that has been presented by mind science people 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, nor Christ nor even himself except by revelation of the Holy Spirit. All carnal rationalization of "What is man" by natural means, by natural man, is headed for error.
Man of dust, who has fallen from the original creation, cannot discover “God’s Man” through the rationalization of the soul. The only way open for us to discover "What is man" is through the revelation of Christ Jesus, the ideal man. This revelation only comes to us by the Holy Spirit, after He come to live in us. .
John 16:14 "He shall glorify Me; for He shall take of Mine, and shall disclose {it} to you. 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 of Christ Jesus, or the revelation of the word become flesh, is the work of the Holy Spirit.
John 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,
John 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, as the son of man, was limited in His ministry and miracles and in life (psuche) in the same way we are.
Luke 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 follow the Holy Spirit and minister, with the anointing, in the same way that we do! Why? That is because He ministered as the son of man. Jesus was teaching but discerned that the Holy Spirit was releasing the power to heal, therefore, Jesus stopped teaching and began healing.
Acts 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.
When we recognize Christ Jesus as the Ideal Man and who has been revealed as our Prototype Man, we should understand what it really means to grow up in All things in Christ, Who is the Head!
To be conformed to His image and to be prepared for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the (full) knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fulness of Christ.
If we fully understood the full measure of the full provision that God has provided for us, within the full New Covenant provision, we should understood why, from God’s viewpoint, there can be NO EXCUSE for any of us to fail to Complete God’s Eternal Purpose and bring the fullness of Joy to His Heart.
Even though the visible church has hidden many of these things from the believers, those who preach the Gospel of the Kingdom must reveal these things openly, boldly and without compromise!
Remember, at the judgement seat of Christ, there will be NO EXCUSES accepted!
"THOU HAST MADE HIM (THE SON OF MAN) FOR A LITTLE WHILE LOWER THAN THE ANGELS; THOU HAST CROWNED HIM WITH GLORY AND HONOR, AND HAST APPOINTED HIM OVER THE WORKS OF THY HANDS; 8 THOU HAST PUT ALL THINGS IN SUBJECTION UNDER HIS FEET." For in subjecting all things to him, He left nothing that is not subject to him.
Just to fulfill this part of God’s Eternal Plan will require a complete transition from the natural man to the Spiritual man and then to receive EVERY provision that God has provided for the NEW CREATION INNER MAN! We receive all that we need through Christ Jesus, God’s Ideal Man.
Spending our time preparing an acceptable excuse for our failure to complete God’s Plan for man, is a big waste of time!
That is because God has provided for us EVERYTHING WE NEED TO NOT FAIL to fulfill God’s Eternal Purpose and to rule over all the Work of God’s Hands! To have EVERYTHING subjected to MAN.
God has provided for us a New Covenant for ALL the New Testament believers. He has provided, for us ALL, the Spirit of Christ to dwell in us. He has provided the Holy Spirit to dwell in ALL of us. He has provided, for all believers, Christ Jesus, the ideal man, to show us how to overcome the world, the flesh and the devil.
God has designed His whole plan before the foundation of the world. The very first creation, the one before this one, failed to achieve God’s Purpose for their creation. This New creation, in the New Testament, through Calvary, is equipped with EVERYTHING, including a New Inner Man, to complete God’s Plan and His Eternal Purpose.
The ONLY reason that we could possible fail is because we just failed to use what God has already supplied for ALL the New Covenant believers.
Preaching what God has already supplied for Kingdom Members, is the Kingdom Message. This is where the visible church has failed. It just preaches
Christ has provided for the Church He is Building, the Five-fold Ministry to equip each of us to fulfill the plan of God for our maturity, in Christ! This is to grow up to the same measure and stature of the Prototype Son, this is to grow up into Christ Jesus, to be like Him.