Pursue God, Christian!
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
-2 Corinthians 5:16-17 (NKJV)
But God forbid that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but a new creation.
-Galatians 6:14-16 (NKJV)
If anyone wants to know this life of being a Christian to its full potential – and being conformed to the image of Jesus Christ is not to be considered optional! – it must be understood that this life is from start to finish a spiritual experience.
It’s based on spiritually discerned facts that God reveals to those who love Him, and who live them out in faith.
The New Creation
Above are two passages that allude to the foundational truth that if we are Christians, we are new creations – and God speaks to us as such, in Christ. The whole Bible is written for those whose spirits have been made alive in Jesus.
Second Corinthians 5:16-17 says we’re new creatures most plainly, that we are (in God’s estimate) not what we were before, but have a new life in us, and thus a new identity that should be evident by our conduct, not just what we say.
The “old creation” is who people are before they come to Jesus Christ – who they are “in Adam.” The Word says we are “in Christ” and He also is in us. This is a mystery, no mere doctrine or teaching point. If we do not know this, we can barely say we have begun on our road. And, if we do not know it, we may yet walk in the “old creation,” in the flesh, or maybe have a mixture of flesh and spirit in a way God says we ought not.
Get this: Authentic Christianity – walking on “resurrection ground” – demands that we know who we are in Christ – and He is our all – our righteousness, sanctification, redemption, wisdom, peace – and all (1 Cor. 1:30,31).
But do you truly know this?
The Greek word for when we “know” something in our spirits is gnosco. This essentially means that we “know that we know that we know.” It’s what we know deep in our heart, and it’s more than mere mentally held knowledge. It is more also than emotionally held with “passion” but no power. Nor is knowing the same as to understand.
Many people can understand something if you explain it to them, even seemingly profound teachings. Sadly, even Christians who’ve been through seminary, Sunday school, bible college, or anyone who just studies a lot about God may “understand” and even marvel at “truths” but what do we know?
We must seek the Lord’s face to know these mysteries, and meet the conditions for knowing. The difference between knowing and understanding is the difference between being a carnal Christian, a babe in Christ versus one who begins to grow up.
Death, burial, resurrection
Here is another foundational fact we must “know,” which the Spirit of Jesus revealed to the apostle Paul:
Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
– Rom 6:6-11
If we truly are born again, God declares that these “new creations” we are came about as a result of our “old man” (in Adam) being crucified in Christ!
When we come up out of the death God says is true of us, we are new beings unto God. If we knew the reality of this in our spirits, and not just with our brains, our lives would be transformed!
It was never God’s intent that His children would not know this, or stumble around in their flesh and darkness. He is the one who said, “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.”
Have you ever heard someone say “all you need is Jesus,” and it sounded like a mysterious enigma? Here’s clarity on that: Ultimately He who said “I am the Way, and the Truth, and the Life” is who we need. Jesus also said “I am the Resurrection and the Life,” so more than a grasping a revealed teaching, we must see the truth and the resurrection is the Person of the Lord.
Nothing else matters
In the second passage above – Galatians 6:14-16 – Paul says his boast is in nothing but the cross which put him to death in the eyes of God, so he could live a life to God in pure holiness – not mingled with the spirit of this world, or his “old man.”
Christianity is full of paradoxes, not least of which being that we must die before we may live.
In Paul’s fleshly self as a Jew – before his conversion – he was super qualified in the Hebrew belief system. It’s believed he was a member of the Sanhedrin, the ruling counsel of 70 elders in Israel. He’d known the law of Moses since his childhood, had memorized the first five books of the Old Testament as a child, and Paul had lived according to the traditions of his people besides.
But all his head knowledge and status was good for nothing but to be discarded, he said. He said in his writings that he was “blameless” by the standards of Judaism, but counted all that as “rubbish” so that he could know Jesus Christ in spirit and in truth.
And, said Paul under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit:
“For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but a new creation.”
The Jews had the ordinance of circumcision to signify separation to God, and it helped define them as God’s own people. But Paul says in Christ that no longer is the issue.
What matters, he says, is a new creation! What matters, in other words, is knowing who we are in Christ as new creations.
Christians – or people who think they are Christians – who habitually sin or who are living in the spirit of this world do not know this reality. If you did, why would you defy God and live like your old self, just an ordinary man or woman?
Christian life, if it is a real and normal life in Christ, is quietly radical. We are those who are alive from the dead.
In God’s eyes we are crucified with Christ. Our self “in Adam” was judged, and our new self is supposed to be united with Christ.
Proper application of grace
Paul said if we walk in the Spirit, then we shall not walk in the ways of the flesh (Gal. 5:16). God is not satisfied by anything less.
This article has discussed core realities in the spiritual realm for us here on earth, and thank God for another one – grace.
Grace is the space God gives us to come right, and to get to know these things, and to know Him in spirit and in truth.
But grace has been “dumbed down” in certain circles, or over-emphasized almost to the point where some effectively hide behind their “status” as Christian and never learn or even have living faith for these truths that God also said.
Yes, God says we are saved by grace through faith; forgiven and covered by Jesus’ blood, but all His promises and statements are conditional, and we are not to use “liberty as a cloak for vice.”
God loves us, and as He loves us, He says, “be holy, for I am holy.” That is why He saves people. That they may be set free to “enter the promised” land as His own special people.
God who says His Son died for us also said:
Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord: looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled… – Hebrews 12:14, 15
Jesus said if you hunger and thirst, you will be filled. He said He is knocking on the door of our hearts – yes even Christian hearts, particularly if you are lukewarm, or not living these realities already. He said He will come in and “dine” with us, if we repent and open to Him in prayer.
God’s remedy for sin is Jesus. If we are in Jesus and yet sin, do we really have the real Jesus? Let us make our “calling and election sure,” and press into the truth!
Open your heart to Jesus – pray!
God wants us to abide in Him, and He is no farther away from you than your own heart, but if you live backslidden, or in a worldly way, or do not know what it is to walk in God’s Spirit in truth and power, you must seek Him.
Actually, in any case, we are always called to seek Him – His will, His Person, Him! Always should we abide in Him.
God never offered to save anyone without requiring they mean it, and give their all, just as He gives His all to us.
So, “seeking” God is not only for an unsaved person. This is not talking about escaping hell, this is about experiencing God, pleasing God – the real God – in our lives. He is the Lord. We must want to obey Him, and this is how Jesus defines love:
“If you love me, you will keep My commandments.”
And He gave many commandments, but we will be able to keep NONE of them without Him. “Without Me, you can do nothing,” Jesus said.
Here is a commandment of Jesus to never forget:
“Learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart.”
Our precious Savior is calling us. Will you not heed His voice, dear Christian?
If you are not a Christian, He is calling you too! God’s will is all be saved, born anew, made new creatures, and take up their cross and follow Jesus.
God is love, and He knows not how to do otherwise, but He must judge also.
Seek the Lord while He may be found!
Learn what it is to be wholly, congruently, a new creation in Him; created in righteousness, and true holiness.
God is waiting for you. Will you heed His call?
Praise God! He is beautiful; He is all that you want! He is found by those who seek Him earnestly with their whole heart!
And, He promises, everyone who seeks like this, does find!
