The life of faith, the life with God IS NOT easy, nor simple, nor predictable, nor logical, nor does it satisfy our soul according to our desires and imaginations! Here, the Lord desires to show us His spiritual Light, which is to accompany us from the very beginning of our redemption until the very end of our salvation – into our perfection and entry into Heaven. The Light is supposed to be for us as it were “the only bridge” into our Perfection.
The first fact of this Light is that at our new birth, it was NOT our old human spirit, which was as it were “quickened” by God’s Spirit. In such case we would have never been a NEW CREATION and never had a NEW PERSON in our personality. This testifies to the fact that God never planned in any way to repair, improve or quicken our natural creation, but to exchange it for a new one! Another proof of this is the Word of God, which tells us to “cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of flesh and (our) spirit, perfecting our holiness in the fear of God”(2Cor. 7:1). Hence, our human spirit is yet filthy even after our new birth, which is to say, he is not new, but also needs to be cleansed and preserved as blameless unto the coming of Our Lord Jesus Christ (1Thes. 5:23).
The second fact of this Light must become for us perfectly clear, and that is, that every true born-again believer at his redemption becomes in his personal nature ANOTHER MAN than he was before! NOW HE IS A DOUBLE PERSONALITY. His old personality remains a MAN OF SOUL, and his NEW PERSONALITY, which before never existed in him, is a MAN OF SPIRIT, which in the Scripture is also called the INNER MAN or NEW MAN. The Spirit of God, Who entered into our old man and at our redemption brought us the New Man as a gift from Our Heavenly Father… that Spirit and that New Man came from a totally different world. They are of a completely different order, character and mentality. They see things and judge things completely differently from the way we see and judge things. This should not be incomprehensible, after all – the Holy Spirit IS GOD, and that NEW MAN IN US IS FROM HEAVEN. He comes from God; hence, He has NOTHING IN COMMON with our old earthly man. He is neither our new body, nor our new soul, nor our new spirit, which is to say, He is not our new vessel, but He is a NEW CONTENT of our existing vessel. He is the NEW LIFE, by which our existing vessel may live or should live or will fully live in our eternity. In this sense we shall be changed to the Image of Christ since He is also a similar vessel with the very SAME LIFE IN HIS VESSEL (Part 2a, Para. 3)
As an example, I can give King Saul, who was told: “And the Spirit of the Lord shall come upon thee and thou shalt … prophecy, and shalt be changed into a different man.” (1Sam. 10:6) He received a new content into his existing vessel. Unfortunately, with Saul it did not last long because the Spirit of the Lord shortly thereafter left him and an evil spirit came upon him. But I am showing this man only as an example. The fact is, that the Spirit of the Lord and that New Man of ours, who is coming into us through a new birth, is changing us into a “double personality”, and into a “different man” – AND THIS BEGINS ALL OUR PROBLEMS! Since our redemption, we now have inside of us two powerful personalities, which are constantly AGAINST ONE ANOTHER, they fight one another, they can never unite or reach any kind of compromise! (Gal. 5:17)
Life experiences of such a redeemed man are totally devastating in his own soul. Sooner or later we will begin to detect and experience the fact, that we are taking part and being involved in the destruction of our own self! In the destruction, devastation and ruin of our own old life! Have we thus far not noticed that devastation of our mind, heart and will, which are the experiences of every true Christian on the narrow road? Such experiences and what is actually happening to him or with him are totally inexplicable. He just cannot understand them nor can he explain them in any way. Many times he simply has no clue what is happening to him! Many times he does what he knows he should not do, and does not do what he knows he should do. True? Why? Well, sometimes it is sufficient to read the Word of God in Romans 7:15-21, because Apostle Paul was experiencing the very same thing… and God permitted him to publish it in His Word.
And this new birth in the spirit of a redeemed man constitutes much more than just that quoted above. His new birth creates not only his personal chaos and devastating experiences, but it also creates new conflicts among Christians, which they never had before their redemption! Perhaps, the best example is the church in Corinth: divisions, toiling, lawsuits against one another, inability to walk one with another, sins of the worst moral character, misunderstandings, troubles of all kinds, and what else? And these were the born-again Christians, which knew nothing about the narrow road. How many of such Corinthian churches exist also today? And what is the explanation of such “un-Christian” fact?
If the Spirit of God was truly introduced into the life of our old earthly man and brought us the seed of our New Heavenly Man, He automatically causes a conflict with everything in us what belongs to the old life. This is His basic task, otherwise, He could never transform us into the Image of Christ (Rom. 8:29). And if we are not prepared, or at least willing, to leave, abandon, give up the territory of our natural earthly life, lose our old life for His sake (Mt. 16:25), then our problems, conflicts, hardships, disappointments and failures will never cease. And if this process and our unwillingness or faithlessness to overcome will continue and will have no end, then we might also lose our life eternal (Rev. 3:5). Let us remember dentists, surgeons and the like, whom we all “love“, but without which we may not be all here healthy and alive. Even if I see a surgeon with scalpel in his hand as he is looking down on me, yet, I trust him and I am giving myself into his hands let him do with me what he considers necessary in order to save my life! Well, isn’t the Lord Jesus Christ also looking down on me with a “scalpel” in His hand? And isn’t He also desiring to save my life eternal? Then, why am I not giving myself into His hands to do with me what He considers as necessary to do? He is, after all, my own Creator and Saviour.
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To be continued next week
brother Hanola
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