Recognizing, Understanding, Abiding
Introduction
We must understand that the old man ends with the cross and the new man begins with the resurrection of Christ. It says in the scripture if any man is in Christ he is a new creature old things are passed away and behold they are become new. 2 Corinthians 5:17. The cross terminates the first creation and out of death there’s brought a new creation in Christ the second man. I truly believe we don’t understand the new creation. In the Old Testament you will never find anyone born again. In the Old Testament you’ll never find anyone where God dwells within them. In the Old Testament man had to go to the temple to communicate with God. In the New Testament God is within us. We are his temple. We communicate with him through our spirit.
If we are in Christ then Christ comes to us by free grace without any effort on our part but is built on the solid ground a simple faith. How does this become real in our experience. This is the essence of this teaching. Recognizing who we are in Christ. Understanding that our old man is dead and we are new in Christ. Abiding in Him is realizing that God has done the work in Christ and not in us. And the all-inclusive death of Adam there is the all-inclusive resurrection in Christ.
Many people want to live in the Old Testament. The Old Testament was a tutor pointing Israel to the coming Messiah. God‘s laws were written on stone in the Old Testament and the New Testament his laws are written upon our heart. The New Testament does what the old testament could not do. The Old Testament showed men their sins but there was no power to overcome them because Christ had not died and resurrected yet. Even in the gospels we see God the Father pointing to Jesus even our Lord said that in the hearing of the scripture that he quoted was completed. In Luke 4:21, “He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” Jesus stated do not think I have come to abolish the law but to fulfill the law. What do you mean fulfill the law? In His death and resurrection not only did Jesus pay the ultimate price of his death but he created a new race that never existed on the face of the earth before these are called born again Christians. The New Testament church should live in the epistles. You do not see in the gospels the biblical truths as stated in the epistles.
In 1 Cor. 15:45, “And so it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. His words are spirit and life.
Recognizing/ Knowing
What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not! How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it? Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore, we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, 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. 6:1-11
• You must grasp that your sins have been forgiven. We are in Christ and He is in us. There is no condemnation in Christ.
• You live a resurrected life because to you resurrected with Christ.
• The finished work of Christ has gone to the root of our problem and dealt with it. He made full provision for sins rule to be utterly broken. Paul stated in Romans 6:6 “knowing this that our old man was crucified with him that the body of sin might be done away with so we should no longer be bondage to sin.”
Do you know this?
Understanding/Reckoning/Identifying
The next topic is called the Path of Progress. This path will develop as we understand/reckon/identify ourselves with what the word of God states. The apostle Paul in Romans 6:6 again stated, “knowing this, that her old man was crucified with Him.” Look at the verb structure was crucified. The problem is not many people know this that knowing is preceded reckoning. A reckoning must be based on knowledge of divinely revealed facts because without faith there’s no foundation. Once we truly understand then we take it onto ourselves. Reckoning becomes a reality because we not only identify with it but it becomes part of us.
What does Reckoning mean? Reckoning in Greek means doing or keeping accounts like book-keeping. Reckoning is not a fairy tale or myth or make-believe. Reckoning is a divine command from our Lord and Savior that the sacrifice of Christ was sufficient on all levels. “Reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Rom. 6:11.
• How is this possible?
Our Christian life is to be lived progressively by faith applying His word to our lives. The Devil main object is always to doubt the divine fact stated in God’s Word. We must understand that we are not saying that our sinful nature is rooted out or removed. To say such would be false doctrine. Sin the old master is still about but the slave who served him is dead and no longer ruling. The gambler is no longer gambling. The alcoholic is no longer addicted. Addictions are overcome and lives are changed. Our members are no longer used for unrighteousness but for righteousness.
This deliverance is so real in our lives because the new birth, the new creation and its nature is no longer practicing a sinful life. I Jn. 3:9. So how do we keep this behavior going?
We must believe that God’s Word id true. Jn. 17:17. So we can see it is an act of choice. We must choose whom we will serve.
We must not resort to our sense-knowledge to discover the truth. We must resist and reject anything the contradicts God’s word. (Sense Knowledge versus Revelation Knowledge)
Abiding
Once again we must understand that we were crucified with Him and raised with Him. We do not look for ourselves but we look for the Lord Jesus Christ is our Savior and King. We are very familiar with the words of the Lord Jesus who said abide in me and I and you. We are not told to get there, we are there; but we are told to stay where we have been placed. It was God‘s own who put us in Christ and we are to abide in him.
We are not told to associate with him. The scripture say that we were quickened, raised, and set apart by God in the heavenly‘s with Him and that we are complete in Him.
“knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be [a]done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.” Rom. 6:6
“even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,” Eph. 2:5-6
“and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power. Col. 2:10
The scriptures state that this has been done for us in Jesus. This is the legal side of Father God. It is done. It is not going to be done. It has been completed. Jesus is the foundation for every point of a journey with Him. We know what God has done on his side the legal side but is another thing to experience it on our side. This is called experimental knowledge. Our spiritual history is concerned with the journey but we must not be stuck there. We can allow it to dominate our thinking. God has done all and his son, and he has included us in him; we are incorporated into Christ.
How does this come about? We confess what God says who and what we have in Jesus. Doing this makes room for His resurrection power to work in us and through us. As we stand fast in what the Word of God says it become experiential true in us. So, in our walk with Him our attention is fixed on Him on Him.
Faith makes the objective facts (Legal Facts) on Father God’s side makes those facts true subjectively (Experiential) for us and is us and we walk in faith and not by our five senses.
Remember as you think, you will speak and as you speak you will live!
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