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on 12/21/09, I saw and am seeing when the word says I am a new creation in Christ or that the old is gone it really means it more than I ever thought! Paul says in Rom. 7:24-25, “²⁴ O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? ²⁵ I thank God—through Jesus Christ our Lord!” The body of this death. This sounds like someone trapped and wanting to escape. I believe Paul says this in regard to our spiritual state and lives prior to salvation and NOT post-salvation. The suggestion of pre-salvation conflicts with all of his other writings and overall core doctrine.

Recently, I have encountered a situation in which the best and really only resolution was and is forgiveness. It took me a while to figure out why I felt the way I did, but clarity revealed itself. I thought to myself, “I think I can do this.” I remember a while back the Lord told me, ” I give you the willingness, but you make the choice.” I make the choice because I am not a robot, but a living soul and person like the first Adam as well as a quickening or ever-life giving spirit like the Last Adam Christ. Love is a willing choice…”For God so loved the world.” God is not a robot. He IS love.

When I made the decision to forgive which is daily not once in a blue moon, I saw something. I saw that I can’t stay angry, bitter, resentful and the like. It really bothers me. Are you serious? Why? Hmmm, maybe because of what I initially stated in the first paragraph. The old is gone and a new creation is truly a new creation in Christ! Even if I wasn’t saved it would still bother me, but I would not be able to genuinely forgive because forgiveness had yet to be revealed to me.

When the old nature died its motive died. The motive ‘to die’ died. Huh? The old man’s nature is bent and predicated on self-imposed law. Fear, guilt and condemnation is the expectation of self-imposed law. Self-imposed law empowers sin or the manifestation of the flesh. In essence, this could be the motive to die.

The motive, desire and willingness to not want to stay resentful and bitter, but to forgive is Him in me. Paul says in Philippians 3, “Not having a righteousness (based on self-imposed law) of my own, but a righteousness by Christ’s faith in me.” The impartation of this divine nature is supernatural and spiritual. It is through the Holy Spirit of promise by whom we are sealed. The impartation of His divine nature diffuses into the believer by revelation of Him.

Eph. 1:17-19, “¹⁷ that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, ¹⁸ the eyes of your understanding^[c] being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, ¹⁹ and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power”

“Enlightened” here is passive voice. Examples: I feel the rays of the sun on my skin. When the light turned in the dark room the room was illuminated.

“Enlightened” is also in perfect tense. It describes an action which is viewed as having been completed in the past, once and for all, not needing to be repeated.

Darkness cannot comprehend light. Once light is it stays. Once the eyes (or faculty of receiving) of my heart are open or enlightened by light and truth this light can no longer be comprehended by darkness.

This is true and absolute redemption according to the purpose and will of the Father which He purposed in His beloved Son.

Psalms 107:2, “Let the redeemed of the LORD say [so], whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy;”

Gal. 6:8, ” For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.”

Spiritually, I can’t die. So, could corruption also mean “slow life” ? It seems that way. Chapter and verse please.

Rom. 6:9-10, “Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more (in me); death hath no more dominion over him (in me). For in that he died, he died unto sin once (in me): but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God (in me, Gal. 2:20).”

1 Kings 19:1-2, “^1-3 Ahab reported to Jezebel everything that Elijah had done, including the massacre of the prophets. Jezebel immediately sent a messenger to Elijah with her threat: “The gods will get you for this and I’ll get even with you! By this time tomorrow you’ll be as dead as any one of those prophets. And when he saw that, he arose and ran for his life, and went to Beersheba, which belongs to Judah, and left his servant there.”

Jezebel could be a metaphor of “self-imposed” law setting expectations. Could Elijah have been evading self-imposed law? His conscience was definitely not purged from dead works. He was under the Old Covenant. He ran in fear. I am going out on  a limb and saying yes. Christ told Paul, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.”

Trees passively resist the wind as the leaves and branches bend. I have heard that this process actually benefits the tree and enables it to take stronger root. Depending on the strength of the tree’s roots the tree will resist and bend continually by the wind. This may sound funny, but in its resistance, the tree does not stop being a tree and eventually the wind calms or desists. Trees bear fruit and freely give their fruit for life. Trees naturally give life to humans by releasing oxygen. The tree “be’s”. Incorrect grammar, but correct meaning.

So, the wind blows and the branches bend, and bend, and bend, and bend, and so on. Then the weather changes. The sun comes out and the wind eventually calms. The tree also does not strive or try to bend or resist the wind. Walking and living by faith is natural since the Garden of Eden. The tree naturally bends.

All trees have purpose because the Creator creates purpose according to His will. The purpose of the tree is to grow and bear its fruit. The tree does not strive to manifest its purpose.

Jesus is the hope of glory. He brought His expectation through His faith. His expectation brings real hope that is incapable of disappointment.

Romans 5:5, “And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.”

His faith creates expectation of hope, righteousness, life and continuous glory!!!

Galatians 5:5, “For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith.”

If Jesus isn’t there then it is my expectation (from the old man) apart from Christ based on self-imposed law creating enmity and hostility towards God because I am not the Testator of the New Covenant and I cannot fulfill any law. Only Christ can in me and through me by His faith and grace.

Also, If I know something or simply if I know then I expect all the time. I expect because I know. Faith is the substance of things hoped for and evidence of things not yet seen.

Today, 11/30/09, I was thinking about the tabernacle. The way now into the tabernacle is through Christ. He is love and the only begotten Son of Love. God’s love is the way into the Holiest of Holies. Rom. 2:14-16 speaks of the the law written on our hearts our conscience that bears witness to that law. In Christ, by His precious, holy blood, our conscience is not aware of the judgment of the self-imposed law written on the Gentile heart. Why? Godly supernatural love , real love, does not keep any record of wrongs. Otherwise, it is a love that is only a soulish, emotional infatuation based on self (the old man). This infatuated based love reminds me of the tabernacle under the Old Covenant. A sacrifice of an animal was required to enter into God’s presence.

Rom. 3:20, “Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight…”

Rom. 8:1, “[There is] therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh (in deeds or manifestations of the flesh), but after the Spirit.”

1 Cor. 1:29, “That no flesh should glory in his presence.”

From what I’ve seen so far in my short life of 37 years, people (including myself) sometimes “let others in” if a prerequisite based on self-imposed law (because of fear) is met. These prerequisites could be: gifts, acts of service, words of affirmation, touch/affection, and/or quality time. If someone meets these requirements for another there is a potential for idolatry. Huh? Yes, because if that is the only reason they are being let in then it is not love and they are becoming a god so to speak to the person who has the ‘standard’ set in their heart. The caveat is if or really when the person fails to continue to meet the standard then comes judgment and reckoning. The little god will need to pay up.

Christ has already paid the price and did so before the foundations of the earth. He is first and preeminent in everything, Colossians 1. Even though He did it all and paid for us we truly do not owe Him. Why? Because He is good and He is love. What? Yes, that is how good He is, but He is even more than that. The small English language cannot encapsulate His essence and never will.

The Lord told Moses, “I am the ever-existent One” or “I am that I am”. His existence hinges nothing outside of Himself. He is self-existent and there is a reality and truth in this existence by revelation in the heart of the believer.

Because He is and is Love and really all goodness we cannot pay him back, but can be holy offspring as He is holy according to the faith, truth and grace in us of His only begotten Son. Glory unto glory. The universal Church that Christ died for.

Why does one go to the Holy of Holies? To obtain grace and mercy in our time of need. Grace to do and be. Mercy and forgiveness once for all. Also, to have His love diffused into us to love ourselves, others and this creation.

Sounds like we are created from the get-go to be beings of faith like the Creator. Duh.

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=the-will-to-power&sc=WR_20091119

Sensation and Action
Over the past decade psychologists such as Daniel M. Wegner of Harvard University amassed experimental evidence for a number of conscious sensations that accompany any willful action. The two most important are intention and agency. Prior to voluntary behavior lies a conscious intention. When you decide to lift your hand, this intention is followed by planning of the detailed movement and its execution. Subjectively, you experience a sensation of agency. You feel that you, not the person next to you, initiated this action and saw it through. If a friend were to take your hand and pull it above your head, you would feel your arm being dragged up, but you would not feel any sense of being responsible for it. The important insight here is that the consciously experienced feelings of intention and agency are no different, in principle, from any other consciously experienced sensations, such as the briny taste of chicken soup or the red color of a Ferrari.

1 Cor. 1:7, “Who shall also confirm (establish) you unto the end, [that ye may be] blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

The Greek word means ” that cannot be called into to account, unreproveable, unaccused, blameless.”

How does this take effect? What do I need to do to make it happen?

Answer: nothing.

It is the impartation of the knowledge and understanding by grace that sin cannot be held to my account ever again by the revelation of Christ and His complete work on the cross.

Col. 1:9, “(We) do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;”

2 Cor. 3:17, “¹⁶ Nevertheless when one turns (converts or turns around due to ‘afterthought’) to the Lord, the veil (self-imposed law) is taken away (περιαιρέω periaireō). ¹⁷ Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty (freedom from the bondage of all self-imposed law).”

περιαιρέω periaireō: “to take away that which surrounds or envelopes a thing”.

The Spirit is there by grace and revelation. Not self-imposed law. The Spirit gives great assurance and hope. Self-imposed law does not.