Transformed Living
Dearly beloved of God, “God saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given unto us in Christ Jesus before the time of the ages.” II Timothy 1: 9 WT
How do we respond to God’s great grace shown us in Christ Jesus?
The law of the spirit, that is to say, life in Christ Jesus has made us free from the law of the sin and the death that Adam brought upon mankind.
In the new birth we received a new nature, that of spirit life in Christ Jesus.
In our natural birth as human beings we received a body and soul life; which is our old nature of the flesh.
Adam sold us under sin. Because of his sin he received the condemnation of death, and he lost the spirit life God created in him.
That condemnation and death passed to us his progeny, but the Lord Jesus Christ delivered us from it.
Jesus Christ delivered us from the guilt and the condemnation of the sin and the death. He justified us and there is no more condemnation to those in Christ Jesus.
When Christ returns, and gathers us together we will be transformed to have glorious new bodies like his; then we will be delivered from the presence of sin.
Until then, we will have an old nature of the flesh, and a new nature of the spirit. The mind is part of the old nature so it must be renewed after we are born again. We are the ones that have to change our minds to believe the new things that we received in the new birth of the spirit.
God instructs us to be transformed by the renewing of our minds so that we may prove the good, well-pleasing, and perfect will of God. We are to believe the measure God has given us to believe concerning who we are in Christ, and what he has accomplished.
We do not perfect the flesh once we are born again, we walk in the complete reality of the new birth spirit including all of our sonship rights, privileges, and abilities.
We clothe our minds with the new man, which is renewed in knowledge in accordance with the image of Him Who created it in us.
Religion works to perfect the flesh to gain a relationship with God. It revolves around the works of the flesh. That is bondage, not deliverance. The old nature cannot be improved; there is nothing good in it.
The opposite of religion is godliness. Godliness is a true, vital, spiritual relationship with God, and the only way our relationship with our heavenly Father becomes vital is by walking in the totality of the new spirit nature.
We deaden the practices of the old nature by walking in the complete reality of the new nature of the spirit, not by perfecting the flesh.
We are led by the spirit that is from God as we walk in the totality of the spirit nature, which includes all of our sonship rights, privileges, and abilities that we received in the new birth.
So, dearly beloved, as we renew our minds to who we are in Christ, and his accomplishments we are transformed, and we can prove God’s will in our lives. We will no longer be ruled by the flesh, but by the spirit.
Since you were raised together with Christ seek the things that are above, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God. Think the things that are above, not the things that are upon the earth.
The new spirit nature is Christ dwelling in you, and you are complete in him who is the head of all principality and power.
God called us in Christ, and in him we are justified, and glorified. The Father freely gives us all things with Christ; He blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realm in Christ; it is all of them in all the members of the body of Christ.
Walk by means of the spirit (the complete new birth reality including all of our sonship rights, privileges, and abilities), and you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
Since we live in the spirit, let us also walk in the totality of the new spirit nature, dearly beloved. Then we can fulfill God’s loving request that we present ourselves to Him as living sacrifices, holy, well-pleasing to Him; it is our logical divine service as sons of God.