I was taught God or Christ was showing me something when I was walking by the spirit. Maybe it's the spirit showing me something when I'm walking by the spirit. In Romans 8:4, it's suggesting we walk after or by this spirit. In Romans 8:9, it calls this spirit the spirit of Christ. In Romans 8:11, it calls this spirit the spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead and that it dwells in us. In 1 Corinthians 3:16, it calls it the spirit of God that dwells in us. In Galatians 4:6, it's called the spirit of his son. And in Galatians 5:16, it talks about walking in the spirit. Very few Christians know who they are in the spirit because most of us have been taught by our religious leaders that we are sinners by nature. And in my view that is just the opposite of what the Scriptures teach.
We are taught "to be in the spirit" means to walk upright in our
flesh or to have our flesh in fellowship with God. So we read right over
the many verses such as Peter and John were filled with the spirit. Or "that we might be made the righteousness of God in
him" 2 Corinthians 5:21. Romans talks about no condemnation to them which are in Christ
Jesus. Christians everywhere do not seem to understand the words "in
him" or "in Christ" or "filled with the spirit." We can't see ourselves walking by the spirit because
we are taught that the operations of the spirit are things we operate
through our flesh. They are not the manifestations of you. They are of
the spirit. We are also taught that we
are sinners and this is another reason why we can't see the spirit as long as we see
ourselves as a piece of trash. To see it we have to see ourselves as the righteousness of God in him.
I live by the faith of the Son of God...
If
Paul in Galatians 2:20 says he's crucified in the flesh. But he still
lives, but not him, but Christ. Then I gotta think he's referring to the
Christ within. The new nature. And that is the spirit of Christ, which
we can shorten to spirit. Then it's the faith from the spirit. Well, one
of the operations or manifestations of the spirit is faith.
2 Corinthians 5:17
Therefore if any man
be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed
away; behold, all things are become new.
It's not the body, but the spirit that has become a new creature. In other words, it's in the spirit that we have become a brand-new species because our spirit is totally new and therefore there is not an old sin nature left in us. We undergo a miraculous exchange at the center of our being once we have the spirit of Christ. Who we were in Adam is no longer there. We become a new person because we are now a child of God who is in Christ. The key event causing this exchange is a death, burial, and resurrection with Christ. This miraculous exchange is not figurative or symbolic, but literal and actual.
The spiritual part of every Christian has literally and actually been crucified, buried, and raised with Christ. The fact that this occurs spiritually and not physically doesn’t make it any less real. So what happens to the old self that was in Adam? The old self is entirely obliterated once the spirit of Christ enters the Christian. I know this comes as a complete shock to many of you who have been indoctrinated in the-old-nature-versus-the-new-nature theology. Most Christians have been taught to believe that after salvation, they are still the same at their core, and they live the rest of their lives trying to restrain this old nature. They believe they have two natures.
Romans 6:2
How shall we, that are dead to sin,
live any longer therein?
The Christians of today believe they are alive to sin and it's with much effort, frustration, and failure that they battle this sin nature the rest of their lives. This idea that the spirit of Christ makes our flesh spiritual is believed by most because the churches teach that Christians still have a sin nature. They do not. It's destroyed after the spirit of Christ has come upon the Christian. It seems like the whole Christian world teaches that the spirit follows the flesh, and by that, I mean the spirit functions through the flesh. The reason I cannot lust in the flesh when following after the spirit is because it's impossible to do so since the spirit of Christ does not lust after the flesh.
Religious people don't follow after the spirit, but rather they follow after their flesh and call it spiritual. The religious folks lead with their flesh and call it Christian. The church folks clean up their flesh by making themselves nice. Then they say this is Christian because we are being nice like the way Jesus was. In contrast to that, I believe we should be walking by the spirit of Christ. It is written that we should ask in his name, which I have finally come to believe means to ask in his authority, which seems to me would mean to ask by representing him. When I receive what I'm focused on in prayer, then I will be living within the authority of Jesus Christ, and thereby functioning as his representative.
When
I am close to the spirit of
Christ, then I will function as a partner with the Lord whereby it
becomes a joint effort. I believe the spirit of Christ is my new nature
and therefore I have been able to function in it. To live in it, walk by
it, and be in it. Most of my life I believed I was in a battle between what I
thought was my old man fighting against what I thought was my new man.
Now I'm not fighting. I moved right in the darn thing. It seems to me
one cannot be walking by the spirit if our old nature (which is dead)
thinks it's fighting against our new nature.
I was taught being
in Christ meant I was in fellowship with God because I was walking
upright in my flesh. I now understand being in Christ is being in the
spirit and neither of them (in Christ or in the spirit) has anything to
do with the flesh. It now seems perfectly clear to be walking in the spirit is the same as putting on the Lord Jesus Christ. It's the
same as having fellowship with Jesus Christ, which is also part of
having the mind of Christ. Living in Christ is the same as being strong
in the Lord, and in the power of his might. There's a verse where Jesus
says without me you can do nothing. Well, I'm never without him.
I believe the wrong belief many Christians have is that we become sinners again whenever we
fail and this is why we live our lives with insecurity and
condemnation. Sometimes we think we are righteous and then at other times we think we
are sinners. We wrongly believe our righteousness is dependent on how
we perform that day and that leads to a very severe identity crisis. I'm
writing to people who are genuinely looking for a way out of their
fears, guilt and bondage. We are saved and made righteous by grace, but
we still make mistakes, fail, and are tempted, and yet our righteousness
is not a result of our right doing, but rather a result of our standing in Christ.
The Greek word hamartano, is used for all of the 11 following verses that have the word "sin" in it. Translated into English as "sin" which
means to miss, failure, aberration from prescribed law or duty. Thus,
considered not as an action, [as the Catholics taught us, who are the
ones who defined the definition for us 1600 years ago] but as the
quality of action, the evil principle from the actual transgression. If
a canal by which water flows down to a place is considered pure. And
then an influence comes into the water that has the idea of muddying the
water. Then it's the defiling influence, the disturbance that has
flowed upon the creation of God.
There is no mud in what God created in Christ Jesus that was placed inside of our new nature. None. Thus, it's impossible for me to bring this mud forward when I'm in Christ. So let's begin by looking at these 11 verses and keep in mind they do seem to be speaking about our time right now and not for some time into the future. We see this with statements like "For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law." Well, I'm not under the law right now. Or "We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not." I'm born of God right now. Or "being made free from sin, and become servants to God." I'm a servant to God right now.
Romans 6
How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?
our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.
For he that is dead is freed from sin.
he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God.
Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin,
For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law,
Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.
being made free from sin, and become servants to God,
1 John 3 & 5
Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not: whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him.
Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin, for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.
We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not.
We read in the book of Matthew that Jesus shall save his people from their sins. The problem I have had with this begins in Romans where it states we don't have sin anymore and yet everyone seems to agree that we all fall short. Today I woke up with an idea of starting at the beginning which is where any good building starts when we need to have a solid foundation. So let's consider Adam and Eve who were created to have the spirit of God. A dog was created to function without the spirit of God and so dogs are normal in the way they function. But humans are missing something and therefore not complete if we do not function with the spirit of God. It would be considered broken if it were a car that was missing a part because it would be incomplete since it would be missing a necessary part. It had to be the spirit that Adam and Eve gave up that caused them to be broken, to have missed the mark, and to deliberately do such a thing was considered sin. Well, we know it was not an apple.
If I'm correct on how I'm looking at this then it
makes sense that blasphemy against God would be an unforgivable sin
because to do so would be to keep ourselves broken and therefore unable
to have the spirit of life. The book of Matthew states Jesus had the ability to
forgive sins. In the book of John, we see "the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." We
will continue to stay broken if we refuse the spirit and this is why
Jesus told them they will die in their sins because they cannot go where
he is going to go. The Lord said "If you were blind, ye should have no sin: but now ye say, We see; therefore your sin remaineth."
In other words, if we did not know we were broken. Then we did not
know we were missing a part and so it's not our fault. But if we say
yeah, we know we are not broken. Then there lies the acknowledged sin.
This
reminds me of 1 John where it is written if we acknowledge or confess
our sin is one thing. But we lie if we say we don't have any sin. It seems to be the same concept in both
John and 1 John. I'm just looking at the way sin is used in the gospels
and in doing so it seems clear that Jesus had the ability to forgive
sin. We still have sin if we don't get this forgiveness from him and
that's what is being said in the book of Matthew and John. And if we don't know we
have sin because we are challenged to the degree of being
impaired, disabled
or blind to it in some way is how we would be exempt from it. Understand?
The New Testament epistles have words like "remission of sins" and "sins may be blotted out" and "the forgiveness of sins" and "wash away thy sins" and "whose sins are covered" and "impute sin" and "are dead to sin" and "condemned sin in the flesh" and "take away their sins"
and "Christ died for our sins" and "purged our sins..." The book of Romans begins talking about Jews and Gentiles being both under sin and this
should not be anything new to us since both are still broken without the
spirit of God. And yet for some mysterious reason I live on a planet
where many Christians think their flesh is justified by the deeds of the
law even after the book of Romans tells us plainly that everyone except the
Christian is under sin (Romans 3:20 says Jews and Gentiles).
Romans tell us "sin is not imputed when there is no law" and "that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin." And then there's verse 7 with "For he that is dead is freed from sin."
I never understood Romans 6 because I was taught that I was a sinner saved
by grace. Let's look at what Romans is saying: Christ died unto sin once
and now he lives unto God. How are we who are still alive going to be
able to likewise reckon ourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive
unto God? It seems to me it must be done through Jesus Christ our
Lord. It's not about us or our broken selves. It's him we must function in. Here's the verse "Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord."
It appears both Catholic and Protestant churches do not teach that "sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace." Nor do they teach "For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness." And so "Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness."
I'm going to skip over Romans 7 because it tells us right up at the
top of the chapter that Paul is talking to those who are into or know the
law. And then the context of the whole chapter is how we can see it's
all about Israel and their Law and how they toy with their flesh.
What Paul talks about in the seventh chapter of Romans is what occurs to the believer who still thinks the Law applies to them. They end up spiritually dying by the commandment and realize that the commandment does not produce life. The war is with their flesh because they are still believing the Law has power over them. In the eighth chapter of Romans is where it explains how we overcome this whole issue by living in the spirit and being dead to the Law. We cannot live by faith in what Christ has done for us and still think our obedience to written laws are necessary. To do so takes away from the perfect work of Christ and places salvation and righteousness back in our own hands. Romans 8 states "the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin..."
The verse in 2 Corinthians 5:21, is talking about the "righteousness of God in him." It's the "in him" that nobody seems to be able to understand. This whole thing functions "in him." It's in Christ and therefore in the new nature that is mentioned just a few verses above this in verse 17 where it says "new creature:" It's not that we do not sin
in our old man nature. It's that we do not sin in the new man that we
are told to put on. The churches have destroyed this idea by teaching we
put on
the new man by following the teachings of Jesus as we walk in our flesh.
So this is a lost art.
In the book of Colossians, we read "putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ:" We did not put it off. It was the circumcision of Christ. Two verses later we read "together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses;..." Again, it's "in him" or "with him." I also want to get the book of Hebrews in here where we see Christ offered himself once "for this he did once" and not like the high priest who offered up the sacrifice daily. The Lord Christ "after he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God;..."
Peter has the same mindset as Paul when he writes in 1 Peter "that we, being dead to sins,..." Peter goes on to say that Christ suffered once for sins so as to bring us to God, and so this is why the Scripture reads "being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit:" Again, the old man crucified and the new man put in its place. Peter again, "ceased from sin;..." Put that mindset on or as Peter writes "arm yourself likewise with the same mind:" Because he that has suffered in the flesh or was crucified in the flesh has put on the new man because the other one is dead. That new person "hath ceased from sin;..."
A belief system called Gnosticism was taking root in Christianity at the time the book of John was being written that taught there was a supreme and unknowable Being, which they designated as the "Monad." The Monad produced various gods, who in turn produced other gods, and one of these gods called the "Demiurge" created the earth and then ruled over it as an angry, evil and jealous god. Gnostics believe this evil god was the god of the Old Testament who is called "Elohim" and so the Monad had to send another god known as the "Christ" to bring special knowledge to mankind and free them from the influence of the evil Elohim. And this is why the gnostics do not seek salvation from repenting of their sin (but rather from the ignorance of which sin is a consequence) that they believe the evil creator God and his angels caused. They emphasize salvation of select humans from bodily existence through their awakening to the knowledge of their original divine identity. I believe the Apostle John had them on his mind when he wrote the Epistle of 1 John saying you must realize you have sin and repent. John was not talking to the already saved Christian as the Catholics would like you to believe.
I see this 1 John chapter 1 and 2 as we are either walking in our old dead nature if we are into sin. Or we are walking in the spirit if we are not into sin.
Chapter 1
6 "If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:"
6. Not in him because we are either not saved or are not walking by the spirit .
7
"But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship
one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us
from all sin."
7. In him because we are saved and are walking by the spirit.
8 "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us."
8. Not in him
because we are either not saved or are not walking by the spirit..
9 "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."
9. In him
because we are saved and are walking by the spirit.
10 "If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us."
10. Not in him
because we are either not saved or are not walking by the spirit.
Chapter 2
1
"My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And
if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the
righteous:"
1. Not in him
because we are either not saved or are not walking by the spirit.
2 "And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world."
2. Not in him
because we are either not saved or are not walking by the spirit.
3 "And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments."
3. In him
because we are saved and are walking by the spirit.
4 "He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him."
4. Not in him
because we are either not saved or are not walking by the spirit.
5 "But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him."
5. In him
because we are saved and are walking by the spirit.
6 "He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked."
6. In him
because we are saved and are walking by the spirit.
The last verse I'm going to mention has "in him" again. From 1 John we read "that he was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no sin." We cannot sin in him because there's no sin in him and this is why "Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God."
Most Christians still believe the spirit of Christ makes their flesh spiritual. And this is why they believe their sins are forgiven when they are born again up to that point, but must run to God to confess and repent their new sins every time they sin after becoming a Christian. The belief is that you will either be lost, or on your way to hell, or at the very least God will not fellowship with you, and He certainly will not answer your prayers if you are found with an unconfessed sin. Such a concept would mean everybody would be on their way to hell because there is not a person on this earth who does not have either a known or an unknown unconfessed sin. Now if this new sin just means the loss of a relationship with God, which would include unanswered prayers. Then God would not have a single person on this earth qualified to receive an answer to prayer or to be able to fellowship with Him.