WBS.200
FUNDAMENTALS OF DISCIPLESHIP
WHO AM I?
– IV
The New
Man - 3
Colossians 3:1 If ye then
be risen with Messiah, seek those things which are above, where Messiah sitteth
on the right hand of Elohim.
When we repent and give our lives to Messiah; what happens
to us next elevates us beyond what we can imagine. It isn’t rational. It doesn’t make sense. We do not “feel” worthy of what happens to
us; and the truth is, we aren’t worthy of it.
It happens simply because of the Father’s love for us.
Because we do not feel or have a mental
awareness of our spirit, it is difficult to believe anything about it is really
real; or that anything pertaining to it has any real consequences in our
physical existence on this earth.
Nothing could be farther from the truth.
I want to try to help us capture the reality of our spirit in this post,
today; and hopefully, we might have an “Aha!” moment that will liberate us into
experiencing our inheritance in Messiah.
Our opening verse begins with a
condition: “If you are risen with Messiah…” This is a prerequisite. We must first be risen
with Messiah before the rest of what Paul says in this chapter will apply to
us. One of the things he says following
this condition is:
Colossians 3:9 Lie not one to another, seeing
that ye have put off the old man with his deeds;
10 And have put on the new man, which is renewed in
knowledge after the image of him that created him:
So, “if we have
been risen with Messiah,” we have “put off
the old man;” and we have “put on the new
man.” Does that sound like
something you remember doing…something you remember happening in your life?
First, let’s ask the question: “How were we risen
with Messiah?” It is apparent that one
cannot have risen unless one has first died; so in order for us to be risen
with Messiah, we must first have died. Did
that happen? How did that happen?
2 Corinthians
5:14 For the love of Messiah constraineth us; because we thus
judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead:
In John 3, we learn that IAUE did not send Yahushua
into the world to condemn the world. No,
the world was already condemned. The
entire human race was convicted of a capital crime; and every man, woman and
child were simply waiting for the execution of their sentence… death. However, we understand that Yahushua stood in
man’s place to take the punishment that was due man…the innocent for the
guilty. Yahushua was impaled and
died. In his death, all of mankind died. As far as the official records are concerned,
there is a spiritual death certificate issued in every name of all mankind
stating a cause of death that they each died paying the penalty of sin;
however, in order to be risen with Messiah; man must first claim his death
certificate.
How does man claim his spiritual death
certificate?
Romans 6:9 Knowing that Messiah being
raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him.
10 For in that he
died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto Elohim.
When Yahushua died in our place, he died
because of sin; but he also died TO sin.
When he was resurrected, he was no longer touchable by sin or
death. When his gospel is preached; what
is the first response required of man? “Repent” (Acts 2:38). What is repentance if not the forsaking of
our sin, turning away from our rebellion against IAUE’s will?
What is the second response required by the
gospel? “Be
baptized for the remission of your sins.” Baptism (immersion in water)
is not to receive forgiveness of sins; it is to receive remission of sins. Remission is freedom from the power of sin. Think of sin like a disease…like lung
cancer. You can receive forgiveness for
a lifetime of smoking cigarettes; but forgiveness does not eradicate the
disease. If the cancer is in remission, you are no longer being affected by it.
It is no longer killing you. Sin that
has been forgiven does not necessarily cease being committed by you. When sin
is in remission, you are no longer committing it. (The old Wesley song, Oh For a Thousand
Tongues to Sing, has a lyric that says, “He breaks the power of cancelled
sin. He sets the prisoner free.” Cancelled sin has been forgiven, but sin’s
hold may still control you. When the
power of cancelled sin is broken, you are in remission of that sin.)
So, the death certificate is received, not at
the moment you believe in/on Messiah (That is the moment that you realize your
sins have been forgiven); but in the moment you have consented to die to sin and
to wash away your cancelled sins in baptism.
That is called, repentance. This is why baptism in water immediately
followed repentance in the book of Acts.
What do you do with a dead person?
You bury him.
Romans 6:5 For if we have been planted
together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his
resurrection:
Notice carefully what Paul is saying
here. If we are planted in the likeness
of his death; and we see in verse 10, above, that he died unto sin; then we shall
be in the likeness of his resurrection; and verse 10 says he lives unto
Elohim. That means we are no longer
living in sin. We are living unto Elohim…doing
the will of Elohim…living singularly unto the good pleasure of Elohim; but how
is that possible?
Romans 6:6 Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him,
that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve
sin.
7 For he that is dead is freed from sin.
Dead people don’t sin. When we have been
united with Messiah in his death, our old man dies. We have put off the old man in repentance;
and we have washed away his filthy residue in baptism.
Romans 6:11 Likewise reckon ye also
yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto Elohim through Yahushua Messiah
our Master.
This word “reckon”
is a legal term. It means “having
considered all the evidence, the only conclusion to which one may arrive is the
following.” We are to realize that the
FACT, once we have died with Messiah and have been raised to a new life in
Messiah, is that we ARE dead to sin and we ARE alive to Elohim. The new man, which is our spirit, has been
created by IAUE in His own image and after His own likeness.
Our physical body did not die when we
repented. Our soul did not die when we repented. When we were immersed in water, we did not
bury our physical body or our soul; and yet the Scripture is very clear that we
did in fact die; and we did in fact bury the dead man; and that we have, in
fact risen with Messiah in the power of a new life unto the will of Elohim. It was our spirit that experienced all of
that.
The spirit is real. Though we cannot see it, feel it, measure it
by our physical senses or mental faculties; it is real; and the Scripture has
much to say about its condition. Thus,
the Scripture is the mirror that shines to our understanding the revelation of
what our spirit has become in Messiah Yahushua; and we all know that the
Scripture commands us to walk in the spirit, in the new man, not in the
flesh. We cannot walk in the spirit if
we do not even know what the Scripture says about our spirit.
The reason most believers have difficulty with
this is that sin still reigns in their body.
Most believers have never been freed from the power of cancelled
sin. That is generally due to the fact
that most have never repented and have buried the old man in immersion. Yes, many have believed and have been
baptized; but baptism is a burial of a dead man; and unless repentance
accompanied belief (choosing to be dead unto sin and alive unto Elohim), the
subsequent baptism was merely a “getting wet” experience.
Much of the writing of the apostle Paul reads
like codes of conduct: things we should do, ways we should behave, things we
should not be doing, etc. We tend to
read these things from a soulish perspective and intellectualize Paul’s
words. What Paul is really saying in all
of his epistles is to allow the new man to control the way we live, the way we
behave and think.
Colossians 3:10 And
have put on the new man, which is
renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:
11 Where
there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian,
Scythian, bond nor free: but Messiah is all, and in all.
12 Put on therefore, as the elect of Elohim, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness,
humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering;
13 Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel
against any: even as Messiah forgave you, so also do ye.
14 And above all these things put on charity, which
is the bond of perfectness.
All of the
underlined attributes above are attributes of the New Man. This is what your spirit is like. This list might not sound like who you think
you are at all. In fact you may be quite
certain that this is not a description of you at all; but it IS a description
of the New Man who is in you if you are born again. If you have become a New Man in Yahushua
Messiah, when you put on the New Man, when you wear your spirit like you wear a
set of clothes, when you stop allowing your life to be determined by the
dictates of the flesh or the thoughts of an unrenewed mind, this is what you
will discover you are really like; and this barely scratches the surface of the
nature of the New Man.
Kingdom
heart: a heart that offers no resistance to the
performance of the will of IAUE.
