WBS.177
FUNDAMENTALS OF DISCIPLESHIP
THE
TRANSFORMATION OF THE SOUL – XIV
2
Corinthians 4:10 Always bearing about in the body the dying
of the Master Yahushua, that the life also of Yahushua might be made manifest
in our body.
Today,
I want to revisit two comments made in last week’s post and enlarge upon them.
We died in Messiah in
order to release us from the “old man,” the sinful nature which is a part of
our natural birth in the flesh; thus releasing us from bondage to sin. We are freed through death to sin no more.
The old man is dead and buried with Messiah.
Messiah rose from the dead, free from sin, free from death, free from
Satan, free from the curse of the Law, free from every entanglement that makes
man a slave to sin.
Roman
6:6 Knowing this, that our old man is
impaled with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth
we should not serve sin.
Last
week we illustrated how Messiah was impaled, not in his own name, but in our
name. He died for us, on our behalf;
therefore we “reckon that if one died for all, then
were all dead;” but what is this “old man” that was impaled with
Messiah? Paul says the Old Man was
crucified for a purpose---that the body of sin might be destroyed. If we are going to be freed from the body of
sin, it would seem important for us to understand this transaction.
Man
becomes a living soul when a physical body has a spirit breathed into it to
animate the flesh. The Scripture says
that the “soul” that sins
must surely die; but why do our souls sin?
Why do we choose to disobey the will of IAUE? Why do scorpions sting, and opossums play
dead? Why do wolves hunt in packs, and
bees protect their queen? It is because
that is their “nature.” The spirit of
man, being separated from the life and light of IAUE has a passive nature for
it has essentially nothing to offer man of any benefit. The spirit imparted to
man at birth cannot promote the soul to choose life, to choose obedience to
Messiah, because such behavior is alien to it.
The Old Man leaves the soul of man to the dictates of the flesh to
learn, to understand, to develop judgment and discernment, and to define what
is good and evil. The old man’s nature,
thus, is sinful in that it leaves man to the dictates of the flesh which ONLY
ALWAYS chooses to disobey the will of IAUE.
So the nature of man before coming to Messiah, is one of sin. My father referred to the Old Man as that
which gives man an Old Sin Nature (or OSN for short). He was one of few people I knew in my earlier
years who understood the truth that man born into Messiah no longer has an OSN,
because he no longer has an Old Man animating the life of his physical
body. Man’s nature has changed. The only problem is that our minds do not
acknowledge or embrace that reality; and the soul (mind, will, emotions) of man
that has always depended on the dictates of the flesh, still does, even after
we come to Messiah.
Our
physical body and our soul were unaffected directly by the impaling of Yahushua
Messiah; but our spirit, which was ever separated from the life and light of
IAUE was affected by Messiah’s
death. It was removed. It was replaced with the spirit of
Yahushua. Our OSN is gone. We now have a new nature, and that nature is
the nature of Messiah, himself. Our
problem is our training. Our minds have
already-established patterns of behavior, patterns of thinking, concepts in
which we trust to be true and consistent.
With a new nature emanating within us from the spirit of Yahushua, it is
experienced in our minds as an alien surge of thought and behavior and we must
learn to trust it. We are basically faced
with needing to break habits. We must come to break with the “comfort” of
reliance upon the flesh to the new nature of the spirit that now dwells within
us. When you hear disciples say, “Oh, it
must have been my old sin nature acting up,” they are speaking out of
ignorance. They no longer have an
OSN. What they have is habitual behavior
over which they failed to exercise dominion.
Think
of it like this. Had we, at our birth,
been born with the spirit of Yahushua as our animating life force, our lives
would have developed as Yahushua’s life did in Nazareth. We would have grown in the wisdom and
knowledge of IAUE, and would have learned to speak the words of IAUE and do the
works of IAUE. We would have understood faith and how to move and act within its
ability just like Yahushua did. We would have grown up with implicit trust and
reliance in the Scriptures. Well, Messiah’s spirit is NOW the animating life
force of our bodies. If you ever wished
you could have lived as Messiah did, now is your chance. When 2 Corinthians
5:17 says that if any man be in Messiah, he is a new creature, this is what
Paul was saying. Messiah in us IS the
New Man. Trust his spirit within you.
Allow his nature to retrain your mind unto perfect obedience to the will
of his Father. Allow Messiah to retrain your mind and transform your soul in
every possible way. The apostle told
the Ephesians (Ephesians 4:24) and the Colossians (Colossians 3:10) to “put on”
the New Man. Adorn yourself with
it. Put it on like apparel. Don’t leave it in your wardrobe. Wear it!
We SHALL be resurrected unto the same manner of man as Yahushua
is now; but until then, our being reckoned dead in Messiah is what releases the
treasure of HIS resurrected spirit within us.
2
Corinthians 4:10 Always bearing about in the body the dying
of the Master Yahushua, that the life also of Yahushua might be made manifest
in our body.
Paul
said he bore in his body the dying of Messiah IN ORDER THAT the life of the
Master might be made evident to the five physical senses in his body. In terms of our prior studies, this is the
ultimate bridge to release the light and life of IAUE in our life.
Note
that Paul says he bore about in his “body” the dying of the Master
Yahushua. He did not bear it in his soul
or his spirit. The part of his being
that needed the constant imposition of the death of the Master was his
body. This would be expressed in terms
of our story in last week’s post about Ben and Jack that Ben would have always
looked at his physical body as having died in Jack. When he looked at his physical body, he perceived
it as a corpse lying cold on the ground on some civil war battlefield. The fact that it is still animated only means
Ben must grant that its existence be used to express the life of Jack, who died
in his stead. The moment Ben looked at his body as being alive, being his own,
then Ben could live for Ben, and not for Jack.
Paul
calls it, in Romans 12:1, a “living sacrifice.” He is dead to it; yet the body is alive, so
it now belongs to Messiah. With the
spirit of Yahushua now the animating life force of the body, this makes sense
to allow the spirit of Yahushua to call the shots, make the decisions how the
body is to be used…what words it shall speak, what deeds it shall do, what
attitudes it shall express, what compassion it shall show to others, what works
of the devil it shall destroy, what miracles it shall perform, etc.
This
verse is expressed in different ways in the Scripture. Here Paul calls it “always bearing about in
the body the dying of the Master Yahushua.”
To the Romans Paul says:
Romans 6:11 Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin,
but alive unto Elohim through Yahushua Messiah our Master.
12 Let not
sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts
thereof.
Can
you see the parallel construction? “Reckon”
means to consider the evidence and draw a legal conclusion…a judgment. We are dead to sin. How?
In the body of Messiah. We died
in him to be liberated from sin.
The
Master himself says it like this:
John 15:4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of
itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.
5 I am
the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same
bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.
6 If a
man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men
gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.
7 If ye
abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall
be done unto you.
8 Herein
is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.
We
have been grafted into the vine which is Messiah. It is his life flowing through us, now; his
nature is dictating the growth of the fruit in our lives. We MUST, however, abide in him, draw from his
nature, his life; otherwise the nature of the flesh is what will determine what
kind of “fruit” is borne in our lives.
If we do not abide in the spirit of Yahushua Messiah, then the whole
purpose of the graft will have failed; and we do NOT want that to happen.
Kingdom
heart: a heart that offers no resistance to the
performance of the will of IAUE.
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