The Daily Word of Righteousness

We Christians Do Not Understand the Gospel!, #13

Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. (II Corinthians 5:17)

Re-creating our moral nature. The key to the re-creation of our moral nature, our ability to choose righteousness and reject evil, is death and resurrection.

It is of the utmost importance that the believer understand God will save no part of the personality born of his human father and mother. No matter what array of desirable characteristics may dwell in his human personality, all of them must be crucified with the Lord Jesus on the cross of Calvary.

When an automobile is in an accident the insurance carrier must decide whether it is more economical to attempt to repair the vehicle or whether to tow it away to the junkyard and present the insured person with another car.

God has determined to send the entire race of Adam to the junkyard. No aspect of flesh and blood can enter the Kingdom of God. Only that which is born of Christ can enter the Kingdom.

Because our first personality is not to be saved but to be crucified with Christ, and our second personality is to be born of Christ and raised to the right hand of God, we can expect our Christian life to be a continual program of death and resurrection!—death and resurrection!—death and resurrection!

How does God bring us down to death? By bringing pressure on our adamic personality each day. As we suffer various tribulations we surrender our will to God. Then the Virtue of the body and blood of the Lord Jesus raises us up into newness of life. Each day we die. Each day we live. The result is a new creation, a creation that is an eternal blend of us and the Lord Jesus.

We are re-created morally as we accept the deaths and prisons the Lord sends our way, praying always that God will raise us and grant us the desires of our heart. We always are to be pressing toward the mark in this manner.

Have you been crucified with Christ? Is He living in you? This is the new creation. This is the internal Kingdom of God, the kingdom being formed in the royal priesthood; the kingdom the royal priests will bring with them when they return with the Lord Jesus. That which now is internal will then be revealed in unimaginable external glory. The thousand-year Kingdom Age will come to the nations from within the saints. The glory of the Day of the Lord is in Jesus, and is being created in us provided we are willing to be crucified with Christ.

To be continued.