Who
Is "The Inner Man"?
And What Is He Like? - Part Two
Living From Christ Within Us
The Role Of Our Thoughts
The mind is critical to the success of this venture as it is our "contact point' with the Spirit. (Romans 8:5-13 NKJV) For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. {6} For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. {7} Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. {8} So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God. {9} But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. {10} And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. {11} But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. {12} Therefore, brethren, we are debtors; not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. {13} For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
"Born Of Woman" vs. "Born Of God"
This leads us to the third of our opening bible
passages - Matthew 11:11-13. John the Baptist who was the greatest of
those "born of women" and the last of the prophets. Yet Jesus
said that "the least in the Kingdom of God is greater than he."
At first sight the proposition that some of the more annoying Christians
we have met could be greater than John the Baptist is, to say the least,
astonishing (your editor has a cynical streak).
But consider... those "born
of women" can have the Spirit upon them, worship God and be prophets
but they are not "new creations".There is a huge qualitative
difference between a "born again believer" and John the Baptist.
The born again believer is "born of God" (not merely "born
of women") and has a God-conceived nature that is eternal. They are
not necessarily "better than" John the Baptist as viewed from
outside. But when viewed from inside or from above they are "greater"
inasmuch as the nature conceived within the Christian is far greater and
can be said to dwell in the heavenly realms (Ephesians 2:6.7). This nature
is Christ in us...
(Colossians 1:26-29 NKJV) The mystery which has been hidden
from ages and from generations, but now has been revealed to His saints.
{27} To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory
of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of
glory. {28} Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in
all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. {29}
To this end I also labor, striving according to His working which works
in me mightily.
The Maturing of Christ In Us
Notice Paul's concerns here - Christ in you
is the hope of glory. It is the glorious indwelling nature, born of God,
Christ in us , that gives us the hope of being sinless, immortal, imperishable
and inheriting a resurrection body fit for "the saints"(hagioi-
holy ones). Paul works hard to see that Christ in us is "perfected"(Col
1:28, above). It seems that Jesus Christ ‘grows in us'. Paul writes
to the backslidden Galatians:
(Galatians 4:19 NKJV) My little children,
for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you".
This
at first, may seem paradoxical. How can one have Christ and still need
Him to be "formed"? Just as Jesus grew in wisdom and stature
during his earthly ministry so it seems Christ in us "grows"
into a "mature man" through the disciplines of the faith and
the word of God. This forming of Christ in us involves ministering to
one another and edifying one another.
(Ephesians 4:13-15 NKJV) "Till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the
Son of God, to a perfect (teleois - mature) man, to the measure of the
stature of the fullness of Christ; {14} that we should no longer be children,
tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the
trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, {15}
but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who
is the head; Christ;".
Particularly important to this is "being filled with the Spirit"
and encouraging one another in the Word..(Ephesians 5:18-20 NKJV) And
do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with
the Spirit, {19} speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual
songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, {20} giving
thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord
Jesus Christ" and (Colossians 3:16-17 NKJV) Let the word of Christ
dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another
in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts
to the Lord. {17} And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name
of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.
Suffering seems also to play a part in this. During His "earthly
years", Jesus Christ was "perfected" through suffering.
(Hebrews 2:10 NKJV) "For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all
things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory, to
make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings."
and naturally this applies to us as well. (1 Peter 5:10 NKJV) But may
the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus,
after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle
you.
The Old Man Is Dead, Live Like The New Man You Are
Paul called Christians holy because they were.
Their inner nature , born of God, is holy just as God is holy. All that
is inconsistent with this holy and new nature must be shed..Paul develops
this at some length in both Ephesians and Colossians e.g
(Colossians 3:1-10
NKJV) If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are
above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. {2} Set your
mind on things above, not on things on the earth. {3} For you died, and
your life is hidden with Christ in God. {4} When Christ who is our life
appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory. {5} Therefore put
to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness,
passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. {6} Because
of these things the wrath of God is coming upon the sons of disobedience,
{7} in which you yourselves once walked when you lived in them. {8} But
now you yourselves are to put off all these: anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy,
filthy language out of your mouth. {9} Do not lie to one another, since
you have put off the old man with his deeds, {10} and have put on the
new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who
created him".
Enemies Of Your Soul
Finally to return to where we began in 1 John.
(1 John 2:15-17 NKJV) "Do not love the world or the things in the
world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
{16} For all that is in the world; the lust of the flesh, the lust of
the eyes, and the pride of life; is not of the Father but is of the world.
{17} And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does
the will of God abides forever." John lists here three decisive hindrances
to the formation of Christ in us - the love of the world manifested as
"the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life;".
The lust of the flesh centers us on that part of our nature that is mortal,
indwelt by sin and perishing when we die. Its a sweaty word ‘epithumia'
and denotes the inordinate possessive desires in our flesh that war with
God and holiness, these include sexual lusts, anger, alcoholism, drug
addiction, gluttony and laziness. The "lust of the flesh" see
the world as appetites to be satisfied and things to be consumed.
The lust of the eyes relates to greed self-gratification, money and material
acquisition , getting, grabbing, cheating and coveting. The desire is
generated by the material world outside and enters into the soul "through
the eye gate." In the midst of Jesus' discourse on God and Mammon
there is an "apparent interruption."
(Matthew 6:22-23 NKJV) "The
lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole
body will be full of light. {23} "But if your eye is bad, your whole
body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is
darkness, how great is that darkness!"
The ‘lust of the eyes'
is the basis of materialism and is a great danger to the development of
Christ in us. It is so directly opposed that Jesus can say categorically
that "You cannot serve both God and Mammon" and Paul calls the
love of money "the root of all kinds of evil" ( 1 Tim 6:10).
The last of the enemies of the soul is "the pride of life" -
status seeking, selfish ambition,"megastar: behavior", concern
about ‘the pecking order', opulence, the sins of power and ruthless
competition.. The Christian caught up in the "pride of life"
see the world as consisting of empires to be built and monuments to be
made. Unfortunately this can easily be channeled into building "Christian
empires" and "Christian monuments". All these things are
passing away.(see the article on the Kingdom of God in this issue). They
will be of absolutely zero value to us after our death. Christ in us is
not formed by glorious human achievements.
The epistle of James seems particularly directed at rebuking the "pride of life". Here are a couple of examples:
(James 4:4-7 NKJV) Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. {5} Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, "The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously"? {6} But He gives more grace. Therefore He says: "God resists the proud, But gives grace to the humble." {7} Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.
(James 1:9-11 NKJV) Let the lowly brother glory in his exaltation, {10} but the rich in his humiliation, because as a flower of the field he will pass away. {11} For no sooner has the sun risen with a burning heat than it withers the grass; its flower falls, and its beautiful appearance perishes. So the rich man also will fade away in his pursuits."
Stand Firm
The eternal part of us does not benefit from all our consuming, acquiring and achieving. To grow in Christ you must forsake these three enemies of your soul - the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. You must ask God for a renewed mind (Romans 12:1,2). This renewed mind will have a mindset that is fixed "on things above" (Colossians 3:1-4) which are of the Spirit - not the flesh (Romans 8:5-8). The outcome will be life and peace, a "harvest of righteousness' and the evidence of being a new creation in Christ Jesus.
The epistle of 1 John ends with an encouragement and an exhortation - (1 John 5:18-21 NRSV) We know that those who are born of God do not sin, but the one who was born of God protects them, and the evil one does not touch them. {19} We know that we are God's children, and that the whole world lies under the power of the evil one. {20} And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding so that we may know him who is true; and we are in him who is true, in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life. {21} Little children, keep yourselves from idols." And with that encouragement and exhortation I will finish as well.
Click here to go back to Part One
Click here to go to Theological Articles
(If you do further study on this issue please
use a fairly literal translation such as the KJV, NKJV, or NASB , the
NIV is a good dynamic translation but its substitution of ‘sinful
nature" for "flesh" and its parsing of the Greek verbs
in 1 John undermines many of the points this article is trying to make.)
This article may be freely reproduced for non-profit ministry purposes but may not be sold in any way. For permission to use articles in your ministry, e-mail the editor, John Edmiston at johned@aibi.ph.