Orange Moon Saturday, January 6, 2023 "New"

The Special of the Day… From the Orange Moon Cafe…

"New"    

   

    Born again believers in the Lord Jesus Christ are not who we once were.

    "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).

    

    In the moment of our new birth through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit entered our innermost being and birthed someone who had not previously existed.  Moreover, the Apostle Paul refers to this new being as having been "created in righteousness and true holiness" (Ephesians 4:24).  This involves our spiritual union with the Spirit of Christ Himself, who became the very Life of our lives upon His entrance into our redeemed and spiritually birthed hearts.  

    "God hath sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying Abba Father" (Galatians 4:6).

    "Christ… is our life" (Colossians 3:4).

    

   If we could ask our Heavenly Father how He views us, He would begin here, in the light of His Son's presence and vital working in our innermost being.  "The Lord looketh on the heart" (I Samuel 16:7).  Do we join Him in this view or ourselves, as alive in Christ?  Do we "behold, all things are become new" in this "inward man" wherein we "delight in the law of God?" (Romans 7:22).  Scripture commands that we do.

    "Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Romans 6:11).

    The "likewise" in the Apostle Paul's mandate refers to the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus.  God calls believers to view ourselves as no less spiritually "alive unto God" than the Savior who died and arose.  This seems almost fanciful, considering that we still dwell in earthly temples Paul declares to be "dead because of sin," and which continue to have much influence in our lives (Romans 8:10).  We can walk after the flesh and experience the death of the corpse, as it were, rather than the life of the Christ.  However, nothing changes, or can change the blessed reality of a "new creature… new man… newness of life."

      Do we know such grace to be true?  Do we believe it?  Do we "reckon?"  Again, the Spirit of God and the Scripture of God mandates our affirmation of the truth that who we are in Christ is not who we were without Him.  It matters not how we feel, or what our past experience may tell us, or whatever our present emotional and mental sensibilities may indicate.  God did not put new wine into old bottles when we received His grace in Christ.  He rather birthed a "new creature" united to the Holy Spirit (Matthew 9:17; I Corinthians 6:17).  This is who we are in Christ, and who we will forever be in the light and life of His presence within us.  The God who "looketh on the heart" sees His Son therein, united to the spiritual son or daughter He birthed when we believed.  Certainly, He does not overlook or ignore fleshly realities and matters that require His rapt attention and action.  "And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly.  And I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ" (I Thessalonians 5:23).  However, we can be absolutely confident that our Heavenly Father's first gaze upon us focuses on His Son's presence within us as He looks on our hearts.  He calls - He commands - that we join Him in reckoning that in the innermost depths of our being, who we are is not who we were.  Therein, let us open the eyes of our hearts to "Behold, all things are become new."  We will live very different lives as we do.

If Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is life because of righteousness.  But if the Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken (enliven) your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you."

(Romans 8:9-10)

"Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God."

(I Corinthians 6:9-11)

Weekly Memory Verse

   Thou wilt show me the path of life.  In Thy presence is fullness of joy.  At Thy right hand there are pleasures forevermore.

(Psalm 16:11)

    

     

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