faith

Jesus talks here to disciples. He does not talk to the crowd, to everybody. Whoever is born again can and will enter into this high-quality life by simply following instructions. One must understand some basic instructions and then build on these foundations, led by the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God is here at this very moment, close to us, within us, as we are reading.

But the comforter, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things, and will remind you of everything I have told you. John 14:26.

The Spirit teaches, gives understanding and brings us in. It's His work. That's why we can feel relieved. It's not up to us. Let us lean on Him, trust Him to guide our steps and let’s surrender to Him. Let us not resist, and if we detect any resistance within us, let us acknowledge it without condemning ourselves. The Holy Spirit is kind, gentle, helpful. And He is powerful in his sweetness, immensely powerful.

It is normal for our nature to rebel and resist, but the life of the Spirit in us is stronger than our nature. Christ has conquered it, crucified it and by His Spirit in us He will give us full victory, a triumph. He does it because He is good and He is our perfect savior. We can say with confidence with the psalmist:

I trust in your kindness. I have joy in my heart, because of your salvation. Psalms 13:5

Let us lay some foundations and be sure that we have understood, believed and accepted them, for if we do not understand, the enemy will erase them from our thoughts and we will no longer have foundation to support our faith and progress on.

When a man hears the word of the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil comes and takes away what has been sown in his heart: this man is the one who received the seed along the way. Matthew 13:19

Jesus begins with this statement: I am the vine, you are the branches. In other words: you are 'organically' bound to me like a branch to the tree that carries it. Let’s understand that at our new birth, in the invisible realm, a supernatural work has occurred to change our destiny forever. We have been cut off from a wild tree, from the tree of humanity, from Adam, whose dominant philosophy is: from me, by me and for me, and we were literally grafted onto the tree of life, the cultivated olive tree.

If you have been cut from the wild olive tree to which you belonged by nature and grafted contrary to your nature on the cultivated olive tree, let only the most they will be grafted according to their nature on their own olive tree. Romans 11:24

We started to die the day our mother gave us life. But we began to live for eternity, the day we were grafted into Christ. We do not feel the blood flowing through our veins and that maintains our physical life; we do not feel more the life of Christ that springs from Him and flows within us, in our mind and maintains our spiritual life. And yet both contribute to the life of our whole being, constantly, with every beat of our heart that pulses blood into our veins and I’d dare to say with every heartbeat of Jesus Christ that pulses life into our inner being.

When we understand that and begin to believe it, to iron it in our thought, this beneficent truth flows from our spirit to irrigate our soul, where lie our intelligence, emotions and will. Our soul needs to be saved, not in the sense of going to heaven but in the sense of being made conform in intelligence, emotion and will to our spirit. Our spirit and the Spirit of God are now united, through this wonderful graft, a wonderful and supernatural gift from God, our spirit and the Spirit of God have become one.

But he who unites with the Lord is one spirit with him. 1 Corinthians 6:17

I'm a branch. Like the branch, my goal is to produce fruit and my life, to remain aware at each moment of this magnificent union that binds me to the Creator God. I'm not doing anything to make life flow within me. How much would I even twist myself in every way and try with my knotted woods to wrap the vine, for fear of losing it, it would not change anything. His life flows within me because he grafted me into Him. I am grafted, tied, bound by an organic and powerful bond.

My words, my actions, my thoughts will not change anything. His life flows within me. And if my soul agrees to believe this truth, understanding and emotions will naturally accord with it, to arouse joy, abundant joy, peace, rest and so many other succulent dishes….

And if I speak badly, act badly or think badly, His life continues to flow into me anyway, and straightens me gently, teaches me, strengthens me, convinces me and leads me again, in perfect conformity, in the paths of righteousness because of His name and only because of his name. Remember there is no more condemnation for those who are in Christ. His name is above all names: the name of Jesus: God the Savior, God who heals.

He guides me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake. Psalms 23:3

That's the first foundation. I was grafted into Christ. I am grafted and his life flows within me at this moment, next moment, today, tomorrow, in a month, in a year and until my last breath as much as it pleases the Lord to let me live on earth. Isn't that comforting?

The second foundation is that this wonderful, magnificent, constant relationship is the work of the Holy Spirit. It is through Him that we are grafted. It is through him that we can remain. We did not do the graft. We cannot either maintain the graft.

When Jesus says to us 'Abide in me', he does not appeal to our abilities as if anyone could abide in Christ through his own efforts. And what does mean ‘Abide in Christ’. We understood the 'in Christ'. This is the graft. I am attached to Christ, in Christ. I am one with Him as the branch and the tree are one. The branch is in the tree and enjoys all the sap and life of the tree. I am in Christ and I enjoy the life, the virtues of the vine, Christ. And the Holy Spirit is the person who carries this life from the vine to me. He takes what is from Jesus Christ and announces it to me. I believe Him and I live it. And my soul is transformed from glory to glory as long as my eyes contemplate it, contemplate this living and transformative truth.

We have understood the 'in Christ', we must now look at the 'Abide'.

It is the Holy Spirit that makes us able to abide in Christ. It is only through faith that this can be accomplished. The very beautiful news is that this act of abiding through faith in union with Christ is also a product of the Holy Spirit in us. This type of faith is unimaginable until the Holy Spirit produces it in us. We have to ask this all the time:

For this reason I bow my knees before the Father … that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith;. Ephesians 3:16-17

The power of the Holy Spirit is not given to deserving people. It is necessary, indispensable in order to abide in Christ. Whatever our condition is, even if we see ourselves as and are perhaps the worst of the worst, and rightly so, we need the Holy Spirit, His power in order to abide in Christ. For the one who abides in Him begins to walk as He has walked.

the one who says he abides in Him ought himself to walk in the same manner as He walked. 1 John 2:6

The Holy Spirit is not given because we are perfect. It is given to us so that we may be perfect in Christ.

For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace. Romans 6:14

And when it is said that the Holy Spirit is given to those who obey him, please let us not twist the meaning of Scriptures.

The God of our fathers raised up Jesus, whom you had put to death by hanging Him on a cross. He is the one whom God exalted to His right hand as a Prince and a Savior, to grant repentance to Israel, and forgiveness of sins. And we are witnesses of these things; and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey Him Acts 5:30-32

To understand what kind of obedience this is, the Holy Spirit has taken care to write elsewhere through Paul’s pen:

Jesus Christ our Lord, through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles for His name's sake, among whom you also are the called of Jesus Christ Romans 1 :4-5

This means that the Holy Spirit is given to those who obey faith in opposition to those who obey the law. The law has brought nothing, nor anyone to perfection (Hebrew 7:19). Christ died for our sins, resurrected so that once we were grafted to Him, we would be righteous of His righteousness, perfect of his perfection, enjoying the wonderful virtues of the firstborn of the dead, of the last Adam in us. This is the gospel of Jesus-Christ ! And we are to obey the gospel !

The Holy Spirit is given to those who believe in the One whom the Father sent. This is what is called 'obedience of faith'. Do you expect everything from Jesus within you? If so, you are in the obedience of faith in opposition to those who await God's favors because of their obedience to the law.

If you are miserable, disgusted with yourself and want God to raise you to his standard of living, it is possible, you are the perfect candidate to receive at the moment the abundance of His Spirit.

He will lead you to consider the Blood of the Lamb who has already cleansed you of all sin at the Cross of Golgotha. He will produce a sadness that will trigger true, sincere and profound repentance. Then as you realize that because of this Blood, you are already forgiven for all evil that you recognize and confess before the Cross, He will pour upon you the oil of joy and holiness, He will put the ring on your finger.

You have anointed my head with oil; My cup overflows. Psalms 23:5

Powerfully strengthened by his Spirit so that Christ dwells in you, that He abides there, constantly and keeps you constantly in grace through faith. For if you are under grace, sin will no longer have power over you. It is an extraordinary experience and the privilege of the sons of God powerfully strengthened by the Spirit. Have you understood it ?

This is the second foundation: the Holy Spirit can and wants to keep me in communion with Christ in faith. And He alone can make it possible for me to constantly live in communion with Jesus Christ, not through sensations but through faith, and to see my life transformed from obedience to obedience, step by step in the image of the Savior.

He renews the spirit of our intelligence, He is the source of all wisdom that pours from our spirit into our soul to enlighten its intelligence. This is how our will is renewed, transformed and we begin to practice outwardly what comes from Him. It is the meaning of putting on the new man in a righteousness (joyful practice of God's will) and a holiness produced by the One who is alive and who is the Truth.

if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught in Him, just as truth is in Jesus, that, in reference to your former manner of life, you lay aside the old self, which is being corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth. Ephesians 4 :22-24

And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit: Ephesians 5 :18

We should no longer take a step if we are not filled with the Spirit. Without Him, without His fullness, our lives will remain a mediocre fiasco illuminated by fleeting victories and joys. Life in abundance promised by the One who does not lie is in the Spirit of God who makes us remain in Christ through faith. It enlightens our faith. Our faith easily captures all that Christ is because it is enlightened. Faith then no longer means blind. Faith is a hand that continually grasps and revels in what the Spirit reveals to it. Do we have this imperative feeling of the absolute urgency of a fullness of the Spirit to truly live as God wants? God does not demand anything that He does not make possible in us.

We are convinced that God expects from us a holy life, entirely abandoned to Him, but what happens? We know we can't do it on our own, but we try anyway. One is satisfied with a little thrill and it is called a visitation of the Holy Spirit. This is not a visitation that the Spirit of God wants to produce in us. It's a revolution!

We are in the dispensation of the Spirit that has been spread, it is this dispensation that alone can lead the new creature, on earth, to live like Jesus, the firstborn of several brothers, a life of holiness, true love and power in the service of the Father's will. The fullness of the Spirit is a necessity, an urgent, obligatory emergency without which nothing can happen.

If we do not have this thirst, for it is truly thirst, let us begin to ask God that He gives us thirst and be assured that He will quench that thirst. Thirst is not a pleasant feeling at first. It becomes so when you start drinking and it is stifling. There's a great pleasure to drink when you're very thirsty.

Then He said to me, "It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost. Apocalypse 21:6

It's worth it when you consider the abundant and rich life that lies there. The life of the Spirit makes us abide in Christ. And here is what happens to those who abide in Christ:

If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. John 15:7

We still have a third foundation that we find in the following verse:

Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me. Revelation 3:20

It is not only we who knock at God's door to be blessed. Jesus knocks at our door throughout our lives. When we convert, he knocks at the door of our heart. We open it to Him by abandoning our life to Him. We receive forgiveness for our sins. The Holy Spirit gives birth to us again. We have become a child of God. Jesus entered the house of our heart through the main door that we have opened to him.

But he now wants to embellish every room in the house. And there are a lot. And He knocks at every door. We need time to open some of them. And Jesus knocks patiently. He is gentle and humble of heart. He could force the door since we are His and the house of our life has become His

Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? I Corinthians 6:19

But He knocks and talks to us softly. And if we hear His voice and open to Him, He comes in and dines with us. We abide in Christ.

And when He enters, He enters with His light, love, joy, strength and wisdom. We would have so much to gain by opening him quickly and completely, to abandon him every piece of our life: couple, family, relationships, time, thoughts, talents, professional life, dreams, ambitions, future projects, finances, earthly wealth...

What advantage will we gain by persisting in jealously keeping certain doors closed as if we were going to lose something precious? It's quite the opposite. When Jesus enters, it is freedom, multiplication, joy and success. It always seems the opposite and that’s what holds us back. We cling to our 5 cents while the Lord wants to exchange them for His 5 trillion. But he demands that we first release the 5 cents and that is not negotiable.

Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking fine pearls, and upon finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it.
Matthew 13:45-46

We know it deep down, but the swamps of Romans 7 hold us against all logic to abandon little parts of our life. It's like we're going to lose out! It's stronger than us. A law acts in our members and fights against the law of our understanding.

If resistance rises in us, let us not fight against ourselves. It is a war lost in advance. The flesh cannot conquer the flesh. A kingdom divided against itself cannot survive. It takes a stronger one to bind the strong man. And this stronger is still the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus in us.

Jesus knocks and his voice says 'you want and you don't want and you are stuck in this dead end'. You feel your 'no desire' more than your desire to follow me. You can't give in when you want to and it's the storm within you... ask me for help, I can, I want to help you make the right choice. I can trigger your decision. All it takes is one decision. And pushed by the Lord, it is visceral and inalterable.

See, Jesus, again, is knocking softly at the door. He doesn't oblige us. God wants Jesus Christ to be first in everything, even in our decisions and yet we remain free to choose. It is an incomprehensible wisdom, impossible to reproduce humanly. What will inspire us to finally ask for help is this faith, this even tenuous certainty, deep within ourselves, that it will be better if Jesus is at the center and that He will make us bear much fruit.

Jesus Christ is the alpha and omega. Any resistance, disobedience or persistent evasion proves that a room in our house needs salvation. And Jesus is the perfect Savior.

Jesus abides in us and we in Him as long as we open the doors He knocks at and as we do not close any of them to Him. It is advantageous for us to open quickly and not hesitate to ask him for help in everything. He encourages us as He told us clearly 'without me, you can't do NOTHING' John 15:5

Philip is an extraordinary example of sensitivity to the Spirit of God and promptness to obey. So quick to obey that one wonders if this is not the reason why he is the first Christian to have experienced a teleportation. That science fiction didn't invent anything!

But an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip saying, "Get up and go south to the road that descends from Jerusalem to Gaza." (This is a desert road.) So he got up and went Acts 8:26-27

One gets the impression from that text that his reaction is instantaneous. The angel talks to him, he gets up and he goes. The direction is both precise and vague and it’s a desert. He knows it's on a road between Jerusalem and Gaza. He's leaving without a chat.

Then the Spirit said to Philip, "Go up and join this chariot. Philip ran up... Acts 8:29-30

Philip sees a man on a chariot. The Spirit tells him to approach. He runs up. We can't expect a better reaction. He's running up. He obeys with zeal, promptness. And the result is that for his next race, God does not need to prove the zeal of Philip that He needs to evangelize further. Philippe suddenly disappears from the sight of the Ethiopian (The Spirit of the Lord snatches him away and the eunuch no longer sees him) and finds himself teleported to Azotus; even faster than his rapid obedience would have allowed him to. God amazes us when we promptly trust him.

When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away; and the eunuch no longer saw him, but went on his way rejoicing. But Philip found himself at Azotus. Acts 8:39-40

The third foundation is

- that it is advantageous for us to open each door and to surrender ourselves totally to Christ for all

- that our natural being will always oppose in will and/or deeds that we open a door of our life to Him, that we renounce something he shows us

- that from the moment we invoke His help, to be able to give him what we do not want to give him, especially by not seeking resources in ourselves, Jesus Christ strengthens, boosts our spirit, and out of nowhere arises power to accept joyfully and entirely the surrender, surrender that will never be followed by any sorrow.

It is the blessing of the LORD that makes rich, And He adds no sorrow to it. Proverbs 10:22

Audio:

 

Pray but with faith!

But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was.
But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does. James 1:22-25

This man (man or woman) who forgets who he is right after looking in the mirror, it could be you or me, if we're not taught. Who are we?

Everything that follows will be totally unintelligible if you are not born again. If you are not sure in your heart that you were born again, know and be assured that Jesus Christ was miraculously incarnated, by the supernatural operation of the Spirit of God in a woman who had not known a man, that He died, resurrected and ascended to glory, where He had come from, to send his Spirit of life. By this, He has successfully completed a complete work, the meaning of which has long remained hidden and which, in recent times, is revealed, described throughout the Bible, a completed work whose ultimate goal is that He may inhabit and reign in the hearts of men (men and women). It is this dwelling that begins the day we are born again.

New birth is therefore not a privilege reserved for a few but God's desire for all. He came in the person of Jesus Christ so that ALL may be saved, hear by saved, so that all may become a dwelling of Christ in spirit to form together the body of Christ on earth and for eternity. He expects you to simply invite him to become the Lord of your whole life today. If you want to know more about the new birth, I invite you to read From Believer to Born Again.

The day we were born again, an inner, invisible miracle occurred. We have been spiritually cut from the tree of rebellious humanity and have been grafted, by a supernatural action of the Holy Spirit, to Jesus Christ, the firstborn of a new generation, a new humanity, exactly from the same way that you would cut the fruit branch of a tree, to graft it onto another more vigorous tree.

From this moment on, the sap, the life, the nature of this other tree begins to circulate and invigorate the grafted branch. The same is true at new birth. Divine life begins to flow into us. The effects are not immediately apparent but gradually, the branch begins to show a new vigor and produce new and tasty fruits. Inside, in us, we know, everything has been changed, instantly. But changes on the outside are gradually manifested in new tastes, new reactions, actions and new ailments.

Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, 2 Corinthians 5:17

For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust. 2 Peter 1:4

At new birth, we receive a new nature that becomes our natural life. We are been made participants of the divine nature.

And when we read or listen to the Word of God, the Bible, it is as if we were looking into a mirror, the face of this new nature, what it looks like, what it is supposed to look like. Only others can see us. We cannot see ourselves except through a mirror. And the Bible acts as a mirror.

When we read it, we see the description of what we have become internally and what we are called to manifest externally.

make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose. Philippiens 2:2

Frankly, would it be in our power, by the sheer force of our will to be a same feeling, a same love, a same soul, a same thought with our brothers and sisters in Christ? Do you really believe that this is an additional command that we must obey with the force of our will?

No! What is described here is not a matter of will. I hope you do not continue to deceive yourself about this. You can make an effort to agree with your brother and sister, you can strive to forgive, to forget offenses, to be patient, to hold your tongue in a restraint, to think first of their interests before yours, to show acts of love. Yes, you can try to do a lot of things. But being one soul, one love, one thought with them....

Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. Colossians 3:2

Many of us read this text as follows: Force yourself to do the things above, worship, pray, daily read the Word of God, and deprive yourself of all that is in the world.

This text says none of this. Who said anything about depriving oneself? Where is it said here? Moreover, if I have to deprive myself of something, if I have this feeling I deprive myself of something, it is proof that somehow deeply within me, I like it. I will then try to cover it up with frustration. But I do not solve the problem of affection. I remain completely beside the intention of this verse!

The Lord purposely asks for something that a normal human cannot produce. You don't decide your affections. Affections spring from the depths and are uncontrollable. If I do not like things from above, imposing them on me does not change anything. I do not like them more by imposing them to myself. Neither you nor I have the power to obey this verse.

Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Philippians 2:5

And with Philippians 2:5, we culminate ! Can you control your feelings? However it would be possible, the bar is here much higher, you are commanded to HAVE THE MIND that was in Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Who could that?

There is a problem in the way we read and understand the Scriptures. Old things have passed, all things have become new and the way we read God's Word must also change.

Let us begin by stopping reading the Word of God in the spirit of the old covenant, otherwise we will go from condemnation to condemnation and can fall very low.

In the old covenant, not the old testament of the Bible, but the old covenant, when God gave a commandment, he waited for all our efforts to do the best and to obey Him otherwise it was death and rejection.

In the new covenant, the born again receives a new spirit, a new heart eager to obey him.

for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure. Philippians 2:13

In the new covenant, God creates the will and the capacity to work.

Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, Make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is wellpleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen. Hebrews 13:21

In the new covenant, God makes us capable of any good work for the fulfillment of His will THROUGH Jesus Christ and with our consentment, He does in us what is pleasing to Him.

For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things: to whom be glory for ever. Amen Romans 11:36

In the new covenant, Jesus is the beginning and the end; He is the Alpha and the Omega. All things are of Him, through Him and to Him.

In the old covenant, men save themselves by their obedience to commandments or lose themselves by their disobedience.

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. John 3:16

In the new covenant, God takes all initiatives. He sends a Savior!

He descends from heaven in the person of Jesus Christ, saves all men and women of all times and of all the earth. He dies for the sin of the world, rises, rises in glory, sends the Holy Spirit of life and invites men, all men and women, to agree to join him spiritually on the cross so that they can spiritually rise again in him and with him, in new life.

At considering the Cross, I accept God's condemnation of a rebellious and futureless humanity, of which I am part, and I accept the new life graciously offered and shared by the Risen One on the other side of that cross.

This resurrection experienced by the Son of God two thousand years ago then becomes a concrete reality for us today, by the Holy Spirit at the very moment we are born again. It is not a religious concept. At new birth, your inner being receives the resurrection life of the Risen One, just after you have accepted the Cross, its meaning and its consequences for your whole future life. You die voluntarily giving up your old life and the Spirit of God makes you new to life.

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures. James 1:17-18

All this is a supernatural gift, a perfect gift, an excellent grace, offered free of charge to all who accept the good news of the gospel.

In the new covenant, inaugurated by the cross, the resurrection and the glorification of the Lord Jesus Christ, God saves us completely. He's doing the work. It saves and renews our whole being. Our minds come back to life. Our soul, will, intelligence and feelings are gradually and completely renewed and restored. And the bodies of those who will not experience the return of Jesus Christ will rise glorious and eternal. This is what the Gospel says.

In the new covenant, God builds his salvation in us through His Holy Spirit, through the Spirit of Christ in us.

It is therefore possible to read the new testament of the Bible, in the spirit of the old covenant, considering any new commandment: have the mind of Christ... set your affection on things above.... do… don't...as things that appeal to our own strengths and determination.

But we'd rather can read the old and new testaments in the spirit of the new covenant, i.e. considering that God is at work in us, already by the simple fact that He produces in us this desire to follow His commandments, while also giving us the capacity. He works, creating will and work in this new heart, this new spirit that He has recreated for that is His pleasure, for this is the plan of salvation that He has prepared from all eternity, His plan to make men and women, His temple, a dwelling in spirit.

Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God? Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent. John 6:28

God's work is that you believe in the One He sent to do the work in you and through you!

Now, in reading your Bible, you must consider commandments as a mirror of the type of life that is lived when one is in Christ, when one is led by His Spirit.

For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. Colossians 3:2-3

This mirror reflects who we really are, now that we are spiritually united with Christ. Our real life is hidden in Christ but it appears in the mirror. And this life is not supposed to remain hidden. It must manifest itself more and more externally.

We must first see what is hidden, our true face, our natural face and then conform to it. Commandments show us our true, our new person who loves God with all heart, soul and thought. The commandments describe the normal life of the son or daughter of God led by the Holy Spirit.

Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts. Zechariah 4:6

and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; Hebrews 12:1

Aren't we invited to look unto Jesus? This means waiting continuously and only from Him for inner transformation, to do in us all that the law of Moses could not accomplish: to give us a heart joyfully willing to follow His ways: to walk in God's plans in small details and great movements of our daily lives.

Jesus, through His Spirit in us, is our true life. He is the source of our desires when we trust him and accept the terms of the new covenant where He is all in all. He is the strength of our decisions made in Him because we can do anything by the One who strengthens us. And He is the reason of our whole life since we are invited to enter into works that He himself has prepared in advance for us to practice them while we have received the desire and capacity.

And freedom in all this? What about our free will?

But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does. James 1:25

James tells us about the perfect law, the law of freedom.

This law is perfect in the fact that it gives both desire and capacity. What the law of the old covenant had no power to. In the old covenant I don't do what I want and I do what I don't want to. I'm not free.

For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin. For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I. If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good. Romans 7:14-16

In the new covenant, God seasons our desires with His light and love and gives us the intelligence and power to renounce harmful and unsanitary ways, to choose and follow paths that, while certainly ours, are also his own, highly inspired and made powerful by His mere presence in us, excellent ways for others and for ourselves.

It is a perfect law that works for all those who take as a lifestyle to expect from Him, to create will and work, for all those who have the heart contrite and lucid enough to recognize its natural coldness, misery, instability , cowardice and its inability to please God through the old mechanisms and the very limited power of the ancient nature.

That is why only repentance, that is, the desire to turn our backs on a lifestyle we had before or a penchant of the old nature, only repentance and trust in Christ's work in us is the gateway to true freedom.

For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please. Galatians 5:17

Come on, let’s have some biblical ‘philosophy’. This text basically says that absolute freedom does not exist. Either we are led by the flesh to do things detestable for others and for ourselves in a climate of insatiable and inextinguishable dissatisfaction, or we are led by the Spirit to do magnificent things for others and for ourselves with as pay, joy, peace and an immense happiness overflowing from our hearts. In both cases we do not do what we would like. No real freedom.

The free ‘you’, is in fact, in the middle, in the choice of what by whom or by what we want to be directed. This 'you' only needs some guidance to the best for him.

In both cases, there will be one who will not have a say, who will not do what he wants. We can choose who's behind the steering wheel. The ‘you’, led by the Spirit. Or the 'you' driven by the old reflexes of the old nature.

The Lord gives us intelligence to see that the two paths are not equal. One leads, in spite of very deceptive appearances, to a transient satisfaction followed by a profound lasting dissatisfaction, to sorrow and disgust while the other way is life and peace. Who would voluntarily choose a path of pain and dissatisfaction unless forced to do so

for by what a man is overcome, by this he is enslaved. 2 Peter 2:19

Thus, when I read the Word of God, old or new testament, I no longer see commandments out of reach that continually plunge me into condemnation. Rather, I look in a mirror, what the new Man, Jesus Christ, the last Adam is in me and will produce in me as long as I put my trust in His work, to have finally understood and believed it, in the work of His Holy Spirit in me.

Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them. Hebrews 7:25

It is in this that he is a perfect Savior (to the uttermost). He brings us back into an Eden Garden to make a choice and an experience that Adam and Eve missed. At new birth, we were led to choose the tree of life. We no longer need the tree of knowledge of good and evil and its helpless fruits.

But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, 1 Corinthians 1:30

Jesus Christ in us is this active, operating knowledge of good and evil. He himself was made for us wisdom, righteouness, sanctification and redemption. He's all in all. Moreover, we need Jesus the head as much as Jesus the body, that is, the Church, our brothers and sisters in Christ. We will talk about that in a near future.

When we simply follow the directions of the Holy Spirit within us, when we trust in Christ and we continually wait for Him to produce his life, his feelings, the desire to walk in righteousness and convert those desires from of our spirit united with His Spirit, in concrete actions in daily life, we walk according to the spirit. Each of these actions propelled by Christ's life and habitation in us through faith, leads us to more and more concrete actions on earth and to an ever deeper communion with Him. We no more forget who we are!

We are a bit like a pipe continually crossed by a stream of divine life gushing from an inexhaustible spring in order to water a flowerbed, a sick, dry, thirsty world. We are thus filled and always filled as long as on one side the spring is not blocked and on the other side the watering tip is not clogged either and willing to water generously everything that is within its reach.

It is in the practice that we know, that we experience this living water that passes through us, and invigorating us in passing, springs through all the ends of our voluntary behaviors in droplets, streams, rivers of love, goodness, patience, gentleness, kindness, fidelity, self-control, purity, forgiveness, mercy, generosity, empathy, power, healing, deliverance, wisdom, intelligence, science, manifesting through our unique personality, all sunny with the virtues of Jesus Christ, the works that God has prepared in advance for us!

But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does. James 1:25

Whoever sets out to work says James is happy and blessed in his activity.

For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Peter 1:8

Remember.

 

When we read ‘Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus’ : let’s understand, believe, accept, patiently ask, expect from the Holy Spirit and trust Him to convince us (what He knows perfectly how to), that He may impregnate us with this very special revealed faith that Christ in us is at work, through the Holy Ghost and the Living Word, to produce Christ desires and make His sun shine on our lives and by reflecting on those around us.

I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. Philippians 4:13

We then discover that we can do anything through the One who strengthens us. Christ living in us through His Spirit is LIFE. He's the WAY.

When you read any commandment, any instruction in the Word of God, see it as a reflection of what Christ is already in you, of what He has begun and will continue to produce in you, from progress to progress.

For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. Philippians 1:6

Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will bring it to pass. 1 Thessalonians 5:23

The vine does not eat grapes. It produces it for others. Its glory and pleasure, that it does not express with words, is to see its branches bend under the weight of the fruit to finally see all its fruits picked to the delight of the gourmand.

My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples. John 15:8

We are called to bear a great deal of fruit because this is how the Father is glorified. So it is the Father's will. And bearing fruit is not the result of the exhausting efforts of a branch but the natural consequence of any tree full of sap and life.

This is what Jesus is to us, a tree full of life and we are his branches destined to bear much fruit. It is this life that the Holy Spirit communicates to us if we expect it from Him. Jesus is the vine and we are the branches. The Holy Spirit is the sap that the vine flows into the branch. Let us believe in Him, always, all the time, now and in the minute that will follow.

This is the second part. For the first part, click here.

 

The seed of seeds: The Cross

For the word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God. 1 Corinthians 1 :18

The power of God upheaves the heart of the one who receives the preaching of the cross with gentleness. We just need to be explained what it is, its deep meaning, its astonishing effects on our practical life, and we need to understand it.

A real power, hidden, well hidden from the inattentive gaze, is released by the Holy Spirit in the heart of anyone who listens and believes. So, let us talk about the cross

The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! John 1 :29

When John the Baptist saw Jesus, he announced what would become a historical reality a few years later. On the cross, Jesus took away the sin of the world. This is a hidden work, a religious cliché for some that remains incomprehensible and without concrete effect in our lives until it is explained and revealed to us and we believe in it.

To take away does not mean to forgive. It is more than that. After the cross, sin is no longer counted by God. On the cross, for God, sin has disappeared from human history. It has been taken away. It still exists on earth, certainly, but it is no longer imputed or charged against us by God, as we will soon explain. The problem has thus been resolved for more than 2000 years.

Hebrews, 9:26 - But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.

It is said that at the cross, the Son of God took upon himself our sins and our diseases. It is true. At the cross, God erases our sins and heals all our diseases. But He does more. He removes the sin of the world, once and for all.

The sacrifice of Jesus has taken away all your sins, ALL IN THE EYES OF GOD! For there are and will still be sins to be erased. Yes, we are guilty, but that is not the point because God forgives the guilty at the cross. He no longer imputes or charges the sins denounced by the law of Moses. Your sins have been taken away by the death of Jesus. Do you hear it?

Listen to the sentence of the supreme judge as you consider (in your thoughts) Jesus on the cross:

"NOT GUILTY!"

I can already hear your protests... that's not fair! It's a bit too easy. Really? Do you want to appeal to a favorable opinion? Are you the judge?

Hammer strike of the judge:

"NOT GUILTY."

The case is closed. We all know that a judge's decision ends all discussions. It is God who decrees that, by virtue of the sacrifice of His Son, you are declared NOT guilty. The faults have been erased, removed by His Son. They have disappeared. It is His will. That's all!

It is entirely useless to try to feel that in GOD's eyes, you are forgiven of everything. Moreover, in everyday life, if a friend tells you that he forgives the offense you committed against him, do you try to feel it ?

You accept it and life goes on. Do the same with God. Accept forgiveness. It is already acquired and free for all. This is why the gospel is good news.

But it's not over yet! By believing what you have just heard, you have just received eternal life!

I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life. 1 John 5:13

It is not said, 'you WILL HAVE eternal life,' but you HAVE it, you who believe in the name of the Son of God. The name of the Son of God, this Name, Jesus, Yeshua, means God saves, God heals. Already, this name is the smiling hand of God stretched out to us, holding and offering us: reconciliation, the voluntary forgetting of all our sins, and the healing of our soul and body. And all of this is because of the cross, or shall we say, thanks to the cross.

And with eternal life, it is the true happiness into which you have just entered. The tree of religion and its simplistic and limited knowledge of good and evil cannot put man in a condition to approach God, who is the source of indescribable happiness. Mankind's nature prevents it from being clean, and thus keeps it away from happiness. There is a very close link between sin and being unhappy. It is written in:

There will be tribulation and distress for every human being who does evil, the Jew first and also the Greek Romains 2 :9

Trouble and distress come upon every soul of man who does evil. It is a principle, an invisible spiritual law that no one can escape! You can intellectually ignore the mechanisms of the law of gravity and yet you experience it every day. We always feel unhappy, anxious, or not fully happy, dissatisfied, as if something is missing and we don't understand why. This text explains it. Happiness and sin are incompatible. Doing evil generates trouble and distress. Wrong pleasures bring fleeting pleasure but it blocks the path to true lasting happiness for man.

But let's think about it for a moment, is it really fair? Until then, have you really had a choice? Have you had the constant ability to never sin? You wouldn't venture to believe or seriously claim it, would you? If they could hear you, would you reproach cherry trees for producing cherries or apple trees for producing apples? In the same logic (because logic is not a Western or intellectual flaw!), could God, without being unfair, reproach men for committing sins when it is in their very nature to do so, a nature that offers them no other choice but to commit hundreds every day? Let's pause on this for a moment. Think about it honestly.

Please read again what has just been said. Honestly?

God sent His Son to repair this injustice.

But if I (Jesus) go, I will send him to you. And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: concerning sin, because they do not believe in me. John 16:7

The only sin that God considers today is not believing in the Savior He sent us, like throwing a life buoy to someone drowning. When a buoy is thrown to us and is within our reach, we become free to drown or not. To stick with the image and without disrespect, our life buoy is called Jesus Christ.

Sin for you and me is no longer about not obeying the ten commandments, contrary to what religion preaches to us, that of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. You are invited to eat freely from the tree of life because it is available again, and sin would now be not to eat from the tree of life, which is called Jesus.

For in Jesus, at the cross, all our past, present, and future sins disappeared in the eyes of the only Judge.

If you listen to religion, you hear it striving to convince you that you are a wicked sinner and that your sins will lead you straight to the flames.

If you listen to the Holy Spirit sent by Jesus, you will hear something else. He convicts the world that the only sin today is not believing in what Jesus is for us: the Savior sent by the Father. You read it well: 'He (the Holy Spirit) will convict the world concerning sin, because they do not believe in me.'

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him John 3:16

On the Cross, Jesus takes on all your faults and illnesses. He is struck in your place by the God of justice. On this cross is established a union that is impossible on earth, that of love and justice.

On earth, if we apply justice, we punish the guilty and all the principles of love are violated. If we apply love, we leave the guilty without punishment and it is the principles of justice that are not respected. The two are irreconcilable.

In Jesus Christ, love and justice merge. Jesus, out of love, takes on the sins of the world, including ours, and becomes the only guilty one. He is punished as he should be. Justice is done. But love is the root of this justice.

There is no double penalty with God, unlike what can happen with humans. Your fault has been purged and paid for; it was paid for by Jesus Christ. You cannot be punished a second time because the verdict has already been passed, but not on you. God gave his only Son. He is your buoy.

But there is even more:

by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross; Colossians 2:14

This text is unambiguous. There was a record, a book on which all your faults were recorded, an act that established your guilt. This act of condemnation was destroyed on the cross by Jesus Christ. The moment you believe this incredible news, you have already entered into its reality!

We were expecting an inevitable judgment, and we are suddenly told that the evidence against us can no longer be found. Someone made it disappear. The evidence against you has been destroyed. The registry has disappeared. All that is left is a cross! That's what this text says in modern language. You are free. You can leave. Nothing can be proven against you anymore. Oh, don't expect to feel something. We're not in emotions but in a factual truth. It's just how it is. Jesus erased the record of our debt, which stood against us with its legal demands, and this he set aside, nailing it to the cross.

Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him. John 3 :36

God will never condemn anyone who comes before Him with an inscription on the chest that would say, "very guilty but saved by Your Son at Golgotha." This is the meaning of "whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life." There is nothing to add. Just receive an immense gift already prepared by God, who is nothing but love.

The tree of life communicates to us and offers us eternal life for free, simply through our faith (faith = trust in what you hear and what is written). You who have read these lines and believed what you have read, I tell you with the Bible, you have eternal life, you have it now, whether you feel it or not. Simply because God has said it!

I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life. 1 Jean 5 :13

Did you not know that this is what Christ's sacrifice was all about? Well, now you know, because these things were written so that you may know them. Do you believe it? Then you have eternal life.

Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him. John 3 :36

Do not worry about those who have not yet believed in the Son. Your concern is commendable, but we are not the saviors of the world. God takes care of each person, and no one knows what He is doing in the lives of others. No one knows their secret life. No one knows the calls they have received or will receive one day from God.

Jesus said He would draw all people to Himself. He does so through the testimony of those in whom He dwells, through preaching, and through many other means, but He is the Savior. He knows how to meet each person and leaves each one free to accept or refuse. And no one knows anyone else's choice. For now, it is you whom He is drawing. And this good news is for you today, you who hear it and understand it.

There is one more thing you need to know. You have been reconciled to God. Be reconciled to Him.

For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life Romans 5 :10

You have been reconciled with God through the death of His Son, and this is something you haven't been told yet. Reread this verse. Have you noticed the grammatical tenses? They are all in the past here. It doesn't say "you will be reconciled" but "you have already been reconciled." You have been so for 2000 years. You are therefore reconciled today and tomorrow and always, and it takes effect immediately because you believe it.

By believing that Jesus Christ carried on the cross everything that separated you from God, that His death and not any action on your part unconditionally reconciled you with God, you have just met God's criteria, according to the gospel.

At this very moment, in your mind and in your soul, you are receiving the full and complete assurance of forgiveness for all your past, present, and future sins and therefore a total and complete reconciliation with your Creator.

We announce to you: Christ died, and you are forgiven of everything through His death. You just didn't know it!!! Now you know, and if you don't oppose this incredible good news, if you receive it gently, you have entered into eternal life without fanfare. You believed. That's all. It's simple. It's the power of the preaching the cross.

For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. Romans 10 :10

Take a break now and tell the Lord Jesus, in your own words, that you thank Him for what He has done and that you accept with perhaps astonishment, but fully and with all your heart, this magnificent gift that He has given you and that was waiting only for two events.

• that you learn the news and fully understand its significance
•  that you overcome your amazement to fully accept in your soul this magnificent gift that God has given to all men, women, and children of all times. Faith is just believing what God says.

Confessing with your mouth means openly declaring your faith, saying it with your mouth. The mouth is not the same as the mind.

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God Ephesians 2 :8

or all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Romans 3 :23

For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved Romans 10 :13

To invoke the name of Jesus (God saves, God heals) is simply to talk to Him with the confidence that your words are not directed to a wall or a ceiling, but to the One who is omnipresent (everywhere at once), omnipotent (all-powerful), and omniscient (knowing all things, even your deepest thoughts), and who has been waiting for this moment, this moment when you finally understand His love for you and surrender your life to Him. Now, verbally surrender the direction of your life to Him.

Okay, have you thanked Him? Yes? Then we can continue because that's only half of the good news!!!!!!

Second seed: The Resurrection

Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.! Romans 4 :6-8

It is wonderful to be forgiven for all our past sins, it is a great joy and we are forgiven thanks to Jesus' death on the cross. God no longer imputes, which means He no longer holds our sins against us. It is as if we have never sinned!!!

But I already hear some of you asking the question "If I understand correctly, with this doctrine, since I am forgiven anyway, can't I take out my frustration on my neighbor who annoys me or insult my neighbor who offended me, lie, steal, do all the possible evil. I just then have to ask for forgiveness and it's done?!

I would be tempted to answer you, yes! Except that you are not asking the right question.

Yes, God grants grace to the guilty, slaves of their rebellious nature. An innocent person does not need grace. Grace only makes sense if you are guilty. Therefore, one must be guilty to be eligible for grace. God grants grace to the guilty, and the good news of the gospel makes all guilty people forgiven.

So, the real question, the right question is "have you become a child of God, have you been born again, are you a new creation?". And you will understand why this is the right question because the following principle cannot be cancelled under any circumstances.

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Romains 8 :1

No condemnation for the guilty?! It is completely normal to react because at first glance, it is legitimately unacceptable, of course! Unless we put it back in the complete context of the divine work. It takes two sides to make the complete coin.

There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because by receiving forgiveness of sins, they have been born of God. They have received a new life, the life of Christ. They have supernaturally entered into a newness of life.

This requires a serious explanation. God's plan for humanity is greater and much more perfect than you thought. Listen to this astonishing statement:

No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God's seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God.1 John 3 :9

The two key phrases here are 'born of God' and 'does not practice'. We are talking about someone who is born of God and in whom the seed of God remains. We are not changing subjects. We are not in religion, but in a supernatural work that no religion can produce. It is said that whoever is born again, born of God, cannot keep on spinning, does not practice sin. Does not practice...

among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.. Ephesians 2 :1-3

Before being born again, we walk in offenses and sins, we practice sin. Sins are not accidents, but a normal practice, a lifestyle, the natural thought and life system of a son or daughter of Adam. To give an image, the wild cherry tree produces sour cherries, and why would it feel ashamed? You lived according to desires, you were by nature children of wrath, it was your nature, your practice, and it did not pose any problem, except for the inner or religious law that occasionally shook the conscience.

Whoever has received forgiveness for their sins at the cross has, at the same moment, received the seed of a new life, a new nature, the nature of Christ, the nature of the One who perfectly obeyed God in his humanity. And this is not a sensation either.

And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses Colossians 2 : 13

Christ will now communicate, from within, the same desire and the same ability to obey because He has given birth to a new heart, a new spirit that He has recreated in those who receive Him: born of God.

This explains the new desires, new attractions, ambitions, or tastes that arise and begin to manifest themselves just as naturally in you. You will not strive to be different. They have become different. The nature of Christ now flows in you, manifesting His life, His desires, His ability. The practice has changed. We can better understand the immense significance of Ezekiel's prophecy and how it is fulfilled in those who receive Christ into their hearts.

I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleannesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you. And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rule. Ezekiel 36 :25-27

The child of God is first purified and then receives a new nature, one that is opposed to the one he had before. A nature that does not love to do evil and has the supernatural ability to overcome it. In other words, the evil that the child of God commits (and it will happen) is a misstep, due to weakness or lack of vigilance, but it is no longer a practice or a way of life. It is no longer his/her nature.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 18 All this is from God,  2 Corinthians 5:17-18

When one receives forgiveness of sins by faith, at the same time, one receives a new nature that hates the practice of what is evil in the eyes of God.

Anyone who is born again can testify how desires have changed. And if, by weakness, the child of God stumbles, they find in Jesus Christ an eternal and highly effective advocate, whose nail-scarred hands guarantee immediate and unconditional forgiveness.

My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. 1 John 2 :1

So, there is no condemnation for the children of God, for those sins that are regrettable accidents on the way, for you who have received the new nature of Christ. For this new nature is at work in you, much more effectively than your attempts to follow the orders of the law.

It is the guarantee that you are no longer the same, that God Himself has now taken over. This new life, which may still be a very weak seed today, will become, through His assistance, an immense tree bearing the fruit of the Spirit, which is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness, goodness, and self-control.

And if the child of God, born anew, strays from love and holiness, and it happens, it is no longer as before. It does not leave them indifferent, because of the nature of Christ that is in them. They feel what one feels when, after putting on new clothes, they get a stain. They have only one desire, to clean themselves up as quickly as possible. They can no longer stand any stain. They then turn to the advocate, confess in the sense of admitting, acknowledging, and the blood of Jesus purifies us from all sin.

But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin- 1 John 1:7

A simple acknowledgment of our fault, a simple confession is enough

For neither circumcision counts for anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. Galates 6 :15

Paul spoke these words to the Jews of his time who had accepted Christ, because there were some who did. He was telling them, in essence, that observing the law (circumcision was a requirement of their law) and commandments or belonging to a religion is not enough now that Jesus has appeared, because you will never be able to be perfect as God requires as long as your nature has not been changed.

What is important is to be a new creature. For this is the guarantee that God himself is at work in your life. And that is what will make the difference because God NEVER fails. It is no longer you who seek to save yourself.

Therefore he is able to save completely those who come to God through him, because he always lives to intercede for them. Hebrews 7 :25

God himself from within saves you and will save you perfectly. What matters is to be a new creature. Isn't this beautiful?

Let's go back to the verse we were talking about in the first part of this article:

For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous. Romans 5 :19

Do you now understand this bomb in Romans 5:19? Let me help you with two questions.

1/ What do we have to do to become a sinner? Please, do not answer: "I become a sinner when I commit sins." No! You have now understood. You inherited a sinful nature from your parents at birth, and that's why you sin.

The Bible says, "It is sin living in me."

Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. Romans 7 :20

So the answer to the question "what have you done to become a sinner?" is: NOTHING, you are one from birth, even before committing any bad actions. You are a sinner as a consequence of the disobedience of one man: Adam.

2/ What must we do to become righteous?

The answer is the same: NOTHING. We become righteous through new birth before accomplishing any good action. We inherit the nature of Christ just as naturally as we inherited the nature of Adam at our first birth. Through the obedience of one man (Jesus Christ), many (those who believe) are made righteous in the same way that through the disobedience of one man (Adam) all were made sinners.

We do not yet see the sinner in the joyful and innocent little baby. It is possible that we do not yet see the righteous person in whom the seed of God has just come to life. Or in someone who has not nurtured this seed so that it becomes a great tree visible to all.

Believe me, by nurturing and collaborating with the Holy Spirit, this righteous life manifests itself more and more and supplants the old life and its bad habits.

To summarize: we do not become sinners by committing sins. We do not become righteous by doing good works. We are sinners because we have inherited the nature of Adam through our parents. We are righteous because we have inherited the nature of Jesus Christ in the new birth. We receive the nature first, and the fruits follow.

So it is written: “The first man Adam became a living being”[f]; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. 1 Corinthians 15 :45

The key expressions here are "first man, Adam" and "last Adam." Here is explained, almost technically, although it is a matter of spiritual things, how the Lord overcomes our Adamic nature (derived from Adam) that poisons our existence. For there are laws, principles, and a method that govern this masterful work performed by the Lord Jesus Christ at the cross of Golgotha.

At the Cross, God brings to an end a poorly started story with the first Adam. As we have already seen, he became a living soul when he disobeyed. His spirit died as a result of his separation from the God of life. From Adam came this terrible humanity, spiritually dead, living off its unstable soul, and throughout the centuries manifesting a mixture of dazzling wonders and unbearable horrors.

This sad story that continues for us, in God's eyes, stopped at the cross. Jesus is the last Adam. At the cross, God made Him the representative of the entire generation of Adam, as if suddenly all humanity was summarized in one person, as if He had transferred all humanity into one body.

Jesus, crucified, took on the first Adam and all his generation. And when He breathed His last breath, He became the last Adam. Thus, at His death, the circle is closed. For God, all humanity derived from Adam is finished.

At his resurrection, He became a life-giving spirit, that is to say, one who gives life and communicates His life and perfect nature. Remember that His first action upon arriving in heavenly glory was to send what had been promised: the Holy Spirit who gives life and vivifies.

A new humanity of naturally righteous individuals can be born on the other side of the cross, at the resurrection. The kingdom of God spreads in hearts. The kingdom of God is in our midst, visible only to those who have been transformed.

The last Adam, after the resurrection, became a life-giving spirit, who gives life to a generation of men and women, to a new humanity, endowed with a new heart and spirit, recreated in the image of the One through whom and for whom all things exist. And all of this is pure grace, pure gift, through faith, for any humble and unpretentious heart. Simply put, it is an incomprehensible wisdom, even a folly in the eyes of men, especially religious ones, no matter who they are.

We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. No, we declare God’s wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. However, as it is written:

“What no eye has seen,
    what no ear has heard,
and what no human mind has conceived”
    the things God has prepared for those who love him
these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit.

The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us. 1 Corinthians 2 :6-12

The Word took on human form in Jesus. He endured suffering, elevated this humanity to a degree of perfection, and was put to death by humanity itself. When Jesus Christ was crucified, it was human nature that was crucified - all of humanity, even if unwittingly, bears this Adamic nature, the source of all wars, diseases, suffering, murders, and the list goes on.

This humanity, with its irreparably corrupt nature, was crucified at the same time as Christ, in Christ, and for God. For all, the history of our humanity stopped a little less than 2000 years ago. This is not visible because it is a work that only a spirit made alive can understand.

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 6 :23

In Christ, all of us, the generation of Adam, have therefore died. The day our earthly body passes away, we find ourselves in an invisible spiritual reality:

• on the cross, with Christ dead for all,
• or seated in heavenly places with Christ and in Christ, the resurrected one.

It all depends on how far we went with Jesus during our time on earth. The cross is the place where judgment took place. What is of the first Adam in us has already been judged and remains on the cross! God judged the generation of Adam and condemned it to death by dying himself with it and for it, making it die with Him.

Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many, Hebrews 9 :27

And since it is appointed for men to die once, once we arrive in the afterlife, there are two options: either we awaken in Adam, already judged and condemned on the cross.

Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. John, 3 :18

Or, we wake up in Christ, if He is in us and we are in Him, united with Him, where all those who are born again are.

For through the new birth we have become a member of His body, and it is in Him, as part of Himself, that we wake up in the afterlife. Do you understand?

But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. Ephesians 2 :4-7

For the one who has received the life of Christ, the stage of death is far behind. By his spirit, the born-again child of God is already seated in heavenly places in Christ even if his soul and body are still on earth.

If I believe in Christ, my "first Adam" part is already dead and I now live by the life of the resurrected one. It's a complete package. That's why Jesus proclaimed this incomprehensible thing at the time but it becomes evident now as His work is revealed.

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die. Do you believe this? John 11 : 25

The entire humanity, the first Adam, was judged, condemned, put to death, and buried in the person of Jesus Christ. It is all accomplished. It is an invisible reality to the world but a very real one. Jesus is, in the eyes of God, the last Adam.

While we are alive on earth, this power of resurrection that is at work within us will have other extraordinary, liberating, and immediately accessible effects that we will see in a few moments.

For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin; Romans 6:6

The evil nature that presided over our mortal body (our old man), the power of sin (the body of sin) that resides in this nature from Adam, were also put to death and annihilated with Jesus at the moment when He breathed His last on the cross. We are no longer slaves the moment Christ comes to dwell in us.

I am speaking here of an experience that is not simply a doctrine. The children of God who are born again and who walk in communion with the Holy Spirit experience this reality with wonder.

We are liberated from the grip of sin. For the first time, we are completely masters of our destiny. We can do what we want and not do what we do not want. Vices and passions no longer have a dominant power over our lives as long as we remain in communion with the Holy Spirit. It is an incredible and yet real liberation!

So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. John 8:36

If Christ had not been resurrected, everything would still be in the tomb with no hope for you and me. But He is risen and we are delivered from our old nature by His life working in us.

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. Galatians 2 :20

Life is in Jesus Christ. When, at new birth, He comes to dwell in me, He not only brings me deliverance from my old nature whose power He destroyed on the cross, but He brings me the power of His imperishable life. As the person born again says, "If I live, it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me."

having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead. Colossians 2 :12

And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus,, Ephesians 2:6

Do you understand the meaning of these words now? The last Adam, Christ, is the first of a new generation of men and women, born again. He has resurrected them. Their spirit has come back to life and inspires their existence, and communication with God, who is Spirit, has been restored.

Remember, the Word is a seed. Everything is delivered in seed form. Our faith does allow us to enter into the experience. And the Holy Spirit creates faith as we listen to and understand these truths. Meditate on them, reread them, call on the Holy Spirit for help, and accept with gentleness this Word that is planted in you. And be transformed!

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. Romans 12 :2

My friends, this is the complete message of the Gospel. Forgiven and regenerated!

The seed will grow if you believe and continue to believe, despite your amazement. And in such an extraordinary way!

He also said, “This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how. Mark 4:26

Your faith alone allows the Holy Spirit to release all the wonderful effects of this life into your daily existence. Feed your faith by listening to the Gospel often, the one I have just delivered to you. Simply keep your eyes fixed on these truths of who Jesus is and trust the Holy Spirit to create in you sufficient faith and generously grant you all the benefits in Jesus Christ.

One last thing...

We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. Romans 6 :4

We were buried with him through baptism into his death. This text implicitly speaks of water baptism. Perhaps the following text will speak to you more:

Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Romans 6 :3

Or this one :

for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. Galatians 3 :27

Many texts emphasize the great importance of baptism. If you have not been baptized, find a church, an assembly (ecclésia -> assembly = church) that preaches new birth, water baptism, the action of the Holy Spirit, the death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and get baptized. Baptism is part of your declaration of faith.

When we understand and believe in what Jesus Christ's death on the cross means for us, our intellect adheres, but our body, which is also a part of ourselves, remains outside of it.

Our soul, where the intellect resides, accepts and believes the good news of the gospel. That's good.

Our spirit is resurrected and welcomes the Holy Spirit, who now makes it His residence. That's good.

And how do we include our body in this total process of regeneration? Through water baptism.

When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?”

38 Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. Acts 2 :37-38

Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age. Matthew 28 :18-20

Jesus himself told John the Baptist that baptism was what was right to fulfill.

Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. But John tried to deter him, saying, “I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?”
Jesus replied, “Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness.” Then John consented. Matthew 3 :13-15

Jesus himself gave the example. Baptism is an important act because God saves the whole person, spirit, soul, and body.

Baptism, the burying of our body in the water, is our way of telling God and before men that we fully accept the condemnation of our old nature. It is an act of repentance and faith expressed through a concrete action. We symbolically submit our body to death. If we did not come out of the water, we would be dead for good. By baptism, we identify ourselves in the death of Jesus.

It is not just a symbolic act but in the light of the texts read, an important and inseparable act of our inner faith. True baptism is an act that we perform to materialize our faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus, which we have now understood are also our death in Adam and our resurrection in Christ.

Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. Mark 16 :16

Remember, repentance is simply realizing the total corruption of our natural being, no longer desiring it, and accepting to be rid of it through God's supernatural action. Turning away from the life we used to lead and embracing the new life of freedom that is offered to us. That is true repentance. It is done with the heart. Then we follow it up with action. Baptism signifies and concretizes this visibly. We leave our past life at the bottom of the baptistery or pool.

I can predict without error that in the next few days or even hours, everything will be done, as if by chance, for you to forget these simple truths that I have just explained, or for you to neglect them, occupied by a sudden increase in your activities, by the sudden appearance of obligations forcing you to put all these wonderful truths that have the power to transform your life in second place.

Blessed is the one
    who does not walk in step with the wicked
or stand in the way that sinners take
    or sit in the company of mockers,
but whose delight is in the law of the Lord,
    and who meditates on his law day and night.
That person is like a tree planted by streams of water,
    which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither

    whatever they do prospers.. Psalms 1 :1-3

Re-listen regularly to this gospel. Water the seed of God regularly in your heart and watch it grow day by day. Feed on this gospel every day by thinking about it, solidifying it in your thought process, and you will see it gain strength day by day. Be transformed by the renewing of your mind, says the Bible.

God's work, HIS work in you (not yours), is that you believe in everything that He has sent to do in and through you: Jesus Christ, His only Son. He is the sun to which you simply need to expose yourself as often as possible to adorn yourself with the beautiful colors of true life.

Fully and totally enter into this new life that is offered to you.

Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst.1 Timothy 1 :15

 

Do we really need to possess a greater faith? 

Rather than asking God to increase our human capacities in all areas of our life, shouldn’t' we rather ask Him, that He, Christ Jesus, become in us, more and more the driving strength of all our actions and motives so we can enter wholly into our satiating destiny.  And believe that only His Spirit in us can create the will that we so barely have and the natural and supernatural work that we never have proportionally to real needs.

Hebrews, 13:20 - 21 Now may the God of peace, who brought again from the dead the great shepherd of the sheep with the blood of an eternal covenant, our Lord Jesus, make you complete in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

Jesus is our perfect Savior. He saves us from our misery, rebellion, incapacity, failures, inaccuracies, inequity, and limitations. He becomes everything, in us, as far as we let Him and ask Him to. And a grain of mustard seed is enough to get aware He lives in us and that we can trust His Spirit to guide and inspire us in the walk, at every moment, every day.

Philippians, 3:3 For we are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh (human capacities)

He is the grain of mustard seed. He can become everything in us and through us. The heavenly Father wants His Son to become everything in us above our highest hopes. If we only renounce to please him by tapping into our own resources. If we rather humble at the hardness of our heart and beg the power of His life in us, and prefer when we see our coldness, to lament, mourn and weep, feeling our misery and claiming and confidently expecting the effects of His Covenant in us in order that He exalts us. Rather than trying, moved by our natural man pride, to search within us some pathetic energies and win fugitives small victories.  Jesus saves us perfectly. He wants us to expect everything from Him (in us) and overall expect from Him (in us) what he demands us. And if our faith is not steady enough to believe such wonderful news, He will still be here to save us from our weak faith and grant us with His. 

Hebrews, 12:2 - looking to Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith...

All is a matter of look. Let's tell Him : enlighten my eyes so I understand You are fully enough, every day, for me to become, by your Spirit who lives in me, all what I am destined to become of You, through You and to You.

Romans, 11:36 - For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things. To him be the glory for ever! Amen.

 

And even if I can't yet see how this will practically happen in my daily life, never mind! You promised. This is the new covenant that you sealed with your precious blood. (Hebrews 8:10 to 13 - Ezechiel 36:25), you will do what you committed to do and I ask it to You, my Savior. 

1 John, 5:14 - This is the boldness which we have toward him, that, if we ask anything according to his will, he listens to us. And if we know that he listens to us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions which we have asked of him. 

Jesus is the absolute Savior and the whole plan and work of the Father are that we believe in and expect everything from Christ in us as the branch awaits everything from the tree that holds it. Jesus is the tree of life and we have been grafted in Him.

John 6:27 : Jesus answered them, "This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent."  

We have been cut off from the tree of knowledge of good and evil that generates natural mankind, proud, auto sufficient, doing much, even deeds that are spiritual in appearance but are actually performed by the strength of arms (of Him, by me, to him). We have become Christ branches when we are born again. We are part of His life. Our vocation is thus to bear fruit not do works to become righteous. Justice is a fruit! Our terrestrial and celestial vocation is that we may be filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are through Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God. Philippians, 1:11

Ephesians, 3:14 - For this cause, I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named, that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, that you may be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inward man; that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith

Triumph, triumphant life in all areas of our existence starts and continues when Christ dwells in our hearts through faith.  This is the highest miracle that can happen in a human life. Clever strategy consists thus in searching this in priority as the rest, that we so earnestly desire, totally depends on it. Notice that this is the action of the Holy spirit in our inward man that, in response to prayer, creates this position of triumph. Our sanctification efforts (that are actually only vain tentative of improvement) will not change us. He, the Holy Spirit, in response to the prayer of a heart that humbles before Him and expects only from Him, He, the Holy Spirit of God makes this miracle possible : Christ dwells in us through faith, constantly, naturally.  He makes us dwell in Christ. And if we dwell in Christ, what opens before us is the infinite, supernatural, superabundant horizon of all divine blessings:

John, 15:7 If you remain in me, and my words remain in you, you will ask whatever you desire, and it will be done for you

To anyone who, like me, wants to grow in faith and Christ resemblance, let me share a very simple principle:

You will never fully submit joyfully to Christ the Lord until you have fully grasped how greatly He is your Savior. Only, Jesus the Savior can lead you to Jesus the Lord and make you willing to please Him in everything. And Jesus the Lord will constantly lead you toward Jesus the Saviour.

Jesus has not come to abolish the law. His commands (remain in me, love one another just like I have loved you, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who mistreat you…) and the commands of the Holy Spirit (pray without ceasing, have this in your mind, which was also in Christ Jesus, rejoice without ceasing) are far, very further above our natural capacities of obedience. We have to re-learn to read the Bible in the spirit of a new covenant and joyfully enter in God's rest.

Hebrews, 4:10-11 There remains therefore a Sabbath rest for the people of God. For he who has entered into his rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from his. 

Commands have now become promises. They are offered to our faith and their accomplishment is guaranteed by the welling power of the new covenant, a much better covenant (Hebrews 7:21) canceling the Mount Sinai’s one, a covenant sealed by the blood of the Lamb and made operational in us by the Spirit of Christ. The law was just a pedagogue to lead us to Christ and it still is. (Galatians 3:24). "A voice came out of the cloud, saying, "This is my beloved Son. Listen to him...." In you! Test your own selves, whether you are in the faith. Test your own selves. Or don't you know as to your own selves, that Jesus Christ is in you?
2 Corinthians, 13:6

Let us pray every day, our SAVIOR, to be found in him, not having a righteousness of our own, that which is of the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith. Philippians 3:9 

Let us pray every day, our HEAVENLY FATHER that he would grant us, according to the riches of his glory, that we may be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inward man; that Christ may dwell in our hearts through faith. Ephesians, 3:14

And let peace and true joy then flood out of our hearts into the world in quenching streams and welling and inexhaustible rivers for the Kingdom of God is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.

increase-our-faith.pdf (364.99 Ko)

Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. Matthew 7 :7-8

It is a law of the Kingdom of God. There is nothing automatic. All promises in the Bible show us what God is willing to give. And so, what must be asked, sought, and penetrated definitively.

All victories and riches acquired by the Son of God, Jesus Christ, are described in the Bible so that every man and woman demand concrete and daily fulfillment in his life. Jesus invites us and promises to the one who asks that he will receive, to the one who seeks that he will find and to the one who knocks, that he will see a door open and may enter. So, we need to know:

1/ we must ask for everything

2/ What to ask

3/ Ask well with right motives.

If a child of God does not obtain, it is not for lack of faith, for it takes so little, a grain of mustard, that is to say very very little and this very very little raises and moves mountains.

This grain of mustard that can lift mountains, here it is:

he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him. Hebrews 11 :6

Every child of God has this grain of mustard. There is therefore another cause for the non-fulfilment of certain wishes and the non-fulfillment of certain prayers.

You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures. Jacques 4 :2-3

You do not ask:

We sometimes forget to ask what God promised, presuming it's going to happen on its own in His time.

However, you must ask for everything. Even what God has pledged to faithfully give us. In Matthew 6, the Lord pledges to give us food and clothing. Nevertheless, we are invited every day to pray our Father in heaven for our daily bread. He knows we need it. But that doesn't exempt us from asking Him.

You are not asking well:

We ask for things that:

- either can't be granted to us right away

- either are of no real use

either (or worse) may harm us.

And in all cases, we ask wrongly if we have not followed Jesus' instructions and respected the order of priority he gave.

If I ring your doorbell, I make you an offer, an extraordinary gift. I suggest you choose between 100 very precious gold eggs immediately or a hen that lays a golden egg every morning for life. Once you have chosen, you will have to make me the official request of what you have chosen. Because I'm interested in what you're going to choose.  What will you choose?

Presented like this, no hesitation, isn't it? You choose the hen that will give you a golden egg for the rest of your life.

Why, when Jesus makes us the same proposal, we choose to ask for the golden eggs.

But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Matthew 6.33

Perhaps the kingdom and the righteousness of God do not seem to us to be a hen with golden eggs but a religious and not very concrete thing. Well, there are these 'all these things that will be added', which do look like golden eggs and there we are interested. But since we do not really know what Jesus means with the kingdom and righteousness, then we ask 'the things to be added' and there are so many....

We make a strategic mistake and deprive ourselves of the best by not scrupulously and in order following the Lord's instructions. Seek first, first, the kingdom and its righteousness; Once you find it, the rest will be given to you in abundance, a pressed down, shaken together, and running over measure!

What is the kingdom of God and his righteousness?

for the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. Romans 14 :17

The kingdom is righteousness! And as a result, that is priceless: overflowing peace and joy every day of our lives, whatever the circumstances!

What is righteousness?

Righteousness is the will and ability to joyfully and daily practice God's will in our lives, free of sin. It is a miracle of the Holy Spirit granted to the new creature filled with the Spirit, an effect of Christ's resurrection power in his/her heart.

It is a gift from God, free and possible because the Son of God is resurrected. There is a power in His resurrection. This power, which is spread in the heart of the one who demands and receives it, arouses righteousness and one can walk as He has walked.

If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. John 15 :7

That is probably why, we just ask for the golden eggs, 'things added’. We do not believe that it is possible to experience what has just been explained. We do not believe it is possible to walk like He walked.

Why then does Jesus ask us to seek this? Would he ask us for something impossible? It does not look like Him.

What prevents us from walking as He walked, from remaining in his words? The old self, the flesh? Is it not written that the old self was crucified at the Cross? Is it not written that we were crucified on the same day as Jesus at the Cross? So, the old self, the flesh should no longer be obstacles to righteousness.

Unless these things have not been revealed to us because they are inaccessible to the natural eye, to the natural life.

but just as it is written, "things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, and which have not entered the heart of man, all that God has prepared for those who love him, For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; 1 Corinthians 2.10

And until they have been revealed to our minds, they remain just words, magnificent inoperative promises, a beautiful, promised country but on the other side of the Jordan. God reveals them through His Spirit. God miraculously cuts off the waters of the Jordan and bring us in.

and in Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority. Colossians 2 :10

Therefore Jesus tells us to seek and ask first for the kingdom of God because we already have been made complete in Him. That includes the 'things added'. The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ have given us everything.

CHRIST DIED ON THE CROSS. By his death, all our past, present and future sins are erased, and God will never condemn us again for anything. Today God is at peace with us. He is at peace with us, we are at peace with Him, by the death of Christ, because of the death of Christ, through the death of Christ whatever our present condition.

It is a fact that has waited for two thousand years all those who hear about it and that opens the continual source of joy and overflowing inner peace we need, to valiantly and resolutely conquer our heritage. It is a mandatory gateway. The cross. Sins forgiven. No more condemnation. Ever.

Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand Romans 5.2

You just must know that and accept it. If we are not deeply and undeniably convinced that our sins have all been erased, that we are in the eyes of God, white as snow, it is because Christ's death on the Cross is in us only at the stage of a mere intellectual understanding.

It takes more than an understanding to enter this experience and see it transform every day into torrents of overflowing peace and joy. That is why Jesus tells us to ask and seek. We must recognize our blindness and ask God to open our spiritual eyes. Only He can do it and when the good gift, the perfect gift comes from above, truth then explodes in all our being in a no-brainer that nothing can ever destroy.

CHRIST IS RESURRECTED. The power of his resurrection, the power of his new life, poured into us, allows us to live in righteousness every day of our lives. This is the second side of the coin; the righteousness of God that Jesus speaks to us about and that must be sought.

For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace. Romans 6 :14

You must know it and know that it is possible. If we are not deeply and undeniably convinced that Christ lives in us and that the power of His life is sufficient to hold our old self in death and make us live every day of our lives, free from sin, from the world and from the adversary, in God's righteousness, it is because the resurrection of Christ is at the stage of a mere intellectual understanding. And of course, we do not fully experience it.

It takes more than an understanding to fully enter this experience. Understanding is not faith.

Faith is the hand of our spirit that captures what the spiritual eye has just seen.

Why do you think the Lord Jesus-Christ advises us to buy eye salve so that we may see? Yes, He tells us to ask and seek and strike and he advises us to buy from Him.

I advise you to buy from Me.... eye salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see. Revelation 3 :18

We must ask God for this eye salve, ask Him to open our spiritual eyes. Only He can do it and when the good gift, the perfect gift comes from above, truth becomes operational, acting. We live the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all other things are added.

This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him. 1 John 5 :14-15

It is time for the church to wake up from its deep blindness sleep and for each member to begin to operate as he/she should, with eyes illuminated by Jesus' eye salve. A member of Christ, his eyes thus open, is made able to operate individually and in coordination with the other members because his/her faith empowers him/her to use the supernatural and powerful resources of the kingdom of God. The church can then begin to do, according to His own words (John 14:12), greater things than those of the Son of man when He was in the limitations of a human body.

With a church that has closed eyes, while she thinks she sees clearly, the Son of Man could find very little faith on earth when He returns.

will not God bring about justice for His elect who cry to Him day and night, and will He delay long over them? I tell you that He will bring about justice for them quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth? Luke 18: 7-8

To be followed….