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

2 Corinthians 5:17

Something fundamentally changes when you accept Christ.  Something profound and New takes place, that cannot have any part with the old (2 Corinthians 6:14).

Now for many, this is unrealized in this life, unless they are taught.  A Christian might live their whole life, and never realize what all Christ has bought for them.  But, as Jesus said, when a man believes, he is born again of a spiritual seed (John 3:3-5), and the old things are “passed away”.

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We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words. The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual man makes judgments about all things, but he himself is not subject to any man’s judgment:

1 Corinthians 2:12-15

We must be clear.  We are not to judge those outside of the church, but we are called to judge those inside it (1 Corinthians 5:12).  Those outside are sinners, and we expect them to act like sinners.  If they sin, it is their nature to sin, and we do not do well if we point fingers at the unregenerate, just as we do well not to fit into them, for there is no fellowship between light and dark.  Likewise, when we enter into soulish, or carnal, judgement against a brother, failing to discern the Lord’s body, we do sin.  Jesus said, “I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.” (John 5:30).  He did not use His own mind or understanding to judge, but He judged according to the Spirit, and was right when He prophesied judgement on the Pharisees, on Jerusalem, and on the cities that would not hear His Gospel.

Yet, Paul made it clear that the man of the flesh cannot receive the things of God, for they are spiritually discerned.  Not will not, cannot.  Jesus said it this way, that those who are not born again cannot see nor enter the Kingdom of Heaven (John 3:3-5).

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But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.

Isaiah 53:5

The Hebrew word picture for “iniquity” is “bent”.  Iniquity is the being “bent” from straight, twisted from the upright, and made crooked from the pure.  While transgression are our comissions of sin, our iniquity is the propensity, or proneness to continue to sin.

Jesus, when He died, paid for our entire nature.  He covered our individual sins, and our sinfulness.  He, through His righteous act and sacrificial offering, made peace with God for us, by taking upon Himself the punishment we deserved.

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The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world.

John 1:9

Man, the carnal man, lives in darkness.  All mankind has turned aside from the truth, the true light, and has gone to corruption.  There is nothing wholesome about man, and nothing good in what he can do.  Ever.

The Spiritual Man, however, as Paul described, has died to it.  He has died to himself, to the world with all its desires, and has died to himself.  The case is so edged that Paul states that he is crucified to the world and the world is crucified to himself (Galatians 6:14).

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I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.

Luke 13:5

Take an apple, cut it open, and put it on the counter.  Leave it there, say, for a week, or a month, and you will notice something. The apple is no longer the apple you left it as, but it is now destroyed.  Further, there is no repairing that apple to it’s original golden deliciousness.  It is now, if you leave it long enough, brown slime, and food for the bees.

This world, like that apple, is broken like that apple.  And, in fact, it was God that broke it for His own justice at the beginning, when the man fell.

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If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.

Luke 14:26

There are many ways to approach discipleship in Christ, but one thing is assured.  Unless your obedience is carried to the extreme, it is not Biblical Christianity.

Discipleship begins at the cross.  It begins at the laying down of everything of this life, and that of following the Master.  From start to finish, it must be about absolute trusting and dependence upon the Shepherd for everything. Read more…

Ye sent unto John, and he bare witness unto the truth. But I receive not testimony from man: but these things I say, that ye might be saved. He was a burning and a shining light: and ye were willing for a season to rejoice in his light.

John 5:33-35

Light reveals.  Light illuminates.  Light is righteousness, and darkness is evil.

In all places, the true light that gives light to every man, Jesus Christ, is always a portrait of illumination, but also of righteousness.  It is the voice of Him who is above, who is true light, the Father of Lights.

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[The following is a letter I wrote to a friend, with a few edits for privacy]

Let me say this:  I appreciate your position, and I am not particularly in most of the camps that you might expect.

Summing it up, I hear about four main statements in your email.

First, there have been many different positions and view regarding holiness..  Which you cataloged quite well.

Second, you really don’t care which one is most doctrinally correct, but are sick of the compromise in your own heart and unless it can help with that, you’re not satisfied.   You said, “All I know right now is that I’m bound to sin and I don’t know how to get out”.

Third, You’re sick of the crap (scripturally, “dung”).  You want to know the experiential love, experiential forgiveness, and experiential cleanness of heart.  No more hypocrisy from yourself or others.  You want the real deal.

And, finally, the question of how to know anything arises.  ”The only way I will know or anyone on this earth will know is if God shows us personally.”

I think some of these questions are proper place of a heart for your condition.  Let me remind you, however, truth is a person.

Let me present my Gospel, if you will…

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In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

Genesis 1:1-2

God spoke, and there was light.  His Word entered creation, and light was over the vast expanse of the deep.  God approved of this light, and as He separated light from dark, there was day and night.  The first day.

God created the skies, and the lands beneath.  His Word set the boundaries for the sea, so that it might only come so far.  His Word called forth, and it came into being.

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Many have undertaken to draw up an account of the things that have been fulfilled among us, just as they were handed down to us by those who from the first were eyewitnesses and servants of the word. Therefore, since I myself have carefully investigated everything from the beginning, it seemed good also to me to write an orderly account for you, most excellent Theophilus, so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught.

Luke 1:1-4

Luke wrote that his readers, Theophilus then and us today, would know the certainty of the things taught.  The events that are important to us for our faith have been patiently and carefully researched and recorded for us by the hand of Luke.  Luke, a Physician, was meticulous in details such as names and places, and his work stands is both divinely inspired scripture and noted as historical by historians as its facts line up with other historical markers.

The primary focus of the Gospel, the Gospel of the Kingdom (Matthew 24:14), is the Kingdom, is the faith Jesus demonstrated through His life as who He was, and the work crucifixion in working our salvation.  Without the cross, there would be no salvation for us.  Without His birth, it never would have gotten started!

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