A NEW CREATURE – PART ONE
Sunday – January 19, 2020, Tevet 22, 5780
Greetings to our precious friends and partners of Eastern Gate Ministries International and The Three Minute Word blog. Also, welcome back to this Sunday teaching series without a name. God is so good my friends. If you are reading this on Facebook please take a moment to hit the “love” and “share” buttons to give us feedback and to spread the gospel together further than either of us can alone. Please be aware that the most reliable way to get these teaching is in your email inbox early each morning. Simply go to threeminuteword.wordpress.com (copy and paste to your search bar) and you will see a place on the upper right to enter your email address. Today and for the next few weeks I am going to present what I hope is a very familiar passage and bring to the forefront of our thinking who we are in Christ Jesus. Let’s read our primary Bible text aloud.
2 Corinthians 5:17-21 (KJV)
17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
18 And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;
19 To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.
20 Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.
21 For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
What a wonderful passage of Scripture and it is packed full of wonderful revelation, unchanging Truth. Today I will be focusing on verse seventeen (17 = victory). We are told that if we are “in Christ” that we are “a new creature”, so what does that mean? First let’s think about the word “Christ”. In Scripture the word “Christ” is always referring to deity (our God) and is therefore capitalized. It means Messiah, Anointed One, and the Anointing. Messiah and Anointed One are talking about Jesus (the Word) and the Anointing is referring to the Holy Spirit. Of course, the Anointed One is referring to the man Jesus with the Anointing which is the Holy Spirit. If He were not operating as a man but as God He would not have needed to be Anointed. Messiah is capitalized because the Messiah although a man in the earth was fully God before the womb of Mary and was fully God and fully man following His Resurrection. As we think about this consider that Jesus (meaning Jehovah saved), the Word (second person of the co-equal Triune God), and Christ (Anointed One) are equivalent words and the same person. The Word (the second person of the co-equal Triune God) came and became flesh (the man Christ [Anointed] Jesus).
What about the idea that we are “in Christ”? Being “in Christ” is the key, the essential step or process to being “a new creature”. One of the ways I like to think about it is similar to being “in the Army” for example. You have to met certain criteria to join the Army and that is so with entering the Kingdom of God which requires being “a new creature”. Once a person joins or signs up for the Army and is accepted, they are now in the Army and they have a different status. Once we meet the criteria for entering the Kingdom of God, being in Christ we also have a different status, we are “a new creature”. One might be thinking there are no criteria for salvation, quite the contrary my dear saint.
Romans 10:9-10 (KJV)
9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
Until we have done what is said in the passage above in one form or another, we remain condemned by our own choice and on our way to Hell. Once this is done, we are “in Christ” and “a new creation”. When we are in something whether it be the Army, your current job, your marriage, and so on, once “in” we are then subject to the obligations and the benefits of the Army, job, marriage, or in this case the Kingdom of God. God receives us as we are but instantly with confessing Him as our Lord we are changed becoming “a new creature”. Lord willing, I will pick up right here next Sunday. What a wonderful God we have!
Until our next publication, as a Bible Teacher and Prophetic Voice I speak this blessing over each and every one of you, receive it, believe it, and speak over yourself and your family by faith in Jesus name! Quit asking God to bless you, you are already blessed, you have the Blessing, give Him something to do by the words of your mouth. Once you know the will of God, decree the thing (Job 22:28, Isaiah 45:11, Mark 11:23). (The Blessing is the Holy Spirit) We have left God way to long with nothing to do in our lives.
Numbers 6:24-26 (AMP)
24 The Lord bless you and watch, guard, and keep you;
25 The Lord make His face to shine upon and enlighten you and be gracious (kind, merciful, and giving favor) to you;
26 The Lord lift up His [approving] countenance upon you and give you peace (tranquility of heart and life continually).
By: Dr. David Wood, Author, Bible Teacher, and Prophetic Voice
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