Friday, December 26, 2014

Bringing New Birth: The Coming Of God: The Baby Jesus Christ


Therefore remember that you,
once Gentiles in the flesh-who are
called Uncircumcision by what is
called the Circumcision made
in the flesh by hands-that at that
time you were without Christ,
being aliens from the commonwealth
of Israel and strangers from the
covenants of promise, having no hope
and without God in the world.
But now in Christ Jesus you who once
were far off have been brought
near by the blood of Christ.
Ephesians 2:11-13

            Here is praying that you had a great Christmas and a time to reflect upon the “Reason for the Season.” Remember: Jesus was born into this world and not from it. Jesus did not evolve out of history for He came into history. This history exists due to one simple fact: Jesus created all that exists and by that existence history began and Jesus entered into this history from outside history for Jesus is eternal and stands outside of history as the Wisdom of God, God the Word, and now from His entrance into the history that He created became man so save man. Jesus Christ is not the best human being; He is the Being that cannot be accounted for by the human race at all. Jesus Christ is not man becoming God, but God Incarnate, God coming into human flesh, into it from outside. Jesus Christ is the Highest and the Holiest entering into the Lowliest door. The birth of Jesus Christ was an advent. You were far off from God and by the coming of Jesus Christ into the world as a Man, the Holiest of Man, the Highest of Man: you can be brought near by the blood of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ came into the world from the outside, now, He must come into you from the outside into your inside, and this by the new birth to be reborn and you cannot enter into the Kingdom of heaven unless you are reborn from above, a birth unlike the natural birth of man. The being reborn, this new birth, is not just something one thinks upon becoming, when and how by a man’s choice, no, it is a command from God that unless you are reborn you which is the foundation fact. How then can I know that I am reborn? The characteristic of the new birth is this simple: you life changes from what it was into a new life, a life that is completely yielded to God and this occurs due to you being formed into the image of Jesus Christ and His nature begins to work through you. We just celebrated Christmas, the coming into this world by Jesus Christ, the Second Person of the Trinity, the Wisdom of God clothed in flesh, the Word of God, God manifested in flesh. All this is possible by the Redemption that is the death, resurrection, and ascension into heaven paying the debt of sin against God, paid by God Himself, and now applies that redemption to you.
            Let us not mistake conscious freedom from sin for deliverance from sin by the Atonement for this would be a great error. Man does not have the reality of sin in his conscious for it he did then sin would not continue in a man’s life. Man does know the horror of sin as it is well demonstrated in the world. Man cannot know that he is truly a sinner until the new birth, that being reborn by the blood of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ did not face your sin upon the cross: no! Jesus faced sin on the cross and conquered sin by living a sinless life and dying, not due to some sin, or criminal activity, no, He died to pay that debt and that is why Jesus Christ entered into our world as a babe, to grow, to mature, to then lead a small band of twelve, to teach others, those disciples that would carry the news that the Messiah has come into the uttermost part of the world. Jesus brings peace, good tidings, for Jesus Christ is Peace: “For He Himself is our peace, who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of separation, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is, the law of commandments contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, this making peace, and that He might reconcile them both to God in one body through the cross, thereby putting to death the enmity”(Ephesians 2:14-16). Putting to death, death, this sin against God, through the Atonement of Jesus Christ that God can impart His perfection into you, no, not that will become perfect in this life as some have taught, rather that you now are perfect in Him for He sees you through the One Perfect One, His Only Begotten Son, Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit applies that Atonement to you and while this is done n the unconscious realm we can see it in the conscious realm for we see it manifested in our lives and this occurs when we fully convert to Jesus Christ. We must walk in the light: “But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin” (1John 1:7). Now, the love of God at work in your life makes you hate sin, a hatred that is caused by the Holy Spirit, His hatred of sin and you remove from yourself all that is not in keeping with the Holiness of God. Jesus came so you can walk in this light so a question to ask of yourself: will I allow this light, this coming of Jesus to pay the debt I owed to God for me, and now applies that redemption to me, to drive me closer to God, to the center of the light?

O LORD, I know the way of man
            Is not in himself;
It is not in man who walks to direct
            his own steps, O LORD correct me,
but with justice; not in Your anger, lest You
            bring me to nothing.
                        Jeremiah 10: 23-24

Turn from the way of sin

Richard L. Crumb

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