Christian Reasoning.
February 3, 2009In my first book (It is Finished), which will soon be published, I wrote about reading to discover. Bible reading with the purpose of understanding is almost impossible if one reads from a human point of view. So suppose we read together a simple command to see if we can find the right interpretation from a kingdom point of view. In doing so, I am going to share something that you will not find in my book. It is about reading with the wisdom of God.
From 1 Corinthians 2: 7, 10, “….we speak of God’s secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began….God has revealed it to us by His Spirit.”
Now let us take a command from another letter written by the apostle Paul and apply the wisdom of God so that obedience comes as a result of our reading.
Romans 12: 2, “….be transformed by the renewing of you mind.”
Next, let us remind ourselves about some of the truths that have taken place in our lives which separate our thinking from that of the way the world thinks. I will list a few.
Rescued from the dominion of darkness, we have been brought into the kingdom of the Son where we have become new creations in Christ. We died to our old way of life and a new way of life has been bestowed upon us. It is called the new way of the Spirit. Our lives are now hid with Christ in God. We no longer live, but Christ lives in us. It is God who works in us both to will and to act according to his good (godly) purpose. Meanwhile, we rest from our own labors just as God did from His.
It is understood then, our lives are now completely separate from our physical being, although our physical body remains. The real “us” exists in the Spirit.
Now when a command is given it is expected to be obeyed. But we have found that our humanity is not capable of being obedient to God. However in our new life, we are not subject to disobedience, rather we are subject to faith, a faith powered by God’s grace.
So the command is given. But in the kingdom of God we are at rest; so much so that we no longer live. Our lives in the Spirit are hid with Christ in God. If this is all true, then each command that is given to us is actually given to the Christ who lives in us. He is the only One who is capable of obeying the command that God has given. In this, Christ continues to do things for us that we cannot do for ourselves. This is called God’s mercy and it is only understood by those who have the mind of Christ.
