2007 Newsletter
The Real Extreme Makeover
There are popular TV programs running for some time now on the makeover of homes and bodies. There apparently is a lot of interest in a makeover in people’s lives. That is interesting because the Bible talks about a makeover that affects the whole person—not just the physical appearance or one’s house, but the whole being—the whole person. If there be an extreme makeover, this is the real extreme makeover. “Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh; yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more. Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed away; behold all things are become new. And all things are of God who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation.” This passage (II Cor. 5:16-18) is one of the most profound and thought provoking passages of the Bible. The passage has a threefold focus. First, it focuses on how we know Jesus Christ. Second, it focuses our attention on the believer as being a new creature in Christ. The third focus of the passage is a ministry that every believer has—the ministry of reconciliation. As we consider these three concepts, we realize that these three represent the central focus of the successful Christian life today in the dispensation of the grace of God.
Considering the human author of this portion of the Word of God, we realize that the passage is a part of the preaching of Jesus Christ according to the revelation of the mystery that was revealed by our Lord Jesus Christ Himself (Eph. 3:2 & 3) to Paul—the apostle of the Gentiles. As we study the epistles written by Paul, we find Christ presented in a different way than He is presented elsewhere in the Bible. Paul presents Jesus Christ as “the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning [i.e. the one who began the church which is Christ’s body], the first born from the dead [i.e. the first to rise in resurrection life]; that in all things he might have the preeminence” (Col. 1:18).
This relationship of Jesus Christ (the head) together with “the church which is His body (Col 1:24) is the new creature that II Corinthians 5:16 speaks of. In Ephesians 2:15 that new creature is called the “one new man.” Time and space does not allow us to get specific about that one new man here. However, the article “Pete, Sam and the One New Man” from a previous newsletter describes this one new man in some depth. That article is available on our web page at www.bereanbiblechurch.com.
Getting back to our text (II Cor. 5:16-18), we see that the believer is a new creature because he is a part of the new creature—that new creature is Christ. The Apostle Paul presents Christ in a way that He was never presented before—as the head of the church which is His body. Prior to Paul being saved and being commissioned as “the apostle of the Gentiles,” Christ was presented as the rightful king—the Messiah of Israel. To know Christ in that capacity is to know Him “after the flesh.” So today, in the Dispensation of the Grace of God given to us through Paul (Eph. 3: 2-3), God forms this one new man by saving souls one by one as individuals one by one trust Jesus Christ as Savior. The change that occurs in the individual is instantaneous, dramatic, all encompassing, irreversible, and a truly great mystery that can be understood only by studying Paul’s epistles on the subject. That change is all the work of the Holy Spirit of God in response to the sinner’s decision to trust the death of Christ as full payment for his sins and the resurrection of Christ as the assurance that the payment for sins was accepted by the Father. Studying Paul’s epistles, we find that there were eight things that the Holy Spirit did in an instant at the moment in time that the individual sinner decided to trust Christ. They are following:
1. Baptized into Christ (Gal. 3:27; I Cor. 12: 12 & 13; Rom. 6:3 & 4) to form the one new man.
2. Regenerated (Titus 3:5) to give life to the believer’s spirit.
3. Indwelt (Rom. 8:11; I Cor 3:16) by the Holy Spirit to give light and instruction to the believer’s heart.
4. Washed of the stain of sin (1 Cor. 6:19).
5. Sanctified to make the believer God’s unique possession (1 Cor. 6:19).
6. Justified so as to be reckoned as fit for heaven as Jesus Christ is (1 Cor. 6:19; 2 Cor 5:21).
7. Circumcised (Col. 2:10-12; Phil. 3:3; I Cor. 6:11) so as to separate the believer from the sins of the flesh.
8. Sealed (Eph. 1:13; 4:30; II Cor. 1:22) so as to give the believer security in Christ.
The Raw Material
Let’s consider the raw material that God uses in forming the new creature. The raw material that God uses in forming the one new man is found in the lost masses of this human race that we each were a part of. The human race was created in the image of God (Gen. 1:26 & 27), but that image was marred by sin. After Adam sinned, he begat children in his own fallen image (Gen. 5:3); and, thus, the human race is in the image of fallen sinful Adam to this day. But Christ came as “the last Adam” (I Cor. 15: 45) to change that. Let’s look at the raw material that God works with in forming the one new man. Let’s look at our makeup as humans.
We are tri-part creatures being created in the image of a triune God. We are spirit, soul and body (I Thess. 5:23). It might be helpful to refer to the illustration below to visualize the concept. Interestingly, the soul is the real person. The soul has a body and a spirit, and the soul (the real you) decides what you will do with your body and with your spirit. Note Paul’s instructions to believers in this regard “…Ye are bought with a price: therefore, glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s” (I Cor. 6:19). Our bodies are easy to understand, but our soul and our spirit are more difficult to comprehend being that they are invisible to the eye. Though we can’t see them, we can understand things about the soul and the spirit from the Word of God, the Bible. In fact, it is only the Word of God that can distinguish between the soul and the spirit. “For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12).
Yes, it is the Bible that has us figured out. And, if we are to understand ourselves, we have to go to the Scriptures to get a handle on what makes us tick. As far as our consciousness (our ability to know and relate to our environment) is concerned, each part of our being plays a role. Our body gives us the ability to function in a physical world. We can say that our bodies give us “world consciousness.” Through our five senses of sight, hearing, smell, taste, and tactile senses we interact with our physical surroundings. Our spirits are given to us for the purpose of giving us the ability to relate to God. It is that part of us that gives us spiritual insight. We would say that our human spirit gives us a God consciousness. Our spirits enable us to see “…the invisible things of him from the creation of the world…” (Rom. 1:19 & 20). Our souls then are the real person of each of us (i.e. our personality). Our souls are us. We are each a soul. We each (each soul) have a body, and we each have a spirit.
Mentally Speaking …
It is certainly interesting to consider our mentality and our cognitive processes in light of what scripture has to say about our tri-part makeup. The mental content of our human spirit (that part of us that is given us to relate to God) is called in scripture our “mind.” It consists of the information that we (our soul) choose to put in it. Remember our apostle admonishes us to “glorify God in your body and your spirit which are God’s” (I Cor. 6:19). He further instructs us to “Be not conformed to this world but to be transformed by the renewing of our minds” (Rom. 12:2). We renew our minds daily by continually taking in the Word of God rightly divided. As we take in the Word and carefully ponder how we would apply it in making the day-to-day decisions of life, we become “fully persuaded in our own minds” (Rom. 14:5), and we form within ourselves “the mind of Christ” (I Cor. 2:16). As the individual members of a local church each grows to spiritual maturity, they collectively operate with “one mind and one spirit” (Rom. 12:16; 15:6; I Cor. 6:10; II Cor 13:11; Phil. 1:27; 2:2). It is this “mind of Christ” within the mature saint that enables the church to function in love and humility (Phil. 2:5-8).
Our mind is that reservoir of knowledge, information, and insight within us that we draw from as we make our decisions in life. In computer terminology, it is our hard drive. We program it as we choose. We do so by what we put in it. We can, even as believers, put worldly information in and program it to think in terms of worldly interests. That would be the opposite of the renewing of our minds that Romans 12:2 speaks of. Rather, that would be the forming of a “carnal mind” (Rom. 8:7) that compels the individual to “walk after the flesh” (Rom 8:5). That leads to a defeated Christian experience “Because the carnal mind is enmity against God [whether it is in a believer or an unbeliever]: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.” (Rom 8:7). The apostle goes on to say, “…If ye [believers] walk after the flesh, ye shall die [as far as your Christian experience and testimony is concerned]; but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.” (Romans 8:13). Our apostle instructs us “…that ye walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the vanity of their heart: …that ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man … And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; And that ye put on the new man…” (Ephesians 4:17-23).
While our mind consists of the intellectual content of our human spirit, our soul has a mentality as well. Our soul is the decision making part of our makeup. In Paul’s admonishment, “…glorify God in your body and your spirit which are God’s,” it is “you”-- your soul that makes the decision as to what you do with your spirit and your body. The Bible calls the mentality of our soul (those affections that guide and motivate our decisions) our heart. Our “heart” is that part of us that believes the gospel. Note Romans 10:10, “For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness.…” It is the heart that loves. Note I Timothy 1:5, “…the end of the commandment [i.e. the end result of the commandment to preach no other message than grace, mercy, and peace] is charity [unconditional love] out of a pure heart [a function of our soul] and a good conscience [a function of our spirit]. Just knowing the gospel in our mind does not save us until we believe it in our hearts. So too, just knowing of the love of God in our mind is empty until we decide to love.
As we study the apostle’s words in I Corinthians 13, we learn something very simple yet profound. It is not just what is in our heads that counts, but what is in our hearts. The “heart” is the collection of our affections. While we formulate opinions in our human spirit based on the intellectual information we take in, it is in our hearts that we form real convictions that compel us to act. Give me one man with true convictions on Bible truth before a thousand with opinions. I Corinthians 13 describes three indicators of the condition of the heart; these being hope, faith, and charity (I Corinthians 13:13). These are the three abiding gifts of the Holy Spirit that abide throughout the entire Dispensation of the Grace of God. They are the result of the working of the spirit of God as He works through the Word of God on the heart of the believer. Faith is not just belief and trust but the believability and trustworthiness that results from belief and trust in the person and work of Christ. So too, hope is not simply the confidence of eternal life with Christ in heaven’s glory, but it is also the quality of that life as we live it out in our day-to-day lives as we look forward to that blessed hope. And charity is the greatest of these three. The word for “charity” is often translated “love,” but charity is a different kind of love than what we usually think of as love. It is love that has no strings of any kind attached. It is the condition of a heart that is fully satisfied with the love received from God and has no need for love from any other (2Cor 5:14). Such a heart can suffer long, be kind, envy not, does not push its own interest over that of others, is not puffed up with pride, does not seek its own interest, is difficult to provoke to anger, it sees the best in people, it does not find joy in that which is false or unjust but does rejoice in truth. Such a heart can bear all things and endure all things.
While we are addressing the mental and intellectual aspect of our human makeup, it is interesting to consider what the Bible says (and doesn’t say) about that marvelous computer, that gray matter that we call our brain. It is interesting to note that the word “brain” is not mentioned at all in the Scripture. We do find, however, that Scripture sees the intellect of the soul and the spirit being perfectly functional without the brain—the brain being but an organ of our physical bodies. As we consider passages as I Samuel 28:15-19, II Corinthians 12:1-5, and Luke 16:19-31 in which we see dead and disembodied people communicating with all of their normal mental faculties intact, we understand that the brain is but a part of our physical bodies that enable us to live out the decisions of our will in a physical world and to interact with it through our five senses. Though our brains can store and recall information to enable us to learn how to manipulate our physical world through science and mathematics, music, etc, it is not the place where our decisions are made nor is it where our personality resides. We actually have empirical evidence of the fact that our real person (our souls) are separate from our gray matter every morning as we start to “come to” from our unconscious state that we call sleep. As we lay there dreaming, our brains are putting together a theatrical production for us and we observe it wondering how it is going to come out. Then we wake up and miss the ending. Medical science has learned to manipulate the symptoms of mental problems by use of chemistry and drugs that affect and alter the state of consciousness of the brain. Yet, it never gets to the real cause because the real root rests with the soul of man.
So Then What Does Make Us Tick?
To get to the real root of the issues that cause us grief in our lives we have to look deeper than the physical level of our existence. Let’s consider what the Scripture has to say about our natural makeup, the state of our being as we are were when we entered this world. People enter this world as innocent babies who “cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand” (Jonah 4:11). Yet we enter with a sin nature that soon leads us to do what comes naturally--to express a nature of sin. So then let us consider what the Bible calls “the natural man” (I Corinthians 2:14). First, at the level of the spirit, the mind of the natural man is reprobate (Romans 1:28). Thus, though the natural man might be very religious, he is none the less spiritually dead. As the apostle says “…we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath…” (Ephesians 2:3). The apostle describes the unregenerate soul as “Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their hearts” (Eph 4:18). At the level of our souls, our hearts were darkened (Rom 1:21; 2:5). At the physical level, the body of the unregenerate soul is “the body of sin” (Romans 6:6-7). That is, the body was owned by and under the control of the sin nature that dwelt within it.
Such is the raw material that God uses in forming the one new man. God takes the lost soul and transforms it into something beautiful and precious in Christ. When that soul makes a heart decision to trust Christ and His redeeming work on Calvary for salvation, the Holy Spirit goes to work. He, that instant, regenerates the spirit of that man or woman or boy or girl. In an instant, at conversion, the Holy Spirit imparts the life of Christ to the believer’s human spirit. The believer instantly becomes “one spirit with Christ” (I Corinthians 6:17).
The Transformation of Regeneration
The soul that was once darkened and was in rebellion towards God now has “obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you” (Romans 6:17). The same power of God whereby He commanded light to shine out of darkness (in Genesis 1:3) where there was no light has “shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ” (II Corinthians 4:6). The light of Christ illuminates the soul to reveal to the mind’s eye the glory of God, which glory we will one day see with the eyes of our resurrection bodies.
At regeneration, a wonderful thing happens with regard to our physical bodies: our souls and spirit are redeemed at the moment of regeneration, but we wait for the redemption of our bodies (Romans 8:23). Our physical bodies are not redeemed yet and, in fact, the old sin nature still dwells in our bodies (Romans 7:17-18). Yet God performs a spiritual surgery (a spiritual circumcision) that separates “the inward man” (Romans 7:22; II Corinthians 4:16) that is “renewed day by day” from the outward man that perishes. At regeneration, “…ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands in putting off of the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ” (Colossians 2:11). The result is that “we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh” (Philippians 3:3). The worship that God wants from us has nothing to do with any ordinance or rites or sacraments that we can do with our bodies. But, we can none the less live our Christian life out in the flesh (Philippians 2:20). Yet, it is not us, but the life of Christ that originates in the regenerated soul and spirit that is being lived out.
To have no confidence in the flesh is to trust in the working of God, by His Holy Spirit, on the regenerated human spirit through His Word rightly divided. The apostle calls this walk the “walk after the spirit” (Rom 8:1 & 4). The grace of God, working through the Word of God on the inward man, can and will produce in the believer who is yielded to the Word of God the righteousness that the Law demanded of him but could not produce. The Law could not produce it because it depended upon the flesh. To walk so as to have confidence in our flesh to measure up to God’s standards is to “walk after the flesh.” The Christian life works when you live it according to the instructions for us living in the dispensation of the grace of God.
The real extreme makeover is the work that God does in the life of every believer who yields his will to the Word of God rightly divided. It is only in the epistles of Paul, the apostle of the Gentiles, that we find the information on how we are put together as members of Christ individually and part of the new creature corporately. Therefore, the apostle says, “I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God” (Rom 12:1&2).
MJT
Berean Bible Church - Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin
Revised:
February 04, 2007
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