New Species

Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade others. But what we are is known to God, and I hope it is known also to your conscience. We are not commending ourselves to you again but giving you cause to boast about us, so that you may be able to answer those who boast about outward appearance and not about what is in the heart. For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; if we are in our right mind, it is for you. For the love of Christ controls us, because we have concluded this: that one has died for all, therefore all have died; and he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised. 2 Corinthians 5:11-15 ESV

“Fear of the Lord:” respect, reverence—for His person, for His plan, for His perfect provision of grace toward all mankind. Paul wants the Corinthian believers to be proud of him and his fellow teachers. He wants them to be prepared with accurate doctrine to refute the legalism and phony do-goodism being promoted by the Judaizers. So they are saying we’re crazy. Our exuberance is for God’s perfect plan. Our sober instruction, though, is for your benefit; for your advance to maturity. God knows all about our work and our motives. We believe you Corinthians know it, too.

Here’s the message: one died for all, so all have died. Those who identify with His death receive eternal life, and that life belongs entirely to Him Who died for all, and now lives. It was OUR death He died. It is His life we now receive. This is not something we DID, brethren, but something we RECEIVED. It had already been done.

From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. 2 Corinthians 5:16-20

We Christians are no longer “of the flesh.” Paul had once regarded Jesus as just a man, but now knew Him to be God and Man in one person forever. Those who have received His life are now New Species. IN CHRIST. The old, fleshly life no longer defines who we are, but our lives are lived with the perspective of eternity, in the power and perception of the Holy Spirit. That Old Man is dead! We are reconciled to God. Not God to us. He doesn’t change, but we must, in order to qualify for life with Him. When our bank balance doesn’t match our checkbook record, the record must be reconciled. When two systems are in opposition, one must be reconciled. Jesus’ work took care of our reconciliation to God’s standard. The change He required in us was engineered by the God-Man Himself.

Reconciliation: Through the cross of Christ, humankind can now be saved. God can now see us as new creatures because of Jesus’ finished work. As new creatures with a permanent position IN CHRIST, we are now His ambassadors in the devil’s world. We are the conduits of the gospel message, and we extend the invitation: “be reconciled to God.” 

2 Corinthians 5:21:

For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

“He,” God the Father made “Him,” God the Son (who had no sin of His own) to be (our) sin.

Why?

“So that IN HIM (Jesus) we (who have no righteousness of our own) might become THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD.”

It's a complete, permanent change of spiritual DNA (the fundamental and distinctive characteristics or qualities of someone or something, especially when regarded as unchangeable). It's not about anything we do or can do. It is about who, and Whose we are.

Forever.

 

Operating Clean

It was just before the Passover Festival. Jesus knew that the hour had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. Having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.

The evening meal was in progress, and the devil had already prompted Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot, to betray Jesus. Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, and that he had come from God and was returning to God; so he got up from the meal, took off his outer clothing, and wrapped a towel around his waist. After that, he poured water into a basin and began to wash his disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel that was wrapped around him.

 

He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Lord, are you going to wash my feet?”

Jesus replied, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.”

“No,” said Peter, “you shall never wash my feet.”

Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.”

“Then, Lord,” Simon Peter replied, “not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!”

Jesus answered, “Those who have had a bath need only to wash their feet; their whole body is clean. And you are clean, though not every one of you.” For he knew who was going to betray him, and that was why he said not every one was clean. John 13:1-11 NIV

Jesus had spent about three years of His incarnation evangelizing His people, the Jews, and recruiting disciples for training in His ministry. Those early years were extremely busy and active, with Jesus presenting His credentials as the Son of God, confirming His Messiahship with miraculous signs and healings, teaching eternal truths by way of Old Testament references and parables, expressing the Word of the Father Who sent Him. I notice that when worldlings quote Jesus and make reference to the person He was (He IS, but they say was), it is that public teacher they always remember. The private, personal, intimate Jesus is the one John shows us in chapters 13-17. This Jesus had some important truths to impart to “His own” before He departed the earth.

Now, in chapter 13 of John’s gospel, we see Jesus as His hour approaches. He took the disciples into private fellowship with Him and began to give them personal, detailed instruction regarding their new relationship with God through Jesus Himself. He loved “his own,” the disciples “to the end,” meaning completely; to the fullest extent.

Judas had been indwelt by Satan and was prepared to betray Jesus. Jesus was prepared to minister to His disciples in an unusual manner, not normally done by a Jewish host. After they had celebrated the meal together, Jesus stripped down to a towel and proceeded to wash the feet of the disciples. This was a courtesy normally performed by Gentile slaves, never the Jewish householder. It was a very demeaning chore, considered humiliating, but something customary in the culture of the time.

Peter was appalled that his Lord would stoop to do such a thing, and objected. As always, there was profound meaning in this act of Jesus. He was teaching the need for periodic cleansing from daily sins of the person already wholly purified by the atonement. The imagery was of a man returning to his house from the public baths. He was already bodily washed, but his feet would have been defiled in the walk home. The believer is completely forgiven the guilt of sin by the blood of Christ, but needs continual cleansing from the defilement of sin in the world. Thus, the need for frequent confession of sin to the Father, to remain in fellowship with Him. “Christ cannot have communion with a defiled saint, but He can and will cleanse Him.” (Scofield note on John 13:10). So, no, Peter, you don’t need to be saved all over again, but you do need to come to the Lord and have your feet washed. This is the Church Age version of operating clean from our priesthood, as in Exodus 30:17-21. That rule was for the Aaronic priesthood of Israel. In the Church Age, each believer is a priest.

Jesus knew not every one of them was clean. Judas, the unbeliever in the group, had made his decision to betray the Lord. It was just a matter of timing, and that was coming close.

When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. “Do you understand what I have done for you?” he asked them. “You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord,’ and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. Very truly I tell you, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them. John 13:12-17

Jesus confirmed to them His authority as their Teacher and Lord. Since He had ministered to them in this humble way, to illustrate the importance of maintaining fellowship, they should continue to minister to one another in the same way. He set the example. The servant is not greater than his master. As the master has done, so also we should do. See to the spiritual and physical needs of our fellow believers. There is blessing in that kind of obedience.

Regarding the servant not being greater than the master: this is a principle we modern believers should keep in mind as we carry the message of Christ in the world. This is what comes to my mind when professing Christians take to the streets and airwaves, shouting and making a public spectacle of themselves, openly challenging those in authority. Jesus did not do this. He took His message of God’s love and grace to the people He was sent to save, without ever defying Caesar or practicing any kind of politics (Isaiah 42:1-3).

Our lifestyle and voting practices reflect our beliefs, if we have beliefs. We are what we think. If we think divine viewpoint, we will produce divine good. If enough of us think divine viewpoint and produce divine good, our political system will reflect what we stand for.

It is enough to be AS our Lord.

Our Lord's Intercession for His Church

“I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word;  that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.

 

The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me. Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.

"O righteous Father, although the world has not known You, yet I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me;  and I have made Your name known to them, and will make it known, so that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.” John 17:20-26 NASB

Jesus had prayed for His own return to glory, reporting to the Father that He had given His disciples “the words which You have given to Me.” Our Lord's emphasis throughout this prayer was on God's Word. The Father gave it to the Son and the Son imparted it to those men who were given to Him out of the world.  His Word is the basis of our faith. Holding fast to His Word is our security in the devil’s world. That was Jesus’ highest commendation of His people: “they have received the words which You gave Me.” The highest commendation for Himself: “I have given them the words which You gave Me."

There is nothing more important than the Word of God. Without the Word, we are free-falling in a world of confusion. No standards, no authority. Disoriented. Every man for himself. Jesus always quoted and honored the written Word in His teaching. In His time with the disciples, the words He spoke were of primary importance. The miracles performed called attention to His power, but His Words were the life-giving force of His ministry. If what we see, feel and experience conflicts with the Word of God, what we see, feel and experience is wrong. God's Word is more reliable than anything the world offers.

John 5:24 “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.” 

John 14:23-24: Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him. He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me.”

Jesus didn’t pray for the world, because He had made atonement for the world. If His atonement is rejected, there is no more sacrifice for sins. Those who receive and believe His Word, however, are His own, and He prayed for their protection in hostile territory.

In verse 20, we find His prayer for us. We modern believers are those who believe in Jesus through the word of His disciples. They knew Him personally, believed totally in His Word and His work. They continued to believe and honor Him for the rest of their persecuted lives. They faithfully recorded His words and the words later given to them by the Holy Spirit (the New Testament). That written Word, read and studied with reverence and a willingness to understand, does the same thing in modern man that Jesus’ spoken words did for the early disciples. It transforms the person studying and believing it. We become Body of Christ. We are one with Him and with the Father. We are one with all other believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. The supernatural bond of the Church universal is evidence in the world that Jesus is Who He says He is, and that the Father sent Him. He loves us as the Father loves Him—eternally and completely. His desire is that we be with Him, and He has prepared the way for that reality. We, lowly creatures that we are, actually glorify Him.

Our weakness displays His strength more than angelic might can do. Our poverty displays His fullness more than the riches of heaven. The praises of the redeemed; the grateful love of His pardoned people for the complete covering of our sins….these things manifested in us who are saved by faith in His finished work…these are the things that glorify Him.

Jesus became human in order to redeem humanity. God the Father decreed it so, and He chose to communicate His eternal truth through human language, delivered by men to men in every dispensation.

It was revealed to them (the Old Testament Prophets) that they were not serving themselves but you, when they spoke of the things that have now been told you by those who have preached the gospel to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven. Even angels long to look into these things. I Peter 1:12

The steadfast faith we have in God’s Word is what gives us life and separates us from the kosmos. We who love our Lord will keep His Word, and it will guard our souls. That’s Jesus’ commendation of us to the Father, and it is Jesus’ promise to us.