From the man in the mirror, your carnal self, the old you. In each and every circumstance each and every day, we make choices to live as either the carnal, unsaved, old man version (the man in the mirror) or as the spiritual, saved, new man version; the new creature comprised of soul and spirit that exists inside our flesh which is buried with Christ by baptism (not water) into death. The flesh is dead. I mean, that’s where the line is drawn, right? You are either a believer living out your life in that identity to whatever measure or you are an unbeliever, purely carnal, living out your life in that identity, every moment of every day. If you believe, you’ve been saved from your former self. If you believe not, you are slave to the flesh.
Romans 6:4
Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
I mean, go look at yourself. What do you see? You see a piece of flesh that is the old man and all his ways, and look at yourself with your mind’s eye and you see the new man and his ways. One part of you is carnal and one part of you is spiritual. For those who’ve chosen belief, every day we are faced with the decision to live in recognition/understanding of our identity in Jesus Christ. Or, we live in recognition of the old man and all the things that go hand in hand with being carnally minded. Non-believers might deny God and think this whole old man, new man thing doesn’t apply. But, that doesn’t change the fact that they are living a life of pure carnality which is their identity.
But alas, while these concepts, if you will, are probably understood on some level by most, the actualization of it seems to evade many. Throughout Cows in The Pews and The Atheists Too I make the case that much of organized religion provides a stage, a script, and a schedule for people to immerse themselves in and thereby puts forth this framework that has the effect of constraining our Christian relationships to form rather than life. And I’ve also argued that the reason it happens is because people have been conditioned to think that by simply attending church they are absolved somehow of the responsibility we each have to read and study the word of God for ourselves.
One of the main reasons I believe this is because you just can’t seem to have a spiritual relationship with the typical churchgoer beyond a discussion about their church activities. It stays at that level, just ends up being this nice exchange between two supposed Christians who attend different churches, and rarely goes any further. It chokes off so much of true and genuine spiritual fellowship resulting from a mutual understanding of our connectedness stemming from our own individual pursuit of it from the written word of God. Denominational worship doesn’t allow that, in many ways it propagates form over fellowship and function. It also essentially controls how the bible will be fed to those in the pews. If you think about it, it’s in little bits and pieces, often out of context, and seemingly used to support the point of a sermon rather than in terms of time and circumstance for sake of understanding God’s intent. In effect, the church, the body of Christ, is kept in this childish state of mind, spiritually speaking, by discouraging the idea that we all need to read and understand the bible for ourselves.
I am gonna make this point over and over and over because it needs to be said over and over and over again. And if you’re not compelled to take matters into your own hands, as it were, and start reading and studying the Bible, ask yourself, “Why?” To this day, I can’t understand why. Seems like you can’t get a straight answer out of anyone. People have “reasons” but they don’t have an answer for the deeper question, which is, if you are truly a believer, why won’t you go directly to the source and hear him speak to you, to me, to all of us directly, one on one as it were?
Remember:
Psalms 12:6
The words of the LORD [are] pure words: [as] silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times.
That’s a very broad brush, so allow me to make my case by expounding on the notion of our new identity as believers who have been saved from ourselves (the old man), who God would have walking in newness of life in our new identity. After all, this, in truth, is where the battle is being waged. As I’ve said over and again, we either believe or not and, in turn, are living in faith or in unbelief. And the basis of our belief and the resulting newness of life should come from the words on the pages of the bible. That’s it; nothing more, nothing less.
Romans 6:4
Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
John 6:63
It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, [they] are spirit, and [they] are life.
Words mean things, and I’m sure most people understand, words are used to tell both the truth and the lie. That’s where the on-going spiritual battle is being waged… With words…
One man says the words on the page means this and another man says the same words on the page means something entirely different. Yet, the bible says what it says and means what it means. How will we ever be able to “fact check” either man to know which one understands the written word of God exactly as God intended?
You go to one church and hear the preacher preaching one thing about the bible and you go to another church and you hear another guy preaching another thing about the bible that contradicts what the other guy said and you what? How do you reconcile the two? Do you just chalk it up to different “interpretations” and that we’re all entitled to our own opinion, our own “truth”?
“No need to go figure it out for myself.”
“We’re all just different parts of the body believing different things about the word of God and it’s ok that that’s the way it is.”
Is it? Is it OK to, on the one hand, see the countless “interpretations” of one single source of information, while on the other hand ignoring or maybe not kowing that God would have us all speak the same thing.
1 Corinthians 1:10
Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and [that] there be no divisions among you; but [that] ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.
Did you notice the word “all”? But, that’s where the disconnect seems to be. You have so many organizations out there professing this, proclaiming that, all, of course, in the name of Jesus Christ. But, if you go any deeper, you dig down into the doctrinal/scriptural/spiritual details, you find disunity. In my post Does the Bible Need “Interpretation”, I cite the practice of water baptism as one of the most obvious examples. Catholics believe one thing about it, Baptists think another thing about it, Episcopalians, Presbyterian, etc. Yet others, including myself, believe water baptism was strictly a Jewish practice required under the old covenant between God and Israel and has nothing to do whatsoever with the gospel of Jesus Christ for the world today.
What do we do?
“Oh, that’s ok.”
“Everyone is on their own “path” to God and must be free to find their way.”
What a bunch of weak psycho-babbly crap… This gets to the heart of what drove me to write Cows in The Pews and The Atheists Too. As I’m writing this, all I’m thinking is moooooo… Moooooo….
And this all gets right back to our identity. The old man vs. the new man. The carnal vs. the spiritual. And more specifically, the hypocrite vs. the genuine article. You say you’re a Christian, but are you? I contend that if your knowledge of the word of God stems primarily from sermons given during church service, and in turn is what makes you a Christian, you’re effectively on equal footing with the typical Atheist. Why? Because you’ve put your faith in a man and his teaching from the pulpit, albeit from some version of the bible, and have not put your faith in the word of God contained in the bible. You’ve put the wellbeing of your soul in the preachers hand and not in God’s hand.
In this way, your identity is marred by immaturity that is the essence of organized religion. Case in point, I read an article today entitled “When is it OK to quit church? Here are five reasons to leave” by Chris Sonksen. The article can be found here: http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2018/07/14/when-is-it-ok-to-quit-church-here-are-five-reasons-to-leave.html.
I found the fifth reason particularly interesting because it makes my point in spades:
“5. It’s OK to leave if heresy is being preached. Today, people give the title of heretic to anyone with whom they disagree, theologically. There is room at the table for numerous disagreements. However, heresy undermines the essence of Jesus’ teachings. There are hundreds of issues in which Christians disagree and that’s OK. Not every disagreement is heresy. When the argument changes who Jesus is, move away and bow out – quickly.”
Read the whole article and you can’t help but notice the utter lack of anything scriptural as the basis for his assertions. Where in the bible does it say there is room at the table for disagreements? Notice what I receive as a cavalier attitude about there being “hundreds of issues in which Christians disagree and that’s OK”. I ask again, it is? Is it OK that we walk around acting as if we’re Christians, want others to know we’re Christians, use that “identity” somehow as grounds for moral superiority among the heathen, the unsaved, the non-believers while at the heart of it we have pastors out there “teaching” it’s ok for us to have hundreds of disagreements? Is that our new identity in Christ? Claiming to be a body of “believers” (I use the term loosely); supposed members of the church, the body of Christ, while clearly we are not perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment, and clearly do not speak the same thing?
Thirty three thousand denominations…
And it so lends itself to the overarching point that I’ve attempted to get people to realize all of my life.
Mooooo.
The only way the church, the body of Christ, in truth, will ever realize unity, is when believers make some effort both individually and together to understand the word of God as intended and have zero disagreements. As far-fetched and impossible as many might think that is, I believe it can happen. And I believe the only way it will ever happen is when everyone wakes up to their individual responsibility to read and study the word of God for yourself.
I also believe that whether we do read and study the bible, or not, is tied directly to our identity and is just another choice we face each day of our life. Specifically, are we living in recognition of who we are as Christians genuinely walking, again, in newness of life? Or, are we claiming to be “Christians”, on the one hand, while on the other, still living our life in the identity of the old man, with a carnal mind?
You wanna know what I think is the true measure of whether we are the genuine article, i.e. are we real or are we counterfeit?
Our willingness or unwillingness to be corrected… Our willingness to admit when we’re wrong… Our willingness, or not, to change our minds in the face of new information, in the face of a different understanding based on scriptural evidence that has been in front of mankind for centuries. The new man, the spiritual man, is open to new knowledge, open to a more complete understanding; willing to change his mind when faced with it. The old man ain’t havin’ none of that.
I know people who say they’re Christians who don’t seem to know the first thing about the word of God beyond what they’ve learned in church; the “high points” as I’ve referred to it before. I don’t blame them per se, I just see people mooing along through life presuming to know and assuming that what they’re been taught, and specifically the behavior they’ve learned, is all there is to it. “I love my church; everyone is sooooo nice to each other…” And in my mind, what they’re really doing is hiding behind a “Christian” veneer while for all intents and purposes, the old man is alive and well.
“Nobody’s gonna tell me what to believe or how to believe.”
“I got this thing figured out.”
“Anybody tryin’ to tell me that what I understand about the bible and the way I choose to “worship” God is wrong can just forget it; not happening.”
“Besides, if I let that happen, I’d be admitting that I’ve been wrong. Not gonna happen…”
Old man, old identity, pride, carnality, self-preservation…
Galatians 5:13-26
For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only [use] not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another.
For all the law is fulfilled in one word, [even] in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another.
[This] I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.
For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.
But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.
Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are [these]; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,
Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,
Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told [you] in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
And they that are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.
If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.
Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another.
Ephesians 4:17-25
This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth 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 blindness of their heart:
Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.
But ye have not so learned Christ;
If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus:
That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts;
And be renewed in the spirit of your mind;
And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.
Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another.
Colossians 3:9-10
Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds;
And have put on the new [man], which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:
Saved from what?
Saved from our old self, the old man, the proud man, the never wrong man, the deceitful man, the murderous man, the drunken man, the piece of flesh you see in the mirror…
Look into the mirror God put’s you in front of when you hear His word for yourself…
One of the deepest points I’m trying to make is that Christianity in and of itself is not a “religion”, it’s a state of mind.
