Life as we know it...........

I have noticed that there is a lot of confusion when trying to understand how to live as a believer. We have known only the laws and rules mentality of christianity for so long. We have eaten from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and we know no other fruit. We say, "How then shall I live" and even books are written on the subject. Some include a bit of the old and a bit of the new, and we become confused. One minute we are grateful for grace and another we are trying hard to discipline ourselves to make our lives work. Then we get frustrated when our lives don't work. 

Well I say good then, go ahead get frustrated. Shouldn't life be natural? Shouldn't we know how to live because we know who we are? 

Think about it this way. I was born as a female. I started out as a baby girl that then grew into a woman. All my life I knew I was a girl and all my life nature dictated to me I was a girl. I don't recall stopping to think about how to act as a girl. I just learned to live from how I was created to live. Although I must admit, there were times I needed to understand things about being a girl, such as what was happening to my body as I matured.  I didn't start out mature as a woman. I grew into a woman, learning along the way.  I still will be maturing into the woman I will become. My identity is wrapped up in the fact that I am a woman and I live from that reality. 

So how does this relate to being a chrisitian you say?  My identity is how I live. I no longer live out of a mentality of good vs. evil, right vs. wrong to be secure in who I am. I live simply from who I already am. I am a new creation in Christ. I identify as Christ. 

But here's the trick. I think we get so hung up on understanding this and freely living out of our new identity because we aren't used to our new identity. 

Picture it this way. I am born into this world in Adam. Spiritually dead, and living out of the knowledge of good and evil instead of life. I live a significant portion of my life this way, then one day I experience a transformation when I believe in Jesus. This transformation takes away my old nature in Adam, that was spiritually dead and gives me a new life that is spiritually alive in Christ. So I go from being in Adam to in Christ, just by believing in Jesus. Wow! But, what happens when I go from one way of life, to a new way of life. Well, I wonder what now, how do I live? I went from depending on who I was to needing to realize who I now am. 

Life as I know it has completely shifted and I am now in the tricky place of learning to live out of my new life. But over time there is a shift, and I begin to learn to live from who I am. Oh, it's not without plenty of reminding myself of  the fact that I am a totally new person though. As time goes, my identity remains and I grow into the fullness of who I am. Just like as a little girl grows into a full grown woman. 

I am not sure if this analogy is the absolute best to portray my point, but perhaps you catch my drift.............You see as believers, life as we now know it is simply living out of who we have become in Christ. 

The man in Romans 7........

The man in Romans 7 - I was just thinking today about the argument or debate over the "doctrine of indwelling sin" and how some have compelling arguments about how they still sin, etc...so therefore it must mean they have still have indwelling sin.....I know Steve McVey would say he believes we still have indwelling sin, but he would consider it "in our members" or our flesh.....now I would agree that our flesh is weak, because our flesh still gets in the way and often takes us down paths we don't want to go, or into sin .....anyway....the point I want to make is I think it becomes confusing when we don't understand the make up of a believer, by that I mean the trinity of man....spirit, soul and body.....our spirit, is one with Christ, our old nature, or spirit is gone and we are now new creations in Him....so in the spiritual realm we are perfectly righteous since God sees us as He sees Christ. Our flesh on the other hand is a whole different story.....so my point is, that whether we all agree on indwelling sin or not, I believe it is crucial to point out the difference of our make-up, our three parts....spirit, soul and body.....if we focus on how God sees us in Spirit it frees us to live more like that in reality in our flesh......but if we focus on our "indwelling sin" which is really our flesh, we may think we have no hope of ever being free from sin, or sin patterns, when that is completely not true. We identify as perfect forever! Not as forever people with an indwelling sin problem! That is not a helpful way to walk around in life as a Christian who has been promised to reign in life! Anyway, just some more of my thoughts on this very confusing man in Romans 7........!!

And Joel, please feel free to add your 2 cents worth, ha, I love it!!!! 

The man in Romans 7........

The man in Romans 7 - I was just thinking today about the argument or debate over the "doctrine of indwelling sin" and how some have compelling arguments about how they still sin, etc...so therefore it must mean they have still have indwelling sin.....I know Steve McVey would say he believes we still have indwelling sin, but he would consider it "in our members" or our flesh.....now I would agree that our flesh is weak, because our flesh still gets in the way and often takes us down paths we don't want to go, or into sin .....anyway....the point I want to make is I think it becomes confusing when we don't understand the make up of a believer, by that I mean the trinity of man....spirit, soul and body.....our spirit, is one with Christ, our old nature, or spirit is gone and we are now new creations in Him....so in the spiritual realm we are perfectly righteous since God sees us as He sees Christ. Our flesh on the other hand is a whole different story.....so my point is, that whether we all agree on indwelling sin or not, I believe it is crucial to point out the difference of our make-up, our three parts....spirit, soul and body.....if we focus on how God sees us in Spirit it frees us to live more like that in reality in our flesh......but if we focus on our "indwelling sin" which is really our flesh, we may think we have no hope of ever being free from sin, or sin patterns, when that is completely not true. We identify as perfect forever! Not as forever people with an indwelling sin problem! That is not a helpful way to walk around in life as a Christian who has been promised to reign in life! Anyway, just some more of my thoughts on this very confusing man in Romans 7........!!

And Joel, please feel free to add your 2 cents worth, ha, I love it!!!!