Romans 6:3-4 Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? 4. Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life (NASB).
While it is true that we are partakers of Jesus’ death and His resurrection, many have not embraced the new life. Even though, in Him they are new creatures (see 2 Corinthians 5:17), to a large degree, their lifestyle doesn’t reflect it. Behavior in itself is not the sole indicator of the new life, but it may indicate an un-renewed mind. We are seated in the heavenly places with Christ Jesus, but many don’t walk from that position (see Ephesians 2:6). They’re children of God, yet they still act as if they are slaves to the world. Why do people struggle to be Christ-like?
For one thing, even though Jesus made them kings and priests (see Revelation 1:6; 5:10), they don’t think like kings and priests.
They don’t understand the ways of the Kingdom of heaven. Part of their lack of understanding is entrenched in their belief system. They believe they will enter into the Kingdom of heaven when they die, not realizing it actually is in them now through the Holy Spirit. Luke 17:20-21 And when He was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, He answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: 21. Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you (KJV). That means we’re now in the Kingdom. We’ve already entered into eternity, even though we haven’t physically died yet. We entered in through the death and Resurrection of Jesus. Remember, His death is counted as our death. Since we’re counted as dead, we’re qualified to live from an eternal perspective.
The Holy Spirit’s nature is eternal; therefore, every spiritual principle is eternal by nature as well. In order to be spiritual, we had to be born again.
“Born again” actually means to be born from above.
That ties in with Jesus being the Firstborn among many brethren (see Romans 8:29-30). Being born again qualified you to be a child of God (see Romans 8:14-17). You are no longer a slave. As a long as someone believes he’s a slave, he’ll think and act like one.
Why do some believers appear to walk in greater authority than others? One reason is they truly believe they have that authority based on their God-given position. Others don’t see themselves as having such, since they don’t recognize their own position in Jesus Christ. As you recall, we’re seated in the heavenly places. Our citizenship now is in heaven (see Philippians 3:20). Citizenship carries authority. Citizens have certain rights and privileges. If you don’t believe you’re one now, you’ll cripple your ability to walk in your God-given authority.
Every child of God carries kingdom authority, yet some believe only “special people” can do kingdom work. Yes, there are specific anointings and mantles for specific ministries, such as a pastor of a church; however, the Holy Spirit can manifest through any believer (see 1 Corinthians 12:7-11). If, for example, the Holy Spirit dwells in you, He will also empower you to do signs and wonders. That makes you just as special as someone else through whom the Holy Spirit operates.
Another issue some believers are dealing with is sin. They fail to recognize their sins have already been dealt with at the Cross. They believe sin still is part of their lives. In essence, they believe the old man is alive and well, so they try to counsel him into being good. Jesus does not send the old man to therapy, He crucifies him. Romans 6:5-7 For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, 6. knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; 7. for he who has died is freed from sin (NASB). If you died with Him, how could the sin nature still exist?
Perhaps whatever people struggle with is not the issue. It’s what they believe about the issue that is getting in the way of their God-given victory.
When it gets down to it, our thinking has to catch up to our new nature. For example, Ephesians 4:24 says, “Put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness” (KJV). 2 Corinthians 5:21 explains that Jesus is our righteousness. Therefore, if we believe we are righteous and holy (in Him), our thinking and behavior will change to match our belief. By putting on the new man, we put off the old man with his deeds.
The real matter at hand is submission. The fruit of the Spirit is vacant of those things relating to the old man. By yielding to the Holy Spirit, we actually took on His nature, and His nature is light. Light always vacates darkness. For example, Fred has been dealing with anger for some time. He decides instead of trying to gain some sort of control over it; he submits to the Holy Spirit. He realizes that anger is part of the old man. He then counts it as dead. By filling the void where anger once occupied his thoughts with the fruit of the Spirit, anger no longer has a place in his life. By changing his default thinking, he quit choosing anger. Even though the old nature is dead, you can still choose to use its ways. Grace empowers us to choose whether to follow the new nature, which means we still must decide what nature we will follow. We can still pick anger over love if we want. Although, the new nature will not allow us to be comfortable with that choice. The conviction of the Holy Spirit most certainly will not.
People tend to use what they’ve relied on all their life.
If their default button for handling a crisis is anger, they will push that button. By replacing the anger button with love, anger will not have the ability to function anymore. When we’re tempted to resort to anger, we need to take a deep breath and yield to the Holy Spirit. Notice the phrase, “resort to anger.” That means people and circumstances don’t actually make us angry, we choose to be so. Grace says you don’t have to resort to it any longer. Conviction says, “you need to stop manipulating people through anger. Anger may feel powerful, but it’s destructive. Obviously, some use other things besides anger; nonetheless, the principle applies to them as well.
The mind of Christ enables us to think differently. By submitting our thought-life to the Lord, He will renovate the way we think. The more we think like Him, the more we will be like Him.
