We are to be re-made. All the rabbit in us is to disappear—the worried, conscientious, ethical rabbit as well as the cowardly and sensual rabbit. We shall bleed and squeal as the handfuls of fur come out; and then, surprisingly, we shall find underneath it all a thing we have never yet imagined: a real Man, an ageless god, a son of God, strong, radiant, wise, beautiful, and drenched in joy.
~C.S. Lewis
Yet He is actually not far from each one of us, for ‘In Him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are indeed His offspring.’ Being then God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the Divine Being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man.
~ from Acts 17
So anyone in Messiah is a new creation: the archaic passed; behold, all becomes new. And all are of Elohim, who reconciles us to Himself through Yah Shua Messiah
~ from 2 Corinthians 5 (Exegeses companion translation)
Oh beloved, there comes a day for every true believer. He takes us through this process each day for each of us. He is making us like Himself. He is showing us the death we died with Him at the cross was real. Oh, we already know ourselves to be saved from the penalty of sin by the astoundingly precious blood He shed for us. But suddenly, one day, we see it.
We become convinced that the death of our “self” is the only path to be saved from the power of sin in this life. And, He shows us even more deeply each day this ending of the “I” in us is not an end to fear, but a beautiful beginning and a becoming of who we really are now in Him.
Oh it hurts. There is this flesh and attendant soulish intelligence within us which screams and screams and screams to be heard. It is a protracted battle, which at first, is completely un-winnable by the babes in Christ we are. And actually it is a battle which we can never win.
Yet it is the knowledge of the utter futility of the fight that finally wins it for us. We come to see that “in Christ” is not just a witty turn of a phrase. No, it is real. For in remembering the pain of the battle to finally surrender our entire being to Him, we see that the only way we ever made progress was when we willingly, joyfully, and hopeful-ingly got out of the way and let Him go to work on us.
And now, when the pain of the inner life returns, it is this incredible indicator that we (our self) is attempting to preempt the work of the Spirit within us. We come to see that even our attempts to do anything right, simply bring failure and pain and spoilage to ourselves and to others. And this is especially true, when we begin to fight against some temptation to sin. For, the liar knows he can defeat us in a spirit-to-man fight.
Can we see it though? When we are aware of our new position (read In Christ), all this battle of flesh and soul vs. spirit simply fades into an infinite distance. In Christ we are:
The freest of spirits,
The most protected of lovers,
The dearest of friends,
The most enslaved to justness,
The most accepted in The Beloved,
The most beautiful of brides,
And we have the Best Dad ever.
And it is in understanding this to be true that we begin to understand what it is to believe. Belief is a profound obedience to the Truth. And He is The Truth. He is The Way. He is The Life. We finally, thankfully, come to this place where we understand that He is working to cleave our soul from our spirit, that our spirit might become preeminent within us – and in utter communion with Him.
And again, in becoming one with Him, our other various faculties then fall in line to become instruments of righteousness which can now be used to bring about great (even amazing) good in His Kingdom of righteousness, peace and joy in the power of the Holy Spirit. And finally, in finding this truth truly true – we find we are living a Life which is absolutely both: totally free and completely contained within His dominion of our being.
Beloved, all this is true.
Will you believe?
Are you close? Ask Him for help tonight. He will show you.
