New Nature
- Don Lees
- Apr 2, 2007
Pathways to the New Wineskin
Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away, behold all things are become new. 2Corinthians 5:17
Our New Nature
By: Don & Linda Lees
NEW NATURE
Responsibility, Nurture and Care
The war going on in the inner man is NOT to annihilate the OLD nature. As Paul points out in Romans 7, that is wasted energy, because we can't achieve the goal. But as Paul reminds us in Romans 7:25 the focus should be on positioning ourselves so the NEW nature can grow and overtake the old. As Paul states in Romans 8:1, "There is therefore no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit."
God planted a new nature (Jesus) within us. It is the only spiritual child each of us has with God. It is the product of our union with Him.
The apostle John reminds us in 1 John 5:1-2 that God took us in all our tainted selfishness, the one who is perfect and holy, and united with us in unconditional love. What is produced from that union is a perfect child with a nature like God. The child looks like me (us), behaves like God.
A wonderful picture of the child of our union with God is the supernatural conception of Jesus found in Luke 1:26-38. The Holy Spirit impregnated Mary and that union produced a perfect child, Jesus. He is the only spiritual child Mary had with God. Likewise, the only spiritual child I produce by my union with God is perfect. It is the new nature which looks like me, behaves like God. This child is not subject to the law or sin but will grow and grow till it behaves more and more like Jesus, the only begotten Son of God. (John 3:16) This child (new nature) is not made by human hands. (John 1: 12,13)
This is the person, the new nature, that enjoys communion with God in the secret place. This love relationship is pictured in the Song of Songs. God designed this deep union for our enjoyment and peace. From this place of intimacy we not only enjoy God, we learn how to care for our new nature so it will grow and mature, expanding in Godly character.
Another picture of the union of God with each person is how He took a rib from Adam's side, created woman, then put her back by his side. Adam declared, "This is now bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man." (Genesis 2:23) Verse 23 continues with, "Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh."
God took a rib out of Adam that only the woman who was made from that rib could be joined with him again and make him complete. God created a vacuum within each of us that only He can fill and we become one spirit. (I Corinthians 6:17)
Many Scriptures deal with the forming and growing of the new nature.
1 John 3:9 Explains our new nature
II Corinthians 5:14-17 - Tells us about the new creature in Christ.
II Peter 1:4 - Says we share in the divine nature of God.
Galatians 4:19 - Paul says he labors and groans till Christ is fully formed in us.
Galatians 4:23 - Shows the differences between a child of the flesh and a child of promise.
Romans 8:18-23 - Describes how all of creation waits for the manifestation of the sons of God.
Romans 9:8 - Another reference to children of flesh and children of promise.
Romans 8:29 - God knew everyone before they were born and predestinated them to be conformed to the image of His son who was destined to be the first born among many brothers/sisters.
All of the book of Romans shows the difference between the old and new natures and the war that rages as the new nature breaks away from the old nature and matures into the liberty of a true son/daughter of God.
Ezekiel 11:19,20 - God said he will give them one heart and put a new spirit within them. He will take the stony heart out of their flesh and give them a heart of flesh so that they will keep His laws. Then, they will be His people and He will be their God.
Deuteronomy 30:5,6 - God will circumcise our hearts and the hearts of our children, to love the Lord with all our hearts and souls so we will live. He will bring us into the land of our inheritance and multiply us more than our ancestors.
Galatians 6:15,16 - When I am in Christ neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything but a new nature means everything. So, as many as live by this rule shall have peace and mercy.
Ephesians 4:22-5:11 - This passage admonishes us to put off all those things that have to do with the old nature, which is corrupt with deceitful lusts. Instead, we are told to be renewed in the spirit of our minds and put on the new man, which has been created in righteousness and true holiness. This new nature is already available by faith.
What follows in this passage are practical ways we can position ourselves for the new nature to grow and the old nature die. These are not laws to confine us but instructions to free us:
Put away from you all lying and speak the truth because we are all part of each other.
When you get angry, get over it quickly so the devil can't get a foothold.
If any of you were stealing, don't do it anymore. Work for your needs and also to help those in need.
Watch what you talk about and don't let your words be corrupt but let them be edifying to those who hear.
Don't grieve the Holy Spirit with which you were sealed until the day of redemption.
Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, evil speaking, and malice be put away from you. Be kind and tenderhearted toward one another, forgiving each other as God has forgiven you. Pattern yourselves after the nature of God, which is love.
Don't let anyone have reason to accuse you of fornication or any uncleanness because you are saints and should act like saints.
No filthiness, foolish talking, or jesting should come out of your mouth but instead let thankfulness be uttered.
This is serious: No whore or those running after whores, unclean person, covetous people, or idolaters will have any inheritance in the Kingdom of Christ and of God.
Don't let anyone deceive/seduce you with vain words: for because of these things God's wrath is unleashed on the children of disobedience. Don't mix with them because you once were in darkness but now you are in the light of the Lord so walk as children of light. For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness, righteousness and truth. Then you will learn what is acceptable to the Lord. Don't have fellowship with unfruitful works of darkness but rather expose them.
Ezekiel 36:25-28 - God said he will gather the people from wherever they have been scattered. He will cleanse them, put a new heart in them, put His spirit in those who desire to walk in His laws. They will live in the land He prepared for them and they will be His people and He will be their God.
Exodus 23:30 - God will drive our enemies out little by little till we fully take possession of the Promised Land of our inheritance.
Romans 8:8-14 - Whoever remains in the flesh cannot please God. But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if the spirit of God lives in you. Now, whoever doesn't have the spirit of God in them doesn't belong to Him. Now, if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin but the spirit is life because of righteousness. If the Spirit that raised up Jesus from the dead lives in you He will make alive your mortal body. So, we aren't debtors to the flesh and bound to serve the flesh but we are debtors to the Spirit.
Ephesians 2:1,6 - God made me alive who was dead in trespasses and sins. He raised us up together and made us sit in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.
Colossians 3:1-3 - If you are risen with Christ, seek those things which are above where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God. Set your affections on things above and not on things on the earth because you are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God.
Psalm 51:10 - Create within me a clean heart and renew a right spirit in me.
Romans 12:2 - Don't be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you can prove what is the good, acceptable, and perfect will of God.
II Corinthians 4:16 - We don't faint or lose heart because even though our outward man is dying our inward man is renewed day by day.
Philippians 4:8,9 - Think on these things: whatever is pure, lovely, good report, true, honest, just. If there is any virtue, any praise, think on those things, too. The things you have learned, received, and heard and seen in me (Paul) do. Then the God of peace will be with you.
Colossians 3:5-17 - Put off from you fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil unrestrained behaviour, coveteous, idolatry, which incurs the wrath of God. You used to do those things but now you have put off anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication. Don't lie to each other because you have put off the old man (nature) with his deeds. Now you have put on the new man (nature) which is renewed in the knowledge of the image of Jesus. put on, as the elect of God, you who are holy and beloved, mercy, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering, forgiveness and forbearance of one another. Above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfectness. Let the peace of God rule in your hearts. Be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and exhorting each other, singing to each other. Whatever you do, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks.
Deuteronomy 5:29 - God longs for us to have a heart within us that would reverence Him and keep His commandments always, that it might be well with us and with our children forever.
Psalm 57:7 - My heart is fixed, oh God, my heart is fixed on you. I will sing and give praise. (Fixed, stayed, single, attached, solid)
Jeremiah 24:7 - God will give us a heart to know Him as Lord. We will be His people and He will be our God for we will return to Him with our whole hearts.
Ezekiel 11:19 - God says He will give them one heart and put a new spirit within them. He will take the stony heart out of their flesh and give them a heart of flesh.
Ezekiel 36:26-28 - God says He will give us a new spirit within us. He will take the stony heart out of our flesh and replace it with hearts of flesh. He will cause us to walk in His statutes and judgments. We will then live in our inherited land and we will belong to Him forever.
I Corinthians 2:16 - We have the mind of Christ.
Philippians 2:5 - Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.
John 1:12,13 - Whoever received Jesus, He gave power to become the sons of God, even to them that believed on His name, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of men, but of God.
II Corinthians 4:11 - We that live are always dying for Jesus' sake so the life of Jesus will show through our lives.
I John 3:14 - We know we've passed from death to life because we love our brothers/sisters. If we do not love, we remain in death.
John 3:3 - Unless we are born again of the Spirit of God we can't see His Kingdom. Now that we are born again we have new sight from God to see the kingdom of God and to enter in to the kingdom of God.
I Peter 1:23 - We are born again not of corruptible seed, but incorruptible, by the Word of God, which lives and abides forever.
I John 5:1 - Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God and everyone who loves God loves Jesus, too.
LEARNING TO HEAR GOD'S VOICE
Genesis 3:8 - Adam and Eve heard God's voice in the garden but they hid themselves from His Presence because they had disobeyed His voice.
I Kings 19:11,12 - The Lord was not in the wind, earthquake, or fire but in a still, small voice and Elijah learned to recognize it.
Ezekiel 43:2 - He saw the glory of the Lord coming from the East. His voice was like the roar of rushing waters and the land was radiant with His glory.
1 Corinthians 2:12- Paul reminds us "We have not received the spirit of the world, but the
Spirit which is of God that we might know the things freely given to us of God."
Matthew 17:5 - While Peter was still speaking, a bright cloud enveloped them all and a voice from the cloud said, "This is my beloved Son whom I love. I am very pleased with Him. Listen to Him."
John 12:28-30 - Jesus said, "Father, glorify your name." God said, "I have glorified it and I will glorify it again." The crowd that was there thought they had heard thunder. Others said an angel had spoken to Him. Jesus then said, "The voice was for your benefit, not mine."
John 3:29 - I am full of joy when I hear my bridegroom's voice and my joy is complete.
John 10 - Jesus is the good shepherd who leads his sheep and protects them. The sheep hear His voice, listen to him, and follow where He goes. They will not follow other voices.
John 18:37b - Jesus said that everyone on the side of truth listen to Him.
Acts 9:4 - Paul heard the voice of Jesus asking Him why he was persecuting Him.
Revelation 1:15 - His voice (Jesus) was like the sound of rushing waters.
Revelation 3:20 - Jesus knocks at the door of my heart. If I hear His voice and open the door, He will come in and dine with me.
GOD CREATES NEW THINGS
Isaiah 43:18-21 - Don't remember what it was like in the past (the good old days) because God said He was doing a new thing. It will spring forth like rivers in the desert and a way in the wilderness for the thirsty. God formed us for Himself and we will praise Him.
Isaiah 65:17,18 - God says to look for His creation of new heavens and a new earth. The former will not be remembered or come into our minds. He says to be glad and rejoice forever in what He has created. He wants us to look for the new Jerusalem he is creating because it will be filled with rejoicing and joyful people.
II Peter 3:10-14 - The day of the Lord is coming without warning and the heavens will be dissolved with blasting heat and all the works of the earth as well. So I ought to live a holy life in speech and actions, pure. Then, always looking forward to the new heavens and new earth where righteousness dwells.
Revelation 21:1-5 - A new heaven and earth come in the place of the first. Then the new Jerusalem comes down from heaven to earth prepared as a bride for her husband. Then a great voice declares that the tabernacle of God is with men and He will dwell with them and be their God. There won't be any negative - death, tears, sorrows, pain, crying because the former things are passed away. And God says He makes all things new.
INTIMACY WITH GOD
I Corinthians 6:12-20 - I must take care of my soul and body because I hinder my intimacy with God if I don't.
In John 15:1-17-Jesus gives us the essential requirement to abide in Him using the illustration of the vine and the branches. Intimacy requires communication with each other, hearing each other spending time together.
Paul in Galatians 5:14-26 gives us a a good way to determine which spirit we are intimate with in ourselves the spirit of the world or the Spirit of God. The evidence of the fruit produced is the critical issue.
All things are lawful but all things are not wise. There is food for the belly and the belly was made for food but God will destroy both. The body is not made for fornication but for the Lord and the Lord for the body. God has raised up Jesus and He will raise us up by His own power. Our bodies are members of Christ. I can only be joined in flesh with my legal spouse. When I am joined to the Lord we are one spirit, which is a deeper union than flesh/spouse. Therefore, I must glorify God in my body and in my spirit.
Hebrews 8:10 - God says this is the new covenant, "I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts and I will be their God and they will be my people."
Revelation 2:17 - Whoever overcomes will be given hidden manna to eat and given a white stone with a new name written on it and no one will know the name but the one who receives it.
Revelation 3:12 - Whoever overcomes, God will make to be a pillar in His temple and that one will stay, never to depart from God. God will write His name on that one and the name of god's city, the New Jerusalem which comes down out of heaven from God and God will write His new name on him.
ONE NEW MAN
(Union With Each Other)
Ephesians 2:13-22 - When our new natures grow to maturity and God's timing is "Kairos," we are joined to each other as one new man (the Body) in Christ (the Head).
We were once far apart from each other but now brought near by Jesus' blood (the same blood flows in all of us - spiritual blood). He is our peace. He broke down the dividing walls and made us one new man. He did this by abolishing in His flesh ordinances and laws. He reconciled us all to God in one body. He put to death the war between us. He preached peace to everyone. Now we have access to the Father by one spirit. We are all fellow citizens of the household of God. Our foundation is the apostles and prophets, with Jesus being the chief cornerstone. In Him all the building is fitly framed together and grows into a holy temple for God to dwell in.
John 17 - Jesus prays that we all might be one, filled with His glory, which is the divine expression of God's nature.
In 1 John 4:12-13 we are reminded that as members of the Body of Christ, "If we love one another, God is perfected in us." Then even though "No man hath seen God (closely looked at ) at anytime" all men can look closely at the Body of Christ and see God because He is perfected in us. Also, "Hereby know we that we dwell in Him, and He in us, because He hath given us of His Spirit."
THE FINAL VICTORY
I Corinthians 15:54 - Death is swallowed up in victory when the corruptible puts on the incorruptible and the mortal puts on immortality.
Therefore, it is our duty and privilege while we are in this earth/school to view ourselves as dead to sin and alive to Christ, always nurturing our new natures so they will grow and starving our old natures to death. (Romans 6)
The new wineskin God has fashioned is the Priesthood of all believers; no longer is there a Levitical priesthood , for we have one high priest over the house of God, Jesus Christ and we the body of Christ have access to God the Father by entering into the Holy of Holies by the blood of Jesus (Hebrews 10:16-22). Even as the apostle Peter writes in 1 Peter 2: 9-10, "Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should show forth the praises of Him who hath called you out of darkness into the marvelous light: which in time past were not a people, but are now the people God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy."
So what is it we have now in the kingdom of God?
1. He has birthed a new nature in us by the Holy Spirit. Along with that new nature we have the Holy Spirit in us.
2. We can hear God's voice and we can see the Kingdom of God because of our new nature.
3. We are now equipped to be participants in the new things in God's creation because we are no longer in darkness.
4. We grow in intimacy with God each day because we live together in the kingdom of God and we communicate with each other.
5. Because we are growing in intimacy with God each day, we are also able to love one another , as God loves us.
Shalom
By: Don & Linda Lees
