Some thoughts:
THIS IS WHAT A CHRISTIAN IS:
In Christ
Eph. 1:6 (KJV) –
To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.
Joined to Christ and fruitful IN Christ
Rom. 7:4 –
that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God.
John 15:5 –
I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.
John 5:8 –
My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples.
Comment:
Discipleship is proven by fruit bearing and fruit bearing is not possible without the vital union with Christ.
Christ in us, our glory
Col. 1:26-27 –
that is, the mystery which has been hidden from the past ages and generations, but has now been manifested to His saints, to whom God willed to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
John 17:22-26 --
The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me. Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.
O righteous Father, although the world has not known You, yet I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me; and I have made Your name known to them, and will make it known, so that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.
Conformed to the image of Christ
Gen. 1:26 –
Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness……
Col. 3:10-11 –
……… put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him -- a renewal in which there is no distinction between Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and freeman, but Christ is all, and in all.
2 Cor. 3:18 –
But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as from the Lord, the Spirit.
Having in us the eternal and incorruptible life of Christ
1 John 2:25 –
This is the promise which He Himself made to us: eternal life.
John 1:4 –
In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men.
1 John 5:11-12 –
And the testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life.
2 Tim. 1:8-10 –
…… God, who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity, but now has been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel,
Comment:
The word “immortality” is more accurately translated “incorruptibility”.
English Revised Version:
“but hath now been manifested by the appearing of our Saviour Christ Jesus, who abolished death, and brought life and incorruption to light through the gospel,”
HELPS Word Studies:
Cognate: 861 aphtharsía – properly, no-corruption (unable to experience deterioration); incorruptibility (not perishable), i.e. lacking the very capacity to decay or constitutionally break down.
T. Austin-Sparks:
"Jesus Christ... abolished death, and brought life and incorruption to light through the gospel". It is the quality of the life, the inherent and intrinsic nature of the life that He has brought to light, that is the incorruptible thing. He ANULLED death, not just only non-existence, but destroying the essential nature of death which is corruption. Life and incorruption, in the way in which the Apostle links them here, are one thing. Incorruption is the nature of the life.
Comment:
Eccl. 1:2 – “Vanity of vanities," says the Preacher, "Vanity of vanities! All is vanity."
That is the life of fallen men……all is utter emptiness!
1 Pet. 1:24 -- All flesh is like grass, and all the glory of it like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls away………
In toil we eat of a ground that is cursed all the days of our lives. By the sweat of our face we eat bread till we return to the ground. For we are dust and to dust we shall return (Gen.3:17-19).
The Lord Jesus came to abolish all that. He came to give us a life that is eternal, indestructible and incorruptible; a life that can never fail or decay or vanish away. He came that we “may have life, and have it abundantly” (John 10:10). He came to give His own unimaginably glorious life to us.
John 4:13-14 -- Jesus answered and said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life."
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CHRIST IS IN US THROUGH THE HOLY SPIRIT IN US:
John 14:16-17 –
I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you.
John 14:20—
In that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.
Comment:
“that day” i.e. that day when the Holy Spirit comes to dwell in the believer forever.
Comment:
The proof of the Holy Spirit in us is Christ revealed in us by the Holy Spirit.
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THE HOLY SPIRIT IN US:
2 Cor. 6:16 –
For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: "I will dwell in them, and will walk among them; and I will be their God, and they will be My people."
1 Cor. 6:19 --
Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?
Ezek. 36:26-27, 36 –
Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances……I, the LORD, have spoken and will do it.
Gal. 3:14 –
……we……receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.
John 1:12-13 (YLT) –
but as many as did receive him to them he gave authority to become sons of God – to those believing in his name, who -- not of blood nor of a will of flesh, nor of a will of man but -- of God were begotten.
Gal. 3:26-28 –
For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
Gal. 4:6 –
Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, "Abba! Father!"
1 Cor. 12:13—
For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.
Comment:
I hold that all true believers are baptized/immersed in the Holy Spirit whether or not they have a special and wonderful manifestation of the Holy Spirit’s filling.
Also, it is the fruits of the Spirit and not the gifts of the Spirit that is the mark of a Spirit-filled Christian.
1 Cor. 12:7-11 –
But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. For to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, and to another the word of knowledge according to the same Spirit; to another faith by the same Spirit, and to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, and to another the effecting of miracles, and to another prophecy, and to another the distinguishing of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, and to another the interpretation of tongues. But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually just as He wills.
1 Cor. 12:29-30 –
All are not apostles, are they? All are not prophets, are they? All are not teachers, are they? All are not workers of miracles, are they? All do not have gifts of healings, do they? All do not speak with tongues, do they? All do not interpret, do they?
Matt. 7:20 –
So then, you will know them by their fruits.
Gal. 5:22-23 –
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
Comment:
The proof of the Holy Spirit in us is shown in “the love of God …… poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us” (Rom. 5:5).
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THE FINAL CRITERIA:
FAITH, HOPE AND LOVE
1 Cor. 13:13 (YLT) –
and now there doth remain faith, hope, love -- these three; and the greatest of these is love.
1 John 4:7-8 –
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
1 John 4:16 -- God is love, and the one who abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.
Gal. 5:65 –
For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything, but faith working through love.
1 John 3:23-24 –
This is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us. The one who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. We know by this that He abides in us, by the Spirit whom He has given us.
The name of the Lord Jesus:
Ex. 3:13-14 –
Then Moses said to God, "Behold, I am going to the sons of Israel, and I will say to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you.' Now they may say to me, 'What is His name?' What shall I say to them?" God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM"; and He said, "Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, 'I AM has sent me to you.'"
John 8:58 –
Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am."
2 Sam. 7:12-13 –
When your days are complete and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your descendant after you, who will come forth from you, and I will establish his kingdom. He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.
Eph. 2:19-22 –
So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God's household, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit.
Comment:
We are a dwelling place for Christ, the great I AM. We are a dwelling place for His infinitely great and glorious name. We are a dwelling place for His life, His love, His power, His wisdom, His righteousness, His holiness, His redemption, His peace, His joy, His comfort, His healing, His provisions, etc., etc. We are a dwelling place for the riches of Christ which are unfathomable (Eph. 3:8).
Gal. 2:20 (YLT) –
with Christ I have been crucified, and live no more do I, and Christ doth live in me; and that which I now live in the flesh -- in the faith I live of the Son of God, who did love me and did give himself for me;
Ps. 9:10 –
And those who know Your name will put their trust in You……
Luke 8:18 –
…… when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?"
Heb. 11:6 –
And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.
John 1:12 (YLT) –
but as many as did receive him to them he gave authority to become sons of God -- to those believing in his name,
John 11:40 – Jesus said to her, “Did I not say to you, if you believe, you will see the glory of God?
Col. 1:27 –
……Christ in you, the hope of glory.
2 Cor. 5:17 (Berean Literal Bible) –
Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old things have passed away; behold, the new has come into being.
Gal. 6:15 –
For neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation.
Eph. 3:14-19 –
For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.
JESUS ONLY
2 Cor. 4:6 –
For God who said, “Light shall shine out of darkness, is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.
Matt. 17:8 (YLT) –
and having lifted up their eyes, they saw …… Jesus only.
Ps. 40:16 –
Let all who seek You rejoice and be glad in You;
Let those who love Your salvation say continually,
"The LORD be magnified!"
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Jade
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