All Things are Out From God
By David A. DePra
Therefore if any man
be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away;
behold, all things are become new. And all things are
of God. (II Cor. 5:17-18)
In this passage
we find a description of Christianity – of what constitutes a Christian.
A Christian is someone who is IN CHRIST – or, as Paul says in Colossians
1:27, Christianity is, “Christ in you, the hope of glory.”
Christ in us, or us in Christ – this is Christianity and a Christian –
and if we are in Christ, we are a new creation.
How is Christ in
us? How are we in Christ?
Paul writes, “He that is joined to the Lord is ONE SPIRIT (with Him.)”
(I Cor. 6:17) Salvation takes
place when the Lord joins us to Himself – He makes us ONE SPIRIT with HIMSELF.
Paul elsewhere describes this joining as being, “baptized into Christ.”
(see Romans 6:3-5) He says we
are PLANTED into His death, and thus, His resurrection.
Christ is in us through the joined of our human spirit to Himself through
His Spirit.
An essential to
see about this joining is that we are not generally given THINGS from the Lord
aside from, or added to, Christ – for example, we are not given a THING called,
“salvation” because of Christ. No.
We are given all things IN CHRIST.
We are joined to Jesus Christ Himself, IN WHOM there is all life.
Much difficulty in the Christian life arises from trying to get things
from God instead of receiving and living out from the Christ in whom are all
things.
God has wrapped
up ALL THINGS in His Son, and He has freely given all things IN HIM.
(Rom. 8:32) Thus, there is
nothing that God has for us except it be found in His Son – we cannot receive
the THINGS of God except we receive the Christ in whom are all things.
The fact that God is sometimes merciful to bless people aside from what
is in Christ does not diminish this overall Truth.
Now what
this ought to tell us is that if we are joined to the Lord, we have in Christ
all that God has, indeed, all that God is.
The goal, at that point, is not to receive MORE from God, or other
THINGS. It is not to obtain another
experience. No.
The purpose of God once we are saved is that Christ be formed in us (Gal.
4:19), and that we be formed together with Him.
(Rom. 8:29) If that is
happening, then all that is IN Christ will likewise come into our experience.
Christian growth, or sanctification is never the result of getting more
of Christ. Rather, it is a matter of
the Christ we have already received being made manifest in and through us:
That no flesh should
glory in his presence. But of him are you in Christ Jesus,
who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and
redemption: That, according as it is written, He that
glories, let him glory in the Lord.
(l Cor. 1:29-31)
This brings us back to our passage from II Cor.
5. You will note that it is our
joining to the Lord that makes us a new creation.
You will also note that everything that is of the new creation is, well
-- NEW. And just as importantly, all
of this newness that constitutes the new creation comes FROM God – the Greek
actually reads, “and all things (that constitute the new creation) are OUT FROM
GOD.
So what we have is
this: When we are joined to the Lord
and become one with Him in spirit, what is birthed is a new creation in Christ
Jesus. We become one with Christ in
both His death and His resurrection – old things are passed away through His
death, and all things have become new.
Note that we do not bring anything new into this relationship.
Christ brings all, and IS ALL, to us in this spiritual joining.
That is why Paul says, “ALL THINGS ARE FROM OUT OF GOD.”
In contrast, nothing new is from OUT OF US.
A Christian is one who
has been joined to the Lord, made one with Him, and thus, has received all that
Christ IS, and all that Christ has done.
Despite the fact that it will take a lifetime and more for this Christ to
be unfolded and experienced, it does not negate the fact that we have already
received all things freely in Christ.
Our joining to the Lord not only births a new creature, but immediately
negates the old. All that we are in
Adam – the natural and the flesh, the old Adam life – is now under the Cross.
It has no place in the new creature.
It is passing away.
Notice that a Christian is not one who is made
to LOOK LIKE JESUS or merely ACT like Jesus by following certain principles.
No. That is not
sanctification. Rather, a Christian
is one who is joined to the Lord and THROUGH WHOM Jesus Himself wants to live.
When Paul said, “Christ, who is our life,” (Col. 3:4) he was pointing to
the fact – not that Christ has given us a life to live for Him – but that HE IS
OUR LIFE and wants to live in and through us.
God is not making Christians
into little Xerox copies of Jesus.
Rather, He wants each of us to manifest through us the Christ who dwells in us,
and to be living evidence of the fact that we are joined to Him.
A Birth
As noted,
when we are joined to the Lord, and become one spirit with Him, there is a BIRTH
– a new creation in Christ Jesus is born.
This is another way of saying that we have been born from above.
We have received Christ from the outside of us into us -- new life is not
born into us naturally – we have received Him from above.
In short, God does act upon us and change us into new creations.
Rather, He joins us to Christ and because we are then IN CHRIST we are
new creations. HE is the source of
all that makes this possible.
Now, please note
that this does NOT mean that the old man in Adam – our natural man; our flesh –
ceases to exist. That is not what
Paul means when he says, “old things have passed away.”
What he does mean is that our life is now Christ, and not the old.
He means that all things that constitute true life are from out of God in
Christ. The rest is under death.
Eventually – at the resurrection of the body – the old will cease to
exist. But for now, only the power
of the old creation is broken. It
remains present, and thus, possible to us to yield to it.
Thus, we have in each believer, two natures.
The Bible speaks
much about these two natures as the separation of soul from spirit in the
believer. If you have received
Christ there is this division between soul and spirit.
The presence of Christ in you immediately creates this division.
There is, on the one hand, Christ in us and all that is in Him.
But there remains, on the other hand, all that is of the natural.
And not only is there this division and great distinction, but there is a
great conflict. The natural and the
spiritual are against each other.
Let’s lay this
out: If you could take a pencil and
draw a circle around the new creature in Christ – a circle around our
resurrection union with Christ – all that is INSIDE this circle would be NEW.
All that is INSIDE of this circle would be FROM OUT OF GOD in Christ.
Inside of that circle would be LIFE, light, Truth – it would be Christ in
us and all that constitutes the new birth.
But outside of that circle would remain all that is OLD – the natural man
and the flesh – outside of the circle would be that which is from out of the old
man in Adam.
Hook this up with
the statement of Jesus from John 3:6:
That which is born of the flesh is flesh;
and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
The conclusion is
that flesh cannot birth anything that is of God.
Flesh can birth only flesh – and even if what the flesh births is highly
religious or looks holy, it is still flesh.
Only God can birth that which is of God.
In short, only that which is from out of God is of God; is of the spirit.
All that is from out of the natural can never be anything but natural.
Once we begin to
understand this Truth and realize that each believer has TWO natures – one
within that circle in Christ, and one outside that circle of Adam – we should
realize that only that which finds it’s source from Christ is of God.
Anything that finds its source in the natural man is not of God.
Only God can birth what is spiritual and of Christ.
The rest must pass away.
In Whom We Abide
If Christ is in
us -- then all that is in Him is from out of God as the source.
Thus, this tells us who ought to be the source of all things for the
believer: Christ.
This is why Jesus said, “abide in Me,” and, “without Me you can do
nothing.” Now, obviously, people can
do plenty without Christ. It’s just
that they can do nothing that is God’s will, or that is eternal.
Indeed, the problem is that even Christian people do plenty that is not
OUT FROM CHRIST – but rather, from out of themselves as the source, power, and
intent. And where that is the case,
what they are doing is part of that which is going to pass away.
Again – we
have Christ in us, and we have our natural man.
God wants us to abide in Christ – to draw from Christ for all that we
are, and all that we need. Christ IS
our life – that covers everything.
Thus, instead of drawing upon our natural resources, and using our natural man,
we are to draw from Christ.
Now, we are
not going to do this unless God teaches us.
And the way that God teaches us is not merely through information or
directions. Those things help and we
must find what God is doing in scripture.
But God teaches us Christ, and guides us into all Truth, usually through
experience. God will often allow us
to try to live our lives on the basis of natural man – we tend to do this
without realizing it. He will often
allow this to prove to us the completely futility of it.
He may even allow us to crash and burn.
Why? So that we may see,
through experience, yes, the emptiness of natural man, but more than that, so
that we may have proven in us that in Christ alone are all things that are from
God.
When Paul said,
“old things are passed away, behold, all things have become new – all things
that are from out of God,” he was stating a finished fact.
But then God will prove it to us if we are open to the Truth.
We must still be brought into this finished Truth and will need to
discover that all that we need is Christ, and what it means to abide in Him for
all that is from out of God.
What does it mean
to ABIDE in Christ? It means, “to
live from out of,” Christ as our source.
It means that if we are already joined to the Lord and are one spirit
with Him, that we must – by faith – live in Him and draw from Him all that we
need. We are already joined to
Him – now believe it, see it, and live like it. Christ is to BE our life.
To function as if He is our life speaks to what it really means to abide
in Him. He is the Vine.
We are a branch.
To abide in
Christ as a branch abides in the vine is exactly what it means to enter His rest
by faith. It means that I know IT IS
FINISHED – and now I’m going to turn and live like it is finished – I am going
to abide in the Christ who is my life, and in whom are all things from God.
Of course, there is nothing here that I can do, or need to do, to make
something happen. It is not a matter
of getting God to do something. It
is a matter of seeing who Christ is and of surrendering myself to Him as Lord.
A branch does not need to try to convince the Vine to help him.
A branch need not to struggle to drag life from the Vine.
A branch needs to abide in, and rest in, the Vine.
If we do that, by faith, we will find that we are indeed already one with
Him.
The Necessity of the
Cross
The Cross is not
merely a THING in which to believe.
Neither is the death of Jesus merely an historical event upon which to rest my
faith. Of course, without the
historical event nothing else would be possible.
But our faith is NOT to be in the Cross.
It is to be in the One who died on it.
Our faith is to be in Christ – the living Christ with whom we are one in
spirit. And if it is, then we are
planted into His death and into His resurrection.
We will be crucified with Christ because we are one with the One who was
crucified for us. We will be raised
with Christ because we are one with He who was raised for us.
We will be seated in heavenly places with Christ because He is seated in
heavenly places, and we are joined to Him.
Thus, the object of our faith is the Person of Jesus Christ – right now,
the very Christ who dwells in us.
For if we are planted into Christ by faith, abiding in Him, then we will
likewise be planted into all He has done and all that is in Him.
Note the
distinction between having received all in Christ, and having experienced
Christ. Despite the finished reality
found in Christ, and having received all that is in Him, it is nevertheless a
fact that when Christ joins us to Himself, we have just begun.
This is why, even though in Christ we are complete – that is, have all
that God has to give – this is why the purpose of God must be to now unfold the
Christ to us, and bring into our experience all that is in Him.
It is one thing to have all things in Christ.
It is another to actually come to learn, know, see, and experience all
those things that are in Christ.
Israel was given all of the land before they ever set foot in it.
But they still needed to enter in and take possession of all that God had
already given to them.
Here is
where the conflict begins. When we
encounter problems in life – problems that demand solutions, resources, and
wisdom – how do we respond? God says
to abide in Christ. He is, and
carries, all that we will need. But
unfortunately, we do not easily abide in Christ.
Rather, we draw upon ourselves or upon something of this world.
And most of us don’t even realize what we are doing.
We barely know the difference.
The only way in
which a person in whom Christ dwells is ever going to learn the Truth of abiding
in Christ is if the work of the Cross has God’s way with them.
And in order for God to have His way with us, we must PICK UP our cross
and lose our lives – as Jesus said in Matthew 16:24-25.
The admonition to pick up our Cross shows that we have to choose to yield
to God. But his yielding is not so
much a matter of figuring out what to do.
It is a matter of saying to God, “Lord, do in my life whatever it takes
to bring me into the fullness of Christ.
Do whatever it takes through the Cross I will pick up to bring me to
where I will realize Christ and abide in Him.”
God has to do this – and the first step is death to the old.
But we have to pick up the Cross – we have to embrace Him.
The work of the
Cross will bring us to the place where we are absolutely and joyfully convinced
that there is NOTHING in us – nothing outside of that circle in our natural
makeup – carries LIFE. We will see
by experience that no resource found in natural man can enable us to walk with
God. Do we know this to the point
where we voluntarily desire to see the death of all that we are in Adam, so that
we might come into the fullness of Christ?
Can we honestly say that we do not want to draw upon ourselves for life,
and that we will aren’t even going to try?
Well, we probably won’t come to this place without some hard but
necessary lessons – but we must come to this place in order to be free in
Christ.
Most people in
Christ spend years trying to live the Christian life by drawing from their
natural man. We still think that God
wants to salvage something from us and bring it into the new creation.
We still think that Jesus Christ died to bring out our latent greatness,
or to enhance the good things about us, or to fix up our old man and make him
fit for God’s use. No.
Jesus Christ came to die so that the Adam life could die in Him.
If any one is in Christ Jesus, he is NOT, “an old fixed up creation.”
No. He is a new creation, and
all of that newness is FROM OUT OF GOD in Christ.
It is essential
that we see that Christ is ALL for the believer – but we will never see that He
is all until we at least begin to see that we are NOTHING.
This is the TRUTH we must see.
And any other basis for living is deception.
Birthed From Above
We read
earlier that only God can birth from above.
A person has to be birthed from above by being joined to the Lord.
Without Christ in us there is NO birth and NO LIFE.
But if Christ is in us then we have ALL – all that is from out of God in
Him.
Only that which is
born of God is of God. Nothing that
is birthed by man is of God. For example,
how many of us understand that God must give BIRTH to a church, just as He gives
birth to the people in it? People
cannot simply decide to start a church, and then hand it to God, expecting that
He will bless it. The mere fact that
anything WE birth is birthed by flesh – it is birthed of flesh if we initiated
it – ought to tell us that it is not birthed of God.
But for some reason, we think that if we do things for God that He will
bless it. Or if we start things in
the name of Christ that Christ will inhabit it.
We have this notion that if something is in our heart to do that it is in
there because God put it in there.
No. It may be a created and
initiated by our natural man – not so much in rebellion against God or to the
disregard of Him – but it may be a product of our natural, religious man,
thinking that it is our job to think up ways to keep God moving.
In the end, if
flesh births anything, it is of the flesh – and at some point, it will produce
the results that flesh produces. It
will serve self. It will serve the
flesh because flesh gave it life.
Look around in the church today.
Everywhere you find the gospel of ME, myself, and I.
A gospel that says that Jesus came to make you happy, successful, and
prosperous. A gospel that says that
Jesus came to bring out the best in you, and help you find your truest self.
This is flesh. Jesus did not
come to bless your natural life – He tells you to LOSE IT.
He tells you that there is nothing in the natural life that is compatible
with God. Rather, if you lose your
life, you will find true life in Christ.
And in Christ is all that we need both materially and spiritually.
Along side
of this gospel of ME is almost a complete blindness to Jesus Christ.
Christianity is Christ in us, the hope of glory.
If any man is in Christ, he is a new creature – and in Christ are all
things that are from God. Yet today,
the reality of Christ in us, and the desire of God to form Christ in us, is
almost never discussed. People don’t
know it, and don’t know TO know it.
Here we have the essence of Christianity, and the very purpose of God, and it is
off the table for discussion. This
is what happens when Satan blinds people.
And once Satan blinds people to the reality of Christ in them, he can
more easily get them to operate from out of the natural life -- and convince
them they are living from out of God.
This is deception.
Again:
The reality of Christ, and the meaning of Christ in us, and God’s purpose
of forming Christ in us this is the reason Christ came.
It IS Christianity. Yet if
you would preach this in most local churches, or on Christian TV, you would
either get a blank stare, or meet great opposition.
This is how far things have fallen from the Truth.
Even in those places where there is some little Truth on these matters,
it would seem that even that is buried beneath an avalanche of money, members,
and the soul power of people.
To abide in
Christ by faith requires a total surrender to Him as Lord – not because I feel I
must, but because I want to surrender.
It requires that I not only take my hands off of my life and leave it
alone to God, but it requires that I WANT to do so – I gladly do so.
It means that I will birth nothing of myself and that I will not resort
to the flesh to solve what ails me.
Does that sound hard? It might seem
scary – most of us, despite all of our great confessions of faith in the Lord
are quite terrified that if we do nothing about ourselves, or our ministry, that
God might also do nothing. And we
will go down the drain. Well, our
attitude ought to be that if God will do nothing we will gladly do nothing – and
if everything crashes so be it.
Indeed, the sooner the better. The
work of the Cross will bring us to such an abandonment.
It spells freedom.
God is quite
willing and capable of not only birthing that which satisfies Him, but of
looking after it. If we really
believed this, we would not be using the ways and methods of the world to try to
prop up our churches. There would
need to be NO money raising campaigns.
No drives for members. No
blessings promised, or threats of punishment from the Lord, if we give or don’t
give. We would not use craftiness or
wisdom of words or emotional drama to try to move people.
We would not need signs and wonders.
Rather, we would simply abide in Christ, preach the Truth in Christ, and
let the chips fall. Have we ever
considered what God might do if He were actually given His place and
sovereignty?
Do you want to
know why the early church was so powerful in the Lord?
They had NO money. They had
no TV, written materials, or audio tapes.
They didn’t even have a Bible to carry around.
They had only Christ in them.
But they changed the world – because they let God have His way, first with them
personally, and then to do what He wanted.
They were not perfect, but kept their hands off of God’s property.
God could therefore do what He wanted.
God could be sovereign.
Today, we expect God to come down and fit Himself into what we have birthed.
He won’t.
For
the last two-thousand years, professing believers have created one form of
religion after another – and pasted the name of Christ on it.
Roman Catholicism is a big example, but the Protestants have done the
same. We have created laws and
principles. Religious rituals.
Belief systems. We have
created an entire priesthood or ministry around it.
We have built our temples.
Yet God will NOT inhabit any house made with hands.
He inhabits only people through Jesus Christ.
What is the
solution to all of this? Not to find
a better way, “to do church.” No.
Not to read the book of Acts and try to create from it a template to
follow. No. The solution is to get
back to the foundation – the person of Jesus Christ.
But not just to a theological Christ.
We have to get back to the essence of Christianity, which is, “Christ in
us, the hope of glory.” We have to
get back to the fact that if we are in Christ that we are birthed new creatures
– that all of the old is passed away – and that all things are brand new and
from above in Christ. And that all
things pertaining to the new creature of OUT FROM GOD as the source.
And we have to learn Christ, allowing God to form Christ in us.
We must renounce and forsake the old as the source for anything.
This is the will of God. It
is what He has birthed and it is all that He is going to do.