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Truth That Transforms

10 Monday Jun 2024

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Welcome, Readers, to Renaissance Woman and another installment in my study on the Whole Armor of God.

I am still firmly planted in the first part of verse 14 of Ephesians Chapter 6: “Stand, therefore, having girded your waist with truth…”  I had intended to see what all I could glean from studying “having girded your waist” but, as I continued to read the entry for “truth” in the Dictionary of New Testament Theology, I read a few things that struck me:

“Paul believes in the power of truth…To encounter the truth as it in in Jesus leads on to transformation of life, in which the believer turns away from old deceits (Eph. 4:21, 22)”…Paul’s statement in [2 Corinthians] 13:8, ‘We cannot do anything against the truth, but only for the truth’ may just possibly refer to truth as a synonym for the gospel, as R. Bultmann maintains, but more probably conveys the idea that the power of truth is such that openness to truth, whatever its consequences, can only further the cause of Christ and the gospel.  Truth is demanded of the Christian as a corollary of his union with Christ and status as a new creation.  In 1 Cor. 5:8 the Christian celebrates the festival of the new life with sincerity and truth, banishing all impurity and deception or dishonesty, just as the Jews banished the old leaven from their houses at Passover time…The new life is to be untarnished; free from anything that spreads corrupting influences by virtue of its impurity or duplicity” (Brown, Pg. 886)

I have only quoted bits from the entry but I think the point the writer is making is clear: we who know we are in Christ are to live differently.  I don’t know of any believer who would disagree with that.  I don’t disagree with that.  However, as I read through this entry, I found something important was missing.  Further down on page 886 I did read “because the believer has put on the new nature” but that was the only reference I found that remotely referred to what Paul expressed when he wrote, “it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me” (Galatians 2:20).  This got me thinking: what do we mean when we speak of a transformed life? 

I think every believer is in agreement that Jesus Christ is the absolute truth.  I do find there are two ways in which believers relate to the truth that is Jesus.  These can be summed up as those who live from and those who live to.  “From” and “to” affect how one defines living a transformed life.  As I read through the entry for truth in my dictionary, I find letter c: “the quality of being in accordance with experience, facts, or reality; conformity with fact.”  For those living “to”, a transformed life is one where we have done our best to align ourselves with the teachings of Jesus and the way the Bible says to live.  Those living “to” are living for the day when they will either die and go to heaven to be with Jesus or receive their reward when He returns to establish His kingdom here on earth. 

I use to live “to”.  I can only speak for myself but I found it be a life-draining struggle of attempting to modify my behavior to be acceptable to God.  Not Jesus, because He died for me so I was already accepted by Him.  The Father was iffy though and there was always a chance I wouldn’t behave well enough nor put on enough of the new man that I’d escape the Father’s wrath.  Perhaps I’d squeak my way into heaven but my garments would be smoking.  There was no definitive answer given to the question “can a person lose his/her salvation” and so I lived with the sneaking suspicion I could blow it bad enough that not even Jesus would speak for me. 

This time of my life was spent with no understanding of the Holy Spirit.  Lip service was paid to this…entity but there was no understanding of who He was, how He was at work in my life, and I had no idea how beloved I was.  I can still remember the day when I sought out my mother and said how much I desired to learn about the Holy Spirit.  She replied, “me too!”  Of course, neither of us had any idea how to go about it other than to start reading passages about the Holy Spirit in the Bible but our ignorance was no deterrent.  Everything Jesus said about the Holy Spirit in John 14:16-17 & 26 and John 16: 7 & 13-14 is absolutely true: the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth, the Helper, the Comforter, the Teacher, the Guide, and the One who abides with us forever. 

Paul writes in his first letter to the Corinthians, “do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you whom you have from God and you are not your own?” (1 Cor. 6:19).  The Holy Spirit witnesses from inside of us this is so.  The Holy Spirit is our constant companion.  There is no separating ourselves from the Holy Spirit and therefore there is no circumstance or situation we can experience where we do so alone.  The Holy Spirit is our teacher and Jesus’ words are the truth: the Holy Spirit does not speak of Himself or on His own authority but teaches us who Jesus is, glorifies Jesus, and shows us the truth that everything that belongs to Jesus is also ours.  The Holy Spirit opens our eyes to the Oneness that is our God and is also ours in Jesus Christ.  The Holy Spirit teaches us to live “from”: from the life of Jesus Christ within us because, to quote Paul again, we are joined to the Lord and one spirit with Him. 

That is how I define living a transformed life.  It is not behavior modification but is rather a life transformed as the Holy Spirit continues to open my eyes to all that Jesus is in me and I in Him.  This is the meaning of a transformed life I find in the Bible:

Romans 8:29: “For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be confirmed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.”

1 Corinthians 15:49: “And as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man.”

2 Corinthians 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 by the Spirit of the Lord.”

Galatians 4:19: “My little children, for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you.”

Ephesians 4:13-15: “till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head-Christ”

Ephesians 4:20-24: “But you have no so learned Christ, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.”

Colossians 3:9-10: “Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds, and have put on the new man who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of Him who created him.”

I agree with the statement “To encounter the truth as it in in Jesus leads on to transformation of life, in which the believer turns away from old deceits” but would rephrase it like so: Encountering the truth which is Jesus Himself revealed to us and in us by the Holy Spirit results to a transformation of life as our lives are conformed to His.  Perhaps some of you reading this have spent your Christian lives living “to” something that will happen at some future date and have never thought of living “from”.  Perhaps you are like my mother and me and have no idea about the Holy Spirit.  No matter.  Ask and the Holy Spirit will teach you.  You may find the Holy Spirit has already been teaching you: you simply haven’t recognized it. 

There’s a scripture in James I love: “or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, ‘The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously?’” (James 4:5).  The truth of Jesus-risen, ascended, and dwelling is us-is not something reserved for special people who have made some sort of commitment or are extra holy in some way.  This truth is for you.  The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously for us to know the Father is in Jesus, we are also in Jesus, and we have been brought to complete unity.

Until next time, may the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Jesus Christ open the eyes of our understanding-flood us with light-that we may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in us and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe.

May we live transformed!

Unless noted otherwise, all Scriptures are quoted from The Holy Bible, New King James Version, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee, 1982

References                         

Brown, Colin, The New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology, Volume 3, Regency Reference Library, Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1967, 1971, Page 886

Guralnik, David B., Webster’s new World Dictionary of the American Language, Second College Edition, William Collins + World Publishing Co., Inc., Cleveland • New York, 1972, 1976

Strong, James, LL.D., S.T.D., The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee, 1990

Walker, Allen G., Koine Greek Textbook, Volume II/III, 2014-2018

Knowing Him for Myself

20 Monday May 2024

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“Stand, therefore, having girded your waist with truth…”

The Greek word translated as “truth” in Ephesians 6:14 is aletheia.  This word is defined in the Strong’s Concordance as “truth, verity” and is a noun in the dative feminine singular.  According to the Interlinear Greek on Bible Hub, it is Strong’s number 225.  I point this out because, as I looked up “truth” in the Strong’s, I found number 226 which is aletheuo: the verb form of the word meaning “to speak the truth.”

Was the Strong’s incorrect?  I looked Ephesians 6:14 in Alfred Marshall’s The NIV Interlinear Greek-English New Testament and The Interlinear Greek-English New Testament: the Nestle Greek text with a new Literal English Translation.  I also checked Jay P. Green’s The Interlinear Bible: Hebrew English Greek as well as the Young’s and NIV Exhaustive Concordance.  Each of these references verified the Greek aletheia instead of aletheuo.  The answer was yes: the Strong’s Concordance was incorrect.  I wondered if it wasn’t perhaps a typo in my NEW Strong’s Concordance so I checked the oldest copy to which I have access. 

I am not certain how old these copies are.  One has “Copyright 1890 James Strong” on the copyright page but also has a note stating the thirty-fourth printing occurred in 1976.  The other has no copyright date at all but there is an inscription dated 1971 so, older than that.  In the end, finding an older copy of the Concordance made no never mind as each copy referenced aletheuo 226 for Ephesians 6:14.  The Strong’s was indeed incorrect.  

Welcome Readers to Renaissance Woman where, this week, my focus is still on truth.  What is truth? Previous posts have already addressed whether truth is subjective and relative to the Individual so I won’t repeat those points.  The truth is a person and that person is Jesus Christ.  If it isn’t Jesus, it isn’t the truth.  But then, I have to ask: is every Believer talking about Jesus really speaking the truth about who He is?  What is the foundation for our belief?  A reference book?  The Bible?  A pastor, reverend, or priest?  Most believers would answer, “The Person of Jesus Christ” which would be correct, but how do you know Jesus?  Again, through a reference book?  The Bible?  A pastor, reverend, or priest?

Reference books can contain mistakes.  I know this is a distinct possibility which is why I collect as many different reference books as I can so I can verify and re-verify what I am studying.  I agree with those who state the Bible is the inspired word of God.  I wholeheartedly concur that the writers were indeed inspired by the Holy Spirit.  I do not wholeheartedly concur with those who claim the Bible is inerrant without some explanation on just what they mean by “inerrant”.  I possess multiple translations of the Bible but that’s what they are: translations.  I don’t want to accuse the translators of being deliberately misleading but study has shown the translations don’t always follow what the original language intended to convey.  An example of this is tou.  This is a pronoun in the Greek and it means “his, of this person.”  Different passages translate it as “in”, “of”, or “the” rather than “his” which I find does subtly alter the meaning. 

My Bibles are among the most precious books I own and I want to say I do not ever take it for granted that I am privileged to have as many Bibles in as many translations as I want.  There are many fellow believers who do not have this privilege and in fact put their lives on the line to possess any Bible.  Therefore, I am not saying reading and/or studying the Bible is a waste of time.  What I am saying is take care.  Listen to what people are saying when they claim the Bible is inerrant.  I have often found it is the interpretation of their denomination and/or the tenets that have come down to them through their traditions that are considered inerrant.

Take care who you are listening to.  What message is coming to you from the pulpit?  Is the message being delivered to you Jesus Christ?  Are you being encouraged to know Him for yourself?  Are you being told your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit and the same mind which is in Christ Jesus is also in you?  Again, Jesus Christ alone is the truth.  Listen to what is being taught.  Test the spirits to see whether they be of God.

“Test all things,” the Apostle Paul writes in his first epistle to the Thessalonians; “hold fast what is good.”  These words mean more to me today than ever before.  What if I hadn’t checked?  What if I’d only used the Strong’s and written an entire post on it being the verb aletheuo with which we gird our waists?  BibleHub defines aletheuo as “literally ‘to truth’, includes Spirit-led confrontation where it is vital to tell the truth so others can live in God’s reality rather than personal illusion.”  I like this: I want to study it a bit more and I have no doubt I could have produced an eloquent post on how our waists are girded with a divine directive to confront those who do not know the truth.  I could have backed it up with other scriptures like Ephesians 4:15 which where aletheuo does appear: “but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head-Christ-”.  It may have been eloquent but it would not have been true. 

The truth is not subjective or relative or abstract.  It is vitally alive as the person Jesus Christ.  Revelation 19:13 states His name is called the Word of God and that little Greek word tou appears here translated “of”.  It also appears in Ephesians 6:14: “putting on the breastplate of righteousness”.  “The” in this passage ought to be “His”.  When I quote these passages out loud with “His” in place of “of” and “the” I feel as if I’ve discovered a treasure trove.  I can’t say the translations are wrong but there is a depth of meaning that is lost.  “Of” and “the” are impersonal whereas “his” is not.  One message I’ve been hearing a great deal lately is “separation.”  God is separated.  The Father cannot wait to pour His wrath on all of us sinning humans and its Jesus alone who prevents Him.  This teaching is in direct conflict with my knowledge and experience of God tested by the Bible.  Again, Revelation 19:13 says Jesus’ name is called “The Word of God.”  Everything the Father has to say to us, He says in Jesus (see Hebrews 1:1-4).  John 1:18: “No one has seen God at any time.  The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.”  The Father and the Son are not in opposition to each other.    

All of my study on the Whole Armor of God so far shows me that the Armor describes a facet of the Life of Christ and that Life not as something we put on in that it is external to us-separate from us-but the Life that is in us.  The Whole Armor of God is describing the New Covenant Life of us in Jesus Christ and He in us.  And not Jesus only for “he who acknowledges the Son has the Father also” (1 John 2:23).  There is no separation in the heart of God.  We cannot claim our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit and thus the Spirit of God lives in us without also claiming the Son of God and God the Father also live in us.  I think it is easier to think in terms of separation when we read passages where tou is translated as “of” or “the” rather than “His”.  It’s true for me at least.  Using “His” whenever I encounter tou makes the scriptures so much more personal.

The truth is personal.  The truth is Jesus Christ and truth Himself changes not but our knowing Him and experiencing Him is personal.  You must know Him for yourself.  The only way to know Him is by the Holy Spirit.  1 John 2:27 says, “But the anointing you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in Him.”    

The Holy Spirit is the only teacher you need.  Reference books and the Bible and teachers/pastors/preachers/priests are all wonderful and eminently useful as we strive to be workers who do not need to be ashamed rightly dividing the word of truth (See 2 Timothy 2:15) but not one of them are fit substitutes for knowing Him and hearing His voice for yourself.

Every one of our bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit.  We are filled with the fullness of God and we have only begun to understand all that means.  You do not need anyone to be a mediator between you and God.  There is only one mediator between God and man, Christ Jesus (1 Timothy 2:5).  He is the way, the truth, and the life.  My prayer for all of us over the upcoming days is that our heart’s desire would echo the words of the Apostle Paul: “that I may know Him”! 

Amen.

Unless noted otherwise, all Scriptures are quoted from The Holy Bible, New King James Version, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee, 1982

References

Ephesians 6:14 Interlinear: Stand, therefore, having your loins girt about in truth, and having put on the breastplate of the righteousness, (biblehub.com)

pronouns.pdf (greekgrammar.eu)

Green, Jay P., The Interlinear Bible: Hebrew, Greek English, Volume IV, Authors for Christ, Lafayette, Indiana, 1985, 2000

Goodrick, Edward W. & John R. Kohlenberger III, The NIV Exhaustive Concordance, Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1990

Marshall, Alfred, The Interlinear Greek-English New Testament: The Nestle Greek text with a new Literal English Translation, Second Edition, Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1958

Marshall, Alfred, The NIV Interlinear Greek-English New Testament, Regency Reference Library, Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1976

Strong, James, Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, Associated Publishers and Authors, Inc., Grand Rapids, Michigan

Strong, James, Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, Abingdon, Nashville, Tennessee, Thirty-fourth Printing, 1976

Strong, James, LL.D., S.T.D., The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee, 1990

Young, Robert, Young’s Analytical Concordance to the Bible, Hendrickson Publishers, Peabody, Massachusetts

No Limits in Sight

15 Monday Apr 2024

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Hello and Welcome to Renaissance Woman where, this week, I am continuing my study on the Whole Armor of God with my focus on the Helmet of Salvation.

My previous posts on the Helmet of Salvation have focused on the protection, saving, healing, and renewing that takes place in our minds.  This was a useful avenue of study for me but I have been pondering the passages of scripture that speak of Jesus as the head and us as His body and wondering if it wouldn’t behoove me to spend some time on how those passages of scripture relate to His being a Helmet of Salvation.

The passages I’ve been pondering are these:

Colossians 1:18: “and He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence”

Colossians 2:18-19: “Let no one cheat you of your reward, taking delight in false humility and worship of angels, intruding into those things which he had not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, and not holding fast to the Head, from whom all the body, nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments, grows with the increase that is from God”

I’ve also been pondering Paul’s writing his hope that we “may grow up into all things into Him who is the head-Christ” which is found in his letter to the Ephesians and, along with all of these passages, there has been a fragment of scripture floating through my mind but one where I could not remember where in the Bible it was located.  I did some research and found it in Psalm 133:2 which says, “It is like precious oil upon the head, Running down on the beard, The beard of Aaron, Running down on the edge of his garments.”

I felt as though there were something important here to see but, beyond the obvious (Jesus is the Head and we are His body) no clear picture was coming together.  I thought I’d let it simmer on a back burner in my mind for a bit and return to it in a few months but then I read two things which caused my out-of-focus mental picture to sharpen.  The first was Psalm 133:1.  Verse 2 picks up in mid-thought so I was curious what the context of “it is like the precious oil…” would be.  The Psalm opens with, “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!”

The second thing I read was a statement in William Gurnall’s The Christian in Complete Armour:  “Be very careful of giving thine enemy hand-hold.  Wrestlers strive to fasten upon some part or other, which gives them advantage more easily to throw their adversary; to prevent which, they used-1. To lay aside their garments; 2, To anoint their bodies” (Gurnall, Vol 1. pg 120).

Reading this statement on the heels of having studied Colossians 2:15 which says, “Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them…”, I saw with clarity how, joined as we are to the Head Jesus Christ, protected and nourished by Him, partaking of His divine nature and thus His same anointing, of course no enemy can get a grip on us!  I was reminded of Hebrews 7:25: “…He is able to save to the uttermost…” and I amused myself for a bit imagining all enemies attempting to snag a hold merely sliding off into a puddle at my feet. 

However, it was Psalm 133:1 which struck me.  I read verses 1 & 2 together and thought about how difficult it is for brethren to dwell together in unity.  In fact, if I take a long look at our society, I would say it is impossible for us.  But then, maybe it was never expected for us to try to live in unity.

If this study on the Whole Armor of God has showed me anything it is that this Christian life is all Jesus Christ.  It is not we who live, it is Christ living in and through us.  We do not love in our own strength, His love fills us and overflows out of us to the world around us.  We do not do our best to believe and have faith, our faith is His faith.  We do not strive to be righteous, our righteousness is His.  We do not stand and fight the enemy in our own strength, we are made to stand in His covenant love and life and rest in His victory.  When it comes to living in unity with the brethren, it is not left up to us.  We are not to strive to be like Jesus Christ but are to live in the realization that we are IN CHRIST is He is IN US.  Unity.  True unity is found in Jesus Christ and everything He is and has is ours through the working of the Holy Spirit.

The Bible makes clear the Holy Spirit is the anointing that was upon Jesus and is upon us.  Acts 10 tells the story of Cornelius the Centurion and Peter’s Vision and also records Peter saying, “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him” (verse 38).  1 John 2:17 says, “But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in Him.”

I think it’s important to keep in mind Jesus’ description of the One He would send during His conversation with His disciples at the last supper (found in chapters 13-17 of John’s Gospel) when reading 1 John 2:17 because John is not describing some thing as the anointing but rather a Person.  That Person is the Holy Spirit and yet we do not merely have an experience of the Holy Spirit without also experiencing the Son and Father.  I think we have been taught to think too much in terms of separation when it comes to God.  It’s like we’ve been taught to believe we have one relationship with Jesus, another with the Father, and yet another with the Holy Spirit assuming we have belonged to denominations that believe the Holy Spirit is still at work today rather than having ceased with the death of the last Apostle.

The being of God is unity which is a subject I don’t have the space to elaborate on in this post.  I will share two passages of scripture.  The first is also found in 1 John 2 where the Beloved Apostle writes, ““he who acknowledges the Son has the Father also” (verse 33b).  The second is 2 Corinthians 3:17: “Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.”  We are filled with the fullness of God and that’s all of Him: Father, Son, and Spirit.

In His letter to the Ephesians, the Apostle Paul writes, “I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, will all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.  There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.  But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift…for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head-Christ-from whom the whole body, joined and knot together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love” (Eph. 4:1-7, 12-16).

Paul ends this letter with “Grace be with all those who love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity.  Amen.”

I wonder if we would not begin to see brethren dwelling in unity if we began offering grace to all those who love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity because it is Jesus alone who is the Head.  The passage in Colossians 2 warns us not to be cheated of the reward we have in Jesus Christ by those who have not held fast to the Head.  Let us not only hold fast to Him who is the Head but grow up in all things into Him who is the Head.

The Holy Spirit is the earnest of our inheritance.  Where are the boundary lines to that inheritance?  Is there ever a moment when we would hear, “this far and no further” or could it be the words of C.S. Lewis are accurate and there is only “further up and further in”?  Let us cease being afraid to leave behind the “discussion of elementary principals of Christ” and “let us go on to perfection”.  What is there to fear?  We are made complete in the One who is not only the Head of all principality and power but has disarmed all principalities and powers having made a public spectacle of them (See Hebrews 6:1-3, Colossians 2:15).  May the anointing Holy Spirit open our eyes for us all to see that we abide in the One who is perfect love and who thus casts out all fear.  May we see that because we abide in Him and the Father is also in Him, we have been brought to complete unity.

Above all, may the Holy Spirit bring us to see that, as we abide in His love, we put on the love which is the bond of perfect unity! It’s all Jesus Christ and there are no limits to His love!

Hallelujah!  Amen.

 Unless noted otherwise, all Scriptures are quoted from The Holy Bible, New King James Version, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee, 1982

References

Gurnall, William, The Christian in complete Armour, Volume I, Seventh Printing, Hendrickson Publishers, Peabody, Massachusetts, 2021, Page 120

Lewis, C.S., The Chronicles of Narnia, The Last Battle, HarperCollins Publishers, Barnes & Noble, Inc. New York, New York, 2009, Pages 753-760

Death to Life; Darkness to Light

08 Monday Apr 2024

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Hello Readers!  Welcome to Renaissance Woman!

This week’s post is another installment in my study on the Whole Armor of God as described in Ephesians 6:10-18a and my particular focus is still the Helmet of Salvation.

The Greek word soterian is translated as salvation and means “to save, deliver, heal, preserve, make whole, rescue, safety, defense.”  The related word soter means “deliverer, savior”.  This entire family of words not only describes who Jesus Christ is but what He has done and continues to do in each of our individual lives.  I have been pondering the significance of salvation being referred to as a helmet and what it then means for our thoughts to be saved.  As I read Ephesians 6:12, I think of our wrestling against principalities, powers, rulers of the darkness of this age, and spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places and how this wrestling takes place in our minds.

In last week’s post, I wrote: “Because we are in Christ, we are seated with Him in heavenly places.  How can that be since as I write this I am seated in my office chair in the office space inside my house?  We are seated with Him in the Spirit.  In this realm of Spirit, we encounter a spiritual enemy whose sphere of influence is our minds.  But, this enemy is a defeated one because Christ, who is our life, has destroyed the works of the devil.”

Am I making two contradictory statements?  How can I say Jesus Christ Himself is our armor, that His victory is complete therefore ours is complete in Him, and we are now seated with Him in heavenly places and at the same time say we encounter spiritual hosts of wickedness in the same heavenly places and our Christian lives are ones of warfare?  Which is it?  Both are true until our thoughts are utterly saved although a better word is renewed.  Just this morning I was reminded of Colossians 2:13-15 which says, “And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us.  And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.  Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.”

This then is the truth.  Whatever power or ruler or principality or spiritual host we might encounter is disarmed.  Colossians 2 also says, “For in Him (Jesus Christ) dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and you are complete in Him who is the head of all principality and power” (see verses 9 & 10).  That is worth repeating: He is the head of ALL PRINCIPALITY AND POWER.  All means all.  Therefore, there is no other power-and that includes the Devil-who Jesus Christ is not the head of and has not disarmed.

How many of us know this?  How many of us have ever had it taught to us by our religious leaders?  Are we taught that Jesus Christ has disarmed and triumphed over every principality and power or are we told our enemy is so powerful it has the ability to deceive the majority of humanity and drag them into hell?  If it is true that Jesus has disarmed principalities and powers, triumphed over them, and is now the head of all principality and power, why is there still so much evil and suffering in the world?  I don’t wish to offer up pat answers, especially when suffering is so terrible and personal.  What I will offer are a few passages of scripture and a prayer the Holy Spirit increases our understanding.

The first is in 1 Peter 5:8 but I am going to quote from verse 6: “Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.  Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.”  I can’t find a passage anywhere in the New Testament where any of the Writers suggested they were worried about or afraid of the enemy.  James says “resist the devil and he will flee from you” (4:7).   What then could Peter mean by referring to the devil as a “roaring lion seeking whom he may devour?”  That certainly sounds terrifying but, taking all of this into consideration-principalities and powers being disarmed, Jesus the head of all principalities and powers, yet our enemy roaming about like a roaring lion-I would say our enemy is disarmed but still possesses a voice and a sphere of influence in which to use it.

That sphere is death and I am referring to death as a state of mind.  Before you close out of this post, consider these passages of scripture.  Romans 8:6-11 says, “For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.  Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be.”  At an earlier place in this same letter, Paul writes, “Therefore, just as through one man sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned-For until the law sin was in the world, but sin is not imputed when there is no law.  Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those who had not sinned according to the likeness of the transgression of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come” (Ro. 5:12-14).

This concept is repeated in 1 Corinthians 15:21-22 which says, “For since by man came death, by Man also came the resurrection of the dead.  For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.” Hebrews had this to say about death: “Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.”

I hope you can see the picture being painted by these scriptures.  Every human being on this planet has partaken of the life of Adam in that we are all flesh and blood and subject to death.  These scriptures don’t only refer to the physical death we are all subject to but also to a way of thinking that is death called being carnally minded.  The devil had the power of death and thus power over the carnal mind.  Disarmed he might be, but his voice is that of a roaring lion and, for those who have not yet come to the knowledge of Jesus Christ, this voice resonates in their minds and causes terrible fear.

Those of us who have come to the knowledge of Jesus Christ are no longer carnally but Spiritually minded.  John 5:24 & 25 records Jesus saying; “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life.  Most assuredly, I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear will live.”  1 John 3:14-20 says, “We know that we have passed from death to life because we love the brethren.”  “There is no fear in love,” John writes later in this same letter, “but perfect love casts out fear” (1 John 4:18).

The Greek word metanoia has been translated as “repentance” in most of our Bible translations.  It means “to change one’s mind”.  I don’t see it as merely thinking different thoughts though we humans have great powers of self will and the ability to train our minds to think a different way.  No, I see metanoia as changing one’s mind within the framework of Philippians 2:5: “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.”

There is a passage in 2 Corinthians that says, “Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.”  To be Spiritually minded is life, the Spirit is the Lord, and we have the mind of Christ.  Our thoughts then are joined to the One who disarmed all principalities and powers.  He is our Deliverer and Savior who protects our minds like a helmet.  Any thought influenced by the spirit of this world merely pings off the helmet that He is.  He keeps our minds safe while He renews them.  As our minds are renewed, we are transformed into His image.

Talk about mental health!  Isn’t it wonderful?

Unless noted otherwise, all Scriptures are quoted from The Holy Bible, New King James Version, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee, 1982

References

Strong, James, LL.D., S.T.D., The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville Tennessee, 1990

Quench Not the Spirit

01 Monday Apr 2024

Posted by in Studies, Whole Armor of God

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Hello Readers!  Welcome to Renaissance Woman and another installment in my bible study on the Whole Armor of God.  I am still looking at the Helmet of Salvation and, in this week’s post, am pondering the significance of Salvation being a helmet.

I wonder about the Apostle Paul’s letters.  Were they correspondence he dashed off in answer to questions?  Were his words ones he agonized over?  Did he have any idea his every jot and tittle would be scrutinized thousands of years later as we all take his advice to the Philippians and “work out our own salvation?” Did he have specific reasons for listing off the Whole Armor of God as he did?  Was “the helmet of salvation” intentional?  I suppose it doesn’t matter one way or the other: what matters is what the Holy Spirit shows each one of us as we study the Bible for ourselves.  I find salvation being a helmet significant.

The Greek word translated as “salvation” is, in its various conjugations; soter, soteria, soterion.  The root is sozo and the meaning conveyed is to save, deliverer, heal, preserve, make whole, rescue, safety, and defense.  The Greek word soma meaning “the body as sound, whole” is also related to sozo and so thinking of our salvation in terms of Jesus Christ our Deliverer rescuing and healing and preserving and making whole our physical bodies is accurate.  However, Paul describes salvation as a helmet which means we are delivered, healed, preserved, rescued, and made whole in our minds.

As I was meditating on the Helmet of Salvation, I began to see various quotes and hear Believers speaking on the importance of our thoughts.  The stress wasn’t just on the importance of what we think but how what we think flows out of us and into our world through our words and actions.  Several of the Bible Teachers I’ve followed for years have made the point we are actively creating the world around us as we speak out the thoughts in our minds. Luke 6:45 records Jesus saying, “A good man out of the good treasure of this heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil.  For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.” The importance of our thoughts cannot be underestimated for whatever we are thinking is brought forth.

The emphasis of Paul’s Spiritual Warfare passages is on thoughts.  “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ” he writes in 2 Corinthians (10:4-5) and then in his passage on the Whole Armor of God: “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Eph. 6:12). 

No, wait a minute, I can hear some of you saying.  These passages are speaking of the Devil and his minions.  Spiritual forces, certainly, I agree; but the truth that I find has been passed over is where these spiritual forces are and just what they are affecting.  I have already posted studies on the 2 Corinthians 10 passage so am going to focus on Ephesians 6.

Before I can do so, however, I must quote two passages from Romans.  The first is found in 8:6-7 where Paul writes, “for to be carnally minded is death but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.  Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God nor indeed can be.”  The second is Romans 12:2 where Paul writes, “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”

I don’t know of any Believer who would not agree that we are changed when we first receive the Revelation of Jesus Christ as Son of God and Man, Lord and Savior, Risen and Ascended One who lives forever.  There is no way to stay the same when we see Jesus as He is.  But the how of “being transformed through the renewing of your mind” is where I am seeing Believers living far below all that is ours in Christ Jesus.  The how is summed up in read your Bible every day, pray at least (insert set amount of time) per day, and go to Church.  The focus is on training our minds on thinking a different way.  And, I agree it can work, but who can deny walking this path is one of success and failure depending on the power of the temptations of any given day?  I see the writers of the New Testament promising so much more. 

In the fourth chapter of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, he expresses the same though as he did in Romans 12:2 but, this time, writes: “and be renewed in the spirit of your mind” (Eph. 4:23). In chapter 2 of this same letter, Paul writes; “And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.”

Before the Holy Spirit opened our eyes so that we might see Jesus and turn from darkness to light, we walked according to the course of this world.  Our minds were affected by a spirit not of God.  We couldn’t help it.  We were born into this world and, from our earliest days, the ways of this world formed the thoughts of our minds and thus how we would be in the world.  But now, we know there is a new Spirit at work in us.  This Spirit is the Spirit of the Living God and is the source of a new mind and new way of thinking.  We do not have to train our minds to think different thoughts: we let the same mind be in us that was in Christ Jesus (See Philippians 2:5). 

Paul doesn’t just make this point in his letter to the Ephesians.  Our new life in the Holy Spirit is described throughout Romans 8: “who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit…for the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death…for those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit…But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you.  Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.  And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness.  But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you…for if you live according to the flesh you will die but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.”

The secret is Spirit.  How crucial it is we don’t quench the Spirit for it is now the Spirit of the Living God who is the source of our thoughts! No longer is it the Prince of the Power of the Air, the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.  Because we are in Christ we are seated with Him in heavenly places.  How can that be since as I write this I am seated in my office chair in the office space inside my house?  We are seated with Him in the Spirit.  In this realm of Spirit, we encounter a spiritual enemy whose sphere of influence is our minds.  But, this enemy is a defeated one because Christ, who is our life, has destroyed the works of the devil.

I don’t think the Bible in any way suggest “the mind of Christ” is something that overpowers ours.  We don’t cease to be as Christ lives in us and we are conformed to His image.  What I see the Bible describing is a covenant bond akin to marriage.  Picture a married couple living and loving for years.  They can finish each other’s sentences and there are times words aren’t even necessary for communication.  They have grown together into one.  Our covenant with Jesus is the same.  His mind doesn’t wipe ours out: we grow in union through the covenant bonds of love until we are so One we think the same thoughts.  I’ll have to continue this thought next week (if God allows!) so will close with this:

 Jesus Christ, who IS our Salvation, has not only delivered us from sin and death but delivered us into His life.  We are joined to Him, are of one Spirit with Him, and everything that is His is ours: His life, His victory, His mind. In his letter to the Colossians, Paul gives thanks to the Father who “has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light” and “has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love” (Colossians 1 12-13).  Has delivered.  Now.  It’s all ours because He has lavished His Spirit on us and poured His Spirit into us.

There is a beautiful promise of God recorded in Ezekiel.  As you read it, take some time to let it sink in that the promise is fulfilled in Christ Jesus and is our state of being now and forever:

“I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of 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 keep My judgments and do them.”

Amen.  It is so!

Unless noted otherwise, all Scriptures are quoted from The Holy Bible, New King James Version, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee, 1982

References

Strong, James, LL.D., S.T.D., The New Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, Thomas Nelson Publishers, Nashville Tennessee, 1990