It can get confusing...Old Man/outer man. The Old Man is who we once were and no longer are...but the outer man we keep with us as long as we are in this world...and for as long as we remain uncrucified in our own life force.
Actually, this makes sense to me. Yes, it's a difficult and confusing subject, and we have to think and speak in new ways to communicate about it.
The Adamic man is dead, but we're left with his hardware/software, as it were. Which is corrupted by sin. Fatally flawed. And made more corrupt by our own sin.
The ruling power that lived in our bodies before our death in Christ is gone. But we continue to have those bodies and brains that continue to operate according to the principles of sin. Now we have the mind of Christ, being joined to Christ. But we have to walk in that mind, contrary to the fleshy mind, in order to transcend the fleshy mind. And even as we do walk in the new mind of Christ, it reforms our outer man, bringing it into greater alignment with the new inner man, who is created patterned after God Himself.
Well, that's how I think of this!
Being born again is only a taste of the full measure of grace. i see it as a sample...or what the Bible calls aravon...a downpayment until the conditions are met.
The conditions. This may be the point on which we may differ.
The deposit. A security deposit upon which to base a claim. We are sealed by the Holy Spirit, that is, the Holy Spirit is our seal unto the day of redemption. God has put His seal upon us in His Spirit given to us to secure us until that day He redeems us. And this is why His Spirit given to us is how we are to know whether or not we are in Him, and He in us.
The full measure of grace, something wonderful to meditate upon, and I think I'll try to spend my morning doing just that! Thank you for the mention!
One of the Jesus Culture songs I like, Freedom, where she sang, Run into wide open spaces, grace is waiting for you, I misheard this as, "Run into wide open spaces, graces, waiting for you", and I imagined myself running from the dry and constricted canyon into the wide grassy meadow, dotted about here with giant wrapped packages, God's graces given in our lives, blessings and giftings and service.
There is much to be said about the fulness of grace!
In our own walks we can understand this as either going from the light of the heavenly realm into the lives of the individuals
I don't really understand what you mean here in this part.
We are born anew on a corporate scale...being members of the Body.
On this part, I would rather say, I, myself, am born again. I am convinced that I am. The Bible tells me how I can know, and I have overwhelming evidence. That being born again is to have begun a new live as a being who did not exist before. Once I was a child of Adam, but that man is dead, and now I am a child of God. His spirit child living in the corrupted body of the Adamic man.
And what remains is that my mind be renewed away from functioning according to the old way, and to come to function according to the new way.
Losing all fleshy values, desires, choices, putting away all fleshy reasonings and presumptions, and seeing as God sees, hating what God hates, loving what God loves. The man we are reborn as is this way, because he is created patterned after God. But renewing the mind happens over time, and we live as according to the faith we have.
I think God sometimes gives a gift of faith - which is how I interpret my experience - that enables us to attain to more than we have of ourselves attained. That He does this sometimes to simply give us sooner rest, as we simply live sanctified. I think many who think they've entered this are mistaken, being prideful. Perhaps sometimes to accomplish some particular work. Perhaps sometimes (as I think concerning me) to give an advance view of something that I am to attain to.
I think God was showing me something complete and pure and absolutely taught in the Bible. And that He's shown me that believing the truthfulness of His Word that teaches these things, very plainly, is the faith that provides access to this abundant life.
A taste of something is not the same as its full power.
Again, so very true, and such wonderful promise of what is to come!!
We are to go from righteousness to holiness. From being declared righteous by faith and practice, to entering into the very presence of God to walk there without the slightest imperfection. There is the Bride of Christ and there are many guests. And there are the rejected ones who never learned their place in humility and the fear of the Lord. Their sin is one of iniquity.
I'm going to consider this more before replying, I don't want to seem neglectful!
Much love!
