The Faith of Man and the Faith of Christ

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I initially wrote this in another thread. I've found the understanding of these things to be very meaningful toward living the abundant Christian life.

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There is the faith of the fallen man who, being shown the grace of God, wants to believe, wants to receive, and there is the faith of the Son of God, Who lives in me, and believes, and I share in Him, and have life.

These are two very different kinds of believing.

There is the trust in God formed in my character, the plasticity of the brain, as I choose trust, and as I trust, my brain is re-writing neural pathways, establishing a greater character to trust. I can forget Christ in me, and rely on this trust, partial, fallible, it's a faith that comes from myself.

There is a trust in God which is the life of Christ in me. As Jesus trusts His Father that trust is expressed through my life, in the same way that as Jesus loves others, that love is expressed in my life, and as Jesus is self-controlled, that self control is expressed in my life.

2 Corinthians 3:18 KJV
17 Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
18 But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

If we trust in Jesus and walk in the Spirit we have complete liberty, we don't have to concern ourselves with ourselves. We need not be self-conscious, because the Spirit is leading our steps. And I'm not saying we are impeccible, rather the Holy Spirit will bring to our awareness such things as we need to know, and otherwise our focus is on others, and on God Himself. That's simply the life of the Spirit, that's what our minds will be filled with.

As we walk in the Spirit (a normal Christian response to trusting in the completeness of our reconciliation in Christ) we see the life of the Spirit, Jesus' life, expressed in ours. We learn by experience, by living it, what Jesus is like, Who He is. And as we live it, neural pathways are written into our "brain plasticity" brains, changing our character, how we think, this is the renewing of the mind.

We do such things as are God's love to others, the very reason we are still on the earth, the "true holiness" of Ephesians 4:24. Living this way cannot help but change us, and it gets easier to live this way, because at least SOME of the corruption of the flesh is being corrected, though it will never be complete as long as we live in these corrupted flesh bodies.

Just the same, we are not our flesh. Sin lives in the flesh, and we do not, we live in Christ. We occupy this world by means of our flesh bodies, but our lives are hid in Christ, where we are seated together.

If we could only SEE the new reality we live in since we've been submerged into Christ!! But our walk is by faith, not sight, and we have His Word, now we must believe it.

If we think we see something in ourselves that disqualifies us from our communion with God, we may stop trusting in Christ for our acceptance, and fall out of that grace.

When that happens the better we've been able to build our character, the more that will help us, as that's helping restore some of the damage to the flesh, and in particular the fleshy brain.

To the extent we've been able to re-write our brains through making better choices, and working them out with better behavior, the easier time it may be for us until we realize, "This isn't that same faith that made life so abundant!!", and seek to return to the walking in the Spirit, where we just don't have to be concerned over such things as a general rule.

Much love!

 

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Galatians 2:15-18 KJV

15) We who are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles,
16) Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by the works of the law: for by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.
17) But if, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is therefore Christ the minister of sin? God forbid.
18) For if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.

We have believed IN Jesus Christ, and we are justified by the faith OF Jesus Christ. We choose to believe, and Jesus comes in, sharing His death and resurrection, His life and all He has, he shares with us.

If I build again the things which I destroyed . . . If I return to my old ways, and rebuild those neural pathways in my brain that turn me towards those behaviors . . . I make myself a transgressor.

Much love!

 

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Galatians 5:16-25 KJV
16) This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.
17) For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.
18) But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.
19) Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,
20) Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,
21) Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
22) But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
23) Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
24) And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.
25) If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.

If you are walking in the Spirit, then as a result of this you will not do what your flesh wants. In that we are told to walk in the Spirit, doing do is an obedient act of faith. We choose to do so, and trust in Jesus to make it so, to live His life through us.

This often comes through suffering.

2 Corinthians 4:7-11 KJV
7) But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.
8) We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair;
9) Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed;
10) Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.
11) For we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.

"IF we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit." We are to choose to live according to how God has recreated us.

Much love!

 

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"Besetting sins", or "the sin that so easily entangles". Sins that are deeply ingrained into the neural pathways, because we've been doing them so long, and/or because they are seated in parts of the brain that are mal-developed, from childhood traumas, from developmental damage, from various reasons.

They seem so difficult because they have a physiological support system that works against us. This is seen specifically in sexual sins,

1 Corinthians 6:18 KJV
Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body.

As we avoid committing these sins as we rest in our trust in Jesus, or as we whiteknuckle through the temptations in the force of our determination and character, that physiology tends to weaken. The dog you starve gets weaker.

And trusting in Jesus overcomes all.

Much love!

 

[dev553344]

Without reading too much, cause reading gives me headaches. I have to say there is the spiritual gift of faith which is more powerful then just having faith in God.