davidbowerkingwood

The Duality of our Existence

In part 1 of this series we explored the duality of our mortal lives; we have both a positional reality and an experiential reality. Whereas our positional reality has provided us a perfection through the shed blood of Christ, which is undeserved and unearned, our experiential reality finds us in a temporary clay jar, our human bodies, as we fight in the spiritual war as soldiers of the cross. To further complicate matters we share the clay jar with a traitor, our sin nature, which is continuously trying to compromise our ability to wage successful battle in the spiritual war in which we find ourselves.

God, in His matchless grace, has joined forces with us in the clay jar in the person of the Holy Spirit; our clay jar is occupied by us, our sin nature, the Lord Jesus Christ, and God, the Holy Spirit. This occupancy was sequential; you, spiritually dead, and your sin nature have occupied the clay jar since you were conceived. The Lord Jesus and the Holy Spirit came into you and brought your dead spirit back to life at the point you received Christ as Savior but the sin nature, although crucified, can still influence your life if you let it.

I like to visualize the sin nature as a zombie from one of the all too many zombie movies. Although it is seductive it is also ugly and repulsive so why would anyone want to follow its lead?

The Earnest of our Inheritance

Positionally we have been guaranteed that our place in heaven is secure and given a down payment on the blessings to come. In Ephesians 1:13b-14 we are told:

“And when you believed in Christ, he identified you as his own by giving you the Holy Spirit, whom he promised long ago. 14 The Spirit is God’s guarantee that he will give us the inheritance he promised and that he has purchased us to be his own people. He did this so we would praise and glorify him.”

That has to be the most wonderful, remarkable thing that has ever happened to mankind, God, the Holy Spirit, coming to live in each of us forever. As Christians this is one of the blessings we enjoy right now from God.

A Tarnished Temple?

In 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 the Apostle Paul poses a question:

¹⁹ Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, ²⁰ for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.”

Then in Galatians 2:20 we are told:

“²⁰ My old self has been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”

How do we reconcile Christ living in us and our place as a temple of God the Holy Spirit with the fact we continue to sin? The answer to that is given in 1 John 1:8-10 where it is written:

^“8 If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. ⁹ But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness. ¹⁰ If we claim we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar and showing that his word has no place in our hearts.”

When we confess our sins to God and turn control of our lives over to the Holy Spirit then the Holy Spirit can then manifest the fruit of the Spirit in our lives as described in Galatians 5:22-25 where it is written:

^“22 But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³ gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!

²⁴ Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there. ²⁵ Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives.”

When the Holy Spirit is controlling in our lives we can shine with resplendent virtue. It is true the temple may need occasional polishing when we commit personal sin, but confession of sin quenches the power of the sin nature and restores the Holy Spirit to control in our experiential existence.

The Resplendent Virtue of Christ

Our position in Christ results in the imputation of Christ’s virtuous righteousness to all of us who have been born again by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior and God. This virtue is not something we deserve and there was no way we could have ever earned it; it is a free gift from God based on Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross.

When the Father looks at you He sees the shed blood of Christ and the resplendent virtue of the Lord Jesus Christ. This gift of virtue has been given to you as a free gift because you became a follower of the Lord Jesus and is yours to enjoy for all of time and eternity.

In summary then we always shine with resplendent virtue from a positional perspective and can shine with resplendent virtue when the Holy Spirit leads in our lives here on earth. Our objective then must be to let the Holy Spirit control in our lives all the time. We walk by faith and not by sight.