Yes I am walking around, the new man, at the core. You missed the part being called "it", being called "the power of sin", it is attached to you. I am not in Adam but in Christ, you cant be in both places.
And yet here we are, both justified saints and wretched sinners.
I have been raised and seated with Christ. Does the Holy Spirit reside in you? The bible says if you are saved, He does.
The promise and word of God is that, yes, the Spirit does reside in me. That is His promise to us in Christ.
You use the word "paradox", Jesus' death was no paradox, His burial was no paradox, His resurrection was no paradox. It was real and it happened.
You do know what the word paradox means, yes? It doesn't mean that something didn't happen or isn't real. It means that there are two seemingly contradictory things which are true at the same time. And our Lord Jesus is a perfect example of paradox, the Incarnation presents us with a profound paradox: Jesus Christ our Lord is both God and man in one undivided Person. The Person of Jesus suffered and died, but now we have a paradox, how can God suffer and die? God cannot suffer and die, yet Jesus--who is God--did indeed suffer and die. Some attempt to explain away this paradox by denying the Incarnation, they say that "only the human nature died", that is a denial of the Incarnation, it is to say that Jesus is a divided Person. It's the heresy of Nestorianism, that we can divide Jesus between divinity and humanity, only the humanity was conceived and born, suffered and died. But we do not confess that Jesus' humanity was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, buried, and dead; we confess that Jesus Christ was conceived, born, suffered, crucified, dead, and buried. That Jesus being both God and man in perfect Hypostatic and Personal Union.
So that is the paradox: God who cannot suffer, did suffer. God who cannot die, did die. That's the doctrine of the Incarnation,
that's the Gospel. And it is a profound, scandalous, and wonderful paradox of our faith. Indeed the Apostle writes, "Great is the mystery of our religion, God became man..."
So am I, He says I am forgiven (past tense) raised and seated in heavenly places (past tense). The NEW is now.
Yes, all those things are absolutely true. I haven't suggested otherwise. We are forgiven, we are seated in heavenly places, we are God's children, etc. All of those things are absolutely and wonderfully true.
Sounds like you are still struggling my friend.
Of course I am, I'm a Christian. Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me a sinner. The Lord calls me to a life of repentance, as I struggle against the flesh, against the old man who seeks to exert his will. The old man always desires his own way. That is how the old man continues to rage, by extolling his own glory, by insisting on the opinion of the law: He thinks himself more lofty, special, greater than other sinners, thinking that he is righteous under the law. The old man does not admit that he is a sinner. The old man does not confess that he is a wretch, held under bondage, the old man will never cry out to God to save him.
My need for Jesus Christ did not end when I became a Christian. Why do you think the author of Hebrews writes to tell us to set our gaze upon Christ, the Author and Finisher of our faith? Why do you think we are told to run the race?
Does the Apostle not say, "
Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you." (Philippians 3:12-15)
Here what Paul is saying here. He is not saying that we must earn our salvation, but he is speaking plainly that we have not attained that glory which is to come. There is a race to be run, a goal to set our gaze upon. We are to look forward, toward Jesus. Because the old man continues to exert himself, the war between the old man and the new is right here. Note also, "let those of us who are mature think this way", it is not the spiritual person who thinks themselves already complete, that is what the old man thinks, that is what the carnal man thinks.
There is a Russian word,
prolest, used by the Eastern Orthodox. It translates to "delusion" but as used in Eastern Orthodoxy refers more precisely to spiritual delusion. In short prolest is a spiritual sickness wherein a person thinks themselves spiritual when they are not, it is a false, counterfeit spirituality. Such a person thinks they have attained great spiritual heights, but they are merely suffering from a delusion of the soul. It's a rather fantastic word that describes so much of our false spirituality, how so often as Christians we begin to think we have attained some great level of spiritual life, we imagine ourselves mature, lofty, and so many things.
Martin Luther, in his letter to Philip Melancthon wisely advises, "Pray hard, for you are quite a sinner." Indeed, pray hard, for you are a sinner, as am I, as is everyone.
Its not about sin management but about being cross-eyed.
How can one cling to the cross if he does not recognize that he is a sinner? If you are not willing to admit to yourself that you are quite a sinner, then you do not have your gaze upon the cross, but on something else. Instead, turn your attention again to the cross, cling hard, trust in Christ, remember your baptism, He alone saves you.
-CryptoLutheran
