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A new creation’s Identity is found in Christ alone … rather than in our work, community standing, possessions or pleasures.

At the root of satan’s temptation to mankind in the garden was the implication that God wants to deprive us of knowledge. The Fall away from grace has gained for us the full compass of knowledge. It is now ours to refine that knowledge away from what is evil, and beyond our natural good to the better covenant.

Christ’s wilderness temptation came as temptings to identify Himself with (1) pleasure (turn stones into bread), (2) identity in position (cast Thyself down) and (3) identity in possessions (all these things I will give to Thee.

Christ and the sanctified are one. Rather than being a stiff-necked people we have the human experience of Jesus serving the purpose of fitting Him to mediate for mankind to God. We are joined to Him in the covenant of sanctification/consecration.

The second application is the principal of obedience or loss of rewards.

Hebrews 4:15 Let us embrace the holy Law of God, recognize our sinful condition before it, and come boldly before the throne of grace to obtain the grace we need to live it out.

The line is drawn to the Father rather than to the shadows as stepping stones to gain the height to see the way.

The way of the old testament approval was to be willing to sacrifice another (Abraham willing to sacrifice the promise child) while Jesus introduced self-sacrifice as the way to acceptance in the New Covenant.

Intuition is that part of the human spirit that communes with God. When all else has passed and knowledge is no longer that is what will remain.

Getting to the heart of nous: Intellect plus spiritual understanding: the art and soul of spirituality as a reliable means of interaction with God. Nous is interpretated to mean both intellect and spiritual understanding.

Ephesians 4:17 shows a darkened intellect while Ephesians 4:23 shows an enlightened intellect. Believers must have a renewed nous.

The organ (nous) with function (dianoia) needs to commune with God functionally as the way to be more and more in tune with God.

Ephesians 4:18
You should no longer walk as the Gentiles also walk in the vanity of their nous, being darkened in their dianoia.

Therein is the answer to Romans 12:1-3 the mind of Christ Philippians 2:5

.. w/o understanding there is no vehicle to move from knowledge to wisdom in action. Knowledge then remains head knowledge and not heart knowledge.

Freedom From manmade Rules

Colossians 2:16-17 “Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day.

These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.”

The liberty that we have outwardly is curtailed to consciousness of His Holiness. The outer bondage that the world inflicts is liberated inwardly by being in His glorious Presence. God's chosen people previously had been under custody of the law in the covenant of the OT, that which Christ came to fulfill. God gives us His Spirit of Love and Life because we are His children, not because we are His law-keepers.

1 Corinthians 3:11–15 For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ …. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward.

1 Timothy 1:13 though formerly I was a blasphemer, persecutor, and insolent opponent, yet I have received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief.

The mind of Christ is our link to the character of God. Philippians 4:8 & Galatians 5:22-23

God is Love and our insight into His character and the character that sanctification is bringing us to, should contain no less than love.

Integrity OT was exemplified by Job as God’s servant.Job 1:8
NT Christ calls us His friends. John 15:15
He is the friend that sticks closer than a brother. Proverbs 8:24

Hebrews 13:15
Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise

—the fruit of lips that openly profess his name.
 

Citizen of the Kingdom

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Christ’s kingdom is not of this world; it’s not a rule over external conditions but over our spirit.

When He cast out evil spirits He bore witness that He was holding conversation with the human spirit. Pride, lust and hatred, the powers of spiritual darkness that have enslaved us, He is carrying on His great controversy.

Here in this region, rooted in our inner being, He is still subduing His enemies, He is conducting His mysterious education.

The time of the conflict is now, the time of Christ’s victory is now. We’re not dealing with human progress in culture, but with the divine conversation of our spirit from which all culture arises.

The kingdom of God begins within, but it is to make itself manifest without. It is to penetrate the feelings, habits, thoughts, words, and acts of us who are subject to it. At last it is to penetrate our whole social existence ( in each Christian life )

The kingdom of God is transformed culture because it is first of all the conversation of the human spirit from faithlessness and self service to the knowledge and service of God.

This kingdom is real, for if God didn’t rule nothing would exist, … and if He had not heard the prayer for the coming kingdom … the world of mankind would long ago have become a den of robbers.

In every moment we are dealing with God.
 
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There's an attribute of God as to His mercy and justice that is carried thru-out the prophets and psalmists and given a different emphasis of meaning to each as it has related to their own experiences.

Repentant community

Joel 2:13
and rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto Jehovah your God; for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abundant in lovingkindness, and repenteth him of the evil.​

The old covenant only had the shadow of good things to come, protecting them in the land of promise from temporal evil, but emptied out and faded away in captive dispersion.

Ephesians 3:10-11
to the intent that now unto the principles and the powers in the heavenly places might be made known through the church the manifold wisdom of God, according to the eternal purpose which He purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord​

And in this we do not forsake the great gathering.
 
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'New Creation' in the Bible

Matt 19:28
"I solemnly tell you," replied Jesus, "that in the New Creation, when the Son of Man has taken His seat on His glorious throne, all of you who have followed me shall also sit on twelve thrones and judge the twelve tribes of Israel.

2 Cor 5:17
So if any one be in Christ, there is a new creation; the old things have passed away; behold all things have become new:

Gal 6:15
For in Christ Jesus neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision; but new creation.

Col 3:11
a renewal in which there is no [distinction between] Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, [nor between nations whether] barbarian or Scythian, [nor in status whether] slave or free, but Christ is all, and in all [so believers are equal in Christ, without distinction].

James 1:18
'tis he that has voluntarily renew'd us by the oracles of truth, that we might be the first converts of the new creation.

:amen:

Heb 12
23in joyful assembly, to the congregation of the firstborn, enrolled in heaven. You have come to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of the righteous made perfect,
 
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Strong's G3824 - palingenesia
παλιγγενεσία
Transliteration
palingenesia (Key)
Pronunciation
pal-ing-ghen-es-ee'-ah (Key)

Part of Speech
feminine noun

Root Word (Etymology)
From πάλιν (G3825) and γένεσις (G1078)
  1. new birth, reproduction, renewal, recreation, regeneration
    1. hence renovation, regeneration, the production of a new life consecrated to God, a radical change of mind for the better. The word often used to denote the restoration of a thing to its pristine state, its renovation, as a renewal or restoration of life after death
    2. the renovation of the earth after the deluge
    3. the renewal of the world to take place after its destruction by fire, as the Stoics taught
    4. the signal and glorious change of all things (in heaven and earth) for the better, that restoration of the primal and perfect condition of things which existed before the fall of our first parents, which the Jews looked for in connection with the advent of the Messiah, and which Christians expected in connection with the visible return of Jesus from heaven.
palingenesia (G3824) Regeneration

anakainosis (G342) Renewing

Palingenesia is one of the many words that the gospel found and then glorified by expanding its meaning and lifting it to new heights to express deeper truths. Although palingenesia was used before the birth of Christ, it could be used to refer to the Christian new birth only after Christ's death. Men could not experience new birth until Christ was born (John 1:12), and their regeneration could only follow his generation.

"Recollection is a restoration [palingenesia] of knowledge."

The pre-Christian usage of palingenesia refers to a recovery, a restoration, or a revival, but not to the type of new birth referred to in the New Testament. Palingenesia is not used in the Old Testament and appears only twice in the New Testament (Matt. 19:28; Titus 3:5). In each case it has a different meaning. Our Lord's own words evidently refer to the new birth of the whole creation, the apokatastasis panton (the restoration of all things, Acts 3:21), that will occur when the Son of Man comes in his glory. Paul, however, used "the washing of regeneration" to refer to the new birth of human souls, not to the birth of the new creation.

Is there a common denominator to the two New Testament uses of palingenesis?

Certainly, otherwise all the laws of language would be violated. Palingenesia is used in a wider sense by Christ and in a narrower sense by Paul. There are two concentric circles of meaning with a common center. The palingenesia of Scripture begins with the microcosm of single souls but does not end until it has embraced the whole macrocosm of the universe. As seen in the Pauline reference, the primary seat of the palingenesia is man's soul.
Having established its center there, the palingenesia extends in ever-widening circles, first embracing man's body, for which the day of resurrection is its palingenesia. Jesus' words in Matthew 19:28 certainly imply (or presuppose) the resurrection, but they involve much more. Beyond the day of resurrection, or contemporaneous with it, will come a day when all nature will put off its soiled, worn garments and clothe itself in holy attire.
This will be "the times of restoration of all things" that is referred to in Acts 3:21. In an interesting intimation of this glorious truth, Plutarch refers to the "new arrangement," and frequently the Bible mentions "the new heaven and the new earth." According to Paul, the day of the palingenesia of the whole creation is one day in the labor-pangs of which all creation is groaning and travailing until now (Rom. 8:21-23). Man is presently the subject of the palingenesia and the wondrous changes it implies, but in that day the palingenesia will include the whole world.

The uses of palingenesia in Matthew 19:28 and Titus 3:5 may be reconciled as follows. In Titus 3:5 palingenesia refers to the single soul; in Matthew 19:28 it refers to the whole redeemed creation. Each use refers to a different stage of the same event. As Delitzsch so concisely said: "Palingenesia is a brief term expressing rebirth or transfiguration of human bodily existence and of the entire non-human nature."

Anagennesis, a word commonly found in the Greek fathers, does not occur in the New Testament. If it were in the New Testament, it would constitute a closer synonym to palingenesia than does anakainosis. Were it used in the New Testament, anagennesis would refer to the active operation of Christ, the author of the new birth, and palingenesia to the new birth itself. Without further discussion, we will examine anakainosis and its relation to palingenesia.


Although palingenesia is drawn from the realm of nature, anakainosis is derived from the world of art. Anakainosis is found only in the Greek New Testament, where it occurs twiceonce in connection with palingenesia (Titus 3:5) and in Romans 12:2. The verb anakainoo (G341) also occurs only in the Greek New Testamentin 2 Corinthians 4:16 and in Colossians 3:10. The more classical anakainizo (G340) appears in Hebrews 6:6, and the nouns derived from it are anakainismos (L-S 107, renewal) and anakainisis (L-S 107, renewal). Ananeoo (G365) is used in a similar way in Ephesians 4:23. The "collect" for Christmas day well expresses the relationship between the palingenesia and the anakainosis. That prayer reads: "That we being regenerate" (in other words, having already been made the subjects of the palingenesia)"may daily be renewed by the Holy Spirit"may continually know the renewal (anakainosis) of the Holy Spirit. In this "collect," which contains profound theological truths in simple and accurate form, the new birth is contemplated as already past, and the "renewal," or "renovation," takes place daily. The gradual restoration of the divine image progresses in the one who through the new birth has come under the transforming powers of the world to come. It is called "the renewal of the Holy Spirit"because he alone is the means for putting off the old man and putting on the new.

Palingenesia and anakainosis are closely bound together; the second is the consequence, or consummation, of the first. The palingenesia is that free act of God's mercy and power by which he removes the sinner from the kingdom of darkness and places him in the kingdom of light; it is that act by which God brings him from death to life. In the act itself (rather than the preparations for it), the recipient is passive, just as a child has nothing to do with his own birth. Such passivity does not characterize the anakainosis, the gradual conforming of the person to the new spiritual world in which he now lives, the restoration of the divine image. In this process the person is not passive but is a fellow worker with God. How many conflicts and obscurations of God's truth have arisen from confusing and separating palingenesia and anakainosis!

An interesting article
 
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