Ephesians
4:21
"If
so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the
truth is in Jesus:"
For us the questions now remain, have you heard His voice and then have you been or are you now being taught by Him? Anyone who follows this blog is being taught by Him, as I am being taught. Ever since we through away or removed our earlier postings and started this site and our other blog a new, we have all been under His teaching. For us, my wife Glenda and myself, this adventure began a new and with new Life shortly after He asked me this question. 'Are you ready to take My yoke upon you and learn of Me?' This happened by way of an audible voice back on August the 14th of 2007, when I replied to this question, Yes LORD! And our world has not been the same. He has been changing us both on the inside, through revelation of Him. As we strive to be as little children in constant receptivity of His activities within us by His faith and our trust of Him. Getting back to our subject at hand.
Everybody knows the verse in the
synoptic gospel of John.
John
14:6a
"Jesus
saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life:..."
Of
course He is, and again I come back to my use of the synonyms. Truth, Grace, this
Gospel, and Christ, all mean the same thing. If you know
Christ, you know this Gospel. If you know this Gospel you know Truth, and are experiencing Him in His Grace within you, you know they all fit together. So what Paul is saying here in verse
21 is, if you know this Gospel, if you are a member of this Body of
Christ, then you have Truth and Grace, though it is unspoken and we have Truth that the world knows
nothing of. We know Christ Jesus as John knew Him and witnessed to this in chapter 1 and throughout his synoptic gospel account. But we are making reference in particular to verses 14 and 17. Now in verse 22, Paul comes into a review of what he
taught more explicitly in the book of Romans.
Ephesians
4:22a
"That
ye put off concerning the former conservation (manner of
living) the old man,..."
The old man, now we can see what was being shown in Genesis 32:28. Where Jacob wrestled with God and prevailed, the word used is power. This word, power, in this case and application is not good for it means to turn the head in an other direction, in a negative sense. For it says that Jacob used power to prevail and his name was changed to Israel and he called the place Peniel. God then touched the thigh on the inside and Jacob became halt in his walk. This was not a good thing because he resisted God and did not allow God to work within him. This same kind of resistance is what we see in Israel's history up to and including this very day. If Jacob had willingly surrendered to God, Israel's outcome may have been changed for the better. In Paul’s language the old man may be in reference to Adam, as many teach and even preach. But because of what I just said, I do not think so. It was Jacob who is
responsible for the sin of Israel, it was his old Adam who made Israel sinners. And
since the old Adam is functioning in a person, he is constantly
trying to satisfy his own desires. The lusts of the flesh in one way or
another. These desires are not limited to sex or self gratification, they are also
the vain imaginations of our unrenewed minds. These are governed by the familiar spirit known as religion, the speck in our eye. We as a believer are
instructed to put that lifestyle, this mental block, out of your everyday thinking, and
actions. But the question for us all is, HOW? To this Paul says that:
Ephesians
4:22b
"...which
is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts;"
No comments:
Post a Comment