Ephesians Lesson 30 of 39 part 7

We are nearing the end of note book 30 and may reach it today.

2Corinthians 5:17

"Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: (creation) old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new."

Only God can create, and salvation is that miracle working power of the Creator Himself, and that is why we can not do it with good works, or Church membership. It has to be that creative work of the Creator Himself, Who now declares us a member of the One Body, a Child of God, the God-child of the Passover meal, in the Lord's Last Supper, one who has believed this Gospel.

To stay on the milk is insincerity, or to be in the same condition of Israel which is unbelief, and is sin.

We are finding that by the work of the Holy Spirit more people are getting the understanding,  of the secret or secrets, which was to separate what Paul has shared with us concerning the One Body of Christ. Beginning in Genesis chapter 12 to the end of Revelation we have God dealing with the nation of Israel. 

There is a parenthetical section in the middle beginning with Acts chapter 11 though Hebrews showing that the Body of Christ, which consists of both Hebrews and Gentiles, being set apart as an established peculiar being, which is not part of the nation of Israel. This is known as the Age of Grace or Dispensation of Grace. So when we come to the understanding of this secret or mystery, then the Bible will come Alive, and we will be able to understand what is required for Eternal Life. Knowing how to live the in Truth and walk the true Christian life NOW, from the point of Redemption (seeing our need for Christ) through salvation! It is not something coming in the future but NOW in this present time! It is not in the past (Old Testament) we are to live, nor in the future (end times) but NOW Faith is because Faith is receptive. It is a verb, an action on our part, just as believing is an action. It is a choice on our part, this is our "works or good deeds".

Beginning where we left off in Ephesians 4:25. In the verses we have just studied, Paul has reminded us that as a result of our coming into salvation (by believing this Gospel as found in I Corinthians 15:1-4 and 2Corinthians 7 where we find that Godly sorrow works repentance to salvation) we have a new creation living within us which overcomes that old sin nature. When this happens the New Nature, or the Fathers Nature and Character, is restored within us. We still have the old nature always battling the New nature, and it behooves us to feed the New nature with the things of the Spirit. Because the old nature feeds on the things of the flesh, the temporal earthy and material things. This is what we are to learn from Israel's past history with the temporary form of worship that God had established with them, that they turned into idolatry and a false Religion, it is this external letter which destroys.

We have the illustration as a beautiful picture when Noah first let the raven out of the ark, and it did not come back. Because it could feed on the old dead creation. But when Noah let the dove out, which is a picture of New Life, the spirit Life, the dove could not feed on the old dead creation, and so it came back to the ark. Then seven days later he let the dove out again, and it came back with an olive leaf which showed New life. This the lesson we are to learn and walk in today, that once we become a believer we Do NOT feed on the old life we just came out of, but rather we feed on the things of the Spirit that causes us to grow in the New Life.