What I am going to try to do is explain what being a New Creation in the Lord Messiah Jesus involves and how we can utilize our new position in the Messiah to grow in grace and understanding; that will enable us to walk worthy of our calling.
First and foremost we know that it is only in and through the son that we will receive eternal life! [John 5:11-12] It is by believing in the Messiah Jesus that we will not perish but have life in his name [John 3:15-16; 20:31] We who have been baptized and have received God’s Holy Spirit become at that time New Creations in the Messiah Jesus. We will at that time have been “born again” into an entirely new relationship with Yehovah and His uniquely begotten son Jesus His anointed one. We will now have Jesus the Messiah as the federal head of the New Humanity that we have become a part of; even as Adam was the federal head of all of his descendants that we are no longer a part of as New Creations in the Messiah we are in this world, but not of this world, as long as we remain in the Messiah.
As New Creations in the Messiah we have become members of a New Humanity that Yehovah has been creating since the time of Adam’s rebellion, formed from those who have proven in their lives to be totally committed to walking in faithful obedience before Him. As New Creations in the Messiah, members of the New Humanity, we are recognized as those who love Yehovah with all our heart, mind, being and strength, and who love our neighbors as ourselves, walking in the spirit according to the creed of the Messiah Jesus as we see in Mark 12:28-34.
The sciptures provide its own best commentary. The responsibility is on us to "correctly handle the word of truth [2 Timothy 2:15\, loking at everythingYehovah has reveled in the scriptures. Realizing that "all sctripute is God-breathed and usful for teaching rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so the seervbant of Godf may be thoroughly equipped for every good work" [2 Timothy 3:16-17]
Paul says that we are all the "limage and gloruy. of God - Yehovah" [1 Corinthians 11:7]. Peter says that we :participate in the nature of God" [2 Peter 1:4]. This shows us that as New Creations in the Messiah we are hodlike and becoming more so through the set apart work of God's Holy Spirit: "being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory" [2 Corinthians 3:18]. Notice Paul says that the Messiah is "godlike" - he is "of God" [1 Corinthians 3:23], he si "the image of God" [2 Corinthians 4:4], "the son of God" [2 Corinthians 1:19, and seated at the right hand of God, with all things subject to him [Ephesians 1:20-23]. With all of this he remains as a glorified man seated at the right hand of his God and Father Yehovah.
John 17:3: Now this is eternal life: that they know youi , the only true God, and Jesus the Messiah whom you have sent.
2 Peter 1:3-8: The secret things belong to Yehovah - the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to usand to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law. [Deuteronomy 29:29]. We are seeking to understand the "things revealed," which Yehovah has given to us for our understanding and obedience to reveal what He has given to us to those we reach out to as ambassadors of the Lord Messiah Jesusto proclaim the mystery of the Messiah [Colossians 4:3]
Jesus prays for his disciples:"Sanctiry - set apart them by the truth; your word in truthy" [John 17:17].
We have a grave responsibilty to live and declare the truth of God's word "in God's household, which is the called-out Assembly - Congregation of the libing God, the pillar and foundation of the truth" [1 Timothy 3:15]
Notice Paul exhorts Timothy [and all of us]: "Do your best to present yourself to God - Yehovah as one approved, a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctyly handles the word of truth" [2 /timothy 2:15]
In the Gospels message the Messiah"s call is to follow him [Matthew 4:19; Mark 1:17; 2:4; Luke 9:59] in a costly obedience and sacrificial service: "Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny thfemselves - die to self and take up the cross daily and follow me [Luke 9:23]
To follow the Messiah Jesus is to become more like him, and fashion our lives on the examples he has set before us. It is vital that we have a clear understyanding of who his is and how how we can emulate him!
"We know that God- Yehovah alone is immortal and therefore unable to die [1 /timothy 6:16; //romans 1:23].
The main point of the Jewish law of Agency is expressed in the dictum, "a person's agent is regarded as ther person himself." Whatever the agent says or does is as if the person who went the agent was doing it. God - Yehovah was at work in and through Jesus. The Messiah was God's authorized representative - His agent, speaking and acting on his Father's behalf. Peter expressed the Jewish law of agency in his sermon on the day of Penecost: "Jesus of Nazareth was a MAN accredited by Gpd - Yehovah to you by miracles, wonders and signs, which God - Yehovah did among you through him... [Acts 2:22]. Jesus was constantly doing things on behelf of his God and Father Yehovah, by and through the Father's authority, as His agent. An example of Jesus acting as the agent of Yehovah: "Whoever believes in me does not believe in me only, but in the one who sent me. the one who looks at me is seeing the one who sent mee... whatever I say is just what the Father has told me to say. ]John 12:44-45, 50] Also, "The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father - Yehovah ling in me who is doing His worlk. [John 14:9-10] Notice: Acting as an agnet of Yehovah, Jesus shares in the authority and prerogatives of the Father - Yehovah; to judge the world at the end of the age [Matthew 25:31]; to give life [John 6:33] and resurrect those who beloing to him [John 6:44]; to be florified along with the Father [Luke 9:20.
Acing in accord with the Jewish law of agency Jesus commissioned 72 of his disciples and sent them out as his agents, representing him: "Whoever listens to you listens to me; but whoever rejects me rejects Him who sent me" [Luke 10:16]. The commission and agency that comes from Yehovah to Jesus also works through him to his disciples [Matthew 28:18-20] We have also been commission to speak forth tghe Kingdom of God to the world and do so as the agents of His son Jesus the Messiah.
Scripture teaches us that Yehovah promised us eternal life "before the foundation of the ages" [Titus 1:2]. We were chosen in the Messiah "before the creation of the ages [Ephesians 1:4], and that Yehovah's plan for our glorifiction was "before the ages began" [1 Corinthians 2:7]. Our God Yehovah knows the end from the beginning. Paul says we already "have a building from God" - out resurrection body "in heaven" that we have not yet received [2 Corinthians 5:1].
Isaiah speaking by prophetic word talks about Jesus when he writes: "Surely he took up ouir paoin and bore our suffering, yet we considered him punishedby Yehovah, sticken by Him and afflicted. hbut he was peirced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed." [Isaiah 53:4-5].
The creed of Jesus the Messiah: Mark 12:28:32:
It wsa prophesied of the Messiah that he would be a descendant of David a MAN or "son of man" [Psalm 80:17] who would come as Yehovah's cnosen and anointed one to establish Yehovah's kingdom on on the earth. The basis for the messainic title "son of Yehovah" comes from Psalm 2:7, where Yehovah says "Yoiu are my son; today I ahve become your Father." His "anointed" [verse 2] and "King" [verse 6] refer to the future Messiah, whom Yehovah installs and establishes on Zion, His "holy mountain" from where the Messiah will reighn, not only over Israel but all the nations that survive God wrath; to the "ends of the earth" [verse 8]. As Yehovah's anointed one, he wouild be an Israelite like Moses, a human descendant of David who woiuld come in Yehovah's name, authorized as His representative, to fulfill Yehovah's saving and redeeming purpose for the world and usher in the Kingdom of God on earth, over which he would reign.
"The son is the rediance of God's glory and the exact representation of His being" [Hebrews 1:3].
Jesus is the one "who loves us and has freed us from sin by his blood, and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his god - Yehovah and his Father" [?1:5-6]
Chapter 6 of Jeff Deubles book. con't..
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