The Spiritual Man

For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons [huios - a child mature enough to take on adult family privileges and responsibilities] of God. For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, "Abba! Father!" The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children [tekna – referring to all believers] of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him. Romans 8:14-17

One important truth from the above passage is the distinction between a child of God and a son, a mature one. Distinguishing verses between the position in Christ that all believers realize at salvation as opposed to the process of sanctification and the believer’s experience in that relationship is a vital consideration. An incorrect interpretation of New Testament verses can cause believers to pursue realities already provided when saved. For instance, the Holy Spirit testifies to every believer that he is a child of God. Still, sanctification happens when the believer accepts the rule of the Spirit, who leads each to maturity.

The Holy Spirit is an integral part of the believer’s sonship. The Spirit of Christ (Romans 8:9) brings him into the deepest place within his relationship with God and produces an intimacy with Abba Father – Daddy. The human spirit also receives assurance from the Spirit that he is a child and an important part of the family, as evidenced by his inheritance. The believer learns that in being taught by the Holy Spirit, he does not need to rely on human wisdom to understand the Scriptures. The Holy Spirit allows him to think independently of others, thus evaluating every thought and message according to the Spirit's personal application. It is learning how to think with God and not what to think about God. As a son, the believer is dependent only on God Himself. 

The Oral Torah 

When the Lord gave Moses the Law on Mount Sinai, it represented 613 rules, regulations, rituals, etc., 2/3rd of which addressed the priesthood. It is referred to as the Written Torah. Most of these laws were general and did not provide clear instructions on specific implementation. Jewish tradition teaches that God also gave the Oral Torah, providing specific instructions. According to Avot 1:1 of the Talmud: “Moses received the Torah at Sinai and transmitted it to Joshua, Joshua to the elders, and the elders to the prophets, and the prophets to the Men of the Great Assembly.” The Oral Torah was passed down through leadership orally until it was codified after the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 AD. Jesus addressed this matter in Matthew 15:2-3 when He said to the Pharisees: “Why do you yourselves transgress the commandment of God for the sake of your tradition?”  He was telling them that their tradition, the Oral Torah, was not given by God and was undermining His commandments. 

Consider one of the most expansive and detailed areas of Jewish law: the regulations around dietary practice, known as kashrut. The Written Torah states twice, in Exodus 23:19 and Deuteronomy 14:21, that it is forbidden to “boil a kid in its mother’s milk.” Without further elaboration, one might understand those verses to be proscribing only the cooking of a young goat in the milk of its mother. But the Oral Torah explains that these verses indicate a vast array of practices, including the complete ban on eating any kind of land animal with any kind of dairy product, the requirement of separate sets of cooking equipment and serving utensils for meat and dairy, and the obligation to wait some period of time after eating meat before eating dairy. None of these rules would have been evident from the Written Torah alone.

The Oral Torah is crucial to the normative practice of Judaism today. The prescriptions for daily life found in the Bible are typically cryptic, vague, and even contradictory. Some are entirely unintelligible on their own. The Oral Torah extensively expounds on these sources, providing a vast literature that translates the Written Torah into a guide for daily living. 

Letter of the Law

But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter.           Romans 7:6 

who also made us adequate as servants of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.           2 Corinthians 3:6

But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter; and his praise is not from men, but from God.           Romans 2:29

It is vital to grasp the relationship between the Holy Spirit's role and the Word of God's role in the believer’s life. Although we understand that the Holy Spirit inspires Scripture (2 Timothy 3:16, 2 Peter 1:21), He is also a part of communicating God’s Word. He is the one who teaches. 1 Corinthians 2:11-13: 

For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so, no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God, which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words.

When the Word of God is taught without the Holy Spirit, it results in the letter; it results in death. Reliance upon man, even men of faith, to be the sole teacher of the Word of God misses the spiritual thoughts and spiritual words. The relationship with God through His Spirit is through a circumcised heart, representing a separation from the world and a devotion to purity. This is where the believer finds newness of the Spirit and is concerned only about pleasing God. The believer can only attain this quality of life through the life of the Holy Spirit, where Jesus promised that “you will receive power [dunamis – the power and ability of God] when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth" (Acts 1:8). That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit (John 3:6).

Holiness 

because it is written, "YOU SHALL BE HOLY [hagios], FOR I AM HOLY."       1 Peter 1:16   

Peter quotes from Leviticus 11:44, referring to the principle of holiness and consecration. And you shall not make yourselves unclean with any of the swarming things that swarm on the earth. The Hebrew word is qadosh, and it is prominent in the Pentateuch and poetic and prophetic writings, but it is rare in historical books. In one sense, the word describes an object, place, or day to be "holy" with the meaning of "devoted" or "dedicated" to a particular purpose. Particularly, the sabbath day is "devoted" as a day of rest: The prescription is based on Genesis 2:3, where the Lord "sanctified," or "dedicated," the Sabbath. In Isaiah 58:13-14, the Lord explains the meaning of dedication or devotion:

“If because of the sabbath, you turn your foot from doing your own pleasure on My holy day, and call the sabbath a delight, the holy day of the Lord honorable, and honor it,  desisting from your own ways, from seeking your own pleasure and speaking your own word, Then you will take delight in the Lord, and I will make you ride on the heights of the earth; and I will feed you with the heritage of Jacob, your father, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.” 

God has dedicated Israel as His people. They are "holy" by their relationship to the "holy" God. All of the people are, in a sense, "holy," as members of the covenant community, irrespective of their faith and obedience: They assembled together against Moses and Aaron and said to them, "You have gone far enough, for all the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is in their midst; so why do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the Lord?”  (Numbers 16:3).

Outward & Inward Sanctification 

Then the Lord said to Moses, "Go to the people and consecrate [qadas - a verb meaning to be set apart, to be holy, to show oneself holy, to be treated as holy, to consecrate] them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their clothes. And let them be ready for the third day. For on the third day, the Lord will come down upon Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people.           Exodus 19:10-11

To be set apart is twofold—outward and inward. The absolute essential preparation for an approach to God is inward sanctification, but no external command can secure this. Moses was, therefore, instructed to issue directions for outward purification, and it was left to the spiritual insight of the people to perceive and recognize that such purity symbolized and required internal purification as its counterpart. The external purification was to consist of three things— washing of the person, washing of clothes, and abstinence from sexual intercourse. The New Testament commentary may be found in Hebrews 10:22: let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. 

Hagiasmos, translated as holiness in the KJV, is always rendered "sanctification" in the RV. It signifies separation to God, and the resultant state or the conduct befitting those so separated. The corresponding verb hagiazo denotes "to set apart to God.” Sanctification is thus the state predetermined by God for believers, into which in grace He calls them, and in which they begin their Christian course and so pursue it. Hence, they are called saints. 

Your Sanctification, The Will of God

For this is the will of God, your sanctification; that is, that you abstain from sexual immorality; that each of you know how to possess [ktaomai - keep in possession of your soul, self-control]  his own vessel in sanctification [hagiosmos] and honor, not in lustful passion, like the Gentiles who do not know God; and that no man transgress and defraud his brother in the matter because the Lord is the avenger in all these things, just as we also told you before and solemnly warned you. For God has not called us for the purpose of impurity [akatharsia – uncleanness or filth in a natural or physical sense] but in sanctification. So, he who rejects this is not rejecting man but the God who gives His Holy Spirit to you.             1 Thessalonians 4:3-8 

To a Christian, the will of God is clear: sanctification and sexual immorality are mutually exclusive. The believer exercises self-control over his natural appetites as a sacrificial offering to God. Paul cites two reasons to avoid sexual immorality. The first has to do with the effect of immorality, or any sin, on the believer’s quality of life as well as fellowship with God. It also carries the additional stigma of a sin against the body: the immoral man sins against his own body (1 Corinthians 6:18).

A second reason to avoid sexual immorality is that it goes against God's calling for a Christian. It refers to the purpose for which God called each Christian to Himself. God's plan for a Christian includes purifying his life. Sexual immorality frustrates the purpose of God's call. This is not a religious effort. Instead, it is the byproduct of the power of the Holy Spirit in conjunction with the believer’s compliance.   

Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians defines a spiritual man according to three important characteristics: avoiding sexual immorality, an ongoing concern for others, and an awareness of the role of the Holy Spirit as the Spirit of Christ and His anticipated return in the Second Coming. Brother Lawrence may have captured the essence of this life when he wrote “The Practice of the Presence of God.”

The Hope of His Coming 

Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him because we will see Him just as He is. And everyone who has this hope [eipis – desire of some good with a confident expectation that it will happen] fixed on Him purifies [hagnos – consecration, to render pure in a moral sense] himself, just as He is pure.            1 John 3:2-3

John expounds on the importance of the spirit-filled believer living in daily hope and a confident expectation of His Second Coming. According to Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers: 

This hope is a light that burns above the darkness of this world’s troubled sea, and to it, they may look as to the beacon light which directs them home. Beyond the sorrows, persecutions, and wearinesses of life, they may look for their perfect consummation and bliss, of both body and soul, in the heavenly kingdom, in the Father’s House, towards which they are all hastening. And then, from the unimaginable splendors of this Beatific Vision, he passes to the plainest practical talk:—If you entertain this hope, you must remember that there are conditions connected with it; to be Jesus Christ’s there, you must be Jesus Christ’s here; to attain to the fulness of His likeness in heaven, you must have here and now the elements of His character; sonship in heaven means sonship on earth; seeing God there means purity here.

In Spirit and Truth 

But an hour is coming, and now is when the true worshipers will worship [proskuneo – literally, to kiss toward someone in respect] the Father in spirit [pneuma – the vital spirit of life, the principle of life residing in man, that which is of the Holy Spirit] and truth [aletheia – truth, love of truth both in words and conduct, meaning sincerity, veracity]; for such people, the Father seeks to be His worshipers. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth."            John 4:23-24 

In His conversation with the Samaritan woman, Jesus reveals a brand new approach to worship, emphasizing not the location (temple) but the heart attitude behind worship. In describing proskuneo, one Greek scholar uses the image of a dog licking the hand of his master. This new approach begins with the Holy Spirit, the life force that each believer protects by honoring the authority of the Spirit in his life. In truth has a sense of honesty, sincerity, and veracity as well as a reference to the Word of God (John 17:17). He takes worship out of the realm of ritual and centers it on the human spirit as energized by the Holy Spirit. 

Perfecting Holiness 

Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all defilement of flesh and spirit, perfecting [epiteleo – complete, perfect] holiness [hagiosune – living a virtuous life] in the fear of God.         2 Corinthians 7:1 

Many heresies found in Christianity are the direct result of accepting private interpretation of the Scriptures as if God-inspired. The devil works his way inside Christianity by perverting the truth of Scripture. In 2 Peter 1:20-21, But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God. Larger organizations/institutions tend to implement policies and procedures (doctrines) that they believe most clearly represent true spirituality. In the process, they remove the Holy Spirit from the prominent place He should hold in the believer’s life, that of teacher and guide. In the process, they forsake the fear of the Lord, as Job understood: “And to man, He said, ‘Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; and to depart from evil is understanding’” (Job 28:28). True holiness is a full recognition of the authority of the Holy Spirit (the fear of the Lord) in the daily life of each believer.

The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit."        John 3:8