Integration of Spiritual Life

         He must increase, but I must decrease.                    John 3:30

John the Baptist spoke these words in reference to the spiritual part of man that must preside over the material man in order to experience the kingdom of God. In John 3:5, Jesus told Nicodemus, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” This new or second birth would not be physical, by water as the first one was, but of the Holy Spirit. The spirit of man comes alive at the moment of salvation and is in competition with the material nature of man (the soul) for control. When Christ becomes the priority over the other options of life, the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Christ, increases in dominion and power while the soul decreases.

The Apostle Paul, as a converted Pharisee, understood the integration of the spiritual life within each believer like no other New Testament writer. The Law of Moses, the Torah, was the avenue he had been trained under for his entire life, and on the Damascus road, he was to be introduced to a totally different program. The Law represented the very person of God, so when the Christians spoke about Jesus as God incarnate, the Jews saw it as blasphemy. Saul of Tarsus led the charge against this movement until he was swallowed up into it himself. The spirit of man became central in his understanding of how God would lead and direct His disciples by the Holy Spirit once Jesus had ascended.

Crucified with Christ

We are Jews by nature [natural disposition] and not sinners from among the Gentiles; nevertheless knowing [eidotes – perceive with the senses] that a man is not justified by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law no flesh [sarx – physical as opposed to spiritual nature] will be justified. But if, while seeking to be justified in Christ, we ourselves have also been found sinners, is Christ then a minister of sin? May it never be! For if I rebuild [reconstruct] what I have once destroyed [demolished], I prove myself to be a transgressor [violator of the Law]. For through the Law I died to the Law [no more need for the Law as a means of righteousness], so that I might live [zao – be devoted] to God. I have been crucified [perfect passive indicative of sustauroo] with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me. I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness comes through the Law, then Christ died needlessly."               Galatians 2:15-21

To appreciate the spiritual life God intended for each believer, an examination of the spiritual reality of salvation in Christ and the choices that the believer has in finding that life afforded him are necessary. In his letter to the churches of Galatia, Paul’s first priority is for believers to understand that following the Law of Moses is no longer the avenue into a deeper relationship with God, knowing that a man is not justified (declared righteous) by the works of the Law but through faith in Christ Jesus and what He accomplished. Any efforts of the flesh (physical nature) only produce flesh; the spiritual life can only be produced by the Holy Spirit (John 3:6), through the human spirit. The Galatian believers were being deceived into embracing the Law of Moses and all of its requirements as necessary to experience God. Paul testifies that it was through the Law I died to the Law [no more need for the law as a means of righteousness], so that I might live [be devoted] to God. Instead of the Law of Moses, he introduces the principle of the cross of Christ and living by faith in Jesus’s sacrifice as central in the believer’s life.

The Holy Spirit baptizes believers into Christ and the church, the body of all true believers (1 Corinthians 12:13). Having been united to Christ, believers share in His death, burial, and resurrection. When Paul wrote, I have been crucified with Christ (the perfect passive indicative indicates that the subject – Jesus -accomplished the crucifixion in the past on behalf of each believer, and it has permanent results), He brought death to the requirements of the Law. It also initiated a change in each believer’s self-life; it is no longer I who lives. The self-righteous, self-centered Saul died. Paul could now yield the throne of his life to Christ. For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died; and He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf (2 Corinthians 5:14-15). When the believer chooses to live for Christ, he is being controlled by the love of Christ. Paul understood that, But may it never be that I would boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world (Galatians 6:14).

Raised from the Dead

What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? May it never be! How shall we who died to sin [hamartia – the deceitfulness of desires that contradict God’s standards] still live in it? Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His [physical] death? Therefore, we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness [kainotes – new in quality] of life. For if we have become united [sumphutos – oneness, similarity in experience] with Him in the likeness [homoioma – resemblance] of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self [nature of man that is opposed to God] was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin [seat of sinful affections and appetites] might be done away with [aorist passive subjunctive of katargeo – cease], so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed [dikaioo – justified, made righteous] from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him. For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. Even so consider yourselves [logizomai – conclude by reason] to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.                       Romans 6:1-11

In the above passage, Paul explains that the baptism of the Holy Spirit, which occurs at salvation, has spiritually caused each believer to be baptized into Jesus’s physical death so that he has been raised to spiritual life in Christ. He says we get to walk in a new quality of life, His life, based on faith in what He did. This work of God has also caused the old self (the nature of man that opposes God) might cease functioning, so that it would not be in control. In identifying with Jesus's death, the believer is freed from sin, producing His righteousness. To consider oneself dead to sin is to conclude by reason that he is alive to God in Christ Jesus. In Romans 8:5, For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. This mindset involves the will, mind, and affections.

The Law is Good

What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? May it never be! On the contrary, I would not have come to know sin except through the Law; for I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, "YOU SHALL NOT COVET." But sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind; for apart from the Law sin is dead. I was once alive apart from the Law, but when the commandment came, sin became alive and I died; and this commandment, which was to result in life, proved to result in death for me; for sin, taking an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me. So then, the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.                            Romans 7:7-12

The Noahide Laws are seven ancient laws that many people view as the basis of civilized society. They govern morality and represent the "bare minimum" of what God expects of humanity. They are called the "Noahide" laws because they are thought to have been given in their fullness to Noah after the flood. According to the Talmud, there were seven moral laws to govern the nations after the flood, and they are the foundation of the Law of Moses. Many years later, God would establish a special nation (Israel) with special laws, ceremonies, and a priesthood. When the Messiah came, He established a new covenant that would fulfill not only the Law of Moses but also the Noahide laws, sufficient for both the true Jew and the Gentile. In this way, everyone would become a follower of the Messiah.

1. Do not deny God (abstain from idolatry).
2. Do not blaspheme.
3. Do not murder.
4. Do not engage in sexual immorality.
5. Do not steal.
6. Establish courts and legal systems to ensure obedience to these laws
7. Do not eat a live animal (no eating flesh taken from an animal while it is still alive).]

But before faith came, we were kept in custody under the law, being shut up to the faith which was later to be revealed. Therefore, the Law has become our tutor to lead us to Christ, so that we may be justified by faith Galatians 3:23-24). In leading each Jewish believer to Christ, the ultimate purpose of the Law of Moses is fulfilled. It comes down to faith in who Jesus is and what He accomplished, and not the keeping of the Law. The Law exposes that all are guilty, sin became alive, and I died. Sin deceived me and, through it, killed me. Paul further explains the proper relationship each believer should have with the Law in Romans 7:4-6:

Released from the Law

Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God. For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were aroused by the Law, were at work in the members [melos – members as the seat of desires and passions] of our body to bear fruit for death. But now we have been released [katargeo – freed] from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound [katecho – held fast], so that we serve [douleuo – serve in subjection] in newness [kainotes – new in quality] of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter.

Paul uses the relationship of husband and wife as a picture of the relationship of the believer either to the Law of Moses or to Christ. It is the believer’s choice as to whom he will be married; that choice will determine the believer’s spiritual fruitfulness. The choice for Christ involves having died to that by which we were bound, namely, the sinful nature, otherwise known as the old man. Romans 7 gives us insight into the intimate relationship between the Law of Moses and the sin nature. Peter tells us in 1 Peter 2:24, and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. This death to sin is the result of a circumcised heart, as Paul explains in Romans 2:29: But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision [peritome – putting off the sinful passions] is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter; and his praise is not from men, but from God. The Holy Spirit comes in the place of the letter of the Law, not the Law itself. 1 Corinthians 6:17 explains, But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him.

A Letter of Christ 

Are we beginning to commend ourselves again? Or do we need, as some, letters of commendation to you or from you? You are our letter, written in our hearts, known and read by all men; being manifested that you are a letter of Christ, cared for by us, written not with ink but with the Spirit of the living God, not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts. Such confidence we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are adequate in ourselves to consider anything as coming from ourselves, but our adequacy is from God, 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 3:1-6

In the above passage, Paul wants the believer to understand the spiritual nature of his relationship with God in Christ. The Holy Spirit is putting God’s laws on his mind and writing God’s laws on the believer’s heart, thus establishing a new covenant with each one who places his trust and confidence in who Christ is and what He accomplished. According to Hebrews 8:10, "FOR THIS IS THE COVENANT THAT I WILL MAKE WITH THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL AFTER THOSE DAYS, SAYS THE LORD: I WILL PUT MY LAWS INTO THEIR MINDS, AND I WILL WRITE THEM ON THEIR HEARTS. AND I WILL BE THEIR GOD, AND THEY SHALL BE MY PEOPLE.” This new covenant provides the believer with everything needed to serve God in the newness of the spiritual life, apart from the Law of Moses. The Spirit of the Law written on the believer’s heart gives the highest quality of life, something that keeping the letter of the Law could never accomplish.   

In Him

But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ, and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith, that I may know [ginosko – to come to know and understand experientially]  Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.                            Philippians 3:7-11

In the New Testament, ginosko frequently indicates a relation between the person knowing and the object known. What is known is of value or importance to the one who knows, and hence the relationship is established. In the above passage, it speaks of the deepest kind of relationship, a connection to the righteousness that comes from God based on faith. Paul wrote the letter to the Philippian church from a Roman prison cell with a clear understanding that his relationship with Christ was his highest priority and that his human abilities and accomplishments were of no value; in fact, they were an impediment to his deeper knowledge and experience with the Lord. As a result, his human suffering is meant to bring him into deeper fellowship with Jesus. 

Enter In 

Steve Green wrote an amazing song entitled “Enter In” that captures the essence of the holy life:

Nothing chills the heart of man like passing through death’s gate

Yet to him who enters daily, death’s a glorious fate

Dearly beloved, we are gathered here to be a holy bride

And daily cross death’s threshold to the holy life inside

 

Enter in, enter in,

Surrender to the Spirit’s call to die and enter in

Enter in, find peace within

The holy life awaits you, enter in

 

The conflict still continues, raging deep within my soul

My spirit wars against my flesh in a struggle for control

My only hope is full surrender, so with each borrowed breath

I inhale the Spirit’s will for me to die a deeper death

 

If mourners should lament, let them weep for those alive

For only when self-will is killed can my soul survive