Under the old order, the Christian has to be
exhorted to faithfulness. Under the new, he is by nature faithful. He comes and goes and
does according to his Father's will.
He is faithful because he is trusting. He believes in God and puts his
trust in God and has confidence in God that "all things work together for good to
them who love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose" (Rom.
8:28).
Because he trusts in God, he, himself, is trustworthy. I have found
over the years that he who cannot trust others cannot himself be trusted. We tend to
project upon others what we see in ourselves.
Trusting persons are faithful persons. Faithful persons are obedient
persons. It's not that they are faithful and obedient to do what they are told; they are
faithful and obedient to be what they have been made to be. In other words, faithfulness
and obedience comes out of who they are. They have been shaped and reshaped by their Maker
to be as He is.
Churching
Now this very important distinction between old order Christian and new
order Christian is going to become more evident with time.
The old order Christian goes to church. He has to be programmed to go,
exhorted to faithfulness in attendance, encouraged in program participation, etc. The
church is what he does. In most cases, church is his religion.
But the new order Christian is the church. He sees himself as
the very extension of Jesus Christ in the world today. He does not have to be exhorted to
go to church, he is the temple of the Holy Spirit together with all other true believers.
In this new order, among this new breed, is a sense of tiredness from
playing church. They are not interested in churchianity any more. They are released in the
world to be the church.
They understand very well that the body must gather from time to time
to gain strength from one another through the ministries, gifts, and fruit of the Spirit
placed in the body. They gather for strength and scatter for service.
Praying
The old order Christian has to be exhorted to pray while the new order
Christian is the prayer. That is, he is in such constant communion with the Father through
the Spirit that he knows the mind of Christ and has taken on the image of his Father
through Christ. He does not have to "pray" for answers so much as he is the
answer to prayer.
He doesn't necessarily pray for someone's healing. He heals him in
Jesus' name when he sees by the Spirit that healing is what Father is doing. He, like his
big brother Jesus before him, does only what he sees his Father doing.
He is a walking prayer meeting.
Fasting
He may fast often. But his greatest fast is not in the denial of
certain food and drink from time to time, but in the total denial of his self-life at all
times. Therefore, he is a living fast unto his God.
Praising
He does not have to be exhorted to praise as do old order Christians.
He is to the praise of his Father. Praise wells up from within him as rivers of living
water. He praises all the day long. Praise is forever on his lips. He can't help but
praise because praise for his God is the abundance of his heart.
Worshiping
Likewise, worship! He does not have to have a bulletin to guide him in
his worship. He does not have to go to this mountain or that (to this cathedral or that)
on his appointed high days before he can worship. Neither is Father seeking this form of
worship.
For the hour comes and now is that the Father is seeking a people who
will worship Him in spirit and truth (John 4:23).
You cannot worship Him in truth except in spirit. He is both Spirit and
Truth. The true worshiper, therefore, must worship Him while abiding in Him.
Doing Good
The old order Christian has to be exhorted to do good. He has to have
laws, creeds, doctrines, rules and regulations spelled out for him so he can know how to
live righteously. But this is law. The letter kills.
The Spirit of God who abides within the new order Christian is Himself
the administrator of the law written within the heart of the believer.
This new order Christian is the righteousness of God.
"Who [Jesus] His own self bore our sins in His own body on the
tree: that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes
you were healed [saved, made whole]"
(1 Pet. 2:24).
"For He [God] has made Him [Jesus] to be sin for us, who knew
no sin: that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him"
(2 Cor.
5:21).
The doing of good for the new order Christian is irrelevant, for the
goodness of God is manifested through him.
Doing / Being
And so it goes with everything else that can be said of the Christian
life. The old order is an outward order of doing, while the new order is the inward
reality of being.
Of course, it holds true that whatever one is on the inside will
determine what he does on the outside. The difference between being religious and being
born again is this--that one who is born again has his very nature changed by the power of
God. Religion, at best, can only control or modify the outward behavior of a person.
He who is born again was once one thing; now he is another. "Therefore
if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all
things are become new" (2 Cor. 5:17).
Godliness
The old man of flesh has been crucified and buried in the very death
and burial of Jesus Christ. He is history so far as God is concerned. Only the devil and
the flesh itself are interested in keeping that old man of flesh alive.
The old order Christian tries at best to mimic godliness, to imitate
Christ. The new order Christian has the very nature of godliness birthed in him and is
thus becoming more godly day by day. As God is--so is he!
The Is-ness of God
When God called Moses to go to Egypt and lead the Israelites out of
their bondage, Moses wanted to know what he should tell them when they asked the name of
the God of their fathers. God answered, "I AM THAT I AM" (Ex. 3:13-14).
This is related to the name YHWH, or Yahweh (transliterated Jehovah), which is derived
from the verb hayah, "to be." The verb of being! God does not stand in
history with a past and a future. He is forever present. He is!
For this reason, Jesus, being God, is "the same yesterday, and
today, and forever" (Heb. 13:8).
God invented time. He is the author of history. He already knows the
end from the beginning. He has determined it. Yet, in His sovereignty and omnipotence, He
is able to allow the freedom of human wills. (His ways are not our ways... Is. 55:8.)
It helps us in our faith to understand the "is-ness" of God.
Bearing His Nature
But it goes beyond this.
Jesus made it clear that He was the "I AM" of the Old
Testament (John 8:58).
Throughout John's gospel the Greek words ego eimi, which
literally translates "I, I am," was used to explain Jesus. Using this term, He
said of Himself:
I AM
Messiah (John 4:25-26)
the Bread of Life (John 6:35, 48, 51)
the Light of the World (John 8:12)
the Door of the Sheep (John 10:7)
the Good Shepherd (John 10:11)
the Resurrection and the Life (John 11:25)
Master (Teacher) and Lord (John 13:13)
the Way, the Truth, and the Life (John 14:6)
the True Vine (John 15:1)
Jesus (which means Salvation) (John 18:5-8)
"...as He is so are we in this world"
(1 John 4:17).
He is love, so we are love.
He is righteous, so we are righteous.
He is faith, so we are faith.
He is spirit, so we are spirit.
He is truth, so we are truth.
He is eternal life, so we are eternal life.
He is! So, we are!
As He is the great I AM, we have become in Him little "I am's."
Jesus said of Himself, "I am the Light of the world"
(John 8:12). He said to His disciples, "You are the light of the world"
(Matt. 5:14). The only way his disciples can be light is to have the Light of Life living
within them and shining through them. There is no way you can imitate Him. You are either
of His very nature or you are a phony.
This is not an ego trip for us to embark upon. I must remind the reader
that we enter in through repentance: meekness, gentleness, humility, submissiveness,
faithfulness, obedience. We take on His nature--He who emptied Himself.
The new order Christian, this new breed of crucified ones are becoming
more and more like Him. It is less a matter of doing and more a matter of being.
Jesus did what He did because of who He was. So it is with us who go on
from glory to glory, faith to faith--we will do more out of who we are than out of any
religious expectations put upon us.