Within the inner private depths of every man, there is the mysterious essence of a man’s being. Without reference to any other part of man’s complex nature – psychological categories of the subconscious mind – the ego, id, super-ego, will – whatever name has been assigned by the greatest psychologists such as Carl Jung, or Sigmund Freud, here we find the inner man – his or her significant self.
Do you know Who you are? From God’s perspective, man’s being or self-recognition is the consciousness of the man’s “I Am,” which is a gift from the great “I AM” who created him. “I AM” is the name that God told Moses to call Him when he returned to Egypt to rescue the Jewish slaves prior to the Exodus.
The sense of “I am” individually comes from God, who is underived and self-existent. The “I am” which is man is derived from God and dependent every moment upon His creative authority and sustenance for each person’s continued existence. “For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him” (Col. 1:15 ESV)
The “I AM” – the initiator – the Creator, is above all, He dwells in unapproachable light. The other “I am John”, or “I am Sarah”, is the individual created man or woman – each a creature though privileged beyond all others – a creature, reliant on God’s provisional bounty of life.
Within the depth of man – the human entity – is what the Scriptures refer to as the spirit of man. “For who knows a person’s thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God” (I Cor. 2:11) Man’s self-knowledge is by his own spirit. God’s self-knowledge lies in His eternal Spirit.
If we are to understand the knowledge of God, and fully comprehend who we personally it must be by the direct impression of the Spirit of God upon the spirit of man. It is important to grasp this difference: Man is NOT a bodily creature having a spirit. Rather he is a spirit having a body. That which makes him a human being is not his body but his spirit.
Jesus gives man clarity to see that each individual is an important son or daughter of God. The image of God originally was created present within man at creation. How do we get back to this state or at least nearer to this state we had at creation? The goal of Jesus was to bring us back to our state of mind that allows us to open our viewpoint to this paradigm: “he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father”, with the result that we are “no longer strangers and aliens, but…fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God” and we are “being joined together…into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit” (Eph. 2:18-22 ESV)
Why is the New Covenant that important The New Testament presents a New Covenant teaching of Jesus Christ, which He taught was to begin after His death and resurrection and ascension to His Father. In fact, while sharing the wine at the last supper He said, “this is my blood of the covenant” – to use a metaphor for His blood that he would soon shed on behalf of man to achieve this new relationship agreement we can now have with God (see Matt.26:28). The cross would sift out the true followers of God, who would respond to recognize Christ’s work of redemption when He sacrificed His life for our sin to ransom us from death. They would listen to the call of the gospel to come into His kingdom to enjoy a renewed relationship with the Father via His Spirit uniting with their spirits.
“But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him… God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth” (John 4:23, 24 ESV)
The very nature of worship is indicated to be wholly spiritual. True religion is removed from the former legalistic methods of the Jewish race given by Moses as shadow-types – metaphors of the true union of man with God. These old rituals were tutorials meant to teach men about restoring the union with God that Jesus would come to achieve through changing the point of view and the method of the old covenant’s diet and days, garments and ceremonies, holy and most holy places, placing it where it always belonged – in the reality of the union of the spirit of man with the Spirit of God.
From man’s standpoint, the most tragic loss suffered in his falling away from God after creation (through disobedience of God’s command), was the vacating of this inner sanctum by the Spirit of God which then was in union with the spirit of man.
At the epicentre of man’s being, within his mind, is to be the dwelling place of the Triune God – the Most Holy place of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Therein is the place where God planned to dwell – to rest in unity with man from the beginning of creation – within the temple of man’s body, within its citadel – in man’s mind, in his thoughts, within the perception of his conscientious attention, feelings and intention. God desires that man seek Him as his loving Father, inquire of, and be guided in life by Him.
The New Covenant teaches that after the cross, and after the outpouring of the gift of the Holy Spirit, which occurred after Christ’s ascension (see Acts 2), the temple of the Holy Spirit resides within the mind of man, within the fellowship of believers in allegiance to the New Covenant of Jesus Christ. “Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own” (1 Cor. 6:19 ESV)
Teaching about the Holy Spirit is central to the New Covenant Jesus taught His disciples, prior to His ascension, the following importance of the reunification of the Spirit of God with the spirit of man as the essential determinate of a true Christian within the New Covenant. The plan of the cross was to teach man about his utter rebellion and departure from the original union God had at creation with man. This rebellion would be proven by mankind’s actual crucifixion of his own creator. The text quoted above was about the supremacy of Jesus Christ from the beginning of time: “by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth” (see Colossians ch. 1). As the Son of God, in union with the Father, He assured the disciples the following:
“I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth…you know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you… In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you” (John 14:16-17a; 20 ESV)
Note how instrumental Jesus is in this reunification of God the Father reaching out in the plan of redemption to offer the provision of His interactive, communicative Spirit as a gift of reunion with mankind. “The Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things” (John 14:26 ESV) Again we see that Jesus is sending the Spirit, though the Spirit proceeds from the Father: “But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me” (John 15:26 ESV)
Here we see that the Spirit relates what Jesus has as creator to communicate with the creature: “When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you…he will take what is mine and declare it to you” (John 16:13-14 ESV) Looking at John ch. 15, in context, this communicative guidance of words – or Scripture in our perspective – is coming from Jesus via the Spirit in close relationship to the disciple abiding with Jesus, which is indicated here: “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you…when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me” (John 15:7,26 ESV)
Jesus prayed this prayer for his disciples and for all who would believe the Gospel message to mankind about the impartation of the Holy Spirit reuniting man’s spirit to God’s Spirit again as one family relating together as one unit: “…that they may be one, even as we are one…that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one.” (John 17:11, 20-23 ESV)
God wants to accomplish complete unity among His children on earth who accept His New Covenant arrangement. He desires to dwell with man’s spirit united individually and collectively in the church with His Spirit as one fellowship. The Christian church is the goal of the Spirit of the Father in Jesus Christ imparted also to His covenant believers who unite intelligently, allegiant to Him: “I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity.” (John 17:23 NIV)
The mind of man as the temple of God is so intimately private – a place that no creature can intrude; no one can enter, but Christ’s Spirit; and He will enter only by the invitation of faith. “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.” (Rev. 3:20). By the mysterious operation of the Spirit in the new birth, that which is called by Peter “the divine nature” enters the conscious core of the believer’s heart and establishes residence there. “if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ.” for “the Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children” (Rom. 8:9, 16 NASB). Such a one is a true Christian, and only such.
Your new identity As a child of God we are directed by the Lord to “be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness” (Eph. 4:23-24 ESV) Our spirits, united to and regenerated by the Spirit of God, to live holy lives, now takes on a new identity. We are now sons and daughters of God.
Replacing tradition with a relationship to Jesus Christ Baptism, confirmation, the receiving of the sacraments, church membership – these mean nothing unless the supreme act of God in regeneration also takes place – via the indwelling of the Spirit of God. Religious externals such as keeping one day per week holy may have a meaning for the God-inhabited soul; for many others they are not only useless but may actually become snares, deceiving them into a false and perilous sense of security. Therefore, it is important to understand the importance of this study, to “keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life” (Prov. 4:23 ESV)