Two Kinds of Believers # 3

The Lord said to me…”I will test my people with a Plumbline, Amos 7:8 (TLB)

The Plumbline is a blog to encourage the Body of Christ.

Two Kinds of Believers # 3

Ephesians 5:25-27 (NKJV) “25…27…that He might present her to Himself a GLORIOUS CHURCH…” This reflects Christ’s goal for the believer – a glorious church without spot or wrinkle and blemish free. Paul further teaches us in Ephesians 4:30 (TLB) Don’t cause the Holy Spirit sorrow by the way you live. Remember, he is the one who marks you to be present on that day when salvation from sin will be complete.

Let’s give a quick review from previous publications.

            Number One: Spiritual sons;

            Number Two: Mature sons;

            Number Three: New Born sons;

            Number Four: Healthy sons;

            Number Five: Wise sons;

           

Number Six: Selfless sons.

Paul points out this fact in Galatians 2:20 (KJV) “…I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me:” This doctrine is based on such passages as Romans 6:1-6 and 1 Corinthians 12:13, which explain that believers have been baptized by the Holy Spirit into Christ and into the church, the body of all true believers.

Number Seven: Crucified sons.

·      Galatians 5:24 (NKJV) And those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

·      Galatians 6:14 (NKJV) “…the cross…by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.

Symbol of the Body of Christ

The contrast is vivid as Paul declared his boasting to be in the Cross-of our Lord Jesus Christ. For the Judaizers the Cross-was an object of shame; for Paul it was the object of glorying. They gloried in the flesh; he gloried in the Savior. The “Cross” speaks of the atonement of Christ with which Paul was identified (cf. 2:20) and by which the world was crucified to Paul and he to the world.

Not all believers make the required effort to fully overcome the old sinful nature. Paul points this out in Corinthians 1 Corinthians 3:1,3 (NKJV) 1 And I, brethren, could not speak to you as to spiritual people but as to carnal, as to babes in Christ. 3 for you are still carnal. For where there are envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not carnal and behaving like mere men? These Corinthians were behaving in a worldly or unspiritual fashion instead of consistently resisting the inclinations of their old sinful nature. Paul pulls no punches when he wrote, Romans 8:7 (NKJV) Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be.

What makes the divisions in the body of Christ?  ANSWRER:  The Word of God going through the mind of the believer makes him more spiritual. We are actively partaking of Chrst. The Holy Spirit becomes our motivation, to live His life: The Christ-Life