Loving the Christ-life!

By Tammy Lacock

Warren lays down Paul’s gospel of Christ in the hopes that believers will fully grasp exactly what happens to us in that moment we believe. Only by God’s grace, our sin-natures were literally uprooted and another life, the Spirit of Christ, was planted in our very spirits, making us one spirit (1 Corinthians 6:7). This is what it means to be born again.

In fact, Paul tells us in Ephesians 1:4 that it was already in God’s mind before the foundation of the world for us to be in Christ:

“According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love.”

Christ’s death (“the lamb slain,” 1 Peter 1:19-20) and our rebirth in Christ were both in God’s plan before the foundation of the world. There is not one without the other. Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection ushered in grace, a brand-new gospel revealed only to Paul. This grace is Christ as our new life.

Paul’s gospel of grace is one of completion (Colossians 2:10). Before we were born again in Christ, we were incomplete. Now that God’s plan of Christ literally living in every believer has been finished by the Cross, we are finally free to be exactly who God created us to be. Paul’s letters reveal the battle in his mind of burying his old self and mindset and knowing his new risen life now in Christ. He wanted nothing more than to know Him, the Christ that now breathes his very breath.

Now that we are complete in Christ, the Holy Spirit will comfort and teach us of our new life in Him. We no longer live, Christ is our new life (Galatians 2:20), all of us one body in Him (1 Corinthians 12:12-14). Now is our chance to experience His Peace, resting only in Him as the one who now operates in us. No longer under the power of Satan, sin, and the law, we are completely free knowing who we are now in Christ. We live and move in Christ now. This is the abundant life Jesus spoke about when He said, “The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly” (John 10:10).

Paul reveals this to us in the hopes that we, too, seek to intimately know the Christ living in each of us and experience His oneness in our unique expressions of Him.

By Tammy Lacock

“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” (2 Corinthians 5:17)

Warren Litzman’s goal throughout this study is for listeners to get ahold of the Apostle Paul’s gospel of Christ, the only gospel for us today.

Paul’s gospel is simply this: By Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection, we as believers, are brand new creatures, a new race of people. By God’s grace, and by nothing we do or don’t do, we are now brand-new creatures by His uprooting of the sin nature, passed down by Adam through the curse of Satan, and His replacing it with Christ. Christ has been joined to our spirits making us one Spirit in Him (1 Corinthians 6:17). Christ is now literally living in us and because of Him our old lives are now dead and buried with Him. Yet when He rose from the dead, we arose with Him to a brand-new life. He, the person of Christ, is our new life. He is our salvation, our eternal life living within us right now.

“He who hath the Son hath life; and he who hath the Son of God hath not life.” (John 5:12)

However, Christianity today has ignored Paul’s gospel of Christ living in every believer. As a result, Christians don’t know who they are. Comingling works salvation and grace salvation, it’s no wonder we are confused. Paul tells us we are saved only by God’s grace. As Warren puts it, God poured out a whole bucket of grace on us, yet Christians have no idea what this grace is all about. By God’s Grace, not only are we saved by just believing, but we now have the very life of Christ in us, the life of the one who conquered death.

What does this mean?

Paul tells us that by God’s grace we now have the opportunity to know this very Christ who now lives in us. There is no separation between us and Christ. He will never leave us nor forsake us. As believers, we can get to know Christ now on a uniquely personal level because He lives within us. Paul wanted nothing more than to know this Christ, so much so that he made Christ his first love. So much so that he boasted in his weaknesses knowing these very weaknesses brought him closer to knowing Christ. In his weakness, Christ was his strength. Paul fell in love with Christ knowing he could do all things in Him.

By the help of the Holy Spirit, Paul says, our minds must be renewed (Ephesians 4:23), burying not only our old selves but also our old mindsets of who we thought we were and having the revelation and understanding of our new life in Christ. In fact, he tells us that we are predestinated with this understanding (Roman 8:29; Ephesians 1:11). God put this knowledge within us, and now our new lives in Christ can reveal it, helping us in our spiritual growth.

Paul realized his battle was not with the world or with Satan but with his own mind.

His struggle was transitioning from a believing mind to a knowing mind, a knowing that his old self no longer lives, and his new life is Christ (Galatians 2:20). All he wanted was to know this Christ and for this Christ to now live through him.

“Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 2:5)

“And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” (Romans 12:2)

“For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? but we have the mind of Christ.” (1 Corinthians 2:16)

By Tammy Lacock

“Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ.” (Philippians 3:8)

The question Warren Litzman begins with this week is, why did God choose Paul to deliver a message to humanity that no other person had ever heard before? In order to answer this question, it’s important to look at Paul’s life before his conversion on the way to Damascus. Paul was born into a wealthy Jewish family, privileged as a Roman citizen and highly educated. Today, his education would equate to two doctorates. In Philippians 3:5-7, Paul boasts of his life before Christ to show us that he had everything going for him in an earthly sense, considering himself to be an avid obeyer of the Jewish law and, in fact, blameless. He even persecuted Christians in his adherence to the law. He was a Pharisee.

Yet, in Philippians 3:8, Paul makes it clear that he now counts his upbringing and scholarly background worthless, nothing but dung. Without any doubt, he gladly loses it, lest any or all of it get in the way of knowing Christ.

Paul was utterly determined to share with the world what Christ, Himself, revealed only to him. Paul’s gospel is by Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection, we as believers, are rebirthed, given a new life. Christ’s death ushered in God’s amazing Grace being poured out unto us by the Holy Spirit. By His grace, God can now uproot the sin-natures and replace it with the incorruptible seed of Christ (Peter) in our very spirits, making us one spirit in Him (1 Corinthians 6:17). Christ now lives in us, literally, not figuratively. By Christ living in us, we are born again into God’s family, now His bona fide sons and daughters.

We see in Ephesians chapter 1 that Paul was given insight into God’s plan. In verse 4, Paul reveals that Christ living in us was God’s plan before the foundation of the world. It took over 4,000 years for God to reveal His plan, and Paul knew it. Furthermore, Paul knew it was only revealed to him. In chapter one, Paul continues to reiterate that God’s plan has everything to do with Christ. He makes it clear in verse 10:

“That in the dispensation of the fulness of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth; even in him.”

Throughout Paul’s writings, we can see that this is a man whose heart and mind has been captured by Christ. He was determined to know Christ. If this meant suffering, then he says bring on the suffering. He was determined to share this revelation of Christ in him to the world because he knew Christianity wouldn’t work without it.

“For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.” (1 Corinthians 2:2)

God used Paul’s zeal in his new life in Christ. God chose Paul to reveal His Son in him first because He knew Paul’s zealous mind could now be used to reveal this message to us. By the help of the Holy Spirit, Paul was given this radical mind-change of an outer Christ to Christ living in him. He wanted nothing more than to know this Christ and for us to have this radical mind-change, too!

By Tammy Lacock

“But when it pleases God, who separated me from my mother’s womb, and called me by his grace, To reveal his Son in me that I might preach him among the heathen; immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood.” (Galatians 1:16)

In this podcast series, it is Warren Litzman’s ultimate goal to help us understand the Apostle Paul’s gospel, the final gospel to the world, so that we might understand who we are and why we are here. Paul, the meanest man on earth at the time by his persecuting Christians, was raised up by Christ Himself to bring us this new gospel.

Only two men in the Bible were raised up by God to bring us a gospel. Moses brought us the law (Old Testament); and Paul brought us grace (New Testament), the gospel of Christ. Paul’s gospel of grace supersedes any other gospel, including the Kingdom gospel preached initially by Peter and the disciples.

In Galatians 1:16, the Apostle Paul tells us something that has never been told before, that the Holy Spirit had revealed to him that Christ is now living in him, literally, not figuratively. Paul taught of Christ living in us and we in Him over and over throughout his letters. This is Paul’s gospel, the final gospel of God’s grace for humanity. That by Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection, we as believers, have been rebirthed by the very seed of Christ in our spirits (1 Corinthians 6:17). By just believing, God can now uproot Satan’s sin-nature passed down by the curse through Adam and replace it with the incorruptible seed of Christ (1 Peter 1:23). By this, we are made brand-new creations, no longer bound by law, sin, and death. God now sees Christ in us as our righteousness, making us His bona fide sons and daughters. By Christ, we are complete. Only by Christ. Our identity is Christ. In Him, we are now free to live who God created us to be.

Warren Litzman points out the importance of understanding the role of the Holy Spirit, part of which is to teach God’s born-again children about our new identity. Jesus tells us in John’s gospel that the Holy Spirit will come upon us to be our teacher and our comforter, helping us to understand our new life in Christ, our new life in grace. The Holy Spirit’s power is revealing Christ and who He is now living in us.

“At that day (Pentecost) ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.” (John 14:20)

The Holy Spirit renews our minds, as Paul says, helping us to understand and cultivate a beautifully unique and reciprocal love affair with Christ, the Christ that now lives in each of us who believe. The Christ that is our strength, our hope, our peace, our very life. This is why we are here, to learn of Him, to know Him, to rest in Him, and to fall in love with Him more and more every day.

By Tammy Lacock

“Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.” (John 12:24)

This week, Warren Litzman asks believers if they know the real Jesus. In fact, he emphasizes unless one has the revelation of the Apostle Paul’s gospel, what Paul calls the revelation of the mystery, we will never truly know Him.

In John 12:24, Christ gives us a glimpse into this mystery when He speaks of His coming death. Here He tells us that unless He (the corn of wheat) dies; there is no other way to bring forth His fruit. Because by dying, He can now literally live in every believer and bring forth His fruit through us. Christ is revealing here the mystery Paul shares with us throughout his epistles, that Christ’s death on the cross included our death too—to our old lives, the old man. And when Christ arose, we arose as well, to a brand-new life—a completely different life and divine nature—now bringing forth His fruit. By His death, burial, and resurrection, our old Satan sin-nature is literally uprooted, and Christ is planted as our very spirit, making us one spirit in Him (1 Corinthians 6:17).

“To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” (Colossians 1:27)

The fruit Jesus speaks of in John 12:24 is the reciprocal love of believers as they come to know the Christ that lives in them now, the only way to know the real Jesus. We don’t get to know Jesus by what He does. We know Him by His life within us. Jesus’ outer works and miracles will not give us the revelation of who He is in us.

Only by the help of the Holy Spirit, through His work in our souls (where our minds reside), can we truly begin to know Christ and, therefore, freely love Him back. His love saves, not ours. Yet loving Him is how God created us to live, in a reciprocal loving relationship with Him. We now live, move, and have our being in Christ. It is only in this love affair with Christ in us where we can truly live out who God created us to be.

“All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him.” (Matthew 11:27)

“At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.” (John 14:20)

Christ as our life and identity fully equips us to live our new life and new creation, composing the Body of Christ eternally.

“That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.” (John 17:21-23)

By Tammy Lacock

In this new study, Warren Litzman sets out to make known the true and only gospel for believers today, that is the Apostle Paul’s gospel of grace.

There are two pillars that form the foundation of this gospel, and it’s these pillars that help us to discern it in a world where Christians are commingling gospels.

These pillars are:

“According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love.” (Ephesians 1:4)

“But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you.” (1 Peter 1:19-20)

Both pillars make Paul’s gospel clear that this is a gospel God had in mind before the world was created and now God revealed it to Paul (and later Peter) to proclaim to the whole world in this current dispensation of grace.

Paul’s gospel is quite simple: By Christ’s death (lamb slain) burial, and resurrection, we as believers, are saved by Christ now living in us (chosen in Him). This was a gospel like no other. And when Israel rejected it, Christ told Paul to take it to the Gentiles (Acts 28:28).

“To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” (Colossians 1:27)

However, there are two kinds of Christians in our world today. Those who know they are saved by Christ in them and those who know they are saved yet are searching for Christ outside of themselves, commingling grace and works salvation. Paul tells us the problem with this is that believers who search for Christ outside of themselves will never truly live who God created them to be. They are saved and going to heaven, but they never had the mind-change, or mind-renewal, to the Christ that now lives in them. Moreover, they will never get to really know Him and fall in love with Him. Paul tells us we need to have a radical mind-change, moving from an outer mindset to knowing Christ who now lives in us, joined to our spirits making us one spirit in Him (1 Corinthians 6:17).

Warren reminds us that, in order to understand Paul’s gospel, we must rightly divide the word of truth (Hebrews 4:12; 2 Timothy 2:15). To understand what actually took place within us as believers, we must rightly divide our souls and spirits. We were born again in our spirits, made perfect here by the incorruptible seed of Christ. Yet in our souls, where our minds reside and where the Holy Spirit works, we are perfecting (maturing). This is where the love affair with Christ takes place, in our souls. The Holy Spirit teaches us and comforts us in our new life in Christ. It is here where we truly learn to let go of our old selves, the old man, and begin to truly learn Christ. It is here where we begin to learn reciprocal love. It is here where our minds undergo such a radical change that we choose Christ over everything else, making Him our everything, our first love (Revelation 2:4). We were chosen in Him before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4). Now it’s time to choose Him.

By Tammy Lacock

In this final week study of Jesus and Paul, Warren Litzman takes us right to the heart of Paul’s gospel of grace by helping us understand two very important scriptures.

“Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” (2 Timothy 2:15)

“For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” (Hebrews 4:12)

Paul tells us in these two verses that we need to rightly divide scripture if we are to understand his gospel. Otherwise, then we don’t have the truth.

Warren explains that the Bible is divided between prophecy and mystery. Four-fifths of the Bible reveals law and prophecy and is directed toward Israel. The other one-fifth reveals the mystery of Paul’s gospel of grace and is directed to the born-again believer. Paul tells us we must rightly divide this truth, taking it further by dividing soul and spirit. The Old Testament, directed toward Israel, was based on soul salvation by outer works. Yet Paul tells us we are saved in our spirits. As born-again believers, we are no longer saved by our outer works, but by the miracle of Christ joining us to Him in spirit, making us one with Him. A Christian is one in whom Christ lives. We no longer are to know Him outside of us. No longer is our righteousness gained through obedience (Israel). In the New Testament, under Paul’s gospel of grace for us now, our righteousness is a person, and that person is Christ, His incorruptible seed birthed within us as believers. Now that our outer works are no longer required for salvation, we can finally rest in our new life in Christ.

In fact, in Galatians 2:20, Paul makes it very clear that our old lives are dead, crucified with Christ. We have moved from a soul/law mindset to a spirit/grace mindset. From law to grace, from law to Christ. The more we can see that our old selves, including our old mindsets, are dead, the more we can rest in the fullness of our new life in Christ and finally live who God created us to be.

“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20)

By Tammy Lacock

“That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death.” (Philippians 3:10)

This week, Warren Litzman’s goal is to help us know and understand the Apostle Paul, before and after his conversion, as a means of understanding our own death and new life in Christ. Warren explains, through Paul’s revelation knowledge given by the Holy Spirit, that this understanding comes only by first realizing that our old lives, including our old mindsets, have died with Christ on the cross. Our old lives are dead and buried. This becomes the baseline of our new life in Christ.

In Philippians 3:5-6, Paul talks about how he could boast of his fleshly life before his conversion. He was circumcised on the eighth day, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee, and being blameless in righteousness by the law. Yet he makes a very important point to tell us that his old life, before coming to Christ, is nothing, by likening it to mere dung (Philippians 3:8). In fact, he tells us in Philippians 3 that he wants nothing more than to know Christ. Paul contrasts our previous focus of who we thought we were all of our lives before coming to Christ, in our flesh, and our new focus on our brand-new life in Christ. As believers, we died with Christ on the cross, our old lives buried, and we arose to a new life in Him, making us one in Spirit in Him (1 Corinthians 6:17).

Knowing his old self and old life are dead and buried, Paul can now know exactly what it means to rest in Christ.

Paul’s gospel reveals to us an inner Christ. No longer do we look for Christ outside of us, as did His disciples and those before His death. For the first time, Christ is manifested through a human being, through Paul. And it’s only through revelation knowledge does he learns to let go of his old self, his old mindset, and he begins to truly rest in Christ, his new life. We see Paul becoming a deeply hungry man for Christ, seeking only to know Him and to fall in love with Him more and more every day.

This is the gospel for us today! By God’s amazing grace, we are no longer bound by sin, death, and law. As believers in Christ, our old lives are dead now, along with our old identity, everything that made us who we were. By His death, burial, and resurrection, we died and were buried, too. Yet when Christ arose, we arose with Him, making us brand-new creations in Him. By His very life within us now, we can truly rest in Him, knowing our old lives are dead and buried and Christ is all we need.

By Tammy Lacock

“Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.” (Romans 6:6)

Warren Litzman continues to explain the importance of understanding the Apostle Paul’s revelation knowledge, which he shares with us throughout his epistles.

In order to understand this revelation knowledge, Paul tells us we must undergo a radical mind-change and a continual mind-renewal. This takes place by the teaching and comfort of the Holy Spirit who reveals to us just what it means to now be in Christ, to live a new life in Him while letting go of our old lives. The Holy Spirit is integral in transitioning us from our sin-natured mindset to knowing Christ.

In Romans chapter 6, Warren dives into the four “knowings” which the Holy Spirit reveals to Paul and he shares with us. These “knowings” are revelations of who we are now in Christ. As brand-new creations, we can know now that our old lives, along with our old mindsets, have been crucified and buried with Christ. By His death, burial, and resurrection, we are no longer bound by law, sin, and death. We can now choose to serve sin or to serve Christ. As believers, our spirits are made perfect by Him. We are now joined to Him, making us one Spirit in Him (1 Corinthians 6:17). He will never leave us nor forsake us, no matter what we do or don’t do. Being one with Him in spirit, however, doesn’t mean we are one with Him in our souls (we are a tripartite being: soul, body, spirit). Our minds reside within the soul part of us. This part of us can still be stuck in the sin-mindset, still making decisions without the knowledge of who we are now in Christ. Christ wants to use our minds now but He can only use a renewed mind.

“Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 2:5 KJV)

And by revelation knowledge given to us by the Holy Spirit, we can learn to let go of the “old man”, and more importantly, our old mindsets, and hand them over to Christ, who now lives in us and who can now come through us in our renewed minds. This is where our love affair with Him takes place. This is where we truly get to know Him personally and deeply. This is where we choose Him over everything else, even the identities we’ve been holding onto all of our lives. We are no longer the “old man.” Yet we hold on to the old mindset. Paul tells us that our ongoing mind-renewal of who we are now in Christ gives us an understanding that we always have a choice, a choice to serve Christ or a choice to serve sin. A choice to know Him or a choice to ignore Him. Love is a choice. As we get to know Christ as our new life, as the very life within us now, the one who is our strength, our peace, and our joy, we undergo a continual mind-renewal. We begin to realize more and more that the only thing that really matters is choosing Him and loving Him, making it easier and easier to let go of a mindset that keeps us tied to our old lives.

“But ye have not so learned Christ; If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus: That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; And be renewed in the spirit of your mind.” (Ephesians 4:20-23)

“Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds; And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him.” (Colossians 3:9-10)

By Tammy Lacock

This week, Warren dissects Romans Chapter 6 by breaking down the revelation knowledge given to Paul, and only Paul, by the Holy Spirit.

As believers in Christ, in order for us to understand this revelation knowledge shared through Paul, we must first understand who we are now. By just believing in Christ, a radical change took place within our spirits. The Holy Spirit literally uprooted the Satan nature within us, passed down by the curse of Adam through Satan, and replaced it with Christ. By Him, we are brand new creations, joined to Him making us one spirit. This is what it means to be born again. God no longer sees us; He sees Christ, making us His bona fide sons and daughters.

“But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.” (1 Corinthians 6:17).

“For by one Spirit [Holy Spirit] are we all baptized into one body [Christ], whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.” (1 Corinthians 12:13 KJV)

Paul speaks to us as if we know who we are now in Christ and we understand the radical change that took place within us. And it’s in knowing who we are now that helps bring us from a believing mindset to a knowing mindset that Paul speaks of.

Paul reveals to us four areas of “knowing” in Romans Chapter 6 that can help us transition from a believing mindset to a knowing mindset. He helps us to understand that with Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection, we as believers, share in His death, burial, and resurrection. We died on the cross too; our old lives are completely dead and buried. And now, we have arisen with Christ to a brand-new life in Him. We are dead and by Him; He is now our new life, the very life within us. We are freed from the bondage of law, sin, and death. The greatest superhero of all lives right inside of us now. It is by this revelation knowledge of being now complete in Christ, knowing Him in a unique and personal way, and falling in love with Him in us that we can finally and freely live out our lives true to who God created us to be.