Loving the Christ-life!

By Tammy Lacock

“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 KJV)

Warren Litzman speak of the intricate relationship between Jesus and the Apostle Paul. Their relationship is more intimate than any other relationship in the Bible as we begin to see, through Paul’s epistles, God’s plan for humanity as we transition from law to grace.

From the beginning of His earthly life, Jesus was royally mistreated. His life was threatened first by King Herod, being told the Messiah and King of Kings would be born, when he ordered the death of all boys under 2 years old. His own family rejected Him. And as an adult, He was not only rejected by His own people, but He was also nailed to and hung on a cross, left to die by them. He faced the peril of His humanity more than anyone. Jesus never had it easy as He came to preach to the Jews the Kingdom gospel, which is heaven on earth. As we have learned, this gospel was postponed by their rejection of Him. In His obedience to God, Christ knew He must fulfill His Father’s ultimate plan for humanity by His death on the cross. We must understand that Christ was and is a person. He felt all the emotions and feelings that humans did—and He still does—not as Jesus of Nazareth now but through us.

When He arose from the dead, He brought the message of peace to His people. And on the Day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit delivered the incorruptible seed of Christ into every believer. Christ’s life on earth was never beautiful and never peaceful. But His perfect peace now resides in every believer and this is exactly where He wants to be. He went from being in the body of Jesus of Nazareth to being in the body of His church, in every believer. He is alive and well in us! God’s plan from the beginning was finally complete.

In Ephesians 1:4, Apostle Paul tells us about God’s plan from the beginning. The word according in this verse tells us that God’s original plan, before anything, was to place Christ in every believer. In fact, it tells us that this is God’s plan for every single one of us, every single human being. Every one of us has been chosen to live in Christ. We must understand though that not everyone has Christ in them at this point in time. Nonetheless, all made in His image and likeness were chosen by God to have this new life. The only prerequisite is believing in Christ as our Lord and Savior (Acts 16:31).

The Apostle Paul was the only one raised up by Christ Himself to reveal to us that we no longer live by the law. Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection ushered us into a dispensation of grace; and Christ living in every believer is God’s grace being poured out onto humanity. Paul was the first person through whom Christ would manifest His grace and the only person He revealed it to. This is why Paul tells us, “Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ” (1 Corinthians 11:1). His gospel of grace is not a corporate gospel but individual to each believer. Christ comes through each of us differently and uniquely, just how God created us to be.

Since most of us have been raised under law-religion, we’ve been programmed to live this way. Therefore, humanity is still struggling to understand Paul’s gospel of grace. Focusing on our works blinds us to Christ living in us as our new life. The Holy Spirit helps with our constant mind renewal so we may live fully in grace now. Paul’s gospel tells us, by grace, being joined to Christ in one spirit (1 Corinthians 6:17), God sees Christ in us as our righteousness.

Paul’s gospel reveals the completion of God’s plan for us. God knew, from the beginning, that He would never have a people that would be able to put ourselves aside and love Him reciprocally on our own. Only by placing His incorruptible seed (Christ) and uprooting our sin-nature from the curse of Adam would we not only be seen as righteous by God but we would now be able to grow in a true and loving relationship with Him as His bona fide sons and daughters. As believers, we are crucified with Christ, and we arose with Him to a new life in Him. This is our completion. Our minds need to catch up to this truth.

We were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world. And now, since Christ’s death and resurrection, God’s plan is complete in every believer. Now that we have Christ in us, Paul says, no longer are we under the law. We now live by His grace.

Yet, as believers still living under religion and law, most of us can only say we know all about Christ. Paul says, it’s time to put away our childish ways (1 Corinthians 13:11) and know Him as our very life! Only then can we begin to understand who we are and who God created us to be.

By Tammy Lacock

In this week’s podcast of Jesus and Paul, Part 2, Warren Litzman helps us rightly divide the Scriptures to distinguish and understand the one true gospel for believers today.

First, we must take a look at the gospel of Jesus of Nazareth and define His gospel before we can understand Paul’s gospel. Before His death, burial, and resurrection, Christ preached the Kingdom message, that God’s Kingdom is at hand. For the Jews, this meant heaven on earth. Being under the Judaic law, He preached works as a condition of being pleasing to God. He was obligated by God not to destroy the law but to fulfill the law and prophecy. Jesus wasn’t obligated to bring the message of grace, yet He was grace personified by His unrelenting forgiveness of sins and keeping the company of sinners. He could not yet preach grace because He had not yet died as a sacrifice, as an atonement for our sins and the sin of Adam passed down to us.

When the Jews rejected Christ as their Messiah, the kingdom message was postponed. In obedience to His Father in heaven, Christ’s knew His death was imminent and needed to fulfill God’s plan for humanity.

Paul’s gospel is that of pure grace, of new life, and completion in Christ. Christ’s death and resurrection ushered in grace and now there was nothing we could do or not do (no more works) to be saved. Christ did the work on the cross and by His blood, by His grace, we are saved. Christ raised up only Paul to bring this message of grace and new life to humanity. By just believing, we are saved. Yet Paul doesn’t stop there. He reveals to us a message of completion. He calls it the “revelation of the mystery” which is the literal planting of Christ’s seed, the incorruptible seed, in every believer. This is what it means to be born again, to have new life. We are brand new creations by the completion of Christ in us, literally and not figuratively.

On the Day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit planted the seed of Christ in the spirit of every believer, making us one Spirit in Christ (1 Corinthians 6:17).

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

However, it wasn’t until Christ raised up Paul, and only Paul, that we would know exactly what happened on that Day of Pentecost. Paul calls it the mystery hidden from us through the ages yet planned by God before the foundation of the world (1 Corinthians 2:7).

“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: having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will.” (Ephesians 1:4)

Paul’s gospel of grace and new life fulfills what Jesus said in John 12:24:

“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.”

Only by Christ’s death and resurrection can we be born again, having a new life and even more so, an abundant life. The abundant life is Christ living in each of us, completing us, and bearing His fruit through us. We no longer live for our own glory but for Christ to be glorified through us. God no longer sees our works as pleasing to Him; He sees Christ. By Christ we are now His bona fide children, born into His family. We are complete by Christ, through Christ, and in Christ.

Paul’s gospel of grace, Christ in us, is a message of the fulfillment of Christ’s death and resurrection, which is our completion in Him.

“Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints: 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 1:26-27)

“And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power." (Colossians 2:10)

By Tammy Lacock

This week begins a new study which Warren Litzman calls Jesus and Paul. Warren focuses on the Apostle Paul as having an intricate role in God’s plan as the only man raised up by Christ Himself to bring to humanity a new and final gospel, the gospel of grace, which tells us where Christ is now and who we are now in God’s plan.

In Christianity today, we have a church that brings us a confused Christ, putting Him into two different categories but meshing them together. In one category, we try to live like Christ, which only makes us frustrated and ultimately defeated because this isn’t and has never been God’s plan for us. In the other category, Paul tells us that by God’s grace, Christ is our very life. We are not to live like Him but rather our old selves have “been crucified with Christ,” and our new life is Him living within us. We are no longer to know Him as Jesus of Nazareth but now as the one who lives in us and through us, our Lord of glory (Colossians 1:27). Christ is no longer an outer person; He lives within us being joined to our spirits making us one spirit (1 Corinthians 6:17).

The problem is that we commingle these two gospels not realizing that Paul’s gospel is the one true and final gospel for today. That is, Paul’s message of Christ living in every believer through God’s grace. Paul’s gospel of Christ moves us out of salvation by law and into salvation by grace, that is by Christ’s death and resurrection. We are now brand-new creations in Him. God no longer sees us; He sees Christ. This was God’s plan before the foundation of the world.

“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 KJV)

In His last words on the cross, Christ said, “Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit” (Luke 23:46) and “It is finished” (John 19:30). At the cross, Christ’s ministry in the body of Jesus of Nazareth was finished, allowing God’s plan of Christ’s spirit living in every believer to be fulfilled. Finally, Jesus is vibrantly alive the way He wants to be…not in the body manufactured by Mary but as a gift of life to every believer.

Jesus became the utter fulfillment of who He was to be in God’s plan. He went from living in one body, Jesus of Nazareth, to living out His eternal life in another body, the Church, the one Body of Christ. God put the incorruptible seed of Christ in every believer, His spirit joined to ours.

However, we didn’t know what had happened when this radical change took place. The only way we would know is through the Apostle Paul. Paul’s conversion on the way to Damascus was the beginning of Christ raising up only one man to deliver this new gospel. When it was revealed to him that Christ was His very life, living in him (Gal. 1:15-17), Paul shared it with the world. He underwent a radical mind change, and his mind continually renewed in his new life in Christ. Yet it was hard for the world to take hold of this new gospel because Christianity was and still is holding onto the outer Christ in Jesus of Nazareth. This commingling of gospels has gotten us to a place where we don’t know who we are.

Yet Paul tells us who we are. We must follow Paul as he follows Christ (1 Corinthians 11:1) to understand our new life and who we are now in Christ. We are bona fide children of God by the very life of Christ now living within us. We are one body in Christ. This was God’s plan from the beginning. We (humans) were chosen to be in Him, and giving thanks to Paul, this final gospel has been revealed to us!

“For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ.” (1 Corinthians 12:12 KJV)

By Tammy Lacock

“Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace.” (Ephesians 2:15 KJV)

In this week’s podcast, Warren Litzman continues to explain, through Paul’s epistles, how extremely important having a radical mind-change is to our new life in Christ.

First, we must understand what it means to be in Christ. In Ephesians 2:15, Paul says by Christ’s death on the cross, He abolished salvation by law and ushered in salvation by grace, bringing peace between God and man and Jew and Gentile. By His death and resurrection (His conquering of death), Christ atoned for our sins and the curse passed down to us through Adam by Satan. We are freed from that old life. Even more, we are born again by Christ’s very life within us now. For the first time, through Christ, God did away with the old man and made Jews and Gentiles the same, one new man. By Christ’s work on the cross, and not by our own works, we are all reconciled to God and to each other. By His life within us now, God no longer sees our old identities and what we do or don’t do to be saved. He sees Christ. He is our new life. By God’s grace, we are complete in Christ and now a new race of people.

It’s important to understand that since we are brand-new creations in Christ, we no longer have a past. We are “babes in Christ” now, as Warren puts it. If we are to grow up in Him and live now who God created us to be, our minds must be cleared of our old understanding of who we were. Our minds must understand the radical change that took place within our spirits in that moment we believed in Christ as our Lord and Savior. We underwent a rebirth by Christ’s Spirit now being joined to ours (1 Corinthians 6:17). Yet our minds must undergo this radical change as well. This takes time. The Holy Spirit comforts us and teaches us about our new life in Christ and uses the circumstances and situations of life to help us in this mental transition.

Warren notes that there have been at least four gospels in scripture, all true but each having a significance in its time, place, and purpose. Christ, Himself, raised up only Paul to bring us a new gospel, that of Christ living in every believer. This gospel is for us today. God put the Spirit of His one Son in every believer, speaking to us now through Him (Hebrews 1:2; 1 John 1:5).

Throughout his epistles, Paul tells us how to live our new life in Christ. This is the gospel of Jesus Christ, from law to grace, from outer works to His work within us. We now know Him living in us, no longer knowing Him as Jesus of Nazareth but as our Lord of Glory (Colossians 1:27)!

“And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.” (Ephesians 4:24 KJV)

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 KJV)

Throughout Apostle Paul’s epistles, he consistently tells about the importance of renewing our minds as we live our new life in Christ.

Paul proclaimed a new gospel to believers, that by Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection, our sin-nature—which passed down by the curse of Satan through Adam—has been literally uprooted and replaced with the incorruptible Seed, Christ, making us now brand-new creations. When Christ died, our old lives died, too. We were freed from the bondage of sin and Satan. When Christ arose, we arose as well, to a brand-new life in Him!

Paul tells us an integral component to renewing our minds to our new life in Christ is to understand that, although our pasts can never go away, by the help of the Holy Spirit, we can learn to let go of our old identities, no matter what they were.

In this week’s podcast, Warren Litzman boils it down to letting go of anything and everything that made us who we thought we were before coming to Christ, even down to our first birthing. As new creations in Christ, we must understand that we have been rebirthed and are babes in Christ now. We now have no past in our brand-new life. Yet Paul tells us that our minds have been so deeply rooted in our old identities that we need a constant mind renewal to who we are now in Christ, if we are ever to fully live who God created us to be. Our pasts keep our minds from learning and growing in Him. We must learn to let go of our pasts and old mindsets so that we can allow the new knowledge of Christ living in us to take hold.

Paul wanted nothing more than to let go of his old identities (his upbringing, his status, his education etc.); yet he suffered these losses every day as the Holy Spirit renewed his mind to the knowledge of his new life in Christ. He says it plainly yet ever so passionately in Philippians 3:8:

“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.”

Paul’s gospel of Christ living in us ushered in what Christ is now doing in our inner being, as opposed to the outer works, he performed while he was here on earth.

As brand-new creations in Him, God no longer sees the “old man” and no longer sees what we do or don’t do (our outer works) to be saved. He sees Christ in us. He is our righteousness, our only hope of glory!

May we undergo this radical mind-change by letting go of our pasts and living our new identity in Christ, allowing Him to come through us now.

“For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature.” (Galatians 6:15 KJV)

By Tammy Lacock

“For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.” (Romans 8:29 KJV)

Warren Litzman’s study of “Renewing The Mind” continues by dissecting Paul’s epistles. Here in Romans 8:29, Paul tells us we were predestined in God’s plan to be conformed to Christ. As believers, this is important to understand (for mind-renewal) as we live our new life in Him. We were chosen in Him before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4) and therefore chosen to be God’s children.

Warren explains that our process of adoption into God’s family has two parts. The first part is being adopted into God’s family by the literal uprooting of Satan’s seed, the corruptible seed, in us and replacing it with the Seed of Christ, the incorruptible Seed. Now, God sees Christ in us (His righteousness, not ours) making us His bona fide children. The second part of our adoption is the process of fitting into our new family. This is where the circumstances and situations of life push us to Christ, who now lives in us, helping us understand who we are now and who God created us to be.

Everything in the outer world is meant to push us into an inner life with Him so we can understand our new life and our new family. When we understand that everything is created for Christ and in Christ, then we can understand that nothing is contrary to Him and “all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose” (Roman’s 8:28). No matter what we go through here in this life, it is all meant to bring us into a deeper relationship with Christ.

As we begin an inner relationship with Christ, we are no longer dependent on ourselves or anything outside of us to overcome our life’s challenges and trials. Christ is the overcomer. He that is in us is greater than he (Satan) that is in the world. Paul was renewed from the inside out and not the other way around. His relationship with Christ in him was all he really wanted, knowing that Christ will take care of everything outside of him. We can see this through Paul’s own trials of being shipwrecked three times, stoned almost to death and being imprisoned for most of his last days of life. He knew his sufferings brought him into a deeper relationship with Christ. And if this was the case, he welcomed them.

Warren further explains through Paul’s second letter to the Corinthians 11-18, that we must go through a constant death of our old selves, no longer conforming to this world but focusing our minds (mind-renewal) on Christ within us, so He may come through us. It is within our trials and tribulations that we go through this process of death so we can truly fit into our new family, and bring forth life, that is Christ.

The great mystery, predestinated by God and yet has been hidden for ages and for generations, has now been revealed through Paul. That is Christ living in us, our only hope of glory (Col. 1:27)!

“Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself , according to the good pleasure of his will.” (Ephesians 1:5 KJV)

By Tammy Lacock

In this week’s Part 8 of Renewing the Mind, Warren Litzman makes it very clear, through Paul’s epistles, that in order to live who God created us to be here in this world, we as believers, must have a radical mind-change. He notes however, as Paul does, that since our minds have been usurped by Satan for so long before coming to Christ, this radical mind-change takes time. Only by the help of the Holy Spirit working in our minds will we have a constant mind-renewal. To know and fall in love with the Christ that now lives in us is the very reason we are here. We can ask the Holy Spirit to teach us and comfort us as we grow in our new life, in our unique and personal relationship with Christ.

Paul was the only man raised up by Christ Himself to bring us an entirely new gospel, one that requires a radical mind-change in order to understand it. This new gospel, simply put, is that by Christ’s death and resurrection, we as believers, are now brand-new creations (2 Corinthians 5:17), no longer under the bondage of Satan. Christ, the one for whom all things were created, is now the one who literally lives in us. May our minds be renewed to this truth. The sin nature passed down by the curse of Satan has been uprooted and replaced by Christ’s nature, the very Seed of God. He now lives in us, joined to our spirits (1 Corinthians 6:17), yet our minds need to catch up to this new knowledge. Paul understood back in his day that this was extremely difficult for believers to grasp. And the same is true today. Our minds are quite literally the battlefield between what Paul calls our “old man” understanding and our new life in Christ. He says “let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus” to help us understand that our new life in Christ is also a daily and continual surrendering to Him (mind-renewal).

In Colossians chapter one, Paul tells us all things were created for Christ. Paul also tells us in Ephesians 1:4, that we were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world. These truths are very important to understand (mind-renewal) as we live our new life in Christ.

We were created for Christ and indeed, as believers, we are complete in Him. We are now ready to live who God created us to be.

We went from our old sin-natured operator, Satan, who was contrary to Christ, to the one who holds all things together and who was created for all things, the operator who God intended for us. In Christ, we can do all things, for nothing, not one thing, is impossible with Him. May we undergo this radical mind-change!

“Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.” (1 John 4:4 KJV)

By Tammy Lacock

“For in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power.” (Colossians 2:9-10 KJV)

In part seven of “Renewing the Mind,” Warren Litzman emphasizes that, as believers, it’s important to understand what it means to be complete in Christ if we are to ever fully live who God created us to be.

By God’s grace, when we believed in Christ as our Savior, a radical change took place within us. Literally, the old sin nature, passed down to us by the curse of Satan, was uprooted and the Seed of Christ was planted in its place. God made us in His image and likeness so there was nothing wrong with us at our creation. Because of our own free will and the deception of Satan, his nature became our operator, unbeknownst to us. With Satan as our operator, we are inclined to do his will. Over time, we begin to know this doesn’t fit our creation, realizing we can’t live this false life on our own anymore, trying to be someone we’re not created to be. Our need for a Savior becomes a real choice. By Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection, God’s amazing grace was poured out onto us, and we now have the opportunity for a brand-new life, free from the bondage of Satan. By Christ’s death, we died as well to our sin natures, our old lives, and our old identities. We are no longer identified by anything in this world. By His resurrection, we arose with Christ into a new life in Him. He is our new life.

The Apostle Paul tells us our minds must be renewed to this knowledge of Christ living in us as our new life. In 2 Corinthians 5:17, he says we are brand-new creatures in Christ, living a brand-new life. We must understand that our old lives are no longer who we are. Our new identity is Christ, who is our new operator. There is no separation. We are now complete in Him.

In Ephesians 1:4, Paul tells us we were “chosen in Him before the foundation of the world.” We were chosen to be completed by Christ before God created the world. We are not complete until we make the choice to believe and accept Christ as the one who redeemed us, and now He lives in us.

Warren explains, through Paul’s epistles, that we must have a constant mind-renewal now that we are living a brand-new life. Our minds must have a radical mind-change in order to catch up to the radical change that took place within our spirits. Christ is now joined to us making us one Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:17).

As our minds begin to renew and understand our new life, our new identity in Christ, our completion in Him, and our non-separation from Him, and thus our Father in heaven, we also begin to develop and nurture our unique, personal relationship with Him. Complete in Christ, we progress into the person who God created us to be. Only then can we truly live out His purpose for us.

“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 17:23 KJV)

By Tammy Lacock

“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; and that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.” (Ephesians 4:22-24 KJV)

In this week’s podcast, Warren Litzman stresses the importance of having, what the Apostle Paul calls, a constant mind-renewal as we live our new lives in Christ. This constant mind-renewal will help us see who we really are. Certain areas in our thinking must be updated to our new life in Christ.

First, we must acknowledge that being born again means we now have Christ literally living in us. It’s not so much about having a new life moving forward, although this is true. It’s about God’s birthing of another life, Christ’s life, in every believer. His life makes us brand-new creations (2 Corinthians 5:17). His Life, His Seed, birthed within us and joined to our spirits (1 Corinthians 6:17) literally replaces our old sin-nature passed down by the curse of Adam by Satan. A radical change took place within us and most of us don’t know it. So we don’t live that change; instead, we live by our old understanding.

“Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.” (1 John 3:9 KJV)

Second, we must understand the three types of sin so that we can break free from sin consciousness and move into being solely conscious of Christ in us now. In the garden of Gethsemane, all three of these sins were poured in the cup of which Jesus drank and all of these sins were crucified with Him.

The first is innate sin, the sin we were born into by the curse of Adam from Satan.

“Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.” (Romans 5:12 KJV)

Christ’s death on the cross outright freed us from the bondage of Adam’s sin. We cannot commit this sin again.

“But not as the offence, so also is the free gift. For if through the offence of one many be dead, much more the grace of God, and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ, hath abounded unto many.” (Romans 5:15 KJV)

The second is sin of ignorance, sin of the flesh. This sin is committed without any knowledge of it. First John 1:7-9 tells believers we are cleansed from this type of sin, “But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.”

The third is sin of knowledge, knowingly committing sin, which is another fleshly sin. These sins require repentance (a mind change) with one another.

Ultimately, Jesus forgives these and all sin. “If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (John 1:8-9 KJV).

Now knowing Christ is in us, we must step away from our former sin-focused, legalistic thinking and focus our thinking on the one who has fulfilled the law, the one who has no sin, who is our righteousness and no longer sees our sin. We must focus on Christ, the one who literally lives in us now. We must understand that our “old man” which Paul describes three times in his epistles is really our old mindset of who we think we are. We must put off the “old man” and allow these old mindset to be crucified with Christ.

And lastly, we must set our minds on the “new man,” Christ, who now lives in us, standing on His promise that He will never leave us nor forsake us. He is with us always. There is no separation between Him and us. The greatest Superhero of all lives right inside us. He is our new life. He is our identity. He is who we are now.

How will you live now with Christ as your life? May we put off the “old man” and allow the “new man,” Christ, to come through us now.

By Tammy Lacock

In this week’s podcast, Warren Litzman reinforces our need for a constant mind-renewal as we live our new life in Christ. The Apostle Paul was the only man raised up by Christ, Himself, to bring us the gospel of Christ literally living in us as believers and details throughout his epistles how we are to go about this constant mind-change in our new life in Him.

Paul emphasizes that our understanding of the godhead, the Trinity, is vital to living our new life in Christ. We must rightly divide the godhead and we must rightly divide the three parts of man: body, soul, and spirit (1 Thessalonians 5:23; Hebrews 4:12). This requires a radical mind-change.

First, our minds must be renewed to the understanding that God is now our Father. Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection allowed God to replace the seed of Satan with His Seed, His Son, in each and every one of us who believes. We are now joined to Him in our spirits, making us one Spirit. (1 Corinthians 6:17) Christ is our new life, our eternal life. By Christ in us, we are brand-new creations, a brand-new race, bona fide sons and daughters of God. By God’s grace, we can now call Him “Father”!

Second, we must understand the role of the Holy Spirit. In John 13, 14, and 15, Christ introduces the Holy Spirit who will come to us as our teacher, comforter, advocate, and revealer. The Holy Spirit’s sole purpose now is to teach us of the Christ who now lives in us in spirit so that we may know Him. No longer are we to know Christ in the flesh.

The Holy Spirit works in our soul part of us, where our minds reside. It is here where our mind-renewal takes place. It is here where the Holy Spirit reveals and teaches us through our circumstances and situations of life so we may grow in our personal relationship with Christ. We must rightly divide between our “old man,” sin-natured knowledge and the knowledge of Christ that now comes from the Holy Spirit.

Warren explains that the greatest power we will ever have as believers is the lessons learned by the Holy Spirit. These are extremely helpful in our mind-renewal because through these we learn Christ. We begin to know Him as Paul knew Him, as the Christ alive and well in us. These lessons help us understand that there is no separation now between us and Christ. He lives within us and is the one who now lives through us. In fact, in Galatians 2:20, Paul tells us we no longer live, and our new life is Christ. In Christ, we are now complete. We can finally live who God created us to be. This was His plan before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4).

In Philippians 3:10, Paul pours out his heart, knowing that through his sufferings he will know Christ more deeply. This is all he wanted. Yet he also understood that through his sufferings he would also know the power of Christ’s resurrection. This is the power of His resurrected life in us and the power in knowing that everything we think, say, and do now belongs to Christ. He is our one and only life now flowing through us, but we must give Him our minds to use. Our minds, and our whole being, become a living sacrifice in return for His. Through our constant mind-renewal, knowing Him and falling in love with Him becomes our daily and ultimate goal.

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