Inside Out

Extraordinary Possibilities

(2 Corinthians 5:17 ESV)

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he [or she] is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come".

(2 Corinthians 5:17 Message)

"Now we look inside, and what we see is that anyone united with the Messiah gets a fresh start, is created new. The old life is gone; a new life burgeons! Look at it!".

After coming home from our wonderful two weeks of camping and bush-walking by the sea down South, my wife Trish and I spent ages de-cluttering and sorting out our stored stuff. The shed where we keep our camping gear has shrunk over the years as we have acquired more and more equipment. We emptied it all out and unpacked and sorted and found that we were are able to give away lots that we no longer need. I built some shelving and we repacked into standard sized plastic boxes we can stack. When we finally got finished it was a great improvement. But living day-to-day through this time was hard with all the mess and simply knowing how much there still was to do.

So from time to time I felt rather oppressed ..

And then I would remember that I belong to Jesus and quickly brighten up!

It is so good to know that "in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose" (Romans 8:28). That's me, I am a "new creation" in Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:17), Jesus lives within me, by His Spirit (John 14:20), and I within Him (Galatians 2:20)! It is so good to remember these things in such a practical way .. so I have been pondering what "new creation" means ..

When Trish and I were new Christians we learned about "life in the Spirit" and "every member ministry" because this is what our excited Christian friends had discovered and shared with us.

The extraordinary possibilities of these faith positions made me see that I now live from the inside out.

We also learned that our "body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God" (1 Corinthians 6:19a).

This certainly is "new creation" .. imagine, me, a temple where God lives? How Jesus must love each one of us that He would bless us like this, what grace! Paul goes on to say:

"for you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body" (6:19b-20).

Me being a "new creation" came at a price, a price that Jesus willingly paid to have me, and you, as one of His own.

"As you come to him, the living Stone - rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him -  you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's special possession, that you may declare the praises [excelencies] of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.  Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy" (1 Peter 2:4,9-10).

Clearly we are secure in this place God has put us, this is not a temporary or transient position ..

Isaiah tells us what we were like before our salvation, "all of us have become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags; we all shrivel up like a leaf, and like the wind our sins sweep us away" (Isaiah 64:6), this was written in the present tense. But, in the instant we are saved Jesus firmly moves our "uncleanness" and "filthy rags" into our past. I can certainly see this as true of my past life, and can see the contrast in what He has been doing in me over all these years since He drew me to Himself ..

Jesus gives His righteousness to me "by grace" (Romans 3:22), I am no longer a "sinner" (Luke 15:10, compare Luke 18:13); now I am a "saint who sometimes sins" (Neil Anderson, "Living Free", 1999, Monarch Books).

I now know a beautiful "freedom" (Galatians 5:1) and peace, "my peace I give you" (John 14:27).

Back in the days of the hippies and flower power, people would say "if it feels good, do it". That is living from the outside in! Today we still see lots of hedonistic, consumerist and purely entertaining or recreational activity; the world is now no different .. It is all from the outside in.

Paul found the same thing in his day, just two or three decades after Jesus ascended to Heaven and formed His church, with all the excitement and commitment seen in the Book of Acts. He felt called to write to the Christians in Galatia, admonishing them, when he learned that they had moved a long way away from the Christian life they had been baptised into. They were again looking to the Old Testament law for their salvation, especially the rite of male circumcision, a change to a man's outside.

As Christians we are asked that we may experience "circumcision of the heart" (Romans 2:29), as we change on the inside, as we come to "know" a life-giving saving faith in Jesus (Romans 6:6). 

(Another aspect of the Galatians’ "foolishness" (Galatians 3:1) is that circumcision was only for men, they seem to have had no special rite for women to be affirmed as God's people. Perhaps women were expected to be second class citizens of the Kingdom of God, just as they were in the Old Testament in Judaism, and only the men could speak or be fully in the inheritance. But this is false, in Jesus "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus" (Galatians 3:28), we are all included).

I often see that Christians are very different from everyone else, mainly for two reasons. Firstly Jesus has come to live in each one; the Bible does not say that this is symbolic, but in many verses says that it is real, "for in Him we live and move and have our being" (Acts 17:28). Also we are set free; not just free from sin but also our desire to sin decreases and continues to do so .. we are being "sanctified" (John 17:19). We are also set free from death and ultimately will live eternally with Jesus in Heaven (John 3:14-16, John 4:14)!

Secondly, if we listen out for God's voice, (sometimes just a small soft whisper, perhaps during our prayer times, or when we spend time in our Bible, or as we fellowship with other Christians, or when we sleep and dream, or even during the business of our days), He will share with us what His will is for us, each one.

God created every person for a purpose. God doesn't make two snow flakes the same, let alone two people. We are all unique! Every single person has a God-given destiny .. Your country, and your neighbour too, needs you and the "Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Colossians 1:27).

Jesus wants our help: "For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do" (Ephesians 2:10).

I am careful about where I fellowship. I seek out meetings where the people are aware of who they are in Christ (John 14:20) and how their lives have been enhanced .. people who are grateful to Jesus and ready to unify with other Christians (Ephesians 4:1-3, 1 Peter 3:8), and are keen to serve where-ever Jesus leads them (John 12:26).

I go to events which are not just led from the front but where people can share and contribute to what God is doing, as Holy Spirit leads. We tend to sing joy- and gratitude-filled songs, most of which call Jesus by name and are full of Biblical truth and theological depth (very few of these songs are new).

The people at these meetings are fed, they are enriched by Jesus, His life and His Word, and often by Communion. The fellowship is rich. It would give a wrong impression to call these gatherings "services". The life flows out into the city when the meetings conclude and we disperse. What happened on the inside goes out! It is not just church buildings, not just leadership people, and not just Sundays.

What God has done for us in Jesus is so perfect, so complete and so total, that there is nothing more that we can or could ever do to make things better. All we can do is accept it! It happened on our inside and shows on our outside, (Kerry Kirkwood sermon April 2018).

Barry Chant, founder of Tabor Bible College, said: "Living in the image of God is not trying to be what we are not .. rather it is simply becoming what we already are", ("Creative Living", 1999, Tabor Publications, p 49).

I find that I am so changed on the inside that I want my outside, that part of me which inter-acts with others, to reflect what is there. Thoughts of living as the world does is frightening to me, I do not want to live without God's love, or grace, or meaning, or purpose, or hope!

Paul writes that we are to remember who we are in Jesus and what He has done on our insides, and in our life, and to live out the truth and fullness of it, spirit, soul and body! "Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us" (2 Corinthians 5:20).

Likewise each of us is a part of Jesus' earthly body today. Jesus' human body is in Heaven, sitting at the right hand of God the Father, ruling and reigning. We are to be His physical manifestation here on the Earth; His heart, compassion and voice, His hands and feet. "For it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfil his good purpose"  (Philippians 2:13).

As we live our Christian life we grow more into the image and likeness of God. How beautiful and awesome! I, who was once simply John, am now John with Jesus added, Holy Spirit added, and also with gifting added and my spirit made alive, to enable me to do the works God wants me to do with His power. I know that that is totally beyond what I could ever do as I used to be or in my own strength and skills.

Spiritual gifts help in our life here. They are given so that our spirit is equipped and strengthened. They add to us inside, and enable us to be more effective on the outside.

"Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God,  who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter [of the law] but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life" (2 Corinthians 3:5-6 ESV) ..

"The Holy Spirit gives life / makes alive" .. as I write this I am finally getting over a very nasty cold and chest infection. I needed antibiotics to overcome the infection, so my gut flora were devastated and I was very uncomfortable. But because I spend so much time with Jesus and His people I have been delighted to be "made alive by Holy Spirit", and have not felt defeated! Thank you Jesus, I am so grateful! It could have been a very difficult time ..

When Elohim God created humankind, They (Elohim is a plural word in Hebrew), said that each and every one of us were to  "rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground" (Genesis 1:28). This is a part of our work, yours and mine .. we are to be stewards of all that God has made, effectively servants of the Creation, and at the same time it's rulers, overseers and workers, it's keepers. This is now our rôle. For us to be asked to share in Jesus' work on Earth and to steward it's resources is a great honour, and is yet another way we can worship our lovely Lord ..

The Hebrew Old Testament words for "work", (avad) and "keep" (shamar), are the words for worshiping God and keeping His commandments.

God is connecting the inside-ness and outside-ness of each one of us as we grow in Him and in wholeness .. any walls between our spiritual and our worldly life are being softened, even removed .. So it is all one .. our Christian life, that is our life in Christ and in Holy Spirit, is as one with our life and our work in the world and our work for Jesus and His Kingdom.

It truly is becoming inside out and really is "not just Sundays"!

Praise Jesus ..

(See Note 1)

Favourite Scriptures

"'In the last days', God says, 'I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams.  Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days, and they will prophesy.  I will show wonders in the heavens above and signs on the earth below, blood and fire and billows of smoke.  The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood before the coming of the great and glorious day of the Lord.  And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved'" (Acts 2:17-21).

"For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved" (Romans 10:10).

"But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth" (Acts 1:8).

"And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers,  for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ;  until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ" (Ephesians 4:11-13).

"[Jesus'] divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with perseverance, and perseverance with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ" (2 Peter 1:3-8).

"So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling;  for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.  Do all things without grumbling or disputing;  so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God, above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world" (Philippians 2:12-15 NASB).

Hallelujah!

Note 1:

Thinking about: "It is all one .. our Christian life, that is our life in Christ and in Holy Spirit, is as one with our life and our work in the world and our work for Jesus and His Kingdom .. "

Hindus and Muslims have told me that they see themselves in a similar way, as a unified one-ness, although their relationship with their gods is not intimate, or even close, as ours is with Father, Son and Holy Spirit. They are not children of their god(s) or even included in godly things as we are, but they clearly are people of their own faith ..

"God has revealed Himself in time and space". Our Christian faith is based in history and geography, many, many historical hi-lights are recorded by strong witnesses. Jesus lived, His miracles, His crucifixion, death and resurrection were observed, marvelled by many (more than 500 people) who recorded what they saw and knew to be real. "This is not the case with many cults [and religions] which base their faith in mystical time and space". (Neil Anderson, "Living Free", 1999, Monarch Books, p 112).

Amen.

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Praise Jesus.