03/13/24 To Be Or Not To Be...

03/13/24 To Be Or Not To Be... 

"To Be Or Not To Be," is not the question. Being is essential.
"What To Be and What Not To Be," is the question. What to be is our God given choice in Christ.

Our doing and saying, stems from our thinking and our thinking arises from our being. The kind of being we are determines our thinking, saying and doing.

We have all inherited, from fallen Adam, a proclivity (predisposition, inclination, propensity, bent, desire) to sin (willfully disobey what we knew to be morally wrong), and we all chose to continue in our sins. Our sins separated us from God and the wages of our sin is death. The only satisfaction to Divine justice for our rebellion against God is death. Our "being," our sinful condition, determined our rebellious state.

However, God loved the whole world, even though we were sinners (rebels against God). God loved us so much that He was willing to satisfy our debt by giving His only begotten and sinless Son to die for us. Through the Gift of His Son and His Holy Spirit, God imparts His Divine nature to believers, and makes it possible for us to receive forgiveness, new life, reconciliation, transformation, a right mind, righteous intentions, a clear conscience, self control, willingness to submit to God. In other words, believing in the death and resurrection of Christ, we become a new creation, a new creature, a NEW BEING.

We are new beings through regeneration, impartation of the Holy Spirit, forgiveness, cleansing, Divine empowering and leading.

The New Birth is our deliverance from the shackles and pollution of the old life, our old self, our sinful being, and it is deliverance into righteousness, peace, joy, newness of life, becoming a godly being.

With this transformation comes newness of life. Our life springs from our being and when our being is in the image of Christ, then we turn from sin, we obey God, we walk in love and truth, we keep His commandments and do those things which are pleasing in His sight. 

God also tells us, through John...
(notice the phrases I have marked *between the asterisks*).
1 John 2:1-6
1 My little children, these things write I unto you, *that ye sin not.*
*And if any man sin,*
*we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:*

2 And *he is the propitiation for our sins:*
and *not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.*

3 And *hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments.*

4 *He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.*

5 *But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected:*
*hereby know we that we are in him.*

6 *He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.*

dlg...
This just scratches the surface of being Born Again, of being Transformed (from sin to salvation), of being Conformed (to the image of God's Son), of being a New Creation (a new BEING).

Becoming a New Creation, a New Being, is being enveloped in wonder, love and praise.

Becoming a New Creation, a New Being, is beyond our imaginings.
(notice the phrases I have marked *between the asterisks*).
1 Corinthians 2:6-10
6 Howbeit *we speak wisdom among them that are perfect:* yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to nought:

7 But we speak *the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory:*

8 Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

9 But as it is written, *Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.
10 But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.*

And...
(notice the phrases I have marked *between the asterisks*).
Ephesians 2:1-10
1 *And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;*

*2 Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:
3 Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.*

*4 But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,
5 Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)*

6 *And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:*

7 *That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.*

8 *For by grace are ye saved through faith;* and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.

10 *For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.*