Excellency of Knowledge of Christ, Part 7: I Live By His Faith
I Live By His Faith
By Tammy Lacock
In this week’s podcast, Warren Litzman really wants us to understand God’s plan for us, to learn it through Paul’s epistles, where the final gospel can be found. The final gospel is for us today.
That final gospel is the birthing of God’s incorruptible, perfect seed—His Son—in each of us who believes in Christ as our Savior. The final gospel in this current dispensation of grace is Christ living in every believer. The moment we believe in Christ as our Savior, we are born again. This is the new birthing. Our old lives died in Christ at the Cross, and we arose with Him to a new life in Him. This is the “great mystery” Paul talks about that was God’s plan for us “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)
Warren wants us to understand that the birthing is not progressive. It is sudden, and it is total and complete. God’s plan is finished with the birthing. In our spirits, where the birthing (salvation) takes place, we are locked in with Christ. This birthing is a God-thing, and the human being can’t add to it or make it any better. This seed of Christ has everything in it for Life. Nothing is missing.
It’s in our souls and our bodies where we are progressively growing up in Christ, maturing to the full stature of Christ (Ephesians 4:13). It’s here where our love affair with Him grows until our souls and bodies are renewed to our new nature in our spirits.
Warren reminds us that through Paul’s epistles, we learn to grow up in Christ by a continual renewal of our minds by the Holy Spirit. In this mind change, we begin to see and live our complete life change by the birthing of Christ’s seed in our spirits. We move from living from our soul-mind to living from our spirit, God’s Spirit within. We move from focusing on our own lives to His Life. It’s in this mind change where we give our bodies and souls over to Him, so He comes through.
Paul clearly explains this in Galatians 2:20 (KJV):
“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless less 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.”
This mind change leads us to begin to live our new birth, to understand who we really are: bona fide children of our Heavenly Father. With this mind change, we no longer live our lives by our faith; we live His life by His Faith. It’s His Life we now live.