There are diagrams to the right of the post that go along with the information. If they seem small on your monitor feel free to right click on them and download them to your computer. This is NOT copyrighted material. Each post will remain here for a week with the respective diagrams. At the beginning of a new week, a new post will appear with new diagrams. The previous post will of course be beneath the new post, but the diagrams for the previous post will be gone.
Again, because this is a blog specifically focused on men - men will be specifically referred to. Yet the information here applies equally to both men and women.
Part One - The Three Part Man.
God created human beings. A man is essentially a spirit, who has a soul, and lives in a body. Figure 1 shows the diagram of a 3-part man. The Bible specifies this in I Thessalonians 5:23.
"May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ"
The body is the earthly dwelling - an "earth-suit" if you will. It's how we get around and how we express ourselves. It's our 5 senses and how we carry out our actions. It's the physical area through which we relate to our environment.
The soul is not the body. It handles, sorts out, and reacts to all events and circumstances, as well as memories of the past. The soul houses our mind (our thinker), our emotions (our feeler), and our will (our chooser). The soul is our personality. It's what makes us different from each other (an individual).
The spirit is what makes man (humans) different from the rest of creation. The spirit determines our identity. It's a component of human life where worship, fellowship, and where the Holy Spirit dwells in us.
Before a person becomes a Christian his spirit is dead and he is separated from God by sin. Figure 2 shows what this looks like.
Isaiah 29:2 states - "But your iniquities have separated you from God; your sins have hidden his face from you so that He will not hear."
Ephesians 2:1-3 - "As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of the world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath."
In the diagram, the "F*" represents flesh. Flesh is a term that refers to doing things my way, separate from God. Sometimes referred to as "self", flesh is centered over the link between our soul and our body because the wrong we do is the result of our choices (our will/thinker) carried out by our body. The upper right corner the figure 2 shows how we are separated from God by our sin.
Here's the cool part. God knows that there is no way we are ever good enough to meet his measurement for eternal life. Since He loves us so much He sent an intercessor to take care of things for us - His son, Jesus Christ. He died on the cross and took the punishment for our sins so we don't have to. He was raised from the dead by God and was taken up into heaven to sit with God. His death and resurrection made possible the gift of Grace and forgiveness for anyone willing to accept it.
Here's an important thing to know. When I became a Christian I died in spirit with Jesus Christ on the cross. My spirit was buried with Him. When He was resurrected from the dead I was also resurrected and I now sit with God along with him. Figure 4 shows this progression and the following verses from the Bible support it.
Galatians 2:20 "I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God.
Romans 6:4, 5 "We were therefore buried with Him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may life a new life. If we have been united with Him like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection."
Ephesians 2:4-6 "But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions - it is by Grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus.
Grace is a gift. You can't earn it. No amount of doing good things will get you into heaven. You can't buy it. Giving money to charitable causes and helping those in need won't get you there. You have to believe - and you have to receive the gift. It's that simple. What's more - when you accept the gift of Grace you exchange your sinful and dead spirit for the life of the Holy Spirit. I know I have the Holy Spirit in me. He lives His life through me. Jesus Christ is alive in me and I am no longer dead in my spirit.
Romans 5:9-11 spells this out pretty clearly.
"Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him! For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation."
Ephesians 1:7 also confirms this. "In him we have redemption through his blood, for forgiveness of sins in accordance with the riches of God's grace."
This is awesome stuff! There is no way, in and of ourselves, that we can ever be good enough to get ourselves into eternal life with God in heaven. God knew this - and sent Jesus Christ to die on the cross and pay the price for all of our sins - past, present, and future. Jesus Christ paid the bill for us. All we have to do is accept the give of salvation. And when we do, the Holy Spirit comes inside us and makes a home, giving us strength and hope to live for God. Once you accept that gift of grace you're automatically good enough. You can rest in it, knowing that it's all taken care of.
As a husband (or as a man planning to marry) this is the foundation for life together with your spouse. This is what makes you so grateful for for richer and it's what carries you through for poorer. It's what helps you manage in sickness and how you enjoy and in health. This - the gift of grace through the Holy Spirit inside yourself - is what makes for better so cool and manages for worse so you don't have to do it all on your own.
Thanks for checking in.
1 comment:
Bert...What a great first lesson! You and your wife have worked together perfectly to construct a 'simple' but extremely important teaching.
*Grin* See what happens when the wife is involved!! Hahaha...Just kidding!
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