I believe we are born with the mind of Christ, and then learn to ignore it as we grow older and are taught to conform to the world so that we fit in. Otherwise, we are misfits. Few are the parents who want their children to be misfits.
So, as an older person, in order to be born again, we need to let go of the lies that keep us from obeying, or being one with, the mind of Christ. The most powerful one is the belief that we have the right, even the duty, to run our own lives. That spirit of independence makes it very difficult to hear the voice of our Shepherd.
Once we embrace the idea that our spirit of independence cripples us, and limits the length of our lives, then we can also embrace Jesus’ assurance that His spirit can heal us and provide us with life in abundance, i.e. life everlasting.
Embrace the truth that up to now you have believed the lie that you belong to yourself, and also accept the truth that you actually belong to God. First of all, you did not design or create yourself. Your Creator did. More importantly, He bought you with the life of His Son. The beautiful gift God offers us, is that the day we choose to accept these fundamental truths, and dedicate our lives to serving Him instead of ourselves, our REAL life begins! Our Shepherd teaches us to live strong, calm, joyful, well-blended lives.
“I do not belong to myself. I don’t belong to myself. I have never owned myself. I don’t belong to me. “Father, open the eyes of my heart to see that I am yours, not mine.”
When you surrender your right to yourself to God, you will find that Jesus, your Shepherd, will lead you on the adventure of a lifetime, or more embracingly, a lifetime of adventure.
If god bought us with his son and yet he created us in the first place why buy your own possession? I sense a contradiction here.
The apostle Paul’s comments to the Roman congregation provide the answer.
Rom 5:19 And just as all people were made sinners as the result of the disobedience of one man, in the same way they will all be put right with God as the result of the obedience of the one man.
Rom 7:14 We know that the Law is spiritual; but I am a mortal, sold as a slave to sin…
When Adam and Eve chose to ignore God’s warning that they would die if they ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they began a journey of independence from their Creator. As explained in the article I wrote last month (The Cure for Adamic Sin,) but haven’t published on my blog, their spirit of self-reliance got passed on to every one of their descendants. The result of living our lives our way rather than the way we are designed to live is called sin. Sin is, at its simplest level, being out of synch with God. And, as any musician knows, being out of synch with the conductor produces disharmony. That has been man’s situation since Adam’s stepping out as independent from God.
Mankind has suffered the consequences of not really knowing how to live correctly. So we live very short lives rather than everlastingly as we were originally designed to do. We have been sold into sin by the disobedience of our forebears. And that has resulted in our not being 100% in synch with the source of our lives, God. That situation, of being slaves to death, is what God bought us out of, by the death of His Son. God accepted the death of His obedient Son in exchange for the lives of His disobedient children. Jesus’ death was a ransom sacrifice that bought back our lives for us, just a rich man will pay a ransom to buy back his kidnapped child.
The above explanation touches just the surface of our relationship with our Designer and Creator, and Jesus whom God gave the task of bringing us back into harmony with Himself. The most important thing to know is that that ransom sacrifice is the pivotal point in mankind’s history, past, present, and future. From perfect, to imperfect, and our return to perfect. As messed up as our world is at present, the near future is going to get worse, and then much, much better.
I’m glad you asked your question, Phil. I’ll be happy to answer any others you may have.
Learning to see ourselves and the world through God’s eyes involves a major shift in our values, priorities, and habits. For most of us, it’s a slow process of becoming educated about God’s character and His plans for humanity. But providing that education is my passion, just as music is yours.
I know that my articles may be too intense for you at this stage of your investigation. If so, let me know if you want to know more, but at a slower pace, and I’ll be happy to refer you to more appropriate resources.
Terry
P.S. – I’ve emailed you the article The Cure for Adamic Sin. I can’t put it on my blog in its present format, and haven’t rewritten it for the blog. May I suggest you read it through once or twice, then when rereading it, mouse over the superscript number to have the scriptural reference pop up.
Or don’t you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you? Don’t you know that you have the Holy Spirit from God, and you don’t belong to yourselves?