Power in Christ Jesus

Reading Time: 10 Minutes

Scenes from last week:  

Knowing our legal rights in the household plays a key role in renewing our mind to the Word of God. The more we understand who we are, what we are entitled to and how we are to utilize this gift of holy spirit that we have been given the better able we are to renew our  minds to the Word of God. God says that we are redeemed, justified, sanctified, made righteous and we have the ministry of reconciliation committed unto us. These are our sonship rights and the Word of God explains them.

Redemption: We have been redeemed, bought back from the adversary, we now have the dominion over the earth and all that is in it. We are heirs of God and joint-heirs with Jesus Christ, we have God's incorruptible seed born within us. If you didn't know you had these legal rights you could never use them.

Righteousness: Righteousness is the freedom from sin. We have been freed from the sin of Adam. Adam was the disobedient one, Jesus Christ the obedient. God made us righteous, we can't get better than that.

Justified: To be released from the penalty of sin. Because we are justified, freed from the penalty of sin, we are saved from the wrath, the tribulation in Revelation, the end times when all those that didn't believe are sentenced to eternal death. When you are justified you no longer pay for your sins, it has been done for you.

Sanctified: Sanctified means to be set apart. When you are born you are of this world, just body and soul and when you are born again you are complete with spirit, soul, and body which makes you separate from the rest. God separates you making you His own.

Ministry of Reconciliation

The ministry of reconciliation is also a sonship right of ours. 

II Corinthians 5
:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: 
    old things are passed away; 
    behold, all things are become new.
:18 And all things are of God, 
        who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, 
        and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;
:19 To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, 
    not imputing their trespasses unto them; 
    and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.
:20 Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, 
        as though God did beseech you by us: 
    we pray you in Christ?s stead, 
        be ye reconciled to God.

"Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature" being in Christ is the free will decision and effort to put on the will of God and walk in the fullness of it, renewing your mind to the Word of God. Christ in you is your sonship, being in Christ is a way of life, the renewed mind. The old things that pass away are the old man thoughts and intentions of the heart because you are renewed in Christ.

"And all things are of God" What things? The new things, the new thoughts you put on in your mind as you train it to think the Word of people and situations.

"[W]ho hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ" God has returned us to favor, reconnected, reunited us with Him when we became born again and filled with the holy spirit. Bullinger explains reconcile (katallaso) by showing us the prefix kata and root allaso. Kata intensifies the root implying motion from above and allaso means to change or exchange. When we believed Romans 10:9 & 10 God went to work and changed us, putting holy spirit from above in us and bringing us into the family of God. We had nothing to do with the changing, that was God's job.

"[A]nd hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation". We now have the ministry of reconciliation. It is God who reconciles people, we simply deliver the message. We cannot reconcile people, it is not our position to do so.

"[A]nd hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation" it is our responsibility and privilege to make known God's Word and God does the rest. Since the Word of reconciliation is committed unto us it is now our responsibility and ours alone. God didn't 'give' it to us which implies he could give it to someone else, it is committed unto us, He has no hands but our hands.  

"Now then we are ambassadors for Christ," we are ambassadors for the one true God!! There is no greater calling, no greater privilege, and no greater responsibility. Christ had the ministry of reconciling men unto God during his administration, the administration has since changed and it is Christ is us,  we are in Christ's stead, the ministry is committed unto us. 

So what kind of Ambassador are you going to be today? You have sonship rights. You are redeemed, righteous, justified, sanctified and you have the ministry of reconciliation. Ambassadors represent those that have sent them. Who sends you? 

The following two paragraphs are from Dr. Victor Paul Wierwille's book Power for Abundant Living pages 344 & 345.*

    When you are born again of God's Spirit, The Word says you are an ambassador for Christ. Do you know how the average Christian ambassador looks? He looks weighted down with all the sins of the world and completely whipped as he 'bears his cross.' He is unenthusiastic, glum and washed out. Do not be surprised when the rest of the world isn't standing around waiting to hear this ambassador's message. He couldn't entice a mouse to a garbage can let alone interest the secular world in their reconciliation with God. If it is such a hard job to be a Christian, not many people are going to be impressed by his emaciated example.
       When are we going to believe our sonship rights? Why not walk down the streets in our communities, in our cities, in our towns, in our various sections of the country with our shoulders back and our head held high and say, 'I am a son of God. I am an ambassador for the Lord Jesus Christ.  How are you this morning? Well, I am wonderful!' We have become so accustomed to seeing the average Christian sullen and defeated that nobody projects the attitude of God's ambassador with sonship rights. You and I are what the Word of God says we are, we have what the Word of God says we have, and we will be what the Word of God says we will be. And it says that we are sons of God. 

We are what the Word of God says we are, we have what the Word of God says we have, and we will be what the Word of God says we will be: 

I John 3
:2  Beloved, now are we the sons of God, 
    and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: 
    but we know that, 
        when he shall appear, 
        we shall be like him; 
            for we shall see him as he is.

Having the ministry of reconciliation committed unto us and the Word of reconciliation is only part, we are also messengers, witnesses, soldiers and workmen. 

We are to deliver the message of God's deliverance.

Romans 10
:13 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.
:14 How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? 
    and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? 
    and how shall they hear without a preacher?
:15 And how shall they preach, except they be sent? 
    as it is written, 
        How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, 
        and bring glad tidings of good things!

Without the message being delivered no one can enjoy the grace that we do.

We are witnesses and the spirit is witness in us of eternal life.

Acts 1
:8 But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: 
    and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, 
        and in all Judaea, 
        and in Samaria, 
        and unto the uttermost part of the earth.

I John 1
:2  (For the life was manifested, and we have seen it, 
        and bear witness, 
        and shew unto you that eternal life, 
            which was with the Father, 
            and was manifested unto us;)
5
:9 If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater: 
        for this is the witness of God which he hath testified of his Son.
:10  He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself: 
    he that believeth not God hath made him a liar; 
        because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son.

 We are soldiers in the spiritual battle and fully equipped. 

II Timothy 2
:3 Thou therefore endure hardness, 
    as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.
:4 No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; 
    that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.

Ephesians 6
:12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, 
    but against principalities, 
        against powers, 
        against the rulers of the darkness of this world, 
        against spiritual wickedness in high places.
13 Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, 
    that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, 
    and having done all, to stand.

And we are workmen of the Word

II Timothy 2
:15  Study to shew thyself approved unto God,
    a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

Not only are we workmen of the Word but laborers together with Him.  We don't do this alone, it is not all up to us. We have the creator of the heavens and the earth by our side.

I Corinthians 3
:6 I [Paul] have planted, 
    Apollos watered; 
    but God gave the increase.
:7 So then neither is he that planteth any thing, 
    neither he that watereth; 
    but God that giveth the increase.
:8 Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one: 
    and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour.
:9 For we are labourers together with God: 
    ye are God?s husbandry, ye are God?s building.

We plant and water and God gives the increase. We labor together with Him. There is no one else that I would rather have at my side than God and the Lord Christ Jesus.

It is critical that we recognize who we are and what we have. We are Sons of God with all power. We are redeemed, righteous, justified, sanctified and have the ministry of reconciliation. We are ambassadors, messengers, witnesses, soldiers and workman. Never worry about what the neighbors may say, show them who you are. What you have is above all principalities and powers. Who you are is a child of God, part of a peculiar people, in the body of Christ, an elite group if you will.  

Colossians 2
:6 As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him:
:7 Rooted 
    and built up in him, 
    and stablished in the faith, 
        as ye have been taught, 
    abounding therein with thanksgiving.

Now that we have received Christ Jesus the Lord we are to become rooted and built up and established in the faith of Jesus Christ as we have been taught and abounding therein with thanksgiving. Put on the mind of Christ, put off the old man. Read our Bibles, hang with believers, listen to teachings, do the Word. You have to do that part then God brings the "exceedingly abundantly above all that you ask or think" to pass in your life (Ephesians 3:20).

Ephesians 1
:17 That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
        the Father of glory, 
    may give unto you the spirit of [or spiritual] wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him:
:18 The eyes of your understanding being enlightened;
        that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, 
        and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,
:19   And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to usward who believe, 
            according to the working of his mighty power,
:20       Which he wrought in Christ, 
                when he raised him from the dead, 
            and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places,
:21           Far above all principality, 
                and power, 
                and might, 
                and dominion, 
                and every name that is named, 
                    not only in this world, 
                    but also in that which is to come:
:22       And hath put all things under his feet, 
            and gave him to be the head over all things to the church,
:23            Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.

This is available to us today!! When we renew our minds to the Word of God, put on the mind of Christ, we obtain spiritual wisdom and revelation, our eyes will be enlightened, we will walk in His mighty power, that same power that raised Christ from the dead. All things are under Christ's feet now and he is the head over all to the church and we, the body of Christ, are the church. Satan no longer has dominion over you, you can cast him away from you because you are Sons and Daughters of the most High God. Know who you are and what you have, believe and act like it. The renewed mind is the key to power. Do these things and you will live abundantly and you will see changes in you and in the people around you as well.

* Wierwille, Dr. Victor Paul. Power for Abundant Living. Ohio, New Knoxville: American Christian Press, 1979.
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