Living in the Balance of Grace and Faith

Knowledge is powerful!

I just returned from an overseas flight where Jamie and I were upgraded to business class. The seats made out into a flat bed. It was wonderful. It really reduces jet lag. As I was drifting off to sleep, I thought about John Wesley who traversed the Atlantic in the hold of a ship.

It took him a couple of months one way, and the conditions were terrible. My flight from London to Denver took nine hours, and I had luxuries he couldn’t have imagined. All of this is possible because of knowledge.

Man hasn’t created anything new; he’s just discovered the laws that the Lord established from the beginning. “Bird brains” have been flying from the start. The same is true with communications, electricity, computing, and a host of other modern breakthroughs. Man is just discovering the laws God created.

Although mankind has made huge discoveries that have totally changed the way we live, it seems like we know less about ourselves than previous generations. While our ancestors didn’t have all the modern conveniences,

they had a peace and strength that eludes most today. As our knowledge of our natural world has increased, our knowledge of spiritual things has decreased. In man’s arrogance, he blindly believes all of life’s problems can be solved by himself. But there can be no peace without if there isn’t peace within. There is a whole universe that man in all his wisdom is ignorant of.

That is the world of the spirit. And I’m not just talking about the spiritual realm outside of us but also the spiritual being inside of every person. We aren’t evolved animals; we were created in God’s image and likeness (Gen. 1:26). We are spirit beings. The ultimate way to control bad behavior isn’t by more laws, metal detectors, or social engineering; it’s changing the hearts of people, one at a time.

Only Jesus can do that. Yet sadly, even many Christians have lost this spiritual point of view. Very few Christians know who they are in the spirit. In fact, they have been taught by religion that they are sinners by nature—just the opposite of what the Bible teaches. It’s true that we were all born sinners (Ps. 51:5) and had the nature of the devil working in us (Eph. 2:2-3).

But when we came to Christ and received salvation, we became a new person in the spirit. If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. 2 Corinthians 5:17 This isn’t talking about your body. If you were a man before you accepted Christ, you were still a man afterwards.

Your body didn’t change. And your soul, which is what the Bible calls the mental-emotional part of you, didn’t automatically change either. It’s subject to change, but you have to renew your mind to experience change in your mind and emotions.

But in the spirit, you became a brand-new species of being. Your spirit is totally new. There isn’t an old sin nature left in you.