LIVING HOLY! (The Discipline of a Disciple–part 5)

If you have been receiving the DAILY MEDS for the last month or so, you have gone through the NEW MAN series where we explained the death of the old man and our NEW IDENTITY in Christ …being born again.

We also underscored the fact that THAT transformation took place in the SPIRIT. It is our spirit that is born again and our old man (our sin nature) is dead in the spirit.

However, we still have to control our mind and our emotions along with our body. So while we have a born-again SPIRIT and are empowered through Christ in SPIRIT, we have to make our soul (mind and emotions) and our body line up with our spirit. The Bible calls it mortifying the flesh, living holy, living sanctified, separated unto God.

In the first part of the book of Romans, Paul takes quite a bit of time explaining the death of the old law, how the old testament is done away along with the old man. In parallel to that, he also elaborates on the birth of the new man. Starting in Romans 6, he then goes after the soul and the body and how those too need to also fall in line with the new identity.

“We know that our old self was crucified with Him in order that the BODY of sin might be brought to nothing (done away), so that we would no longer be ENSLAVED to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin” (Rom 6:6,7).

“So you also must consider yourselves DEAD TO SIN and alive to God in Christ Jesus. LET NOT SIN THEREFORE REIGN in your MORTAL BODY, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members (of the body) to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For SIN WILL HAVE NO DOMINION OVER YOU, since you are not under law but under grace” (Rom 6:11-14).

What he is saying is that we must CONFORM our body/soul to obey the new identity of the newborn spirit. In Romans 12:1, 2 he further explains this. “I  beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present YOUR BODIES a living sacrifice, HOLY, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. and be not conformed to this world: but be ye TRANSFORMED by the renewing of your MIND, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God“.

HOLINESS means “separated unto God”. It means that we must submit our body and soul to the will of God.  “Acceptable unto God” means well-pleasing to God. Unfortunately, because we were born in the kingdom of darkness, our minds, our emotions, and our bodies default to bad habits. Unclean habits corrupt the spirit. There lies the war between the body and the spirit. “The carnal mind is ENMITY to God” (Ro 8:7,8).

The blood of Christ cleanses our SPIRIT but WE must cleanse our MINDS (thoughts), and our BODIES (habits). The Holy Spirit cannot keep evil thoughts out of our minds nor bad habits out of our body, unless we operate with him; he’s a HELPER, not an initiator.

Most BATTLES in the life of a believer are caused by the bad habits of the mind and of the body. That’s what we brought out when talking about using two different identities. One foot in the world and one foot in the kingdom. It cannot work.

Romans 6:12 through 14 says, “Therefore do not let sin REIGN (as king) in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. DO NOT OFFER ANY PART OF YOURSELF TO SIN as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from DEATH TO LIFE; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. For SIN SHALL NO LONGER BE YOUR MASTER, because you are not under the law, but under grace.”

In other words, let not any member of your body lead you into sin. Jesus went further than that. He said, “If your right eye causes you to stumble, GOUGE it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell” (Mat 5:29). He was explaining graphically the importance of mortifying your flesh and keeping every member of your body in subjection to your new identity. That’s called developing strong habits that will contribute to your spiritual health.

Many of us had many “members” of our bodies in the past, REIGN as kings in our bodies, and therefore led us astray into many sins. Our tongue, our eyes, our hands, our mouth, our feet, etc., all led us astray. We said things, we sang songs, we drank, and looked at things that if we were to do those things now, they would separate us from fellowship with the Father.

Remember God is holy, and cannot have fellowship with unrighteousness.

That’s why we must live HOLY, separated unto God and make our mind/emotions, and bodies fall in line with the disciplines of a disciple. In our world, HOLINESS could be described as INTEGRITY, or being TRUE, through and through. Especially true to God.

Paul puts it clearly in Romans 8:13. “For if you live according to the FLESH you will die, but if by the Spirit YOU put to death the deeds of the body, you will live,” Notice that YOU are the one who MUST put to death the deeds (habits) of the body. YOU must DISCIPLINE the mind and the flesh.

Paul goes on to say, “For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as SONS, by whom we cry, ‘Abba! Father!'” (Rom 12 :14).

Let’s take some time to go over our character, our inner self, and take a look into the different habits and thought patterns that we entertain to see if they fall in line with the Word of God. If not, let’s commit to disciplining our mind and our body according to the “discipline of a disciple”.  Gym in the spirit. It’s hard to go to the gym, but not once do you regret it.

Surely we understand the need to discipline our bodies to stay in shape and healthy. For us to live HOLY, we have to discipline every area of our life according to the teachings of Jesus. He did not abolish the old law in the sense that we don’t have to obey the ten commandments. To the contrary, he raised the bar. And told us that adultery can be committed even in our thoughts (Mat 5:28). And that getting mad at your brother can be as bad as murder (Mt 5:22).

So our every thought, our every habit has to be revisited to make sure that they fall in obedience to the teachings of Christ. It even goes further than that. Even our own convictions have to be revisited. To stand up for Christ, you also have to clarify what you STAND AGAINST. The opinions of man that contradict the Word of God can influence us a great deal. There are at least the following 4 main areas in our life that we must investigate…

Money: Materialists measure their success by wealth. But that’s not God’s view. We didn’t bring anything into the world, and we won’t take anything out of it. We were made for more than just things. “Life does not consist in an abundance of possessions” (Lk 12:15).

Self-indulgence: “Whatever feels good must be good”. Pleasure can easily become a god. Comfort and fun can be very appealing, but happiness is not the goal in life; happiness is a by-product of living out our purpose. Holiness creates happiness. “Those who live only to satisfy their own sinful nature will harvest decay and death from that sinful nature. But those who live to please the Spirit will harvest everlasting life from the Spirit” (Gal 6:8).

Me FIRST: a lot of western countries were built on individualism, and today that has evolved into a culture of narcissism. But God didn’t create us to live for ourselves. Jesus said, “If any man will come after me let him first deny himself” (Mat 16:24,25).

Politics. Politics is the religion of people who don’t know God. They put their hope and trust in the government to save them out of the mess they’re in. “Our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ” (Phil 3:20).

The corruption in our businesses, the crisis in our schools, the chaos in our government, the carnality in our churches, the confusion in our families, and the conflicts in our personal lives all contribute to the crumbling of our culture. When we don’t follow the owner’s manual, in other words, when you break God’s laws, we suffer the consequences.

For us to counter these prevalent worldviews, and stand up for God’s truth, we have to live HOLY and be true to ourselves first.