Identifying the cosmic system, part 12 John 15:19; 1John 3:8-10

Title: Identifying the cosmic system, part 12 John 15:19; 1John 3:8-10.

 

In our study of the cosmic system we are looking at three passages in 1John. One we have completed, the second we are almost complete and the third will be complete in chapter 5.

 

In 1John 2:13-14 we identified four stages of spiritual growth, the infant believer, the child believer [student really which we always are], the young man or adult believer, and the father or the mature believer. Our focus was on the young man who was said to be strong and who had fellowship with the word of God.

 

1John 3:8-10 revealed the seed that God put in the believer at salvation which is a metaphorical usage for the offspring of God or the new creature in Christ that is divine in origin.

 

The theme continues as the divine offspring would go through spiritual growth: infant, child, young man, father.

 

This led us to a brief sub-doctrine of the new creature or the divine nature. This nature has a position before God that cannot change.

 

Justification means a new standing before God, sanctification means being set apart to God, and regeneration means a new divine nature from God's nature, 2 Peter 1:4.

 

2 Peter 1:3 seeing that His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.

 

“seeing that His divine power (doctrine + F/HS) has graciously given to us a blank check for intimate communion with the abundant life and the spiritual life through the metabolized doctrine of Him who elected us to His own glory and virtue.” (corrected translation)

 

2 Peter 1:4 For by these He has granted [graciously given] to us His precious and magnificent promises, in order that by them you might become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.

 

“For by these (verse 3) He has graciously given to us His precious and magnificent promises, in order that by [faith] in them you might become companions of the divine nature, having escaped from the weakened position that is in the world system by strong desire.”

 

The new creature feeds on doctrine, breathes by the Holy Spirit, and thrives only in the environment of the PPOG.

 

Therefore the divine nature cannot grow unless the believer partners with it or makes himself a companion of it. This is accomplished by faith in the promises concerning the things mentioned in verse 3.

 

Like any nature in God’s universe it can only live under certain conditions.

 

Hence, every believer has the divine nature of the new creature but that nature lays dormant and powerless because it is starving, can’t breathe, and is in a very unhealthy environment.

 

This nature is alive while the old nature, the sin nature is dead, being crucified with Christ. Yet death never means an end but only a change of state. The believer can feed with human viewpoint, provide the air of arrogance or emotionalism, and provide the environment of the cosmic system and the dead, old nature will have more power than the alive new nature. That is as ironic as it is tragic.

 

We build some basics as they are related in scripture:

 

The only way to enter God's family being born from God is by believing in Christ as your Savior, 1John 5:1.

 

1 John 5:1

Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God;

 

Physical life produces only physical life; God the HS at salvation produces spiritual life, John 3:6.

 

John 3:6

"That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

 

Therefore all Christians are born-again. The physical seed of the first birth was corrupt by the fall but the spiritual seed is incorruptible, 1Pet 1:23.

 

1 Peter 1:23

for you have been born again not of seed which is perishable [corruptible, prone to decay, perishable] but imperishable, that is, through the living and abiding word of God.

 

The further we delve into the word of God the more we see what John was referring to when he wrote about a seed that cannot sin. This seed was not provided by your earthly parents but by your heavenly ones.

 

A Christian's "spiritual parents," so to speak, are the Word of God [gospel] and the Spirit of God [baptism]. These continue to guide the infant to the child, to the strong young man and eventually to the father, 1John 2:13-14.

 

Therefore the seed of 1John 3:9 is in the same vein of 1John 2:13-14. Regeneration occurred through the gospel and the baptism of the Holy Spirit at the moment of faith in Christ and now into the plan of God they continue to be the parents of the believer who grows in grace and wisdom.

 

And Christ sets the pattern [legacy] yet again:

 

Luke 2:40

And the Child continued to grow and become strong, increasing in wisdom; and the grace of God was upon Him.

 

John 16:13

But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the truth; for He will not speak on His own initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak;

 

The Spirit of God uses the Word of God to reveal the Savior’s mind, plan, and purpose.

 

John 16:14

"He shall glorify Me; for He shall take of Mine, and shall disclose it to you.

 

The faith that the strong believer gains comes from the Word and the Spirit, ROM 10:17.

 

ROM 10:17

So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.

 

Therefore, in the miracle of the new birth, the Holy Spirit imparts new life - God's life - to a believing sinner, and as a result the individual is born into the family of God.

 

Just as physical children bear the nature of their parents, so God's spiritual children bear His nature. The divine "seed" is in them.

 

A Christian has an old nature from his physical birth and a new nature from his spiritual birth.

 

The New Testament contrasts these two natures and gives them various names: old man, new man; the flesh and the Spirit, the corruptible seed and God’s seed.

 

Every nature has its own essence and purpose. Bacteria, a fish, a dog, a man, God, etc. can all be defined in a way that is distinct from the others. The old nature and the new nature within a believer possess essences and purposes that are contrary to one another. This is why you often feel torn or contradictory in yourself.

 

The old nature produces sin, but the new nature leads one into a life set apart unto God. A Christian's responsibility, given by His Creator, is to live according to his new nature, not the old nature.

 

One way to illustrate this is by contrasting the "outer man" with the "inner man" (2 Cor 4:16).

 

2 Cor 4:16

Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day.

 

 “lose heart” - evgkake,w[egkakeo] = to fear, to become discouraged, to become weary or tired, to despair, to lose heart, to faint.

 

[testosterone]

 

Though the body is neutral in that it can be used to glorify God or for sin and evil the Bible uses the analogy of the body’s needs to live, grow and be healthy to the needs of the new creature.

 

And though the body gets more resistant or even down right against improved health [you find you can’t improve it anymore and you can’t even maintain it; you do what you can for it to not decline too rapidly] the new nature can continually increase.

 

That’s what this verse is getting at. Though you see your physical body in constant decline after a certain age the inner man or divine nature can always be in a constant increase.

 

In light of this I want to read to you an excerpt from the beginning of Plato’s Republic [you bought the cliff notes] where we have Socrates conversing with Cephalus, an aged man.

 

I replied: There is nothing which for my part I like better, Cephalus, than conversing with aged men; for I regard them as travellers who have gone a journey which I too may have to go, and of whom I ought to enquire, whether the way is smooth and easy, or rugged and difficult. And this is a question which I should like to ask of you who have arrived at that time which the poets call the ’threshold of old age’-Is life harder towards the end, or what report do you give of it?

 

I will tell you, Socrates, he said, what my own feeling is. Men of my age flock together; we are birds of a feather, as the old proverb says; and at our meetings the tale of my acquaintance commonly is -I cannot eat, I cannot drink; the pleasures of youth and love are fled away: there was a good time once, but now that is gone, and life is no longer life. Some complain of the slights which are

put upon them by relations, and they will tell you sadly of how many evils their old age is the cause. But to me, Socrates, these complainers seem to blame that which is not really in fault. For if old age were the cause, I too being old, and every other old man, would have felt as they do. But this is not my own experience, nor that of others whom I have known. How well I remember the aged

poet Sophocles, when in answer to the question, How does love suit with age, Sophocles,-are you still the man you were? Peace, he replied; most gladly have I escaped the thing of which you speak; I feel as if I had escaped from a mad and furious master. His words have often occurred to my mind since, and they seem as good to me now as at the time when he uttered them. For certainly old age has a great sense of calm and freedom; when the passions relax their hold, then, as Sophocles says, we are freed from the grasp not of one mad master only, but of many. The truth is, Socrates, that these regrets, and also the complaints about relations, are to be attributed to the same cause, which is not old age, but men’s characters and tempers; for he who is of a calm and happy nature will hardly feel the pressure of age, but to him who is of an opposite disposition youth and age are equally a burden. [end quote]

 

That’s the freedom of thought that comes from an enlightened mind such as Plato’s and now imagine that same circumstance of old age with a soul that is full of doctrine and a companion of a powerfully strong divine nature.

 

[refer]2 Cor 4:16

Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day.

 

Therefore it is of maximum importance that the believer take advantage of the provisions that God has provided by which the divine nature increases day by day. [not every other day]

 

“renewed” - avnakaino,w[anakainoo] = to cause to grow up new, to renew or to make new.

 

The same word is used in COL 3:10 along with the way in which the divine nature is caused to grow up new.

 

COL 3:10

and have put on the new self who is being renewed to a true knowledge [epignosis] according to the image of the One who created him