Ephesians overview – 3:14-19, Pauls prayer(inner man: the human spirit), part 15.Sunday April 5, 2020
3:14-19 C) Inner man.
Both the Spirit and Christ are working within. What does God tell us of the inner man? (soul, spirit, heart, mind, and flesh)
Soul in the NT: natural life of the body, immaterial part of man, disembodied man, personality, sentient part, will, purpose, appetite, individuals, inward man. [Vine’s Dictionary]
Spirit: wind (primarily), breath. Figuratively as emotion, desire, mental, and moral qualities.
All of our bodies have come from the earth and Adam. All of our inner men have come from the breath (neshemah) of God.
We are created beings and therefore different from God. The Son of God is begotten of God, and so is God, uncreated, Creator of all things, before all things.
We were not baptized into a creature but a begotten Son, and so we have been immersed into the life of God.
This does not mean that we will automatically live our lives like the life of God. It means that for now, in time, before we get to eternity and experience complete change, for now we have come into contact with the life of God and the door has been opened for us to grab hold of much more of it if we like.
The conundrum that arises from the question of why all Christians don’t do this is beyond our ability to answer. Why the Corinthians, Galatians, meaning why long periods of sinfulness in a believer’s life? Then again, why short periods of sinfulness? Why didn’t Mark continue on with Paul to Asia? Why did Peter decide to favor the Jews over the Gentiles in the body of Christ for a time?
The only answer we can come up with is why we don’t do it, meaning, each of us can only examine our own lives.
However, it is clear that we can do it.
Isa 11:2 And the Spirit of the Lord will rest on Him, The spirit of wisdom and understanding, The spirit of counsel and strength, The spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.
Jesus in described in Rev 5:6 as having seven horns and seven eyes which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. In the NASB “spirits” is capitalized, which is the thought that this phrase represents seven manifestations of the Holy Spirit, but we cannot say for sure that that is what is exactly meant.
The Holy Spirit descended upon the Son of God directly after His baptism. The picture in Isa 11, the context of which is the Second Coming of Christ, follow with six spirits, comprehended by the Spirit of the Lord (ruach Yavah) in three pairs. Commentators can’t resist categorizing the three pairs, and many differ on their interpretation. I have read several of them and at this point find it impractical to do so. They are manifestations of the Spirit and it seems to me that they live and grow together and that we never stop increasing in all of them.
We are to be just like our Lord in wisdom, understanding, counsel, strength, knowledge and fear of God. We can be because Christ has enabled us to be “in Him” through the baptism of the Spirit.
Eph 1:16-17 while making mention of you in my prayers; 17 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him.
For good or bad, our entire nature is affected by our contact with the sphere of sin or the sphere of God.
We are infected one way or the other. That’s why it is of no use to learn the Bible and yet not want to walk with God. Walking with God is the whole purpose of the Bible. When Jesus condemned the religious leaders for not being able to see or hear, He also condemned their actions. “Woe to you scribes and Pharisees” … you shut out the kingdom of heaven from men, you make others twice as much a son of hell as you are, you make false vows, you tithe herbs but neglect justice, mercy, and faithfulness, you are full or robbery and self-indulgence, you are filled with hypocrisy and lawlessness, you are murderers of the prophets. They had the Bible, and indeed studied it, but they had no desire to walk with God, rather their main desire was self-indulgence. Hence they hated Christ, and most intensively for the fact that He was pulling people away from their sphere of influence.
Now, when we become born again we were baptized into union with Christ, meaning that we were immersed in Christ, and so, immersed in His life.
Gal 3:26-29 For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. 27 For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. 28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise.
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