The New Man, Individual Perfection

So did Paul teach to do away with the Law or to obey the Law? Neither, praise the Lord! He taught us to live from perfection within to without! Perfection is a scary word when we think of behavior, or at least it is for me! For those of us orientated towards performance and perfection, we often misunderstand the New Testament’s teaching and experience of perfection. And since we are held within the grip of our own vision, let’s make sure we have the right focus in view!

For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified. Heb 10:14

But whoever keeps His word, truly the love of God is perfected in him. By this we know that we are in Him. 1 John 2:5

The Laws that govern The Kingdom are beyond time and space; they are not of the natural realm which exist within time and space. The Law was a prefigurement to reveal within time and space as an illustration of what the Kingdom of Heaven is like. Whether we realize it or not, we walk around all day long within the natural realm of time and space which parallels a spiritual dimension that is beyond time and space. 

Before the fall, we were the mediating authority between these two realms as the ambassadors of the Kingdom of God. We were created finite to host from within to without the Infinite One!  As Rabbi Aaron likes to says, "If God were the sun, then we were His sunbeams -- we are a someone, some of the One!"

When we fell by disobedience in sin we no longer had access, nor authority, to be God’s authorized mediators – and we lost our dual citizenship. The Bible calls our fallen self the old man or natural man which progressively grows corrupt. Once fallen into the old man’s self-contained limitation, only randomly could we access by faith the spiritual and miraculous dimension, but it was not sustainable.

However, when Jesus paid the price of atonement in full, that incomprehensible and extreme overcompensation of His Divinity for our corruption, He atoned for the penalty for anyone breaking the Law in the tangible realm within time and space, as well as the Heavenly realm beyond time and space forever and ever! However, although His atonement exists and is present upon the entire world – past, present and future - His atonement is only accessed by faith!

When an individual is born again, God literally re-creates, in the Image of Jesus, a perfect new man!

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. 2 Cor 5:17

But you have not so learned Christ, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness. Therefore, putting away lying, “Let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor,” for we are members of one another. Eph 4:20-25

Notice in the verse above, Paul didn’t say “put away lying” to obey one of the commandments of the Mosaic Law, which was a type and shadow, but “put away lying” because the DNA of your new man is truth, the re-internalized Law of God written on your heart! Did you know that God cannot lie? And if we are re-created in His Image, living from the DNA of our new man, then we can’t either -- and if or when we do lie, then be assured that is of the flesh.

One time I was visiting with someone and they spoke a disclaimer of what they were about to say, “If you tell anyone, I will deny I ever said it,” as though lying would be easy for the righteous. Furthermore, Paul admonished the individual new man to put away lying because we are a part of the corporate One New Man, having been recreated in the Image of Jesus! Paul wasn’t teaching us to obey the Mosaic Law, nor was he dismissive of it, it was simply a guide to bring us unto Christ. Paul taught us to live from the re-internalized Substance of Christ Himself! The Mosaic Law was simply the shadow of His Silhouette!

However, when asked how do we access this perfected born again new man within – most often blank looks reign.