Apicontent

In order to fix my broken life, God had to change the way I thought about Him and the way I thought about myself and others. He had to reintroduce Himself to me as a God of love. First John 4:16 tells us, “God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him.” The trials in my life pushed me to Him; it was there I began to understand and accept His love for me. And as I accepted His love, I began to understand Scripture differently.

In the Garden of Eden, when God created man, He said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth. So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him” (Genesis 1:26–27).

God made us like Him because He wanted someone to love and to share Himself with. Mankind is God’s most treasured of above all creation. We are uniquely designed to appreciate the fullness of God. He put Adam in the Garden to tend and care for the rivers, trees, birds and animals. Through Adam, He gave us dominion over the earth because He wanted us to share with Him in caring for the world He had made. God created man, and man only—not animals, not angels—in His image.

God is Three in One. He is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And mankind also is three in one: we are spirit, soul and body. First Thessalonians 5:23 says, “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you completely; and may your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Scripture tells us of God creating man: “And the LORD God formed man [1] of the dust of the ground, and [2] breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man [3] be- came a living being” (Genesis 2:7). God shaped Adam’s (1) body from the dust of the ground. Then He breathed into that body His Spirit-breath of life so that Adam’s (2) spirit came alive. And with that Spirit-breath from God, man became a living (3) soul. In God’s design, the soul receives life through the Spirit.

God gave us a body so we could live on earth. Our body is made up of our bones, muscle and organs. We interact with the physical world through our body. We see, smell, hear, touch and taste. Our body is like a house for the hidden parts of spirit and soul. “Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you”(1 Corinthians 6:19).

After God shaped Adam’s body, He breathed into it His breath of life. Our spirit comes alive when God’s Spirit gives it life. When we believe that Jesus is the Son of God who died for our sins and rose from the dead, the Holy Spirit comes and lives in our spirit. By “accepting Jesus into our heart,” we let God have a home on earth—in our spirit. Our spirit connects us with God and is a resting place for His Spirit. Just as our body connects us to the physical world, our spirit connects us to God. “The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God”(Romans 8:16).

Upon receiving the breath of God’s Spirit into his body, Adam became a living soul. He became a living being with thoughts and feelings. The soul is the place of our mind, will and emotions. It is like a “bridge” between the spirit and the body. Our mind, will and emotions—not our spirit directly—determine the actions of our body. Our behaviors, speech and feelings are expression of our soul. The world sees the contents of our soul expressed out through our body.

The diagram below illustrates how God made us three in one.

Spirit and soul together form the hidden core of man—the heart. Hebrews 4:12 says, “For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” God knows the heart, He knows what is of the Spirit (originating from Him) and what is of the soul (originating from us).

In God’s design, the soul is meant to be like the steering wheel of a car. How the wheel is turned determines the direction the car takes. But a wheel is not made to steer itself and our soul is not meant to steer us. God, in our spirit, is meant to be the driver. With His hand upon the wheel, all is well. His love directs us.

Each one of us is meant to receive God’s love in our spirit, know the reality of that love in our soul and then let that love flood out of our body to the world. In His great design, God planned that we would have dominion over the earth as guided by our love-relationship with Him.

But Satan had other plans.

Reflection Questions:

• What do you think it means to be made “in the image of God”?
• What does it mean to you to receive God in your spirit?
• In what ways are you experiencing the reality of God’s love in your soul?
• In what ways is God’s love expressing itself through your body to the world?
• How do all three parts (spirit, soul and body) work together to express God’s love on earth?

Before the fall, Adam and Eve had a Spirit-to-spirit connection with God. God did not live in them, but He walked with them. In the Garden of Eden, everything for Adam and Eve’s full life—their perfect relationship with God, self, others and the world—came through their relationship with God. Adam and Eve’s spirit, soul and body were in perfect agreement with God. God gave; they received. God loved; they trusted.

Satan hated Adam and his relationship with God. He hated that God had created humanity in His image to have dominion over the earth. He hated that Adam had been given authority “over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth” (Genesis 1:26)—for Satan was that creeping thing.So he plotted to destroy God’s most treasured creation. In the Garden of Eden, he tempted Eve to fall in the same way he had fallen—by relying on his own soul (his own mind, will and emotions).

Long ago, Satan had tried to become like God apart from God. By his own efforts—his own I will—Satan had tried to make himself like God.He had said, “I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation on the farthest sides of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the Most High” (Isaiah 14:13–14). Satan fell because of pride; he was going to do it himself—by his own, independent I will. So he tempted Eve to act apart from her relationship with God, to rely on her independent soul and to express her own I will.

In the center of the Garden of Eden, God had planted two trees: the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. God warned Adam about the second tree, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die” (Genesis 2:16–17).

The fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was not good for humanity. So, like a loving father warning his child not to eat something poisonous, God warned Adam.

However, Satan reassured Eve that everything would be fine—even better than before. He told her, “You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil”(Genesis 3:4–5). “Don’t listen to God,” the serpent said. “You won’t really die; you’ll be like God.” The idea Satan planted in her mind was, “God doesn’t have your best interests at heart. If He really loved you, He wouldn’t withhold this good from you. So go ahead. Choose what is best for yourself.”

The fruit of tree seemed good to her, so Eve ate it. She gave some to Adam and he ate it too. In so doing, Adam made his own decision and acted apart from God. His soul—his mind, willand emotions—chose its own will over God’s. Thus, Adam broke his Spirit-to-spirit connection with God; he cut off the life-giving relationship. Now the soul had to make its own decisions using its new-found knowledge of good and evil.

When Adam ate the forbidden fruit, the effect rippled throughout the entire human race. When we are born into this world, we inherit Adam’s disconnection from God—the sin nature. Satan’s evil plot destroyed the perfect way God had created us to live—in Spirit-to-spirit connection with Him. Now the independent soul—cut off from continual intimate relationship with God—was in control.

After the fall, Adam and Eve’s minds became clouded by the knowledge of good and evil. When their “eyes were opened” they no longer saw God’s loving nature, but increasing viewed Him as a harsh father demanding good and punishing evil. The couple’s image of God, self and others was darkened by lies.

These lies changed their behavior. When God came to walk with Adam and Eve in the cool of the Garden, they were not there. The two had dressed themselves in fig leaves to cover their nakedness and were hiding from God.

But God searched out Adam, calling for the one he loved, “Where are you?”(Genesis 3:9).

Adam answered, “I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself”(Genesis 3:10). Fear (“I was afraid”) is the first emotion expressed by Adam after the fall. The I will brought fear into their lives. There was no fear in Adam or Eve before the fall. Before the fall there was nothing to be afraid of; they knew the loving nature of God. The New Testament says, “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear” (1 John 4:18).

Adam and Eve had lost their connection with God. Their Spirit-to-spirit relationship was severed. Through people’s independent souls, Satan could now work evil in humanity and in the world God had designed for them to rule.

Reflection Questions:

• Consider for a moment what it must have been like for Adam and Eve to “walk with God.” What do you think that perfect relationship may have been like?
• In what ways were Adam and Eve’s experience of God’s love changed after the fall?
• In what ways might you have bought into Satan’s lie, “God doesn’t have your best interests at heart”?
• How is the soul (will) central to Satan’s scheme?
• How is the soul (will) central to God’s full redemptive plan?

After the fall, God could no longer express His love and care for Adam and Eve as He had in the beginning. All of humanity was living in a broken relationship with God. Now people were living with their eyes opened to the knowledge of good and evil. Because people had no connection with God on the inside, the rules had to come from the outside. Therefore, God gave Moses the Ten Commandments as guidelines for the independent soul.

God knew what was best for man. He wrote the commandments like a loving father making rules to keep his children safe and happy. Just as a father might tell his child, “Don’t stick your finger in fire,” God gave these laws to protect His people.

The Ten Commandments, along with other laws in the Old Testament, clearly defined what people should and should not do. However, even when people wanted to, they just couldn’t obey all the rules. The soul, cut off from God and clouded by lies and fear, couldn’t follow His instructions. Before Moses received the Ten Commandments, the people had said, “All that the LORD has spoken we will do” (Exodus 19:8). And yet, soon after those same people had given up on the Lord and worshiped a golden calf.

Even David, God’s chosen king of Israel, failed to keep the law. He wrote sincerely, “As the deer pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul for You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God”(Psalm 42:1–2). Yet David’s soul was fickle. He had an affair with Bathsheba, the wife of one of his loyal army officers. Then to cover it up, he had the man sent to his death in battle. God’s chosen king disobeyed four of the Ten Commandments; he coveted, committed adultery, lied and murdered.

Nothing was wrong with the law God gave His people; it was just that it couldn’t be followed. The law was not designed to be kept by the efforts of mankind. It was designed to show us God’s standard that, apart from relationship with Him, can never be kept. The purpose of the law was not to make people good; the purpose of the law was to show people that life guided by the soul can never be good. Despite having the knowledge of good and evil, the soul can’t live rightly on its own.

In the New Testament, Jesus summarized the Old Covenant law—that couldn’t be obeyed. When He was asked by a Pharisee about “the great commandment in the law,” Jesus replied, “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets”(Matthew 22:37–40).

These two greatest commandments in the Law summarize what is best for us. “God is love” (1 John 4:16) and He created us in His image to reflect His love-nature to the world. But, these two commands are Old Covenant commands and therefore impossible to obey. Think of trying to love God with all your heart, all you soul and all your mind. How could you possibly do that? And even if you could, how could you then, having given all your love to God, have some left over for your neighbor? And how could you love your neighbor as yourself if you didn’t really love yourself, because you didn’t know God loved you?

Even though the law couldn’t be obeyed, the Pharisees were deceived into thinking they were obedient. But Jesus called out their true condition, “Blind Pharisee, first cleanse the inside of the cup and dish, that the outside of them may be clean also. Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness”(Matthew 23:26–27).

Following rules can make a person look good by their own definition—from the outside. But it cannot make a person good by God’s definition—from the inside. Our true goodness comes from an inner relationship with our heavenly Father that flows through us to others. In God’s design, right living flows from right being. We were created as human beings, not as human doings. Being in relationship with God allows us to know his love for us and to naturally follow his rules. Paul summarizes this clearly when he says, “Love does no harm to a neighbor, therefore love is the fulfillment of the Law”(Romans 13:10).

God doesn’t define right living as obedience to any set of rules—not even His own. Neither does He define sin as disobedience to the law. Sin, in God’s view, is not just doing evil as defined by the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. It is also doing “good” under that same tree. Both the good and the evil are equally death producing—because they come, not from the Spirit, but from the independent soul. Sin is doing your own thing—no matter how “good” that thing appears.Sin is missing the true goal and purpose of life; it is living apart from God and being led by the independent soul. Again, Paul makes this clear: “Whatever is not from faith is sin”(Romans 14:23).

By showing the total failure of the law to make us good, God planned that we would come to know our desperate need for a Savior. Paul says, “The law was our tutor to bring us to Christ” (Galatians 3:24).

Our old, soul-guided nature always wants to live by rules. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil has deep roots. Every religion of the world caters to the desires of the Adam-nature to do something “good” to please their god(s) and earn their favor. Jews try to obey the Law of Moses. Muslims try to follow the Koran. Hindus try to appease many different gods and goddesses with a variety of sacrifices. Christians too can be easily deceived into trying to gain God’s favor through “good” deeds generated by the independent soul such as going to church, witnessing … or even loving others.

We cannot please God apart from our relationship with Him. God wants us to let His life and love flow through us.

In my own life, I had completely missed this point. When I did good deeds, I believed those deeds put me in right standing with God. Adam’s clouded mindset had darkened my thoughts. I believed the lie that if you do good things, God will love you, but if you don’t, He won’t.

That lie so warped the framework of my life that I tried desperately to do “good” things. In high school I got straight As. I earned the position of number one on the tennis team. I was president of the Girl’s League, the California Scholarship Federation and the church youth group. Pushed by the lie, I earned two separate undergraduate degrees in four years, attended graduate school, wrote numerous publications focused on helping sick and disabled children, aiding starving children in Kenya, raised four kids and worked as a volunteer for a mission organization. But … nothing was enough. Life was a constant struggle to accomplish the impossible and be “good enough” to earn love from others … and God.

Trying to love as commanded in the Old Covenant was the root of my problem. My independent soul couldn’t generate the love.

But Edna had seen past the whitewashed walls and the shiny ornaments that decorated my good Christian life. On that hot August day, she had spoken the truth, “Mary, you don’t love.”

She had identified the problem. But what was the solution?

Reflection Questions:

• In what ways is the law currently hindering you and/or helping you to live as God designed?
• Imagine and describe a growing relationship with God?
• In what ways might you be living by rules and regulations?
• In what ways might you currently be trying to earn God’s love and approval?
• In this chapter the author says: “Sin is doing your own thing—no matter how ‘good’ that thing appears.Sin is missing the true goal and purpose of life; it is living apart from God and being led by the independent soul.” How might your independent soul be causing you to miss your true goal and purpose in life?

Jesus didn’t just show us a new way, He made it possible for us to live in that new way. He gave us the New Covenant to replace the Old.

In the New Covenant we receive from God by faith. It is a two-step process summarized clearly in First John: “And this is His commandment: that we should [1] believe on the name of His Son Jesus Christ and [2] love one another, as He gave us commandment” (1 John 3:23). We (1) believe that Jesus is the Son of God and we (2) love as Jesus commanded with the love He first gave to us.

The New Covenant speaks, not of what we should do, but of what Jesus has done. He has made a way for us to live in love-relationship with God. It is God who changes us from the inside out. Obedience to the New Covenant does not depend upon the work of our independent soul; the only requirement is that we believe in Jesus and all that He accomplished for us on the cross.

The first command of the New Covenant—the first step in restoring relationship with God—is to believe in Jesus as the Son of God. Scripture repeats this first step with its promises over and over again. John 3:16 tells us, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” John 3:36 says, “He who believes in the Son has everlasting life.”John 6:40 reiterates, “And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life.” 

When we believe that Jesus is the Son of God who died for us, our sins are forgiven and we have eternal life. When we die, we will go to heaven. No good works are required of the independent soul. We simply accept the truth by faith. Salvation is a free gift. The Holy Spirit comes to live in our spirit and we are born again. When we invite Jesus into our heart, our spirit becomes a dwelling place for the Holy Spirit and we begin our relationship with God. In this way, our spirit fulfills its God-intended purpose; it connects us to God and His all-embracing love.

The diagram below shows that the spirit of one who believes in Jesus is filled with the love of God.

During the time of the Reformation, in the early 1500s, the church was reintroduced to the first command of the New Covenant. God used the teaching and writing of Martin Luther to make it clear that eternal life cannot be earned by works but is a free gift to be received by faith.  With strong resolve the Luther held to the truth of Scriptures such as Romans 1:17, “The just shall live by faith.” Today many Christians have an understanding of the first command of the New Covenant. We know that we are justified by faith and not by works of the law.

When I was 16, the truth of believing of Jesus became clear to me and I accepted Him into my heart. As a new believer, I spent the first few months of my new relationship with God just enjoying Him. I would ride my horse into the hills, find a spot for him to graze, lie under a tree and read my Bible. Some days I would get up early and walk down the dirt road with my dog just to watch the sunrise and sing made-up songs to Jesus.

But then I began to learn about all the things good Christians did. I didn’t understand that these things were meant to come naturally from the spirit relationship I was enjoying, so I began trying to do my own good deeds. I thought this was what God wanted me to do. And so the framework of my Christian life became twisted: I began to assume that God would bless me and love me because of my good deeds. Thus, in working for God, I lost the simple rightness of living life in relationship with God.

My Christian life had begun well—with Jesus in my heart—in Spirit-to-spirit relationship. And I knew it would end well—with eternal life in heaven when I died. But I was completely deceived about how to live life on earth—in those important in-between years.

Salvation by faith in Jesus as the Son of God isn’t all that God intends for us. We were made for more than a born-again spirit and eternal life. We were created in the image of God to share His life and love with others—just as Jesus did. God intends that, through our spirit connection, we begin to understand more and more of His love—so that our souls also come to be renewed.

Reflection Questions:

• Share one way, meaningful to you, that the New Covenant is different from the Old.
• What does the Bible teach about how to receive everlasting life?
• Why is believing in Jesus a critical first step in our relationship with God?
• Share three ways that believing in Jesus has changed you.
• John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world …” Why is God’s love central to understanding what this verse is saying?

Tragic as it was, God used the fall, and the struggles of the people in the Old Testament, to display His sacrificial love. Without the fall, love would not have been able to express itself in complete, grand form. God’s love reached down to us when Jesus became a man and took our place by dying on the cross for our sins.

In the Old Testament, God had promised to restore humanity by making a way for us to come back into a relationship with Him. He spoke to Abraham about being the father of a new people who lived by faith. Then through the prophet Jeremiah, God promised a New Covenant to replace the Old. The Old had come to us from the outside—from the Ten Commandments written on stone tablets. The New would come to us from the inside—from God’s Word written on peoples’ minds and hearts. The Old Covenant was based upon the will of man, but the New Covenant is based upon the will of God. Jeremiah wrote, “But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people” (Jeremiah 31:33).

To usher in the New Covenant, Jesus came to earth as a human being. As a man, Jesus remained 100 percent God, but He voluntarily laid aside all of His divinity. In this sense, Jesus was like us. He was tempted and tested in all things and was not given any extra amount of grace, strength or power to overcome Satan’s attacks. Rather, He humbled Himself and depended (like we are designed to) on the Holy Spirit to accomplish God’s will through Him. As a man, Jesus showed us how God made us to live as full, complete human beings. He modeled life the way we were created to live it.

At the beginning of His earthly ministry, Jesus was baptized by John in the Jordan River. At this time, the Father spoke from heaven directly to Him, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17). On the Mount of Transfiguration, the Father addressed Him again, “This is My beloved Son” (Matthew 17:5). Deep in the core of His being, Jesus knew His Father loved Him. God’s love provided the foundation and framework for Jesus’ life … and death.

Because Jesus trusted in His Father’s unfailing goodness, He gave up everything of Himself (His soul) and embraced all His Father had to give. Trusting in God’s love for him allowed Jesus to live a life of complete surrender (obedience) to His Father’s will. Knowing God’s all-encompassing love allowed Jesus to live a life of love.

In His life on earth, Jesus lived in Spirit-to-spirit relationship with His Father. In this way His life was like a channel through which His Father’s loving nature flowed from heaven to earth. As His Father lead, Jesus told stories of a caring shepherd looking for a lost sheep and of a father loving a disobedient son. Under the Spirit’s direction, He shared His life with tax collectors, prostitutes and others shunned by the cultural traditions in which He lived. With the Father’s compassion, He healed the sick—even on the Sabbath, the law-given day of rest.

In unbroken relationship—in perfect unity of action, thought and character—Jesus took the will of God as His own. He said, “I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me” (John 6:38). He also said, “The Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner. For the Father loves the Son, and shows Him all things that He Himself does” (John 5:19-20). In this way, Jesus’ life on earth was a reflection of the Father’s will—the Father’s loving nature.

The final test of Jesus’ love-relationship with His Father came in the Garden of Gethsemane. On the night before He was betrayed, Jesus was greatly distressed. He cried out, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even unto death … O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will”(Matthew 26:38–39). Three times Jesus prayed, giving up His will and asking for the Father’s will to be done. Although it required death—although it didn’t seem good—He surrendered the desires of His soul and trusted in His Father’s love.

The all-knowing, all-powerful, infinite love Jesus knew in His Spirit-to-spirit relationship with His Father thus defined and filled His entire soul and poured out of His broken body to the world. In this way, the Son of Man surrendered His soul-life and became a spirit-soul-body channel carrying God’s will—God’s love—to the world. Truly we see the love of the Father in the life and death of His Son. 

This surrender ushered in the New Covenant. In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus regained what Adam had lost in the Garden of Eden. Adam had chosen his own will above the will of God; Jesus chose God’s will above His own. In dying to the desires of His soul, Jesus conquered sin and death which reigned on earth through Adam’s soul-guided nature. By the complete surrender of His will, Jesus gave up His soul-life in order to give us His Spirit-life.

In the New Covenant, Jesus provides a way for us to regain our original God-given destiny. We were made in the image of God to radiate His likeness on earth—just as Jesus did. As Jesus received from the Father, so we receive. Jesus said, “As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love” (John 15:9). In an abiding love-relationship, our souls surrender their independent ways and come to rest in the loving guidance and care of God.

Jesus came to save us from ourselves—from our soul-guided way of living that can never be right. He made a way to restore our spirits—in Spirit-to-spirit relationship with God. And He made a way to restore our souls; our mind, will and emotions are renewed in the love of God as our souls come to rest under the leadership of the Spirit. In this way, in alignment with God, we become as He created us to be—born of the Spirit and led by the Spirit. In this way, as spirit-soul-body channels, we radiate the image of God—just as Jesus did. 

Reflection Questions:

• If God audibly said to you, “You are My beloved son/daughter,” how would you respond? How convinced are you that God loves you?
• In what ways do you find it difficult to accept and embrace God’s love?
• Think of a specific situation in which you found it particularly difficult to accept and embrace God’s will. What made this difficult for you?
• How might embracing more of the all-powerful, all-knowing, infinite love of God have helped you in this instance?
• Jesus was a human being like us. Yet, He surrendered His will to His Father and went to the cross. What might be keeping you personally from surrendering to what you feel God desires of/for you?

Today many Christians understand that a mix of grace and self-effort will never save us. Martin Luther clearly taught the truth that we are justified by faith alone. Eternal life is not earned by works of the law, but by faith in Jesus as the Son of God.

However, Luther did not teach Jesus’ New Covenant love. He did not emphasize that “We love Him because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19). He did not clearly portray the life-changing significance of Jesus’ New command, “Love one another as I have loved you” (John 15:12). Luther realized the importance of love in Scripture, but he seemed to see it as something to be earned under the Old Covenant—rather than as something to be received in the New. Therefore, even though he knew the law was impossible to obey, he treated love as a work to be accomplished under the law—by the independent soul. After trusting God for eternal life, Luther tried to live his life on earth by loving God and others with his own self-effort. He wrote, “Since you have found Christ by faith … begin now to work and do well. Love God and your neighbor.”¹

Many of us today have inherited that same wrong thinking. For living a life of love on earth we are trapped into relying on a mix of grace and works. We are caught in the bondage of the Old Covenant. Despite having a born-again spirit, we keep trying to do “good” things to live rightly on earth. We ask God to help us with our plans, rather than embracing His. Adam’s independent, sin nature has a deep-rooted strangle hold.

Before we are saved, Satan fights to keep us from Spirit-to-spirit relationship with God. However, once we have God’s Spirit in us, his tactic is to keep the Holy Spirit bottled up inside our spirit so God, who is love, cannot express Himself to the world. One of the ways he does this is to disguise evil by calling it “good.” He masquerades as an angel of light bombarding us with “good” things for the independent soul to do after receiving Christ by faith. He deceives us into thinking that after we are born again, we can somehow—by following a set of rules or good advice—love others and live on earth as God intends.

That is a lie.

In the New Testament, Paul confronted Peter for teaching similar falsehood. When Peter was teaching faith in Jesus and obedience to Jewish laws and traditions, Paul “withstood him to his face” (Galatians 2:11). Paul did not want Christians falling back into living under the bondage of the law. Jesus did not begin a good work and then leave it to Moses to finish. Any mix of faith and flesh—any combination of grace and law—is toxic and cannot produce life as God designed.

With strong words, Paul warned the believers in Galatia: “O foolish Galatians! Who has bewitched you that you should not obey the truth…. Did you receive the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now being made perfect by the flesh?” (Galatians 3:1–3). The believers in Galatia had begun well; they were born of the Spirit. But now they were attempting to live their Christian lives in the flesh—by the strength of the independent soul.

Flesh is the combination of soul and body. Just as the heart refers to the spirit and soul together, the flesh refers to the soul and body together. The flesh is neither sinful nor righteous. It is made sinful or righteous depending on who leads it.

When the flesh controls itself—when the soul is master—it is sinful. Although it may look good on the outside, such as when it does good and avoids evil, the flesh, cut off from God, cannot produce life as He intends. At its best, flesh describes a Pharisee in the temple; at its worst, it describes an unrepentant murderer in prison. Paul says, “In me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find”(Romans 7:18).

However, when the Spirit is Master, the flesh radiates the nature of God—the glory of God. It is through the flesh of the Man, Jesus Christ, that we see spiritual God in a physical, earthly form we can understand. The Bible says, “And the Word [Jesus] became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory” (John 1:14). Paul goes on to tell us, that the life of Jesus is “manifested in our mortal flesh” (2 Corinthians 4:11). When God’s Spirit lives in our spirit and when the Spirit leads our soul, we function in the Spirit and radiate God to the world. When I surrender my I will to God’s will, God pours through my spirit-soul-body channel and waters the world with His love.

Paul also said to the Galatians. “If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit”(Galatians 5:25). To live in the Spirit and to walk in the Spirit are two different things. The first begins at the moment of salvation. When we live in the Spirit, we are born of the Spirit and become children of God. Romans 8:16 says, “The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God.”

The second—walk in the Spirit—happens in a continual love-relationship with God as we walk out our life on earth. We walk in the Spirit by living our lives guided by God. Our soul gives up its own will and surrenders to the Spirit. We die to our will and desires and become one with Jesus. When we let God lead, we become mature sons and daughters of God. Romans 8:14 says, “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.”

But how does one become a son or daughter of God who is continually led by the Spirit? If choosing to walk in the Spirit is something I try to do, I put myself back under the law. If I make walking in the Spirit (or loving others) a rule, I put myself back under the impossibility of the Old Covenant. Even if I am born-again in my spirit, my independent soul won’t be able to consistently yield to the Spirit. The soul, with all its good rules and self-effort will fail. (I know. I have tried and failed miserably.)

Yet the Bible clearly tell us, “Love never fails” (1 Corinthians 13:8). God has done it. Jesus accomplished for us everything we need for eternal life and for living lives of love on earth. We just need to believe in Jesus as He really is—full of love for us. God is the source of the love for which our soul so desperately longs. His love completely satisfies the soul and holds it in a position of surrender to the Spirit. The love of God draws us and cradles us in unity with Him 

Earlier in Galatians, Paul put it this way. “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me” (Galatians 2:20). Paul is living life on earth, by faith in Jesus who he knew loved him. Obedience to both parts of the New Covenant—the faith command and the love command—brings life as God designed.

Paul longed for the believers in Galatia to live life as he experienced it. He addresses them, “My little children for whom I labor in birth again until Christ is formed in you” (Galatians 4:19). Paul had labored for their salvation. They were born again—children of God. But now he was laboring again—in order that Christ might be formed in them. Paul desired that they be remade in the image of Christ—and become sons/daughters of God.

But what does it look like to have Jesus formed in us? Is such a life really possible?

Reflection Questions:

• How is Paul’s warning to the Galatians relevant to you today?
• Give an example of an evil-looking behavior that is the result of living in the flesh. Give an example of a good-looking behavior that is the result of living in the flesh.
• How is it possible to be born-again, yet still live in the flesh?
• Share some good rules or traditions you might be using to guide your life. In what ways might these be beneficial or detrimental to your life?
• How is a Christian transformed from living life on earth in the flesh to living life on earth in the Spirit?

1.  Martin Luther, Commentary on Galatians (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2017), 43.

Many Christians today understand that we are justified by Christ alone. A justified person knows that their sins are forgiven and eternal life is theirs. But, far too few of us really understand that we are also glorified by Christ alone.

In Romans 8:29-30, Paul tells us, “For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover, whom He predestined, these He also called; whom He called, these He also justified; and whom He justified, these He also glorified.” God’s intent is to restore us to His original created design for humanity. “God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him” (see Genesis 1:27). To conform us to the image of His Son, He predestined, He called, He justified and He glorified. Flesh has no part to play in the process. God does it all!

What does it mean to be glorified? The Greek word for “glory”—doxa—does not refer to an outward shining appearance that attracts attention to itself. Rather doxa refers to the innate character—the substance within. To give glory to something actually means to recognize the thing for what it is—for its true worth. When we give glory to God, we attribute to Him His true, innate value. When God gives glory to us, He attributes to us all the worth He created us to have in Him.

On Mount Sinai, Moses asked God, “Please, show me Your glory.” And God replied, “I will make all my goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of the LORD before you”(see Exodus 33:18–19). God showed His glory—by letting Moses see His goodness. God’s glory, God’s goodness and God’s loving nature are one and the same.

God shares His glory with us by sharing His nature with us. Before He went to the cross, Jesus prayed to the Father for us, “And the glory which You gave Me I have given to them…. that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me” (John17:22–23). We are glorified in relationship with God. A glorified person reflects the image of Christ. Jesus’ nature radiates out of us as we live our lives in one with Him—surrendered to His love. 

Something glorious is coming. What God longs to share with us today is much greater than the fading glory He shared with Moses (see 2 Corinthians 3:7–11). Paul spoke of “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27). Christ in us is the hope of glory. But Christ in us is not the actual glory itself. The manifest glory comes when Christ in us pours out of us to the world—when we radiate God’s love.

When we accept Jesus into our heart, we are saved and God lives in our spirit. But He doesn’t just want to live in (and bring His life to) our spirit. He wants to have access to the whole of our heart (the spirit and soul together). God doesn’t want to stay locked up in our spirit, He wants to bring His life to our soul and body as well.

The world does not see what is inside our spirit; it sees what is inside our soul. When others see us, do they sense our love for them, our peace and joy? Or do they sense our displeasure toward them, our anxiety or depression? When God fills our soul, the world will see Jesus through us. God designed the whole of our earthly temples—spirit, soul and body—to be fully His so that we become “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4).

As partakers of His nature, God’s nature flows forth from our souls and we bear much fruit. Jesus said, “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing…. As the Father loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love” (John 15:4–5, 9).

Working hard to clothe ourselves in “good” deeds (like loving others) doesn’t make us right with God. Even the gifts of the Spirit won’t make us complete, as God designed. We become right with God simply by abiding in love-relationship. Paul tells us, “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, long suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law” (Galatians 5:22–23).

Fruit of the Spirit is a natural, outward manifestation of the life God intends. When abiding in Jesus’ love, we come to act right because we are right on the inside. In love-relationship with God, we actually become the people we have tried so hard and unsuccessfully to become. Fruit of the Spirit grows without effort on a branch grafted to Jesus, the Vine. Obedience comes naturally. Walking in the Spirit—with the soul surrendered to the will of God—comes naturally. 

In abiding relationship, our soul ceases its independent work and finds rest under the leading of the Spirit. Hebrews 4:10 tells us, “For he who has entered His rest has himself also ceased from his works as God did from His.”We don’t do our own work—generated by the efforts of the independent soul. Rather, God accomplishes His loving work through us; we are His hands and feet. He leads us in the “good works [He] prepared beforehand that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10).

Our only work is to believe in Jesus and all that He accomplished on the cross. When the crowds came to Jesus with the question, “What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?” Jesus replied, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent” (John 6:28–29).

A glorious time is dawning. The Old Testament speaks of three main feasts: Passover, Pentecost and Tabernacles.¹ The church has seen the spiritual fulfillment of Passover and Pentecost. But we have not yet experienced the spiritual fulfillment of Tabernacles—the last and greatest of the three feasts.

In the Old Testament, the Feast of Tabernacles was known as the feast of glory, the feast of the fruit harvest and the feast of rest. It was on the last day of the Feast of Tabernacles that Jesus stood and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water” (John 7:37–38). In the complete spiritual fulfillment of the Feast of Tabernacles, rivers of living water will flow from our hearts. We will be spirit-soul-body channels through which His life-giving waters flow.

The writers of the New Testament knew that something surpassing the greatness of their time was coming. John wrote, “Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is” (1 John 3:2). At this time, God is revealing Himself to us as He really is—as the God of love! And we shall be like Him!

Paul said, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God” (Romans 8:18–19). Creation eagerly awaits. God’s glory—His goodness and nature of love—will be revealed through us as sons and daughters of God. We will radiate God’s love!

Now is the time for transformation. 

Reflection Questions:

• Which one or two ideas from this chapter stand out to you?
• Based on what you have read in this chapter, how does God share His glory with the world? How might you allow God to better share His glory with you?
• Reread Jesus’ prayer in John 17:22–23 (as quoted in this chapter). What do these verses mean to you personally?
• How do we bear fruit and become the people God created us to be?
• What does it mean to you to “abide in Christ”? How does abiding in Christ affect your relationship with others?

1. George Warnock, The Feast of Tabernacles: The Hope of the Church, www.georgewarnock.com/feast-main.html.