Learning God's Precepts

For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. Or as the NKJV puts Colossians 3:3 – For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 

Hi and welcome to the Marriage Episode! My name is still Josephine, and this is still Learning God’s Precepts or LGP for short and today we’ll be talking about marriage.

Seeing as I’m currently single, I do not feel quite qualified to speak about this topic, but then I do not feel qualified to talk about every other thing I talk about on this podcast. The only thing I know is that which God has taught me, and I decided that if I could share every other thing I’ve been taught, why would I hold back on this? God’s Word in my mouth qualifies me, and so I’ll speak.

Now that we have out of the way, let’s back track to when I got my marriage lesson. You see, I’d never really gotten the fuss about marriage. It made no sense to me, and just seemed like a lot of stress with the occasional peck that did not make up for the stress.

Then Jesus saved me, I got into church, and there’s this umbrella graphic that they share in church when they speak about marriage that annoyed me even more. I’ll look for a picture and attach it to the blog, but in this picture, there’s four umbrellas in graduating sizes with our Lord Jesus being the biggest umbrella, the husband being the next in size, the wife the next, and the finally we had the kids. This was the communication and reporting hierarchy (we human beings love power so much), where they say God speaks to the man, and the man to the wife and the wife to the kids. 

All I kept thinking was who in their right minds would meet Jesus and then decide to put a human being, a man between them?? Why would I give up Jesus, for a human being?

Do you know that Eve was only relegated to mother of all children after the fall? When sin had entered the world and Adam no longer had the life of God in him? Before the fall she was bone of Adam's bone (i.e., one with him, so whatever Adam was, they were together or as Peter puts it, she was his partner.) Motherhood is great, but women being called only to motherhood is a result of the fall of man. 

Anyways, one day, I’m reading my Bible and I’m awed by the perfection of God’s plans. I’m blown away by how intricately entwined everything thing is. By how complete and purposeful everything God has ever done is. And I say exactly this to God, but then I also say that though everything was perfect and good, marriage stood out as a sore thumb to me. I remember saying that I knew that because He (God) is good, everything H e does is good, but I had examined marriage and I couldn’t seem to see that same completeness and perfection as I saw in everything else. I did not get an immediate response.

About two weeks later God calls me into a 3-day retreat. I had been praying specifically about something else, and I thought that that was what He was calling me to receive. Alas it was not, it was to address what I had said a couple of weeks earlier. I’m going to try and summarize what I was taught over the course of 3+ days in about fifteen minutes.

Now I’m going to ask that if you’ve not listened to the very first episode please stop here and go listen – it’s called our identity in Christ. I’m going to be assuming that you’ve listened to it as that is the foundation upon which this is built.

So, Let’s begin

Genesis 1: 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. 

From the above, we can see very clearly that both male and female humans, were made in the image of God. Today, I’m not going to try to define what that image is, I just want to establish it as a fact.

Then 1st Corinthians 11:7b says – forasmuch as he (the man) is the image and glory of God: but the woman is the glory of the man. But then I began to wonder why men got to be the glory of God, but we women were the glory of the man? I was not a happy camper

So, let’s go back to Genesis, shall we?

Genesis 2:22-24 and the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. And Adam said, this is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man. Therefore, shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh. 

You see when God wanted to create Eve, He took her out of the man, He basically turned Adam from single to double. (This is why I really need you to listen to that first episode). In order to create Eve God removed something from Adam. What exactly was removed from him? What does this mean for Adam? And for eve? And for marriage as an institution.  To explain this, I’m going to be examining 3 or maybe 4 stories in the Bible.

Let’s start with Abraham. In Genesis chapter 15, God made a covenant with Abraham and promised him that his servant would not be his heir but that he would birth his own heir. This was where God told him to look now towards heaven and count the stars, that if he is able to number them, so shall his descendants be.

The Bible tells us that Abraham believed, he actually believed God. But then he went home and slept with Hagar, Sarah’s maidservant. I don’t know about you, if God speaks to one half of a couple that they’re going to birth a child, the assumption is that you know He’s speaking to both you and your partner. But when you don’t see you and your partner as one, you take the vision that God gives you for you guys’ life and destiny and personalize for yourself only – making it all about you, with your spouse as an extra in the movie where you’re the star act. I want to let you know that the result will always be Ismael. And don’t forget that Ismael was a miracle, a miracle child! But God said he was not His will.

Abraham was called to be the father of nations, through Isaac. He had many other children, but through none of them would his destiny – the reason God called him in the first place – be fulfilled. Sarah had only one child in her womb – Isaac – and he was the child of promise. But had she birthed him by anyone other than Abraham  he would not have been the child of promise.

This brings me to the next point I want to quickly make – if you think God called your wife to be a mother, then he called you to be a father. And vice versa. I’m not saying God called you to be the same thing – since Adam was divided into Adam and Eve, I very much doubt that it’ll be the same – but you are two halves of one vision. And those 2 halves merged at the point where you got married. For God to make Eve, he took something vital out of Adam, this means that whatever you have in your hand; though very important, is the incomplete half of something of which a vital part is in the hand of your spouse - be you male or female.

Let’s take a quick detour to Isaac himself when he married Rebecca. In Genesis chapter 24, when Abraham’s servant found Rebecca – just as he was about to leave, Rebecca’s brother blessed her with the following blessing in verse 60 - “Our sister, may you become the mother of thousands of ten thousands; and may your descendants possess the gates of those who hate them.” Does this sound familiar? This is basically the exact same promise that God made with Abraham in Genesis 22:17 that was to be fulfilled through Isaac. This means that immediately Rebecca said I will (or in our case, I do), the same covenant came upon her too. These 2 incidents happened years apart, in 2 entirely different places.

My next example is Moses.  Moses knew that God had called him to lead the people of Israel out of Egypt, and he was right. But he grew up in pharaoh’s palace, and he only knew the way of the palace, but the way of the palace is not God’s way. And when he tried to apply the things he knew and learnt from his time in the palace, it backfired and next thing you know he was on the run.

Thankfully, because God is the God of providence, he ran into Jethro’s daughters who were shepherds – one of whom he married. You see God had called Moses to shepherd the people Israel out of Egypt, everything else (the miracles and signs) God would do through him, but he needed to learn to be a shepherd, and to think like one. Remember that Joseph had told us that Egyptians found shepherds to be an abomination, and Moses had been raised by Egyptians. This means that for Moses to effectively lead shepherds, he couldn’t still hold the mind set that found them abominable. Moses needed to learn new skills and to have his mind renewed.

So, Moses had the vision, but his wife had the methodology.  

She was the shepherd that taught him how to be a shepherd; how to pick out the right shepherd stick, good places to rest and feed the sheep, amongst many others, and it was after he had fully embraced this role that God appeared to him in the burning bush and sent him.

Finally, I’ll end with Mary, the mother of Jesus and Joseph her husband.

Mary may be called the mother of God, but Jesus is referred to in the Bible as the son of Joseph, who is a descendant of David.  Now, according to prophesy, the Messiah must be a descendant of David and since Jews are patrilineal, Jesus’s father had to be a descendant of David. So here we have Mary, chosen to be the one to carry the Messiah, but had she been engaged to anyone but Joseph, who was a descendant of David, and who had also been chosen to be the father of Jesus, there’s no way we’d know who she is today.

Also, there’s Joseph – good Jewish man, a descendant of David – but he was probably one of thousands just like him in his day. Why do we know who he is today? He married Mary. Had he married anyone else but her we would not know who he is today. He was called to be the father of our Lord, and Mary to be the mother of our Lord.

This brings me to the comment I made at the beginning of this episode about 1st Corinthians 11:7b which says – forasmuch as he (the man) is the image and glory of God: but the woman is the glory of the man.

We’ve already established from Genesis that both men and women are made in the image and likeness of God, but this verse introduces something new – glory. It states that men are the glory of God but women the glory of men. Why do we women get to be the glory of men and not of God? What does it really mean for women to be the glory of man?

So, lets go back to Genesis. (This would be easier to understand if you have listened to the episode on our identity in Christ). When God created humanity, He created them in one body, He saw that it was good and asked him to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. But male human bodies – though declared good by God – cannot on their own be fruitful or multiply so they are not equipped to fulfill the mission God gave him, thus, God said that it is not good for man to be alone, or in other words, for man to be singular.

So, what did God do? He removed something from the man, and then built what He removed into a woman who had a body when joined with the man, together, they could carry out and fulfil the mission given to them by God. As marriage is a mystery that points us to Christ Jesus, it’ll be great to go back and look at that relationship to help throw more light on what it means for women to be the glory of men.  

 In John 12:24, Jesus in reply to Phillip and Andrew said – “Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.”

That word alone comes up here again. And in the same way that the Father said in Genesis that it was not good for man to be alone, Jesus also insinuates that it was not good for Him to be alone/singular. He wanted to multiply Himself. And He has done that by dying on the cross, crucifying our old self, and giving us new life – His own life. In the same way that eve came from Adam, when we are born again, we become body parts of Jesus’s bride removed from His side.  We become the branches growing out of Him, the Vine.  We – the church – are the bride of Christ. The Eve to Christ’s Adam.

So, how is Christ Jesus glorified on earth? By His bride. In His church. In John Chapter 17:22 Jesus said - I have given them the glory that You gave me, that they may be one as we are one. Christ is glorified in His church. people do not see Jesus, they see us His body, but when they see us, they glorify Jesus. It is in us and through us that Jesus’s handiwork is being exhibited as we are built up in and by Christ. So, just as it is in us and through us that Christ is glorified on earth, so also it is in and through the wife that the husband is glorified. Outside of that, there is no glory, what you get is Ismael.

What God removed from Adam and built up in Eve is what makes for his glory. So, it becomes their glory (i.e., The man and the woman). So, how does God want this to play out in simple terms?

Husband, all of your life must be focused on building up your wife. And as for the wife, you must recognize that all you are is his. Christ’s focus right now is on building His church, our response as the church is to let Him build us up. In a marriage, God relates to the man as the leader, and to the woman as the helper - no one replaces the other before God.

Finally, I’ve seen a lot of people insinuate, whether by words or by practice, that one is more important than the other, or that one is greater than the other – that need to be greater than or more important than another is the manifestation of the flesh and has no place in God’s marriage. Nothing can be done from the place of strife or vainglory, not even marriage – God resists the proud, and calling pride by another name like ego will not change what it is. There’s no place for self, or self-importance in the things of God.

We (male & female) are made in God’s image, and while men reflect God’s image as Leader, women reflect God’s image as Helper. You are both a reflection of God, and you are both ONE. Just as the triune God – God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are one and co-equal.  You both must ask the Holy Spirit to show you where both your callings merge to become one.

God made marriage good, in fact God said that it is not good that man should be alone. God wants to help you, that’s why He gave you your spouse. He wants to close up the gap in your journeys – both of you.

What about us single people? Does this mean that God doesn’t want to help us too? No, far from it. The Bible tells us that God covered up the flesh at the place where the rib was removed. This means that for men, God will cover up what is lacking in you. And for women, He (God) will continue to build you up i.e., make up for what you didn’t know you needed.

 A witness is someone who sees something and is willing to demonstrate it, both by their words and by their life.

What do you really believe?

Does your life truly demonstrate the things you believe?

 

Personally, I believe that Jesus is the only way. That there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved, and that this salvation brings about the obedience of faith. I believe that heaven is real, and so is hell.

Now, does my life truly reflect that belief?

I don’t know that the answer is yes

Because I'm not sure I demonstrate this belief to people I meet every day; the ones I cross paths with as I go about my daily life.

If the answer is no

Does this make me a hypocrite?

 

Hi! And welcome to learning God’s precepts! Today’s topic is Our Identity in Christ Jesus, and I’d like to warn you that I’ll be quoting the bible a lot in this episode – think of this as a bible study so please open your bible app, if you don’t have any, please download the YouVersion Bible app, that’s the one I use and I really like it.

So, let’s start.

Genesis 1:27 So God created man in His own image; in the image of God, He created him; male and female He created them. 28aThen God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it;”

Genesis Chapter 2vs18 And the Lord God said, “It is not good that man should be alone; I will make him a helper comparable to him.” 21And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, and he slept; and He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh in its place. 22Then the rib which the Lord God had taken from man He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man. Vs 23And Adam said: “This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.” 24Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

You might be wondering; if the topic is our identity in Christ, why all of this is important? I believe that in order for us to be properly grounded in the now/present, we must have a solid understanding of the past, and what better place to start than at the beginning.

The Bible tells us in Ephesians chapter 5,  that marriage is a pointer to our (i.e. the church) relationship with Christ, and when Jesus was asked about marriage in the book of Mathew Chapter 19 vs 4 – 6, He referred us to the beginning, when the first male and female humans were created, so I too have decided to go and start from there – and before you stop listening, this is NOT a podcast on marriage. Nothing wrong with a marriage podcast, I might even do one in the future, this doesn’t focus on that.

Now, back to the topic.

When God made Adam, the bible says that he breathed on Him the breath of Life. What exactly is this breath of life?

Well, in John 1:4, the Bible refers to Jesus by saying that “In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.”  Jesus Himself said that He was the Light of the world, and that He is The Way, The Truth and The Life.

So, in Jesus is a life that is the light of the world and the light of men and according to Genesis 1:5, God used that light to create a boundary to darkness.

To summarize, God breathed the breath of Life into man and this life is a light that gives boundary to darkness. This isn’t that hard to imagine because every time you come into a dark room and put on a lamp; darkness starts when the light doesn’t reach.

So, in the going about of His normal everyday life, the man that God created was able to push back on darkness (i.e., give it a boundary), by virtue of the life he carried. Jesus also alluded to this when he said that we were the light of the world, a city set upon a hill.

Now that we have understood what type of man it was that God created, we can move to the very first command that God gave to them - Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it – but Adam was alone i.e., singular. And even though God made them male and female, Eve was still inside Adam, and Adam was the only human body roaming the earth. And even though Adam was good, as he was, being singular meant that he couldn’t actually fulfil his mandate and this aloneness/ singularity of Adam is the one thing that God said wasn’t good.

So here we have a man who was good, carried the breath life of Christ was the light of the world, but he is unable to multiply himself because the body he had was only a seed producing body, and even though the seed was good, it was of very limited value in the world without a womb to receive it, carry it, grow it, and birth the fruit. So, God steps in, puts Adam into very deep sleep, and makes His very last creation, the woman. And in her was placed the womb that could carry and birth the seed.

This is where I’ll begin to draw the parallels with Jesus and then establish our identities.

In Mathew 28vs 19-20 what we fondly refer to as the great commission, Jesus said that we should “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.

If I am allowed to paraphrase this, this is the exact same order that God gave to Adam in Genesis when He told him to be fruitful, multiply and fill the earth. Our Lord Jesus gave us the exact same commission, but this time the way to fruitfulness and multiplication was different.  Because what is born of the flesh is flesh, only that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit.

So how do we move from being born of the flesh to being born of the Spirit?

In John 12:24, Jesus in reply to Phillip and Andrew said – “Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.”

That word alone comes up here again. And in the same way that the Father said in Genesis that it was not good for man to be alone, Jesus also insinuates that it was not good for Him to be alone/singular. He wanted to multiply Himself.

And that death was the only way.

Now, if we flash back to when eve was created, Adam was put into a very deep sleep before Eve was removed from his side. At that time, there was no sin in the world, so even though Adam was put into a very deep sleep, death had not come into the world, so Adam was asleep until God was done creating eve, then and only then was he brought back to claim his eve.

But now, as soon as Adam and Eve ate of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, the version of them that God created and that had the life that was Light and that gave boundary to darkness died. Sin took its place, entered the world, and with-it came death. So, it was no longer a simple matter of putting Christ, the Second Adam (1 Corinthians 15:45) to sleep, death now had a claim to man. Plus, unlike the first time when the bodies had not been created, the only way in which bodies can enter this world had been established in Genesis. For God to fully circumvent humanity would mean that He had come back to collect the earth that He had handed over to man and that would be in the day of judgement – check out Jesus’s parable about the owner of the vineyard and the stewards he left in charge in …

But since God wanted to save man, He decided to come as man, to begin a new creation, but with the bodies of the old creation. Unfortunately, after the fall, these bodies had a new lord, they belonged to sin and the only currency that sin understands is death, it doesn’t want dollars or pounds or Euros, it wants death. (Romans 6:23 for the wages of sin is death).

So, Jesus Christ was crucified, and by this He paid a debt He didn’t owe for crimes He didn’t commit but that was placed on Him. This has implications.

Now, in today’s world, if someone is imprisoned for a crime they didn’t commit, when the truth comes to light, the judge declares them innocent and orders their release, at this point, the jailer has no right to hold them back in prison.

But even though they get released, the life the person lost by the time spent in jail cannot be returned, a prize has been paid that cannot be retrieved.  Through Christ Jesus, sin was crucified, and it received its payment which is death. So now sin has received a payment of death from someone who doesn’t owe him. The accounts are not balanced, the math is not “mathing” and needs to be fixed.

So, Jesus decides that He is going to apply the gift card principle – I pay someone else get to take the goods! Jesus has paid but He’s not buying, He’s offering it to us. So, Jesus substitutes His payment for the sin in us, all we had to do was accept the offer. This means that as soon as we accept this offer, sin has no hold on us again because he has been paid.

But our Lord Jesus did not just stop there, He didn’t just pay the price and ask us to evacuate sin, no He does it Himself. Remember that the only currency that sin wants is death, and once it receives it’s payment, the same way that the Life that was Light “died” in Adam, is the same way the sin life dies in us when we accept the sacrifice and exchange of Jesus on the cross and then in the same stroke Jesus gives us new life – His Life – the God Kind of Life, similar to the same way that Eve was removed from Adam and seals us with the Holy Spirit.

But now, instead of Eve being in one human body, each of us represents a body part. And in the same way that God the Father finished creating Eve and then brought Adam back to claim her, Jesus will come back when His bride is ready. That is why He said that no one knows the day of His return, only the Father does. And since the Father is the Gardener, it is Him that will know when the Bride/Garden is ready and will call upon the groom to claim His Bride.

 You might be wondering, is there enough “Life Light” for all of us? Yes, there is. In the same way that there was enough sin life in Adam to distribute to everyone born of Him, there’s even more Life that is Light in Christ for everyone born of Him.

Have you received this new Christ Life?

The Bible tells us in Genesis Chapter 1 verse 27 that Adam and Eve were made in the image and likeness of God, but the Adam and Eve that were made in the image and likeness of God died – no one met them! In fact, Genesis, chapter 5 vs 3 tells us that Adam “begot a son in his own likeness, after his image, and named him Seth” All the descendants of Adam are made in the image and likeness of Adam, the fallen man.

That is why our Lord Jesus said that unless you are born again you cannot see the kingdom of God! The problem was never what you did or didn’t do, those things are only a result of who you are. A cat is a cat, and can never be a dog, no matter how many tricks you teach it, or how much time a trainer trains it to act like a dog, it is still a cat! In fact, it will get to a point the cat will rebel.

Do you want to receive this new life? Are you tied of acting like something that you’re not? I’ve been there.

And I can tell you without asking that it’s like sitting at the table where a huge buffet is laid out and you’re watching everyone else go pack a plate, but you can’t seem to get to the table no matter how hard you try. You turn to people for help, and they give a spoon out of their plate, pat you on the back and tell you that you’re okay, but you know that you’re not. Those who even try to help tell you to pick up more plates and more spoons, and more cups – to do more – but the problem is not the plates or spoons or cups, the thing that they cannot seem to get is that you cannot see to get to the buffet table.

That you came across this today, is because God wants to reach you, yes you specifically. And now that you have seen who you are and what Jesus has done, the only right response is to turn to Him and ask Him to save you and give you this new life.

Do it now, and please be sincere – He will take care of the rest.

• ·  God loves me unconditionally in an almost overwhelming manner; therefore, I will depend/trust Him totally with my life. This means seeking His face in everything, obeying His voice every time, and inviting Him to lead every aspect of my life. This is how I abide in Him
• I am a new creation – the cross is my beginning. Christ Jesus lives in me; He purchased my body with His blood on the cross. Therefore, this is His life and only His life should manifest through mine.
• Jesus is my righteousness and my way. I am one with Him, and His life in me makes me Holy. It is ONLY by and because of Him that I have access to the father. This means that every time I come to God in prayer and the Word, the only ground on which I stand on are the finished works of Christ. And because I did not make myself worthy, I cannot unearn my worthiness, access to God is not about my works but is always about Jesus.
• The bible is the Truth and therefore it is the final authority on everything. It serves as a transforming agent used by the Holy Spirit to mature me and train me to become like my master Jesus.
• I am Holy; therefore, I will pursue Holiness. I am righteous; therefore, I will hunger for righteousness and be filled.
• The Lord is my teacher, and He has called me to teach that which He has taught me.
• I am transformed/grow by light/revelation/illumination, therefore I must submit all aspects of my life to the Word of God.

 

Isaiah 9:6 – For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. KJV

 

Before experiencing God as my peace, every time I thought of peace, I associated it with external situations, i.e. if this and this happens, then I’ll have peace, or if people around me behaved better, then they wouldn’t irritate me so much and then I’ll have peace.

But when I was about 16 years old, I was in a very bad place mentally, (isn’t everything the end of the world when you’re a teen?). I zeroed in on what I thought was the cause and unfortunately, it was something out of mine, or anyone else’s control, and for the first time in my life I went to God, unable to help myself or find help anywhere else.

And God did something I didn’t even know was possible – he poured His peace into my heart. I had no idea that that was even available! The end result of that gift was that I changed and came out of that mental space. And most surprising of all, the thing I thought was the source of my sorrow was still true, but it had no hold on me anymore and could not dictate my mood.

God can, and does give us the gift of peace, even as we are inside the storm.

I have discovered since that time that whenever I’m in the middle of a storm, the situations don’t change first, but God works on me, and when I grow/change, these situations then change.

With God – it’s always works from the inside out, not the other way around. Cos if God only changes the situation, every time we find ourselves in similar scenarios, we’ll be right back at that bad place. But if God we can receive from God what we need for that situation, we’ll find that we’ll never go back to that place again

True Dominion right? God is Good!!

But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts. - Romans 13:14 NASB

Little children, make sure no one deceives you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous; - 1John 3:7 NASB

He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. 2 Corinthian 5:21 NASB

 

If you’re anything like me, you’ve probably asked yourself – Since I have already received Christ Jesus and He dwells in me, why then am I asked to put Him on? And how does this “putting on” work? Plus, won’t this be works?

I’m going to be frank and say that this really confused me for a while and no matter how hard I tried, I kept getting the same “Christianese” answers that did not help or provide any clarity. But now that the Holy Spirit has helped me to understand, I feel the need to put it out there.

So, I have before me a bottle of liquid laundry detergent, it’s opaque, and full of detergent. (Feel free to go pick one up right now, and if you don’t have one, any opaque bottle would do).

Let’s imagine that this bottle is who we were before we were saved by Jesus Christ. One day, we’re your everyday regular shmegular bottle of detergent, and then then we get really lucky and meet Jesus and what does He do? He pays for us, empties out our detergent content, (Romans 6:6) replaces it with clean water, and puts us back on the shelf to come back for us later.

To everyone else, we still look the same. And even to ourselves! We know that something has happened, but like the bottle, we can’t see what really happened within us, we just know that something has happened. But knowing that something has happened is not the same as knowing exactly what happened and what it means for us.

Now, this water represents the new life that we have received – Christ Life – and though we have received this water, we do not know how to be a bottle of water, we only know how to be a bottle of detergent. We need to unlearn everything we know about being a bottle of detergent and learn how to be a bottle of water.

So, when someone comes by and tries to pick us up, we let them know that we do not contain detergent, and we have been paid for by someone else (we refuse to submit ourselves to them).

In this analogy, the process of unlearning the habits and behaviors of a bottle of detergent is how we put to death the deeds of the flesh (Romans 8:13), while the process of learning the behaviors and habits of being a bottle of water is how we put on Christ, manifest the Life of Christ Life and practice the righteousness that we have already received.

We practice righteousness because the life we received is righteous. If you say that your detergent has been poured out and replaced with water, if anyone pours you out, water not detergent should come out, no matter what your bottle looks like. This is why our fruit is the only significant sign of who we really are. (Matt 7: 16-20)

To conclude, as with all other things we must start with Jesus – the author and finisher of our faith, therefore the first step is Knowing and believing – as far as that scenario is concerned – the finished works of Christ. Once that is out of the way, the rest becomes possible. 

Because, if Jesus is not the beginning, how then do we expect to finish?