What Is A Christian? Part IV
Having taken a brief look at body and soul, formed and made, it is now time to
focus on spirit and created.
To "create", which is the Hebrew word bara, literally means "to bring
into existence something which never existed in any form before."
Even though scientists may say they "create", they are not starting with
nothing. Only God can create.
Many have heard in Sunday school or church, that "God created so and so on the
first day, and on the second day God created light, etc." That is not what the
Word says. God did not have to create light because whatever was needed for
light had already been created in Genesis 1:1, and all He had to do was "speak"
light into existence.
Verse 6 in Genesis says, "And God said...." Verse 9, "And God said...." When
God uses the word "create" it is with precision, and not haphazardly. As
God continued with His work of forming, making and creating the earth and its
inhabitants, He came to bringing about His culminating work, man.
God had already formed (body) and made (soul) man. What was He now doing?
What is the image of God? John 4:24, "God is a Spirit...", or more
literally, "God is Spirit".
Spirit has no flesh, no bones, no shape nor body. God created man in His own
image -- spirit (ruach in Hebrew). Man was now body, soul, and spirit.
He was complete. Spirit was the part of man that enabled him to communicate,
to fellowship if you will, with God.
Scientists cannot create life. They reshuffle, they move things around, but
they do not create, because they always start with something.
It was this wonderful spirit of God on Adam that made him a complete man and Eve
a complete woman. The spirit of God now gave Adam dominion over all of God's
creation. Adam walked with power and authority.
When Adam and Eve sinned they lost the spirit of God, and mankind has been
struggling ever since. When God made the new birth spirit available on the day
of Pentecost in Acts chapter 2, man once again could be body, soul, and spirit.
Man could have Christ-in him; man could choose to renew his thinking to the Word
of God and walk with the great power he now had.
The early Church in the book of Acts did signs, miracles, and wonders. They did
things that may not have been seen since. Why? They had Christ-in them,
and they believed it and walked with the power of it.
Why do we not see this abundance and the power in many Christian's lives today?
Either we do not know what we have as a result of Christ-in us, or we have been
talked out of it. We settle for less. We accept man-made religious speeches
rather than go to the Word of God and say what the Word says and believe that
Word.
When God gave Adam and Eve spirit, they were complete. They had a direct
connection to the Creator of the heavens and earth. They were not limited to
the (fallible) five senses of hearing, seeing, touching, tasting or smelling. It
was this spirit of God that was eternal -- not their soul (breath-life) nor
their bodies. They were, in a word, perfect.
While today we are not living in the garden of Eden, our bodies are not perfect,
our minds are the target of commercials, marketing, and whatever else is being
pushed toward us, we can have the perfect spirit of God. We can have "Christ in
us, the hope of glory". It is that spirit of God makes us a Christian, nothing else.
Once we have that new birth spirit, how we use it and how we align our thinking
to the Word of God so that we can unleash this power will determine the dynamic of
our lives here on earth. This part of the Christian's life is up to the
individual.