LESSON 4- Ephesians
Chapter 3
The Mystery- Revelation
Our Inheritance in Christ Cont.’
Chapter 3:1-21
Continued: Eph.3:14 For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
Repentance:
Aggressive Forgiveness-Grace
The challenge; believing the gospel of grace (aggressive forgiveness) for yourself and others, daily!
“Your salvation is not a reward for good behavior! It was a grace thing from start to finish; you had no hand in it. Even the gift to believe simply reflects His faith! (Ephesians 2:8)
“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith…”
Ephesians 2:8 (ESV)For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God,
You did not invent faith; it was God’s faith to begin with! It is from faith to faith, (Rom. 1:17) He is both the source and conclusion of faith.” (Heb. 12:2)
Paul said in Gal. 2:20: “I live by the faith of Jesus Christ.” And in Gal 2:16 “man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ,”
This “aggressive” forgiveness–grace journey progresses in/by a ‘mind shift’ away from re-penance (faith in the law) to (faith in grace). “The word ‘repentance’ is a fabricated word from the Latin, penance, and to even give it more ‘religious’ mileage, the English rendering became re-penance!”
That is not what the Greek word means at all! The true word that sets the journey of grace, by faith in motion is ‘Metanoia’. This comes from (meta)-meaning together with, and (nous) meaning mind, together with God’s mind; continuously perpetuated by a ‘radical mind-shift.’
Romans 3:27
A mind-shift from trying to impress God with/by your behavior to faith/righteousness in Christ, is fundamental. There is no life left in the old system, it is dead and gone; you have to move on.”
The research I’ve done on ‘re-penance’ is: a misuse. It is ‘a shifting and change of mind’ gets you thinking/meditating/focused on ‘transformation’.
Repentance is a vital ‘part’ of the grace, by faith journey of being transformed into the image of Christ. Why? Because it gets us to turn away (once and for all) from a failed, fallen minding of ourselves; and turning us to living in God’s mind-set.
We can now truly move on beyond ‘re-penance’ and the sin-consciousness it produces to a moment by moment awareness of sharing in and being covered by Christ’s righteousness. God’s mind-set, thoughts and opinion of us becomes our plumb-line. We literally take on the ‘mind of Christ.’
Man, via ‘religion’ built a doctrine of ‘re-penance’; which gets us to agree with a faith based on our performance, instead of the finished work of Christ. And this renders us ‘impotent’ to the power of being transformed completely into the image of Christ by grace, through faith.
Definition of Repentance- Metanoia- – Greek μετάνοια into metanoia and borrowing it as an English word with a definition that matches the Greek: “a transformative change of heart; “from metanoiein to change one’s mind, repent, from meta- + noein to think, from nous mind, renewed mind, understanding and reason, the Mind of Christ.
The thief never owned, nor gets ownership of us! He merely takes advantage of our fallen mind-set, and perpetuates this lie, as the accuser of the brethren. “God did not buy man back from the devil, but in the New Covenant of Grace, He redeemed us from our own ignorance, our fallen (Adamic) carnal mindsets.” That is what the pruning and refining process is—A MIND RENEWAL PROCESS.
The fallen mind-set passed laws of performance for acceptance. “All that passing laws against sin did was produce more law-breakers. But sin didn’t, and doesn’t, have a chance in competition with the aggressive forgiveness we call grace. When it’s sin versus grace, grace wins hands down. All sin can do is threaten us with death, and that’s the end of it. Grace, because God is putting everything together again through the Messiah (Jesus), invites us into life–a life that goes on and on and on, world without end.”
Romans 5:20-21 Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more, 21 so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Our Father God’s minding of us becomes a continuous re-minding of our acceptance in the Beloved, not performance!
Example, recently I gained an assumption or perceived notion about a situation. I was completely wrong, and I found out the real truth. So, I repented, changed my mind and attitude back to what I have in the Spirit, the mind of Christ. I was totally operating in my own mind and perceptions!
Is not this but,
Yes, we do need to change our ways, but we can do that only by the power of the Spirit of God! There’s a sports commercial which says: “Change your mind and our body will follow.” As I focus on righteousness that which I am I tend to not focus on sin or judgment. I don’t try to live up to that on my own but through His power!
I know you’ve seen the commercial with the NBA players, it says: “train the mind and the body will follow.” WRONG!!
I live by the Spirit and the soul (mind, will and emotions) and body follow.
Galatians 5:16 I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
We will continue with Lesson 4 next week.