Who or what are believers to live by and be guided by in their daily lives?

Many Christians would proudly answer “We don’t live by the words of any man, we live by the Bible!” Then some would say “We follow Jesus!” Each answer is only somewhat correct, but on dangerous ground, as we will see in this installment.

The Bible is God’s inherent written word that reveals the Lord and points the way to salvation for mankind. 2 Timothy 3:16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:

Christians need to realize it is impossible actually follow the Bible entirely because it contains incongruous requirements placed upon men from dispensation to dispensation. Consider for example God’s dietary requirements for people at various times, under differing dispensations. It would be Biblical to eat only vegetation according to Genesis 1:29. But then also it would be Biblical to eat meat and potatoes per God’s instruction to Noah in Genesis 9:3. And then it would be Biblical to limit what specific meats may be eaten per the laws given to the children of Israel in Lev 11:34. So here we’ve listed three Biblical sets of God given dietary instructions that contradict each other. It is impossible to not eat meat and eat any kind of meat with your vegetables and then also eat only certain meats with your vegetables all at the same time.

It should be obvious from the foregoing that we cannot follow all of the Bible’s instructions simultaneously. So what shall we do? How then is one to please God in the light of these contradictory dietary instructions for those who would walk in accord with God? The simple answer is that we need to strive to be “dispensational,” not simply Biblical.

Every error of denominations and cults that claim Christianity are based upon Bible verses out of context – they ignore the fact of “dispensational” differences. Believers today need to see that they are not under the instruction of “the dispensation of innocence” or “the dispensation of conscience” or “the dispensation of human government” found in Genesis, nor “the dispensation of the Law” that came later and continued through the time of Jesus on earth as seen in the Gospels. Later, Paul declared believers are “not live under the law but “under grace” (Rom 6:14) in this day of “the dispensation of the grace of God” (Eph 3:2). Paul, as THE Apostle to the Gentiles (Rom 11:13) tells Timothy believers are permitted to eat all foods received “with thanksgiving … and prayer” (1Tim 4:4-5). Believers need to understand their dispensational relationship with God if they are to be led spontaneously by the “Spirit of Christ” within them (Rom 8:14). We learn of this new grace relationship mainly from Paul’s thirteen epistles.

Something simply “being in the Bible” as spoken by God to someone in the Old Testament or by Jesus of Nazareth as accounted in the four Gospels is not a guide for believers today, under “the dispensation of the grace of God” (Eph 3:2). The words spoken by God in the Old Testament and by Jesus as recorded in the Gospels must be properly interpreted by noting …as to whom they were directed. Jesus was minister to the circumcision (Rom 15:8) and as such, His words were directed to and intended for “the lost sheep of the house of Israel” (Matt 15:24) – Jesus’ words were not intended for the Gentiles at that time and not for the members of “the body of Christ” today.

Christians need to realize that “Jesus of Nazareth” no longer exists as such. Acts 2:36b (Peter said) …God hath made that same Jesus (of Nazareth), whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ. Jesus of Nazareth was God as “the Son of Man.” He was changed by completing the process that He experienced through His incarnation, human living, suffering, death, burial, and resurrection and glorification in order to become “the life giving Spirit” (1Cor 15:45).

Today God leads believers by “the Spirit of Christ” within the believer (Col 1:27).

Romans 8:14 For as many as are LED BY THE SPIRIT of God, they are the sons of God.

Galatians 5:16 (WEY) This then is what I mean. LET YOUR LIVES BE GUIDED BY THE SPIRIT, and then you will certainly not indulge the cravings of your lower natures.

1 John 2:27 But THE ANOINTING WHICH YE HAVE RECEIVED OF HIM ABIDETH (DWELLS) IN YOU, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him.

The Spirit anointing that dwells in believers is HIM – Jesus Christ. The resurrected Lord Jesus Christ now is the non-physical “life-giving Spirit” (1Cor 15:45) who indwells the believer as his new life.

Paul here below says the grace believers at Corinth “from now on” should not heed the ministry of the physical “Jesus of Nazareth.” Jesus, came as “minister to the circumcision (Israel)” (Rom 15:8), and was then instructing only His Jewish followers (Matt 15:24).

“Therefore FROM NOW ON WE RECOGNIZE NO ONE according to the flesh; even THOUGH WE HAVE KNOWN CHRIST ACCORDING TO THE FLESH, yet NOW WE KNOW HIM (JESUS) IN THIS WAY NO LONGER. ¹⁷ Therefore if anyone (believer) is in Christ, he is a NEW creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. (2 Corinthians 5:16-17, NASB)

What a remarkable statement from Paul. Most believers dare not to heed Jesus of Nazareth’ words that He spoke to “the lost sheep of the house of Israel” as He ministered “under the Law” (Gal 4:4, Mat 5:17-18), But Paul is clear that “Jesus of Nazareth” no longer exists as such to grace believers today. So by contrast, Paul consistently says grace believers now are to live under grace by the new life and be guided by the sense they have by the indwelling resurrected “Spirit of life in Christ Jesus” (Rom 8:2). Paul says; “… ye are not under the law, but under grace.” (Romans 6:14b)

This is why Paul also writes this. “Therefore let no one sit in judgment on you in matters of food and drink, or with regard to a feast day or a New Moon or a Sabbath. ¹⁷ Such [things] are only the shadow of things that are to come, and they have only a symbolic value. But the reality (the substance, the solid fact of what is foreshadowed, the body of it) belongs to Christ.” (Colossians 2:16-17 (AMP) Paul is saying all these external ceremonial aspects of religion are of “time past”; they are not the issue today – the reality is the indwelling Christ.

We need to know that the reality is Christ as “the Spirit” in our spirit, leading and guiding us spontaneously from within. Thus, we are not to practice WWD? (that is, What Would Jesus of Nazareth Do?). The believer today is alive by Jesus as He now is – that is as the resurrected life of Christ within their spirit. Thus, believers must come to know Jesus as He now is – as the indwelling “Spirit of life.” Christ is now close at hand for every believer; as close as their breath. As believers, can know the resurrected “Spirit of Christ,” by our Spirit union with Him within us; and we are to live as He chooses to move within us, to live through us.

1 John 5:20 And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, (SO) THAT WE MAY KNOW (GINOSKO, COME TO KNOW) HIM THAT IS TRUE (REALITY), and WE ARE IN HIM that is true, even (that is,) IN HIS SON JESUS CHRIST. THIS IS THE TRUE GOD, AND THE ETERNAL LIFE.

The “Spirit of Christ” is the reality of God’s love and life that believers may and must “come to know.” “The Spirit” within us is the witness and presence of the living Christ. He is in us with both the essence Jesus’ humanity and His divine overcoming and empowering life.

Romans 5:5 And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by (through) the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.

Truth is verity or reality. 1 John 5:6 This is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because THE SPIRIT IS TRUTH (REALITY).

It’s only as “the Spirit” that we can realize and know God in Christ in a real way. Apart from the intimacy of “the Spirit” that we as individuals can enjoy personally, we can only know about “Jesus of Nazareth” of a “time past.”

Jesus prophesied of His resurrection life coming out of His death here. John 12:24 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. Jesus died and was resurrected to BECOME the “life-giving Spirit” (1Cor 15:45). Each believer is “born of God” by “the Spirit of Christ” as God’s “Seed.” 1 Peter 1:23 Being born again, not of corruptible seed (Gk. sperma), but of incorruptible, by the word (Christ) of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.  Every child of God is born of God’s Christ-Seed.

“The Spirit” that Paul writes of is Christ “the Lord” who rebirths and then transforms believers from within as they turn their hearts (2Cor 3:15) to behold Him. “Changed,” as seen below, is a “metamorphosis” that is a total transformation process as we seen in caterpillars becoming butterflies.

2 Cor. 3:17-18 Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. ¹⁸But WE all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are CHANGED (Greek., METAMORPHOO) INTO THE SAME IMAGE FROM GLORY TO GLORY, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

As I’ve written so often, “glory” simply means “expression.” The “Spirit of Christ” in the believer is the believer’s only “hope” of expressing His glorious life and nature. This transformation in the believer is the automatic and spontaneous expression of Christ’s “Spirit of life” flowing in and through the believer. Being containers of the Lord’s life, He uses our mind, emotions, and will as organs of His expression on earth today. Only by His work in us can we live as yielded unto the Lord, outwardly expressing His right-living through our entire being.

Now we can better understand the importance of what Paul calls “the riches of THE GLORY (expression) OF THIS MYSTERY among the Gentiles; which is… CHRIST IN YOU, THE HOPE OF GLORY (expression).” The “Spirit of Christ” is the Christian within us; He is our only hope of becoming a glorious expression of the life of the indwelling Christ.