The Inner Man

[Pekoudah]

Let us define our terms before beginning into a study on what constitutes the ceiling of the inner man to the faith OF Jesus Christ.

We could see ourselves as a seed with a protective husk around it. The outer husk is the natural man, the carnal man...who so often is presented as being who we are. Most people are only as deep as what limits them to the natural man. They don't know a deeper way. But there is a deeper part to us...an inner man whose condition is largely unknown to most people. This inner man is the person of the heart...vulnerable and weak. It is the outer natural man that protects this inner man from the cruelties and hardness of this world. We need the natural man to get us through our day...that is unless we find another way to strengthen the inner man. And that would be Christ.

So then we ARE the inner man in reality. But few of us want to identify with what is weak, naked, wretched and blind. THAT is our true condition before being clothed with Christ....who is our strength.

But we need to know ourselves....as well as God. The truth sets us free. But there are barriers to the truth within us that must be overcome....by faith.

Jesus said to the Laodiceans...who saw themselves in no need of anything...that they were poor, naked, wretched, and blind.

But that is the condition of ALL men that have not put on strength from heaven. THAT is our natural condition in the world.

The truth is always like a wheel within a wheel...so just when we think we understand something....there is more to it.

Getting to know God is hard enough...but getting to know ourselves is harder. Most people live in this world known to others but not to themselves. And this includes Christians.

God reveals Himself to us...but who reveals himself as he truly is? God is honest. But are we?

So then the first step to knowing ourselves is to realize that the strength we have depended on all our lives is from the natural man. The natural man has learned how to get by in this world. The natural man brings success in the world. But it is but a put on persona...that has no eternal value whatsoever. So we are not to look for advancement in this world that is perishing. We are to invest in the inner man together with eternal things.

[Pekoudah]

What are we do with the gospel message? How do we respond to the calling of God?

When we respond from the outer man we get religion...institutions...and every other worldly version of the way in Christ. But this is a counterfeit of the truth.

God is calling us in the inner man. Deep is calling to deep.

But something is in the way. The carnal, natural man wants to live...even more than the inner man does. So then, Houston, we have a problem. A way must be found to get the leachy natural man out of the way so to be able to come to the rescue of the inner man.

Think of a bully who hogs all the food so that the weaker one gets nothing. That is the way of the world...AND that is the way we have learned to survive in the world.

But we need no longer do this because of the Lord's grace provision to be strengthened in the inner man.

Eph. 3:16 that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, 17 that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height— 19 to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

 

What is the provision to get the natural man out of the way of this pipeline of grace to the inner man?

The cross of Christ.

The cross of Christ breaks the husk of the outer natural man...so that the inner man is reachable to God to be filled with His grace.

So then with the outer man we take on religious ideas and opinions. But these stand in the way of the truth...which is life in Christ.

It is therefore the life of Christ (the truth) which sets us free. Free in the natural man? NO...the inner man.

Most people will not receive a doctrine that breaks up what they identify with as being themselves because they are ignorant of their own true condition...They will rail against the truth (and again I am speaking of many Christians here) in favour of a scheme that saves them according to their lack of knowledge of themselves. Look at the condition of the church (Laodicea) in the last days.

Laodicea means the opinions of the people....or a people who have received the "truth" ...but not in the inner man. They have taken on the gospel so as to save themselves...but the wrong part.
God resists the proud outer man but gives grace to the humble inner man.

The outer man is incapable of faith...but he is capable of belief. Why is this? Because the outer man is NEVER going to receive eternal things. The natural man is meant to be broken in order to give access to the inner man...the man that is called to faith. Any short circuiting of the truth by the natural man causes the inner man to remain as is always was...weak and destitute.

It takes real faith to forsake the natural man and look to God. But that is what we are called to do.

[Pekoudah]

If the inner man gets help from outside (God) then there is no more use for the natural man. So it is to the benefit of the natural man to keep the inner man weak and dependent...but on himself. So this is the SELF-confident, SELF-sufficient nature at work.

The natural man is really connected to the rebellion of the angels who came here to rule over this creation. As long as we don't see that...we will try improving ourselves through religious efforts.

But there is a chasm between what the natural man can do...and what God is looking for in us.

Jesus said if a man seeks to save his own life (natural man) he will lose it (a chance for real life) ...but if a man gives up his life for Christ (the natural man and his life) then he will find it (the inner man and the abundant life offered to him).

The natural man carries the death of Jesus (His cross) so that the life of Jesus can penetrate to the inner man.

 

I have a known a number of believers who thought that now that they have been awakened to the truth...and even operated in the spiritual gifts...that they are always walking in the Spirit. But what has changed in this condition is that they have added on a spiritual persona on top of a carnal walk. These then "spiritualize' their natural lives by replacing common things with more spiritual sounding terms...like rather than be happy...they are "blessed." etc...

Some will say....

Once a person is born again the natural man is HISTORY.

This is a common error in thinking. It is a confusion between a power that kept us captive....the old sin nature.... and a lack of spiritual maturity.

What has been dealt with at the cross in the initial phase is not the death of the natural man...unless a person be no longer among the physical living...but it is the "old" man who is put to death.

The old man is the sin NATURE that caused us to be hostile to God besides being fully ignorant of Him. The old man veils us from receiving any truth.

With that out of the way there is still the soul to win for Christ. There is still the carnal mind to win over (or renew) from it's very natural dependence on soulish faculties. Does everyone who begins in the Spirit only rely on spiritual faculties?

Paul cites the Galatians as foolish for turning to be perfected by other means than by the Spirit.

So we are talking about the PROCESS of becoming spiritual in Christ. Many believers never advance in this through a bad teaching...a lack of discipleship...but be assured we are indeed talking of Christians.

The Laodiceans were a people who over-estimated their growth in Christ. Having taken the first step, these claimed now to have won the race.

Paul speaks of the Corinthians as being carnal believers. IOW not yet spiritual.

The writer of Hebrews also laments the lack of growth in many in the church.

So we see this is a common problem. There is a general lack of knowledge about these things.

So then it is very common for a person who is born again to yet walk in his own natural strength. The difficulty is being weaned of the soul life so as to become spiritual in Christ.

 

 

[Pekoudah]

The natural man is to be broken in order to let the life of Jesus come out. Christians have the potential for a spiritual walk... The natural man is the normal order of things...and the source of power of immature believers who have not yet been broken by a deeper work of the cross.

You are bringing in an indoctrination here...claiming what is "saved" and what isn't.

You are being vague about the state of an immature Christian.

What Christians need is not more indoctrinated Christians who have been born again. They need a mature spiritual person to help them. Otherwise you get the blind (to themselves) leading the blind.

As I stated earlier...it is one thing to know God but quite another to know yourself. So many have fallen short of the grace of God in this way.

The work of the cross of Christ is to transform us from a person that walks in his own power...to one who walks by the power that resurrected Jesus from the dead.

Phil. 3:10 That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;

Paul divides these in 2 phases....to know Him AND be made spiritual through a conforming to the Lord's death and life...in his moment by moment walk. Paul was already a believer at this stage, but he wanted to be fully conformed to Christ.

Which part of us is to be a living sacrifice?

The natural man.

We are to count all things in the natural as loss that we may win Christ.

Does this mean that the natural man is evil? No...but it means that our natural faculties and efforts are INSUFFICIENT to the standard of the grace of God.

If we never break with the natural man and his power...we will frustrate the grace of God. So then it is the power of the cross we need to look for in order to break the natural grip we hold on to this world with.

We need to get a divinely assisted spiritual grip on things.

And how do we do that?

Did I mention the natural man as a living sacrifice!

Edited May 6, 2019 by Pekoudah

[Marilyn C]

9 hours ago, Pekoudah said:

 

Hi Pekoudah,

I am really appreciating your thoughts here, bro, and look forward to more of them.

regards, Marilyn.

[Pekoudah]

9 hours ago, Pekoudah said:

The natural man is to be broken in order to let the life of Jesus come out. Christians have the potential for a spiritual walk... The natural man is the normal order of things...and the source of power of immature believers who have not yet been broken by a deeper work of the cross.

Do we bring in an indoctrination here...claiming what is "saved" and what isn't?

Are we being vague about the state of an immature Christian?

It is one thing to know God but quite another to know yourself. So many have fallen short of the grace of God in this way.

The work of the cross of Christ is to transform us from a person that walks in his own power...to one who walks by the power that resurrected Jesus from the dead.

Phil. 3:10 That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;

Paul divides these in 2 phases....to know Him AND be made spiritual through a conforming to the Lord's death and life...in his moment by moment walk. Paul was already a believer at this stage, but he wanted to be fully conformed to Christ.

Which part of us is to be a living sacrifice?

The natural man.

We are to count all things in the natural as loss that we may win Christ.

Does this mean that the natural man is evil? No...but it means that our natural faculties and efforts are INSUFFICIENT to the standard of the grace of God.

If we never break with the natural man and his power...we will frustrate the grace of God. So then it is the power of the cross we need to look for in order to break the natural grip we hold on to this world with.

We need to get a divinely assisted spiritual grip on things.

And how do we do that?

Did I mention the natural man as a living sacrifice!

 

Edited May 7, 2019 by Pekoudah