Part 6 of – 

So, Who Are Believers To Live By?

Christians need to realize that Jesus of Nazareth no longer exists; He has changed… to be “both Christ & Lord.”

Acts 2:36 Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus (of Nazareth), whom ye have crucified, both Lord (kurious, controller, governor) and Christ.

Jesus of Nazareth was God as in the flesh body, as “the Son of Man.” The “Son of Man” was changed by completing the process that He experienced through His incarnation, human living, suffering, death, burial, and resurrection and ascension; in order to become “the life-giving Spirit.” Thus, Paul tells us it is not “Jesus of Nazareth” that we are to live by.

2Cor. 5:16b though we have (past tense) known Christ (Jesus of Nazareth) after the flesh …henceforth know (ginosko, experientially know) we him no more.

Notice that the word know is the Greek, “ginosko,” meaning “to come to know experientially.” Jesus of Nazareth is not here on earth today for us to experience, but “the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus” is here, indwelling our spirit. Since we each now bear Him in our spirit being in the midst of our body, we are His current incarnation on earth; together we are called “the body of Christ.”

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (NASB) Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? ²⁰ For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.

What a remarkable statement from Paul. Jesus of Nazareth no longer exists as such for the Christian under the grace dispensation. We are not to practice living by pondering and questioning “What would Jesus do (WWJD)?” Rather, we know the resurrected “Spirit of Christ,” by our Spirit union with Him, and we hear Him by having the sense of Him in us and we walk in accord with Him; we live as He chooses 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 him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and the eternal life.

The “Holy Spirit,” which is “Spirit of Christ” in us, is the “witness” and presence of the living Christ, now as God Himself living and moving within us.

 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.

1 John 5:6-7 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). ⁷For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.

Now, “That Spirit” is Christ the Lord, who now works in us, changing, and renewing our souls from within.

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 into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

Philippians 2:13 (KJV) For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.