Monday, March 9, 2015

Devotion: Change Your Name


Did you know to that “change” is defined as “to become different, or to make something or someone different?”  Did you know that man, more specifically Adam, changed the original creation, the original nature of mankind?  Yes, that be correct.  It was Adam and not God, who changed the nature of man.  We know that when Adam fell, he changed the course of mankind.  In truth, his disobedience changed the very nature of man, making him a new creation.  No longer was he morally and spiritually innocent.  He became a creature with a sin nature, knowing good but unable to do it and knowing evil but unable to resist it (Genesis 3:22).  He became sin conscience, morally corrupt, and spiritually dead.  He became alienated and separated from God.  Death came into the world because of what one man, Adam did (Romans 5:12).  Everyone dies because we are all related to Adam, all members of his sinful race and wherever there is sin, death is the result (I Corinthians 15:22).

But God had a redemption plan in place from the very beginning (Ephesians 1:3-5).  God knew from the beginning that those who came would have to conform to the likeness of the last Adam (Romans 8:29-30).  Like his counterpart, the first Adam, the last Adam (I Corinthians 15:45) had the government of mankind upon his shoulders (Isaiah 9:6).  Because of his obedience, the last Adam was able to restore all that was lost by the first Adam (Luke 19:10).  Because of what this other man, the last Adam, has done, there is now resurrection from the dead, for all who are related to the last Adam will rise again (I Corinthians 15:21-22).  Through his death and resurrection, the last Adam changed the nature of man, making him a new creation yet again.

It has been God’s plan, hidden since the beginning of time, to reconcile mankind back to him.  And it was God who reconciled his creation back to its original state, not a new state.  Actually, the truth is that God was in the last Adam, reconciling the world back unto himself (II Corinthians 5:19).  Yes, folks, that is stated correctly.  God was in Christ, restoring mankind back unto himself, even when we were yet still sinners (Romans 5:10).  Through what the last Adam did, God made peace and brought us back to himself (II Corinthians 5:18).  And in doing this, God gave us the ministry of reconciliation, entrusting us with his message of reconciliation.

Now, if a man be in Christ, he be a new creature, redeemed from his old sinful nature to a new nature for him, the nature of the original man, before the fall (II Corinthians 5:17-19).  You are no longer a part of Adam’s sinful race, a race that has a fixed moral nature in sin.  No, you are now part of a new race, a spiritual race, created solely by the last Adam, by Jesus Christ through his death and resurrection.  And this new spiritual race has a nature that is fixed in righteousness.  No longer do we know good and are unable to do it.  No longer do we know evil and are unable to resist it (Ephesians 2:1-3).  We have been given a second chance (Ephesians 2:4-6).  We have been delivered out of the dominion of darkness and transferred into the kingdom of Jesus (Colossians 1:13).  This be the ministry of reconciliation, the renewing of that relationship that existed with the original man before his fall from God’s grace.

So, if you be in Christ, then you be a new creature, a new creation.  You be changed.  You may also want to “change your name” in the process.  By that we mean, as a new creation in Christ, you have to start seeing yourself as God sees you.  As a new creation in Christ, you have to see yourself as “a child of God” (Galatians 3:26).  As a new creation in Christ, you have to see yourself “adopted into the family of God” (Ephesians 1:5).  You have to stop seeing yourself as you use to be and start seeing yourself as you have become.  You have to see yourself as a born-again child of the Most High God and as his righteousness.  Yes, that’s right, you now have a new identity, so consider calling yourself by your new identity and let go of the old one.  Amen.

If this message is a blessing to you, please share it so that others may be blessed by it as well.  Blessings.

Enjoy your blessings. - KW

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