Join us in this thought-provoking episode as we explore the profound concept of righteousness that Jesus Christ brought to the world. Our discussion takes a deep dive into how this righteousness covers all who believe, despite their innate sinful nature. Through an enlightening dialogue, we challenge the misconceptions of the human mind and its limitations when separated from the spirit. This episode sheds light on the transformational power of faith and how it can guide believers beyond the deceits of the mind into the peace and truth that lies in Christ. We also delve into the intriguing biblical narrative
So we are learning that God himself has brought a righteousness to the world in Jesus Christ. And that righteousness is Jesus Christ, his faithfulness to his Father. And it’s all counted to us as if we had done what Christ had done. And this righteousness is on all who believe. It’s like it’s clothed. We are clothed with it. And there’s no difference, because all sinned. And when did they sin? They all sinned when Adam went down, because Adam was the head of the human race. And when he went down, the whole human race went down with him into sin and death. And yet, God is justifying us all the time we are falling short. He is declaring us innocent while we’re falling short, freely giving us his grace through the redemption, through the buying back, the rescue that is in Christ Jesus. Now listen. Listen to me carefully. Your mind will not tell you that. Your mind will not tell you any of this. Why? Because your mind is part of your fallen human nature. Some people mistakenly think that the mind is the spirit, and the mind is therefore saved or pure, and the flesh, that’s impure and fallen. The mind is unfallen, the body is fallen. Well, that’s not correct. If you were to study the word body and sinful nature in the Bible, in the New Testament, you would find that your sinful nature, your human nature, is your body, mind, and spirit all broken down, all out of fellowship with God. So your mind’s not going to tell you this good news because it’s part of the fallen nature. Well, then what is spirit? The spirit gives the gift of faith, and the gift of faith tells you that your body, mind, and spirit are now saved and no longer under condemnation and are in fellowship with God. So your body, mind, and spirit outside of Christ, is your fallen human nature. Your body, mind and spirit in fellowship with Christ is your redeemed nature. Now, why is it important to understand this? Well, because your mind will constantly berate you with lies. It’s part of the fallen nature and it will say you can’t believe any of this. This only applies to holy people, godly people, people who have overcome their sins, people who are not drunkards anymore, not drug addicts, not alcoholics, not sex addicts, not food addicts. Only those who are purified can speak this kind of truth. But you can’t because you’ve still got sin in your life. You haven’t given it up yet. You can’t bring yourself to desire to give it up even. You’re no good, you’re useless, you’ll never amount to anything. What in the world is wrong with you? That’s what the mind will say to you.
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And faith will tell the mind to shut up.
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Faith will tell the mind, you are my betrayer. You are the liar of my soul. You do not tell me the truth, only the gospel tells me the truth. And so your mind, you see, I mean your faith, has to fight back against your mind. Now, have you ever realized that people who are addicted do not know that their faith can fight against their mind? Whatever their mind says or their emotions feel, they think that is the truth. No, it’s not. Faith in Christ tells us the truth about ourselves. Let me jump ahead a bit and say Romans 4 verse 5 says you are justified, that is declared innocent, while you are ungodly. God justifies the ungodly. Now just think of that for a minute.
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Ungodly people, their minds will tell them, you’re ungodly. God will not take notice of you.
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You are a sinner. But the faith mind says, but Jesus Christ, my Savior, God’s Son, whom he sent to the world, died for the judgment of my sins. And therefore I am no longer under the judgment of my sins. And that means I’m not under the judgment of my mind either. And then you can even fight back with God. You can say, Lord God, I will not let you abandon me. Well, God doesn’t want to abandon you anyway, but you’ve got to talk like this to God because it feels as though God is abandoning you. Or he’s distant, or he’s busy with something else, or he doesn’t really care, or he’s got so much to do that you’re of no significance. And your faith mind says, O Lord God, even though you are high and lifted up and inhabit eternity, you dwell with the humble and the lowly of heart. O Father in heaven, I thank you that you think of me, though I am poor and broken. This is how we talk to our mind. We talk to God, rather. We talk to him in a way that contradicts what we think he is saying. And, of course, it doesn’t contradict what he is saying. It contradicts what we think our mind is saying about God. So you’ve had another drink or you’ve had a night on the tiles and you are terribly upset with yourself and you’ve failed yet again and again and you say, oh, this is no good. I’ll never make it. I’m ruined. I’m useless. I’m no good. And your faith says, even though I have failed, failed yet again. I will thank you, dear Lord, that there is no condemnation. I praise you, dear God, that the truth of your good news in Jesus Christ contradicts my mind, and I will not listen to my mind. And Father, I feel that you are condemning me. I will not listen to your condemnation. Now, dare you say that? Dare you speak like this to God? Have you ever read carefully the prayers that Jeremiah prayed to God and that David sometimes prayed to God? These men knew how to argue with God. We have forgotten all about that because we don’t realize there’s muscle in faith. There is a strength of faith that is not human. It comes from God. It’s as if God is saying, come on now, I want you to fight me. Come on, fight me. Fight back. Fight back. Come on, come on, come on. God is encouraging your faith to struggle with him. You say, where do you get this, Colin? I’ve never heard of this nonsense before. Well, look at the book of Genesis. Genesis tells us so much. And we learn in the book of Genesis that Jacob felt abandoned by God. And the angel, when he was praying for protection from Esau, his brother, who was coming with 400 men, an angel or God himself, Jesus perhaps, lunged out of the the bush as it were and wrestled with this Jacob until the dawn what do you think that wrestle was all about oh my goodness only just think about it Think of the state of mind that Jacob must have felt when he heard the news that his brother Esau was coming to him with 400 men. Don’t you think he was thinking, oh, this is God’s judgment upon me. This is because I’ve sinned. He’s going to kill me. Lord God, I’m… I’m helpless. I’m ruined. And God gave the spirit to Jacob to fight back. Come on, Jacob, fight back with me. Lord, I will not let you go. Because you see, God said to him in this wrestle, let me go for the dawn is breaking. Did God really want Jacob to let him go? Jacob knew the heart of God by faith. And he said, I will not let you go unless you bless me. I mean, think of that. I will not let you go unless you bless me. This is the one and only time in Scripture where disobedience to God is blessed. When God seems to push us away because of all the troubles we have in our lives, all the addictions we have, and he says, get away from me, I don’t want to see you. We push ourselves upon him. Lord God, do not say this to me. I cannot let you go. I cannot push you. I cannot let you go out of my life. Otherwise, I’m finished. Lord God, bless me. I will not let you go until you bless me. What was God doing? He was training that kind of fight back ability in Jacob, and he trains it in all of us. When we feel that we’ve gone too far, when we are too great a sinner for God, when we have ditched the truth, when we have committed the unpardonable sin, or whatever you may think you are on the brink of disaster about, God puts faith in your heart to wrestle back. Oh, my friends, this wrestling back is all about peace, believe it or not. It’s not about war in the sense in which we know war today, literal war. It is the knowledge that God is in our favor. Daniel 7.22 says that the Lord has judged in favor of his people, in favor of them. This whole book of Romans is about God being in favor. It says in Romans 8, 31, if God is for us, who can be against us? Yes, God is for you. He is for you even though your mind tells you that God is against you. So you have to accept this conflict of faith. Do not be upset by it. Don’t be stressed by it. Don’t be tired of it. Don’t say, oh, I’m endlessly fighting. Listen, if you’re fighting and you get tired, you’re probably fighting the wrong fight. The fight of faith is different. It’s the fight and knowledge that God loves you, that God has forgiven you, that God has taken his judgment upon you. upon himself, that God has taken your judgment upon himself, and that you are set free, and it is therefore the fight of peace. Lord God, I praise you that I have peace. I will not let you harass me. You think I’m blaspheming God right now, don’t you? Some of you do. No, it’s not like that, I’m telling you. Jeremiah said, you have deceived me, O Lord. Dare we speak like this to God? Yes, we dare, because we have been given the buoyancy and the courage and the warrior nature of faith. And so when we have settled our argument with God, we say, Oh, Lord God, thank you for winning your own argument in me. Thank you for not letting me pull myself down. Thank you, dear God, for helping me not listen to my mind, for my mind is broken. My mind, along with my body, is broken down in sin. Ah, do you get it? Are you listening to me? This is some of the greatest and most important truth about spiritual reality and psychological reality brought on by the Spirit that you will ever hear anywhere.
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Listen to me. It’s all about what Jesus has done for us.
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and our arguing before the Father all the majesty that Christ has become for us, that God has given us in Christ. Jesus, remember, doesn’t have to convince his Father to love us, for it is the Father that gave Jesus to us. He is our salvation, he is our peace, he is our access to the Father, he is our reconciliation, he is our judgment, and we are therefore declared innocent in him. Hello, friends. Colin Cook here. Thank you so much for listening to my broadcast. Hey, listen, you may have already bought my book, God’s Unbreakable Oath. It’s available on Amazon. It’s about the sacrifice of Jesus Christ for the sins of all the world and therefore the salvation of all humanity. Now, if you’ve already read my book, would you do me the favor of writing a review of it on Amazon? You can simply write a couple of lines, or you can write 50 lines, any amount. Thank you. It would do me a favor by getting the word out to others who would be encouraged to read my book based on what you’ve said about it. God’s unbreakable oath. That’s the message of the book. All right, and if you would like to make a donation, it would be so much appreciated. Make your donation online at faithquestradio.com. Thanks so much. See you next time. Cheerio and God bless.
