Faultless in the presence of his glory, Part 2
David W Palmer
(Jude 1:24 KJV) “Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy.”
In short—reviewing what we saw yesterday—when Jesus died on the cross, our old nature died with him. Prior to the new birth we were in Adam. But our wonderful Lord took the old us into himself on the cross. Then he died with the old guilty us in him and went to hell (where all who carry guilt go to be punished).
However, a new creation came into existence when Jesus resurrected, because all those who were in him rose with him. (Scripture says he was the “first born” from the dead (Col. 1:18 KJV).) This could not have happened if any of our sins were unpaid, or if any of us were still on Satan’s register of hell-bound sinners. Praise the Lord! Jesus rose with all sin paid for and our future guaranteed in him:
(Colossians 1:12–14 NLT) Always thanking the Father. He has enabled you to share in the inheritance that belongs to his people, who live in the light. (13) For he has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the Kingdom of his dear Son, (14) who purchased our freedom and forgave our sins.
God is a genius; in this process, he cleverly shifted us out of Satan’s kingdom into Jesus’s kingdom. The old us literally disappeared from Satan’s register of eternally lost sinners, because the old nature died and went to hell with Jesus. However, it legally ceased to exist when he rose, and God created a new one in its place. According to Romans 6, we come into agreement with this when we “bury” our old nature in baptism:
(Romans 6:3–8 DKJV) “Don’t you know that as many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? (4) Therefore, we are buried with him by baptism into death that just like Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. (5) For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we will be also in the likeness of his resurrection—(6) knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him ...”
(Ephesians 4:22–24 DKJV) “That you put off concerning the old way of life, the old man—which is growing ever more corrupt according to the lusts of Deceit; (23) and be renewed in the spirit of your mind. (24) And that you put on the new man, which after God’s pattern is created in righteousness and holiness of Truth.”
Although Jesus has completed all the work of the new creation, according to this Scripture, we still have a challenge. Before we can live in the new creation and enjoy its benefits, we have a responsibility to fulfil. The Holy Spirit tells us to “put off ... the old man,” and to “put on the new man.”
Baptism is where we declare publicly that our old nature has been crucified with Jesus, and that we, by faith, are burying it. Yet, this passage shows that to experience this transformation fully, we have an ongoing challenge; we have to “put off” the “old man,” and “put on” and the “new man.” You see, despite the truth that the old man was crucified with Jesus, the old nature tries to resurrect itself. So our part is putting it off, and keeping it off. Then putting on the new nature, and keeping it on.
The means for this is described in verse 23: “be renewed in the spirit of your mind”; mind-renewal is the process required to accomplish a complete putting off of the old nature, and a putting on of the new.
Each of us has two natures trying to live through our body. Although our old nature officially died with Jesus, Paul tells us clearly to “put to death” its outworking, which tries to resurrect it:
(Colossians 3:3–5 DKJV) “For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. (4) When Christ, who is our life, will appear, then you will also appear with him in glory. (5) Put to death [and treat as dead] therefore your members which are on the earth ...”
We know that Jesus took the responsibility to deal with our old nature; he carried it in himself to the cross and hell. Then, Father replaced it with the new nature when he resurrected Jesus from there—the first born from the dead. However, this passage says that we now have a responsibility to enforce the death of the old nature.
The directive to “put to death,” contains the idea of, “treat as dead.” So, we must “put to death” and “treat as dead” our old nature’s ways. Paul says something similar to this in Romans, when he says, “Consider yourselves to be dead indeed to sin” (Rom. 6:11 DKJV).
If Jesus already paid for all of our sins and we are born again, why do we need this ongoing process of putting to death the works of the old nature? Because, when giving account for our lives, Jesus will judge our actions—not his work in our lives or merely our beliefs:
(2 Corinthians 5:10 NLT) For we must all stand before Christ to be judged. We will each receive whatever we deserve for the good or evil we have done in this earthly body.
We have already seen that God’s way for us to be transformed is by renewing our minds. Therefore, in saying, “treat as dead,” and, “consider yourself dead,” Paul is telling us how to renovate our thinking in this area: we are to view our old nature as dead with Jesus, and that we are dead to sin; and we are now to think of ourselves exclusively as the new nature in Christ. This gives us the right to be free of sin, if we follow the Holy Spirit’s instructions on how to be holy.
Inspired by the Holy Spirit, the apostle Paul puts it another way in his letter to the Colossians:
(Colossians 2:12–13, 20 DKJV) “Buried with him in baptism, in which also you are risen with him through the faith in the supernatural working of God, who has raised him from the dead. (13) And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, he has made alive together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses. ... (20) Therefore, if you are dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why, as though living in the world, are you subject to ordinances.”
Today, we have discovered conditions for which we are responsible, if we are to walk in the fullness of what the Holy Spirit is talking about in these passages. That is, the onus is on us to ensure we are walking in the centre of the conditions in which he will “present you faultless” in the presence of his glory and at the marriage of the Lamb. If you are not already born again in Jesus, then receive his new birth today. If you are, then praise God that he has [legally] transferred you from Satan’s kingdom of darkness into the Kingdom of Jesus; Jesus is now your King and has redeemed you from the cause and consequences of sin—eternity in hell.
The truth of God’s new creation in Christ is great news; but to appropriate all of its benefits—including being presented faultless at the Marriage—the Holy Spirit gives us instructions in how to walk in all the fullness of what Jesus has achieved through his amazing and miraculous death, burial, and resurrection for us and as us. He says to:
Receive the new birth
Put off the old nature
Be renewed in the spirit of your mind
Put on the new nature—the new creation in Christ
Put to death what belongs to your earthly nature (Col. 3:5 CSB)
After receiving Jesus’s new birth and the Holy Spirit, we have seen today that one of our key, ongoing responsibilities is to renew our minds. This is the central part of putting off the old and putting on the new. In other words, renovate your thinking completely to line up with God’s word; this is how you will be transformed into what Jesus has made possible for you, potentially.