God's Grace Operating Assets

by Eldon DeBoer

God, by His grace, has provided all that you need to live out the truth in your life. He has provided grace operating assets. When you first believed in Christ Jesus, you received the Holy Spirit. The Spirit came to indwell you (2 Corinthians 1:21-22) so that you could understand and truly grasp His Word and so that you could apply it in your life (1 Corinthians 2:6-16). Application of God's Word is also by the Spirit in that He desires to fill you--powerfully influence you--so that you can live out the truth, walking in the light of His Word (Ephesians 5:8-21). You therefore have the responsibility to “let the word of Christ dwell in you richly” (Colossians 3:16; NASB). So that you can make the very most of the time that the Lord gives you here on earth He makes available to you the grace operating assets of the Spirit.

There is another grace operating asset without which you could not get to first base in applying truth that will count for eternity. It is the gift of a new nature which you also received when you first believed in Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:17). This new nature, or new “man” (anthropos) within you, was created by God in the likeness of Christ Himself. God tells us through the inspired hand of the Apostle Paul to “put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness . . . who is renewed in knowledge according to the image of [Christ] who created him” (Ephesians 4:24; Colossians 3:10).

Within the contexts of Ephesian 4:24 and Colossians 3:10 is an explanation of how our old sin natures, the old “man” within us that we are born with (Ephesians 4:1-3), are in serious conflict with the Spirit's ministry and the function of the new man, the new person within that is like Christ. In our old sinful selves we cannot operate in the way God wants us to operate. Apart from the Spirit working through the new man we could not function spiritually in the way God wants us to function.

Study these passages carefully and ask God to give you understanding. Send me an email and ask specific questions about these Scriptures (eldondeboer@yahoo.com).

Thank God for His grace operating assets of the ministry of His Spirit and the new person created in the very likeness of Christ!