“But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.”
We just completed a discussion on Romans 8 where Paul discloses identity and the character of a person who is “Born-Again.” What does it mean to be Born-Again? Well, one of many meanings is receiving a spiritual “power of discernment.”
We are naturally birthed into temporal society. Our fleshly culture rests upon our choices within touch and feel surroundings. Infant life depends upon sights and sounds, touch and feel. We learn to not touch a hot grill because we will suffer pain or injury. Our whole natural sense of living is centered around the reward or penalty of our choices. Being ushered into temporal worldly experience has an eternal purpose. It is preparing us for an even higher set of choices, choices that are not temporal! The context of the above verse is spiritual; what we are talking about is discernment within the realm of God, Powers of Spiritual Discernment!
Eventually, we all will confront the consequences of eternal choices, choices between what is temporally physical as compared to what is God centered; it is death vs. life; it is truth that is absolute; it is light vs. darkness; it is the glory of God vs. the pride of man. “God is Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship in Spirit and truth.”
We once had a living fellowship with our creator God. We are all children of Eve but originally created whole, healthy and complete. Sin separated us from God’s intended purpose. Our fellowship with God was destroyed by our self-choice!
God desires us to restore fellowship with Himself but on His level! Adam and Eve broke this fellowship through disobedience. This caused our separation from God.
Our new carnal condition imposes worldly-wise or Godly-wise choices. Only a Godly wise-choice will produce Spiritual discernment! In fact, it becomes a durative set of spiritual choices into the fulness of God leading into our glorification.
An eternal God choice requires a redeemed heart with a discernment originating only from God Himself! God has reconciled Himself through a grace gift of redemption, the death and resurrection of Jesus. Now, it is up to us to reconcile ourselves back to Him thru our redemption, thru Jesus who is providing our salvation out of divine agape love, and enter into God’s grace culture!
While living in flesh, if we make our God-choice, then God opens His door of blessing to hearts choosing Him and His divine will.
In Christ Jesus, it is our option to accept God’s love. This choice, available from outside of ourself (grace), to those choosing from our inside (faith) receive His sealing of the Holy Spirit of God. God provides grace according to our special needs, so that, we may make choices lifting us out of our depravity. Grace is God’s love provision to reveal His holiness, truth and faithfulness but grace is also a relationship for our faith. It is a God thing about agape love!
It’s all about agape love, love at the divine level! God’s agape love provides our redemption; God’s agape love is providing us with spiritual choices. Jesus centered choices will consume His grace. His gift of love and grace leads us into so much more!
All this is by way of introduction to eating solid food which is for the mature. Since we are literally created new in Jesus, we not only have His resurrection power, we have at our disposal access to the Person of God Himself through our resurrected Jesus! Many know this theologically but few of us practice this personally. This is our reality within God’s grace culture! We are still walking around in flesh, still focused on temporal things, still dealing with worldly issues in a physical world. We are making worldly-wise choices preventing our spiritual maturity; this is what this text is talking about!
“But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of (spiritual) discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil.” -Hebrews 5:14.
This verse is speaking about eternal values, about Spiritual food, about Spiritual discernment applied into the worldly experiences of living in jars of clay, our temporal form of a spiritual boot camp.
How do we make the switch of not choosing earthly options and making Spiritual choices? It works on both ends of the spectrum. God provides grace and if we choose faith, then, grace upon grace.
A person who makes this eternal choice, a Born-Again choice, becomes a new creation in Christ Jesus! This new person, this “new Creation” in Christ Jesus, is in fact “in Christ Jesus.” This means we not only have the mind of Jesus, we become one with Him; God becomes our literal Father! This sounds a little ridiculous; we tend to just pass over this veracity without fully understanding who we really are “in Christ Jesus,” who is also now in us!
Our capacity “in Christ Jesus” is so huge, so glorious, most of us never breach the surface. While the certainty is, we are joined to God through Jesus; God has raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.
Now when we make this new kind of choice, a Godly-wise choice, it is no longer hot vs. cold, now it is light vs. darkness! Our old choices were about safety and success in our physical realm. Now our choices are about shedding our temporal reliance and growing, rather, into grace choices because we now are in “Christ Jesus” and “created” into a new spiritual identity!
The solid food referred to in the scripture speaks of spiritual food. Powers of discernment means growing in experience with agape love, absolute truth, spiritual understanding through a fellowship in “Christ Jesus” who now is who we are, we have been “Born-Again.”
His brand-new creation within us gives us the capacity to grow in His grace, into agape love with the knowledge of God Himself within our own being! We can now experience His glory within these bodies of clay in which we now walk and dwell. But it is not an easy life, in fact, it lays the foundation for very difficult life choices, while at the same time, the most glorious and blessed choices imaginable.
Pastors should take an oath when they step into the pulpit, the one requiring them to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help me God! When we get partial truth we walk away vulnerable, not knowing “the rest of the story.” Oh, it was true enough, but partial truth is very dangerous and deceptive. We end up being dragged in the water to our heavenly port while missing out on blessings we never knew we had!
Being “born-again” in Christ Jesus is like being rescued at sea by the huge ship of Faith. Our life line is the umbilical cord of Jesus’ blood thrown out to us. We individually accept the provisions of His life or try to survive on our own. Within our grasp is a lifebuoy to pull over our head so we can rest inside its flotation and be safe. It’s a grace connection providing comfort and relief through our faith. The boat is under power so we can hold on and know we are being saved.
This is the pulpit message often heard and is true! We have taken the life line and we are being pulled into port against the pull of the worldly system around us. Others in the water around us have life preservers too and are holding on! But there are a few who are actually pulling themselves in closer to the “Ship of Faith” fighting the pull of the water as the ship continues to make headway toward the unseen distant port of heaven.
These few in Christ Jesus believers are working at getting closer to the ship and out of the water. They are expending extra energy pulling themselves closer and closer, hand over hand on the wet slippery rope, pulling themselves through the rough sea closer and closer to the side of the moving Ship of Faith. With difficulty they reach the ship’s dangling rope ladder, while struggling at the same time to keep a grasp of the tow rope, one hand switching over to the other, climbing up the single knotted rope on the concave side of the ship; it seems an improbable task. But strength and love from God’s grace makes the task not only achievable, but very do-able. Amen!
Above, onboard the Ship of Faith, believers, sealed in the Holy Spirit, are studying life in Christ Jesus through the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is teaching about the grace culture and the agape love of Jesus, the glory of being in Jesus since Christ Jesus is also in us!
Not many see the point of this extra work to climb onboard. It is so much easier resting in the life preserver while the ship pulls them to the port of heaven. The people being pulled in the lifebuoy don’t realize the eternal impact of entering into the full provisions of fellowship in agape love, of growing in God’s grace, of acquiring personal knowledge of our resurrected Lord Jesus Himself; salvation aboard the Kingdom Ship of Faith leads us into being the person Jesus intends for us to be; it is a grace culture actually operating on topside by the Holy Spirit, unseen by those being pulled into the port of heaven in the water of the world.
There are signs of invitation hanging on the sides of the ship to come onboard, to know Jesus personally. Welcome signs and help announcements are plastered all over the ship offering love, joy, peace, meekness, showers, food and comfort. Love banners are everywhere but you have to make the God-wise choice to climb onboard and accept the undertaking of separating oneself from the waters of the world! Or, you can just securely hang on for the ride ‘till the Kingdom Ship of Faith docks into the heavenly port.
Once the people in the lifebuoys arrive at port they are going to be processed, giving an account for their time in the water. They didn’t take advantage of the resurrection life onboard the Ship of Faith; they did not receive “the Spirit of wisdom and the revelation of the knowledge in Him, having the eyes of (their) hearts enlightened” … which was paid for by the death and resurrection of God’s Son.
It is one thing to have a grace connection but quite another to join into God’s culture of grace. We cannot learn God’s spiritual lessons of faith while staying in the water. The only way to get out of the water is to climb onboard the Kingdom Ship of Faith, entering into fellowship with the Captain of our salvation, hearing His voice and opening our hearts to His word:
“Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.” -Revelation 3:20.
We are urged to engage His life by using His power, putting to death what is natural in our own self. But it is much easier staying in the water awaiting our permanent port of call in heaven.
It is true, grace is God’s unmerited favor to undeserving mankind but when we enter into His grace, we find “much more” than just salvation. Grace is a relationship, unmerited, yes, but our sovereign Lord has lifted us into a status of sonship so we should be willing to take on His likeness and call Him “Abba! Father!”
Grace is one of the most frequently used words in the Christian vocabulary. Most people understand Webster’s 11 definitions in a College Dictionary. It is likely you will find Webster’s theological definition in your local Sunday Class, “the unmerited love and favor of God toward mankind.” The “unmerited favor of God toward man” is a definition you may hear from today’s seminary graduates. But do you hear about God’s relationship of grace in love from your local pulpit? This is unmerited favor of God too! Or is it just about being saved on a lifebuoy and following a protocol for heaven, period!
Grace is a relationship; it is the operating culture governed by our sovereign God between His Body and Himself. It is an unseen reality acting within the believer’s life according to God’s purpose in wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption; it is God’s agape love. Grace can be a two-way relationship including our faith!
Grace flows from God independent of human influence as an expression of agape love, but … it is also a function of faith, our response to His grace! Yes, faith is a gift and a response to grace, but God’s mercy grants our participation in grace through the believer’s will to choose. We become, by His mercy, an exalting factor of God Himself in us, placing us in His grace process. We are to grow in grace and knowledge of Jesus!
Our participation in God’s glory through His created life in us vaults us to unreachable heights. He exalts Himself in us way beyond our natural life … when we exercise faith! Sin is the absence of faith!
Former Jazz singer Abbey Lincoln sings “Love Walked right in and drove the shadows away.” This is the kind of connection our carnal self yearns to make. “One magic moment and my heart seemed to know that love said hello, though not a word was spoken.” A human love connection is our carnal expectation. It is a natural romantic hope. We are frail, vulnerable and constantly looking for one connection to fill our self-longing. Our natural desire is indeed part of the self we bring into our life in Christ Jesus. It is part of our “want to” even after we are born-again in Jesus. It can actually turn into sin when it hinders us from being who Jesus calls us to be. We are created new in Jesus with a new Spiritual identity. We now have a grace connection in Jesus, far greater than any human love connection can fulfill. Our grace connection grows love, joy and peace and fulfills us with God’s agape love leading us into His glory!
Our grace connection is outside the scope of human radar. It can easily be trumped when starved spiritually with compelling worldly interests and fed by our “want to” desires. Natural love is not bad, it can and should be beautiful but also can corrode, interrupting grace and our resurrection power in Jesus.
Man by nature is self-reliant. Trusting God is going outside of human reasonableness, appearing to be irresponsible in the natural world of darkness. Humanity desires to reject God’s reality by being in control, managing our own self connections. The world believes in pride, a tool of our spiritual adversaries.
Submission to God is the antithesis of us being in control. Man says: “God made me with the ability to do it myself and this is what I want to do.” It takes a long time to get our “want to” fixed. A catastrophe may shake us out of our stubborn selfness. But even then, it may take time for a man to honestly face self-deception, arrogance and sin. It becomes more apparent as we age; we also become more hardened with time making change much more difficult.
While thousands of men and women are processing the depths of their own souls against the constant tick of God’s clock, God has already provided an out for man’s ultimate judgment and death. God has reconciled man to Himself and He is patiently waiting for reality to become visible on the big screen in man’s own heart.
If Jesus, the second Adam, had not left His rightful place beside the Father, clothed Himself in man’s human flesh, lived within the polluted contamination of sin without sin, we would not have access into our grace connection. Our second Adam handled Satan’s temptations flawlessly, making His resurrection power available to us within grace. What a priceless treasure He is within us!
There is a way which seems right to men. It is the reasonable, the tangible and logical approach. God’s way is totally different, it is higher, wiser and holy, a righteous way! God did not spare His own Son but gave Him up so that we would have access to His Holy Self. Jesus said it best, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me,” -John 14:6.
There are hundreds, even thousands of connections men make and enjoy within God’s “born-again” life which are not of faith. Faith is a challenge to our “want to” and a difficult barrier to penetrate even in God’s grace. Talking to God helps a lot!
Just as we are not able to reach God on our own, we are not able to live the Life of Christ on our own. It takes the resurrection power of Jesus in us to be able to live His righteous life. But this we are called to do! While we are still out to sea in the ocean of life, we need to climb on board the ship of faith and grow in God’s grace; we need to know personally our Lord Jesus. We have the Holy Spirit within us; He will teach and lead us into the glorification of Jesus within our very own body of flesh. Remember, grace is a relationship!
Spiritual discernment is simply described in scripture as a contrast between darkness and light. Spiritual discernment is a God provided grace, so that, mankind can spiritually understand God Himself. It is God’s agape love enabling us to separate the righteousness in Christ (light) from righteousness in man which, in God’s eyes, is darkness!
A grace connection is required, yes, and God has already created this within us if we are in Christ Jesus. But faith is required to move us deeper into God’s culture of grace. It is only by grace we are saved and it is only by grace we live His life while in this flesh. It is a relationship of grace … in faith.
Exercise your grace connection in Jesus and test God’s relationship in you. Exploit the culture of Jesus and possess the mind of Christ.
Change your grace connection into the full culture of God’s grace. Be who you are in Christ, take possession of your land and increase your boundaries. It is the only way to make available the riches in Christ because Jesus became the Son of Man. He knew you before you were born. Now is the time for you to know Him who gave us His life for each one of us … before you see Him face to face.
Grace provides faith so, consume grace! Faith opens doors to more grace! Spiritual discernment is God’s path to our glorification, to our climbing up the knotted rope into fellowship in the Holy Spirit.
“Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through Him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God, more than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s agape love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.”
“To him that over comes the foe
White raiment shall be giv’n;
Before the angels he shall know
His name confessed in heav’n.
Then onward from the hills of light,
Our hearts with love a flame,
We’ll vanquish all the hosts of night
In Jesus’ conqu’ring name.
Faith is the victory!
Faith is the victory!
O glorious victory
That overcomes the world!”