Class Notes: 7/26/2009

The Baptism of the Holy Spirit places the believer in the position to function in the spiritual life lived by TLJC in his unglorified humanity


We are presently examining just what is the precedence for the spiritual life of the church age believer and we are making the case that the precedence was established by TLJC in his unglorified humanity at the beginning of the hypostatic union.

We saw that Precedence is defined as: (1) an earlier occurrence of something similar; (2) something done or said that may serve as an example or rule to authorize or justify a subsequent act of the same or an analogous kind (3) a verdict that had no precedent (4) the convention established by such a precedent or by long practice or (5) a person or thing that serves as a model.

Last time we saw that the grace gifts imputed to church age believers at salvation places them into a position where they can function in the precedence of TLJC and we are showing that this is established by the baptism of the Holy Spirit

2Cor 5:17; If (first class condition) any man is in Christ (baptism of the Holy Spirit; positional sanctification) he is a new creature ("kainos + krisis": a new spiritual species); the old things ("archaios" that which has existed from the beginning" (Arndt & Gingrich, p. 111), makes reference to the sinful nature and spiritual death) have passed away (Rom 6:6; retroactive positional truth), behold, they have become new (current positional truth; " kainos": a new species).

This passage reveals that the baptism of the Spirit makes all believers a new spiritual species and part of the royal family of God, something that is not ever discussed in the Old Testament Scriptures.

This availability of divine power is only given to believers in the Church Age.

Every believer is the omnipotence of God the Father related to the portfolio of invisible assets, the omnipotence of God the Son related to perpetuating human history and holding the universe together, and the omnipotence of God the Holy Spirit related to their own personal operational spiritual life.

The church as the royal family of God has a new divine plan for the glorification of God using the protocol plan of God that supersedes the ritual plan of God for Israel.

The protocol plan of God is designed for tactical victory as an extension of our Lord's strategic victory in the dispensation of the beginning of the Hypostatic Union, and it is the basis for the grace fulfillment of the Christian way of life.

This is all because as stated in: Rom 6:4; We have been buried together with Him through the baptism of the Holy Spirit into His death in order that as Christ has historically been resurrected from the deaths, through the glory of God the Father, so also we might have the option to walk in newness of life.

The word translated "newness" is the Greek work "keynotes" from the root kainos.

The Analytical Greek Lexicon, states regarding "kainos": New in species, 2Cor. 5:17

An Expository Dictionary on New Testament Words, "new": "kainos" denotes new, not new in time, but new at to form or quality, of different nature from what is contrasted as old.

That which is described as "new" is referred to as "creature," from the Greek word " ketosis

An Expository Dictionary on New Testament Words, defines "creature" as it is used in Scripture as, to create, always of the act of God, whether in natural creation or in spiritual creation.

In 2Cor 5:17 the reference is to what the believer is in Christ; the consequence of the creative act is that he has become a new creature.

The New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology on page 385 states:
Where a person belongs to Christ, new creation is a fact. The former things that have previously determined life have passed away.

In Christ the old factors that men use to erect barriers between themselves (such as race, gender or social status) are no longer valid. The cross has cancelled the past.

"ktisis" therefore refers to a creative act of God.

In the hostile environment of the devil's world, at the point of salvation, believers are instantly changed by the omnipotence of God into a new spiritual species by means of the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

Because of the fact church age believers are a new species, they have new characteristics, new qualities, new assets and a new precedence for their spiritual life.

They are trichotomous with a newly created human spirit, they have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit and the availability of the filling of the Holy Spirit, the imputation of divine righteousness, membership in the Royal Family of God, possession of eternal life, sanctification for service to God, citizenship in the heavenly community, ordination into the royal priesthood of the believer, appointed an ambassador for TLJC, election to privilege, an eternal destiny, inheritor of the eternal escrow, and adoption into the body of Christ.

All of these and much, much more, are the new things associated with the new spiritual species that is in direct contrast to those things that previously characterized our fallen condition.

This contrast is mentioned by the last phrase of 2Cor 5:17, "the old things have passed away, behold, they have become new."

"Old things" is translated from the Greek word "archaios" that is defined in A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, as: what has existed from the beginning, or, from ancient times.

This takes us back to the source of our fallen condition in the Garden of Eden. What has passed away is something that came into being in the most ancient of times, at the fall of Adam.

Therefore, the "old things" refers to the original sin, the sin nature, and spiritual death. At the moment of salvation the characteristics, qualities, and assets of our fallen condition "pass away," the aorist active indicative of the verb: "parerchomai" that means "to pass away, to perish, or to come to an end."

The culminative aorist tense views the event in its entirety but regards it from the viewpoint of its existing results. We were born spiritually dead and remained so until the point of our salvation at which point it "came to an end."

The active voice indicates that the old things related to spiritual death produce the action of the verb at salvation. They "passed away, perished, and came to an end."

The indicative mood is a statement of biblical fact.

This means that the believer's sinful nature is dead.

Rom 6:2-6; We who have died to the sinful nature, how shall be still live in it?

v 3 Or are you ignorant that all of us who have been immersed into Christ Jesus have been immersed into His spiritual death?

v 4 Therefore, we have been buried together with Him through the baptism of the Holy Spirit into His death in order that as Christ has historically been resurrected from deaths, through the glory of God the Father, so also might have the option to walk in newness of life.

v 5 If we have become intimately united with Him in the likeness of His death, and we in fact have, not only this but also we shall in fact be intimately united to the likeness of His resurrection.

v 6 Be knowing this, that our old self (the sinful nature) has been crucified together with Him in order that the human body with reference to its sinful nature might be rendered powerless for the purpose that we should no longer be slaves to sin ( the OSN).

Paul uses the word "parerchomai" in 2Cor 5:17; to refer to the death of the "old things," namely, the sinful nature and resultant spiritual death.

We have seen In Rom 6:2-6; that Paul discusses this death in detail.

At salvation, the new believer's "old things" pass away and come to an end, and the "newness of life" begins as a result of becoming a "new spiritual species."

And according to Col 2:13-14; the thing that makes all this possible is that God forgives us at the moment of salvation of all our presalvation sins:

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