WHY DID JESUS come? To found a church? To give us a code of conduct? No, He came for one purpose: “that you might have life and have it more abundantly” (John 10:10).
The Greek word translated “life” in John 10:10 is zoe. It means the God-kind of life.
The eternal life Jesus gave us is God’s nature. John 5:26 says, “For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself.”
In John 1:4 we get an idea of what this life will do for us: “In him was life; and the life was the light of men.” Light stands for development.
In other words, “In Him was life; and the life was the development of men.” Or, “In Him was zoe; and the zoe was the development of men.”
John 5:26 could be translated, “For as the Father has zoe in Himself; so has He given to the Son to have zoe
in Himself.”
There are four Greek words translated “life” in the New Testament. First is zoe. Then psuche, which means natural life. Bios means manner of life. And anastrophee means confused behavior.
Strangely, the Church has majored on “manner of life” or “behavior” rather than eternal life, which largely determines the manner of life.
Receiving eternal life is the most miraculous occurrence in life.
No matter what manner of life or behavior you have, without eternal life it won’t amount to anything.
Receiving eternal life is the most miraculous occurrence in life. We call it conversion or the New Birth. Some call it “getting religion,” but that’s not what it is. When we received eternal life, God imparted His very nature into our human spirits.
Paul describes this in Second Corinthians 5:17: “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”
This is the miraculous recreating of man. Paul is not talking about the body or the mind. He’s talking about the spirit—the inward man—who is in Christ. God is actually giving birth to a new man.
In the New Birth, our spirits are born of God. Several Old Testament prophets foretold that God would establish a New Covenant with the house of Israel. That covenant is the New Testament. Ezekiel spoke about this covenant.
EZEKIEL 36:26–27
26 A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.
27 And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.
Ezekiel was prophesying about the New Birth. The words “heart” and “spirit” are interchangeable. Your heart is your spirit.
When God speaks of the heart of a man, He is referring to the real you. A scripture that illuminates this is First Peter 3:4: “But let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price.”
Peter, talking to Christian wives, mentions the outward adorning of the flesh. He says, in effect, “Don’t spend all your time on your hair and clothes. But see to it that the inward man, or the hidden man of the heart, is adorned first with a quiet and meek spirit.”
In First Corinthians 9:27 Paul says, “I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.”
Notice that Paul said, “I keep under my body, and I bring it into subjection.” He’s saying, “I don’t let my body rule me.” “I” is the person on the inside. If your body were you, Paul would have said, “I keep myself under.” He calls the body “it.” Who is “I”? “I” is the real you—the inward man, or the hidden man of the heart.
With most people, their body rules their inward man. That is what makes carnal Christians.
1 CORINTHIANS 3:3
3 For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?
Paul is telling the Corinthians they are carnal or baby Christians. One translation says “body ruled.” He tells them they are living like people who have never been born again—like mere men.
Paul says something else interesting in writing to the Romans.
ROMANS 12:1–2
1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
Paul wasn’t writing to the world. He was writing to the saints in Rome. And he said you do something with your body. If you don’t do anything with it, nothing will ever be done.
Second Corinthians 5:17 says, “Therefore if any man. . . .” What is Paul talking about? Does he mean the outward man? No, it couldn’t be the outward man, because he said, “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature.”
Christianity is called “The Great Confession.” What is confession?
First, it is declaring what you believe to be true.
Second, it is giving evidence to what you know in your heart.
Third, it is testifying to the truth you have accepted.
But you must know what you are to confess. Confession centers on five areas:
First, what God in Christ did for you in the plan of redemption.
Second, what God through the Word and the Holy Spirit did for you in the New Birth and the baptism in the Holy Spirit.
Third, what you are to God the Father.
Fourth, what Jesus is doing for you now, seated at the right hand of the Father, where He ever lives to make intercession for you (Heb. 7:25).
Fifth, what God can do through you, or what His Word will do as you speak it.
You can’t confess about things you don’t know anything about. If you are a witness in a courtroom, it is what you have seen and heard that stands as evidence. Your opinion doesn’t count. What matters is what you know about Jesus and who you are in Him.
Many people know the Lord as their personal savior, but they don’t know their privileges in Him. When people know and confess who they are in Christ and take advantage of that fact, they cannot fail in their Christian life.
Speak God’s Language
Start each day by saying what the Bible says! For more articles on confession, visit rhema.org/studycenter.
Author
Kenneth E. Hagin
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