Christ established a new covenant, because the old covenant was incapable and unable to overcome the lusts and sin in the flesh. The incarnation of the Son of God was the beginning of the new covenant, and the first stage of the divine victory over the weak human body, for Christ controlled his body completely by the Holy Spirit who dwelt in him that the evil one could not complain against him. Christ’s pure life was condemnation, binding, and mortification of sin.
Christ lived holy at all times, because the Spirit of his heavenly Father made sin dead in his body, which he inherited from his grandfathers. Therefore, he continued without fault, and in his love and kindness he met all the requirements of the Law. The climax of his life was when he bore our sins in his own body, and covered us with the righteousness of God by his death. We do not realize this divine justification through theoretical, traditional faith, but it is materialized in practical life, for the righteousness of God is his lawful love founded on truth. This great love was poured out in the hearts of believers that they might say: “Christ lives in us. He leads, directs, and urges us to fulfill the Law.” A Christian cannot behave according to the flesh with its corruptive lusts, but according to the Spirit and his designs in thankfulness, gladness, and relief.
These are the principle questions addressed to you: Are you a man of the Holy Spirit? Does Christ dwell in you? Is the Redeemer of the world centered in your heart? Has his death on the cross justified you that you might walk in the newness of his life? Faith is neither supposition, nor imagination. It is a lively spiritual power, and presence of God in the justified bodies.
A spiritual man is known by his interests. He is interested in forgiveness and peace. Are you a peacemaker? Do you seek to spread reconciliation to God among all men that many may be renewed, and become children of God, and thus his divine life may be realized in those who are carnal, that they in turn may begin in spiritual interest?
However, he who lives without the Spirit of God remains carnal, weak, complicated, transgresses in thought and in behavior against the Holy Trinity, and worships his earthly lusts and desires. Such a man inherits death, God’s wrath, and righteous judgment in the end. The carnal man does not want, after all, to submit to the law of the Lord, but he rebels against him with his spiteful will. He neither satisfies God, nor loves him, unless he repents, is converted, and believes in Christ. Man, without the dwelling of the Holy Spirit in his heart, is lost. He falls from destruction to destruction. In other words, everyone who is void of the loving Spirit is not Christ’s own, but is a slave of the devil.
The spiritual man, on the other hand, is conscious. He watches over the peace of God given to him, loves his enemies, begs God everyday for his power and protection, and wishes with all his heart to draw everyone to Jesus, the source of life and peace, that they may not perish, but have everlasting life. Have you become filled with the Spirit of God, driven by him, and realizing his love without haughtiness?