The In-Christ Position: Book 2 of the Fundamentals of the Christ-Life Bible Study Series

By Warren Litzman

The In-Christ Position, Book 2 of The Fundamentals of the Christ-life Bible Study Series, follows The Joy of Knowing Who I Am, Book 1, to help born-again believers discover their new life in Christ! Understanding your new spiritual reality is key to truly experiencing your relationship with God as your Father and living the Christ-life. The instant a person receives Christ, he has a new life, a new identity, and a new position before God. In spirit, he is immediately a complete, re-birthed child of God with the Spirit of Christ indwelling him. He is a true son, fully redeemed, immediately infused with Christ’s life and nature, with His righteousness, wisdom, and love. The old is gone, and the Christian now stands before God in Christ Jesus. When born-again Christians discover their in-Christ position and all that includes, they find security, sustaining rest, joy, and peace which allow them to stand firm in any storm this earthly life delivers.

These lessons build from the ground up, guiding students, both new and seasoned, through key foundational truths to advanced concepts in later lessons. Students should begin with Book 1 of The Fundamentals of the Christ-life Bible Study Series, working through these lessons and the following workbooks in their proper order.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Jul 20, 2017
• ISBN: 9780996990592

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Lesson 11

Rightly Dividing

Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. (2 Tim. 2:15)

To truly understand God’s Word, the born-again believer must learn to rightly divide the Scriptures. All Scripture is profitable to the Christian, but not all Scripture is addressed to the born-again believer saved by God’s grace after the Cross.

So, let’s start these lessons by looking at six critical distinctions in the Bible and learn how to apply them to properly understand the Scriptures.

1. Time

As we study Scripture, it is important to recognize the timeframe and order of events. For example, Adam and Eve were completely innocent before their great sin. We can’t read their story as if they had Moses’ Law or our understanding. They didn’t even recognize their nakedness. It wasn’t a problem until after they received knowledge of good and evil. So, we can’t read it as if their nakedness was wrong when it was the way God made them naturally, without the knowledge that made it wrong.

Many Christians are unaware of several pivotal events in the Bible. Failing to apply them in Bible studies often results in misinterpretation and confusion. Those who aim to read the Bible from front to back or focus on the Old Testament will struggle in their understanding if they aren’t first aware of these critical changes.

Let’s look at a few of these critical turning points in the Scriptures. For instance, there was no Israel before Abraham; and, prior to Moses, they didn’t have Moses’ Law. The law and the prophets were for a period of time, until John the Baptist, when the kingdom of God began to be preached (Luke 16:16). Here are a few more important points.

The Father and the Son

Before the Son of God was born as Jesus of Nazareth, people generally didn’t know God as Father, nor the Word as the Son of God. They didn’t see the Father-Son relationship, nor did they realize that relationship was extended to believers; so, they couldn’t experience that level of intimacy with God, which is now our relationship with God. So, we must be aware of the fact that the Old Testament saints had a completely different understanding of, and relationship with, God than we have.

The Holy Spirit

Before the Day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit was with men; after the Day of Pentecost, He would dwell in men forever (John 14:16–17). So, the Holy Spirit deals with us differently than with those prior to the Day of Pentecost. Christ specified what would be the Holy Spirit’s mission for believers (to teach us of Christ) when He introduced the coming of the Holy Spirit in John chapters 14 through 16.

The Mystery

Also, Paul taught several times about a mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God (Eph. 3:9). This mystery was revealed to Paul after the Cross and pertains to our life as children born of God. So, you won’t find it in the Old Testament; those saints knew nothing about it.

Jews, Gentiles, Law, and Faith

The Cross is the pivotal point in time for both Jews and Gentiles, as well as for both the law and faith for justification. Before the Cross, God dealt solely with Israel. The majority of Jesus’ earthly ministry was to teach exclusively to the Jews (with a few exceptions). Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not: But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel (Matt. 10:5–6). I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel (Matt. 15:24). The Gentiles were brought into the gospel of salvation after the Cross, during the Acts-era of the early church.

The Cross also cancelled out God’s expectation of man living according to the law for justification. Faith in Christ alone became the only requisite for salvation after the Cross; Paul and Peter both declared that works cannot save. Paul said the ordinances which men were formerly forced to live by were nailed to the cross with Christ, that Christ fulfilled the law and was the end of the law. Christians reading through Moses’ books, especially the laws in Leviticus, need to know and understand what happened at the Cross, or else they will try to live Old Testament law. Can you see how critical it is to understand these distinctions?

2. The Trinity

Christians largely accept the Biblical references of the Trinity, that God is triune, one God expressed as three persons. This teaching is very much supported throughout the Scriptures, but mostly in the New Testament. In the days of the Old Testament, God had not yet revealed His Fatherhood, His Sonship, nor His Holy Spirit, distinctly. He was known as God, the Creator, Elohim, El Shaddai, the Lord God, the I AM, and other names; but His Trinity was generally not known until He began to reveal Himself in the era of the New Testament.

For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. (1 John 5:7)

Amazingly, many Christians gloss over this distinction in the Scriptures and don’t properly understand the persons of the godhead, their roles, and how they affect our lives.

The Father

The Father is the head of the godhead. My Father, …, is greater than all (John 10:29, see also John 14:28). He is the planner and director of His grand plan. He is over all. The head of Christ is God (1 Cor. 11:3). The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send (John 14:26). He sent His Son, the Word (John 1:1–2), and gives His Son instructions.

The works which the Father hath given me to finish, the same works that I do, bear witness of me, that the Father hath sent me. And the Father himself, which hath sent me, hath borne witness of me. (John 5:36–37; see also John 6:38–40; 8:42; 12:49)

The Word (AKA Christ, the Son of God, the Lord)

The Word was from the beginning and all things were made by Him (John 1:1–3). The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth (v. 14). After the birth of Jesus Christ, the world knew the Word as Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

God, the Son, is our Savior, our Redeemer, and our righteousness. The Son is life. God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life (1 John 5:11–12). The only way we have spiritual life is by receiving and containing Christ, the Son, in our spirit. He that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit (1 Cor. 6:17). The Son obeys the Father and fulfills the Father’s plan to produce sons. I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me (John 5:30). The Son is the only path to the Father. I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me (John 14:6). To know the Father, we must learn Christ, the Son.

If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also … he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; … Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works. Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works' sake. (John 14:7–11)

The Father has given the Son preeminence over all. And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence (Col. 1:18). The Son is the Father’s Lamb sacrificed to redeem us.

The Holy Ghost (AKA the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, the Spirit of Truth)

God, the Holy Spirit, is the Spirit of Truth and the Comforter, according to Christ when He foretold of the coming of the Holy Spirit at the Day of Pentecost. I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever (John 14:16). Christ said the Holy Spirit dwelleth with you, and shall be in you, referring to the Day of Pentecost, when believers would actually receive the Holy Spirit to live inside them forever. Prior to that, throughout the history of the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit moved upon men.

The Holy Spirit deals with the world by reproving (convicting) them of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment (John 16:8–11). To believers, the Holy Spirit is our teacher.

He will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come. He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you. All things that the Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that he shall take of mine, and shall shew it unto you. (John 6:13–15)

So, the Holy Spirit does not speak of or promote Himself; He shows us things of Christ and guides us into all truth.

The Holy Spirit baptizes us into Christ. He seals us unto the day of redemption (Eph. 1:13; 4:30).

We must distinguish the persons of the Trinity to properly understand what is being said. There is one God in three persons; each serves a distinct role. The Father is not the Son. The Son is not the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit is not the Son; yet, the three are one.

Christ, the Son, is in the believer’s spirit as his life because life is in the Son. Unbelievers do not have spiritual life because they don’t have Christ. He is our life, our righteousness, our redemption. But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption (1 Cor. 1:30).

The Holy Spirit is our teacher and comforter, working in our soul-mind. He is not our life or our Redeemer. He reveals Christ to us and teaches us spiritual things. He points us to Christ, guides us through our daily life, and convicts us when we need correction.

Often, verses simply use the word spirit and need to be read within their context. Generally, we say the Spirit of Christ is the be-er while the Holy Spirit is the doer, along with teaching truth, comforting, and convicting.

3. The Tripartite Man

And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. (Gen. 1:26–27)

We are made in the image and likeness of God, by God for God. Just as God is a triune being, so has He made man. Man is made up of three parts: spirit, soul, and body. Paul recognized this when he wrote, I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ (1 Thess. 5:23).

Spirit

In Genesis 2:7, we see the creation of man’s body and soul: And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. No spirit is mentioned in the creation of man. Why? God’s plan, even before creation, was that Christ would be in the human, in man’s spirit. Humans were made to be containers for the Spirit of Christ and would thereby stand before God holy and blameless in love as His sons. According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love (Eph. 1:4).

However, God would not force Himself on man. Man would choose the spirit he would take by trusting, believing. When Adam believed in and obeyed Satan, he took in Satan’s spirit of sin and death. When the sinner believes in Christ as the Son of God for salvation, the Cross becomes effective by faith, and the spirit of sin is cast out, and the Spirit of Christ moves in, birthing a new believer as God’s child.

But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. (Rom. 8:9)

And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. (1 John 5:11–12)

When we believe in Christ for salvation, Christ becomes our life in spirit. In the spirit realm, God sees Christ in us, as us.

I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. (Gal. 2:20)

Soul

Man’s soul is the mind, the free will, and the emotions. It is our personality and intellect, how we think, want, feel, and make decisions. It is first seen in creation when God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul (Gen. 2:7). After we die, the soul lives on, for God’s breath of life makes us a living soul.

Body

The human body is our earthly container; it is our mortal part. We are made of the dust of the ground; and when we die, our earthly bodies will return to the dirt.

The LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. (Gen. 2:7)

For dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. (Gen. 3:19)

Those who have been born again of God will leave this earth and enter the spiritual world in new, heavenly, spiritual bodies.

It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. … And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. (1 Cor. 15:44–49)

Application

When studying Scriptures, we simply must distinguish body, soul, and spirit.

For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. (Heb. 4:12)

God’s Word separates soul and spirit. So, to correctly understand what is being said, it is critical that we discern when verses are addressing issues of man’s soul, spirit, or body. Much confusion results from not recognizing this distinction. Some verses seem to contradict each other when, in fact, they are simply addressing different parts of man.

For example, the same writer wrote, If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us (1 John 1:8) and Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God (1 John 3:9). So, do Christians sin or not? While we will always have sin as part of our earthly bodies, this is a matter of the soul and sins of the flesh. At the same time, Christians are born of God, with God’s seed which "remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born [spiritual rebirth with God’s seed, Christ] of God." So, 1 John 1:8 is in the context of man’s walk or the way we live daily in our earthly lives, and it is addressing how we choose to live, which is a matter of the mind, will, and emotions, man’s soul. First John 3:9 talks about Christians’ spiritual re-birth with a new spirit, the sinless Spirit of Christ.

To clarify when Scripture refers to soul or spirit, read the context surrounding the verse. Note references to soul often include keywords dealing with man’s mind, free will, and emotions. Paul referred to the soul-mind using key words such as teach, guide, learn, know, knowledge, reckon, let (meaning to allow, an action of will), wisdom, understanding, renewing the mind, fear, joy, and so on. When Paul often said, Know ye not, he gave us a clue that it is important to know what he was saying, since knowledge brings understanding and transformation in one’s soul.

References to man’s spiritual state either show humans before or after spiritual regeneration, either as God’s children with Christ as their life and their righteousness, or as children of darkness, dead in sin. References to body can usually be clearly understood.

4. Audience

All the Bible is for all people, but not all the Bible is addressed to everyone. While we benefit from the history and the lessons learned from the Bible, we need to recognize what people it addresses and when. God addressed Israel specifically when giving the Old Testament commandments, covenants, promises, and prophesies that belong specifically to Israel. The last verse of Leviticus reads, These are the commandments, which the LORD commanded Moses for the children of Israel in mount Sinai (Lev. 27:34). So, the book of Leviticus, with all its laws, are given by God to Moses for Israel. In fact, the Pentateuch, the five books by Moses, are about Israel and to Israel. While the Old Testament gives us the great history of the origins of the world and has great life lessons for all, it is largely about Israel, not about Gentiles and not about born-again children of God saved by grace after the Cross.

In the New Testament, we need to see who Jesus was addressing when He spoke. Jesus came first as Israel’s Messiah, and when Israel rejected her Messiah, He was then the sacrifice for the whole world. So, much of Jesus’ earthly ministry as told in the books of Matthew, Mark, and Luke was as the Messiah specifically to Israel. He separated the Gentiles from His teaching when He said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel (Matt. 15:24). He told His disciples, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not: But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel (Matt. 10:5–6). Before the Cross, Christ began to include the world as a whole when teaching about salvation, being born again, spiritual life, and things to come after His death (i.e. John chapters 3–17). Speaking of the Gentiles, who would be included after the Cross, He said, And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd (John 10:16).

While considering audience, we also need to see to whom the letters are written. Paul yearned to see His kinsmen, fellow Jews, saved by grace rather than trusting in the law; yet after a period, his ministry turned predominantly to the Gentiles. Christ said of Paul, He is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel (Acts 9:15). When Jews continued to reject the gospel of salvation by grace alone, Paul shook his raiment, and said unto them, Your blood be upon your own heads; I am clean: from henceforth I will go unto the Gentiles (Acts 18:6). Although Paul focused the rest of his ministry on the Gentiles, he made clear that all who are in Christ are the same, that there are no Jews or Gentiles in Christ. So, Paul’s letters are to born-again Christians. Sometimes he dealt with those who had Jewish understanding, and other times he spoke to those with Gentile (or Greek) understanding.

The book of Hebrews addresses Christians from Jewish background and understanding, so it discusses