Behold, All Things Are New: On Being Dead to Sin and Alive to God

By Michael J. Langlais

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. —2 Corinthians 5:17

• Language: English
• Publisher: Michael J. Langlais
• Release date: May 10, 2021
• ISBN: 9798201693718

Book preview

BEHOLD, ALL THINGS ARE NEW

On Being Dead to Sin and Alive to God

Michael J. Langlais

Table of Contents

Title page

Copyright

Dedication

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Who Needs No Repentance

Change Your Mind or Repent?

If We Say We Have No Sin

That You May Not Sin

Are We to Continue in Sin?

Missing the Mark

Historic Faith

Baptized into Christ’s Death

The Opening of the Prison

Crucified with Christ

Metanoia and Spiritual Discipline

What Does God Expect of Me?

No Longer Enslaved

In the Land of Nod

Whoever Abides in Him

The Spirit Within Constrains Us

Slaves to Righteousness

Dead to Sin, Alive to God

Renewal of Mind

When He Appears

The Spirit Gives Life

The Light in You

In the Secret Heart

On Cheap and Costly Grace

When the Perfect Comes

The Way of the Cross

Behold, All Things Are New

About the Author

Copyright © 2021 Michael J. Langlais

All rights reserved.

Printed in the United States of America

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form whatsoever, by photography, or any other means, by broadcast or transmission, by translation into any kind of language, nor by recording electronically or otherwise, without permission in writing from the author.

Original cover artwork, Tree of Life, by Rebecca Langlais

Design by Sue Stein

Dedicated to My Parents

Clifford H. Langlais & Louise L. Langlais

In love and gratitude

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I am grateful to all my teachers, especially Maurice Nicoll and Jacques Ellul who, over the many years of my spiritual journey, have provided light upon the path. I also wish to say thank you to the members of my congregation at Good Shepherd Lutheran Church for whom the messages making up this book were originally delivered. If you should ever meet one of them, you will know they are a disciple of the Living Jesus by the love they have for others.

Special heartfelt thanks to my spouse, Mary. She helped me believe that putting my scattered writings into book form was possible. Her continual support, encouragement and reassurance helped me to believe in myself as an author with something worthwhile to say. Companions now for nearly fifty years, her kind and cheerful disposition and unconditional love have provided a peaceful and nurturing home wherever we have travelled together over these many years. More than she knows, Mary is my constant source of strength and meaning in life, for she is the embodiment of love, and love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Her love is my greatest treasure in life, greater even than faith and hope.

I am pleased to be able to share with you a little sampling of the artwork of our daughter, Rebecca Langlais. Her piece entitled Tree of Life, graces the cover of this book. Much of her artwork beautifies our home and has brought us much enjoyment and spiritual edification over the years. Thank you, Becca! https://etsy.me/2HaDWlq

Many thanks to my friend and spiritual brother Dan Bridge for the many hours of edifying conversation, and for sharing his deep understanding of spiritual things. Dan helped me to see my work through another set of eyes. His contribution to this project reminds me of the proverbial saying, As iron sharpens iron, so a man sharpens the countenance of his friend (Proverbs 27:17).

My heartfelt thanks to Sue Stein (suesteinauthor.com) for her expert formatting and design skills. Without her thought-full and adept handling of my manuscript the book you hold in your hands would never have taken proper shape. Sue is a true professional in every sense of the word. Thank you, Sue, for helping this project bear fruit.

INTRODUCTION

A New Christianity is beginning to dawn. After roughly two thousand years, the old forms of the faith have proven themselves inadequate for meeting the deeper spiritual needs of humanity. In fact, the old forms of creeds, doctrines, and traditions have overall proven detrimental, even harmful, to the spiritual growth of millions of their followers. Although the expressions of the Christian faith have clothed themselves in a multitude of local forms and denominational and creedal distinctives, the one thing they have all shared, and that which has finally proven to be their undoing, is an outward, formal, and conceptual stress on beliefs. The impulse to formalize the teachings of Jesus arose very early in the progress of the faith, and is a fascinating and very important study in its own right. This progressive development toward formal creedalism and dogmatism long ago reached its apogee in medievalism, and has now entered its period of senescence. Although many churches continue to proclaim their message under the banner of historical Christianity, their moribund spirit cannot be masked by the mere emotionalism and enthusiasm that characterizes the ones still showing signs of life. The churches as a whole are aging, and the new generations of spiritual seekers are not coming in. Historical Christianity is in a steep decline which is beginning more and more to look like a death spiral.

There is, however, a New Christianity dawning whose content is the original revelation brought by Jesus. In this sense it is not new, but ancient. What Jesus revealed was the essence of the perennial teaching found at the heart of all the world’s spiritual traditions. The cross is the quintessential symbol of spiritual transformation—death, resurrection and transfiguration. The emergence of the new self-realized being represents the archetypal journey from darkness to light, and it is this purely inner spiritual change of being that is at the root of the Master’s teachings. What Jesus revealed was not a doctrine, dogma, or creed, but the experience of coming into the light of divine consciousness, and the realization in the infinite individual of the divine Presence.

At present, the New Christianity occupies the middle ground between two ages. The age now passing away is the age of creedalism and dogmatism, the age of belief. The age now dawning is the age of deepening spiritual experience and the realization of the oneness of all beings in the divine nature. This movement of the Spirit signals an Awakening unlike anything that has passed by that name before. The seeds for this global Awakening were planted by the world’s spiritual masters and teachers, and each has complemented the other in the inexorable movement of humanity toward the final Realization and remembering of Being. This final stage of spiritual growth will lay the proper foundation for the continuance of the infinite task of the deepening of human life into the Life of the transcendent Godhead. In this regard the light of the Living Christ is especially bright. The embodied enlightenment of Christ mind in the species has brought us to the brink of a new way of being human. What follows are just fragments, intimations, inklings of this New Way, which is in truth the Ancient Way, discovered and forgotten over and again. Now we can begin to choose with conscious intention to close the circle of spiritual realization.  

The audience for these writings will, I hope, include those in the old way who are seeking for something to carry them beyond the old forms, those who have left the old way in frustration and despair over the spiritual desolation of dead forms of religion, and those who have begun to awaken to the new possibilities revealed in the recovery of the essential teachings of the Living Jesus. The message is universal and open to anyone anywhere, regardless of religious, cultural, or social background. Until now the revelation brought by Jesus has been clothed in forms that have separated and divided the human family. Men have turned it to their own selfish purposes and made it the exclusive property of sects called churches. No longer confined to the ghettos of human self-interest, the message of the Christ revelation is dawning in the inner temple of the human heart. The Living Jesus dwells in the Secret Garden of the Heart, and all may find therein the Light and Love from which all created forms emerged in the beginning. In the Paradise of the Heart there is perfect peace, joy, and completion. There, in that sacred place within, waiting to receive us lies Home. Truly, the kingdom of God is within you.

The writings that follow were sent out as daily email messages over a period of several months. As a result, they do not comprise one continuous narrative, nor do they follow a thematic plan from beginning to end. They are more of the nature of fragments or intimations of a new approach to the original teachings of Jesus. As such, they are but inklings of the New Christianity. In order to make them understandable to those who have been raised in any of the sectarian churches, much of the traditional language of formal religion has been retained. Perhaps the greatest concession in this regard has been the retention of the dualist perspective of good and evil. In truth, there is One Power, and that Power is God.

Who Needs No Repentance?

I say to you that likewise there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance.

—Luke 15:7

Who needs no repentance? Well, it depends on what you mean by "repentance. When we hear the word repent we think of contrition, regret, and sorrow over our sins. The Greek word in the New Testament that corresponds to repentance" understood as contrition, sorrow and regret is μεταμέλλομαι (metaméllomai). It is a word that has two parts: μετά (metá) and μέλω (mélō). Its precise meaning is: that which is a care to one afterwards, that is, it repents one, or to repent one’s self. This is as much to say that after a transgression of some kind, one takes care after the fact and is contrite, regretful, and often sorrowful for one’s offense. That’s the precise meaning of metaméllomai—contrition, regret, and sorrow for one’s transgression or sin.

But that is not what Jesus means by repentance in this passage from Luke. Jesus does not use the word metaméllomai. "I say to you that likewise there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents (μετανοέω, metanoéō) than over ninety-nine just persons who need no repentance (μετάνοια, metánoia). Who needs no repentance?—those who need no repentance" (metánoia), are those who have already undergone metánoia. The word metánoia literally means change your mind. The word metánoia thus signifies those who have undergone a conversion of attention from the outer sense-world to the inner dimension of Spirit. The change is the inward turn of aware attention to the things of the Spirit. For what reason or purpose does one undergo metánoia? As the Lord says, "The kingdom of God is within you (Luke 17:21, KJV). The full statement in context is, Now when Jesus was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, He answered them and said, ‘The kingdom of God does not come with observation; nor will they say, See here! or See there! For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you’" (Luke 17:20-21). The dimension of the Spirit of the Living Christ is within you. It is the hidden interior realm of the divine presence. Why is it hidden? Not because God has withdrawn or is intentionally withholding something from us, but because we are perpetually turned away from the kingdom within toward the outer world.

While it is true that one must repeatedly undergo metánoia in a disciplined and consistent way, through devout attention to the spiritual reality of the kingdom of God within, one finally comes to abide, to dwell in the Spirit of the Living Christ, to be stayed in the divine Presence within, and so to remain in perfect peace: "You keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You" (Isaiah 26:3). One stays, abides, in the divine Presence, and remains in the Spirit of the Living Christ (John 14:17). Such a one has found the kingdom of God within (Luke 17:21), and is no longer in need of repentance (metánoia). This is the exact meaning of just persons in our text. It is not a personal state of being just or righteous, but is God’s justice or righteousness (δικαιοσύνη, dikaiosýnē) (Romans 1:17, 3:5, 21-22, 10:3; 2 Corinthians 5:21; James 1:20). God’s justice is the miraculous transformation or rebirth by grace. It is the spiritual birth of the new being in Christ (John 3:3, 5, 7). This is the formation of the Living Christ within you, and the acquisition of the Christ Mind (Philippians 2:5, KJV). And because it is from God, it is forever.

We will be exploring the understanding of spiritual transformation within these pages by examining comprehensively the New Testament concept of sin. Like many words in the sacred text, the word sin has an immediate connotation for most readers that is misleading and, at best, incomplete. The word sin is a prime example of such misunderstanding. When we hear the word sin, we typically think of some kind of moral lapse, or the violation of a commandment. To be a sinner means to be in a state of moral or legal jeopardy. One must then repent, or, through contrition and regret, and with a determination to do better in the future and never commit the same sin again, ask God for forgiveness. All of these primary words are easily recognized and understood by most readers of scripture. We are certain that we know what sin, repent, and forgiveness mean. What is very often missed, however, is the deeper spiritual significance of these and many other biblical words. The conventional meaning of many primary words from scripture is seldom complete or educative. What enables deeper probing into the language of the sacred text is the spiritual preparation of metánoia. The conversion of attention from the outer material mind to the inner spiritual mind is necessary to receive the things of the Spirit, as St Paul teaches us: "For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit" (Romans 8:5). Metánoia is the turning or conversion of attention from material sense to spiritual sense. As Elihu the son of Barachel the Buzite says to Job and his friends, "it is the spirit in man, the breath of the Almighty, that makes him understand (Job 32:8). As Paul pointed out to the Christians at Corinth: the natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned" (1 Corinthians 2:14). After metánoia, however, we find that "now