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Death Brings Life
By Tammy Lacock
“Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.” (2 Corinthians 4:10)
In this final part of The Cross, Warren takes us into the very heart of the Apostle Paul in the hopes that his gospel of grace will take hold in the hearts and minds of those who hear it.
Without Paul’s writings, we would never fully understand what exactly happened at the Cross. Paul was the only one raised up by Christ Himself to explain it.
Paul’s gospel explains the abundant life Christ promised to us by His death on the Cross. As believers in Christ, we are now complete in Him, by the uprooting of the sin-nature passed down through the curse of Adam by Satan, replacing it with Christ’s nature, His Incorruptible Seed.
By His very life within us now, we can now truly live free, free to rest in Him and experience and know His Peace “that passeth all understanding,” even amidst our inevitable sufferings. By Christ in us now, we stand perfect before God as His bona fide sons and daughters. There is nothing we can do to be perfect. Christ is our perfection. Paul’s gospel of grace tells us that even when we fail, God only sees Christ.
In 2 Corinthians 4:10, Paul expresses his intimate love for the Christ within him by acknowledging our need to bear the suffering in our bodies and death to ourselves as the only means by which Christ can be manifested through us as believers. Just as by Christ’s death we have been given new life, so too, by our own suffering and death to our old lives, Christ’s life can now come through us. Life comes through suffering and death. The suffering and death to ourselves manifests His life through us to others. The trials and tribulations in this life are meant to cultivate a deep and unique relationship with Christ, one that becomes a love affair as we continue to live and breathe in Him.
Through Paul, God’s ultimate plan for us is revealed: To know and live Christ as our new life, to live and rest in Him knowing everything is in His hands, and to reciprocate His perfect love for us by making Him our first love each and every day and through every single suffering.
His death ushered in our new and everlasting life. Christ in you and me, the hope of glory!
“Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints: To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory: Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.” (Colossians 1:26-28)
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It Is Finished
By Tammy Lacock
This week, Warren Litzman dives deep into Christ’s death on the Cross so we might understand exactly who we are now in Christ.
In His last words, “It is finished,” Christ testified that His death was the culmination of God’s plan of salvation for humanity. If not for His death on the Cross, we would not have new life. We would remain dead in this world, never to experience eternal life with Him.
By Christ’s death, Satan’s nature, which was passed down to us by the curse of Adam, can now be uprooted and exchanged with Christ’s nature, joined to our spirits making us one spirit in Him (1 Corinthians 6:17). We are brand-new creations, crucified at the Cross with Christ, and raised to a new life in Him in His resurrection. We are no longer defined by anything outside of us. Our identity is Christ, alive and well in each of us.
The Apostle Paul was the greatest psychologist of all time because not only did Christ reveal to him his new identity, but He revealed to him exactly how the believer in Christ can now live in freedom from sin.
Warren explains, through Paul’s epistles, that the reason we continue to make poor decisions as believers is because we don’t know who we are. Paul’s gospel of grace—that we are saved not by anything we do or don’t do, but by Christ’s perfect sacrifice on the Cross—reveals to us our new identity in Christ, and by Him we are made bona fide sons and daughters of God.
“To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” (Col. 1:27)
“The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.” (Rom. 8:16-18)
We can be confident of eternity with Christ in heaven when we know Christ is already in us now. Once we start to get a grip on Christ as our new life, the Holy Spirit continues to renew our minds, bringing us into a closer unique relationship with the Christ in us, through our everyday circumstances and situations and especially through our adversities.
God’s plan of salvation is finished. By only believing in Christ as our Savior, we are redeemed, co-heirs with Christ to God’s kingdom. Yet the Apostle Paul tells us this is just the beginning of our new life in Christ. By cultivating a deep relationship with the Christ that lives in us now, through the renewal of our minds, we can begin to experience here and now the abundant, eternal life that Christ’s death promises.
“The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.” (John 10:10)
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At The Cross: Satan Out, Christ In
By Tammy Lacock
This week, Warren Litzman makes it plain and clear exactly what God did at the Cross. We must look to the Cross to understand God’s boundless and unconditional love for each and every one of us. By Christ’s death and resurrection, the sin-nature (Satan nature) passed down through the generations from Adam’s curse by Satan, is literally uprooted and replaced with the incorruptible seed, Christ. This is what it means to be saved, born again. By just believing in Him, we are made brand-new creations and bona fide sons and daughters of God, to live eternally—now and in His heavenly home.
Jesus was more powerful in His death than when He was alive. By Christ’s death, we are no longer bound by Satan and this world. When Christ died, we died too, to our old lives operated by Satan. We have a new Operator in Christ. In Him, there is no more sin and death for us.
It’s important to understand that God didn’t change our minds when we got saved. Our spirits were saved, being joined to Christ making us one spirit in Him (1 Corinthians 6:17), yet our minds have a lot of catching up to do. The Apostle Paul makes this clear throughout his epistles, helping us understand our new life now in Christ. Now as new creations in Christ, and by the help of the Holy Spirit, we must now allow the Holy Spirit renew our minds, by letting go of the old knowledge of good and evil, sin and death, which we were cursed with by Adam’s sin. We look to the Holy Spirit to replace it with a new knowledge, “the excellency of the knowledge of Christ,” as the Apostle puts it in Philippians 3:8, “Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ.”
God wants us to come back to life. Our minds have been corrupted and now need a full housecleaning. Christ living in us now brings us back into the awareness of our status as God’s bona fide sons and daughters and therefore, our inheritance of eternal life in Him. Satan’s knowledge of good and evil no longer can take hold, once we decide to give our minds over to Christ and begin living our new life in Him.
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God Is Love
By Tammy Lacock
This week, Warren Litzman takes us deep into the heart of God by the very sacrifice of His Son Jesus.
God is Love. It’s in His nature to act in pure love. He knew, even before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4) that the only way to reconcile us to Him after our continued falling away by the curse of Adam is through a pure act of love.
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)
God paid the price as ransom so that our cursed and sinful natures would be exchanged by Christ’s nature. Through the perfect sacrifice of His Son at the Cross, God now has the right, according to His nature, to place Christ—God’s very seed and eternal life—in every believer. God paid His highest price for us, to bring us back into reconciliation with Him and to the life He originally intended for us, a life in Christ. God’s perfect plan of love was finished at the Cross and is now manifesting through Christ in the believing sinner.
In Christ, we are now free in a world that wants to keep our minds set in bondage. The Apostle Paul tells us that, by the help of the Holy Spirit, our minds must be renewed to our new life in Christ if we are ever to fully live who God created us to be. As His bona fide sons and daughters, we must now get to know the Christ that lives in us if we are ever to fully understand the boundless, unwavering, and unconditional love of our Heavenly Father.
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No Failure In God’s Plan
By Tammy Lacock
This week, Warren discusses the importance of understanding the Trinity as integral to the heart of God’s perfect plan.
The Trinity of God consists of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, each a distinct personality manifestation of God and each having a significant role in God’s plan.
At the Cross, we see God the Son fulfilling the Father’s plan. We see God in His deepest role as Father. The completion of God’s plan consisted of Christ being the perfect, sinless sacrifice, His death on the Cross as atonement, not only for the original sin passed down to us by the curse of Adam, but for every sin—past, present, and future. When Christ died, we died, too; our sins and our old selves were nailed to the cross and buried with Him. When He arose, conquering death, we arose, too, with Him as our new eternal life. By His death, we are reborn. God the Father’s deepest desire has been fulfilled: to fill His heavenly home with sons and daughters, made righteous by His Son’s sacrifice and His life now literally living in each and every believer. They are now a new creation, a new life, by their own choosing. At the Cross, we see this deep, reciprocal love between Father and Son, as well as their unwavering, boundless, and unconditional love for a fallen world. That’s us!
The only way we could ever know of God’s plan and His unconditional love for us through His Son Jesus is by revelation. Jesus tells us in John chapters 13, 14, and 15 the main role of the Holy Spirit, which is to comfort us and teach us of Christ and how we are to live our brand-new lives in Him now. Only the Holy Spirit can reveal to us this radical new knowledge, what the Apostle Paul calls “the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:8).
God’s plan is perfect. There is not one thing outside the boundary of this plan. He’s got the whole world in His hands. Every person involved in Christ’s death was necessary, all fitting into God’s plan. It had to happen for His plan to be fulfilled.
We may fail in God’s plan, but He doesn’t. He loves us so much, wanting us to live meaningful and purposeful lives in Christ here and ultimately with Him in Heaven, that He won’t allow His plan to fail.
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Let His Mind Be In You
By Tammy Lacock
“Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 2:5 KJV).
This week, Warren Litzman shows that as brand-new creations in Christ, we now have the same spirit that was in Christ by His death on the cross. And by His Spirit, we have His mind readily available (1 Corinthians 2:16).
Warren takes us into the mind of Christ on the cross as a means of understanding His mind, His deep relationship with the Father and the heart of God’s plan—God’s deepest desire to have sons and daughters in His house—can now be fulfilled.
If we can understand Christ’s mind throughout His ministry and, most importantly at the cross, then we might be able to let go of our old mindsets, along with our old selves nailed at the cross, and allow His mind to come through us. The Apostle Paul was the only man raised up by Christ Himself who understood our new life in Christ and what it takes to actually live it. He knew our minds are still attached to our old selves, the self that died at the cross with Christ. He tells us to be “transformed by the renewing of [our] minds.”
By the help of the Holy Spirit, who comforts and teaches us of our new life in Christ, we can begin to cultivate a unique and personal relationship with the Christ that now lives in us. As our knowledge and relationship with Him deepens, we learn to let go and let His mind come through.
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“Death, Where Is Your Sting!”
By Tammy Lacock
This week, Warren Litzman takes us to the Cross yet once again in the hopes that we can understand who Christ really was, as we live and move in Him now. As we go through Christ’s suffering and death while on the cross, we see a man who still wasn’t thinking about Himself.
Christ was loving and affectionate to His mother and to John, the only disciple at His crucifixion. He made sure His mother would be taken care of by John. He was loving and forgiving to the thief on His one side, assuring him he would be with Him in paradise. And He personified love in His last words when He asked God to forgive those who participated in His suffering and death and said, “They know not what they do.” The only suffering He acknowledged was by saying “I thirst.” Even in His last words on the cross, He didn’t complain. Jesus had no time to think of His pain and betrayal. His death was the epitome of forgiveness. He knew He had to die for our world to be saved, to receive the gift of His eternal life within us. He loved even unto His death.
Through Paul’s epistles, Warren reminds us of the gospel of grace, the only gospel for believers today. He reminds us that by Christ’s death, God poured out His love and grace unto us. We are no longer corrupted by the curse of Satan by Adam. By Christ’s death, our Satan-natures have been uprooted and replaced by His incorruptible seed. By His unconditional and boundless love within us now, death and sin no longer have a hold on us. The Apostle Paul knew this when he said in 1 Corinthians 15:55, “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?”
Christ’s death accomplished all things: fulfilled the law, conquered sin and death, and ushered in grace and our new life. By God’s grace, Christ is now literally living within us. We now have His eternal Life and His unfailing love to draw from. Now we are free to enjoy a unique and personal relationship with Christ as we live and move and love in Him.
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Deepest Root Of The Cross
By Tammy Lacock
This week, Warren Litzman takes us to the Cross once again in the hopes that we can understand its deep root: God’s love.
Christ’s journey to the Cross started before the foundation of the world, for God’s deep love for us was in His plan before we were even born. God’s Word tells us:
“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.” (Ephesians 1:4)
“But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you.” (1 Peter 1:19-20)
God’s deepest expression of His Love is through His Son’s life and death. Warren takes us through this journey, culminating at the Cross. It’s here where the very death of Christ ushers in God’s grace and love poured out unto us. At the Cross, Christ conquered all sin — past, present, and future — and conquered death.
What takes place within each and every believer at the Cross is the uprooting of Satan’s natures, which was passed down by the curse of Adam’s sin and was literally replaced with the Seed of Christ, the Incorruptible Seed of God’s Son. We are no longer bound by Satan and this fallen world. Our new life is Christ. He is now alive and well in each and every one of us. By Him, we now have eternal life. We are joined to Christ’s Spirit making us one spirit in Him (1 Corinthians 6:17). By God’s grace, all we have to do is believe.
God sent a part of Himself to be born into this world to show us who He is and to save us from a fallen world that is spiraling deeper and deeper into the lies of Satan, to die a lonely and horrific death on the Cross as the ultimate sacrifice to redeem us and bring us back to Him, not to mention that all we need to do is believe. If this isn’t deep love, then I don’t know what is!
God is love. God is true love. What happens at the Cross is at the deepest root of who He is.
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." (John 3:16)
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Two Deep Roots In Grace
By Tammy Lacock
There are two deep roots that were in God’s plan before the foundation of the world. These are heavenly roots. They have nothing to do with the world and nothing to do with the Devil. They have everything to do with us and God’s love for us through His Son.
These two deep roots sustain the final gospel of Paul, who by revelation from Christ Himself understood the Cross and its ushering in of God’s grace unlike any other writer. The following two verses form the foundation.
“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.” (Ephesians 1:4)
“But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot: Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you.” (1 Peter 1:19-20)
This week, Warren Litzman takes us to the Cross again in the hopes that we can understand the great power of sin and God’s grace and love poured out unto us through His Son as ultimate power. Warren takes us to the cross so that we can see Christ’s pure sacrifice, His suffering and shed blood and by seeing, fall in love with Him.
“But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.” (Galatians 6:14)
Here Paul tells us that there is no other glory than the glory of Christ. By His death at the cross, the world has been crucified, and we are no longer bound by it. The world is under subjection to God’s plan. In grace, the world has lost its ultimate power, whether by sin or by law. For Paul, his new life in Christ is all that matters. Christ is his first love.
Our new life in Christ could not have been made possible without the Cross. God’s love and grace is so amazing that He rooted this deep into His plan, before the foundation of the world.
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“I Am Crucified With Christ”
By Tammy Lacock
“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.” (Galatians 2:20)
This week, Warren Litzman dives deep into the heart of the Apostle Paul’s gospel, where there is no separation between new life and the shedding of Christ’s blood. Warren once again details Christ’s journey leading up to His death.
In the Garden of Gethsemane, when Christ accepted His Father’s will and drank of the cup of every single sin ever committed — past, present, and future — we too were in that cup. Our sin-nature, passed down to us from Adam by the curse of Satan, was in that cup. We were poured into His body. And the sin of the entire world was so severe for His body to bear that it began to push out His blood. Through His scourging, His walk to Calvary, His crowning of thorns, and His nailing to the cross, His blood was shed and pushed out so much that it only took six hours for Him to die. His work was then finished. Christ’s death on the cross finished sin and death once and for all. And we, too, were crucified with Him. We were in Him when He died, and we are in Him now. When He went from death to life, we did too. By the Cross, He now lives in us, joined to our spirits making us one spirit in Him, brand-new creations (1 Corinthians 6:17; 2 Corinthians 5:17).
The beginning of knowing Christ is knowing where He is. In Galatians 2:20, Paul tells us exactly where He is: “Christ liveth in me.”
No separation. He tells us it is now time to get to know and fall in love with Christ who now lives in each of us as believers.
We fall in love with Him by now giving ourselves, our lives back to Him. He’s not coming and going. By the cross, He now lives in us. He is our new life. By the help of the Holy Spirit, may we develop and deepen our love for Christ by making Him our first love.
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Life Is In His Blood
By Tammy Lacock
“And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.” (Hebrews 9:22)
In Hebrews 9:22, the Apostle Paul reminds us of Old Testament Jewish law. Without a death and blood sacrifice, one cannot be atoned or freed from their sins. Likewise, by Christ’s innocent blood, we are freed from sin. The difference is by Christ’s Blood, we are freed from all sin once and for all. No longer is a sacrificial animal needed because we are no longer bound by sin and death.
By the shedding of Christ’s blood, all of humanity has been redeemed. He literally washed away all sin — past, present, and future. He washed away death. We are no longer to live in sin and death because we are now freed from it. We, too, have resurrected with Christ, and we now live a brand-new life in Him. A life where our minds begin renewing as a result of our new life in Christ. One with Him, joined to His Spirit, making us one Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:17).
This week, Warren Litzman takes us on a journey into the last hours before Christ’s death on the cross. An intimate journey into the literal shedding of His blood and how by His blood, we have new life.
He begins in the Garden of Gethsemane and takes us through Christ’s death on the cross. Throughout the hours before His death, we can see how by receiving the cup and pouring all of our sins into His pure body, His blood is literally pushed out in His flesh. His life is pushed out. His blood is again pushed out by the scourging. And then again throughout His walk to Calvary. And yet again by the nails driven into his hands and feet. And by His death, His blood is finally poured out, pushing out His life once and for all for the remission of all sins.
For Christ said in His last words before His death “It is finished.” Death and sin are finished.
New Life comes only by His blood.
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What’s In The Cup?
By Tammy Lacock
Warren Litzman discusses exactly what was in the cup Jesus drank in the Garden of Gethsemane of the night before His death.
We are in the cup. Each one of us is in that cup. Everything that has to do with our lineage since Adam is in that cup. Everything that makes us a human being is in that cup. The cup consisted of every sin, every transgression — past, present and future — no matter by whom, was in that cup. The sin of Adam is in the cup. The sin of Abraham is in the cup. The sin of Sodom and Gomorrah is in the cup. The sin of Hitler is in the cup. The sin of Saddam Hussein is in the cup. Every sin is in that cup. No exceptions. When Jesus drank of the cup, every single one of our sins and transgressions were poured into His body.
When all of our sin went into His body, it pushed out life. Death went into His body and pushed out life. Christ knew that His time had come to eradicate sin and death once and for all. The end of sin is death, Christ’s death. Life of the flesh is in the blood of Christ. He paid the penalty for our sin, and now we are completely freed from all of it by faith in Christ.
When He died, we died, and all of our sins died, too. Buried and dead. Yet by God’s Grace, when Christ arose from death, as believers we arose, too, to a brand-new life in Him. We have been made anew. By Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection at the Cross, we went from a God-breathed Adamic living soul to a quickened spirit, joined to Christ making us one Spirit in Him. He is our new identity. We are now complete in Him and free to live exactly who God created us to be.
This is why Christ’s death on the cross is the ultimate sacrifice, the gift of all gifts. He paid for every single penalty, and he paid in full.
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One Baptism
By Tammy Lacock
“Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?” (Roman’s 6:3)
This week, Warren Litzman focuses on Romans chapter 6 as the foundational chapter for the Apostle Paul’s gospel of grace.
In verse 3, when Paul says “know ye not,” he’s asking believers if we know exactly what happened to us at the Cross, by Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection? Here he’s telling us something happened to us and asking, ‘don’t you know about it?’ As believers, when Christ died on the cross, we were baptized, fully immersed, into His death. By His death, we died too, to our old lives, cursed by the sin of Adam by Satan. By sacrificing His life, we as believers, have now been made free of the law and sin and blameless and holy before God (Ephesians 1:4). The Holy Spirit baptized each and every believer into Christ, and we are now one body in Him. There’s nothing left of our old selves, our old lives. Christ in us is our new life. The outworking of this is in our different expressions. But the incoming is singular, we are all baptized into one Spirit, that is Christ. One faith, one final baptism. Not by water but by the Holy Spirit.
“For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.” (1 Corinthians 12:13)
We see a glimpse of our baptism into Christ’s death in the Garden of Gethsemane. After three years of coming to Jerusalem on that Passover night, Christ fulfills God’s plan and drinks of the cup of all of our transgressions, pouring into Him our old lives. And as a result, we are fully immersed in Him unto His death. Yet Paul tells us, we share also in His resurrection, arising to a brand-new life in Him (Romans 6:5; 2 Corinthians 5:17).
Warren then takes us into Matthew 26:31, “Then saith Jesus unto them, All ye shall be offended because of me this night: for it is written, I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered abroad.”
Here Jesus explains that it is going to be hurtful and very hard for His disciples to understand His death. In fact, many will deny Him on the eve of His death because they will not understand. Making the transition from being with them in the flesh to being in spirit will take time and understanding, which only the Holy Spirit can provide.
By the Holy Spirit, Paul’s epistles help us understand our new life in Christ. By God’s Grace through His Son’s death on the cross, no longer are we held bondage to the law and our own sins. This is God’s Grace now being poured out unto us.
May we not be offended by His death but greatly rejoice knowing there is now only one baptism. We have all been baptized into Christ by His death, making us one body, one in Him. He is now our Peace, our Strength, our Joy, the very Life within us. Only the cross makes this possible.
There is no greater gift.
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“Follow Me As I Follow Christ”
By Tammy Lacock
This week, Warren Litzman seeks to help us truly understand who we are as born-again believers, now that we are living in God’s grace.
In John 12:26, we have a Scripture that must be rightly divided. Jesus is preaching the kingdom gospel, a gospel meant for the nation of Israel which was based on outer works and serving Him to please God. Christ could not yet reveal His gospel of grace because He had not yet died on the cross. It wasn’t until after His death, burial, and resurrection that he raised up the Apostle Paul to deliver this new gospel, one that no longer requires works for salvation but tells us we are saved by grace, by Christ’s work on the cross. By God’s grace at the Cross, a radical change took place within us as believers. Because Israel rejected Christ as their Messiah, they had no inner change. They are still holding onto their own outer works for salvation and God’s signs, wonders, and miracles for hope. To the believer, however, the Holy Spirit delivered the incorruptible seed of Christ into our spirits, making us one spirit in Him (1 Corinthians 6:7). We are brand-new creations in Him (2 Corinthians 5:17).
Warren goes on to explain that the first time we get a glimpse into grace and our new life in Christ is in the garden of Gethsemane. When Christ drinks of the cup, we are poured into Him before His death. Our old lives and all of our sins — past, present and future — were poured into Him. At the cross, when He died, we died and were buried too. Yet when He arose, we arose too, to a brand-new life in Him, literally.
It’s important to understand, as Warren discusses, that the nation of Israel has been set aside since their rejection of Christ as their Messiah. When once God spoke to them directly, He now only speaks to us through His Son in the born-again believer.
Through Christ, God now sees us as His bona fide sons and daughters, joint heirs with Christ. He no longer sees our old identities; He now sees Christ in us as our righteousness.
Paul tells us that to understand the fullness of God’s grace, we are meant to know Him now personally, the Christ that literally lives in us. By getting to know Him and falling in love with Him, we start to see clearly that all outer works and all outer things no longer matter. Paul considered everything else worthless and clearly said in Philippians 3:8, “Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ.”
In 1 Corinthians 11:1, Paul says “Follow me as I follow Christ.” May we dive into his epistles and allow the Holy Spirit to comfort us and teach us of our new life in grace, our new life in Christ.
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The Cross Ushers In Grace
By Tammy Lacock
“Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.” (John 12:24)
This week, Warren Litzman opens by diving into gospel of John chapter 12 to help us understand that John’s gospel is a bridge from the kingdom gospel preached by Christ and His disciples to Paul’s gospel of grace, a new gospel given to Paul by Christ, Himself.
In John 12:24, Christ foretells His coming death on the cross. His death and burial must happen for His resurrection and new life. In fact, only by His death on the cross, can he now be the very life of every believer and bear fruit through us. This is grace. No longer are we saved by anything we do or don’t do (kingdom gospel). We are saved by God’s grace through His Son. When Christ died, we died too. Our old lives were buried, and we arose to a brand-new life in Christ. By the cross, our old Satan sin-natures were literally uprooted and replaced with the Incorruptible seed, Christ. Here and now, we have His eternal life in us. This is grace.
The Cross made it possible for God to pour out His grace upon us. Warren says, “Grace is God putting Christ in us knowing we may never give Christ our life.” Grace doesn’t require us to understand our new life in Christ. However, the Apostle Paul tells us that God’s grace doesn’t stop at the Cross. If we are to ever truly be complete in Christ, we must break through the hull of our old mindsets and “let the mind of Christ be in [us]” (Philippians 2:5). By getting to know the Christ that now lives in us by God’s grace, we can finally learn to rest in Him while He lives through us. This is why Christ is our Savior. Only by resting in Him can we truly live who God created us to be and experience the fullness of His grace.
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“Whosoever Believeth”
By Tammy Lacock
“For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” (Romans 10:11-13)
This week, Warren Litzman digs deeper into exactly what happened at the Cross so that we as believers may really know who we are.
In Ephesians 1:4, the Apostle Paul tells us every single human being was chosen to be in Christ before the world was even created. It was in God’s plan, before the foundation of the world, for us to live a new life, a new life in Christ, holy and blameless by Him.
“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.” (Ephesians 1:4)
Warren goes on to explain that because of Christ’s death on the cross, something happened to us. By His death, burial, and resurrection, we all now have a Savior. The only prerequisite to our personal salvation is to believe in Christ as our Savior (Romans 10:11), the one Who, by His death on the cross, made it possible for our old sin-natures, passed down by the curse of Adam by Satan, to be exchanged with Christ’s nature. As believers, the incorruptible Seed of Christ has been literally joined to our spirits making us one spirit in Him, brand-new creations. (1 Corinthians 6:17; 2 Corinthians 5:17). His Spirit supersedes all. And He is now our new life.
Everything that happens in life hinges on Christ’s death on the cross. God brings every human being through the cross so that we all might die to our old lives. As believers, we went from living an Adamic soul-life to a quickened spirit-life in Christ, but only by the cross.
What did Christ mean when He said, “The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified” (John 12:33)? What’s so glorious about His horrific death on the cross? For the first time, human beings have the opportunity to have a new nature, Christ. Jesus can now be glorified by our new nature. By the help of the Holy Spirit teaching us and comforting us in of our new life in Christ and getting to know the Christ that now lives in us, we can finally understand God’s plan from the beginning and who He created us to be … complete in Christ.
All it takes is believing.
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What Happened At The Cross?
By Tammy Lacock
Warren Litzman poses two questions in this week’s podcast:
Do you have one foot in law and one foot in grace? In order to answer this question, we must then ask ourselves: do we understand what happened at the cross?
If we are still living as if we are in bondage to sin and death under the law, what Warren calls “doer religion,” then we are not living the brand-new life God promised us through Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection; and, we don’t have a complete understanding of what happened at the cross.
The Apostle Paul was the only one raised up by Christ, Himself, to bring to the world a new gospel, one that explains exactly what happened at the cross. Before the cross, Jesus preached the kingdom gospel, salvation by works, meant only for Israel. The apostles also preached the kingdom message because it had not yet been revealed to them what took place at the cross.
Paul tells us Christ revealed to him an entirely new gospel, that we are saved by God’s grace. By Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection; “whosoever believeth” in Him as their Savior is saved (John 3:15-17).
Grace happened at the cross. Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection abolished the law and ushered in grace, making every believer brand-new creations in Christ. Christ now literally lives in every believer, His Spirit joined to us making us one spirit in Him (1 Corinthians 6:17).
“Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace.” (Ephesians 2:15)
We are no longer bound by sin and death under the law and its distortions. By the cross, we are now free to live and move in Christ by God’s amazing grace and boundless love for us. In fact, Paul tells us it is now time to rest in Him. As we get to know the Christ that now lives in each of us, we begin to actually understand His peace that “passeth all understanding” (Phil. 4:7) and live life more abundantly. By the cross, we went from a soul life dictated by our outer works to a spirit life in Christ. We died with Christ and arose with Him to a new life. He is our new life, the very breath we breathe. He is our righteousness, and nothing we do will ever change that. God sees only Christ in us now, making us His bona fide sons and daughters.
In Philippians 3:17, Paul tells fellow believers to follow him because Christ is now revealing through him an entirely new gospel, the gospel of God’s amazing grace.
So why are we trying to finish what Christ did on the cross!? Why are we living our lives as if we are justified by our works? Christ did the work on the cross and and we are justified only by His grace.
By the cross, Christ is our new life, our new identity. Our only job now is to live and move freely in Him, guided by His Spirit to do His good works, knowing He is our strength, our peace, our joy, our everything.
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In Between Is the Cross
By Tammy Lacock
“And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit." (1 Corinthians 15:45)
Warren’s mission this week is to help us understand the Cross as central to Paul’s gospel of grace.
In 1 Corinthians 15:45, Paul reveals to us a distinction between the soul and spirit. We must rightly divide them if we are ever to understand God’s plan (Hebrews 4:12; 2 Timothy 2:15).
In the Old Testament, God moved through the soul of man, through our minds, wills, and emotions in our obedience to the law. Paul tells us God no longer works salvation through man’s soul. We are now saved only by His Grace. Through the sacrifice of His Son on the cross, we have been saved by Christ’s blood. By just believing in Him, we are now saved in our spirits, joined to Christ’s Spirit making us one Spirit in Him. (1 Corinthians 6:7). In Christ, our spirits have been set free of Satan’s curse through Adam, and now we have been translated into the kingdom of Christ. We went from soul-living to spirit-living, our old lives passing away (2 Corinthians 5:16).
“Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son.” (Colossians 1:13)
“He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.” (1 John 5:12)
As brand-new creations in Christ, we are now bona fide sons and daughters of God, begotten of Him. God no longer looks at works-based salvation through our souls. He sees Christ in us. He looks at our new life in Christ in our spirits. We are no longer bound by our weaknesses because we now know that our weaknesses were built into God’s plan. By ourselves, we’ll never get it right. Only by the Cross are we saved and quickened in Christ. By God’s grace we are finally complete by the Incorruptible Seed of Christ now alive in our spirits. In fact, Paul tells us in Ephesians 1:4 that we were in God’s plan before the foundation of the world, already chosen in Him even before Adam made his appearance, “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.”
As believers in Christ, we have moved from soul to spirit, from law to grace, from death to life. What happened in between was the Cross.
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We Are Three Parts, Made In His Image
By Tammy Lacock
This week, Warren Litzman dives into the depths of the Apostle Paul’s gospel of grace by helping us understand the revelation knowledge that Paul received directly from Christ.
In 1 Thessalonians 5, Paul shares this new knowledge, which consists of an understanding of how God made us as human beings so we can understand our new life in Christ.
In Genesis 1:27, we know God created us in His own image and likeness. And we know our God is a triune God made up of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Paul tells us on several occasions as well as in 1 Thessalonians 5:23 that we, too, are made up of three parts: the body, soul, and spirit. We know we have bodies. Paul tells us in Hebrews 4:12 and 2 Timothy 2:15 that we also have two invisible parts: our souls and spirits. Because of the Cross, God can now change us innately by joining Christ’s Spirit to us, making us one in Him (1 Corinthians 6:17), brand-new creations. Before the Cross, we operated by self, Satan’s nature, passed down by the curse of Satan through Adam’s disobedience, making us ignorant to Christ. Now, as believers, Paul reveals that Christ is our new operator. The Cross and Christ living in us as our new life go hand in hand. There is not one without the other. This is Paul’s gospel of God’s amazing grace, that we are saved by Christ’s very life within us and not by anything we do.
The only change God made within us when we believed in Christ was in our spirits. We were created by God to have Christ complete us; and in our spirits, we are complete, saved, and going to heaven. By His life within our spirits, we are clothed in His righteousness; therefore, we stand before God blameless. This was in God’s plan before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4):
“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.”Yet Paul tells us that our souls are not complete, the part of us where our minds, free will, and emotions reside. We have yet to undergo in our mindsets the same death and new life that took place within our spirits. Our spirits underwent death to our sin-natures as Christ became our new life in us. This is what it means to be rebirthed or born again. The incorruptible Seed of Christ has been literally and permanently planted within our spirits and, Paul tells us, it’s now time to water and nurture His seed within us by undergoing a continual mind-change in our souls. The only way God deals with us now is on the basis of Christ within us. By the help of the Holy Spirit in our minds, Paul’s hope is that we come to know Christ in this way.
Christianity isn’t just a visit with Christ. It is a journey of getting to know Him and knowing Him as our new life, the very breath within us. By getting to know Him in us and reciprocating His love, we can now live out exactly who God created us to be in our entire being, all three parts of us: body, soul, and spirit!
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Are You A Sunday Christian?
By Tammy Lacock
“My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you.” (Galatians 4:19)
This week, Warren Litzman helps us grasp the heart of the Apostle Paul’s gospel of grace. In Galatians 4:19, Paul says as long as we, as believers, keep the Christ that lives in us from forming in us into all areas of our lives, he will feel great sorrow. As the only person that was raised up by Christ Himself to bring to humanity a new gospel, Paul knew the road ahead would be one full of arrows. Yet he wanted nothing more than to know the Christ that lived in him and to share Him with the world. He wanted us to fully understand that by Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection, we as believers, are brand-new creations, no longer bound by law, sin, and death. By God’s amazing grace, we are freed from the curse of Satan through Adam, and we are no longer bound by our own sins. As long as we confess in our hearts, God will forgive. He now sees Christ as our new life, the very life within us and by Him we are perfect in God’s eyes. This is Paul’s gospel of grace.
However, church Christianity has been comingling law and grace causing confusion.
Christians are living their new life in Christ on Sundays but have become okay not bringing Christ into other areas of our lives, making decisions without including Him. We are holding on to law so we feel good about ourselves and our actions. With the help of the Holy Spirit renewing our minds to this new life in Christ, we can start to let Him form in us in these other areas. We no longer need to live by laws as they’ve been abolished by Christ. We need to start living our new life in Christ and allowing His grace to come through us, knowing He is our peace.
“Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace.” (Ephesians 2:15)
Paul tells us to follow him as he follows Christ (1 Corinthians 11:1) and bring Christ into every area of our lives, making Him our first love. Paul never claims anything as his own. Christ gave him everything he shares with us, and he repeats this so we might understand his gospel. Paul’s gospel is directed toward believers and his mission is that Christ be formed in each of us, in every area of our lives so Christ, the seed in us, will bring forth much fruit through us. We don’t form ourselves in Christ. He forms in us. Christ is joined to us in our spirits, making us one with His Spirit (1 Corinthians 6:17). This is our new birth. We are brand-new creations by the planting of the incorruptible Seed of Christ in our spirits. And now, with the help of the Holy Spirit renewing our minds to this new life within us, Christ can start to form in the other parts of us, our minds and hearts. Here is where we begin the love affair with the Christ that now lives in us. Here is where we start to reciprocate His love.
Christ is God’s gift to us, and now it’s time to fully receive Him by getting to know Him and allowing Him to come through us in all areas of our lives.
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