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2 Corinthians The Christ, A New Creation

Astounded, to God, A Saved Frame of Mind to You, 2 Corinthians 5:13

Astounded – To Stand Out From

The Devout Jews in Jerusalem Hearing the Galileans Speak in Their Dialect, Acts 2:7

Simon the Magician astounding the people of Samaria, Acts 8:9

Simon the Magician’s Seeing the Signs and Wonders Phillip Did in Samaria, Acts 8:13

The Jews with Peter at Cornelius’ House, Acts 10:45

Peter Knocking at the Door of Mary’s House, Acts 12:16

Astounded Is Primarily Used in the Gospels and the Book of Acts

Being Astounded is a feeling or showing of great surprise or wonder

Does not mean to be out of one’s mind

The Jews Concerning Jesus Being Insane, John 10:19-21

Paul Speaking Truth to Festus, Acts 26:24-25

Seeing Something That Blows the Mind

Our Astonishment is Towards God

Towards Others, Having a Sound Frame of Mind, 2 Corinthians 5:13

Having a Saved Frame of Mind

Young Men are to Have a Saved Frame of Mind, Titus 2:6-8

The End is Near So We All Should Have A Saved Frame of Mind, 1 Peter 4:7

The Framing of the Mind is What Boundaries We Set on Our Mind

We Are to Frame Our Minds on The Things Above, Colossians 3:1-2

Not Having a High Frame of Mind Concerning Yourself, Romans 12:3

Having the Same Frame of Mind as Christ, Philippians 2:5-8

What Paul is Expressing to Us is Not Astounding, For With the Holy Spirit We Can Understand

Christ Died Once for All,

2 Corinthians The Christ, A New Creation2023-12-14T12:24:09-08:00

The Christ, The New Creation

So that since someone is in Christ, a new creation (κτίσις), archaic things have passed away, behold, all things have become new – 2 Corinthians 5:17

This is a very important verse when it comes to understanding what God did in the resurrection of Christ and the creation of the Church, yet, due to very poor translations is often completely misunderstood. Frequently “he is” is inserted into the translation, even though there is no support for its addition. Other translations change the word from creation to creature. κτίσις is creation (Mark 10:6), κτίσμα is the result of creation – a creature (1 Timothy 4:4). By misrepresenting the words used in the original language and adding in additional words, many translations imply that we become either a new creation or a new creature. However, Scripture states that the Christ is the new creation.

It was Christ who died for all so that we who live should live not for ourselves but for Him who died and rose again on our behalf (2 Corinthians 5:15).

The Christ is God’s new creation in which Christ is the head and the Church is the body.

For just as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of the body, being many are one body, thus also is the Christ – 1 Corinthians 12:12

For He Himself is our peace, the one making both one and tearing down the partition of the wall, the enmity in His flesh, having rendered ineffective the law of commandments in ordinances, in order that He should create of the two in Himself unto one new man, making peace – Ephesians 2:14-15

And put in subjection all things under […]

The Christ, The New Creation2023-12-14T08:22:49-08:00

The New Birth

One of the aspects of becoming a Christian is a new birth. Jesus spoke of this new birth to Nicodemus, who asked how a person can be born when he is old (John 3:4) in response to Jesus telling him that he must be born from above to see the Kingdom of God (John 3:3).

To understand what the new birth is and why it is necessary, we need to go back to the beginning. When Adam was created, He was made in the image (had a garment of light) and likeness (intelligent, rational) of God (Genesis 1:26). Even though as part of the original creation of humans God made us both male and female, He only created Adam. Therefore, Eve is not an individual creation; rather, she was built out from Adam’s side by God to be a helpmeet for him (Genesis 2:22), making it possible for the human race to propagate. Since we are all part of a single creation, Adam’s nature is passed on to his offspring. However, he did not pass on his original nature; rather, the nature his descendants receive was after he had corrupted it by trespassing and sinning (Genesis 5:3). This means that we all inherited his condemnation (Romans 5:12), and the spiritual and physical deaths that were a result of his trespass and sin (Romans 5:12-21). Physical death does not come upon us because of our personal sins, but as a direct result of Adam’s sin (Romans 5:14). Therefore, even if a human could live a completely righteous life before God, it would not be sufficient to save that one because the head of our creation is corrupt, condemned, and separated from God and therefore all his offspring […]

The New Birth2023-12-14T12:24:35-08:00

The Creation of the Universe

The first book of the Bible starts out with the story of creation of the heavens and the earth along with the earth’s renovation for humans. Unfortunately, due to some rather sloppy translations and the failure of new translations to correct the issue, we miss a lot of information that is expressed in the first few verses.

Genesis 1:1 – In a beginning God created the heavens and the earth. In this verse the change is minor, but has a significant impact on the events expressed. Rather than in “the” beginning, we find “a” beginning in the original Hebrew. This is important because it is not referring to the beginning of all creation, but specifically referring to a beginning when God created the universe and the earth. We find over in Job 38:7 that the angels (the sons of God) shouted for joy when the stars were created. They saw God create the heavens and the earth, therefore they had to have been created prior to the universe.

The next verse is also important to correctly translate from the original Hebrew to fully understand what is being conveyed. Genesis 1:2 – “And the earth was a wasteland and empty, and darkness was upon the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God brooded over the face of the waters.” Starting with the word “was”, the Hebrew language expresses the action of the verb in primarily two ways. It is incomplete or complete action. Incomplete is closely akin to ongoing action in English, where complete is expressed by the English past tense. Why does that matter? Because if the earth is in a state of being formless and void as a part of its creation, “was” would […]

The Creation of the Universe2023-11-23T18:08:22-08:00

Knit-together (συμβιβάζω)

Knit-together (συμβιβάζω) expresses closely connecting things together in a logical way.

When we go back to the root of this word, without the concept of close together, it is used of prisoners being put onto a ship, Acts 27:6. It is not the same as embarking, which is articulated by ἐμβαίνω as seen in Matthew 8:23. Therefore while putting the prisoners in the ship, the centurion did this in such a way as to ensure they are not mixed with anyone else, not just causing them to get onto the ship. Therefore, it predominantly relates to connecting things together in a logical manner based upon the facts.

After Saul’s encounter with the resurrected Christ on the Damascus road and his time in the desert training to understand what new thing God was doing, he returned to the city. However, this time, rather than seeking to imprison those who followed the way, he returned proclaiming that Jesus is the Christ and was confounding the Jews by knitting together the facts in the Old Testament that prove Jesus is the Messiah, Acts 9:22. Therefore, Paul was properly and logically closely connecting the revelations in the Old Testament concerning Christ to reveal that, in fact, Jesus is the Messiah.

As Paul traveled around spreading the Gospel of the Christ, the Holy Spirit forbade them from entering Asia. Arriving at Troas, Paul is given a vision in the night of a man of Macedonia. Through all of this, Paul logically closely associated what had happened and his vision in the night, concluding that the Lord wanted them to go to Macedonia and proclaim the gospel to them, Acts 16:10.

In 1 Corinthians 2:16, Paul asks a question concerning who has known the mind […]

Knit-together (συμβιβάζω)2023-12-23T06:42:45-08:00
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