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Sunday, March 5, 2023

The daily renewal of the inward man (part 4)

  1. The new man is being renewed day by day by being nourished day by day

The third important aspect of renewing the inward man on a daily basis is to be like its counterpart the outward man which has to be nourished day by day in order to remain strong and healthy, but despite the Lord’s irrevocable statement which He categorically stated saying; “I am the bread of life. Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and are dead. This is the bread which comes down from heaven that one may eat of it and not die. I am the living bread which came down from heaven. If anyone eats of this bread, he will live forever; and the bread that I shall give is My flesh, which I shall give for the life of the world" (John 6:48-51).

And despite the doubts and ambiguity of the Jews who quarreled among themselves saying; "How can this Man give us His flesh to eat?" Jesus Christ reiterated and emphasized His statement by saying; “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you. Whoever eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For My flesh is food indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood abides in Me, and I in him. As the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, so he who feeds on Me will live because of Me. This is the bread which came down from heaven --- not as your fathers ate the manna, and are dead. He who eats this bread will live forever" (John 6:53-58).

And so the question is, since Jesus Christ stated quite emphatically that His flesh is real food and His blood is real drink and it is he who feeds on Him will live because of Him, are we feeding on His flesh and blood? Or, are we treating this passage of scripture as simply a metaphor or a figure of speech in which this statement or phraseology is applied to an action which it is not literally applicable?

And so the question is are we renewing the inward man day by day by feeding and nourishing it? Or, are we typical of the many of Jesus’ disciples who walked away when they heard this and said; “This is a hard saying; who can understand it?"

The body and blood of Jesus Christ was first made accessible to partake of when He took bread, blessed and broke it, and gave it to the disciples and said, "Take, eat; this is My body." Then He took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, "Drink from it, all of you. For this is My blood of the new covenant, which is shed for many for the remission of sins” (Matthew 26:26-28).

Please note carefully that the main objective for nourishing the inward man day by day is for daily cleansing, for the remission of sins in order to have fellowship with the Father for, this is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness: If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us” (1John 1:5-10).

Therefore, in order to have daily fellowship with the Father one has to nourish the inner man which is the access or password to the Father.

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To be continued

With brotherly love

Lucius Joseph

 

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