22- What does it truly mean to be in Christ?

In this episode, Johan Toet explains how the finished work of Jesus restored believers completely. Through the cross, Jesus removed the separation between God and humanity and brought us back into perfect relationship with the Father.

The Bible reveals that believers are spirit, soul, and body. Our spirit is already renewed and united with Christ, while our soul is transformed through the renewing of our minds. Understanding this truth helps us walk in freedom from the past and live from our true identity in Christ.

This teaching will encourage you to see yourself the way God sees you: righteous, restored, and loved.

This message is part of the teaching series “In Him.”

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Welcome to One Gospel, bringing you the full truth of God's Word. Clearly explained. Together with our host, Johann Tuit, we'll unpack scripture to understand what's written and grow as a disciple of Christ. Ready to take notes? Let's open the Bible.

SPEAKER_01 0:20

Hi there and welcome to today's episode of One Gospel. I'm your host, Joan Tut, and as always, I'm excited to share the word of God with you. So in today's teaching, I want to continue on some topics that I have uh covered in my book, you know, The God of Restoration. You can get that, you can download it for free, and you can get that also online. Go to this link here below. I believe it's really gonna bless you. Um, I have been teaching on uh restoration because you know the title of the book already says it, it's the God of Restoration. And so I've been teaching on how God has restored us in Christ Jesus, and that we were first outside of the garden, but now we are back in the garden before the fall, before judgment, before condemnation, before sin came into the world, and we are now holy, pure, and blameless and righteous before Him in love. And what a powerful truth I've shared. I really want to encourage you to go and watch that series, Restoration, and uh, I really believe it's gonna bless you. And so, today, um, you know, I just want to build a little bit on that because now that we are restored, there is something beautiful that happened, you know, is that that we always can be in Christ, uh, you know, as He is in us, and so I wanna I wanna look at that today. And so, Father God, thank you so much for your word, thank you for your teaching, and I pray that people will be blessed by it. I give you all the honor in Jesus' mighty name, amen. Amen. And so, you know, Jesus he says, In the world you will have tribulation, but in me you will have peace. In the world you will have tribulation, but in me you will have peace. Now, just keep that in mind, you know, that the thing that Jesus here says is that when you are in the world, you will have tribulation. But when you are in me, you will have peace. And that's a really beautiful verse, and I'm gonna build on that. But let us go and read first from the word of God. Let's read from uh Psalm 84. This is about here, Psalm 84. There it says, How lovely is your tabernacle, O Lord of hosts. My soul longs, yes, even faints for the courts of the Lord. My heart and my flesh cry out for the living God. Man, Lord of hosts, my soul longs, even faints for the courts of the Lord. That means that everything that is within him desires and stretches out, you know, and wants to be, you know, near God, wants to be in his presence. My heart and my flesh, they cry out to the living God. You know, it's like a desperation that he just longs and desires to be constantly in the presence of God and to be found in his presence and to be built up in his presence, you know, and just to be with him. It's just he is just expressing his desire of always being in the presence of God. And then he says, even the sparrow has found a home and the swallow a nest for herself where she may lay her young, even your altars, O Lord of hosts, my king and my God. You see, so even the birds, you know, they know that there is no better place than to be in the presence of God. Amen. Blessed are those who dwell in your house. You see, blessed are those who dwell in your house. It doesn't say that blessed are those who once in a while come and visit your place, who once in a while just come and visit you, or you're seeking your presence or seeking your face like once in a while. No, it says, Blessed are those who dwell in your house, they remain there, they are rooted there, they are found there, they have laid themselves down there at the feet of Jesus. They will still be praising you. Now, in another translation, it says, They will be forever praising you, which I really think it's a little bit more beautiful than the New King James version, no offense, but they will ever be praising you. You know that they will always praise you when they are in your presence, when they are dwelling with you. Automatic response when you dwell with God is that you that you will praise him, amen. And then it says, verse 5 Blessed is the man whose strength is in you, not in the world, not in his own performance, not in his own strength and others. No, whose strength is in you, he trusts rely completely on you, whose heart is set on palprimage, and I'm gonna seek for the Lord. And they pass through the valley of Bekkah, but they make it a spring, and the rains also will cover it with pools. They go from strength to strength, and each one appears before God in Zion. Hallelujah! What a beautiful, beautiful song. And then it says, O Lord, God of hosts, hear my prayer. Give ear, O God of Jacob, O God, behold our shield and look upon the face of your anointed one. You know, I don't know if you really realize that you are the anointed one of God, because God has anointed you with his Holy Spirit, and God has called you and anointed you as his son. You know, that's beautiful. That's why you are righteous, that's why you are a citizen of heaven, that's why you are an heir of the kingdom, that's why Paul says everything belongs to you, whether it's Paul or Apollo, you know, or the world, everything belongs to you, and you belong to Christ. You know, I am, you know, the anointed. And so, and then he says, and this is the most beautiful part, for a day in your court is better than a thousand. Now, I believe a word is missing in the New King James Version here because it's better than a thousand elsewhere. That's what it originally says. So, for a day in your court is better than a thousand elsewhere. It's better to be one day in the presence of God than to be a thousand days somewhere else where his presence is not. Man, that is so powerful. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than dwell in the tents of the wickedness. I prefer to have one toe in the entrance of the temple of my father, of in the temple of my God, then I would stay in the places where wickedness is, where darkness is, where sin is abiding, you know, and all that stuff. No, no way, go say, I don't want to be part of that, I don't want to mix myself with it, I don't want to mingle with it, I don't want to be there. I just if I'm gonna be there, I'm only gonna be there to preach the gospel. But I prefer to have one toe at the entrance of the house of my God to then to stay in the tents of the wicked ones, man. Come on, man, that is powerful stuff. It's powerful stuff. He says, For the Lord God is a son and a shield. The Lord will give grace and glory. Nobody else but God gives grace and glory. No, no good thing will he withhold from those who walk uprightly. Oh Lord of hosts, blessed is the man who trusts in you, who doesn't place his trust in anything or anybody else. You see, I have discovered how important it is that we are constantly be found in him, and that's also the title of this teaching in him, because it's so important to be in him, it is vital to be found in him, and so God showed me what it exactly means to be in him, and so you know, um, as I have covered already, you know, in restoration, um, you know, is that we are completely restored, our spirit is completely restored, amen. I mean, 1 Thessalonians 5.23 says that we have a spirit, a soul, and a body. Now, uh, my body is gonna be glorified one day, it's gonna be even more glorified than that it's already is, amen. And then my soul is gonna be glorified, but my soul at this moment, you know, it's it's something else. I'm gonna discuss that, and then my spirit is already perfect. My spirit is sealed with the Holy Spirit, Ephesians 1. You know, my spirit is holy, pure, righteous, blameless. It cannot sin because it's the nature of God, it cannot get sick, it cannot be depressed. I'm not talking about my soul, I'm not talking about my body, I'm talking about my spirit. You know, my spirit is perfect, my spirit always rejoices, my spirit is complete and all love, wall-to-wall love, you know, and my spirit is the very nature of God, and it's sealed with the Holy Spirit, so no dirt, no contamination of any dirt or sin or whatever can enter into my spirit. My spirit is completely perfect, and I now, with my spiritual man, may eat freely from the tree of life, and there is nothing that stands between me and the tree of life to eat of it, you know, because I have eternal life, because my spirit is already this eternal being that can be forever and ever in the presence of God because we are cut from the same wood. We are the same, I am one in him, and he is one in me. I am I am one with my God, I'm one with Jesus, and I am that through the power of the Holy Spirit. And so, you know, that's talking about my spirit, but then I have a soul, and my soul that is my sensory man. My soul is the one that goes by what he feels, what he hears, what he tastes, what he smells, you know, by what he sees, you know, and so he has all these senses that he lives by. And my soul, which is also my mind, the way that I think, you know, my soul has to be completely renewed in his way of thinking. His thinking needs to align with the truth about him in his spirit. As long as the soul identifies itself with the body and identifies himself with what he sees, what he feels, what he tastes, and what he hears, then he will be led by circumstances, he will be led by what people do, you know, what people say, you will be led by thoughts and emotions, you know, and all that stuff that's maybe completely out of you know what God says and what God wants. And so, you know, your soul can be led by your flesh, your carnal man, but your soul can also be led by the spirit, and so but your soul, you know, that gets to restored by the process in the renewing of your mind. Romans 12, 2 says that we need to be renewed, you know, in our mind, so we don't walk according the way of the world, but that we start to walk according to way of God, so we know and understand what his perfect will is, and so you know, we can know that by the renewing of our minds, but then our soul needs to needs to believe and receive, confess, proclaim, you know, that he is who he is in the spirit, and that he not is who he thought he was in the flesh. Now I know it's a lot to take in, but you know, your soul can be still damaged, you know, through life, through trauma, through grief, through loss, and all that stuff. You so the moment you say yes to Jesus, the moment you accept him as your Lord and Savior, from that moment your spirit is completely restored, your spirit is completely new, you are a new creation, you are a new man in Christ Jesus, and no longer you live but Christ lives in you. Bam! That's true about your spirit from the moment you say yes to Jesus, and then it will be sealed with the Holy Spirit. So this part of you is perfect, this part of you can never be not perfect anymore, can never be less, or can never change. Your your spirit part is complete. That's what it says in Colossians 2, verse 10. It says that we are now perfected in him, we are complete in him. It's talking about our spirit. It says that in Colossians 3 it says that we are now with Christ, hidden in God, and that talks about our spirit man. It also says in Ephesians that we are now seated with Christ in heavenly places. So if I'm seated with him but I'm still here, what is talking about? He's talking about my spirit man. My spirit man is seated with Christ in the heavenly places. So the same way that Jesus can now be in me here on earth, I can be in him there in heavenly places, because it's a spiritual world that we're talking about. But your soul is still attached to your body, you know, and your soul, you know, is your sensory man. And there are a lot of Christians that you know deal with all kinds of stuff and they don't understand what's going wrong because you know the word of God says this about them, and then they experience this in their lives, and then they're like, Well, how does that work? Well, that talk that works exactly you know as it works. It is talking mostly about your spiritual man and your natural, your your sensory man needs to be renewed by the renewing of your mind, and then by understanding the truth about himself in the spirit, he can let go of certain things that are blocking him and and you know causing him problems in his soul. So let's say, you know, um I'm traumatized because you know I've been to prison for many many years. Now, when I accepted Jesus, I was completed in my spirit, but in my soul, I still could experience you know pain. I could still experience sadness, you know, heavy thoughts, you know, that would weigh on my shoulders. And and and if you think about it, it's completely not in line with who I am in Christ, because there is joy in his presence, you know, there's there's there's you know the the spirit, the the the fruit of the spirit, you know, is is love, peace, and joy, and you know, faith and long suffering and all that stuff, you know. And so here, you know, in my spirit, this is all the he's completely happy, but then I'm experiencing this. Where do I experience that? I do experience that in my soul. But when I start to believe and understand, you know, that I'm no longer who I was, and I no longer have to live in the past, I no longer have to be that person, I no longer have to feel those feelings, I no longer have to relive the past, I no longer have to live in the past. Paul says one thing I do, I forget what's behind this and I stretch out to what is before me. And so, you know, don't think about the former things and don't think about the past because it doesn't define you anymore. Who defines you is God. He defines and decides who you are. Amen. And so, you know, by the renewing of my mind, I can counter those things that were determining me because of the things that I've been through. And by the renewing of my countering that, you know, it it became less and less and less until it was gone. And so that was a process to understand the unconditional love of the Father, to understand the goodness of God and the love of God and the grace of God, and to understand who you truly are in Christ Jesus and what your identity now is in Christ Jesus, uh, you know, that will, you know, in a process, and some go faster than other ones, but it's in a process, you know. In that process, you will get rid of all the sorry stuff and the things that you have experienced that you know can make you feel the way you feel when you relive them or when you think about them, you know, or you know what shaped you and formed you. It doesn't have to shape and form you anymore. I mean, I've been talking with people that were really traumatized for things that had been done to them, and I and I told them, you know, that doesn't define you anymore. And I've been speaking with a lot of people that have done awful things to other people, and I also told them that doesn't define you anymore. When you are in Christ Jesus, you are a new creation, and so all things have been passed away. Behold, all things have become new. But in order for you to truly see and understand that you need to renew your mind with the word of God, and so your soul is going to be renewed through the love and intimacy and the unity, the oneness with God, you know, by being constantly in him. That's why it's so important for you to be in him, to be found in him and rooted in him and build up in him, because only then that part of restoration can take place in your soul life, you know, through the renewing of your mind and to be found in him and understand this. Now really believe that if you're gonna grasp it, you're gonna experience a lot of freedom. So, you know, let us look at Jesus. Jesus, you know, he had never been forsaken of God. I mean, never. They are one. Jesus says in John 10:30, it says, Me and my father are one. And so they are the same, they are just one. And it's always complicated to try to explain to people, you know, about the Trinity. I have a beautiful study on it, I will cover it when I'm gonna do the series one basics here in one gospel. But you know, um, it is God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. All three have, you know, specific um uh attributes, or I don't know how to say that, you know. Um, but they're one. It's like you are spirit, soul, and body, but you're one. You know, there is no difference. It's like water, you know, you can have liquid water, you can have frozen water, you know, and you can have uh vapor uh how you call that vaporized uh water that is that is this uh vaporized steam, whatever, I don't know how to say it. You have three forms of water, but it's still water. Sometimes you know my English, oh my god, but anyway, that's grace for me, also. But Jesus says, I am the Father of one, and in the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God, John 1 1. And so, you know, God is Jesus, Jesus is God, amen. So, and Jesus is also the word in Revelation 19:13. It says that his name is called the Word of God, and then the Word of God became flesh, John 1 14. And so Jesus, the Word, is God, and He are the Father, are one. Amen. Now, let's see what it says in Philippians uh Philippians 2, verse 6 and 8. I uh I really love that verse because you know it really tells me you know what my king has done for me, you know, because he loved me so much. And um Ephesians uh sorry uh Philippians 2 verse 6 till eight, it says that that he, Jesus, was being in the form of God, but did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant and coming in the likeness of man. And so Jesus, this is until verse 7, Jesus was in the form of God, because he is equal with God, he is God, but then he did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation. That means that he laid down his deity, he laid down his glory, he laid down his majesty, he laid down his divinity, and then he took on the form of a bondservant, coming in the likeness of man. Now, in one Peter, it goes really well with it. I'm gonna use a lot of Bible verses. So in 1 Peter 2, let me just see 1 Peter 2 22. Here it says, who Jesus committed no sin, nor was the seed found in his mouth, who, when he was reviled, did not revile in return, and when he suffered, he did not he did not threaten, but committed himself to him who judges righteously, who himself bore our sins in his own body on the tree, that we having died to sins, might live for righteousness by whose stripes you were healed. Man, powerful, powerful, powerful verse. And then 2 Corinthians 5.21 it says that he who knew no sin, he made to be sin for us, so that we might be the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. In him. So Jesus, the Son of the living God, who never had been forsaken of God, he gave himself on the cross, then he bore our sins, our diseases, our weaknesses, our shame, and he bore our punishment. For the chastisement of our peace was upon him, which we can. Read in Yesiah 53. So he was made sin, and he took upon him all the judgment, all the punishment, and all the condemnation that was that was meant for us. Now, and that which caused separation between man and God through the fall of man, and what I what I've been teaching on, that was what happened in the garden, bam, brought separation between God and man. And that which brought separation between God and man through the fall, you know, the separation from the oneness with God now brought for a moment separation between Jesus, the Son of Man, and God Almighty. I mean, it was terrible, it was horrific. Jesus cries out, Eli, Eli, Eli, Lama Sabah, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? I don't know if you understand. You know what happened here. God for a moment turned away from his son because he became sin for you and for me. And then there are people that dare to ask, God, do you still love me? I mean, shameful. He gave his begotten son, and his son became sin for you and for me. And God turned away from a moment in history. He turned away for a moment from his only son. I don't know if you can understand how that must have felt for Jesus to be separated from the oneness with God the Father. You know, we assume, you know, that the sacrifice that Jesus has brought for us, you know, is the is the nail through his hands, you know, and the and the spear on his side, and the lashes on his back, and the thorn and crown on his head, you know, and the humiliation and the rejection, you know, and the blasphemy, and you know, the way they they treated him and they hurt him, and when they have beaten him, you know, and hung him on a cross and put him to shame, displayed him to shame, you know, and innocent, you know, condemned him to death and all that stuff, we believe that that was the sacrifice that Jesus brought for us. And although it's terrible, and although it's like horrible, it's the most terrible way, you know, to give yourself, you know, but that was to exp to display his extreme love for us, his unbelievable love and grace for us. You know, even though it's really, really, really terrible that he gave himself like that and he did that because he loves us, the true sacrifice, the true, true sacrifice he brought that was that he was separated for a moment from his father. Eli, the loneliness, the fear, the emptiness. We will never, ever, ever be able to comprehend the price that he paid for us, the the loneliness that he must have felt in that moment, you know, besides all the pain that he suffered in his body. You know, we can never understand. He was completely innocent, but he became guilty for you and for me. It's beyond comprehension. It's it's unexplainable. He gave himself, he poured himself out, and he did it with joy in his heart because he loves you and he loves me unconditionally. His way to express his love for us was not hanging on the cross and judging everybody. I'm hanging here because you are such a bunch of sinners. No, it was him displaying himself there on the cross to the whole world saying, I love you. You are precious to me. That's why I give myself like this. Man, it's amazing and it's mind-blowing, you know, and I will continue on that in the next episode of One Gospel. So stay tuned in. I'm gonna see you hopefully in the next episode of One Gospel. God bless you. Bye-bye.

SPEAKER_00 26:17

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