1 Corinthians 7: 23 You were bought (legal redemption) at a price; do not become slaves of men
This means do not become the bondservant or slave of the theories of men, the doctrines of men.
Man, here means the man who walks in the physical senses.
You crown Jesus as the Lord of your life.
There is no other captivity but the captivity of YHVH’S love.
Therefore, if the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed. (John 8:36)
You are free from Satan’s dominion. You are a new creation, a child of God.
You have been redeemed from the hand of your enemy.
You are to take this fact seriously. You are to order your life accordingly.
“Sin shall not have dominion (future tense-vital redemption) over you” (Romans 6:14).
Satan was defeated by Jesus. That defeat disarmed him of his ability to take you captive without your cooperation.
The two phases of Christ’s ministry in redemption are: Jesus paying the price ( you are bought by the Lord) of your redemption; and defeating your enemy and setting you free.
Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it. (Colossians 2:15)
Jesus triumphed over the adversary. His triumph was your triumph. He defeated the enemy for you.
That battle was your battle.
He was not fighting for Himself.
Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise partook of, shared in the same, that through death He might render inactive him who had the power of death, that is, the devil. (Hebrews 2:14)
He set you free. You are free. You are redeemed by God Himself.
You are now a new creation. This truth must penetrate you.
All that we have been taught was that God forgave us our sins and that by a second work of grace, sin was eradicated from us.
But if we did wrong ignorantly or intelligently, we had to be made righteous again.
Spiritual things are spiritually understood.
Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. (1 Corinthians 2:12)
The first thing that is given to you after redemption is a new spirit.
2 Corinthians 5: 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. 18 Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, 19 that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation.
You are a new creation.
The sinful nature has been taken out of you.
God’s nature has taken its place. You are reconciled to the Father. You are brought into fellowship with the Father. Everything you were stopped being.
All you were in Adam stopped being.
The old things of weakness and failure are passed away.
This new creation should have no memory of a past creation. You are newly born. You are a new species. You are a new creation created in Christ Jesus.
The Jew was blood covered because his nature was antagonistic toward God, totally incompatible.
We are not blood covered. We are made new creations. We are cleansed by the blood. We need not be covered.
We can stand uncovered—free from sin consciousness in His presence just as Jesus did in His earth walk.
The Holy Spirit has given birth to us. We are born of God.
Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures. (James 1:18)
You are of God, little children. (1 John 4:4)
For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus. (Ephesians 2:10)
All of this reveals to us the conclusion that this new creation is something that God Himself has created and that we are now just what He says we are: the very sons of God.
The old man is done away with in the new creation.
Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. (Romans 6:6)
The sin nature is gone.
So many of us have tried to get rid of this old nature.
We did not know that it was put to death.
The thing called the Adamic nature is spiritual death, which had blinded of our spirits.
When we are made alive, made new creations, that nature is done away.
We are tempted, and in our babyhood state, we do foolish things. That is because our bodies have never been brought into subjection to our spirits.
Sin may dwell in your soul or your physical body, but it is not sin until you have agreed to it.
There is nothing wrong in your body.
Sin may lurk in your body like a demon. If there is a demon in your flesh that means your body is filled with pain and inflammation.
When that demon is cast out, your body becomes clean and healed. Sin abides in your mind. That is how it gets into your body.
When we refer to “sin in the flesh,” this means sin in the physical senses. It is when your physical senses have gained the dominion over your body.
God desires “that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God” (Romans 12:1).
He desires that these bodies shall be dedicated to Him after we are born again.
It is an unseemly thing for your body to rule your mind and cloud your spirit.
You know that if you have a sore foot, that foot rules all the rest of the body.
That disease has gained the mastery so that your mind becomes slaves to the pain in that foot.
The same thing is true if you have an unclean appetite, a habit. That habit gains the mastery over your whole body, if you do not hold it in subjection.
The thing you say to that foot is this: “By His stripes, you are healed. In the name of Jesus, become well.” (See Isaiah 53:5.)
You say to the habit that has gained the mastery over your body and mind, “You have no right to hold dominion over me any longer. In the name of Jesus Christ, depart.” And you will become free.
We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. (1 John 3:14)
God’s nature is in us. This new creation is of God. We know that we are no longer our own.
Nothing will cripple one so quickly as to deny this truth. Nothing will establish you and build your faith as quickly as to confess it.
Confess it in your heart first.
Confess it out loud in your room. Say it over and over again: “I am a child of God. I have God’s nature. I am the righteousness of God in Christ.”
Say it until the words become familiar with your spirit.
Say it until your spirit and your words agree, until your whole being swings into harmony and into line with the Word of God.
That amazing passage in Hebrews 5:13 says, “For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe.”
The word of righteousness transforms our life.
Babes do not know what it means to be the righteousness of God in Christ.
They do not know what it means to have God justify them and to have a standing with the Father just like Jesus’s standing.
They do not seem to grasp the significance of the reality of the new creation.
That new creation is a part of God. It has partaken of God’s nature. It has been made out of righteousness and holiness of truth. The new creation is not a man-made thing.
It is not a mental thing. It is a God thing.
Just as the angel said, “That Holy One who is to be born will be called the Son of God” (Luke 1:35), the Holy Spirit has given birth to you, and you are the holy ones of God.
You are that separated one that belongs absolutely to the Father.
You are now His very child by nature.
You can say, “My Father.” He says “My child, My son”
For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.” (Romans 8:15)
It is your continual confession of your relationship to Him and His to you that will build faith into you.
There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. (Romans 8:1)
God is your Father, your protector, your caretaker, and your Lord.
You are in His family. Take your place. Play the part of a male or female son.