Ch 8 (cont) The Spirit as the Identity Maker of the Converted.

Ch..(cont.) The Spirit as the Identity Maker of the Converted.

Three times Paul identifies believers in terms of “having the Spirit”, while unbelievers do not.

1Co 2:6 Yet among the mature we do impart wisdom, although it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are doomed to pass away.

1Co 2:7 But we impart a secret and hidden wisdom of God, which God decreed before the ages for our glory.

1Co 2:8 None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

1Co 2:9 But, as it is written, "What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love him"—

1Co 2:10 these things God has revealed to us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.

1Co 2:11 For who knows a person's thoughts except the spirit of that person, which is in him? So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.

1Co 2:12 Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God.

1Co 2:13 And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.

1Co 2:14 The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.

1Co 2:15 The spiritual person judges all things, but is himself to be judged by no one.

1Co 2:16 "For who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?" But we have the mind of Christ.

The natural person is contrasted with the Spiritual Person. The natural Person does not have the Spirit, therefore, he does not understand what God has done through the Cross. The very opposite is true for the BELIEVER. In 1 Cor 12:3the basic Christian Confession is by the Holy Spirit.

1Co 12:3 Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says "Jesus is accursed!" and no one can say "Jesus is Lord" except in the Holy Spirit.

Rom 8:9 You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.

Formerly he say the world as “us” and “them”; Jews and gentiles. Now Paul see just Believers and Unbelievers. The Believers have the Spirit, but the others do not. The believers have NEW LIFE given by the Life-Giving Spirit.

Gal 5:25 If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.

2 Corinthians 3:3 we are a letter from Christ........... written not with ink but by the Spirit of the Living God.

…........................................