Raju Ebenezer

The regenerate man is one who is quickened in his spirit by the miracle of new birth and made alive to God. A totally new realm of the spiritual is opened before him. Thus the born again man is intrinsically and qualitatively a new man. He is indeed a new creature!

The eternal life, the renewed conscience, the quickened spirit, and the new heart at the centre of the person, with Christ Jesus as his Lord constitute the new man. Therefore the new man is a man of fresh propensities, drive and aspirations of life. Further he is guided and led by the light and wisdom of the word of God, the anointing of the Spirit's indwelling presence, and the law of the spirit of life.

Thus life to a man in Christ is essentially different.

In the light of the knowledge of God and His will, he has a totally new perspective of life. And in turn he has a new sense of values. What he once considered as great is no more great, as that which is 'great in the sight of men is detestable in the sight of God'. Possessions and riches, which he considered as of true worth, is no more precious as he has found 'the pearl of great price'. With the result his very pursuits of life does change.

His life is one of contrast with the life he lived as an unregenerate man!

The natural man on the contrary is the one who is dead in his spirit and thereby blind to the spiritual realm and its realities. Nothing but the physical and material is real to him.
There is no wonder then that an unregenerate man lives by physical and material considerations alone. It is only natural that he is a materialist.

However it is inconceivable and incongruous that a man who is born again is a materialist!
Yet it remains a blatant reality that a vast number who professes to be born again are pursuing material prosperity in the name of 'blessings of Abraham'.

Indeed it has become the much advocated thesis of the modern Christendom, the crowd- pulling theme of the pulpits and the popular notion and fashion of the day!

It is a gross error to concede that the 'blessing of Abraham', is wealth and prosperity. In fact Abraham's blessing was not primarily his 'land, cattle and material possessions'. In that case, even Lot was blessed for he too had 'flocks, herds and great possessions'!

The great and blessed men of God down through the history of the Church were deprived of the wealth and possessions this transient world could offer. Jesus Himself, the blessed of God, the stately king worshipped by the majestic angels was born in a manger. He was born to parents of very humble means who couldn't afford to offer a lamb but only a pair of turtledoves. He had no house of his own upon this earth that he told to the one who wanted to follow him, 'the Son of man has nowhere to lay his head'. He lived so poor that He had to pay His temple tax out of Peter's catch of fish.

His blessed disciples too were no different. Peter and John in stating to the lame, 'silver and gold we have none', were making their poverty plain.

The blessed apostles often lacked food, clothing and shelter. A new cloak would have cost Paul so dearly that he wanted Timothy to bring with him his old cloak. And so were the faithful prophets, reformers, and missionaries of past centuries. Without exception every one of them lived with humble means. The earth was just a place of 'subsistence' to them. They had little, they lived on little and they had little to bequeath!

Asaph the godly man who was 'stricken all day long and chastened every morning' became envious of the arrogant as he saw the 'prosperity of the wicked'. He saw them 'at ease, increased in wealth', in good health, without pain and trouble.

Why quote from scripture? Look around! If blessing is health, wealth and prosperity the most blessed are those who serve mammon and live for this present life without any regard for God!
In fact despite all his prosperity and success, till Isaac was born Abraham himself didn't consider him to be blessed. And finally after Abraham had his son Isaac, God promised him that the blessing was yet to come through his son to the whole nations.

What was that blessing to come through his son? What was that blessing the whole nations were going to have? It was nothing but the 'blessed Christ' made available to all the mankind! The heavenly proclamation made announcing the 'great joy to come for all people' at the birth of the blessed Saviour Christ was the very fulfilment of the promise made to Abraham!

Oh, could God give a greater gift to humanity than the gift of His Son? Indeed God 'so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son'. What does that mean? God had so great a love that God offered the best He could give and that was His Son. In other words there was no greater sacrifice God could make than His only Son that would match His love. To put it straight and simple 'Christ is the greatest love gift of God'!

The blessing of Abraham available to the redeemed is the 'spiritual blessing in Christ'. Christ came with the sole purpose of redeeming the fallen humanity. 'Blessing in Christ' is, all that Christ came for, all that He became for us, and all that was made available to us in His death and resurrection. It is primarily the redemptive value of His death, resurrection and ascension.

Christ reversed and set off in Him the ghastly consequence that fell on us due to Adam. He then regained for us more than what we lost in our forefather by bringing us forth to a new life in Him by the miracle of new birth! Thus sin, death, judgment and condemnation are vanquished. The blessings of grace, justification, righteousness and eternal life have
come upon us.

Great is our inheritance in Christ - our election, redemption and the great riches of grace! By the power of this grace He restored us to Him, to His will and to His own nature. And we are fashioned as His workmanship - His masterpiece - the best that He can bring
out .

Blessing in Christ is the justification a sinner receives by virtue of the precious atoning blood of Jesus Christ. Blessing in Christ is the reconciliation or peace a sinner secures with God in the propitiatory sacrifice of Christ.

Blessing in Christ is the remedy for sin made possible, in the crucifixion of our old man in Him and the circumcision of our flesh in Him in our co-death with Him on the cross.
Blessing in Christ is the quickening, regeneration and the law of life we received at the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Blessing in Christ is the newness of life and the abundant life available to us in Christ who is made the life- giving Spirit.

We are indeed blessed! We have a great High Priest and mediator before God our Father. Christ ascended to the heavens and secured it! He being exalted and glorified and enthroned at the right hand of God He received of the Father the gift of the Holy Spirit and endowed to us.

We are too blessed! God included us in Christ that He is become our wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption. And we have been engrafted to Christ the rich Olive that we partake of His rich life and divine nature.

Great is our blessing in Christ! We are heirs to the glory of God as joint heirs with Christ.
We cannot finish saying what Christ did for us and mean for us. We cannot ever exaggerate our blessedness in Christ. Our blessing in Christ is too abounding, inexplainable and incomprehensible. We cannot better express our appreciation for the grace in Christ than the words of Paul, 'thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!

This is an altogether new quality and order of blessing the natural man cannot perceive. This is the 'spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ' only the chosen of the Lord can understand and appreciate. It was on account of this blessing, Paul counted as loss all that was gain to him and suffered the loss of all things and counted them but rubbish.

The materialistic Christian has perverted this 'heavenly blessing' into an 'earthly blessing' and turned this gospel of grace into a gospel of material prosperity. He has virtually restated the gospel - 'God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son so that whosoever believes in Him shall not be ashamed of! They walked as enemies to the cross thinking all about this life here on earth28. In other words the 'prosperity believers' are 'this worldly' having their hopes, rewards and ambitions in this world and this life.

A probe into the parable of the rich man is very illuminating. The rich man had a bumper harvest. He considered even building larger barns to contain his plenty. He became so secure and the Lord has to say. The Lord calls him 'fool' who 'owns up' his wealth and relaxes on his prosperity without a serious acknowledgement of the uncertainty of his life. The Lord further indicts the man who is 'rich in himself' and not 'rich towards God'. And profoundest of all, the Lord asserted, 'a man's life doesn't consist in the abundance of his possessions'.

What would the prosperity teacher of today call this rich man? He would contradict the Lord and call him 'blessed'. The prosperity teacher fails to differentiate between 'being rich in this world' and 'being rich towards God'. And finally the advocate of prosperity, would practically differ from the Lord's pronouncement and affirm, 'life do consist in the abundance of a man's possessions'!

Thus the 'prosperity teacher' glorifies the vanity and riches of this world over the glory of the heavenly calling and eternal blessing of the saints in Christ. In this he abases 'the gift of God' as the swine tramples the pearls under its feet. So he stands guilty - for glorifying vanity, for desecrating the great sacrifice of Christ, for debasing the love and grace in Christ, and for profaning the way.

Jesus taught his disciples the mark of the truly blessed - poor in spirit, hungering for righteousness, persecuted for Christ, peace making, pure at heart, meek, mourning and merciful. The apostles too taught about true blessedness - to be giving than receiving, to be patiently enduring in a trial, to be a doer of God's word, and be suffering for Christ's sake.

Apostles lived through afflictions, hardships and distresses. They were often subject to beatings, imprisonments, tumults, sleeplessness and hunger. Yet nothing could quench their joy, frustrate their hope and distract them of their purpose. They prevailed over everything and proved to be truly blessed!

Amidst all the struggles, difficulties and challenges of life they demonstrated true blessedness - sorrowful yet always rejoicing, poor yet making many rich, having nothing yet possessing all things!

And so were the great saints all through. Every biography of the saints without fail shall prove that each one of them trod the same path and went through the same experience their fellowmen of the rest of humanity had gone through. They were not spared of troubles of life and never had an easy way. However they had hymns and psalms in their hearts. They proved that life was worth living despite all it's suffering and held it sacred and glorious. They lived it with the dignity of the true servants of God!

These saints were homesick on earth. To them the earth around was barren and had no charm. They were tent-dwellers on earth having no permanent interest here. They were heavenly citizens with all their life investments and fortunes there. They lived counting their days on earth. They remain as real epitomes of true blessedness!

All these men stand in stark contrast to the modern prosperity 'servants of God'!

We greatly need the pilgrim spirit of the holy men of old. We also need men to prove the true blessedness in the gospel.

The fact that our thoughts and interests are so bound to earth, our lives so entangled to the affairs of this life and the absence of a pilgrim song in our hearts are sure indications that we too are bewitched by materialism.