God’s purpose consummates in New Jerusalem. God created man for this, saying “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them have dominion…” (Genesis 1:26). Man (singular) and them (plural) indicate that God created a corporate man. This man fell away from God.
For the sake of fulfilling God’s purpose, Christ Jesus created a new corporate man by and in Himself (Ephesians 2:14-16). This new man is the predecessor of New Jerusalem. By faith and the spiritual reality of baptism we have put off the old man and have put on the new man. This is a positional transfer.
Now we need to cooperate with God’s inner operation (Philippians 2:12-13) so that every aspect of our daily living can be brought into the new man. This is an experiential transfer. The prior post touched the experiential putting off. There is also an experiential renewing.
By putting on the new man, we are in the realm of newness in Christ. This is positional. There is also the fact that the new man “is being renewed unto full knowledge according to the image of Him who created him” (Colossians 3:10). Is being renewed indicates a continuing process.
Our cooperation with the renewing is shown by the exhortation in Ephesians 4:23, “be renewed in the spirit of your mind.” This renewing is of the Holy Spirit, as shown in Titus 3:5, yet this renewing must reach our mind to transform our thinking and our concepts.
In Romans 12:1-2 being transformed by the renewing of our mind follows presenting our body as a living sacrifice. Therefore, let us consecrate ourselves afresh to the Lord and open to Him for this renewing. May He bring us into the reality of the new man to prepare us for New Jerusalem.
Related posts:
New Man, New Jerusalem_________________From New Man to New Jerusalem
New Creation, New Man, New Jerusalem____..__Renewed to Match New Jerusalem
Photo courtesy of U.S. Bureau of Land Management.
New Jerusalem - the Consummation 
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