He That Hath The Son Hath Life

By Tammy Lacock

“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” (2 Corinthians 5:17)

Warren Litzman’s goal throughout this study is for listeners to get ahold of the Apostle Paul’s gospel of Christ, the only gospel for us today.

Paul’s gospel is simply this: By Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection, we as believers, are brand new creatures, a new race of people. By God’s grace, and by nothing we do or don’t do, we are now brand-new creatures by His uprooting of the sin nature, passed down by Adam through the curse of Satan, and His replacing it with Christ. Christ has been joined to our spirits making us one Spirit in Him (1 Corinthians 6:17). Christ is now literally living in us and because of Him our old lives are now dead and buried with Him. Yet when He rose from the dead, we arose with Him to a brand-new life. He, the person of Christ, is our new life. He is our salvation, our eternal life living within us right now.

“He who hath the Son hath life; and he who hath the Son of God hath not life.” (John 5:12)

However, Christianity today has ignored Paul’s gospel of Christ living in every believer. As a result, Christians don’t know who they are. Comingling works salvation and grace salvation, it’s no wonder we are confused. Paul tells us we are saved only by God’s grace. As Warren puts it, God poured out a whole bucket of grace on us, yet Christians have no idea what this grace is all about. By God’s Grace, not only are we saved by just believing, but we now have the very life of Christ in us, the life of the one who conquered death.

What does this mean?

Paul tells us that by God’s grace we now have the opportunity to know this very Christ who now lives in us. There is no separation between us and Christ. He will never leave us nor forsake us. As believers, we can get to know Christ now on a uniquely personal level because He lives within us. Paul wanted nothing more than to know this Christ, so much so that he made Christ his first love. So much so that he boasted in his weaknesses knowing these very weaknesses brought him closer to knowing Christ. In his weakness, Christ was his strength. Paul fell in love with Christ knowing he could do all things in Him.

By the help of the Holy Spirit, Paul says, our minds must be renewed (Ephesians 4:23), burying not only our old selves but also our old mindsets of who we thought we were and having the revelation and understanding of our new life in Christ. In fact, he tells us that we are predestinated with this understanding (Roman 8:29; Ephesians 1:11). God put this knowledge within us, and now our new lives in Christ can reveal it, helping us in our spiritual growth.

Paul realized his battle was not with the world or with Satan but with his own mind.

His struggle was transitioning from a believing mind to a knowing mind, a knowing that his old self no longer lives, and his new life is Christ (Galatians 2:20). All he wanted was to know this Christ and for this Christ to now live through him.

“Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.” (Philippians 2:5)

“And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” (Romans 12:2)

“For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? but we have the mind of Christ.” (1 Corinthians 2:16)