Thursday 23 August 2018

What is the Christ Consciousness?

What is the Christ Consciousness?




The Cambridge Dictionary defines consciousness as "the state of understanding and realizing something." The Oxford Living Dictionary defines consciousness as "The state of being aware of and responsive to one's surroundings.", "A person's awareness or perception of something."

https://www.gnosticdoctrine.com/2018/08/what-is-consciousness.html

Consciousness is thinking produced by the brain and it is related to the mind


The Greek word translated “conscience”, sun-eidesis, means literally a co-perception. It implies that there are two types of perception within the believer- human perception, and spiritual self perception.


What is the Christ Consciousness?

The Christ Consciousness is the spiritual man within us as " the hidden man of the heart...a meek and quiet spirit  1 Pet. 3:4. This confirms that this " man" is the personification of a spirit, or attitude of mind. Thus our real spiritual person is " hidden" . The world therefore cannot understand us, or be truly close to the believer who has the spiritual man utmost in their heart. The Gospel itself is a " mystery" ('something hidden'), yet this hidden mystery is the dynamic power in our " hidden man" of the Spirit. All that is hidden will be openly revealed in the Kingdom (Mt. 10:26). The inward man of Rom. 7:22 is what is so important; yet the LXX in Lev. 3:14-16 uses the same word to describe the fat surrounding the intestines, which God appeared to so value in the sacrifices. It was not that He wanted that fat in itself; but rather He saw that fat as representing a man's essential spirituality, that which is developed close to the heart, unseen by others, but revealed after death. (Duncan Heaster)

The real spiritual self which we are developing now will be revealed openly when the Lord comes, both to ourselves and also to our brethren. It is crucial to appreciate that God will not turn us into spiritual beings after the judgment seat. The spirituality which we now have will then be manifested in physical, bodily terms. This is why Rom. 8:11 encourages us that if we have this spiritual man within us, then " If the spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he...shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his spirit that (now) dwelleth in you" . Our life is now " hid with Christ in God" (Col. 3:3), and will be made manifest at his glorious appearing. Even after we die, our ‘spirit’, our essential spiritual personality, is still actively recollected by God (cp. Heb. 12:23). It is our spiritual man which is hidden; it is here called " our life" because it is the guarantee of our eternal life. What higher motivation could we require than to here and now develop the spirit of Christ? " Greater is he that is in you (i.e. your spiritual man, Christ Jesus), than he that is in the world" (1 Jn. 4:4). If the spiritual man is within us, we must surely win our spiritual conflict, ultimately! (Duncan Heaster)


Rom. 2:28 continues this theme of our real spiritual self being hidden, by saying that the true believer will " inwardly" (same word translated " hidden" in 1 Pet. 3:4) circumcise his heart. The works of the flesh are " manifest" , but by inference those of the Spirit are hidden (Gal. 5:18,19). Mt. 6:4,6,18 gives triple emphasis to the fact that God sees in secret. He alone truly and fully appreciates our spiritual self. This is sure comfort on the many occasions where our spirituality is misunderstood, both in the world and in the ecclesia. Yet it also provides an endless challenge; moment by moment, our true spiritual being is known by the Almighty, " Thou whose eyes in darkness see, and try the heart of man" . The spiritual man which God now knows (" sees" ) and relates to, will be what He sees at the day of judgment. God dwells in " secret" , i.e. in the hidden place, as well as seeing in " secret" . God is a God who hides Himself (Is. 57:17) due to human sinfulness. If we fail to see the spiritual man in our brethren, this must be due to a lack of real spiritual vision in us. It is human sin which is somehow getting in the way. (Duncan Heaster)

The Christ Consciousness is an equivalent expression for the Christ-self, spiritual self, new man, hidden man of the heart.

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