We are back in our study of the mandates of the PPOG for believers. Since advancing and mature believers are the basis for the establishment and perpetuation of the client nation to God it is necessary for them to know these mandates and live in them.

Last time we saw the mandate to do all things without grumbling or complaining that is found in Phil 2:14:

In the midst of adversity and disaster, believers are to re-present the light of TLJC. The whole human race needs the light of Bible Doctrine because it is the only way out.

Believers have an obligation to display, demonstrate, and disclose the light of the Word of God to the citizens of the devil's world who, because of their unbelief, have acquired attitudes that sponsor ethical and social behaviors contrary to divine standards resulting in moral corruption and confusion.

Advancing and Mature believers are the "lights of the world holding fast the word of life." as they re-present TLJC who is the "light of the world" John 8:12; Matt 5:14;

When we fulfill the mandate found in this passage we do our part in buying back the time Eph 5:16;KJV and averting the cycles of discipline that God brings on the client nation that rejects Divine revelation.

Believer's "buy back" the time by living the Unique Spiritual Life of the Church Age through their function in the PPOG and as a result they "glorify God in their body"

This brings us to the mandate found in 1Cor 6:20; where the word translated "glorify" is the Greek verb "doxasate" that is the second person plural active imperative of the verb " doxazo".

The noun form is "doxa"

The Greek word "doxa goes back to Homer and Herodotus who used the word to describe what one thinks or his opinions. When such thoughts and opinions constitute a personal evaluation of someone, then doxa means "renown, reputation, esteem, honor, or virtue."

These are the attitudes of reciprocity toward God held by those who "glorify" Him.

The Theological Lexicon of the New Testament. Vol. 1 on pages , 362-378. states:

The noun doxa is derived from the verb dokeo, which means "to think, to form an opinion" that may be either right or wrong..

This was the opinion of others concerning a person and took on definitions such as "renown" and reputation." This is usually favorable and especially when it is assigned to God and Christ.

In the New Testament, doxa is often linked with honor; virtue, and praise.

Throughout the LXX, Greek translation of the Old Testament, and the entire New Testament, the noun doxa never means "opinion.

In the LXX doxa is most often the translation of the Hebrew word " kavoth" that means "to be heavy," and came to mean "esteem" or "respect." It also is evident throughout the Old Testament that this esteem and respect is acquired by one's understanding of God's presence.

An understanding of God comes about because He makes Himself manifest, first of all by His visible presence revealed through physical phenomena associated with light and then later by the manifestation of His thought through divine revelation in Scripture.

We see from this that the Greek word " doxa" and the Hebrew word "kavoth" refer to the manifestation of deity through some visible means as in Exod 40:34; some action that He produces as in Phil 1:11;, or through His divine revelation of scripture that is communicated by his messengers as in 2Cor 8:23;

We see from this that God is glorified when he is being made manifest to mankind. This is done through the creation Psa 19:1; , through Christ, John 1:14; then through those who believe in Christ. Eph 3:21;

A good way to understand how this is achieved is with the use of the English word "manifest" that has two basic meanings; first, to be readily perceived by the senses and especially by sight, and secondly, easily understood or recognized by the mind.

"Manifestation" therefore refers to how something or someone is made obvious.

When mankind extends glory and honor to God or Christ it does not imply that man is able to produce this glory and honor. However, by means of doctrine and spiritual growth, man is able to recognize the reputation of God and Christ, come to respect it and through reciprocity, praise these virtues by means of thought, worship, and the execution of the divine mandates found in the unique spiritual life of the PPOG for the church age.

When the thinking of God is manifest by believers he receives glory. This was accomplished by the true humanity of Christ during the Incarnation and is also accomplished by positive believers in the church age.

It occurs in the believer through continual illumination by means of GASP. The more we think like the true humanity of Christ thought during the Incarnation the more we think as God.

The more we develop an understanding of God by means of Bible study the more we come to appreciate His grace for us. We respond to His undiminished love for us by means of gratitude, adoration, praise and reciprocity.

Jesus Christ glorified God during His earthly ministry John 14:13;. In turn, God glorified Christ. Phil 2:9-11;

One way that God's glory was made manifest in Christ was through miracles that enabled others to identify Him as Messiah.

An example of this occurred at the wedding at Cana where He transformed water into wine.

John 2:11; This beginning of His miracles Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and manifested His glory, and His disciples believed in Him.

The glory manifested at Cana has three elements: (1) manifestation through miracle, (2) observation by the disciples, and (3) their affirmation through faith alone in Christ alone.

Jesus manifested God's glory in Him. This was observed and affirmed by the faith of the disciples who recognized by means of the miracle that Jesus was Messiah.

At the present time, believers recognize His glory by means of the Scripture and respond through faith. At salvation we are immediately indwelt by Jesus Christ as the Shekinah Glory. We acquire the glory of His thinking by Bible study and the advance to spiritual maturity.

All believers in Jesus Christ receive the glory associated with being made a child of God at salvation.

However, only believers who advance to spiritual maturity through the unique spiritual life of the church age may partake of a second type of glory that is described in Romans as that associated with being "fellow heirs with Christ." Rom 8:16-17;

This is accomplished when believers comply with the mandates found in Rom 6:11-13;

v11- Likewise consider yourselves to be dead unto sin. The Greek adverb "houtos" separates the perception of doctrine from it's application.

It refers to what precedes and then, makes the application. It is translated "So" in the NASB and "therefore" in the KJV. In other words, having assimilated doctrine and its implication it is now time for application.

We then have the adjunctive use of the conjunction "kai" that is translated "even" in the NASB. These words bring in the concept that doctrine demands application.

Bible Doctrine in your life is used for spiritual growth and for application to life's circumstances. In this passage we are dealing with application aspect.

Next is the present middle imperative from the Greek verb" logizomai" that means to calculate, to take into account, to evaluate, to estimate, to think, consider, ponder, have in mind, to be of the opinion. In other words, it is a verb of application.

In the Attic Greek "logizomai" referred to thinking according to strict logical rules, and therefore meant to deliberate or to conclude or apply information.

Plato defined to this verb as non-emotional thinking. Emotion may result from thinking but emotion must never be allowed to destroy thinking.

It means that we are to conclude or think doctrinally

In this case, the imperative mood is more of an entreaty than a command, an entreaty that does not convey the finality of a command but has the force of urgency.

It is always an urgent principle that we must begin to think in terms of doctrine, and when we have a conflict in our soul between how we feel and what the Word of God says we must always go with what the Word of God says, rather than how we feel.

"logizomai" is also a technical legal term from the field of business that was used to describe the charging of a debt. In Paul's usage it refers to the fact that our sin debt is taken off our books and placed into Christ's at the cross.

At the second birth, the power of the old sin nature was positionally broken through the imputation of God's righteousness and eternal life. Eph 2:6;

And at the same time there was the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and for the first time the believer's soul is in a position to break free from or be dead or unresponsive to the influence of the corrupted OSN.

This is the freedom that TLJC spoke of to those who followed him in John 8:31-32;

Since believers are to recognize from a doctrinal viewpoint that they have been freed from the OSN, let's take a look at the Doctrine of the OSN so we can know just what it is that we have been released from.

Biblical documentation of the sin nature is found in Rom 5:12;. "Therefore, just as through one man (Adam), sin (the sin nature) entered into the world, and (spiritual) death through (the) sin (nature), so (spiritual) death spread to the entire human race because all sinned (when Adam sinned)."\

The characteristics of spiritual death include, the status quo of dichotomy in the human race, having only a body and soul at birth, but no human spirit.

Without a human spirit it not possible to have a relationship with God, 1Cor 2:13.

Spiritual death is a state of total depravity that can be exhibited as either moral or immoral degeneracy, depending upon the trend in one's sin nature.

Spiritual death is total separation from God, Total helplessness to perform any work, sacrifice, or any change of life whereby one can enter into a relationship with God.

The only way anyone can enter into a relationship with God is to accept God's work on our behalf through belief in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation and eternal life. John 3:16;

The OSN contains an area of weakness that produces personal sins that result in evil in the form of moral or immoral degeneration. Eph 4:22;

It also contains an area of strength that produces human good, resulting in moral degeneracy, Isa 64:6; Rom 8:8, and a lust pattern that motivates sin and evil, lasciviousness and asceticism, moral and immoral degeneration, Rom 7:7; Eph 2:3.

The old sin nature is Adam's disposition after the fall. Immediately after Adam sinned, he had spiritual death and a tendency to sin.

His disposition to sin produced three categories of personal sins: mental, verbal and overt.

He also had a disposition for human good and evil, that established the Satanic policy for the establishment of the pseudo-millennium on the earth.

The disposition toward good and evil is an issue because the judicial imputation of all personal sins to Christ on the cross, makes personal sin a non-issue except for it's acknowledgement per 1John 1:9;

When Adam chose the fruit of tree of the knowledge of good and evil, he chose Satan's policy of good and evil that immediately made Satan the ruler of the world.

The Fall of man resulted in numerous changes from the Garden including the fact that Satan became the ruler of this world, the old sin nature became the ruler of man's body, all of mankind became spiritually dead, and under the condemnation of the justice of God, that because of sin became the point of reference for mankind.

Adam took a perfect soul and, by his negative volition, he revolted against divine authority and created the old sin nature. Adam's volition was a perfect instrument. But being a free agent, he could and did reject divine authority.

This is the status of all mankind at first birth. While the soul is not occupied by the old sin nature, the soul becomes the battlefield that the old sin nature attacks and where it is often tactically successful.

The influence of the old sin nature on the soul is seen in mental attitude sins and motivations. The condition and status of the body often affect how one thinks. There is no question that the body effects the soul and the mentality, just as the soul effects the body.

This phenomenon of the immaterial influencing the material and the material influencing the immaterial is noted in the "heart" passages of Jer 17:9; Matt 12:34-35; Matt 15:19; Mark 7:21-23. In these passages the words translated "heart" are referring to the soul.