8:1 – walk after the Spirit. The Holy Spirit is called the Comforter by the Lord Jesus in the book of John. He is also called the Spirit of Truth several times in the same book. In John 17 Jesus says that the Words of God are Truth. We know that Jesus is the Living Word of God (John 1). John shows us that Jesus is the Bread of Life, The Living Water, The Way to the Father, our Good Shepherd, and the Resurrection and the Life. He is made Wisdom to us, and our sanctification, and our redemption (I Cor 1). He is everything. We must walk in the Spirit that He has given to us, our New Life.
8:2 – The law of the Spirit of life. The law of sin and death, and the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. He delivers us from one law by introducing another. What is a law? A law is not a theory, it is not a “maybe” or an occasional occurrence. It is something that is tested and tried. It is something that has been proven true. It is something that has no contradictions. Sin and death worked in me. I could not stop sinning, and eternal death was inevitable. There seemed to be no way out. But another law was introduced by God, and that law was the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. The new law has overcome the old!
8:3-7 – The carnal mind cannot be subject to the law of God.
Everything about you must be submitted to the cross. Your talents, your preaching, your personality.
We see someone and think “if only THAT man would come to Christ”, they could be greatly used of God. This is fleshly thinking. That man is unregenerate. His entire being is of this world. None of those things that you see in him come from the Spirit of God. Those actions or personalities are not born of God.
8:8-13 (11-13) – The Christian life is not uselessness of this body that you are in. It is a matter of the source of your actions and energy. The source of everything must be the Spirit. The source of your life before conversion was your natural soul, the carnal ‘I’, but now it is the Spirit of Christ that controls your actions, energy, and motives - 8:14
8:14-17
God desires for His Son to have brethren. One grain of wheat has died and many grains will spring up. The first grain was once the only grain, but now it is the first of many:
Joh 12:24
(24) Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.
We are Christ’s brethren and sons of the Father:
Heb 2:9-11
(9) But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.
(10) For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.
(11) For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren,
Friday, August 28, 2009
Sunday, August 23, 2009
The Lord Jesus in Romans 7
Rom 7:1-3
(1) Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth?
(2) For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband.
(3) So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.
Paul now uses an illustration of a wife and husband, and a potentially better husband… The husband is the law, and we are the wife. The law is a very demanding husband, and in fact seems to be very mean at times. But this husband is not sinful. He demands perfection. He demands complete perfection, but he does not help us to accomplish it. We are miserable under the law. But, there is a better husband who desires to be married to us. He is just as perfect, but he does not leave us to be perfect on our own. He accomplishes in us what He requires of us. He loves us, and does not want out destruction. Oh, what an amazing husband… but He is not ours! We are bound to our first husband as long as he liveth. Paul tells us that if the husband dies, then we are loosed from the law of our husband.
So you think you know where Paul is going with this illustration. It seems like he is leading into the logical conclusion: our old husband must die so that we can be married to the better husband. But Paul gives us an unpredicted twist in verse 4:
Rom 7:4
(4) Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.
You are the one who dies! The Law is not going to die. The husband will continue to live. The wife is the one who dies. She is now dead and loosed from her husband. Christ has included us in His death; we are dead to the law, dead to our old life.
You become a Christian, and you try to live for God. You know that God has included you in Christ’s death, and you reckon it so. But you continue to fail to live for Him. You sin and try to overcome, but you can’t. You get victory for maybe two weeks, and then you sin again. What is wrong?
You are doing something of yourself. Your attempts at living for God are rooted in your flesh. So often we try to drive our life with willpower or our reasoning. 7:18 – in my flesh dwelleth no good thing! Do you see that in yourself, and not just in Romans 7? Do you see that it is so easy to talk about wordly things, to think selfish thoughts. But when it comes to prayer, your body resists - you get sleepy, etc. Do you see that you are utterly helpless to serve God?
How did you get forgiveness of sins? Praying? Bible reading? Church attendance? No. We looked to Jesus Christ and His work of the cross. And deliverance from sin comes in exactly the same way.
Look how the chapter ends. Thank God… Jesus Christ, says Paul at the end of Rom 7, because it’s not him that does anything. God knows that I am completely sold out to sin. It isn’t until I’m completely finished with my attempts to keep the law and/or live for God, that He can do anything for me.
(1) Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth?
(2) For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband.
(3) So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.
Paul now uses an illustration of a wife and husband, and a potentially better husband… The husband is the law, and we are the wife. The law is a very demanding husband, and in fact seems to be very mean at times. But this husband is not sinful. He demands perfection. He demands complete perfection, but he does not help us to accomplish it. We are miserable under the law. But, there is a better husband who desires to be married to us. He is just as perfect, but he does not leave us to be perfect on our own. He accomplishes in us what He requires of us. He loves us, and does not want out destruction. Oh, what an amazing husband… but He is not ours! We are bound to our first husband as long as he liveth. Paul tells us that if the husband dies, then we are loosed from the law of our husband.
So you think you know where Paul is going with this illustration. It seems like he is leading into the logical conclusion: our old husband must die so that we can be married to the better husband. But Paul gives us an unpredicted twist in verse 4:
Rom 7:4
(4) Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.
You are the one who dies! The Law is not going to die. The husband will continue to live. The wife is the one who dies. She is now dead and loosed from her husband. Christ has included us in His death; we are dead to the law, dead to our old life.
You become a Christian, and you try to live for God. You know that God has included you in Christ’s death, and you reckon it so. But you continue to fail to live for Him. You sin and try to overcome, but you can’t. You get victory for maybe two weeks, and then you sin again. What is wrong?
You are doing something of yourself. Your attempts at living for God are rooted in your flesh. So often we try to drive our life with willpower or our reasoning. 7:18 – in my flesh dwelleth no good thing! Do you see that in yourself, and not just in Romans 7? Do you see that it is so easy to talk about wordly things, to think selfish thoughts. But when it comes to prayer, your body resists - you get sleepy, etc. Do you see that you are utterly helpless to serve God?
How did you get forgiveness of sins? Praying? Bible reading? Church attendance? No. We looked to Jesus Christ and His work of the cross. And deliverance from sin comes in exactly the same way.
Look how the chapter ends. Thank God… Jesus Christ, says Paul at the end of Rom 7, because it’s not him that does anything. God knows that I am completely sold out to sin. It isn’t until I’m completely finished with my attempts to keep the law and/or live for God, that He can do anything for me.
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