He came to do both, didn't He?
He came to do both, didn't He?
All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name. (Acts 10:43)
The one who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work.
Have you ever heard a minister of the Gospel say that Christ came to destroy the devil's work; or did he say not to worry because you are saved by grace?
I cannot believe that most of the preachers in America are wilfully deceiving us. Rather, I think it is true that the Spirit of God is beginning to emphasize that which always has been in the Bible but we just could not see it.
We could go through the behaviors set forth in Colossians 3:5-8, Galatians 5:19-21, Ephesians 5:1-14, and other passages of the New Testament and point out that grace is not an alternative to deliverance from sinful practices.
When a person bound with sin for many years comes to Christ for the first time, bowed down with guilt, he or she must be told that Christ has forgiven their sins in their entirety, no matter how depraved. This is true, and the true meaning of grace.
The question is, what then? Do we continue in our sins, or do we cooperate with the Spirit of God by confessing and, with Christ's help, turning away from our sinful behavior?
The Apostle Paul taught grace as an alternative to the Law of Moses, not as an alternative to growth in godly behavior. What a tremendous error this is, and it has destroyed the moral strength of the churches in the United States just at the time we need to stand against the sin that is multiplying in our land.
Paul, who was entrusted with the transition from Moses to Christ told us that if we continue in the sinful actions of the flesh we shall not inherit the Kingdom of God; we shall not experience the entrance of the resurrection Life into our body in the Day of Resurrection. This would mark the end of our hope to become a life-giving Spirit.
Also, because we have buried our talent, as one called to be to be a member of the Priesthood, when we stand before Christ our sentence shall be to have our crown of anointing removed from us and given to another. Our residence after that shall be the outer darkness.
We have reaped corruption! Such penalties are the portion of those called to be saints. To whom much is given shall much be required.
Paul spoke about the power of sin in his flesh:
For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. (Romans 7:19,20)
"Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it." Today if a believer told that to his pastor, the pastor would respond, "It's not to worry. The grace of God covers your sin. Christ nailed your sin to the cross. You are without condemnation."
Was this Paul's conclusion? That grace covered his sin so that God saw Christ when Paul sinned? This is what is taught, you know.
Paul was speaking here, in the seventh chapter of the Book of Romans, as a man under the Law of Moses.
What then did Paul conclude, concerning the fact that sin living in him caused him to disobey the commands given by Moses?
Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God's law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin. (Romans 7:25)
At this point Paul does not give a solution. But notice that Paul does not enlist faith or grace to save him. We have to go to Chapter Eight to see how Paul resolves his problem.
Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. (Romans 8:1,2)
There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ. Why? Because the law of the Spirit has set us free from the law of sin and death.
The modern preacher will say there is no condemnation because you are saved by grace. Or, Christ suffered your judgment on the cross. Or, you cannot be condemned because God sees you through Christ.
Yet, there is nothing here about grace or faith saving us from condemnation.
We are dealing with two factors. First, Paul does not say those who "accepted Christ" but those who are "in Christ." Being "in Christ" takes us to the fifteenth chapter of the Book of John, which tells us if we are in Christ we are bearing the fruit of moral transformation.
There are numerous people in America who attend Christian churches and have "accepted Christ" but have no understanding of what it means to be "in Christ.
Second, the "law of the Spirit." The Law of the Spirit takes the place of the Law of Moses. Christ was criticized because He healed people on the Sabbath. This was a high crime among the Pharisees. But Christ was not breaking the Sabbath commandment, because it is lawful to do what is necessary and godly on the Sabbath.
After many years as a Christian I have come to understand that most Christian people do not understand that we no longer are under the Law of Moses but under the Law of the Spirit.
They have been told they no longer are under law except the law of love, which is no law but all.
The true Christian is under a law far stricter, far more comprehensive, than the Law of Moses. It is the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus.
"As many as are led by the Spirit are the sons of God."
What does the Spirit lead us to do? The Spirit leads us to put to death the sins that live in our flesh.
For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds [sins] of the body, you will live. For those who are led by the Spirit of God are the children of God. (Romans 8:13,14)
How do we do that? By confessing them to Christ, asking His forgiveness and asking Him to help us never to do such things again. The next time we are tempted, we call on the Lord for strength. Eventually that spirit will die in us and we will be free for eternity, unless we go back to it.
Now let us return to the beginning of Chapter Eight.
For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering.
And so he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. (Romans 8:3,4)
Christ kept the Law of Moses perfectly, and then was crucified to pay the penalty as though He had broken the Law.
If, and only if, we choose to follow the Spirit of God in the path in which He leads us, particularly in putting to death the cravings of our flesh, Christ takes the righteousness of the Law which He earned by His conduct and applies it to us. Thus the righteous requirements of the Law are fully met in us who are living according to the Spirit of God.
We can see how totally different this is from telling people that Christ set you free from the Law of Moses, and now the only law you need to obey is the "law of love."
I have just been discussing the sin that comes from the cravings in our flesh. Because the Scripture refers to the sin living in our flesh, I think these actually may be spirits. We have inherited or acquired them.
I don't believe they can follow our spiritual personality when we die physically. At the time of the resurrection of our physical body, our body will be clothed with a covering of spiritual Life, if we have dealt successfully with the sinful spirits dwelling in our flesh.
I do not know whether or not the sins in our flesh can follow us after we die. But if we continually have yielded to these spirits, not gaining victory over them, the body with which we are clothed in the Day of Resurrection will reveal this fact.
This may be why Paul, who groaned that he might be set free from the sin dwelling in his flesh, spoke later of the redemption of his body. It appears that when our body is redeemed by the Spirit of God, we will be free from the spirits that live in our flesh.
However, it may be true that the sins that come from our soul, from our own personality, and are not alien spirits, may possibly follow us into the spirit world when we die.
Next Part The Sins of the Soul.