Notice also:
Notice also:
But I see another law at work in me, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin at work within me. (Romans 7:23—NIV)
But I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. (Romans 7:23—NASB)
And I behold another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of the sin that [is] in my members. (Romans 7:23—YLT)
I think it really is scandalous to change "in the members of my body" to "in me," as the NIV has done.
The whole point is that the sin is alive in the members of my body, my flesh, rather than in my inward personality. At least, that is the way it appears to me! What can you say about that?
How is one to conduct an exposition of the Scriptures when the translators change words as they will?
The reason the change from "my sinful nature" to "the sin dwelling in my flesh is so significant is that it attacks the nature and purpose of the resurrection from the dead.
The resurrection from the dead is the changing of our body from sinful corruption to sinless incorruption. The resurrection has nothing whatever to do with going to Heaven. It is a change in our personality.
Therefore the change from "my sinful nature" to the "law of sin which is in my members" removes the thrust of Paul's goal, which was the resurrection from the dead body ("the body of this death"); the redemption of Paul's body.
I do believe the goal of the Christian redemption is the change from a sinful body to a body without sin. The inner salvation, which is the change from a self-willed soul to a life-giving spirit, is of little or no use until the body in which it is contained is delivered completely from the sins that at present continually urge it to sin.
Perhaps this is the meaning of, "Should not perish but have eternal life," that is to say, immortality in the body.
When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: "Death has been swallowed up in victory." (I Corinthians 15:54)
( end of adopted paragraphs )
In the eighth chapter of the Book of Romans, Paul groans for the redemption of his body, with the idea, I believe, that his sinful flesh will not continue when his carnal body is changed into an incorruptible body. This supports the term "flesh," I think, as more fitting than "sinful nature."
There is another source of sin (other than worldliness and spirits dwelling in our flesh). Perhaps a suitable term would be "original" sin, or "soulish" sin. The cravings of this third source of sin is our own personality, our heart, our soul, or whatever one wishes to call it. It should be kept separated in our minds from the cravings that live in our flesh, because God deals with it differently.
The sin that lives in our flesh can be put to death by the Spirit of God, and shall not continue to affect us when we are clothed with our incorruptible resurrection body; and may leave us when we die and pass into the spirit world.
The sin that proceeds from our soul, if we yield continually to our inherited fallen nature and to the urges in our flesh, probably will not leave us when we die and pass into the spirit world, and may prevent us from being clothed with an incorruptible body.
The sin that proceeds from our soul, our personality, cannot be put to death by the Spirit. God's way of dealing with the promptings of our soul is to crucify it. This accounts for our numerous afflictions as a Christian.
The sins that proceed from our soul, our fallen nature, are those of self-love, self-will, self-guidance, self-aggrandizement, plus cowardice, immorality, lying, and so forth. This sort of sin is observable in the world, as the prominent leaders seek power and glory.
It is prominent also in the churches, and is responsible for divisions in the churches; and in some instances may be the cause of competing denominations. We think of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram. Also of Absalom.
We may just now be discovering that Christ wants us to be holy and righteous, and has made provision for our deliverance from unrighteous, unholy behavior. It appears it has been our practice to the present hour to claim we are "saved by grace," apart from a change in our behavior, not understanding perhaps that God has made provision for deliverance as well as for forgiveness.
In the case of self-will and self-aggrandizement, and the sins of our flesh that we yield to continually, Christ will guide us into the transformation of our fallen nature. Christ wants us to be totally obedient to Him in every part of our life. He will send trouble upon us until we are glad to obey Him completely.
How do we do this? By continually looking to Jesus for every decision we make during the day and night.
The Bible tells us to lean not to our own understanding but to acknowledge God in all our affairs. It commands us to present our body a living sacrifice. It advises us that to be a disciple of the Lord Jesus we must deny ourselves, bearing our cross of deferred desires as we follow the Master at all times and in every circumstance.
One simple device I use is to look to Jesus several times each day, and during the night when I am awake, and ask Him two things: Am I where I am supposed to be?; Am I doing what I am supposed to be doing?
Every thought, word, and action is to be held before the Lord Jesus to make certain His will is being done completely and in detail.
The practices I have mentioned previously, confessing our sin and asking Christ's help, are our part in delivering us from self-will, self-love, pride, sexual immorality, lying, selfish ambition, self-direction, desire to be "in charge,"and so forth. But what is God's part?
God tells us to assign our first nature, our adamic soul, to the cross with Jesus Christ. Then He sends a multitude of afflictions upon us until, like the Apostle Paul, we judge that we have been sentenced to death.
But if we keep our eyes on Jesus, trusting in Him, we continually are raised up by the resurrection Life of the Lord.
So our discipleship is death and life; death and life; death and life; until our original soulish, adamic nature is rendered helpless and God Himself becomes our soul, as it were, and we are converted into a life-giving spirit.
Our soul is the place from which our decisions proceed and are manifest in our spirit. When our soul is put to death by various pressures, God becomes the Source of our decisions and we then become a life-giving spirit.
We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. (II Corinthians 4:8-10)
Unlike the sins of the flesh, the sins of our self-determination cannot be cast out of our flesh. Rather, our self-will must be "crucified out of us," we might say.
If we are to become a life-giving spirit, like our Lord Jesus, we have to "hate" our life in the present world. The term "hate" is not the same as our hatred toward cruelty to animals, for example. It means rather to reject in favor of something else.
In order to please and obey Christ we sometimes have to turn away from a relationship, activity, or thing concerning which we see no harm. But if we are to be one with Christ and the Father, we must reject the object in question that we may lay hold on the promise of God. This is the sort of "hatred" the Lord Jesus refers to.
Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. Anyone who loves their life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me. (John 12:24-26)
One difficulty in our thinking may be that we recognize that the sins dwelling in our flesh are alien to us, whereas the sins of pride and self-will are what we are. In a democratic government, self-will and the "rights of people" are honored as though they somehow are godly.
But the Kingdom of God is not a democracy. It is a kingdom, governed by the Lord Jesus.
The only way in which lasting peace on the earth could be possible would be under the rulership of a righteous king who humbly walked with God and obeyed God completely. Such a king would possess total authority and power over all peoples.
There would be lesser kings who were subject to the supreme monarch. But the supreme monarch would be king over all other kings and lord over all other lords.
All of the kings and lords, being members of the Royal Priesthood, would be life-giving spirits who were governed by the power of an endless life.
The increase of the kingdom and of peace would extend throughout eternity.
Such is the Kingdom of God. May it come to the earth soon!
When the Kingdom of God has been established on the earth, thoughtful people would understand immediately that any person who trusted in his own judgment to direct his life, of anyone else's life, would be a source of confusion if not disaster. Everyone must be compelled to do God's will if there is to be peace on the earth.
Sin (Satan) always shall be "crouching at the door" until God through the Lord Jesus Christ and His brothers and sisters put and end to sin; and that means an end to the self-will of people as well as an end to the sins of immorality.
"Your Kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven."
You can just imagine the American people agreeing to give up their "freedoms" and their "rights"! This is the reason for the rule of the rod of iron.
If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must rule over it. (Genesis 4:7)
The Greek term adelphois, as employed in Romans 8:29 and other passages, is translated "brothers and sisters," by several translators.
The Apostle Paul told us there are no nationalities or gender in Christ Jesus. But Paul was speaking of what even now is true in the new creation in Christ, not just of what will be true in the future. Today there are no preferred races in the Kingdom of God, and no male or female, although the husband is still the head of the home because of the curse.
If there is a Jewish man and a German man, and each has Christ in his heart, then they are one in Christ although of different nationalities. The same is true of male and female.
So I lean toward the translation of adelphois as "brothers and sisters." When man was created he was "male and female." This is true now, and, from my point of view, it will be true for eternity.
It would be a boring world now and would be in the future if there were no male and female and all the children were "its." How do you feel about that?
I understand that our Lord said that in the resurrection there would be no marriage and we would be as angels. But keep in mind that Adam and Eve did not experience a marriage ceremony.