YOU NORMALY CHRISTIAN LIF
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First encounter with God.
When God's light first enters a person's heart/mind, he immediately sees that he has sinned against God, just as you are doing right now, and needs forgiveness. It usually does not last very long before you also discover that you have not only sinned, but you are a sinner, it is within you a propensity to sin, a power that draws you to sin. You don't think so, you only want to follow Jesus, yet you actually do it automatically, only afterwards you see what you basically did, you saw. You learn not only that you have done something wrong, but that you yourself are wrong.How do you receive forgiveness for your sin? How are you to be freed from your propensity to sin?
You receive God's forgiveness for your sins, but then you sin again, again you receive forgiveness, and again you sin, life becomes a vicious circle, where forgiveness and new sins replace each other again and again. You are grateful for God's forgiveness, yet you are not satisfied. You can't really find the rest in faith that so many people talk about, it's always something or other that you just have to get right, you think. You are at peace with God, but you are not at peace with yourself, you just want this and that out of your mind/heart, but your conscience still hurts and you yearn for something more than forgiveness. You yearn for that which can free one from that inclination, from sin that dwells in you, and again and again leads you to sin, despite the fact that you have received God's forgiveness time and time again.
The solution for you as a human being is to receive in faith what the words of the Bible say. The first 8 chapters of Paul's letter to the Romans are precisely about your problem. The first half, from ch. 1.1. to ch. 5.11. About how to obtain forgiveness for all your sins. Notice that in that section it is about sins in the plural, so it indicates your transgressions/sins and omissions. You read in the section that the atonement (payment and cleansing agent) between you and God is the blood of Jesus. The blood procures you forgiveness for all your sins, but it does not free you from the evil inclination within you. By the way, also read the letter to the Hebrews, it tells you who Jesus is, and it is done for you once and for all.
The second half from chapter 5.12 in Romans to chapter 8.39. Is about how you can be freed from your evil propensity to sin. Note that here in the passage it is talking about sin in the singular, which is the biblical expression of your evil nature, and inclination, as opposed to sins, they are talking about the sins/transgressions committed. In this section we read that the cross is the means by which you can become free of your old self (also called old Adam). This is the section in particular that we will now focus more on.
In Romans 5.19, we read that we all became sinners through the disobedience of one man/Adam. So we became a sinner by what Adam did. All people are born sinners, also called original sin.
You didn't choose your name, your parents did for you. It's not your fault you were born a sinner who needs Jesus, the lord of sin the devil decided to transfer it to you, right from the time of Adam it has been like that. Nothing can change the fact that you are the name you are. In other words, it is due to your ancestry, my heritage. In this way we are all sinners, not primarily because of ourselves, but because of Adam.
A class of children was asked asked about. What is a sinner? They answered. It is someone who sins. That answer is far from adequate, because a person who does not sin is also a sinner. Do you understand what we mean? There are bad sinners and there are good or nice sinners. The latter are sinners as much as the former, because all are born sinners and descend from Adam.
You are not a sinner because you commit sin, but you commit sin because you are a sinner. Born to be. It is not primarily because you have personally sinned that you are a sinner. It is primarily because you are descended from Adam. Through your birth you are descended from Adam and you are actually a part of him.
It is complete unity between Adam and you, and thus unity in the whole human race, we are all descended from him who saw, therefore we are all sinners. It is not our personal behavior or upbringing that is the biggest problem, it is the inheritance from Adam. The problem is. you were born a sinner. How can you get rid of your sinful innate nature? You are born in Adam, how can you get out of Adam?
At the beginning of your t Christian life, you are only concerned with what you do, not with what you are. You think that if we just fix one and the other, you will become a good Christian, otherwise you start changing your actions, change your life pattern, and it helps just a little. Then you discover that it is about something completely different, and much deeper than just correcting something about your actions on the outside, something that you did and said before, somethingt which has happened.
You are busy trying to please God, but discover that there is something inside you that cannot and will not, you discover that there is something that refuses to be humble. You try to be loving, but you feel that you are unloving in yourself. You often think, well, they can't see what I'm thinking, but I'll probably try, as best I can to love and be, I just have to improve in these and those areas so that I'm pure and holy and loving enough.
You smile and try to look meek and humble, but inside you feel anything but meek and humble. The more you try to change your exterior, the more it becomes clear to you how wrong you are inside. In the end, you recognize that it is not only your deeds, actions and thoughts that are wrong, but that you yourself are fundamentally wrong. You fully understand that you were born a sinner and cannot live and do things differently than a sinner. But you don't understand how to get rid of your sinful nature. God's Word shows you in the interim very clearly that what you were born with, you can get out of through death. We were all born sinners, including you. If you want to get out of sin, you have to die, that's for sure.
There are certainly many of us who have made great efforts to free ourselves from sin, just as you are doing right now, but have found that it was impossible. The way out is not to try to kill your own self (flesh/old Adam). But knowing that you too have died in Christ. You don't have to wonder about that at all. As little as you need to wonder how you were in Adam when he fell. Because you are in Christ. What you could not do yourself, God did for you. He put you into Christ. You don't have to work to come into Christ, You don't have to find some method. God has arranged it. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus. 1 Corinthians. 1.30. You are in Him therefore you do not need to try to get in there, you are already there now. It is a divine act, and it is accomplished.
God the Lord your creator and savior in Jesus, it is because you are in Christ Jesus. God has placed you in Christ. Therefore, nothing could happen to Christ that did not also happen to you. Your fate is entirely dependent on Hans. What He went through, you also went through. He was crucified, what about you? Are you now going to beg and ask God to crucify you too? Never! When Jesus Christ was crucified, we were all crucified, including you.
The crucifixion of Jesus Christ is over. Read through the New Testament and you will find that there is not a single verse that speaks of the crucifixion happening sometime in the future. You, died with Jesus Christ. This is the clear testimony of the Bible. We know that our old man has been crucified with him, so that the body which is subject to sin should be destroyed, so that we are no longer slaves to sin; Rom.6.6. I no longer live myself, but Christ lives in me, and my life here on earth I live in faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Mad. 2.20. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with the passions and desires. Galatians 5. 24. But may it never happen to me that I am proud of anything but the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ; through him the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. Galatians letter. 6.14.
So you are dead with Christ. Can one die, die twice or more? Can you?
It is a fact, in that fact lies the complete solution to your entire problem. In that fact you find complete deliverance from your evil inclination, your sinful nature/Adam's nature, your old man (the Adamic man). You are both dead and buried in baptism with the Lord Jesus, have been raised up by God himself to a completely new Christ life in the Son of God. The first man, Adam, became a living soul, the last Adam became a quickening spirit. We read in 1 Corinthians. 15.45. The first man was of the earth, earthly, the second man is from heaven. 1.Corinthians.15. 47.
Jesus Christ, called the last Adam and the second man.
Notice that the Scriptures do not call the Lord Jesus the second Adam or the last man, but rather the last Adam and the second man.
As the last Adam, He gathers in himself all that was in the first Adam. All that was in the first Adam was (has been) taken away in the last Adam. You are just as all are included in the first Adam, are also included in the last Adam. When the last Adam died, we all died in him, including you, because we were all included in him. The last Adam died, thus the whole family died. As the second man, He began a whole new series of people, in contrast to the first man, who becomes what God wants man to be. As the last Adam He wiped out the whole race, as the second He introduced a new race. Jesus Christ died as the last Adam and rose as themt other human being.
Your new existence begins with the resurrection. The cross puts an end to your old man, but out of death there arises in Jesus Christ, a whole, not a half, where you yourself have to arrange the other half by your self-preparation attempts, new, but creation, in Christ, the other human being. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature, all old things have passed away, behold something new has come into being. 2.Corinthians.5.17.
Here you see that you can stop with your own rules or paragraphs that you set up for yourself as part of the goals you must achieve.
STOP IT NOW: YOU ARE BOUGHT FREE:
None of us will ever make real spiritual progress without you, in faith, seeing it plainly. If you have not seen Christ Jesus, who bears all your sins, you cannot be justified. If you have not seen Him as the one who carries you up on the cross, you cannot be sanctified. It wasn't just all your sins that Jesus carried, you yourself were laid on Him.
You understand so well, you are too bad a person to live as a Christian, you wanted with all your heart to be dead with Christ. Therefore, you tried to die and you tried to live as if you were dead. Surely you know the convulsive attempts? Of course, they did not lead to anything. You were not freed, by all your attempts to judge yourself, and be like a dead man. Even after many years after your conversion, you haven't really gotten anywhere, despite your efforts to die.
You must have Jesus open your eyes with God's eye salve. It happens through the word and the gospel you receive in faith into you and your life.
When Jesus Christ died you too. Your death with Christ was and is an accomplished fact. When it dawns on you, you will dance for joy and not be able to keep quiet about what Jesus has done for you. Death crucified buried, raised to He resurrection living life in freedom from the power of sin and death. Do you know that Christ is dead, and you are as dead as Him? Do you know that Christ is no more dead than you and me? From that moment you will never doubt your own death with Christ. From that moment on, the question of your death with Christ will be a thing of the past, not something that should happen, sometime in the future, or you yourself must try to work on and play dead without actually being dte
You read the Bible, you prayed, you went to church, you gave alms/tithes, you did a whole lot of good works. But then one day your eyes were opened, and you saw that at the cross of Jesus Christ, full and complete salvation had already been won for you. You accepted salvation and thanked the Lord for it and experienced the peace and joy in Him. Liberation and sanctification are done in exactly the same way.
You may have tried for years to gain control over, for example, your temper. You have probably tried self-control, self-restraint, but it didn't help you. You have studied/searched the Scriptures, you have prayed, you have sought out the saints for advice. You've been fighting or working on yourself to remove all your flaws and shortcomings, all to no effect, as soon as you're pretty much done with one it's something else, a never-ending screw-up, a battle you'll never win.
If only you would stop doing something. When you as a human receive light from above, all your human activities and all your efforts cease. Then you enter the true liberating rest of faith. Romans chapter 6 In this connection you must read Romans chapter 6, the most important chapter in Scripture when it comes to liberation from the old man. In that chapter Paul says: "We know that our old man has been crucified with him." (verse 6). The question of your release from the power of sin depends on whether you know it and believe it! Do you know, in faith? Without that knowledge in faith, you can never experience liberation.
A normal Christian life begins with a very definite and settled knowledge. Not primarily on an intellectual knowledge, but on the eyes of your heart (mind) being opened to what happened when Christ died. You don't have to wait to die with Christ. You're dead! You must know that, you must see that; then you begin to praise and thank the Lord. When you know, by receiving it in faith, that you are dead with Christ, then it is a matter of course for you to count yourself dead. That is why Paul writes in verse 11: In this way, you also must count yourselves dead from sin. It is a natural continuation of verse 6.
It is the only thing a human can do with absolute accuracy. One plus one is two, it applies here in the country, if you travel south or north, one plus one is still two, it applies everywhere on earth, there are no compromises or deviations from this! Counting is therefore i.a. to ascertain invariable facts that apply everywhere. It is good to know that when the Word says: Like this, you must also consider yourselves dead from sin!
If I own DKK 15, I cannot post DKK 16 in my accounting book. If I only own DKK 15, but still try to calculate that I own 16, I bringI find myself in difficulties when I have to sort out DKK 16. It's no use trying with all my might to imagine that I still own DKK 16. It's no use if I keep going and repeating to myself: "I have 16 DKK, I have 16 DKK, I have 16 DKK." It's no use hoping for a miracle if I keep thinking that 15 DKK is 16 DKK and that the difference will be made up by some kind of witchcraft. No, if I have DKK 15, I can only count on having DKK 15, and it would be foolish to count 15 for 16! If, on the other hand, I have DKK 16, I can quite safely enter 16 in my accounts, because it agrees with the facts.
God will not ask you to count yourself dead with Christ if you are still alive. God will not ask you to repeat to yourself, "I am dead, I am dead, I am dead," if you are still alive. This is how many Christians view God. They consider themselves alive, but hope that some miracle will happen if they keep repeating that they are dead with Christ after all! But that kind of strange thing God never encourages His children, not even you. No, you are dead with Christ, therefore you also count yourself dead. It is important that you build on solid facts! It is possible that you do not feel that you are dead with Christ; but that doesn't change the fact. Do you feel that Christ is dead? No, yet you believe it because the Word teaches you so! Do you feel that the robber by his side is dead? No, yet you believe it because the Word teaches you so. You believe in the death of Christ, and you believe in the death of the thief, but what about your own death with Christ? You doubt it because you don't feel it! And yet the Word says quite clearly that you also died with Christ. There is no stronger evidence of the death of Christ and the death of the thief than of your death! You have nothing but God's word to hold on to in these matters. Whether you feel it or not, the robber is dead! These are facts, but it is also a divine fact that you are dead with Christ! You're dead!
Your case has been processed! It is indeed a gospel for Christians!
It is true that your emotions want to play tricks on you and Satan whispers in your ear (in your thoughts) that you are not dead with Christ after all. What do you choose to believe then? Do you choose to believe your feelings, Satan's lies, or God's word? Similarly, when it comes to your death, with Christ. Whether you feel it or not, you are dead with Christ. Whether your experiences and experiences prove it or not, you are dead with Christ. Nothing can change or shake that fact. It remains, it stands firm. If you also stand firm on that fact, Satan cannot shake you! But, if you doubt this fact, Satan will gain the upper hand over you. Nothing can shake divine facts! They are the foundation of your entire liberation. That's the gospel!
The kingdom of this world is not the kingdom of God. The first creature has become the old creature. God gives a new creation, a new kingdom and a new world. Nothing of the old creation, the old kingdom, or the old world can be transferred to the new.
To bring you into his kingdom, God must also make you a whole new creation. If you have not become a brand new creature, you do not fit into the new kingdom. What is born of the flesh is flesh, perhaps raised, perhaps cultivated, perhaps improved, but still flesh! Whether you are fit for the new kingdom depends on whether you belong to the old creation or the new. Are you born of the flesh or of the Spirit? Your origin is decisive for whether you belong in God's kingdom or not. The question is not good or bad, but flesh or Spirit. What is born of the flesh is flesh and will never be anything else! When you really see that God wants something completely new for Himself, then you understand that you can never bring anything from the old kingdom into the new. God cannot bring you into His kingdom as you are. That is why he first got rid of you at the cross of Christ. Then, at the resurrection, he prepared a new life for you. When you are thus a new creature with a new nature, you can enter the new kingdom and the new world.
The cross was the means God used to set you aside. The resurrection was the means He used to give you free of charge, without your merits, the new life you must have to enter the new kingdom.
The greatest negative in the universe is the cross, because by it God obliterated everything that was not of himself. The greatest positive thing in the universe is the resurrection, because through it God created the new creation. The resurrection stands as the beginning of the new creation. It is blessed to see that the cross is the end of all that belongs to the old kingdom, and that the resurrection is the beginning of all that belongs to the new kingdom. Everything that has its beginning before the resurrection must be obliterated. The resurrection is God's new starting point!
We now have two worlds for you, the new and the old. In the old Satan has it, absolute dominion. You may be a good person in your old nature, but then las long as you belong to your old nature, you are condemned to the cross, because nothing of your old man can be transferred to the new.
The cross is God's declaration that all your old creation must die. nothing of the old Adam, on the other hand, fits the cross. Everything ends there. The sooner you see that all that you got from Adam is over at the cross, the better! At the cross, God has made it possible for you to be freed from the old man. In Jesus, by crucifying him, God has done away with everything that was from Adam. God proclaimed through the universe: By the cross I have destroyed all that is not of myself. You who belong to your old creature have been crucified with Christ!
Or do you not know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? So we were buried with him by baptism into death. Romans letter. 6:3-4.
What is the meaning of baptism?
Now we are not thinking about the question of a handful of water or about core performance baptism, we are thinking about the content and meaning of baptism. Baptism is something big, because it is connected both to the cross and to the resurrection. God has spoken to all of us, including you, at the cross. At the cross he has spoken of the judgment upon you, upon the world, upon the old creation, and upon the old kingdom. God has placed you in Christ Jesus and crucified you in him. In the last Adam he has obliterated all that was in the first Adam. Baptism itself is neither death nor resurrection, it is burial. But who qualifies for burial? Only the dead! In baptism you confess yourself as dead and only worthy of the grave. There is an old world and a new world, and between the two is a grave.
God has already crucified you, but you must be willing to be delivered to the grave. Your burial confirms God's judgment on you at the cross of His Son. It cuts you off from the old world and prepares you for the new. Baptism is thus no small thing. Baptism clears the ground for the new creature by providing for the burial of your old creature. You enter into Christ's death, but you do not enter into His resurrection. His resurrection enters into you. This gives you new life! You in Christ, that is your death with Him, Christ in you, that is the resurrection with Him
Your Christian life does not consist in your old person being decorated and made fit or you sanctifying, purifying yourself, for the kingdom of God, it does not consist in God putting a new patch on your old garment, it does not consist in you do your best and then God does the rest, it consists instead in the fact that God has discarded and sentenced your old person to death and instead gives you a completely new life, in other words it consists in judgment and innovation So radical is that. God will not be known by anything else. This is where the battle of faith rages, for many they have not seen that God has judged them on the cross of Christ, and therefore they still try to bring the best of the work of their own hands to God in the hope that he will one day or another way will be known by their efforts. But God is never known by something from the old creation, something of your own. It can never satisfy him, and he will never lower his demands to what you can perform. What a deliverance for you when you see it and in faith enter under it!
Then you are done with yourself, how good to be done with yourself! When the tempter comes and Satan wants you to imagine that you are not dead with Christ, now you laugh a liberating laugh right in the face of the tempter, you know better! You know that you were crucified with Christ and that He is now your life! You know it, you are redeemed thereby!
The entire New Testament clearly testifies to this. The Christian life is both in its beginning, its continuation and its completion a life, a walk in faith. Faith is first of all to count on what God has done. Faith always counts on God's great and accomplished works. Faith always has to do with the past. It always says: It's done! It is completed! God has done it! This also applies to your sanctification, your redemption from the old nature and the old temptations. It is accomplished, and it all belongs to a perfectly normal Christian life!
Many are inclined to think that chapter 7 of Romans is not in its proper place, but that it should be before chapter 6. In that chapter everything is so perfect and glorious, how can a seventh chapter come after the redemptive chapter chapter full of defeat? However, you can be sure that Chapter 7 is where it should be! Chap. Chapter 6 is about liberation from sin Chapter 7 is about liberation from the law. In chapter 6, Paul told you how you can be freed from the power of sin, and when you had heard and learned it, you thought that now you had nothing more to learn, now the matter was in order! But then you are led into ch. 7. where you learn that deliverance from the power of sin is not sufficient, you must also be delivered from the law!
Many Christians are bound by sin, even though they are truly saved. There are certain sins that you are constantly subject to. Then one day you hear the news that you are crucified with Christ, and rejoice in it. And then of course you expect that now isyour problem with sin finally solved. You consider yourself dead to sin, you surrender yourself completely to Christ, even though that is exactly what you should be doing, you do not experience the redemption Rom.6 speaks so gloriously about. Why not?
You want to please God and therefore begin to do His will. This is where the enemy lures so many sincere Christians, who long with all their hearts to please God, into a wrong path. You put everything into doing God's will, you gather all your strength to do God's will, you put all your will into saying no thank you to sin and want to stand firm, but little by little you discover to your dismay that you don't want to do God's will at all, you may even develop a distaste for it, even an aversion to it, and to your even greater dismay you discover that you cannot do God's will at all, you are doing the exact opposite of his will !
Then you begin to search yourself: Do I really know that I am dead with Christ? Yes! Did I really surrender to him? Yes! Did I really count myself dead with Christ? Yes! Have I retracted my surrender? No! Why then can't I do God's will? Why is the truth not working in my life? This is how you turn your own condition, and at last they often come to the despondent conclusion that you do not love God's will at all, and then you go about praying for power to do it! You confess your disobedience and rededicate yourself to God. You promise never to disobey again, and you barely get up from prayer before you fall into disobedience again. Then you say to yourself: Was not my last initiation sufficiently settled? That time it must be complete! And then you put all your willpower into saving the situation, only to receive an even greater defeat at the next temptation. Your ears now begin to pick up the echo of Paul's words: I know that in me, that is: in my flesh, dwells no good thing; I have the will, but I cannot do the good; the good that I will, I do not; but the evil which I will not, that I do. Oh yes, you say. I am and will be powerless, I am also dead and what can a dead man do?
You find yourself in the middle of chapter 7 of Romans and don't know why. The reason is that you have not experienced the release from the law. If you are bound by the law, you are in reality also bound by sin, because the law is the power of sin. 1. Korther. 15:56. Grace is God doing something for you. The law is that you do something for God, it can without you see or know it be your own game Adam's law of self-righteousness you use, and are bound to and by. The law/paragraphs mean that God requires something of you. Your release from the law must therefore mean that God does not require anything from you. Release from the law means that God releases you from doing anything for Him. As soon as a man tries to please God, he is under the law. As soon as a man is freed from the law, he can say: I will not try to do anything for God!
Isn't that a terrible teaching? Isn't that heresy? No, on the contrary, it is the gospel!
Liberation from the law, then, means that you stop trying to please God. God knows that within yourself you are full of sin from head to toe. He knows that you are weakness and misery incarnate. He knows that you can do nothing at all, that you are powerless, because of sin we are all powerless, including you. But the problem is you don't know! Yes, you probably know that all people are sinners and that you are a sinner too, but you don't know what that means, you don't know how miserable and weak and powerless you are. Therefore God must let you experience it, so that you are forced to recognize it! And for this he uses the law. It teaches you how miserable you are The more you try to hold it, the more your weakness is revealed, God has known all along how you are, now you are beginning to see and experience it yourself! Often you have to go through very painful experiences before you really admit that there is no good in you.
God didn't give you the law to keep it He gave you the law to break it! There is no verse in the New Testament that teaches you that God gave the law to be kept. On the contrary, you learn that it was given in order that there might be transgression. But the law was made that the fall might be greater Romans 5:20 The law was given to make you transgressors. And when you have really seen what you are and what you contain, then the law has done its work. Then it has been the schoolmaster who led you to Christ, so that he can keep the law in you.
Liberation from the law does not mean that you do not do God's will, but that you are free to do it yourself. From now on, someone else does it in you. When you have become completely convinced that you cannot do God's will, then you refuse to even try. If anyone is to do God's will, it must be the Lord Jesus himself who does it. God has never changed or written down His requirements, and you have never been able to meet them. Do you now see that kena sight in the eyes! You must not try another new way by doing as so many do, downgrading God's requirements. Forget about trying to keep God's commandments in your own strength, leave it to the lawgiver to keep the law himself. He makes his demands, and fulfills them too! What a relief, you have nothing to do! Remember it! If you try to do something to keep the commandments and fulfill God's requirements, God can do nothing! When God's commandments meet you, say: I will not try to keep them, but I trust that you, Lord, will keep them in me! Then you will learn that it succeeds without the slightest effort on your part!
When you yourself give up, God can come. He waits until you have exhausted your own strength and can do no more on your own. Remember that God has judged and rejected everything that has to do with your old self! If you try to do something yourself, you are actually rejecting the cross of Christ. God has declared that you are serviceable only unto death, and we confirm God's judgment upon you by ceasing all your own efforts to please Him and do His will. Any such effort is a denial of His work on the cross and of His judgment upon you.
The wretched man in chapter 7 of Romans tried to fulfill the requirements of the law himself. It was the cause of all his defeats and all his misery. The repeated use of the word I in that chapter gives us the key to his misery. He thought God was asking him to keep the law, and so he tried, but God did not require such a thing of him at all. You have to face that too! Trying to please God is a great temptation for many, especially for you who long to be right with God. What liberation and joy when it dawns on you that you can do absolutely nothing to please God and that He requires nothing of you.
Chapter 6 of Romans is about the body of sin, chapter 7 about the body of death. When Paul speaks of the body of sin, he is thinking of a body that is actively engaged in sinning. In other words, he is thinking about your relationship with sin. When he speaks of the body of death, he is thinking of a body that is powerless before the law, a body that cannot do the will of God. In other words, he is thinking about your relationship with the law. When it comes to that which is evil, worldly, and satanic, you have a sinful body. As for all that is pure and holy, all that has to do with Heaven and God, you have a body of death.
You have no doubt experienced it in your own life. You have no problem talking about worldly things. When it comes to that, you are as if tongue-tied, but when it comes to the things of the kingdom of God, when it comes to testifying about the Lord, then your tongue will not work. You have a body of sin as far as sin and the world are concerned, but a body of death as far as the will of God is concerned. When you are to pray you fall asleep, when you are to serve the Lord, you become uncomfortable when you are called, you are far too tired, indeed, you carry the weight of a dead body when it comes to doing God's will. It is as if you can do anything but God's will. He who is dead is so weak that he cannot become weaker. When Paul says that he has a body of death when it comes to doing God's will, it means that he is so weak in fulfilling the law that he cannot become weaker, he is absolutely helpless and miserable. I wretched man! he yelled. It is good when we as a person manage to give up like Paul. The desperate cry Paul sent up is to the Lord it is wonderful to hear!
You, as a human being, in a sense, cannot do anything more spiritual or scriptural than to cry out like that! But no man, not even you, will utter that cry until he has reached the point where you know you can do nothing, and therefore have finished making renewed resolutions to please God. Only the man who has given up himself will utter such a cry.
Have you given up on yourself or are you still hoping that if you read or pray more you will become a better Christian? It is not wrong to read more or pray more, on the contrary! but it is quite wrong to make it the basis of redemption and victory in life. How were you forgiven for your sin? By reading or praying more? No, you looked to the cross in trust in what Jesus had done for you, and thereby you received the forgiveness of sins as an undeserved gift.
In the same way with the liberation from the power of sin. You do not receive it as a salary because you read or pray more, but as an unreserved and free gift through faith in Jesus' completed work. That is why Paul, after his despairing cry, exclaims something promising and uplifting, namely: Who will deliver me from this body of death? Hitherto he has looked about for what might help him firmer resolutions, more prayer, more whole-hearted consecration, more reading, but had been as deeply disappointed as you are, now he is looking about for who can help him, and he will not be disappointed! Until now he has been scouting for a solution to his problem, now he is looking for a savior! All hisexpectations are now directed at someone else! Are yours?
You know that justification is the work of your Lord Jesus Christ alone and requires no work on your part, but you may still think that sanctification depends on your efforts, a kind of process you have to work on all your life. Some believe that they can be forgiven by fully trusting the Lord, but that they can only do the Lord's work by self-work. They are afraid that nothing will happen if they do not do something themselves. They are afraid that if they do not work, they are not doing God's will and may be lost because of that. They do not yet understand what is in Jesus' cry on the cross: It is finished! Perhaps it is just like that for you! You don't understand that Jesus on the cross has done everything to win forgiveness and full redemption for you! It is done, praise be to the Lord!
When Paul saw it, he immediately exclaimed: Thanks be to God! He had seen that all that he had labored and struggled to do was done, therefore he had to exclaim: Thank God! God had done it! If it had been Paul himself who had finally reached the point of doing it, it should have been written: Thank you Paul! Or. I did so and so see how I achieved it, just do like me Paulus etc. But it is not like that. Paul had seen that he was a miserable man and that only God could help him. Therefore he said: Thank God! From this you understand that the credit for a person's liberation from the law and sin belongs to God alone, and that is exactly the point! God wants all the glory. He does not want to share it with any human being, therefore God himself does all the work in you too!
Romans chapter 8. In the first 9 verses of chapter 8, Paul explains in more detail how you experience the liberation you need to live cleanly and holy in the world. He shows you that it is only possible by virtue of the Holy Spirit in you, his own life not yours it is lived from the inside out. To better understand what he means, you need to get an overview of everything he teaches you from chapter 5 through chapter 8, one of the most central passages in all of Scripture. In these chapters he shows you four different stages in the believer's life. This can set it up like this:
5. Chap. In Adam. - 6. Chap. In Christ.
7. Chap. In the flesh. - Chapter 8. In the Spirit.
If you put it up against the membrane like that, you see the contrasts very clearly. Either you are in Adam, in the old nature of your flesh, or you are in Christ, that is, either you are in the flesh or in the Spirit.
If you are in the flesh, then everything in you that originates from Adam works completely by itself. If you are in the Spirit, conversely, everything that is of Christ works in you entirely of itself. What is crucial for you is therefore to be in the Spirit. This is a very important point for you because there are so many who think that it is enough if they are only in Christ. They know the truth of being in Christ, they talk about it and testify about it, but it is almost a theoretical truth for them, not life and reality in and through them. Is that how you feel? It is simply because you have not been aware that the truth that you are in Christ only becomes a personal reality and practical experience for you when you live in the Spirit. Living in the flesh is simply living and acting in your own power. You probably know it when you say. No, now I don't want to do this anymore, I want to do that instead. It happens, e.g. results in the way that you see in the Bible that you must be humble, and then what? If you live in the flesh, you immediately try to become humble, instead of understanding that you can't do anything yourself, nor to become humble. So you live in the flesh when you believe that you can do God's will, and therefore try to do it, or live as best you can for now.
If you live in the Spirit, you have the confidence in the Holy Spirit that he will do all that God wants. If you live in the Spirit, then you just look to him every time you are faced with new demands, to let him fulfill the demand instead of you, because you, like death, cannot do it yourself. When you see in the word that God wants humility from you, you no longer strive to become humble, but turn to the Lord and say to him: Lord, I cannot become humble myself, but I have that trust in you, that you will realize your humility in me! You simply step aside and let God do it all by the Holy Spirit. Perhaps you were once asked to visit a friend who you knew was not very easy to get along with. Before you went there you told the Lord that you trusted that He would let His disposition be expressed through you, and to your surprise you were not at all irritated when you sat with your friend, even though he was very uncomfortable and unfriendly. On the way home, you thought about your experience and asked yourself if you could be as calm next time. You were surprised at yourself and sought an explanation. The explanation is that the Holy Spirit was with you. Unfortunately, there are far too many who only have such experiences occasionally. It should be normal for all of us.
When the Holy Spirit works and does it all, you canentirely spare thyself, thy meadows Adam's exertions. It is not at all a matter of gritting your teeth and trying to keep control of yourself, should you succeed in gaining control of yourself, God does not consider that a victory at all, because a real victory in God's eyes is won only where no human effort has been instrumental.
The tempter always has the goal of getting you to do something. If he can give you stress, a bad conscience about everything you should be doing, he is well satisfied. Satan's temptations are not primarily to get you to do something sinful, but to get you to do something in your own power. As soon as you start doing something yourself, he has won victory over you. If instead you do nothing, if you do not let the flesh come, he can never overcome you.
Put God and Jesus first in your life. Send God before you by yourself stepping aside behind God on the cross. Your victory lies in being hidden in Christ and doing nothing yourself, but trusting in Him that He will do all. As soon as you start working yourself, we lose ground. The Holy Spirit is given just to you. It was given to you so that he would do God's will. After all, it has been revealed that none of us can please God and do His will, not even you if you keep trying, you are powerless, dead as you are. Christ on the cross is the foundation of your salvation and complete liberation. The Holy Spirit is the power that makes salvation and liberation a reality in you.
If you believed him more, we would also thank more and ask less! Paul said: Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. From that thanksgiving you learn that the life you live is in Jesus Christ alone. You must realize that the Christian life is not that you try to live life as Christ lived it, or that you try to become like Christ. Nor is it that Christ gives you power to live as He lived. It is Christ himself who lives his life through you. It is not Christ who helps you to do anything, but Christ who alone does it all, the difference is fundamental. Are you e.g. impatient, do not pray: Lord, help me to be patient, nor: Lord, give me patience, but: Lord, be patient in me This does not mean that you will be strengthened to be patient, because you are completely set to the side. It is the Lord Jesus who produces his patient life in you.
Yes, but still, if God will not give me patience, what shall I do? Have you asked him to be patient? Yes, for sure you have. And have you received it? No, well, you haven't. It could also be other things than patience that you lack, perhaps forgiveness of others and yourself. The point really is that you don't need patience, or more love and forgiveness. You don't need patience, love or forgiveness. You need Christ in you by the Holy Spirit's own life instead of your own old Adam's life. Never will a dose of patience or a dose of anything else be able to meet your need. You need nothing less than Christ and you need nothing more He is all you need. God does not distribute His grace to you in portions: some patience, love and forgiveness for the impatient, unloving those who cannot or will not forgive, some love for the unloving, some humility for the proud, etc. God has only one answer to people's needs, and the answer is Jesus Christ.
Christ is the answer to every human need. It is not you who becomes patient, loving and humble, but Christ who becomes your patience, love and humility. He becomes patient and loving and humble instead of you. You're dead, why try to keep dead Adam alive? Jesus Christ died in your place so that you could be forgiven. He lives in your place, if you will step up on the cross, aside and allow Him to live in your place, so that you can be set free.
Herein is our substitute in two ways, as the substitute on the cross, by whom you were forgiven, and as the substitute who wins victory for you and in you. Paul said: With Christ I have been crucified, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh, I live in faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me
No more me, but Christ. Isn't having a deputy? Here you see the sum of your Christian life: I no longer live, but Christ lives his life in me. There is talk of a changed life, but it is not enough, you need a whole new life. Your life is sinful and always will be. But the Lord Jesus comes into your life and exchanges your life for His. You simply have to go out and he comes in. It goes out at crucifixion and He comes in at resurrection. How good it is to step aside so that Christ can live his life in us. How good it is, when temptation comes, to be able to step aside and say: Lord, I refuse to do anything, because I know that if I do anything, I only cloud the matter But I have trest assured that you will handle the situation. You managed my salvation so you can manage this too. It is victory without effort on your part. It is believing, not trying.
You are probably aware that justification is not due to any effort on your part, yet someone exerts effort to be sanctified. Finally, remember that Christ Jesus has become your sanctification. 1 Corinthians. 1:30. It does not mean that he helps you to a holy life, but that he was given to you as your glory. It is not said that He is your power to live a holy life, but that He is your holiness. He is your patience, He is your self-control, He is your humility, He is your strength. That is why you say with firm trust and faith that God has only one answer to all your needs. Today you may need patience, and Christ will be your patience. Tomorrow you need humility and he will be your humility. Christ is the answer to all your needs. If you or I were to live it, it would be a doubtful undertaking, but because it is Christ who lives it in our place, nothing is impossible.
After Paul shows you that your normal Christian life is not yourself, but Christ. he says: So now there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
There are two kinds of condemnation, God's condemnation and your own condemnation. The latter can be more terrible than the former. When you see the blood, you know that your sins are forgiven and that God does not condemn you. Glory be to God, then there is now no condemnation. If you have learned that Christ is your life, then you have learned the secret of victory and there will be no more condemnation at all. You can only thank Him all the time, and there will be no time for condemnation at all, because He leads you forward from victory to victory. The term to be condemned has two meanings in the basic language, one of which is to be disabled, or to be set back. Therefore, that verse could well be translated: So now there is no handicap for those who are in Christ Jesus. In the past you felt disabled all the time You felt disobedient at every opportunity. Your usual speech was: I can't do that! There was a sense of limitation all the time. But in Christ there is no such thing as: I cannot. Before it was said: I cannot," but now it is said: I can do all things through him who gives me strength. Philippians 4:13)
INSIDE JESUS BY THE HOLY SPIRIT INSIDE YOU.
The law of the Spirit of life has set me free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. Why no more condemnation? There is an explanation, and the explanation is that there is a law called: The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, and it has set me free from the law of sin and death.
If someone addresses you with an unkind remark, something is stirring within you. It is not in itself a law. But if different people address you unkindly, and the same thing rises within you every time, then you begin to glimpse the law within you. If your handkerchief falls to the ground when you drop it, it is because of the weight of the handkerchief; but if it always falls to the ground wherever you drop it, you call it the law of gravity. A law is something that is constant and always works the same way. Death is weakness extended beyond all limit. If you try to please God in one particular thing, you find that you can't, and if you try to please Him in another thing, you find that you can't either. It always says: You can't. Then you become aware that there is not only death in you, but that the law of death is also there. Sin is in you, but so is the law of sin.
You need deliverance from sin, true, and even more you need deliverance from death, but most of all you need deliverance from the law of sin and death! When can the law of gravity be repealed? The law of gravity will always work to make your handkerchief fall, but if you hold it steady, it will not fall. Why? The law is still there, and you take no precautions against it. But there is a power that keeps my handkerchief from falling down. The law is still there, but there is a higher law at work that overcomes the law of gravity, namely the law of life. The law of gravity can do what it can, but the handkerchief does not fall because there is an even stronger force holding it up. God frees you from one law by means of another law. The law of sin and death is still there, but God has put another law into operation, the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, which sets you free from the law of sin and death. Christ lives in your heart by the Holy Spirit, and if you allow him to decide and believe in him, you will find that he keeps you from the old law.
Because the law is still there, the law of sin, and they do not allow the stronger, the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, to work in them. You are preserved, not by your own power, but by the power of God. If this life is to function freely, three things are necessary. You must be completely convinced that it is the Lord Jesus who lives his life in you. It is not you who lives your lifeChristian lives, but Christ. It is not a changed life, but a new life. You must completely surrender yourself, head, heart/mind, will, hands, feet, everything to Him. You must have full confidence in him, saying: Lord, if you do not do everything, nothing will be done. Then you will learn that the law of the Spirit of life frees you from sin
No one can be a Christian without having his sins forgiven. Praise the Lord, your sins were forgiven by His death! His blood cleanses us from all sin!
Not only has the Lord forgiven you all your sins, he has also taken care of our old man/Adam. One may well be a Christian without seeing this fact, but only a very miserable Christian. By the blood of Christ we were forgiven all our sins; at the cross we finished ourselves. At the cross your own will ended. When you enter under this fact in an unconditional surrender to the Lord, you no longer have a will of your own, but have become an instrument of the Lord's will. No man can live a true Christian life if he wants to have his own will different from God's will.
At the cross, Christ also took away your human strength and effort to serve him. You discover this when you try to serve him. You then reach the point where you don't dare count on yourself at all, but understand that you can do nothing by yourself that can please God. But after we experience these things, the question arises of walking/living in them all the time. Paul speaks of "us who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. Romans. 8:4.
You must know that if you want to learn to walk according to the Spirit. All that you have inherited in our natural birth, good or bad, is flesh. The question is not whether it is good or bad, the question is where you got it from. The whole question of flesh or Spirit is determined by origin. Everything that does not come to you through your new birth, but through your natural birth, is flesh. There are many who believe that such a position is completely unheard of; but still it is true!
Here we have what we call real men with a clear mind, sound judgment and great leadership skills. In our hearts we say: If only this man could become a Christian, what an advantage it would be to the church! If only he belonged to the Lord, he could be of great help!
Again, it is seen what abilities, talents, perhaps money, a situation like this, in his old Adam's life, in the flesh sees the carnal, that is absolutely clear.
But let's think about it for a moment. Where does this man's good nature come from? Where does this sound judgment and great leadership skills come from? They do not spring from the new birth, for he is not yet born again. All he is and can be is flesh, for he was given it by his natural birth. And all that you were given by your natural birth will only bring glory to man, not to God! What is wrong with many Christians is that they believe that the flesh can be used with advantage in the Lord's service. If a man is eloquent, we put him on the platform without examining where he stands in spiritual things. We rejoice in his natural abilities and forget that "that which is born of the flesh is flesh," and must be laid down at the cross.
After all, the Bible does not say about abilities and soliloquies. Yes, it is true, but the new abilities and talents Jesus is talking about, which we must not just leave lying around or tan down, dear friends.
There are many who formerly used their bright minds to study history or mathematics, but now use it to study God's Word. Others have used their abilities to study science; now they use them to study theology. The subject, the goal, has changed, but it's the same skills. The interest is different, but the skill is the same. It was natural skill before and it still is. There is no difference between ability and skill; the only difference is that they deal with something else. Formerly they occupied themselves with worldly things, now with spiritual ones. It is still the same person doing the work and the same skills are still being used. These are not the new gifts of the Holy Spirit in life.
God asks not only what you do, but also how you do it. God has a divine goal in view and only divine means can be used to achieve it. Nothing of the flesh can build up anything in the Spirit. Nothing of Adam can build anything up in Christ. Have you learned to distinguish between that which is excellent and that which is of God? Brother A. is an excellent speaker. He can speak fluently and informatively on almost any subject. But it is probably more difficult for God to speak through A. than through B., who has not acquired natural abilities as a speaker. Something radical must happen in A. before he finishes relying on his own ability and becomes dependent on the Holy Spirit. The Lord must lead him to the place where he says: Lord, I have seen clearly that my excellent biblical lectures and sermons are of no avail at all! I cannot serve you at all. I am helpless/powerless. You must do it all!
All you can do yourself is meat. All that you have within yourself is flesh. Your innatee skill, all our natural abilities, all that you are in yourself is flesh. Alas! you think so highly of the meat. You envy your neighbor who is a good speaker and wish wrong. Every Christian must start at zero. God will never transfer anything from the old creation to the new. The cross is the universe's greatest destroyer. The cross leads everyone, including you, to zero. It brings everything in man to a new beginning.
That is why the cross is hated by fellow Christians today and there is almost no more talk about the true meaning of the cross, flesh or Spirit.
Why do some Christians make faster progress in the Spiritual life than others?
Because they reach the zero point before the others, the blessed place where all your own ends?, and faith and obedience begin. Progress and growth do not depend at all on your own skill and what other people think they can do. A professor does not need to make faster Spiritual progress than a criminal. It depends on who reaches zero first. Paul had come there. He said: I know, all in me, that is: in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing.
HAVE YOU REACHED THERE?
But what was foolishness to the world God chose to shame the wise ten, and what was weak to the world God chose to shame the strong; and what is low in the world and despised, what was nothing, God chose to bring to nothing what was, so that no man (flesh) should boast before God. There are many who are too strong and too impressive for God to use. He selects not only that which is weak, but that which is nothing. It seems as if Paul was at a loss as to how to describe the creatures God could use. The best way to describe it was to call them, that which is nothing. If you belong to that class, you really have a great advantage over others, in that you are already at the zero point, whereas they may still have a long way to go before they reach the place where God begins.
After this, it is clear that the meat does no good! Today, many teachers teach based on the carnal knowledge they possess. We have more than enough theologians on the life of the Holy Spirit with different points of view today. They teach according to the flesh, not according to the Spirit. They have no spiritual knowledge of the Lord, but know Him only according to the flesh. Our Lord and Master said: The flesh profiteth nothing. From this you understand that nothing that is of the flesh can be useful in the service of God! You worry about things, God asks about the origin of things. You seek to acquire us patience, love and goodness without asking where that patience, love and goodness comes from. You want knowledge; you ask for skill to teach others, but you do not ask the source of your knowledge and skill. You want patience, and if you can get it, you are satisfied.
But God asks: Where does this patience come from? Have you practiced it yourself, or is it the work of the Holy Spirit? Some people are very patient by nature. You meet non-Christians who are very good and patient by nature, and you may wish you could become like them. But where do they get their patience from? All that people have and are in themselves has no value to God! The meat does no good. You long to have things, but God has his attention only on their origin, and he is satisfied only with that which has its origin in him! He doesn't want impersonations or role playing. God hates copies of what is His. The circumcised are we who serve God by His Spirit, and boast ourselves happy in Jesus Christ, and do not put our trust in outward things. Fillipper.3.3. This means that you have all our sources in Him, that you have no trust in the flesh/yourself, that you deny all that is ours from the hand of nature.
What is your life to God? Is it based on your natural energy and power or on and in the Spiritual? That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit. What is of yourself you can never improve, it is flesh and always will be. The place of origin determines the place of destination. That which comes from the flesh will never reach the spiritual plane. All that you decide and plan, and that you ask God to bless, will always be flesh, and will be nothing but your flesh/you. It may take years to get things in order, and you think you will get this and that sorted out, but it can't be done. When it is flesh from the beginning, it can never become spiritual. It has its original roots in Adam and will always be of Adam's flesh, and will be nothing but flesh. God is the only true source of life. He alone in the entire universe has the authority to create anything. Your highest privilege is to join in what He wills. In the beginning God created. God is the beginning of all things. Everything you try to create will always be flesh and the result can never be spiritual. To walk/live in the flesh is simply to do or create something in one's own power. To free you from your flesh, isit is necessary for God to do/create something fundamental in you, so that from then on you fear doing something in yourself.
Let us therefore look into the matter, when everything and everyone on earth seems to be against it. If it is of ourselves, it will become heavy and oppressive and straining to keep going, and will eventually suffocate under such pressure. If it is of God, there will be a blessed feeling even in the worst trials, and it will be untouchable, not even the enemy with his worst efforts can do anything. It doesn't need the slightest help to keep it going. And the enemy, yes, he can knock on the door, make a terrible noise, but the walls are impregnable, inside it is a pure and quiet sanctuary (temple) where what belongs to God is preserved forever.
Remember that in these days when people's thoughts and plans, people's energy and skill make their way over everything, just think of the Internet today. Wherever we turn we see man, man everywhere. If we could separate from the work of God the Lord all that is of man, there would not be much left. There is an indescribably great difference between God's work and your work. If the work is yours, you have to work very hard to keep it going, but if it is God's work, you can just step aside and let Him do it.
If you want to see God himself do the work without human involvement and interference. Then you too, like all other Christians, must let God create all things. The greatest thing you can do is just follow Him. In Him and He in you.
Amen
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