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Romans Chapter 6 The Believer’s Freedom from Sin’s Domination 6:1 What shall we say then? Sin is still present in our lives, so with what we now know, we need to decide how we use or do not use sin, the way God has used it as an object lesson. Are we to remain in sin > Should we make plans to sin, knowing that we are forgiven and that by sinning, we will help God prove his point to others, so they can understand his righteous attributes. Because in the darkness of sinfulness, the glory of God is more visible to the dimness of our perceptions. In that, in the dark, two shades of blackness are not that well defined, but introduce the color white, and there is a sharp contrast of the two differences. So the question is, do we exude blackness so we can point out to others the pure white of God more clearly. so that > The object here is a matter of what our strategy should be in this. If God used sin as teaching tool and was even willing to provide the mechanism of the, knowing that the law would allow sin to increase. Which God then was able to use to more clearly demonstrate the power of his salvation. Why not continue down that path, if it worked so well before. grace may increase? > And from that, if that is the case, more people will be saved and Gods mercy will spread across the world. Is that the logic we should have towards sin, does that help God? Does our sin lead to more of Gods glory being made manifest or made known to mankind, in an ever increasing progression of Gods mercy. We are definitely taught that, that is how God used sin, to demonstrate his mercy and glory to us. How should we then live our lives, embracing sin or rejecting it out of hand. 6:2 Absolutely not! How > One has to look with clear thinking on who we are and who God is. God is not and never was in league with sin to show us his point. They have no partnership in this so that both might benefit, each in their own way. So to suggest that such was the case and that both got what they wanted, is twisting the idea of things. God hates sin, and what he is teaching us thru this, is that sin is an all consuming enemy. That fact that the depravity of sin, showed off the glory of Gods grace in contrast to it. Was merely the opposite state of the two, not some sort of counterbalancing mechanism, that supports the two, in order to create an equilibrium to the universe. Sin is out of balance and God intends to destroy its lopsided view of things that are weighted to do evil. can we > So what we as people who are seeking after God, and want to be apart of his life should do, is not make a league with sin but with Gods glory. That is the side we should be on. There is no longer any place or provision in us, that we should attempt rescue mission in this would, by relating to the other sinners by being alive ourselves to their temptations, just so we can better relate to them, and point out Christ. Our complicity to sin does not glorify God, Gods glory, glorifies God and that is where we should be alive. Sin only makes Gods glory visible to sinners by comparison, sin does not in its substance, improve Gods glory, his glory is always as pure as it possible to be. who died to sin > Besides, our sins were crucified on the cross with Christ, which means we who are saved are already dead to sin. It no longer has a reign of authority over us and therefore to do sin, denies the power of Gods rescue in our lives. What are you offering the other sinners with your sinful life, that they do not already have in possession of sin themselves. What they need is your newness of life, or in another way of looking at it, why would they change out of their own fifty clothes, just to put on your filthy clothes. What they need to see is the cleansing of God, so you can offer them a fresh and new state with God, that they presently do not have, which is the putting on of the cloak of righteousness. still live in it? > So how does one continue to live in a dead body, what do we do with death? We bury it, we put it away and embrace life in Christ glory, which is Gods holiness, and we live in that state. Our place now is along side God, not sin. The idea here is where do you make you bed in society, in among the wicked practices of the world, or among the glory of Gods presence, in your life in the church. Either is a possibility for all of us, the argument I am making here is why. Why would you continue to live in a life of shambles, when God has called you to come out of it and make your bed in the presence of his glory. When the body becomes a corpse, you bury it, so that the stench of it does not pollute the living. That old life of yours, needs to be buried and put away for the very same principle. You need to leave behind the dead in the graveyard and make your living among the people of Gods glory. Let the other Christian lives in Gods glory, be your influence in life. Decide to live your life on the side of Christ and be the brightened part of the contrasting difference between good and evil, not in the blackness of lost sinners, that is the content of sin. 6:3 Or do you not know > So do you understand what it is, that has happened, is it a reality to your life that something supernatural has occurred in the lives of those saved thru Christ. That everything we thought we understood about the meaning of life was wrong, and God now has revealed the truth to us in a tangible and living way. You, are that tangible living way, that proves too you and thru you, the glory of Gods righteousness and grace. You are the living proof of his grace and mercy, the evidence and a witness of his power. This is something that you must be consciously aware of, if you are at all entertaining the idea that sin is somehow playing a vital role with inherent value for God and you, in who you are and the way that you will live. It is God is separating you from sin, so that it does not play a role in your life, that is the plan for you. that as many > That God has setup a way for those, not everyone, but those who choose him and his glory. To become a new and separate race of people. That this new race is unlike any prior race that ever existed on earth before. This is a new creation of God, that exist in a form that is fully alive to God and cannot under any circumstance repeat the fall from his grace and come back into condemnation due to sin. Even though they still live in their physical bodies on the earth, that is now become their temporary housing that is undergoing a renovation, not to make it pure in itself, but to show the power of Gods glory over sin. That is the only purpose left for the physical body, to show Gods glory of his power over sin, that it holds no more power over the destiny of the soul, which is in Christ possession already. So that those in Christ, actually have two states of existence, physical and spiritual, and God is saying to you, to choose the spiritual and cause the physical to submit to the spiritual renovation thru his power. Subject it to his glory, that it is subdued and silent before him. as were baptized > Do you know that when anybody publicly professes Christ as their Lord and Savior. When they were taken out and submersed into the water in his name, they were showing the death of Christ on the cross, for having died for their sins. And then the burying of the sinful flesh that he took too the grave with him, as that representing the deadly effects of sin on mankind. And then rising up from the water, they did so demonstrating they were in the new body of Christ, a new race of creation, alive to Christ, but dead to their old sin habits. So already having received the baptism of the Holy Spirit, they are showing the resurrection of how they became alive in Spirit. It is a visual representation of a spiritual truth, as is also the other command, the Lords Supper. into Christ > You then became aligned with God in his cause, in that, you took part in it, in an actual event, which had substance and identity to it. In that, it identified you as being on the righteous side of Christ and his glory, in demonstrating Gods glory, rather than the other side, allowing yourself to live in a state of sin and defeat that is only showing Gods glory as being opposite of what you are as sin, but having no stake in God himself. So in that arena of lifestyle choices where you take sides with either good or evil. If that to which you are aligned with, are Christ righteous attributes, which is how you should identify yourself, and find your identity in life in, then you should emulate his Holy attributes, as they inhabit who you are, by embracing them. were baptized into his death? > So our sins went down in the destruction of death already at the cross and they are no longer alive. So let us bury them with Christ death and live in our risen body, which is Christ. Stop trying to resurrect the dead sins of your past and relive them, they have been put down by Christ so that you would have the freedom to live a life, unobstructed by the past sins that you lived in and with limitless potential to partake in what Gods is doing while you are on earth. You have a part in the results of what took place on the cross, because you are the reason for the cross, so that God could show his glory on the cross over sin. 6:4 Therefore we have > The first thing is, that we have taken part in this as a conscious choice of what it is that we believe. It is not a ritual for an uninformed people to participate in without forethought or sacred meaning. It means that you have learned and obeyed the command of God to take part in what he is doing. So it is by informed consent that you are taking your place, along with what Christ has done and who you are going to focus your life upon him, in the practice of your life, from what this baptism illustrates. been buried > Our flesh’s authority of sin over us, has died, and needs to be set aside in our lives, it’s an issue that needs to be put behind us. We need to avoid mourning over its death, as though we would want it back again, we need to let go of it and not try to live in the past of a dead body. Yes, your body still wants to experience the pleasures that it received out of sin, but those pleasures always came at a price. They made you pay homage to them as a controlling influence in your life and will determine the amount of time that they will require of you, it is not your choice. So you must let the death of your sins be buried and not try to live in them any longer. with him > For it is Christ who was killed by that sin and he caused sins power to die with him. So it is now in him, that we have a new race to be a part of, one that is superior to the dead bodies of old, for this new race is only one body, and that is Christ. So your new body is not you alone, as was you body of flesh. It consist of the entire church to whom you have now become related to as other members of his body. through baptism > So by being joined in his body and having aligned ourselves in a public ceremony that shows your commitment to him and his body, the church. You are in this, professing Christ to be Lord of your life and that you will receive your identity in life from him, in this new body of believers. into death, > It is the one that accepts Christ death, as our death, and believes that it took away deaths power over us, that benefits in this. So as we associate ourselves with the baptism of death, while we, going down into the water, representing the grave. Are separating ourselves from the rights of this world and the life it offers us, as it any longer having a stake in us or having any meaning. It is no longer our inheritance that we labor or seek after, but that we have surrendered it and our rights to it, to God, in this act of baptism. in order > Then, this was for a distinct purpose, that was planed ahead of time, that we must first die to our sins and taste its death in this symbolic matrimony, that marries us to Christ suffering. We must be wed with this in Christ, it is not just a convenient sleeping arrangement for so long as it feels good to do it. There is no common law marriage that supports this effort. If you try to live in sin with Christ, he will reject your offer. You must be married to Christ in his death and resurrection to know him in his intimacy. That is the plan, that is the goal and nothing less will touch the heart of Christ. that just as > Your chance to have your place with Christ, is when you step up in public with him and say, I do, for better or worst, in sickness or in health. If you do that, then Christ will finish the ceremony and take you as his eternal bride. The main difference in being married to Christ in this ceremony is that, the final part of the vow goes, till death we are eternally united. Because death has already occurred and parted us, this life on earth, is a prenuptial event, the engagement period, where the bride prepares themselves for the groom, who is Christ. Your entire life is now the marriage vow in progress with Christ, where you are telling the groom with your life, and this statement of this baptism, the faithful intentions of your desires for him, as he responds in kind for you. Christ was raised > So thru Christ resurrection, after death had fully consumed the sin he had become for mankind sake and it was legally buried with him, our sins now thru this ceremony being taken to the grave with him. The glory of his Father is seen in Christ, as was the intention of our salvation, to glorify the Father, because our salvation, is a result of the Fathers glory. So it is to the Fathers glory, that we should ourselves glory in, because it is our health to do so. When we seek to glorify the Father, just as did Christ, then we have our part with Christ death and resurrection. That is what it meant for us when Christ went to the cross for us, that the Father would be glorified thru it, and that is how we have a share in it and take part in it with Christ on the cross, that is, in glorifying the Father. from the dead > Death was forced to give back the body of Christ in a new glorified state, because its sin, that was our sin, not his personally, remained buried in the grave and its judgment with it. So even though he took our punishment for our sin, our sin had no power over him in the grave, to keep him a prisoner of it, because he was guiltless of the sin himself. Instead, Christ gained power over life and death, taking all life and death as his prisoner, to do as he seen fit, and it, was what was pleasing to his Father in heaven for him to do with it what he willed. It all became Christ, and his will was to glorify the Father. through the glory > This he did, not for the promotion of man from life to death, but for the glory of his Father, that is who Jesus made his existence in. Because it was the Fathers glory, that contained the essence of life. Without which, all creation would have been lost forever. All basis for existence, has in itself the glory of the Father for it to have any value in it. This what Jesus knew far and above all other things, that the Father was the source, not just of life in the sense of just physically existing, but in the sense worth while existence, life without God meant nothing. So Jesus in his life and crucifixion was saying to the Father, both in Spirit and action was, "Hold me Holy in your hands Father, allow me to live in you" of the Father, > This came about as a result of the Fathers glory being victorious over death, as he conquered the grave thru his righteous attributes and his sovereign power. What Christ did, he did thru reliance on the Father, right up to the point where the Father turned away from fellowship with him, due to Jesus becoming sin for us on the cross. But even in that, Christ desired the will of the Fathers glory to succeed in wounding him for our sins, so that the Father could forgive us our sins. Because Christ knew that it was all dependant of the Fathers glory to save us from our sins. so we too > And it is this same glorious power of Christ as Lord, that quickens the Spirit to life in us, we are changed immortally into his body, as we live thru him. So as we rise up out of the water of baptism, of this symbolic ceremony, our judgment against us, lays buried there in the watery grave forever. There is no longer condemnation upon us, but rather a unity of walk between us. That was possible due to the uniting power of Christ, as he was seeking to glorify the Father. It is because of the Fathers glory, that we are now one with the Father, which should be our desire also, to follow after and seek to glorify the Father. may walk > So that we may live our lives in the glorified state after his likeness, that Jesus made himself an example of for us, while he lived on this earth. We should also be preoccupied with God in us, as our course in life also. That is to see the glory of the Father come thru us, when we determine to preoccupy ourselves, in the occupation of God-- Holding us, in his Holy hands. So as we act, in predetermining that way in which we will live, we avoid the pit where, "if one fails to plan, one plans to fail". We therefore, plan our lives to exist in the glory of the Father, where we are planted in his good soil for fruitful growth. So it is living near the Father and in his presence, that you will take on the form of his son and be fashioned after the way Christ lived. in new life. > This isn’t going to be the same old way that you used to do things, now that you’ve entered into Christ body, there is a newness to it, a fresh beginning where all things are recreated in your life. Your baptism by water as an outward profession and of the Holy Spirit as the seal of salvation, has altered in you eternally and internally. That which you have become need not be aware of that which you were, let the past die and live in what Christ is making anew in you. You don’t have to reconcile the past, with the present that God is making in you. They are mutually incompatible, the past having no weight in determining your future or how you will be used of God. Nothing of your past, will hinder that which the Father is able to use you for, so long as you are seeking your future it in the Fathers new life and in his glory. If on the other hand, you are looking to your own attributes and skills, to find a place of value to God and his kingdom, then you will be of no use what so ever to the Father, because there is no glory of the Father, in sinful flesh. God is not looking to your history, to determine your future or assess your asset to him. Your history is now in your future with him, yet to be written, unencumbered by your past, that is, if it is you are expressing the being of who are and will become, as being tethered and unlimited in his glory. 6:5 For if we have > This which we have done, as exemplified and modeled in our desire to be united with Christ thru baptism, is ordained by our Father also. We have not initiated this contact between ourselves and the Father, but he initiated it, when he planned our rescue and sent his son to save us. It is the Father also, who has initiated that we perform this ceremony before him and mankind, to further replay the enactment of his sons mission on earth, for the furtherance of his glory. become united > So in taking the act of baptism upon us, we are like similar seeds with Christ, planted in the soil and buried in the same season, the fruit we will bear, will be from the same root that the soil will produce. So then if we are received in the ground in the same manner as Christ, that is, being baptized, then won’t the symbolic ceremony in baptismal death to sin, provide the same result in us as it did in Christ whom we are emulating and joining with in this act. If the death was only the precursor to life in Christ, then if we join him in death, won’t we join him in life. with him > That is how it happened to us, as we are buried with Christ, taking our sins down into the grave of baptism. We are joining Christ in the crucifying of our sins thru him. We are partnering with him in our salvation and celebrating his victory fulfilling sins judgment upon him. As it pleased the Father to wound Jesus for our having sinned and having judged him in our place. We are pleasing Christ in our thankfulness of him having done it for us, by our taking the rite if baptism upon us, instead of the judgment that was meant for us. We are glorify Christ in this union with him, as it pleased Christ to take our suffering for us, it pleases him more, to see us take baptism upon us, in place of that judgment. The substitute lamb was again provided by the Father, and the method for us to take our share with Christ in it, was suitable for man to bear. in the likeness > We identify with him, thru him having died for our sins on the cross, and so we also then take our lives and lay them down at the cross of his forgiveness, where they are crucified on our behalf thru him, when he was crucified. We therefore, simulate what Christ has accomplished for us, in this a real life drama and reenactment of it in our own bodies. So that baptism bears a resemblance to it, without the suffering or pain that Christ already endured for our sins. God didn’t want it to just happen on the big screen that we saw take place in someone else’s life, remote and distant, it was real life what Christ did, and God wants it living thru and in us, in our baptism. of his death, > And as he gave up his life in the atonement for our sins, we surrender our lives to that atoning power, which also has the power to cause the death of our old sinful lifestyle, now that we have shared the same death. If we have then taken that place along side Christ, in ourselves having been crucified with him in baptism, then that which will follow, is the real glory to come. If that was the end of our evil, then what is left, but Christ-the-glory, for us to live in. we will certainly > It only makes sense then that we take this to the next logical conclusion of what this symbolism of baptism is teaching us and leading us into. God has no intention of only bringing us half way to him, and then allowing us to wander in life alone to find our place in him. If he has taken our evil for us into the grave, then he will also lift us up in the end, to be a part of his glory also, that is his goal, and noting will prevent that from occurring in our life. also be united > And where as we are the same planted seed, we shall bear fruit at the same time, when the time of harvest comes, and if we are the same type of seed, we will bear the same type fruit. That is the story of Christ, and it all has to do with us being as the seed of Christ, planted it the good soil of the Fathers glory. Where the seed dies to itself, is then renewed by the Father to new life, where we live in the root of Christ and produce his fruit in us. in the likeness > And that fruit will be that of a glorified state in our new bodies, even as was Christ body reborn fully alive from the grave. We are reborn from his glory, for him to live in us as that new creation that he became for us. This being while we are alive, a state of comparison, to that which we were before our decision to follow Christ and die to our past and live again in the newness of Christ salvation. Our past being his death on the cross and our life after salvation, being that of his resurrection, both which are embodied in the act of baptism. of his resurrection. > Which will be complete in the day of our resurrection, but as the symbol of baptism shows, we are also to live in his glory, in our present day also. God is not into delaying tactics, he does not wait for us to get ready, otherwise their would be no creation at all. If you are in Christ, your resurrection after your death is assured, but if you want Christ now, it is only available in the glory of the Father. 6:6 We know that our old man > That lifestyle that you used to live for, now has become passé, and obsolete, it is a leftover relic from a time where it never was functional, you just didn’t have any other option, it is a worn out past, that is all you had without Christ. was crucified > Because that has put to death on the cross, when Jesus made an atonement for mankind. Jesus became your tired, worn out sin for you and suffered its death in your place. The deed is done, and all you have left is your life in Christ. with him > Jesus took that dysfunctional old relic to the grave with him and left it their to meet its own fate of death. It is no longer yours to deal with, because Christ has made it his. so that > The reason that Jesus did this was, that there was a condition that existed between God and man, that prevented their having a future together. To solve that, God had to take the initiative to resolve the issue, because man could not even properly conceive to totality or scope of it, and even if he could, was incapable of resolving it. Man had a terminal disease within him called sin, that was destroying him, and was an offense to God. So God himself took the action to heal man of this condition. the body of sin > So now that virus that lives in the flesh of man was destroyed by letting it kill Christ alone, where he took the infection of it to the grave. Then thru Christ rising from the grave, having atoned for that disease of sin, Christ having paid that debt of sin, that kept it alive in us as our sole state of existence. would no longer > Rendering it ineffective to us, due to Christ having built up an immunity in us to the sin virus, thru Christ transfusion of his blood to us, which is disease free and knows no sin. So as we turn our lives over to God and allow Christ to continually transfuse in us his state of sinless glory. The power of sin is not able to overcome the presence of Gods glory, know living in us thru the Holy Spirits influence in us. dominate us, > So then its power over us is no longer that which controls everything we do, the prior ruling authority who was a cruel boss. That once had a say in you daily actions and assigned you to do the menial task of serving it. So it could dictate over you and keep you under its thumb as a bond slave of its sin. This overlord that abused itself upon you, has been removed from their position and a good leader has been given that position, one who seeks your promotion in life. so that > The reason being, is that God wanted your freedom to exist, so that not only could he properly love you, but so that you could affectionately, love him in return. But for this to happen, you needed to be free from sins hold over you, and God needed to judge sin for having separated man from himself, all this time from the gardens fall from his grace. we would > This was done so that which lorded over us and taxed our wages with interests, greater then our wage could pay. Leaving us with a debt to be paid to it from our overdrawn account of sin. We have now received an inheritance from Christ, that we did not know about, an amount greater then our debt, that would bring us in balance with God, so as to not just have any debt, but a surplus, by which we can go and minister to others with. no longer > It being an amount of such great wealth that we became rulers ourselves over that which held us in bondage. As the once powerless, became all powerful thru their inheritance, free to live in the abundance of its goodness. We have taken up rule with Christ, over the creation of God. It which once held us its hostage, is now subject to us thru the glory of Christ power, of having defeated it for us. be enslaved > Where there were once chains holding us captive to it, they are gone and the scares of its torture are reminders to us, to live in the joy of that inheritance, that was given to us without our labor to it, as was the way of our cruel master of sin, before grace came to us. to sin. > Because our former master, instructed us with sin, that only further deepened or depravity and drove us further into its debt. That was sins legacy, bondage upon bondage, and every effort on our part to resist it, only drove us deeper into its hold over us. 6:7 (For someone > The person who is alive and is not of Christ must yield himself to the will of his flesh and fulfill its lust, they have no power against it to become its master. So in the end, it will consume that person completely and kill them. That is the first truth of life, that if one commits sin, they must die. who has died > But once they have died and been buried, that flesh is lifeless and returns to the dust and has no more substance to it. The flesh is merely the outer casing that contains the life of the one that God created. But it was also the source of sins residence and power over the soul of the one encased in their flesh. has been > The possible effects of it no longer exist on the one who has died, because the power sin was in the flesh itself. It was that corrupt flesh that caused man to go astray into sinful lifestyles and away from Gods presence. But in the end, that does not excuse the souls complicity in the acts of sin, the soul still made its bed with sin. freed from sin.) > And so that we could be free of sins deadly hold on us, what Christ did on the cross was subtitle his body for ours, he took his body into judgment in place of our bodies, so that only in his body did death as judgment, actually occur. He took our sins in the flesh to the grave in his body alone and left them there. So our bodies of sin have been put down, in the grave thru Christ and Christ new body has risen from the grave and is now ours to live in, with him. So Christ in himself, replicated the conditions and affects that sin would have had on you, and made it to be manifest upon himself in your place. So God now considers that your necessary death from sin, has already occurred in Christ. Which makes you free from sin and so our souls have an option of continuing in complicity with the old effects of the flesh, or having complicity with Christ new body and its effect of God glory in us. 6:8 Now if we died > So if that which is sin in our flesh was surrendered to God, in confession for the purpose of salvation and put to death upon Christ body, that death then was to our benefit. In that, our flesh is no longer is able to force its will upon us, having already been judged and destroyed, with power and authority over it, haven been handed over to Christ as its conqueror. with Christ, > And if the power of our flesh was taken with Christ to the grave and buried there and its effect made inert in the presence of God glory. Then it is in Gods glory that we need to make our bed, so to speak, God needs to be our home, not this body of sin. we believe > Then we also must accept the fact the there is another life that comes from that death and we must adhere to that truth and accept it. This is where you put your trust in Christ, that he has altered you present and future with him. You are committing to him the security of your future, you are placing all that you are or will be into the vault of Christ for safe keeping. Christ now holds the assets in all of whom you are in his safe keeping, none can have access to it, not even you. What you do now, must be in the glory of the Fathers actions, not your own, you no longer are in possession of yourself or sin, but are in Christ alone. that we > So if we are in Christ possession, then wherever Christ goes, is where we go also. We are bound to him soul and Spirit, and are security trust(that is our inheritance), and future resides in him. will also > So now that we who have come to Christ and had our lives of rebellion and disobedience, that was directed towards God, perish with him on the cross. We will have an inheritance from him in this his body, that is eternal in glory with the Father. live with him. > And that while we were once those who were slaves of sin, we have now become rulers with his righteousness, in his new body which is Holy. Now, seeing as it is our heritage to live with Christ in eternity. We should live after those Holy attributes now, with the character of Christ in us. So where we once promoted sin with our lifestyle, we now promote his righteous attributes with his lifestyle, that lives thru us. Because of what Christ did on our behalf, and the fact that he survived its ordeal, we will be co-survivors with him. In that, he not only took our death upon himself as his responsibility for us. But also our life is weighted upon him, which he is able to bear us up in it, which is our confidence in him. 6:9 We know that since > That we know what took place concerning his resurrection and that it is past tense, so far as it having been completed, we are not waiting for anything new to occur to redeem us. Christ has been raised > When Christ came up out of the grave, he did so in power and authority, Christ became the only self-viable human to ever live. Where He was; born, lived as a child in obedience, formed the church leadership, became our example of a visible Holy God, laid his life down and then took it up again, all under his own power in his unity with the Father. from the dead, > Where after having surrendered his body to the effects of death, the grave could not hold back his glory, only the sins of man that he took upon himself to the grave, did Christ leave buried there. he is never > Now, because he came back to life and in a new resurrected body that is not capable of being corrupted. That body is not only capable of aging, as was his body of birth, it is not capable of sin or temptation to sin. The arena of sin as an influence, is no longer present in him, it is a non-existent entity. going to die > This body of his, is also not capable of death period, so life in Christ is now eternal again for him, as it was before where he was with his Father. again; > The price has been paid in full for the debt of everyone’s sin that professes Christ as Lord on earth. So death has been abolished so far as requiring submission to it for mankind’s penalty for sins and no further action is needed to complete his work, nor is it necessary for Christ as a substitution for any future sin, that could require him to die ever again. death no longer > Death being abolished, it has surrendered its claim upon him, any requirement it had for his body, is now void and invalid, the former ritual of sacrifice has been done away with forever. has mastery > The power to take life from Christ, has ended, when he rose from the grave in an immortal body. Death still has power to take life from the flesh of man, but not of Christ, whose new body is our body also. So in the broader sense, Christ is above life and death, not below it, or in submission to it. over him. > It has no place of authority, as Christ now has dominion over death, that same death, that first attempted to make him its victim. 6:10 For the death he died, > Because of the way Christ died, which was a death of crucifixion upon a cross, a way of torturing a man to death and making a public example of him. It was not a natural death, but one of punishment for those who are guilty of crime and during that time period, this was a way that they tortured people to death. he died to sin > He did so due to mans sin, it was on our account he suffered and died. Then, thru this process of taking mans shame and punishment on himself. It caused his death, which separated him from his body of flesh, that had now become the sins of mankind. This was a death for sin that was sufficient to the Father, for satisfying all his anger against the sins that those who believed in him, that they had committed throughout their entire life. So in this death, it was a complete and full process to atone for sin. once for all, > This he did a single time, for the plurality(multitude) of mans sins, never to be done again, nor any need to. The idea is that this was a one time only event, that needed to occur once to atone for sins. Because his resurrected body was needed as the new body to allow others to live in after his provision. It was a transfer of power that was needed, from the old body to the new body of sinless life, that simply needed a starting point, which Christ provided in himself. It is as though our old bodies were existing in a decaying old ship of wood, that was adrift and destined to sink. So we being adrift, could not construct a new one and were destined for death. So God created a new ship on our behalf, that was made of a material that could not decay, and has come along side this old ship, saying, leave all your possession behind and jump ship into my vessel. Where I will provide you with eternal safety and sustenance to get you to dry land. but > The crux of this whole salvation for us then, is abandonment of our old life and the value we have placed on it, to enter into his new life that he has exemplified for us. That is the story of what Christ did for us and is showing us in himself, that it is not self that saves us, but the Father who provides it for us.. the life > That which we see exemplified in Christ life, is exactly the message that the Father is sending to mankind. So that they can be transformed thru Christ into a living-life-of-glory, for the Father, who sustained Christ in atonement for salvation first, which was the hard thing to be done. The rest is simple faith in the finished work that Christ did, the labors of atonement have ceased to exist, with only the aftereffects remaining, that being to redeem the faithful. The rest is relationship with the Father, thru the son, in taking part of the redemption process, of bringing those in that God is calling out too, for salvation. he lives, > So now that he has risen from the dead and is alive forevermore, his purpose is now as it was always before. To be active in the lives of his creation and demonstrate the power of having a God-centered-life. To display in himself, that it is the only surviving life form that there is. All other life forms are incompatible with the eternal Father and therefore will never see his eternal companionship come upon them. They cannot and will not ever enter his kingdom in heaven. Whereas Christ new body, already exist in that realm of fellowship and thru him we can enter into that fellowship with the Father. he lives to God. > So in the Father, Jesus retook his throne in the heavens with his Father, with the intent to glorify God and his righteousness. So that we can be united thru him to God, he reverses the destiny of man and sets man on the right path to God. Jesus brought down God into the realm of earthly perception, to which, man was not able to find that connection before Christ came. 6:11 So you too consider yourselves > And in so doing, you have aligned yourself with that which Christ is and dropped your guard in the throwing down your weapons of resistance. Emulate now, what it is that Christ showed in his life in living not for self and the flesh, but for the Fathers glory. View yourselves thru the eyes of heaven and not the eyes of this world. That way you will see more clearly, the way God sees life, and that the ways of man, are just being busy about nothing of relevance. When you do this, your body of life in the flesh, must cease to exist as your point of reference in life. Because you will be viewing it from an external point of view, which is Gods point of view. dead to sin, > You have stepped into the mirror of his reflection and became a partaker of what the cross did for you. Letting your past be buried in the grave, which makes you a foreigner to sin, one with no legal status to live there, God has evicted you from a life of sin. The state of your existence, is now a separate one from the flesh and its patterns. Do not think of it in only in a metaphor or expression, of what has taken place as your state of sin being dead. But real and effectual in your life, because it is not wishful thinking, but reality, God has caused it to be real, right now, not in the future only. You can now see that, life in sin, was just a bunch of baby talk, so far as what it meant in intelligible meaning. A life of sounds without any structure or meaning, babbling sounds that said nothing and meant nothing. but > On the other hand though, just look at what is your new state in life, complete opposites in the nature of what they are. Two distinct destinations, two distinct methods or reason of existence. They have separate motives that produce diverging outcomes in life, and the course they both follow to achieve their goals, are completely opposite in their scope of patterns and compass. No baby talk, but rather, words that define life in precise detail, as to their meaning, perfect tones of Gods voice, with precise spelling of every word, clearly annunciated by God, thru Christ living life on earth. alive to God > Then coming out on the other side where your life is in his body, a new race of people that are just one image. No division or dispute in heaven, just one glory, which makes you a citizen with all the legal rights that it provides for you. God now is your homeland and to whom your patriotism is aligned, you are active in this community as authorized by God to be so. It is you new place and state with God to exist there forever. The life of sin is like a foreign language to you, but Gods voice is clear as he gives you instruction, by having us observe what Jesus did on earth for us, is an actual sign language, Jesus was and is our sign language from God. You can read him and hear Gods voice speaking to you saying that his will for you is written in his son life. in Christ Jesus. > All of which is summed up in the work of Christ whose name is the one who saved us. Jesus acted out for us, the principles of our own lives, all we need to do is read his life’s language and claim it in ourselves as saying me to Lord, me too. We respond to God then in the same manner of life, which in return, we sign language to God with our life of sign language, which is Gods native tongue to us. Which of course means, we must learn this sign language in order to communicate back to God. We must study Christ in detail in order to reconstruct the syllables of his life into our life. Then syllables form words, then the words shape our life in Christ image. 6:12 Therefore do not > You cannot then, try to insert the ways of the flesh, which is sin, into the sign language of the body of Christ. They are incompatible and you must not try to reconcile them together, it is simply impossible to do. let sin > Never open the door and give sin it access to you, do not be as Lot in the Old Testament scripture, who opened the door when sin came knocking. Where in vain thinking, he offered the virginity of his daughters to appease evil. He let sin in when he opened the door to its call. So in that way he, "let sin", gain access to him and with that, came compromise to it. Though he had angels of God with him to be his shield, he did not recognize the language of God, so he tried to use the language of sin as an accomplice, to accomplish good, which is failure from the outset. reign > Sin and its kingdom have been overthrown and its rulers killed, so how can you serve a kingdom that does not exist, leave it behind you and abandon it. Do not remain its captive, when it has no authority to hold you. If you are enslaved in sin, it is not because you are being held hostage against your will by some external army, but you have submitted it to be upon you, without chains of restraint, by your own surrender. in your mortal body > That which you still live in, that is to say your human body, is no longer the home of that sin which once ruled in its kingdom over you. In fact you are now the temple of the Holy Spirit, a new dwelling place for the Spirit of God. So you need to change your old way of thinking, where sin had its absolute control over you, that has ended and you are no able to learn Gods sing language of love. so that > So that way, if you don’t give it a voice, then it won’t have a say in what you are trying to communicate to God. And you won’t be confused in what God is saying to you, all because you are trying to listening to him in a different language. you obey > Which is the way and reason why sin no longer has dominion over you, because God speaks a love language thru Christ life. So don’t yield your body to do those things that are at odds with Gods Spirit. If the flesh says, let us in, say no, in Gods language, not in discourse or cooperation with sin. its desires, > The things that it craves are at odds with the Holy temple, that you have now become. So don’t invite evil into Gods presence, when you already have God himself with you. Abandon your plans for passionate living in the flesh and join God in passion for Christ. 6:13 and do not present > Because if you do, what your saying is, I am open to the flesh and its old ways. I still want to experience some of the sin, just for a little while. But a little while, turns back into a self induced bondage, where you made yourself available to sin, and it welcomed you back into its abuse. Because what you are in essence doing, is saying, I give power over my body, over to sins power, to use it for evil. Thereby turning over your physical destiny to its control, instead of the Holy Spirits control. your members to sin > Though you no longer have to obey sin, your body still wants to, and do out of habit the things it did before. So there is a process you must go thru, of replacing the old habits of the flesh, with the good habits and attributes of Gods Spirit. Each part of your body has certain bad habits, that have developed into built in instincts in response to stimulus in the flesh. So you must have good habits for replacing each of the bad habits after their own kind. The heart can love or hate, the hands comfort or hurt, your lust can endure you to your mate or lead you astray. You must be proactive in the positive, to keep the negative from occurring. Plan you love habits, as well as the hands of comfort and passions for you mate. Chase after them or the negative habits will find a foothold back into our life. as instruments > Your old practices included and arsenal of offensive and defensive weapons, they were the tools you learned to thrive on and to establish your way of life, things like, lying, gossip, cheating, conceit, fear, mistrust, false emotional idols, etc.. Each was produced from a duel use of the life tools that we use in our bodies. Gossip could have been confidence, cheating - loyalty, conceit - modesty, fear - heroism, mistrust - faith, false emotional idols - mentors who are pillars of strength. You have to determine the right use for these tools, or they will resort to their evil ways. to be used > All of these things, you once called upon to build up walls of defense or to attack others defensives. But that in the end, you only isolated yourself, which imprisoned you in those practices. So you have to make new uses out of those tools in life, so that they do not remain products of sin. It’s a choice that you must make, God knows that your physical body is not capable of perfection, but failing to challenge your bad morals, with good morals, is not acceptable to him. for unrighteousness, > These things were done based on that wicked ruler, that once had power over you and enslaved you to do its bidding. But that is not what you should be doing any longer, you have a new motivation now. Sin wants thing out of balance and weighted in its favor of you existing in its grasp on you. Sin seeks injustice and thrives on those who practice such things, so empower sin, starve it instead. but > On the other hand, there are things that you should be doing, that are right and proactive in the right direction for your life. They are active in inducing the right production of motivation, not for the building of yourself up, but for living in a different culture than that which you knew before. Instead of self, you are contributing to the benefits of others. Which makes your surroundings healthy and less burdensome, than trying to live Holy, in evil surroundings. By sharing in and promoting holiness, you alter the environment around you, which produces less temptation. present > So now you can turn yourself over to the good habits that come out of Gods Holy attributes and oppose the things of old. Your life needs to be where God is and involved in what God is doing. Your mind will have many plans and ideas that it is actively entertaining as ways to serve God, which is good. But they must be in connection with what God is already doing, or it is a waste of time. Don’t try to build a new bridge, cross the one that God has constructed for you, even if it is a mile more down the road, it is the safe one to cross and it is where God is. Now, on the other hand, if there is no bridge, then it may be our calling to do so. yourselves to God > You should make sure that all idle time is Godly time, where you plan to put yourself in the right place at the right time. You need to make these plans ahead of time, make them an exercise in your life. There is no such thing as idle time that is neither, good or evil, it is time that is either actively focused in the ways of God, or it is an opportunity for the devil to use you. as those > Be a kind of people that are sure where their direction is taking them, don’t be adrift on the river. Rather have control of the ors and rudders in your life that determine your direction and speed. These are people who are alert to their present condition and have a destination in life, rather than just reacting to whatever comes along. It is being a certain type of people, that does exist in randomness. As Solomon has said, "A man who does not control his own Spirit, is like a broken down city, with broken down walls" who are alive > You now live in a new body of believers, who are one body that lives and is nourished in Christ. Because he raised you and made you alive in him, live in his walled city, with your Spirit fully in tune with him. Live your life fully aware of you his presence and activity in you. Make your home in his church body and near where he is working, so you can join in. from the dead > So don’t live in the rubble of that old kingdom, which is a decrepit and old abandoned grave yard. Abandon it to its fate and leave it behind with scheduled intentions of your heart, to live among the living who are actively pursuing God. and your members to God > Now use those inventions in your life to do things that are of an eternal value. Let your hands labor in love, let your lips praise and build others up in the hope of salvation. Let your ambitions promote and be directed to building up the body of Christ. Set your imaginations to work for Gods glory instead of human fantasies that never happen. Use those parts of your body for the purpose of glorifying the Father. Have them actively involved comforting, loving, constructing and modifying your attitude, so that it makes the place you live, the place where God is at work. as instruments > Gods weapons of defense are all spiritual weapons of offense, his is a proactive, faith, hope, love, the gospel, and righteousness. Which are all useless as unused weapons stowed away just in case you need them someday. They have no use in a defensive posture, they are all made to charge ahead against the world. You can not build walls with Gods weapons, only tear them down. God is not planning a defense strategy for his kingdom, he is pursuing the enemy of evil, and arming his people to pursue them, down to the final day of its destruction. You are part of that arsenal of offensive weapons that God has chosen to use in that battle. to be used > Knowing that, we must put into practice the exercise of Gods Holy attributes, so that he can test our growth and promote your march on to his will, of him living thru you. You know you have grown into the Fathers use, when the old mans sins no longer make you afraid of its bondage, because the stench of it makes you move away. Its temptation, has become repulsive and its gain is illusive to you in making any sense. for righteousness. > And now as God completes his work in you, all things are for Gods glory, and his holiness are the things we now long for. Instead of what the flesh lust for, we desire the peace of God to the pleasure of the flesh, and the rewards of maturity in Christ, to penalty that sin wears against the flesh from the practices of old. Righteousness, is as love, in that, it always gives back more than is given away, the more you expend it, the greater part of you, it becomes. 6:14 For sin will have > It is what might be referred to as a paper tiger, not because its allure is not powerful, but because allure, is all that it has. The hold that sin has over you, is that of voluntary submission to it, which may be deeply rooted in your past. But with no privilege of its own to have possession of you. no mastery > It is who you give authority to in your life to be vulnerable too, that is at the heart of the issue here. Just because sin has no legal claim to you, it does not mean that it respects that as fact, in fact, it could care less. But it has no right to take you by force, you have to make yourself available to it for it to have any rule over you. But legally it is a toothless tiger that roars loudly, but has no method to devour, unless we spoon feed ourselves to it. over you, > For sin to have control over you, you must first have put yourself under it. It has no legal claim to rule over you or force you to become its slave, the cruel task master has been put down, and you have become its master thru Christ. In fact, for it to be over you, you first have to stoop down below it. It does reign in a high position with lofty possession, but rather, as the serpent cursed in the garden, it slithers upon the ground. because > Remember the fact that the reason the law was given, was to entice sin to show its full extent of evil, not to conquer it. So if the result of the law being given was increased bondage to sin and sinful activity. What then is the logical results of sins activity absent the law again. That sin should decrease, because the law does not bind us as sinful creatures any longer. you are not > That is due to the fact that God has taken away the cruel task maters whip, and bound him in chains so he can no longer force you into his servant hood. God has reversed his law, so that those who come to him seeking favor from the release of sins bondage, will receive it thru Christ. under law > Because Christ fulfilled the requirements of the law for you, the law has been done away with, as that which can accuse you of sin and incite its behavior in you, so there is no law, then there is no sin accusing you either. but under grace. > But we live under Gods mercy that allows us to come before him despite the fact that we must live in corrupted bodies. His desire is not to have us come before him accused of our sins, but to overcome them thru his mercy and power, he wants to conquer our sins, not us.
The Believer’s Enslavement to God’s Righteousness 6:15 What then? Shall we sin > Is it possible that it is alright to use sin like a candy store, enjoy it without any guilt as to what the side effects may be. Even though God will call us with the sin of gluttony, will not the candy still rot out your teeth and make you fat. So should we be drunkards, even if it destroys the body, should we just ignore the side effects. because > The reasoning behind it would make since in a carnal way of thinking. Because you would not have to fight against sinful passion, in which there is a temporary pleasure in. But what are you trading out for that sin, that is caution you need to see in this carnal thinking. God has removed only the eternal judgment of the sinful acts, not the physical and relationship side effects of sin. we are not > So the sins are not part of legal standing before God and his court, because the law that could accuse us before him, has been itself written off. We have nothing to fear from the judge himself, but that still leaves social justice among the people and the recoil of sin still active. under law > Due to the fact that God is not going to condemn you for it, he has already declared you justified before him. What’s the harm if you cheat on your diet and use it just a little, just to satisfy your cravings. It’s a good question that needs a spiritual answer, which in most respects I answered already, but will emphasize more clearly. but under grace? > Because now we live under his mercy and he is not angered by the wrong things we do, but are free from its judgment. It sounds logical, maybe he wants you to take some of its profit where you sin without danger of accusation? Keep in mind though this question rises in us out of carnal thinking, not out of spiritual desires. Absolutely not! > If that’s what you’re thinking, you’re missing the whole point and are still allowing your sin to cloud your ambitions with carnal thinking. You need to check your attitude and justify your motivations. Have you forgot that Christ was nailed to a cross to release you from those sins, and now you want to bed down with them! What I said early is what applies here, that is, the law was given to increase sinful activity as a lesson that man cannot be just under the law. So if sin increased under the law, now that we are above the law, sin should decrease in the same manner. 6:16 Do you not know that if you > God offers you the chance to move beyond those invisible boundaries that sin has created in your life. But here, you have to make that life altering decision that determines whether life is progressing in endless freedom with God, to ever newer experiences with him. Or do you remain a part that habitual action involving sin, that denies that freedom and has you running along its borders, only looking out at what is beyond it, but never venturing into new pastures with God. present yourselves > Why would you go visit a cruel task master and live under his bondage when he has been put down. Why would you want to live in weakness and its abuse and be available to his beatings. If that is what you do, it is not because they captured you and put you on chains, it is because you came knocking as sins door, to let you in. Then when the door closed behind you, your wonder how you got there. as obedient slaves, > It is true that as a human condition, you will live in slavery to whatever you endear yourself to, whether it is a career as a workaholic or a mother surrounded by poppy diapers. The body of life itself, requires certain attention from you, take food for instance, we are all slaves to food and water, we must consume them, or we will die. We tend everyday to these requirements, but that is not true when it comes to sin. Where sin is concerned, we have given sin that status in our life, to require ourselves to tend to it as though it were necessary for sustaining us in life. We readily make outlandish statements that we could not live without certain material possessions. Which then, we are admitting that we have them ruling over us as slaves to them, by choice. you are slaves > Whatever you give the bulk of your attention to, enslaves you to it, because it becomes your focus in life. Now that can be a positive if it is something that is God centered that you are giving the bulk of your time to. But on the other hand, it is very negative, if that focus is on sins in the flesh. Because the flesh is self-centered and leads you away from where God is and what he is doing. It causes you to focus on sin and leads you deeper into it and leads you into its restrictions of taking up your time and energy, just to service it. of the one you obey, > So that which we give ourselves over to becomes our master and shapes our character. One who is in an addiction of some sort, has been trained by sin, to spend their so called free time, in search of the sustenance that that addiction requires to sustain itself in them. The addicted one will tell you they want what they have, when under its pleasure or the high it produces. But when trying to gain resources for it, they see its bondage, but are powerless to leave it behind. either of sin > If we submit our bodies to sinful acts, then we become purveyors of sin and sellers of its wares. We distribute that which we are rescued from, and become excellent in the mastery of deceit. If you still hunger for that old sin, then you don’t know the true attributes of God as well as you should, they are till a stranger to you in some way and not as familiar to you as they should be. Being familiar to Gods holiness, is the power of it in your life, where being a stranger to it, is the power of sin in your life. You have learned sin by living in its continual presence, everyday giving it the time it requires of you. Once you submit to sin, you are chained to it, and no longer free to do Gods work in the full measure he is wanting to use you in. You might delude your thinking in saying, now that I have exercised sin, let say sex,
outside of marriage, you can now relate and minister to others who are likewise tempted.
But you have robbed Gods sacred temple in so doing, and have no right to those
experiences. You have copied Adam and Eve, in the gardens first sin, of taking to
yourself, the knowledge of good and evil. You will never, ever, learn to do more good by
experiencing more evil! If you wanted to learn more about being truly good, you would not
ask the devil who failed at it, he can only tell you how to fail. You would ask the one
who is good and has proved themselves at it, they know the right path, because they have
lived it. Don’t ask someone how to walk, who keeps falling down, the best they can do
is help treat its wounds, not prevent them. > Which means we are the establishing the deadly effects of sin as an obligation, by giving ourselves to it. You are committing yourself to death and destruction, rather then life and rebuilding. You have the option now of opting out of sin, God has given you that right thru the power of the Holy Spirit. With God you have the freedom of continuing to live in the vastness of his creation, but when you agree with sin and say yes to it, you exist in its prison cell, confined there with it on death row, just existing for it alone. God has in his word said to us, "I set before, life and death, Choose life!". God is wanting us to come into his presence and exist there in him, to choose holiness over sin. But to do that you must live in his presence and become familiar with holiness, where in time it will become character also. or obedience > But if on the other hand, if you make your obligation the attributes of Gods Holy character and endear yourself to its freedom. That freedom continually widens your boundaries and makes you more free then ever before. Your boundaries become expandable without earthly limits, whereas sin lives and dies in the bonds of earth. In obedience to the endlessness of God, you will have countless adventures that fulfill your desires to live in the ever newness and freshness of God. But sin and its prison cell, only fulfills sins destiny to die, in its confinement of a stale existence and its desire to end it all. Because when sin, is all there is, and its repetitions are meaningless reminders of your life and its lifeless existence, what is the purpose of living. resulting in righteousness? > Whereas if you allow the desire of the Holy attributes of God to become part of your character. So you have the mind and freedom of Christ, then isn’t sin diminished and God glorified and lifted up in you? So if you are where God is and God is endless, then there is the increasing in you of
Gods glory, which is beyond the description of humanity, without limitations of life. 6:17 But thanks be to God > Yet I know that even after having lectured you on this as I have, that I was in essence, only echoing you own sentiments about your experience with God. So that I now praise God, that you have already grasped this truth in your life and have put it to practice and good use. Why I am emphasizing it to you, is just so we could establish this truth together. So that we may confirm in each other, the truth that there is in God, the true joy of liberty, of life eternal, not bondage… not now… not ever! that though > Yes, it is true, that at one time, your lives were dedicated not to God, but to the sin that God hated vehemently in you. But God didn’t destroy you, just because he hated the sin nature of your bodies. He instead, took pity on your condition and sought to heal you of your infirmities and put you back on good footing with him. God chose not to look on the external flesh as the end of all things concerning man, and instead, looked to his internal soul to find redemption for mankind there. you were slaves > Because you once lived in this bondage, that I have gone into such great detail repudiating and disqualifying it as having necessity in life. You yourselves, are well aware of how it abused you, even though you wanted nothing to do with it. It never sought to do anything in return for you, so far as gaining you eternal life or wealth in favor of God, only temporary pleasure, in which it made you pay dearly for, but did not improve the nature of who you were. to sin, > But that is the truth of what evil is, we know it is not our friend, but a corrupt deception, bent to imprison us and keep us from Gods love. It wants nothing to do with God, because sin knows that God is its destroyer and the end of its existence. you obeyed > Yet you knew truth when it came to you, you recognized Gods imprint on it and immediately put it into practice. You established it as your own right of passage, into the world of Christ. You listened and heard the truth, you believed it and that made you free to live it. Because when you are attentive to the voice of freedom as God reveals it, then you are able to move into that familiar presence of God more closely. from the heart > You found out the mind of Christ, alive in you, so that where he is you are now able to recognize it, as where he lives, then you can reside there with him in shelter from sin. It was sin that wounded you, that caused you its pain, but when you knew Christ call to you, you received it as the healing that he intended it to be for you. You became grateful for his release and did not see his laws as burdensome, but relief. that pattern > You didn’t see it as an outward ritual just to become men pleasers and impress others by religiousness. You do it in your homes and when your alone, you made it your character that others will be able to use you as a role model. You weren’t seeking greatness, you were seeking goodness, but God, turned it into greatness for others to glean from you. You made the comparison of good and evil, obvious for others to see as to how Christ is changing you for the good, but evil is decaying those without Christ. You are leaving them a trail to follow after you with, so that they are able reconcile their thoughts, as God opens their eyes and say’s to them, look and see for yourselves how I am in my peoples lives. of teaching you > Learning wasn’t something that you shied away from, you saw it as an opportunity, not a burden. You were tired of living in ways that never worked out right, and stayed that way once for all. You always had to do repair work, on the work you did in sin, because it was never right in the first place. But now, God has shown you the right way, that when you adhere to it, it never comes under disrepair, the shingles don’t grow old and the paint never peals. were entrusted to, > You saw that someone gave you wealth and that it was a treasure beyond that which any labor could bring. So you made yourselves guardians of it and as a dwelling place for yourself in Gods love. Not so that you could save it for yourselves as ones hoarding it for selfish goals, but so that you could see to its proper distribution among the people who respond to Gods all. 6:18 and having been freed from sin, > The wicked things that use to force you into obeying its desires and living off of you as a parasite, are invalid in their claim to total power in your life. Sin must be fed in order to maintain its control over you, the same is true for holiness also, but it lives off the word of God and builds you up. Sin lives of the flesh of your body and wears you down, it never quits until you are dead, even for the believer, death of the body still will occur right up till the end, except for the Rapture. you became enslaved > You were drafted into this service, and then you stepped forward and made yourselves lifers in the service to Christ. Your service is not compulsory, but voluntary, and it is a high honor to serve in Christ body. Though it is the reasonable to say that every believer should volunteer as a lifer, it is their duty of conscience to do so. This is not to say that you sought out Christ as your duty so you could enlist with him, that is not the case. Christ came and took you’re his prisoner for Gods glory, then when he revealed what he had saved you from, you begged him to keep you and never let you go as a lifer. It’s a bit difficult to put the thought into words, but both statements are true, you were drafted and at the same time, a lifer, voluntarily. Christ venture that led him t the cross, was not an act of defense, it was an all out assault on evil by the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, to glorify the God and save man from a death sentence from sin. to righteousness. > This having occurred as past tense and as it is Gods holiness that now is your master. That being that it is his attributes, that are the things that build one up and leads to life. That is your new home and you should live everyday to his dictates on life, which is righteousness as your lifestyle, the way things are in your home, should their absolutes in Gods word. 6:19 (I am speaking in human terms > I am writing this in a sort of parables and making examples out of real life conditions. I want to create metaphors, so I can demonstrate a spiritual truth, using physical realities and details that you are familiar with. because of the weakness > Because sometimes it is difficult for the human mind to grasp those things that come from an eternal God. And because some might just walk away confused if I didn’t try to visualize it for you. I want it to be able to be available to you, in a way that you can relate it to things you are already familiar with, and then understand its application in your life. That is what God gave me as my job to do, he showed me unspeakable glories of himself and is having me put it in human terms and expressions that you can relate to in tangible ways. of your flesh.) > Now, in light of the fact that the sinful nature of man, still being present with you, that it is sill trying to deceive you and make it hard for you to understand God. It is better for me to speak in a sort of sign language to you. So satan cannot twist my words into something I did not say, where with these word-pictures that I have illustrated it, so you will clearly get my message and not falsely interrupt what I am saying. For > I want you to fully understand the premise here, of what it is that I am teaching you. We need to look at the degree in which we dedicate ourselves to doing things. We need take an honest look at the past things that we really strove for, involving sinful desires and the energies the we put behind them in trying to attain them. Then compare that enthusiasm, to how we look at the things that are part of this new life in Christ and how we approach them, and whether we have the same vigor of determination in pursuit of holiness, that you had in obtaining your sinful goals. Or in some cases the lacks attitude, and the results that they produce in us now, in how we make a portrayal of ourselves, in our service to Christ, which is to our benefit also. How would someone describe the way you live you life for Christ, as compared to how you went after sin or still do? Do you still get more excited about some worldly event, than you do about your involvement with church? just as you > It’s not that sin happened without your knowledge, you were actually assisting sin in it having its way in your life. You were acting out with premeditated plans to do sinful things and a having a life dedicated to sin. You saw life as a party to be exploited for your own benefit, both at your cost, and anyone else’s cost that you could put the bill on. You boasted about your lust’s and were proud of your deceit that you used in getting others to buy into your plans. You had a goal based in sin, and you went after it with everything you had to offer it, and then some(usually somebody else’s). You had motivation back then, that drove you to do what you did, that is the same way you should view your walk with Christ, highly motivated to purse its end. once presented > So with that thinking in mind I’ll continue to explain it to you. That at one time before your salvation, you lived your life as a member of the world that followed the methods of sin. You even judged sin, by degrees of sin, making comparisons between them, so as to justify your own actions. You still do this sort of comparison thing now in the church, trying to see if you are as good as others or not. You wanted to be a part of the sin culture and have a status among them and exceed at the evil that they took part in. You all did it, so did I, but we just did not view it as the evil it was. We called evil, good and good, evil, that was our definition of life in sin. That being as it was, we all engaged in it in our own way, with full complicity in it. We wanted to be accepted by our peers, even if it did mean, doing immoral things by our own standards, we were willing to compromise our ethics, when put on the spot. your members as slaves > To attain this, you studied manipulating things as a life choice and became servants to its practice. Giving even your body to do these things, things that should have shamed you, you did as a natural course you were on, as though they were perfectly acceptable in life. You knew what the price of acceptance was in your corner of the world, and you submitted the personal attributes of your body, will of your mind and destiny of your soul, to accomplishing it. to impurity > These were things that soil the character of those who do them, making their thoughts dishonorable and untrustworthy. You became a distinct people of carnal desires and your honor became as the stench of spoiled meat, worthless, with a foulness to it that made one turn away from it. Your first thoughts were not to doing the right things, but to self-promotion at any cost. Your thinking was not clean and lovely, that one would find in the cherishing of something, it was vile with filth, and not fit for common knowledge. and lawlessness > You then with premeditation, became looters of the less fortunate, taking advantage of someone’s weakened position. You preyed on children just because they were powerless and you could get away with it as a self-serving motivation. You saw life as the advantage, to take-advantage of others. I didn’t happen by chance that you violated others, you’re looking and spying out opportunities of weakness in others, so that you could prey on them. leading > Then, because of that, you’re on the run from the law, so know you can’t even exist in the regular social life anymore. You have to live in the underworld, with all the other seedy characters, who have done as you have, and look where its got them all, the same place its got you, in the pits. to more lawlessness, > So all of that disregard for law, in turn just kept leading you deeper into a world that was more and more corrupt. Then as others found you out, they stayed away from you, which left in a even more demoralized crowd of reprobate people, and then you became even worse as you assimilated all of their immoralities also. Before you new it, you were alone and isolated without a true friend in the world, that you could depend on, not one. so now > In light of all that then, God has made it for you, so that you can throw yourself into him and his world, with the same endeavors as you did sin, with the complete opposite results. You can still be passionate, creative, plotting, seeking rewards, gaining great stature and seeking an end in it of all your labors. But not with any of the methods that you used before. To go forwards, you go backwards, to go up, you must go down. The laws of nature do not work, time is not relevant and to always win, you must always lose. To gain love, you must give it away, to be rich, you must become poor, and to become more Holy, you must be the more wretched. The list goes on, but the idea is simple, you must do the opposite of what you would do to gain prominence among the wicked. If they would be repulsive to attract attention to themselves, then you should emit real virtue as your allure to others. present your members > But that is in your past, it should at this time be what you have left behind and is not what you are desiring for your future. Now you are a part of Christ body and you follow after the things that are reminiscent of his character. Christ is now your standard bearer, to whom we all make direct comparisons to, not each other, so give the labors of your body to the things of Christ. Be available to help and serve others, and do it with an even greater passion, then to which you gave yourselves as slaves in sin, because holiness is worth it and sin was not. as slaves to righteousness > Become servants to the Holy attributes that are Gods character, study them so you are wise to their application to your life. Bind yourself to them so they are your master, a master who never abuses you, but shares his glory with you to greater service. The one thing you find greatly different in a good master, is that they are desiring of the improving the conditions of the servants under their care. They do this, because they are wise and know that what is good for themselves, is also good for them that serve them. The loyalty to their servants will become the loyalty of their servants to them also. What goes around, comes around. leading > Let it determine your path for you, so that you are not using faulty methods in the flesh to effect your decisions for you. When you are not the one who is in charge, then you are looking to some direction as to what must be done. This is the idea behind becoming a servant to holiness, your morals are not dictated by you, rather they are derived from the attributes of Gods character and received by you. They provide the path and course you take in life, not you, they by their very nature, lead you into Gods presence and make him known to you. to sanctification. > As you practice these things in your life, you are setting aside your very best for God and he is purifying you for his very best works also. You begin to think in Holy concepts, you develop godly precepts, and God, overtime begins to see the reflection of his son in you. There is nothing more pleasing to the Father, then his son Jesus Christ, and that in itself, is blessing enough in your life, to know that the Father looks upon you with the same kind of affections, as he does for his son Jesus. 6:20 For when you were > Those times that you involved yourselves in sinful activity, were times of being misled in your life, according to your own life standards. It was that state that you had in life that was causing you to continually make the wrong judgment calls, they kept you separated from God, and for the most part, you didn’t even realize it. slaves of sin, > So in that prior time when you lived your lives as servants of sin, and it had total control over you. You lived your life according to its dictates and your life premise was based on a life without any of the standards, by which you could evaluate your condition with. You were bound to that state in life, with your body, heart and soul, there was no part of your existence, that did not get its lead from the sin structure that controlled what you did in life. It affected everything you did, the way you thought, acted or planned things in general, all were tied into your sin nature. you were free > You felt no remorse from actions, you also lived in ignorance as to holiness, but seeing as you cannot serve both at the same time, because they are at war with each other. You thought to live a life without consequences, you thought you could get away with it, but you thought wrong. You really did not take into consideration the effects of what you did on others, they were not part of your end plan, so they were irrelevant, along with any moral regards you had for life itself. What was most troubling in all of what you did, was your complete absence of conscience. You were not pinned down to a reflective way of measuring your character, there was no one set standard in your life, by which you could discern your morals by. with regard > So as far as your obligation to God was concerned, your conscience was dead towards his holiness. Because you had no line of sight to see him with, you simply operated under a no clause condition in your life concerning your morals. Meaning, you had no morals clause in your contract with life, that required you to live up to certain obligations in your character. So, because of that you just did what ever you felt like doing, regardless of the outcome. For you, what ever life was producing in you, you just went along with it, without questioning its right or wrong. Morality was not a reason to base life decisions on, you weren’t thinking of the moral implications of what you were doing or its effect on you or society. to righteousness. > You didn’t care to have his attributes in you, for you believed that only the strong survived and good people just got taken advantage of. You were not basically good, you were basically evil. That was your place of stature in life, it was the purpose of your being and who you longed to be. Because you saw being at the top, as the power to do it to others, so they could not do it to you. It was more like being king of the hill and you were acting out in survival mode, absent Gods protection of you. 6:21 So what benefit In fact didn’t they take away from you even more then the temporary pleasure they
gave you, they numbed the pain for a short time, but then left you with an bleeding ulcer
that wouldn’t heal. When you add up all the things that you did, you still come up
with a negative value to it all. That’s the problem with sin, it always takes away
more than you receive from, it is just a bad investment, every time. > You can’t count their blessings, because they all became a curse, you thought you were adding to your life. But every time you had stolen something, it would steal even more from your dignity. Leaving you morally bankrupt and with less wealth, becoming poorer with every lie, crime or lust. You thought you were getting ahead, but in the end, it was all a big scam that took you for your entire life’s savings. from those things > None of what those things are made of that you engaged in, could be considered priceless. Not in the sense that they are free of consequences, so that they have no cost basis, nor in the sense of comparison to virtue, that is so precious a trait, that it is priceless. You have no comparable form of value that you can draw from sin, it always takes away from your character when holiness is the standard, where virtue always adds to the formation of a good character and is based in holiness. that you > The legacy it has left you is not the one that you would now have yourself be known for. You have a whole new perspective on life and it is hard for you now to reconcile the past with the way you want to live now, with out feeling like you have a lack of credentials backing you up. Not to mention the skeletons that are still lurking in your closet, just waiting to come out in public when you try to tell others not to sin. are now ashamed of? > So that what you do have left, are the memories of how sin betrayed you, and the humiliation you have from how you both violated them, and were violated by them over and over again. They took no mercy on you and now you hope most of it will remained buried in your past and unknown in your future. It’s a drag on your conscience that you now have to deal with them and reclaim a good reputation for yourself because of them. For > Here is how that situation then finally played itself out in your life, although that choice of the word "life", is somewhat misleading in itself. What kind of life is it that does nothing more than prey upon itself from the day of conception. the end of > By the time you reached the end of your ropes in this life, you finally realizes that is was never worth it and you wish you had never been born. All the labors that you went thru to make it from one day to the next, in the end, just was not worth it. those things > The reason being was, that they had no lasting substance. I’m not talking about the good relationships that you had with your wife and kids, if they were good that is great. What I a talking about were those worldly ambition that you bought into as all the world was chasing after. They had no substance to them, nothing that you would at your death bed. As King Solomon said, " vanity, all is vanity". is death. > If want to hit rock bottom, sin is your path there, if that is your choice then you will die in sin and have no reward in heaven. Don’t look for mercy when all your passions are for evil, God is not there until you look up to him and away from evil. If you want nothing to do with God here in your life on earth, then God will want nothing to do with you in his life in heaven. Dying in your sins will then be you final fate, that leads you to eternal death rather than eternal life. 6:22 But now, freed from sin > Christ has set you free from its bondage and opened his pastures for you to graze his meadows, a place of protected refuge that fences out darkness and sin. Where even satan is not allowed to set up his snares and traps to entangle you in his grasp. The problem is that it takes most of us, so long to move into those pastures and stay there as our home. Without jumping back over the fence out beyond its borders, searching for its past burdens to relive those wounds in us. and enslaved to God, > Once you get it right though, you will know that salvation has instead placed you in the protective custody of God, who thru virtue, adds to your life thru the servitude of freedom. Because that is the destiny of servitude to God, whereas sin took away from you your future and held you captive to its past service of sin. Gods virtue increases your freedom and allows Gods miracles to be made evident in your life beyond the human form of understanding. you have > This means also that you have possessions in your future, where in the past your possessions were all forfeited to others at your death. With Christ you have your inheritance still ahead of you, completely opposite the pattern of death. Life on earth takes away what you have and leaves it to them that are living, but life in Christ is storing up for you in heaven the inheritance of a lifetime, waiting to be revealed, not taken away. your benefit > So now you grow thru being nourished, where before sin was being nourished by you, feeding off your soul, deceiving your mind and destroying your flesh. But now God feeds you in his Spirit and ripens you as a fruit on a vine. So knowing that the fruit never does the labor itself, but receives the reward for being in the vine, that is your gain, and from that comes a fine wine. They never make fine wines out of raisins, laxative, maybe, but fine wines need to grow on the vine, just as we, resting in the Lord, are being filled with the juices of the Holy Spirit. leading to > From that, we enter the realm of being led by the Spirit to draw close to God and be altered from those encounters with him. It’s not where we have been, but where God is taking us, that is what we need to focus on. It’s the past that is keeping us from finding God more in our life. Not because what we did is preventing God, but because what we did is preventing us, causing us to look away from Gods leading us to him. sanctification, > It is when the Father who comes to you and gives you the power to grow, that you need to receive his Spirit and in so doing sin will die out. You will from this preoccupation with God, become Holy in you actions and deeds. Being set aside for an honorable work in Christ, by the power of God in you. and the end > Then when your days on earth have been completed and your flesh finally dies. You’ll already have become aware of your heavenly Father and the way of his character, you’ll be no stranger to him in heaven or to the ways of God that will already be alive in you. It will be the final byproduct of yourself reaching back up to God, as he reaches down to you on earth. But in reality, it will only be the end of the beginning, as what comes after physical death, is your inclusion into the eternal nature of God. is eternal life. > There, you’ll be given all of his love and affections face to face, and they’ll never be an end to your time with him, because time itself will be brought to an end. The process of life itself will also cease, so far as the life cycle that we exist in. 6:23 For the payoff > Whether you work your whole life to accomplish the highest level of achievement you can, live your life as a thief or lazy person. You put in your time, and tell yourself that the end justifies the means. So what do you receive when it is all said and done. You’re at the end of your time on earth, and just as for everyone, the day comes, when there is not another day left, that you can plan for or make ready one more effort. of sin is death, > Evil steals your profits, robs you of your virtue, by this time everyone knows your true identity. It lies to you of your eternal destiny and then abandons you in the grave, dead and buried, all alone, and says to you, you earned it all, and I got you! but > In contrast to that, there are those who heeded the call of God, and responded to him, trusting that he could and would save them. Because of that, they are in a completely opposite set of circumstances at the end of their days. They rejected the false promises and claims of the world and gave their bodied over to the control of the Holy Spirit. Who befriended them, taking them along side him, even as a mentor guides someone, straight into a new life with God. the gift of God > So lets look at Gods gift to us, his very first gift to us is forgiveness for all that sin wrought in us, as he cuts away the chains of sin that bind us. Then he justifies us, making us legally credited with Jesus righteousness so that we are ok with him and not in any trouble when we die. Making our reborn Spirit as pure and Holy as Jesus own body, which removes all our guilty conscience; if we are wise enough to accept it and let it be so. Then he binds us into one living organism on earth thru the Holy Spirit, called his church. This is Gods representation to man on earth of Christ actual existence in heaven. Then he empowers us to replace all our bad habits, with good ones in service in the church, contributing to one another in what we do on earth. Until that final day, when all those that he has chosen to save on earth, are safely in his care and he brings all time to an end. is eternal life > He then commutes our death sentence, to eternal life in the body of Christ. Where he then makes us rulers along with his son Jesus, and sets us up in the most beautiful Palace ever seen. So lets think this thru logically together, sin beats you up with its labor, robs, lies and uses you, and then you die… Or-God gives you all that I have described in return for surrendering your old decrepit body, for a new one in him. He then pays your debt and frees you from the obligation of all your sins. Now, it should not be a hard choice for you, yet we all struggle with the truth… after we have lived a lifelong lie. in Christ Jesus our Lord. > And all this happens, thru the work of Christ Jesus our Lord, who made an atonement for our sins on the cross. So we could become aware and know the glory of God, and his glory would established before the Angels. |
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