- Jun 26, 2015
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A brother in another forum asked the question, and it is an excellent one. Are we required to obey the two commandments? The two great commandments? All the above. None of the above? Here was my response. I pray you take it to heart and open yourselves to possibilities thatcup til now we have been blinded to.
*********** ***
No maatter what our answer may be, we will find failure will be our result. And why? We are still under the grip of the law.... i.e. self effort. The law was meant to be our schoolmaster to bring us, humbled and broken, with no confidence in our flesh, to the feet of Christ. But has it done it’s work in us?
I hear men say that the only commandments now are to love God with our whole hearts and the love our neighbor as ourselves. Well, guess what? If we truly set our hearts to do so, we again find abject failure. Is this not the truth, if we are totally honest with ourselves?
So what gives? Even though we are no longer under the law, we still find failure. Why? Because the essence of the law.... self effort... still binds us tightly, so that the best we can do is Romans 7, not Romans 8
Most have settled in in their prison cells, content with failure and forgiveness, but Jesus promised us FREE INDEED. And that is found by our living as Christians in Romans 8.
So how do we escape this terrible dilemma? We have to die, for that is the only way the power of the law is satisfied, releasing us from our prisons of self and what naturally follows.... self effort.
We read this, and our hearts sink. Most of us have tried to die, to deny self, yet year after year our old carnal self loving nature remains. Why? Because we have just looped back to trying again. Grrrrr.....
So.... what IS the answer? How do we finally walk under the easy yoke? How do we ever escape Romans 7 and walk as new creatures, as overcomers, not as the overcome? Is it even possible?
Oh, yes! I pray you believe me. Yes!! For even the weakest among us, bound by addictive sins that rule over many of God’s elect with an iron fist, God promises freedom from the power of the world and its baubles, the flesh and its desires and the devil hi,self and his temptations and accusations.
So what is the answer? If we have to die to break the law’s authority over us, and we cannot do that, how can we ever stare down the devil when temptation comes and do so with confidence, even joy?
The answer to our Romans 7 dilemma is found in the preceding chapter... Romans 6. Here we are told two truths, first that we... our old us.... died when Christ died. And secondlay, that when Christ rose to newness of life, so DID we. Past tense.
Oh, we have known this, and accept it as true, and still, no change has occurred? What gives? Oh, I pray all who read this listen closely. This is the key we have been missing to unlock the overcomer that resides within us.
We must appropriate those truths as OUR truths. That is what Paul tells us when he instructs us to DO something. You asked what we must do? Here it is.
“Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Romans 6:11
What I am sharing is not theory. 12 years ago, God gave this to me at my lowest. And when I finally had my blinders removed, and actually believed the old me did not need to die but WAS dead, I yielded myself to God. But this time something was different. I yielded myself to Him as one who is alive from the dead!
And with that, the law’s chain that had bound me to sin for so many years, even as a Christian.... fell to the ground.
What do we have to DO that we might work the works of God? BELIEVE HIM. We are dead and our life is hid with Christ in God. When we finally step out to believe that amazing truth as OUR truth, we step into agreement with God and abiding in Him opens up as not only possibly but assured!
Sorry this has gone longer than I intended, but concise answers is not my gift lol. If you have any questions, feel free to ask them and I will do my best to answer you.
Blessings,
Gideon
*********** ***
No maatter what our answer may be, we will find failure will be our result. And why? We are still under the grip of the law.... i.e. self effort. The law was meant to be our schoolmaster to bring us, humbled and broken, with no confidence in our flesh, to the feet of Christ. But has it done it’s work in us?
I hear men say that the only commandments now are to love God with our whole hearts and the love our neighbor as ourselves. Well, guess what? If we truly set our hearts to do so, we again find abject failure. Is this not the truth, if we are totally honest with ourselves?
So what gives? Even though we are no longer under the law, we still find failure. Why? Because the essence of the law.... self effort... still binds us tightly, so that the best we can do is Romans 7, not Romans 8
Most have settled in in their prison cells, content with failure and forgiveness, but Jesus promised us FREE INDEED. And that is found by our living as Christians in Romans 8.
So how do we escape this terrible dilemma? We have to die, for that is the only way the power of the law is satisfied, releasing us from our prisons of self and what naturally follows.... self effort.
We read this, and our hearts sink. Most of us have tried to die, to deny self, yet year after year our old carnal self loving nature remains. Why? Because we have just looped back to trying again. Grrrrr.....
So.... what IS the answer? How do we finally walk under the easy yoke? How do we ever escape Romans 7 and walk as new creatures, as overcomers, not as the overcome? Is it even possible?
Oh, yes! I pray you believe me. Yes!! For even the weakest among us, bound by addictive sins that rule over many of God’s elect with an iron fist, God promises freedom from the power of the world and its baubles, the flesh and its desires and the devil hi,self and his temptations and accusations.
So what is the answer? If we have to die to break the law’s authority over us, and we cannot do that, how can we ever stare down the devil when temptation comes and do so with confidence, even joy?
The answer to our Romans 7 dilemma is found in the preceding chapter... Romans 6. Here we are told two truths, first that we... our old us.... died when Christ died. And secondlay, that when Christ rose to newness of life, so DID we. Past tense.
Oh, we have known this, and accept it as true, and still, no change has occurred? What gives? Oh, I pray all who read this listen closely. This is the key we have been missing to unlock the overcomer that resides within us.
We must appropriate those truths as OUR truths. That is what Paul tells us when he instructs us to DO something. You asked what we must do? Here it is.
“Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Romans 6:11
What I am sharing is not theory. 12 years ago, God gave this to me at my lowest. And when I finally had my blinders removed, and actually believed the old me did not need to die but WAS dead, I yielded myself to God. But this time something was different. I yielded myself to Him as one who is alive from the dead!
And with that, the law’s chain that had bound me to sin for so many years, even as a Christian.... fell to the ground.
What do we have to DO that we might work the works of God? BELIEVE HIM. We are dead and our life is hid with Christ in God. When we finally step out to believe that amazing truth as OUR truth, we step into agreement with God and abiding in Him opens up as not only possibly but assured!
Sorry this has gone longer than I intended, but concise answers is not my gift lol. If you have any questions, feel free to ask them and I will do my best to answer you.
Blessings,
Gideon