Romans 7:7-8

7 What then do we conclude? Is the Law identical with sin? Certainly not! Nevertheless, if it had not been for the Law, I should not have recognized sin or have known its meaning. [For instance] I would not have known about covetousness [would have had no consciousness of sin or sense of guilt] if the Law had not [repeatedly] said, You shall not covet and have an evil desire [for one thing and another].

    

The Law is not sin. The Ten Commandments are not sin, but the Law did convict us of sin. The Law showed us how we should act and then set consequences. But remember what our Father told us in Romans 7:6, that the Law restrained us and it held us captive. Our Father also told us in verse 6 that we have now terminated all relationship with the Law. The Law was not sin, but that did not mean that it wasn’t contrary to us. 

The Law served a purpose for a season, but its season has passed. We now have and live in the freedom of grace. We are no longer alone. We now have our Father acting and empowering us to live. Does this mean that we now just go and do whatever we want? How can we do that when Jesus is now our Head? When He is our Shepherd? Do people not know that the Holy Spirit now causes us to walk in that paths of righteousness and we are never left alone or forsaking by our Father. We are now new creatures in Christ, old things have passed away for us and now all things are new. 

8 But sin, finding opportunity in the commandment [to express itself], got a hold on me and aroused and stimulated all kinds of forbidden desires (lust, covetousness). For without the Law sin is dead [the sense of it is inactive and a lifeless thing].

Look at what the Law did, it told us what we couldn’t do and then we wanted to do it. Remember what our Father told us in Romans 11:32, that He made all of us to act this way. 

For God has consigned (penned up) all men to disobedience, only that He may have mercy on them all [alike].

Our Father gave the Law to cause us to understand that we can never do anything on our own. He gave the Law to show us that we will fail miserably every time that we believe that it is us doing anything on our own. Our Father made us so that we could never be without Him. The Law showed men the futility of trying to live by their own efforts and that they never could. Go to a church today that is a fire and brimstone preaching church. Listen to the preacher condemn the people and their actions. Listen to him tell them what they have to do. Then go and see how the congregation is actually living. You will see that they are all failing miserably at living by the Ten Commandments. It is impossible for them too live right, because they all believe that they are doing it own their own. The Law was designed to make men realize that it has to be our Father being greater in us, then we who are in the world. 

We will only start living righteously when we realize that their is now no Law for us to follow. Righteous living will only happen when we truly begin to acknowledge that what Jesus did for us on the Cross was successful and that sin is now dead. True righteous living will only come when we stop thinking that we have a part to play in this life on our own. As long as man believes that God has made rules and that we must follow them through our own free will and with our own efforts, there will always be non-righteous living. People can preach all they want and as loud as they want that we shouldn’t sin. But unless they begin to tell the Truth that there is now no Law to convict us of sin, and that sin is dead, people will continue to live the opposite way of what they preach. 

Romans 7:6

6 But now we are discharged from the Law and have terminated all intercourse with it, having died to what once restrained and held us captive. So now we serve not under [obedience to] the old code of written regulations, but [under obedience to the promptings] of the Spirit in newness [of life].

    

Right now we are now discharged from the Ten Commandments. We have terminated all relationship to them and to every other Law, except the Law of Love. 

Love does no wrong to one's neighbor [it never hurts anybody]. Therefore love meets all the requirements and is the fulfilling of the Law. Romans 13:10

I have made Your Name known to them and revealed Your character and Your very [a]Self, and I will continue to make [You] known, that the love which You have bestowed upon Me may be in them [felt in their hearts] and that I [Myself] may be in them. John 17:26

The only Law that we now live under is Love and to insure that we love, Jesus lives to ever intercede for us so that we are saved to the uttermost, Hebrews 7:25. Jesus lives to make the Truth known to us and because He does, we now have His very own love living in us. The Truth is that in Christ we cannot help but love. Amen, we now serve our Kingdom through the power of the Holy Spirit that dwells within us, not by us keeping rules.

And I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Comforter (Counselor, Helper, Intercessor, Advocate, Strengthener, and Standby), that He may remain with you forever-- John 14:16

When we talk about our freedom from any and every law that would convict us of sin, people far too often assume that we are advocating going out and getting drunk, killing people, lying, stealing, doing drugs, or whatever else they consider to be sin. That is the farthest thing from the Truth. We are sharing the only way that those acts will ever stop in our life’s. The Law restrained us from being free from sin. It held us captive to being dependent on ourselves and our own abilities. Grace, which is our Father directly influencing our souls, is the only way that we can be free from sin. Grace frees us from sins presence, pleasure, power, and penalty. 

It is a reason for pride and exultation to which our conscience testifies that we have conducted ourselves in the world [generally] and especially toward you, with devout and pure motives and godly sincerity, not in fleshly wisdom but by the grace of God (the unmerited favor and merciful kindness by which God, exerting His holy influence upon souls, turns them to Christ, and keeps, strengthens, and increases them in Christian virtues). 2 Corinthians 1:12

Our old husband, the Law, has died and we have remarried Grace, and Grace is a far better husband! 

Romans 7:5

5 When we were living in the flesh (mere physical lives), the sinful passions that were awakened and aroused up by [what] the Law [makes sin] were constantly operating in our natural powers (in our bodily organs, in the sensitive appetites and wills of the flesh), so that we bore fruit for death.

The important Truth here in verse 5 is that the Holy Spirit writes that when we were in the flesh. He does not have Paul write that these passions are in our flesh now. I have found that most people still believe that we are limited by our flesh. They believe that our spirits are somehow the only things that our Father sent Jesus to deal with. How weak would salvation be if our Father knew that there was nothing good in our flesh and then He did nothing about it?

And may the God of peace Himself sanctify you through and through [separate you from profane things, make you pure and wholly consecrated to God]; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved sound and complete [and found] blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah). 1 Thessalonians 5:23

    

And I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you shall heed My ordinances and do them. Ezekiel 36:27

We know that our old (unrenewed) self was nailed to the cross with Him in order that [our] body [which is the instrument] of sin might be made ineffective and inactive for evil, that we might no longer be the slaves of sin. Romans 6:6

Jesus came so that we could be one with Him right now, even while we are on this earth and even though we possess flesh. We are right now completely one with Jesus, John 17:23. How can Jesus be connected to sin, when He has died to sin once and for all, Romans 6:10? So it is impossible for us to still have a sin nature in our flesh and be one with Christ. 

Also notice what our Father tells us here in Romans 7:5, that the Law awakened and aroused a sinful attitude in us. I know that most people do not believe this, but it is the Truth, our Father made man to want to do what we are told not to do. He did this so that none of us could ever depend on ourselves. We were made to depend on our Father being greater in us. We were made to need Christ, John 15:5. 

For God has consigned (penned up) all men to disobedience, only that He may have mercy on them all [alike]. Romans 11:32

Romans 7:2-4

2 For [instance] a married woman is bound by law to her husband as long as he lives; but if her husband dies, she is loosed and discharged from the law concerning her husband.

    

3 Accordingly, she will be held an adulteress if she unites herself to another man while her husband lives. But if her husband dies, the marriage law no longer is binding on her [she is free from that law]; and if she unites herself to another man, she is not an adulteress.

    

4 Likewise, my brethren, you have undergone death as to the Law through the [crucified] body of Christ, so that now you may belong to Another, to Him Who was raised from the dead in order that we may bear fruit for God.

  

How much clearer can our Father be to us? No one considers a woman to be committing adultery if she remarries after her husband dies. Our Father tells us plainly and repeatedly that the Law has died for us. Jesus came and was successful and through His sacrifice and success the Law is now dead. So the Truth is that we are now discharged from it. We have remarried, we are now the Bride of Christ, and Christ is all about free and unearned Grace. 

Could you imagine how bad a marriage it would be if a woman continually kept talking about and doing the things that her dead husband demanded of her? What if her new home was filled with his pictures and she daily tried to talk about and do what he had said? The new marriage would stink! Yet, go into churches and see all of the Ten Commandments hanging around. Listen to the preachers tell us what we have to work and how we have to act. They mention grace, our new husband, but it's always tied to getting to Him through our old dead husband. That is just creepy when you think about it. It's like telling the woman that to please her new husband, she must work through her dead husband. 

Father that is good teaching right there! Empower us Father to really know what your grace is. Allow us to live in its fullness and power and empower us Father to share its Truth with the world so that they may be set free. 

Roman 7:1 Continued

Even the Father judges no one, for He has given all judgment (the last judgment and the whole business of judging) entirely into the hands of the Son, John 5:22

Our Father has given all judgment over to Jesus. This is a glorious thing, because Jesus is our High Priest and He knows what it is like to be human, Hebrews 4:15. When Jesus was here on the earth as a man we repeatedly were shown how He judges. Jesus forgave and let an adulterous woman go free, John 8:11. He forgave the very people that were killing Him, Luke 23:34. He forgave a sick man His sins and the man was restored to health, Matthew 9:2. Jesus told us to always forgive, Matthew 18:22. The glorious Truth is that Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever, Hebrews 13:8. There is also another powerful Truth here with these examples of Jesus’ judging style: none of the people being forgiven by Jesus were asking to be. This shows us plainly how Jesus will judge on Judgment Day because He never changes. He will judge with pure grace, all freely given and all completely underserved!

There is also another Truth that many people do not know and that is that we will sit in judgement with Jesus on Judgement Day, 1 Corinthians 6:2. 

Do you not know that the saints (the believers) will [one day] judge and govern the world? And if the world [itself] is to be judged and ruled by you, are you unworthy and incompetent to try [such petty matters] of the smallest courts of justice?

In Revelation John saw the Thrones of the Judges, not the Throne of the Judge.  

Then I saw thrones, and sitting on them were those to whom authority to act as judges and to pass sentence was entrusted. Also I saw the souls of those who had been slain with axes [beheaded] for their witnessing to Jesus and [for preaching and testifying] for the Word of God, and who had refused to pay homage to the beast or his statue and had not accepted his mark or permitted it to be stamped on their foreheads or on their hands. And they lived again and ruled with Christ (the Messiah) a thousand years. Revelation 20:4

As we talked about in our Study of Romans 7:1, so many in religion try and fear us into acting right by threatening us about the consequences of our actions on Judgment Day. The Truth is that we are raised up, transformed to be just like Jesus, 1000 years before Judgement Day. We actually rule with Him for the 1000 years prior to Judgment Day. So for us to be judged on Judgment Day doesn’t make any since. Jesus would actually be judging Himself and His actions, because we are now members of His body, flesh of His flesh, and bone of His bone, Ephesians 5:30. The Truth is that we have already passed from judgment and now live a new life in Christ Jesus. This is the Truth that allows us to live righteously and honor our Father and our Kingdom, not that we have to fear. 

I assure you, most solemnly I tell you, the person whose ears are open to My words [who listens to My message] and believes and trusts in and clings to and relies on Him Who sent Me has (possesses now) eternal life. And he does not come into judgment [does not incur sentence of judgment, will not come under condemnation], but he has already passed over out of death into life. John 5:24

Romans 7:1

1 DO YOU not know, brethren--for I am speaking to men who are acquainted with the Law--that legal claims have power over a person only for as long as he is alive?

Before we start on this study of Romans 7, I want you to know that this Chapter, far more than any other Chapter in the Bible, has been used by people to try and disprove the Truth of our freedom from sin in Christ. But, as we will see, our Father shows us, with this Chapter, the glorious Truth of our Freedom.  

The very first thing that we are told here is that legal claims only apply to us as long as we are alive. This should bring out of you a great big amen, because our Father has shown us repeatedly through His Word that we are now dead.

Are you ignorant of the fact that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Romans 6:3

For [as far as this world is concerned] you have died, and your [new, real] life is hidden with Christ in God. Colossians 3:3

I have been crucified with Christ [in Him I have shared His crucifixion]; it is no longer I who live, but Christ (the Messiah) lives in me; and the life I now live in the body I live by faith in (by adherence to and reliance on and complete trust in) the Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself up for me. Galatians 2:20

There is not a single legal claim that can be laid against us. We have been made free and this Truth is what empowers us to live as our Lord lives. Not just as He lived, but as He lives! We have passed from all judgment and we now have eternal life!

I assure you, most solemnly I tell you, the person whose ears are open to My words [who listens to My message] and believes and trusts in and clings to and relies on Him Who sent Me has (possesses now) eternal life. And he does not come into judgment [does not incur sentence of judgment, will not come under condemnation], but he has already passed over out of death into life. John 5:24

Too many religious people try and bring us into fear of Judgment Day. When the Truth is that we will have been transformed and ruling with Jesus for 1,000 years before Judgment Day ever occurs! For us to be judged on that day would mean that Jesus would have to bring us back to human form, separate Himself from us, and then judge Himself for how He lived through us. 

My next post will be on that we have passed from judgement and that we actual are the judges on Judgment Day. 

Romans 6:19-23

19 I am speaking in familiar human terms because of your natural limitations. For as you yielded your bodily members [and faculties] as servants to impurity and ever increasing lawlessness, so now yield your bodily members [and [d]faculties] once for all as servants to righteousness (right being and doing) [which leads] to sanctification.

    

20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.

    

21 But then what benefit (return) did you get from the things of which you are now ashamed? [None] for the end of those things is death.

This is what is missing with so many who stumble at our freedom in Christ: they don’t realize that we have been enlightened with the Holy Spirit. They don’t understand that we now have Jesus’ very mind and so we know that sin has no benefit, 1 Corinthians 2:16. When our Father grafts us into The Vine, which is Jesus, not only is the penalty of sin removed from us, the pleasure of sin is removed as well. We now have the same attitude towards sin that Jesus has. Our Head doesn’t enjoy murder, lying, stealing, or any other harmful act, so how can His body? People need to know that we now actually have the Mind of Christ and our minds now desire righteousness as much as Jesus desires it. Righteousness allows us to serve others and further the Kingdom of our Father. 

Far too many people believe that sin still holds power over us. As long as a person believes that the ability to sin or not to sin lies within themselves, they will desire to sin. Our Father made us this way. He demands that we look unto Him to Author and Finish our faith, Hebrews 12:2. The Truth sets us free and the Truth is that through Christ we are free from sin, John 8:32. The Truth is there is no longer any law to convict us with, Romans 8:2. The Truth is that we are now more than conquerors through Christ, Romans 8:37, and the Truth is that Jesus is greater in us, then anything that is in this world, 1 John 4:4. 

    

22 But now since you have been set free from sin and have become the slaves of God, you have your present reward in holiness and its end is eternal life.

    

We are now free from sin and our present reward is that we are truly Holy. In this world we are Holy. Man, I really do not believe that people know this glorious Truth. We absolutely need to preach this from the rooftops. Far too many people believe that they are still under a curse, when the Truth is that Jesus has redeemed us from the curse, Galatians 3:13. They believe that our Father is against them because of their actions. Our Father knows our limitations because He made us, Romans 11:32. He isn’t angry at us. He has given us full access to His grace. Our actions, whether good or bad, in no way limit our Father from taking care of us. He never leaves us and He never forsakes us, Hebrews 13:5. Where sin abounds, our Father’s grace much more abounds, Romans 5:20. We are now one with Jesus and He has given us His very glory, John 17:  

23 For the wages which sin pays is death, but the [bountiful] free gift of God is eternal life through (in union with) Jesus Christ our Lord.

The effects of sin have been destroyed through Christ. Jesus did away with the law of sin and death. We are now Holy and we now possess eternal life. These things are not waiting for us in Heaven, they are our possessions right now. We posses them every bit as much as Jesus possess them. That is what salvation has freely given us. 

Romans 6:18

18 And having been set free from sin, you have become the servants of righteousness (of conformity to the divine will in thought, purpose, and action).

You have to just love this Truth: we have been set free from sin. Through Christ we  have become the servants of righteousness. So many of us place so much weight on sin. People are constantly talking of its wages, when the glorious Truth is that we have been set free from the Law of Sin and Death, Romans 8:2.

For the law of the Spirit of life [which is] in Christ Jesus [the law of our new being] has freed me from the law of sin and of death.

What is in abundance in our hearts our mouths will speak, Luke 6:45. If a person is always talking about what sin will do and the consequences of it, sin is what is in abundance in their heart. Human nature is that we will aggressively preach against what it is that we are actually doing, Romans 2:1. We feel condemned by our shortcomings and so we try to tell others that it is wrong. It makes us feel better, especially when we see others and their shortcomings.  

I use to ask for forgiveness dozens of times a day. I would preach what was wrong and how our Father would discipline us for our sin. The problem was that the focus of all of my efforts was on man and not on Jesus. But as soon as our Father showed me the Truth about our freedom in Christ and just how successful that He was, everything in my life changed. Our Father began to use me to share the Truth and He empowered me to tell people to look to Jesus. He filled my heart with the knowledge and actual experiences of His grace. My carnal thought process, which before only focused on my actions and the negative consequences of them, went right out the door. Our Father showed me that all things now work out for our good, Romans 8:28. He showed me that Jesus’ sacrifice was so powerful that it overcame sin. I was shown that what Jesus did dwarfed anything wrong that we would do. 

The Truth finally allowed my life to begin to be lived the way that it should be. As long as I thought about how I controlled my destiny through my actions, I constantly did the things that I thought would damn me. But when the Holy Spirit set me straight and showed me the Truth of grace, it took my focus off of myself and placed it solely and completely on Jesus. Only after He did this for me, did I began to live in the ways of righteousness. What is in abundance our hearts we definitely speak and only the Holy Spirit and His Truth can take the focus off ourselves and that is what set us free!    

Romans 6:16-17

16 Do you not know that if you continually surrender yourselves to anyone to do his will, you are the slaves of him whom you obey, whether that be to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience which leads to righteousness (right doing and right standing with God)?

Now if you just read this verse alone, one could easily say that we are to obey either God or sin on our own, as if we alone have the power. Whole doctrines are created by taking a verse and then making a law out of it, which only brings people under bondage. The Truth however is that through Christ we are now new creatures, 2 Corinthians 5:17. We are now members of Jesus. We are now flesh of His flesh and bone of His bone, Ephesians 5:30. We have been sacrificed with Him, the ultimate surrendering, Romans 6:3-5. We cannot help but be obedient to righteousness because we are dead, yet we live, but it is not us who live, it is Christ in us Who lives, Galatians 2:20.

    

17 But thank God, though you were once slaves of sin, you have become obedient with all your heart to the standard of teaching in which you were instructed and to which you were committed.

We are now obedient with all of our hearts, because our Father has given us a new heart to be obedient with. 

A new heart will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you, and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. Ezekiel 36:26

Romans 6:15

15 What then [are we to conclude]? Shall we sin because we live not under Law but under God's favor and mercy? Certainly not!

    

I absolutely love this verse. Two thousand years ago Paul was dealing with the same responses that religious people give today when we tell them just how free that we are in Christ. I hear this all of the time, “You mean to tell me that I can go kill someone and still be saved?” I love to freak people out and say yes, without any hesitation whatsoever. The glorious Truth is that in Christ we are now free from all law. Because of what Jesus did for us we are free from don’t eat pork and don’t kill. 

All things are legitimate [permissible--and we are free to do anything we please], but not all things are helpful (expedient, profitable, and wholesome). All things are legitimate, but not all things are constructive [to character] and edifying [to spiritual life]. 1 Corinthians 10:23

When a true born again person hears the Truth that we are now free from all law, they rejoice and realize that it is not a license to sin, but it is power to be used by our Father to serve as our Lord serves. We now have the Mind of Christ and we ever live to be a benefit to others, not a hindrance. All things are now legitimate to us, but through the power of the Holy Spirit that strengthens us, we are not drawn to or attracted by all things. Salvation has set us free from the power of sin, the penalty of sin, the pleasure of sin, and the presence of sin. This is the glory that we now have in Christ. 

We may not fully understand this freedom, but I have never met a true Christian that doesn’t welcome it. It has been born into us to desire the freedom that Jesus came and secured for us. When a person hears the Truth and then they desire or believe that they can now freely sin, is a true sign of where that person is. There is no condemnation, it is just a realization that there is a really good chance that they have not yet been empowered to accept the Truth that will set them free. They may very well be chosen to be the Bride and just don’t know it yet. They may be called to be a guest of the Bride. But amen, either way, they will one day come to know the glorious freedom that our Father has given to all of us through Christ.

Romans 6:12-14

12 Let not sin therefore rule as king in your mortal (short-lived, perishable) bodies, to make you yield to its cravings and be subject to its lusts and evil passions.

    

13 Do not continue offering or yielding your bodily members [and faculties] to sin as instruments (tools) of wickedness. But offer and yield yourselves to God as though you have been raised from the dead to [perpetual] life, and your bodily members [and faculties] to God, presenting them as implements of righteousness.

14 For sin shall not [any longer] exert dominion over you, since now you are not under Law [as slaves], but under grace [as subjects of God's favor and mercy].

    

Our Father repeatedly tells us in Romans that we are no longer under any law, but that through Christ we are now only under grace. This is the Truth that empowers us to not yield our bodies to sin. Because grace is not just the undeserved favor that we receive from God, it is our Father actually exerting His Holy influence on our souls.

It is a reason for pride and exultation to which our conscience testifies that we have conducted ourselves in the world [generally] and especially toward you, with devout and pure motives and godly sincerity, not in fleshly wisdom but by the grace of God (the unmerited favor and merciful kindness by which God, exerting His holy influence upon souls, turns them to Christ, and keeps, strengthens, and increases them in Christian virtues). 2 Corinthians 1:12

LABORING TOGETHER [as God's fellow workers] with Him then, we beg of you not to receive the grace of God in vain [that merciful kindness by which God exerts His holy influence on souls and turns them to Christ, keeping and strengthening them--do not receive it to no purpose]. 2 Corinthians 6:1

Our Father, Who is God, never leaves us alone to do anything on our own, Hebrews 13:5. He especially doesn’t leave us on our own to stop ourselves from sinning. We are only able to not yield to sin, because greater is He that is in us, 1 John 4:4, and because we are now more than conquerors through the power of Christ that lives within us, Romans 8:37. Our Father is an active Father. He is the Initiator of all things, He is not the Reactor of things. It is His power that enables us to be as He is, even while we are still in this world, 1 John 4:17. 

Our Father is not limited in our life’s by our knowledge of Him. He is not limited by our mental capacity to believe His Truth. Addictions do not limit His ability to direct us, illnesses, handicaps, medicines, and age have no power to stop our Father from working through us in all of His fullness. Grace is greater than any fleshly or worldly situation. Sin has been defeated and we now are able to see our Father’s Truth and His Truth sets us free!   

Romans 6:7-11

7 For when a man dies, he is freed (loosed, delivered) from [the power of] sin [among men].

    

8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him,

The question here is have we died, because we are in Christ, or are we going to die? 

For [as far as this world is concerned] you have died, and your [new, real] life is hidden with Christ in God. Colossians 3:3

I have been crucified with Christ [in Him I have shared His crucifixion]; it is no longer I who live, but Christ (the Messiah) lives in me; and the life I now live in the body I live by faith in (by adherence to and reliance on and complete trust in) the Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself up for me. Galatians 2:20

The saying is sure and worthy of confidence: If we have died with Him, we shall also live with Him. 2 Timothy 2:11

The Truth is that we are dead with Christ, so we are free, delivered, and loosed from the power of sin. 

9 Because we know that Christ (the Anointed One), being once raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has power over Him.

    

10 For by the death He died, He died to sin [ending His relation to it] once for all; and the life that He lives, He is living to God [in unbroken fellowship with Him].

    

11 Even so consider yourselves also dead to sin and your relation to it broken, but alive to God [living in unbroken fellowship with Him] in Christ Jesus.

    

Amen look at that glorious bit of Truth: we are to consider ourselves to be completely dead to sin, just as Jesus is dead to sin! Is our Father asking us to lie here? Are we to say that we are dead to sin, even though we are still alive to it? Lying is a sin, so we have to be completely dead to sin to consider ourselves to be dead to sin. Are we dead to sin by our works? No, because our works are as filthy rags. Also if it was by our works then we could boast, but no man can boast before God. We are dead to sin by grace and only grace. We do not earn a better relationship with our Father by our actions or works. We will work righteous works, but it is only by our Father’s power that is at work within us. This is why there is no condemnation for us, Romans 8:1. Greater is He that is in us, then he that is in this world. 

Ask yourself this, do you consider yourself to be dead to sin? Our Father tells us that we can and that we should. Here is some great Truth: whether you believe it now or not, your dead to sin by the sacrifice of Jesus. How will they hear this Truth without a preacher, Romans 10:14?

Romans 6:6

6 We know that our old (unrenewed) self was nailed to the cross with Him in order that [our] body [which is the instrument] of sin might be made ineffective and inactive for evil, that we might no longer be the slaves of sin.

    

Do you believe that people really know what our Father tells us here? Do they really know that their flesh is now ineffective for evil? Do people really know that they are no longer slaves to sin? I can tell you from my experiences is that most people do not believe this glorious Truth and they often times will aggressively attack it when it is told to them. But amen, it is the Truth. Jesus came and was sacrificed for our shortcomings. He was raised from the dead and that work was far, far, greater then any evil work our flesh has done or will ever do! Jesus deprived sin of any opportunity to take us away from Him. 

Jesus was successful in removing any law that could ever convict us of a sin, Romans 8:1-4, Romans 10:3-4, Galatians 2:16-21, and Galatians 3:10-14. Jesus came and was successful in implementing grace and grace is all undeserved and all unearned. Our righteousness is as filthy rags, Isaiah 64:6. Our best is sin. Even Jesus said that His Own flesh wasn’t good enough, Mark 10:18. So if Jesus’ flesh wasn’t good enough, how could ours be? Our Father knew who and how we were, so He gave a sacrifice and that sacrifice secured our eternal life with Him through Christ. There is no sin in Christ and we are now in Christ, John 17:23.

I was asked yesterday if this is true, why is there a Hell? That is a great question, why is there a Hell, if Christ now has all flesh and has given eternal life to all flesh, John 17:2?  There is a Hell because that is where our Father throws things that are to cease to be, Revelation 20:14. Once something is thrown into Hell, it ceases to be, it can never come back. Our Father will throw death and Hades and all that has to do with them into Hell, or the Lake of Fire, and they will forever cease to be. Our Father will throw satan and the fallen angels into Hell and they never come back, Revelation 19:20 and Revelation 20:10. There will also be at least one person thrown into the Lake of Fire, Matthew 22:13. Jesus tells us in John 17:12 that He has only lost one person that He has been given and that one person is Judas. There is a Hell, but no one is there yet, because Judgment Day has not yet occurred. Hell exists for our Father to end things.   

But amen, there are far less things ended then most of us believe. Because as we have studied where sin abounds, grace much more abounds, Romans 5:20. Our Father is not so insecure that He will destroy people because they don’t believe Him. Actually the Truth is that we can only believe Him because He first empowers us to believe Him, 1 Corinthians 12:3. Grace tells us that people are still blessed even though they do not believe. We are told to bless those who curse us, Luke 6:28. We are told to feed our enemies, Romans 12:20, and we are told to always forgive, Matthew 18:22. This is how our Father is and this is how He is through us and He never changes, Hebrews 13:8. Grace saves us, not our works, thank God that is True!  

Every knee will bow and every tongue will confess the Truth that will set them free, our Father's grace will accept nothing less. 

Romans 6:5

5 For if we have become one with Him by sharing a death like His, we shall also be [one with Him in sharing] His resurrection [by a new life lived for God].

Amen, we now live as Jesus lives. We now live by the complete control and power of our Father and the glorious thing is that we have been empowered to know and accept this Truth. I want to talk a little here about Jesus’ flesh. Our Father did not just raise Jesus’ Spirit up from Hades, He also raised His flesh up from the dead and we now share in that resurrection as well. Think about Jesus’ flesh, because He still has flesh. Jesus’ body was tortured to the point where you would not even recognize Him, Isaiah 52:14. It was pierced with nails and a sword and eleven days after all of this happened, a person could still place their fingers in His open wounds, John 20:26-27. Jesus did not have to bandage or treat His wounds after He was raised up from the dead. He did not regain all of the Blood that had drained out of Him, yet His flesh lived and walked and even ate, Luke 24:42-43. 

Our Father tells us that we are now one with the power of Jesus’ resurrection. What I am getting at is this: our bodies, which are our flesh, are now controlled and function through the power of the Holy Spirit, just as Jesus’ body is controlled and functions by the power of the Holy Spirit. This is the glory of what it means to be one with His resurrection. The benefits are for our spirits, our souls, and yes, even our bodies. 

So who cares what a doctor says? Jesus doesn’t need functioning organs to be alive and fellowship, why do we? Jesus still has flesh, but His flesh is no longer bound by the rules of this world. Jesus’ flesh is ruled by the laws of the Holy Spirit and the Laws of the Holy Spirit are limitless. We now walk and live in this life by the faith of our Lord, not by the dictates of our carnal flesh. This is why we now enjoy life and peace. This is what it means to have life and have it more abundantly. 

So often we only talk about our spirits and the glory that they have been given in Christ. But Jesus came and allowed Himself to be sacrificed for our spirits, souls, and bodies.

  

And may the God of peace Himself sanctify you through and through [separate you from profane things, make you pure and wholly consecrated to God]; and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved sound and complete [and found] blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ (the Messiah). 1 Thessalonians 5:23

This is just another glorious Truth of being as Jesus is, even while we are in this world.

Romans 6:3-4

3 Are you ignorant of the fact that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?

    

4 We were buried therefore with Him by the baptism into death, so that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious [power] of the Father, so we too might [habitually] live and behave in newness of life.

The word baptized means to be made one with. So the Truth is that we have been made one with Jesus’ death. Everything that happened to Jesus by dying has now happened to us. And everything that happened to Jesus by being resurrected from the dead has now happened to us. 

I have given to them the glory and honor which You have given Me, that they may be one [even] as We are one: John 17:22

Everything that Jesus is, we are now one with. Jesus gave us His glory, so that we may be one with our Father as He is One with our Father. Think about what we have in Christ. We actually have the very glory of Jesus! We have His mind, His victory, His love, His grace, His Spirit, His abilities, and His relationship with God. We are now one with it all. 

In this [union and communion with Him] love is brought to completion and attains perfection with us, that we may have confidence for the day of judgment [with assurance and boldness to face Him], because as He is, so are we in this world. 1 John 4:17

As Jesus is, so are we, even while we are in this world, Amen!

Romans 6:2

2 Certainly not! How can we who died to sin live in it any longer?

    

Herein lies the Truth that so many people don’t know, but they absolutely need to, through Christ we have totally died to sin. We have died to sins presence, power, pleasure, and its penalty. Far too many people believe that even though we are in Christ, we still have sin and are held accountable to it. Ask yourself this: how can Christ have sin? The Truth is that we are now flesh of His flesh and bone of His bone, Ephesians 5:30. It is also true that we have been crucified with Him, nevertheless we live, yet it is not us who lives, but it is Christ in us Who lives, Galatians 2:20. Far too many do not know that we have become one with Jesus, there is no separation between us at all, John 17:19-22. We are dead and our lives are hid in Him, Colossians 3:3. So for us to be held accountable to sin would mean that Jesus would be held accountable to sin. 

The Word of our Father also clearly tells us that there are no longer any Laws to convict us of sin. Jesus came and He did away with every ordinance that could ever convict us. 

Having cancelled and blotted out and wiped away the handwriting of the note (bond) with its legal decrees and demands which was in force and stood against us (hostile to us). This [note with its regulations, decrees, and demands] He set aside and cleared completely out of our way by nailing it to [His] cross. Colossians 2:14
 

The glorious Truth is that through Christ we have died to sin. Jesus is now our Head and He now leads us in the paths of righteousness for His Name’s sake. Jesus is our Shepherd 100% of the time. We are never left alone to do anything on our own. Jesus is always 100% accountable for us. It is like this, we do not convict an arm for pulling the trigger of a gun, we convict the whole person. To convict us of sin and not our Head would be like convicting just body parts for crimes. To accept our absolute freedom from sin begins with being enlightened with the Truth of our oneness with Jesus. 

As long as a person believes that they are saved or not saved by their own actions they will always do the works of sin. But when the Holy Spirit empowers us with the Truth that we are free from sin, regardless of what we do, then we will actually stop doing the things that are called sin. When a person realizes that there is now no Law to convict us with, they will loose the desire to do the things that are wrong. It is just like dieting. When a person goes on a diet they are always hungry. But when they stop dieting they loose weight. It is the same way with sin. Tell someone not to lie and they will lie like crazy, feel guilty about it and lie some more. But tell them the Truth that through Christ it doesn’t matter and they will feel free and through Christ's power finally stop lying. 

Romans 6:1

1 WHAT SHALL we say [to all this]? Are we to remain in sin in order that God's grace (favor and mercy) may multiply and overflow?

    

For who has known or understood the mind (the counsels and purposes) of the Lord so as to guide and instruct Him and give Him knowledge? But we have the mind of Christ (the Messiah) and do hold the thoughts (feelings and purposes) of His heart. 1 Corinthians 2:16

We now have the mind of our Lord. We have been empowered to think exactly as Jesus thinks, which is exactly how our Father, Who is God, thinks. When our Father first began to show me just how successful Jesus was and just how powerful His grace is, I never for one second thought, “great, now I can go sin!” The Truth that was shown to me through our Father’s Word was freedom. I was finally set free from all of the worry and burden of messing up. Jesus came and gave us His very own peace, John 14:27. Jesus doesn’t take any thought whatsoever about sin in His life and now through what He accomplished on the Cross, we don’t have to either.

All things are legitimate [permissible--and we are free to do anything we please], but not all things are helpful (expedient, profitable, and wholesome). All things are legitimate, but not all things are constructive [to character] and edifying [to spiritual life]. 1 Corinthians 10:23

  

This verse shows us the complete and absolute freedom that we now enjoy in Christ. We can do anything and still be one with Him. Yet, we don’t do just anything that we want to, because we now have the Mind of Christ. We are now one with Jesus, so we think as He thinks. We ever live to serve others as our Head ever lives to serve others, Hebrews 7:25. We rejoice in our freedom from sin, not in our freedom to commit sin. 

So the next time you share one of these scriptures that clearly tell us that we can do whatever we want and a religious person asks you: you mean I can go kill someone? Tell them absolutely you can. It will blow their minds. Don’t water down the Truth of grace. Tell them amen, that is just how glorious our Father’s grace is and that is just how successful our Lord was! We can be so bold because there is no fear in the perfect love of our Father, 1 John 4:18. We do not have to be timid when we talk about our Father’s grace, because we fear that someone will go kill someone or do some other bad thing. We know that Jesus is always our Head and if a person is truly saved and one with Jesus, they will always have Him being greater in them, than anything that is in this world. 

However, their will always be wolves in sheep’s clothing. They will go and intentionally sin and then blame you for causing them to do it. It happens to me all of the time. Rejoice, because they would have done it anyway. And preacher’s, I have news for you. If you are always telling your congregations what to do and not do, they are going to do the opposite of what you tell them when your not looking. The Truth sets us free and the Truth is that it is always what Jesus is doing through us and for us, not what we do on our own. Grace is so wonderful and it is the only way that we will ever live and act like our Lord and Savior.