Thursday, January 19, 2012

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!   

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