Friday, May 29, 2020

2 Romans 6:6-7

knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be [a]done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. 


KNOWING THIS
     We need to know this by experience is a wake-up call by the Apostle Paul. It is vital, necessary.  Christians will ignorantly remain a slave to the deceptions of sin that we have no power over it.  We cannot continue to use grace as an excuse to continue in any sin.  We must realize what Christ has accomplished and must pursue Him, not sins. 
     Know this concept by experience, more than by head-learning.  Dig deep into this meaning and make this your living principle for life.  
     For me, it took many years of engrafting this truth into my inner being.  Then after a long period of time, committing this chapter to memory and daily meditation, did I experience a great freedom from continuing in my sins.



THAT OUR OLD MAN 
     What is the "old man?"  
     He is the old state of life we lived in prior to salvation.  The old man is the Old Adam, the old person under the rule of sin, corrupted, worn out and of no use to God and a growing moral failure to humanity.  It is the composite result of a life without the Life of God; weak, aimless, powerless to live life to its fullest.
     OLD - meaning "worn out, decrepit, unattractive, very limited function much in what is desired.  Always lacking, always unsatisfied in the soul though gratified in the flesh."
     Remember when you say how worn out you are.  You mean you have no energy to give.  
     Consider these synonyms that might describe being worn out
Sin deceives.  It promises in "bright lights" what it has to offer.  And yes, sin does bring a strong gratification.  And that gratification entices us to do it again and again until it becomes a stronghold, an addiction to sin.  Strong pleasures intoxicate the body and soul, but they also destroy the soul.  They create other sins.  


WAS CRUCIFIED [disabled, dethroned, vital powers taken away, separated surgically from our vital organs ]WITH HIM

THAT THE BODY OF SIN [before we were saved, Sin--the entity of corruption used the human body as an instrument to communicate/express itself]. Some people, prior salvation developed a bent toward sins: some liars, some drugs, some sex, some murderers, etc.  Others were more decent and moral.  Good people expressed from Sin the expression of pride and not needing God in any way to submit allegiance to Him.]

MIGHT BE DONE AWAY WITH [the old person I was, dominated and controlled by Sin was taken down, not eliminated, but still remaining a remnant of parts seducing the believer to sin.]

THAT WE SHOULD NO LONGER BE SLAVES OF SIN [The old pre-salvation man was a slave to Sin's power.  Being born again is a supernatural experience where the old is torn down and Christ is infused into us to set up base of operations to work our conscience, guide us into Truth, and to experience His life.]



OTHER TRANSLATIONS


Amplified: 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. (Amplified Bible - Lockman)
GWT: We know that the person we used to be was crucified with him to put an end to sin in our bodies. Because of this we are no longer slaves to sin. (GWT)
NET: “We know that our old man was crucified with him so that the body of sin would no longer dominate us, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.” (NET Bible)
NLT: Our old sinful selves were crucified with Christ so that sin might lose its power in our lives. We are no longer slaves to sin. (NLT - Tyndale House)
Phillips: Let us never forget that our old selves died with him on the cross that the tyranny of sin over us might be broken (Phillips: Touchstone)
Wuest: knowing this experientially, that our old [unregenerate] self was crucified once for all with Him in order that the physical body [heretofore] dominated by the sinful nature might be rendered inoperative [in that respect], with the result that no longer are we rendering a slave’s habitual obedience to the sinful nature (Eerdmans)
Young's Literal: this knowing, that our old man was crucified [with him], that the body of the sin may be made useless, for our no longer serving the sin;

Part 1 Romans 6:5

Romans 6:5 New King James Version (NKJV)

For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection,
________________________________________________________________________________
United together 
Thayer's Definition
  • born together with, of joint origin 
  • connate, congenital, innate, implanted by birth or nature
  • grown together, united with, growing up together
  • kindred, same parent
  • engrafted with, into Christ, becoming a part of His life [John 15]
  • sharing vital organs and functions
  • Close to the Lord Jesus.  Can you say you are close?  If. not, why?
have been means that all this took place at the cross.  In eternity past, God in His full foreknowledge saw each person who would respond positively to the message of salvation.  Based upon that, we were brought into Christ--in some mysterious way--to become engrafted in Christ at the cross.  There, while He died, our ruling sin nature's power was eternally broken, allowing us to become united with Christ--on the Cross.  From there on, we were buried with Him, and resurrected with Him and now live in. Him walking and experiencing rich communion with Him; as much as we would like, as much of Him we desire to eat and drink of.  We have full access to all of Him at any time.

But while we live on this earth, our union with Him is twofold:

1. To eradicate individual sins.  These sins, no matter how large or small they are, corrupt, destroy, blind, misguide our soul.  God's aim is expose and work with us to end certain sins in our life.  Sins mean the difference in any successes and failures.  The more sins we have removed the more complete we become and are more clearly able to see what is right and what is wrong.  Spiritual perception is something that cannot be taught as much as it is judged by the individual who walks by the Spirit of Christ.  This is why some believers who have a close walk with Christ, having accomplished much in replacing sins with righteousness, have a keen perception of what is right from Christ's standpoint, a perception even other Christians cannot see.


2.  Enjoyment.  We, being planted in Christ, a growing union begins with us expanding our choices of trust in Him in doing as He asks.  What may seem to be illogical and difficult is beneficial when we trust with our spirit, not with our soul or flesh.  

Our mind forms opinions.  Our feelings form hesitations to doing what the Spirit asks of us.  

But faith is a persuasive knowing within our spirit that we should do so.  If we disregard opinions and feelings to obey what spiritual truth says, we then discover enjoyment.  

Each time we trust and obey, we rise to a new level of enjoyment.  The experience becomes more "sense-satonal".  The spiritual senses become heightened.  Joy and each of the fruit of the Spirit grows as a result of each obedience.  So that the spiritual man becomes more enjoying of the Godhead and of more of people, especially fellow brothers and sisters.

     But there is another enjoyment.  The Godheaad [Father, Son, and Holy Spirit] provided all that we need for a rich enjoyment of the walk with Them.  

Caution:  The enjoyment of the Christian life is not about more temporal blessings.  Blessings from God are first and foremost about the internal experiences of knowing the presence of God inside our soul; becoming more like Him in many ways.  So never measure your blessings by what material good comes your way.  Many a poor Christian, here are in other lands, have not the material things, but may be far richer in their spiritual lives than we.

     In Christ, there is richness of enjoyment beyond our imagination.  BUT, Christ did all this for His enjoyment as well.  It is the Father's good pleasure to be working in you says 

for the one bringing forth in you both the desire and the effort—for the sake of his good pleasure—is God.

Contrary to human thinking which tends to compare God with earthly men, God does all things to us to enjoy us.  Even in the bad--that He may not have sent our way--God allows these things to show us we can trust Him.  

So wait through the ordeal and discover a higher richer blessing that elevates experience into the heavenly realm.  And moreover, the difficult choices we make out of trust, lays away richer rewards in heaven.

Together
   implying intimacy, constant closeness and constant growing experience

Likeness (3667) (noun homoioma from verb homoioo = to make like = complete identification, assimilation, not simulation) means Likeness, shape, similitude, resemblance. I

Can you look at yourself [of course, not physically], and say you resemble Christ more now than years ago?


in the likeness of His resurrection,
  • coming back to life.  We were dead in spiritual experience with God.  We were dead in our soul; withered, weak, crippled by sins.  We possessed little will to do right.
  • resurrection Life in us produces regeneration [rebirth, reconstruction, transformation, metamorphosis
  • resurrection Life overcomes anything dead in us.  How has resurrection Life overcome anything in your life recently?
  • this kind of life yielded to is called newness of life.



Wednesday, May 27, 2020

Romans 6:4 Glory and Newness, God's Gift to You

Romans 6:4 King James Version (KJV)

Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

by the glory of the Father...
"glory"  meaning the true apprehension of, the true reality, the true experience of who God really is.  It is a real awakening of who God is.  It is God realized, God sensed in a very real way that becomes personally altering.  His glory affects change in us.

Christ was raised up by the glory of the Father.  God intervened, made it personal, made it real for the impossible to become possible.  The manifest presence of God intervened to raise Christ up.

But, just as important, that special intervention and interjection of divine line into our inner being is just as real as what took place to raise His Son from the dead.  

...newness of life.
  • new practice, lifestyle of living
  • new purpose, new priorities, new desires and impressions upon the will
  • no longer the desire to practice sin, the new desire to serve Christ
  • glory is revealed to us, conviction is sensed, the will of heart turned to surrender to Christ.  Then regeneration begins, the Kingdom of our Lord is established in the center place of our heart.  Jesus takes the throne where self once ruled.
  • A heightened conscience awakens and takes action upon the choices we face in life. A warning before we choose to do wrong.  A penalty of guilt when making the wrong choice.  A memory of what we don't want to do and want to do that leads to peace and fruitfulness in Christ.
  • Each step we choose right leads to a bigger crop of spiritual fruit. An increased crop leads to a multiplication of rich blessings, "eye hath not seen, nor entered into the heart the things which God has prepared for those who love Him" [who obey Him]
Do you walk in newness of life?  You may in the sphere of Christ but are you connected to the Life intended?  Do you experience the inner flow of divine life and its fruit in your being if you say you are surrendered to?

If not, could there be unconfessed sin?  Could there be the sin of unbelief, something deep in you where you need to spend time for God to search and speak to your heart?  Is there blindness you need to be healed from as a result of honestly waiting upon God, with no time limit, no unbelief, no conditions?

Is the newness of life desperately needed or is there still a desire to have God and something you love and practice?

Talk to God about all your weaknesses and sins.  Discuss who you are, your dissatisfactions and yet your desires.  Do this fully till there is nothing more in the Light to see and say.  Admit your weaknesses.  Receive His forgiveness and His fullness.  Open and surrender to Him without expecting a feeling, but expecting His rule in your heart.  This is all you need.

Part 1 Romans 6:7

Romans 6:7 New King James Version (NKJV)

For he who has died has been [a]freed from sin.

A person who dies, is separated from this world.  All human senses to this world are cut off.
As born again ones, our death, in Christ on the cross, separated us, not from this physical world, but separated from the power of this world--unless we choose to surrender ourselves back to it.
That is why as Christians we lose the desire for the world.   Again, though Christians do become deceived by the seductions of it, the real "new man" in Christ has no love for this world.  He has died to thirsting for it.  His primary hunger is for more of Christ.  That hunger for Christ may be reduced if the soul is fed with the corn husks of worldly things, satisfying only the base/animal desires,  An abnormal Christian may hunger for the sweet pleasures of sin, but his spirit deep within him, abhors it.  
God allows him to wallow in sin until his soul gets tired of it and his spirit misses the personal abiding in Christ.  Spiritual dryness can quicken the longer we remain in sin.  Spiritual fruit dries up:  self-control, joy, love, kindness, gentleness, patience, etc.  Others may see it before he does.   But he feels the difference that his spiritual senses cannot hear the voice of His Shepherd, nor see the Light of the Way.  
The normality, when we are right with God, is that we detest the worldly voices, worldly seductions, worldly everything.  We see it as trash because we have been freed from it and now enjoy higher pleasures that has no comparison to anything in this world.  That is why the carnal man cannot understand it.  He is blind.
When a Christian enjoys sin, he will immediately hate it, feel miserable, struck by guilt, alienated from the peace and joy of God.  But when he humble acknowledges his sin and determines to turn from it and sets himself in the right way, he immediately finds peace and restoration to the fruit he lost to his act of sin.
No matter how often the believer is seduced back to sin, he cannot remain without misery.  God will not let him enjoy crossing back into the old ways.


Tuesday, May 26, 2020

Wednesday May 27. If Saved We Are the Living Dead. Romans 6:2

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Romans 6:2 New King James Version (NKJV)

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

Died to sin; we have
  • past tense.  We do not die to sin.  We do not pray for sin to die.
  • Sin, the dictator, has died.
  • We, the old person-way-of-life under the control of Sin has died...to the the former way life.
  • Our relationship to sin has died.
  • It no longer can abuse us to serve it.
  • We no longer have the love for it as we did.
  • We and sin can never be the same.  It was a permanent "breakup" which can never be reconciled.  Christ ended it and it can never be allowed to rule us again, because He has now become our Lord and King.
  • Christ in us has become our new Life and Way of living.
  • Sin can never be as it used to be.  We may try, but the payment is only misery.
  • Sin died so Christ would live.  Christ in us can never be silenced and He can never be fought against and won.  We cannot win in sin, nor lose Christ and His relationship of bringing us into obedient submission and becoming transformed by Him, in Him.
  • We may struggle in sins, but Christ came to destroy sins and His plan is to lead us by His teachings and power to rid sins out of our life.  No sin will be unaddressed and ignored.  He will point to every sin in your life.  He has a lifetime to do it.
We can no longer continue in any sin.

Are you living in sin?

Living in sin is not limited to living in sexual immorality

It is the conscious practice of willingness to practice a sin without any intent to stop.

This might be lust, cursing, drunkenness, sexual sins, covetousness, bitterness, wrath, etc.

When we were unsaved, we lived in sin.  We lived in a sphere, a territory of defined boundaries.  That sphere was the power of serving Sin.  Everything we did was to serve lawlessness toward God.  When God demanded a rule in our life, we denied obedience.  Living without God was our greatest violation.  We served Sin.  We chose not to deny Sin to serve God.

Sin demanded that God have no place in our life and persuaded us that "self" would be a better Decider and a better Ruler of our life.

It is the "me" world of what I want and what is good for me.

It is my opinion, what I believe.

It is what I want to do or don't want to do.

I am boss and no one will tell me what to do, even God.

I will not submit to God or anybody.

I will do what I want to do.

A Christian cannot make these statements unless he is play-acting Christian.  Real Christians defined in Romans chapter six cannot truly make these statements.
A true Christian does not want to sin, though he does and may have a lot if sins he does in his life and may be very slow making progress to end them  But the desire to be free from all sin defines him as a child of God.
Sin is ever present in me but not as a King.  He still deceives, but Christ is now Lord and now requires us to follow Him, take up the cross, deny self and become His disciples [learners of Him].  This is a process of growing with Christ with responsibility left to us how much we will follow Him with our whole heart and endure following Him no matter how far behind we may be.  If our heart always aims for full obedience, yet still fumbling with sins, Christ will  bring us to the place of complete freedom and growth in the areas we desire.

Delight yourself also in the Lord, And He shall give you the desires of your heart. 

He will fulfill your desires to eliminate sins in your life.  It is a process by growing in experience with and in Christ.  Christ convicts, we confess.  We may spend a lot of time going through this process.  But if we endure in deepening our relationship with Christ, Christ will reveal the way out.

"Dear Lord, you know my heart.  I do hate anything you hate.  I do want to please you in every way.  Be merciful and patient with me.  I will continue to keep my life pure with confession and repentant, but I do want to put an end to some of things my conscience and heart tells me to stop.  Show me the Way, the Truth, and the path to Life of freedom.  Amen."

Monday, May 25, 2020

Tuesday, May 26 Reading Romans 6:1

Romans 6:1 New King James Version (NKJV)

WHAT SHALL WE SAY THEN?

What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? 

Sin:  Note this word is in the singular, not the plural.  The idea is continuing in the root of all sins.  Sin is the root.  Sins are the fruit.

Sin, definition:

  • Greek:  Harmatia
  • missing the mark
Sin, singular, in this verse means a living evil power

  • a living ruling force. living being behind the acts of sins.  
  • In this context, it is the power causing the sins.
  • Resides in every human being.
  • This power creates a blinding mindset for the gratification of self, putting all, including God down the lists of interests.
  • The secondary goal, which is first with Sin, a desire or thought that opposes God's.
  • Sin is like a living ghost.  It is unseen, but real.  It only leaves behind its evidence of gratification, destruction, and hostility between us and God.
  • It is the power, cause, source, dynamo of lawless impulses, ignorantly or consciously followed.
  • A power acting as a disease to the human soul,  building a propensity of bending toward its will.
  • Creates in us a sin-nature [personality, mood, individualism which follows a certain path of lawlessness.  This nature may be intellectual:  a belief system of opinion void of truths of God.  It may be sensual:  a bent toward self-satisfaction in things prohibited by God which is highly destructive to the soul.  All of which begins and feeds the monster in us called pride:  the gratification of self which exalts "me" in a way which breaks unity with God and others.  Pride is the vise-tight grip to take whatever satisfaction of gain for "me" that offends another.
  • Sin causes sins.  
  • Sin develops in man a propensity-a strong liking toward something that becomes entrenched and cannot be easily broken.  Examples:  self-ego, lusts, wanting things, manipulating people, being entertained, illicit drugs, lying, cheating, stealing, etc.
Sin is a dictatorial power, a supreme power in man prior to salvation, causing a blindness which covers the human mind from seeing Truth from God.  Only the Holy Spirit can open the eyes to see the truth about sin, the need and solution for Sin.

Upon turning from self to Christ for Jesus to become Lord, the blindness is removed.  The spiritual eyes can now see.

Prior to salvation, Sin offers no free choices but to live carrying out its demands.  The life under Sin is called a "servant of sin."  










For when ye were the servantof sin, ye were free from righteousness.






The question asked:  

Can we continue in living as a slave to the power of sin?   Paul's answer is, "No." 

 It is impossible to return to that.  So why try?

It is impossible to live as we did prior to the new birth.  Upon repentance and yielding our life to Christ, the ruling king of sin was dethroned, removed from power.  We are no longer servants to serve sin--the dictator or sins, its soldiers.  Though deposed, it is still present but no longer controls us to have to obey it.

To Christians, Sin may convince us we cannot be free and that we must serve its desires.  But legally, God wants us to know that the power of sin and sins were dealt with by Christ on the cross and He promises we can never go back before to living as a slave to sin as we once did.  We may try to serve sin again but we can never do that because Christ is now King of our life, even though we may dethrone Him as Lord.  We will always be saved and under the King's rule, but no longer under Sin's rule.  But we can choose to ignore Christ and yield ourselves back to sins.  But we will never enjoy it as we would have before receiving Christ into our life.

Sin, prior to salvation, ignored God and caused us to believe lies about God.  Therefore, we attempted to stay away from God and His children.  Sin taught us to think wrong things about God and the truth about Christians.

Sin would not allow us to believe.  Sin would not allow us to want to know and serve God.  Sin forced us to serve ourselves and to create belief systems which were false and blinding to the human mind.

Conclusion:  Sin cannot control you.  Christ is King and Lord in your life.  There is only misery trying to return to someone you can no longer be.

Saturday, May 23, 2020

Wednesday May 27. Romans 6:3 Show Me Your Identification, Please

Romans 6:3 King James Version (KJV)

Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?

Heard the question, "Show me your identification please?"
Someone wants proof you are who you say you are to complete a transaction where you pay for what you get.
In the spiritual realities with God, identification is necessary for anything we want or need from God.  We must bear proof we are God's child and authorized to access the account of all our benefits.
_____________________________________________________________________________
Know ye not...
     In other words, "don't you know who you are?"
     How can you access divine life for fruit [see John 15 on fruit bearing] if you don't know who you are, what has been done to you and given to you?
Identify YOURSELF!  Show proof you are who you say you are!
Know means an inner conviction.  It goes beyond mental acceptance.
Do you possess conviction of this truth explained by Paul in chapters 5 and 6?  Are you convinced you are now a servant of Jesus Christ and you cannot go on living to practice sins?
The Inner Conviction permeates from the divine Seed, Jesus Christ who lives within.  You cannot run from, deny, or refuse that conviction.  That Seed will oppose every attempt at sin or selfishness inside you.  It will take a lifetime to expose and guide you to recognize this and allow His Spirit and His Word to direct you out of the Old You.  God's goal is to transform you into he image of His Son.

Romans 8:29 King James Version (KJV)

29 For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son,
You possess His convictions on everything.  Any thing doubtful, anything you will not let go of, anything that comes anything close to offending Christ or breaking His laws of the Spirit [see Romans 8:1] is what He will go after.  So, begin with what you know He now reveals to you about anything.
that as many of our were baptized into Jesus Christ...
baptized
    "to dip, to submerge, to remove and place into a new environment whereby the present state is changed to conform with the properties of the new elements."
     It means build with Christ.  Buried means removal from the seen world to the "out of view" world.  It means closure, entombment.  No escape or movement once practiced.

into Jesus Christ...
     "into" indicates "in a new direction towards union whereby an effect is realistically experienced."
     In Christ is the sphere, the legal jurisdiction Satan cannot enter.  It is a place, an entombment itself, it is a realm ruled governed absolutely by Christ, King and Lord, knowing all about us, providing all within us, guiding us each step of the way through this life, but requires our constant surrender, trust, and obedience to what He shows us.
This sphere requires to surrender of our will, the submission of our spirit and soul in order to experience union whereby He may respond blessings within the soul.  We may legally be in the sphere of His kingdom but lack the "union."  Salvation is constant.  Union requires our will to listen and obey.  We are now servants producing righteousness, not sins.
    Our purpose is now to do the will of God.  The purpose is to ...
Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.
      


1.  Follow Him, not ourselves
2.  Take up the practice daily of denying self
3.  Practice taking up the cross, the obedience of suffering pain from our denial of sin and self.
4.  Follow Christ.  Follow His teaching, His Way, His Truth, His Peace.

Water Baptism
...is the outward expression of the inner accomplishment by Christ on the cross.
...means we knowingly identify ourselves followers of Christ, now serving Him as King and Lord in His kingdom, not the kingdom of this world.
...says I am not willing to be a cross bearer and Christ follower in all things.

baptized into His death...
...dipped into His death means we were placed into Christ as He died upon the cross.
The same word used for "dip" found in the following verse describing the request of the rich man in hell.  The finger placed into water to ease the pain of the body, so parallels being placed into Christ relieves inward pain and brings satisfaction.

Luke 16:24 King James Version (KJV)

24 And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.
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Baptized into Christ means we say, " I submit to where I am in Christ.  I cannot continue to practice sins when I lived in the old life.  I submit to my new King and to all He wants and plans for me.  I will accept the good, the bad, the need, and the wants.  I will submit these things to Him, relying on Him to supply my inner faith and the needs of my soul to be satisfied, my needs as prudently met by Him in His time and in His way."
You are in Christ.  You are no longer tied to this world and to sins.  So stop trying to depend on 2 worlds.  Depend solely on Christ and to please only Him.  Then your ways will have true profit.