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Yes.

In the church world, there’s an abundance of talk about sin and it comes with the notion, the inflection, the false assumption that somehow, born again believers are relegated to sinning, as if there’s no other choice. Is that true? Is this the biblical perspective?

What I want us to do is make sure we are looking at the whole of Scripture and be blessed to gain a godly confidence that our Savior provided a perfect salvation that includes more than just the initial washing away of our sins. This “great grace” that He provided in His “so great salvation” provides everything for His people – including overcoming sin (Acts 4:33; Hebrews 2:3).

From Genesis to Revelation, the whole testimony of Holy Scripture reveals that if you are a man or a woman after God’s own heart, as was David, the LORD is going to ultimately fight your battles and win them all. Those who love the LORD, truly, are submitted to Him in the cross life (Galatians 2:20). They please Him on His stated terms and no other (Luke 9:23-24). Read Psalms 18. Your part is to daily choose to be a man after the LORD’s own heart (Acts 13:22).

“But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. 7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded. 9 Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. 10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.” James 4:6-10

Whenever God commands something, He also provides the grace for it to manifest in your life – as you are submitted to Him (James 4:6-10; 1 Peter 4:10-11). His grace, divine enablement, operational power, is always sufficient to bring His perfect will to pass in our lives and to bring us through any and all difficulties and grueling seasons in which we may find ourselves! (2 Corinthians 9:8; 12:9-10; 1 Peter 5:10.) 

Do you have more faith in sin than you do in the saving grace of Christ to give you the victory over it? That is a perverted faith! Flip your faith! Repent and renew your mind, asking God to forgive you afresh and thank Him aloud for His all-sufficient grace He provided through Christ’s perfect sacrifice on that cross! (See Romans 6:14.)

Are you indicting God by saying His grace, His divine enablement is NOT sufficient for His perfect will to be manifested in your life?

God will Raise you up – when you lay it all down! (James 4:6-10.)

Overcoming the flesh, walking in victory requires continually delighting in the LORD, worshipping Him “in spirit and in truth” (John 4:23-24).

“2 Corinthians 7:10 Godly sorrow. I use to believe God understood when I would sin so it made it ok. Through much needed healing and crucifying of flesh I now know that such was a lie of Satan. As my love for the Lord grows, when I do sin, it produces Godly sorrow in me because I know I have hurt my relationship with the Lord. And that’s what matters to me. It brings me immediately to my knees in repentance and asking for forgiveness. We can be sorry just as Judas was but he did not repent and is therefore in hell. Sorrow for what we did only produces death and separation from our Lord. Our hearts need to be changed so we no longer desire sin but we desire a deep and intimate relationship with Jesus more and more.” Karen Cochran

Amen and may our LORD grant us a great distaste for sin, for that which defiles us.

“Seek the LORD and his strength, seek his face continually.” 1 Chronicles 16:11

Notice carefully how in the verse below the word “IF” is used here and not “when” – because God tells us here and elsewhere in His Word to sin not. It’s always a choice and sin always bring forth the fruit of death (Romans 6:23; James 1:13-15). Those who speak and act as if they HAVE to sin, they are relegated to a life of falling into sin and are apostate. Apparently, some of these who argue to justify sinning have never been born again and so have never tasted the power of Christ to overcome sin. Now, watch this closely and please share:

“My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye SIN NOT. And IF any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:” 1 John 2:1

“If” clearly denotes a choice. The fact that God didn’t use the word “when” here is further proof that the LORD has set before His own people “life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live” (Deuteronomy 30:19). Whatever we sow we shall reap (Galatians 6:7-8).

Most modern pastors and therefore their gullible prey, make excuse for sin instead of obeying God and overcoming it by His grace in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Is sinning really worth the loss of the love, joy, and peace that will otherwise rule in the life of the true, abiding disciple? Is that sin really worth disturbing these divine blessings?

“What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? 2 God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?” Romans 6:1-2

Committing the sin is one thing (1 John 1:8-10), and refusing to repent of it is yet another. Refusing to acknowledge, repent, confess, and cease is what snares the soul and ousts us from Christ (Proverbs 28:13).

“FOOLS” vs those who confess and forsake sin and receive divine mercy.

“Fools make a mock at sin.” Proverbs 14:9

“He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy.” Proverbs 28:13

Those who if they sin, stop and return to the LORD, confess their sins, and turn from their wicked ways.

The flesh IS going to rage, be bent toward and desire to do evil. That’s a given (Romans 7). This is why the cross, the crucifying of the “old man” and putting on “the new man” are essential to God bringing the victory in our lives! (See Romans 6-8; Ephesians 4:23-25; Colossians 3:5-10, etc.)

A major point of this message is how the Bible and true disciples are to help and encourage other believers to biblically, prayerfully obey God, projecting and expecting them to do so and experience His victory.

In the scope of past, present, and future history – HIS-story – nothing is over till Jesus wins!

“For he must reign, till he hath put all enemies under his feet. 26 The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. … 57 But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” 1 Corinthians 15:25-26, 57

Sin is man’s master until Christ is man’s Master (Matthew 6:24).

“Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Romans 6:11

The one way to master sin is bow to Heaven’s Master and let Him master sin! The cross.

Holiness is not the way to Christ but rather Christ is the way to holiness. Abiding in Christ IS abiding holy – in the divine definition of holy. The key is that holiness is NOT the way to God but rather Christ is the way to holiness, His way, His definition – which is the daily cross (Luke 9:23-24). Abiding fellowship with Christ, on HIS terms, is holiness – being set apart to the LORD, in the LORD (Psalms 4:3; John 15).

MESSAGE RECEIVED:

“Everyone sins every day, and some of it, we aren’t even aware of. No Christian makes a habit of sin. But we do slip up, or else Jesus died for nothing.”

REPLY:

Good morning. Well I believe that’s partially correct dear sister. Yes Jesus’ true followers sin at times and Christ’s perfect sacrifice involves initial regeneration and the forgiveness of sins and ongoing forgiveness as sins are confessed in repentance (1 John 1:7-2:2). Christians, those who have been born again, can certainly make sin habitual, otherwise there would be no need for all the divine warnings of Holy

Scripture such as Hebrews 3:12-15 and 10:26-39 …. and 2 Peter 2:20-21 ….. The Bible says Jesus died to save us from our sins which includes preventing them from even happening (Matt 1:21; John 1:29; Titus 2:14). God didn’t send His only begotten Son to just wash away, forgive our sins, but also to grant His victory in us over “ALL iniquity” (Titus 2:14), through an abiding cross relationship which produces the fruit of holiness unto everlasting life (Romans 6:22).

“But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.” Romans 6:22

The idea that Jesus’ salvation doesn’t provide divine grace to overcome sin is false. Memorize Titus 2:14 and Romans 6:14.

One person recently wrote: “But we do slip up, or else Jesus died for nothing.”

Yet Christians still choose to sin and God made full provision in Christ for such. Yet, such a notion must never be used as a license for sinning. Your statements (in that conversation and others with this same person) sound like an excuse to sin instead of “perfecting holiness in the fear of God” (2 Corinthians 7:1). Memorize this verse along with 1 Peter 1:15-16.”

Dear disciple of Christ: May you be encouraged to find and begin to memorize just one Bible verse on the topic of Christ’s victory manifesting in your personal life. King James Bible.

Jesus died to free you from “ALL iniquity” and yet this is only possible by living your life HIS way and no other (Titus 2:14).

By listening to most “Christian” preachers and modern church writers, you’d think that those bought by the blood of Jesus, empowered by the grace of God are relegated to a life of sin. But Holy Scripture says that when crucified, dead, and raised up by Christ, sin has no dominion over you (Romans 6:3-14). They never project you into the victory Jesus died to grant you by His cross and the cross He commanded you to take up daily, but rather leave you in sin (Lamentations 2:14; Jeremiah 23:17; Jude 4). They want to talk about the grace of God while excluding so many other truths of Scripture and by doing so “deceive the hearts of the simple” (Romans 16:17-18).

Some paint a picture by what they say and what they don’t say, that is misleading a whole generation of “Christians.” Yes Jesus loves us and yet that doesn’t change the fact that Jesus requires that we obey him (Matthew chapter 7 verse 21). Unfortunately in the modern gospel all we hear is that Jesus loves us and there’s no requirement to obey Him, repentance, holiness or the return of Jesus anywhere in the apostate modern false gospel.

God loves everyone including all that have lived, died, gone to hell and will forever be there. God’s love is not to be mistaken with His acceptance and rejection based on the blessed forgiveness that He alone can offer (Romans 8:38-39).

How does that work with Bible verses like 2 Corinthians 7:1: “Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God,” and 1 Peter 1:15-16: “But as he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; 16 because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.”

Also, Ephesians 5:25-27: Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it; 26 that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word, 27 that he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.”

Brian Anderson: “I laugh when spiritually blind people try to correct the path of those who see. Please….learn more verses than ‘For God so loved the world…’ and ‘I have plans to prosper you and give you a future…’ then maybe I’ll take into consideration your criticism of my ministry because you’ve brought scripture to my attention that I didn’t weigh out.”

BECAUSE JESUS CHRIST ROSE AGAIN, ALL WHO ARE BORN AGAIN IN HIM ARE RAISED UP SPIRITUALLY IN THIS LIFE TO OVERCOME ALL SIN, SATAN, AND THE WORLD AND WILL BE SOON RAISED UP INTO ETERNAL GLORY WITH HEAVEN’S KING.

The GRACE Passage Intentionally Avoided by Today’s Self-Proclaimed “Grace Teachers”

“For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, 12 Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; 13 Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; 14 Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. 15 These things speak, and exhort, and rebuke with all authority. Let no man despise thee.” Titus 2:11-15 

Yes Scripture speaks of sinning in 1 John 3 for sure. And yet people sin when they are not in the cross, crucified, and so the cross is the central crux. When crucified, the deeds of the body (the motions of the flesh) are nullified to nothing.

Overcoming all sin – yes, and yet, it’s not possible by way of the flesh but rather only by the divinely instituted cross prescription, cross life, the crucified life – the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus being re-enacted in the life of the true disciple daily (Romans 6; 2 Corinthians 4:10-12; Galatians 2:20, etc.). Overcoming sin does not come by self-will. Paul said “by the GRACE of God I am what I am” (1 Corinthians 15:10).

Those who truly abide in Christ, according to His definition of abiding, will be delivered completely. And, this must be the goal of every person who names the name of Christ Jesus.

“Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law. 5 And ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no sin. 6 Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not: whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him.” 1 John 3:4-6 

The victory reserved and expected for every person who is born of God:

“For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. 5 Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?” 1 John 5:4-5

One writer notes:

“We don’t need to stop sinning to stop sinning. We need to die to sin and be raised to a newness of resurrection life and power characterized by agape love.

“Love fulfills the law.  Rom 13:9.  Love does not want to sin anymore.  He who is dead is freed from sin.  Rom 6:7.  Our relationship with God is not based on rule keeping.  It is based on dying to the rules.  Effort to keep rules only serves to arouse sinful passions and causes sins to multiply.  Rom 7:5; Rom 5:20.” 

Brother Brian Anderson writes:

“When I attended several churches with watered down, sugar-coated preaching, I felt comfortable in my unrepentant sin. By the grace of God I was freed from their error and I understand now God has empowered every person who knows Jesus is Lord to say ‘NO’ to EVERY temptation (1 Corinthians 10:13) that comes to you. If you are caving in to temptation and choosing sin willfully (porn use, fornication or whatever else you choose to do KNOWING it is wrong) you are a SLAVE to that sin! You are not free! REPENT !! Confess your sin, and STOP doing it today! Don’t abuse or twist God’s grace. Don’t repeat your willful sin over and over and say ‘I repent of it every time.’ That’s NOT true repentance. You are fooling yourself.”

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Abiding

GOD is Greater than all Sin [podcast]


“For if by one man’s offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.)” Romans 5:17

GOD is greater than all sin.

“Through Jesus we now have an abundance of grace and His gift of righteousness reining over our lives instead of sin and death brought to His through Adam’s sin! Hallelujah.” Karen Cochran

So if God is greater than all sin, WHY do some Christians still struggle with sin?

Great question

“And Jesus looking upon them saith, With men it is impossible, but not with God: for with God all things are possible.” Mark 10:27

Our sin is never God’s fault but always our own fault.

“Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man: 14  But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. 15  Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.” James 1:13-15

It’s only possible to overcome sin by way of Christ and Christ mandates us, you be crucified with Him (Luke 9:23-24; Romans 6; Galatians 2:20, etc.).

Jesus requires surrender to overcome (John 3:30). As long as there is sin, there is Satan – he has foothold in our lives. Satan is giving place, has control over anyone who has not repent, is not walking with Jesus, abiding in Christ, in the crucified life.

“Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” James 4:7

When we “Submit … to God” Satan must then “flee” from us because he has no more legal right to us – because to “Submit” is to repent and confess all sin.

“Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law. 5  And ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins; and in him is no sin. 6  Whosoever abideth in him sinneth not: whosoever sinneth hath not seen him, neither known him.” 1 John 3:4-6

Instead of denying the Bible truth of a bent toward sin, we must deny self, take up the cross and follow Jesus. As we do we are empowered by His grace, His divine ability, enablement to live fruitfully to His eternal glory.

“For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, 12  Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; 13  Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; 14  Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from ALL iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works. 15  These things speak, and exhort, and rebuke with all authority. Let no man despise thee.” Titus 2:11-15

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Abiding

“Buried with Him by Baptism into Death” [podcast]


“For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.” Colossians 3:3

Every person “hid with Christ in God” is saved and under divine grace, saved by Christ.

Everyone not “hid with Christ in God” is going away in judgment (Colossians 3:3; Romans 8:13; Galatians 5:19-21, 24). When we are “hid with Christ in God,” we are safe, secure, and under the blessings of His divine grace instead of His condemnation.

“Of the doctrine of baptisms” Hebrews 6:2

Baptized into Jesus Christ and Baptized into His Death

“Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?” Romans 6:3

Jesus defeated death, hell, sin, and Satan by dying (Hebrews 2:14)…. whereby He was then resurrected and redemption was completed. Redemption culminated, was finalized in the resurrection of Christ.

In the same way, God calls us to die downward with Christ so that He can raise us upward into His victory…. letting go and letting God, not a striving or struggle but rather a surrender, we are to let Christ consume us, as we surrender (John 3:30).

“And when Jesus had cried with a loud voice, he said, Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit: and having said thus, he gave up the ghost.” Luke 23:46

Are we willing to declare today with our LORD Jesus that we are submitting our spirit into His holy hands?

“Death is swallowed up in victory” – death results in God raising us upward, into His full victory, ultimately into final, eternal victory, glory with the Father, Son, and the saints of the ages.

We can be sure, completely confident that as we die downward and are buried with Christ, God is going to raise us up into His victory. God’s answer to death and burial is resurrection.

The resurrection is the victory and in order to experience His resurrection life, we must be dead and buried and ultimately raised up into eternal  glory with Him.

“Thou fool, that which thou sowest (plant downward) is not quickened (made alive), except it die:” 1 Corinthians 15:36

“So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.” 1 Corinthians 15:54

Romans 6

“Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?
4  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.
5  For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection:
6  Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.
For he that is dead is freed from sin.
8  Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him.”

v3 – “baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death”

v4 – “buried with him by baptism into death”

v5 – “his death … his resurrection”

Notice that death and buried, being immersed into the death and burial of Christ must of necessity precede, must come before the resurrection we experience with Christ through the daily cross life.

“If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.
2  Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.
3  For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.
4  When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.” Colossians 3:1-4

When He saves us we are baptized with Him “into his death” …. “I am crucified with Christ” (Galatians 2:20).

“When a person is saved, he is baptized into Christ Jesus in the sense that he is identified with Christ in His death and resurrection. This is not the same as the baptism in (or of) the Spirit, though both occur simultaneously. The latter baptism places the believer in the body of Christ (1Co_12:13); it is not a baptism into death. The baptism into Christ means that in the reckoning of God, the believer has died with Christ and has risen with Him.

When Paul speaks of baptism here, he is thinking both of our spiritual identification with Christ and of its portrayal in water baptism. But as the argument advances, he seems to shift his emphasis in a special way to water baptism as he reminds his readers how they were ‘buried’ and planted together in the ‘likeness’ of Christ’s death.

The NT never contemplates the abnormal situation of an unbaptized believer. It assumes that those who are converted submit to baptism right away. Thus our Lord could speak of faith and baptism in the same breath: ‘he who believes and is baptized will be saved (Mrk_16:16). Though baptism is not a requirement for salvation, it should be the invariable public sign of it.” Believer’s Bible Commentary

Baptized into the Body of Christ

“For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.” 1 Corinthians 12:13

“1 Corinthians 12:13
For by one Spirit are we all baptized, etc. – As the body of man, though composed of many members, is informed and influenced by one soul; so the Church of Christ, which is his body, though composed of many members, is informed and influenced by one Spirit, the Holy Ghost; actuating and working by his spiritual body, as the human soul does in the body of man.

To drink into one Spirit – We are to understand being made partakers of the gifts and graces of the Holy Ghost agreeably to the words of our Lord, Jhn_7:37, etc.: If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink: this he spake of the Spirit which they that believed on him should receive.
On this verse there is a great profusion of various readings, which may be found in Griesbach, but cannot be conveniently noticed here.” Adam Clarke

 

“Baptism is more than just getting wet. When we go down into the water it signifies we are now dead and buried and our ‘life is hid with Christ in God’ (Colossians 3:3). Coming up out of the water is our resurrection life! We are then raised up into newness of life! Our old man is crucified and we no longer serve sin but we have a new Master. Jesus Christ is the new Master of our lives! We now serve God and not sin. And should be bearing fruit of rightness and holiness (Romans 6). When we embrace the crucified life we are given overflowing rivers of new life. New life is breathed into us. Walking in the flesh only makes our soul sick with sin, as sin kills and destroys (Romans 6:23). Rotting us from the inside out! But the way of the cross brings life to our flesh (Proverbs 3:8, 4:22). Our flesh meaning our whole spirit, soul and body (1 Thessalonians 5:23). We cannot be a whole person until we are completely given over to the Lord. And this can only happen through the cross. When we are dead and buried and raised up in the newness of life Jesus offers us. Then the joy of the Lord will fill our hearts!” Karen Cochran

What some don’t realize is that just because they were saved in the past in no way means they are still in Christ, which is why we read verses like this throughout Scripture:

“Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?” 2 Corinthians 13:5

We must judge ourselves against God’s Word.

“For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. 32 But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.” 1 Corinthians 11:31-32

Prayer: Father please penetrate my heart with Your holy conviction, granting true repentance and obedience. LORD, I want to be dead and buried with You. I am crucified with Christ and I know You are raising me up and will ultimately raise me up with You into eternal glory… I am now planted together in the likeness of His death and burial and I know You are raising me up into the victory. In Jesus’ name, amen.

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Articles

Is Romans 7 Before or After Paul’s Salvation?

“The truth is that while Christ dwells in the believer’s new nature, He has strong competition from the believer’s old nature. The warfare between the old and the new goes on continually in most believers.” AW Tozer

The law of God is “holy, and just, and good.” (Romans 7:12)

The holy law of God and the depraved nature of fallen mankind could not be further apart – the righteousness of God inherent in His law vs the “old man,” the iniquitous fallen nature of mankind (Ephesians 4:22; Colossians 3:9).

Nothing but a caustic reaction, explosion could be the result of the 2 colliding (Romans 7). One or the other must reign.

“For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.” Galatians 5:17

In what tense did the great apostle speak in when addressing this “old man” that wars against the Spirit in us?

“O WRETCHed man that I am! (presently) who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” Romans 7:24

Paul’s flesh was and our flesh is a constant reminder of the ever momentary need for the cross, burial, and resurrection grace of Jesus (Romans 6:3-10; 8:11; 2 Corinthians 4:10-12; Galatians 2:20, etc.). Read Romans chapters 6-7 each morning this week.

It really is true that Jesus “saved a wretch like me” when He mercifully saved me.

“For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.” Romans 7:18

No, the apostle wasn’t admitting to living in sin but rather that that “old man” – the flesh – was present and must be crucified with Christ daily. Is that not exactly what Jesus taught?

“And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his CROSS DAILY, and follow me. 24 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it.” Luke 9:23-24

I believe Romans 7 applies to both before and after one is saved …. Because if the saved person departs from the daily cross walk, that same “old man” will take center stage. “O wretch man that I AM (present) (Romans 7:18) ….. we are born again children of God, saints of the Most High and yet that potential to evil, that “old man” must be crucified and “put off” by the daily cross so the “new man” can reign with Christ in this life and eternity. What Paul calls the “old man” must be “put off” and so we can conclude that there IS an “old man” to be “put off” otherwise no such instruction would have been given. We are not to deny the “old man” – the sinful bent – but rather to crucify it (Romans 6; Ephesians 4:22; Colossians 3:9).

Charles Pray writes: “So many want to hide their sins, especially those who like to appear Holy on the outside while inside they are dark, unholy ministers of the flesh. They have become a product of their own desires. Dear Lord, please bring them back to their first Love–Jesus! Amen.”

Saints, we cannot possibly begin to appreciate this “so great salvation” that is Christ until we understand how lost, helpless, and alienated we were in our sin (Ephesians 2:1-10; Hebrews 2:3). We must study to understand the biblical doctrine of inherent sin, fallen mankind, and the holiness of God …. in order to begin to be able to appreciate the redemption that is in Jesus Christ.

What to “Put Off” and What to “Put On”

“That ye put off concerning the former conversation THE OLD MAN, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; 23 And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; 24 And that ye put on THE NEW MAN, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.” Ephesians 4:22-24 

“Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off THE OLD MAN with his deeds; 10 And have put on THE NEW MAN, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:” Colossians 3:9-10

“When we embrace the crucified life we are given overflowing rivers of new life! New life is breathed into us. Walking in the flesh only makes our soul sick with sin! And sin kills and destroys! (Romans 6:23). Rotting us from the inside out! But the way of the cross brings life to our flesh! (Proverbs 3:8, 4:22). Our flesh meaning our whole spirit, soul and body. 1 Thessalonians 5:23. We cannot be a whole person until we are completely given over to the Lord! And this can only happen through the cross. When we are dead and buried and raised up in the newness of life Jesus offers us, then the joy of the Lord will fill our hearts!” Karen Cochran

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