Classic Christianity – A Closer Look at Faith, Hope & Love P32 (06-30-20)
Synopsis
Have you thought about what Jesus accomplished for us? Did you know that we have already been reconciled, and that before you were ever born. Wait a minute, you ask, “Does that mean everyone is saved, or born again?” No. “What are you saying then?” When Jesus died on that cross, he took away the sins of the entire world. That is a necessary part for salvation. It was preparation for life to be given, but until someone receives that life they are not born again because he does not have the Spirit of God living in him. The complete gospel is the meaning of his death, burial and resurrection. Let us move on from the cross and onto the resurrection.
When you realize that you are wretched, you realize that you are dead in sin already, knowing that the good you ought to do, you do not do, and the things you hate to do, you do anyhow. Then you realize that that sin that caused your death was paid in full. But you still cannot stop your sinning and you are still wretched. You are missing a piece of information and lacking in understanding.
You are not saved by the death of Jesus on a cross. That was necessary for life to be given. Until you have the Spirit of God living in you, you are not even on the starting line at which to overcome sin. And you must understand also that God did not destroy sin-indwelling flesh. You are still going to have conflict between your flesh and the spirit. What he did is he took away sin’s power over you and the fear of death that has plagued every man. What is different is that now you have a source of power in which you can choose to walk in the way of Christ. You see the same Spirit living in Christ is the same Spirit living in you. He overcame the world, and conquered sin and death for us, so that that same power living in you now, will enable you to overcome the world.
Jesus Christ is your life. When you are born again, you have the mind of Christ. You can now allow yourself to be transformed by the renewing of your mind. You are no longer under the law of sin and death. The law is what killed you, made you aware of your wretched state, and that was it’s purpose. It is like a mirror. A mirror can show you that you have dirt on your face, but it has no power to remove that dirt. The law can show you sin and death, but it has no power to save you.
This is the meaning of the cross. There is no more punishment for your sins. If there was more punishment for you, then he did not take them all. There is no more judgment for your sins. Your sins were judged once. They were judged at the cross. You were declared guilty. Your punishment was death. Jesus took it all. There is none left for you. That frees you to come to Christ for life.
This is the meaning of the resurrection. The life of Christ is what saves you. Jesus Christ is full of grace and truth. So, Him living in you is what you really needed all along. You now no longer have to listen to the desires of your flesh. You can listen to the one who lives in you. You have become a child of God, a new creation, on a new journey, allowing Him to lead and guide you under grace. He is your counselor and best friend.
So we have this instruction, to consider yourself dead to sin and alive to God. There are two parts here, to reckon yourself dead to sin and to reckon yourself alive to God. There is practical wisdom here in how to live in the new way of the Spirit, to walk in the newness of life. He knows that you will still sin from time to time, but He already dealt with sin. It is not faith to ask for forgiveness, for something you already have in Him. Simply thank Him for what He has already done. Then listen to His Fatherly instruction. He is not remembering sins anymore. He is looking for you to walk in faith in what He has already provided for you. He has given you everything you need for life and godliness. There is this faith, hope and love. That is here He wants your attention to be. You have this hope of living in the new life He has given by the provision of His amazing love and grace, and you can choose to walk this way by faith.
Transcript
You can have two people growing up in the same family and the same circumstances. One child goes one way. Another child goes another way. What is the problem? You do not want to sit around and analyze it, going into introspection. He already told you what your problem is. It is called sin living in us when we bring it down to that simplicity, that there is a force living in us that is contrary to the law, a force living in us that wants to rule. That to me is what indwelling sin is. It is that insatiable desire in us that wants to control everything.
I want to control my life. I want to control your life. I want to control my circumstances. I want to control my children. I want to control my congress. I want to control the president. I want to control everything. That is why people, quite frankly, go out and vote, in order that this guy wants to control the same things I want to control. So I am going to vote for him. And I am going to raise money. He wants to control the same thing I want to control. So I am going to vote him into office. And if he does not do right then I am going to get some lobby group in there. What does a lobby group do? It tries to get people to do what I want him to do. Is that contrary to the world? That is the world. We have to understand that. We have this thing living in us that says, “I want to control”. And if you want to control, then what do you really want to be? God.
Genesis 2:15-17
15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”
Genesis 3:22
22 And the Lord God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.”
It is the garden of Eden all over again. The day you eat thereof you will know right from wrong and good from evil and you will become like God. To yourself, you will not need Me. You will be your own god. You will determine right from wrong, good from evil. You will go out and control things instead of leaving things in My own hands. You will try to control things yourself. That is man.
When we realize that is the condition of fallen man, and fallen flesh, whether flesh indwelt by God or flesh without indwelt by God, that is the condition of fallen flesh. When you are born again, your flesh does not become unfallen. Your flesh is the same flesh the day you were lost. The difference is the Spirit of God living in there to control that flesh. But the flesh still wants to raise its ugly head, as much today as it did when I was lost. The only difference is there has been some time now to learn about the sufficiency and hope in Christ Jesus, to do what? For the Holy Spirit to control those desires. It is not that the desires go away. It is now the fact that they can be controlled by the Spirit of God.
Galatians 5:17-18
17 For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
Before we are able to put our faith in the Spirit of God controlling our flesh, we first of all have to recognize the wretchedness of our flesh. If I am not dead, what in the world would I want with life. If I am not sinful, what in the world would I want forgiveness for? If I do not see how wretched my flesh is, why would I need or even desire the Spirit to control me? Until I come to grips with my own wretched flesh, then why would I want Jesus to control my flesh? If I thought my flesh was okay,then I say, “I do not need His control. I can do quite well, thank you, on my own”.
Paul had to come to the point of seeing something about himself. He does so in verse 24.
Romans 7:24
24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body [not the spirit] that is subject to death?
This body contains indwelling sin, this flesh of mine that wants to control everything, this flesh of mine that is at enmity with the Spirit of God that lives in me. The desires of my flesh are contrary to the desires of my spirit and the desires of my spirit are contrary to the desires of my flesh. There is a conflict going on. There is a war going on.
Galatians 5:22-25
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. 24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.
Who is going to rescue me from my body? That is one of the joys of death, to get out of this body. There is going to be no conflict when we are absent from the body and present with the Lord. In the meantime, we live in this body and we live in this indwelling sin. That does not shock God. It is designed that way. In the midst of the strength of this flesh of yours, there is someone more powerful than the desires of the flesh. That is the Spirit. If you will put your hope where it belongs, not in the hope of fulfilling your flesh, not in the hope of getting your own way, not in the hope of controlling everything around you, not in the hope of wanting to be the one, not in the hope of never wanting to be submissive, always wanting to be right, never admitting you are wrong, put your hope in Me. Those things fade. Put your hope in Me and I will control those attitudes. I will change your attitudes, to give you the attitude of the one who lives in you, and that is Christ Jesus. To his question, who will rescue me from this body of death? His answer is.
Romans 7:25
25 Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!
Did Paul have any understanding why he did the things he did? No. He did not understand why he did those things. The only explanation he had for his bondage is sin. That is bringing things down to the simplicity of life. We try to complicate that. He did not sit and analyze his flesh, folks. I hope you can see this as it relates to biblical counseling. He did not sit there and analyze his flesh. He recognized the source of his problem. If you do not get to the source, and do not get to the root, then you are only going to be dealing with the fruit. In order to solve the problem, you get to the root of the problem. The root of the problem is sin. All of this other stuff you can talk about, try to analyze, try to sympathize, the emphasis on this type of thing, but you missed the root of the problem. The root of all problems of man is the things you want to do you do not do and the things you do not want to do, you do anyway. That is my struggle. The root of that is sin. The solution to sin is hope in Him.
Colossians 1:27
27 To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
So he calls the shot exactly as it is, wretched man that I am. I have to see there is no good thing in my flesh. My heart can be just as deceitful now and who can know it? The issue is I have a new heart and it is His, and I can draw on that. If I do not draw on that I am forced to rely on the energy of my own flesh. In my mind, I am a slave to God’s law. In my flesh, I am a slave to the law of sin. To my humanity, I am a slave to that law of sin.
Romans 7:25
25 So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin.
As far as a new nature is concerned, I am enslaved to God’s law and that is the law of love. When dealing with this type of thing, you see this conflict going on. Then how are these struggles dealt with. Let us look at Romans 6:10-14. So we know sin is the problem, so we say, “How are we going to get through this then? If sin is my problem, how do you deal with that issue? ”
Romans 6:10-11
10 The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.11 In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Did he say, “inside yourself, you are dead to sinning?” I hope not. He said reckon yourself, or count on, depending upon the fact that you are dead to sin. Why? He died to sin once and for all. That is the importance of the teaching of the finality of the cross. Jesus judged your sin one time and one time only. Your sins were all placed upon the cross of Jesus Christ, upon the body hanging on the cross of Jesus Christ. There he who knew no sin became sin. All of the judgment of God in regard to the entire sin issue was placed upon Jesus to the point he became sin for us so that in Him, we could become the righteousness of God.
2 Corinthians 5:21
21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
That is either the truth or a lie. God dealt with your sin once and for all, paid the price, took the penalty, presented his blood to God the Father who said, “propitiation has taken place. I am satisfied. The worth of your blood was of such value that it covered and took away the sins of the entire world.
1 John 2:2
2 And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.
1 John 4:10
10 Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
I have dealt now with sins once and for all, never to be dealt with again”. When Jesus returns, it says, he is not coming back to deal with sin, but to bring salvation for those who are waiting for Him.
Hebrews 9:28
28 so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him.
Why is he not coming back to deal with sin? He has already dealt with it. He has dealt with it once. He dealt with it for all. He said, “it is finished”. He said it is paid in full. Now he said, “Consider yourself dead to what killed Me”.
John 19:30
30 When he had received the drink, Jesus said, “It is finished.” With that, he bowed his head and gave up his spirit.
Now, he said, that is one thing to consider yourself dead to sin. Thank God for the cross. That took away my sins. God is not dealing with you, my friends, on the basis of sin today. He already dealt with you on the basis of sin. There is no more punishment for your sins. If there was more punishment for you, then he did not take them all. There is no more judgment for your sins. Your sins were judged once. They were judged at the cross. You were declared guilty. Your punishment was death. Jesus took it all. There is none left for you.
We are supposed to consider yourselves dead to what he said he died to. He is not dealing with you on the basis of sins today. If he was, he would have to deal with you on the basis of sin and death. He is not dealing with you on that basis. What is he dealing with you on? The second part of this verse. The life he lives he lives to God.
Romans 6:10
10 The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.
That is the importance of the resurrection. If all you see is that Jesus took away the sins of the world, which is good news, but you do not see that he did that so that he could give you life and that you could now live to God, through His life, then you missed the dynamic of the grace of God.
Romans 5:10
10 For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!
Notice it says “were God’s enemies”. We were once and for all reconciled to God by the death of His Son. You cannot be dead to sin when you are under the law. The law was given to point out your sin. So, to die to sin and to die to yourselves, and to be able to reckon yourself dead to sin is to reckon yourself dead to the law. The law is what is pointing out your sin constantly. The law is what is demanding your flesh to behave. So as long as you are under the law, you cannot reckon yourself dead to sin because the law is constantly pointing out your sin. You cannot die for sin once and for all as he did because you do not believe it is finished. The law is telling you it is not finished. “So you better get yourself forgiven again and again and again”. With that kind of theology, Jesus might as well stayed at home and saved himself from all the suffering on the cross, because the blood of bulls and goats accomplished what the average person thinks of in regard to forgiveness. “They just do not have to go to Jerusalem. He just kind of acts like he is already killed”. Therefore, just continue to get forgiveness, even though the bible says there is no forgiveness apart from the shedding of blood. Jesus died for sin once and for all. He wants us to see that. He did not die for sin to keep it going on.
Hebrews 10:14
14 For by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.
So I died to sin. I dealt with sin. It was judged on me. But I did not remain there. God is saying, “I took the whole wrath of God upon myself at that cross. I took the curse of the law upon myself. There at that cross, I did that so that sin could be dealt with once and for all”. Why? Sin is your problem. It is the thing that lives in you. It is what causes you to say, “I do not know what I am doing”. “Until I could deal with that thing that caused your spiritual death once and for all, I was not prepared to give you life. I had to deal with the cause of death, sin, in order to give you life”.
So, Paul is saying, die. He died to sin once and for all. But the life he lives he lives to God. So what does He want us to do? Reckon yourselves dead to sin. Reckon by faith in the fact that God is not dealing with you today on the basis of sin. What is He dealing with me on? It tells you. He is dealing with you on the basis of life. Reckon yourself dead to sin, but alive to God in Jesus Christ.
Alive to Him. Live by His life. Your hope is in Christ, alive living in you, your hope of glory. That is your hope. Now he is saying to us, “you are never going to live that life until you reckon yourself dead to sin”. It does not say “dead to sinning”. It does not say you are not going to sin. If it said dead to sinning, how can you explain what John said?
1 John 2:1-2
1 My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father – Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. 2 He is the propitiation for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.
Jesus died to sin once and for all. He did that once and for all. That is it. He is not going to do that again. Walk in that. Walk in faith in that truth. Why? Because until you walk in faith in that, how are you going to walk in faith in the life who lives in you, who is your only hope of glory? That is the dynamic of the teaching of the finality of the cross. That is why we get criticized, beat up, and called everything under the sun, for teaching people to die to sin once and for all. That does not mean dying to sinning. You are not going to. Your flesh is there to ensure that. You are dying to the fact that Jesus died for sin once and for all. He is not going to die again. He said, “it finished”. Rest in that. Spend the rest of your life thanking Him for that. That is evidence that you have counted yourself dead to sin.
My bible tells me to reckon yourself dead to sin, and when I thank Him instead of asking Him, that is evidence of the fact that I have reckoned myself dead to sin. He is not dealing with me on the basis of sin. He ought to but he isn’t. I deserve it but he isn’t. I reckon myself dead to sin. I reckon myself dead to the fact that God said, “it is finished” and I say, “Thank God it finished and I am going to spend the rest of my life praising Him for it”. What does that enable me to do? Walk in the newness of life.
We are dealing with this extremely important subject. We are talking about the fact that he died, he died to sin once and for all. Do you believe that, folks? I would imagine anyone listening to me, “Oh, yes I believe that”. The issue is, have you put your faith in it? If you have put your faith in it, you will reckon yourself dead to sin, if you are in Him. If he died to sin once and for all, and you are in Him, then you have died too. Sin once and for all. Reckon yourself dead to sin. Count on it. It did not say dead to sinning. It says dead to sin. The sin issue has been dealt with. That is the finality of the cross, folks. Until you and I reckon yourselves dead to sin, then we are saying, “the death you died, Jesus, you may have died to sin once and for all, but that does not have anything to do with me”.
That is the argument I give to these people who keep repeating this 1 John 1:9 stuff, and I hear it on the radio constantly. “You know what you have to do. You have to quote 1 John 1:9”.
1 John 1:9
9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
It makes me sick to my stomach. We keep bleeding all over ourselves. What we are doing is leading people to a primrose path to nowhere because what we are saying is “Jesus did not die for sin once and for all. There is still more forgiveness to be executed and if you just confess, he will get it for you. You can cause God to forgive you! If I could cause God to forgive me, then I must have caused Him to forgive me to begin with, that God heard my prayer for forgiveness and therefore sent His only begotten Son to die on the cross for me”. Is that what it says? No!
John 3:16
16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
It had nothing to do with us. It had everything to do with Him. Paul is trying to tell us this. The death he died for sin once and for all. He is not going to die again. Without the shedding of blood, there is no forgiveness. No more sacrifice for sin remains. He is not going to do it again. What does he want us to do? God could have left it there. But he is telling you how to live. In the same way, he died for sin once and for all, not dealing with it any more. You reckon yourself dead to sin. Count yourself dead to sin, if you are in Him.
The life he lives he lives to God. You do the same thing. Consider yourself alive to God in Jesus Christ. The life he lives he lives to God. So reckon yourself alive to God in Jesus Christ. The same way. If you are going to say you are alive in Christ, then say you are dead to sin.
Now, people say that when you say that to people then people are going to go on sinning. He answers that. Now folks, let us set the sin issue on the shelf. It has been dealt with. It is over. Now, how do we live our lives? How do we deal with the fact that my flesh still wants to do fleshly things? Do we go on sinning, as the scripture says, so that grace may abound? God forbid.
Romans 6:1-2
1 What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? 2 By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?
You are dead to the whole sin issue. The reason you are dead to sin is because he died to sin. You are not dead to sin because you gutted it out. “I am going to be dead to sin”. You have got people doing that. “I am never going to sin again. I commit. I am never going to.” It does not say that. Because he died to sin, and you are in Him, reckon yourself dead. It did not say you did it. Just count that it has been done.
Romans 6:3-7
3 Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6 For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin – 7 because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.
As a person who is a forgiven person, not a person with the capability of getting forgiven, but a forgiven person, here is what he says.
Romans 6:11
11 In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.
You got sin in your mortal body, but do not let sin reign in that body of yours. You can bring that sin under the control of the God who now lives in you. That is what it means to be alive to God in Jesus Christ. Or, you can give into those evil desires that are in your mortal body.
Romans 6:12
12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires.
That sounds to me like you have a choice. The only solution to this trying to figure out why I am doing this. Paul already answered that. You have sin in you. The issue is, have you reckoned yourself dead to sin? In other words, “Lord Jesus, thank you for the fact that you are not holding my sins against me. Because you did that I am alive to God. The life that you live, you live to God, and I am going to reckon that the life I live I live to God in Jesus Christ”. Do not let sin reign. How do you do that?
Romans 6:13
13 Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness.
When you offer parts of your body to sin as an instrument of wickedness, then you are going to be controlled and mastered by what you yield your body to. Instead, offer yourselves to God. Alive to God, living for God. No longer an instrument of wickedness but as an instrument of righteousness. What does that tell us? It tells us that we have a choice to either offer our body as an instrument of righteousness or an instrument of wickedness. But if the power of sin is in the law, then as long as I am under the law, I am going to be under the power of sin, totally incapable of offering my body as an instrument of righteousness.
Romans 6:14
14 For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.
This means that when you are under law, sin is your master. What an important passage of scripture we deal with.
Romans 6:10-14
10 The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.11 In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. 12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. 13 Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. 14 For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.
I would meditate on this over and over again because the final verses as to how to live your life negates this idea that if you teach people that all your sins are forgiven you are going to live like the devil. My friends, you are going to live like the devil under the law. It tells us that clearly.
1 Corinthians 15:56
56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law.
Romans 6:14
14 For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.
That means when you are under the law, sin is your master. We have to understand that we can either live as an instrument of death or an instrument of life.
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