I was not planning on writing a message on the interpretation of Romans 7 until I realized that the misunderstanding of this passage was deceiving many away from God's truth. This scripture is so misunderstood by most churches.
There is an epidemic of misunderstanding of what a true Christian is and everybody with this misunderstanding seems to keep pointing to Romans 7 for their justification for this misunderstanding.
The misunderstanding originates from Romans 7:14-20.
We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good. As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do — this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.
Most have misunderstood this verse because Apostle Paul seems to be writing this about himself. Since Paul is a born again Christian at the time he wrote this, people assume this is what a Christian is like.
If people fully understand the rest of the New Testament, they would quickly see these verses could not even be remotely considered to be representing what a true Christian is. To say a born again Christian is still controlled by his sinful nature is an oxy-moron. The phrases “born again Christian” and “controlled by sinful nature” cannot exist in the same person. Either you are still controlled in part or in full by your sinful nature or you are a born again Christian where the sinful nature has no control over you.
To start understanding this scripture we must understand whether this person Paul is talking about is born again or not. One of the key verses that indicates this is not a Christian is in Romans 7:14.
We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin..
When we are a Christian we are filled with God’s Spirit which has transformed our heart into a heart of love. Romans 7:14-20 is indicating a person’s life without the Holy Spirit in it. Without the Spirit in us, we have no hope of conquering sin on our own and we are still a slave to sin.
Apostle Paul is actually talking theoretically about any person, including himself, and how we are powerless with just our own human capabilities to get rid of sin. We learned throughout the Old Testament that we cannot obey God’s commandments on our own without the Holy Spirit’s power in us. This is what Paul is stressing in his letter. He is helping them understand what all of Israel already new before Christ came to die on the cross for us. The Jews knew the law was good but they were not capable of fulfilling the law.
Ever since the time when Adam ate the fruit of the forbidden tree, we have had the knowledge of good and evil in us. Remember it was the knowledge of good and evil, not just evil. The big problem ever since the original sin is not that we can’t know what is good, it is that we could not do any of the good we had knowledge of without the power of God in us. This is what Paul is talking about in Romans 7:15-16.
I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, I agree that the law is good.
Paul goes on to say that it is the sin, or evil, living in this person doing the sin since this person is still under the law. It is evident that this person does not have the Holy Spirit living in him. Paul concludes in Romans 7:17-18 that the only thing living in this person is the sinful nature.
As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature.
Now to keep this passage in context, let’s go back to the passages before Romans 7:14-20 to Romans 7:1.
Do you not know, brothers — for I am speaking to men who know the law — that the law has authority over a man only as long as he lives?
We see here that Paul is addressing people that know the Jewish law and emphasize that all men are under the control of the law until they die. Another words, we have to die to be free from the law. To illustrate his point Paul uses marriage as an example in Romans 7:2-3.
For example, by law a married woman is bound to her husband as long as he is alive, but if her husband dies, she is released from the law of marriage. So then, if she marries another man while her husband is still alive, she is called an adulteress. But if her husband dies, she is released from that law and is not an adulteress, even though she marries another man.
So what Paul is emphasizing here is that we have to die to the law before we can be bound to another, which is Jesus Christ. We die to the law by believing in the perfect body of Jesus Christ dieing on the cross for us. In Romans 7:4-6 Paul explains this for us.
So, my brothers, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit to God. For when we were controlled by the sinful nature, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies, so that we bore fruit for death. But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.
If we believe Jesus Christ died for us, then we believe through the cross we also died and are no longer bound to the law and are now under God’s grace and no longer under the control of the sinful nature. We are given a new heart from God which does not have any selfishness or sin in it, but only love for God and love for all of God’s creation. True love cannot contain any selfishness or sin of any kind. Because this new heart that is from God has only love, it cannot willfully sin. Through this new heart we now have control of the body instead of the sinful nature in the body controlling us. Only God can do this and everything is possible with God.
Matthew 19:26 - Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”
Today Romans 7 is falsely preached from many pulpits with the idea that Christians can’t keep from sinning. This has been another deception from the devil that a lot of people have believed because it supports people believing they are born again when they truly haven’t had a total heart transformation yet. Don’t let yourself be fooled by this lie of the devil. The truth is, when your born again you can, through God’s Spirit’s power in you, conquer all the sins that His word or His Spirit convicts you of.
Remember God’s grace is His Spirit working in and through you – Michael Reid
Showing posts with label the law. Show all posts
Showing posts with label the law. Show all posts
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Is Your Nature The Same As Jesus’ Nature
When Jesus was walking on this earth proclaiming the kingdom is at hand, He also proclaimed that He and the Father were one. He could say this because the Father and Jesus were of one Spirit. He indicated that His Father in heaven and He had the same nature, so if you saw one of them, you saw both of them.
John 14:9-10 - Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'? Don't you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me?
In other scripture Jesus said He could only do His Father’s will because His Father’s nature and His own were the same. He could only do His Father’s will because Jesus could not go against His own nature since it was the same as His Father’s.
Now where does our nature fit into this? If we are a believer that has been born of God, we will have the same nature as Jesus.
John 14:12 - I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.
Rom 2:14-15 - Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law, since they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts
2 Peter 1:4 - Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.
When we are truly born again, we will have received Jesus’ Holy Spirit. When we are filled with His Spirit, we will be imparted with Jesus’ very nature. Since we are imparted with Jesus’ nature when born again, we can then say to others – “If you have seen me, you have seen Jesus”. We can say this because Jesus is in us and we are in Jesus.
John 15:4 - Remain in me, and I will remain in you.
Rev 3:20-22 - Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me. To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne.
In the following scripture, Peter stood up at the time of Pentecost and preached that what had just happened was what was prophesied – that God’s Spirit would be poured out to His people.
Acts 2:17 - In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
When we are born again all of our old nature is gone and we are imparted with Jesus’ nature. As long as we stay in Christ’s nature, we can only do Jesus’ will since we have the same nature as Jesus. We no longer have any desires to sin and since all desires to sin are gone from us, we don’t willfully sin. We can’t willfully sin because it now goes against our very nature which is the same as Jesus’ nature. The only way a born again believer can willfully sin is if that believer rejects Jesus’ nature, but how could anyone born again want to go back to the sinful nature after they have experienced the very loving nature of Jesus.
When we are born again and Jesus’ nature has become our own nature we will be “Christ like”.
2 Cor 3:18 - And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
We are truly brothers with Christ and a son of our heavenly Father because we are of one in Spirit.
If your soul cannot attest to the above words in this message, then I want to encourage you to truly come to the Lord and give your whole heart, soul, and mind to the Lord as a living sacrifice, only then can God impart His Son’s Holy Spirit (His nature) into you. This is the mystery of the gospel, all things become new and understood when Jesus Christ is in you.
2 Cor 3:14-16 - But their minds were made dull, for to this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read. It has not been removed, because only in Christ is it taken away. Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts. But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.
God Bless,
Michael Reid
John 14:9-10 - Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'? Don't you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me?
In other scripture Jesus said He could only do His Father’s will because His Father’s nature and His own were the same. He could only do His Father’s will because Jesus could not go against His own nature since it was the same as His Father’s.
Now where does our nature fit into this? If we are a believer that has been born of God, we will have the same nature as Jesus.
John 14:12 - I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.
Rom 2:14-15 - Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law, since they show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts
2 Peter 1:4 - Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires.
When we are truly born again, we will have received Jesus’ Holy Spirit. When we are filled with His Spirit, we will be imparted with Jesus’ very nature. Since we are imparted with Jesus’ nature when born again, we can then say to others – “If you have seen me, you have seen Jesus”. We can say this because Jesus is in us and we are in Jesus.
John 15:4 - Remain in me, and I will remain in you.
Rev 3:20-22 - Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me. To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne.
In the following scripture, Peter stood up at the time of Pentecost and preached that what had just happened was what was prophesied – that God’s Spirit would be poured out to His people.
Acts 2:17 - In the last days, God says, I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
When we are born again all of our old nature is gone and we are imparted with Jesus’ nature. As long as we stay in Christ’s nature, we can only do Jesus’ will since we have the same nature as Jesus. We no longer have any desires to sin and since all desires to sin are gone from us, we don’t willfully sin. We can’t willfully sin because it now goes against our very nature which is the same as Jesus’ nature. The only way a born again believer can willfully sin is if that believer rejects Jesus’ nature, but how could anyone born again want to go back to the sinful nature after they have experienced the very loving nature of Jesus.
When we are born again and Jesus’ nature has become our own nature we will be “Christ like”.
2 Cor 3:18 - And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
We are truly brothers with Christ and a son of our heavenly Father because we are of one in Spirit.
If your soul cannot attest to the above words in this message, then I want to encourage you to truly come to the Lord and give your whole heart, soul, and mind to the Lord as a living sacrifice, only then can God impart His Son’s Holy Spirit (His nature) into you. This is the mystery of the gospel, all things become new and understood when Jesus Christ is in you.
2 Cor 3:14-16 - But their minds were made dull, for to this day the same veil remains when the old covenant is read. It has not been removed, because only in Christ is it taken away. Even to this day when Moses is read, a veil covers their hearts. But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.
God Bless,
Michael Reid
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