Your daily goal:
Philippians 3:14 “I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”
(Monday-Friday, from my morning time of study and reflection, I will share with you what God is teaching me. I ask you then to join me in each day and pray that God will use our time to draw us to a deeper understanding of His will and His ways. Our objective is simple…to ‘see’ and ‘know’ the light and love of Christ Jesus..‘so that’ we will GO OUT and share the love of Christ Jesus with someone in that day….to GO and bear fruit …to be light to the world.)
Today’s Daily Light
Continuing with…The Search For Significance
Guilt Versus Conviction
The Legal Trap
(Friends…the subject matter this week…and the passages of Scripture related to the subject matter…is not easily or quickly understood by us…no….Satan does not want you to see how to break free from the constant demands he makes on us through the Sin nature that lives in our flesh…he does not want us to clearly see the kingdom of God and its righteousness as compared to the rut of the world mindset wherein he desires us to remain stuck …no…. so even as you read this seemingly difficult-to-understand passage in Romans…’make yourself’ work through it until the light of the Spirit gives you illumination ‘so that’ you will learn this key understanding related to the Sin nature, the commands of the Law, and Life by the Spirit. This is soooo valuable for you to know and learn for your maturation process…’so that’ you will become all you can be and bear much eternal fruit. Work hard to understand McGee’s work this week. Here we go.)
There is a relationship between the law and the sin nature that few Christians understand. In fact, when the first part of Romans 5:20 is quoted to many Christians, they will deny it is a part of Scripture: “And the Law came in that the transgression might increase.’ Examine the following:
For while we were in the flesh, the sinful passions, which were aroused by the Law, were at work in the members of our body to bear fruit for death. But now we have been released from the Law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in oldness of the letter……What shall we say then? Is the Law sin? May it never be! On the contrary, I would not have come to know sin except through the Law; for I would not have known about coveting if the Law had not said, “You shall not covet.’ But sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind; for apart from the Law sin is dead. And I was once alive apart from the Law; but when the commandment came, sin became alive, and I died; and this commandment, which was to result in life, proved to result in death for me; for sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, deceived me, and through it killed me. So then, the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good. (Romans 7:5-12)
Christ redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us–for it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree.” (Galatians 3:13)
Law and Sin (sin nature) are technical terms. This means you cannot assign just any meaning to them. You must understand them through the particular definition given them by the text. In other words, the way you use a term in everyday speech may not be the way the term is used in Scripture. For instance, everyone talks about God. The Bible uses the word God to refer to the infinite triune God. Thus, two people using the same word could be referring to opposite concepts unless they take time to define the word God.
Understanding this, the term sin in these passages refers to a sin nature. The sin nature mechanism is in operation to motivate man to sin. The sin nature is not just some theoretical concept. It exist as surely as your heart exists. Treat it as some vage idea and you will be at a great disadvantege in combating it.
Law is the other term needing definition. This word generally refers to a relationship between two separate events. The law of gravity means that is something goes up in the earth’s gravitational field (event 1), then it will come down (event 2). Laws are generally written in an if…then format. Let’s look at Romans 8:2: “For the law of the Spirit of the life in Christ Jesus has set your free from the law of sin and death.” If you were to paraphrase this into the if…then format, it would read, “if you operate in the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, then you will be set free from the law of sin.” The law of sin is stated as follows: “If you operate in sin, then you will die.” Operating in the Spirit of life always brings freedom from the law of sin. Operating in sin always brings death. They are simply undeniable and unchangeable laws. (con’t tomorrow 😊)
Wow! This whole understanding of the ‘Sin’ nature…what it is…where it comes from…what its purpose is….is KEY to our understanding how to become effective in dealing with its constant demands and ideas…as it (the Sin nature) presents those to our mind. New Birth in Christ has ‘set us free’ from the power of the Sin nature. We must learn how to live by the power of the new life of the Spirit of God that lives inside us. It is not an automatic process (our learning process). Understanding is so key….simply how God designed it.
Father…I pray that by the power of Your Spirit that lives inside us…that You will help the eyes of our understanding to see ‘more’ light of You and Your ways. ‘So that’ we can use that light to help those that are in darkness. Amen
Let There Be Light 