Those Who Are in Christ Jesus

Romans 13:12-14,

12 The night is almost gone, and the day is at hand. Let us therefore lay aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light.

13 Let us BEHAVE PROPERLY as in the day, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual promiscuity and sensuality, not in strife and jealousy.

14 But PUT ON THE LORD JESUS CHRIST, and MAKE NO PROVISION FOR THE FLESH IN REGARD TO ITS LUSTS.

Behave properly, make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts; these words were written by the man who wrote just six chapters earlier, ‘For that which I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate.’ And, ‘For the good that I wish, I do not do; but I practice the very evil that I do not wish.’

In one chapter he says he cannot do what is right and in a later chapter, he tells the readers they must do what Is right. Is he two-faced? Does he have a forked tongue? Of course not, these words were kept in the word of God and the word of God does not contradict itself.

Look at the beginning of Romans Chapter 7 where Paul is talking about the law having jurisdiction over a person as long as the person is living and how a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he is living. In both cases, a person bound by the law while alive is released from the law when he dies, and a woman bound to her husband is released from the law concerning her husband when her husband dies. So the law is binding on all who are alive, but not on those who have died.

He spends the rest of Chapter 7 explaining how the law affects mankind who was conceived in sin and brought forth in iniquity and therefore have sin dwelling in them. He expounds on how the law, being told what to do and what not to do, though meant to result in life for us, instead resulted in death for us.

7 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.”

8 But sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, produced in me coveting of every kind; for apart from the Law sin is dead.

9 And I was once alive apart from the Law; but when the commandment came, sin became alive, and I died;

10 and this commandment, which was to result in life, proved to result in death for me;

11 or sin, taking opportunity through the commandment, deceived me, and through it killed me.

12 So then, the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.

13 Therefore did that which is good become a cause of death for me? May it never be! Rather it was sin, in order that it might be shown to be sin by effecting my death through that which is good, that through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful.

Now look at Chapter 8 where Paul explains the only way to overcome both the sin that dwells in us and the condemnation that accompanies it.

Romans 8:1-4,

1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death.

3 For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh,

4 in order that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.

God condemned sin in the flesh by sending His Son to become a curse for us, for everyone who hangs on a tree is cursed.

Jesus takes away sins by giving us the Spirit who enables us to fulfill the requirement of the Law, see verse 4. As a result of our fulfilling the Law by walking by the Spirit, we no longer have any condemnation of sin. But if we should stumble and sin, we have an Advocate, Jesus Christ the Righteous; and if we confess our sins, He will forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Our God understands our predicament, and though He provides a way of escape for all temptations common to man, He also knows we are but dust from the ground and He patiently trains us up in the way we should go, teaching us to be obedient.

Many say we are already forgiven for future sins But this is not true, for the word of God says, But if you are without discipline, of which all have become partakers, then you are illegitimate children and not sons, Hebrews 12:8. So in the end, Jesus, having been made perfect, became to all thosewho obey Him the source of eternal salvation… Hebrews 5:9. So submitting to the Lord’s discipline and learning obedience is a necessity that must be learned and practiced to inherit eternal salvation.

Galatians 3:10-13,

10 For as many as are of the works of the Law are under a curse; for it is written, “CURSED IS EVERYONE WHO DOES NOT ABIDE BY ALL THINGS WRITTEN IN THE BOOK OF THE LAW, TO PERFORM THEM.”

[No one can abide by all things written in the Law, so all are cursed].

11 Now that no one is justified by the Law before God is evident; for, “THE RIGHTEOUS MAN SHALL LIVE BY FAITH.”

12 However, the Law is not of faith; on the contrary, “HE WHO PRACTICES THEM SHALL LIVE BY THEM.”

13 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”— …

So what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.

No one is justified by the Law for no one can keep it. Jesus became a curse for us (for we are all cursed) and He sacrificed His life for all mankind. He was the last Adam, so when He died, Adam died. The body of sin was done away with.

Romans 6:1-7,

1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace might increase?

2 May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?

3 or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?

4 Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.

5 For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection,

6 knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, that our body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin;

7 for he who has died is freed from sin.

Romans 8:12-17,

12 So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh—

13 for if you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

14 For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.

15 For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!”

16 The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,

17 and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him.

Dear ones, we have been crucified with Christ, therefore we are dead to the Law which does nothing but bring out the bad in us, that is, sin. Having now died to the Law, we are alive to God through the body of Christ, and we make up a new creation, the church. We are still in the body of the old creation, flesh, but we are set free from the sin that dwells in it through the body of Christ.

1 Peter 4:24,

24 and He Himself bore our sins in His body on the cross, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness; for by His wounds you were healed.

Romans 8:

5 For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.

6 For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace,

7 because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so;

8 and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

9 However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.

10 And if Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness.

11 But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who now indwells you.

Sin is still in us, but the Spirit of God now dwells in us also. We need only choose which one we will follow, sin that leads to death, or the Spirit who leads to life. If we choose to follow the Spirit we must consider ourselves dead to sin and alive to God and trust in Jesus, for He is now able to come to our aid when we’re tempted. If we choose to follow our sinful desire, a terrifying expectation of judgment and THE FURY OF A FIRE WHICH WILL CONSUME THE ADVERSARIES await us.

The choice is for all of us to make individually. Choose wisely.

Romans 7:4-6,

4 Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead, that we might bear fruit for God.

5 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.

6 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.

Jon David Banks, God’s most unworthy servant

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Published by Jon David Banks