The blame has been shifted! As it should be
. "Who shall deliver me from this body of death"?
Rom 7:24-25 Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin.
Paul defines our dilemma. Even as we try to do good we often find evil with us. This evil is often the mixture in our motives. What Paul is describing is chaos, formless and void. But when the Logos comes, "Let there be light", there is a separation made- Light and darkness. When we first believe, the living word divides asunder soul and spirit and makes manifest the thoughts and motives of the heart. Sin in the flesh is condemned in the body of Christ on the cross and we "enter in" to that death by faith. We also receive resurrection life in the spirit, in the new creation in the inner man, "Christ in you the hope of glory". But it is a seed. It is a measure of yeast in a bushel of meal. It must grow as we grow in grace. It is also a stewardship, we grow as we walk in the Spirit and Abide in Christ. In the meantime, we find that "we all stumble in many ways." Yet, we are in the fight between light and darkness as servants of the light, so we bring our stumblings to the light. The enemy within must "Be reckoned dead", that old man who was slain at repentance and buried at baptism would beckon us to return to Egypt. The challenge is to press on in the wilderness, where "every unbelieving member must perish", till we find ourselves ready to cross the Jordan and take possession of the promises.
"We have these great and precious promises that by them we might become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust, therefore applying all diligence, add to your faith virtue, and to virtue....."
For everyone whom He foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son...
So as we have already been judged for sin, if we have beheld through the eye of faith, the serpent on the pole, the sin that was killing us, slain in the body of Christ crucified. The bite/poison/sting of sin is healed. Now where as we were once serving sin unto greater sin, now we are serving righteousness unto greater (progressive) righteousness (Ro 6). As the sharper than any two edged sword of the quick and active word continues to divide, growing us through trial, the spirit man ascends,experientially seated in the heavenlies, taking possession of the promised land(divine nature). The old manis "mortified", "reckoned dead", "put off".
Eph 4:20-24 But you have not so learned Christ, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: that you put off, concerning your former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness.
We do not conquer him by law and works, he will defeat us every time in that war. We conquer him through the separation that has made- "reckoning him dead". Understanding that it is no longer I that sin, but the old man, sin working in my flesh. I reaffirm my agreement with God in this process of growing in grace by "confession". Bringing it to God. Laying it at the altar. "I do not agree with this", "forgive me", "change me", "heal me." I grow in the victory this forgiveness and healing affords by "walking in the Spirit". The more I walk in the Spirit the less I fulfill the lusts of the flesh. If I am under condemnation I will lose the victory, back under law, back in chaos.
Rom 8:3-11 For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God. But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.
1Jn 1:7 But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.
1Jn 1:8-9 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
1Jn 2:1-2 My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He Himself is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the whole world.
Thanks be to God through our Lord Jesus Christ!!! There is therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus!!!!
Sometimes as little ones, babes in Christ, we are often availing ourselves of this forgiveness and propitiation as we learn humility, which is the key to growing in grace( a haughty spirit comes before a fall, you will teach me truth in the inner man, a broken and a contrite heart you will never cast out). The blood is sufficient, though the lessons be hard. As we get set free from "self" righteousness, into the righteousness of Christ which is by faith, then the fruitful works which are by love and the manifestation of the divine nature spring forth as "fruit of the Spirit"(over these things there is no law).
Rev 22:1-5 And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, bright as crystal, going forth out of the throne of God and of the Lamb: in the midst of its broad place, and of the river on this side and on that, is a tree of life, yielding twelve fruits, in each several month rendering its fruits, and the leaves of the tree are for the service of the nations; and any curse there shall not be any more, and the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall serve Him, and they shall see His face, and His name is upon their foreheads, and night shall not be there, and they have no need of a lamp and light of a sun, because the Lord God doth give them light, and they shall reign--to the ages of the ages.
