1 Timothy 1:15 - Paul was not only first in line when it came to dispensing the Grace of God, Paul was also foremost in crime when it came to murdering the saints of Israel’s earthly kingdom program. If Paul was at Pentecost, would Paul himself, if he took part in stoning Stephen for believing the message given at Pentecost, would he have been a blasphemer at Pentecost?
In Paul’s pre-grace zealousness, he would have been a foremost rejecter of any notion whatsoever that Jesus was Israel’s messiah or that Jesus had risen from among the dead. First in line, first in crime are apt descriptions for the Apostle of Grace. Paul is the chief pattern of God’s grace to all, he is the foremost example. Paul was certainly the first person to be an exhibitor of the long-suffering Grace of God, in that Paul called himself a blasphemer according to his very own testimony. (1Timothy 1:13)
We need to understand that even though Paul was saved, Paul still considered himself to be a sinner. Paul understood the word: Sin. And Paul understood that word meant to come short of the righteousness belonging to God himself. The word “chief” in this passage is the Greek word protos, were we get our English word prototype.
Not only does prototype mean the first in a sense of time, prototype can also mean: a foremost example. Paul is the foremost example of the impossibility, the total impossibility of gaining righteousness before God through the performance of the flesh. The source of our righteousness! What is it: personal performance or identity in Christ?
Romans 1:17 - “For therein,” inside that gospel message is good news concerning a righteousness that far exceeds the righteousness of any person, no matter how righteous appearing that person may be. The righteousness spoken of in what Paul calls “the gospel of Christ” is no less than than the perfect righteousness that belongs to God himself.
Paul went on to tell us that the person who would have righteousness freely attributed to their account, is the person who has believed something, and it is an issue Paul said of faith from two different perspectives, “from faith to faith.” The first “faith” in that expression is a reference to the faith OF, or belonging to Christ himself.
So it was ultimately Christ’s faith that allowed God’s justice to remain intact, as God declares an unrighteous believer to be righteous. You see, apart from Christ’s faith and his faithfulness to carry out the Father’s will based on that faith, there would not be anyone perfectly righteous to whom God could join a believing sinner.
Just as Christ never doubted the will of the Father, the Father never doubted the faith and faithfulness of his son. It was God’s plan to use the faith and its resultant faithfulness of the son of God in the ultimate glorification of the human race who would take him at his Word. The Identity of believers to Christ is that which allows God to remain just when he credits those with righteousness with that which belongs Christ, who is perfectly righteous.
2 Timothy 3:7 - Pride will not let us swallow our own pill. You see, on one hand traditions die hard, some people are never able to come to the knowledge of the truth, because they fear learning. Knowledge of the truth may cause them to have to change the truth they have been standing on for who knows how long, and that is a frightening thing for lots of people.
It is a fearful thing to think we may have been wrong all along, much easier for many people to avoid learning then change in mid-stream. Pride is a tremendously powerful force, money can be a factor. Money and power go hand in hand in the mind of carnal people, which actually leads us to the real reason from Paul’s prospective some are ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
People living in the realm of the flesh, focusing more on the things of the earth and the desires of the flesh than on the things of God. Yes, both pride and money fit within the carnal category. To be carnal is to centered, concerned with personal stature with the things that satisfy fleshly desires and emotional needs.
There are pastors out there who have come to the knowledge of the Word of God Rightly Divided who refuse to take a stand on the distinctiveness of Paul’s ministry and Paul’s message and all because in their minds they have too much to lose if they do. Could they only see what they truly have to gain, if they do.
Romans 8:29 - Do you grasp the full scope of what predestination means if you are a believer? Think about this for a moment, God has predetermined something where you are concerned once you believe Paul’s good news message and God’s mind is not going to be changed on this.
Now if you are a believer, what does that mean to you that God pre-decided something? God did not predetermine to cause some individuals to belief unto eternal life. God predetermined to conform everyone who believes to his son, Jesus Christ. You the believer are to be conformed to the imagine of God’s son!
God in his infinite wisdom pre-decreed that every believer would be joined to his son, fully identified with his son. God also pre-decided that you the believer would be blessed with all the blessings and privileges of an adopted adult son. God decided in advance that you the believer are to be the praise of the glory of his grace. Ephesians 1:4-6
You are predestined to these outcomes, God has pre-determined them simple as that, God’s mind is set. You see God wants us to praise him for all these things and he certainly wants us to thank him for all these things, because he has pre-determined these outcomes for you, for ever believer. God wants us to rest in these things.
1 Timothy 6:9 - “they that will be rich” Do you see how the entrapment takes place? Those who are bent on satisfying the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life fall into a snare, in that they become addicted to the manner in which they satisfy those lusts. Without any concern whatsoever for keeping your service to those lusts at bay, then serving those lusts will entrap you, such that it will become increasingly more difficult for you to do. 1 Corinthians 9:27
Paul was not talking about being wealthy; nothing wrong with being wealthy. Paul was talking about those with an insatiable desire to become wealthy, their sin lies not in being wealthy, but in coveting riches. They fall into temptation and a snare, the addictive entrapment. A person who covets wealth, makes that their goal in life, can be easily swayed by the sin nature toward dishonesty, and dishonesty can become a lifestyle, rather than a one-time event.
Whatever, or whomever, you choose to serve, you become a servant to, a slave to that person or to that thing, you are going to become enslaved to that which you choose to put yourself in servitude. Choose to serve sin and you can soon become addicted to the manner in which you have chosen to serve sin. That is the principle. Romans 6:16
Paul goes on to say, they fall into many foolish and hurtful lusts (not only harmful to themselves, but hurtful to others around them) which drown men in destruction (“damage” whether it be physical, mental, emotional, or functional, and damage to a person can take any number of roads) and perdition (total waste or ruination) of that individual. Paul is talking about what those who pursue the satisfaction of the sinful lusts of the flesh reap to themselves, not from God, but through that to which they are reaping.
Romans 8:12-13 - We do not owe anything to this flesh, because it will never please God. That is why our flesh is going on down to the dust and God is going to give us a new body. Our fleshly production did not gain us our identity in Christ in the first place, and it certainly can not gain us heaven. If the works of our flesh did not contribute to getting us save, how can the works of the flesh play a part in keeping us saved.
How will we die if we live after the flesh? If we live after applying rule-keeping to our righteousness, we are going to be functionally dead when it comes to the production of fruit in our lives. Paul was functionally not capable of producing any fruit that God could accept, he died functionally when he tried to apply law-keeping to perfect his flesh.
If we are trying to satisfy God’s justice on a daily basis or however by conforming to a standard of rules and regulations, we are going to find that just the opposite becomes true in our flesh. We are going to find ourselves constantly focusing on the flesh. The milk of self-righteousness will sour under the divine heat of God’s justice. It is either an issue of God’s righteousness, or it is an issue of self-righteousness.
Living after the flesh, from a functional pony of view is taking the credit yourself. Walking after the new nature is recognizing the source of the fruit. To walk in the new nature is to take the credit away from yourself. You realize that God is not looking at how well you adhere to any standard. God is not looking at your production. God is not looking at your behavior in order to view you as being in favor with him. God is looking at your identification with his son, and at what his energizing power from on high is producing IN you.
Galatians 2:16 - The faith “OF” Jesus Christ, his faithfulness, not ours. Israel’s labor of love under the law contract was a system of performance according to demand. They had to deal with their neighbors according to a strict system of rules and regulations. The law told them how to deal with one another. The law had apprehension as a motivating factor.
Understand love “agape” has much more to do with attitude in action, than it has to do with emotions direction that does what’s in the best interest of another individual. This is a work of righteousness. No one has ever measured up to the labor of love as Christ expressed that work of righteousness during his walk on earth. Christ not only fulfilled the outer demands of the Law Program, he fulfilled the inner demands as well.
Christ always did the will of the Father, he never went contrary at anytime to the will of the Father. God’s design was that Christ fulfill the law, so God could join us. To be in Christ, joined to our Savior, requires that you believe that something happened to the sins that Christ died for. God raised Jesus Christ from among the dead as proof that the payment Christ made for all the sins of the world was sufficient to satisfy God’s justice where the sins Christ died for are concerned.
Our labor of love under the Age of Grace has had the apprehension aspect removed entirely. We are to serve others today based on how God expressed his love to others through Christ and what God accomplished for them, who God made them and us to be in our Savior by joining us to our Savior, Jesus Christ.
Romans 6:3 - “know you not” when you trusted Christ as Savior, something happened that took place outside the realm of your sensation, outside the realm of your feeling. People oftentimes base their salvation and their relationship to God on their emotions. From Paul’s perspective, these people are “walking after the flesh.”
They are walking in relation to the flesh, thinking that their relationship with God is based upon either the feelings of their flesh (emotions) or the capacity of their flesh to produce righteousness through their performance. One of the main purposes of worship, as some people define it, is to get a touch from God; to get the emotions at a peak.
They feel close to God when they are in a situation that stimulates their emotions. They find themselves on an endless quest for emotional satisfaction, because they relate their closeness to God upon feeling. Paul wants us to recognize that Justification and Sanctification are not based upon feelings at all.
Feelings are not an outward demonstration of an inward manifestation, as some would have us believe. Justification and Sanctification has nothing at all to do with a religious physical formality, it is rather, a reality, and Paul wants us to understand that and appreciate it as being true!
Galatians 3:1-3 - Having been taught by Paul, these people begun in belief, but then some false teachers came along and these sealed saints became confused in their thinking. These people were saved, but they reverted to a walking after the flesh identity; not a identity in Christ.
The problem with the foolish Galatians was not the fact that they were slipping back into a sinful lifestyle. The problem with the foolish Galatians was incorrect thinking. They were slipping back away from the reality of grace and back into a works for righteousness to maintain a righteous standing with God concept.
They knew about the crucifixion, they knew about the resurrection, and they knew what it had accomplished. They had been foolishly duped, the law was never successful at making anyone good before God, it was not given for that purpose. They needed to be straightened out where their thinking was concerned.
Paul provided the correction by asking these people if they knew the source from which their new identity had been derived. Did it come from first believing or from later doing? Let us remain in our minds with that concept and not move away from that in our thinking. Paul is saying, “Do not let your thinking become foolish thinking and go back to dealing with God according to rules and regulations.”
Romans 7:24 - “O wretched man that I am” do you suppose Paul would want us to believe that we can produce through our fleshly efforts, what Israel was totally incapable of producing through their fleshly efforts, or for that matter, what Paul knew that he could never produce through his fleshly efforts even after his conversion. Paul never used the word fruit in connection with any believer as being the product OF that believer.
You can set yourselves apart all you like behaviorally, you can start any number of things and cease doing any number of things in order to gain holiness before God, but you will do no better at reaching that goal then the foolish Galatians, who were themselves flirting with the idea of progressive sanctification.
Paul did not praise them for their gallant efforts to become more holy people through fleshly production, he gave them a name, he called them foolish people! We can do great wonders when it comes to relative righteousness, but measuring up to God’s standard of righteousness, none of us will ever do so apart from God decreeing that to be so.
“Look at where I was, look at where I am now,” that is famous among many groups that are meeting today, and they have to have a testimony by a person showing the other people there where they were and how far they have progressed. The capacity of the human race to EARN the measure of righteousness that belongs to God is “Zilch.”
Romans 2:3 - Arrogance! It is such a shame that so many people today are trusting in their goodness to get them to heaven. God is going to see you as having no need of the saving work of his son. The human race is guilty before God! God has decreed it! NO excuse will suffice to pardon it. Paul wants us to understand that there is no refuge in human goodness.
When we put our human hearts under the microscope of God’s truthful judgment, we are going to find out that we need much more than human righteousness to have a perfectly just standing before God. We need a Savior and Jesus Christ is that Savior! They have the responsibility of making a decision. I will believe it or I will reject it. God’s given them that choice; love does not force itself.
According to Romans chapter one, God’s attitude toward ALL ungodliness and unrighteousness of the human race is being revealed in scripture. The guilty verdict that God has just declared upon the human race, do you think that you are going to escape that guilty verdict. Do you think for one moment that God is going to give you a non-wrath-worthy pass; that Christ needn’t have died for your sins; that your sins are of such a non-serious nature that you have no need of a Savior in the first place?
The first characteristic of a self-righteous moralizer is Arrogance. Here is a person who is looking down their nose at someone else, yet they are doing the very same things in another form! It is a Son issue today, not a sin issue! There are many who will spend an eternity apart from Christ, because they refuse to accept what Christ accomplished on their behalf.
2 Corinthians 5:17 - Paul is not talking about a believer gaining sinless perfection at the point of their belief or at any other time for that matter. When Paul talks about “a new creature” he is not talking about sin in an individual’s life, he is talking about all that we once were in Adam, prior to salvation.
The issue for life everlasting is not what church you attend or to which denomination you belong or how religious you are, or even whether or not you are a good person in the worldly sense of the word “good.” The issue in eternity will be to which man are you related? Romans 5:19 is about identity, contrasting two men; Romans is really the story of two men and the people who are related to these two men.
Do you have your identity in the first Adam, or do you have your identity in the second Adam, Jesus Christ. Once saved, we are no longer in Adam, at the very point of our believe we are that instant “in Christ.” In God’s eyes we are no longer who we once were, we are now the new creation, having been forever joined to our Savior.
Romans 5:9-10 - “much more” The goal of the apostle Paul is to establish us and every believer in the knowledge of our sanctified standing before God, our being in his son. These are “much more” security doctrinal passages that we find in this section of Romans, you will see Paul using that term over and over again.
Justification and Sanctification are “much more” assurance doctrines that Paul is giving us as to the security that we as believers have being placed into Christ. Paul wants to establish our minds in the “much more” assurance that we have, so we can have that stability of mind and stability of emotions.
This is security. This is who we are in Christ, we can not lose it. So, this is a “much more” doctrine when it comes to the establishment of the mind of the believer and the truth of their secure identity in Christ. You see, God could only grant a gift decree of the very righteousness of Christ to those God would be joining to his son, Jesus Christ. This is why our faith in Christ’s faithful sacrifice is essential.
Romans 6:19-21 - “to iniquity unto iniquity” The general principle works across the board. One pleasurable indulgence, leads to another pleasurable indulgence. One serving of self, leads to another serving of self. Words spoken in haste, lead to other words spoken in haste, harmful words, to further harmful words. One sin leads to another sin, to iniquity unto iniquity.
Paul is exhorting us, as believers to bring our conduct in line with our identity in Christ. The believer makes the choice of who they will obey and you are a slave no matter what you choose. We serve the sin nature rather than our Savior, as we serve self rather than the Body of Saints to whom we are as equally and intimately joined, as we are joined to our Savior.
We were free from imputed righteousness before we trusted Christ as our Savior. You see, it is one thing to be righteous in the eyes of the world, many people have that kind of righteousness, but Scripture clearly distinguishes between the righteousness that people attempt to produce in themselves and that type of righteousness that is credited to a person’s account called imputed righteousness.
Human righteousness comes from self-interest-motivation, it is self-glorifying and unbelievers are under no obligation to serve righteousness. It should not surprise us to see what we see now and what we will be seeing in an increasing manner as time goes on in the world today. The unsaved world is simply serving the master they are under.
Philippians 4:9 - Paul was no stranger to adversity, to calamity, to distress, to stress, for that matter, everywhere he went, they were right under his heels. Satan was working far more fervently in Paul’s life than he is working in our lives today, because Paul was God’s initial conduit for the relaying of the gospel of Christ.
How did Paul face adversity? Paul assessed the situation, he made statements such as, “I have learned” and “I reckon,” he reasoned things through. We are to access our situation. Why would we need to reason out the source of the problem? There are avoidable suffering circumstances and there are unavoidable suffering circumstances that come our way.
Avoidable suffering has to do with the choices we make in our lives. When we sow an inappropriate choice, we can count on the fact that sooner or later, we are going to be faced with an unfortunate circumstance. Many problems come our way simply because of our insistence upon having our way. How many problems would disappear if we could all conduct ourselves in a more Christ-like manner when it comes to the sacrifice of self in preferring others over self?
Satan was working far more fervently in Paul’s life than he is working in our lives today. Paul was God’s initial conduit for the relaying of the gospel of Christ. Paul was the chosen spokesman for God to relay the information for this entire dispensation. Satan had for more reason to give it his all when it came to Paul.
Ephesians 6:10-14 (A) When we put on the armor of God we are really putting on Christ, and when we put on Christ, we take ourselves out of the realm of the flesh, where we are vulnerable to attack, it is not wise for us to live on Satan and his forces level. Since their primary weapon is the lie, our belt of truth is continually being attacked.
We are more vulnerable to Satan and his forces deception than to any of their other schemes, because when they tempt us or accuse us, we can recognize it, but when they deceive us, we do not always know it, that is their strategy, to keep us in the dark. If they can disable us in the area of truth, we become an easy target for their other attacks.
We cannot expose their deception by human reasoning; we can only do it by the light of the truth, it is the only valid piece of the armor against the darkness of deception. It is critical that when we put on the armor of God, we start with the belt of truth. If Satan and his forces can deceive us into believing a lie, they can control our life in that area. God’s protection is that our role is not passive, God requires us to be active participants in the defense that he has provided for us.
Ephesians 6:10-14 (B) It is absolutely vital that we put on the breastplate of righteousness, so that we can resist the persistent accusations of Satan and his forces, they never give up trying to get us down and keep us down by hurling one false accusation after another. The insidious reality of Satan and his forces relentless assault of deception on our mind can keep us from experiencing maturity and freedom, because our past has shaped our present belief system and will determine our future unless it is dealt with.
Our understanding of the identity that Adam had before the fall, that identity has been restored to us, that restored identity is the critical foundation for our belief structure and our behavior patterns. Many people that are of the body of Christ have obsessive-compulsive behaviors because of this relentless battle for their minds, and the battle for our mind can only be won as we personally choose truth.
Those who put on the breastplate of righteousness know that we have peace with God, for a person to have to make their own peace with God would be nothing more than an exercise in futility, it could never be done. We could not make peace with God, to say that anyone could make peace with God, would be to limit God to his mercy, because grace is the foundation on which Paul’s entire ministry was built. There is a glory that belongs to God’s grace, and it is to be praised on the bases on what God’s grace has accomplished.
Ephesians 6:15 - The shoes of peace become protection against the divisive schemes of Satan and his forces when we act as a peacemaker among believers, but we should not try to rationalize or explain the believer’s behavior, forgiveness deals with our pain, not another’s behavior.
We put on the shoes of peace, because we are to forgive as we have been forgiven, and we must base our relationships with others on the same criteria. If we fail to speak the truth in love and manage our emotions, anger which turns to bitterness and unforgiveness is an open invitation to Satan and his forces.
Instead of insisting on the unity of the mind, we need to preserve the unity by taking the initiative to be the peacemaker in our relationships. Bitterness and unforgiveness toward other believers is the most widespread stronghold that Satan and his forces enjoy, and if we do not let offenders off our hook, we are hooked to them.
Relationally, forgiveness is crucial to our maturity, it is the glue that holds the body of Christ together. Satan and his forces use unforgiveness more than any other human deficiency to stop our growth and our ministry of reconciliation, because the unforgiving believer is yoked to the past or to a person and is not free.
Ephesians 6:16 - When our faith in God’s omnipotence and care is strong, it is impossible for Satan and his forces to break through our shield of faith and land an attack. Satan and his forces are actively involved in trying to distract us by peppering our mind with their thoughts and ideas. The main targets which must be destroyed, are the strongholds. Strongholds are negative patterns of thought, which are burned into our minds either through repetition over time or through one-time traumatic experiences.
That is why Paul insists that we be transformed by the renewing of our minds. Strongholds in our mind are the result of conditioning. Satan and his forces have no power over us except what we give them by failing to take every thought captive and thus being deceived into believing their lies. If Satan and his forces can get us to believe a lie, they can control our life.
Since Satan and his forces primary weapon is the lie, our defense against them is the truth. Dealing with Satan and his forces is not a power encounter; it is a truth encounter. Satan and his forces know just what buttons to push to tempt us. They have observed our behavior over the years and they know where we are vulnerable, and that is where they will attack.
The important process of renewing our mind includes managing our emotions by managing our thoughts and perceptions. Satan and his forces are always hurling their fiery darts of fear, doubt and worry in our direction, but the only time they can hit us is when we let our shield of faith down.
A shield deflects; it keeps the darts of the enemy away from our mind, the shield moves with the attack. When we allow doubt to creep in, an actively raised shield of faith prevents this otherwise inhibiting fatigue, so the shield is the first line of defense, the enemy has to get past the shield first.
Ephesians 6:17 - The fact that the helmet is related to salvation indicates that their blows are directed at the believer’s security and assurance of being placed into Christ. This helmet covers our mind, intellect or reasoning. The two dangerous edges of Satan and his forces broadsword are discouragement and doubt.
We can become vulnerable to Satan and his forces deception in this area if we fail to daily put on this helmet of salvation. They are committed to fouling up our life through their deception that nothing really happened when we were born anew. They may disrupt our daily victory, but they can do nothing to disrupt our new identity in Christ.
The only ones who can take up any piece of God’s armor, and the only ones who are involved in this struggle against Satan and his forces, are those who have been placed into Christ. Putting this helmet on daily is important, because God has committed to us the ministry of reconciliation, to tell the world God is not imputing their trespasses unto them; so we see the world still thinks he is.
Ephesians 6:17 (B) In addition to believing it and thinking it, the Word of God is the only offensive weapon mentioned in the list of armor. Satan and his forces are created beings, and they do not perfectly know what you are thinking. By observing you they can pretty well tell what you are thinking, but they do not know what you are going to do before you do it.
Satan and his forces can try to influence you by planting thoughts in your head, and they will now whether you buy their lie by how you behave. If you are going to resist Satan and his forces, you must do so outwardly so they can understand you and be put to flight. We are defend ourselves against Satan and his forces by speaking aloud God’s truth.
You can not expect God to protect you from Satan and his forces influences if you do not take an active part in his prepared strategy. The armor that we must take up to protect ourselves from Satan and his forces attack: the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. The first three are established because of our identity in Christ, the last three help us continue to win the battle.
1 Corinthians 3:10 - Romans is the doctrinal foundation upon which believers are to be established in the age of grace. Truth designed to give us stability, is truth designed to give us security. God did not intend that believers be insecure, so the security doctrines come first in God’s building process for his grace-age saints. God stabilizes us in the book of Romans.
Only when we come to see ourselves as God sees us and are able to fully appreciate and understand who God has already made us to be and who he has made us to be in Christ, can we become in our behavior what he wants us to be in that aspect of our lives. When a believer’s behavior is consistently inconsistent with what that believer professes to believe, the answer lies in a failure to fully appreciate one or more aspects of the foundational truths in this blueprint in the book of Romans.
If we understand the foundational concept as we see it presented by Paul here in the book of Romans, that will go a long way in our understanding ourselves and others appropriately. An insecure foundation will always show stress factorization somewhere along the line.
Sound doctrine is the means by which God transforms the thinking of those engaged in the study of his Word rightly divided. As we understand what God accomplished for us, and build upon that foundation the truths of who he has made us to be by placing us into his son, we begin to view ourselves as God views us, and there is great security to be found in doing so.
Romans 3:24 - What made Adam’s sin such a catastrophic loss for the human race is heightened by the fact that people are unable to do anything to alter their sinful condition. Human wisdom, human reasoning would say, “Give us a law. Give us some way to perform. Give us a few balls of our own to hit, so that we might earn back what we lost through Adam.”
God would have to do for the human race, what the human race was totally incapable of doing for themselves. God would of necessity have to credit the righteous faithfulness of someone else to the account of hopeless and helpless human race.
The human race was given a Redeemer and the price the Redeemer paid through the shedding of his blood to ransom the human race was a satisfactory payment to take those sins off the table of God’s justice forever! However, the fact that Jesus Christ became a Redeemer of ALL the human race, does not mean that ALL the human race will accept the gift the Redeemer purchased on their behalf.
To be justified, does not mean to BE perfectly righteous in performance. It also does not mean to become perfectly righteous or even MORE righteous in performance through time, it means having Christ’s perfect righteousness freely credited to the account of the ungodly who believe.
Christ’s faithfulness was the only faithfulness sufficient to merit God’s favor. God used our faith in Christ’s faithfulness as the means whereby he would credit Christ’s righteousness to our account.
Philippians 4:8 - No body loses control to Satan and his forces overnight, it is a gradual process of deception and yielding to their subtle influence. Many of the body of Christ, instead of recognizing that their minds are being peppered by the fiery darts of the enemy, they think the problem is their own fault. “If those foul thoughts are mine, what kind of person am I?” they wonder. So they end up condemning themselves while the enemy continues their attack unchecked. They will watch us to learn where we are most vulnerable and will tempt us in any area that we leave unguarded.
They tempt us through the channel of the lust of the flesh, they will invite us to fulfill our physical needs in ways that are outside the boundary of God’s will for us. Whenever we feel enticed to meet a legitimate physical need by acting independently of God, we are being tempted though the lust of the flesh.
The lust of the eyes subtly draws us away from God and eats away at our confidence in God. We see what the world has to offer and we begin to place more credence in our own perspective of life. Fueled by the lust for what we see, we grab for all we can get, believing that we need it and deceived that God wants us to have it. Wrongly assuming that God will withhold nothing good from us, we lustfully claim prosperity.
The temptation of the pride of life is intended to destroy our obedience to our ministry of reconciliation by urging us to take charge of our own lives. Whenever we feel that, we do not need God’s help or direction, that we can handle our life, that is the pride of life. Every temptation that Satan and his forces throw at us will challenge one or more of these values.
Every temptation is first a thought introduced to our mind by our own carnality or the tempters themselves. If we ruminate on that thought and consider it an option, we will eventually act on it. Instead, Paul instructs us to take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. Escaping temptation is to apprehend every thought as soon as it steps through the doorway of our mind. Once we have halted a penetration thought, we need to evaluate it on the basis of Paul’s criterion for what we should think about.
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teachmevp
I like to reason out of the word, the way and their chapter and verse attitude was a stubbling block for me, how does one chapter and verses a figure of speech. These posts are just thoughts.
Tzaia
Definitely an improvement over what it was. Thanks to Raf for the suggestion. Thanks to TeachmeVP for being nice enough to comply. The achingly hard to read part stems from the content, not the format
teachmevp
The only ones who can take up any piece of God’s armor, and the only ones who are involved in this struggle against Satan and his forces, are those who have been placed into Christ. The fact that the
teachmevp
1 Timothy 1:15 - Paul was not only first in line when it came to dispensing the Grace of God, Paul was also foremost in crime when it came to murdering the saints of Israel’s earthly kingdom program. If Paul was at Pentecost, would Paul himself, if he took part in stoning Stephen for believing the message given at Pentecost, would he have been a blasphemer at Pentecost?
In Paul’s pre-grace zealousness, he would have been a foremost rejecter of any notion whatsoever that Jesus was Israel’s messiah or that Jesus had risen from among the dead. First in line, first in crime are apt descriptions for the Apostle of Grace. Paul is the chief pattern of God’s grace to all, he is the foremost example. Paul was certainly the first person to be an exhibitor of the long-suffering Grace of God, in that Paul called himself a blasphemer according to his very own testimony. (1Timothy 1:13)
We need to understand that even though Paul was saved, Paul still considered himself to be a sinner. Paul understood the word: Sin. And Paul understood that word meant to come short of the righteousness belonging to God himself. The word “chief” in this passage is the Greek word protos, were we get our English word prototype.
Not only does prototype mean the first in a sense of time, prototype can also mean: a foremost example. Paul is the foremost example of the impossibility, the total impossibility of gaining righteousness before God through the performance of the flesh. The source of our righteousness! What is it: personal performance or identity in Christ?
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Romans 1:17 - “For therein,” inside that gospel message is good news concerning a righteousness that far exceeds the righteousness of any person, no matter how righteous appearing that person may be. The righteousness spoken of in what Paul calls “the gospel of Christ” is no less than than the perfect righteousness that belongs to God himself.
Paul went on to tell us that the person who would have righteousness freely attributed to their account, is the person who has believed something, and it is an issue Paul said of faith from two different perspectives, “from faith to faith.” The first “faith” in that expression is a reference to the faith OF, or belonging to Christ himself.
So it was ultimately Christ’s faith that allowed God’s justice to remain intact, as God declares an unrighteous believer to be righteous. You see, apart from Christ’s faith and his faithfulness to carry out the Father’s will based on that faith, there would not be anyone perfectly righteous to whom God could join a believing sinner.
Just as Christ never doubted the will of the Father, the Father never doubted the faith and faithfulness of his son. It was God’s plan to use the faith and its resultant faithfulness of the son of God in the ultimate glorification of the human race who would take him at his Word. The Identity of believers to Christ is that which allows God to remain just when he credits those with righteousness with that which belongs Christ, who is perfectly righteous.
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2 Timothy 3:7 - Pride will not let us swallow our own pill. You see, on one hand traditions die hard, some people are never able to come to the knowledge of the truth, because they fear learning. Knowledge of the truth may cause them to have to change the truth they have been standing on for who knows how long, and that is a frightening thing for lots of people.
It is a fearful thing to think we may have been wrong all along, much easier for many people to avoid learning then change in mid-stream. Pride is a tremendously powerful force, money can be a factor. Money and power go hand in hand in the mind of carnal people, which actually leads us to the real reason from Paul’s prospective some are ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
People living in the realm of the flesh, focusing more on the things of the earth and the desires of the flesh than on the things of God. Yes, both pride and money fit within the carnal category. To be carnal is to centered, concerned with personal stature with the things that satisfy fleshly desires and emotional needs.
There are pastors out there who have come to the knowledge of the Word of God Rightly Divided who refuse to take a stand on the distinctiveness of Paul’s ministry and Paul’s message and all because in their minds they have too much to lose if they do. Could they only see what they truly have to gain, if they do.
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Romans 8:29 - Do you grasp the full scope of what predestination means if you are a believer? Think about this for a moment, God has predetermined something where you are concerned once you believe Paul’s good news message and God’s mind is not going to be changed on this.
Now if you are a believer, what does that mean to you that God pre-decided something? God did not predetermine to cause some individuals to belief unto eternal life. God predetermined to conform everyone who believes to his son, Jesus Christ. You the believer are to be conformed to the imagine of God’s son!
God in his infinite wisdom pre-decreed that every believer would be joined to his son, fully identified with his son. God also pre-decided that you the believer would be blessed with all the blessings and privileges of an adopted adult son. God decided in advance that you the believer are to be the praise of the glory of his grace. Ephesians 1:4-6
You are predestined to these outcomes, God has pre-determined them simple as that, God’s mind is set. You see God wants us to praise him for all these things and he certainly wants us to thank him for all these things, because he has pre-determined these outcomes for you, for ever believer. God wants us to rest in these things.
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1 Timothy 6:9 - “they that will be rich” Do you see how the entrapment takes place? Those who are bent on satisfying the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life fall into a snare, in that they become addicted to the manner in which they satisfy those lusts. Without any concern whatsoever for keeping your service to those lusts at bay, then serving those lusts will entrap you, such that it will become increasingly more difficult for you to do. 1 Corinthians 9:27
Paul was not talking about being wealthy; nothing wrong with being wealthy. Paul was talking about those with an insatiable desire to become wealthy, their sin lies not in being wealthy, but in coveting riches. They fall into temptation and a snare, the addictive entrapment. A person who covets wealth, makes that their goal in life, can be easily swayed by the sin nature toward dishonesty, and dishonesty can become a lifestyle, rather than a one-time event.
Whatever, or whomever, you choose to serve, you become a servant to, a slave to that person or to that thing, you are going to become enslaved to that which you choose to put yourself in servitude. Choose to serve sin and you can soon become addicted to the manner in which you have chosen to serve sin. That is the principle. Romans 6:16
Paul goes on to say, they fall into many foolish and hurtful lusts (not only harmful to themselves, but hurtful to others around them) which drown men in destruction (“damage” whether it be physical, mental, emotional, or functional, and damage to a person can take any number of roads) and perdition (total waste or ruination) of that individual. Paul is talking about what those who pursue the satisfaction of the sinful lusts of the flesh reap to themselves, not from God, but through that to which they are reaping.
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Romans 8:12-13 - We do not owe anything to this flesh, because it will never please God. That is why our flesh is going on down to the dust and God is going to give us a new body. Our fleshly production did not gain us our identity in Christ in the first place, and it certainly can not gain us heaven. If the works of our flesh did not contribute to getting us save, how can the works of the flesh play a part in keeping us saved.
How will we die if we live after the flesh? If we live after applying rule-keeping to our righteousness, we are going to be functionally dead when it comes to the production of fruit in our lives. Paul was functionally not capable of producing any fruit that God could accept, he died functionally when he tried to apply law-keeping to perfect his flesh.
If we are trying to satisfy God’s justice on a daily basis or however by conforming to a standard of rules and regulations, we are going to find that just the opposite becomes true in our flesh. We are going to find ourselves constantly focusing on the flesh. The milk of self-righteousness will sour under the divine heat of God’s justice. It is either an issue of God’s righteousness, or it is an issue of self-righteousness.
Living after the flesh, from a functional pony of view is taking the credit yourself. Walking after the new nature is recognizing the source of the fruit. To walk in the new nature is to take the credit away from yourself. You realize that God is not looking at how well you adhere to any standard. God is not looking at your production. God is not looking at your behavior in order to view you as being in favor with him. God is looking at your identification with his son, and at what his energizing power from on high is producing IN you.
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Galatians 2:16 - The faith “OF” Jesus Christ, his faithfulness, not ours. Israel’s labor of love under the law contract was a system of performance according to demand. They had to deal with their neighbors according to a strict system of rules and regulations. The law told them how to deal with one another. The law had apprehension as a motivating factor.
Understand love “agape” has much more to do with attitude in action, than it has to do with emotions direction that does what’s in the best interest of another individual. This is a work of righteousness. No one has ever measured up to the labor of love as Christ expressed that work of righteousness during his walk on earth. Christ not only fulfilled the outer demands of the Law Program, he fulfilled the inner demands as well.
Christ always did the will of the Father, he never went contrary at anytime to the will of the Father. God’s design was that Christ fulfill the law, so God could join us. To be in Christ, joined to our Savior, requires that you believe that something happened to the sins that Christ died for. God raised Jesus Christ from among the dead as proof that the payment Christ made for all the sins of the world was sufficient to satisfy God’s justice where the sins Christ died for are concerned.
Our labor of love under the Age of Grace has had the apprehension aspect removed entirely. We are to serve others today based on how God expressed his love to others through Christ and what God accomplished for them, who God made them and us to be in our Savior by joining us to our Savior, Jesus Christ.
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Romans 6:3 - “know you not” when you trusted Christ as Savior, something happened that took place outside the realm of your sensation, outside the realm of your feeling. People oftentimes base their salvation and their relationship to God on their emotions. From Paul’s perspective, these people are “walking after the flesh.”
They are walking in relation to the flesh, thinking that their relationship with God is based upon either the feelings of their flesh (emotions) or the capacity of their flesh to produce righteousness through their performance. One of the main purposes of worship, as some people define it, is to get a touch from God; to get the emotions at a peak.
They feel close to God when they are in a situation that stimulates their emotions. They find themselves on an endless quest for emotional satisfaction, because they relate their closeness to God upon feeling. Paul wants us to recognize that Justification and Sanctification are not based upon feelings at all.
Feelings are not an outward demonstration of an inward manifestation, as some would have us believe. Justification and Sanctification has nothing at all to do with a religious physical formality, it is rather, a reality, and Paul wants us to understand that and appreciate it as being true!
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Galatians 3:1-3 - Having been taught by Paul, these people begun in belief, but then some false teachers came along and these sealed saints became confused in their thinking. These people were saved, but they reverted to a walking after the flesh identity; not a identity in Christ.
The problem with the foolish Galatians was not the fact that they were slipping back into a sinful lifestyle. The problem with the foolish Galatians was incorrect thinking. They were slipping back away from the reality of grace and back into a works for righteousness to maintain a righteous standing with God concept.
They knew about the crucifixion, they knew about the resurrection, and they knew what it had accomplished. They had been foolishly duped, the law was never successful at making anyone good before God, it was not given for that purpose. They needed to be straightened out where their thinking was concerned.
Paul provided the correction by asking these people if they knew the source from which their new identity had been derived. Did it come from first believing or from later doing? Let us remain in our minds with that concept and not move away from that in our thinking. Paul is saying, “Do not let your thinking become foolish thinking and go back to dealing with God according to rules and regulations.”
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Romans 7:24 - “O wretched man that I am” do you suppose Paul would want us to believe that we can produce through our fleshly efforts, what Israel was totally incapable of producing through their fleshly efforts, or for that matter, what Paul knew that he could never produce through his fleshly efforts even after his conversion. Paul never used the word fruit in connection with any believer as being the product OF that believer.
You can set yourselves apart all you like behaviorally, you can start any number of things and cease doing any number of things in order to gain holiness before God, but you will do no better at reaching that goal then the foolish Galatians, who were themselves flirting with the idea of progressive sanctification.
Paul did not praise them for their gallant efforts to become more holy people through fleshly production, he gave them a name, he called them foolish people! We can do great wonders when it comes to relative righteousness, but measuring up to God’s standard of righteousness, none of us will ever do so apart from God decreeing that to be so.
“Look at where I was, look at where I am now,” that is famous among many groups that are meeting today, and they have to have a testimony by a person showing the other people there where they were and how far they have progressed. The capacity of the human race to EARN the measure of righteousness that belongs to God is “Zilch.”
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Romans 2:3 - Arrogance! It is such a shame that so many people today are trusting in their goodness to get them to heaven. God is going to see you as having no need of the saving work of his son. The human race is guilty before God! God has decreed it! NO excuse will suffice to pardon it. Paul wants us to understand that there is no refuge in human goodness.
When we put our human hearts under the microscope of God’s truthful judgment, we are going to find out that we need much more than human righteousness to have a perfectly just standing before God. We need a Savior and Jesus Christ is that Savior! They have the responsibility of making a decision. I will believe it or I will reject it. God’s given them that choice; love does not force itself.
According to Romans chapter one, God’s attitude toward ALL ungodliness and unrighteousness of the human race is being revealed in scripture. The guilty verdict that God has just declared upon the human race, do you think that you are going to escape that guilty verdict. Do you think for one moment that God is going to give you a non-wrath-worthy pass; that Christ needn’t have died for your sins; that your sins are of such a non-serious nature that you have no need of a Savior in the first place?
The first characteristic of a self-righteous moralizer is Arrogance. Here is a person who is looking down their nose at someone else, yet they are doing the very same things in another form! It is a Son issue today, not a sin issue! There are many who will spend an eternity apart from Christ, because they refuse to accept what Christ accomplished on their behalf.
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2 Corinthians 5:17 - Paul is not talking about a believer gaining sinless perfection at the point of their belief or at any other time for that matter. When Paul talks about “a new creature” he is not talking about sin in an individual’s life, he is talking about all that we once were in Adam, prior to salvation.
The issue for life everlasting is not what church you attend or to which denomination you belong or how religious you are, or even whether or not you are a good person in the worldly sense of the word “good.” The issue in eternity will be to which man are you related? Romans 5:19 is about identity, contrasting two men; Romans is really the story of two men and the people who are related to these two men.
Do you have your identity in the first Adam, or do you have your identity in the second Adam, Jesus Christ. Once saved, we are no longer in Adam, at the very point of our believe we are that instant “in Christ.” In God’s eyes we are no longer who we once were, we are now the new creation, having been forever joined to our Savior.
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Romans 5:9-10 - “much more” The goal of the apostle Paul is to establish us and every believer in the knowledge of our sanctified standing before God, our being in his son. These are “much more” security doctrinal passages that we find in this section of Romans, you will see Paul using that term over and over again.
Justification and Sanctification are “much more” assurance doctrines that Paul is giving us as to the security that we as believers have being placed into Christ. Paul wants to establish our minds in the “much more” assurance that we have, so we can have that stability of mind and stability of emotions.
This is security. This is who we are in Christ, we can not lose it. So, this is a “much more” doctrine when it comes to the establishment of the mind of the believer and the truth of their secure identity in Christ. You see, God could only grant a gift decree of the very righteousness of Christ to those God would be joining to his son, Jesus Christ. This is why our faith in Christ’s faithful sacrifice is essential.
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Romans 6:19-21 - “to iniquity unto iniquity” The general principle works across the board. One pleasurable indulgence, leads to another pleasurable indulgence. One serving of self, leads to another serving of self. Words spoken in haste, lead to other words spoken in haste, harmful words, to further harmful words. One sin leads to another sin, to iniquity unto iniquity.
Paul is exhorting us, as believers to bring our conduct in line with our identity in Christ. The believer makes the choice of who they will obey and you are a slave no matter what you choose. We serve the sin nature rather than our Savior, as we serve self rather than the Body of Saints to whom we are as equally and intimately joined, as we are joined to our Savior.
We were free from imputed righteousness before we trusted Christ as our Savior. You see, it is one thing to be righteous in the eyes of the world, many people have that kind of righteousness, but Scripture clearly distinguishes between the righteousness that people attempt to produce in themselves and that type of righteousness that is credited to a person’s account called imputed righteousness.
Human righteousness comes from self-interest-motivation, it is self-glorifying and unbelievers are under no obligation to serve righteousness. It should not surprise us to see what we see now and what we will be seeing in an increasing manner as time goes on in the world today. The unsaved world is simply serving the master they are under.
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Philippians 4:9 - Paul was no stranger to adversity, to calamity, to distress, to stress, for that matter, everywhere he went, they were right under his heels. Satan was working far more fervently in Paul’s life than he is working in our lives today, because Paul was God’s initial conduit for the relaying of the gospel of Christ.
How did Paul face adversity? Paul assessed the situation, he made statements such as, “I have learned” and “I reckon,” he reasoned things through. We are to access our situation. Why would we need to reason out the source of the problem? There are avoidable suffering circumstances and there are unavoidable suffering circumstances that come our way.
Avoidable suffering has to do with the choices we make in our lives. When we sow an inappropriate choice, we can count on the fact that sooner or later, we are going to be faced with an unfortunate circumstance. Many problems come our way simply because of our insistence upon having our way. How many problems would disappear if we could all conduct ourselves in a more Christ-like manner when it comes to the sacrifice of self in preferring others over self?
Satan was working far more fervently in Paul’s life than he is working in our lives today. Paul was God’s initial conduit for the relaying of the gospel of Christ. Paul was the chosen spokesman for God to relay the information for this entire dispensation. Satan had for more reason to give it his all when it came to Paul.
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Ephesians 6:10-14 (A) When we put on the armor of God we are really putting on Christ, and when we put on Christ, we take ourselves out of the realm of the flesh, where we are vulnerable to attack, it is not wise for us to live on Satan and his forces level. Since their primary weapon is the lie, our belt of truth is continually being attacked.
We are more vulnerable to Satan and his forces deception than to any of their other schemes, because when they tempt us or accuse us, we can recognize it, but when they deceive us, we do not always know it, that is their strategy, to keep us in the dark. If they can disable us in the area of truth, we become an easy target for their other attacks.
We cannot expose their deception by human reasoning; we can only do it by the light of the truth, it is the only valid piece of the armor against the darkness of deception. It is critical that when we put on the armor of God, we start with the belt of truth. If Satan and his forces can deceive us into believing a lie, they can control our life in that area. God’s protection is that our role is not passive, God requires us to be active participants in the defense that he has provided for us.
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Ephesians 6:10-14 (B) It is absolutely vital that we put on the breastplate of righteousness, so that we can resist the persistent accusations of Satan and his forces, they never give up trying to get us down and keep us down by hurling one false accusation after another. The insidious reality of Satan and his forces relentless assault of deception on our mind can keep us from experiencing maturity and freedom, because our past has shaped our present belief system and will determine our future unless it is dealt with.
Our understanding of the identity that Adam had before the fall, that identity has been restored to us, that restored identity is the critical foundation for our belief structure and our behavior patterns. Many people that are of the body of Christ have obsessive-compulsive behaviors because of this relentless battle for their minds, and the battle for our mind can only be won as we personally choose truth.
Those who put on the breastplate of righteousness know that we have peace with God, for a person to have to make their own peace with God would be nothing more than an exercise in futility, it could never be done. We could not make peace with God, to say that anyone could make peace with God, would be to limit God to his mercy, because grace is the foundation on which Paul’s entire ministry was built. There is a glory that belongs to God’s grace, and it is to be praised on the bases on what God’s grace has accomplished.
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Ephesians 6:15 - The shoes of peace become protection against the divisive schemes of Satan and his forces when we act as a peacemaker among believers, but we should not try to rationalize or explain the believer’s behavior, forgiveness deals with our pain, not another’s behavior.
We put on the shoes of peace, because we are to forgive as we have been forgiven, and we must base our relationships with others on the same criteria. If we fail to speak the truth in love and manage our emotions, anger which turns to bitterness and unforgiveness is an open invitation to Satan and his forces.
Instead of insisting on the unity of the mind, we need to preserve the unity by taking the initiative to be the peacemaker in our relationships. Bitterness and unforgiveness toward other believers is the most widespread stronghold that Satan and his forces enjoy, and if we do not let offenders off our hook, we are hooked to them.
Relationally, forgiveness is crucial to our maturity, it is the glue that holds the body of Christ together. Satan and his forces use unforgiveness more than any other human deficiency to stop our growth and our ministry of reconciliation, because the unforgiving believer is yoked to the past or to a person and is not free.
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Ephesians 6:16 - When our faith in God’s omnipotence and care is strong, it is impossible for Satan and his forces to break through our shield of faith and land an attack. Satan and his forces are actively involved in trying to distract us by peppering our mind with their thoughts and ideas. The main targets which must be destroyed, are the strongholds. Strongholds are negative patterns of thought, which are burned into our minds either through repetition over time or through one-time traumatic experiences.
That is why Paul insists that we be transformed by the renewing of our minds. Strongholds in our mind are the result of conditioning. Satan and his forces have no power over us except what we give them by failing to take every thought captive and thus being deceived into believing their lies. If Satan and his forces can get us to believe a lie, they can control our life.
Since Satan and his forces primary weapon is the lie, our defense against them is the truth. Dealing with Satan and his forces is not a power encounter; it is a truth encounter. Satan and his forces know just what buttons to push to tempt us. They have observed our behavior over the years and they know where we are vulnerable, and that is where they will attack.
The important process of renewing our mind includes managing our emotions by managing our thoughts and perceptions. Satan and his forces are always hurling their fiery darts of fear, doubt and worry in our direction, but the only time they can hit us is when we let our shield of faith down.
A shield deflects; it keeps the darts of the enemy away from our mind, the shield moves with the attack. When we allow doubt to creep in, an actively raised shield of faith prevents this otherwise inhibiting fatigue, so the shield is the first line of defense, the enemy has to get past the shield first.
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Ephesians 6:17 - The fact that the helmet is related to salvation indicates that their blows are directed at the believer’s security and assurance of being placed into Christ. This helmet covers our mind, intellect or reasoning. The two dangerous edges of Satan and his forces broadsword are discouragement and doubt.
We can become vulnerable to Satan and his forces deception in this area if we fail to daily put on this helmet of salvation. They are committed to fouling up our life through their deception that nothing really happened when we were born anew. They may disrupt our daily victory, but they can do nothing to disrupt our new identity in Christ.
The only ones who can take up any piece of God’s armor, and the only ones who are involved in this struggle against Satan and his forces, are those who have been placed into Christ. Putting this helmet on daily is important, because God has committed to us the ministry of reconciliation, to tell the world God is not imputing their trespasses unto them; so we see the world still thinks he is.
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Ephesians 6:17 (B) In addition to believing it and thinking it, the Word of God is the only offensive weapon mentioned in the list of armor. Satan and his forces are created beings, and they do not perfectly know what you are thinking. By observing you they can pretty well tell what you are thinking, but they do not know what you are going to do before you do it.
Satan and his forces can try to influence you by planting thoughts in your head, and they will now whether you buy their lie by how you behave. If you are going to resist Satan and his forces, you must do so outwardly so they can understand you and be put to flight. We are defend ourselves against Satan and his forces by speaking aloud God’s truth.
You can not expect God to protect you from Satan and his forces influences if you do not take an active part in his prepared strategy. The armor that we must take up to protect ourselves from Satan and his forces attack: the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. The first three are established because of our identity in Christ, the last three help us continue to win the battle.
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1 Corinthians 3:10 - Romans is the doctrinal foundation upon which believers are to be established in the age of grace. Truth designed to give us stability, is truth designed to give us security. God did not intend that believers be insecure, so the security doctrines come first in God’s building process for his grace-age saints. God stabilizes us in the book of Romans.
Only when we come to see ourselves as God sees us and are able to fully appreciate and understand who God has already made us to be and who he has made us to be in Christ, can we become in our behavior what he wants us to be in that aspect of our lives. When a believer’s behavior is consistently inconsistent with what that believer professes to believe, the answer lies in a failure to fully appreciate one or more aspects of the foundational truths in this blueprint in the book of Romans.
If we understand the foundational concept as we see it presented by Paul here in the book of Romans, that will go a long way in our understanding ourselves and others appropriately. An insecure foundation will always show stress factorization somewhere along the line.
Sound doctrine is the means by which God transforms the thinking of those engaged in the study of his Word rightly divided. As we understand what God accomplished for us, and build upon that foundation the truths of who he has made us to be by placing us into his son, we begin to view ourselves as God views us, and there is great security to be found in doing so.
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Romans 3:24 - What made Adam’s sin such a catastrophic loss for the human race is heightened by the fact that people are unable to do anything to alter their sinful condition. Human wisdom, human reasoning would say, “Give us a law. Give us some way to perform. Give us a few balls of our own to hit, so that we might earn back what we lost through Adam.”
God would have to do for the human race, what the human race was totally incapable of doing for themselves. God would of necessity have to credit the righteous faithfulness of someone else to the account of hopeless and helpless human race.
The human race was given a Redeemer and the price the Redeemer paid through the shedding of his blood to ransom the human race was a satisfactory payment to take those sins off the table of God’s justice forever! However, the fact that Jesus Christ became a Redeemer of ALL the human race, does not mean that ALL the human race will accept the gift the Redeemer purchased on their behalf.
To be justified, does not mean to BE perfectly righteous in performance. It also does not mean to become perfectly righteous or even MORE righteous in performance through time, it means having Christ’s perfect righteousness freely credited to the account of the ungodly who believe.
Christ’s faithfulness was the only faithfulness sufficient to merit God’s favor. God used our faith in Christ’s faithfulness as the means whereby he would credit Christ’s righteousness to our account.
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Philippians 4:8 - No body loses control to Satan and his forces overnight, it is a gradual process of deception and yielding to their subtle influence. Many of the body of Christ, instead of recognizing that their minds are being peppered by the fiery darts of the enemy, they think the problem is their own fault. “If those foul thoughts are mine, what kind of person am I?” they wonder. So they end up condemning themselves while the enemy continues their attack unchecked. They will watch us to learn where we are most vulnerable and will tempt us in any area that we leave unguarded.
They tempt us through the channel of the lust of the flesh, they will invite us to fulfill our physical needs in ways that are outside the boundary of God’s will for us. Whenever we feel enticed to meet a legitimate physical need by acting independently of God, we are being tempted though the lust of the flesh.
The lust of the eyes subtly draws us away from God and eats away at our confidence in God. We see what the world has to offer and we begin to place more credence in our own perspective of life. Fueled by the lust for what we see, we grab for all we can get, believing that we need it and deceived that God wants us to have it. Wrongly assuming that God will withhold nothing good from us, we lustfully claim prosperity.
The temptation of the pride of life is intended to destroy our obedience to our ministry of reconciliation by urging us to take charge of our own lives. Whenever we feel that, we do not need God’s help or direction, that we can handle our life, that is the pride of life. Every temptation that Satan and his forces throw at us will challenge one or more of these values.
Every temptation is first a thought introduced to our mind by our own carnality or the tempters themselves. If we ruminate on that thought and consider it an option, we will eventually act on it. Instead, Paul instructs us to take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. Escaping temptation is to apprehend every thought as soon as it steps through the doorway of our mind. Once we have halted a penetration thought, we need to evaluate it on the basis of Paul’s criterion for what we should think about.
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