In the last chapter I was sharing with you about all that have been born after Calvary have not been born under the condemnation of sin. Because Jesus was righteous then all who have been born since then are born under righteousness because He was righteous. We are now living no longer under Law but under the grace of God because of what Jesus did and it's because of our faith in His righteousness that we are considered righteous in God's sight.

 

What about you? Are you walking after the flesh and listening to your carnal mind condemn you because you sometimes sin or are you walking after the Spirit in which there is no sin? Let me ask you a question! Do you consider yourself to be in Christ? Have you been baptized? You say, "Yes!" Paul said in Gal. 3:27,

 

"For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ." 

 

Well, then, if you have been baptized into Christ, you are in Christ. Then are you telling me that there is sin in the Body of Christ? That's an impossibility! Do you not know that John said in 1 Jn. 3:4-5,

 

"Whosoever commits sin transgresses also the Law: for sin is the transgression of the Law.    And you know that He was manifested to take away our sins; and in Him is no sin."

 

And in 1 Jn. 3:9,

 

"Whosoever is born of God does not commit sin; for his seed remains in him and he cannot sin, because he is born of God." 

 

You see, the problem we still have is the full realization that we are spirit and we just live at this time in this body of flesh which has a mind that wants to control us. This mind is governed by it's five senses and as such has to see, touch, feel, smell or taste something to believe. This is why there is conflict within ourselves and Paul described this conflict in the Seventh Chapter of Romans. He also talk about this conflict in Gal. 5:17-18,

 

"For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other so that you cannot do the things that you would.    But if you are led of the Spirit, you are not under the law." 

 

Does Paul mean that if I am led by the Spirit I will not be accountable to any law? Yes, that is exactly what he means. The Spirit will never lead you to do something that is contrary to the Law. He will always lead you in paths of righteousness because that is His Life. It's the only natural thing for Him to do. The real you is spirit and is one with the Spirit of the Lord and this is why the real you cannot sin. Your flesh might sin and if it does you never loose your righteousness because your righteousness in not yours in the first place. It's His righteousness. You really need to get a revelation of this truth. By their own righteousness no man will stand justified before God! We all stand justified by the righteousness of Jesus Christ and we stand before our Father in Him who is righteous.

 

I know that this is hard to wrap your mind around because you have been taught just the opposite. You are going to have to take a hard look at the truth and allow the Holy Spirit to teach you about who you really are. If you are afraid of being led astray then you don't really trust the Lord to lead and guide you. You are depending upon your own intelligence to protect you from deceit. I was taught that we no longer need the Holy Spirit as the early disciples did because we now have the Bible and all we have to do is to study to show ourselves approved before God. It wasn't until 1455 that the first Bible was printed and then only a few copies. We know that the apostles did not live that long so those who lived during this time would have been left on their own by God. All the books of the New Testament that Paul wrote were letters and not books sent to those churches that he had founded during his ministry to the Gentiles. I am pretty sure that he didn't know that he was writing scripture when he penned those letters.

 

When I was in Rome in 1980 I was privileged to go down into the hewn rock where Paul was imprisoned in Rome and where he wrote the second letter to Timothy. This prison was just next door to Julius Ceasars Palace where Brutus stab him.

 

The point I want to make to you is, don't be afraid of learning something that is not true because He will allow you to go down that path in order to teach you from a first hand experience the truth. You have nothing to worry about! Perfect love cast out fear! David said in Psalm 118:8,

 

" It is better to trust in the Lord

    Than to put confidence in men!"

 

Also in Psalm 4:5,

 

"Offer the sacrifices of righteousness,

    And put your trust in the Lord!"

 

 

The more you study with an open heart and spend quality time with the Lord the more He will reveal Himself to you. Jesus said in Jn. 14:15-17,

 

"If you love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it sees him not, neither knows him: but you know him; for he dwells with you, and shall be in you."

 

Paul said in 1 Cor. 15:34,

 

"Awake to righteousness, and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of God: I speak this to your shame."

 

We have been taught sin consciousness for so long that it is hard for this message to penetrate our thinking. Paul also said in 2 Cor. 5:20-21,

 

"We pray you in Christ's stead, you be reconciled to God.    For he has made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him."

 

Have you ever considered the fact that you are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus? That is exactly what Paul is saying here. Don't you think that it is about time we have a paradigm shift from concentrating on sin to concentrating on righteousness? Paradigm is just a fifty cent word meaning a set theme such as sin and what I am saying is that there needs to be a shift from the theme of sin to the theme of righteousness. We need to focus on the fact that as a result of what Jesus did, His Father has imputed righteousness on our account, because we believe the Gospel, or the good news, that Jesus brought to us from His Father.

 

Sin no longer has any control over us because the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set us free from the from the law of sin and death! The Law with it's rules and regulations of which if we broke the least of them we were guilty of all of them, has been taken out of the way and since there is no written code that is against us, it is now impossible for us to sin because we are no longer living under Law but we are living by the grace of our Father. However, If our bodies of flesh do sin there is no condemnation because God has decreed that He will remember our sins and lawless deeds no more. As a result of this we should not yield our bodies to sin but to righteousness.

 

The Apostle Paul had a lot to say about this in Rom. 6, when he said,

 

"Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin. 

What is he talking about when he said that our old man has been crucified with him? Our old man is that carnal thinking that was brought about when Adam sinned and our spirit became under the dominance of our carnal thinking. That old man of being led by our five senses or our flesh was crucified with Jesus on the cross that man died with Jesus. When that man died it set our spirit free from sin. Paul continues,

 

Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him: Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death has no more dominion over him. For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. Likewise you should reckon yourselves also to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. 

 

Paul is here saying that if that old man that was subject to the control of sin is dead we have been not only set free from sin but we have been resurrected from death never to have to die again and we are alive unto God and our communication has once more been open and now we can come boldly to our Father and have fellowship with Him. He continues to say,

 

 

"Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in the lusts thereof. Neither yield your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. For sin shall not have dominion over you: for you are not under the law, but under grace."

 

He here tells us that there is something that we can do about sin because it no longer is in control of us. Also that we are not to let the members of our body be used as instruments of unrighteousness but to let them be used as instruments of righteousness. To do this we need to focus our attention on righteousness and the Kingdom of God. Sin no longer has dominion over us and the reason it doesn't is because we are no longer living under the Law but under the mercies of our loving Father. Paul then says,

 

"What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid. Know ye not, that to whom you yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom you obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness? But God be thanked, that you were the servants of sin, but you have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you. Being then made free from sin, you became the servants of righteousness.""

 

 

Paul said in Rom. 6:3-9,

 

"Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more."

 

He here tells us that there is something that we can do For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after 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, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. But you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwells in you."

 

When Adam sinned it caused our spirits to come under the control of sin but Jesus came as the second Adam and condemned sin in the flesh by taking authority over it and defeating it on the cross and thereby setting us free to be born again or to be reconciled back to our Father because of His righteousness. Therefore, sin has been condemned in our flesh in order that the righteousness of the Law might be fulfilled in us. Remember what Jesus said in Matt. 5:17?

 

"Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill." 

 

The Law is now being fulfilled through us because of the righteousness that has been imputed to us through the faith God gave us to believe in Jesus!!! Paul said in Eph. 2:8-9,

 

"For by grace are you saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast."

 

Take a close look at this verse and see exactly what Paul is saying here. He is saying that through the grace of God, He gifted us with faith and through that faith which He gave us, we believe in what He has done through Jesus Christ and are saved.

 

Let's go back to a verse of scripture that I have shared with you before where Paul said in Rom. 3:19-22,

 

"Now we know that what things so ever the law says, it says to them who are under the Law: that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God.    Therefore by the deeds of the Law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin.    But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested (revealed), being witnessed by the law and the prophets;    Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe!

 

Paul is here saying that now the righteousness of God has been revealed that comes without the Law but is witnessed by the Law and the Prophets. This righteousness of God comes by our faith, which has been given to us by God, in Jesus Christ. This faith has been given to all men that believe in Jesus Christ.

 

This being true then why is there so much division in the Body of Christ because we are at different levels in our understanding of the will of God. Shouldn't our bond be that we all believe what God has done for us through His Son?