Imputation, Chapter Thirteen
Paul said in Rom. 6:17-18,
"But God be thanked that though you were
slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that
form of doctrine to which you were delivered. And having been set free from
sin, you became slaves of righteousness."
The carnal mind will ask the question then, "Well, if I am
free from sin (noun) then why do I still sin (verb)?" This is a very good
question and the carnal mind cannot understand this truth because it is
impossible for it to understand.
Paul said in Rom. 8:6-7,
"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."
This is why, with our own intelligence, that it is
impossible to understand the Bible because it was inspired by the Holy Spirit
and it was written with spiritual language. Paul said so in 1 Cor. 2:12-14,
"Now we have received, not the
spirit of the world, but the
spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to
us of God. Which things also we speak, not in the words which
man's wisdom teaches, but which the Holy Ghost teaches; comparing spiritual things with
spiritual. But the natural man (carnal mind) receives not
the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them,
because they are spiritually discerned."
What is Paul saying here? Without the Spirit of the
Lord revealing His word to us the things of God will appear foolishness to our
carnal mind. What is the carnal mind? It's the fleshly mind that controls our
body and judges everything by its five senses and what is right or wrong by the
knowledge of good and evil. With the carnal mind we will never be able to
understand what the Lord's will is because the Lords will can only be discerned
by the spirit!
If I am free from sin (noun) then how can I remain
righteous in God's sight if I sin (verb)? It is absolutely impossible for your
spirit to sin (verb) because it is born of God and is like spirit with Him.
Even as it is impossible for God to sin it is impossible for His children to
sin. John confirms this in I 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."
John says that whoever has
been born of God does not commit sin. This word 'sin' comes from the Greek word
'hamartia' ham-ar-tee'-ah and means--offence, sin or sinful. And then he says
that whoever has been born of God cannot sin! This word use here for sin is the
Greek word ' hamartanō
ham-ar-tan'-o and
means to miss the mark (and so not share in
the prize), that is, (figuratively) to err, especially (morally)
to sin:"for your faults, offend, sin, trespass.
Someone says "Well, if that is true then I must
not be born of God because I sometimes sin!" We have been so indoctrinated
into sin consciousness because our teachers in the past relied on their own
ability to understand scripture and as a result thought that they were still
living under Law and if you failed to obey any one of the Laws you were guilty
of all of them. With their carnal minds they could not understand what God was
saying through the writers of the New Testament. It is so difficult for our
carnal minds to understand that we are spirit and not flesh and blood. We
currently live in this body of flesh but it is passing away and we will one day
receive a spiritual body to live in. Let me say to you once again that we are
spirit, we have a soul which is our fleshly mind that controls our body and has
emotions and we live in a body of flesh.
In order to explain this to you, let me ask you a
question. When all men were living in the time before Jesus died on the cross,
were they under the curse of Adam's sin (noun)? In other words, were they all
considered sinners or under the curse of sin even though they may not have
sinned as Adam did? You may say, "Well, I don't know?" Paul said in
Rom. 5:12-14,
"Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into
the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all
have sinned: For until the law sin was in the world: but sin
is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless death
reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the
similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him
(Jesus) that was to come."
This is what most of us have been taught in the past. Especially
what Paul said in Rom. 3:23,
"For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;"
Let me ask you another question. Could a man work out his own
salvation under the Law? In other words, could his good works save him under
the Law? If his good works could save him under the Law, then Jesus died in
vein. If this was true then Jesus would not have had to come here and die for
us.
If man could not save himself by his good works under the Law then
do you think that if God considers you righteous because of what Jesus did for
us, that you can void His righteousness by some mistake that you may have made?
If God has made a covenant with you and said to you that He will remember your
sins no more, do you think that because you may have made a mistake that He
will remember that mistake and hold it against you? If this is what you
believe, then you don't have much faith in the integrity of the Lord!
If it was impossible for a man to save himself under the Law, then
it would be impossible for a man to condemn himself so as to loose his
righteous standing before God under grace. This certainly would be possible if
we were to stand before God in our own righteousness but our righteousness is
not what makes us righteous in God's sight. It's the righteousness of our Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ that makes us righteous because we are in Christ and He
is righteous before God.
What is so hard for us to get our minds to accept is that we are
no longer living under Law! When the Law was given, sin sprang to life because
of the weakness of our bodies of flesh. This body of flesh that we live in
still wars against our spirits with it's desires and wants and needs. This
carnal mind that controls this body of ours is motivated by it's five senses.
When Adam disobeyed God in the garden it gave this carnal mind of ours the
power to rule us by the law of good vs. evil and as a result this carnal mind
wants to judge everything by whether it is good or evil. Then the Law was given
to Moses and the warfare began.
Because our carnal mind had the power over our spirits as a result
of the sin of Adam we were held in captivity or in the prison of sin. There was
nothing we could do to overcome the power of our carnal mind because of sin. The
power of sin was the Law! Paul said in 1 Cor. 15:56, (NIV)
"The sting of death is sin,
and the power of sin
is the law."
When the Law came it stirred up all kind of evil
because it gave Satan the legal right to accuse us every time we broke the Law!
He ruled and was constantly condemning us before God. He would tempt us in
everyway in order to cause us to stumble and disobey the Law.
And then Jesus arrived on the scene. Have you ever
notice that as soon as John the Baptist baptized Jesus, the Holy Spirit led
Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil? Wonder why He did this?
Because this is why Jesus came here! He came here to destroy the works of the
devil. John said in 1 John 3:8,
"For this purpose
the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil."
The Holy Spirit did not lead Jesus into the wilderness to be
defeated by the devil but to defeat the devil at his own games.
Satan had no idea what God was up to when Jesus came on the scene!
Paul said in 1 Cor. 2:7-8,
"We speak of God's secret
wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory
before time began. None
of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not
have crucified the Lord of glory.""
When Jesus died on the cross he took the Law and nailed it to the
cross and now we no longer live according to Law and as such the devil has lost
his power over us because now he has nothing to accuse us of before God because
there is now no condemnation toward us because we are in Christ Jesus! (Rom.
8:1) Paul said in Col. 2:8-15, (NIV)
"Beware
lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the
tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ. For in Him dwells all the fullness of the
Godhead bodily; and you are complete in Him, who is the
head of all principality and power.
In Him
you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of
the sins of the flesh,
by the circumcision of Christ, buried with Him in baptism, in which you
also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who
raised Him from the dead. And
you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has
made alive together with Him (Jesus), having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against
us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. Having
disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them,
triumphing over them in it."
Today,
Satan has absolute no power or authority over us. Quite the contrary, we have
all the power we will ever need over him. Paul said in Eph. 2:4-10, (NIV)
"Because
of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy,
made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions"it is
by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in
the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus, in order that in the coming
ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his
kindness to us in Christ Jesus. For it is by grace you have been saved, through
faith"and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God"not
by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us
to do."""
How far above principalities and powers have we been raised? Paul
said in Eph. 1:17-22,
"I keep asking that the God
of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of
wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray also that
the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope
to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the
saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is like the working
of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from
the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far
above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be
given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And
God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over
everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who
fills everything in every way."
The point I am trying to get you to realize is that
you have been set free from sin and are now righteous by what Jesus did. Your
righteousness before God does not depend upon your ability to control your
flesh so it will never sin! If your flesh sins you will not be condemned
because your spirit, the eternal you, is righteous before God! Your flesh will
never be good enough to have eternal life. Paul said in 1 Cor. 15:50,
"Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does corruption inherit incorruption."
Paul also said in Rom. 6:6, (NIV) "For we know that our old self was
crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done
away with, that we should no longer be slaves to
sin, because anyone who has died has been freed from sin!" Study these scriptures meditate on them and open
your heart to allow the Lord to reveal the truth to you!