06/30/21 ROMANS: THE PATH TO SUCCESS

06/30/21 ROMANS: THE PATH TO SUCCESS

God Leads Us From Life Of Sin To Life Of Holiness

The book of Romans is divided into two main sections:
Doctrines of Salvation 1-11,
Practical Christian Living 12-16.

Romans explains Salvation to two groups of believers in Rome, in the context of those two backgrounds:
Jewish believers,
Gentile believers.

Romans addresses four main doctrines:
Hamartiology 1:18-3:20 (the doctrine of sin),
Justification 3:21-5:21 (the doctrine of sinners being reconciled to God through faith),
Sanctification 6-8 (the doctrine of believers being purified from the Old Man, The Law of Sin and Death, aka inherent sin, Carnality, the Carnal Mind, the Double Mind),
Election 9-11 (the doctrine of God choosing a body of people for relationship and service).

Sanctification or the Purifying of the Heart
In the Sanctification section, Divine deliverance from the Old man is explained to the Gentile mind in chapter six and to the Jewish mind in chapter seven and it is intertwined in chapter eight.

ROMANS 6
God's Grace Delivers From All Sin
Believers should be dead to sin and no longer living in sin (vss. 1-2),
Baptism is a representation of a Christian's DEATH TO SIN (vs. 3) and resurrection to walk in newness of life (vss. 4-5),
Through death with Christ, our Old Man, Body of Sin, our inherent propensity to sin (vs. 6) is crucified, dead and we become dead to sin and alive to God (6-10).
Through this death to sin, we can accurately account ourselves to be dead to sin (vs. 11).
Because we are actually dead to sin, we must not let sin reign in our mortal body (vs. 12),
Neither should we yield (a willful, personal act) our body, even partially, instruments, tools of unrighteousness and sin (vs. 13a) but rather as instruments, tools of righteousness to God (vs. 13b and c).
Sin does not have dominion, authority, right over those who are not under law, but under grace (vs. 14).
AGAIN, we do not sin, because we are under grace (vs. 15) and grace has power to deliver from sin.
We are servants to whom we yield, surrender, submit, whether of sin unto death or of obedience unto righteousness (vs. 16). TO WHOM DO YOU YIELD?
God's doctrine delivers us from serving sin (vs. 17).
Believers are delivered, are free from serving sin and have become servants of righteousness (vs. 18).
We once served uncleanness and the power of sin, resulting in sinfulness and sin, but now we serve righteousness, resulting in holiness of heart and life (vs. 19).
We once served sin without any attachment to righteousness, resulting in death (vss. 20-21, 23).
Now we are FREE FROM SIN, and we are servants of God, producing that which is holy, resulting in eternal life (vs. 22, which is the same as vs. 23).
Eternal Life is the gift of God, but it is received through submitting ourselves (body, soul and spirit) to God and to serve God (vs. 23).

ROMANS 7
The Problem Of The Sinful Nature And God's Deliverance From The Sinful Nature
Basically, there are two main errors concerning Romans chapter seven.
Firstly, some people do not believe that chapter seven has anything to do with believers. They believe that chapter seven is strictly the picture of a sinner, not a Christian, in any spiritual condition.
Secondly, some people believe that chapter seven is the picture of a carnal Christian, a Christian that has not been delivered from the Old Man, the Carnal Mind... AND CANNOT BE DELIVERED.
This chapter actually does address the spiritual condition of a carnal believer, but it is the spiritual state that exists between Justification and Entire Sanctification. This chapter not only explains the inner battle that believers have but declares God's deliverance from the life of inner conflict (the conflict of the Old Man with the New Man).
The sinner has a fallen Human Nature AND as Sinful Nature.
The new believer has a fallen Human Nature, a Sinful Nature, and a Divine Nature also known as a New Man (or new nature).
The believers who move forward in their spiritual life and come to understand that God will cleanse them from all sin, from the Old Man, Carnality, the Double Mindedness, will trust Christ to save them, cleanse them, deliver them from the Old Man. The Sanctified believer therefore has the Human Nature and the Divine (new) Nature.
Remember, at the end of Romans Seven (vss. 23-24), Paul proclaims that God delivers the wretched, tormented believer from the, "body of death," as mentioned in 6:6.
Romans Seven is not the lifelong habitation of a Christian, it is the temporary transition of a Christian, it is the wilderness journey between Walking in Sin and Walking in the Spirit (i.e. Egypt and the Promised Land) from being a carnal believer to being a Spirit filled believer, from being Double Minded to being Single Minded, from being simply Justified by faith and having Peace with God to being Sanctified and having the Peace of God Rule (Referee) in our hearts. Romans Seven is not the Christian habitation or destination, it is a step in our transformation (Romans 12:1-2).

ROMANS EIGHT
God Leads Us To Victory
There is no condemnation to those who are actually in Christ (vs. 1).
The Law of The Spirit of Life sets free from the Law of Sin and Death (vs. 2).
Jesus came to set us free from sin in the flesh, this earthly life (vs. 3).
The righteousness of the law is fulfilled believers who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit (vs. 4).
Those who are living in the flesh, carnality, self orientation, focus on the flesh cannot please God and the end result of carnality is death (vss. 5-9).
Those who live in the Spirit do not live after the flesh. It is a daily choice, a faithful walk, which results in eternal life (vss. 10-11).
We are not indebted to the flesh, but rather we are enabled by the Spirit to put the deeds of the flesh to death and to live in the Spirit (vss. 12-13).
The Spirit of God sets us free from sin, sinning and He witnesses to our spirits that we are the children of God (vss. 14-15).