Paul was a follower of Jesus. He loved Jesus. He obeyed Jesus. Everything Paul taught was taken from the teachings of Jesus personally or from the Old Testament. Never did he contradict Jesus. The “theology” of Paul comes right out of the Old Testament from which he studied for his eternal life.
“Only be very careful to observe the commandment and the law that Moses the servant of the LORD commanded you, to love the LORD your God, and to walk in all His ways and to keep His commandments and to cling to Him and to serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul.” Joshua 22:5.
Listening to the teachings of the churches today, one would think Jesus had died and was buried in the tomb for all time. That Paul was the new “Saviour” of the world and we are to bow down to him. They take his statements and completely twist them to make the teachings of Jesus a lie for salvation. What did Peter say? “There are some things in them (the writings of Paul) that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unstable twist to their own destruction, as they do the other Scriptures.” 2 Peter 3:16.
There are a lot of “ignorant and unstable” churches out there. The churches teach we are “saved by grace”. That God’s love is “unconditional” and that the Ten Commandments are no longer needed. That we are not able to stop sinning. That we poor humans must continue in sin. Let us listen to Paul and see if he agrees with the “ignorant and unstable” churches, pastors, ministers and teachers.
Romans 6:1 to Romans 7:25
What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?
Do we continue “in sin”? Well, we must ask ourselves, what is “sin”? Did Paul know what sin was? Since Paul told Timothy to study the Old Testament for his salvation, we must assume, at this point, that Paul knew what sin was. In the Old Testament, sin was the breaking of the Ten Commandments. That concept is carried over into the New Testament by John. He states, “Everyone who sins breaks God’s law, because sin is the same as breaking God’s law.” 1 John 3:4.
Therefore, we have to ask Paul a simple question, if “grace” saves us eternally, as the “ignorant and unstable” churches teach, are we free from the Ten Commandments to go on sinning?
By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?
Well, I guess that answers that question. Therefore, since we are not to sin, it is obvious that we are not “saved by grace”. So why do the churches teach “saved by grace”? I guess they have slid off the Rock of Jesus Christ and landed on the quicksand of “ignorant and unstable” human theology. After all, Jesus taught “Stop sinning” and “Go, and sin no more”. John 5:14; 8:11. Both Paul and Jesus agree about sin. So why did Jesus and Paul teach Christians not to continue in sin?
Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?
No, I don’t think so. The “ignorant and unstable” churches have forgotten to teach their members that part. Church members do not know that their old, sinful lives are to be buried with Jesus. If they have been “baptized into Christ Jesus” they would not continue to sin. Why is that Paul?
We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
Churches do a lot of talking about “newness of life” and “spiritual formation”, but I think they forgot the part about being raised from the dead, sinful, old life and to walk in the newness of life as Jesus walked it: perfect, sinless and commandment keeping. Oops!
For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.
So what was “a death like His”? Well, in order to be “united with Him in a death like His” we need to know what that death was, right? Why did Jesus die? He died because He refused to sin. He died because He fulfilled His responsibilities to the Law of His Father. He kept the Law, the Ten Commandments, perfectly and therefore, a sinful world could not tolerate Him and put Him to death. In order to be “united with Him in a resurrection like His”, you must be united in the spirit of His death: perfect obedience to the Ten Commandments, even unto death.
We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin.
Oops! Churches overlook that text. It doesn’t agree with their theology. It also doesn’t agree with their financial health. We must crucify our old, sinful and rebellious way of living in “order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing”. We must “no longer be enslaved to sin”.
Are you enslaved to sin? If you go to church, you are enslaved to sin! If you listen to your pastor teach you the lie about “saved by grace”, you are a slave to sin! If your church, denomination or the religious programs you listen to and watch are not teaching you to stop sinning, be perfect and to keep the Ten Commandments to get eternal life, you are enslaved to the sins of their lies!
For one who has died has been set free from sin.
If you are still sinning, you have not died with Christ. You are not a “Christian”. You have no place with Jesus. He is not sitting in your church. He is not in any part of your denomination or institution. Light and darkness cannot dwell together. Either you have been “set free from sin” as a Christian, or you are not a Christian. It is a choice. Decide today if your church, your denomination and this world are more important than dying unto Jesus and living the sin-free life.
Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.
Oh yes, the churches love to tell their members that once they are baptized and become a member of “our” church they are “saved” and will “live with Him”. What nonsense. Nothing but lies. In order to “live with Him”, you have to die with Christ. They conveniently forget to tell you that part. It is much easier going through the symbol of baptism than to actually go through the hard work of changing the life.
We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him.
If you want to live forever, you must live as Jesus lived: perfect, sinless and commandment keeping. Sin will keep you out of Heaven. You must commit homicide on your old, sinful self and be born again into the perfect, sinless and commandment keeping life of Jesus.
For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God.
As Jesus lived, refusing to sin, “He died to sin”. He said, “No!” to every temptation and sin. If you want to live a life “to God”, then you must do the same. “Once for all” you must stop the sinning. That is why church is deadly. Everyone is comparing themselves by themselves and their church, but no one is comparing themselves to Jesus and the “death He died”. If they did, they would be horror stricken at their sinful lives and fall on their faces and repent from their wickedness. Then they would rise up and live as “He lives to God”: perfect, sinless and commandment keeping.
So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
Yes you must! But do you? Not many consider themselves “dead to sin”. No, they consider themselves “saved by grace” and as long as they go to church or support “good” religious organizations, they feel comfortable and saved in their sins. Unless you live, not for your religion, but “alive to God in Christ Jesus”, you have no eternal life. You must get out of your religious organization and live as Jesus did.
And again, as I have stated many times, “church” isn’t just a brick and mortar place to worship. You can be “going to church” by sitting at home watching “church” programs from religious and independent ministries. However, you are still emotionally in “church”. You are still giving your attention and beliefs to other humans. You are still enslaved to “church”. Many have told me that, “Well, you are an independent ministry.” No, I am a “dependent” ministry on Jesus Christ. I’m not an “offshoot” of any religious church or denomination. I do not represent any religion, church or denomination. Jesus called me personally, as He did Elijah, Isaiah, Jeremiah and John the Baptist, and gave me this message to give to the world. None of this is my doing. I just speak as He commands me.
Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions.
Well, that one statement just did away with all churches, denominations and religions. People belong to their organizations for the “soul” purpose of living in sin. They love their passions way too much to give them up for a “dead” life in Jesus. No, just go to church, go through the rituals and poof, you have eternal life.
“This outward splendor, pomp, and ceremony, that only mocks the longings of the sin-sick soul, is an evidence of inward corruption. The religion of Christ needs not such attractions to recommend it. In the light shining from the cross, true Christianity appears so pure and lovely that no external decorations can enhance its true worth. It is the beauty of holiness, a meek and quiet spirit, which is of value with God.” GC 566. Get out of your church now and take everyone you love with you.
Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness.
Is your church or religious organization presenting its “members” to “sin as instruments for unrighteousness”? Every part of your body belongs to God. He created each part. He redeemed each part. He owns each part. You are only leasing the parts of your body from the Creator of the universe. He has the right to demand they be used in a perfect, sinless and commandment keeping manner. But that is not what the churches believe or practice. Most “give” only a little of themselves thinking it will appease God. Just enough to keep Him “happy”. To be almost saved is to be totally lost. Now you understand why there will be only 144,000 righteous people, alive on earth after probation closes, who will be going to Heaven. All others will be destroyed.
For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.
Wow! They zoom right past the “for sin will have no dominion over you”. The churches love to quote, “you are not under law but under grace” for their excuse to continue in sin. They whiz-bang right past the preceding verses and land with both feet on the tail end of this text. “See, we can continue in sin because there is no more ‘law’”. Again, as I continue to do, we must keep going back to what Paul knew of the four “laws” for Israel. Remember, Paul was a scholar of the Old Testament.
1. The Moral Law: Ten Commandments
2. The Civil Laws: only for Israel
3. The Health Laws: only for Israel (And all who wish to obey them.)
4. The Temple laws: only for Israel
Only the Moral Law had to do with “sin”. The Moral Law is eternal. The Moral Law is the foundation of God’s throne because it is the foundation of His Heart. The Ten Commandments are the character of God in written form. The Moral Law applies to every single person on the face of the earth. Why? Because God is the creator of every single person on the face of the earth. He is God of the whole world. Therefore, we are “under” the Moral Law of God.
The other three laws were specifically and only for the nation of Israel as a theocracy under God. We must always remember, Paul at no time is doing away with the Moral Law of God. He is explaining to Christians and Jews that the temple and all its services, rituals, traditions, feast days, holy days and ceremonies were all done away with, abolished, “finished” at the cross. They were only instituted for two very specific reason.
1. To point people to the need of a Savior to take away their past sins. Before Jesus, all needed to understand that they could not “cleanse” themselves from past sins. The wages of sin is death. But a Savior would come to take their past sins from them if . . .
2. They would look to the Most Holy Place and see the perfection of character God requires and live it. No services, rituals, traditions, feast days, holy days or ceremonies were ever needed by those who refused to sin. That is why Jesus had nothing to do with them.
The temple laws were abolished at the cross when Jesus said, “It is finished”. The plan of salvation by which the temple rites, rituals, traditions, feast days, services and ceremonies pointed, was now completed. That is why the temple curtain was ripped in two from top to bottom. We no longer had to see the temple services, rituals, traditions, feast days, holy days or ceremonies to understand the plan of salvation. Jesus is the culmination of all that.
The “law” Christians were no longer under were the laws of the temple and those that made Israel a nation. Israel had rejected Jesus as their Messiah and chose Caesar as their god. God destroyed the temple first in AD 70 and then in AD 133 He destroyed the nation of Israel. Never again was Israel or the Jews to be thought of as a “nation” under God. Individually they could repent and return to the favor of God if they accepted Jesus as the culmination of all the temple services, rituals, traditions, feast days, holy days and ceremonies. But you could not be accepted by God if you were trying to work your way to heaven through the old laws of the nation of Israel and the temple.
The “grace” of God was revealed in the Old Testament by the sacrifices of the temple. Instead of wiping out the people of earth, the grace of God was revealed in symbol by the Lamb that would one day come and sacrifice His life in exchange for their past sins. Therefore, when Jesus died, we truly moved from being “under the law” of the temple that demonstrated grace, to being under Jesus, the true sacrifice, who exemplified “grace” for the human race.
What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means!
Therefore, just because God showed us grace by taking away our past sins, when we have faith in Him, does not give us license to continue in sin. Neither under the grace symbols of the temple nor under the grace reality of Jesus as the true sacrifice are we to continue in sin. The “grace” of God in providing a way of escape from eternal death does not give us permission to keep on living in sin. His grace for the human race started the moment Eve bit into the fruit of the Tree of Good and Evil. But His grace does not give us license to continue in sin. “For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins.” Hebrews 10:26.
Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?
Whether before the cross or after the cross, those who presented themselves to God “as obedient slaves” dedicated themselves to live in obedience to God’s Ten Commandments: the moral law. Those who live in obedience to sin by breaking the Ten Commandments would receive death. Those who lived in obedience to the Ten Commandments would lead to eternal life.
But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness.
You see, Paul recognized they had the same problem we are having today. They went to church, but they were still “slaves of sin”. They belonged to the nation of Israel, but they were still “slaves of sin”. They went to the temple and performed all temple laws that were required of them, but they were still “slaves of sin”. Why? Because they were not taught to live in obedience, from the heart, to the Ten Commandments. Why? The church didn’t make money unless you sinned. Same today.
Therefore, Paul was reminding them that none of those services, rituals, ceremonies, traditions could change their hearts. Only by becoming “obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed” could they be set free from sin. And what was that “standard of teaching”? The teachings of Jesus to stop sinning, be perfect and to keep the Ten Commandments to get your eternal life. And where did Jesus get His standard of teaching? Old Testament. “Only be very careful to observe the commandment and the law that Moses the servant of the LORD commanded you, to love the LORD your God, and to walk in all His ways and to keep His commandments and to cling to Him and to serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul.” Joshua 22:5. By doing that, they were set free from sin and became “slaves of righteousness”.
I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.
Even though they belonged to the church, performed all the sacrifices, rituals, services and traditions, none of that had anything to do with “righteousness leading to sanctification”. Church-going and belonging to their denomination did nothing to free them from being “slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness”. “Lawlessness”: the breaking of the “Law”. Only the keeping of the Ten Commandment “law” produces righteousness in the heart.
For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.
How true! They were going to church and thinking of themselves as “saved” by belonging to their denomination, yet, they were “slaves of sin”. They had no righteousness that came from God.
But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death.
Are you ashamed of your church-going, sinful way of living? “The end of those things is death”. Get out of your church. Stop sinning, be perfect and begin keeping all the Ten Commandments to get your eternal life.
But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.
The truth they were now receiving, if followed, would set them free from the bondage of sin the church was keeping them in. The truth they were now receiving was setting them free from the bondage of belonging to a denomination and a religion of forms, services, traditions, ceremonies and rituals. The truth they were now receiving would make them “slaves of God”. That truth was the knowledge that all they had to do was keep the Ten Commandments which “leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life”.
At this point in the study, I want you to wake up and see the trajectory of thought Paul is using. He is leading them from “justification” to “sanctification”. The first few chapters were about justification. Now he is leading them to sanctification.
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
The “wages of sin”, the breaking of the Ten Commandments, “is death”. But when we have faith in Jesus Christ, living in obedience to Him, and Him alone, we receive the “free gift of God”, eternal life. “If you want eternal life, keep the Commandments.” Matthew 19:17. “If you love Me, keep My commandments.” John 14:15. “The person who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me.” John 14:21. “If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love.” John 15:10. That is pure sanctification: obedience.
Or do you not know, brothers—for I am speaking to those who know the law—that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives?
The “law”, the temple services, rituals, ordinances, traditions, holy days, feast days and sacrifices were “binding on a person only as long as he lives”. As long as they lived for the temple and being a “Jew”, they were obligated to obey those “laws”. Those who became circumcised bound themselves to all the Jewish temple services, rituals, ordinances, traditions, holy days, feast days and sacrifices. But when they died to the temple laws in Christ, they were no longer bound to those temple laws.
We can also put it another way. The Ten Commandments, by which all will be judged, is binding on all who continue to live their old life of sin. It points out their sins. If you are living the Ten Commandment life, then you are no longer sinning, the “binding” judgement of the Ten Commandments will not fall on you. The “binding” wrath of God will not fall on you.
For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage. Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress.
While the temple laws were enforced, the “bride of Christ” was bound by the law to Jesus, the God of the Old Testament, through those symbols, rituals, services, traditions and sacrifices. They pointed to Jesus as their Husband. In the Old Testament, God continually reprimanded Israel for acting like an adulterous woman and leaving Him.
Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God.
Now, with the death of their “Husband”, Jesus Christ, the temple and all that went with it also died. They now were to “belong to another, to Him who has been raised from the dead”. Instead of belonging to the temple system that pointed to Jesus, they now were free from that system and were to be bound to Jesus. The church had kept the people bound to a system that was supposed to teach people how to live the perfect, sinless and commandment keeping life. But their eyes were turned away from the purpose of the system and the system became their “husband”. Therefore, they were adulterers and whores. Same today. Revelation calls everyone who goes to church an adulterer and a whore. “The existing confusion of conflicting creeds and sects is fitly represented by the term “Babylon,” which prophecy (Revelation 14:8; 18:2) applies to the world-loving churches of the last days.” PP 124. That means ALL churches, religions, denominations and religious organizations of today.
For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work in our members to bear fruit for death.
Those who belonged to the church “system” were “living in the flesh”. The church system gave them what their sinful hearts wanted, a form of righteousness without the substance. It boosted their pride and ego. They could look good while living in their “sinful passions”. The law of the church system, rituals, services, sacrifices, traditions and ceremonies only worked “in our members to bear fruit for death”.
But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code.
But now we are “released from the law” of church services, rituals, traditions, sacrifices and ordinances. They held the people captive to a system that could never save them. Those temple “laws” looked good, felt good and boosted their ego and pride, but they could never save. Now they were to return to the original “way of the Spirit”, the Ten Commandments, and “not in the old way of the written code” of the temple. They were now being taught the truth as it had been taught since the book of Genesis. The church and denomination had completely covered it up. But the truth was now being illuminated again. “‘Return, unfaithful people,’ declares the LORD, ‘for I am your Husband.’” Jeremiah 3:14.
What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.”
Okay, Paul can get a bit complicated. He was very educated and expected others to be able to follow along, even when he jumped over some parts he thought all should know. He moves quickly from one aspect to another expecting his audience to understand and keep up.
When talking about “law”, you had to be careful to follow Paul as to what “Law” he was talking about. Since the Ten Commandments were housed in the Temple, the Most Holy Place, were they also done away with? Some might think they were. So, Paul had to take the minds of his readers back and separate the Ten Commandments from the Temple laws. Remember, the temple curtain separated the Ten Commandments from the rest of the temple. Is the Ten Commandments sin? “By no means!” Without the Ten Commandments we “would not have known sin”. Again, Paul knew that sin was the breaking of the Ten Commandment “law”. Therefore, he gives us an example of what law he is now talking about. If the Ten Commandments did not tell us “not to covet”, we would not know what “coveting” was.
But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead.
Therefore, Paul is laying out that even though they went to church and performed all those temple laws of ceremonies, rituals, sacrifices and traditions, they were still producing “all kinds of covetousness” in themselves. Why, the system had buried the “law” of the Ten Commandments under church ceremonies, rituals, sacrifices and traditions. Therefore, the people were dead to the knowledge of sin since they were living apart from the law of God.
I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died.
Absolutely! Paul was having a great time living apart from the Ten Commandments. He was living in strict adherence to the church laws of rituals, traditions, services, ceremonies and sacrifices. Sin to Paul was the breaking of church law, not God’s law. He was having great fun going around destroying those who refused to make the church system their god. But when Jesus revealed Himself to Paul, Paul’s mind was pricked to the core and the Ten Commandments came flooding into his mind and he realized what a sinner he was. “Sin came alive and I died”. Now he understood what sin was. What never bothered him before now came up in front of him and he saw very clearly his true state as a sinner. Have you come face to face with your sinful state?
The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me.
You see, he thought he was keeping the Ten Commandments while doing church works. He thought his church membership gave him life. He thought that serving the church was serving God. He had not been taught that it was the Ten Commandments that promised life. Therefore, when Jesus revealed Himself, the purity of the Ten Commandments came up to Paul and He realized that the life he had been living was a church-life filled with lies leading to death. He realized that he was not keeping the Ten Commandments and therefore, he was not serving God and deserved nothing but death.
For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me.
Paul now realized that he was a sinner. The church had deceived him and the sins he had been living were exposed by looking at the Ten Commandments through Jesus. Upon deciding to follow Jesus, and the Ten Commandments, his old life was “killed”. He decided to die to his old church-life of services, rituals, sacrifices, holy days, feast days, traditions and ceremonies. All of that had “deceived me”.
So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.
Now Paul recognized that nothing but the Ten Commandment Law was “holy and righteous and good”. The Ten Commandments was the defining factor in what sin was and is, not church. Nothing the church did could ever replace the Ten Commandments to point out sin and destroy sin in the life. Church only makes sin acceptable, which was now unacceptable to Paul.
Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure.
Paul recognized it wasn’t the Ten Commandments that was bringing death, no, it was the church that was producing sin in him that was bringing “death to me”. The Ten Commandments simply explained what sin was “in order that sin might be shown to be sin”. Now that Paul knew what sin was, he loathed the church. He loathed all the ceremonies, services, traditions, sacrifices, holy days, feast days and rituals that had taken his attention off the keeping of the Ten Commandments. Now that the Ten Commandments were shining bright in his mind, sin “became sinful beyond measure” and he refused to sin.
For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin.
When we read the word “spiritual” in the New Testament, think “righteous” or “holy”. The law, the Ten Commandments, are spiritual, holy and righteous. They are the character of God. God is “spiritual”, righteous and holy. But the human race was “sold under sin” by the disobedience of Adam and Eve.
For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.
The Spirit of God is striving with each and every heart. We do not understand our own actions because we know what is right by the striving of the Spirit of God upon the heart. But our sinful natures keep getting in the way. Even inmates know what they are doing is “wrong”, yet they can’t stop themselves.
Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good.
And so it is. Because we know that what we do is “wrong”, we recognize and “agree with the” Ten Commandments “that it is good”.
So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.
Therefore we recognize that there is a power inherent within us, sin, that is compelling us to lie, cheat, steal, covet, commit adultery, go to church for our egos, hoard our stash and other selfish sins. Inmates are very aware of the sin that dwells within them. Today, we might call that which “dwells within me”: habits.
For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out.
Yep, there comes a time when we recognize that “nothing good dwells in me”. We go to church and have the desire to “do what is right”, but we lack the “ability to carry it out”. Why? Because we were sold into sin by our first parents. Sin is in our DNA. We go to church and pretend to be Christians, yet we still have no “ability to carry it out”.
For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing.
If you have ever been addicted to anything, you understand that statement. Most go to church because they have a desire to do good. But the church is not teaching them God’s “good”. They are addicted to church no differently than a drug addict is addicted to drugs. It is all idol worship. Therefore, “the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing”. We keep on going to church, but we are still slaves to sin.
Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.
The majority of church people do not understand that. Most don’t recognize “sin that dwells within me”. Their sins have become so common and acceptable they don’t see them as sin. No different than Paul when he went to church. Killing, hurting and destroying was church sanctioned. Church members look at inmates and point fingers, then pat themselves on their backs thinking that since they go to church they are saints.
So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand.
But if they would get out of church, kneel before Jesus, reading His Word with a sincere desire to know the sins in their lives, God would reveal it.
For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being,
Many who go to church “delight in the law of God” in their “inner being”. They talk about them, hang them on their walls, memorize them and feel pretty good about themselves.
. . . but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members.
The “law” of sin which reigns in the kingdom of Lucifer “dwells” in every member of the human race who has not turned their lives over to Jesus. The conflict between the “law” of God and the “law” of sin is raging in hearts. However, keep in mind, Paul is not talking about himself here as a Christian. He is talking about himself when he belonged to his church. When he was a proud member of his religion and denomination. The church was not able to be his savior.
Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?
As he looked back upon his experience in the church, he realized he was a “wretched man” and wanted someone to “deliver me from this body of death”. Many an addict cries out with the same prayer. Many in prison want to be delivered from the body of sin that is destroying their lives. But the answer did not lie, nor does it lie, in church or human theories, 12 step programs or any other self-help programs. There is only one source from which salvation can come.
Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.
We may be trapped in a body that wants to serve the “law of sin”, but we thank “God through Jesus Christ our Lord” that He alone can save us, through our will, to “serve the law of God with my mind”. As a man thinks, so is he. When we put our mind to serving God, we no longer “serve the law of sin”. “For as he thinks within himself, so he is.” Proverbs 23:7.
The “flesh” does serve the law of sin. The body of flesh does get old, it is decaying and will eventually die. But even though the flesh serves the law of sin in the body, yet, our minds, our souls, our eternal lives will be bound up in Jesus as we live in obedience to His Ten Commandments which leads to eternal life. He will give us the power to work with our will in obedience to the Ten Commandments.