Confessing sin and being obedient is vital…

What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 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. 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. 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. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. 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. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace. (Romans 6:1–14)

Before Adam sinned, he reflected the image of God who created him. Alive in his inner spirit, he listened to God and expressed that life in his thinking, emotions, and will. After he sinned, that inner spirit became dead or separated from God and he was left with a soul and body that could not obey the Lord. This condition became the problem of all who came after him. 

No one could obey God with a dead spirit unless God revived that inner faculty. Such a person is only able to do things according to his own ideas, emotions, and choices, which the Bible calls our sin nature. Sadly, that sin-nature was passed down to all humans. All were born with our spirits dead to God and no longer able to function in union with Him. Since we were created to reflect God, humanity began to worship home-made gods, even our own selves and fed by outside forces; the world and the devil. This old nature was once powerful in Adam before he sinned but became unable to please God or bring life back to the deadness within. 

Given the appropriate circumstances and an appealing set of lies, Satan can influence people who seem like they have faith, but their faith is in themselves. One cult believes Jesus died to give them the right to earn their salvation, but He is not God in human flesh, only a created being that they do not worship. Not one Bible verse supports that so they rewrite a few!

On the other hand, God tells Christians that because of faith in Christ, our spirit is made alive and we can hear and obey Him. He tells us to renew our minds, base our emotions on His, and yield our will. This is why Jesus said, “Not my will but thine be done” even though His will was perfect and without sin. 

Religious people might try but no matter how good we might look, Isaiah 53:6 calls it “turning our own way” and “iniquity” if we try to please Him without that reborn spirit. However, Jesus will say, “Depart from me; I never knew you.” (Matthew 7:21-23)

Romans 8 adds that, “For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God.” (Romans 8:5–8) A dead spirit cannot serve God. 

It is a challenge to listen to God in my spirit, to be filled with the spirit and refuse to let my old nature rule. It often wants comfort, an easy life, no worries or challenges, and having my way, but God's will is not like that.  

Jesus, when You toss difficulties my way, I’m learning to listen and obey rather than ask You to remove them. Very often You surprise me with great grace to face those issues in ways that I would not imagine. Your mind, Your feeling, Your will is so much better than what my selfishness can come up with. Thank You for saving me from myself!

 

Am I really dead?

 

 

READ Matthew 25-28

While not every theologian agrees with him, I’ve always liked the way that Watchman Nee, a Christian martyr, defined the difference between the soul and the Spirit. He put them in concentric circles inside a larger circle representing our body. The next circle was the soul which is made up intellect, emotions, and volition or will. The smallest circle represents the human spirit. Because of sin, that small circle is dead to God. Nee defines sin as basing all our decisions and actions on our own understanding, feelings, and desires.

When someone becomes a Christian, the spirit is given new life and we are then able to listen to God and let Him govern, enable, and direct what is done in the soul and outward to body actions. It has been years since reading Nee’s books, but I do remember his comments on this event as Jesus prayed in Gethsemane:

And he came to the disciples and found them sleeping. And he said to Peter, “So, could you not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.” (Matthew 26:40–41)

Nee said the problem with the disciples was not that their flesh (soul) was too weak, but that it was not weak enough. Bodily desires overruled and they slept instead of praying according to the will of that inner spirit. In other words, saving faith is about God’s Spirit giving new life to our spirit so we are dead (not weak) to the appeals of the world, the flesh, and the devil.

I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. (Galatians 2:20)

Following Jesus means thinking and acting as He did. In the Garden before He spoke to the disciples about their lack of prayer, He said:

“My soul is very sorrowful, even to death; remain here, and watch with me.” And going a little farther he fell on his face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.” (Matthew 26:38–39)

These words reinforce the conflict later describe by Galatians; the spirit and the flesh fight against each other. Jesus knew He must die. He also knew that He must not let His soul overturn what the Spirit of God was telling Him. His emotions are described as very sorrowful, even to death. His will, however sinless it was, must be denied. He knew that He must say no to all else and do as the Spirit of God instructed His Spirit.

This account of Jesus passion and death resulted in resurrection and redemption for mankind. His decision to deny all else but what God wanted is God’s goal for all of His sons and daughters. We know it but we struggle with it. Paul wrote how he did not understand his own actions:

For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 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. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. (Romans 7:15–20)

Yet he also wrote that he had died with Christ and asked readers, “How can we who died to sin still live in it?” This is why Nee concluded that the problem with the disciples was not “weak flesh” that needed to be stronger, but weak flesh that needed to be dead!

This is practical. The NT is full of instructions to consider myself dead to sin and alive to God, dead to the rule of sin and alive to the rule of the Holy Spirit. Death to self means thinking that way about making my own decisions without prayer or direction from God. It means refusing to let emotions govern my actions such as fear, anger, or hate. It also means saying no to the obvious selfish “I wants” and the not so obvious desires that seem okay without checking out what God wants from me.

This means walking close to the Lord, seeking His will from His word, yielding to Him in prayer and understanding, OBEYING Him in every area of life. I’m thankful for Christian writers, pastors, teachers, mentors and friends and that God gives discernment to us so we can help one another more closely follow Jesus. My desire from the heart is to think and act from the heart because my Savior died so I could live an abundant and fruitful life that gives Him glory!