45Rom007.mp3
Commentary
Father, I receive Your Word in Jesus' name. I open my heart and my mind to Your Word, Jesus because You ARE the Word. Open my hearts' eyes so that I can see You and have life. I hope to be able to recall the scriptures and apply them as circumstances come and go. I hope to be able to answer some of the questions that people have concerning the One True Doctrine, and the Living Word. I hope to submit my nature to Your will, Lord Jesus. The desire is to naturally defend with Your Living Word guiding my every step. Those things that purpose to bind me are loosed in Jesus' name! Those things that come to steal, kill and destroy may cause a thousand to fall and ten thousand at my right hand, but it shall not draw nigh my dwelling. My dwelling is in Your shadow, oh Lord. I sometimes have found myself thick in the wrong shadow. The Valley of Death casts a shadow that seems so much like Death Valley, and is only the shadow of it. That shadow cannot exist with Your light illuminating from within me. As I receive Your life in this Word, I proclaim victory over every resistance. Every stronghold is broken now, in Jesus' name.
There is much to be said about Gods position concerning marriage. We can save that for 1 Corinthians 7. Paul mentioned the marriage law to compare how we should accept Jesus' gospel into our lives. The depth of marriage commitment in those days was very severe and taken seriously. Its not necessarily a familiar comparison for many of us today, because of the common view and/or value we place on the marriage commitment. This is not to say it is good. It is only to say that it is. Today, we speak things that are not, as though there were. Today, we adhere to the value of an oath. It is better that we don't make a promise at all if we think that we can go back on that promise, even a tiny bit. Don't break a promise. Our word is the primary value system we have. It supersedes any "legal" document. Our word is our bond.
Take that depth of commitment into your heart and receive this Word of the Lord. Reflect back to the first 6 chapters of Romans. See a new way to view the old nature, and compare it to the Christian life. The change is from within. Its a change of the heart, just like an intimate relationship with a spouse. The fruit that we give birth to is the results from the very hand of God. The very sin we did commit in our "death walk" harvested only death and destruction, no matter what it looked like at the time. That same sin, as a Christian in the "life walk" does not bear fruit of death any longer. We are not in that "formula" any longer. That law is for those who live after the law. We now live after the Spirit and automatically fulfill the law.
Paul explains that, put simply, we are not guilty of something if that something isn't against the law. If there is no law, there is no violation of it. If we live Spiritually (above the law), and automatically fulfill the law, we need not know the law and we cannot violate it. Do not misunderstand this passage of scripture. Understand that when we act in a way that produces bad results, we feel the conviction. If we ignore it, we will be as the hot iron searing our heart, so that we can no longer feel that conviction. This is what I sometimes refer to as a "spiritual coma". We ain't dead because we can only die once. But, we are expected to "die out to our sins DAILY". This means that we spot the fleeting resin of sin, we track it to its source, and we loose it in Jesus' name. If it does not depart from you, it might then be necessary to pray more and even fast. Jesus said, "this kind comes only by prayer and fasting". That tells me some form of demonic possession isn't as direct as an exorcism.
Jesus is the walking, talking, Living Word of God. John 1:1 verifies that. Jesus needs only speak and it shall be. Because our nature draws us toward sin, we need to deliberately gravitate toward God. Sin can't come near God, so the presence of God is the only safe place against the forces of darkness. The way to His presence is the Word. Therein is fullness of joy. In joy, we generally feel like worshiping. I'm on Jesus' team and we just scored another touch down!. Cheer about it. Do that stupid victory jig for Jesus in the Celebration Duration. Re-name it. Call it the Jesus Jig or the Charismatic Jig. In any case, praise ye the Lord!
Paul relates to every one of us. He explains that his will is to serve the Lord, yet his flesh still rebels. We can't allow this sort of thing to discourage us. We need to truly repent from it and simply continue onward. Its Gods business when and how that thing will be removed from our lives. Even Paul had a thorn in his flesh and appealed to God concerning it. When God didn't remove that thing, Paul had discovered a newness of strength, instead of the battery of sin slingshots. This is a great example of "count it all joy" because everything now prospers in our lives. Everything. Not just the "good" stuff. God even makes our mistakes to prosper.
I can relate very strongly with verse 18. For many years I knew exactly what the Lord would have me to do, in service to Him. It is my calling. However, for all of those years, I had little or no idea how to go about doing it. In reflection, I clearly see the hand of the Lord in everything, every place in my life. He was and still is conditioning me for what is to come. He is training me to fulfill His will. He does not specifically call the people who are qualified to do the task. I have found that the Lord moves in the smallest and most unlikely ways, so that all of the glory is His, and that nobody can convince anyone else that it was by some other means. Jesus it that way... the ONLY way.
It is important to read parallel scriptures for this chapter, if you cannot fully grasp the concept. What's going on here is that Paul seen in himself the two forces by which do constant battle. The law of the flesh and the Spiritual law. The flesh is weak, but its not us that is at work in this sin. It is the flesh, the sin in us. We don't die because of it any longer, because we have God Given life. What God gives cannot be "ungiven" or taken away.
Paul referred to his mind serving the Law of God and the flesh serving the law of sin. Jesus is the way to hope in this. Jesus justified us with his sacrificial death at Calvary. Those fleshy sin patterns will fade, and we can be confident that we are improving daily because we begin our day in Face Time with God. We peal back the layers of dried and crusty sin stains and we expose our hearts to the Lord. Paul uses the word "mind" in this chapter that means "heart". He emotionally seeks after the way of God. The law of God, instead of the law of flesh. The law of flesh does not have any more negative effect on me. All praise to Jesus... the Lamb of God!
Wednesday, May 16th, 2012 - 10:30am
