Rebound revisited, part 13. 1Jo 1:9; 2Co 7:1; Rom 6:12-14; Heb 12:1-4.

Class Outline:

Title: Rebound revisited, part 13. 1JO 1:9; 2CO 7:1; ROM 6:12-14; HEB 12:1-4.     

 

I’ve chosen two passages to illustrate the principle of volition in fighting the good fight of faith, ROM 6:12-14; HEB 12:1-4.

 

ROM 6:12 Therefore do not let sin reign [present active imperative] in your mortal body that you should obey its lusts,

 

 “reign” - basileu,w[basileuo; present active imperative] = to reign as king, or to govern.

 

ROM 6:13 do not go on presenting [present active imperative] the members of your body to sin as instruments [tools of a shop or of war] of unrighteousness; but present [aorist active imperative] yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.

 

 “presenting” - pari,sthmi[paristemi] = to yield, or to present beside someone to receive orders.

Present active imperative = stop current trend of yielding free will to OSN.

Aorist active imperative = begin immediately to yield free will to God.

 

 “unrighteousness” - avdiki,a[adikia] = a - negative; dikaios = God’s righteousness or integrity, therefore opposition to God in all realms.

 

 “instruments” - o[plon[hoplon] = tools of a shop or more often the tools or weapons of war. There is a contrast of weapons here, the God’s weapons or the weapons of God’s opposition.

 

With the believer as the subject, it is the active imperatives that are commands in which the producer of the action is the believer.

 

[skip back to “presenting”] The believer in whom there is a desire to fulfill the active indicatives that God has shown him has taken a major step in becoming a weapon that is useful to the master in this conflict.

 

JOH 14:21 "He who has My commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves Me; and he who loves Me shall be loved by My Father, and I will love him, and will disclose Myself to him."

 

 “keeps” - thre,w[tereo; present active participle] = to watch over, preserve, keep, or guard. This indicates that the imperatives in the word of God are a top priority and precious to you.

 

In no way does this word at all indicate sinless perfection, but it does indicate a conscience that puts God’s commands or ordinances first in priority. To walk in darkness is to have the conscience defiled or spotted with falsehood, which will lead to making idols of something else, which turn into demons, which end up destroying the believer’s spiritual life. If he recognizes that fact and he is still alive then he can recover in grace and by such cleanse his conscience from the defilement of the flesh and a human spirit filled with falsehood.

 

JOH 15:10 "If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father's commandments, and abide in His love.

 

JOH 15:14 "You are My friends, if you do what I command you.

 

And also presented is the opposition; their weapons against God’s weapons.

 

The question begs, as a son of the King, would you rather be a weapon of God’s or a weapon of God’s opposition? [Luke Skywalker, Frodo Baggins, Indiana Jones, Rahab]

 

As we have seen, which weapon you will be depends on your volition and priority. Do you love light more than darkness, do you love the imperatives from God or do you find them burdensome or cumbersome? And if your conscience is defiled, do you desire to cleanse it by means of recovery through the power of the Spirit and the word of God based on the person and work of Jesus Christ at the cross?

 

2CO 10:4

for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses.

 

God has already crushed the opposition through a tremendous assault which was the cross of Christ. The opposition is reeling from that blow and while they are on their heels God has so blessed the regenerate CA believer, the holy temple that He Himself indwells, His children, with the surpassing power of the indwelling Trinity, the FHS and the word of God, specifically, the mystery doctrine of the CA.

 

Every believer has been given a strategic advantage; the high ground, which is union with Christ and all the benefits that come with that position.

 

The only thing that can truly defeat you is your own volitional decision to take orders from a dead and severed sin nature and to remain walking in darkness as the world system does.

 

JOH 15:18 "If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you.

 

JOH 15:19 "If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.

 

Get with the program (your own predestination) and fight in order to take hold of EL: 1TI 6:11-12

But flee from these things, you man of God; and pursue [dioko; present active imperative]

 

1TI 6:11 But flee from these things, you man of God; and pursue [dioko; present active imperative] righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance and gentleness.

 

1TI 6:12 Fight the good fight of faith; take hold of the eternal life to which you were called

 

How does one take hold of eternal life in time?

 

Pursue is the same word, dioko, used by Paul in PHI 3:12-14, translated, “I press on.”

 

Phil 3:9 and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith,

 

Phil 3:10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death;

 

Phil 3:11 in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.

 

PHI 3:12 Not that I have already obtained it, or have already become perfect, but I press on [dioko] in order that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus.

 

PHI 3:13 Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead,

 

PHI 3:14 I press on [dioko] toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

 

ROM 6:12 Therefore do not let sin reign [basileuo; present active imperative] in your mortal body that you should obey its lusts,

 

ROM 6:13 do not go on presenting [present active imperative] the members of your body to sin as instruments [tools of a shop or of war] of unrighteousness; but present [aorist active imperative] yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.

 

ROM 6:14 For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law, but under grace.

 

 “master” - kurieu,w[kurieuo; future active indicative] = to have dominion over, or to be lord of. Future tense reveal’s Paul’s confidence in them that they will submit to God’s will.

 

The future tense really does indicate in grace that no matter how much we may be struggling with the rulership of the flesh at any given time in our lives, that if we endure and don’t quit on doctrine we will in the future, and hopefully not too distant future, that the true Master over us is the King of kings and Lord of lords. However, if we refuse to recover and we do quit then the sin nature will be master over us and Paul’s optimism is for naught.

 

Two other appropriate places where this verb is used:

 

ROM 14:9

For to this end Christ died and lived again, that He might be Lord [kurieuo] both of the dead [crucified with Christ] and of the living [raised with Christ].

 

1TI 6:15

He who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords [kurieuo; participle];

 

 “under grace” - He keeps on being faithful and righteous in order to forgive you or your sins and to cleanse you from all unrighteousness.