Angelic Conflict part 290: Reigning in life – Rom 5:12-21; 8:1-11; 6:19-22; 7:1-6; 1Jo 3:7; 1:8-2:1; 2Co 13:5.
length: 81:47 - taught on Apr, 6 2014
Class Outline:
Title: Angelic Conflict part 290: Reigning in life - ROM 5:12-21; 8:1-11; 6:19-22; 7:1-6; 1JO 3:7; 1:8-2:1; 2CO 13:5.
Positional sanctification - set apart unto God in Christ forever. In Christ the Christian stands righteous and accepted before God forever.
Experiential sanctification - set apart unto God in life’s walk through thinking separately from things proven to be unholy.
One of the steps in living sanctified (in the true Biblical sense) is to recognize that the flesh can do nothing to please God.
In addition to this understanding there are a few other things that practical sanctification depends upon. In these the Spirit and the word empower, lead, and teach the believer, but the believer must make the decision to set his mind on these things.
This living sanctification, experiential sanctification or practical sanctification depends on some degree to yieldedness to God or self-dedication to God, on some degree to separation from the sin nature and the world, and on some degree to the believer's growth in wisdom and power. We'll look at each in turn.
Yieldedness to God is a whole self-dedication as one's reasonable service:
I urge you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship.
This is the believer's choice. The believer chooses the mind and will of God as the rule for his life, and in that there is a closeness to finality (odd phrase I admit) and completeness in this decision. I say close, because no one can say with 100% certainty that his life is dedicated to God since any of us an fall away, but for some believers, this yieldedness is a foregone conclusion, as far as that can be reasonably known.
ROM 6:19 For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification.
ROM 6:20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.
ROM 6:21 Therefore what benefit were you then deriving from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the outcome of those things is death.
Paul is asking us to take an honest inventory and consider what benefit there has ever been from the rulership of the flesh.
ROM 6:22 But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life.
Separation from sin is resistance of temptation through the power of the HS and word of God and grace recovery after recognized failure.
The Bible takes full account of the many sins of Christians and states without question that all believers are eternally saved have been forgiven of all sin and freed from its reign.
Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.
Temptation to sin and get our eyes on the flesh comes in many forms, all of which are common to all believers, and God has made provision for every temptation through His Spirit and His word.
No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, that you may be able to endure it.
Complete forgiveness of sin is never written down to encourage any believer to sin, but to lose his fear of it.
My little children, I am writing these things to you that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous;
There is nothing wrong with identifying our weaknesses, which become very apparent in our Rom 7 struggles, and in seeing them we can apply the proper doctrine to them. We are told to examine ourselves to see if we are in the truth. This is not a morbid introspection but rather a periodic examination of thought. It is up to the believer priest to determine when this is necessary and with his mind set on the things of the Spirit, he will know the proper time to take an examination of himself.
Paul was accused of being weak because of his leadership style. He was gentle and not loud. The Corinthians were into what the world would call a preacher and didn't care for the content of the message, so in his second letter to them Paul explains the fruit of his ministry that they can participate in if they will get their eyes off their flesh and onto the things of the Spirit. In this he told them to examine themselves in order to see if they are in the faith, the truth or the doctrine, or not. In closing the letter Paul affirms his authority which was given by God and exercised through the word of God.
2CO 13:1 This is the third time I am coming to you. Every fact is to be confirmed by the testimony of two or three witnesses.
2CO 13:2 I have previously said when present the second time, and though now absent I say in advance to those who have sinned in the past and to all the rest as well, that if I come again, I will not spare anyone,
2CO 13:3 since you are seeking for proof of the Christ who speaks in me, and who is not weak toward you, but mighty in you.
2CO 13:4 For indeed He was crucified because of weakness, yet He lives because of the power of God. For we also are weak in Him, yet we shall live with Him because of the power of God directed toward you.
2CO 13:5 Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you — unless indeed you fail the test?
2CO 13:6 But I trust that you will realize that we ourselves do not fail the test.
2CO 13:7 Now we pray to God that you do no wrong; not that we ourselves may appear approved, but that you may do what is right, even though we should appear unapproved.
2CO 13:8 For we can do nothing against the truth, but only for the truth.
2CO 13:9 For we rejoice when we ourselves are weak but you are strong; this we also pray for, that you be made complete.
2CO 13:10 For this reason I am writing these things while absent, in order that when present I may not use severity, in accordance with the authority which the Lord gave me, for building up and not for tearing down.
2CO 13:11 Finally, brethren, rejoice, be made complete, be comforted, be like-minded, live in peace; and the God of love and peace shall be with you.
2CO 13:12 Greet one another with a holy kiss.
2CO 13:13 All the saints greet you.
2CO 13:14 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all.
What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace might increase? May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?
Our flesh has died with the Savior and the HS is given to indwell us so that He may war with the flesh and so the believer does not need to sin, though he does sin, but is encouraged to set himself apart from the rulership of the sin nature.
The believer is told to never say that he doesn't have a sin nature.
1JO 1:8 If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
A believer is told never to say that he no longer sins.
1JO 1:10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.
The believer is told to acknowledge known sins immediately so as to walk in forgiveness and get his mind off the flesh and on to the things of the Spirit.
1JO 1:9 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
The application of the last part is the believer's confidence in the finished work of Christ. You are already forgiven, clean, and righteous in Christ and so walk in that without guilt or condemnation.
Just like experiential righteousness doesn't make you any more righteous, acknowledgment of sin doesn't make you any more forgiven or cleansed. Just like we are to walk in the righteousness that we are we are to walk in the forgiveness that we have.
Acknowledgment of sin is the first step in turning the mind from the things of the flesh to the things of the Spirit; from walking according to the flesh to walking according to the Spirit; from walking death to walking life. That's all it is. To make a course correction I must first recognize that I'm on the wrong course. When I can recover from my revolt against God without guilt or condemnation I am walking in the forgiveness that I have already received.
In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace
For He delivered us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
And when you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us and which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.
The Christian who has recognized his own guilt and claimed the cleansing of the precious blood of Christ will be less prone to return to the paths of sin.
The act of acknowledgment of known sin in effect is an act of dependence upon God, a recognition of human weakness and of the need of divine power, which power was accomplished in Christ upon the cross.
With a mind set on the things of the Spirit we experience the fruit of fellowship with God and walk in the light as He is in the light.
1JO 1:5 And this is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.
1JO 1:6 If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth;
1JO 1:7 but if we walk in the light as He Himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin [walking in forgiveness, no fear of sin or the sin nature].
according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, by the sanctifying work of the Spirit, that you may obey Jesus Christ and be sprinkled with His blood: May grace and peace be yours in fullest measure.
Therefore, all of us have been given the ability to not sin through the ministry of the Holy Spirit and the word of God, but the old sin nature has an incurable disposition to sin, and remains in the believer so long as he is present in his physical body. The believer priest must press on with vigor towards the upward goal of the calling from Christ and reach forward to the things that are ahead and forget the things that are behind and not get caught up in any penance or worries or guilt or condemnation, but to take each day as it comes and take in doctrine at the appropriate time so that he may be transformed in his mind into harmony with who he is in Christ and his time spent under the mastery of the old sin nature will diminish and he will walk in a manner worthy of his calling more often. His experience of victory over the various categories of life will bring tremendous momentum to his spiritual life as well as life and peace to himself.
Christian growth through inculcation of doctrine makes a personality that is in harmony with the holiness of the new creature.
All of this is under grace. All things needed are freely given and there is absolutely no fear of the future and certain failures.
A Christian is blameless before God but he is certainly not faultless.
A believer can only live today in the full measure of his present understanding, but he must understand that he cannot live in the added light and experience that will be his in the future from spiritual growth.
The immature believer can walk in whatever light he understands and he would be abiding in the Vine. He must understand that he is complete in Christ positionally though not now complete in maturity. This will assuage the guilt that could accompany his many failures through ignorance. You are ignorant until cognizant and cognizance takes time, so relax and enjoy the ride.
Christian growth and experiential sanctification are not the same since one is the cause and the other the effect, yet they are united as the experience cannot exist without the reality of position. The believer will be more set apart in his walk as he grows in grace and knowledge by means of the Spirit.
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