Joshua and Judges: The doctrine of leadership part 43 - Essential qualities of leadership: The filling of the Spirit; Rom 5:12- 6:13.

Title: Joshua and Judges: The doctrine of leadership part 43 - Essential qualities of leadership: The filling of the Spirit; Rom 5:12- 6:13.

 

Announcementsopening prayer:  

 

 

Rom 6:1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace might increase?

 

Rom 6:2 May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?

 

Rom 6:3 Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?

 

Rom 6:4 Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.

 

Walking with someone freely is not being dragged by that someone. To walk with the Spirit you must desire His way and walk with Him. This is all done by faith and not works. By faith we chose His way and walk with Him and He empowers us in the works or the fruits of that journey.

 

Rom 6:5 For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection,

 

Rom 6:6 knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, that our body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin;

 

Rom 6:7 for he who has died is freed from sin.

 

Rom 6:8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him,

 

Rom 6:9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him.

 

Rom 6:10 For the death that He died, He died to sin, once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.

 

Rom 6:11 Even so [now that all has been settled] consider [count or reckon] yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

 

Now that the facts are laid out and settled, it's time for faith, deep seated faith of conviction to consider or reckon ourselves as dead to the sinful nature and alive to God in Christ Jesus.

 

2Co 5:14 For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died;

 

2Co 5:15 and He died for all, that they who live should no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf.

 

2Co 5:16 Therefore from now on we recognize no man according to the flesh; even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer.

 

As unbelievers we only knew Christ from the viewpoint of our own flesh, but now we see Him from our new nature. We are also not to look at ourselves or others from the viewpoint of the flesh.

 

2Co 5:17 Therefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.

 

2Co 5:18 Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ, and gave us the ministry of reconciliation,

 

2Co 5:19 namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.


Rom 6:11 Even so [now that all has been settled] consider [count or reckon] yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

 

This reckoning does not make the fact of death. It has been already related several times that our old selves are dead. The reckoning is commanded in view of the fact. Reckon yourself as dead to the sinful nature. Do not fall back on how you feel and make a determination or form an opinion based on personal feelings.

 

Faith now impacts the will.

 

Rom 6:12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body that you should obey its lusts [all categories],

 

A deep seated conviction in the reality of our position now leads to verse 13.

 

Rom 6:13 and do not go on presenting [put at its disposal] the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness [quenching the Spirit]; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.

 

The unyieldedness could range from outright antagonism to God's plan to apathy.

 

The second instance of paristemi is aorist tense = make a decision to put your members at the disposal of God (a definite act of yielding to God).

 

This decision comes only from understanding and conviction concerning this whole passage. Every Christian is called by God to be convinced of the truth to the point where they intelligently make a definite yielding of life to God's will and plan. In doing this the believer opens up the full potential of blessing and usefulness in fruit production. This is all by grace. Grace blesses first. You have been raised with Christ, given a new divine nature, given the word and the Spirit. All that is left for the Christian to do is to put his faith in them and so yield to the will of God. There is no work for earning or any merit in following the will of another.

 

Passages concerning the yielding of the will and life to God:

 

Rom 8:12 … 13

So then, brethren, we are under obligation, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh … but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

 

1Pe 5:6

 Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God

 

Php 2:21

For they all seek after their own interests, not those of Christ Jesus.

 

Php 4:8

Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, let your mind dwell on these things.

 

Php 4:13

I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.

 

Col 1:18 He is also head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning [arche - origin or source], the first-born from the dead [Christ is the new spiritual beginning by means of His resurrection]; so that He Himself might come to have first place [preeminence] in everything.

 

Col 1:18

And He Himself is the Head of His body, the Church, who is the originator, firstborn out from among the dead, in order that He might become in all things Himself the One who is preeminent. [Wuest]

 

Col 1:28 And we proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, that we may present every man complete in Christ.

 

Col 1:29 And for this purpose also I labor, striving according to His power, which mightily works within me.

 

The believer can never strive according to the will of God from the source of his own flesh. He must rely of the Spirit and the word of God. He makes the decision to strive ahead but not of his own power and never alone, but by faith in the Holy Spirit to do so, mixed with his own faith in the word of God.


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