Angelic Conflict part 289: Reigning in life – Rom 5:12-21; 8:1-11; 6:19-22; 1Jo 3:7; 1:8-2:1; 2Co 13:5.Title: Angelic Conflict part 289: Reigning in life – Rom 5:12-21; 8:1-11; 6:19-22; 1Jo 3:7; 1:8-2:1; 2Co 13:5.
Announcements/opening prayer:
Rom 8:7 because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so;
Rom 8:8 and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
Positional sanctification - set apart unto God in Christ forever. In Christ the Christian stands righteous and accepted before God forever.
Last night we documented this with scripture.
Experiential sanctification - set apart unto God in life’s walk through thinking separately from things proven to be unholy.
We documented this in Rom 9, 1Th 4, and Heb 12. We concluded documenting experiential or practical sanctification in 1Jo 3.
1Jo 3:1 See how great a love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called children of God; and such we are. For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.
1Jo 3:2 Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we shall be. We know that, when He appears, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him just as He is.
1Jo 3:3 And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure.
1Jo 3:4 Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness.
We are not under the Mosaic Law but we are not lawless. We are under the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.
1Jo 3:5 And you know that He appeared in order to take away sins; and in Him there is no sin.
1Jo 3:6 No one who abides in Him sins [communion with Him]; no one who sins has seen Him or knows Him.
Every believer knows Him to some extent, but to the believer who practices a life of rebellion against God [asserting our will against God's will is sin and thus rebellion] has not seen Christ or knows Him. If there is an area of my life where sin is still practiced then I haven't seen Christ or known Christ in that area. God wants all of you and in grace and mercy He is longsuffering until that time of conformity. There is no caveat in the word of God for you to keep some of the flesh for yourself. It is completely dead and God's wants you to enjoy your new life in Christ in all areas. In time God will bring all of us to the realization that Christ is not in a certain area or areas of my life.
Pro 20:26 The spirit of man is the lamp of the Lord, Searching all the innermost parts of his being.
1Jo 3:7 Little children, let no one deceive you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous;
1Jo 3:8 the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared for this purpose, that He might destroy the works of the devil.
1Jo 3:9 No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.
This is the new creature in Christ which is created at salvation through the baptism of the Holy Spirit and the giving of the new divine spirit from Christ to every believer. Since its source is heaven it cannot sin.
1Co 15:39 The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.
This verse had led many a fine theologian or commentator to conclude that believers cannot have a lifestyle of sin, but that is not the conclusion of the rest of scripture. It is clear that believers can fall into a lifestyle of sin when their minds are set on the flesh.
Rom 7:19-21 For the good that I wish, I do not do; but I practice the very evil that I do not wish. But if I am doing the very thing I do not wish, I am no longer the one doing it [new creature], but sin [OSN, flesh] which dwells in me. I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wishes to do good.
As Paul sees himself so should we. We should see ourselves as brand new creatures in Christ as those born of God. The new creature cannot sin because it is born of heaven. But the flesh is in me. The flesh tempts me to sin, but temptation is not sin. It is only when the volition, the choice that we make, that turns temptation into sin. So there is a dual nature in the believer, but one is alive and the other dead, so it is not pure dualism. I am no longer the one doing it, the new creature, but the sin nature within tempts me and when I give in and sin I find that I do the things that I, the new creature, do not wish to do. So then I find the very sobering principle, that evil is present within me and I must, through the power of the word of God and the HS, buffet that flesh and make it my slave. I must not present myself to it for orders, for that is foolish because it no longer rules over me, me who is in union with Christ, a brand new creature in Christ, a child of God, and a child of light. I must recover in grace through acknowledgment of that sin and turn back to the things of the Spirit and walk in that light. In this I, with my volition, and the partnership of Christ within, who I am in, and the partnership of the guidance, power, and wisdom of the Holy Spirit within, whom I am also in, and my inculcation of the word of God, will soon reign in this life through Him and will therefore bring maximum glory to Him.
1Jo 3:9 No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.
The flesh is not born of God, only the new creature is. So in your dual nature, you have a nature that cannot submit itself to God and a nature that will do nothing but submit itself to God.
1Jo 3:10 By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God [ek plus the genitive - out from God], nor the one who does not love his brother [believer].
Concerning a believer the nuance here would be that the one who does not practice righteousness is not sent from God. He is in God and of God but not sent from God as his mind is set on the flesh and not the Spirit.
Gal 1:1 Paul, an apostle (not sent from men, nor through the agency of man, but through Jesus Christ, and God the Father, who raised Him from the dead),
1Jo 3:11 For this is the message which you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another;
1Jo 3:12 not as Cain, who was of the evil one, and slew his brother. And for what reason did he slay him? Because his deeds were evil, and his brother's were righteous.
As Esau was mentioned in Heb 12 in conjunction with practical sanctification in 1Jo we have another brother who was also jealous of his brother's prosperity through his acceptance of God's will, but would not forsake his evil. God even spoke to Cain but he was completely apathetic towards the instruction of God and reacted with anger towards God and vented that anger on his brother.
Gen 4:4-7 And the Lord had regard for Abel and for his offering; but for Cain and for his offering He had no regard. So Cain became very angry and his countenance fell. Then the Lord said to Cain, "Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen? "If you do well, will not your countenance be lifted up? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door; and its desire is for you, but you must master it."
Sanctification cannot be pinned down to any one's personal experience. It cannot be experienced as a matter of feeling or emotion any more than the filling of the Spirit can be. An analysis of any one personal experience in the complexity of daily life must not be substituted for the word of God. The word of God interprets our experiences and not the other way around. Much error has occurred when people attempt to interpret the Bible from their own experience. The carnal believer ignores or waters down certain passages. The believer with some success in one area overemphasizes that area of doctrine to the exclusion of other areas all of which are the result of arrogance and the arrogant skill of self-justification. It is better to learn all passages and conclude that there are some that you do not do than to ignore passages and be a fool who thinks he stands when he falls. [spectrum of antinomianism (Rom 6:1) to legalism (Rom 8:1) - our balance is in grace and not at these extreme ends]
Antinomianism - the theory that man can do whatever he wants as long as he believes the right things.
Antinomianism is a hangover from gnosticism and many have interpreted the passages of the Bible with this theory as law in their hearts. Antinomianism is a practical lawlessness. It is when what you believe does not at all line up with what you do. It is a form of arrogant self-justification.
Legalism - the theory that the spiritual life is overt only and that God can be merited by overt behavior. It ignores the transformation within through the grace and mercy from the love of God.
Both of these are hangovers from gnosticism which had two main camps of licentiousness and asceticism.
Sanctification is not unique to any one experience. Every experience that is unto God and so an exercise of sanctification will always be in accord with the Scriptures.
The nonsense that sanctification is tied to one person's experience led to the false doctrine of second blessing or an second, advanced ministry of the HS in what was called anointing. None of this has any base in the scripture and so the doctrine and the experience are false.
That said, a person may nevertheless be at peace and full of joy because of his faith in these things, but that is always a result of appreciation and a normal response to such beautiful things.
[the romantic and the realist and the ability through Christ to unite them both. Mankind finds the abyss in both, it cannot be escaped]
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