Romans Six: Pickled Into a Corpse

Rom 6:3 Or are you ignorant that whoever are baptized into Christ Jesus, are baptized into His death?

Rom 6:4 We, then, were entombed together with Him through baptism into death, that, even as Christ was roused from among the dead through the glory of the Father, thus we also should be walking in newness of life."

Rom 6:5 For if we have become planted together in the likeness of His death, nevertheless we shall be of the resurrection also,

There are a few things which clearly makes the Christian faith distinct from every other religion in the world.

Who is a Christian? I tremble when I hear people claim to be Christians, even “by choice”, as they say, and yet live with no Christ resemblance in their lives. If you are a Christian, you become transformed, better said, metamorphosized, to be “Christ like.”  There is continual process of repentance and transformation.  The fruit that you bear, the deeds that you produce, are the same ones which Christ produces. Of course, it’s a progression.

I shudder at those who call themselves Christians and still support wholesale abortion. Christ, who is the author of life, is in dichotomy with death. There is something tragically wrong with this type of so called Christianity.

Accepting Christ is not a state of mind. Believing is not a mental ascent. You don’t say I believe in Christ, and then have little or nothing to do with Him. That is just hypocrisy.  Christ is not about merely going to church on Sunday, and calling yourself a Christian, because you do so.

To accept Christ is a point of surrender and encounter. There is an acknowledgment that you need God in your life, or that you do want to live the way that you were living.  You invite Jesus into your life, to take over and to guide you. This is called surrender. He will come into your being, your heart, via the Holy Spirit, and will live inside of you forever more.

Rom 6:3 Or are you ignorant that whoever are baptized into Christ Jesus, are baptized into His death?

 John 3:5  Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.

The process of inviting Jesus to come into our lives is called becoming “born again.’ I think that that a lot more precise though, is to use the word baptism.

Rom 6:3 Or are you ignorant that whoever are baptized into Christ Jesus, are baptized into His death?

Biblical baptism is much different to our Western act of dunking someone or sprinkling him with water.  The process of turning a cucumber into a pickle was called baptism. A cucumber was “baptized” INTO a vinegar solution. The vinegar then worked back THROUGH the cucumber to pickle it or change it into a pickle. The cucumber was transformed into something that it was not. This is the meaning of what it means to be a Christian.

When an person receives Jesus Christ, he becomes baptized into Christ. The incoming Holy Spirit plunges the person INTO everything that Christ is and all that He went through. When Christ died, you died, when He resurrected you resurrected, by virtue that you are submerged or baptized INTO Him.  Because you are immersed INTO Him, Christ then works back THROUGH you, for you to experience all that He experienced. To be a Christian is to be “pickled” INTO Christ and to experience the transformation to “Christ likeness” by being pickled.

Rom 6:3 Or are you ignorant that whoever are baptized into Christ Jesus, are baptized into His death?

Rom 6:4 We, then, were entombed together with Him through baptism into death, that, even as Christ was roused from among the dead through the glory of the Father, thus we also should be walking in newness of life."

The beauty of being pickled into Christ’s death is that you became a corpse just like He did, before He was resurrected by the glory of the Father. Now likewise you have been pickled into His resurrection.

Let’s think about a corpse. Physically, a corpse is the most liberated of all human beings. He has no sin. He does not curse, he is not hooked on drugs, nor is he embittered with anger. A corpse has no disease.

Soulishly and spiritually, a corpse has no vestige of life in him. Every last ounce of life left him, at the moment that he expired. You, dear Christian, have been baptized or submerged INTO the corpse of Christ, as well as the whole death process that brought him to the point of decease.

You became freed from sin, because you are a corpse. Because you have been baptized INTO Christ, Christ pickles you by working back THROUGH you, gradually revealing the process of death and by it, the total freedom which a corpse enjoys.

Rom 6:5 For if we have become planted together in the likeness of His death, nevertheless we shall be of the resurrection also,

Being a corpse is not the final stage for a believer. For those who experience the death of Christ they will also experience His powerful resurrection life. They have being pickled into His resurrection.

 Let’s get back to our model corpse and all the wonderful thing which Jesus Christ did for us by dying and becoming this cadaver.  As I said, when a corpse dies, every vestige of life leaves his body. Your old life; your life of brokenness, rejection, disease, and pain, every hurt, and every aching memory is no more. It has left your body!

Rom 6:4 We, then, were entombed together with Him through baptism into death, that, even as Christ was roused from among the dead through the glory of the Father, thus we also should be walking in newness of life."

Then we were entombed or co buried with Christ. We were baptized and pickled into His burial. What is so important about that? When our corpse is buried he is no longer seen or remembered and simply rots away.

By being pickled into Christ’s death and burial we have lost both our sin filled broken life as well as our broken identity. In reality we are now something that we were never before.

 This old life left our body, and the eternal life of Christ Himself entered our body.

Do you understand, dear brethren, that there is nothing in you of what you used to be?  When a cadaver gets taken to morgue, he has his blood drained out and gets filled with formaldehyde.  This is what happened to you. Your life and blood and everything that embodied who you were, is GONE GONE GONE!

You are now filled with the formaldehyde of a powerful eternal, incorruptible and glorious resurrection life. We have a life that we never had. We have an identity that we never were. Truly we have become a new creation in Christ. This is called metamorphosis, which is the crux of the Christian faith. What other so called faith or religion can claim this?

Thank God for our being baptized INTO Christ in all things, so that He now works back THROUGH us and pickles us INTO all things which He is.

Romans Seven: Part Three; The Law of Sin and Death

   

Rom 7:13  Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful.

Paul argues that the law of Moses is not evil but good. It can be said that the Jews attempts to obey God’s more than 600 laws made them into worse sinners than what they had started as.   

God gave the law to Moses, so that sin would exhaustively complete the process of the death in the human, and end up becoming what it truly is, hyper sinfulness. The purpose of the good law of Moses is to point out the things which are sinful in humanity, that without the law, people would remain unaware and thus innocent from them, not knowing that they had these sin problems.

14  For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.

The law of Moses, truly is spiritual and must be obeyed by the voice of the Holy Spirit.

15  For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.

In verse 15, Paul commences his vast discussion on the law of sin and death which he concludes in the first verses of Romans eight. 

After acknowledging that the law of Moses is spiritual and must be obeyed by the spirit, Paul confesses that he is naturally fleshly, being sold under sin.

As we discussed yesterday, it is a fact that the believer now dwells in the Spirit of God, by virtue of his new birth in Christ.

However, depending on how he chooses to obey the Lord, he can fluctuate from walking in the Spirit to walking according to the flesh. The believer is now IN the Spirit, but can walk ACCORDING TO the flesh. 

Gal 5:25  If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk ( stoicheo) in the Spirit.

Stoicheo – following the military march of a soldier.

The spiritual man is the believer who directs his Christian life by the voice of the Holy Spirit.  To walk in the Spirit, according to Paul, is a military march which the believer develops to keep in step with the Holy Spirit’s voice.

The believer who conducts his life by his own emotions or mental strategies, disconnected from the military march of the Holy Spirit’s voice, is called a “natural Christian”. This is also called walking according to the flesh, contrary to walking by the Spirit.

 1 Cor 2:14  But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

The Greek word for natural is “psuchicos, or psychological”. Paul defines the natural believer as one who lives in his soul realm, the realm of the psychological, or the realm of the mind alienated from the still small voice of God’s spirit.

There is nothing wrong with our mind. God gave it to us and it is of supreme importance. As a matter of fact, the Christian has the mind of Christ which must be progressively revealed through his faith.

Our mind must be renewed until it becomes submitted to the voice of the Holy Spirit.

The difficulty with “religion’ is that it keeps the mind at bay or detached from the voice of the Holy Spirit. The mind becomes the means to the end. Our religious strategies and church programs are birthed without the wisdom of the Holy Spirit. We will see the grave danger of this.

Heb 8:5  Who serve unto the example and shadow of heavenly things, as Moses was admonished of God when he was about to make the tabernacle: for, See, saith he, that thou make all things according to the pattern ( blueprint) shewed to thee in the mount.

God, is a God of blueprints or schematics. The revealed schematics of God are called wisdom. The success and anointing which God grants is commensurate to how close or far we accomplish our religious programs in tandem with his spiritual blueprints in wisdom.

1 Cor 2:7  But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory:

10  But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.

These blueprints which dwell in mysteries in us are solely revealed by His Spirit.  The more the revelation of these blueprints, and the more that we march in tandem to the instructions of God found in these blueprints; the greater will be our success in the Lord.

Now, let’s go back to Romans 7.

Rom 7: 15  For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.

Verse 15 is a truly mysterious verse. In it, Paul, the mighty man of God talks about his personal struggle. Let’s read it out of the Greek.

“ I am thoroughly working out, what I have no knowledge of.  What I do not want to do, this is what is what is being worked out of my life as bad habits. What I hate, this is what I am doing.”

This now is our first glimpse into the law of sin and death also found in Romans 8:2

Rom 8:2  For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.

If you read re read my blog on Romans 6: “ What Kind of Engine do you Have?”,  it is quite clear that the old man, the sinful nature, the engine which incessantly produced sin in us, was destroyed at the moment of our being born again with Jesus Christ.

Rom 7: 17  Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.

How can Paul then who wrote Romans six, describing the destruction of the sinful nature, now talks about sin housing or dwelling in him, in Romans seven? Pretty confusing, at least at first sight!

We will learn that Romans six talks about an entity, the sinful nature. Romans seven however talks about a law, that of sin and death.

In verse 18-21 Paul describes this law.  This law is inherent in the bodily members of every human being alive on planet earth. Because we live in a fallen world gripped in the sway of the devil, sin is hugely alive and kicking and every one can be trapped to the law of sin in the world.

Paul says that in his flesh, dwells nothing good. As a matter of fact, his flesh is totally subjected to the law of sin and death. So though the Christian lives now IN the Spirit, he can walk ACCORDING TO the flesh, just as if he were still IN the flesh.

18  For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.

19  For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.

20  Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.

21  I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.

Ge 4:7  If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.

In Genesis 4, God tells Cain that sin is very much prowling in the murkiness of darkness waiting to jump on him or upon anyone who disobeys God. This is the law of sin and death in action.

This is also what it means that sin is alive to every human being.

For the sinner captured in the throes of the sinful nature, and living in a world where sin is alive to him, he has no choice but to sin. He is toast! Not only is sin alive to him, but he is also alive to sin.

The believer on the other hand is dead to sin, by virtue of having the sinful nature eradicated. Sin, however is still very much alive to him.

Romans 8;2  For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.

Here is the trick! As long as the believer conducts his life in a military march to the Holy Spirit, he remains dead to sin. The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus keeps him detached or free from the law of sin and death which is in his members.

The reason why there is this law of sin and death simply is because sin remains alive and well in this world until Jesus comes back. Every human being has the ability to fall prey to its clutch by disobeying God. The unbeliever has no choice. He is already stuck dead and trapped in his sins.

2Co 3:6  Who also hath made us able ministers of the new testament; not of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.

If the believer steps out the realm of the Spirit and seeks to please God by his flesh he will fall back prey to law of sin and death in his bodily members. Aha, thus here is the definition of organized religion which seeks to please God and legislate morality by the letter of the law and not by the Holy Spirit.  It’s pretty devastating.

Rom 7: 22  For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:

In verse 22 we can notice another law, called the “law of God” which works in conjunction with the new man, Christ Jesus, in us.

We will discuss the “law of God” which is also the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus in the days to come.

The “law of God” works in conjunction with our renewed and submitted mind in tandem with the Holy Spirit, while the law of sin and death works in conjunction with the flesh.

  

Rom 7: 21  I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.

22  For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:

23  But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.

In verses 21-23 we now see these two opposing laws as well as in Romans 8:2

Romans 8;2  For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.

Once again to conclude for today’s blog; as long as the believer marches by the voice of the Holy Spirit, he keeps the law of sin and death which dwells in his bodily members, dormant, inactive, and asleep.  The law of God in the inner man is stronger than the law of sin and death. If the believer goes back to becoming a psychological or a natural Christian, he awakens to life the law of sin and death. He now walks according to the flesh and the law of sin and death dormant in his members awakens, captures him and he falls.

Romans Seven; Part Two: The Danger of Organized Religion

There is a grave danger in organized religion which promotes obedience and allegiance to Jesus Christ through the legislation of morality, the performance of good deeds, without stressing this obedience in utter dependency to the voice of the Holy Spirit.

There is an equally great danger in building churches or promoting Christian programs  outside the direct leading of the voice of the Holy Spirit.

As Christians, if we seek to build our churches by self-reliance in our mental strategies, or create religious programs without the wisdom which God’s voice affords, we have fallen back in to the law.

As Christians if we expect sinners to repent by legislating morality upon them, we are promoting the law. There is nothing wrong in instructing the sinner in the way that she should go. I do that all of the time. However, we cannot expect the sinner to change until he has  a “ born again of the spirit” encounter with the Lord Jesus.

Let us remember the two basic premises of Part One of our Romans seven teaching.

The law, as Paul described it in Romans seven, is the all-inclusive set of principles given to humanity by God,  to show it its “hyper sinfulness.”

Without a law to point out a wrong doing,  a person remains innocent of it.

Whenever a person chooses to obey God  by the flesh, also called human effort, self-reliance, or “independent of God” mental strategies, he energize or activates sin which is pointed out as sinful, by the law.

Only when a person obeys God by the voice of the Holy Spirit is sin NOT activated.

We will discuss this in the days to come.

Galatians 5:16  This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh.

The danger of organized religion is that it stimulates its parishioners or clergy into religious  works, or promoting a life moral conscience, without teaching them  utter dependency upon the strategies or grace brought by the Holy Spirit. This approach forces the person to work in the flesh in order to obey God’s laws  and energizes the passions of sin which are by the law. I think that one reason why we see such a flagrant abuse of pornography and pedophilia  amongst Roman Catholic priests, is this very tenant.  God has called very few people to a life of singlehood. To force a human being to remain unmarried in the name of being pleasing to God, without His calling, causes that person to  fall back into the law and promotes hyper sinfulness.

To  force Christian legislation upon human beings who have not had an encounter with Jesus Christ will shove the law upon them and surely bring out more hyper sinfulness.

For pastors or priests to build churches or ministries without dependency upon the wisdom or heavenly blueprints which the voice of the Holy Spirit brings, is a enormous catalyst for the activation of sin which comes through the law. I would rather not even build a church!  To birth something dysfunctional which will beget even more dysfunctionality , is nothing to feel proud of. This is the very thing which causes many to be turned off to God, church, or Christians. 

I believe that a church, ministry or any religious organization  that does not rely on Holy Spirit or the manifestation of spiritual gifts, is one of the greatest sin manufacturing entities on the globe. It squarely connects with attempting to please God, by the law, in the flesh,  thus galvanizing  the passions of sins.  For those who have this mind set, I would encourage you not to start a church or ministry lest you beget a legalistic sin laden flock that will turn off many.

We will continue tomorrow.

Romans Seven; Part One: What is The Law?

   

Rom 7:1¶  Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth?

2  For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband.

3  So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.

4  Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.

The basic premise of Romans 7:1-4 is that while a law of any type is in force, individuals within its influence are subjected to it.

A motorist driving through different parts of Miami Dade County, is subjected to different “laws of speed limits” while driving through the county.

Secondly, a law works on the principle that specific circumstances engender specific results. The law of gravity articulates that any time that we drop an apple from a certain height, it will always result in its falling to the ground.

Romans 3; 27  Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith.

Faith is a law.

As a law, faith allows us to receive certain things which can be brought by faith. If we have a negative faith and expect the worse, unfortunately some of the very things that we believe for, we will receive on the premise that faith is a law.

For the law of faith to truly work it must be faith that is centered upon the voice of the Holy Spirit, or the rhema word of God.

Rom 10:17  So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the ( RHEMA) word of God.

Paul goes on to say in Romans 7 that as long as a woman is married to a specific man she is subjected to the “law of marriage to that particular spouse”. The “law of marriage to that particular spouse” came into force, when the couple took their wedding vows. These vows bind the couple to the “law of marriage to that particular spouse” as long as both of them are living.

2  For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband.

If one of them dies, the remaining spouse becomes free from the “law of marriage to that particular spouse”, and is released to be married to another.

3  So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.

If infidelity occurs while both spouses are alive, the person performing it is called an adulterer. However, if one of them had died, the indictment of adultery is not valid.

4  Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.

Verse 4 tells us that by the death of the body of Christ on the cross we experienced a death to the law.

At the moment that we invite Christ into our lives, we automatically are placed “In or Inside of Christ”, and experience all things that He went through. When He died, we died, when He was raised up, we were raised up by virtue that we are INSIDE of Him.  It is like being placed inside of a page of a book which is then closed. From now on, what transpires for the book occurs to you by virtue of being placed inside the book.

Therefore, when Christ died on the cross, by virtue of our being INSIDE of Christ, we died with Him.

A dead person, a corpse, becomes free from sin, sickness, and from being subject to any law.  When do we see a corpse cursing or taking drugs? When do we see a corpse with cancer? Everything dies. Apart from going in to the futuristic heavenly realm, there is no one human being freer than a corpse. This is why our death with Christ is so important. It has freed us from all things that do not pertain to God.

Romans 6:7  For he that is dead is freed from sin.

  

Because we died IN Christ we became free from being subject to any earthly law, on the premise that a corpse cannot be subordinated to any  law.

 What law are we free from?

Romans 7:5  For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death.

Paul begins his great work of explaining “the law of sin and death” which he culminates in Romans 8:2. It will take a few days of blogging to get through this vital and great discussion.

Roma 8: 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.

Paul says that when we were in the flesh the strong passions of sins which are produced by the law bring forth fruit unto death. Another interesting interpretation can be that when we were in the flesh, the SUFFERRINGS brought on by sins as they are activated by the law, bring forth fruit unto death. This clearly depicts the nature of sin.

What is the flesh that Paul talks about? For the unbeliever, he is always in the flesh, he has no other choice but to be in it, and to sin.  For the believer however, she has two options. She can conduct her life in the Spirit or in the flesh.

 To live in the flesh, is an to attempt by the Christian to serve God through human strength, or by mentally birthed agendas. On the other hand, to live Christianity by the Spirit, is serving God by the still small voice of the Holy Spirit.

   At any point that a Christian chooses to obey God outside of the voice of the Holy Spirit he goes back to the flesh.

5  For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death.

The law that Paul discusses in Romans 7 is the comprehensive law, composed of over itemized 600 laws which God gave to Israel through the mouth of Moses. 

The purpose of this law was to show humanity its sinfulness.  If God had not given the law, people would have had no idea that they had a sin problem. If one drive through a foreign state and no speed limit signs are visible, you have no idea what speed to drive in.  If a cop stopped you because you were driving too fast, you could successfully argue your innocence because the state had not made itself responsible to post the speed limit signs. Without the knowledge of a law you are innocent of breaking the law, and innocent of sin. Without a law, you are not guilty of a particular sin, by its breaking it.

5  For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death.

Therefore the activation of sin can only come when there is some law to point it out if we indeed violate it.  This is the premise of verse 5.

7 What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.

   If God had not conveyed to the Jews that it was wrong to covet a neighbor’s property or wife, through a law, they would have been innocent of all coveting. 

8  But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead.

 Without the law, sin is dead. In other words, without a law to point out to certain transgression, that transgression, is indeed not a transgression, because there is no law to point it out. The person can commit that particular transgression for the rest of his life, and if there is no law to point it out, the person will always abide in innocence.  Therefore, without the law sin is dead; it is not sin.

1 Corinthians 15:56  The sting of death is sin; and the strength  of sin is the law.

The dunamis power or the full ability of sin, to be sin, comes by the law which points it out and makes it sinful.

God had to bring the law into activity to convict humanity that indeed it is an exceedingly sinful lot. God knew that it was impossible for humanity to obey the 600 laws. The purpose of the 600 laws was to show humankind how exceedingly sinful we are and point His finger towards the future coming of Jesus Christ, through whom deliverance of all sin would come.

11  For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me.

The next time you drive through that same state, and they have posted a speed limit sign, and you break the speed limit, now you are in trouble.  Verse 11 tells us that the particular law or commandment will definitely get me into trouble, whereas before, I was free to speed without that particular law.

13  Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding ( hyper or transcendentally sinful.)

Once again, the purpose of the law is to show us our exceeding, or better said, our “hyper” sinfulness.

5  For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death.

Notice carefully what Paul tells us in verse 5.  Only when we walk ACCORDING THE FLESH, the passions of sin, which are produced by the law that points them out, are activated. That is so vital.

Conversely, if we are IN THE SPIRIT the motions of sin which are pointed to us as sin, by the law, ARE NOT ACTIVATED!!!  Wow! We will understand this reality in the days to come.

What if we are in the Spirit then, instead of being in the flesh? What happens then?

This is the beauty of what Jesus did. By his death on the cross we were loosed from having to obey God in the flesh. This is what liberty from the law means.

Once again, for the Christian, he is no longer forced to follow God by the flesh. Following God by the flesh will activate the motions of sin, but following God by the Spirit will not activate the motions of sin.

Remember that I told you that to walk according to the flesh, for the Christian, it to attempt to obey God outside of the voice of the Holy Spirit.

4  Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.

By Christ’s death and resurrection we can now learn to obey God by the still small voice of the Spirit. Our old husband, the one who forced us to obey God in the flesh is now dead. We are free from the law of this husband. We are now married to a new husband. This husband, the resurrected Jesus, has liberated us, through His dead body so that we now obey God by the voice of the Holy Spirit and become free from the strong motions of sin. As I told earlier, a dead body, a corpse, is free from all law.  We became a corpse, by virtue of being INSIDE of Jesus, and are now free from having to obey God by the flesh.  Because we are no longer in the flesh and are not obligated to live in the flesh, the sufferings of passions of sins pointed out by the law, only when we try to obey God in the flesh, remain inactive or dormant in us.

We will continue more tomorrow.