Pauline Doctrine of Sanctification by Faith

[Wade8888]

This is not really the correct sub-forum, but I'm not sure what is considered the correct or best match.

 

In this thread I will be giving exegesis of Chapters 6, 7, and 8 of the Epistle to the Romans, discussing victory over the Sin, The Flesh, and the Devil.

 

Since I am about to go to work today, I don't actually have time to make a real post today. Starting tomorrow, I will post scripture one-by-one, and then give teaching and interpretation of that scripture. This will become a big thread by the time I expand the meaning of each scripture and cross-reference with other books of the Bible.

 

Edit:

I'll also be making some supplemental videos, w hich I see from site rules need to be 20 minutes or less. These videos will be posted in the videos section, and then linked to from here.

Edited December 31, 2018 by Wade8888

[Wade8888]

So the first thing I'm going to do, before I start the teaching on Romans, I'm going to briefly explain the anointing of teaching, according to scriptures.

I cannot teach anyone anything about God in my own self. Only through the Anointing of the Holy Spirit can we teach or learn anything about God.

That being said, a seasoned believer should not need another man to teach them anything, because (1 John 2: 20-27, Jn. 14:26, 16:13) says the Anointing of the Holy Spirit teaches you all things. New converts need to be taught, because they don't yet have a right relationship with God, but seasoned believers are supposed to be in right relationship with God, and as such should not need to be taught.

So a seasoned believer is taught by the Holy Spirit, but a new convert, a newly born again person, is greatly helped by a pastor/teacher.

 

Romans Chapter 6.

Starting at the end of Chapter 5. "Moreover the law entered that the offence might abound, but where sin abounded grace did much more abound. That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our lord. What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid How shall we who are dead to sin live any longer therein..."

Grace is not a license to sin. This should be obvious to anyone who has ever read the Bible through one time, but for some reason there is this entire branch of Christianity in both the Catholic world and the protestant world, which seems to believe they can call themselves a christian and still live any sinful lifestyle they choose. This is not the case. In 1 John 2:4, we have "He that saith I know Him, and keepeth not his commandments is a liar and the truth is not in him." Se also 1 John 3: 4-9.

Now believe it or not there is an entire movement in Christianity which teaches "license to sin" by virtual of the fact they don't teach against sin. This is called the "Seeker Sensitive" movement, and they mostly entertain goats rather than ministering to the sheep. 

I know of a certain woman who was a lesbian, and she was addicted to homosexuality, and she was depressed and had a gun to her head, ready to commit suicide, but the Spirit of God spoke to her and said, "If you'll put the gun down, I'll deliver you from homosexuality." So she put the gun down and got saved and filled with the Holy Spirit right away. Now she is married to a man and they have a small ministry together. Even before she got saved, she knew homosexuality was wrong, but she couldn't change herself, but God delivered her from it instantly, with only minor temptations afterwards. This shows that Grace is not a license to sin. Grace is what caught her in time to prevent her from harming herself, and Grace is what saved her when she responded to the call. True Grace still points out and rebukes your sin. Grace saves you from your sin. 

"Know you not that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? (At the Cross)"

This is not talking about Water Baptism, but rather what water baptism symbolizes. When Jesus died on the Cross, and you put your FAITH in the death and resurrection of Jesus, this is the "baptism" that Paul is talking about. So you are baptized into his death, symbolizing the death of the Sin Nature, and you are raised in newness of life, symbolizing the born again experience. So if you are really born again and you are really placing your FAITH in Christ Crucified and Resurrected, then you should be noticing sin melting away in your life. You should be sinning less and less often or not at all.

So if you are really Born Again, and you really place your faith in Christ Crucified, then you should not be habitually sinning, because the Divine Nature from the Holy Spirit is living inside of you.

 

I'll end this segment on that note. It's only about two pages worth of writing, so I hope at least some people read this. Thank you and God Bless.

[Blood Bought 1953]

 

Now believe it or not there is an entire movement in Christianity which teaches "license to sin" by virtual of the fact they don't teach against sin. This is called the "Seeker Sensitive" movement, and they mostly entertain goats rather than ministering to the sheep. 

 

I keep hearing about these movements that supposedly don’t teach against sin.Before we proceed down what appears to be a road of “ Jesus Saves— BUT”  , please direct me to a site that promotes sinning.I have never been able to find one.We are saved by GRACE, we live in the Age of Grace, yet I never saw that word in your post.Grace, properly understood, properly lived- out does indeed promote a license .A license to rest .If you do not rest in what Jesus accomplished at the Cross, you are an enemy of the Cross. Which are you, “ preacher” ?

 

 

 

[Wade8888]

On 1/1/2019 at 2:04 PM, Blood Bought 1953 said:

 

Now believe it or not there is an entire movement in Christianity which teaches "license to sin" by virtual of the fact they don't teach against sin. This is called the "Seeker Sensitive" movement, and they mostly entertain goats rather than ministering to the sheep. 

 

I keep hearing about these movements that supposedly don’t teach against sin.Before we proceed down what appears to be a road of “ Jesus Saves— BUT”  , please direct me to a site that promotes sinning.I have never been able to find one.We are saved by GRACE, we live in the Age of Grace, yet I never saw that word in your post.Grace, properly understood, properly lived- out does indeed promote a license .A license to rest .If you do not rest in what Jesus accomplished at the Cross, you are an enemy of the Cross. Which are you, “ preacher” ?

 

 

 

I'm not sure what your backgreound is, but there are entire denominations of churches which don't teach against entire classes of sins, such as homosexuality. They even allow homosexuals to be in the clergy in some denominations. So yes, they are providing a "license to sin" doctrine.

Edited January 3, 2019 by Wade8888

[Wade8888]

Therefore  we are buried with him by baptism into death, that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection.

 

I have written in my Bible margin, "All Power is Given Unto Me," which is a quote from Jesus after his resurrection. So we have this Divine Nature imparted to us by the Holy Spirit whenever we are Born Again, and by Faith through Grace we live out this Divine Nature, which has the first fruits of Christs resurrection imparted to us as well. As long as we walk in faith of the finished work of Christ at the Cross, we will act in this Divine Nature, but if we fall into religious works, we will act out the Flesh and eventually the Sin Nature.

 

Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. for he that is dead is freed from sin.

 

This passage means Jesus death on the Cross not only forgives us and cleanses us from past sins, but he died to PREVENT us from sinning in the future. If you are baptized into Christ's death, then sin should melt away out of your lifestyle. You'll first of all find you sinned more than you thought, and you'll second of all realize you are now sinning less and less often, as the Holy Spirit works the Righteousness of Christ in you, rather than you performing religious works.

 

So this Divine Nature is imparted to us by Faith in Christ Crucified and Resurrected, and this Divine Nature automatically lives out the righteousness of Christ in us, through the operation of the Holy Spirit. If you are trying to "prove yourself to God" you are functioning in self-righteousness, and that leads to the Sin Nature. But if you are confessing your sin and then trusting in Christ's atoning work at the Cross, then the Divine Nature makes it work. If I am dead to sin by faith in Christ Crucified, then I should not revive sin by placing faith in something else. There will be more on this Divine Nature whenever I get to chapter 8.

 

So Then Grace is not merely the forgiveness of past sins, it is the imparting of the Divine Nature to prevent future sins, and no I'm not teaching sinless perfection, as we don't have the whole harvest of this divine nature, we have the first fruits.

[Wade8888]

Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him. Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more. Death hath no more dominion over him. for in that he died, he died unto sin once; but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

 

So again, we're saying that the Sin Nature is put to death at the Cross of Christ, and we are raised in a new nature, the Divine Nature, through Jesus' death and resurrection. Since this is the case, sin is overcome and we can live in a condition of Righteousness, by Faith in this finished work of Christ.

 

let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin; but yield yourselves unto God as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. for sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under the law, but under grace.

 

This is important. Now that we are dead to sin, we should not revive the sin nature by willfully sinning again, but contrary, should be living a life of victory over sin through this Divine Nature imparted to us by Christ and the Holy Spirit; again this will be more obvious in chapter 8.

 

If you try to keep the Old Testament commandments through willpower or brute force or by making up even more "fence laws", you will fail and you will be miserable all the time. If you simply place faith in the finished work of Christ, and understand Romans 6, 7, and 8, you will automatically walk in victory over the Sin Nature because of this Divine Nature working in you through Grace. Again, Grace is not just the forgiveness of past sin, it's the Divine Nature to have victory over future sin.

[Wade8888]

I have to pray more about the direction I should go with this thread. I intended to do exegesis one scripture at a time, but I feel like God wants me to discuss some other issues here. I think I need to explain something Jesus said in his Earthly ministry as well as it relates to these three chapters fo Romans.

[Blood Bought 1953]

 

 

Grace is not just the forgiveness of past sin,

 

Grace is the forgiveness of ALL sins......sins have a tendency to fall by the wayside, as the indwelling of the Holy Spirit changes us for the better.That being said, the Old Nature will diminish n the life of the Believer,  but that “ Old Man” will not be completely defeated until death.We will need as much Grace the day we die as we did the day we were saved.The life of the Believer can improve a thousand - fold, but he is still a wretch compared to a Holy God.We’ll know perfection “ over there”. It’s still around the bend.

[Wade8888]

More on the "Grace is not license to sin" problem.

 

Jesus said a good tree cannot bring forth corrupt fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit. Every tree which does not bring forth good fruit is cut down and cast into the fire.

 

Moreover, James wrote, "Faith without works is dead".

 

So we see that the apostle Paul cannot be promoting Grace as a license to sin, and we see according to Jesus and James, that your good or evil works do in fact matter, Grace or no Grace. That is the dangerous doctrine I am attempting to address in this thread, but moreover, many "churches" do not teach about sin any more anyway, they don't even teach the Gospel any more, they teach a false prosperity message and a false social message.

 

The real Gospel is the message that your sin problem is so bad that God himself had to become a man and die in your place to solve the problem and reconcile you back to God. That's not a popular message, nor is it meant to be a popular message. Some of these false teachers/preachers can deliver an entire false sermon without mentioning the name of Jesus, and nobody in their congregation even knows the difference when it's done. Remember, James wrote that even the devils "believe and tremble", so merely "believing in God" does not make a person saved or born again; for that you must repent of your sin and ask God to make Jesus the Lord of your life. Now remember, "The Time is fulfilled, Repent and believe the Gospel" is the first adult words of Jesus recorded. Repent means to "turn away from" your sin, as Jesus said, "ye cannot serve God and Mammon". Thus the Prosperity message is a false message, and the message of Grace as a license to sin is a false message.

[Wade8888]

On 1/10/2019 at 9:50 AM, Blood Bought 1953 said:

 

 

Grace is not just the forgiveness of past sin,

 

Grace is the forgiveness of ALL sins......sins have a tendency to fall by the wayside, as the indwelling of the Holy Spirit changes us for the better.That being said, the Old Nature will diminish n the life of the Believer,  but that “ Old Man” will not be completely defeated until death.We will need as much Grace the day we die as we did the day we were saved.The life of the Believer can improve a thousand - fold, but he is still a wretch compared to a Holy God.We’ll know perfection “ over there”. It’s still around the bend.

Correct. I am not promoting a doctrine of "sinless perfection", though that is in fact the goal of the Holy Spirit working in us, we can't have that in this mortal life; We can only have what Paul called the "First Fruits" of the full regeneration process.

 

But if a person "believes" in God, but lacks the fruit of the Spirit and lacks "Gifts of the Spirit", it is probably because they are in the condition of Nicodemus: They "believe" in God, but are not yet "born again". This is a problem, because that flesh nature can deceive people into believing they are "okay with God", when in reality they are not.

 

I've had bad, sinful habits in the past which I could not defeat no matter how much I prayed or read the Bible or tried harder. But whenever I began to understand Romans 6, 7, and 8 it started to go away. Now I don't have those bad habits at all. The amount of faith you have is not the problem, it's the object of that faith which is the problem. If you rely on self-efforts, you cannot be sanctified through self efforts. An Old Testament typology of this is when the Priest washes himself twice! before entering the Holy of Holies. Even then he goes with blood, because the manual washing is not sufficient to take away sins, but it is the shedding of blood which takes away sins. So the animal blood does not "really" take away sin, but it is an expression of Faith in the death of the promised redeemer which cleanses of sins, otherwise the High Priest couldn't enter the Holy Place.