My Personal Confession of Faith

[ElijahSK]

I have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Anything short of perfection God will not allow to dwell with Him in heaven. I was a liar, an adulterer, a theif, a blasphemer, and an idolator before I came to Christ.

Now having been baptized into Jesus Christ I am baptized into His death. Therefore I am buried with Him by baptism into death, that like as He was raised by the glory of the Father, even so I should walk in newness of life. For I have been planted together in the likeness of His death, and I shall be also in the likeness of His resurrection. Knowing this that my old man is now crucified (dead, never to be risen again) with Christ, that the body of sin might be destroyed (and it was), that henceforth I should never again serve sin. For now that I am dead(no old man, no flesh, no sinful nature), I am free from sin(100%, no wavering). Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more, death has no more dominion over Him. For in that He died, He died unto sin once, but in that He lives, He lives unto God. I believe this very thing about myself. I reckon that my old man died once unto sin and it will never die again, death has no more dominion over me. So I reckon myself dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God by Christ Jesus my Lord. I will not let sin reign in my mortal body that I should obey it's lusts. Neither will I submit my members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, but I submit myself unto God, as being alive from the dead, and my members as instruments of righteousness unto God. For sin will never have dominion over me! Because I am not under the law but under grace. What then? Should I sin because I am not under the law but under grace? God Forbid! 1000 times NO! May it never be! I know that to whom I offer myself as a servant to obey, his servant I am to whom I obey, whether of sin unto death, or obedience unto righteousness. Now that I am made free from sin, and became a servant of God, I have my fruit unto holiness and the end everlasting life.

Now let me speak to those of you that know the law and try to follow it (ie. Jews), don't know know that the law has dominion over a man as long as he lives? Wherefore (for this reason), my brethren, you also have become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that you should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God. As you read in my second paragraph, this is for you too. When you were in the flesh, the motions of sin which were by the law did work in your members to bring forth fruit unto death. But now you are delivered from the law, because now your old man (your flesh, your sinful nature) is dead, so that you should serve in newness of spirit and not the oldness of the letter. Am I trying to say the law is sin? God forbid! But that by the law I came to know what sin was. Sin taking occasion by the commandment worked into me all manners of sin. Before I ever heard the law, sin was dead. When I heard it, sin revived and I died. Sin used the commandment to trick me and kill me. So I testify that the law is good and just and holy. You see the law is spiritual, but we are carnal. That which I always tried not to do was what I would always do. That which I always tried to do I could never accomplish. I found in myself two laws. With the mind I served the law of God, but with the body I served the law of sin and death. Certainly, this is your state to as a Jew under the law but unable to fulfil it. O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this body of sin?

Who shall deliver me? Who can give me power to overcome sin? Who will sancify me and make me holy? Who, my brethren (the Jews)? Let me tell you who! I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin and death. Therefore (what is this therefore there for? To make you look at my last paragraph even my last sentence.) there is no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. You see, that law which I was in bondage to in the flesh I was just telling you about, the law of sin and death. The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. What the law could not do (make you righteous and holy) because the weakness of our flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, codemned sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of God might be fulfilled in each one of us, that walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit. If you are in the flesh, you're an enemy of God, you will not please God, you are a child of the devil. But we (you and me) are not in the flesh! We are in the Spirit, that is if the Spirit of God dwells in us!

Whosoever abides in Christ will not commit sin; whosoever sins has not seen or even known Him. He that commits sin is of his father the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning, but Christ came to destroy the works of the devil. Whosoever is born of God does not commit sin, for His seed remains in Him, and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. Our faith has already overcome to world. Our Father's commandments aren't a burden to us.

We are not hearers of the word only, we are doers! We look into the perfect law of liberty, and continue therein, not being a forgetful hear but a doer of the work, and we are blessed in our deeds. Blessed are we when we endure tempation from once we are tried we will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to us who love Him. And we count it all joy when we fall into divers tempations, because we know they work patiences in us. And patience will make us perfect and entire, wanting nothing. Plus we already know that we are dead to those tempations, and by believing such we have our strength to overcome. Our faith leads us to keep that hope, not because we experienced it already, but because God said we are dead to it, and He has the best running record for statements of truth.

Edited March 31, 2006 by ElijahSK