By: Dan Stone
Law and grace are mortal enemies. Religion asserts, "No, they aren't mortal enemies. They can flow together, like the Missouri and Ohio rivers flow into the Mississippi, and they become the Mississippi." Every place I've ever been in organized religion, I've found that belief. But Paul was saying, "NO? They never flow together. They've always been mortal enemies. They will always be mortal enemies. You can never marry the two. And you have to make a choice, Galatians. Are you going to live under 1aw, or under grace?"
Paul wasn't saying that if they stepped back into the law, they wouldn't be saved anymore. But he was telling them, "If you go back to the law, you're giving up the way of grace. Now, let me tell you something about the way of the law, Galatians: you have to keep it all."
They couldn't just pick out the law they wanted to keep. That's what I used to do. I'd pick out those parts of Mosaic Law, Sermon on the Mount law, Baptist law, my personal law, and whatever other law I thought I could keep at least some of the time. I didn't see that law and grace are mortal enemies. I didn't see that you can't live under both.
It made sense to me to be religious. It made sense to be an external Christian, trying to keep an external set of rules. I couldn't do anything else, because I had always been an external person. So were you. We all grew up as external people, defining ourselves in relation to other persons, things, and events that told us who we were. That's why as new Christians we were so prone to asking external questions: "What should I do?"
There's no life in the law. The only thing the law tells you is what you ought to do, but can't do. It will never relinquish its demand that you ought to do it, because it's a divine ought-to; God gave it to Moses. We'll keep ourselves under that divine ought-to, and the condemnation and death ministers (2 Corinthians 3), until we learn to live from the Person who dwells within us. Because there's nothing in our flesh that wants to say, "I can't do it. I can't keep the law through my own effort." Everything in our flesh says, "I want to try to do it, and with God's help maybe I can do it."
Like my friend Burt Rosenburg says, everything in that program is designed for futility, frustration, and failure. But they don't tell you that up front, do they? When you sign up, no one makes this announcement:
WE'VE GOT A WONDERFUL PROGRAM HERE, THE END RESULT OF WHICH WILL BE FUTILITY, FRUSTRATION, AND FAILURE! WHEN YOU HAVE COMPLETED THE COURSE, WE WILL GIVE YOU A DIPLOMA, SAYING:
"CONGRATULATIONS, YOU HAVE FAILED!"
I remember talking to a group and proclaiming, "We have succeeded! In what? In failing!" And everyone smiled. For we finally recognized that we had succeeded in what we were supposed to do, which was to fail. "Everyone is telling us that we failed in what we were supposed to succeed in. But the truth is we have succeeded in what we were supposed to fail in. Now, we can get on with it. We can get on with what is true life."
We usually quote Galatians 2:20 apart from its context. It immediately follows Paul's admonition to Peter concerning the law. When Paul said, "I have been crucified with Christ," he was referring to his death to the law. Paul was saying, "The old me died on the cross with Christ, and when I died, I died to trying to keep the law. Trying to keep the law is living according to the flesh, with me and my efforts as my point of reference. I died to myself as my point of reference. Now, Christ in me is my point of reference. He is living His life through me."
As believers, we no longer live under the law, looking to it to tell us what to do and not do, then trying our best to do it. Instead, we live on the faith principle, the inner life principle, of who really is our life-Christ. We trust that He directs us, opens or closes doors for us, and speaks directly to us, giving us a message or whatever is needed for the occasion. We trust that He is living through us. We may not feel it at any given moment, but we live by faith that He is our life.
From: Stone, Dan, The Rest of the Gospel: When the partial Gospel has worn you out. Dallas: One Press. 2000. pgs 143-145.
Saturday, December 04, 2004
Friday, December 03, 2004
Everything In Him!
We gain everything in Jesus Christ!!
"Everything comes from him; Everything happens through him; Everything ends up in him. Always glory! Always praise! Yes. Yes. Yes." Rom. 11:36 (msg)
Wednesday, December 01, 2004
Gen 9:16 When the rainbow appears in the cloud, I'll see it and remember the eternal covenant between God and everything living, every last living creature on Earth."
Posted by Hello
Can A Believer Sin Anymore?
Lately, I have encountered the perplexing question, "Can A Believer Sin Anymore?" What follows is a good understanding surrrounding the "sin" issue.
I know how hard it can be to transcend "Old nature" mentality, (Illusion), which always has a view toward the dead, versus the True Reality of Jesus Christ(Life), of being Dead to Sin, but Alive to God in Christ Jesus!
Jim Minker answers this all important question below:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Romans 6 - can a believer sin anymore?
Can a believer sin (miss) anymore? If so, how is it that we are dead to Sin?
Allow me to rephrase your two questions by joining them into one as the combination pretty much answers itself: "If we are dead to sin how CAN we sin anymore?" Ironically, this ends up being the very same question already posed by Paul: "How shall we who died to sin still live in it?"
Of course, one can approach the question from two totally different angles, for while Paul posed it in view of the impossibility factor (by virtue of death) it is more often asked in view of what SEEMS to be an obvious observation (by virtue of living). In other words, in view of sin, we easily determine that many, if not all (even those who call themselves "believers", especially our own selves) are still "missing the mark". What we want to know is how we are able do what we're not supposed to be able to do? Hey, I understand the confusion all too well. :)
Questions of this nature have been asked many times in many different ways in the attempt to solve the contradictions demanded by a totally baffling form of life--a life that has passed out of the realm of everything we knew, or thought we knew. Our problem hangs upon an inability to process the obvious answer according to the reasoning and judgment we learned according to this world. The most one can ascertain by such logic is that those who are dead are no longer subject to the former demands of the known world. Death makes its own case as to why.
That's why there remains an insatiable quest to explore and speculate on what might lie beyond death. Of course, Paul's demands regarding the finality of death also make the contradiction between our "doctrinal" and "practical" understandings even more contradictory and oppositional.
It doesn't seem to be death that confuses us for its finality is too blasted inflexible, despite our many attempts to defy it. The confusion of the gospel issues from the absurdity of a co-experienced death and new life with Christ that just doesn't seem to pan out according to what we see in the world around us. You know, if it's supposed to be an actual death and resurrection it sure doesn't offer any indications to the senses or to the computations of logic. Then again, maybe death still confuses us beyond our imagination, since our perception of it seems to be bound by what appears to be, or not to be.
So, did we really die with Christ, or is this merely a teaching that rests upon symbolism? Ah yes, now this distinction really explains quite a bit of "Christian" teaching on the subject. As I mentioned already, while we might talk about Christ having died FOR us, we pretty much gloss over this demand of the good news of having died WITH Christ -- as if it were little more than a symbolic reference to how we OUGHT to think in order to better motivate a deeper devotion to God.
Heck, an experience involving a sudden encounter with water is so much easier to deal with. No wonder there are so many arguments based around it. :) Yeah, here we are yakking about rituals and ordinances, or symbolism and doctrinal viewpoints while the reality of having truly DIED with Christ escapes our notice! Just because we cannot go to the morgue or to a gravesite and verify the physical evidence of our own dead bodies, in the expected manner, WE did indeed die.
The truth of the matter is that we had already experienced death in another - the first man, Adam - so that our existence clearly reflected it in everything we thought, said and did. Geez, we hadn't even noticed it, except in the extreme cases, because the world around us made us assume it was "normal" to exist in deadness.
In Adam we were dead IN sin (as well as, dead in our sins), while in Christ we were made dead TO (as in, toward) sin. The death we shared with Adam brought us into this world totally in relation to sin, but the death we shared with Christ removed us from its association. Both refer to a death that is as dead as dead can be. Morgue dead. Rotting-in-the-grave dead. Devoid-of-life dead.
Can a believer sin (miss) anymore?
Before I push on, let me address another issue lingering within the phrasing of this question (whether or not it had any bearing upon your thoughts in question). It has to do with our assumptions surrounding the mention of the word "believer", as well as the accompanying concept inherent in our common religious designations. Now, I'm not against using the word, though I think it has become amazingly overused, misused and abused.
My consideration here has to do with how often the word "believer" (or variation thereof) gets thrown into the mix so that we are often asking another question altogether, such as: What is there in believing (or being a believer) that would cause one to sin or not sin?
Consider how Paul phrased his question: "How shall we who died to sin still live in it?" Notice how his question couldn't be even remotely reworded, "How shall we who BELIEVE still live in sin?" Now, Paul obviously had no problem declaring the wonderful reality of the miraculous faith to which we have been called in Christ - because it is totally intertwined within the truth of the good news that he preached - but when it came to the sin question he did not pit it against (or ask it in relation to) our BELIEVING in Christ but against our DYING with him.
The truth is that our having died with Christ is an integral part of THE faith of Christ that has been declared. Unfortunately, we have fallen victim to the contemporary hocus-pocus that says faith in Christ is about what WE have done with Christ as opposed to it being the very essence of the good news of Christ ... so essential that it is the very embodiment of our hope, who is Christ himself.
Can a believer sin (miss) anymore? If so...
There is a perspective that demands that to think otherwise is ludicrous. This is the viewpoint that is based upon the examination and judgment of sin, and it is called law. The law convinces us that even though we are supposedly "saved" from sin through Christ we are still sinners who are subject to the law of sin. It's only reasonable, isn't it? After all, why would we ever think that just because we believe in Christ we would not still have to deal with sin? Unless, of course, we really did share in Christ's death and also have been raised to new life in him.
"I know and am convinced in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself; but to him who thinks anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean." (Romans 14:14)
This always used to stump me because I would always do the "Yeah, but..." You know, as in KNOWING that Paul obviously wasn't referring to those things that ARE unclean in themselves! Haha! So, how could it be that Paul could have ever been "CONVINCED in the Lord Jesus that NOTHING is unclean in itself"? What about all the evil stuff in the world? And yet the only exception he made had to do with the PERCEPTION of the one who regards something as unclean: "...to HIM it is unclean."
Can a believer sin (miss) anymore? If so...
He who regards himself as a sinner, to HIMSELF he IS a sinner.
"But if, while seeking to be justified in Christ, we ourselves have also been found sinners, is Christ then a minister of sin? May it never be! For if I rebuild what I have once destroyed, I prove myself to be a transgressor. For through the Law I died to the Law, so that I might live to God." (Galatians 2:17-19)
This rather potent statement of Paul's to the saints in Galatia describes through different wording what he also addressed in Romans 6-8, especially chapter 7. "Seeking to be justified in Christ" was one of Paul's summations of the "other gospel, which is really not another" to which the Galatian believers were giving ear. "Seeking to be justified in Christ" is nothing other than a "Christianized" version of living by law, and this is what happens when we give heed to "another gospel".
Simply stated, if the life to which Christ has called us is in fact based upon a seeking of acceptance in Christ so that our continued following Him - whatever one believes this to be - only proves how unacceptable we are, then Christ would be nothing but a dealer or an enforcer of sin. But then, that is totally absurd since Christ is the one who did away with sin. If I rebuild another "gospel" that re-establishes a relationship with God through some form of legality, then I am the one proving myself to be a law-breaker, or sinner.
Notice how Paul continued his point: "For through the Law I died to the Law, so that I might live to God." Exact same thing he told the Roman believers, for through death we were made alive to God. Now, why would I try to re-establish the thing that can only bring knowledge of sin when that thing is what killed me so that I could be delivered from it?
Can a believer sin (miss) anymore? If so...
I can't disagree with someone else's affirmation, because to them it IS the only truth that makes sense, and it can be verified by a written code and the violations thereof -- only it's ANOTHER gospel. After all, if one's answer is "yes" it must be found in the law of sin and death. However, the good news of Christ declares the removal of all that offends, so that there is nothing to miss in Christ!!
I'll continue later. :)
Jim Minker
I know how hard it can be to transcend "Old nature" mentality, (Illusion), which always has a view toward the dead, versus the True Reality of Jesus Christ(Life), of being Dead to Sin, but Alive to God in Christ Jesus!
(Rom 6:11) "From now on, think of it this way: Sin speaks a dead language that means nothing to you; God speaks your mother tongue, and you hang on every word. You are dead to sin and alive to God. That's what Jesus did." (msg)
Jim Minker answers this all important question below:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Romans 6 - can a believer sin anymore?
Can a believer sin (miss) anymore? If so, how is it that we are dead to Sin?
Allow me to rephrase your two questions by joining them into one as the combination pretty much answers itself: "If we are dead to sin how CAN we sin anymore?" Ironically, this ends up being the very same question already posed by Paul: "How shall we who died to sin still live in it?"
Of course, one can approach the question from two totally different angles, for while Paul posed it in view of the impossibility factor (by virtue of death) it is more often asked in view of what SEEMS to be an obvious observation (by virtue of living). In other words, in view of sin, we easily determine that many, if not all (even those who call themselves "believers", especially our own selves) are still "missing the mark". What we want to know is how we are able do what we're not supposed to be able to do? Hey, I understand the confusion all too well. :)
Questions of this nature have been asked many times in many different ways in the attempt to solve the contradictions demanded by a totally baffling form of life--a life that has passed out of the realm of everything we knew, or thought we knew. Our problem hangs upon an inability to process the obvious answer according to the reasoning and judgment we learned according to this world. The most one can ascertain by such logic is that those who are dead are no longer subject to the former demands of the known world. Death makes its own case as to why.
That's why there remains an insatiable quest to explore and speculate on what might lie beyond death. Of course, Paul's demands regarding the finality of death also make the contradiction between our "doctrinal" and "practical" understandings even more contradictory and oppositional.
It doesn't seem to be death that confuses us for its finality is too blasted inflexible, despite our many attempts to defy it. The confusion of the gospel issues from the absurdity of a co-experienced death and new life with Christ that just doesn't seem to pan out according to what we see in the world around us. You know, if it's supposed to be an actual death and resurrection it sure doesn't offer any indications to the senses or to the computations of logic. Then again, maybe death still confuses us beyond our imagination, since our perception of it seems to be bound by what appears to be, or not to be.
So, did we really die with Christ, or is this merely a teaching that rests upon symbolism? Ah yes, now this distinction really explains quite a bit of "Christian" teaching on the subject. As I mentioned already, while we might talk about Christ having died FOR us, we pretty much gloss over this demand of the good news of having died WITH Christ -- as if it were little more than a symbolic reference to how we OUGHT to think in order to better motivate a deeper devotion to God.
Heck, an experience involving a sudden encounter with water is so much easier to deal with. No wonder there are so many arguments based around it. :) Yeah, here we are yakking about rituals and ordinances, or symbolism and doctrinal viewpoints while the reality of having truly DIED with Christ escapes our notice! Just because we cannot go to the morgue or to a gravesite and verify the physical evidence of our own dead bodies, in the expected manner, WE did indeed die.
The truth of the matter is that we had already experienced death in another - the first man, Adam - so that our existence clearly reflected it in everything we thought, said and did. Geez, we hadn't even noticed it, except in the extreme cases, because the world around us made us assume it was "normal" to exist in deadness.
In Adam we were dead IN sin (as well as, dead in our sins), while in Christ we were made dead TO (as in, toward) sin. The death we shared with Adam brought us into this world totally in relation to sin, but the death we shared with Christ removed us from its association. Both refer to a death that is as dead as dead can be. Morgue dead. Rotting-in-the-grave dead. Devoid-of-life dead.
Can a believer sin (miss) anymore?
Before I push on, let me address another issue lingering within the phrasing of this question (whether or not it had any bearing upon your thoughts in question). It has to do with our assumptions surrounding the mention of the word "believer", as well as the accompanying concept inherent in our common religious designations. Now, I'm not against using the word, though I think it has become amazingly overused, misused and abused.
My consideration here has to do with how often the word "believer" (or variation thereof) gets thrown into the mix so that we are often asking another question altogether, such as: What is there in believing (or being a believer) that would cause one to sin or not sin?
Consider how Paul phrased his question: "How shall we who died to sin still live in it?" Notice how his question couldn't be even remotely reworded, "How shall we who BELIEVE still live in sin?" Now, Paul obviously had no problem declaring the wonderful reality of the miraculous faith to which we have been called in Christ - because it is totally intertwined within the truth of the good news that he preached - but when it came to the sin question he did not pit it against (or ask it in relation to) our BELIEVING in Christ but against our DYING with him.
The truth is that our having died with Christ is an integral part of THE faith of Christ that has been declared. Unfortunately, we have fallen victim to the contemporary hocus-pocus that says faith in Christ is about what WE have done with Christ as opposed to it being the very essence of the good news of Christ ... so essential that it is the very embodiment of our hope, who is Christ himself.
Can a believer sin (miss) anymore? If so...
There is a perspective that demands that to think otherwise is ludicrous. This is the viewpoint that is based upon the examination and judgment of sin, and it is called law. The law convinces us that even though we are supposedly "saved" from sin through Christ we are still sinners who are subject to the law of sin. It's only reasonable, isn't it? After all, why would we ever think that just because we believe in Christ we would not still have to deal with sin? Unless, of course, we really did share in Christ's death and also have been raised to new life in him.
"I know and am convinced in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself; but to him who thinks anything to be unclean, to him it is unclean." (Romans 14:14)
This always used to stump me because I would always do the "Yeah, but..." You know, as in KNOWING that Paul obviously wasn't referring to those things that ARE unclean in themselves! Haha! So, how could it be that Paul could have ever been "CONVINCED in the Lord Jesus that NOTHING is unclean in itself"? What about all the evil stuff in the world? And yet the only exception he made had to do with the PERCEPTION of the one who regards something as unclean: "...to HIM it is unclean."
Can a believer sin (miss) anymore? If so...
He who regards himself as a sinner, to HIMSELF he IS a sinner.
"But if, while seeking to be justified in Christ, we ourselves have also been found sinners, is Christ then a minister of sin? May it never be! For if I rebuild what I have once destroyed, I prove myself to be a transgressor. For through the Law I died to the Law, so that I might live to God." (Galatians 2:17-19)
This rather potent statement of Paul's to the saints in Galatia describes through different wording what he also addressed in Romans 6-8, especially chapter 7. "Seeking to be justified in Christ" was one of Paul's summations of the "other gospel, which is really not another" to which the Galatian believers were giving ear. "Seeking to be justified in Christ" is nothing other than a "Christianized" version of living by law, and this is what happens when we give heed to "another gospel".
Simply stated, if the life to which Christ has called us is in fact based upon a seeking of acceptance in Christ so that our continued following Him - whatever one believes this to be - only proves how unacceptable we are, then Christ would be nothing but a dealer or an enforcer of sin. But then, that is totally absurd since Christ is the one who did away with sin. If I rebuild another "gospel" that re-establishes a relationship with God through some form of legality, then I am the one proving myself to be a law-breaker, or sinner.
Notice how Paul continued his point: "For through the Law I died to the Law, so that I might live to God." Exact same thing he told the Roman believers, for through death we were made alive to God. Now, why would I try to re-establish the thing that can only bring knowledge of sin when that thing is what killed me so that I could be delivered from it?
Can a believer sin (miss) anymore? If so...
I can't disagree with someone else's affirmation, because to them it IS the only truth that makes sense, and it can be verified by a written code and the violations thereof -- only it's ANOTHER gospel. After all, if one's answer is "yes" it must be found in the law of sin and death. However, the good news of Christ declares the removal of all that offends, so that there is nothing to miss in Christ!!
I'll continue later. :)
Jim Minker
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