Bread of Life Fellowship

Consider these four points of our positional sanctification- The work of Christ to deal with sin and condemn it in His flesh has set a foundation for holy living. That foundation is fourfold. 1st vs. 1 we are not under condemnation. 2nd vs 2 we are set free to realize our purpose in the law. 3rd and 4th as considered in this message the full requirement of the law is accomplished in us from the start. And we are set beyond the restrictions of the flesh to live in the domain -range- of the Spirit of Life. The believer begins their life in the wide open place of the Spirit.

Romans 8-3 tells us that Jesus, who had a body after the likeness of our sinful bodies, condemned sin in the flesh. What does that mean-- How-- In what way was this done by our Savior and what does this mean for the believer. Here is the work by which we are not under condemnation, we are free in the law and we are released into the domain of the Spirit of LIfe.

From Romans 8-2 consider the freedom Christ, the freest man who ever lived, brings to the believer. It is not a freedom outside of the law but a freedom within in it.

From Romans 8-1 we find the beginning point of the sanctified life... We start secure in Christ and delivered from any condemnation. As we shall learn through the initial study of Romans 8... Paul's great interest is to bring the believer to comprehend what they are in Christ and the position they have through him before he would have them consider their practice.

Most certainly the believer is positionally sanctified at exact moment of their new birth. That Sanctification continues through a process of growth. And yet Romans 7 and 8 present to us the practical outworking of God's grace in sanctification brings us to a pattern of development in which we pass through a crisis into the Gospel of our Sanctification.

Correcting confusion in God's work of sanctification. Understanding a where sin rises in the believer helps us understand where sin is also defeated. Considering who Paul is describing in this passage is key to understanding where you fit into the text.

One of the most debated passages in the New Testament. Is Paul giving a personal testimony-- Is it a testimony of his life before being born again or his life after that moment-- Is he addressing a contemporary experience or a past experience-- Where does sin express itself in and from the Christian-- Here is part one of this important passage...

Considering why the Law is holy and just and good.

A marriage has ended for the believer and a new union has begun with Christ. Consider the persons relationship to the law before salvation and that relationship after we are united with our Lord Jesus.

Paul is addressing this independent tilt away from God. Paul must challenge the believer to overcome a point of resistance to truth that rises up in our flesh- a point to which our weak, sin prone flesh pushes us- which is independence from God. To address this weakness, this proneness in our flesh he gives an analogy of the Christian life that will challenge this proneness. You must become a slave of God.

A heart that desires to hold God at a distance would prefer a contractional relationship with Him where a person can earn approval and acceptance from God- a situation where God owes them something as a payment for their good deeds and behavior. But grace, something given without merit, something extended in the place of deserved judgment takes a claim upon us- it gives birth to a gratitude that binds us to the one who loved us in our sins and our brokenness. And that kind of intimacy and that kind of claim upon our hearts is resisted by the sinful and independent instinct of our flesh.

Does Saving Faith include within it a surrender to the Lordship of Jesus Christ--

So here is my situation. Sin is no longer in my spirit. I am changed. I am a new man. Christ lives in me. And where the Lord Jesus lives- it is holy- it is pure. But sin is still is at play in my flesh and I am more aware of it than ever. I hate it. It is not what I want. But to often it is what I find myself doing. What can I do-- What is the next step-- What do I do when sin comes upon my flesh-- Comes at me--

We have redeemed spirits in complete fellowship with the living God and nothing can separate us from that love. And yet, and this is the point of our message today, we are not fully redeemed. We are redeemed spirits but our bodies- not so much. -We are redeemed spirits living in unredeemed bodies.- Consider now what this means for living a faithful life to the glory of God.

What is Paul's or the Bible's view of the human being as to their essence-- What lies at the foundation of our being-- When Paul declares that we have been baptized into Christ and into His death- when stating that we were buried with Christ so that we may walk now in newness of life- when he says we have been united or planted together with Christ in the likeness of His death so that we may be in the likeness of His resurrection- when he says that our old man was crucified- that we have died to sin, that we are free from sin, that we are to reckon ourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord- We must ask the question who or what of ourselves is Paul addressing-- Now this may sound like an unnecessary philosophical question but actually it is quite important, and I hope you see that the answer to this question will be a very practical thing for us to know and find out.

How can it be said that Christ died to sin once for all. In what way did the sinless Savior die to sin.

Jesus didn't merely die on the cross for what you had done in committing sins. He also died for what you were and had become as a sinner. He didn't just die to take away your sins. He died to take away the sinner and replace him or her with a saint. And if you have been born again you are not the sinner you once were. You instead are a holy one on the way to a glorious future. Because this is so, for the true believer, your answer to sin and its temptations is not in trying harder, or in developing a different frame of mind or attitude towards sin. At the foundation is it embracing what you have become through Jesus Christ. The answer to sinning for the Christian is found in the regenerating work of Jesus Christ where the Christian has become a whole new person in Christ.

The Christian's surprising attitude of aloofness towards sin considered.

Or the message could be entitled why you should not be a universalist and why consider being a pre-millennialist.

It is for the purpose of bringing us to that faith, that belief, that saving faith in the finished work and perfect work of Jesus Christ, that Paul says that the law entered. It is there in verse 20. Let's consider this more this morning role of the law in our salvation. Romans 5-20 Moreover, the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more...