Freedom From Sin’s Power - Part V of VIII

The Human Spirit

God had reserved a special place within man’s being for His intended abode – the organ of the human spirit. It was created by the breath of God (Gen 2:7). In this Scripture we see that God ranks the formation of “the spirit of man” with the most primary elements of creation. Zech. 12:1…the Lord, which stretcheth forth the heavens, and layeth the foundation of the earth, and formeth the spirit of man within him.

I say this is special because man’s human spirit was to become The Holiest of All – God’s precise abode. Mankind has died to God, in that fellowship that he once had in the garden, he died much as a phone line may become dead. But all mankind, believers and non-believers, still have a human spirit, with the faculty of conscience operating within it (Rom 2:15). The faculty of the conscience is the route God uses to speak into man, in order to convict and draw man to His self. You might say the conscience is an antenna, by which by which God speaks to man – just as the antenna of a radio picks up the invisible sound waves so we can hear them. Jesus said when the Holy Spirit comes He will reprove (convict) the world – a conscience is necessary for such conviction. John 16:8 And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment:  

The Holy Spirit is the one who pricks us in the conscience of our heart, convicting us to see our need to receive God’s remedy, a Savior, which is Jesus Christ. This is the answer to man’s awful condition. Jn 1:12 ...as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God… God cannot have us as his genuine children, except by birthing. Thus, “Sons of God” here means one has received Father God’s life and nature by His spiritual Seed, which is “the spirit of life in Christ Jesus (Rom 8:2a)”.

Regenerated By a Literal New Birth

With the receiving of the Son of God, the recipient becomes regenerated and the literal birthed child of God the Father. This spiritual birth may be seen and understood when we consider the human physical birth, when a father’s human seed fertilizes a female’s human egg. It is the life of the human father that is transmitted to the conceived one. The mother contributes the genetic material by the egg, just as Mary gave Jesus a physical body, but the life and nature is of the father’s seed. With our spiritual birth, Christ is the Seed of Father God, and we each are as a woman, with our human spirit as the womb in which God places His Seed. In this way we are born of God the Father. When a man receives Christ, He receives the Seed of God and thereby has received not only the life of the Father’s Seed, but also the nature of God with God’s spiritual DNA. This makes God our literal Father; we are born of the spiritual loins of God the Father Himself, via His Seed.

Freed from the Sting of Sin, which is Death

2 Cor. 5:18a all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ,

1 Cor. 15:56a The sting of death is sin…

1 John 5:11 And this is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.

Beyond being reconciled to God, by God giving His Son to die sacrificially for us, we are now also saved by Jesus Christ’s indwelling life. Romans 5:10 For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.

Jesus overcame death by the power of the Holy Spirit raising Him from the dead. After His death and resurrection, Jesus “became the life-giving spirit” (1Cor 15:45) to be joined to our human spirit. 1Cor. 6:17 But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit. The seeded life of God, which is in Christ, is the eternal life in us. This is the life that is real life. Only God’s life that is in Christ, as “the Spirit of life” is the real, genuine life, qualified to be called life – it is the eternal life of Christ. Ephes. 2:1 And you hath he quickened (zao, made-alive, spiritually), who were dead in trespasses and sins; 1Jn 5:11-12 … God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.

Here we see that we live under a new paradigm – one of absolutely “no condemnation”.

Rom 8:1 (NASB) There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

(Note: The KJV translators have erroneously added a phrase to this verse “who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit”. This does not appear in earliest manuscripts. This addition makes our lack of condemnation conditional. There surely is an important place for us to walk in the spirit, but it certainly is not a condition of having no condemnation. It was Christ who took all our condemnation upon His self for us.)

The fact is that in Christ we live without condemnation at all. We actually are free to live in a new rarified atmosphere of “no condemnation”. This allows us to get on with living the Christian life by living in accord with “the Spirit of life”, which is nothing less that the indwelling Christ. We do this without fear of being condemned. If we fail at times, he will never leave or forsake us – He abides faithful to us even when we are not faithful to Him. We may suffer the consequences of our foolish actions, but He abides faithful.

In Romans 8:2 Paul explains that “the law (nomos, normal regulating operation) of spirit of life in Christ Jesus has (past tense) made me free from the law (cf nomos) of sin and death”.  It is the normal operation of His life within our spirit that has made us free from the power and operation of sin and death in our flesh.

Romans 8:2 For the law (operation) of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law (operation) of sin and of death.

Galatians 5:24-25 (NIV) Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. ²⁵Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.

Romans 8:9-10 But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. 10And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.

The outer religious, moral, and ceremonial law is of no help – it’s powerless versus Sin indwelling the flesh. The law is powerless to make us righteous or to live righteously. So God has not eradicated Sin, but He has condemned Sin in the flesh. As a house or building may be closed off – being condemned – so is Sin in the flesh – Christ has made it powerless over us by our co-death with Christ. Sin has been locked off in our flesh.

Romans 8:3 For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh,

While Sin is locked-off in our flesh, we still may hear Sin’s voice calling and trying to direct us – BUT HE HAS NO POWER OVER US. We can no longer say the Devil made me do it.

Only as we abide in the truth and cling to “the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus” do we enjoy the power and benefit of Christ life in us.

Romans 8:5-6 (NASB) For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. 6For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace,

Paul says, the issue for the Christian is always “Christ in you the hope of glory”, as our life, as our hope of the glorious expression of the life that is in the glorious seed that has birthed us from above.
Freedom From Sin’s Power - Part VI of VIII

Free From the Power of Sin

God told the Serpent that the Seed of the woman (from whose lineage the God-seed, Jesus, would come) would crush the head of the serpent. Thus, the headship of Sin over fallen mankind would be broken. Genesis 3:14-15 And the Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life: [15] And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. In view of resurrection by “the Spirit that raised Christ form the dead”, Satan’s crucifixion of Christ was as a bruised heel, yet that same very cross dealt an effective blow to Sin’s headship over mankind. Let’s now understand how it is that a man may become free from Sin’s domination or headship.

In Romans 6 Paul presents us with the facts of our new freed self. We are freed by our identification by faith in His death as …our death to our “old man”. Romans 6:6-7 …our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed (Greek, kartargeo, made of no effect), that henceforth we should not serve sin. 7For he that is dead is freed from sin (as a ruling nature).

Verse 7 says, “He that is dead is freed from sin.” We are freed selves in and by Christ’s death and burial as our death and burial. Sin cannot have power over an already dead person. We are a freed self, dead to sin, and alive unto God in my Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 6:3-4 ... so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? 4Therefore 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.

By our co-death on the cross with and in Christ that God has made the Seed of the Serpent to be “of no effect” upon those who have already died in Christ, and now possess God’s Seed of life. Can you tempt a dead person? The fact is that we have died in Christ and are thereby liberated from Sin’s tyrannical rule over us; we’re freed from the power of Sin as a nature. To receive the Seed of God, which is Christ, is to receive God’s power of the Cross of Christ, His death and resurrection. All that Christ achieved, and all that He is, is now within His resurrected Spirit of life, as the Seed now in us.

It is the normal operation of “the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus” makes us free from the power of the spontaneous operation and promptings of the “Sin” nature that remains resident within our flesh body (Rom 7:17, 20). Romans 8:2 For the law (normal regulating operation) of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law (normal regulating operation) of sin and death. We are His incarnated body on earth today, with His overcoming life in us, as us. Our only genuine life is of the Spirit of Christ’s resurrected life now in our spirit.

You may say – that sounds great – but that is not my experience. I am still swayed by the sinful impulses within me, over and over. I understand; I also hear those sinful impulses. But the fact is that our fleshly body, still with Sin dwelling in it, is no longer a dominating power over us since we as a fallen self are now dead and we are Christ persons. Yet, Sin can lie to us and attempt to deceive us. Sin may throw a sinful thought at you, you feel bad, thinking it was your thought, but all the time it was of Sin. Sin desires that you condemn yourself and drop away from God. Sin uses such happening to put a wedge between you and God.

We need to know this, Satan is still near at hand, within whispering distance, within our very bodies, but he is in fact powerless over we who are dead (Rom 6:7). The only power Satan still has toward a believer is by the same mode he has always used, by his lying, and then by our believing those lies. I once heard a story to convey the truth of this matter. There once was a ship with a cruel and evil captain. That evil captain was overthrown by a proper and righteous captain, and thrown into the brig on board. The evil captain was condemned to the brig, just as Sin has been condemned to the flesh. The crew (us) still could hear the old captain barking out orders while he was in confinement in the brig, but he no longer had authority over the crew.

Another Problem

You may say, “I have known of this matter of my co-death with Christ, but honestly, it has had no benefit in my trying to live as I know I should”. You may think you understand, in all honesty, but you don’t necessarily see the real issues involved only because you have not yet had revelation from the Holy Spirit on this. You are right, I may say that I’m dead to sin but in just a few minutes time I’m irritable, or angry, or pridefully react to something. So, how can I say I’m dead to sin when it manifests again? I may say I know it, but it really doesn’t work.

You need to see this. There’s a difference between the quantity - I don’t say “quality” - but between the quantity of our death and His death. If we see that, we see the solution to our problem. What I mean is this: Jesus’ death and resurrection are so complete, physically and spiritually, that He is utterly out of the realm of the world, the flesh, and the devil that they can’t touch Him. He’s not within hearing distance – He has died physically. He is not temptable now. In this sense His death is more complete than ours. Ours is an incomplete death, because so far it is only spiritual. We have not yet been removed from the presence of Sin as a nature – its still in our flesh body. It is not yet a physical death for us. So we are still within the realm in which we can be called upon by Sin with these sinful, or even self-condemning, thoughts that Sin would use to hinder our union with the Lord. Of course we do not have to listen and Sin no longer has power over us – but we can be deceived into thinking our temptation is sin (the verb) and so we then do it because we have already thought it – that’s a lie. It is not a sin to be tempted – Jesus was tempted, “yet without sin”.