Daily Bread - MAR/10/07
Romans 7:25 - "(I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord). So then I myself serve the law of God with my mind and the law of sin with my flesh."
Paul's message in Romans chapter 7 is one that describes the absolute inability of the law to bring anyone into the glorious liberty of the sons of God. He drives home the fact that those who trust in the law are under the bondage of sin and are powerless to overcome it. He proves that although God's law describes God's righteousness, no observer of the law through the works of the law was able to walk in the glory of God's commandments.
In fact, where can anyone find in the New Testament the idea that God requires His saints to serve the Law? Furthermore, where in the New Testament can anyone find any supporting scriptures that the people of God are to serve God with their minds (Gr.- nous)? The answer is, nowhere! And in reality if we heard anyone even begin to teach such a thing we would all rise up and say, heresy!
The New Testament communicates a very different Gospel message than this. Our minds are to be submitted to the mind of Christ and governed by the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:27; 12:2; 1 Corinthians 2:16; Ephesians 4:23; Philippians 2:5; 4:7; Hebrews 8:10, 10:16; 1 Peter 4:1). The natural mind of man is the enemy of God and cannot be subject to Him (Romans 8:6-7; Ephesians 2:3).
When we look at the opening statements of Romans chapter 7, we discover that Paul is continuing his argument as to why no one should in any way trust in the Law in an attempt to please God (Romans 7:1, 4, 6). He makes it very clear that the saints are not under the Law nor bound by the power of sin before he sets out to describe the spiritual condition of those who trust in the Law (Romans 7:4-6). We must understand that the statement, "I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord" is simply a parenthetical statement. Paul makes this statement as he pauses for a moment in describing this desperate circumstance which he and all other observers of the law found themselves in. Through Christ Jesus, every yoke of that sin has been broken, and as those who are a new creation in Christ Jesus, we serve God with a new heart and rely upon the Holy Spirit for the divine ability to do all that pleases the Father (Romans 6:4, 6-7, 12, 14, 17-18; 8:2, 4, 9, 14-16, 26-27, 29, 31).
Be blessed,
Pastor Mark Spitsbergen
abidingplace.org
About Me
- Carol L
- San Diego area, California, United States
- I started this blog back in 2005, but in 2006 began dedicating it solely for the purpose of posting email messages called, Daily Bread, sent out Monday through Saturday by my pastor, Mark Spitsbergen. These daily emails contain fresh revelation that Mark gets from the Word of God by the Holy Spirit for that day for the church that God has called him to pastor, Abiding Place. 1 Peter 4:11 says, "If any man speak let him speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister let him do it as of the ability which God gives that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ to whom be praise and dominion forever and ever. Amen." Jesus Christ is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, (John 14:6), and He says, "The words that I speak to you are Spirit, and they are Life." (John 6:63). For the Word of God is quick (alive), and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. (Hebrews 4:12).
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