Under the Law

Under the Law

Click Here! For Under the Law Pt. 2:. Bibocious, Audio Transcript

Preface:

False religions.  False Christs.  If you're not part of a false religion, you, like me, probably have been at some point in your life. 

There is something that deceives you more than false religions (you may say it is the reason people embrace false religions) and that is your flesh.  Most false religions pander to the flesh or try to conform your flesh to their belief system, i.e., through the flesh.

           

Most of my lessons have been learned the hard way, and the hardest lessons came at the hands of my flesh.  Flesh will deceive you, and not just in the obvious ways.  At times, it can seem so right; you may even think it's God but walking in the flesh is the quickest way to miss God.

Recently, I allowed my flesh to deceive me again.  The situation seemed perfect, I thought it must be God.  However, this perfect situation had a common flaw, my flesh and the flesh of the other people involved.

Did it lead to sin?  I don't know, maybe the appearance of sin and sins from the resultant fallout.  However, sometimes when you are dealing with false religions, the appearance is all they need to show they are not walking in the love and mercy of God but in the flesh as well.  And the result, your flesh deceives you into falling back into a world where you don’t belong.

If you ever commit a sin, or appear to commit a sin, around certain types of people they never forgive you; and they will judge you for the rest of your life.  Forgiveness is something they do not practice.  After all, it is only the appearance of righteousness that they display, push them to an edge, and their heart will expose their hate not love.

He that saith he is in the light, and hateth his brother, is in darkness even until now. He that loveth his brother abideth in the light, and there is none occasion of stumbling in him. But he that hateth his brother is in darkness, and walketh in darkness, and knoweth not whither he goeth, because that darkness hath blinded his eyes.  1 John 2:9-11.

So, I always come back to the hardest question why; why God do I have to go through this again?  And the answer, so that I will see that this false religion is a flesh walk and hopefully learn my lesson again for the umpteenth time and quit getting sidetracked by those not walking in the Spirit.

           

There are two poles of extremes in the myriad of false Christian religions.  The strict law keepers (trying to keep law in the flesh), and the other extreme of no law keepers (who figured out you cannot keep the law walking in the flesh so they openly serve sin).  In between these poles is a sliding scale of those walking in the flesh and trying to cobble together a superstitious belief system.

In this belief system of theirs, only those who conform to their paradigms are approved and everyone else is hated.  They call it Christianity, but really it is an exclusive club of haters walking in the flesh who are not susceptible to the temptations that affect those they dislike. 

You may struggle with lust, they may struggle with gluttony; so everyone divides up into clubs containing members vulnerable to a particular sin while they take turns condemning those in the other categories.  It’s like a blind person condemning someone for watching porn.  Of course the blind person does not struggle with this temptation, but oh how righteous they pretend to be to justify their hate.

           

The church no longer ministers the Spirit, and therefore they cannot combat the sins of the flesh.  There are those who are trying to tame flesh through God’s commandments (in the flesh), but this is futile.  If you want proof of a false religion, it is in God’s word:

           

He therefore that ministereth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you, doeth he it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?  Galatians 3:5.

If you are part of a religion that does not have ministers that “worketh miracles among you,” then you are in a false religion.  Why, because they are not walking in the Spirit.  Most of these false religions even have doctrines that excuse their lack of display of the power and approval of God in their ministry (see also Heb 2:4, Rom 15:18-19, Act 14:3, Act 19:11-12, Mar 16:17-18, Mar 16:20, Joh 14:12, 1Co 12:7-14, Act 8:6-7, Act 4:30-33, 1Th 1:5, 1Co 2:4-5, 2Co 10:18). 

You can have your false religions; because after my last experience with flesh and nominal Christians, I am not settling for anything other than the ministry of the Spirit the boys in the Bible had.  So, I am still looking.  If you are content with your no power of God religion wherever you fall on the sliding scale of extremes, then I know you are not part of God’s church.

Law of Love:

In this article I am going to primarily tackle the topic of Under the Law.  My previous work (Law of God) incited me to go into more detail about the Law.  You must understand that when it comes to deception, people willfully accept lies that agree with their personal desires to please self (flesh), and that includes their own intellect.

Currently, a number of so-called Christians in this nation claim that their lives are dictated by what they call the law of love.  I am specifically talking about nominal Christians who indicate by their actions that they do not have to keep any of God’s commandments.  There is the other extreme of so-called Christians who believe that keeping God’s commandments is what will save them.  Both these extremes are wrong and are not Christian at all.

The law keepers are blind to the hate that is in them like the Pharisees who could not believe Jesus was associating with publicans and sinners.  Why, because the commandments are merely in their minds not their heart, else they would not be breaking them:

Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?  Matthew 5:43-46.

Equally, the law of love identification (for some) means they are not under the laws of God in the sense that they can willfully violate God’s commandments and are guiltless.  They ignore the context of passages used to extrapolate what they call the law of love.

There is no law of love in the Bible.  You cannot find, Thou shalt love without an object for this state of mind to be pointed at.  Love is a ranging emotional and mental state, and you can have it for people, plants, animals, objects, and so on. 

Love has also become known as an intimate action.  Surely God does not expect us to misunderstand His love for mere, physical contact that pleases flesh.  Yet today, you have people using love as an umbrella to cover unlawful behavior in order to justify it against the laws of God. 

Love can be such a vague concept that it becomes relevant to each person’s euphoric self-classification.  In other words, their love may embrace sins specifically listed in God’s Law as wicked, and accepts them; because after all, they love their sins more than God and His commandments that exposes them.

The love the Bible describes is a supreme desire to God.  Keeping God’s commandments becomes the new nature of the true Christian.  Why, because the true Christian is born again and Spirit baptized and God has written His Law upon their hearts (2Co 3:3, Jer 31:33, Heb 8:10, Eze 36:26-27, Jer 32:40) beginning with the first (NOT only) commandment:

Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.  This is the first and great commandment.  And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.  Matthew 22:37-40 (see also, Rom 13:8, 10).

You cannot tell someone to just love without defining the type of love and object to love.  If you tell carnal people (even carnal so-called Christians) to love without giving them the Bible’s definition of what love to God is, they will define this love selfishly, and choose to ignore God’s definition of love.  In fact, most Christians today have thrown out the Bible and accept the devil’s, the world’s, and even their own standards of what love is to them.

God’s word plainly describes the love of God:

For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments:  1 John 5:3a.

Keeping God’s commandments is the love of God as clearly defined in the Bible; not by man, and certainly not by the world or the devil.  If you find that you cannot keep His commandments (and I do not mean the ceremonial ones, although they would be the easiest to keep), then you are not walking in the love of God, or the love the Bible describes.

The true Christian has no problem keeping God’s commandments.  Those who are walking after the flesh are having the difficulty and that includes those who are trying to keep God’s commandments and they are not born after the Spirit and God has not written His Law in their hearts. 

Having God’s Spirit is also no guarantee that you will not be tricked by your flesh, I can attest.  Nonetheless, I believe if you are sincere with God and admit your faults, He is just to forgive and help get you back on the path if you stumble.  After all, you knew in your heart you were wrong because He has made His abode there. 

Those who have not the Spirit of God are blind to their true sins.  They either substantiate their hate or openly embrace sin as natural.

I have seen both extremes and I can tell you that without that spiritual birth and the power of the gift of the Holy Ghost in a person’s life, you cannot keep God’s commandments.  Even if you claim you do keep them, I guarantee you have become blind to your hate and deceptions.  The one camp claims they are walking in love, but it is not God’s love because they are loving (as the world) those things that are against God’s Law. 

On the other hand, the rule followers display little love, in fact it can seem more like hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, and envyings (Gal 5:19-21), because God’s Laws are not written in their hearts but in their Bibles which they learn to use to beat other sinners over the head with.  They cannot see that these works of the flesh are sinful as well, in fact they usually justify their behavior.

Those born of the Spirit have an affinity for others born of the Spirit.  They easily recognize that same unction in others that God has given them, if they are walking in the Spirit.  Why, because it is the self-same Spirit that dwells in them.  Conversely, those walking in the Spirit feel apprehensive of those not born of the Spirit or walking in the Spirit.

Bottom line, both the strict law keepers and non-law keepers are still walking in the flesh and not the true faith of Christ in the Spirit.  You cannot separate faith of God from faith in God.  In other words, faith of God’s existence and the keeping of God’s will, His word, are inseparable in the heart of the true believer born after the Spirit.  Those who express a faith divested of God’s commandments and Spirit merely express that which is worse than a devil’s faith, and that is a superstitious faith.

Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble. But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?  James 2:19-20.

• As you can see devils also believe 
• They believe and tremble, because they know God is real; whereas man does not fear the approaching calamity, but chooses to love what he wants as he wants
• If your faith believes there is a God, but refuses the gift and power of His Spirit which enables you to keep God’s commandments from the heart, then you have a faith lower than the devil’s faith, because they at least know the folly of refusing to obey God; and “faith without works is dead.”

The works, or the keeping of God’s commandments is now a supreme desire in the heart of the true believer having been placed there by God when the disciple receives the gift of the Holy Ghost.  If you have not been born again and received the baptism with the Holy Ghost, then this work has not occurred in your life.  It is impossible for flesh to please God.  That goes for those walking in open sin against God’s commandments, as well as those trying to keep God’s Law through the flesh which is impossible.

Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man.  1 Corinthians 2:13-15.

Mindset:

I want to place you in the beginning of a mindset, the mindset the devils have at knowing there is a God (and that His judgement is going to fall upon them); and a mindset the Israelites had without the power of the Spirit of God helping them experience the true love of God.  This mindset I call, like the Bible, the fear of the Lord.  This fear is the beginning of knowledge. 

Without this fear (fear of God not man), you have not even begun to understand anything truthful, and that is an emphatic statement.  You cannot be motivated to pursue the gift of the Holy Ghost, or the truths of God, or learn the things of God without this fear. 

You will continue to be deceived or a hypocritical believer and not lower than the angels, but lower than the devil’s angels, because at least they tremble knowing they did not obey; whereas you refuse to repent and seek God’s Gift.

And all the people saw the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the noise of the trumpet, and the mountain smoking: and when the people saw it, they removed, and stood afar off.  And they said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear: but let not God speak with us, lest we die.  And Moses said unto the people, Fear not: for God is come to prove you, and that his fear may be before your faces, that ye sin not.  Exodus 20:18-20.

The Israelites felt the fear but were not motivated as Moses to pursue the truths of God.  Maybe you felt a little of this fear when you first realized you were a sinner, a criminal, before the holy justice of God.  This may have led you to repent and meet the Lord.  Most likely this was your conversion.  I say most likely, because it is possible to have a mental ascent to the truths of God without a heart change to love God supremely and make Him your sole desire.

However, like most, and like a dream, your conversion or your mental ascent has faded, and you have gone back to the flesh, the world, and embraced the devil’s doctrines.  This has caused you to fall into the superstitious “Christian” religions that have deluded so many today.  It is also why you want love to mean what you want it to mean as applied to your selfish desires.

Moses stayed in God’s presence receiving His Spirit and welcomed the fear in order to purge himself from any and all sin, and trust me, sin is summed up in this:

Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law.  1 John 3:4.

• This is the only definition of sin found in God’s word 
• Transgression of God’s Law is sin
• Those who sin openly are under God’s Law
• It is always evil to sin, and if sin for you is a habit, then you do not know God or love God according to the Bible 
• Sin is something you do, not something that possesses you (like the false doctrine of Sinful Nature)
• Any doctrine that excuses and blames sin on anything other than your actions personally, is not a doctrine found in the Bible 
• The fact that you have chosen to live a life of sin or excuse sin, is a witness to the true church that has continued amongst the secular one that you do not know God

Fear alone was and is not enough to prevent sin (take the Israelites as a case in point), because after all, the selfishness of man and his propensity to please his flesh is great.  Even the most noble among us will lie, cheat, and steal to profit or save himself, and they savor the taste of any false doctrine that excuses their sin.

Topics:

I am going to discuss the following bulleted topics and not in any order.  These topics may appear under their own headings or may be discoursed randomly:

• Under Law v/s Under Grace and how this has become a false doctrine in the way it is taught in today’s secular churches 
• Keeping God's commandments and you cannot find one verse in the Bible that says we are not supposed to keep God’s commandments

You may find a verse that you misinterpret and hold to as if you do not have to keep God’s commandments, but I guarantee there is another meaning that your selfishness is blinding you to.  I have said this before, be careful of interpretations of scripture where there are two or more possible meanings and you are choosing the one that conforms to your desires verses walking in the Spirit which leads to living holy from the heart for God – that, in itself, tells the wise to beware. 

Also, sins are not just of the lascivious or rebellious kind.  You can be one of the rule keepers and have hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, and envyings (Gal 5:19-21) in your heart toward other sinners.  The lewd sins are easy to spot.  It is the types of sins listed here in Galatians 5 that are the most difficult to repent of because of the blindness they cause to those serving them. 

You tell a nominal Christian that what he is doing is hate, and he will deny it and tell you he is loving that homosexual by telling him that he is going to hell if he doesn’t stop.  Fool, the homosexual (like you), is walking in the flesh he can’t change.  He cannot hear, much less follow God without repentance, conversion, the baptism with the Holy Ghost, and resultant heart change through faith.  Just because following God for you has become logical in the flesh (through your mental ascent), this does not make it so for other flesh.

• I will also discuss the goodness of God's Law, and there is not one passage in the Bible that says anything other than that the law is holy, just, and good 
• Death to Sin and how that if you do not die to sin (to self) you are still the servant of sin and not God 
• Romans 7 & 8 (Sinner v/s Christian* walk) I will discuss the whole chapter of Romans seven and part of Romans eight.  In this discussion, I will show you the difference between a sinner under conviction of the law and what a true Christian walk is supposed to be

I placed an *asterisk behind Christian in the preceding topical point because describing a “Christian” today can be as vague as each so-called Christian’s concept of what they believe love is according to their personal definitions.  In fact, it can be very difficult to distinguish a sinner from a Christian in today’s world.

First, the church has been splintered numerous times in its history, it is hard to define who is a true Christian by the many factions and denominations within the Christian classification itself.  The diagram above is a broad stroke, but within each of these factions are many sub-branches and divisions which are not even depicted.  However, we need to remember that there is still one true church that has continued despite the deluded secular churches that are visible:

The splintering of the secular church was caused by and has led to many doctrinal errors.  Within the false churches, we now have the acceptance of open sin and hypocrisy.  So, not only do we have many denominations, sects, and offshoots from the true vine, but now groups and individuals are identifying themselves by the very sins the Bible condemns, and they are calling themselves Christian.

So, the deceived and hypocrites should be warned; the true believers will use the Bible’s definition of love, and the Bible’s characterization of what a true Christian is by the fruits they bear, not the world’s new normalizations of sin, or the world’s carnal love or pretense. 

Also, the Bible describes what a walk in the Spirit looks like, and it is not the continued condemnation of the law without the mercy, grace, truth, and birth of the Spirit that Christ brings summed up as the Gospel.  I will also discuss:

• The Baptism with the Holy Ghost (to contrast a Flesh v/s Spirit Walk) 
• The purpose of God’s Law, and the law does its job very well
• NO Law NO Transgression and what that really means, and it is a bad thing not a good thing 
• Snippet Hunting 
• Importance of Conscience
• Lawlessness 
• Jesus’s Return

Jesus’s Return:

I originally had a large section discussing Jesus’s return, but I cut it out.  I do feel Jesus’s return will follow the same historical pattern of events in the Bible where God had to directly intervene in the world’s affairs to prevent evil from consuming everything.  It is God’s duty as the righteous judge to do this.

We see in the Bible that roughly 2000 years after God created the world, He had to directly intervene through the means of a flood to prevent evil from consuming His creation.  He did this on a smaller scale many times such as with Sodom and Gomorrah, the Israelites in Egypt, their subsequent wars, and miracles granted.

Again, roughly 2000 years after the flood Christ came and at that time, man had lost the concept of true religion and had become rule followers.  And here we are at roughly another 2000 years from His first coming, and we have both the carnal living that was present at the flood, and the loss of the concept of true religion present at Jesus’ first coming.  You know, the two legs, the two extremes.  We have a miry mixed up conglomeration of religions.

The world is spiraling out of control in a selfish sinful existence that would soon conquer it absent Jesus’s return.  The Devil, the world, and the secular church are introducing evil at such a pace (and normalizing sin), that soon not even the world will be able to contain the evil unleashed.  It is also evident that the church has lost control having embraced the very sins (out of their love for sin more than their love for God), that the commandments of God condemn.

Before the law, God intervened directly and more frequently to stop the spread of sin.  The giving of the law was one of God’s greatest mercies in that man now had the means of identifying and preventing sin.

The law acts as a fence, that you do not cross, and if you do cross it, you need the cross to get back.  The Devil, from the beginning, has been subverting God’s commandments to tear down the fence of the law, and he is now closer than ever.

Today, so much of that fence has been torn down by the secular churches and the world, that both are losing control of the wickedness that is overtaking them.  The secular church is gasping at the gross sins being committed in the world (and in many churches) and trying to mend the fence with untempered mortar.  They fail to realize that the little sins it has allowed to go unchecked among their nominal believers are the result.  A little leaven leaveneth the whole lump.

The secular church is hypocritical to condemn the world for telling children it is okay to be transgender when the church allows divorce remarriage adultery; for it is the same false doctrine of not under law but under grace (meaning you do not have to keep God’s commandments), that the secular churches use to permit the sins they love and accept.  So, why not the world too?

If you remove the commandments of God from the equation, for instance, as in the under law verses under grace misinterpretation telling people it is okay to sin; and that they do not have to repent of their violations of God’s commandments, because they are under the so-called law of love; then they will love what they want (even if it’s their sins).  You are inviting the calamity that befell all those before the law who perished without law, and the Devil knows this.

If you are foolish enough to believe that you can live in open sin against the commandments of God and that somehow God, in spite of yourself, will save you if you do not repent; then you are deceived beyond help.  If on the other hand, you still have a conscience, and realize that you are living in direct violation of God’s commandments and repent (confess and forsake your sins), then the grace of God is there to mend the fence by introducing you to His Son who is able to baptize you with the Spirit of God.  Walking in the Spirit is the only way to achieve the righteousness the law witnesses to.

I do want to look at a couple of passages (to set the mood) relating to the condition of the people we are dealing with today, especially those calling themselves Christian but have not the Spirit of God.  This generation of nominal believers have become so calloused to truth and inundated with false doctrines, that it is becoming impossible to reach them because of their love of sin, self, and of this world.

The one absolute rule of this world is death.  Die with the world because you cannot live without the world; or, live without the world.  I have experienced more hate and deceit from those claiming to be Christian in this world than from the lost, like it was their profession to hate and then feign love out of the other side of their face – advancing their own lies:

Doth a fountain send forth at the same place sweet water and bitter? Can the fig tree, my brethren, bear olive berries? either a vine, figs? so can no fountain both yield salt water and fresh. Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom. But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth. This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work.  James 3:11-16.

People sin, sometimes Christians are taken in a fault.  We do not condemn them; we give them the opportunity to repent:

Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual, restore such an one in the spirit of meekness; considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ. For if a man think himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself.  Galatians 6:1-3.

If you are a true believer, you have encountered people who act contrary to the love of Christ, and most likely been left shocked and heartbroken, but I offer encouragement.  As Jesus needed Judas and Sampson Delilah, these trials and temptations at the hands of the deceived perfect us, but in the Lord’s own words, “woe unto that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed! it had been good for that man if he had not been born.”

First Timothy 4:1-2, describes the condition of the modern day deceived and hypocrites:

Now the Spirit speaketh expressly that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron;  1 Timothy 4:1-2.

In this passage we see both the splintering of the church previously discussed, as well as the condition of the conscience of the latter-day hypocrites and those deceived.  God has given us a conscience to know what is sinful and what is not.  If your conscience is still the least bit sensitive, you cannot tell me that when you are committing sin that you can look in the mirror and say, God really loves what I am doing.

Only those who have their conscience seared, or have killed their conscience, to the things of God justify their sins.  It is always evil to sin.  Beware of teachings that justify sin and condemn living holy for God through the Spirit.

Of course, no one in the state described in 1 Timothy 4:1-2 believes this passage is describing them.  The hypocrite and deceived are blind to their own condition, because their conscience is seared.

How that they told you there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk after their own ungodly lusts.  These be they who separate themselves, sensual, having not the Spirit.  But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost,   Jude 1:18-20.

What is an ungodly lust?  A carnal love that throws out God’s Law and definition of love in favor of a self-serving lawless pleasing of the flesh.  You will reap what you sow:

For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting  Galatians 6:8.

I will talk more about those who have not the Spirit and praying in the Holy Ghost in another part.  However, these passages are a relevant description of the church today, which is not walking in the Spirit but after the flesh.

Snippet Hunting:

Snippet hunting is a common practice for the current Laodicean church, a church the Lord told:

As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent.  Revelation 3:19.

It is common for them to focus on a snippet of a verse and claim an inferred meaning without understanding the phrase in the context in which it was written.  Take for instance how adamant people are about claiming they are not under the law but under grace as if the law itself is evil or the opposite of grace. 

You will not find one verse in the Bible that describes God’s Law as anything other than holy, just, and good.  The law is not the opposite of grace, the law does not possess grace – that is the difference.  Under the Old Covenant God made with the Israelites, those who violated the law were immediately punished.

You will also find that people use the word grace in the same manner as they use love, vaguely in order to justify their sins.  Does grace, which in this case is God’s unmerited v/s His merited favor (and both do exist in the Bible), does grace cancel out following God’s commandments?  No. 

You must understand that under the law there was no grace in the sense of unmerited favor because transgression was met with punishment or segregation in the flesh.  There was only merited favor for keeping the law, and many people are praised for this and called perfect in the Bible: Enoch was perfect (Gen 5:24), Noah was perfect (Gen 6:9), Abraham (Gen 17:1), Job (Job 1:1), David (1Ki 9:4), Asa (1Ki 15:14), Hezekiah (2Ki 20:3), Daniel (Eze 14:20), Zechariah and Elizabeth (Luk 1:6), and Paul (Act 23:1), just to name a few.

The law keeper extreme of so-called Christians is using the law’s punishment or segregation method of dealing with sins they disapprove of.  I mean the condemnation of those not born after the Spirit.  If a person is not converted, they cannot see the kingdom of God.  They must first be converted.  Everyone in their conscience knows they are a sinner.  What is the point of beating them over the head with their sins if they can’t see the kingdom of God.

They can’t hear the law, or if they do, they are going to find that their flesh is unable to keep it.  Peter wanted to stand with the Lord, but he couldn’t because of the infirmity of his flesh.  It was not until after Peter received the Holy Ghost that he was able to go to his own cross.

No one kept all the law (that is, never violated it) but Christ, because of the weakness of all flesh.  So, grace and truth came by Christ.  The crucifixion of His flesh was an example.  This is also necessary for believers to do (figuratively) in order to make new creatures that can fulfill the righteousness of the law by receiving and walking in the Spirit. 

You owed a debt for the sins you committed, upon your repentance Christ pays the debt, God’s grace releases you from the debt, not to go back into debt again.  You do not return to a life of sin.  If you do backslide, repentance must be repeated (and hopefully granted), and Christ must be crucified afresh. 

To remain in willful sin after the knowledge of the truth is a lost or backslidden state.  Let’s look at the context of the snippet not under law but under grace:

For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.  What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.  Romans 6:14-15.

• Here is the phrase not under law but under grace 
• The snippet hunters choose to focus on this phrase only, as if grace is the opposite of law and therefore, they are not obliged to keep God’s commandments 
• Right before that phrase Paul says, “For sin shall not have dominion over you:” 
• Jesus described the dominion of sin over you this way:

Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.  John 8:34.

• If you willfully commit sin, sin is what you serve, not God, and you are certainly not under His grace 
• This is the dominion of sin 
• Right after the phrase not under law but under grace we read, “shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.” 
• So, you can plainly see that under grace is not the opposite of under law when it comes to sin and sin is transgression of law (1Jn 3:4) 
• Therefore, under grace means to accomplish what the law (on its own) could not by releasing us from the dominion of sin and its punishment so we are not the servants of sin 
• Under grace is God’s unmerited favor in forgiving past transgressions:

Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God;  Romans 3:24-25.

• Only sins that are past, that are repented of, are forgiven (your slate is wiped clean by His grace) 
• Sins you willfully continue to commit are not forgiven unless repented of (confessed and forsaken) – but in the flesh you cannot quit sinning, you need power, you must receive the Holy Ghost 
• God’s forbearance, His patience, allows us the time we have here in this world to repent and accept the Gospel
• It is the only point to your life, there is nothing else you can point to in this world that has any significance after you are dead 
• The sins you willfully refuse to repent of, the pleasures of the flesh you love so much, are of the world, and the world will pass away, but you first

For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.  What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.  Romans 6:14-15.

Those who take the snippet, not under law but under grace, fail to read what is before and after the phrase; and because they want to justify their sin (because they love it more than God) they have turned this snippet into something it is not.  Not under law but under grace does not mean we do not keep God’s commandments; it means the punishment for violation of those commandments is now forgiven and not punished in the flesh as it was strictly under the law which had no grace.

If you believe you can walk contrary to God’s commandments then you do not know God, but rather are lost or a deceived person who refuses to repent.  I will prove my following statement under my next heading using 1 Timothy chapter one – but if you are violating the law you are under the law not grace. 

Here is a simple natural truth to prove you are under law if you violate law.  If you do not think you have to keep God’s commandments, just walk down to your local bank and rob it and see how long it takes for a cop to show up and arrest you.  If this farce is absurd in the natural, why do others think God would be lower than man by allowing you to transgress His Laws with impunity?

To claim the promises of God you must meet the conditions.  What we have today is people claiming the promises of God without meeting the conditions.  All of God’s promises have conditions.  For instance:

But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach;  That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.  Romans 10:8-10.

The promise of eternal life is the one foundational promise all Christians seem to believe in.  Even in this promise there are conditions.  One, you must confess with your mouth, and two, you must believe in your heart.

This heart change and belief leads you unto righteousness (right doing), and that righteousness includes receiving God’s gift of the Holy Ghost and fulfilling the righteousness the law witnesses to.  Now tell me, if it was the preaching of faith that convicted you as a sinner before God and was the vehicle that led you to repent and confess and believe, why would God lead you back into sin?

The truth is, He doesn’t.  This heart change leads you unto righteousness and a love for Him and His ways.  That love for Him is shown and is defined in the Bible as keeping His commandments which are now in your heart (1Jn 5:3).

You have to be honest with yourself.  Most people are lying to themselves and claiming the promises of God without meeting the conditions, because they are walking in the flesh and not the Spirit. 

Your conversion was meant to produce a new spiritual creature unto God that would fulfill the righteousness of the law by God’s grace not the righteousness that comes by the law which brought seclusion.  It is impossible for you to obtain the law’s righteousness (because you have already violated it).

Sin proves the righteousness of the law and makes you unrighteous and a frustration to the grace of God meant to grant you repentance.  The deceived may awake from the delusion that it is okay to willfully sin, however the hypocrite may not. 

The religious hypocrites were Jesus’s greatest adversaries.  Today, because hypocrites love self more than God, they are the greatest proponents of false doctrines.  They are also the ones not walking in the Spirit but trying to keep the law through the flesh:

Better is a poor and a wise child than an old and foolish king, who will no more be admonished.  For out of prison he cometh to reign; whereas also he that is born in his kingdom becometh poor.  Ecclesiastes 4:13-14. 

Conclusion of Part One

End Audio, check comments in Youtube Video Channel Bibocious or play next video below, Under the Law Part 2.

 Under the Law, Pt. 2 (Conclusion)

Lawlessness:

My main criticism has to do with the perversion of the phrase, “not under law, but under grace,” and how most take this phrase out of context and use it to justify willfully sinning against the commandments of God.  As you can plainly see, the context of the passage from Romans chapter six proves that sin, which the law exposes, is still forbidden.  In fact, if you habitually sin then you are the servant of sin which leads to death.

Those who pervert the phrase “not under law, but under grace,” claim they are living under a law of love for which there is no law of in the Bible.  Love in the Bible is clearly defined and always directed at an object, but their definition of love is vague and not in accordance with the Bible’s definition.  God expects us to keep His commandments, and the Bible defines this as the love of God (1Jn 5:3).

I said I would prove that if you are violating God’s Law you are under the law and not grace:

But we know that the law is good, if a man use it lawfully; Knowing this, that the law is not

made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, For whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind, for menstealers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine;  1 Timothy 1:8-10.

First, the law is holy, just, and good.  Paul never once placed the law of God in a negative light.  Under law v/s under grace cannot be understood to mean there is something wrong with the law, but something else needed from God in order to forgive our violation of that which is holy, just, and good.  We needed His grace (unmerited favor) in order for repentance to be accepted.  Those who are painting a picture of God’s commandments as evil, are not using them lawfully as seen in verse 8.

The law was made for the, “lawless and disobedient.”  Consider that phrase because it not only includes those who follow no law, but those deceived by false religions into disobeying God’s Law.  The law was given out of mercy, because people were perishing in their sins, but God was willing (by His mercy), to give them the knowledge of sin which comes by the law so they would not be ignorant.  He gave grace by Christ so they could repent and be forgiven for violating the law.

If you are willfully committing sin, I say, consciously violating God’s Law, then you are under the law.  The only way to not be under the law is to be dead to sin, to be walking in the Spirit, that is to be a righteous man under God’s grace.

The Bible plainly teaches that those who are in violation of God’s Law are under the law (1Ti 1:8-10, Rom 2:12, Rom 3:19-20, Gal 3:19).  If someone is telling you that, even though you are willfully violating God’s Law you are not under its conviction and do not need to repent, then they are lying to you.

What is the motivation for wanting to willfully sin against God’s commandments?  The motivation is the selfish desire to please the lusts of the flesh, because you love sin more than you love God and His commandments because you have not been converted.  And for those who resist God’s Spirit but make pretense at keeping the law, it is their pride and false conversion through mental ascent:

For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.  1 John 2:16. 

The selfish heart of man is so deceitful, that it relishes the opportunity of false doctrines that allow sin and salvation to seemingly exist together.  The angel, speaking to Joseph about Mary said:

And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins.  Matthew 1:21.

This is the salvation, because your sins will destroy you, as it did the people before the law, like those of the flood and Sodom and Gomorrah.  If you live after the flesh, you shall die (Rom 8:13).

For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.  What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.  Romans 6:14-15.

Under Grace does not mean you do not keep God's commandments as plainly shown by Paul in our passage under review, “sin shall not have dominion over you…[and]…shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.”

What else does Paul say about keeping God’s commandments:

For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified.  Romans 2:13.

Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.   Romans 3:31.

For this, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not kill, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness, Thou shalt not covet; and if there be any other commandment, it is briefly comprehended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.  Romans 13:9.

What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?  God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?  Romans 6:1-2.

Now if Paul did not expect us to keep God’s commandments as new creatures, why go to the trouble of saying the opposite of that?  Those who teach that not under law but grace means we do not have to keep God’s commandments, obviously do not understand the true meaning of the phrase.

There are those who are teaching people that they are dead to sin, and to them that means it is okay to sin, in an attempt to claim the promise of God without meeting the conditions.  You are not dead to sin if you continue to sin.  Those who teach otherwise are lying in order to please the flesh.

Counting our review passage, that is five passages refuting (in Paul’s own words) that under law v/s under grace means we do not keep God’s commandments.  Paul did not teach that grace means we do not obey from the heart God’s commandments, but that grace (God’s unmerited favor) is added in our case to justify us in light of our past failures so we can repent, be born again, receive the Holy Ghost, walk in the Spirit, keep His commandments from the heart, and fulfill the righteousness of the law by His grace.  You cannot be justified by the law, it must be by grace.

Romans 7:

This section is very important if you willfully sin against God’s Law.  That means you are under the law.  If you want to understand the truth about Romans chapter 7 you need to understand that in the flesh, Romans 7 may seem like the walk you are experiencing and you are thinking it is a Christian walk – but it is not.

Romans 7 is one of the hardest chapters in the Bible to understand, especially if you are walking in the flesh.  Romans 7 is the easiest chapter in the Bible to use if you are walking in the flesh to justify sins you are unwilling to repent of.  Romans 7 does not describe a Christian walk.  If Romans 7 describes your religious walk, then you are merely superstitious and not a true Christian.

Romans 7 does describe the walk of someone under the conviction of the law; either a convicted sinner, or a backslider (a temporary or habitual backslider).  Romans 7, by being misused, also describes the walk of a hypocrite; and/or the most popular in today’s church filled with doctrines of devils, someone who is deceived.

For the convicted sinner and backslider, there is hope if you continue to Romans chapter 8.  You are struggling (as you should), with the conviction and condemnation the law brings to your wayward lives of sin and how you cannot keep God’s commandments in the flesh.

However, the hypocrite and deceived are blind, and have chosen to justify the sins they cannot overcome.  Strike that, they are not willing to overcome them by the power of the Holy Ghost in Romans chapter 8.  They would rather justify them in order to live a carnal worldly life of walking in the flesh while trying to claim the promises of God.  Remember…:

God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.  John 4:24.

All the indications of Romans 7 describing the struggles of unregenerate sinners or backsliders under the law is found in the first verse.  And all the proof of Romans 7 describing the hypocrite and deceived is found in their identifying with the struggle of conviction and condemnation under the law found in Romans 7, and twisting it (falsely) into the description of a Christian walk:

Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth?  Romans 7:1.

Paul clearly indicates that he is speaking to people who know the law.  Those who do not know the law, do not understand the conviction and condemnation of the law Paul is fixing to describe.

For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.  Romans 10:4.

First, Christ is the goal of the law (the word end means goal), i.e., what the law is leading us to.  You cannot get to Christ without knowing the law or hearing its preaching, and its purpose is to expose your sins and show you the need for Christ.

In Romans 7:1 Paul also states that the law has dominion over you as long as you live.  The only way to escape the dominion of sin that comes by the law is to die.  This was a natural truth under the law Covenant God made with Israel; transgressions were met with punishment or segregation in the flesh (no grace).  Paul is going to illustrate this point by using a natural truth to prove a spiritual truth:

For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband. So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.  Romans 7:2-3.

Here is the natural truth in Paul’s analogy.  A woman who leaves her lawful first husband to be with another man is an adulteress.  This truth is undisputed in the Bible, I have proven Adultery in previous postings.  The only way a woman can leave her lawful husband (and I mean God’s laws, not man’s), is if the lawful husband is dead. 

If a woman, leaves her husband to be with another, she is an adulteress by the laws of God.  No one, and I mean no one, can disprove this, they can only excuse it for the sake of satisfying the sins of the flesh.

Remember, Paul is talking to those who know the law, not those who subvert it.  The lost who do not know the law and the deceived are going to follow their flesh, because they are not born again, new creatures, baptized with the Holy Ghost, walking in the Spirit; that is, not a true Christian.

Those who know the law and violate it anyway, are under the law and its conviction and condemnation of their sins and need to repent (1Ti 1:8-10).  Here is the spiritual truth in Paul’s analogy:

Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.  Romans 7:4.

The only way you can be married to Christ is for you to be dead to the law that exposes your sin.  This means your flesh being (your sins, desires, the carnal way of everything) must die by the body of Christ for which it was sacrificed.  You must become a spiritual being, a new creature.  Now contrary to false teachings on these verses:

For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband.  Romans 7:2.

The law does not die.  It is the husband that dies, or for the spiritual analogy of your carnal life, it is your flesh that dies.  The law still exists, and if you decide to live a life of sin in the flesh after the rudiments of the world, the law revives again to convict and condemn you:

So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.  Romans 7:3.

Here again, it is the husband that dies not the law.  Remember the law is holy, just, and good; it does its job well and is praised by God in the Bible.

You can do what you want in relation to excusing your unrepentant sins while living for the pleasures of the world.  What you cannot do here or at your judgement is say that God did not show you mercy by giving you His commandments warning you to repent and accept the grace He has provided, and you chose not to.

Here is another spiritual truth from Paul’s analogy.  If you choose to continue to live after the flesh – in sin, then you are not dead to sin.  Therefore, if you are trying to be married to Christ and living after the flesh, what you are doing is committing spiritual adultery, because your first husband (the flesh) is not dead to sin.  That is why adulterers and adulteresses present such a fitting description of those who continue to live after the flesh, after the rudiments of the world, and try and claim they are also spiritual as illustrated by James:

From whence come wars and fightings among you? come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members?  Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not. Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts. Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.  James 4:1-4.

Divorce remarriage adultery is one sin that will condemn you if you fail to repent, but spiritual adultery covers the full range of the sins of the flesh.  While you may not be guilty of divorce remarriage adultery, you may be guilty of spiritual adultery to Christ via other sins of the flesh:

For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death.  Romans 7:5.

Living after the flesh is going to prove the righteousness of the law; why, because the law is going to expose your sins (that is its job by God’s mercy) and prove you are under law and not grace.  The holy, and just, and good commandments are trying to show you the need for Christ, the need to die to self (the flesh), and be born again, become a new creature that receives and walks in the Spirit.

Not a hypocrite that maintains that it is okay to serve sin and somehow serve God too.  That is bringing forth fruit unto death.  It cannot be done, which is why those who live after the flesh love sin more than God and teach others that they do not have to keep God’s commandments.

It is only logical for those who walk after the flesh to teach others that they do not have to keep God’s commandments.  It is true that you cannot serve two masters, and so you have chosen to hate God and His commandments, even if it’s through pretense. 

Those who really love sin more than God while claiming to love God are liars.  You cannot serve both, which is why they constantly demean God’s rule and His commandments.  It is God’s Law that is exposing their fraud (see how good the law is).

But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.  Romans 7:6.

Living under the law (under violation of what it proclaims) is a dead existence.  You cannot keep the law in the flesh because you have already violated it in the flesh.  You are held there awaiting the judgement, unless you truly die to its hold over you.

How is that possible?  By repenting and serving in newness of spirit, by the grace God has granted and receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost who empowers you to overcome the flesh.

To continue or return to the old man’s life is going back to the oldness of the letter.  If you are an unregenerate sinner or backslider and still have a conscience, this is tormenting to you.  And because you cannot serve two masters, you will eventually choose the one to love and the one to hate.  For those who love sin more, it becomes their will (what they do) to hate God and His Law, even though on the surface they may pretend to serve God.

If your conscience is seared with a hot iron, like the hypocrites or deceived, the euphoric sensation you receive from the transitory pleasures of the flesh is temporary.  Whether you willfully decide to die to the flesh (and its sins) or not, in time it will die for you.  So, what does it matter if you gain the whole world and lose your soul?

What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.  Romans 7:7.

You would not know what sin was if God had not shown mercy in giving us His commandments.  Like the Lord said, it will be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgement than you.  Why, because they had no law or the grace and truth of Christ.  I will add the flood dead, and all those who died before God gave His commandments; they will find it more tolerable in the day of judgment than you, who have heard and know the law but refuse to repent believe the Gospel and follow God’s will.

Knowing what displeases God is a good thing because those things will destroy you.  So, how did it become evil to want to do His will?  You have spent what little time you have living in pleasure and plying your desires upon others.  You cannot dodge the vengeance for your sins by besmirching God’s word which exposes your lusts.  No, the law is not sin. 

You are hiding your works in darkness and not bringing them to the light of His word for repentance and purging and reception of the Gospel.  Twice condemned is this generation for both committing sin willfully, then covering it by slandering the very word that exposes it.

But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead.  For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.  Romans 7:8-9.

If you are honest with yourself about your willful sins against God’s commandments, you have to admit that each time you take the occasion to sin by the commandment it is a matter of your lusts in the flesh that you are satisfying.  That flesh is supposed to be dead by the body of Christ, if you are a Christian.

You also have to admit that you were alive (in the flesh) without the law once.  However, when you hear the law, your sins revive, proving the righteousness of the law.  We were all alive without the law once, but we were dead spiritually.  If God’s Law is now in your heart and you sin, sins resurgence will haunt you.  The more you indulge it, the deader your spirit feels.

Being without the law is a bad thing, because you do not know that you need to die and be born again.  This is the analogy Paul started with the adulteress, and you can only be alive once without the law, because after it comes you know that you are in sin, dead spiritually.

You cannot return to a state prior to law, because you were only alive there once.  Removing the law does not bring you salvation but the contrary.  Once you know what God expects, you cannot choose to ignore it for the pleasures of sin.

Remember verse one, Paul is talking to those who know the law.  These passages support the claim that Paul is describing a sinner confronted by the law.

And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death.  For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me.  Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.  Romans 7:10-12.

Here is the need for Christ and the grace of God, and chapter 8 proves that this is Paul’s point in chapter 7.  God gave the commandment, which was ordained to life, but because we occasionally violate it (by sinning), we find it to be unto death.  The law kills, so why not die to it before it kills you?

The law is holy, just, and good, but we are deceived by sin and can find that the commandment only brings death.  This is living under the law, under its conviction and condemnation for our transgressions.  The only way to overcome its force is to die to it.  You have to die to sin.

The law does its job well, it exposes your sins.  You can temporally escape its force by ignoring it and living after the flesh, but one way or another your flesh will die.  You can voluntarily die to the flesh, or involuntarily it will die for you; this is the inescapable truth of death that no man can deny.

You can repent and kill the flesh by the body of Christ and die to sin, or you can let sin continue, and the natural death of the body will destroy the flesh.  God’s way is redemption, your way is total downfall.  If you never realize this truth, your existence becomes a pointless vanity.

Do you really think life is about your family, work, pleasures, eating and drinking, and going about fulfilling the desires of the flesh?  Death looms absent your ignorance of it, your flesh will die one way or the other.

Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful.   Romans 7:13.

Here is what the deceived are missing, it is not the laws fault, the law is good.  People who portray the law as evil only do it to vindicate their sins.  It is sin that Paul is depicting as the evil element in Romans 7.  Sin always brings death:

Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:  Romans 5:12.

Death comes by sin – NOT by the law or nature.  You can die to sin and live, or you can continue to sin and die.  It is your choice but trust me you cannot keep the law walking in the flesh.  You need the gift of the Holy Ghost to enable you to walk in the Spirit.

Transgression before the law came was also sinful, but the giving of the law made it exceedingly sinful because you can no longer feign ignorance and now the law is there to remind and confront you.  The law multiplies sin revealing your lost condition.

You must realize your true condition.  If you are living after the flesh according to the rudiments of the world you will die.  Repent and receive the gift of God’s Spirit and find the unction to overcome (die) to the flesh instead.

For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.  Romans 7:14.

Contrary to the teachings of the deceived, this verse is not offering a dual existence.  There are those who teach that you are flesh and as long as you are flesh you are going to sin, so it is acceptable.  Whenever carnal is used, it is always in a negative light:

Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.  Romans 8:7.

Romans 8:7 shows us that to be carnal is to be the enemy of God.  It also shows us that to walk carnally makes you unable to follow God’s Law.  Paul is teaching in Romans 7 the difference between a carnal walk and the spiritual walk of Romans 8.

As long as you live after the flesh you will be sold under sin and therefore be under the law not grace.  Paul is definitely not teaching a Christian walk in Romans 7, if he were, Romans 8:7 would contradict Romans 7:14. 

This is my previous warning concerning multiple interpretations for Bible verses.  Those who choose interpretations that contradict other passages do it to excuse their resistance of God’s Spirit.  The true understanding of what Paul is teaching in Romans 7 does not contradict Romans 8.  It is only contradictory if you are trying to justify living after the flesh.

For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.  If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good.  Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.  Romans 7:15-17.

If you realize you are a sinner, or you have backslidden, in both cases you still have a conscience and this passage makes perfect sense.  On the other hand, if you are deceived or a hypocrite, then this passage can be easily confused and wrested to form the basis of your superstitious belief system that allows you to try and serve two masters.

If you still have a conscience, then you know this torment; how you cannot answer the question of, Why do I do that which I hate.  You know the law and you know that it is good; but why do you continue to sin against it.

It is because you are not dead to sin, it still dwells in you; and while it is easy to point this out, it can be difficult to overcome the flesh (impossible in yourself), due to the influence of the world and the Devil on your circumstance.  God knows this, which is why He gave the gift of the Holy Ghost, so you would receive power to overcome the flesh, the world, and the Devil.

But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you:  Acts 1:8a.

The problem today is that most people claiming to be Christian do not have the gift of the Holy Ghost, and therefore do not have the power to overcome.  Or, those that do have it are not walking in the Spirit.

You will notice that Paul nowhere in Romans 7, talks about the Holy Ghost, which is another reason why Romans 7 does not describe a Christian walk.  Paul also uses the pronoun “I” numerous times.  To try and keep God’s commandments alone (all the “I’s” Paul uses), is the same as trying in the flesh and is a sure way to fail.

You need to rely on God through the power of the Holy Ghost to help, that is, until you are walking in the Spirit you are always going to do those things you hate in the flesh, unless you are deceived or a hypocrite.  In those cases, you will continue to use Romans 7 as the basis of your superstitious belief system seemingly allowing sin and righteousness to dwell together.

For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.  Romans 7:18.

The first thing to be said about this verse is that it does not represent an acceptable duplicitous existence in order to justify sin, or walking in the flesh and trying to walk in the Spirit at the same time.  The previous verses and the next three verses prove this.

You have violated God’s Law, it is impossible for anything good to dwell in your flesh; hence the need to be born again, become a new creature, and be filled with and walking in the Spirit (the only good presence that can now dwell in you).  If you still have a conscience, then you understand that each time you willfully sin in the flesh, in your mind you wanted to do good but you just cannot figure out how to do it.  That is because your flesh is dominating your soul instead of your spirit.  The only way to break this cycle is for you to walk in the power of the Holy Ghost and die to sin, and mortify the deeds of the flesh.

And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.  Galatians 5:24.

You have to master the body through the Spirit, that is the point to your existence, and the reason grace is granted to you.  If you physically die in a state of willful sin before overcoming the flesh, the world, and the Devil, you will not inherit the kingdom of God for at least two reasons.

One, the sacrifice of Christ only works if you have repented (confessed and forsaken) sin:

For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins,  Hebrews 10:26.

Two, the blood of Christ only works for you here while you are still flesh and blood in order to facilitate your regeneration into a new creature born of water and of the Spirit:

Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.  1 Corinthians 15:50.

Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.  John 3:5.

Remember, Jesus’s new body (which was an example of the body we are to receive) it was flesh and bone, no blood.  You have to die to sin, die to self.  In the world where self-interest governs all, you must deny self:

And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.  Luke 9:23.

In the world where identity confusion dominates, that is, people’s identity is governed by how they identify sexually in the flesh, only your spiritual identity in Christ matters:

But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name:  Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.  John 1:12-13.

And in the world where it is now considered illegal to preach spiritual rebirth, because the world now classifies it as conversion therapy, you still must be converted to enter the kingdom of God:

And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.  Matthew 18:3.

So, continue to follow your flesh and the world and you will die with them, or you can repent, die to self, be born again, receive the Holy Ghost, and walk in the Spirit.  It is your choice.

For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.  Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.  I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.  Romans 7:19-21.

Just because someone wants to do good (but does it not) this does not make them godly (or saved).  Also, this is not a Christian, because true Christians obey God from their new heart, those who refuse to obey are not Christian.  The best way (for me) to describe this passage is to use the example of witnessing to others. 

Have you ever testified to someone about the Lord only to hear them say, I know I should be doing better, or going to church, but right now, I am busy, or not interested, or some other excuse?  This is the law of sin that dwells in them that Paul is referring to.  It is called a law because of its force on the flesh and its ability to override the spirit in dominating your soul.

For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:  But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.  Romans 7:22-23.

Light, dark, and the grey, today there is the belief that you can live in the grey area, but you

cannot.  This is perhaps one of the greatest delusions and deceptions facing us today.  Because the church no longer ministers the Spirit or walks in the Spirit, they have embraced many false ways in order to deal with the weakness of the flesh.

Their labors are in vain.  A perfect environment (paradise) could not tame the flesh, conscience (before the flood) could not tame the flesh, the law (Old Covenant) failed, and now the Spirit (by reason of resistance) while not failing when received and rightly followed, is coming up short in converting the world to righteousness through Christ.  The Bible tells us that God’s last effort to convince flesh will be Jesus’s return and the iron rule of 1,000 years – but it also tells us that this fails too.

Romans 7:22-23 does not offer an excuse for sin, that is the deceived and hypocrite’s interpretation.  The whole point to Romans 7 is that you cannot keep God’s Law in the flesh.  Whether Paul is speaking of himself or speaking metaphorically, if you are honest with yourself you can relate to this passage.

For me, I know what Paul is saying because I have went through this.  In my mind (my inward man) I love or delight in God’s word but in my flesh (walking after the flesh) I am almost compelled to sin.  I have backslid so many times I have lost count even though I have received the baptism with the Holy Ghost.  I also know that when I yield to the Holy Ghost and walk in the Spirit the flesh is subdued.

O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? 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.  Romans 7:24-25.

Only through Christ can you be delivered from your wretched flesh.  False Christians who use Romans 7 to describe their duplicitous walk are merely trying to serve two masters, which cannot be done.  This whole chapter describes walking in the flesh and trying keep God’s Law.  This marriage did not work for the Israelites and it will not work for you either.

Paul is not offering a dual existence.  He is not saying with his mind he served the law of God and with his flesh the law of sin.  The conjunction is “but” not and; as in if you walk straight you will be saved “but” if you walk the broad way you will be destroyed.  It all comes back to someone trying to keep the law in the flesh and being convicted by the law that is exposing the weakness of their flesh to constrain sin. 

Paul is not saying it is okay to follow the flesh because this would contradict a lot of Bible passages condemning a flesh walk most of which come in Romans 8.  In fact, if you are foolish enough to believe Romans 7 depicts a Christian walk you must become a hypocrite; because in order to do that you have to claim the teachings of Roman 8 are not literal.

I want to close Romans 7 with this thought.  Paul tells us that the law is holy, just, and good; and if a believer is under grace, why describe a person under the law?

No Law No Transgression:

Before I get to Romans 8, I want to touch on a couple of topics.  The first one is the Bible phrase No Law No Transgression:

Because the law worketh wrath: for where no law is, there is no transgression.  Romans 4:15.

The snippet, “for where no law is, there is no transgression” is also used by the antinomians to say that if you remove the law there is no sin.  I admit that on the surface this passage can easily be wrested to say if you have no law there is no sin because after all, that is what it says.

This troubled me deeply and I sought God in order to understand the truth of the passage.  The answer from God was simple.  “For where no law is, there is no transgression” and there is no salvation from the transgression either.  This is a bad thing.  Without the knowledge of sin which comes by the law it is almost impossible to see the need for Christ. 

Without law you become as those who did not have the law, like the flood victims and Sodom and Gomorrah.  Not having law did not save those in the Bible who did not have God’s Law:

For as many as have sinned without law shall also perish without law: and as many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law;  Romans 2:12.

Sins exist without the law, the law was added because of transgressions (Gal 3:19).  Here is another passage which is misused similarly:

For until the law sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no law. Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come.  Romans 5:13-14.

The sins that were being committed in the world prior to law could not be imputed to the sinners.  This does not mean that if you now remove law sins will not be imputed to you.  How do we know this, because if we continue to read Paul says, “Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses.” 

Even though sin existed before the law, it was still punished by God although there was no knowledge of what it was.  Not having the law was a bad thing, especially since they perished without law.  Ignorantia juris non excusat – ignorance of the law excuses not.

We are talking about spiritual death to be sure.  If you will read all of Romans chapter 5 you will see this, especially verse 21:

That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.  Romans 5:21.

You have to balance the equation in the verse; the sin that leads to death is spiritual death because the other side of the equation is eternal life.  Sin always brings spiritual death which is why you must be born again. 

Is this not obvious, can you not see that those who sin in the flesh do not die physically.  Even after Adam sinned he did not die physically.  The physical death of Adam was the result of not being able to reach the tree of life.

In God’s creation, we exist alongside each other.  Law by necessity exits whether we are aware of it or not.  For instance, if selfishness is left to itself it destroys others, this law has naturally existed before it was penned.  For example, if someone found pleasure in murder, they would eventually destroy everyone else.  Moral law cannot be done away with because it naturally exists.  God is the enforcer of righteousness being the only righteous being possessing and deserving of that power.  If you fail to conform to the righteousness the law witnesses to by the grace He is providing through the Gospel, you by necessity destroy yourself.  If God did not enforce law, then the strongest selfish being would destroy everyone else.

Baptism with the Holy Ghost:

If you are seeking the baptism with the Holy Ghost I encourage you to read Articles: IX-A. Water Baptism, IX-B. Baptism with the Holy Ghost (Hebrew Testament), IX-C. Universal Baptism with the Holy Ghost and Timeline, X-A. Prophesying and Interpretation, X-B. The Spiritual Gifts, X-C. Charity, X-D. Understanding, X-E. Decently and in Order.  These Articles cover, in much more detail, the topic of the Holy Ghost and baptisms.

If you do not speak with tongues you have not received the baptism with the Holy Ghost.  There was no other manifestation given in the Bible but this manifestation as proof that a person was baptized with the Holy Ghost.

I know that many in today’s secular churches excuse this lack of manifestation in their walk.  In the Articles above I have tried to answer all objections to this false belief.   Even in the passages of the Bible where it appears that some received the baptism with the Holy Ghost and it does not specifically mention this manifestation, those passages do not offer another manifestation or indicate that speaking with tongues did not occur.

You cannot walk in the Spirit if you have not received the Spirit.  You can be a fool all you want and try and invent your own way (in the flesh) to be religious and continue to resist God’s Spirit.  However, this is the way God chose to speak to His people:

In the law it is written, With men of other tongues and other lips will I speak unto this people; and yet for all that will they not hear me, saith the Lord.  1 Corinthians 14:21. 

When Jude was talking about praying in the Holy Ghost, he was talking about praying in the Spirit with tongues.  If this is not your spiritual prayer language, then you are not praying in the Spirit.

This will offend those of you with pride who do not want to yield to the Spirit of God.  You are resisting God’s Spirit as did the religious hypocrites of Stephen’s time who killed him after he flatly told them they were resisting God’s Spirit.

You will never walk in the Spirit if you do not receive the baptism with the Holy Ghost; and mister, I do not care who you are (even the Pope), you are a liar to pretend you have God’s Spirit without the manifestation of speaking with tongues.  Your excuses at best wrest other meanings from the Bible that contradict the very proof of the manifestation given in the Bible.

There is not more one can say about the baptism with the Holy Ghost than what I have just said or provided in the links.  It is a gift from God, and as with any gift you can choose to receive it or not.  God is not forcing it on you, but God has also given us the proof that someone is baptized with the Spirit by the manifestation.

So, pretend if you want to, but you are only hurting yourself.  Also, just because you have received the baptism with the Holy Ghost does not mean you are walking in the Spirit.  These are two different things.  However, in this case you cannot do the one without the other.

Romans 8:

There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.  Romans 8:1.

Why describe a person under the law in Romans 7?  A person walking after the flesh?  Why, and then tell us that the condemnation just discussed, does not exist in Christ?

I have maintained that Romans 7 is not a Christian walk, and the first verse of Romans 8 proves this.  The condemnation that the law brings does not exist if you, “are in Christ Jesus.”  In fact, there is no condemnation.  Paul’s words are clever.  We are not talking about your run of the mill nominal Christians here.  This is a marriage.

When you, “were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law,” brought forth death, the fruit of that union.  Now you are married to Christ, that is, if the flesh is now dead.  The condition and proof for this relief from condemnation is that you, “walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.”

If you walk after the flesh there is going to be condemnation, unless you are deceived and have a conscience that is seared.  This is happening in the secular churches.  Carnal so-called Christians are being told that, even though they continue to sin, there is no condemnation. 

God gave you a conscience, but because you love sin so much, you are listening to the lies of the deceived saying you don’t have to repent of your wickedness.  Their followers do not show heart change but expresses a mere mental ascent that if you just think there is a God (accept a mental belief in Christ) you will be saved:

Because with lies ye have made the heart of the righteous sad, whom I have not made sad; and strengthened the hands of the wicked, that he should not return from his wicked way, by promising him life:  Ezekiel 13:22.

Also, for the first time since Romans 7 Paul clearly discusses the Spirit indicating the true path to walk.  You cannot fulfill the righteousness of the law walking in the flesh, you need the Spirit of God:

For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.  Romans 8:2-4.

If you have not been baptized with the Holy Ghost, then you do not have the Spirit within you to help.  It is impossible for you to keep the law (i.e., fulfill the righteousness of the law) in the flesh, and is only possible through the Spirit if you walk in the Spirit.

If you live after the flesh you are going to do the things of the flesh; and today there are so many false doctrines out there offering you both sin and salvation at the same time, that your conscience is going to become numb to the truth.  If you want proof, just look at how many of you are of a carnal mind and become the enemies of God and do not believe you are subject to God’s Law:

For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.  Romans 8:5-7.

If you continue to sin against the laws of God, you are under the law and walking in the flesh.  You cannot please God by walking in the flesh.  Maintaining this farce only proves that you are resisting God’s Spirit which gives you the power to overcome the flesh if you walk in the Spirit.  Now, if you are going to continue to resist God’s Spirit, then you do not belong to God:

So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. 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.  Romans 8:8-9.

You can continue to embrace false doctrines and deaden your conscience to the sins you willfully commit, but you are only hurting yourself.  You can also pretend you keep God's Law even though you have not been baptized with the Holy Ghost, but your hate shows.  God has plainly shown in the Bible what the Gospel entails.  If your life does not display the same characteristics of the Bible examples, then you my friend are deceived. 

How will you be able to stand before God having embraced sin when your body is supposed to be dead to sin if Christ is in you?  Or, how can you say you are led by the Spirit when you have hate in your heart for your neighbor you blind hypocrite?  The true religion of Christ is not rule following and enforcement.

The Gospel is offering a living relationship not a death sentence. I am sick and tired of seeing false brethren beat people over the head with the law telling them to conform to it.  No, die to it.

The true Christian is testifying to the grace and mercy God is offering the sinner if he repents, not the condemnation of hell if he does not conform his flesh to the rules.  We do not offer hell; hell is the choice of those who refuse being married to Christ because they love of their flesh more.  Living after the flesh is the death sentence.

And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you. Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.  Romans 8:10-14.

If you have not been baptized with the Holy Ghost and thereafter, led by the Spirit, then you are not a son (or daughter) of God.  If you are willfully sinning against the laws of God you are under the law not grace, and not married to Christ.  If you are trying to conform your flesh to the law as a rule follower you can stop, because it won’t work.

Your church does not minister the Spirit, or if it does, they are not being led by the Spirit.  If you doubt me then prove to me that your church is walking in the same anointing as the one in Acts.  Your religion is superstitious at best, lacking the approval of God:

And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.  Mark 16:17-18.