Angelic Conflict part 280: Defeater of death – Rom 5:12-21; 8:1-11; Amo 4:4-5; 5:21-24.

Title: Angelic Conflict part 280: Defeater of death - ROM 5:12-21; 8:1-11; AMO 4:4-5; 5:21-24.  

 

 

ROM 5:12 Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned — 

 

ROM 5:13 for until the Law sin was in the world; but sin is not imputed when there is no law.

 

ROM 5:14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned in the likeness of the offense of Adam, who is a type of Him who was to come.

 

ROM 5:15 But the free gift is not like the transgression. For if by the transgression of the one the many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by the grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many.

 

ROM 5:16 And the gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned; for on the one hand the judgment arose from one transgression resulting in condemnation, but on the other hand the free gift arose from many transgressions resulting in justification.

 

 

ROM 5:17 For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned [as king] through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign [as kings] in life through the One, Jesus Christ.

 

ROM 5:18 So then as through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men, even so through one act of righteousness there resulted justification of life to all men.

 

Justification of life reveals that justification is not only justification in regard to sin or the removal from the ledger of our debts, but also a life to be lived out or walked in time. Our position in Christ, our understanding of it, and our faith in it will result in a reigning life.

 

ROM 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

 

ROM 8:2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death [life and liberty].

 

ROM 8:3 For what the Law could not do [make one righteous], 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,

 

ROM 8:4 in order that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us [living in righteousness], who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit [pursuit of happiness].

 

ROM 8:2 - life and liberty; ROM 8:4 - the pursuit of happiness by means of God the Holy Spirit.

 

The legalist tries to obey God in his own strength and fails to measure up to the righteousness that God demands.

 

The Spirit-led Christian, as he yields his will to the Lord, experiences the results of the sanctifying work of the Spirit in his life.

 

We do not feel the work of the Spirit, but we certainly experience its results.

 

So in verses 1-3 we have life and liberty, which are ours through our new creation. We are made alive in the Spirit and we are no longer under the death sentence of the Adamic nature.

 

Verses 1-3 refers to our position in Christ and verse 4 we have the life or the experience or the walk from that position. There are some wonderful examples of this position/experience relationship in the NT.

 

GAL 3:27

For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.

 

ROM 13:14

But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts.

 

God tells us that we have the amazing blessing of being clothed with Christ and then He exhorts us to exercise that blessing by walking in the Royal Family Honor Code.

 

GAL 2:20

"I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and delivered Himself up for me.

 

EPH 3:16-17

that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with power through His Spirit in the inner man; so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith

 

You are clothed with Him; let Him clothe you. He does live in you; let Him live in you. You are holy; be holy. You are alive; live like men who are alive.

 

ROM 8:5 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.

 

ROM 8:6 For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace,

 

According to the Word of God, there are only two kinds of people in the world, those who have been born once and those who have been born twice, i.e. believer and unbeliever.

 

God will never divide people as the world does, educated or uneducated, cultured or savage, religious or irreligious, rich or poor, high or low, noble or ignoble. We say that the difference between Einstein and a simpleton is very large, but what is the difference between them compared to God's wisdom. The difference between one and a billion is a lot, but mathematically, the difference between one and infinity and a billion and infinity is the same - both are infinitely small. Bill Gates is very wealthy but compared to God he is very poor.

 

In our passage God sees the difference between two types of men, those who are after the flesh and those who are after the Spirit.

 

Sadly, those who are after the flesh are usually the last ones to suspect it. They are at enmity against God, they do not receive the things of the Spirit, and their hearts are deceitful and wicked. All of us are like this without the filling of the Spirit and the lifestyle of walking by means of that filling. Certainly there are degrees of wickedness for both the believer and unbeliever, but the Bible doesn't address degrees of wickedness. The unbeliever is only after the flesh for he cannot know the things of God, but our passage is not after the difference between believer and unbeliever, but between the believer who is after the flesh and the believer that is after the Spirit. One reigns in life and lives a justified life and the other is defeated by life.

 

The lifestyle of the carnal believer is no different than the unbeliever.

 

The Bible talks about the flesh a lot. The long list of things that are connected to the flesh are all hateful to God.

 

The flesh has: affections, confidence, deeds, desires, faith, religion, prayers, worship, and a god.

 

Put all together the flesh describes the normal, natural man who is untouched by the Spirit of God. We often focus on certain sins when we think of the flesh, but the flesh also does good things, but always the flesh is ultimately looking to satisfy itself in whatever it does. This is how you can easily recognize it. Because it cannot love, it cannot truly do something for others as God would in grace.

 

There were periods in the history of Israel where they worshipped in the way of the Mosaic Law, but God told them that He detested what they did because God, and only God, can see the heart.

 

After the death of Solomon there was a civil war. The ten tribes of the north separated from the southern tribes of Judah and Benjamin. However, the tabernacle at the time was in Jerusalem and Lev 17 commanded Israel to brings their sacrifices to the door of the tabernacle. The split left the north, who called themselves Israel, with no place to sacrifice. Some from the north began to migrate down to the south in order to obey God, knowing this to be more important than the separation, and they remained. To counteract this drift southward, the northern authorities determined that there should be a place of worship within the confines of the northern kingdom that would enable the people to officially worship God according to the Law. This was a political move and a selfish decision and it was contrary to God's command in His word. To counter-act the influence of Jerusalem as the national religious center, Jeroboam I erected an independent shrine in Bethel, instituted a new priesthood, adopted a different religious calendar, and set up the golden calves as new cultic images.

 

At this time, God used the prophet Amos, a shepherd from Judah, to convict the north.

 

AMO 4:4 "Enter Bethel and transgress;

In Gilgal multiply transgression!

Bring your sacrifices every morning,

Your tithes every three days.

 

AMO 4:5 "Offer a thank offering also from that which is leavened,

And proclaim freewill offerings, make them known.

For so you love to do, you sons of Israel,"

Declares the Lord God.

 

AMO 5:21 "I hate, I reject your festivals,

Nor do I delight in your solemn assemblies.

 

AMO 5:22 "Even though you offer up to Me burnt offerings and your grain offerings, I will not accept them;

And I will not even look at the peace offerings of your fatlings.

 

AMO 5:23 "Take away from Me the noise of your songs;

I will not even listen to the sound of your harps.

 

AMO 5:24 "But let justice roll down like waters

And righteousness like an ever-flowing stream.

 

All was done according to the ritual, but it was hateful to God because it wasn't done in His way. It was from the flesh.

 

No matter what the person does, nor how proper it looks to others, if it is done according to the flesh it is death.

 

ROM 8:5 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.

 

ROM 8:6 For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace,

 

Roman's is an amazing book.

 

Romans:

The first two and a half chapters set forth the sinful state of the Adamic race.

 

We are all, whether Jew or Gentile, under the formidable sentence of death which was passed upon the race when Adam sinned. There is not one ray of light in the dark picture that is painted for us.

 

ROM 3:9 we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks are all under sin

 

JER 17:9

The heart is more deceitful than all else

And is desperately sick;

Who can understand it?

 

Following this terrible indictment there is the glad announcement that God came down in Jesus Christ in order to accomplish our redemption.

 

In the end of chapter 3 Christ is set forth as dying for us on the cross, accomplishing the double work of satisfying the holiness and righteousness of God and of redeeming and justifying the sinner who believes the Word of God about the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

ROM 3:28 For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from works of the Law.

 

ROM 3:29 Or is God the God of Jews only? Is He not the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also,

 

ROM 3:30 since indeed God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith is one.

 

This brings us into the fourth chapter where we find the justified man living in freedom, apart from the law of Moses or the ordinances of the Jewish faith.

 

ROM 4:25 He who was delivered up because of our transgressions, and was raised because of our justification.

 

The fifth chapter shows us the fruits of this justification: we have peace with God, we have access by faith, we stand in grace, we rejoice in hope, we glory in tribulations, we abound in love, reign in life, and we are given the Holy Spirit.

 

ROM 5:1 Therefore having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,

 

ROM 5:2 through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God.

 

ROM 5:3 And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance;

 

ROM 5:4 and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope;

 

ROM 5:5 and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

 

The contrast is then presented between our former union with Adam and our present union with Christ. Just as all evil flowed from our inheritance from Adam so the very life of God is imparted to us through our union with Christ and we are seen by God as being as perfect as the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

In chapter 6 there immediately arises the issue of sin and the possibility of OSN control of the soul. Since I am a sinner am I hopeless to have the OSN dominating my new life?

 

ROM 6:1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace might increase?

 

ROM 6:2 May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?

 

ROM 6:3 Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?

 

This charge is repudiated and it is seen that our union in Christ is planned by God for the purpose of bringing practical holiness to our daily lives or living in our righteousness. We are brought to the place where we are identified with Christ and pass through the experience of death, burial and resurrection with Him, as well as union with Him in His whole eternal plan for us. In the sixth chapter we are crucified with Christ and raised from the dead. It is for this reason that we are called to holiness, meaning living unto Him.

 

ROM 6:12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body that you should obey its lusts,

 

ROM 6:13 and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.

 

ROM 6:14 For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law, but under grace.

 

So ok, the issue is solved, under grace, receiving freely all my assets from God I will live in righteousness and the members of my body will be instruments of righteousness. But then comes a big problem for us all. Our experience does not actually match up with our desire.

 

But the believer who has passed through all of these wonderful experiences finds that his mind accepts these truths theologically but that in practice the horrible motions of sin are still with him.

 

Even though he knows himself to be crucified with Christ, he recognizes that he cannot have unmixed, perfect good in this life, and he is tempted to despair.

 

ROM 7:15 For that which I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate.

 

ROM 7:16 But if I do the very thing I do not wish to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that it is good.

 

ROM 7:24 Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?

 

ROM 7:25 Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin.

 

ROM 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.