Christian Fellowship Community Group
A safe place for Christians who Love Jesus Christ to meet and ask for prayer and share scriptures from the bible. We value the posting of Christian music, poems, stories and also personal testimonies. Please let us know your needs, concerns and have some fun getting to know each other. We treat each other with respect.
THE MEANING AND VALUE OF ROMANS SEVEN is the title of a chapter in the book "The normal Christian Life" by the martyr Watchman Nee; I recommend it highly.
I found by personal experience that the more I was trying to get sanctified - although I already knew by revelation that I had died with Christ according to Romans 6 - and was trying to please God by praying more, reading the bible more, evangelising more, the more I found myself completely impotent to do the good that I wanted to do. After my conversion I had a "honeymoon", where all my past sinful cravings disappeared. But then after some months when God opened my eyes about my being crucified with Christ, all the old temptations came back. I learned over years through the painful ups and downs of trying to lead a holy life, that it is impossible, if I try it by keeping the commandments. I came to realise, as Paul testifies, that in my in me, that in my flesh dwells nothing good. I am, in the flesh, a wretched, unredeemable sinner to the core. Now it is a blessed knowledge for me that I, in myself, am nothing at all and I can do nothing at all and I have nothing at all, but Jesus Christ has become my everything. Jesus confirms this position, when a young man called Him good master:" No-one is good but God", was the Lord's answer." But thanks to God through Jesus Christ." Through the faith, not only IN Jesus but the divine faith OF Jesus, I am no longer in the flesh but in the Spirit. What I still live in the body, I live in the faith of Jesus Christ. I am no longer obligated to the flesh, to live according to it, but I put to death the deeds of the body and thus remain in Christ to live eternally. And what is more, I live in the hope of the redemption of my body and don't take it as a matter of course that I will die one day, but I am waiting eagerly for the return of the Lord and to be caught up to Him and His throne. (Rev.12)
LET THE ONE WHO IS ABLE ACCEPT IT !
Not without reason Paul calls the fact that "Christ is in us" a mystery, kept hidden for ages, but now disclosed to the saints. (Col. 1.26-27) The Word of the Cross is foolishness to anybody who approaches it with their own natural understanding. The Word of the Cross is however revealed to the lowly and weak in the world as the power and wisdom of God.(1.Corinth.1) As long as Christ is not formed in us (Gal.4.19), we still have to struggle with the indwelling sin and have not entered the Sabbath-rest of God, because of our little faith. (Hebr.3 and 4) In this state we still insist on - although it may be unconsciously - trying to please God by what we are, know or can do. We may accept in theory that "nothing good dwells in us", but n practice, we prove that we really don't believe this, when we are trying to keep the commandments in our own strength and of course miserably fail. While Romans 6 shows us that we died to sin, the first verses of Romans 7 show us that we also have died to the law - which is holy and good - and thereby to our own goodness.
Only when we come to the lowest point of desperation ( what wretched man I am) in trying to please God and then decide to put all our trust in Christ and His finished work on the cross, God can cleanse us from ALL unrighteousness - our self-belief and self-reliance. (1. John 1.9) As promised in Ezekiel, God wants to take away from us the heart of stone (the heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure) and give us a new heart and new spirit and transform us into people in which the requirements of the law are fulfilled by the Holy Spirit. (Rom. 8.4) Then we can fully experience the blessings, described in Romans 8 and forget all our vain effort, described in Romans 7. Of course, as a consequence of the Fall of the first Adam we still live in the body of death and we still have our own self-will, which however is not sinful in itself, as long as our basic inner attitude is the same as the Lord's, in the garden of Gethsemane: "not my will but yours be done". About the question if we are still sinners, when even the Apostle Paul considers himself one of the worst? I say with him yes, I am a sinner, but I say also with Paul, I have been crucified with Christ, I live not any longer, but Christ lives in me. Is a dead sinner really a sinner? Is not what is dead, the past and it is not time, to move on? "Why do you look for the living among the dead?"
I found by personal experience that the more I was trying to get sanctified - although I already knew by revelation that I had died with Christ according to Romans 6 - and was trying to please God by praying more, reading the bible more, evangelising more, the more I found myself completely impotent to do the good that I wanted to do. After my conversion I had a "honeymoon", where all my past sinful cravings disappeared. But then after some months when God opened my eyes about my being crucified with Christ, all the old temptations came back. I learned over years through the painful ups and downs of trying to lead a holy life, that it is impossible, if I try it by keeping the commandments. I came to realise, as Paul testifies, that in my in me, that in my flesh dwells nothing good. I am, in the flesh, a wretched, unredeemable sinner to the core. Now it is a blessed knowledge for me that I, in myself, am nothing at all and I can do nothing at all and I have nothing at all, but Jesus Christ has become my everything. Jesus confirms this position, when a young man called Him good master:" No-one is good but God", was the Lord's answer." But thanks to God through Jesus Christ." Through the faith, not only IN Jesus but the divine faith OF Jesus, I am no longer in the flesh but in the Spirit. What I still live in the body, I live in the faith of Jesus Christ. I am no longer obligated to the flesh, to live according to it, but I put to death the deeds of the body and thus remain in Christ to live eternally. And what is more, I live in the hope of the redemption of my body and don't take it as a matter of course that I will die one day, but I am waiting eagerly for the return of the Lord and to be caught up to Him and His throne. (Rev.12)
LET THE ONE WHO IS ABLE ACCEPT IT !
Not without reason Paul calls the fact that "Christ is in us" a mystery, kept hidden for ages, but now disclosed to the saints. (Col. 1.26-27) The Word of the Cross is foolishness to anybody who approaches it with their own natural understanding. The Word of the Cross is however revealed to the lowly and weak in the world as the power and wisdom of God.(1.Corinth.1) As long as Christ is not formed in us (Gal.4.19), we still have to struggle with the indwelling sin and have not entered the Sabbath-rest of God, because of our little faith. (Hebr.3 and 4) In this state we still insist on - although it may be unconsciously - trying to please God by what we are, know or can do. We may accept in theory that "nothing good dwells in us", but n practice, we prove that we really don't believe this, when we are trying to keep the commandments in our own strength and of course miserably fail. While Romans 6 shows us that we died to sin, the first verses of Romans 7 show us that we also have died to the law - which is holy and good - and thereby to our own goodness.
Only when we come to the lowest point of desperation ( what wretched man I am) in trying to please God and then decide to put all our trust in Christ and His finished work on the cross, God can cleanse us from ALL unrighteousness - our self-belief and self-reliance. (1. John 1.9) As promised in Ezekiel, God wants to take away from us the heart of stone (the heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure) and give us a new heart and new spirit and transform us into people in which the requirements of the law are fulfilled by the Holy Spirit. (Rom. 8.4) Then we can fully experience the blessings, described in Romans 8 and forget all our vain effort, described in Romans 7. Of course, as a consequence of the Fall of the first Adam we still live in the body of death and we still have our own self-will, which however is not sinful in itself, as long as our basic inner attitude is the same as the Lord's, in the garden of Gethsemane: "not my will but yours be done". About the question if we are still sinners, when even the Apostle Paul considers himself one of the worst? I say with him yes, I am a sinner, but I say also with Paul, I have been crucified with Christ, I live not any longer, but Christ lives in me. Is a dead sinner really a sinner? Is not what is dead, the past and it is not time, to move on? "Why do you look for the living among the dead?"
deleted_user
This was nice to read for me today thank you.
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