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NASB | Romans 6:12 ¶ Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts, |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Romans 6:12 ¶ Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts and passions. |
Subject: Can we live life without sinning? |
Bible Note: Kcabm How about a consideration of Romans the whole chapter 7 in this discussion about sanctification? What happens during sanctification really any how? Is it not true that what has been redeemed is the immaterial part of man, the spirit of man? And is it not true that the flesh has not yet been redeemed and will not be redeemed until Jesus returns? How then can we say that Christians will not sin before their bodies have been redeemed? That is not to say we condone sin, or wallow in sin, or to say that Christians lives continually in sin. But it does go to Romans 7; that there is a sin nature present in the flesh which is presently waring with the spirit in the true believer. And it goes to the understanding that Christians are still sinners who fall down, but they have an advocate and repent and are forgiven of sins. Does not John say in 1 John that whoever says he does not sin is a liar? And then does he not say we have the advocate and that who ever sins is to ask for forgiveness from Jesus? You raised the issue of consecration to God as having happened only once right? I think that Romans would be really helpfull in this whole discussion because there are concepts as doctrine that happen to the believer only once as absolutes, and then other concepts as doctrine are ongoing works of the Holy Spirit. Take Romans 1:16, 17 for instance, which contains the doctrine of salvation. Now, the faith of the preacher is to preach (Romans 12:6 do your gifts according to the faith supplied to you), and the faith of the hearer is to believe the gospel; Romans 1:17. Right there we have elements of how the doctrine of salavation works in part, obviously Jesus is key to it. That being said, salvation happens only once, and as a doctrine need not have any further activity as just salvation. Take the doctrine of justification, that happens only once. You get saved, and God looks at you as covered in the blood of Jesus and declares you justified once and for all time; Romans 3:21-5. But the doctrine of sanctification happens as soon as you are saved and justified, but continues through time as an ongoing process until you are changed forever at the resurrection. You see we are being cleaned up by the Holy Spirit inside, and that results in our outward good deeds and outward righteous behavior. But the work is done by the Holy Spirit and we are merely reflecting that work in our efforts to keep from sinning, and we do this by the power of the Holy Spirit. So it is not really that Christians do not any longer sin, it is that we are saved sinners who are still sinners whom God is cleaning up until one day we will look and be just like Jesus. We will be resurrected from the dead and we will all be changed, and then we will sin no more ever again. It is our responsibility to do every thing in our power not to sin, but we do falter and fail, and for this we have the advocate. Let's turn to consecration. Consecration is only mentioned in the Old Testament and is not a New Testament concept coming from the teachings of Jesus or the apostles. That does not mean there is not consecration for the Christian, but we do not find this concept addressed in the New Testament except to quote the Old Testament. Many substitute the sanctification concept for the consecration concept using all of Hebrews for their idea. But, to consecrate is to set a thing or a person apart for the exlcusive use of God to do some part or portion for His work. This does not refer to the internal process with an outward result of being cleaned up by the Holy Spirit. Consecration is the external practice of cleansing objects or people so that they will be fit to do God's work. I do believe that John's passages that you have there have to be understood in light of the idea that a person who continually lives in sin is suspect and that they may not even be saved. But, that Paul's Romans really is the major Bible book describing all the ins and outs of sanctification. Hope this helps, by the way, you are so very refreshing, and I have enjoyed all your posts. peacebestill |