Welcome, friends, to another
broadcast of Morsels for Zion's Poor. Paul states one of the
most glorious truths which can be found in all of the scriptures
when he exhorted the Roman believers to reckon ye also yourselves
to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Christ
Jesus our Lord. Some have perceived that he is
telling them to merely act as though it is so in a sort of
make-believe type of way. My grandpa might say that he
reckoned that it might rain, and we understood that he was
merely guessing that such would take place. However, when Paul
uses this word, he speaks of no guesswork or happenstance,
but rather of the certainty that this is true. The word reckoned,
as Paul used it, means to take an inventory of or examine the
facts. He speaks of a certainty which
the sons of God are given light to behold and to rejoice therein. This is an expectation built
upon a solid foundation. No doubt or assumption is had.
Christ has died the sinner's death, and if we be in Christ,
then we are indeed dead to sin and alive in Him. There is therefore
now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk
not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the
Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law
of sin and death. Some wrongly perceive that such
preaching will produce a desire to sin in the sons of God. 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? This is the only remedy
for the dominion of sin. The grace of God does not simply
provide a payment for sin, but also a cure for the sinner. He
cannot embrace sin, encourage others to sin, or delight himself
therein, for he has been set free from the power of sin and
death. When the Lord healed the lepers, He did not simply pronounce
them clean, but rather He removed the disease from them, having
therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by
the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He hath
consecrated for us, through the veil, that is to say, His flesh.
And having a high priest over the house of God, let us draw
near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our
hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed
with pure water. Let us hold fast the profession
of our faith without wavering, for He is faithful that promised,
and let us consider one another to provoke unto love and good
works. The greatest lament for those
who have been indwelt by the Spirit of God is that they find
themselves to be weak in the flesh and prone to sin of all
types in that flesh. Paul described such woe when
he wrote, 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. Oh, wretched man that I am! Who
shall deliver me from the body of this death? Those who are
quick to accuse preachers of grace as being against the law
usually assume that they themselves are keepers of the law. Yet any
man who has ever been awakened to the true nature of the law
and of his own natural depravity is quite convinced of his inability
to keep that law. For the whole purpose of the
law is to reveal sin and condemn the sinner. For the wages of
sin is death. The need of the sons of God is
not to be brought under the law, but to be delivered from it.
This is why Jesus Christ came into the world and brought life
through death. Paul begins chapter 7 of Romans
with an illustration of the law of marriage, which is quite apropos
in our society, which completely disregards it. He points out
that when a man dies, the woman who is married to him is no longer
bound to him by reason of his death. Then he uses that illustration
to teach the relation of the believer to the law. 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. The law remains unchanged, but its power to rule over her
is negated. She is free from it and is now
wed to another who has given her life and immortality. No
longer can condemnation arise based upon her first marriage.
She owes no allegiance to that union, but rather is set free
to be wed to another. Those who would press upon the
sons of God their duty to keep the law which Christ has satisfied
are like those who would seek to prevent a woman whose husband
is dead from marrying another by bringing up the wedding vows
which she made to her now deceased spouse. Those who are alive in
Christ are one in the same with those whom the Lord has written
the law upon their hearts. This is the law of the spirit
of life in Christ Jesus. Are you alive in him? For a free
CD containing 15 of these radio broadcasts, send an email to
forthepoor at windstream.net.