What then? shall we sin, because we
are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.
Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves
servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto
death, or of obedience unto righteousness? But God be thanked, that ye were the
servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which
was delivered you.
Being then made free from sin, ye became the
servants of righteousness. I speak after the manner of men because of the
infirmity of your flesh: for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness
and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to
righteousness unto holiness. For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free
from righteousness.
What fruit had ye then in those things whereof
ye are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. But now being made
free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness,
and the end everlasting life.
For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of
God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Romans 6:15-23
At first
glance it would seem that the question asked in verse fifteen of Romans chapter
six is a repetition of verse one. If we take a closer look we see they are
quite different.
The question
of verse one asks the believer if we can continue in “the sin” since the power
in grace is greater than the destruction of “the sin”. The difference between
sins and “the sin” is this: “the sin” is the source while sins are the result.
“The sin” occurred
when Adam rejected YHWH as his maker and life. He chooses instead of complete
fellowship with the Father to become a self. Deciding to be his own maker and
make his own life. Sins are the self-generated acts by which man attempts to
reach Adams goal.
Pauls
witness to us is that we who have placed our trust in the Fathers grace have
through Messiah’s death put to death this rebellious desire. We have instead
placed our trust in YHWH as our maker and source; fully expecting His life in
us to be the generation of our living and acts.
The law
teaches us what YHWH’s life generating our living looks like. The old man inherited
from Adam who is trying to attain to life through his own generation is under
the standard set by the law; under the law. The new man of faith in the Father
and His messiah is receiving the gift of life manifested in his being; under
grace.
The relationship of the law is quite different
for the old and new man. The old man finds it is an unwavering judge of the
absence of life within him and a reminder of the death that shall be the culmination
of all his efforts. The new man sees it teaching him the fullness of the result
of the promise he has placed his trust in. The Law is for those who trust the
Father as their maker is an illumination of what the Father is making them to
be.
Paul ask us
since we are no longer trying to obtain to the law as a standard do we continue
in the acts of selfishness from which we have been set free. The self is separate
from the fellowship of YHWH’s life and is therefore dead. When we experience this
then we know that every self-generated act can only bring us to that death.
We yielded the
actions of our members to bring forth our own selfish acts when our trust was
placed in us as our own maker. Since our trust is now placed in the Father then
we now should yield the actions of our members to that which He is making us.
The old man
from Adam thinks to change himself by the things he does. This is blindness;
for a man cannot generate from himself anything but what he already is. When
the Father opens our eyes we see that the life of the Father made living in us
changes who we are and thereby the things we do. “The obedience” is to turn
from our own dead works and have faith (trust, dependence, and expectation) in
the Father as our maker and only source.
The payoff
for the constant work of trying to make oneself is to become a self; alone with
no fellowship, separated from all, in short death. In contrast the gift given
by YHWH through Messiah is to be one with the creator of all seen and unseen;
brought into a complete fellowship having no separation between the Father and
us, in short eternal life.
I and my
Father are one.
Jesus saith
unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father,
but by me.
If ye had known me, ye should have known my
Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him. Philip saith
unto him, Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us. Jesus saith unto him,
Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he
that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Show us the
Father? Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the
words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth
in me, he doeth the works. Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father
in me
That they
all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may
be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory
which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are
one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that
the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast
loved me.
And this is
life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ,
whom thou hast sent.
Deuteronomy
30:19 20 “… I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have
set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that
you and your offspring may live, loving the LORD your God, obeying his voice
and holding fast to him, for he is your life…
