What I Do Have

I was reading from The Book of Virtues, compiled by William J. Bennett, and reprinted by Simon and Schuster in 1993. Of course many of the poems and short essays were written decades and even centuries earlier. I found my copy in a used furniture store in town and I have to admit I smile when I read the pages. I cannot bear many at a time as they are so focused on behavior modification. Quite frankly I do not believe most behavior modification works long term.

I am reminded of the words of Paul the Apostle in Romans 7:14,

For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin.  -- NASB

We are going to look at this section of scripture in Romans line by line.  I hope to show you why behavior modification profits little. The Law to which Paul referred are the Ten Commandments and the 613 Levitical Laws. What Paul is saying here is that the Law is spiritual, it came from God who is spirit, conceived in the Spirit realm. The Law is inherently good because anything that comes from God is good. We came from God but through the fall sin entered into the world and into us. Paul refers to his being of the flesh, sold into bondage to sin. The word sin in this verse means to miss the mark, or to wander from the Law of God. 

Because Eve and Adam were deceived by the serpent, all of mankind was sold into bondage to sin.

Paul goes on to clarify this in Romans 7:15 through 19.

15. For what 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. 16. But if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the Law, confessing that the Law is good. 17. So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. 18. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not. 19. For the good that I want, I do not do, but I practice the very evil that I do not want.   -- NASB

Paul is in a dilemma when he says, "For what I am doing, I do not understand;" 

Paul already had his road to Damascus. He met the Lord, repented, and was born again. His eyes were opened by Ananias and at the writing of Romans Paul was already advanced in his ministry. He is writing from Rome. Much of the Book of Acts had already happened by the time Paul got to Rome. Yet he says, "I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate."

Have we ever said or felt that way? Was Paul possessed? No, Paul is born again. He has the Spirit of God dwelling in Christ in Him. Yet he laments that the good that he wants he does not do, and he practices the very evil he does not want to do. 

What is wrong with Paul?  Have you ever asked yourself, "What is wrong with me Lord?" I have.

In verse 17 we begin to see the problem. Paul writes, "So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me."

Is Sin a person? Is it a demon? Can I get rid of it, exorcise it? Is it an infection? From what Paul is writing sin is certainly harassing him. 

Let's read on. 

20. But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me. 21. I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wants to do good.  22. For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, 23. but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. 24. Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? 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.

In verse 21 Paul states that there is a principle that evil is present in him, the one who wants to do good. Ouch. There must be a way to get rid of this sin. In verse 22 Paul continues by saying that he joyfully concurs or agrees with the law of God in the inner man, that is our new man, the hidden man of the heart, born from above. This new man has a new conscious, free from the sin of law and death. Yet in verse 23 Paul says, I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. 

I thought JESUS set us free. JESUS saved us. The scriptures say He came to set the captives free.  What is Paul talking about? Can a saved person be wretched?

Paul calls himself a wretched man, yet by the time he is writing this he has already been named an Apostle, teaching and writing the Words of God.

Confused? Feel a little like Paul at times?

Chapters and verses were added to the scriptures by translators for ease in reading. At times they are best ignored. The next verse begins Romans 8 but it very much ties in with the verses we just read in Romans 7 and reveals the answer to what we can do about sin.

Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.  -- Romans 8:1, NASB

This  word condemnation according to Biblical Usage is damnatory sentence.  Whew, we can all relax.  There is no damnatory sentence for the child of God, born from above and seated in heavenly places. Do not let anyone tell you that you could lose your eternal life, they will have to throw out the writings of the Apostle Paul to do that. And the clause about "to them that walk not after the flesh but after the spirit," that appears in the KJV version is not in the original text of Romans 8:1. When we are born again we are given a new heart, a new conscience that wants to please God. If we didn't want to please God we wouldn't be in such a struggle. It is precisely because we do have a new heart that we struggle against the flesh.

Let's look further at why we struggle in, Romans 8:2-4. 

2. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. 3. For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness off sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, 4. so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 

God did not condemn the world, not yet, although that will happen at the end of the age. John 3:16 says, "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life." 

God so loved...God so loved the world. This is the administration of Grace, a time when the doors to the ark are still open and whosoever will may freely come. But God did condemn sin in the flesh which is part of the body we still inhabit after we are born again. 

Look at Colossians 2:11

and in Him you were also circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, in the removal of the body of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ;

God's solution to sin was to leave it in our members and then circumcise our new heart from the body of the flesh. 

We call that our old man and Paul said, to reckon the old man dead, and ourselves alive to Christ, Romans 6:11. I hope this is making sense. We are almost done.

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. 6. For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, 7. because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, 8. and those who are in the flesh cannot please God. 9. However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him. 10. If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness.                   -- Romans 8:1-10, NASB

In verse 5 of Romans 8 Paul writes, "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." He speaks of the mind set on the flesh as hostile to God, and that those who are in the flesh cannot please God. Paul is not speaking of the lost but of himself and us when we forget who we are in Christ. In Colossians 3:2 Paul wrote, set your mind on things above, and in Ephesians 2:6 he reminded us that we are seated in heavenly places in Christ JESUS. In Hebrews 12:2 the writer tells us to fix our eyes on JESUS, the author and finisher of our faith. The scriptures are full of encouragement regarding how to stay in the Spirit and not descend to the flesh. 

So here we are, on the one hand serving our flesh and the sin which holds it in bondage by placing our affections on the things of this world, yet we are still seated in heavenly places in Christ JESUS. We have eternal life, but sometimes we take our eyes off the Lord and we forget who we are in Him. 

In Romans 12:2 we read,

And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.  -- NASB

Be not fashioned, made to look like, or pulled down to the pattern of this world, but be transformed, made new, transfigured, [this is where the outside begins to look like the inner man we have received at the new birth and less and less like the sin hidden in the flesh]. We all want to prove what the will of God is in our lives. Our inner man is joined to the spirit of God, it is God in Christ in us, Colossians 1:27 says. 

We want to renew our minds to who we really are in Christ JESUS.

To remember that we are the righteousness of God in Christ JESUS, 2 Corinthians 5:21, and that we were meant to reign in life, Romans 5:17.  As we do this we will grow more aware of who we are and who we are joined to. The Holy Spirit will help us in our infirmities and our weaknesses. 

I'll close in Acts 3:6

But Peter said, “I do not possess silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you: In the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene—walk!”                       -- NASB

What I do have is better translated as What I am joined to. These words can be defined as to be closely joined to a person or a thing.

After I was born again I thought I was left wandering around on earth waiting for Christ to return. We do await the return, but there is so much more that we have right now in Christ. For years, no one taught me that I was joined to Christ in the spirit. That I had Him like they had him in the First Century. In the gospels they had the Lord JESUS walking among them, I thought that was as good as it could get. 

We who live after JESUS' finished work at the cross have something far greater than they had in the gospels. We have Him. 

As times, it seems like we are struggling to access more of the power of the Holy Spirit. I think we forget that JESUS accesses that power all the time and that we have Him inside of us. God didn't just give us power, He placed the Holy Spirit in us and joined us to the greatest power source in all the Universe, Christ in us. All the power  we need to be victorious in this life is already resident inside of those of us who believe. We may have buried Him under all the rigors of this life, but as we begin to behold Christ in our inner man He will grow large in us. He will live His life in us and through us, and He will do the mighty works He told us of in John 14:12. He will do them through us. 

Sin remains in our flesh and with it the temptation to return to bondage. Our bodies have not been redeemed and our mind is part of our body. But we can reckon the old man dead and walk in newness of life in Christ JESUS. Behavior modification won't do it. The more we try to be good the more we will look like Paul did in Romans 7. We can go much deeper than our flesh and find the Christ within us. Be of good cheer, JESUS has overcome the world and God has great confidence in us. His grace is Sufficient, And we too can say, "What I do Have I give to you..."

With Love,

BJ

Blog by BJ Hostetter?2015, Women and The Church LLC. Artwork by Greg Olsen, www.gregolsen.com

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