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Christian Clarity
Article
Man Not Responsible for the Deeds Done in the Flesh:
1 John 1:6,7 If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not practise the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.
Establishing the Truth/Reality of Deliverance, Salvation, Forgiveness, Grace, Imputed Righteousness of Christ to the New Creation in Jesus Christ, Sanctification, Justification and the Necessity of the Cross and Resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ
Rom 7:16-24 "But if what I do not will, this I practise, I consent to the law that [it is] right. Now then [it is] no longer I [that] do it, but the sin that dwells in me. For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, good does not dwell: for to will is there with me, but to do right [I find] not. For I do not practise the good that I will; but the evil I do not will, that I do. But if what I do not will, this I practise, [it is] no longer I [that] do it, but the sin that dwells in me. I find then the law upon me who will to practise what is right, that with me evil is there. For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man: but I see another law in my members, warring in opposition to the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which exists in my members. O wretched man that I [am]! who shall deliver me out of this body of death?"
"Evil is with me there..." Even as horrible and devastating to the Christian soul is the truth that a Christian is never away in this life from the immediate proximity of sin and evil, that is, their very own flesh, so is the joy and comfort of having understood that that very same evil and sin is not part of their fundamental identity. God, through and for Paul, as establishing the concept of Inspiration and the power of His own word as spirit and life, laments the proximity and power of this evil and sin in the flesh; and not just any flesh but Paul's very own. This very lamentation is the demonstration that Paul, as a non-metaphorical new creation in Jesus Christ is not one with the sin in his flesh, else there is no true lamentation. "Therefore it is no longer I.." fundamentally demarcates and distinguishes between Paul as new creation and his flesh, the 'me' in "but the sin in me."
There is no confusion between 'I' and 'me'. If someone hits you at the stoplight, it is a rare occurrence for someone to say of the accident, "Someone hit my car at the stoplight." The more usual statement is "Someone hit 'me' at the stoplight." No one of course, confuses one's car with being integral to one's fundamental identity except salesmen and they do so purposefully to sell. Further one's own flesh is not one's identity or any part of it. Does one born without a limb have less identity than one born with all their limbs? Does someone born with six fingers have more identity than those born with only five? Of course not. Do those in wheelchairs or disabled in some way have less identity than those who are not disabled? Of course not.
Therefore a clear demarcation is made between the flesh and the sin that dwells in it and the fundamental identity of the new creation in Jesus Christ in this passage as well as many others which will be given and spoken of below. This demarcation establishes, along with the fact that sin has power over the flesh, even at times and for God's own purposes over the tabernacle of the non-metaphorical new creation in Jesus Christ as is directly stated to be the case by God for and through Paul above: "But the evil I do not will, that I do..." This demarcation and proof of who is truly responsible for the evil committed in the flesh of the new creation in Jesus Christ as well as all men is the very basis for ALL of true Christianity. Indeed, this demarcation establishes the very concepts of sin and evil, grace, forgiveness, redemption, deliverance, salvation, imputed righteousness, justification and sanctification. There is no possibility of forgiveness or grace or any other truths of God without the truth of God directly declaring that true sin exist and true evil exists, for only under a false sin and false evil can the false gospel of free will and 'responsibility of men to accept the gospel of Jesus Christ' be proclaimed and grow as a cancer in the church.
What is sin? What is evil? What is forgiveness and who is forgiven? What is grace and who is given grace? Redeemed from what or who? Delivered from what or who? Saved from whom or what and who is actually saved? To whom is the righteousness of Christ imputed and why is such imputation of absolute necessity? What is imputation? Whom is justified and how? Whom is sanctified and how?
It is the very lie that men ARE responsible for the deeds done in their flesh that creates evil pride in men. Yet it is this very same lie that uses this induced pride in men as a noose to keep them in a state of death. Men are deceived and can in no way escape their own hearts or go beyond the bounds of emotions they actively avoid as catastrophic. Evil to deceived men is a negative emotion and what causes such negative emotions. What more catastrophic emotion can there be than to know with certainty that everything they have ever done in the flesh, every word spoken is the most absolute vanity and that their wills are indeed not free at all but that they are and have been and always will be deceived and dead in enslavement to true sin and evil if not for the grace of God to the elect among them? Fallen men hate the truth of God and the name and Person of Jesus Christ.
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Psa 18:1-6 "I will love thee, O Jehovah, my strength.
Psa 18:2 Jehovah is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my ^God, my rock, in whom I will trust; my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my high tower. I will call upon Jehovah, who is to be praised: so shall I be saved from mine enemies. The bands of death encompassed me, and torrents of Belial made me afraid. The bands of Sheol surrounded me, the cords of death encountered me. In my distress I called upon Jehovah, and I cried out to my God; he heard my voice out of his temple, and my cry came before him, into his ears.
Psa 18:119 He reached forth from above, he took me, he drew me out of great waters: He delivered me from my strong enemy, and from them that hated me; for they were mightier than I. They encountered me in the day of my calamity, but Jehovah was my stay. And he brought me forth into a large place; he delivered me, because he delighted in me.
Psa 65:3 Iniquities have prevailed against me: our transgressions, thou wilt forgive them.
The Psalmist is spoken through by God for the benefit of himself and the elect as spirit and life as straightforwardly declaring that a strong enemy was attacking him and God saved from an attacker that was stronger than he. As well, in the second reference, iniquity has prevailed against him. That is, an adversary more powerful than he had come and won an victory over him such that a deed in the flesh was done that was in fact iniquity. It was the Psalmist's own flesh which was used as the medium to accomplish the iniquity. It is in regard to the fact that it was his own flesh that God continues to speak for the Psalmist and the elect: "..our transgressions, Thou wilt forgive them.." A clear distinction is again made by God between an individual new creation in Jesus Christ and the transgressions in the flesh. Though sin has come and won a victory over the new creation in Christ, God distinguishes in His revelation, namely the above psalm and many other references between the one whose flesh is used to do evil and the evil, such demarcation the very basis of forgiveness. That is, the victim of sin is forgiven, true fault established as being the sin and God separates the light from the darkness in each of us as elect, not merely in the environment in which we live.
Psa 35:10 "All my bones shall say, Jehovah, who is like unto thee, who deliverest the afflicted from one stronger than he, yea, the afflicted and the needy from him that spoileth him!"
Jer 31:11 "For Jehovah hath ransomed Jacob, and redeemed him from the hand of one stronger than he."
Speaking of evil and sin and wicked men one with sin and evil in every way, God says:
Psa 10:8-11 He sitteth in the lurking-places of the villages; in the secret places doth he slay the innocent: his eyes watch for the wretched. He lieth in wait secretly, like a lion in his thicket; he lieth in wait to catch the afflicted: he doth catch the afflicted, drawing him into his net. He croucheth, he boweth down, that the wretched may fall by his strong ones. He saith in his heart, God hath forgotten, he hideth his face, he will never see [it].
God again speaks through His Holy Spirit through His son and apostle Paul and says of sin concerning the apostle Paul and us as elect:
Rom 7:11 "for sin, getting a point of attack by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew [me].
God makes expressly clear that men are in a state of death and that this death is caused by sin which actively seeks out and kills them. Sin knows where we are and has actively plotted to deceive and kill us:
Psa 119:95 The wicked have awaited me to destroy me;
1 Tim 2:14 and Adam was not deceived; but the woman, having been deceived, was in transgression.
Psa 19:13 Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous
Exo 34:7 keeping mercy unto thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but by no means clearing [the guilty]; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, upon the third and upon the fourth [generation].
In what possible way could the reality of forgiveness be established seeing that all have 'fallen short of the glory of God' and all have gone astray and all have sinned AND that God by no means clears the guilty? How is God able to forgive anyone and at the same time by no means clear the guilty? What then is forgiveness seeing that iniquity and transgression and sin are forgiven and He yet visits the iniquity on children and children's children and is Himself perfectly just and righteous in the doing of them BOTH? The recompense is on the flesh, the residence of sin, not the spirit of those who are elect explicitly because a demarcation has been made between sin and the fundamental identity of those who have been forgiven. There is no forgiveness without being balanced by condemnation. God has explicitly stated the iniquity forgiven us as elect is directly given to the wicked as condemnation and this giving is a ransom for our souls along with the blood of Christ:
Psa 69:27 Add iniquity unto their iniquity, and let them not come into thy righteousness.
Mat 20:28 as indeed the Son of man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many.
Prove 21:18 The wicked is a ransom for the righteous, and a treacherous [man] in the stead of the upright.
ISA 43:3 For I [am] Jehovah thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour: I gave Egypt for thy ransom, Ethiopia and Seba for thee.
Hosea 13:14 I will ransom them from the power of Sheol. I will redeem them from death: where, O death, are thy plagues? where, O Sheol, is thy destruction? Repentance shall be hid from mine eyes.
Job 8:3,4 Doth God pervert judgment, and the Almighty pervert justice? If thy children have sinned against him, he hath also given them over into the hand of their transgression.
How is that transgressions are spoken of by God as having hands and existence such that a man could be given to it? Though there be many who say that God speaks merely poetically, they lie.
Job 13:23 How many are mine iniquities and sins? Make me to know my transgression and my sin.
Here, again God speaks as revelation, as spirit and as life revealing that Job did not know, was deceived concerning the transgressions done in his flesh such that God speaks through Job, for Job declaring this very deception. God speaks the same through David in the Pslams:
Psa 19:12 Who understandeth [his] errors? Purify me from secret [faults]. Psa 19:13 Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous [sins]; let them not have dominion over me: then shall I be perfect, and I shall be innocent from great transgression.
again in the Pslams:
Psa 54:7 For he hath delivered me out of all trouble; and mine eye hath seen
Psa 59:10 God, whose loving-kindness will come to meet me, -- God shall let me see [my desire] upon mine enemies.
Psa 6:7 Mine eye wasteth away through grief; it hath grown old because of all mine oppressors.
Psa 92:9-11 For lo, thine enemies, O Jehovah, for lo, thine enemies shall perish; all the workers of iniquity shall be scattered. But my horn shalt thou exalt like a buffalo's: I shall be anointed with fresh oil. And mine eye shall see [its desire] on mine enemies; mine ears shall hear
The desire of our eyes and the true hearing of our ears is to see upon our oppressors, to know and understand who and what it is that has prevailed against us and continually wars against us such that , "The good that I will, I do not practice...". It is this very desire that is fulfilled by the Law and the coming of the Word of God, Jesus Christ as both sacrifice and savior/Redeemer. What has prevailed against us in former times is sin and transgression but it was stronger than we were without Christ in us as new creations in Jesus Christ.
Rom 7:19-8:2 For I do not practise the good that I will; but the evil I do not will, that I do. But if what I do not will, this I practise, [it is] no longer I [that] do it, but the sin that dwells in me. I find then the law upon me who will to practise what is right, that with me evil is there. For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man: but I see another law in my members, warring in opposition to the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which exists in my members.O wretched man that I [am]! who shall deliver me out of this body of death? I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then I myself ('I, myself...' an expression of unequivocal identity as excluding the flesh..parenthensis mine) with the mind serve God's law; but with the flesh sin's law. [There is] then now no condemnation to those in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and of death."
Thus the reality/truth of deliverance is established and whom is delivered, from what and when: the elect, as new creation in Jesus Christ is delivered from sin, the adversary and hitherto unidentified enemy, and death on the hearing of the word of truth, such new birth taking place on-the-hearing of this word of truth.
(James 1:18 According to His own will begat He us by the word of truth, that we should be a certain first-fruits of His creatures.)
The very reality of deliverance is predicated on our being freed from something stronger than us and beyond our control, else there is no true deliverance.
Not only is such deliverance accomplished by Jesus Christ but we are sustained in Him by His active participation/oneness with us:
Psa 17:7-13 Shew wondrously thy loving-kindnesses, O thou that savest by thy right hand them that trust [in thee] from those that rise up [against them]. Keep me as the apple of the eye, hide me under the shadow of thy wings, From the wicked that destroy me, my deadly enemies, who compass me about. They are enclosed in their own fat; with their mouth they speak proudly. They have now encompassed us in our steps; their eyes have they set, bowing down to the earth. He is like a lion that is greedy of its prey, and as a young lion lurking in secret places. Arise, Jehovah, anticipate him, cast him down: deliver my soul from the wicked, thy sword;
Salvation is then ultimate deliverance, the once-for-all demarcation between the new creation in Jesus Christ and the sin that had formerly triumphed over him or her. A salvation that must be repeated over and over again is not salvation. But salvation has been accomplished once-for-all even though God has made expressly clear that
(Heb 7:27, speaking of Christ...parenthesis mine)"... who has not day by day need, as the high priests, first to offer up sacrifices for his own sins, then [for] those of the people; for this he did once for all
and
(Heb 10:10) by which will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all."
All of the Psalms, all prayer demonstrated to be spoken through the lips of godly men and brethren, those called saints and brother is a calling out for deliverance from a foe mightier than themselves. To even attempt to portray man as responsible for the deeds done in his flesh directly tries to imply that men are in fact not faced with a foe mightier than themselves but in fact a foe able to be overcome, else there is no responsibility as there is no possibility of overcoming such a foe as sin without Christ working in and through us both the willing and the doing. The continual attempt by lying spirits to imply a power on man's part to overcome this foe based on passages that directly state an if-then scenario, as when God says, "If you turn to me, then I will bless you", in such statements various forms, saying such lies as "God wouldn't say do something unless all men had the power to do what God commanded, else He condemns unjustly", have directly refuted and denied the very character of the word of God. The word of God is by such liars and wolves and thieves implied to be and in some instance directly stated to be mere information and not spirit and life. For when God speaks to His elect and who hear Him (count the number of times Jesus said, 'He who has ears to hear, let him hear...") His words create in them the obedience with which to fulfill the very command. This is not so for the non-elect--thus their condemnation. For all such wicked persons as are non-elect continually assert the power they supposedly have as a means of performing some act which then establishes for them salvation and grace, but a grace which in truth is no grace, for a thing earned is not grace. God will say to such persons, "You said with your own mouth that you had the power to do My will--why didn't you?"
Every word of God is then perverted by such persons as to establish an entire counterfeit vocabulary that seems to validate itself as it appears to validate what they say as the truth., all predicated on the lie that men have free will. They preach a false sin, a false grace, a false salvation, a false deliverance, a false imputation of righteousness, in fact they preach the anti-christ as if he were Jesus Christ. What they preach has become pop Christianityapostasy. They lie and imply there is no common sense, no truth exclusive of their own purpose for speech and indeed, their speak.
This false sin in particular is said to be still implied to be part of our fundamental identity (it is commonly declared in the churhcs that 'we' still have a sin nature--this is a direct lie of Satan.) and thus they reason, is the 'reason' we still sin--and cannot know for certain if we are saved and thus 'once saved always saved.' is false. (it is common as well in the church for persons to say that 'because' we have a sin nature, this 'sin nature' prevents us from understanding anything perfectly concerning God--this excuse is used to purposefully maintain ignorance and sedition against God in His chruch...) Yet sin is clearly demarcated from our identity in the above passages as well as in such passages as:
Rom 7:20 But if what I do not will, this I practice,
and
1 John 3:5-10 And ye know that He has been manifested that he might take away our sins; and in Him sin is not. Whoever abides in Him, does not sin: whoever sins, has not seen Him or known Him. Children, let no man lead you astray; He that practises righteousness is righteous, even as He is righteous. He that practises sin is of the devil; for from [the] beginning the devil sins. To this end the Son of God has been manifested, that He might undo the works of the devil.Whoever has been begotten of God does not practise sin, because His seed abides in Him, and he cannot sin, because he has been begotten of God. In this are manifest the children of God and the children of the devil. Whoever does not practise righteousness is not of God, and he who does not love his brother.
and
1 John 4:17 Herein has love been perfected with us that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, that even as he is, we also are in this world.
Yet it is clearly understood from:
Rom 7:19 -23 For I do not practise the good that I will; but the evil I do not will, that I do. But if what I do not will, this I practise, [it is] no longer I [that] do it, but the sin that dwells in me. I find then the law upon me who will to practise what is right, that with me evil is there. For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man: but I see another law in my members, warring in opposition to the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which exists in my members."
...that we, as new creations in Jesus Christ are warred against in our flesh so that we do not do the things that we wish, yet in the spirit, in the new creation in Jesus Christ, we cannot sin. So that we ask forgiveness for the evil committed in our flesh, as in:
Psa 32:6 For this shall every one that is godly pray unto thee at a time when thou mayest be found: surely in the floods of great waters they will not reach him.
The above revelation does not say "every one who wants to be godly", or "everyone who used to godly in times past.." but in fact "every one who IS godly..". Thus it is made expressly clear that the flesh of godly persons, that is, the non-metaphorical new creation in Jesus Christ, the flesh of whom will sin and do evil deeds if not sustained by God through His Holy Spirit and the abiding Word of God in us, His son Jesus Christ. Thus intercessory prayer is established for our own flesh/tabernacle as God praying for us through us. Some have lied even worse as regards false sin saying that if one sins at all after becoming a Christian, that is, being non-metaphorically born again, there is no hope of forgiveness. The revelation of God twisted and lied about as if it were mere information is:
Heb 10:18 But where there
and
Heb 10:26-29 For where we sin wilfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains any sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of judgment, and heat of fire about to devour the adversaries. Any one that has disregarded Moses' law dies without mercy on [the testimony of] two or three witnesses: of how much worse punishment, think ye, shall he be judged worthy who has trodden under foot the Son of God, and esteemed the blood of the covenant, whereby he has been sanctified, common, and has insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know him that said, To me [belongs] vengeance; I will recompense, saith the Lord: and again, The Lord shall judge his people.
Heb 10:31 [It is] a fearful thing falling into [the] hands of [the] living God.
What is being spoken, as spirit and as life is the one body of Christ that He sacrificed for our sin is thought of no effect or contemptuous for those non-elect persons who do not believe in Jesus Christ and look for some other way, --any other way but Jesus Christ. They know that He died on the cross and they have heard, but that hearing is not mixed with faith as has been granted to the elect. Those who fall away were never truly born again. Another passage used by such persons is the parable of the sower.
Such persons contend that the parable is indicative of new creations in Jesus Christ, who are actually born again and who have truly believed in Jesus Christ who then fall away. But a closer examination of the parable proves them liars:
Luke 8:10 And he said, To you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but to the rest in parables, in order that seeing they may not see, and hearing they may not understand.
Luke 8:11 But the parable is this: The seed is the word of God.
Luke 8:12 But those by the wayside are those who hear; then comes the devil and takes away the word from their heart that they may not believe and be saved.
This one passage refutes those who say such things as trying to use this parable as proof that non-metaphorical new creations in Jesus Christ can lose their salvation. For God's revelation straightforwardly says that they did not believe and were not saved because Satan, the adversary stronger than they, came and stole the seed away from them.
Luke 8:13 But those upon the rock, those who when they hear receive the word with joy; and these have no root, who believe for a time, and in time of trial fall away.
These do not believe in Jesus Christ as well, having no root in them as Jesus Christ himself is said to be the root AND offspring of David the King.
(Rev 22:16 I, Jesus have sent mine angel to testify these things to you in the assemblies. I am the root and offspring of David, the bright
They never believed and were never born again as they lacked the abiding word of God in them, the very root spoken of and necesary to be in them, the lack of which is the very reason that they fall away in tribulation.
Luke 8:14 But that that fell where the thorns were, these are they who having heard go away and are choked under cares and riches and pleasures of life, and bring no fruit to perfection.
Who is spoken of elsewhere in the Holy Scriptures but the wicked who hear the word and go away, not keeping the word and reveling in the riches and pleasures of this life?
Titus 3:3 For we were once ourselves also without intelligence, disobedient, wandering in error, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful,
Titus 3:4 But when the kindness and love to man of our Saviour God appeared,
Titus 3:5 not on the principle of works which [have been done] in righteousness which we had done, but according to his own mercy he saved us through [the] washing of regeneration and renewal of [the] Holy Spirit,
Titus 3:6 which he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Saviour;
Titus 3:7 that, having been justified by His grace, we should become heirs according to [the] hope of eternal life.
Thus those who serve the lusts and pleasures of this world are clearly demarcated from true Christians as having not been born again. Indeed, though all of us were at one time doing the very things of such persons we have been saved from among them and no longer do them as new creations in Jesus Christ, but at such times and for God's own purposes He allows the sin in our flesh to win a victory over our flesh as doing an evil work in the flesh but not in spirit.
Luke 8:15 But that in the good ground, these are they who in an honest and good heart, having heard the word keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience.
These who 'having heard the word keep it' are those very persons who have been truly born again, not by their own permission or effort but through the free grace of God. Thus, God says for the Psalmist and for us as elect:
Psa 119:57 My portion, O Jehovah, I have said, is to keep thy words.
God makes clear and unambiguous reference to the fact that the psalmist's keeping of the word of God is a gift--a grace by saying, "My portion..", that grace granted as comprising a particular gift to a particular individual. He does not say, "My job is...", or "My duty is..." but "My portion." The same Spirit says,
"Psa 16:6 The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage." Both passages are indicative of inheritance, grace from God.
Grace is a gift by one whom has the power to bestow such a gift upon one who could in no way obtain such a gift themselves. A grace that is not irresistible is no grace at all, for how could we obtain any perfection, any gift which God requires we have in order that we bear fruits of righteousness? Indeed, without His word of truth as irresistible grace we could not even be birthed as new creations in Jesus Christ. How could we take something from Him and under a power of our own birth ourselves? Yet a 'part-grace/part-us' scenario is the very lie being floated by anti-christ. God must accomplish ALL for us and through us and it is the very oneness required in the doing of this work though us that is the purpose of our having been created and legitimately makes the just and true title God has bestowed on us as 'sons of God' the truth concerning us. This oneness is our joy and proves the love of God toward us. Not only does He bestow more and more grace on us, He uses the very gifts He bestows on us through us and imputes the righteousness of such works to us as the righteousness of Christ. That is, He does the works through us and non-metaphorically so. Yet the very thought of this oneness is not a joy or good news at all to the anti-christ and those who hear his false gospel. This very oneness is the alien of the independence they desire so hardily and the end to which they work unceasingly. The only use for God they have is a tool of their own avarice and to use His word as merely to expand their own desires without the need to be born again or to non-metaphorically die to the world in Christ. Their reasoning is the reasoning of Esau: "What good is the birthright to me if I die?"
Having heard that some will inherit the kingdom of heaven, it seems to them to the most obvious common sense that one who is dead cannot inherit anything. Yet we must die in order to inherit the kingdom. Having been baptized into the death of Christ we are born again. Those who do not believe in the name of Jesus Christ do not trust God that they will be truly born again. This trusting is belief and is proved in the new birth. You must believe and if you do truly believe you have already been born again. Thus they are excluded in everyway from the very thing that would save them: belief in Jesus Christ.
Job 15:20 All his days the wicked man is tormented, and numbered years are allotted to the violent.
Job 15:21 The sound of terrors is in his ears: in prosperity the destroyer cometh upon him.
Job 15:22 He believeth not that he shall return out of darkness, and he is singled out for the sword.
The anti-christ then calls this very oneness which is our joy as new creations in Jesus Christ 'fatalism' among other things. If he is to die, there seems to him to be no emotional opportunities ahead for himself, no goals to realize. In short, nothing. There appears to him to be no use to live if he cannot be in charge of himself because he cannot believe in Jesus Christ and has no expectation of rising from the dead to glory. His incredulity is his unbelief and he cannot believe because he has been created for the specific purpose of not believing in Jesus Christ and to speak his lies.
(Jude 1:4 For certain men have got in unnoticed, they who of old were marked out beforehand to this sentence, ungodly [persons], turning the grace of our God into dissoluteness, and denying our only Master and Lord Jesus Christ.)
Man not responsible for the deeds done in the flesh as establishing sanctification and the very concept of judgment (vengeance/emotional equivalency) versus justice: justification
Heb 10:19-22 Having therefore, brethren, boldness for entering into the [holy of] holies by the blood of Jesus, the new and living way which he has dedicated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, and [having] a great priest over the house of God, let us approach with a true heart, in full assurance of faith, sprinkled as to our hearts from a wicked conscience, and washed as to our body with pure water.
and
1 Cor 6:9-11 Do ye not know that unrighteous [persons] shall not inherit [the] kingdom of God? Do not err: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor those who make women of themselves, nor who abuse themselves with men, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor abusive persons, nor [the] rapacious, shall inherit [the] kingdom of God. And these things were some of you; but ye have been washed, but ye have been sanctified, but ye have been justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.
and
Heb 10:10 by which will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all....
So then, as is clearly expressed by the above revelation, spirit and life of God to us as elect, we have been sanctified not by ourselves or through any power we possessed but through the Spirit of God. That is, we 'have been', (past tense) sanctified, we do not look forward to being sanctified based on our responsibility to take some action nor are we condemned as being not sanctified for the lack of any action as it is God Himself who has sanctified and justified us. Many who claim that sanctification is an on-going process do so as an excuse to imply that salvation is a destination at the end of a long process which we are 'responsible' to accomplish. These persons are always to be found among those who also claim that the word of God is mere information 'we' are 'responsible' to understand and act on.
What is spoken of in the Holy Scriptures as on-going is holiness and growth in Jesus Christ. This holiness and growth will never end but is in no way causing salvation or necessary in order to be saved as one who is holy has already been saved and sanctified else they could in no way at all be holy. Eternal life in Christ means eternal growth in God. To be perfect in holiness as is referred to in the Holy Scriptures in no way implies a stopping of growth in Christ as having reached an end point but being perfect as being sin-less and completely empty and cleansed of sin and evil. In this lack of all evil and sin we will always continue to grow in Christ. Thus:
1 Th 4:3,4 For this is [the] will of God, [even] your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication; that each of you know how to possess his own vessel in sanctification and honour,
1 Th 4:7 For God has not called us to uncleanness, but in sanctification.
2 Th 2:13 But we ought to give thanks to God always for you, brethren beloved of [the] Lord, that God has chosen you from [the] beginning to salvation in sanctification of [the] Spirit and belief of [the] truth:
1 Pet 1:2 elect according to [the] foreknowledge of God [the] Father, by sanctification of
Rev 22:11-14 Let him that does unrighteously do unrighteously still; and let the filthy make himself filthy still; and let him that is righteous practise righteousness still; and he that is holy, let him be sanctified still. Behold, I come quickly, and my reward with me, to render to every one as his work shall be. I
Clearly we are already, as non-metaphorical new creations in Jesus Christ holy (at and since our new birth in Christ, now and on-going...) and sanctified (past tense). All of this was accomplished by Christ for us and imputed to us even as He works through our bodies to accomplish His good works, to include the act of speech in the speaking of the gospel.
Some tension on this on-going versus accomplished sanctification is derived from the Greek language. The word for sanctification has both a noun and verb form. The verb form is 'hagiazo' (Vine's Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Terms, 1996). The verb is indicative of the past tense as is directly shown to be the case above, a setting aside as consecrating something for the special purpose of making it (us) holy. The noun form is 'hagiasmos' and is indicative of the on-going holiness. Neither implies an on-going process at the end of which we are said to be 'perfect' and as a result of this perfection, worthy of 'salvation' as if we had 'responsibility' to act on our own under a power of our own and were even capable of doing so.
As well, justification is not on-going but is a once-for-all act on the part of Christ for our benefit. Clearly we are not responsible to justify our selves as the very act of justification is a pronouncement of acquittal and innocence of by another, namely God.
Those who say men are responsible for the deeds done in the flesh and try to twist the cross of Christ into payment for such deeds, (as in the phrase, "He died for our sins"), as making no distinction between the adversary who had come and killed us and was performing those deeds in our body and that Christ died for us as elect in order that we be freed not only from the adversary but from the penalty pronounced against us because of these deeds done in the flesh would do well to recall that Christ was not Incarnate as heart or soul or mind but as flesh, and that the cross itself was an expression of the wrath of God against the deeds done in the flesh, that Christ was made manifest as flesh for the atoning of us in the flesh in particular AND an act of love in distinguishing and demarcating us from the sin that had slain us, such demarcation establishing the new birth of which we, as formerly slain, could then partake. Yet these persons have formed a lie from which they hate to be separated as they think the feelings invoked by the their lies concerning the cross (as to make us indistinguishable from the sin for which Christ died) are somehow sacrosanct and holy and to expose their lie is to trample upon the real Jesus Christ instead of the anti-christ that speaks through them.
Yet it is on the basis of innocence and acquittal based on that innocence that justification is even possible. We have been unequivocally separated and demarcated from sin, who has now been identified as having NEVER been us, though we were for a time deceived and dead in that deception as to be unable to even know in truth that such a thing as sin existed and was not us. The entire world lies under the sway and false doctrines and words/lies of the anti-christ whose dearest hope is that he never be found out and that the world remain deceived in thinking he is them and they he. Those whom God has not, in His grace chosen will forever remain in perfect oneness with this sin and this deception as the only way of being saved is belief in Jesus Christ, the very Word of God that has so told them and us the truth even as we will forever remain in perfect oneness with Christ.
Therefore we are perfectly justified and perfectly righteous. But because the deeds were done in our flesh and we have of necessity been born again as arising from having an adversary stronger than ourselves slay us, we had no righteousness at all. None whatsoever. Righteousness is demonstrated and comprised of actions and works and is holy life in progress. Yet having been slain we could in no way have performed ANY righteous act or work and in fact had not done anything righteous at all. Therefore it was of absolute necessity that someone more mighty than our former adversary who had slain us bestow, just as irresistibly and just as ultimately as our former having been slain, life and righteousness. That someone is Christ and He imputed His righteous acts to us in the absence of any ability whatsoever by us to demonstrate such life or perfect works without Him. This imputation was not without effect even though many attempt to say this imputation is merely a legal device with no power and was a one-time act. Well do they desire it to be a one-time act. For they wish above all else to have privacy from God and not to be one with Him but to be independent from Him. If Christ is in us as elect and one with us, not only does He accomplish in that on-going joy of oneness all righteousness and the works we do, (Phil 2:13 for it is God who works in you both the willing and the working according to
Those who continually lie concerning 'man's responsibility' hope and pray for a privacy, a place somewhere between God and sin in which to be independent. Indeed,they cannot imagine true existence without it and go so far as to declare true oneness with God such that God does both the willing and doing of the righteous works in and through us, not a joy but a lie 'because' according to them, this would make of men mere 'spiritual robots'.(!) God in His providence has so arranged it so that they would rather have sin and pride and burn in hell than be one with God through Jesus Christ. We pray for their salvation and understanding. But if God has hardened their hearts to destruction, so be it. Christ comes Amen.
Men Not Responsible for the Deeds of the Flesh: True Mercy Established
mercy: "the outward manifestation of pity; it assumes a need on the part of him who receives it and resources adequate to meet the need on the part of him who shows it." (Vine's Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Terms, 1996)
Though many attempt to portray the elect as undeserving of God's mercy and point to this undeservedness as proof of responsibility for having done the acts in the flesh, again they directly lie concerning the truth of God and do so in the speech of sin. Our lack of righteousness, the very thing which would merit us anything from God is the result of a foe stronger than ourselves who had come and killed us: sin. Though we lack any merit, as in earning anything by any righteousness on our own, this lack is itself not sin but the result of sin: death. This lack of righteousness is indeed the ultimate proof of death and therefore the lack of any ability to earn anything. Mercy then is established on the truth that men are not responsible for the deeds done in the flesh. God has no mercy on the sin but demarcates and clearly distinguishes us from sin in order that He have mercy on us, the object of His pity and indeed, love. This mercy is irresistible and unequivocal for the elect who are indeed, rightfully called, 'vessels of mercy'.
Rom 9:22-24 And if God, minded to shew his wrath and to make his power known, endured with much long-suffering vessels of wrath fitted for destruction; and that he might make known the riches of his glory upon vessels of mercy, which he had before prepared for glory, us, whom he has also called, not only from amongst [the] Jews, but also from amongst [the] nations?
That true mercy is indeed irresistible and that deliverance, salvation, grace, sanctification, justification, forgiveness, is a demonstration not only of mercy, but of each of the other is demonstrated throughout history as well as the Holy Scriptures.
God did not ask the children of Israel to leave Eygpt. He did not ask them if they wanted to leave or stay. Indeed, there was much grumbling among them as evidence that their hearts were such that they would have stayed, even in slavery. This demonstrates that they had the same hearts as all fallen men to include the Egyptians and thought of slavery as an emotional widget and device between men who have in truth equivalent hearts. They knew nothing of the need to have a new heart and a new spirit and to be saved in Christ. God commanded the children of Israel to leave, created and brought about the cicumstances under which they were to leave, such that they left wealthy and despoiled those whom had despoiled them and caused Israel to leave Eygpt against their own wishes (that is, against the true slavery in their own hearts--the deceptions of sin...). That is, He had mercy on them in the face of the protestations of the sin who had overhthrown them and spoke through them and manipulated their own desires to the contrary, they having grown accustomed to slavery and only hearing with their ears of former times of freedom of their ancestors and ignorant of what true freedom in Christ is. (and some of them to this day are still ignorant of what that freedom is becuase God has yet to open their eyes...)
Jesus Christ did not mock from afar His own children and say such things as "If they really wanted to get out of Eygpt, it is their own responsibility. If they really wanted to do it they would make it their business to do so." He did not regard their words of sedition against Him even as He saved them because such words that they spoke had no power and were lies. But in His mercy He forgave them,(He made a clear and unambiguous distinction between them and their enemy--sin) knowing they had been overcome by an adversary stronger than they, as had the Egyptians. But He saved His own people(not the Egyptians) , not merely from the Egyptians, but from sin, though sin was as well the enemy of the Egyptians, despite the Egyptian ignorance of sin.
As well, Christ did not say to the paralytic by the pool of Bethesda, "In My providence I have ordained that if you want to be healed, you have to do your part. My part is to send the angel over the pool of water. Your part is to get in the water." --even though it WAS God's providence that such an angel DID disturb the waters and whoever could get in first WAS healed. God did not mock the papralytic and say, "It is your responsibility to get in the water first. If you don't then you must not really desire to be healed at all." As well, God did not heal the paralytic just enough as to enable him to have the physical agility to get in first the next time the waters were moved by the angel. Christ healed the paralytic completely by His irresistible word demonstrating mercy and that He Himself had come that none of His elect should be denied healing, that none should stand in line or think of themselves as unimportant or fear eternal damnation because of an absolute inability on their own part to effect or even accept true salvation. He heals us and saves us without our permission or ability to resist such salvation for His elect, knowing that we did not even know what salvation truly was before we were saved and lacking such knowledge we could hardly have assented in advance for such a blessing that is beyond understanding for fallen man.
Thus the reality of mercy is established, not on 'responsibility' as of performing an act which merits anything, as we are absolutely powerless to perform such acts, else mercy is not mercy. Mercy then is itself a distinguishing act by He who demonstrates it toward another. God has mercy on us, not the sin in our flesh--our mortal, earthly tabernacle. The sins in and of the flesh are the reason for the entirity of old testament law--to bring to the light of our understanding that sin even exists. That sin in our flesh is distinguished from us is the very basis of the possibility of a sacrifice--the entire sacrificial system and the cross of Christ. It is the sacrifice--in the flesh-- that dies--not us.
The resurrection of Christ is then proof of our sanctification, our being hallowed by God in eternal life. For the sacrifice in our stead havng been made complete through the cross, it was not enough that we simply be clean from sin, but that we live a life that is true life (sin-less) and that all that we had formerly known as life before we were born again be revelaed to us as in fact, death. (Not, 'a kind of death', but the only real death--existence without God's word abiding in us. That life is manifested and proved in the Ressurection of Jesus Christ.
God establishes the faithfulness and life of His word as a witness to all by creating what men call history. Before Christ came, His word spoke of the sacrifice that would be necessary and such speaking created new creations in Jesus Christ even before Christ came, such is the efficacy of the word of God. Those new creations looked forward in faith for the cross, --we look back and now all, both in heaven and on the earth look forward to the ressurection together, that one be not placed ahead of the other except Christ Himself who is the head.
Psa 99:6-8 Moses and Aaron among His priests, and Samuel among them that call (not simply 'called'-past tense, but call as in the active sense..parenthesis mine...) upon His name: they called unto Jehovah, and He answered them. He spoke unto them in the pillar of cloud: they kept his testimonies, and the statute that He gave them. Jehovah, our God, Thou answeredst them: a forgiving ^God wast thou unto them, though Thou tookest vengeance of their doings(the sins of their flesh...parethesis mine...).
So then, mercy is demonstrated as we are delivered from sin and the grave, redeemed from sin and the grave and saved from sin and the grave now in this life, not simply hell later. Sin is that adversary that even now is in the world as anti-christ, and not just generally 'everywhere' excepting us as new creations in Jesus Christ, but in our own flesh, warring against us. But He who is in us is greater than the sin in our flesh and in the world.
Psa 107:2 Let the redeemed of Jehovah say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the oppressor,
2 Sam 22:4 I will call upon Jehovah, who is to be praised; So shall I be saved from mine enemies.
Psa 86:13 For great is thy loving-kindness toward me, and thou hast delivered my soul from the lowest Sheol.
1 Cor 15:52-58 in an instant, in [the] twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must needs put on incorruptibility, and this mortal put on immortality. But when this corruptible shall have put on incorruptibility, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall come to pass the word written: Death has been swallowed up in victory. Where, O death, [is] thy sting? where, O death, thy victory? Now the sting of death [is] sin, and the power of sin the law; but thanks to God, who gives us the victory by our Lord Jesus Christ. So then, my beloved brethren, be firm, immovable, abounding always in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in [the] Lord.
Having spoken concerning the truth/reality of salvation, grace, forgiveness, sanctification, justification, mercy, the cross and resurrection, the imputed righteousness of Christ and deliverance in light of real sin and evil existing in the world and being a truly powerful adversary, though not as powerful as our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and men NOT being responsible for the deeds done in the flesh because of having been non-metaphorically slain by sin and that this lack of responsibility establishes these very truths, we move on with our lives in Christ with joy in oneness and peace.
It would serve those through whom the speech of sin speaks and who 'preach' lies which create nothing but destruction of those very spirits in hell well to hear that the sin and the fall of man is not a myth or fable but a historical fact, the truth of which is established by the acts they themselves are committing, to include speaking lies concerning Jesus Christ. May God grant them repentance unto life.
Psa 20:8 They are bowed down and fallen; but we are risen and stand upright.
In the Name of Jesus Christ, Amen.