Shall We Continue in Sin That Grace May Abound?

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? Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?

Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life” (Rom 6:1-4)

We were slaves of sin and death, God sent His Son and by grace delivered us from them all. He delivered us from the power of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of His Kingdom, and in Him we have redemption. We have been set free from the power and domination of sin. Sin shall not lord it over us, for we’re no longer under the Law. That Redemption is from the works of the adversary and from his dominion over our lives.

We are dead to sin. A dead man can no longer participate in the affairs of the world he has departed from. A dead man does not pay taxes, neither can he or she withdraw social security benefits. This is also the implication of the declaration a new believer makes when he or she goes through baptism. When pushed downwards and immersed in the water during baptism, we are declaring that the old life of sin with all its deeds, died and is buried with Christ. The old-man and his deeds has been put away. Died, buried, and never to be heard off again.

Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof. Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God. For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace” (Rom 6:11-14).

The Apostle therefore admonishes us to consider ourselves as dead, so far as sin is concerned, but alive and in fellowship with God through the Lord Christ Jesus. Sin must no longer rule in our bodies, and we should no longer live like the carnal man.

For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light: (For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth;) Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord. And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.(Eph 5:8-11).

In the words of the prophet Malachi in the 4th Chapter of his Book, our Lord Jesus is the ‘Sun of Righteousness”:

But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings;

Jesus Christ is God’s Sun, the Bright Morning Star, the DayStar from on high that visited us.

He is that Light that God set in the firmament of the heavens to rule the Day, He is the Light of life, the Source of light for all light-bearers. On the fourth day, God said, “Let there be lights” Notice He said “lights” ,not “light”. God set many lights in the heavens on Day 4 of creation but only one Light-Source, the Sun. The others, moon and the innumerable stars, are reflectors of the light from the Sun. He bore record of Himself in the gospel of John saying, “I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life. He is the Light of Life. Just as in the natural realm, all life depends on the sun, so it is in the spiritual, all life depends on Christ Jesus the Son of God, and the Sun of Righteousness. He is the Light of the world.

The Lord Jesus Christ is the embodiment of light, the Light of God, the Light that came down to us here on earth, the Light that sprang up in the midst of darkness and the darkness could not overpower it. In His ascended state, as the SUN, He shines His light into all the other

“heavenly bodies” who are the members of His Body, and these in turn reflect His light to lighten the earth. No wonder He said, “As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world” (Joh 9:5) And when He was about to leave the world, He turned to us, “members of His Body” or the “heavenly bodies” and said

“Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven” (Mat5:14-16).

The night is far spent; the day is at hand. Let us therefore cast off all the works of darkness and put on the armor of light, for we are children of Light. “Let us walk honestly, as in the day; not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying. But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfil the lusts thereof” (Rom 13:13,14). “Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober. For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night. But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation. For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, “(1The 5:5-9).

Put On the New Man

Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your a life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.

Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. Because of these, the wrath of God is coming. b You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. But now you must also rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips.

Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.

Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe your- selves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.

Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him” (Col 3:1-17, NIV).

It was on the sixth day of creation that the Almighty God said, Let us make man in our image and after our likeness. This was God’s purpose at creation, and that purpose has not changed. It is as much God’s purpose now as it was then, to make ‘man’ in His own image and after His likeness. So, when God made man in the beginning, He made him a spirit-being. God gave him a body made out of the dust of the ground, and breathing into it, man became a living soul.

“And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul” (Gen 2:7 )

In other words, man is a spirit, he has a soul, and dwells in a body. The physical body is not the real man but the house in where, the inner-man, or the real man dwells. Apostle Paul spoke about this in the 5th Chapter of his 2nd Epistle to the Corinthians”

“For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens” For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven:” If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked (2Cor 5:1,2).

The real man came from the breath of God at creation. The physical body came from the dust of the earth. His soul, which is the interface between the Spirit and the body, came alive when God breathed into the molded clay.

The human spirit determines our identity. Who we are, what we are, and where we are going. This is the component of man man that came from God. The human spirit came from the breadth of God and its that part of us that’s in God’s image, for God is a Spirit. The human spirit is also the one that lives in the same realm with God and can tune in permanently to the channel where God is transmitting. The Holy Spirit communicates with the Human spirit, not with the soul or the body.

That day, when God brought him forth, man enjoyed companionship with Deity. His spirit was alive. His mind was ruled completely by his spirit, which was in God’s perfect image and likeness. His mind

obeyed the dictates of the spirit, and thus man had a spiritual mind. His spiritual mind ruled his body, keeping his body in a state of immortality.

His spirit came from God, and so he was in God’s image and likeness in righteousness, holiness, wisdom, understanding, and might. His body, on the other hand, is of the earth and came from the dust. His soul, which includes his mind, is made up of both physical and spiritual components. Man’s body includes his brain, which controls his body and is the home of his feelings and emotions. This brain is also the seat of his mind, which was spiritual in the day when God made him. So, man is a spirit with a physical body and a soul that is shared by both and can be influenced and governed by either the spirit or the flesh.

Here is what we are saying: The mind of man can be governed either by the spirit, which is in God’s image, or by the corruptible body of the flesh, with its endless cravings. The man, saved or unsaved, whose mind is governed by the cravings of the body and fleshly desires has a carnal mind. But the man whose mind is governed by his regenerated spirit has a spiritual mind.

When man partook of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, at that instant his spirit died just as God had warned him. Prior to this, his spirit ruled his mind and his body was fully under the control of his spiritual mind. But when he rebelled against God and his spirit died, that is—separated from the life of God, it no longer had the power to rule the mind. Therefore, a new ruler took over the reigns of his mind. His mind began to be ruled by the flesh and, dominated by the cravings of his body, hence became a carnal mind.

The carnal mind is ruled by the flesh and not by the spirit. All the desires of the carnal mind have to do with the body, catering to all its cravings and fulfilling all its demands. It cannot contact God; neither is it really interested in seeking Him, for it’s interested only in the things that are gratifying to the flesh.

Before the fall, Adam cared only for the things of God, having been created to be God’s companion; but after the fall and his mind became carnal, he became body-minded, flesh-minded and carnally-minded. The carnal mind is an enemy of God, and those who habitually dwell in a sensuous state cannot please God. The Scripture declares that

“they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God (Rom 8:5-8).

When a man is born again, therefore, he has a formidable enemy to contend with. No, the enemy we are speaking of is not the devil, as some will at once suppose. Our No-1 enemy is the corruptible flesh that is at war with the New Creation man, the regenerated spirit. The battle is for the mind, and the battleground is in the mind. Do not imagine for a moment that this enemy, the corruptible flesh, which has for so long ruled the mind and held it under complete control, will now willingly step down from its throne without a fight. We are deceived if we so imagine.

The instant a man’s spirit is reborn from above, a civil war is de- clared! This war is between the newly born-again spirit and the old landlord, the flesh. This is a war that unregenerate people know noth- ing about. The spirit of the New Creation man, or a newly born-again person now alive, seeks possession of his former throne from where it fell, even the throne of the mind, but finds the power of the flesh firmly entrenched there. The mind, a hopeless captive to the will of the flesh, is unable to obey the dictates of the newly reborn spirit because it’s under the control of the flesh. Thus, war is declared. The flesh warring against the desires of the newly born-again spirit, and the newly born-again spirit against the corrupt desires of the flesh.

For the desire of the flesh fights against the spirit, and the desire of the spirit fights against the flesh; and this variance tends to hinder you from doing what you wish to do (Gal 5:17, Conybeare Translation, Epistles of Paul).

In this warlike turmoil, the spirit is not allowed to have its way because of the flesh, and the flesh cannot have its way because of the spirit. For

I delight in the law of God after the inward man: but I see a different law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity under the law of sin which is in my members (Rom 7:22-23).

The mind is the battleground and it’s the reason for the battle.

And like a servant torn between two contrary and belligerent mas- ters, has no peace. It was in the midst of this battle that Paul cried out,

“O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?”

But blessed be to God, who has set us free from the dominion of the flesh by the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.

For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free from the law of sin and of death. (Rom 8:2).

Yes, the spirit is alive again, recreated in God’s image; alive and ready to do battle and to take possession of the mind. The child of God must know this and refuse to be governed by the flesh. The spirit, which was dead in trespasses and sin, is now alive and ready to take possession of the mind. Now the child of God can begin to exhibit the spiritual mind.

This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh (Gal 5:16).

Here, then, is the solution to the problem. Walk after the leading and the direction of the reborn spirit, and you’ll overcome the cravings of the flesh. The reborn spirit is indwelt by the Holy Spirit and made in God’s image. It seeks to rule the mind after the will of God and subdue everything to the obedience of Christ.

It is at war against the flesh, determined to cast down everything that opposes God and subdue it unto Christ.