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Most interesting. . .very good explanation. . .I really have to think on this. . .because fear of something does not bring allurement for me, it brings avoidance, distancing, deterrence. . .I don't remember ever being allured by anything fearful to me.
I sure would like to hear from other folks on this. . .crossnote, old hermit and everybody and anybody else that I can't think of right now.
What do you think of the fear of the penalty of sin causing allurement to sin?
I sure would like to hear from other folks on this. . .crossnote, old hermit and everybody and anybody else that I can't think of right now.
What do you think of the fear of the penalty of sin causing allurement to sin?
When I was growing up we belonged to a very legalistic Baptist church. I went to the school and we had dress codes, the boys had to have very short hair, nothing but collared shirts for men and boys, even on church workdays, no blue jeans could be worn, by men, kids and especially women. Could not eat pork, No Movies and no TV's in homes, no music except for Christ honoring music, no dancing, no PDA even between hubby and wives, etc, etc, etc...
It was evident this minsitry was attempting to change the outside to evoke a change in hear tor soul...We all know this will never happen...because outward changes do nothing to change the sin nature....
I never feared the penalty of breaking those rules, but the sin nature in me made me want to rebel against those rules big time...I am blessed that my parents finally woke up out of this false gospel and we left the church and school...We wore blue jeans again and were not headed to hell for doing it...even my Mom...LOL!
I maintained friendships with all the kid I knew and as they hit their teens and young adult years and left that church, their lives imploded because they never feared the penalty of breaking those rules, but they were held to a standard they could not keep and therefore their pendulum swung to the wrong side very fast and they sunk into darkness very rapidly...some never made it back, some even lost their lives literally...
So I don't believe it is the fear of the penalty of SIN that gives the allurement to SIN, I think it is just as Paul said in Romans 7, tell someone they cannot do something[the law] and they will have a greater desire to do it[sin nature] than without the law....
I think most Christians that Post Romans 7 have no clear understanding of what Paul was talking about...Paul was not stating he could not help his sin nature and that his sin nature is something he could not subdue or master, or that he could not stop or help himself from sinning...
To properly understand Romans 7, means you know from keys in Chapter 6, that Chapter 7 is a comparison to Chapter 8. It means you read Chapters 7 & 8 as one chapter, not 2 independent chapters of different topics...
Paul is not saying the fear of the penalty of SIN makes us SIN in Chapter 7...he is telling us, while we were under our SIN nature the law aroused us to SIN. Just like my example above...tell someone they cannot do something and it will make them want to do it that much more...this is what Paul is saying in the first part of Chapter 7, not that the fear ofthe penalty of the law causes me to want SIN.
Paul finishes chapter 7 by saying, if I stay under the law and try to for Christ, I will continually want to do the things I cannot, and then the Law condemns me for doing what I did not want to do in the first place...he finally screams out:
O wretched man that I am who will deliver me from the hamster wheel of Sinning under the LAW and then the Law condemning me or placing a Guilt trip on me for sinning in the first place...and then me sinning again and the law condemning...rinse and repeat....He then thanks God for Jesus whose redemptive works take us off the hamster wheel..
Paul says in is mind he wants to obey God, but his body is a salve to SIN...and this is were a very large number of Christians stop and get the idea they are still a slave to SIN and have no power over SIN, Because Paul said even he was a slave to sin...
Yet Paul does not finish the thought in Romans 7.25...he continues and shows us that he is not a slave to sin in Chapter 8.1-2
1There is now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. [SUP]2 [/SUP]For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.
Chapter 8 goes on an explain we do not have to be on the hamster wheel at all in Chapter 7, because of what Jesus and the Holy Spirit do for us in Chapter 8.
In my opinion, a very large number of Christians are Romans chapter 7 Christians today, when the Bible teaches us and the Father, Son and Holy Ghost need us to all be Romans 8 Christians...