so....you can't do it i guess.
thats' okay.
thanks anyways.
maybe some other time.
(i know what you mean about wearying over the suuuuuuper long debates over imaginary things)
There are many who believe THEY have striven to learn, THEY have strived through their own endeavour to learn much theolgy,, by reading up on various scholars/theologians and continually reading the Bible. This mostly brings a 'knowledge' that puffs up and makes a person proud of what they think THEY have achieved an understanding of.
Sadly, all too often it is not enough to accept plain scripture as it is written, that is not enough for such scholarly people driven by an understanding of the natural mind so they have to look for 'hidden extras' I call it in scripture so they believe by their own striving and effort they have uncovered much truth
You asked me in a sarcastic tone to speak of Rom 6, 7 and 8, pointing out as you did so my lack of grammatical expertise. I freely admit academically you are probably far ahead of someone like me, and Peter, James and John for that matter as they were uneducated fishermen, but they got by OK
But I will play along with your game for a little while Zone. But personally I believe you are led firstly by your rational mind, therefore there will be no agremenmt here. So I will give you my thoughts briefly on Rom ch 6 and then I will invite you to tell me where you disagree with what I write. If your motives are pure you will agree, if not you will demand all three chapters are written at once. But as I am doing as you asked and you are not doing any exposition of them I hope you can find it in your heart to agreee to my request in humility. You will certainly see how I believe the three chapters flow. Though for this to be done properly all the first eight chapters of Romans should have expositions done on them, but you seem reluctant to yourself partake in this. I guess it is just easier to sit back and criticise others than put your own head above the parapet as it were. But if these chapters are to be looked at it needs to be one at a time, but like I said you can then put my statements together and judge for yourself(as can anyone else) if they flow. Though Rom 7 on its own proves the contentious point between us.
Paul had spoken much in previous chapters of us having a righteousness before God of faith, not law, we could not get to Heaven by being good enough, or earning our way there, it was by a free gift of faith.
He also had explained in the previous chapter that when the law was given sin increased, so the law did not just reveal the sin. He had also previously said that law brings wrath, if we live by law(striving to be good enough) faith has no value. BTW this is why all the other chapters should have been gone into first as I am sure you in your heart are well aware.
So Paul has been speaking of a righteousness/justification by faith, but he has also stressed that this will bring the law to be upheld in our lives Rom 3:31. So, by not living under the law but by faith in Christ we will as Christians live far more as God would have us live.
Rom ch 6
Paul is speaking of the Christian living in grace, not under the law.
He is in general terms talking of us being dead to sin and alive in Christ. Now, does this mean we will never do anything wrong and every day lead perfect lives in every way?' No. But we are not to concentrate on the sins of the flesh, set out to satisfy them. We are in grace and must look to Christ in our hearts and praise and worship him with thanksgiving for our salvation. We are to look to him, desiring in our hearts to follow him because we love him. We set our minds if you like on following after Christ, not on desiring to fulfiull the lusts of the flesh. And if
in our hearts we are looking to Christ, if we truly love him and want to follow him it would be impossible at the same time for us to be seeking ways to satisfy the sinful nature. This is important. If you disagree please let me know. So although we are not perfect in the body we in one sense count ourselves dead to sin as we are not looking to satisy the lusts of the flesh but trust in Christ.
verse 5
Those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what that nature desires, but those who live in accordance with the spirit have their minds set on what the spirit desires.
So if we in our hearts do not have our minds set on what the flesh desires, but are following after the spirit we are living in true grace, as long as we are trusting in Christ.
In verse 6 Paul says
For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with that we should NO LONGER BE SLAVES TO SIN-because anyone who has died has been freed from sin
Now, does this mean we will never once sin in any way? Of course not. But we will not be controlled by sin. There is a big difference between being controlled by sin/sin being our master and sin not being our master, but as humans we are still not perfect. Do any of us fully obey every teaching to the letter of Christ in the beatitudes or the rest of his commands? No we do not. Do we every minute of every day love our neighbour as ourself? No we don't(do we Zone!!) But their is much sin that if not dealt with will stop us taking up our cross and following Christ, it would consume us if not dealt with, it will be our master, we will be its slave. I know from experiance that you cannot be in a wrong relationship and still follow after Christ. The relationship drags you down, you are no longer close to Christ, you end up following the world. You lose your peace, heartfelt faith etc. You are a slave to the contunued wrong relationship and why you are in that relationship. I could go on and on but I am sure you get my drift.
But if I kicked the cat one morning(bless him) I may in one sense have sinned, but sin is not mastering me, I feel bad and don't do it again. If you cannot accept this then is no point in us going on here.
In verse 9
'you however are not controlled by the sinful nature but by the spirit, if the spirit of God lives in you.
I will come to the spirit later on, but Paul says we are not to be controlled by the sinful nature, we cannot be slaves to sin. We cannot set our hearts on what the sinful nature desires.
Now does this mean that all our lives we will look to Christ and trust him in the power of the Holy Spirit, we are secure with God by faith in his son who died for us, but we will see no victory over sin in our life?
We will not look to the lusts of the flesh and seek to satisfy them but to Christ in heartfelt faith and trust him, but still be consumed by sin?
For sin shall not be your master, FOR YOU ARE NOT UNDER LAW BUT UNDER GRACE
verse 14
Now, if sin is not our master it cannot control us, would you agree?
What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! Don't you know that when you offer yourselves to someone to obey him as slaves, you are slaves to the one whom you obey -whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obediance which leads to righteousness
verses 15&16
So because we are not under law but under grace sin will not be our master, it will not control our lives, we must not be slaves to sin, for that leads to death.
Just as you used to offer the parts of your body to impurity and to ever increasing wickedness, so now offer them in slavery to righteousness leading to holiness
So the Christian under grace cannot go on giving their body over to impuritiy, so victory must come about by grace over such things. Does this mean we will never have an impure thought? No! But our bodies are not given over to impurity, we see much victory therefore in the flesh over our impurity
But now that you have been set free of sin and have become slaves to God the benefit you reap leads to hoiliness and the result is eternal life
For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord
verse 22&23
So, to sum up. We are to be dead to sin and alive in Christ by setting our hearts and minds on Christ and trusting him. We are secure with God by faith in his son. We are not under law but under grace. Therefore sin will not be our master and we are not to be slaves to sin
So, we must not look to satisfy the flesh but in our hearts look to Christ and trust him. We know that is our one and only righteousness for Heaven and because Christ is our one and only righteousness for Heaven and we are not under law sin will not be our master and we will see much victory over sin in our lives
Do we therefore nullify the law by this faith? Not at all! Rather we uphold the law Rom 3:31(I know that is cheating)
Therefore if we live by faith in Christ, if we believe that is our one and only righteousness for Heaven, if we are not under the law, therefore we know in our hearts that security with God is dependant on believing in his son, not our own personal goodness we will actually uphold the good laws of God He would have us keep
Why is this?
Now I am going to a lot of trouble to accomodate you here, I hope you appreciate that though I am not convinced your motives are pure.
I ask that you respond to this chapter and tell me where you disagree. It will in no way change what I write concerning chapter 7 so you will see what you desire, the flow as you put it. But I prefer for one chapter at a time to be dealt with. Better we narrow down bit by bit where we disagreee I am sure you would not object to telling me where you may disagree with me here.
If you do not respond to this chapter I will write no more, but all I am sure will see who has made the effort and who has made no effort at all.