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The Daily Word of Righteousness
De Jure and De Facto Salvation, continued
Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God. (Romans 7:4)
In Chapter Eight of the Book of Romans, Paul tells us how to press forward in the pursuit of life, how to win the race for the prize of salvation.
Can you see the pattern? First, freedom from condemnation (Chapters Three through Five). Second, we must not continue in sin if we hope to attain life (Chapter Six). Third, it is a fact that there is sin dwelling in us (Chapter Seven).
Finally, in Chapter Eight, we are shown how to walk in Christ if we hope to achieve the redemption of our mortal body, if we would attain the resurrection to life.
In Chapter Seven, Paul, who was reacting against the Judaizers (teachers who were attempting to combine Christianity and the Law of Moses), reminds the Jews of the inability of the Law of Moses to save us from our sins.
We have died to the Law of Moses, Paul proclaims, so legally we may be free to be married to Christ. The Law was not able to deliver us from our sins. Rather, the Law made our sins even more sinful. The Law emphasized our sin and in so doing brought condemnation and death to us.
It is stated today that if we have died to the Law of Moses we are free from the Law. We now are free.
The truth is, the kind of freedom we have is of a certain kind. We are not free to sin but only to be married to Christ.
We are free from the Law of Moses only if we truly have died to our first personality and life.
We are not just free. We are free to be married to Christ. There is a universe of difference between being free and being free to be married. There can be no fruit of righteousness brought forth until we are married to Christ.
In our minds we desire to serve God. We acknowledge that God's Law is good and holy. But the sin that is in us insists on our sinning and disobeying God. Our mortal body is a body of sin and death. How can we be delivered from it?
Here is the question Paul raises in the seventh chapter of the Book of Romans: "How can I be delivered from the death that is in me, from the evil that is present with me? How can I attain the immortality denied Adam and Eve because of their disobedience to God?
"I am in a battle. I am serving God with my mind but the law of sin is dwelling in my flesh. I desire to attain eternal life but my body and human mind are waging war against me."
Such a conflict exists in many religious people whether they are Jews, or Christians, or the adherents of some other religion—even in the righteous individual who is striving to meet the demands of his conscience.
To be continued.