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The Daily Word of Righteousness
The Knowledge of Good and Evil, #4
No one who lives in him keeps on sinning. No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him. (I John 3:6 NIV)
If you will read carefully the text of Romans, Chapter Six, you will see that Paul is saying the following:
It is not permitted to you to continue in sin, because you have been crucified with Christ and you now are raised with Him that you might walk in newness of life. It is not that you no longer have a sin nature, or that it does not matter if you do sin. Rather it is true that to continue in sin is not consistent with the position you have taken by faith that you have died with Christ on the cross and have been raised from the dead along with Him.
God has assigned your entire old personality to the cross so God might be able to destroy the body of sin that dwells in you.
Now that you are a Christian you have a choice. You can choose to be the slave of sin or you can choose to be the slave of righteousness.
If you as a Christian choose to be the slave of sin you will die spiritually.
If you as a Christian choose to be the slave of righteousness you will live spiritually.
If you choose to be the slave of righteousness the result will be holiness and the result of righteousness and holiness will be eternal life.
The gift of God is the ability to choose to be the slave of righteousness that you might receive eternal life. Eternal life will be your wages.
If you as a Christian choose to be the slave of sin your wages will be eternal death.
We usually preach Romans 6:23 to the unsaved. This verse was written to the saints in Rome, not to the unsaved. The unsaved cannot choose to be the slave of righteousness before they receive Christ! The verse is not applicable to them!
Go ahead now and read the chapter. See how close I came.
Romans, Chapter Seven
Chapters Three through Five tell us that we receive righteousness through our faith in Jesus Christ, not by continuing to observe circumcision or the kosher laws.
Chapter Six informs us that the Christian, through the grace of Jesus Christ, has the gift of being able to choose to be the slave of God and thus gain eternal life.
But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life. (Romans 6:22 NIV)
What, then, is Paul saying in Chapter Seven?
First of all, we must recognize that in Chapter Seven Paul is speaking primarily to Jewish Christians who were troubled about leaving the Law of Moses.
Do you not know, brothers for I am speaking to men who know the law that the law has authority over a man only as long as he lives? (Romans 7:1 NIV)
Paul was addressing men who knew the Law of Moses.
Paul goes on to explain that we do not become adulteresses by marrying Christ, because we have been crucified with Christ. We are dead. Therefore the Law no longer has authority over us.
To be continued.