we've been singing out of the hymns and
I was thinking specifically about amazing grace how
sweet the sound that saved a wretch like
me you girls recognize that that phrase amazing
grace how sweet the sound that saved a
wretch like me John Newton penned those words
and he became acutely aware of what a
wretch was after he realized the horrible hideous
way he had conducted his life in such
a cruel and vicious way of just marketing
of humanity and selling and as a ship
captain and all the things that he did
just the brutality and the human injustice and
and I mean just and he was just
devastated by it and as he encountered the
Lord and came to grips with the truth
of God's Word he realized what it meant
to be a wretch there is a saying
you've got to get a person lost before
you can get them saved the idea being
that if we don't see our need we're
definitely not going to seek a supply or
a source or a solution the same thing
holds true for us in our Christian life
and I believe that's what Paul is referring
to in Romans chapter 7 as he uses
this very same word so in Romans 7
verse 24 we hear the cry of a
desperate man this is the Apostle Paul describing
a time in his life and this is
what he said a wretched man that I
am who should deliver me from the body
of this death Oh wretched man and when
we read that passage and we think of
the word wretched the problem that most of
us as Christians have with it is we
perceive that to be John Newton some horrible
monster a person maybe like the one that
shot up all these people recently that's been
on the news that kill killed several including
the little girl and and wounded the state
representative but we think now that's a wretched
person I mean man look at that guy
or you know the Oklahoma bomber or the
9-11 terrorist now these are wretched people
saw a flash on the newscreen last night
somebody had had abducted some some young girl
those are people they rape and mutilate they
murder they torture I mean these are wretched
people but then again Paul says a wretched
man that I am a wretched man that
I am that's what Paul says but I
don't see any description in his life whatsoever
about anything like what we perceive to be
a wretched person and that was the shocker
for the Apostle Paul when he had to
come to grips with the fact that he
too was a wretched man you know at
one point in his life he told Timothy
I am the chief among sinners and what
he was saying even at that point in
his life that was at the point of
his conversion he was saying you know here
I thought I was the best of the
best Pharisee of the Pharisees you know as
touching the law blameless he say man I
had my act together I did what the
law said do I did not what do
what it said don't do I was on
track or so he thought and that's where
many of us are in our Christian life
and walk and this is where I found
the struggle to be in so many Christians
they come for counseling or I talk to
them after I preach somewhere and they've got
something going on they think well it's not
all that bad I just didn't need a
little tweaking or tune-up but what they
don't see is that they are the wretched
man and I would venture to say that
99% of Christians are in that wretched
man mode so there's this wretched man syndrome
that takes place in the body of Christ
that keeps us stifled so that what happens
is we take one step forward and two
backwards but we don't even realize it we
don't even realize it what I mean by
that is this when when I was when
I when I in my early years as
a Christian I I went through the hoops
I learned the ropes and I understood what
God's Word said and I man I I
studied the Word of God I was taught
the Word of God I went to church
and I heard teachings I memorized scripture I
knew God's Word I prayed and and and
so when I went off in the Navy
I look great in fact I was the
best of the best of the Navy because
I just wasn't anybody that was even close
then when I got back went to college
all my Christian friends in the college I
was way beyond them in my in my
church when we would sit down I knew
the Bible better than most and so I
thought this is as good as it gets
and this is really the best that's expected
the the the mindset is that God has
this wonderful goal that we're to shoot for
you know well whatever we want to call
it you know becoming more like Jesus or
however you want to describe it but we
have this goal the standard this perception the
standard let's say the Word of God and
so that's the goal but of course God
knows none of us are going to get
there none of us can achieve it so
he really doesn't expect that of us it's
just about try as hard as you can
do the best you can so growing up
there is a young boy in the church
the song that stood out to me was
called our best and it means give you
the best the Lord do the best you
can for the Lord and that's good enough
but you see the problem with that is
even our righteousness the best that we can
do is still filthy rags to the Lord
even as much after we're saved as before
we were saved because human righteousness our self
-effort to serve and please God fall short
and so the Apostle Paul in saying about
himself he's a wretched man what's he telling
us and how did he come to that
conclusion well if we go back in Romans
7 he says here going back to well
I want to let me let me do
it in reverse all right let's verse 7
he says what should we say then is
the law sin God forbid no I had
not known sin but by the law now
this is the phrase I want to get
to after that he says I had not
known lust except the law had said you
shall not covet now that let this last
phrase of verse 7 so here look at
again I had not known lust except the
law had said you shall not covet okay
now let's get some terminology clear the word
lust doesn't mean just the sexual immoral perversion
that has been defined primarily in our culture
the word lust there means desire and can
be either good or evil in nature depending
on the context that has paused referring to
it here he's talking about it in the
context of that which is evil or ungodly
now he's not talking about just in the
immoral sense he's talking about lust in the
general sense for the word lust means desire
and Paul is saying now look I had
to realize that even as a new believer
in Christ I was still experiencing a pull
and I was still responding to the appeals
and things of this world not just the
gross immoral things we might classify but that
my desires and my appetites were still unbridled
and misguided see my desires and appetites were
unbridled and misguided so that like we find
ourselves overeating we find ourselves overcompensating you know
we get all consumed up with sports or
our hobbies and we just overindulge we're over
indulging this is a society of overindulgers and
most anything and everything just it doesn't matter
what it is we go to seed on
it we get too much into it and
Paul is saying the word covet is that
same idea it means that you're coveting and
so but look at he says except the
law has said you shall not covet now
there he's referring to the Ten Commandments so
if we look there at Exodus or yeah
Exodus chapter 20 verse 17 then he's going
to show us there what the law says
and the Ten Commandments were just the most
basic minimum daily requirement but they included all
the essentials of practical daily living that God
intended for his people not just so he
could make sure they were on the right
path but because that was the right way
to live and God knows the right way
to live and so he was simply telling
the people which is grace in itself he's
saying look if you want to live right
this is how you do it these are
Ten Commandments ten rules ten guidelines really for
living and and you follow these and and
you'll be good with me and you'll be
good with your fellow men so and he
goes through these ten and every one of
them has to do with external conduct your
actions what we do or don't do and
most of us even as Christians today we
gauge our life and how well we're doing
by how it looks on the outside you
know as long as we're saying the right
thing and doing the right thing externally as
long as we learn how to keep appearances
up or we wear the right mask and
say the right Jesus words like hallelujah and
praise the Lord at the appropriate moment and
we know how to pray the right kind
of prayers then we think everything's okay and
all is well with the world I mean
we memorized our scriptures we read our Bible
daily and we're on track but all that
is but externals what Paul would call to
Timothy a form of godliness it's only a
form it's only the external so when he
gets to this Tenth Commandment Exodus chapter 20
verse 17 he says you shall not covet
now covet has to do with an attitude
which is why when Jesus came on the
scene what did he focus on attitude he
said you've got it all together on the
outside your whitewash sepulchers that is you cleaned
up your life on the outside you look
good on the outside but what you don't
realize is as Paul would say there Oh
wretched man that I am you're a walking
dead man you're a whitewash sepulcher you're a
tomb you're a death you're a death trap
your body is a death trap and you're
still walking around as a dead man walking
see that's what you but you don't realize
that see that's why Jesus had to be
so clear and to the point and had
to sometimes seemingly hit people between the eyes
he was saying it's it's all about understanding
the real essence of holiness the real essence
of purity and righteousness and godliness and so
he says there you shall not covet and
then he goes down the list your neighbor's
house wife his possessions his animals you know
his his servants whatever he's got but then
and so we look at that we go
on our look and we make the list
we say well okay first of all I
don't even like my neighbor and I hate
his house it's the ugliest color I've ever
seen so who would ever want a house
like that and and so you eliminate that
and you say in his wife well she's
kind of a hag and and she's definitely
not my type and you know and and
so you rule her out and and so
you go down the list and he doesn't
have any servants so I'm there's not even
an issue there and the next thing you're
saying is wait a minute he doesn't have
animals and so and except that one dog
and he's a barking dog and quite an
annoyance to say the least and so I
definitely don't want him and so you rule
it all out and then and then he
says here or anything else of your neighbors
and let's expand that because see in in
the story when Jesus was telling them love
your neighbor the thing they were trying to
get out of and that story was well
wait a minute we're good to our neighbors
and Jesus wanted them to see your neighbor
is anybody so he gave them the story
he gave them the story of the Good
Samaritan they said look your neighbor is anybody
happens to cross paths with you anywhere on
planet earth that's a neighbor it's someone else
that you're that you share this planet with
is a neighbor and it's just a matter
of you how you interact with them but
he's saying that we're not to covet now
covet is that evil desire to want what
is not yours and to want to take
it from them it's entirely different than seeing
that somebody is driving a car that you
like or somebody has a house that you
like and you admire that for what it
is and you recognize well that's I didn't
even realize that kind of car was available
but now that I see it I realize
that's a good car I'd like a car
like that car but I don't want their
car I'm not begrudging them of having it
and yet what does the Lord say he
says rejoice with those who rejoice but weep
with those who weep so we can kind
of have compassion and weep with those who
weep but what about when somebody has occasion
for rejoicing you know what about when they
get the new car or what about when
when when when you find out that they
got healed but you didn't get healed or
when they got blessed but you didn't get
blessed it's a little more difficult see because
you want what they've got and if you're
not careful you'll cross that fine line in
the coveting and you'll become jealous of them
and you'll become covetous of them and and
you won't be able to be content in
who you are in Christ and what you've
got in him he says and having food
arraignment food and clothing that is let's therewith
be content be content with such things as
you have he says to us now that's
not to say we can't want other things
but there's a vast difference in in just
winning it in that broader sense of desire
and that evil kind of desire that causes
us to crave it to be consumed by
it to be driven by it and to
be overcome by it I mean we can
get blown all out of proportion about stuff
and what he's saying is here don't let
stuff rule your life because that stuff becomes
your God that's what you live for how
many a person has slaved to buy certain
products in life certain material possessions or been
devastated when it was lost or stolen and
so he's saying guard against being caught up
in that realm of things don't covet but
Paul says but wait a minute I was
doing pretty good until one day the Holy
Spirit I believe caused him to reassess what
the Word of God really says because he
knew it he knew it up here and
his desire was to do what was right
so here's a man who by by by
his knowledge of the law and his firm
conviction to live according to the law and
his deep desire and devotion to honor the
Lord Jesus in his life as a new
creation but still we find him struggling and
that's why when he's saying he's a wretched
man that I am because for instance in
he talks a lot about what he knows
in regard to the law he says in
verse 12 for instance he says the law
is holy the commandment is holy it is
just as good he says this is what
I know he says these are the things
I know about God and His Word and
and then he he talks all about what
he knows here and then he says for
instance he says there in verse 25 he
says so then with the mind I myself
serve the law of God he says hey
I'm in agreement according to my knowledge of
the law and my mind that's what I
know to be right and that's what I
agree is right and then he says but
with my flesh the law of sin so
what we have here is a man who
has tried the two basic resources that God
has given to all humanity let's let's go
back to verse 18 he says I know
that in me dwells no good thing and
then he says for to will is present
with me see he's saying to will is
present with me and then he asked the
question how to perform that which is good
I find not so he's saying now my
problem is not that I don't know what's
right I know he's saying my problem is
not that I don't know the truth of
God's Word or that I don't concur that
it's right or valid and furthermore he says
I want what God wants he says I
have a will to do what is right
and true according to God's Word so what
he's told us here is the two main
elements that we as humans have that we
operate according to is mind control and willpower
so how many times have you heard your
parent perhaps or someone else say just put
your mind to it you can do it
just put your mind to it if you
want it bad enough just you know it's
got to be a matter of will control
you gotta have some discipline here just make
the right choices and what are we teaching
them we're teaching them how to live on
the human plane using knowledge the intellect the
mind and the will and what Paul has
really done for us in Romans 7 that
brings him to the place of the wretched
man is as this new man in Christ
he's trying to do the same way he
did when he was the Pharisee of the
Pharisees he as a Pharisee of the Pharisees
he put his mind to work and as
a brilliant mind gifted of God he learned
everything there was to learn about God and
His Word then he further discipline himself by
willpower and by making the right choices so
that he was doing all the right things
externally that's why when Jesus comes to address
the different religious leaders and specifically targets the
Pharisees he's not putting them down they were
the best of the good guys they did
the best they could with what they knew
they were meticulous to a fault and it
was at that point of to a fault
that Jesus was trying to say but you've
made that the sum total of what God
is all about and that's you've missed God
you've been straining at the net and you've
swallowed the camel and you've missed the essence
of God and who he is and what
he's about he said you've been busy about
keeping the letter of the law but the
letter of the law kills only the Spirit
of God only the Spirit of law can
give life so now Paul is really just
showing us here that he's a wretched man
because he has tried the things that he
thought would make him good and right now
let me just give this to you a
little different way let's jump over to Revelation
chapter three and let's look at it here
in verse 17 we're going to find the
same word showing up again the word wretched
Revelation 3 17 is addressing the church at
Laodicea Laodicea which was one of the cities
there in the region and it was a
Gentile city and and there were these believers
gathered there this is where they live both
Jew and Gentile now born-again believers in
Christ they're living in this this very prosperous
city and so he addresses them by saying
this you say I am rich you say
I am increased with goods you say I
have need of nothing but what you don't
know he says what you don't know you
think you know but you don't know and
this is what you don't know he said
you don't know that you are wretched see
there's our word you are wretched that is
you are hopeless you are helpless you you
are really in this deplorable state but because
you appear to be rich and you have
increased with goods and you think you don't
have need of anything you think you're okay
because you look above average this is what
you don't realize is you're wretched you're miserable
you're poor blind and naked now there's no
doubt that at that time the Laodiceans were
people that were fortunate enough to live in
a region that was prosperous at that time
but that's somewhat beside the point because what
he's really addressing here is the fact that
they were thinking about this in spiritual terms
now we can look at it one or
two ways first of all it would be
like if you begin to be blessed materially
and and and you begin to to see
some of your prayers answered and so your
assumption then is well I I'm rich and
I'm prosperous and I don't need anything because
look I've got his blessing me and I've
got all these material possessions and so you
begin to assume well that must mean I'm
okay that must mean I'm really doing good
here because God is sanctioning my life because
look he's blessing me and see that was
the misnomer that Jesus came to try to
counteract that was going on under the old
covenant the misnomer that prosperity equated God's sanction
on your life and and that was erroneous
for instance let's think of the Israelite nation
they're under slavery and bondage in Egypt and
God came along in his mercy and grace
at the appropriate time sent Moses Moses shows
up on the scene as a man of
faith believes God steps out by faith goes
up against the Pharaoh this amazing humongous miracle
none like it ever has occurred since the
whole nation bows down to this man named
Moses the whole nation subjects themselves so all
of a sudden these people who are over
here murmuring and complaining wanting to stone Moses
and kill him or at least get rid
of him now are amazed that all of
a sudden they've rolled out the red carpet
and here these people are lavish with wealth
because as they were allowed freedom from their
slavery and allowed to leave they didn't just
have to kind of slink out the back
door they sent them out in regal style
because they blessed them with all the wealth
they gave them all this jewelry and gold
and they had all this good stuff they
blessed them with so these people now are
going out prosperous and wealthy assuming wow we
must be something special we are really God's
chosen people and look look at the result
I mean and after all our fathers Abraham
Isaac and Jacob and that makes us really
quality people here and let's don't let's don't
look too far away because the attitude was
constantly murmuring and complaining every time some little
obstacle came up they got down on Moses
they got down well you know we don't
have any water you've sent us out here
to die in the wilderness you know we
don't have any food to eat we're tired
of this man it didn't matter what it
was they murmured and complained about everything and
yet they were blessed and even their shoes
did not wear out as they journeyed through
this wilderness one in the 40 years and
they were protected every step of the way
blessed none of the diseases of Egypt I
mean and here today in the church as
believers if we get those kind of things
going on my life we immediately think well
man we must be doing pretty good but
that's the misnomer that he says here in
Revelation you Laodiceans have got it together and
you've experienced God's blessing and prosperity and you
therefore assume that must mean you're on track
and you can talk about all your stuff
you have as a new creation and here
let me we're changing over to the new
creation now so we move from old covenant
to new and so now as Christians what
do we do well we're blessed in a
day where there's a lot of good teaching
about the new covenant okay so we get
all these teachings so we have for instance
there are many different forms of so-called
new creation confessions and these are a list
of various things that the Bible says that
are now true about you as a new
creation what would be some of them let's
do some examples anybody think of one what
Oh coming and going okay but but but
but as a new creation what are some
things are you forgiven so you're forgiven you're
accepted you're loved this is a new creation
you're a saint Wow no no more sinner
now you're saying you're righteous all these things
are true about you so this is your
new creation status and so what we do
is we go around making these positive confessions
I am this and I am that and
100% correct except except where's the fruit
except show me the money put up or
shut up he says you don't realize you're
really poor you're really still impoverished because while
you're saying all these things and they are
true you are not living up to that
it's not working in your life it's not
manifesting there's no real fruit of it oh
yes sporadically occasionally here and there now you
can show all the prosperous blessings and say
all these things you have and how that
God has done for you and he's yes
all that's true but that doesn't make you
who you are nor is a sign or
a signal that God somehow sanctions your life
because as Jesus said let's look at the
attitude here let's check out what's really going
on not to negate anything that God has
made available to us as a new creation
it's all true but the real issue is
always about the walk in the life and
so he's simply saying here as new creations
yes you you you are in fact rich
you are increased with goods it is true
you don't need anything as a new creation
you have everything you need but be that
as it may are you living from your
new creation self or are you still living
from the outer man trying to imitate and
emulate rather than allowing that life which is
in you to be manifest through you the
Apostle Paul made an interesting comment to the
Corinthian Church the Corinthian Church in a lot
of ways parallels the Laodicean Church for instance
in the first chapter of 1st Corinthians he
tells us something about these people quite an
eye-opener in fact he says that the
church at Corinth verse 2 they are the
Church of God at Corinth they are sanctified
then he goes on down and he says
now grace be unto you but then he
goes to verse 4 the grace of God
given you by Christ that in everything now
verse 5 now this is exactly what we're
talking about in the Laodiceans in everything you
are enriched in all utterance in all knowledge
even the you know the very testimony of
Christ has confirmed that that's the truth that's
what God did for you in Christ as
a new creation you have been enriched and
such that he says in verse 7 you
come behind in no gift and he says
that's that's all the case that you're sons
of God your daughters of God you're the
children of God you're redeemed born-again okay
that all that now over here though he
gets a little further into this just in
chapter 4 he says in verse 8 now
you are full okay now you're full now
you're rich you have reigned as kings without
us so that's another thing we are as
a new creation under the new covenant we're
kings and priests so he says you have
reigned with kings without us you're full and
you're rich but then he says but I
would be glad that you did reign he
said no look all that's true about you
and you're going around talking a good game
I mean everybody can talk a good game
Monday morning quarterbacks there's plenty of them there's
a lot of things we could say about
what the Falcons could have should have done
okay we could all do that but he's
saying you you tasted of something and you
walked in a measure of it but he
says we're walking on here we're going on
with God and we are walking as kings
and priests in the earth he says we
are living out of our new creation self
but you have somehow missed it you've got
you got just enough you know why so
what we say you know enough to be
dangerous you've got a glimpse of this and
a taste of it but you didn't really
see the essence of it so all you
can do is talk about it and knowledge
only puffs up so what we have is
a very educated Christian community and thank God
for that but it's got to go beyond
education because all education can do all knowledge
can do is give you information and the
Apostle Paul was saying about his own life
look he says I was well-informed let's
go back to Romans 7 he says I
was well-informed and I knew all the
right stuff so in verse 24 Oh wretched
man that I am 724 who should deliver
me from the body of this death and
he moves quickly Romans 25 verse 25 and
he tells us the who I thank God
through Jesus Christ our Lord now we all
would say well he should have known that
well he did know that he knew it
but he didn't really know it that's why
when he goes back here and says I
didn't know what it meant to lust until
I saw the commandment said thou shalt not
covet and then I knew so he said
I knew about it I knew about it
in understanding intellectually but then there was a
knowing where I came to experientially cover the
realization of what that means and not just
what it means out there somewhere but what
it means in my life and suddenly the
dawn Oh wretched man that I am there
was a movie a number of years ago
the title of the movie was called falling
down the story was about a man who
was just a good hard-working middle-class
or average citizen or whatever you want to
put him businessman but little by little he
began to be perturbed and put out and
frustrated with the system at every level whether
it was at home or work with the
boss or the government it was just one
big mess as far as he could see
it have been justice and indifference and the
heightened frustration finally called him to start acting
out in ways that that caused him to
react to all this and little by little
he kept pushing the envelope until all of
a sudden one day the authorities came the
police and they showed up and they surrounded
him and he found himself being arrested and
in shocked amazement he said what you mean
I'm the bad guy I'm the bad guy
how can this be all these other people
have ripped me off I mean I've had
people steal from me I've had people you
know do treacherous things and these are the
criminals and yet why am I the one
who's getting arrested here of course he had
crossed the line too but it was so
subtle and gradual and in his mind justified
that it made it seem right in reality
he was the bad guy in that sense
in terms of his conduct and that's what
Paul is saying about the wretched man he's
not saying that he himself is wretched when
he describes wretched man he's talking about the
state he's in of misery of disgust at
the fact that knowing what I know he
says having a heart for God as I
do how could I still continue to say
and do things or at least have an
attitude a thought a disposition inward feelings to
the contrary how could I still be in
this other realm which I hate so so
intently and yet here it is consuming me
on the inside now looking good on the
outside but on the inside and I can
remember in my own life being in that
same situation and talking to a friend about
it who seemed to have the secret best
I could tell he lived in this amazing
simplicity in Christ joy the Lord talk about
love Jesus it was just obvious he did
now I love the Lord too that was
that was the mix for me how could
I loving God as I do still be
thinking saying and even doing things that I
know are not of God and in fact
are displeasing to God and I was crushed
and grieved by that and yet I would
see this other guy and I would say
well he seems to be so joyful and
he's obviously victorious and and I had to
come to grips with the fact I was
defeated and and I was miserable I was
not the good guy I thought I was
as a Christian I was the chiefest of
sinners in the sense of I was the
chiefest of the wretched man or woman or
boy or girl okay but I was the
chiefest in my eyes suddenly and that's where
it has to come to you know we
were in a day and age where Christianity
is sort of a smorgasbord take it or
leave it in the way most of its
presented and boy most of us approach it
and so I'm saying that's a dangerous place
to get to because we lose sight of
God's holiness and his greatness and his majesty
and the awesomeness of his glory such that
we just sort of take him as one
of the guys now no doubt there's a
truth to that no doubt Jesus was a
friend of sinners he hung out with the
disciples he prepared a meal for him on
the Sea of Galilee he washed their feet
but let us never ever forget he is
the Lord of glory high and lifted up
the great and mighty God as a young
man in seminary we went through an exercise
in one of the classes and they wanted
us to try to see what different ways
we might illustrate to the teenagers it was
a youth class how can you portray God
and so they had a chair and one
person said now not being sacrilegious but I'll
take the role of God and so he
the professor actually he sat down the chair
and he said okay so let's assume I'm
God how you gonna relate to me how
you approach me and so different ones of
us were all required to go up and
do our thing and so it was interesting
how it all transpired so so some would
come and they would raise hands and some
would come and they would kneel and some
would come and lay on their face and
there were different ways in which we bodily
expressed ourselves and some would use words and
some would sing songs and then one guy
got up and sat in his lap and
hugged him and that really touched me but
here's where we've come to in our culture
we see him only at the buddy level
okay however the only way you get to
that level is you humble yourself and then
he lifts you up but humbling yourself is
to recognize Lord I am nothing and you
are everything I am nothing and apart from
you can do nothing but you on the
other hand are the Almighty and nothing is
too hard for you and that takes care
of the wretched man problem oh wretched man
who shall deliver me I thank God through
Jesus Christ my Lord he already has he's
already delivered us we're already free indeed in
him but we need to stop trying to
get free and get focused on the source
of our freedom all these riches all this
abundance of wealth everything that is in us
everything in the new covenant which is true
about us is all it says in Christ
in him and I tell you what I
get on that as he goes on to
say if we forget about these chapter divisions
he's moving through a thought here and he
shifts back to summarize in verse 25 with
the mind I serve the law of God
with the flesh the law of sin he's
saying I'm trapped I know what I should
do and yet I'm still doing the wrong
thing because my humanity is still causing me
to sin but why because I'm living after
the flesh and we reap what we sow
so if we've been sowing to the flesh
we're going to reap the sin even if
it's at the attitude level it's still just
as evil and wrong and ungodly but then
he quickly says but wait verse 181 no
condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus
see he's saying everything about you as a
new creation hinges on this one reality of
being in Christ and because you're in Christ
all he is in you you are now
in him and you can never ever say
that all you all these things about you
as if saying the confession is going to
happen this one lady was saying you know
all my confessions are meaningless all my confessions
are for nothing because I confess I confess
I confess all these things to be true
about me but it never happens in me
well the reason is we haven't seen the
whole basis of those confessions is because of
being in Christ Jesus and because we're in
him everything he is in us now is
true about us in him and because of
him I can now do all things through
him but it's always by means of him
Christ Jesus the Lord is our life our
source our strength our all every bit of
that is true in me as a new
creation but only because I am in him
only so then verse 2 for the law
of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus
has made me free from the law of
sin and death he's saying now you've moved
into an entirely new dimension there was in
fact the law that was established in Genesis
chapter 2 what verse 17 or something he
says if you eat of this you will
surely die if you eat of this forbidden
tree you will surely die now that's the
law if you sin so later it's summed
up like this the soul that sins shall
surely die so sin leads to death that's
why he's talking about there the law of
sin and death yeah Genesis 2 17 but
that law is in place so we had
then this law of sin and death he
comes back to it in Romans 6 23
for the wages of sin is death because
why because the law of sin is death
when sin occurs you experience death and in
fact on the other side of that when
sin occurs you know one thing death is
operating in you because the source of that
sin is Satan and Satan is dead even
as Christ is life now if Christ was
operating in us we would experience his life
but when he's not operating in and through
us by the power of his spirit then
we get the other side of that law
which is the law of sin and death
but he's going to show us the resurrection
side that's why he says the law of
the spirit of life in Christ Jesus so
again in Christ Jesus the law of the
spirit of life so when I'm in Christ
the spirit of life supersedes the law of
sin and death because it is first of
all made me free from the law of
sin and death made me free so he
didn't just set me free he made me
free from the law of sin and death
I am free indeed free indeed totally completely
fully free but then if I'm free we
must pose the question but still again why
is it I keep doing and acting and
saying these other things that are foreign to
me because I don't know the true law
of the spirit of life in Christ you
know I fly on the airplanes quite a
bit and my mission travels as I'm flying
around on those planes it's pretty high up
and if you're down it looks pretty dangerous
I remember my grandson when he was first
going to fly and he was a little
leery about that and and lose mother late
in life finally for the first time flew
because that's high up and what if it
falls what if it falls but you see
the beauty of an airplane is you don't
have to be concerned about the law of
gravity which is the law of sin and
death because you've got a higher law the
law of aerodynamics and the law of aerodynamics
supersedes the law of gravity and carries you
over and above the law of sin and
death and so the law of the spirit
of life in Christ ensures that you can
walk godly in Christ Jesus by the spirit
because you are in him so because you're
in him you're born of his spirit that's
how he made you new and now you
have this new life in you in Christ
so that's there are your riches so you
yes you're in need of nothing because you
have all things in Christ yes you're in
need of nothing because you can do all
things through Christ so you are full if
you're full of him and you are full
of him on the inside because of his
fullness of all we receive John chapter 1
verse 16 but it's do we allow him
to fill us with all the fullness of
God that's why in Ephesians Paul is saying
this is my prayer that you would be
filled with all the fullness of God but
we've got to lay him out so that
the spirit of life in Christ can be
released through us and we can live out
of our vital union in Christ and begin
to walk godly in Christ Jesus what a
victory and that's our life we go out
of the wretched man syndrome and we begin
to just enjoy life and what Paul called
the simplicity that is in Christ just simple
childlike trust in him and that's the trust
that allows us to soar like an eagle
instead of being consumed by that law of
gravity and crashing and burning all right so
let's pray well thanks that you have made
provision for everything and we don't have to
fret or trust we're not trying to figure
it out I don't even understand it we
just can gladly accept it gratefully receive it
and thank you that because of Jesus Christ
all he is all he's done and all
he's come to do in us that we're
free to be ourself and you and we're
free from the law of sin and death
and we can soar like an eagle because
the spirit of life in Christ has made
us free from the law of sin and
death