Chapter 6
Outline: four
paragraphs.
1. A rhetorical
question about the old sin nature, verse 1.
2. The answer, verses
2-14.
3. A question about
personal sin, verse 15.
4. The answer, verses
16-23, the potentiality of carnality and reversionism.
Verse 1 - “What then
shall we say?” The nominative neuter singular from the interrogative pronoun tij, plus the postpositive
inferential conjunctive o)un, a particle
which is used in the formula question, a question which occurs seven times in
Romans-3:5; 4:1; 6:1; 7:7; 8:31; 9;14, 30. So far we have “Therefore what.”
Then the future active indicative of the verb legw. The future tense is a deliberative future, used
where a question of uncertainty is raised or expressed. Here we have a
rhetorical question taking the place of a direct assertion. The rhetorical
question here is going to introduce a false conclusion so as to set up what is
really true.
“Shall we continue in
sin” – the present active subjunctive from the verb e)pimenw means to continue, to stay, to remain, to persist
in. We translate: “Are we to continue.” The present tense of duration denotes
what has begun in the past and continues into the present time. Used with the
subjunctive it will have a slightly different meaning. The active voice: mankind
produces the action of the verb in remaining under the sovereignty of the old
sin nature after salvation. The subjunctive mood is the deliberative
subjunctive used in debater’s technique for a rhetorical question which states
an erroneous conclusion/assumption in the form of a question. This is so that
the question can be refuted and the false doctrine can be replaced by true and
accurate doctrine. There is also the locative of sphere from the noun a(martia in the singular
which refers to Adam’s original sin, the old sin nature, and also the principle
of personal sin. In the plural it refers to actual personal sins. Here it
refers to the old sin nature or Adam’s trend. With this is the locative
singular of the definite article used here generically to refer to the old sin
nature’s rulership of human life through spiritual death. “Are we to continue
in the sovereignty of the sin nature?”
“that grace may
abound” – the conjunction i(na introduces a
final clause/purpose. Plus the subject, the nominative singular of xarij—“grace” with the definite
article to denote a previous reference. The previous reference being Romans
5:20,21 which has been distorted into a false conclusion by some. Plus the
aorist active subjunctive of pleonazw which means to
abound, to increase, to augment—“in order that the grace of God might
increase.” The constative aorist tense is used for a fact or action extended
over a period of time but gathered up into one entirety. It gathers up into one
entirety the concept of Romans 5:20, 21 now deliberately distorted to
anticipate the false conclusion. The active voice: grace allegedly produces the
action of the verb. Since this is a false conclusion it is an allegation rather
than a fact. The subjunctive mood is the potential subjunctive for an
allegation rather than a fact.
Translation:
“Therefore what are we to conclude? Are we to continue in the sovereignty of
the sin nature in order that the grace of God might increase?”
Verse 2 – a
categorical denial of the false assumption. “God forbid” in the Greek is mh genoito. There is no
word for “God” in there. But this is not really an erroneous translation
because you never translate an idiom literally. This is an idiom. When the KJV
was translated “God forbid” was really just a strong negative, that’s all. This
was the correct translation at that time. The qualifying negative mh is used in a prohibitive
sense in an independent clause to express a negative wish. But it is just one
of two basic negative adverbs. One is o)u and the other is mh. O)u always denies the fact; mh denies the idea. Therefore mh is used with the
subjunctive; o)u is used with the
indicative. Mh always denies
the idea or the principle behind it. So we have mh denying the idea plus the optative which always
expresses a wish—the aorist active optative of ginomai which means to become or to come to pass. This is a
gnomic aorist tense, it is used for the certainty of refuting a false
allegation. The active voice: a false assumption produces the action of the
verb. The optative mood is the voluntative optative for the expression of a
negative wish. In this expression, the phrase mh genoito, we have the optative of wishing which
strongly deprecates the false assumption stated in the form of a rhetorical
question and says in effect, “I will refute it.” The literal translation is,
“Let it not be so.” This implies everything that the idiom is not. That is why
you do not translate an idiom literally, or when you do you lose the meaning of
that particular sentence. So Paul uses the Greek idiom to express his
abhorrence of an inference and a false conclusion which aids and abets
legalism.
1.
Reputation of such an allegation emphasises a principle: God’s
integrity does not depend upon the ability, the self-righteousness or the
talent of man.
2.
Divine justice functions for blessing through the policy of grace.
3.
Grace is the policy of the justice of God in providing blessing for the
believer in time and in eternity.
4.
Grace always emphasises the production of God and de-emphasises the
production of man.
5.
In emphasising the production of God grace calls attention to man’s
point of reference which is the justice of God. Grace always emphasises the
justice of God in emphasising God’s production.
6.
Under grace everything depends on who and what God is. Everything
depends on the justice of God being free from compromise in blessing man.
7.
This strong idiom denies the allegation that the multiplicity of sins
increases the amount of grace.
“How shall we that are dead to sin, live any
longer therein?” The nominative masculine plural from the qualitative relative
pronoun o(stij. It has an
antecedent which is the editorial suffix “we” from verse 1. The literal
translation of o(stij is “we, the very
ones who.” But we shorten that to “we who” in order to make better English.
Then the aorist active indicative from the verb a)poqenhskw which refers to retroactive positional truth
as a result of the baptism of the Holy Spirit. This is retroactive positional
death—“we who are dead,” very much alive but dead to something. Corrected
translation: “We who have died.” The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it
refers to a momentary action which occurs at salvation, the baptism of the Holy
Spirit and subsequent retroactive positional truth. The active voice: the
believer produces the action of the verb at salvation by faith in Christ. The
action is very simple. The believer dies to the rulership of the old sin
nature. The old sin nature is still alive in us in the cell structure of the
body and we are still alive on this earth. But retroactively or positionally we
have died to the old sin nature which we carry in the body. The believer dies,
then, to the old sin nature’s sovereignty in human life through the baptism of
the Spirit. The indicative mood is declarative, used for the statement of a
correct doctrinal conclusion in contrast to the false conclusion of the
previous verse. Then the dative singular indirect object from a(martia after the verb,
used for the old sin nature or Adam’s trend. With it is the definite article
which denotes a previous reference in the context. Since the old sin nature has
been previously used in the context the definite article merely indicates this
is the same sin nature, previously mentioned in verse 1. “We who have died to
the sin nature.”
Then comes the interrogative particle pwj which introduces a
rhetorical question used to challenge an erroneous assumption. Plus the future
active indicative of the verb zaw, to live. The
future tense is a deliberative future used in a rhetorical question taking the
place of a direct assertion. The active voice: the believer produces the action
of the verb at the moment of salvation through the baptism of the Spirit. The
indicative mood is the interrogative indicative for a rhetorical question used
to make an assertion. Plus the adverb e)ti which denotes a continuing situation and means
“still.” “How shall we still live.” Plus the prepositional phrase, e)n plus the locative of the
intensive pronoun a)utoj used to
emphasise the identity of the old sin nature as the sovereign ruler of human
life through spiritual death—“in it,” i.e. in the power of the old sin nature.
Translation: “We who have died to the sin nature, how
shall we still live in it?”
1. The old sin nature, the sovereign of human
life, is no longer the controlling factor in the life of the believer.
Positionally the old sin nature is dead, its power has been broken.
2. Living in the old sin nature refers to
continuing under the rule of the old sin nature and following its trends—sin,
good, and evil.
3. After salvation the old sin nature still
resides in those contaminated cells of the body, but through the baptism of the
Holy Spirit at salvation the power, the sovereignty, the rulership of the old
sin nature has been broken.
4. Obviously because of its genetic origin the old sin nature is not eradicated until either physical death or resurrection, whichever occurs first.
5. Though still present in our body of
corruption the old sin nature has been robbed of its power to rule our lives.
The only reason it still rules is because we exercise our options in favour of
it.
6. A new power, the power of the Holy Spirit,
has replaced the power of the old sin nature, so that we have an option to go
with the old sin nature or to go with the Holy Spirit.
7. The rhetorical question introduces the
point of doctrine that there is a new life for the believer on earth, a modus
vivendi which is free from the sovereignty and the power of the old sin nature.
8. One of the applications, then, of the
baptism of the Holy Spirit is retroactive positional truth. Retroactive
positional truth has broken the power of the trends of the old sin nature.
9. While imputed righteousness and subsequent justification is the basis for temporal blessing after salvation, the salvation ministries of the Holy Spirit provide the basis for breaking the old sin nature’s rulership of human life.
10. These salvation ministries of the Holy
Spirit are designed to provide the environment for temporal blessing from the
justice of God at spiritual maturity.
11. Obviously the environment cannot be the
same as the garden of Eden, since at that time man and woman were perfect
people in a perfect environment.
12. Both perfect people and perfect
environment were both destroyed by the fall of Adam and the woman.
13. Now the devil rules the world and cannot
provide perfect environment for mankind, though he brings all of his genius
into focus on the problem.
14. Now that the sin nature is the sovereign
of human life all attempts of environmental improvement merely intensify and
become evil. The intensification of human good is evil. The intensification of
sinfulness is evil.
15. Therefore the salvation ministries of the
Holy Spirit are specifically designed to provide the best environment for
temporal blessings from the justice of God.
16. The environment provided by the salvation
ministries of the Holy Spirit are necessarily internal since the Holy Spirit
does not improve or whitewash the devil’s world.
17. By internal is meant that these ministries of the Holy Spirit are related to both the body and the soul. They relate to the body where the old sin nature dwells; they relate to the soul where doctrine must find residence.
18. Remember that the old sin nature dwells
in the human body genetically and influences the human soul toward sin, good,
and evil.
19. Form its genetic headquarters in the
human body the old sin nature constantly seeks to rule the soul of mankind.
20. But the Holy Spirit’s five ministries at salvation frustrate this activity of the old sin nature. These five ministries of the Holy Spirit are designed to provide an encapsulated environment in the devil’s world, an environment which is actually better than what Adam had in the garden.
The salvation
ministry of God the Holy Spirit
1.
In order to provide a spiritual environment in the devil’s world where
the old sin nature rules human life, God the Holy Spirit has provided five
separate ministries at the point of salvation so that we can have an
environment better than the original environment of the garden of Eden.
Remember that in the garden we had perfect persons, perfect environment and a
perfect age. We need something much greater than what our original parents had,
but there are two problems. Since the fall of man Satan is the ruler of this
world and the old sin nature is the ruler of human life ruling through
spiritual death. So the change is dispensation from Israel to the Church was
designed to provide a royal family for the Lord Jesus Christ seated at the
right hand of the Father, a royal family to go with His battlefield royalty.
Jesus Christ is God and therefore has His eternal royalty, and as eternal
royalty He has a royal family in the Father and in the Holy Spirit. Jesus
Christ in His humanity is the son of David, and therefore He has a royalty and
royal family as well in the line of David, the dynasty of David. But Jesus
Christ as King of kings and Lord of lords—His battlefield title—did not have a
royal family. And so the age of Israel is interrupted and a new dispensation
begins in order to call out a royal family for the Lord Jesus Christ. As
members of the body of Christ we are a part of that royal family, and we have
therefore the privilege as members of that royal family to have certain things
which no believer had at salvation in past dispensations. The environment for
the royal family of God in the devil’s world during the Church Age is actually
provided by these five ministries of God the Holy Spirit at the point at which
we make salvation adjustment to the justice of God. This is an encapsulated
environment in the devil’s world and the provision for this comes from five
specific ministries. This is environment for the royal family of God to grow
from spiritual babyhood to spiritual maturity which is the only way we can
glorify God. The emphasis in the Word of God is not on production but on
spiritual growth. The emphasis in apostasy is on production, and the
implication and allegation is that whenever we do certain things for God, God
is going to bless us. That is not only legalism but it is blasphemy. We cannot
do anything for the blessing of God. The blessing of God is based upon what God
has provided, and God has provided an encapsulated grace pipeline with the
righteousness of God on the receiving end and the justice of God on the
originating end. And so each ministry of the Holy Spirit at salvation in some
way creates that encapsulated environment so necessary for the breaking of both
Satanic power and the old sin nature’s sovereignty over human life.
2.
Regeneration is the one ministry of the Holy Spirit that occurs in
every dispensation. Regeneration merely means to be born again, to be born a
second time. It is the true concept of following Jesus, and the Lord Jesus
Christ explained that to follow Him was not to say what He said or to try to
adopt His mental attitude about things. Nor is discipleship following Jesus as
it is loosely used today. Following Jesus is described in Matthew 19:28, “And
Jesus said unto them, Truly I say unto you that you who have followed me, in
regeneration …” John chapter 3 explains regeneration. The target for the
imputation of Adam’s sin is the genetically-formed old sin nature. The target
for eternal life is the spiritually formed birth. The Holy Spirit actually
provides a birth which is totally spiritual. The first ministry of the Holy
Spirit is regeneration—Titus 3:5-7.
3.
The baptism of the Holy Spirit.[1] The baptism of
the Holy Spirit takes each one of us, having received the righteousness of God
and eternal life, and enters us into union with Christ as He is seated at the
right hand of the Father, and retroactively united with Christ in His spiritual
death, in His physical death, and in His burial.
4.
The indwelling of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit’s and indwelling and
filling are two different things. Filling is a command, e.g. “Walk in the
Spirit.” But we are never commanded to be indwelt. The indwelling of the Holy
Spirit, a ministry at the point of salvation, has to do with the body of the
new believer. The body contains the cell structure, the cell structure are all
contaminated; so the indwelling of the Holy Spirit is to counter the function
of the old sin nature where the old sin nature resides. The indwelling of the
Holy Spirit is never lost, and at salvation the body of corruption is changed
and becomes the temple of the Holy Spirit. The filling of the Holy Spirit
always refers to the soul. You can lose the filling of the Spirit; you cannot
lose the indwelling of the Spirit. When you lose the filling of the Spirit you have
one of two conditions: grieving the Spirit – Ephesians 4:30; quenching the
Spirit – 1 Thessalonians 5:19.
5.
The sealing of the Holy Spirit—Ephesians 1:13; 4:30; 2 Corinthians
1:22. The Holy Spirit guarantees that we are saved. We are sealed with that
guarantee. This indicates both eternal security and this is the escutcheon of
the royal family of God forever. No one was ever sealed by the Spirit before
the Church Age. There are certain sealings after the Church Age, like 144,000
evangelists. But this is a specific seal dealing with a specific subject, the
fact that we are royal family of God forever. The sealing also indicates the
identification of ownership; we are owned by God as of the moment we believe in
Christ. This also emphasises positional sanctification or our relationship with
God forever. Sealing ratifies the fact that God has a plan for our life and
that we are in the divine decrees, and that God has taken it upon Himself to
give us logistical support so that we can fulfil the objectives related to this
principle. The sealing of the Spirit is the promise of super-grace blessings
for the royal family – Ephesians 1:13. Reversionism is incompatible with the
sealing of the Spirit – Ephesians 4:30. The sealing of the Spirit is the down
payment or guarantee of security for the royal family – 2 Corinthians 1:23.
6.
The distribution of spiritual gifts – 1 Corinthians 12:11. All
spiritual gifts are sovereignly bestowed by the Holy Spirit at the moment of
salvation. Many spiritual gifts are not mentioned in scripture. The only ones
that are, are ones that pertain to the function of the local church and a few
extra ones to make us realise that these gifts do exist. The reason that the
gifts related to the local church have to be mentioned is so that there can be
proper administration in the local church. The other spiritual gifts do not
have to be mentioned for the only thing it takes for a spiritual gift to
function is spiritual growth. So the believer’s concern is not what his
spiritual gift is, it is his concern to grow in grace and in the knowledge of
our Lord and saviour Jesus Christ.
Verses 3-5, ignorance of categorical indoctrination.
Verse 3 – the challenge, “Know ye not.” The disjunctive particle h) is used to separate related
or similar terms. It is translated “or.” Then the present active
indicative of the verb a)gnoew which means to
be ignorant—“Or are you ignorant.” The perfective present tense denotes the
continuation of existing results. Here it refers to the fact of ignorance which
has come to be in the past but this same ignorance of doctrine is emphasised at
the moment as a present reality. Right now they are ignorant where they should
be cognisant. The active voice: the believer in the Lord Jesus Christ produces
the action of the verb, namely being ignorant in the field of extreme
importance to our experiential advance. The indicative mood is an interrogative
indicative in which the reality of Christian ignorance is enquired about when
the indicative is used to ask a simple question. The principle is obvious.
Ignorance of doctrine is the most serious problem in Christianity, in the first
century as well as in the twentieth century. Cognisance of doctrine is the only
means of spiritual growth, the only way to acquire capacity for divine blessing
from the justice of God, and the only way to glorify the Lord Jesus Christ in
time. Everything hinges on inculcation of Bible doctrine through the consistent
function of GAP. The first phrase, “Are you ignorant?” is a challenge to
learning Bible doctrine.
“that so many of us
were baptised into Jesus Christ” – the conjunction o(ti is used after verbs of thinking or non-thinking.
Here it is used after a verb of ignorance or non-thinking to indicate the
failure of cerebration and therefore the failure of application to the
Christian modus vivendi. With it is a correlative adjective o(stoj, the nominative
plural used as the subject. The adjective is used for a substantive to refer to
all believers in Christ and is translated, “Or are you ignorant that all those
who” or “that all of us who.” Plus the aorist passive indicative of baptizw which is
transliterated “baptise.” This is not water baptism here, but Spirit baptism.
The aorist tense is a constative aorist for a momentary action at the instant
of salvation adjustment to the justice of God through faith in Christ. The
passive voice: the believer receives the action of the verb at the moment of
salvation adjustment to the justice of God. It is obviously, then, not an
experience but a part of the salvation ministry of the Holy Spirit. The
indicative mood is declarative for a dogmatic statement of doctrine; “into
Jesus Christ” is e)ij plus the
accusative of Xristoj
I)hsouj—“Or are you ignorant, that all of us have been baptised into Christ
Jesus.”
“were baptised into
his death” – in the Greek the word order is reversed, “into is death were
baptised.” It begins with the prepositional phrase e)ij plus the accusative singular of qanatoj, referring to
the spiritual death of Christ on the cross, that time when the sins of the
world were judicially imputed judged by the justice of God. This is the basis
of propitiation and reconciliation in salvation. The accusative singular of the
definite article in front of the noun is used to denote a previous reference.
The definite article may be used to point out an object such as spiritual death
which has been discussed and defined previously, as in Romans 5:14, 17, 21.
Plus the possessive genitive singular from the intensive pronoun a)utoj used here as a
possessive pronoun to emphasise the uniqueness of the spiritual death of Christ
on the cross. This unique spiritual death was taking all of the sins of the
world by imputation and being judged for all of them, and at the same time
rejecting good and evil, therefore separating them from the efficacious work of
the cross; “were baptised” – the aorist passive indicative of the same verb, baptizw, used again for
the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The aorist tense is a constative aorist for
that momentary action at the instant of salvation adjustment to the justice of
God and/or faith in Christ. The passive voice: the believer receives the action
of the verb at the moment of salvation.
Translation: “Or are
you ignorant that all of us who have been baptised into Jesus Christ, into his
spiritual death were baptised?”
1. Note that the baptism of the Holy Spirit
specifically enters the believer into union with Christ, forming positional
truth.
2. This verse emphasises union with Christ in
His spiritual death on the cross. The next verse will emphasise union with
Christ in His physical death and burial.
3.
Union with Christ in His death, then, has a two-fold connotation: a) All
personal sins were judged at the cross; b) Good and evil were not judged
because of non-imputation.
4. Personal sin had to be judged for the
grace provision of salvation but good and evil could not be imputed and could
not be judged for salvation, and will not until the end of the Millennium.
5. Therefore, good and evil continue as a
part of the angelic conflict until the end of human history, i.e. the end of
the Millennium.
6. So first the old sin nature’s ruling power
over human life has been broken and we are identified with Christ when He
destroyed the sovereignty of the old sin nature over human life.
7. Second, because of the baptism of the Holy
Spirit each believer is positionally separated from good and evil as well as
rejects human good and evil.
8. Being separated positionally from good and
evil the believer can walk in newness of life which is the environment for
those a fortiori blessings noted in
the previous chapter.
9. Those blessings received from the justice
of God at maturity, plus the environment provided through the baptism of the
Spirit, results in the mature believer possessing greater blessing than Adam
and the woman had in the garden, and having an encapsulated environment for
those blessings.
1. The newness of life provided through the
baptism of the Spirit also includes positional freedom from producing good and
evil. Not only are we free from the tyranny of good and evil but we are also
free from having to produce good and evil.
2. The believer has no obligation to improve
the devil’s world through social action, socialism, welfare state, communism,
environmentalism, or any social gospel, social action, getting involved, etc.
3. The human race is protected from Satan’s
policy of good and evil through the laws of divine establishment which promote
freedom instead of improvement at the cost of freedom.
4. In addition to the laws of divine
establishment the believer is insulated from good and evil positionally[2] through the baptism of the Spirit.
5. The newness of life mentioned at the end
of the next verse includes freedom from the production of human good and evil.
6. While the production of divine good is not
the means of blessing and reward from the justice of God, it is the spiritual
result of spiritual advance to maturity. The more the believer grows
spiritually the more becomes his production, but it is always a result, never a
means.
7. Divorced from the useless activity of
human good and the function of evil, the life of the believer can be devoted to
glorifying the Lord Jesus Christ through maximum knowledge of Bible doctrine,
which means the consistent function of GAP. As a result of this comes maturity
and maximum blessing from the justice of God. It is that maximum blessing from
the justice of God which glorifies God in the angelic conflict.
8. It becomes necessary for us to become
thoroughly cognisant of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil—Satan’s
policy as the ruler of this world. It is also the function of the old sin
nature as the ruler of human life.
9. Because our original parents became
involved with that tree, contrary to divine prohibition, they became
spiritually dead. Satan became the ruler of the world. The old sin nature
became the ruler of human life.
Genesis 2:9, 16;
3:1-6. “And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree” – in some
case it was an individual tree and in other cases it was a group of trees –
“being desirable to the sight”—designed for the soulish pleasure of the man,
stimulation to the soul through observation, a reminder that God had provided
everything for our original parents. There were four categories of trees, which
were not provided in grace because there was no grace in the garden; grace
comes after condemnation: a) designed for blessing, total stimulation through
observation; b) designed for food, to satisfy and stimulate the human body; c)
the tree of lives in the middle of the garden, the tree that gave them their
capacity for life and their enjoyment of perfect environment and of the Lord.
This tree was actually the tree of positive volition and as they partook of
this tree they had great capacity to appreciate all that God had provided. The
only thing that would keep them of eating of this tree would be eating from the
next tree, which was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; d) the tree of
the knowledge of good and evil. Notice that sin was not an issue in the garden.
Sin cannot be an issue when people are perfect.
The tree perfectly
portrays, then, man’s relationship with God in the garden. It was not a grace
relationship but a God’s love to man’s perfection relationship. There was no
sin, there was no grace, there was no involvement of the integrity of God. The
whole system was love. Perfection was there and it was man himself that created
the imperfections. The world was in a state of perfect environment and was
restored for man’s occupancy and for man’s rulership. It was the dispensation
of perfect environment.
Verse 16 – “And
Jehovah Elohim commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden you may
freely eat; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, you will not
eat from it.” That is a prohibition. Notice that good and evil is the policy,
and the one thing that man did not need under perfect environment, the one
thing he did not have to understand, was good and evil. Knowledge of good and
evil was not necessary for a relationship with God in the garden. This tree was
a test in the garden. There was no sin in the garden.
“ . . . because that
day you eat from it dying you will die.” “Dying” here refers to the old sin
nature, it refers to spiritual death. The moment the old sin nature entered the
cell structure of the body of Adam ageing began, but because of the perfection
of the cell structure, from being in the garden, it took 930 years for him to
die. Physical death is the result of ageing in the cell structure. All that was
required for man in the garden to die was to commit one personal transgression.
The woman’s transgression was a transgression of ignorance; Adam’s
transgression was a transgression of cognisance. Therefore Adam’s sin in the
only one that could be imputed to us. A sin of ignorance involves the woman in
the guilt, but a sin of ignorance could not be imputed. Therefore we have the
imputation of Adam’s sin, and that is the only personal sin ever involved in
spiritual death. Our sins are never involved in spiritual death, spiritual
death comes at birth when Adam’s sin is imputed.
3:1—“Now the serpent
was also more crafty/clever than any lower creature in the field which Jehovah
Elohim had manufactured. So he said to the woman, Is it really true that Elohim
has said, You shall not eat from every tree of the garden?”
Verses 2,3 – “And the
woman replied to the serpent, We may eat from the fruit of the trees of the
garden; but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden,
Elohim has said, You shall not eat from it”--and that is what He did say, but
she adds to what He said—“neither shall you touch it,” which He did not say.
All of this time she hasn’t even touched it because she has been thinking, If I
touch it I’ll die, “lest you die.”
Verse 4 – “And the
serpent said to the woman, Definitely you will not die”—Satan always says that
God is a liar. That is the whole principle of the angelic conflict. God can
only give that which is true, and therefore it is truth which causes us to
grow. We never grow by doing things, we grow by learning truth.
Verse 5 – “For Elohim
keeps knowing that in the day you eat from it that the eyes of your soul shall
be opened and you will become like God.” That is how he appealed to her. He
suggested that the only way that God could keep her down and under His thumb was
to keep here away from that tree. If she ate of it she would be as smart as
God!—“knowing good and evil.” God knows all about good and evil. The woman in
her relationship didn’t need to know about good and evil. See the emphasis: not
mention of sin. Violation of the prohibition is the original sin.
Verse 6 – “And when
the woman saw that the tree was good[3] for food, and
was an object of desire to the eyes, and to cause one to be knowing, she took
from the fruit, and ate, then she gave to her husband with her; and he ate.”
Romans 6:4 –
“Therefore we have been buried together with him.” The idea of being buried
with a dead person may not appeal as a living person. This is a spiritual concept,
a principle that occurred at salvation. The aorist passive indicative of the
verb, sunqaptw means to be
buried with someone. The aorist tense is a constative aorist which refers to a
momentary action that occurred at the point of salvation, a momentary action
that is related to our Lord’s physical death and burial on the cross. He died
physically and was buried shortly thereafter. In Christ’s physical death He was
still perfect in Himself, impeccable. He still had a cell structure totally
free from the old sin nature, therefore He had no trends toward sin, toward
good, toward evil, which are the trends of the old sin nature. He did not have
a body of corruption. The judicial imputation of all sins had occurred, they
had been judged by the justice of God as a part of the spiritual death. At the
same time as the saving work on the cross occurred, good and evil as the policy
of Satan and the function of the sin nature had been rejected. Good and evil
was not judged on the cross, for good and evil must continue as an issue in the
angelic conflict throughout all human history. In His death and burial Jesus
was totally separated, totally free from good and evil. Through retroactive
positional truth we are identified with Christ in His death and burial through
the baptism of the Spirit. We as believers, then, are positionally separated
from good and evil. Since good and evil had been rejected positionally they
also can be rejected experientially through a phrase which simply says,
“Walking in newness of life.” Hence, the positional break with good and evil
makes possible the experiential victory over good and evil in the devil’s
world. Identification with Christ in His physical death and burial is
positional separation from good and evil. Identification with Christ in His
physical death and resurrection is positional victory which breaks the power
and the authority of good and evil, both as the policy of Satan as the ruler of
this world and as the function of the old sin nature as the ruler of human
life. The passive voice of the verb sunqaptw: the believer
receives the action by being identified with Christ in His physical death and
burial. The result of this identification is a positional manumission from good
and evil. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal idea from
the viewpoint of reality. The reality is the baptism of the Holy Spirit, one of
the 36 things which occurs at salvation, never seen, never felt, nor
experienced; it is the basis for retroactive positional truth.
With this verb, “we
are buried together,” we have an instrumental singular of association from the
intensive pronoun a)utoj, referring to
the Lord Jesus Christ. The intensive pronoun is designed in Koine Greek for
emphasising identity, for emphasising someone who is important. No one is more
important to us than the Lord Jesus Christ our saviour, the unique person of
the universe. In the Greek New Testament it is legitimate to translate an
intensive pronoun not as “the same,” but by using a personal pronoun. So we
employ here the personal pronoun to give it the force necessary. The Lord Jesus
Christ is in view. In the instrumental of association a second party must
furnish the association. The second party is the Holy Spirit who furnishes the
association by one of His five ministries at salvation: the baptism of the
Spirit. Then a prepositional phrase, dia plus the
genitive of baptisma, “baptism”—
“through baptism.”
“into death” – e)ij plus the accusative of qanatoj, a reference to
the physical death of Christ on the cross which immediately preceded His
burial. Plus the accusative singular of the definite article used as a
possessive pronoun—“into his death.”
1. Identification with Christ in His
spiritual death on the cross means rejection of good and evil. Good and evil
has not been imputed, it is the policy of Satan as the ruler of this world, the
function of the old sin nature as the sovereign of human life, the old sin
nature rules through spiritual death.
2. Identification with Christ in His physical
death on the cross means separation from good and evil.
3. The justice of God separated personal sins
from good and evil at the cross.
4. Only personal sins were imputed to Christ
on the cross for judgment and salvation provision.
5. Good and evil were rejected for imputation
that good and evil might continue to be the issue in history in the angelic
conflict.
6. Good and evil will be judged in the
future, both at the beginning of the Millennium when Satan is judged and at the
end of the Millennium when the Gog and Magog revolt/revolution is suppressed.
At that time also human good will be used as the basis for the indictment at
the last judgment.
Then comes a protasis
and an apodosis. “that like as Christ was raised up from the dead” – the
conjunction i(na introduces a
final clause, denoting a purpose, an aim, an objective: “that” or “in order
that.” Then comes the conjunction which introduces the protasis of a
comparative clause,
w(sper. The apodosis will be introduced by o(utoj, generally translated “and, so” or “just as,” and
“so” for the apodosis. Plus the aorist passive indicative of the verb e)geirw for
“resurrection.” It means to raise up but in the passive it is used for the
resurrection of Christ. Hence, “in order that as Christ has been raised up.”
This is a culminative aorist tense, it views the resurrection of Christ in its
entirety but emphasises the existing results which, in this context, are
related to the baptism of the Holy Spirit and the believer’s identification
with Christ in His resurrection, ascension and session. In other words, our
identification with Christ who is seated at the right hand of the Father. The
passive voice: Christ receives the action of the verb through two agencies. God
the Father had a part in the resurrection of Christ—Colossians 2:12; 1
Thessalonians 1:10; 1 Peter 1:21. God the Holy Spirit had a part in the
resurrection of Christ—Acts 2:24; Romans 1:4; 8:11; 1 Peter 3:18. The
indicative mood is declarative for a dogmatic statement of doctrine—the fact of
the bodily, physical, literal resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. The
baptism of the Spirit gives us a spiritual identification. It is true that in
the future we will have a body exactly like that of our Lord.
The resurrection of
Christ is in view here with the aorist passive of e)geirw. Christ is the one resurrected at this time. At
this moment in history only the Lord Jesus Christ has a resurrection body. Our
identification with Him is a spiritual identification, just as our
identification with Him on the cross and in the burial of our Lord was a spiritual identification.
These spiritual identifications are brought about through the baptism of the
Holy Spirit.
“from the dead” – e)k plus the ablative plural
from the adjective nekroj. Nekroj was a noun from
the time of Homer and an adjective from the time of Pindar. The noun denotes a
dead person or dead body, e.g. “dead ones.” While the adjective means dead and
is sued of both man and animals, in the Septuagint nekroj is used for the Hebrew meth and muth, and this
tells us that when it is used as a noun it means deceased as well as a dead
body. So you can have two translations: “raised from dead ones” or “raised from
deaths.” Nekroj is also used for
inanimate objects, especially idols which were called nekroi or “dead
things.” In the New Testament nekroj is used as a
noun meaning “dead” in distinction from the living. If this prepositional
phrase, e)k plus the
ablative of nekroj, had a definite
article then it would mean that Christ was raised up or resurrected from among
dead ones. But there is no definite article. We have simply e)k nekron without the
definite article where you go to the use of Pindar instead of Homer—“from
deaths.” Since this phrase is referring to our Lord’s resurrection it is
referring to His resurrection from two deaths: the spiritual death which is the
imputation of all of our personal sins to Christ on the cross and the physical
death which occurred because His saving work was finished while He was still
alive—tetelesqai. “Therefore we
have been buried together with him through the baptism of the Spirit into his
death: in order that as Christ has been raised up from deaths.”
“by the glory of the
Father” – the prepositional phrase, dia with the
genitive singular from the definite article, plus the genitive singular of doca. This is the generic use of
the definite article with the noun doca to comprehend
all the attributes of God. They are gathered together into a single whole here
in distinction to all other attributes of rational creatures, whether angelic
or human. The possessive genitive singular from the definite article with the
proper name is not unusual. Frequently the definite article is used with the
name of God whose identity is clear in the context and familiar to the readers.
So it is assumed that God the Father is well known to the readers and next is
the possessive genitive singular from pathr for the first person of the Trinity—“through the
glory of God the Father.” Glory refers here to all of the attributes of God.
This verse emphasises the function of God the Father in raising Christ from the
dead, as also does Colossians 2:12; 1 Thessalonians 1:10; 1Peter 1:21.
Now we have the
apodosis of this comparative clause which begins with the phrase, “even so we
also should walk in newness of life.” This apodosis is designed in a
comparative clause in order to introduce us to the fact that it is possible for
us as members of the royal family of God to have an experiential victory
equivalent to what God has provided positionally. But this depends on certain
distinctions which are important to us, distinctions which recognise the
difference between a real and a judicial imputation. At birth we have those two
real imputations which provide spiritual death. Human life is imputed by God to
the soul. At the same time Adam’s original sin, the only sin that is involved
in spiritual death, is imputed to the genetically-formed old sin nature. We
have as a result of this, spiritual death. But because only one sin is involved
in our spiritual death this reserves all personal sins in the history of the
human race for that judicial imputation which is the greater part of the saving
work of the Lord Jesus. His saving work on the cross includes the judicial
imputation of all sins and the judgment of those sins. As we approach the
cross, salvation adjustment to the justice of God, personal faith in the Lord
Jesus Christ, there are two imputations which are extremely important. One is
judicial and one is real. The judicial imputation: the justice of God imputes
the righteousness of God to each one of us, setting up a grace pipeline. All
divine blessing comes through the grace pipeline and is encapsulated by the
integrity of God. Justice is on one end, righteousness is on the other, so that
there can be no penetration into this pipeline with anything that is false—any
legalism, any system of good, any system of legitimate good, no personality
change, no talents, no ability of any kind. The pipeline is the source, then,
of the salvation blessings as well as blessings related to maturity adjustment
to the justice of God. It is protected by the integrity of God in such a way
through this encapsulation that we have security with these blessings. Any
blessing that flows through this pipe is secured by the integrity of God, not
by any personal maintenance of self-righteousness, morality or system or
function of the individual. There is nothing we can do, it is what God has
accomplished. Therefore this pipeline is encapsulated to guarantee that the
other 35 things that we receive at salvation and which flow through this pipe
and are received by the righteousness of God are permanent. Then there are no
other blessings which flow through the pipeline until we crack the maturity
barrier. Then the pipeline is opened again by the justice of God. In the
meantime we are sustained by logistical grace—everything that God provides for
us to take in doctrine.
The apodosis of the
comparative clause states the application of retroactive positional truth. It
is introduced by the adverb o(utoj. The adjunctive
use of kai is translated
“so also.” The comparative clause introduces analogous through for the purpose
of elucidation. However, the believer must understand the doctrine of the
protasis in order to comprehend the application of the apodosis. So from the
doctrine of the baptism of the Holy Spirit and subsequent retroactive
positional truth stated in the protasis comes the application of walking in
newness of life. The word “we” is found as a separate personal pronoun as the
subject. It is the nominative plural subject from the pronoun e)gw, the personal pronoun which
also emphasises the difference between the body and the soul. It refers to the
life, the real you.
“should walk” is the
aorist active subjunctive of the verb peripatew. The word was derived from the concept of potew for motion and peri which means motion away
from a centre. In other word, this centre is one foot on the ground and the
other foot is in the air and then suddenly down and in motion. It had a
connotation of motion and thrust, and others such as energy, balance,
orientation, purpose, all of the things necessary for walking. Here we are
interested in an individual walking and what is meant here in this verse. All
of the factors in walking are involved in the Christian way of life. We are
given the ability for a new type of walking . A spiritual birth means a
spiritual type of walking. The energy is spiritual from the Spirit and from the
Word. The balance and coordination is spiritual from the Word, the orientation
is spiritual from the Word, and the purpose is spiritual from the Word. All of
these also relate to the body part where the old sin nature dwells, and the
emphasis here is that in a spiritual walk the spiritual controls the physical,
for the physical or the corporal is where the old sin nature dwells. Because of
our retroactive identification with Christ in His physical death, in His
spiritual death, and in His burial we have two categories from these three
activities. First of all we are identified with Christ in His spiritual death,
the imputation of personal sins, but at the same time the non-imputation of
good and evil—the policy of Satan as the ruler of this world and the function
of the old sin nature as the ruler of human life. Good and evil were rejected
in spiritual death. Positionally we have rejected good and evil. In physical
death and burial Christ was separated from good and evil so that our
identification with Christ in His physical death and burial we are also totally
separated from good and evil positionally. These positional factors must be
brought into the experiential realm. Because of rejection of good and evil and
because of separation from good and evil positionally we are now, because of
this positional factor, able to walk in newness of life. Newness of life means
freedom from the sovereignty of the old sin nature as the ruler of human life.
The culminative aorist tense views the Christian life in its entirety but
regards it from the standpoint of existing results—the potential for newness of
life as the result of the baptism of the Spirit. The active voice: the
nominative plural from the personal pronoun e)gw produces the action of the verb. In other words,
“we” refers to all believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. This is a potential
subjunctive mood which separates the baptism of the Spirit as a secondary
potential from the reality of environment for mature blessings by freedom from
the rule of the old sin nature. The link which keeps the baptism of the Spirit
from providing grace environment for the believer’s mature blessing is
capacity. Translation: “so also we might walk.” The potential subjunctive
indicates the fact that whether you ever reach newness of life or not is
dependant entirely on your attitude toward Bible doctrine.
“in newness of life” –
the prepositional phrase e)n plus the
locative singular of the adjective kainothj which means not
“newness” but it means unusual or astonishing. It really doesn’t means
“newness,” it means unusual, astonishing, extraordinary. There are two basic
adjectives for “new,” neoj and kainoj. Neoj is an adjective which
connotes what has not occurred before, whereas kainoj connotes what is new in the sense of being
remarkable, unheard of. “Newness” is all right because anything that is unusual
or astounding is also new. So we can stay with “in newness of life” but it must
be understood that behind this newness is the unusual, the astonishing, the
extraordinary. Plus the descriptive genitive singular of zwh—“life.”
Potential + capacity =
reality. Potential = the baptism of the Holy Spirit and resultant retroactive
positional truth which breaks the ruling power of the old sin nature in human
life. Capacity = maximum doctrine resident in the soul resulting in maturity
adjustment to the justice of God. Reality = the grace environment of maturity
blessings from the justice of God, an encapsulated environment, something new.
Translation:
“Therefore, we have been buried together with him [Christ] through baptism of
the Spirit into his death [physical]: in order that as Christ has been raised
up from deaths [spiritual & physical] to the glory of god the Father, so
also we might [potential] walk in newness of life.” The potential depends upon
attitude toward doctrine.
1. Newness of life is the grace environment
provided through the baptism of the Spirit for the blessings of the justice of
God to the mature believer.
2. Newness of life provides something better
than Adam had in the garden of Eden.
3. Newness of life is freedom from the policy
and the plan of Satan as the ruler of the world.
4. Newness of life is freedom from the sovereignty of the old sin nature as the ruler of life.
5. Walking in newness of life is the modus
vivendi of the mature believer.
6. Hence, newness of life is a descriptive
term for the blessings, the security, the grace environment of the new
believer.
7. Therefore, newness of life is the modus
operandi of the mature believer.
8. Newness of life does not refer to the
status quo of the immature believer, the baby or the adolescent. It only refers
to the one who has cracked the maturity barrier.
9. Newness of life refers to life on the
other side of the maturity barrier.
10. Note that the newness of life is
potential (the potential subjunctive of peripatew) and this potentiality can only be converted into
reality through the capacity factor—maximum doctrine resident in the soul.
11. The principle: The believer does not grow
spiritually through production but through the perception of doctrine.
12. Therefore there is no substitute for
Bible doctrine resident in the soul.
Verse 5 – positional
truth in a conditional sentence. Conditional sentences are designed with a
protasis [the “if” clause] and an apodosis [the conclusion]. The protasis is
always an assumption from reality—1st class reality; non-reality—2nd
class condition; a possible assumption, contingency assumption—3rd
class condition; a wish in the assumption—4th class condition, and
an apodosis is a conclusion from the wish. Here we have a 1st class
condition, an assumption from the reality of Bible doctrine, and from this the
apodosis draws the conclusion. The protasis: “For if we have been planted
together in the likeness of his death” – it begins with the postpositive
conjunctive particle gar. This particle
is used to explain retroactive and current positional truth in a conditional
sentence. Then comes the conditional conjunction e)i plus the indicative mood—“if,” used to introduce a
first class condition, a supposition from the viewpoint of reality. This is an
actual truth. In the premise we have retroactive positional truth, and in the
conclusion of the apodosis we have current positional truth. Plus the perfect
active indicative of the verb ginomai which means to
become, to come to pass. It is used here of a person who has changed their
nature by entering into a condition, so it is translated literally, “For if we
have become.” The perfect tense of ginomai is the intensive
perfect, it indicates the completed action with emphasis on existing results.
The active voice: the believer produces the action of the verb through the
baptism of the Spirit at salvation. The intensified result follows our faith in
Christ, the baptism of the Spirit puts us in union with Christ in His death,
His burial, resurrection, ascension and session. The indicative mood is
declarative to indicate a reality of doctrine. This is a fact that occurs
during the Church Age for each one of us as members of the royal family of God.
“planted together in
the likeness of his death” – the predicate nominative plural from sumfutoj. The word means
to be united with something, to grow together with something. Here it means
intimately united. This is a reference to retroactive positional truth or
identification with Christ in His death and burial. Plus the dative singular
indirect object from o(moiwma, and it does
mean “likeness,” but it also means “form” or “copy.” It has a definite article
in front of it to denote a previous reference in the context. i.e. the baptism
of the Holy Spirit. Plus the descriptive genitive singular of qanatoj, referring to
death, the spiritual death of Christ on the cross where the sins of the human
race were imputed to Christ and judged. Plus the definite article, denoting
again a previous reference to spiritual death in the context (v. 3), and the
possessive genitive singular from the intensive pronoun a)utoj, used as a
possessive pronoun to emphasise the uniqueness of the spiritual death of Christ
on the cross. First of all, the uniqueness of His person. He was unique from
the standpoint the virgin pregnancy. He did not have the imputation of Adam’s
sin. It was the unique spiritual death referred to by qanatoj in which our
Lord was judged for our sins, but at the same time rejecting by non-imputation
the good and evil as the policy of Satan and the function of the old sin
nature. Translation so far: “For if we have become intimately united to the
likeness of his death [and we have through retroactive positional truth].”[4]
“even so we should
also walk in the newness of life” – the rhetorical ascensive of the adversative
conjunction a)lla. Ordinarily this
is an adverstive conjunction but here is the rhetorical ascensive use of it
which combines with the adjunctive use of kai, meaning “and not only this but also.” Plus “we
shall be,” the future passive indicative of the verb e)imi. This is not the predictive
future for the possession of a resurrection body, though that is a true
doctrine. Just as identification with Christ in His death is a part of the
Baptism of the Spirit so is the phrase “we shall be intimately united in the
likeness of his resurrection.” This is not our resurrection which is a literal
fact but not taught here, this is current positional truth being taught. So the
future tense is not a predictive future, it is not predicting the future of our
resurrection body which occurs at the Rapture of the Church. That is a true
doctrine but it is not taught in this context. Rather, we have a gnomic future
for a statement of fact or doctrine which may be rightfully expected under the
conditions of current positional truth. Hence, this is a logical result rather
than a chronological result. The future tense in the Greek is used obviously
for chronological things but it is also used for logical factors as well. The
passive voice: the believer through the baptism of the Holy Spirit at salvation
receives the action of the verb, namely current positional truth. The
indicative mood is declarative for a dogmatic statement of doctrine—current
positional truth. There is also a genitive of reference from a personal pronoun
used as a possessive pronoun and translated “his,” and with it the genitive of
reference a)nastasij for
resurrection. It refers to the literal resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ
and we are identified with that resurrection.
Translation: “For if we have become
intimately united to the likeness of his death [and we have through retroactive
positional truth], not only this, but also we shall be intimately united to the
likeness of his resurrection [current positional truth].”
Note that the apodosis is very elliptical. We
have “we shall be of his resurrection”—an ellipsis. The idea is not fully
expressed grammatically and is left to the reader to supply the self-evident
omissions to make it a correct sentence. This ellipsis indicates Paul’s great
excitement.
This verse means that
the policy of good and evil, both as to its policy and as to its function, it
destroyed through the baptism of the Holy Spirit. This is a positional
destruction. We are identified as believers with Christ in His death, in His
burial, and in His resurrection. Being intimately united with Christ in His
death we have positionally rejected good and evil, we are positionally
separated from good and evil. But being united with Him in His resurrection we
have the basis for newness of life. Newness of life = the status quo of the
mature believer. It is the reality of blessing in time plus the reality of
encapsulated environment in the devil’s world. The old sin nature is not
eradicated, but rather we have freedom from the power and the tyranny of the
old sin nature as the ruler of our lives.
Verses 6-8, the
implications of positional truth. In the first five verses Paul makes the
simple statement of the doctrine: retroactive and current positional truth.
Then we have the implications of the doctrine. There is no application until
the implications are understood. Current positional truth emphasises that we
are different from all other believers in other dispensations. We are royal
family of God rather than the simple nomenclature “family of God.” The
difference is what happens at the new birth.
Verse 6 – “Knowing
this.” If we had known these things Paul wouldn’t be giving them to us, so when
it says “knowing this” and it is talking about something we do not know we have
to assume that we are ignorant and then take it from there. Obviously the Romans
to whom he addresses these things didn’t know anything about it. This is the
present active participle of the verb ginwskw, it denotes intelligent comprehension of an object
or a matter; whether this comes for the first time or comes afresh after
consideration and finally deciding if the person was right all along. There is
a difference between intelligent comprehension and parrot memorisation. The
verb is apropos at this point. Ginwskw is often used as
a tongue-in-cheek verb, i.e. it is used on those who have rejected information,
but they are finally brought around to accepting the doctrine at a later time.
It can be translated “to come to know, to perceive, to learn again.” The verb ginwskw denotes
knowledge of what really is. It never denotes false knowledge, pseudo
knowledge, pseudo intellectualism. It connotes verification by observation,
hence to know from reflection on the facts or, in this case, reflection on true
doctrinal principles. So it finally comes to mean in this case to know from
reflection on the doctrine of retroactive positional truth plus current
positional truth. The imperative concept is here, we have to learn again. In
the participial form this would be “knowing, comprehending, perceiving.” The
present tense is a perfective present tense, it denotes a continuation of
existing results from the perception of retroactive and current positional
truth. It implies perception of this doctrine in the past but it emphasises
renewing it, reviewing it, and hearing it again and again until suddenly it
breaks through and everything falls into place. The active voice: the believer
produces the action of the verb through constantly exposing himself to
repetitive doctrinal teaching. The participle is circumstantial or imperative.
This is a command that demands intelligent cooperation. This is because we have
to be read into the picture. We understand that this “Knowing this” is a
command that requires us to think while we are executing the command. The word
“this” is the accusative singular direct object from the immediate
demonstrative pronoun o(utoj, meaning “this,”
and is used here for what is relatively near in context, relatively near in thought—retroactive
positional truth. The participle, while it is circumstantial it is primarily a
strictly Koine Greek concept. In the Koine Greek there is a strange phenomenon,
at least to the Classical Greek thinker, and that is what is known as the imperative
participle. Instead of using repetitions of imperatives the participle is
substituted. Them imperative participle is found as a peculiarity of the Greek
of the New Testament. The best translation would be, “Be knowing this.” We are
commanded to learn.
1. Retroactive positional truth is that phase
of the baptism of the Holy Spirit at salvation which identifies the believer
with Christ in His spiritual death on the cross, physical death on the cross,
and burial after He was taken down from the cross.
2. In the spiritual death of Christ on the
cross all the personal sins in human history were imputed to Christ, but at the
same time the other two trends of the old sin nature were not imputed.
3. Good and evil is the policy of Satan as
the ruler of this world and the function of the old sin nature as the sovereign
of human life.
4. Good and evil were not imputed at the
cross. Hence, in the spiritual death of Christ on the cross they were rejected,
rejected to remain an issue in the angelic conflict, rejected to be perpetuated
in human history as an issue every believer must face, and either overcome
through the intake of doctrine or be entrapped by ignorance of doctrine and
therefore lose out in glorifying God in time.
5. We are identified with Christ in His
spiritual death, which means the positional rejection of good and evil—Satan’s
policy and the old sin nature’s function.
6. All believers have
positionally rejected good and evil.
7. In the physical death of Christ on the
cross and His subsequent burial in the tomb He was totally separated from good
and evil—burial connotes His humanity. His body was in the tomb, His soul was
in Paradise, and His spirit was in the presence of the Father. In the presence
of the Father His spirit was separated from evil. In Paradise there was no
evil, and therefore His soul was separated from evil. In His body there was not
one cell with then old sin nature, and therefore separation from evil was there
in the body in the tomb.
8. We are identified with Christ in His
physical death and burial, which means positional separation from good and
evil.
9. All believers have been positionally
separated from good and evil since the day they believed in Christ.
10. This, therefore, is the implication of
retroactive positional truth which must be understood for both implication and
application.
History crushes the
immature believer; history crushes good and evil. Satan keeps having this
policy of good and evil, and every time he gets something going it crushes
everything. Good and evil destroys people. Good and evil is destructive.
“that our old man was
crucified with him” – the conjunction o(ti is correctly translated “that.” This conjunction is
sometimes used just for quotation marks. It is frequently used to indicate the
content of what is thought, the content of thinking, perception, and that is
the use here. “Be knowing this, that.” Then we have the content of what we
should be knowing from that imperative participle. The nominative singular
adjective palaioj is correctly
translated “old,” but meaning necessarily literally old. It means old in point
of time, being in existence for a long time, which perfectly describes the sin
nature. The sin nature has been in existence since the fall of mankind. Then
the nominative singular subject from a)nqrwpoj, used quite
frequently not for male but for the entire human race, mankind. Plus the
possessive genitive plural from the personal pronoun e)gw, translated “our,” meaning
it belongs to us. We possess it from birth. The verb, “is crucified,” is
the aorist passive indicative from the
verb sustarow [sun = with; starow = to crucify],
which means to be crucified with another. We might translate it “co-crucified.”
The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it refers to a momentary action at
salvation, namely the baptism of the Holy Spirit resulting in retroactive
positional truth. The passive voice: the subject, the sin nature, receives the
action of the verb—co-crucifixion with Christ. The indicative mood is
declarative for a dogmatic statement of doctrine.
“that the body of sin
might be destroyed” – the conjunction i(na introduces a final clause: purpose, goal,
objective. Here it denotes purpose—“in order that.” Plus the nominative
singular subject swma—“body,”
referring to the human body where the old sin nature dwells. That’s why the
body is called “the body of corruption,” and that is why the body decomposes
when the soul leaves at physical death. The genitive of reference is in the
singular of the word a(martia, referring to
the old sin nature. The definite article used with it denotes previous
reference to the sin nature in context, plus employed as a possessive pronoun
meaning “it”—“in order that the human body with reference to its sin nature.”
Plus the aorist passive subjunctive of the verb katargew which means to render useless, to render
inoperative, to render powerless, to release from an association with something
or someone. Here we translate it “might be rendered inoperative/powerless.”
This is a culminative aorist tense, it views the doctrine of retroactive
positional truth in its entirety but it emphasises it from the viewpoint of
existing results, namely the ruling power of the old sin nature is broken. Note
that the body is not rendered inoperative but the old sin nature which is in
the body is rendered powerless. The ruling power of the old sin nature is
positionally broken, not experientially. Experiential breaking of the power of
the old sin nature comes in verses 11-13. The passive voice: the body as the throne
room for the old sin nature receives the action of the verb, being rendered
inoperative or powerless. The subjunctive mood is the potential subjunctive,
used with i(na to indicate a
divine purpose, qualified by the element of contingency. The potential subjunctive
implies future reference, hence the future reference is perception and
application of retroactive positional truth. One more word is needed here, and
that is thj, a definite
article in the form of a possessive genitive. It is used as a possessive
pronoun, which is why it is translated “its sin nature.”[5]
1. The fall of man resulted in two historical
changes relative to the human race: a) Satan became the ruler of the world,
replacing Adam in that role; b) The old sin nature came into existence as the
sovereign of human life, ruling through spiritual death.
2. The old sin nature is located in all the
cells of the human body. In its location it has three trends: toward sin, human
good and evil.
3. Personal sins of the human race were
judicially imputed to Christ on the cross and judged, therefore providing
eternal salvation for anyone who believes in Jesus Christ.
4. The other trends—good and evil—were not
imputed to Christ on the cross. Good and evil must continue as the issue in the
angelic conflict until the end of history which is the end of the Millennium.
5. The co-crucifixion of the old sin nature
at the cross must be examined categorically in relation to its trends. When it
says “our old man has been crucified together with him,” that means
co-crucifixion.
6. The trend toward personal sins: All
personal sins are judicially imputed to Christ on the cross, and because of
this we have the instant solution to carnality in the rebound technique.
7. The trend toward good and evil: Good and
evil were not imputed to Christ on the cross.
8. It all adds up to the fact that the
sovereignty of the old sin nature over human life, therefore, has been made
powerless through retroactive positional truth.
9. The imputation of all personal sins of the
human race to Christ on the cross means that the believer through the rebound
technique is instantly forgiven sins, cleansed from all unrighteousness,
restored to fellowship and filled with the Spirit. In other words, because all
personal sins were judicially imputed to Christ on the cross and judged it is
possible after salvation when we commit sins we cite these sins, and since
these sins have already been judged they are instantly forgiven. And at the
same time the unknown sins which have accumulated are likewise forgiven because
they were judged on the cross also. The issue of good and evil is solved by non-imputation at the cross. Good and evil
is the policy of Satan in this world. Sin is not a part of his policy, it is an
embarrassment to Satan because he is trying to produce the conditions of the
Millennium before the Second Advent of Christ. This is a part of the angelic
conflict. It is the race to the Millennium. If
Satan could find a way to eliminate sin and to saturate the world with good and
evil in his genius, this would mean defeat for the Lord in the angelic
conflict. But there is no way that it can occur because Satan cannot control
sin in the world. His objective is to saturate the world with good and evil. Eating
of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil permitted good and evil to be the
Satanic policy and the old sin nature’s function. There is no instant solution, but there is a solution. The
solution has to be divided into two parts: the positional part at salvation and
the experiential part in the Christian life. The positional part is
accomplished for us. God the Holy Spirit enters us into union with Christ in
His spiritual death, in His physical death, and in His burial. In spiritual
death good and evil have been rejected—non-imputation. They had to be
non-imputed for a solution to exist. The very imputation which solves the sin
problem cannot be used for good and evil, and in the wisdom of God they were
not imputed. Therefore in Christ’s physical death and burial He was totally
separated from good and evil so that positionally we have rejected good and
evil, and positionally we are totally separated from good and evil. There must
be a positional solution in order to have an experiential one.
10. Retroactive positional truth means
identification with Christ in His spiritual death where we have the imputation
of personal sins, His physical death and burial.
11. The non-imputation of good and evil at
the spiritual death of Christ is tantamount to rejection of good and evil.
Therefore positionally the believer has rejected good and evil, though not
experientially.
12. Good and evil is the policy of Satan as
the ruler of the world and the function of the old sin nature as the sovereign
of human life.
13. Identification with Christ in His
physical death and burial connotes total separation from good and evil.
Therefore positionally we as believer are separated from good and evil.
14. This verse indicates that positionally
the power and the authority of the old sin nature as the sovereign of human
life has been broken, rendered inoperative, abrogated. The last phrase of this
verse provides another result of retroactive positional truth, namely
manumission from enslavement to the old sin nature as the ruler of human life.
“that henceforth we should not serve sin” –
the articular present active infinitive from the
verb duluw which means to
be a slave. It means to serve as a slave,
to obey as a slave. The definite article is in the genitive singular, tou, used as a substantive to
introduce a purpose clause for the infinitive—“that we.” The present tense is a
perfective present, it denotes the continuation of existing results from
retroactive positional truth. It refers to the fact which comes to be in the
past at salvation, but is emphasised as a present reality. As the present
reality we should not be slaves to the sin nature. The active voice: the
believer produces the action of the verb positionally as a challenger to
experiential sanctification. The infinitive is an infinitive of purpose. With
it is a strong negative adverb, mhketi, “no
longer”—“that we should no longer be slaves.” The word “we” is the accusative
of general reference from the first person plural pronoun e)gw, and correctly used as the
subject although actually the accusative of general reference describes the
believer as a person connected with the action of the infinitive. Then the
dative of indirect object from the noun a(martia in the singular, referring here to the old sin
nature. The definite article precedes it to denote a previous reference in the
context—“that we should no longer be slaves to the sin nature.”
Translation: “Be knowing this, that our old
man [OSN] has been
co-crucified together
with him, in order that the human body with reference to its sin nature
might be rendered powerless [inoperative], that we should no longer be slaves
to the old sin nature.”
1. Retroactive positional truth has
positionally manumitted us from the tyranny of the old sin nature’s rule in the
human life.
2. This means that personal sin is handled
through the rebound technique since all personal sin was judged at the cross.
3. This also means that good and evil have
been positionally rejected and a total state of separation exists positionally.
4. Good and evil is a terrible trap which
detracts the believer from the only system for glorifying God in time—cracking
the maturity barrier.
5. Good and evil distracts from the true
function of the spiritual life: the daily consistent perception of doctrine,
resulting in spiritual growth and maturity adjustment to the justice of God.
6. Maturity adjustment to the justice of God
is the basis for temporal blessing from the integrity of God and glorification
of Christ in the angelic conflict.
7. The pipeline of blessing is encapsulated
by the integrity of God with justice on the giving end and imputed
righteousness on the receiving end. Divine justice only gives to perfect
righteousness. We have that righteousness and therefore we have potential
blessing from God.
8. Blessing only flows through this pipeline
when there is capacity through maximum doctrine resident in the soul.
9. Between the potential of imputed
righteousness and the reality of blessing in time is the missing link—capacity
from doctrine resident in the soul.
10. Good and evil detract from developing
capacity for blessing through perception of doctrine.
11. This should be obvious from the fact that
good and evil are the policy of Satan as the ruler of this world and the
function of the old sin nature as the sovereign of human life. Obviously,
neither Satan nor the old sin nature want to lose their rulership.
12. Therefore the Lord has broken the power
of the sin nature with its function of good and evil through retroactive
positional truth.
13. Therefore positionally the believer is
free from the slavery of the old sin nature.
Verse 7 – “For he that
is dead is freed from sin.” It begins with the explanatory use of the
conjunctive particle gar—“For,” but
really meaning “For you see.” It amplifies the statement of the previous verse
and gives an explanation. Then the articular aorist active participle from the
verb a)poqnhskw
referring
to retroactive positional truth or identification with Christ in His spiritual
death, physical death, and burial. This death is synonymous with the
co-crucifixion of the previous verse. This verb is also synonymous with
becoming intimately united to the likeness of His death, v.5. The definite
article is used as a relative pronoun, referring to the believer at the moment
of salvation adjustment to the justice of God. The aorist tense is a constative
aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. This constative
aorist refers to the momentary action of the baptism of the Spirit at salvation
and resultant retroactive positional truth. So, again, the constative aorist
simply gathers up into one entirety our union with Christ in His spiritual and
physical death and burial. Spiritual death: the non-imputation of good and evil
means rejection. Positionally because we are in union with Christ in His death
we have rejected good and evil. Physical death and burial: separation from good
and evil, and therefore because we are in union with Christ in His death and
burial we are positionally separated from good and evil—not experientially,
only positionally. It is the positional rejection and separation from good and
evil that breaks the power, the sovereignty and the authority of the old sin
nature as the ruler of human life ruling through spiritual death. The active
voice: the believer at the instant of salvation produces the action of the verb
through retroactive positional truth. The participle is circumstantial for the
baptism of the Spirit at salvation and resultant retroactive positional truth.
So we have, “For he who has died.” The circumstantial participle is talking
about the baptism of the Holy Spirit which is identification with Christ in His
death, resurrection, ascension, and session. Here we are talking about
retroactive positional truth. This is not a literal death, this is retroactive
positional truth or being intimately united with Christ. Through it all
believers of the royal family of God have positionally rejected good and evil
and have been totally separated from good and evil. This means not only the Christian
abrogation of Satan’s policy but the cancellation of the power and the
authority of the old sin nature over our lives as believers.
1. A dead person is discharged from the
obligations of his former sphere of life. We understand this as a principle but
experientially, of course. This is why the word “death” is used in this
context. It is not a literal, physical death we are discussing but it is
identification with Christ in His death. A dead person cannot pay a debt, etc.,
or have any relationship with anything in human life.
2. As unbelievers we were under the authority
of Satan as the ruler of this world, and under the authority of the old sin
nature as the sovereign of human life.
3. Both the power of Satan and the old sin
nature have been abrogated through the baptism of the Holy Spirit at salvation.
4. This passage, then, emphasises the
annulling of the power and the authority of the old sin nature as the sovereign
of human life. In other areas of scripture Paul discusses the annulling of the
power of Satan but in Romans the emphasis is on the old sin nature.
5. Positionally, the power of the sin nature
has been broken. Experientially, the old sin nature controls to the extent that
we fail to understand and utilise the provision and support of logistical
grace.
“is freed” – perfect
passive indicative of dikaiow. It means to
justify and to vindicate. In the passive voice, however, it has a different
meaning. There it means to be acquitted, to be pronounced righteous, to be made
free, or to become free. So it does have a freedom connotation but only in the
passive voice of the verb. We translate it, “has been acquitted from.” Paul
uses the verb in its legal connotation of a judicial decision of acquittal.
There is a preposition coming up which strengthens this. It will be followed by
the preposition a)po, and when used
with a)po in the passive
voice it definitely means to be acquitted. This is a judicial decision of
acquittal. It is tantamount, then, to positional freedom from slavery to the
old sin nature as the ruler of human life. Through retroactive positional truth
the justice of God has acquitted positionally the believer from the power of
the old sin nature. “For he who has died [retroactive positional truth] has
been acquitted from.” The perfect tense is a dramatic perfect which is the
rhetorical application of the intensive perfect. When special attention is
directed to the results of an action emphasis on the existing action is thereby
intensified. In the Greek this is the emphatic method of presenting the fact of
retroactive positional truth. This is a Greek idiom for saying that positional
truth is, always will be, and never can be cancelled. Positional truth cannot
be cancelled. The passive voice: the believer receives the action of the verb
through the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The indicative mood is declarative for
a dogmatic statement of fact. Through the baptism of the Holy Spirit and
resultant retroactive positional truth the believer is dead to the sin nature and
therefore has no further obligation to the authority of the sin nature. That
means he has no obligation to sin and we have no obligation to perform human
good, and we have no obligation to become involved in evil.
“from sin” – the
preposition a)po plus the
ablative singular of the definite article, plus the ablative of a(martia. The definite
article comes first after the preposition and we have a generic use of the
article. It specifies a category, hence it gathers all of the sin natures of
believers into that category and distinguishes them from all other sin natures.
The ablative singular of a(martia refers to the
sin nature of the believer only, not the sin nature of the unbeliever. The sin
nature of the believer continues its residence in the cells of the human body.
But when he dies the soul leaves the body of corruption which then
disintegrates. The power of the sin nature has been broken, so we translate
“from the power of the sin nature.”
Translation: “For he
who has died [baptism of the Spirit and resultant retroactive positional truth]
has been acquitted [positional deliverance] from the power of the sin nature.”
Verse 8 – current
positional truth. “Now if we be dead with Christ.” Current positional truth is
introduced as the apodosis of a conditional sentence. The protasis states the
reality of retroactive positional truth and the apodosis states the doctrinal inference
and the reality of current positional truth. The protasis always gives an
assumption on which the conclusion is found in the apodosis. This begins with
the conditional conjunction e)i with the
indicative, and this is the way we know this is a first class condition. This
introduces the protasis of a 1st class condition which is a
supposition from the viewpoint of reality. It implies that retroactive
positional truth is a reality which has now been realised and therefore it does
exist. The 1st class condition proclaims the reality of the premise,
namely the baptism of the Spirit at salvation is true for each one of us, and
retroactive positional truth is also a reality at that time. Now if we be dead”
– aorist active indicative of a)poqnhskw, referring to
the fact that we are identified with Christ in His death and burial. This is a
constative aorist which contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety, it
refers to the momentary action of the baptism of the Holy Spirit at salvation,
resulting in retroactive positional truth. The active voice: the believer at
the moment of salvation through faith in Christ produces the action of the
verb, he dies with Christ. The indicative mood is declarative for the reality
of retroactive positional truth and subsequent identification with Christ in
His spiritual death, physical death, and burial. Then comes a prepositional
phrase, sun plus the
instrumental of association of the proper noun Xristoj. The instrumental of association is extremely
important here. To have association a second party must furnish the means of
that association. The second party is God the Holy Spirit who at salvation enters
us into union with Christ. Association, then, is established through the
baptism of the Spirit. The absence of the definite article in front of Xristoj emphasises the
qualitative aspect of the noun, hence the uniqueness of the person of Christ.
It is a reminder of His hypostatic union. It is also a reminder of the
uniqueness of His humanity alone in impeccability. “Now if we had died with
Christ [and we have].”
“we believe that we
shall also live with him” – the present active indicative of the verb pisteuw is used here for
perception. It means to believe, but it is used here in the sense of the daily
function of GAP, as a system of perception, for faith is the way we learn in
life. This is a reference to the perception of doctrine or the reality of
doctrine going from the left lobe of the soul into the human spirit and then
into the right lobe. This is correctly translated “we believe.” It is a
retroactive progressive present tense, it denotes what has been perceived in
the past and continues into the present time because gnwsij has been
converted into e)pignwsij. The active
voice: the believer produces the action of the verb by utilisation of a
non-meritorious system of perception, i.e. faith. The indicative mood is the
verbal action from the standpoint of reality, for a dogmatic statement of
confidence in doctrine and therefore a conversion of gnwsij doctrine into e)pignwsij doctrine. Plus a
conjunction, o(ti, used after
words of cognisance or perception. Sometimes it is used to merely indicate that
what follows it is thought, is perception, is understanding. That is what we
have here. With the adjunctive kai plus the future
active indicative of suzaw [sun = with; zaw = to live], living with or
living in association with—“we also believe that we shall live in association
with him.” There is a future tense here, the ethical future which portrays a
logical result. In other words, the future tense usually has a time connotation,
but not this one. The ethical future has no time connotation whatever, it is strictly
a logical result being portrayed. Since the believer is identified with Christ
in His death and burial it is a logical conclusion that he is identified with
Christ in His resurrection, ascension and session. The active voice: the
believer produces the action of the verb, identification with Christ in His
resurrection and/or current positional truth. The indicative mood is
declarative for the reality of both retroactive positional truth and its
relationship to current positional truth. Plus the instrumental singular of
association from the intensive pronoun a)utoj, used as a personal pronoun and emphasising the
identity of the Lord Jesus Christ—“with him.”
Translation: “Now if
we have died with Christ [and we have], we also believe that we shall live in
association with him.”
1. While retroactive positional truth centres
around positional rejection and separation from good and evil as the policy of
Satan and the function of the old sin nature, current positional truth relates
the believer to the function of the royal family of God. In other words, they
have separate function. Retroactive positional truth rejects positionally and
separates us positionally from good and evil. But current positional truth
relates us to the King of kings and Lord of lords.
2. Current positional truth implies that the
life of the believer as royal family has meaning and purpose and definition.
3. In the absence of Jesus Christ from the
earth during the Church Age and Tribulation the believer represents Christ as a
royal ambassador.
4. this explains also the ministry of God the
Holy Spirit in terms of ambassadorship, for not only does He indwell and fill
us but He is the means of our perception of our instruction.
5. During the Church Age, then, while Christ
is absent spirituality is designed to produce the character of Christ, to
possess integrity from God. In other words, spirituality is not an emotional
activity but a rational activity of perception of Bible doctrine. Cf. Galatians
4:19, 5:22,23; Ephesians 5:1.
6. During the Millennium when Christ rules on
earth spirituality will have a different objective, namely therefore to
appreciate Christ. There are no ecstatics related to spirituality in this
dispensation. Ecstatics are reserved for the millennium when Christ is on earth
is to be appreciated both rationally and emotionally. Of course, the emotions
are always under control when there is rational appreciation.
7. A second objective of current positional
truth, and closely related to the first (ambassadorship), is the advance to
maturity. We are here not only to represent Christ as ambassadors but we are
here to advance to maturity so that we can receive from the justice of God
those blessings which glorify the Lord Jesus Christ.
8. This advance to maturity is accomplished
only through maximum doctrine resident in the soul, and therefore the daily
function of GAP is necessitated.
9. Again, the filling of the Spirit plays an
important part in the function of GAP. It becomes obvious, then, that
experiential sanctification (cracking the maturity barrier) and ambassadorship
for Christ are closely related. In fact, they are inseparably related by the
subject of current positional truth. Current positional truth advances us to
maturity, glorifying the Lord Jesus Christ, and fulfilling our ambassadorship.
Verses 9-12 is where
we get into the application and execution of the things learned in the first
eight verses: the application through cognisance of pertinent doctrine.
Verse 9 – “Knowing
that Christ being raised from the dead.” It begins with the nominative
masculine plural from the perfect active participle, perfect tense used as a
present tense, of o)ida. The perfective
present is used for doctrine which is learned in the past but emphasised as a
present reality. And this perfective present assumes that you are thoroughly
cognisant of what has been taught in verses 1-8. The active voice: the believer
has the knowledge of the pertinent doctrine to which application is now given.
The participle is circumstantial for cognisance of doctrine, specifically
doctrines pertinent to the baptism of the Spirit, and now at this point,
current positional truth. Plus the conjunction o(ti, used for the content of what has been learned
through the function of GAP, plus the nominative singular subject from the
proper noun Xristoj, minus the
definite article. Then the aorist passive participle from e)geirw which means to
be raised. The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it refers to a momentary
action in past time, namely the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The passive
voice: Christ receives the action of the verb through the function of God the
Father and God thew Holy Spirit. The participle is a causal participle denoting
the ground or action of the main verb coming up. It should be translated,
“Knowing that because Christ has been raised from the dead”—e)k plus the ablative plural of
nekroj. This is the
ablative of source indicating that He was resurrected from the source of two
things which held Him. One held Him for three hours—spiritual death; one held
Him for three days—physical death in which His body was in the grave, His
spirit was in the presence of the Father, the soul was in Paradise. The absence
of the definite article with nekroj indicates the
qualitative aspect of our Lord’s two deaths. It matches, first of all, the
anartharous construction of the word “Christ,” and it parallels it indicating
that the one who hung on the cross was unique, and therefore His two deaths
were absolutely unique.
“dieth no more” is incorrect.
The correct translation: “he can never die.” This is the adverb o)uketi, meaning “no
more” or “never.” It is used here logically and means “never” rather than “no
more.” Then the third person singular present active indicative from the verb a)poqnhskw—“he can never
die.” This is a static present for a condition which perpetually exists. Christ
is never subject to death, He cannot die either spiritually or physically
again. The resurrection body is a guarantee against death. The active voice:
Christ produces the action. The indicative mood represents the verbal action
from the viewpoint of absolute dogmatic reality. In other words, the indicative
mood says a statement of doctrine is formed.
“death hath no more
dominion over him” – now the two deaths of nekroj are gathered into one nominative singular subject, qanatoj. It refers
especially to physical death since Christ was never subject to spiritual death
by being under the dominion of the old sin nature, He received the imputation
of our personal sins from our old sin natures, and therefore the emphasis at
this point is on the fact that physical death has no claim over Him, the old
sin nature never had one. Physical death is the result of spiritual death or
the genetical possession of the old sin nature, along with the imputation of
Adam’s sin. Spiritual death equals the imputation of Adam’s sin to Adam’s trend
or old sin nature. If physical death no longer has any control over the
resurrection body of Christ, neither does the old sin nature have any more
sovereignty in the life of the believer who is identified with Christ in His
resurrection. Spiritual death = the imputation of Adam’s sin to the old sin
nature. The second death is the perpetuation of spiritual death into eternity.
These two are not in view here, it is physical death which is in view this
time. Physical death no longer has any control over the resurrection body;
neither does the old sin nature have any more sovereignty in the life of the
believer who is identified with the resurrected Christ. So positionally, not
only has the power of the old sin nature been broken—retroactive positional
truth—but the power of physical death has been broken through current
positional truth.
The verb here is the
present active indicative from the verb kurieuw which means to be lord or master, to be in control.
It has the connotation of rulership but it isn’t as strong a word as basileuw which is used
for the ruling power of the old sin nature. Basileuw is used for a king ruling, absolute authority ruling;
kurieuw is used for a
husband ruling his wife, but the husband himself is subject to a higher
authorities. Basileuw is used for the
old sin nature’s rule over life. The old sin nature is the absolute authority
over human life from the point of physical birth because of the imputation of
Adam’s original sin to the genetically-formed old sin nature. So from the very
start in life we have an absolute ruler—the old sin nature. But kuriew is slightly
different. A husband, for example, who rules a wife might find himself as a
private in a platoon, which means he has authority over him, he is under
authority. So the word implies authority somewhere, but not everywhere. Basileuw, on the other
hand, means to have authority everywhere, the absolute and highest authority.
Physical death is not the absolute ruler—kurieuw; spiritual death is, however. There is also a
temporal adverb, o)uketi, this time
meaning “no longer”—“death is no longer master/lord.” The verb itself is a
static present tense, representing a condition which perpetually exists. The
active voice: physical death does not produce the action with the temporal
negative adverb o)uketi being involved.
The indicative mood is declarative, a dogmatic statement of doctrine. With this
is an objective genitive singular from the intensive pronoun a)utoj, used as a
personal pronoun referring to the Lord Jesus Christ. We are in union with
Christ and this will be the significance of this statement—“death is no longer
master or lord over him.”
Translation: “Knowing
that because Christ has been raised from the deaths he can never die; physical
death is no longer master or lord over him.”
1. Retroactive positional truth destroys the
sovereign authority of the old sin nature over human life ruling through
spiritual death. Current positional truth, on the other hand, destroys the
limited authority of physical death in human life.
2. Understanding the doctrine of current
positional truth leads to application which we will find in verse 11.
3. Instead of being ruled by the old sin
nature located in the cells of the human body and influencing our souls toward
sin, good and evil, we now have a new sovereign: the Lord Jesus Christ. We are
identified with Him in His deaths, in His burial, resurrection, ascension and
session. And remember that because of positional truth Jesus Christ is lord at
the moment we believe in Him.
4. Before salvation and the baptism of the
Holy Spirit our lives were under the absolute rule of Satan who is the ruler of
this world. We were under the rule of the old sin nature which was the ruler of
life, and under the limited rule of physical death. So that we were in slavery,
under slavery to every category of evil that could exist, and as such our lives
could never have any great happiness or richness of blessing. All of that, of
course, has been changed.
5. Now both retroactive and current
positional truth have abrogated the authority and power of these former rulers.
The power of the old sin nature is broken through retroactive positional truth
and the power of physical death is broken through current positional truth.
6. Therefore having studied these things by
principle and by implication we are now ready for application, verses 12 &
13 specifically. At this stage the implication is obvious. It is our
relationship with Christ, our union with Christ, the baptism of the Holy Spirit
at salvation, resultant retroactive and current positional truth which is the
basis for the freedom from the slavery to the old sin nature and to physical
death.
7. Remember that the baptism of the Holy
Spirit which occurs at salvation is not an experience, but is the ministry of
God the Holy Spirit entering us into union with Christ so that we are
intimately united with Him in His spiritual death, physical death, burial,
resurrection, ascension, session.
8. The baptism of the Spirit has two
directions: identification with Christ in His deaths and burial, and
identification with Christ in His resurrection, ascension and session.
9. Having been positionally liberated from
the sovereignty of the old sin nature as an absolute ruler, and the authority
of physical death as an under ruler, we must recognise and apply doctrine for
the experiential victory commanded in verses 11-13.
Verse 10 – “For in that he died” includes a
cognate accusative neuter singular from the
relative pronoun o(j, translated
“which.” There is antecedent for the relative pronoun in the word “death/qanatoj,”found in the
last phrase of the previous verse. The explanatory conjunction gar, “for,” plus the aorist
active indicative of the verb a)poqnhskw, referring to
the spiritual death of our Lord on the cross in which all personal sins were
judicially imputed to Him and judged on the cross. The whole human race can
therefore have eternal life by simply believing in Christ—“For the death which
he has died.” The aorist tense is constative, it contemplates the action of the
verb in its entirety. It takes all the personal sin in human history and
imputes them to Christ on the cross, and then the justice of God judges those
personal sins, and the three hours involved are gathered up into one entirety.
The active voice: the subject is determined by the cognate accusative as
spiritual death, i.e. the spiritual death of Christ on the cross. Hence, Christ
is being judged for our sins on the cross and that is the subject. The
declarative indicative mood is for the reality of the judicial imputation of
all personal sins to Christ on the cross.
“he died unto sin
once” – aorist active indicative of a)poqnhskw, referring again
to the spiritual death of Christ on the cross. This time we have the
culminative aorist tense, it views the judicial imputation of all personal sins
in their entirety but it emphasises the existing results which includes eternal
salvation for anyone who will believe in Christ. The active voice: Christ
produces the action of the verb being judged for our sins. The declarative
indicative: this is an unqualified statement of doctrine. Christ was bearing
our sins and being judged by God the Father on the cross. Then a dative of
reference singular from a(martia, used here for
the old sin nature—“with reference to the sin nature.” The definite article is
used here, the generic use. In other words, the article is used to represent a
category, namely the old sin nature. Then an unusual but strong adverb, e)fapac, “once for all.”
This adverb separates the spiritual death of Christ from the physical death of
Christ on the cross. “For the death which he has died, he died once for all
with reference to the sin nature.”
Principle
1. The spiritual death of Christ was judgment
from the justice of God for all the personal sins of the human race. The
justice of God imputed these sins, then judged them.
2. Between the spiritual death and physical
death of our Lord is the adverb e)fapac, “once for all.”
3. The physical death of Christ was an act of
His own volition. He expelled His breath and dismissed His spirit into the
presence of the Father. As His spiritual death was unique, so was His physical
death.
4. The judicial imputation of all personal
sins to Christ on the cross is the crux of our Lord’s spiritual death.
5. At the same time of the judicial
imputation of all personal sins to Christ on the cross other aspects of trends
of the old sin nature, namely good and evil, were rejected and were definitely
not a part of that imputation. This means, again, the non-imputation of good
and evil is tantamount to the rejection of good and evil. The rejection of good
and evil by our Lord is shared by us positionally since we have been entered
into union with Christ through the baptism of the Spirit.
6. Remember that good and evil is the policy
of Satan as the ruler of this world and the function of the old sin nature as
the ruler of human life.
7. Hence, the significance of retroactive
positional truth which identifies the Church Age believer with Christ in His
spiritual death, thereby constituting the believer’s positional rejection of
good and evil.
Until AD 30 there was
never identification with Christ. Until AD 30 there was always good and evil in
the world, but good and evil were never concentrated and rapidly disseminated
as they have been since AD 30. Because of a radical change in history after our
Lord’s crucifixion in which history began to sped up, in which momentum began,
good and evil was concentrated as never before in history in the latter part of
the Roman empire.
“but in that he
liveth” – the postpositive conjunctive particle de is used here to emphasise the contrast between the
spiritual death of Christ and His physical death on the cross. The spiritual
death is related to His saving work and the physical death is related to His
subsequent resurrection. Plus the accusative neuter singular relative pronoun o(j, whose antecedent is
resurrection life. Plus the present active indicative from the verb zaw, used here is relationship
to resurrection, the resurrection life of Christ in His hypostatic union. There
is a static present tense for a condition which perpetually exists—“but the
life which he lives.” In His humanity Christ will always have a resurrection
body, and that resurrection body is no longer subject to any type of corruption
or death of any kind. The active voice: the subject produces the action of the
verb. The subject is determined by a cognate accusative and we translate,
therefore, “the resurrection life which he lives.” When an accusative of the
direct object contains the same idea signified by the verb it is called a
cognate accusative. Hence, the limits set by the accusative are co-extensive
with the significance of the verb, producing a subject as well as an object of
the subject. The declarative indicative is for a dogmatic statement of Bible
doctrine.
“he liveth unto God” –
again, the present active indicative of zaw, this time in the present tense of duration
denoting what has begun in the past and continues into the present time.
What was begun in the past: the resurrection
of Christ, His ascension and session at the right hand of the Father. It
continues for ever as His status quo and becomes the basis for His third
category of royalty in which we share. When the Lord Jesus Christ was seated at
the right hand of the Father He was declared to be the King of kings and Lord
of lords. This is the third category of royalty which belongs to Him. One
category of royalty is shared by the Father and the Holy Spirit. Jesus Christ
is called the Son of God in the royalty of His deity. He has a family: God the
Father and God the Holy Spirit. Jesus Christ is royalty—Jewish royalty—by birth.
He is called the son of David by His title. His royal family is the dynasty of
David. But when He was declared to be the King of kings and Lord of lords, the
battlefield royalty of the angelic conflict, there was no royal family.
Therefore the interruption of the Jewish Age and the beginning of the Church
Age. In this this Church dispensation we now have royal family, and the
significance is that we have greater opportunity, greater blessing, greater
everything than anyone who ever lived in the past or anyone who will ever live
in the future. But it becomes a matter of being definitely briefed by Bible
doctrine with regard to these things, and the maturity adjustment to the
justice of God today has far greater repercussions than at any time in history.
The present tense, then, means that He will
always be in this status and this is a guarantee of our blessings as far as
maturity adjustment to the justice of God. The active voice: the resurrected
life of Jesus Christ in hypostatic union produces the action of the verb. The
indicative mood is declarative for a dogmatic statement of fact. There is also
a dative of reference from the definite article to denote a previous reference,
and the definite article may be used to point out an object which has been clearly
presented before and is now well understood by the readers—the dative of
reference for the noun qeoj, referring to
God the Father. It should be translated, “he lives with reference to the God.”
Due to the resurrection, ascension and session of Christ He is alive with
reference to God the Father in the realm of His humanity. The deity of the Lord
Jesus Christ is not an issue. He has always co-existed and been co-eternal with
God the Father. There never was a time when Gold the Father and God the Son did
not live together, always, forever, and eternally. The deity of Christ, then,
is never the issue, it has always existed in co-eternity with God the Father
and God the Holy Spirit. This statement must be related to positional truth,
i.e. retroactive and current positional truth. Retroactive positional truth
breaks the sovereign authority as the ruler of human life, whereas current
positional truth demands that the believer live with reference to the God. We
are to walk in newness of life.
Translation: “For the death [spiritual] that
he [Christ] has died, he died once for all with reference to the sin nature:
but the resurrection life which he lives, he lives with reference to the God.”
1. This statement must be related to the
baptism of the Holy Spirit at salvation and subsequent positional truth.
2. Since we have already noted that
positional truth is categorised into retroactive and current it must be related
to these two doctrinal aspects.
3. The datives of reference are in contrast
in this verse: our Lord’s death to the old sin nature and His life, with
resurrection, to God. He died once for all with reference to the sin nature,
but in that He lived, He lived with reference to the God.
4. We have previously noted that
identification with Christ in His death is the basis for the rebound technique
solving the problem of all personal sins and carnality after salvation.
5. We have also noted previously that the
non-imputation of good and evil at the cross is the positional basis for
rejection of good and evil.
6. Because of the resurrection, ascension and
session of Christ the believer in Christ is identified with Christ who lives
his life with reference to the God. So positionally, at least, we live our
lives with reference to God. But that is positional and not necessarily
experiential.
7. Therefore current positional truth demands
that the believer lives his life with reference to God.
8. Union with Christ demands a new way of
life for the believer in time, a way of life related to grace and doctrine.
9. Positional truth demands a new way of life
compatible with the relationship between the resurrected humanity of Christ and
God the Father.
10. Current positional truth establishes the
principle that the Christian way of life is the supernatural way of life with a
supernatural means of execution. This does not imply any extra-natural
phenomenon.
11. Anything that the unbeliever can
accomplish in his modus vivendi is not the Christian way of life.
12. Therefore when the believer is under the
influence of the old sin nature, performing the trends of the old sin nature,
he simply imitates the unbeliever. Imitation of the unbeliever is not the
Christian way of life.
Verse 11 – “Likewise
reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin.” There is an adverb here
which separates the doctrines from the application—o(utoj. It refers to what precedes and by this now makes
the application. It is translated “So.” In other words, having assimilated
doctrine and its implication it is now time for application. Then the
adjunctive use of the conjunction kai, “also.” In
other words, these two words bring in a simple concept: doctrine demands
application. The effectiveness of doctrine in your life is twofold: a)
spiritual growth; b) application to contemporary history. Here we are dealing
with application to contemporary history. Next is the present middle imperative
from the verb logizomai which means to
calculate, to take into account, to evaluate, to estimate, to think, consider,
ponder, have in mind, to be of the opinion. In other words, it is a verb of
application. In this case we follow the Attic Greek of logizomai which connoted
thought according to strict logical rules, and therefore meant to deliberate or
to conclude or apply information. Plato actually assigned a meaning to this
verb—non-emotional thinking. Emotion may result from thinking but emotion must
never be allowed to destroy thinking. “So also all you yourselves conclude
[think doctrinally].” In other words, the application of doctrine. The present
tense is an aoristic present for punctiliar action in present time. This is a
direct middle voice referring to the results of the action directly to the
agent or the believer with reflexive force. The imperative mood is an entreaty
rather than a command, and entreaty which does not convey the finality of a
command but has the force of urgency. It is always an urgent principle that we
must begin to think in terms of doctrine, and when we have a conflict in our
soul between how we feel and what the Word of God says we must always go with
what the Word of God says, rather than how we feel. Emotion must never destroy
our ability to reason and to think. Our highest form of emotion must come from
the stimulation of thought, rather than the destruction of thought. Doctrine
means reason, thought, following a system of thought for spiritual growth as
well as for application. Then we have the word “yourselves” again. This time,
instead of being a part of the reflexive middle, we find it as a reflexive
pronoun, the accusative plural of general reference from the reflexive pronoun e(autou—“yourselves.”
The accusative is used with the infinitive and it is not actually the subject
of the infinitive coming up but it describes the persons connected with the
action of the infinitive, i.e. all believers. Hence, it is translated as the
subject of the verb to be, the present active infinitive of e)imi. By making it the subject
of the infinitive, immediately we have an issue: you have to get doctrine for
yourself. Logizomai is authority,
the application of doctrine to experience; doctrine is the authority in our
lives. With this authority we have to
have an infinitive, and that is why we have the accusative of general
reference. With the present active infinitive of e)imi is e(autou as the
subject—“So also on the one hand all of you yourselves conclude yourselves to
be dead.” Notice that a verb of application also exercises authority, for the
infinitive is under the authority of the main verb. That is the static present
of e)imi for a condition
or circumstance perpetually existing from retroactive positional truth. The
active voice: the believer produces the action of the verb through being
identified with Christ in His death. The infinitive is an actual result of the
baptism of the Holy Spirit which occurs at the point of salvation. With this is
an accusative plural direct object of the infinitive from the adjective nekroj used as a
substantive to describe retroactive positional truth breaking the sovereignty
and authority of the old sin nature as the ruler of human life. Plus the
affirmative particle men, used correlatively with de in the style of Attic
Greek, meaning on the one hand and on the other hand. Plus the dative of
reference singular from a(martia, previous
reference to the old sin nature. “So also, on the one hand, all of you
yourselves conclude yourselves to be dead with reference to the sin nature.”
1. The conclusion called for in this verse
demands complete understanding of certain related doctrines, such as the
baptism of the Spirit, retroactive and current positional truth.
2. In this section of the verse retroactive
positional truth is in focus. Retroactive positional truth means identification
with Christ in His spiritual death, His physical death, and burial.
3. Identification with Christ in His
spiritual death relates to the non-imputation of good and evil at the cross.
Hence, rejection of good and evil as the policy of Satan and the function of
the old sin nature.
4. In the spiritual death of Christ on the
cross all personal sins were imputed to Christ and judged, but good and evil
was neither imputed nor judged at the cross.
5. In the physical death of Christ and His
burial there was a total separation from good and evil. The body of Christ was
in the grave, separated from good and evil. The spirit of Christ was in the
presence of the Father, separated from good and evil. The soul of Jesus Christ
was in Paradise, separated from good and evil.
6. By identification with Christ in His
physical death and burial the believer is positionally separated from good and
evil.
7. Positionally, then, the believer has both
rejected and separated himself from good and evil. Hence, the power and
authority of the old sin nature as the ruler of human life is broken
positionally.
8. This opens the way for the experiential
victory over the old sin nature whose power has been abrogated. Remember, you
cannot apply what you do not understand.
“but alive unto God
through Jesus Christ our Lord” – the conjunctive particle de is used to connect one
clause with another, as per Attic Greek: “but on the other hand.” Plus the
present active participle from the verb zaw meaning to live. The present tense is the present
tense of duration which denotes something begun in the past and continuing into
the present time. The active voice: the believer in Christ through the baptism
of the Spirit and current positional truth produces the action of the verb. The
participle is circumstantial for current positional truth. Plus the dative of
reference from qeoj, “God,” plus the
definite article used for God whose identity is clear to the readers. A
prepositional phrase follows, e)n plus the
locative of two proper nouns for God the Son, Xristoj I))hsouj—“in Christ Jesus.” The
phrase “our Lord” is not found in the original manuscript. Translation: “but on
the other hand living with reference to God in Christ Jesus. The prepositional
phrase, “in Christ Jesus” emphasises positional truth or union with Christ
which is the essential description of Christianity. We have not a religion in
Christianity but a relationship.
Translation: “So also
on the one hand all of you yourselves conclude yourselves to be dead with
reference to the sin nature, but on the other hand living with reference to the
God in Christ Jesus.”
1. The conclusion from positional truth,
whether retroactive or current, is stated as application to these doctrines.
2. Anticipating Romans 7:1-4 where we have an
illustration of a woman who has divorced one husband and is now married to
another husband. This is what actually happens to us as believers at salvation.
The old sin nature is the husband up to the point of salvation, it rules human
life with its trends toward sin, human good, and evil. But the moment we
believe in Jesus Christ positionally we are divorced from the old sin nature
and positionally we have a new husband, we are in union with Christ.
Retroactive positional truth divorces us from the old sin nature positionally.
Current positional truth enters us into union with Christ. So the old sin
nature is the old husband; Jesus Christ is the new husband.
3. The first husband is the old sin nature
with trends toward sin, good and evil.
4. The woman is the believer in the Lord
Jesus Christ.
5. The second husband is the Lord Jesus
Christ—“in Christ Jesus.”
6. Salvation is divorcing one husband and
marrying another; dying to the old husband and becoming alive to the new
husband. The believer is positionally dead to the old husband; he is
positionally alive to the new husband.
7. The authority of the old husband, the sin
nature, was broken by death—retroactive positional truth.
8. The authority of the new
husband—Christ—becomes a reality at salvation through the baptism of the Spirit
and resultant current positional truth.
9. The believer is the bride, dead to the
first husband but alive to the new husband.
10. The old sin nature husband is still
around, still seeking to regain his control over the wife, the believer. But
union with the second husband, the Lord Jesus Christ, has broken the first
husband’s authority over the former wife.
There are two concepts of resistance of
temptation. The first is the unbeliever concept. The unbeliever resists
temptation and lust from the old sin nature in
three ways: a) restraint—law and law enforcement; b) disapproval—the
establishment influence of society disapproves, and this becomes a restrainer;
c) inability—lack of capacity, lack of money, lack of ability to follow some
lust pattern in the field of sin or good or evil.
The believer has these
three, but he has three additional areas of resistance to temptation: a) the
Holy Spirit—temptation is resisted through the filling of the Spirit, Galatians
5:16; b) doctrine—maximum doctrine resident in the soul produces application resistance
of temptation, Psalm 119:11; c) fear—respect for divine authority related to
the function of the justice of God. Understanding divine discipline is also a
restrainer, as per Hebrews 12:6.
Verse 12 – since
living with reference to the God constitutes the fulfilment of the principle
potential + capacity = reality, it is necessary for the rulership of the old
sin nature to be experientially cancelled or abrogated. Positionally it was
accomplished at the point at which we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. “Let
not sin reign in your mortal body” – it does not talk about the exclusion of
the sin nature from the mortal body, but its rulership must be cancelled. Until
the day that we die the old sin nature will continue to live in every cell of
the human body. This begins with the inferential particle o)un, it denotes that what it
now introduces is an inference from what has preceded: the positional victory
over the old sin nature through retroactive positional truth. What follows as
an inference is the experiential victory over the old sin nature, or how Jesus
Christ experientially becomes the ruler of your life. Experientially the Lord
Jesus Christ, your saviour and Lord positionally, is not necessarily
experientially your sovereign. There is a vast difference between positional
victory over the old sin nature and experiential victory. The experiential
factor deals with your occupation with the person of Christ. This only comes
through maximum doctrine resident in the soul. Next is the negative particle mh used as a part of an
imperative of prohibition, and used with a verb in order to set up the
imperative of prohibition expressing a negative command. The negative o)u denies the fact; the
negative mh denies the idea.
The nominative singular subject a(martia refers to the
antagonist, the old sin nature, with the generic use of the definite article
which indicates the old sin nature as a category—the sovereign of human life
ruling through spiritual death. “Therefore, do not let the sin nature.” Plus
the verb, the present active imperative of basileuw, the word which is used for absolute sovereignty.
The word here means to continue ruling, i.e. ruling after salvation.
Positionally the power of the old sin nature is broken; experientially whether
this becomes a reality depends upon the believer’s attitude toward doctrine,
the rebound technique, and other similar things. The progressive present tense
has very strong linear aktionsart, and with the negative mh it means to stop a course
of action which is already in progress. The active voice: the believer in
Christ executes the negative command based upon positional provision of
retroactive positional truth, plus the experiential provision of logistical
support/grace in advancing to maturity. This is the imperative mood of
prohibition in which the prohibition in the present imperative demands that an
action then in progress be stopped. Paul is obviously speaking to believers who
in ignorance of Bible doctrine are totally disoriented to God’s plan and have
permitted the old sin nature to rule in their lives. Then a prepositional
phrase, e)n with the
locative neuter singular from the adjective qnhtoj which means mortal or subject to death. The
adjective is used to describe the existence of the old sin nature in the cell
structure of the human body and thus providing the process which leads to death
or vulnerability to disease leading to death. In other words, the corrupting
influence, the ageing influence of the human body is the presence of the old
sin nature. It is not only the ruler of human life through its trends but it is
the basis for ageing and disease. Next is the locative of sphere from swma, used for the human body
where the old sin nature is located, plus the possessive genitive plural from
the pronoun su—“our body.”
Literally, “Therefore stop permitting the sin nature ruling in your mortal
body.” The command to stop permitting indicates that we have some control over
the matter, that our volition is very definitely involved. The sin nature is
located in the cell structure of the body; life is located in the soul.
“that ye should obey
it in the lusts thereof” – the prepositional phrase e)ij plus the articular present active infinitive u(pakouw which means to
obey. E)ij plus the
infinitive usually indicates a purpose clause, so we translate it “that you
should obey”—recognise authority and place one’s self under it. Here we have
the retroactive progressive present denoting what has begun at birth and
continues into the present time, even after the new birth, i.e. the rulership
of the old sin nature. The active voice: the old sin nature produces the action
of the verb through ruling human life. The infinitive of purpose with e)ij expresses the aim of the
action denoted by the finite verb. Plus the instrumental plural of manner from e)piqumia, with the
instrumental plural of manner of the definite article used as a possessive
pronoun. The instrumental of manner expresses the method by which an act is
performed or an end is achieved. The old sin nature dominates the lust pattern
in its trends toward sin, good, and evil. It should be translated “that you
should obey the same [OSN] with its
trends.” The trends are the means by which the old sin nature functions as the
sovereign of human life. The objective genitive singular from the intensive
pronoun a)utoj is translated
“the same.” This is the attributive use of a)utoj emphasising the old sin nature.
Translation:
“Therefore, stop permitting the sin nature ruling in your mortal body, that you
should obey the same [OSN] with its
trends.”
1. Notice that this is a negative command.
This is something that has to be shut down, turned off. This negative command
of prohibition indicates that the believer has an option after salvation
regarding the rulership of the old sin nature.
2. As a result of the baptism of the Spirit
at salvation and resultant retroactive positional truth the sovereignty and the
authority of the old sin nature as the ruler of life has been broken
positionally. This is true for every believer. The fact of the abrogation of
the old sin nature’s power means that experientially there can be and should be
a change.
3. The option, then, is the issue. How and
where do we exercise our options? What is the exercise of the function of our
options? The option lies on the experiential side of Christianity. The option
is related to experiential Christianity, not positional Christianity.
Positional Christianity gives us the opportunity to exercise our options, but
the option is exercised in the field of Christian experience.
4. This option is exercised in at least two
ways. They can be described simply as maturity adjustment to the justice of
God. We have two opportunities to exercise an option, both are continuous. One
of them as to do with an instantaneous recovery from carnality. Because sins
were imputed and judged at the cross when we are out of fellowship we can name
our sins and immediately we are forgiven—rebound adjustment to the justice of
God. So we exercise our option first of all by grace orientation with regard to
rebound. The second area is one where the option must be exercised and that has
to do with Bible doctrine. This is maturity adjustment to the justice of God as
the second use of constant volition. We must exercise our option for doctrine
every day so that through the function of GAP we can grow in grace and in the
knowledge of our Lord and saviour Jesus Christ. And once we crack the maturity
barrier then experientially the old sin nature is not in control, we are living
“newness of life.”
5. While the above is the principle the
functional concept is the utilisation of logistical grace, which includes
rebound, subsequent filling of the Spirit, the daily function of GAP or
consistent positive volition toward Bible doctrine.
6. The concept will be amplified in the next
verse in studying the principle of yieldedness.
7. In the meantime we should be cognisant of
the fact that logistical grace has provided everything necessary for obedience
to this command to stop permitting, and the command in the next verse to yield.
8. The execution of divine commands would be
impossible without the support of logistical grace. Therefore at this point we
have to conclude that logistical grace makes it possible for experiential
victory over the old sin nature.[6]
Verse 13 – “Neither”
is the negative disjunctive particle mhde, used for the
continuation of a preceding negative. In other words, the negative came from
verse 12 where we had “and not.” The next word is “yield,” so the time has come
to deal with a word which has misled more believers than any other word, the
present active imperative of the verb paristhmi. This word has never really been carefully examined
by the average pastor, or even the average professor, but a few scholars have
taken the time to do some digging. Paristhmi is a military
word, and the word “yield” is not used in military language. Yield in the
spiritual realm is about as nebulous as you can get. We get most of our help
here from Polibius, the historian, who used the word and helped us to
understand it in a sentence which is extant today. It begins, touj i(ppeij, and it means
the cavalry. The cavalry means military, mounted military. His next word was e)fakateran [e)pi = upon; e(kataran = both], plus tokeraj meaning wings or
horns. One word has been left out so far, paristhsan, which is the aorist active indicative of paristhmi. It was used in
a technical sense of ordering people who were accustomed to take orders,
trained to obey orders, and making a tactical disposition of them so that the
enemy was defeated. So we can translated, “He set the cavalry on both wings,”
or “He ordered the cavalry on both wings,” or “He made tactical disposition of
the cavalry on both wings.” Xenophon, another historian who wrote on military
subjects, used paristhmi for a
demonstration. In other words, to make the enemy think you were going to attack
in a certain area. For example, one time when the Spartans were fighting the
large Persian army there was a weak spot in the Persian army in the right
centre. So they made demonstration to the left wing and the right wing of the
Persian army and the Persians panicked and sent even more people to the wings,
and the Spartans came in with their main attack. Paristhmi is used to move large bodies of troops in a
tactical situation. The implication is that these troops are trained,
organised, recognise authority, and have the ability to obey, to respond to a
command under pressure. That is what we have in “yield,” the connotation of
responding to a command under pressure because you recognise authority, because
you are trained to take commands, to obey commands. Aristophanes, the famous
comedian, used it in the connotation to be on hand. Demosthenes used it in a
military connotation to stand by or to stand fast. We cannot ignore what these
men say because it has great bearing on the use of the word.
In the New Testament there is a transitive
and an intransitive use of the verb. Both are military, however. In the
transitive it means to place yourself under the command of someone or to put
yourself under orders to someone. When you put yourself under someone you are
in a system of authority and you are under the authority of someone else. To
place yourself under orders was an old military way of saying, Reporting for
duty. Once you place yourself under orders or report for duty you do numerous
things. You obey commands every day. This word does not mean to yield, it means
to place yourself under orders, to report for duty. The intransitive meaning is
a military term for making a demonstration, which is not pertinent. So it is
linked, then, to military service, to obedience, to self-discipline, to a
constant series of orders being issued and obeyed. Inasmuch as the old sin
nature’s sovereignty over human life is broken through baptism of the Spirit
and resultant retroactive positional truth the believer must not place his
members as members of unrighteousness in the service of the old sin nature.
This is our first true command to experientially break with the function of the
old sin nature and to place ourselves under a new authority. This is an order
to recognise that the power of the old sin nature has been broken and now to
get under the new system of authority which was previously noted at the end of
verse 4—“walk in newness of life.” All of us are under orders to God, but since
we are a large organization God has delegated authority in the human race.
Translation: “Stop placing your members under orders to the sin nature as
weapons of unrighteousness.” The present tense is a progressive present for a
continuous action which must be halted. Once a person receives Christ as
saviour he should regard that as his enlistment. Christianity is a system of
authority and discipline. Paul is saying, Stop resisting the authority and discipline.
The active voice: the believer is commanded to stop or halt. This is a negative
prohibition which comes from mhde plus the present
active imperative of paristhmi. The imperative
is the imperative of prohibition used for a prohibition in the present
imperative which demands that the action be stopped or halted.
Next, the accusative plural direct object
from meloj, meaning members
of the body. By members of the body we usually think of limbs, like our hands.
Our members contain the old sin nature. We have been accustomed to obedience to
the old sin nature. It has been the way of life for all of us from birth to regeneration,
but we are talking about after regeneration here. Paul says, “Stop it.” So meloj means parts of the body,
not the soul. Plus the possessive genitive plural from the personal pronoun su—“your members,” not someone
else’s. Don’t worry about the members of someone else. Next comes the dative
singular indirect object from the noun a(martia—“to the sin nature.” Also the generic use of the
definite article for something specific in a category: the old sin nature.
There are two ways in
which the believer puts himself under orders to the old sin nature. One is
carnality in which we succumb to the trends of sin, good and evil. Then we have
reversionism which intensifies either sin or human good, or both, into a system
of evil: the function of evil, endorsement of evil.
Then the accusative
plural direct object from o(plon. It comes from
the Greek word for light infantry, “hoplite.” O(plon was the weapon of the hoplite. And so we have the
word “weapons.” The weapon is the object of prohibition along with the
descriptive genitive singular from a)dikia, generally
meaning “wrongdoing.” It is also used for the function of evil and reversionism
– “weapons of wickedness.” These include not only sinfulness but the functions
of good and evil as the other trends in the old sin nature. The functions can
exist in either the status of carnality of reversionism, dependoing on the use
of rebound or the lack of use of rebound. “And stop placing your members as
weapons of wickedness under orders to the old sin nature.”
Principles
1. The cell bodies or neurons of the brain
are collected together, forming islands or blankets of grey matter. The
branching connections form what is called “white matter” in the brain.
2. The brain is matter. The brain is not a
part of the soul, although there is a close relationship. The brain belongs to
the body whereas the two fontal lobes with the mentality belong to the soul.
The entire brain system vibrates with an energy held in very disciplined
control, while millions of messages flash back and forth as functional targets
within the brain.
3. Sensory and motor mechanisms play roles in
the integrative action of the brain.
4. The old sin nature resides in the brain as
a part of the body; it does not reside in the mentality of the soul, nor in any
part of the soul.
5. Therefore the commands of this verse exist
because of the relationship between the brain which is matter and the soul
which is immaterial.
6. The brain is the
mechanical expression of the soul’s consciousness.
7. Just as we would distinguish between the
driver of a car and the engine of a car, so we must distinguish between the
soul of mankind and the brain.
8. The brain is a part of the body of
corruption controlled by the old sin nature from birth.
9. The brain is a giant computer controlled
by the old sin nature with its trends toward sin, toward good, and toward evil.
10. For the believer the brain continues to
be programmed for good and evil as the policy of Satan as the ruler of this
world and the function of the old sin nature as the sovereign of human life.
11. Under spiritual death the brain rules the
soul since the old sin nature is located in the brain as a part of the human
body.
12. At regeneration the power of the old sin
nature has been broken through the real imputation of eternal life to its home
or target (spiritual birth) and the judicial imputation of divine righteousness
to the believer. These two imputations break the power of the old sin nature.
13. Add to this the baptism of the Holy
Spirit and for the first time the human soul is in a position to be free of its
sovereign of human life.
14. By the intake of Bible doctrine new information
is fed into the brain computer. The new information programs it to the second
husband, the Lord Jesus Christ.
15. Only Bible doctrine resident in the soul
can fulfil experientially what has been accomplished positionally through the
baptism of the Spirit.
16. Only Bible doctrine resident in the soul
can reprogram the brain’s computer so that the believer is free from good and
evil.
17. To place ourselves under orders to God
and our brain members as weapons of righteousness to God we must therefore
reprogram the giant computer with Bible doctrine in the soul.
“but yield yourselves
unto God” – the adversative conjunction a)lla sets up a contrast between the negative and the
positive command, plus the aorist active imperative of paristhmi, the military
term which means to put yourself under the command of someone, the verb which
first of all connotes authority. The visible manifestation of divine authority
is Bible doctrine. Paristhmi also means that
when you are under authority you must have discipline, the ability to respond
the same way today, tomorrow, the next day, the next, and so on. Positive
volition toward doctrine. Distraction is the enemy of discipline. The aorist
tense of paristhmi is a constative
aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. The action of
the verb is to makes a decision today, tomorrow, the next day, and every day
that God gives you on this earth to function under GAP. The constative aorist
here refers to action over a period of time, a constant daily decision. The
period of time is from the day of salvation until the day that you die or are
resurrected, whichever occurs first. The active voice: the believer is
commanded to produce the action of the verb. The imperative mood is the
imperative of command. It is an order for the intake of doctrine on a daily
basis, but doctrine taken in on the basis of your decision. The accusative
plural direct object from the reflexive pronoun e(autou follows. When the action expressed by the verb is
referred back to its own subject the construction is called reflexive. It is
translated by a reflexive pronoun, “but put yourself under orders.” You have to
do it. The dative of indirect object of the proper noun for God, qeoj, comes next, and with it
the generic use of the definite article to emphasise the uniqueness of God—“to
the God.” The believer places himself under orders to God by his attitude
toward the teaching of the Word. Production is the result of spiritual growth
through the function of GAP. The production is never the means of either growth
or blessing from the justice of God. Even legitimate production commanded in
the Word of God must be the result of spiritual growth.
“as those that are
alive from the dead” – the comparative particle w(sei which means “as” and sets up a comparative clause,
and with it the present active participle of zaw, meaning to be alive. It should be translated, “as
those who are alive.” The present tense is static a condition assumed as
perpetually existing. We are alive because of current positional truth, and it
is perpetual. The active voice: the believer through retroactive positional
truth produces the action. The participle is circumstantial through the baptism
of the Holy Spirit, retroactive and current positional truth. All of this comes
to pass. Then e)k plus the
ablative plural of nekroj which can mean
either dead or deaths, depending on another factor of grammar. There is no
definite article here and the absence of the definite article determines the
meaning of this adjective substantive. Minus the definite article it means
“deaths,” because the absence of the definite article calls attention to the
qualitative aspects of Christ’s death, i.e. the two deaths on the cross. With
the article it is “dead ones.” So this is correctly translated, “as those who
are alive from deaths.” Christ’s deaths, because we are identified with Him in
His deaths at the moment we are saved through the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
We are alive from deaths because we are identified with Christ in His spiritual
and physical deaths. Principle: Positional victory is the basis for
experiential victory. Positional victory provides the opportunity for the
expression of positive volition, the application of retroactive and current
positional truth. The ruling power of the old sin nature over human life has
been broken positionally so that the believer is no longer the slave to his
sovereign authority from birth.
“and your members as
instruments of righteousness unto God” – the connective conjunction kai, “and.” Plus the accusative
plural direct object from the noun meloj—“members.” Those
members include the brain. The old sin nature is in the brain and all of the
cells of the body. Plus the possessive genitive plural from the personal
pronoun su. Plus the double
accusative plural of o(plon—“weapons.” Plus
the descriptive genitive singular of dikaiosunh—“righteousness,”
the only reason we have any blessing from God, starting at salvation. Plus the
dative indirect object from qeoj—“to God.”
Translation: “And stop placing your members as weapons of wickedness [good and evil] under orders to the sin nature: but place yourselves under orders to God as those who are alive from deaths, and your members as weapons of righteousness to the God.”
Verses 14 & 15, a question dealing with the problem of distortion. Distortion in thinking is a sign of erroneous thinking. These verses reflect the principle that history repeats itself. When there is divorcement from reality there is distortion in thinking, and when there is distortion in thinking there is erroneous thinking and inability to see the historical trend and to reverse it. Once the trend begins to gain momentum there is only one way a trend in history can be stopped. That is by intervention from the One who controls history, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Verse 14 – the
principle of victory over the old sin nature. Three words found here: “Sin,”
the culprit; “law,” the marriage counsellor of the first marriage; “grace,” the policy by which the second husband is
going to bless those who are believers. This blessing is both personal and by
association, and historical.
“For sin shall not have dominion over you” –
the explanatory use of the conjunctive particle gar, then the culprit, the nominative singular subject
from a(martia, referring to
the old sin nature, not personal sin. Then we have the slavery, the lordship:
the future active indicative of kourieuw which means to
lord it over, to rule over or control. The future tense is a progressive
future, it denotes the idea of progress in future time. The progress in future
time comes from the consistent use of the rebound adjustment to the justice of
God when necessary, the persistent function of GAP while on the road to
maturity adjustment to the justice of God. During the time from salvation and
moving toward cracking the maturity barrier we are under the support of
logistical grace, the support of positional truth; positionally the power of
the old sin nature has been destroyed. The active voice plus the negative means
the old sin nature does not lord it over or control the believer’s life. The
indicative mood plus the negative o)u is a potential
indicative of obligation expressing the contingent element, i.e. persistence in
the use of logistical grace to overcome the attacks of the first husband. The
future active indicative is followed by the objective genitive plural from the
personal pronoun su. The personal
pronoun is used because Christianity is personal, it is a personal relationship
between you and God—“For the sin nature will not lord it over you.” Therefore,
that which is adverse in your life, the tyranny of the old sin nature, has been
broken so that a new lordship can be established.
1. The potential indicative of obligation is
the key to understanding this phrase. Positionally the power and the authority
of the old sin nature is broken, but experientially the victory of the old sin
nature is contingent on the use of the rebound technique plus a daily option
for Bible doctrine—GAP. Eventually, if this persists there will be the maturity
adjustment to the justice of God which is the basis for great blessing.
2. Retroactive positional truth emphasises
the non-imputation of good and evil. Hence, the rejection of good and evil
which is the policy of Satan as the ruler of this world and the function of the
old sin nature as the ruler of life.
3. Furthermore, the believer is not only
identified with Christ in His spiritual death on the cross, but the believer is
also identified with Christ in His physical death and burial which is total
separation from good and evil.
4. Therefore the power of the old sin nature
as the ruler of human life has been broken through identification with Christ
in His spiritual death, physical death and burial.
5. It is current positional truth, however,
which relates the positional victory to the experiential victory. The fact that
we are positionally dead to good and evil does not means that we are
experientially dead to good and evil.
6. We are also identified with Christ in His
resurrection, ascension and session. This emphasises the new life, noted in
verses 4, 8, 10, 11, 13.
7. In verse 17 we will see more of this new
life—“that system of doctrine with which you were entrusted.”
8. The new life must be a life of
assimilation of Bible doctrine which is the only source of spiritual growth and
advance to maturity.
9. The new life is the fulfilment of the
formulae: potential + capacity = reality of blessing in time. The primary
potential is justification, the imputation of divine righteousness at
salvation. The capacity is maximum doctrine resident in the soul. The reality
of blessing in time: doctrine produces maturity adjustment to the justice of
God and blessings in time are the result of maturity adjustment to the justice
of God. The second formula is a secondary potential, the baptism of the Spirit,
plus capacity—maximum doctrine resident in the soul resulting in maturity
adjustment to the justice of God. This equals the reality of encapsulated
environment. The environment for blessing from the justice of God is
encapsulated so that historical disaster or any other historical climate has no
adverse effect on those blessings.
10. In seeking to continue the enslavement of
the believer after its power is broken the old sin nature distorts the Mosaic
law into a system of human good. This system of human good becomes legalism;
legalism is evil.
11. It is the tendency of reversionism to
distort the law into a system of works and good which produces an evil called
“religion.” Christianity is not a religion, it is a relationship with God
through Christ.
12. Religion is the devil’s ace trump.
Religion and legalism distort the Mosaic law into a system of good deeds to
gain the blessing of God.
13. Therefore the next phrase becomes
important to us, for it emphasises the fact that the believer is not under the
authority of the Mosaic law but comes under a new principle of blessing: God’s
grace. Grace is the source of our blessing in the sense that grace is the
principle by which divine justice provides blessing for each one of us as
believers.
14. Being under the authority of grace means
the utilisation of grace for victory over the power of the old sin nature, such
as rebound, the perception of doctrine, and continuing to live so that we can
crack the maturity barrier which is the result of logistical grace.
“for ye are not under
the law, but under grace” – the postpositive particle gar, “for,” followed by the
present active indicative of the verb e)imi, plus the negative o)u which denies the reality of an alleged fact or an
assertion of fact. Then a principle of authority, the preposition u(po plus the accusative of nomoj. There is no definite
article, it is anartharous construction and it emphasises the qualitative
aspect of the law. In other words, there is nothing wrong with the law in its
proper usage. Only its distortion by legalism becomes a problem. The law in itself
is holy, just, and good; it is from God and is perfect. The law, however, has
limited objectives related to the unbeliever. Once a person becomes a believer
he is not under the authority of the law. Plus an adversative conjunction a)lla emphasising a contrast.
There is a contrast of authority, and so we have a new one, the preposition u(po plus the accusative of xarij. This is our new principle
of authority for blessing. Again, there is the absence of the definite article,
emphasising the qualitative aspect of xarij or grace. Both the Mosaic law and the principle of
grace are from God, and when properly used result in great blessing to the
believer.
Translation: “For the
sin nature will not lord it over you: for you are not under law, but under
grace.”
Principle: While the
Mosaic law has a definite purpose it does not include either salvation or
victory over the old sin nature.
Verse 15 – a question
regarding the distortion of grace. “What then? shall we sin, because we are not
under the law, but under grace?” It begins with the nominative neuter singular
from the interrogative pronoun tij, means “what.”
Plus the inferential particle o)un forming up with
the interrogative and setting up a principle, an interrogative and elliptical
idiom. It means, “What then are we to conclude?” Then the question: the aorist
active subjunctive from the verb a(martanw. It means
literally, “Shall we sin?” The constative aorist refers to a momentary action,
hence an occasional act of sin. The active voice: the believer produces the
action of the verb through either mental, verbal, or overt sin. The
deliberative subjunctive mood is used here as a rhetorical device. Rhetorical
questions in the Koine Greek represent an attitude of mind. Here the rhetorical
question represents the false assumption in the form of a question. We have
already seen that sin does not advance the grace of God, for that was the first
half of the chapter based upon the question in verse one. The grace of God can
only be advanced by the justice of God, for grace is a policy from the justice
of God. Grace is the perfection and perfect character of God Himself. Then we have
the causal use of the conjunctive particle o(ti which should be translated “because.” Plus the
present active indicative of the verb e)imi, plus the negative o)u which denies the reality of the alleged fact. And
we have a repetition of what we had in the closing phrase of the previous
verse: the preposition u(po plus the
accusative of nomoj—“under [the
authority of] law.”
“but grace?” – the
adversative conjunction a)lla setting up a
contrast of authority, and then u(po plus xarij.
1. Grace is never increased and never
advanced by any function of the old sin nature, whether sin or good or evil.
2. Grace originates from the justice of God.
Grace is the policy of the justice of God in providing blessings for mankind.
3. Grace does not motivate the sin since
grace is from God. Grace is the policy of God.
4. As a divine policy, therefore, grace
cannot motivate to sin or carnality. Grace cannot motivate to good or evil.
5. Therefore being under the authority of
grace means using grace provision in order to head off the trends of the old
sin nature, whether sin and especially good and evil which seem to be the
downfall of Christianity in the 20th century.
6. The old sin nature does not sponsor grace.
God is the author of grace; God is the user of grace; grace is God’s policy,
not the policy of the old sin nature. The old sin nature’s counter attack comes
in the field of good and evil, but grace is strictly from God.
7. Therefore we have in this verse a
rhetorical question which is a false assumption of two antithetical failures.
One of these failures is legalism and the other is antinomianism.
8. To the legalist grace always appears as a
license to sin. To the antinomian grace always appears as an excuse for sin.
9. Neither position is correct. In fact, both
legalism and antinomianism are distortions of the grace of God.
10. Such distortions can only be corrected
through cognisance of such doctrines as we have noted in the basic imputations
and the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
11. Neither legalism nor antinomianism can
break away from the ruling power of the old sin nature over life because both
are distortions.
12. Only the divine provision and the divine
support of logistical grace can exploit the positional victory over the old sin
nature.
Such a question
demands an answer, and in this verse there is the negative answer. The positive
answer is given in a separate paragraph, beginning in verse 16. Our answer is a
very strong negative which is translated “God forbid,” made up from two Greek words
which are an idiom: mh plus genoito which is the
aorist active optative from ginomai. The literal
translation of the idiom is “Let it not be so.” The negative mh is a qualified negative
used in the prohibitive sense in an independent clause to express a negative
wish. While the negative o)u denies the fact,
the negative mh in our context
denies the idea. The aorist tense of ginomai is a gnomic
aorist used for the certainty of refuting a false allegation. In other words,
the idiom says this is false, this is wrong, this is out of line. The active
voice: the false conclusion produces the action and is being denied by the
idiom. The optative mood is a voluntative optative for the expression of a
negative wish. This is a very strong negative idiom which deprecates the
erroneous assumption stated by the debater’s rhetorical question. There is no
word for God here. Translation: “Emphatically not.” Grace always emphasises the
function of divine justice, not divine love. The negative idiom denies the
allegation that even occasional sin, human good, or the function of evil in the
believer increases grace. The grace of God increases in direct proportion to
the development of the believer’s capacity for blessing through maximum
doctrine resident in the soul.
Translation: “What
then are we to conclude? Shall we sin because we are not under law, but under
grace? Definitely not.”
1. Maximum indoctrination results in grace
increase. Notice that grace is related to the intake of doctrine, not our
failures and disasters.
2. Grace is the policy of the justice of God,
in providing blessing for the believer in time as well as in eternity.
3. God’s integrity does not depend on man’s
sinfulness or the production of human good, or the function of evil.
4. The integrity of God is not sponsored by
the function of the old sin nature or its trends.
5. Acts of personal sin do not increase grace
blessing from the justice of God, but rather increase discipline and punishment
from the justice of God.
6. Being under the authority of God’s grace
does not encourage us to acts of personal sin but we are motivated to press on
to maturity through the consistent intake of Bible doctrine.
7. Being under the authority of grace means
utilisation of grace. Utilisation of grace means utilisation of grace provision
for victory over the old sin nature. This means advance to maturity where we
both glorify the Lord Jesus Christ and receive those maximum blessings from the
justice of God. Those blessings are described as “exceedingly abundantly above
all we could ask or think.”
8. Therefore, remember that sin originates
from the old sin nature. Human good and evil originate from the old sin nature.
Grace originates from the justice of God.
9. Remember that the justice of God is the
source of both cursing and blessing to each one of us as believers.
10. Therefore the believer cannot perform an
occasional act of sin with impunity. There is always discipline. The believer
cannot perform an act of human good with impunity. There is condemnation of
that human good from the justice of God. And there cannot be a series of sins
resulting in evil, or a series of human good acts resulting in evil, without
divine punishment both to individuals involved and for the nation in general.
In other words, we never function under the old sin nature with impunity.
11. Being under the authority of grace rather
than the law does not imply that the justice of God no longer administers
punitive action for the believer who chooses to sin, perform human good, or to
become involved with evil.
12. Divine justice punishes sinfulness and
divine justice blesses growth in grace.
13. Therefore, freedom from the Mosaic law does not imply immunity from punishment or discipline.
Verses 16-23, the
options of the Christian life. We have opportunities to use our volition.
Verse 16 – “Know ye
not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey.” The present active
indicative from the perfect stem o)ida, plus the
negative o)uk—“do you not
know.”
That is a challenge that there is something
to learn, something to understand. This is the basic concept of life. You must
understand authority in life, and the extent to which you buck authority in
life is the extent to which life destroys you. The present tense is a
tendencial present used for an action purposed or attempted but not taking
place. But it must take place. It is imperative that it take place, for when
Paul wrote to the Romans a crisis was in the making. The Roman empire was a
republic for five hundred years. But when a republic degenerates into a
democracy, and democracy degenerates into anarchy, then always a strong man
comes along and brings order out of chaos. The strong man was Julius Caesar who
converted the republic into an empire, though it was not really his intention.
It becomes inevitable though in order to stop the violence and anarchy. Then
the empire had a series of successes. All of the emperors were unbelievers but
that is not important, for the ruler of a country does not have to be born
again. These men were all unbelievers but they were the authority. Remember
what Jesus said: “Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and unto God
the things that are God’s.” There is no conflict there. There is a division:
one dealing with establishment and one dealing with the spiritual realm. The
empire became a system of authority set up by Caesar. Believers not only lived
under this system but they thrived under
this system. Christianity advanced under this system. It is a basic principle
that every believer must recognise, for Christianity cannot evangelise without
freedom and establishment. Christianity cannot teach doctrine without the
protection of law and order. Freedom and establishment must go together.
Freedom is abused unless there is a system of authority. “Do you not know?”
They had to recognise that they had a problem. That is why Paul wrote in this
way to these people, for they were about to destroy everything that had been
gained. They were about to lose everything because they had actually come to the
attitude of anti-government authority. They refused military service and
establishment principles, unless it suited them.
The tendencial present means something that
is not occurring, not taking place. They are not understanding the issue. The
negative represents the idea of what is intended. They should be under
governmental authority as believers, but they are rejecting governmental
authority. The active voice: believers are not producing the action of the
verb, though they should be. The indicative mood is an interrogative
indicative, it is asking a question. Plus the conjunction o(ti after words of perception,
or in this case what they should understand and do not. Next is a dative
masculine singular indirect object from the relative pronoun o(j, followed by a present
active indicative from paristhmi—“Do you not know
that to whom you place yourself under orders.” Paristhmi is a military term for recognition of authority.
The present tense is a pictorial present which presents to the mind a picture
of events in the process of occurrence. The active voice: the believer places
himself under the command of either the sin nature residing in the human body
or under orders to God as a member of the royal family of God and therefore
possess the double portion of blessing at salvation.
The first portion of the double portion comes
from God the Father, the second from God the Son through the agency of God the
Holy Spirit. All believers in history receive the first portion at salvation
adjustment to the justice of God. In other words, the moment that you believe
there are two imputations which comprise the first portion. The first of these
imputations: the justice of God imputes as a judicial imputation divine
righteousness to every believer. That sets up the grace pipeline for blessing.
At the same time there is a real imputation: eternal life is imputed to its
designated target or home prepared by God which is regeneration—eternal life
imputed to the new birth. Human life was imputed to the soul at physical birth.
At the new birth eternal life is imputed to regeneration prepared by God the
Holy Spirit. This is the first portion from God the Father.
The second portion at salvation comes from
God the Son through the agency of the Holy Spirit. All believers of the Church
Age are royal family of God, and at the moment of salvation God the Holy Spirit
enters us into union with Christ, seated at the right hand of the Father. This
is current positional truth in contrast to retroactive positional truth which
deals with the old sin nature. Current positional truth deals with the Lord
Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He has perfect righteousness and eternal life. We share everything that Christ
has, but righteousness and eternal life are involved in the second portion of
the double portion for royal family. At the point of entering into union with
Christ we receive His life—eternal life. We receive His righteousness—perfect
righteousness. 2 Corinthians 5:21 is not the imputation of divine
righteousness, as in Romans 3,4,5, it is righteousness we have by being in Him.
So since one system of righteousness is imputed—the Father’s righteousness is
imputed from the Father’s justice and we have the righteousness of the Lord
Jesus Christ—we have something no one ever had before the Church Age began, a
double portion of divine righteousness. This is very significant because it
means that out blessings are concentrated. Royalty always has privileges. We
have privileges based upon the fact that we have a double portion of divine
righteousness. More than that, we have the eternal life of the Lord Jesus
Christ, and then we have the eternal life of the Father which was imputed. This
tells us that there is no excuse for any believer not reaching maturity.
This double portion is a challenge to find
the authority which is doctrine, to find the one who communicates it as our own
right pastor, and to stay with it until we have cracked the maturity barrier.
By that time there will be no problem with regard to authority. Mature
believers never have an authority problem.
The potential
indicative is the potential indicative of obligation. This has the idea of
contingency in the indicative to indicate that we have an option. No only do we
have an option but every day in that day He gives us some opportunity for
exposing ourselves to the teaching of our right pastor under the principle of
authority. The word “yourselves” is the accusative plural from the reflexive
pronoun e(autou used as the
direct object of the verb. When the action expressed by the verb is referred
back to its own subject the construction is called reflexive. You must submit
to authority as an individual and not because you are bullied into it by
others—with the exception of children, of course.
“servants to obey” –
incorrect. When you walk into a church you are not a servant. This is the
double accusative plural from douloj, a slave.
Everyone is a slave to someone. There is
someone with the authority over all of us who can demote us or promote us. We
are all under authority and we are promoted or demoted by higher authority. If
God doesn’t promote you, you are not promoted. If God doesn’t provide the
success, you are not successful. If God doesn’t provide the happiness, you are
not happy. But you will never develop the capacity for blessing until you
develop the capacity for authority. Authority eliminates the hang-ups.
Then the prepositional phrase e)ij plus the accusative
singular of u(pakoh which means
“obedience,” and e)ij plus the accusative
here means “for the purpose of.” So the corrected translation: “Do you not
know, that to whom you put yourselves under orders as slaves for the purpose of
obedience.” The purpose for slavery is obedience. You are at someone else’s
disposal. But the greatest happiness in life is being at someone else’s
disposal because it is the source of blessing and refreshment in human life.
Always in the spiritual life there is no such thing, then, as emancipation;
everything is always manumission in the sense that we have options every day of
our life for the Lord Jesus Christ—for Him or against Him.
“his servants ye are
to whom ye obey” – the present active indicative of the verb e)imi. The present tense is a
retroactive present which denotes what has begun in the past and continues up
to the present time. The active voice: the believer produces the action of the
verb, either by putting himself under orders to the old sin nature or by
exercising the option of grace and placing himself under orders to God through
the daily function of GAP. The indicative mood is declarative representing the
issue from the viewpoint of reality. Plus the predicate nominative plural from douloj, “you are
slaves,” and the dative of indirect object masculine singular from the relative
pronoun o(j, “to whom.” This
is not only a relative pronoun but it has a direction indicated by the verb,
the present active indicative of the verb u(pakouw which means to obey, to be under the authority of,
to be subject to, to render obedience. It always has the connotation of
obedience to duly constituted authority—“you are slaves to the one to whom you
habitually render obedience.” The option: the old sin nature versus under
orders to God through the intake of doctrine. This is a present tense of duration
for what has begun in the past and continues into the present time. Since the
day that you were saved you have exercised an option: either you were the slave
to the old sin nature or you were the slave to the Lord through Bible doctrine.
The active voice: the believer produces the action in exercising the option on
a daily basis. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal
action from the viewpoint of reality, the reality being the exercise of your
option.
The cognisance of the
options of authority becomes important at this point, and they are presented in
the closing part of the verse. The first option is the old one, and it is
expressed under the phrase “whether of sin unto death.” “Whether” is one of several
disjunctive particles, h)toi, and it should
be “either.” The other disjunctive particle comes up at the beginning of the
next phrase, it is “either, or.” Plus the objective genitive singular from the
noun a(martia for the sin
nature in this case. Then the prepositional phrase, e)ij plus the accusative singular of qanatoj, referring to
the sin unto death[7]—“either to the
sin nature resulting in death.” The sin unto death is maximum discipline for
believers only. The sin unto death is the means by which reversionistic
believers are transferred from time to eternity.
1. The believer who continues under the rule and authority of the old sin nature after his positional deliverance at salvation is under that category beyond carnality called reversionism.
2. Reversionism is a synonym for apostasy and
is defined as the place of total failure for the believer. Reversionism is
rejection of Bible doctrine.
3. Reversionism means ot be controlled by the
old sin nature with its trends toward sin, toward good, toward evil.
4. To be dominated by the old sin nature
after salvation means failure to attain maturity adjustment to the justice of
God, and therefore failure to receive the blessings of maturity by which we
glorify God, and by which the justice of God demonstrates the importance of the
divine plan in the engelic conflict.
5. To be dominated by the old sin nature
after salvation means that the justice of God must discipline and punish rather
than bless.
6. The justice of God is the source of both
cursing and blessing.
7. Condemnation from the justice of God does
not remove the imputation of salvation.
8. Nor does condemnation from thew justice of
God erase the double portion aspect of possessing the righteousness of Christ
and the eternal life of Christ from the baptism of the Spirit.
9. Condemnation from the justice of God to
the reversionistic believer does imply divine discipline in three categories:
warning, intensive, dying.
The second option is
the new one: “or obedience unto righteousness” – the disjunctive particle h), “or,” which gives the
alternative to habitual obedience to the old sin nature. The objective genitive
singular u(pakoh, meaning
obedience. Then the prepositional phrase which sets up a contrast, e)ij plus the accusative of dikaiosunh—“because of
[imputed] righteousness.”
Translation: “Do you
not know, that to whom you put yourselves under orders as slaves for the
purpose of obedience, you are slaves to the one you are slaves to the one you
habitually render obedience; either to the sin nature resulting in death, or
obedience because of [imputed] righteousness.”
Principle: The
believer who does not exercise his options for placing himself under orders to
God is the believer who fails to adjust to the justice of God after salvation.
Verse 17 – “But God be
thanked.” This is not the literal translation but is the accepted idiom. It is
the postpositive conjunctive particle de which here means “now,” indicating an important
principle: that by the time we reach this verse we have something to be
grateful for as far as appreciation of the provision of grace. Then the
nominative singular of exclamation, the noun xarij. When it is desired to stress a thought with great
distinctiveness the nominative is used without the verb—obviously a part of an
idiom. It is literally, “Now grace.” While xarij means grace it also has the connotation of thanks
or gratitude. Plus the dative singular indirect object from qeoj with the definite article.
It literally means, “Now grace belongs to the God.” It is an idiom for
gratitude. At the point the people who have followed through and have learned
all the lessons recognise that grace belongs to God, but the idiom means “Now
thanks to the God.” The true basis for thanksgiving is being the beneficiary of
grace, beginning at salvation. Then comes the conjunction o(ti used after an idiom of
gratitude to express the content of that gratitude, the purpose, the means of
that gratitude—“that,” plus the gratitude concept.
“ye were the servants
of sin” – imperfect active indicative of e)imi, the verb to be. The imperfect tense is unusual
here. The imperfect differs from the aorist in representing a process rather
than a concept of aktionsart. The aorist is aktionsart in past time; the
imperfect tense is a past time tense also, but it is linear aktionsart in past
time. The imperfect tense also differs from the perfect in representing a
process which carries no sense of completion. The imperfect represents a
process without attainment. So we have what is known as the inceptive imperfect
which simply denotes linear aktionsart in the sense ‘you kept on being’ without
any time connotation as to when it terminated. The positional termination is
salvation; the experiential termination, maybe never. After salvation most
believers go on living under slavery to the old sin nature, and they do so for
only one reason: ignorance of Bible doctrine. The active voice: believers, as
unbelievers, produce the action of the verb, and sometimes believers after
salvation produce the action of the verb. The indicative mood is declarative
for the reality of slavery to the old sin nature, beginning at birth. The word
“servants” is the predicate nominative plural from douloj, which does not mean servant, but slave. Plus the
genitive singular of relationship from the noun a(martia which, used in the singular here, is referring to
the old sin nature. This represents the true status quo of all unbelievers. It
is caused by the two imputations at birth: the imputation of human life to the
soul and Adam’s original sin to the genetically formed old sin nature—“Now
thanks to the God that you kept on being slaves of the sin nature.”
“but” – here is the
change, the postpositive conjunctive particle de, used this time to connect clauses which there is a
contrast; “ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was
delivered to you.”
The analogy: a form of
slavery called marriage (chapter 7:1-6). We have the first husband. The husband
is the lord and master in marriage. The old sin nature is the first husband.
The wife is the unbeliever. The marriage counsellor is the Mosaic law. In the
second marriage which occurs at salvation we have a second husband, the Lord
Jesus Christ. The wife is the believer and the marriage counsellor is God the
Holy Spirit. The culprit is the old sin nature and as unbelievers we are, in
the role of the wife, slaves. Before salvation all of us were married to sin
nature, all of us were under the lordship of the sin nature as the ruler of
life. It rules through spiritual death. The postpositive conjunctive particle de emphasises a contrast
between our status quo as unbelievers and our status quo as believers at the
moment we believed in Christ. The spiritual birth gives us a new relationship.
The principle: two real imputations at physical birth resulted in our first
marriage—slavery to the old sin nature. This particle de acts as an adversative
conjunction to give us the source of gratitude, not the source of our problem.
The emphasis in this passage is going to be on the new marriage. We did not
make a mistake when we believed in Christ! If we are married to Christ and
divorced from the old sin nature, that immediately becomes the basis of
everything we do in life. Analogy: when you are divorced from your first
husband that is the end of the line. Divorcement means death, just as if he was
no longer among the living. Since you know that you are married to Christ you
have to make decisions accordingly. You can’t be married to one man and go back
to an ex-husband. Therefore you as a believer make constant decisions to cut
off the old husband. How do you do it? Two ways. When you sin, you rebound.
When you perform good and evil there is no rebound technique for that is a part
of the angelic conflict, so you have to say no to good and evil, and you can’t say
no until you are smart enough to say no. You are never smart enough to say no
until you know the doctrine of reversionism, the doctrine of good and evil.
“Now you kept on being
slaves to the sin nature” is not the basis for thanksgiving. It is “Now thanks
be to God that you have obeyed.” The thanksgiving goes with the phrase “ye have
obeyed,” the aorist active indicative of u(pakouw—“thanksgiving for obedience. The aorist tense is a
constative aorist, it contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. How
do we obey the second husband, the Lord Jesus Christ? We obey Him by pleasing
Him by the daily intake of Bible doctrine. It takes the daily function of GAP
and regardless of its extent or duration the aorist tense gathers it up into
one entirety. The constative aorist is the fact and action of the inculcation
of Bible doctrine through the consistent function of GAP. The active voice: the
believer as the wife of the second marriage produces the action. The
declarative indicative is for the reality of the daily function of GAP,
resulting in maturity adjustment to the justice of God. Remember that is
addressing this phrase to those Roman believers who formed the pivot which
preserved the Roman empire in the days of Nero. They had a large pivot of mature
believers, those who had cracked the maturity barrier, and Paul is thanking God
for this large pivot. There is a relatively small spin-off of reversionism.
Therefore in Nero’s day the Roman empire was preserved and would go on from
there to greater things in the period of the Antonine Caesars, the greatest
period that Rome would ever know, and it was based on the pivot. This pivot was
now forming.
“from the heart” – e)k plus the ablative of kardia, the right lobe
where Bible doctrine must be stored for e)pignwsij doctrine. This is the ablative of means. The
ablative is not the usual case for expressing means but whenever the means also
includes the concept of origin, then the ablative is used instead of the
instrumental case. That is why the translation here is “but by means of the
right lobe.” Note that you do not obey your second husband, the Lord Jesus
Christ, by means of works. It is by means of thought, not works.
“that form of
doctrine” – the accusative singular direct object from tupoj, meaning form, pattern,
figure, mould or stamp. It is derived from the Greek verb tuptw which means to punch
someone and to make an impression. It means an impression left by a blow, hence
what is formed or what leaves its impress is called tupoj. Here we use the word “pattern.” With it is the
possessive genitive singular from didaxh which denotes
the fact that the believer through the function of GAP possesses doctrine. Didaxh means teaching,
doctrine or instruction. So we can call it a pattern of teaching or a system of
doctrine.
“which was delivered
unto you” – the prepositional phrase e)ij plus the
accusative singular from the relative pronoun o(j. It should be translated “into which system of
doctrine . .” Plus the aorist passive indicative from the verb paradidomi which means here
to be delivered, to be handed over. After salvation believers are handed over
to a system of doctrine. This is the most important thing after salvation, it
is what the believer is handed over to. This can also be translated “you were committed
to doctrine.” In other words, the believer after salvation is committed to a
system of doctrine for the glorification of the second husband, the Lord Jesus
Christ, and manumission from the tyranny of the first husband, the old sin
nature. This is the constative aorist tense for a fact or action extended over
a lifetime on earth. From the moment of salvation until the end of your life on
this earth, whether it is by the Rapture of the Church or by physical death,
the constative aorist gathers up into one entirety the most important thing in
your life, a system of doctrine that you have to learn. The passive voice: the
believer receives the action of the verb after salvation by being handed over
to a system of doctrine for growth and glorification of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The declarative indicative is for a dogmatic statement of fact. The believer is
handed over to doctrine for maturity adjustment to the justice of God with
resultant blessings from the justice of God.
Translation: “Now
thanks to the God that you were [kept on being] slaves to the sin nature, but
[this is what is new] now you have obeyed by means of the right lobe a system
of doctrine [pattern of teaching] into which [system of doctrine] you were
committed.”
1. Salvation has both temporal and eternal
results.
2. The eternal results are noted in many
passages dealing with operation phase three.
3. In this context the emphasis is on the
fact that after salvation God has delivered us over to a system of doctrine as
the only means of spiritual advance to maturity, and the only way to glorify
the Lord Jesus Christ.
4. The fact that God has delivered us over to
a system of doctrine emphasises the principle that we should daily exercise our
options for the perception of doctrine. We are married to Christ; how do we
please Him? By taking in doctrine consistently.
5. Since learning doctrine is the greatest
thing we do in this life we should demonstrate positive volition toward God’s
plan by the daily function of GAP.
6. Self-determination must be related, then,
to learning doctrine as the essence of the Christian way of life.
7. Committal to Christ means receiving the
delivery of Bible doctrine as taught by one’s right pastor-teacher.
8. Note that this verse emphasises our former
status as unbelievers in terms of the old sin nature rather than personal sin.
9. Note also that obedience comes from
doctrine resident in the right lobe rather than emotional stimulation by
persuasive personality.
10. The system of doctrine must be resident
in the right lobe for obedience to Christ. This system of doctrine is the means
by which we fulfil the command of verse 13—to put ourselves under the command
of God and to place our members under His command.
11. The system of doctrine was handed over,
delivered, to the believer. This delivery of doctrine is the only means of
spiritual growth, the only means of glorifying the Lord Jesus Christ, the only
grace system for living the Christian life. Nothing in Christianity can ever be
divorced from Bible doctrine. Rejection of doctrine, ignorance of doctrine, are
the most serious offences against our Lord Jesus Christ.
Verse 18 – “Being made
free from sin.” The postpositive conjunctive particle de is used as a simple
transitional conjunction without any contrast intended. It is simply linking
the previous verse. Plus the aorist passive participle from the verb e)leuqerow which means to
be free—“And having been set free.” The aorist tense is a constative aorist, it
takes the occurrence of salvation adjustment to the justice of God, which
through the baptism of the Spirit provides positional freedom, and linking it
to maturity adjustment to the justice of God, gathers it up into one entirety.
The passive voice: the believer receives the action of the verb through the
three adjustments to the justice of God—salvation, rebound, and maturity. The
participle is an instrumental participle denoting the manner in which the
action of the main verb is accomplished. The action of the aorist participle
precedes the action of the main verb. The main verb: “you became slaves.” “And
by having been set free” is a correct translation. By having been set free
positionally and experientially “from sin” – the preposition a)po plus the definite article,
plus a(martia. The definite
article denotes something previously defined in context, namely the old sin
nature—“from the sin nature.”
1. The old sin nature is the sovereign of
human life ruling through spiritual death.
2. This rulership of the sin nature over
human life begins at physical birth through two real imputations: the
imputation of human life to the divinely prepared home, the soul; the
imputation of Adam’s original sin to the genetically prepared home, the old sin
nature.
3. The rulership of the old sin nature over
human life terminates positionally at salvation through the baptism of the Holy
Spirit and subsequent retroactive positional truth.
4. The rulership of the old sin nature over
human life terminates experientially at maturity adjustment to the justice of
God through a system of doctrine resident in the soul.
5. This system of doctrine in the soul reprograms the giant computer called the brain where the old sin nature resides. The computer saturated with good and evil becomes saturated with the policy of God. In other words, at maturity we have a reprogramming of the brain with divine viewpoint for the function of grace.
“ye became the servants of righteousness” –
the aorist passive indicative of the verb doulow, meaning to be a slave, to become enslaved. The
aorist tense is a
culminative aorist, it views the positional and experiential freedom
the sovereignty of the old sin nature in its entirety but it regards it from
the viewpoint of existing results, namely the mature believer enslaved to
righteousness. That means that sooner or later it must be recognised that the
justice of God is the source of all blessing as well as cursing in your life.
Remember the principle: God’s justice can only bless perfect righteousness.
Every blessing we have comes because we have God’s righteous ness, not because
of our own righteousness. We are never blessed because of what we do. The
person moving toward maturity has dedicated to the principle he received at
salvation, or at the marriage ceremony, i.e. the imputation of divine
righteousness. You became enslaved to righteousness. The passive voice: the
mature believer received the action of the verb, the exploitation of
imputation. He exploits the imputation of divine righteousness by a system of
doctrine. You have received righteousness at salvation but only a system of
doctrine will exploit the fact that you possess a grace pipeline directly from
the justice of God to divine righteousness in you. The only way that you can
exploit what you received at salvation is through perception of Bible doctrine.
There is no other way. The indicative mood is declarative for a dogmatic
statement of doctrine regarding the mature believer. The indicative mood is
also the way of denoting the main verb.
“of righteousness” –
dative singular direct object, but it also has the definite article to denote
something which has been defined in the context. This is dikaiosunh, the
righteousness of God. With the definite article it is translated “to the
righteousness [of God].”
Translation: “And by
having been set free [both positionally and experientially] from the sin
nature, you became enslaved to [the] righteousness [of God].”
1. The righteousness of God is the principle
of divine integrity, while the justice of God is the function of divine
integrity.
2. Righteousness demands righteousness;
justice demands justice. What righteousness demands, justice executes. That is
the basis for all blessing in the spiritual life.
3. Therefore, again, what righteousness
demands justice executes. Justice is the point of reference for the human race
since the fall of man and resultant spiritual death.
4. Divine justice can only bless perfect
righteousness. Therefore being enslaved to the righteousness of God is that
mature status of the believer which glorifies God, and receives maximum
blessing from the justice of God.
5. Slavery to the righteousness of God is the
mature status of maximum blessing from God and maximum glorification of God in
history.
Verse 19 – the challenge of the new option.
The first sentence is the explanation as to why slavery is used as an
illustration. It is the perfect illustration of
security as well as being the perfect illustration of the woman’s role
in marriage. “I speak to you after the manner of men” is obviously a literal
translation, and obviously not the correct translation. This is the present
active indicative of legw which is used
quite frequently for idioms in the Greek—“I speak.” It means to speak or to
communicate and it is in the customary present tense to denote what habitually
occurs when illustrations are taken from human life and inserted into the
record of scripture. The active voice: Paul as the human author uses the
illustration. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal idea
from the standpoint of absolute and dogmatic reality. Paul added the accusative
singular direct object from a)nqrwpoj, and by adding
it—meaning human or belonging to man—he indicates that this is an idiom. “I
speak according to man” is an idiom meaning, “I use a human illustration.”
Slavery is not being taught in this passage, slavery is being used as an
illustration. Slavery was practised in the time of the Roman empire and the
Bible must be interpreted in the time in which it was written. Note that while
slavery was both a social problem and a political institution in the Roman
empire Paul did not condemn slavery or subject it to any type of excoriation,
he is simply pointing out the fact that it makes a perfect illustration. The
solution to slavery was not through political reform, and therefore Paul did
not beat the drums for abolition of slavery.
“because of the
infirmity of your flesh” – dia plus the
accusative of the definite article with the accusative of a)sqeneia which means
“weakness,” and with the definite article it denotes a previous reference to
the weakness of the old sin nature which is synonymous with its trends toward
sin, toward good, toward evil. It is literally translated, “because of the
weakness.” Then a genitive of apposition in the plural from the personal
pronoun su and sarc—“your flesh [old sin
nature].” The believer’s weakness is the old sin nature, and while the power of
the old sin nature as the ruler of human life has been broken through the
baptism of the Spirit and resultant retroactive positional truth,
experientially the old sin nature continues to be the weakness of the believer
in time. Hence, there are three categories of weakness in the believer: our
trend toward sin, our mutual trend toward good, our mutual trend toward evil.
Sin is related to the doctrine of carnality, while good and evil is related to
the function of reversionism.
1. This is the first of two sentences in this
verse. It actually belongs to the previous verse as an explanation as to why
slavery is used as the illustration.
2. Because the believer still possesses the old sin nature after salvation human illustrations like slavery, marriage and divorce must be used to communicate the doctrine.
3. In this illustration Paul is neither
condoning nor condemning slavery, he is simply using a common occurrence in the
Roman empire to illustrate a point of doctrine.
4. After salvation the believer has an option. He can continue under the slavery of the old sin nature or he can transfer to the new slavery: God’s righteousness, which was judicially imputed at salvation.
5. Salvation provides an option in slaveries. Slavery to the old sin nature results in discipline and punishment from the justice of God.
6. Slavery to God’s righteousness results in blessing and promotion from the justice of God.
7. Blessing and promotion from the justice of God glorifies the Lord Jesus Christ in the angelic conflict.
8. Therefore glorification of Christ becomes
the challenge of exercising a new option.
9. Domination by the old sin nature is a
slavery to misery, depression, disaster, oppression. But spiritual maturity
(slavery to righteousness) is a slavery to blessing, security, reward and
promotion.
10. This slavery fulfils the doctrine: If God doesn’t promote you, you are not promoted; if God doesn’t bless you, you are not blessed; if God doesn’t provide it, you have nothing even though you have everything. Everything becomes nothing unless it comes down through the grace pipeline.
“for as you have
yielded your members servants to uncleanness unto iniquity” – this begins with
the postpositive conjunctive particle gar, used here in the explanatory sense of a
comparative clause. The comparative clause is introduced by an adverb used as a
conjunction, w(sper, “for just as.” W(sper introduces
the protasis of a comparative clause. Plus the accusative plural direct
object meloj, used for parts
of the human body. The verb is the
aorist active indicative of paristhmi which means to
place yourself under orders, recognising authority. This is a constative aorist
for a succession of events over a period of time. It takes every act of
obedience to the old sin nature and gathers it up into one entirety from the
point of birth to regeneration. That is the period of time we are under orders
to the old sin nature. The aorist tense gathers up into one entirety every
function whereby we are obedient to the old sin nature. The active voice: the
believer produces the action of the verb as an unbeliever. The indicative mood
is declarative representing the verbal idea from the viewpoint of reality, the
reality of the first marriage. Plus the possessive genitive plural from the
personal pronoun su—“your.” The word
douloj is a double
accusative plural direct object, and it means “slave.” With it is the dative
singular indirect object a)kaqarsia, meaning
“impurity,” and it refers to the old sin nature’s trends toward sin—“for just
as you have put your members under orders as slaves to impurity.”
“and to iniquity unto
iniquity” – the connective use of the conjunction kai followed by the dative singular indirect object
from a)nomia, meaning
“lawlessness,” but it refers to the old sin nature’s trend toward human good.
Human good is lawlessness to God. Then it is repeated. This time it is
lawlessness repeated as part of the object of the preposition e)ij plus the accusative of a)omai, translated
“resulting in lawlessness.”
Lawlessness resulting in lawlessness is the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Now comes the apodosis in which an option is given for the believer in time.
“even so now yield
your members servants to righteousness unto holiness” – this begins o(utoj nun, correctly
translated “so now.” “So” is the rest of the analogy. O(utoj introduces the
apodosis of a comparative clause. “Now” means right now as believers, as those
who are born again, as those who are ambassadors for Christ. Then the aorist
active indicative of paristhmi, the military
word recognising authority and being obedient to that authority, and translated
“put yourself under orders.” The aorist tense is a constative aorist which
gathers up into one entirety the manner in which we put ourselves under orders
to God. We do it through the daily function of GAP which leads to maturity
adjustment to the justice of God. The active voice: the believer who is
constantly positive toward doctrine produces the action. The imperative mood is
an order. Plus the accusative plural from meloj—“members.” Translation: “so now put your members
under orders.” There is also a double accusative here. It is usually translated
by the word “as” and whatever the word is—douloj, “as slaves.” Slavery describes the function of the
believer who is correct, or the professional believer. Plus the dative singular
indirect object dikaiosunh,
“righteousness,” the key to all blessing from God. On the giving end of grace
is justice, and justice cannot give to any type of imperfection. Therefore,
righteousness is the key—the imputation of the righteousness of God. This
imputed righteousness forms the grace pipeline through which all blessings flow
from the justice of God to the believer. The definite article before the noun
denotes a previous reference to the righteousness of God, therefore it is
translated correctly, “to the righteousness.” With it is a prepositional
phrase, e)ij with the
accusative singular of a(giasmoj, which is
correctly translated holiness, consecration, or sanctification—“resulting in
sanctification.” This is experiential sanctification, which is synonymous with
maturity adjustment to the justice of God.
Translation: “I use a
human illustration because of the weakness of your flesh [the old sin nature];
for just as you have put your members under orders as slaves to impurity [the
old sin nature’s trend toward sin] and to lawlessness [the old sin nature’s
trend toward good] resulting in lawlessness [the old sin nature’s trend toward
evil] so now put your members under orders as slaves to the righteousness of
God, resulting in experiential sanctification.”
1. Experiential sanctification is described
as the believer placing himself under orders as a slave to the righteousness of
God—through the intake of Bible doctrine.
2. This is a statement of principle rather than the mechanics of experiential sanctification.
3. The mechanics or the execution of placing
one’s self under orders to God involves the filling of the Spirit which, in
turn, involves rebound adjustment to the justice of God when necessary, plus
the daily function of GAP, eventuating in maturity adjustment to the justice of
God.
4. The principle deals with the imputation of divine righteousness at salvation, resulting in the creation of a grace pipeline with divine justice on the giving end and divine righteousness on the receiving end.
5. This fulfils the doctrine that divine justice can only bless divine righteousness.
6. This grace pipeline is encapsulated with the integrity of God, composed of His righteousness and His justice. Again, righteousness is the principle of divine integrity; justice is the function of divine integrity. Righteousness demands righteousness; justice demands justice; what righteousness demands, justice executes. When we crack the maturity barrier righteousness demands blessing; justice executes by pouring the blessings of paragraph SG2 through the pipeline. That is when God is glorified by your life.
7. The encapsulation cannot be penetrated by any form of human good, human righteousness, human production.
8. The grace blessings from the justice of God are insulated against any form or function of human legalism.
9. Therefore, grace blessing glorifies God.
1. The first part of this verse emphasises what we are through physical birth: under orders to impurity and to lawlessness resulting in lawlessness.
2. At physical birth the two real imputations
result in physical life and simultaneously spiritual death.
3. The real imputation of human life to its
divinely prepared human home, the soul, plus the real imputation of Adam’s
original sin, the genetically prepared home, the old sin nature, results in
spiritual death which in our context is under the analogy of the first husband.
Spiritual death is the first husband.
4. This means that every member of the human
race has placed himself under orders to the old sin nature as the sovereign of
human life, ruling through spiritual death.
5. Therefore mankind follows the trends, slavery to impurity or personal sin, slavery to good and evil or lawlessness.
6. But salvation adjustment to the justice of
God through faith in Christ changes all that, and the change is not death but
divorce.
7. The change occurs through two salvation
blessings from the justice of God.
8. The first blessing is the imputation of
divine righteousness providing the primary potential from the justice of God
and the grace pipeline.
9. The second blessing is the baptism of the
Holy Spirit providing the secondary potential for the encapsulated environment
in which those mature blessings are enjoyed in any stage in history.
10. Two key words should be noted in the last
half of this verse: righteousness and sanctification.
11. Righteousness occurs at salvation
adjustment to the justice of God, while sanctification is fulfilled at the
point of maturity adjustment to the justice of God.
12. At salvation the believer becomes the
slave to imputed righteousness, while at maturity the believer becomes the
slave to sanctification.
13. A comparison to the former slavery is the
challenge to exercise a new option.
14. By advancing to maturity the believer
places himself under slavery, the slavery of both temporal and eternal
blessings.
Verses 20-21, the old sin nature’s
sovereignty over human life.
Verse 20 – “For when ye were the servants of
sin.” The explanatory use of the
postpositive conjunctive particle gar, “for.” With it is the temporal adverb o(te used as a temporal
conjunction—“For when.” An even better translation: “For as long as.” Then the
imperfect active indicative of the verb e)imi. The imperfect tense is the imperfect of
description which represents what is going on in past time from physical birth.
This is strong linear aktionsart. The active voice: mankind is producing the
action of the verb from physical birth until salvation. The indicative mood is
declarative representing the verbal action from the viewpoint of reality. Plus
the predicate nominative douloj—“slave.” Plus
the genitive singular of relationship from the definite article to denote a
previous reference, and the genitive singular of relationship from the noun a(martia, for the old sin
nature—“For as long as you were slaves of the sin nature.” Slavery to the sin
nature falls into two categories: from birth to salvation, and the potential
after salvation which is going back to the first husband in the analogy which
is unfaithfulness to the second husband, the second husband being the Lord
Jesus Christ.
“you were free from righteousness” – the
imperfect active indicative of e)imi. This is the
imperfect of duration. As long as you were married to the old sin
nature you were constantly in a status quo, and that status quo was you
were actually free with reference to the righteousness of God. The word “free”
here means exclusion. The active voice: the believer produces the action of the
verb, looking back at the first marriage to the old sin nature, unbeliever
days. The indicative mood is the reality of the fact that spiritual death is an
exclusion from the principle. No one in spiritual death can ever be blessed
because they so not have on the receiving end of the grace pipelines the
righteousness of God. Next is the predicate nominative masculine plural e)leuqeroj. It’s in the
plural because spiritual blessings flow through the grace pipe: Temporal
blessings, category #2; blessing by association, category #3; historical
impact, category #4; and eventually, dying grace. E)leuqeroj is in the plural to indicate exclusion of all
five categories. No unbeliever ever received direct blessing from God. Then the
dative of reference singular from both the definite article and dikaiosunh, referring to
the imputation of divine righteousness.
Translation: “For as
long as you were the slaves of the sin nature you were excluded with reference
to [the] righteousness [of God].”
This means no grace
pipeline, no potential or reality of grace blessing from the justice of God.
The righteousness of God is used here as the principle of receiving blessing
from God which glorifies God.
1. As unbelievers under the rulership of the
old sin nature we were slaves to the old sin nature and its trends toward sin,
good, and evil.
2. There is no possibility of blessing from
the justice of God through the grace pipeline encapsulated with divine
integrity. This is because God’s righteousness must be on the receiving end,
and God’s righteousness is not imputed until we believe in Jesus Christ.
3. Hence, the unbeliever is excluded from the
benefits related to the imputation of the righteousness of God.
4. The benefits of imputation or
justification include not only immediate salvation but the potentiality of
great blessings in time and in eternity.
5. Hence, slavery to the sovereignty of the old sin nature ruling human life through spiritual death excludes any possibility of fulfilling this formula—potential plus capacity equals reality of blessing in time.
6. The unbeliever is excluded from the righteousness of God imputed, and all it means to the believer.
7. But salvation adjustment to the justice of
God through faith in Christ changes all this. The imputation of divine
righteousness at salvation provides the potentiality for great blessing from
the justice of God in time, and even greater blessing from the justice of God
in eternity. At the same time salvation means divorce from the first husband
and marriage to the second.
8. We as believers have the opportunity in time to place our members under orders as slaves to the righteousness of God, resulting in experiential sanctification.
Fundamentally there are two approaches to life. The first is that man is inherently good, and the second is that man is inherently bad. The concept that man is
good leads to a greater intensity of evil, and it leads to more problems historically. Then the attitude that man is not to be trusted, is inherently evil, tricky, and therefore there must be some safeguards. All the laws of divine establishment take cognisance of the principle of the universality of sin and the fact that we are born with that old sin nature, and that the old sin nature has trends toward sin, toward good, and toward evil. All law is designed with that in mind. Authority is the system by which the doctrine of total depravity is a reality, but authority converts all of us totally depraved types into nice people, right people, honest people, in certain circumstances. That is why we have the laws of divine establishment.
Verse 21 – “What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed?” The
nominative neuter plural from the interrogative pronoun tij, used strictly for a direct inquiry, especially when it is followed with the inferential conjunction o)un. This is an inferential conjunction denoting that what is introduced is an inference from what precedes. Plus the accusative singular direct object from karpoj—“fruit, production.” It means benefit and profit. Here the meaning is benefit. The previous verse tells us we were excluded from benefits. Plus the imperfect active indicative of the verb e)xw. “What benefit were you having.” The progressive imperfect tense of the description represents what was going on in past time, in the first marriage. No benefit in the first marriage from birth to salvation. The active voice: the unbeliever as the wife of the old sin nature produces the action of the verb. This is an interrogative indicative in which the viewpoint of reality is implied in a fact enquired about when the indicative is used for asking the simple question. Then the correlative adverb tote, referring to the previous marriage, “at that time,” the time between physical birth and regeneration. “Therefore what benefit were you having at that time?” Plus the prepositional phrase, e)f [e)pi] plus the dative plural from the relative pronoun o(j—“over which.” There is no “those things” in the Greek text. Because of the elliptical nature of the text something must be added for clarity in translation, hence we add “from trends, over which.” Plus the present active indicative from the verb e)paisxunomai—both passive and middle form, and it means to be ashamed. With it an adverb of time, nun, “now”—“you are now ashamed.” The present tense is a descriptive present of e)paisxunomai to indicate what is now going on—embarrassed, ashamed of the past. The passive voice: the believer receives the action of the verb, shame, and he receives the shame from a knowledge of doctrine. The indicative mood is a potential indicative of obligation. The potential indicative means that everyone doesn’t understand this doctrine, but it could mean that you are in the process of learning it. The answer to such a question is obviously no benefit.
“for the end of those things is death” – this is not physical death here. This is the postpositive explanatory particle gar, plus the nominative singular subject teloj, meaning end or conclusion, plus the descriptive genitive plural from the remote demonstrative e)kainoj which implies that the Roman believers have experienced enough growth to have some experiential victory over the old sin nature’s sovereign power in human life. Plus the predicate nominative singular from qanatoj—“death,” used here for spiritual death in time parlayed into the second death in eternity. This is a reference to the great white throne judgment of Revelation 20:12-15. Since all personal sins were imputed to Christ on the cross and judged this implies the judgment of good and evil. No sin will ever be judged at the final judgment.[8] A spiritually dead person of Ephesians 2:1 can only produce dead works of Hebrews 6:1. Dead works cannot please God in time—Romans 8:8, or in eternity—Revelation 20:14-15.
Translation: “Therefore, what benefit were you having at that time from old sin nature trends over which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things [OSN trends] is death.”
Verse 22 – the benefits of freedom from the old sin nature; the benefits of the divorce which occurred at salvation. “But now being made free from sin” – the same identical phrase in the Greek in verse 18. The postpositive conjunctive particle de used as an adversative conjunction to emphasise a contrast with the previous phrase which emphasised the second death as the end of the rulership of the old sin nature over human life. So we have a contrast between unsaved status of mankind and salvation status of mankind, a difference of rulership, a difference of lordship. The old sin nature is the lord or the husband in the first marriage; the Lord Jesus Christ is the Lord in the second marriage. With this is an adverb of time used in two forms, nun and nuni. Nuni is simply the more emphatic of the two and is translated here “but now.” Next is the aorist passive participle of e)leuqerow, which means having been freed or having been set free. It has to do with divorce. The aorist tense is a constative aorist which contemplates the action of the verb in its entirety. Here it refers to a momentary action, salvation with emphasis on the baptism of the Spirit which divorces us from the first husband. The passive voice: the believer receives the action instantaneously at the moment of salvation. This is a circumstantial participle. A prepositional phrase follows, a)po plus the ablative of a(martia with the definite article denoting a previous reference in the context. “But now, having been set free from the sin nature [OSN’s sovereignty].” This is positional deliverance accomplished through the baptism of the Holy Spirit, both retroactive and current positional truth.
Principle
1. Positional freedom is tantamount to divorce from the old sin nature, and this is accomplished through retroactive positional truth. First of all, rejection of the old sin nature’s function—good and evil; secondly, separation from good and evil.
2. Retroactive positional truth identifies the believer with Christ in His spiritual death where non-imputation of good and evil signifies rejection of good and evil.
3. Being identified with Christ in His spiritual death means that positionally we have rejected good and evil as the policy of Satan, and the function of the old sin nature as sovereign of human life.
4. Retroactive positional truth identifies the believer with Christ in His physical death and burial in which He was totally separated from good and evil.
5. Being identified with Christ in His physical death and burial means that we are positionally separated from good and evil as the policy of Satan as the ruler of this world, and the function of the old sin nature, ruler of human life.
“and become servants to God” – the postpositive conjunctive particle de, this time simply used to connect two clauses where a contrast is intended. The contrast is between the first and the second marriages. Plus the aorist active participle of doulow, which describes the woman’s part in marriage. The culminative aorist views the salvation action in its entirety but emphasises the result, i.e. a new marriage. The passive voice: the believer receives the action of the verb at salvation through the baptism of the Spirit which makes Christ Lord of every believer. The participle is circumstantial. With this is the dative singular indirect object from the proper noun for God, qeoj. The definite article is used to portray the fact that God is a separate category from all other categories with which we are familiar—“and having become slaves to the God.”
Principle
1. Salvation is a transfer of slavery from the first husband, the old sin nature, to blessing and security of the second husband who has integrity.
2. The judicial imputation of divine righteousness, and the real imputation of eternal life to its divinely prepared home of regeneration, brands the believer as a slave to the second husband forever.
3. Because of current positional truth Jesus Christ is Lord of every believer, regardless of his experiential status.
4. While freedom is necessary for the function of the angelic conflict it is not necessary in the marriage relationship of the second marriage.
5. All great relationships in life include the concept of slavery, whether relationship with God or a woman’s relationship with a man in marriage.
6. Such slavery means security. Security means blessing. There is no real blessing unless there is security.
7. Such slavery is the basis for God providing more than Adam and the woman lost in the garden.
8. Our slavery requires a rigid schedule of learning Bible doctrine under the principles of GAP.
“ye have your fruit unto holiness” – present active indicative of the verb e)xw, meaning to have or to have and to hold. The present tense is a retroactive progressive present, denoting what has begun in the past with the believer’s positive volition toward doctrine and continues into the present time with that same positive volition, moving through every distraction in life, recognising that this is the only way that the objectives are obtained, and moving toward the objectives regardless of any other factor. The active voice: the believer produces the action of the verb through consistent and faithful perception of Bible doctrine. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal concept from the viewpoint of reality. Plus the accusative singular direct object from karpoj, translated “fruit,” but generally it means “benefit.” Plus the genitive plural from the personal pronoun su, translated “your benefit.” What is the benefit? e)ij plus the accusative of a(giasmoj, translated “sanctification,” provided it is understood that sanctification here refers to cracking the maturity barrier through the consistent function of GAP, maximum doctrine in the right lobe, or the completed edification complex through doctrine. This fulfils the principle: potential + capacity = reality.
Principle
1. The benefit of slavery to God is experiential sanctification or maturity adjustment to the justice of God.
2. This attainment of spiritual maturity involves two basic factors, i.e. the filling of the Holy Spirit—rebound adjustment to the justice of God, plus the daily function of GAP resulting in maximum doctrine resident in the soul and a completed edification complex.
3. Hence the result: maximum glorification of God, and simultaneously maximum blessing from the justice of God.
4. This maximum blessing from maturity adjustment to the justice of God is insulated against historical adversity by means of encapsulation of environment.
5. Hence, benefits with reference to sanctification or maturity adjustment to the justice of God is maximum blessing flowing through the grace pipeline to the mature believer.
“and the end everlasting life” – we get to use the life that was given to us by imputation at salvation. The postpositive particle de—“and,” plus the nominative singular subject from teloj, the goal, the end, the final objective of life on earth. Then the accusative direct object of the verb to have and to hold.
Translation: “But now having been set free from the sin nature, and having become slaves to the God, you are having benefit with reference to sanctification, and the end of life on earth, eternal life.”
This does not imply that eternal life only belongs to the mature believer. It just means that eternal life is going to be more rewarding, more beneficial, more blessing, for the mature believer. But eternal life belongs to all believers in Jesus Christ. It is a real imputation at the point of salvation to all believers. But the ones who are going to enjoy it the most are those who crack the maturity barrier in time.
Principle
1. Spiritual benefit and blessing from the justice of God comes from being slaves to God.
2. This transfer of slavery from the old sin nature to God occurs at the moment of salvation.
3. No longer does the sin nature provide rations and pay. Now the justice of God provides rations and pay.
4. Blessing from the justice of God occurs at maturity adjustment to the justice of God by means of the daily function of GAP and maximum doctrine resident in the soul.
5. Hence, the believer receives benefit from advancing to spiritual maturity.
6. At the end of life on earth there follows eternal life and the parlaying of blessings in time into blessings of eternity.
7. The plan has both temporal and eternal security as well as temporal and eternal blessing. Where God blesses there is always security. Security is a part of every divine blessing.
Verse 23 – the key to this verse is the last phrase of verse 22, “eternal life.”
“For the wages of sin is death” – the inferential use of the postpositive conjunctive particle gar. When gar is used inferentially it is translated not “for,” but “certainly.” Plus the nominative plural subject o)ywnion which means ransom money paid to a soldier. This is the subsistence allowance, the ration. In other words, it is used literally for what is appointed for buying food. Hence, the maintenance or sustenance allowance in the military. We will translate it “subsistence pay.” With this is the ablative of source singular from a(martia with the definite article, referring to the old sin nature, the first husband. The definite article is used for what has previously been defined and understood from the context. The idea of separation in the ablative case may be accompanied by the implication of the original situation which in some way contributed to that separation. The separation here is the divorce from the first husband, the old sin nature, and the marriage to the second husband, the Lord Jesus Christ. The original situation was the fall of Adam, his original transgression of cognisance that contributed to the present state of the old sin nature’s rulership over human life through spiritual death. “Certainly the subsistence pay from the sin nature.” Implied but not stated in the context is the verb to be. Plus the predicate nominative singular from qanatoj—“death,” the subsistence pay of the old sin nature. The word for subsistence pay is in the plural. The rations from the sin nature is death. The old sin nature issues rations every day, a subsistence every day that a person is alive as an unbeliever.
“but” – the postpositive conjunctive particle de which is used to connect two clauses which are generally antithetical, and the nominative singular subject of xarisma, meaning free gift, free benefit. The word is taken from xarij or grace, hence it means proof of grace, gift or benefit—“but the grace benefit.” Because grace is absolutely unique the definite article is used to show that grace is a category which is quite different from any other category and must be separated from all other categories. So it is “the grace benefit.” Plus the ablative of source from qeoj with the definite article, and again, God is unique. His policy is unique; His person is unique, and therefore the definite article indicates a specialised category which is unique. Again we have the ablative of source indicating the fact that the origin is involved. Then the implied verb to be plus the predicate nominative from the adjective a)wnioj and the noun zwh—“eternal life.” Eternal life was made to participate in, not simply to be admired. Eternal life should be exploited. The exploitation of eternal life is not to put your salvation on the shelf and then go out and do whatever you want, and say goodbye to God until eternity. There is only one way to grow up, and that is taking in doctrine daily.
“through Jesus Christ our Lord” – e)n plus the locative of Xristoj I)hsouj Kurioj, referring to positional truth: “in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Translation: “Certainly the subsistence pay [rations] from the sin nature is death; but the grace benefit from the God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Principle
1. The Greek word for rations or subsistence pay is in the plural, indicating
that there is more than one type of death involved for the unbeliever:
spiritual death in time and the second death in eternity. In time we have
spiritual death as unbelievers; in eternity the lake of fire. The old sin
nature pays rations forever to those who stayed married to him.
2. Notice that there is a contrast between the plural “rations” and the word “grace benefit” in the singular. While the old sin nature simply pays a subsistence allowance to its slave, God in grace gives grace benefits. Rations imply earning or deserving something; grace benefit has the connotation of unearned sustenance.
3. Hell is earned and deserved but heaven cannot be earned or deserved.
4. Hell depends on the work of man; heaven depends on the work of God.
5. Note the emphasis on the possession of a double portion of eternal life. The first portion: the real imputation of the Father’s eternal life to its divinely prepared target, regeneration—John 3:18, 36. The second portion is the possession of eternal life belonging to Christ through the baptism of the Spirit and subsequent current positional truth—1 John 5:11,12; Romans 6:23.
[1] See the Doctrine of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit.
[2] See the Doctrine of Positional Truth.
[3] See the Doctrine of Human Good.
[4] See the Doctrine of Retroactive Positional Truth.
[5] See the Doctrine of the Sin Nature.
[6] See the Doctrine of Logistical Grace.
[7] See the Doctrine of the Sin unto Death.
[8] See the Doctrine of the Last Judgment.