Our Spiritual Richness

In yesterdays post at its end I shared from Colossians 1:13-14 which states this, "He (GOD) has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in (through) Whom we have redemption (the death of sin in our former nature, character, as sons of Satan's sin nature of self-centered self, self-for-self.), the forgiveness of sins." Then when we look at Hebrews 9:10 , I will have used in 8-10 to keep the flow where we find this, "By this the Holy Spirit indicates that the way into the holy place (mans internal parts) was not yet open as long as the first section was still standing (which is symbolic for the present age). According to this arrangement, gifts and sacrifices are offered that cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper, but dealt only with food and drink and various washings, and of regulations for the body imposed until the time of reformation." Webster's 1828 Dictionary states this about reformation: "The act of reforming; correction or amendment of life, manners, or of any thing vicious or corrupt; as the reformation of manners; reformation of the age; reformation of abuses." All of this plays into Amos 3:3 which states this, "Do two walk together, unless they have agreed to meet?" Then the prophet states this in verses 7-8 as he speaks GOD's words of chastisement against Israel here, "For the LORD GOD does nothing without revealing His secret to His servants the prophets. The lion has roared; who will not fear? The LORD GOD has spoken; who can but prophesy?" All of mankind has within him an encased seed of GOD's being, it is not until man denounces his slavery (and the world) to sin that he receives redemption and the light of Christ comes in to open this seed to allow man then to be healed and restored by this healing entry into the LORD's kingdom. Here is in the ancient Aramaic Hebrew meaning of prophet this, from H5030 in the Strong's dictionary: "The pictograph....... is a square darkened a picture of a seed, the......is a sperm like squiggly form as a picture of a tent or house representing what is inside. Combined these mean "seed inside". A fruit hides the seeds inside it. Prophet: One who brings forth the inner fruit. [Hebrew and Aramaic] [freq. 320] |kjv: prophet, prophecy| {str: 5029, 5030}"

Now I want to add what Norman Grubbs shared over the last two days on Face book as he is sharing from Romans 6-8. As a means to explain GOD's plan of restoration, transformation and reformation within man through His seed hidden within.

Romans
By Norman P. Grubb

"So you see this is a deeper truth than is known. That is where we have been deceived. The Bible says, “Sin deceives you.” I told you that deceived is a very serious word. Blindness means that you just don’t know. It also says that darkness was blindness. We don’t know who we are. Sin makes us think we are who we are not. That is far worse. Satan says, “I’m for myself.” Satan has light. Jesus said this very subtle thing in the Sermon on the Mount. He said, “If the light which is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness.” (Matthew 6:23) You think that you are in the light and you are in darkness. That is much worse. “If the light which is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness.” And you think it is right. That is where we have been. We thought we had light. We are decent people and so we had no idea we were motivated by Satan. We don’t take what Jesus said, “You are of your father the devil.” (John 8:44) We don’t take that in at all. We don’t accept that we are doing it for lust. We regard ourselves as responsible. We don’t see that we have a motivating devil inside us. How deep it is. We don’t know it. Now the subtlety of that has been, it has made me think I am myself. I have sinned. Okay. Therefore, my problem is self-reliant-self. The Law got at me, I became saved (in this case it means redeemed, for redemption comes first in GOD's plan), but I still think that I’m a self-reliant-self. That is where my mistake is. I still think, “Well, I’m saved now, I am God’s.” This is a very subtle thing because the whole of this life claims self. “The whole of this world lies in the wicked one.” He says, “You do what you want.” Everything in life is: Follow your own way; make your reactions; do this. We can’t help it. That is human life. We will always have it. Everything is disturbing us in self-reactions. All life is worry about this, fuss about that. Life can be nothing else.”

Now while I haven’t got this separation from that death within my spirit right, I think that I’m a responsible person and that I shouldn’t do this. Now I still remain where the Law is. The Law is there while I think I am independent. If you can run yourself, run it. That is what the Law is. Okay, do it. This of course couldn’t be done. The Law says, “Don’t steal, don’t lie,” then we go and do it of course. So the Law is always there while I am under this false apprehension, (comprehension) I am an independent self, which is what Satan made me think. Satan thought that he was independent. Of course, he is a servant of God, but he tries to by-pass that one. So, we may be like that. So you see that subtlety? I have come into a redeemed life. I know Christ my Savior. I have the “outer” right. I might even say to a point that I’m dead to sin. I might even go so far as to say that I am not controlled. I doubt it. I doubt that I have any understanding of Romans 6 at all in that first stage. But, of course I’m not governed by Satan, I know I am governed by Christ. But, I have this idea, “I will be better. I am better. I must not react. I must govern all my reactions.” Now the moment I do that that is Law. And, the Law says follow me. Then I’m caught, because you see independent self serves itself. So, while I think that I’m independent, I am tempted to be angry. I will be angry. I can’t get rid of it. I may say Christ is there to help me, but while I think I am there as a person responsible, then I struggle with all my fusses and all my temptations because I think I should be like that. So it goes with that whole period of life. We are bothered by, “I shouldn’t be like that. I don’t want to be.” And, this is the famous Romans 7. “I didn’t want to go and do that. I’m a mess.” Paul says he first found himself overcome by covetousness.

Paul was a very high man. You see it when you read Philippians. He was righteous, blameless. He really was a legalist and a moralist. He had total ethics, except for self-loving-self which is the height. He was okay about everything else but covetousness. It suddenly occurred to him, “Oh, I shouldn’t covet.” Covetousness isn’t an outer sin. It is an inner sin. Well, you can’t manage an inner sin if you are for self. In Romans 7:7 the Law said, “Thou shall not covet.” Verse 8 says, “Sin, taking the occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence.” The law of sin was death. Paul said, “In other words, when the Law says “I shouldn’t covet, I want to covet everything. I was caught by that inner desire that beat me. I can’t handle that one!” And, he was caught by the Law because the Law says, “You shouldn’t do it.” Then you are in trouble.

Then Paul says, “This is how sin gets you. Sin plays his trick on you. You think that you are an independent person. You may think that you are a new person in Christ. All right you are a person, but it is “Christ in you doing it.” You know that He is there but you have to get it clear, that it is Christ running your life. It’s a union relationship restored. You have Him in an inner relationship, but not in union. You may think that you are out from the devil, but you still have this sin question bothering you. Paul went through, “I shouldn’t do this, oh dear, I’m guilty, etc.”

This is what Paul is talking about in this Romans 7 letter. “It isn’t I, it is sin that dwells in me.” He says, “I delight in the Law of God after the inward man.” Romans 7:22. I delight in my inner self, my inner spirit. That is where Christ is and yet, this thing gets him because, you see, he doesn’t know he is not he, but Christ. And while he thinks that he is himself then sin gets him, because sin is being an independent self. While I am trying to fight my own battles, sin is getting me because the desires of my flesh get to me. I couldn’t conquer them. So, I couldn’t get this thing right. Inside me I didn’t want to do them. Yet, somehow as I followed on I couldn’t conquest them. That chapter is full of “I,” until he said, in Verse 24, “I” am a wretched man.” “Oh wretched man.” Now of course that doesn’t mean that he was a rotten man. He was that, like we all were. He may not be rotten, but he was wretched. We go through a period where we are not rotten, but we are wretched when we haven’t handled this think right. And, then he found his answer was in the replacement inside him, he may have known (the old Satan was out by the Spirit of Christ) the Spirit of Life. “The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the Law of sin and death.” Then he says the Spirit of God dwells within us. So the point that Paul gets to is that “I do not think that I’m governed by Satan, but I think that I’m independent.” That is a lie. There is no such thing as an independent person, there never was. Romans 7 says that while you were married to sin you were always saying, “I shouldn’t” and then when you did, being guilty.

Now when you have died in Christ, you have died to sin and Law. This is a very important point in Romans 7, “You have died to the Law by the Body of Christ.” Why? Because, the Law is there while I’m under Satan; while I think that I’m independent and can run my own life. The Law comes in and says “You shouldn’t do that.” So, while I’m related to Satan and, therefore, to sin, the Law gets me and tells me to be something which I can’t be. The Law is there to tell me to be better and I can’t be. Now, I found that through the death of Christ I am not only dead to sin, but I am dead to the Law. This latter is there saying, “Don’t. You must not, etc.” Now I am not paying any attention because I have a new marriage in place of the old spirit. I have the new Spirit of Christ in me. That new Person being my life. My life is Christ."