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Sin is one thing. The domination of sin is another. To dominate is to rule over. To be dominated is to be ruled over.
Romans 6:16 Don’t you know that to whom you yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants you are to whom you obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?
Neither sin nor obedience can drag us, kicking and screaming, into its lair. We must yield to it. This is not to lessen the powerful effect of sin, which produces powerful emotions, powerful passions in people.
Romans 7:5 For when we were in the flesh, the motions (pathos – powerful emotions, or passions) of (caused by) sin, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death.
As weird as this sounds, God is saying that the powerful emotions of sin are in people’s lives by means of the law….which He Himself gave to Moses! Whoa! Think about this a little! Check out the next few verses.
Romans 7:6-9 But now we are delivered from the law, being dead to that (the law) wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter. What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. No, I wouldn’t have known sin, but by the law; for I hadn’t known lust, except the law had said, You shall not covet. But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, worked in me all manner of concupiscence (intense yearning or longing). For without the law, sin was dead. For I was alive without the law once; but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.
Sufficed to say, the law which was given by God to Moses had serious shortcomings!!! Oh yes it did!
Romans 8:3 For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh;
The law did what it was supposed to do. It put a fence around Israel to protect that people until the Messiah, the Christ, the chosen one would come. It never made anyone righteous, because it couldn’t make anyone righteous, because it dealt with people’s flesh, and flesh is never, can never, will never be righteous. Righteousness is a spiritual quality.
So the law had its Godly purpose……for a time. And during that time it caused sin to become powerfully emotionally dominant in people’s lives. But……There is a way out from under that dominance! The way God always intended.
Romans 6:14 For sin shall not have dominion over you; for you are not under the law, but under grace.
By simply (I didn’t say “easily”) submitting yourself to the grace of God, instead of to the law of Moses, sin will cease to dominate your life. Simple. Powerful. And not overnight!
How do we submit ourselves to the grace of God? You’re going to have to become open to simply being an undeserving recipient of the presence of God, and what that presence brings into your life. God will show you. If it’s not coming to you as a gift, by means of and because of the work of Jesus Christ, it’s not grace.
Ephesians 2:10 For by grace are you saved, through faith, and that (faith is) not of yourselves; it is the gift of God.
Romans 4:4, 5 Now to him that works is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that works not, but believes on him that justifies the ungodly (by means of the work of His son, Jesus Christ), his faith is reckoned for righteousness.
Honestly, what is your mindset toward being pleasing to God? Is it your desire to please God by showing Him how much you love him by what you do? Works !!!! Is it your desire to dwell in His freely given loving gifts for you….to just be loved by Him? To live the gloriously fruitful life of a son and heir of all that God has and is? Grace !!!!!
Those under the law (in the flesh) are defined by what they do. Those under grace are defined by what God freely gives them through Jesus Christ.
Romans 5:21 That as sin has reigned unto death, so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.
Two powerful influences in this world. By means of Satan – sin. By means of Jesus Christ – grace. Only one can dominate at a time. You get to choose to which of these you will yield your thoughts, your plans, your reasoning, your desires, your sense of self. Choose wisely!……and Plan accordingly! Choose God’s generosity and expect to receive a lot of freely given gifts from God!
Romans 10:4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.
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Related Studies:
How God Deals with our Sin
Justified, what it means
What is Sin, part one
Satan’s Justification
Grace
Dead to the Law
