Christ, Out Life Ministries’ Scriptural Basis pt20 by Sylvia Pearce Programs 18, 1|Me shume

Christ, Out Life Ministries’ Scriptural Basis pt20 by Sylvia Pearce Programs 18, 19 & 20 Deceived Self-Life (Acting as if the human has his own nature). Not functioning as God intended is the true meaning of dysfunctional humanity Rom. 7:11—“Sin has deceived me.” Rom. 7:15-16—“What I hate, that I do.” Rom. 7:21—“When I would do good, evil is present with me.” Rom. 7:18—“How to perform that which is good, I find not.” Rom. 7:24—“Old wretched man, who shall deliver me.” Gal. 5:17—“The flesh lusted against he Spirit.” Rom. 8:5—“They that are after the flesh mind the things of the flesh.” Rom. 8:8—“They that are in the flesh cannot please God.” Rom. 8:13—“If you live after the flesh, you shall die.” The Lie Exposed Satan is the culprit. Rom. 7:17 &20—“No more I that do it, but sin dwelling in me.” Romans 7:7-25 has been one of the most debated over segments in the Bible. Some say, Paul was not saved when he wrote it, while others agree that he was a Christian, but they say the struggles and wrestling he had with himself was his permanent condition through-out his life. Others make the point that we humans have two natures and we, like Paul, will always war with an evil human nature. None of these opinions ever satisfied me. The question then is why did Paul move from generalities concerning his union position being “dead to the law,” (7:1-6) to his own strivings about his present tense personal “I” (7:7-25)? And do and can we Christians have two natures at the same time? The Bible doesn’t support any of these explanations. So what is our answer? I believe that Paul did a big thing by moving from his own realized union, backtracking from being “dead to the law,” to alien himself and identify, as an intercessor, with every born again believer by using the present tense I, I, I. I do that myself. When the need arises, I can be “all things to all people,” and I can identify myself with anyone. I find myself speaking as if I am right where they are, even though it is not presently true. I consider that God’s love. Paul says in I Corinthians 9:19-22 that, “For though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all, that I might gain the more. And unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to them that are under the law, as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law; to the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak: I am made all things to all men, that I might by all means save some.” I believe that is just what Paul did in Romans 7:7-25--he expounded on his past experience as if it was his present condition in order to identify with us all. The sin that so beset Paul in the Roman passage was coveting, the 10th commandment. “Thou shall not covet.” Coveting is a inner sin, one that most could hide, but Paul, being true to God, couldn’t bear to. Unger’s Bible Dictionary defines coveting as, “an inordinate desire for what one has not, which has its basis in discontentment with what one has. It has an element of lawlessness and is sinful because it is contrary to the command, “Be content with such things as ye have,” (Hebrews 13:5) because it leads to ‘trust in uncertain riches,’ to ‘love of the world,’ to forgetfulness of God, and is idolatry (Colossians 3:5) setting up wealth instead of God. It ranks as one of the worst sins (Mark 7:22; Romans 1:29).” Let us take a historical and maybe psychological look into Paul’s background to understand why coveting became his personal sin-issue. Paul was of pure Jewish decent, he was of the tribe of Benjamin, he was a son of a Pharisee, thus making him a Pharisee. Philippians 3:4-6 says that he was a Hebrew of all the Hebrews, “as touching the law a Pharisee, and as touching the righteousness of the law, blameless.” Through his patriarchal birthing, he was a Roman citizen. His Roman citizenship superseded all other citizenships before the law and “in the general opinion of society it placed him amid the aristocracy of any provisional town.” Remember how fearful the jailors were when they found out that Paul was a Roman citizen in Acts 22:29? They feared because they had mistreated him. His rank in life afforded him great riches and personal glory, yet when Paul became a Christian, he gave up his riches and glory and took on Christian poverty and disgrace. Could it be that Paul remembered his past life and started to long after it? Could it be that the devil reminded him daily of his past status in life, as well as the luxury’s and comforts he used to have before he became a Christian? Could he wonder why being a Christian meant to suffer, to be rejected, disgraced, and humiliated? Being the brilliant Jewish scholar that he was, why was he exiled to the desert in Arabia barely having enough to eat? Wouldn’t it be logical that while there in, sun baked, Arabia, he began to long after all that he had lost, but then on the other hand be convi

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