For those who live
according to the flesh
set their minds on
the things of the flesh,
but those who live
according to the Spirit,
the things of the
Spirit.
For to be carnally
minded is death,
but to be spiritually
minded is life and peace.
Because the carnal
mind is enmity against God;
For it is not subject
to the law of God,
nor indeed can be. So
then, those who are
in the flesh cannot
please God.
But you are not in
the flesh but in the Spirit,
if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you.
Now if anyone does
not have the Spirit of Christ,
he is not His. And if
Christ is in you, the body
is dead because of
sin, but the Spirit is life
because of
righteousness.
Romans 8:5–10
It is true
that the nature of man is corrupted, perverted, and does not want to do the
things of God. This is not to be used as an excuse to do wrong, we are not able
to desire godly things due to our corrupted nature, but we still have the
ability to choose, right or wrong. Only by God enabling us and drawing us can
we come to Him and believe in His Son Jesus Christ, but we still have within
us, as do all races of people throughout the earth, the ability to know right
from wrong. Look at any nation, at any time in history, and in each nation are
moral laws expounded and enforced. From where do these moral laws find their
foundation? It might be said that the culture, the need for protection from
those who do bad things make a need for similar moral laws. This may be true in
some sense but it does not answer the question: From where do these laws find
their origination, not just their application? It might be similarly asked:
From where does bad things done by people have their origination? It has been
pointed out that all parts of the soul are possessed by sin ever sin Adam
revolted, a revolt from righteousness. From where did Adam’s perfect nature
make cause for him to choose to sin? Why did not this perfect nature, this soul
that has all the ability to desire to do godly things find its seat in the soul
of Adam to make cause for Adam to ignore what he had and to desire to do what
God had instructed him not to do? God commanded Adam not to eat of the Tree of
Good and Evil, the Tree of Knowledge, and this was the law of God. Was this a
bad law? Or is all of God’s law good and holy: “What shall we say then? Is
the law sin? Certainly not! On the contrary, I would not have known sin except
through the law. for I would not have know covetousness unless the law had
said, ‘You shall not covet’”(Romans 7:7). Adam would not know what God
required of Him, faithfulness, and this God showed to Adam by giving this law,
or command not to eat of the Tree of knowledge. Adam knew what was right and
what God had commanded, yet he sinned against God, and ignored this command.
Why? This command was to bring to Adam and all his posterity, life, eternal
life: “And the commandment, which was to bring life, I found to bring death”
(Romans 7:10). Why did Adam sin? Adam, like us, are not robots, programmed
to do just what was programmed, no, we are free moral agents, God made Adam to
be a human with Free Will, and their can be no Free Will if there is testing of
that will, otherwise it would not be free, rather it would be some programmed
affect on man. Therefore, Adam, allowed inferior appetite entice him, and this allowed
an abominable impiety that infected his mind allowing pride to penetrate his
inmost heart so that he did the most foolish and thing, and this foolish and
unmeaning thing did not occur or proceed from what are called, ‘sensual
motions,’ or to call it an excitement, that which would allure and excite a
person so that they are dragged by some single part, or causal sensual motion
into sin. Paul in the above Scripture leaves no doubt that sin is not caused by
some single part of a person’s nature, that it is opposed to supernatural grace
by this single part of corruption. Paul statement makes clear that it is not
some part of man that caused man to sin, rather that corruption dwells in all
of the soul. This corrupt nature is to be condemned and not only the inordinate
nature of the appetites, that we must understand that our soul, we, us, are
blinded and subjected to this blindness: “This I say, therefore, and testify
in the Lord, that you should o longer walk as the rest of the gentiles walk, in
the futility of their mind, having their understanding darkened, being
alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them,
because of the blindness of their heart; who, being past feeling, have given
themselves over to lewdness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. But you
have not so learned Christ” Ephesians 4:17–20).
There
it is: Man, you and me, make choices according to the flesh, we set our minds
on things of the flesh, unless God has implanted in you the faith to believe
His Son, and do His commandments, to live according to the Spirit that lives
within you. Our flesh is corrupted, but as one of God’s children we have His
Spirit that aids us to overcome things of the flesh, we do not have to sin,
even though we may still do so, it is not to be committed, rather it should be
things that are omitted, and when we come to see that we have sinned, either by
commission or omission, we fall on our knees in repentance, not due to be
caught in sin, rather that we have sinned against God. We have brought shame on
His Son, our Savior Jesus Christ.
Allow me to
close this blog with the words of Paul: “…if indeed you have heard Him and have
been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus: that you put off, concerning your
former conduct, the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful
lusts, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and that you put on the new
man which was created according to God, in true righteousness and holiness”
(Ephesians 4:21-24).
See then that you walk
circumspectly,
Not as
fools but as wise,
Redeeming the time, because
The days
are evil.
Ephesians 15–16
Praise God For He Chose You
Richard L. Crumb
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