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Here is a link to show exactly where the Space Station is over earth right now: Click Here
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| dedication |
| dedication |
Who is the man of Romans seven? The chapter begins with these verses: Romans 7 7:1 Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he lives?
7:2 For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to [her] husband so long as he lives; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of [her] husband.
7:3 So then if, while [her] husband lives, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.
7:4 Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, [even] to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.
These verses too often end up in debates over whether Paul is talking about moral or ceremonial laws. And what laws are abolished, and which ones we should still keep. However, that is not what the context suggests. To be married to the law is to look to our own works of the law to save us. It is looking to our flesh to line up with the law. 7:5 For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death.
7:6 But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not [in] the oldness of the letter.Notice Paul's own explanation here. "we were in the flesh"and we were doing everything the law said was sin. "the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members"
While we were married to the law, "we were in the flesh" and ended up doing everything the law said was sin! Thus the law can only condemn us, for we are guilty. Who was the first husband that died, in order that we might be united to the second? The sixth chapter has the answer, Compare Rom. 7:5 "For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death." And 6:6 Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with [him], that the body of sin might be destroyed,To what were we united? What were we in? We were in union with the FLESH. In the sixth chapter we found that the body of sin is destroyed by Christ. By what means is it that the body of sin becomes destroyed? By the man being crucified with Christ. What is being married to the law like when we are in the flesh trying to obey the law in order to be saved? Romans 7:14 For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.
7:15 For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.
7:16 If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that [it is] good.
7:17 Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
7:18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but [how] to perform that which is good I find not.
God has given to us "exceeding great and precious promises;" but we can never know their fulfilment through the works of the flesh. "To Abraham and his seed were the promises made;" and only they who are the children of faith are the seed of Abraham. In the flesh, we are bound to the "old man," the carnal nature, which is not, and cannot be, subject to the law of God; and therefore we cannot in the flesh be Christ's. But we can become Christ's by being crucified with Him. We may meet Him and become united with Him at the cross. Gal. ii. 20. At the cross the "old man," the first husband, is crucified and put to death, and we can then be "married to another, even to Him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God." Rom. vii. 4. The flesh cannot be separated from sin; and therefore, in order that sin may cease, it must die. We are then delivered from the "law of sin and death," the law which bound us to sin while we were in the flesh. "For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death. But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead [the law of sin] wherein we were held [because the flesh is dead]; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter." Rom. iv. 5, 6. {February 22, 1894 EJW, PTUK 119.6}
This is the wonderful change that is wrought in us at the cross. The law does not die, but the flesh dies, the law of sin and death is abolished, the enmity between us and the law dies, the bondage ceases, and we become joined to Christ in faith, and the law becomes to us "the law of the Spirit
of life in Christ Jesus." Then the works of the flesh cease, and we work the works of faith, which bring forth the fruits of the Spirit, and are heirs with Abraham of the promises made to him and to his seed. {February 22, 1894 EJW, PTUK 119.7}
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Here is the link to this week's Sabbath School Lesson Study and Discussion Material: Click Here
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