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Commentary on "Partnership With Jesus"
Day 4: Tuesday, March 22, 2011 - Forgiveness
Even when you’re born again, even with Christ in charge of your life you will sin.
Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure. For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. Romans 7:13-20 ESV
However before that if you’ll notice we’ve come to a new place in relationship to the Law.
Or do you not know, brothers--for I am speaking to those who know the law--that the law is binding on a person only as long as he lives? For e a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage. Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress.
Likewise, my brothers, you also have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you may belong to another, to him who has been raised from the dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. For while we were living in the flesh, our sinful passions, aroused by the law, were at work k in our members to bear fruit for death. But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit and not in the old way of the written code. Romans 7:1-6
When we are born again we die with Christ on the Cross, and we are born again and we have been purchased and belong to Him who has been raised from the dead (Jesus Christ) (v.4). And only then can we bear good fruit for God. We have been released from the law, so we serve the way of the Spirit.
We are still called to ask for forgiveness, in fact if anything I ask for more forgiveness than I did while under the Law. Why is that? Because since I have a new heart of flesh, every time I do what is wrong and grieve God, who lives in me through the Holy Spirit, I feel all the more upset. I come to the Lord in prayer and pleading that He would forgive me for my failures. To be entirely honest I should probably have a lot more worn out knees in my jeans, I should be asking for forgiveness more than I am.
Once you come to a proper understanding of the cross of Christ, and that He died for all of your sins past, present, and future. You should find yourselves driven to your knees a lot by the fact that each sin you’ll be committing to the Lord He has already forgiven you, and He has already taken the punishment for.
We are to stand out from the world; we are to be a forgiving people because of all that our Father in heaven has forgiven us. Forgiveness is of key importance to our relationships with others but especially our relationship with Christ. Remember He died to cover all our sins the absolute least we can do is to be beside ourselves with grief when we sin and got to Him on our knees asking for forgiveness.
Copyright 2011 BibleStudiesForAdventists.com. All rights reserved. Revised March 23, 2011. This website is published by Life Assurance Ministries, Glendale, Arizona, USA, the publisher of Proclamation! Magazine. Contact email: BibleStudiesForAdventists@gmail.com.
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