IN You Not BY You                                                                 05-16-14

Romans 8:3-4 (NASB) ³  For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh,
⁴  so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.

Permit me a short preamble to my message please. I have learned over the years that I have to read the Bible as a whole. To make sense of it all, I have to understand the flow of what is being said. Anyone can take a verse out of context and make the Bible say what they want it to say to support their argument. It's called prooftexting. Remember this rule, "a verse taken out of context is a pretext." Jesus told His detractors to "search the Scriptures" to see if eternal life was to be found in Him. Don't take my word just because I write it. Look for yourself, it might save you a lot of pain. O.K. Let's move on.

I spoke with someone recently who was working themselves to exhaustion. They were working two jobs and it was wearing them out. There was another problem to it all. They were only getting paid on one job. The other job was paying but the wages involved more work. The more they worked at this job, the more work the job required. Never any rest, never any break, just more work until they became so fatigued they were ready to quit. Discouraged, depressed, and condemned they couldn't keep going. They didn't WANT to keep going. I can't blame them can you? What kind of job is that?
It's that treadmill we jump on when we take upon ourselves the impossible task of pleasing God or attempting to gain His acceptance by our own merits.

Our merit takes as many forms as our minds can invent on ways to earn our way into God's acceptance. Usually though, it involves attempts to change our outward behavior according to our notions of righteousness or even worse someone else's standard of holy living. You've been there haven't you? I certainly have. You know stop doing this, stop doing that, or start doing this, and start doing that. Also, oddly enough we never seem to consider those "unseen sins." You know the really deadly ones that involve the condition of our heart before a Holy God. No, it always seems to center on the fleshly indulgences. Stop right here. I want to give you a verse(one of many) that speaks to those indulgences.

      Colossians 2:20-23 (NASB) ²⁰  If you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world, why, as if you were living in the world, do you submit yourself to decrees, such as,
²¹  "Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch!"
²²  (which all refer to things destined to perish with use)—in accordance with the commandments and teachings of men?
²³  These are matters which have, to be sure, the appearance of wisdom in self-made religion and self-abasement and severe treatment of the body, but are of no value against fleshly indulgence.

Focus on vs.23. ..."appearance of wisdom...self made religion....severe treatment....no value against fleshly indulgence." Our efforts to abstain from this and that, to offer a sacrifice of our merits to please or appease God are worthless. Not only that, they are of no value in our battle against those things of the flesh. It isn't in the power of our will or determination that overcomes sin. No, it is the recognition that sin has ALREADY been overcome as far as God is concerned. That goes against our nature. It just doesn't feel right does it? We must work for everything else in life. We must labor to have a roof over our heads, to have clothes on our bodies, to have food to eat. We must work for EVERYTHING that we have....EXCEPT God's salvation and acceptance. It just goes against our grain. Our NEED to earn our stripes is deeply rooted. Along comes God and says "there is nothing Ronnie, absolutely NOTHING that you can do to gain or more importantly for some of us TO KEEP my acceptance." I said all of that to bring home this one point to my friend. Look at the above verse again.

Romans 8:4 (NASB) ⁴  so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
One small word in that verse fills the bill.... in   IN. "...might be fulfilled in us..." IN us not BY us.
Read the verses before vs. 4. Read the chapter leading up to verse 4. Heck, read the WHOLE BOOK before vs.4 Get the flow of what Paul is saying here. The requirements for appeasing, pleasing, finding and keeping favor with, and anything else to do with our relationship with God have been fulfilled IN us by what or by whom? THE SON'S OFFERING OF HIMSELF AS A  SACRIFICE FOR OUR SIN. Stay on that one verse until your eyes and spirit SEE the spiritual truth of that one word. It's already in you. You don't have to do anything to satisfy it except believe it. In truth you CAN'T do anything. You are powerless in your own ability. I could go on and on but I will stop. The Lord Jesus saves you, the Lord Jesus through His Spirit keeps you, and soon and very soon the Lord Jesus is coming back to glorify you and take you back with Him. Oh yeah, that's right, scroll on down in Chapter 8 and look at this.

Romans 8:29-30 (NASB) ²⁹  For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren;
³⁰  and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.

Take all your works, your merits, your standards, self imposed or imposed by others and cast them at the cross of Calvary. Let His Holy Spirit come and dwell inside of you and begin to learn to lean on His power. It matters not what I or anyone says or thinks about your "spirituality." It's between you and God. Always has been and He is not a taskmaster. 
   
 Matthew 11:29 (NASB) ²⁹  "Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS.

Psalm 103:10 (NASB) ¹⁰  He has not dealt with us according to our sins, Nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.



God Bless