For we know that the Torah is of the Spirit; but as for me, I am bound to the old nature, sold to sin as a slave. I don’t understand my own behavior — I don’t do what I want to do; instead, I do the very thing I hate! Now if I am doing what I don’t want to do, I am agreeing that the Torah is good. But now it is no longer “the real me” doing it, but the sin housed inside me. Romans 7:14-17
This is probably the most misunderstood comment from Paul in scripture. We take it as him admitting we are sinners and more so always will be. Because that message fits with the grace gospel doctrine, whereas the truth of this passage does not.
Once you have actually received the Spirit, then you understand what Paul is saying. The grace doctrine makes the torah of no value, like it no longer exists. The Jews still practiced things as trying to obey the Torah because at this time none of them believed Yeshua was the true savior, and that he sent his Spirit to anyone who seeked his Spirit.
I need to make a quick point, which is that there is an attack on me and my family the past few days. I see it and am praying desperately to not necessarily avoid the attack, but to defeat it and get stronger from it. It is also interesting how it is happening at exactly the same time that this verse from Paul in Romans comes up. Because just yesterday I was thinking about it while praying.
The other verses called to mind were about how easily we are snared. And how a dog returns to its vomit.
But this is the main point the Lord Yeshua is teaching me through this. And it is about the true grace, not the lie. Because the lie keeps us in sin, it makes the torah of no importance. But the Torah is important because without it we do not know what is right or wrong. For example if Abraham would have sacrificed Isaac, it would not have been murder because there was no torah at that time. Us looking back on it see it differently because now there is not only the torah, but also man made laws about murder so we see it completely different.
Many times I have written about the purpose or reason for the Spirit of God to be our helper. Once you become God’s son, he writes the law or torah on your hearts. It is not about following the torah it is about following God, and he helps us to keep the torah, because his Spirit cannot do anything other than in keeping with the torah. So if your spirit is no more, and you are obeying the Holy Spirit, you will walk in the new man and not in the flesh and obey the law without trying to obey the law. If you try to obey the law or torah, you will fall short. It is not possible. But all things are possible in the Lord who loves and strengthens us.
The other point the Lord made today is with his teachings as they tie into this message. No where did Yeshua say anything about grace and forgiveness over and over and it is OK. On the contrary he said a few things which speak against this grace doctrine. Like when talking ith the rich young ruler he said “IF you want to be perfect, then…” Two things in this saying is first one the Lord always prefaces it with the word “IF” because there is a choice. IF you do not want to change then you will not. However if you true want to change and be a man of God, he will instruct you on what to do through his Spirit and then you must obey his instructions. “IF” you decide not to obey his instructions then you will not work out what he is working in and will remain in your sin and death. Paul wrote a lot about this with sin and death in this chapter 7 of Romans. It is good to read the chapter again with the idea of what Yeshua is telling me and not through the doctrine of grace or catholic doctrine of just going to confession when you sin.
Another point is it is one thing to read this verse, but another to live it and fight the good fight to win the prize and or to finish the race… Once you experience it and you also know the Spirit and who the Spirit is and what the Spirit is capable of in your life “IF” you let him have his way with you. Then you understand the fight Paul was in with his flesh. ANd he wrote about it more than once. But he also wrote in a way that is twisted about this fake grace doctrine, when his truth is he knew what was right and knew what the Spirit was showing him to do, and his old man and flesh alongside the devil who looks for a chance to pounce on us. He experienced it all first hand.
It seems God would shield us from this and just take us directly into perfection if we choose him. But he doesn’t. And he lets men even like Paul suffer through the process so he then knows how difficult it is for others to overcome. If we were born sin free and remained sin free all our life, and knew God from day one and always obeyed him as Yeshua did. How can we relate to the man who has a big fight on his hands because he was in sin?
In my experiences in life I can relate to a lot of people. Anyone who has had their kids disown them, I can relate. Anyone who spent money foolishly and caused serious financial problems for themselves, I can relate. Anyone going through a very dysfunctional divorce, I can relate. There are many other things I can relate to with people. But the main thing we all have in common is we all have sinned and have some sort of bondage in sin where we keep going back to the same things over and over. We practice the sin.
There are people I have talked to who claim they are sinners but do not practice sin even though they admit they sin daily. The question then is how is that possible? Most people do NOT do every sin. For example very few have killed anyone, and most have never stolen anything. The point is most people can illuminate around 90% of the sins so they do maybe 10% or less. So if you are sinning everyday multiple times, it has to be the same sin. So you are lying to yourself by saying I am a sinner but I do not practice sin. That makes you a liar on top of whatever other sins you commit. Even though you do not understand that you are a liar about it.
On the other hand I have been called a liar many times because I tell the people we can come to a place in the Lord Yeshua where sin no longer touches you. And because of their doctrine, the lie they follow and believe, it is not possible so they do not think it is possible for anyone so if you claim you have been set free by Yeshua and do not walk in sin no more, you are a liar.
And they read their bibles twisting a few parts of it like what Paul wrote in Romans 7 so it supports their doctrine. Yet Paul never said what they told us he said, he said the opposite. And Yeshua never said anything about this face doctrine, nor did any of the other disciples. And John writes clearly in 1 John 3 we will not sin anymore because we cannot sin because we have the Spirit (seed) of God in us. How do you make an argument against a verse which is that point blank in truth? There is no way to twist it, yet men try and are successful in their own minds and in the minds of those who want to believe the lie, the great deception. And no matter what someone like me says, they will not accept it and or seek to see if it is true or not. They want to remain in their sin and comfort zone of being a sinner saved by grace even though it will not bring them the peace and love of God and will not save them. They think they are saved, pretend they are saved. Tell how their friends and family are in heaven because they were “chrisitan” and believed in the doctrine they believe in. And they believe it to be true.
I am not saying that some of these people are not in, because I did not know their relationship with Yeshua and if they heard him and obeyed him unto righteousness. But what I am saying is if the dead person followed the same doctrine and did not know Yeshua and the Spirit and still sinned. Then no matter what you want to believe, that person is NOT in heaven. And like the story of the rich man and Lazerus, that person cannot return to us to tell us how bad it is and to repent. That is why Adonai sent the prophets and his own son was to tell us how it really works instead of how we believe it to work. And you do not get a mulligan or redo. What is done is done. There is no purgatory God sends you to, waiting for your sin to be paid for by the people left in this world paying money for a church service and praying for you.
These lies are not a part of the Kingdom of God, we do not get to draw up our own contract of our own doctrine and take it to him and make him honor it. God is a monopoly, he is the law maker, the police and judge. To a normal man it sounds very controlling and without freedom. But once you walk in his Kingdom and do it his way, you will then feel the most free you ever felt. God is freedom and liberty. He sets the captives free. IF you let him.
In conclusion, and to summarize, we must fight the good fight, we will come to understand why Paul wrote about how he does the things he does not want to do and does not do the things he knows he should. And it is almost 100% certain you will also experience this in your life. This experience is so you can relate to others when they are going through things and help them to overcome, it is not your power they will overcome by, it is the Lord’s. But you will understand because you went through it. And will be able to tell them the truth and correct doctrine in the hopes they fight the good fight as you have and still are. Yes there are times when the devil does not attack you and leaves you alone. Waiting for the moment when he can pounce, so we must die unto ourselves daily and be ready to fight the good fight. Putting on the full armor of God…
We can do all things in the Messiah who loves and strengthens us! Including and mostly being set free from sin and death.