Just a Thought "71"

Romans 16:7 - Andronicus and Junia had believed the truth about Jesus being the messiah prior to Paul’s calling on the Damascus road. A person in Christ’s day could be “in Christ” they could be in Christ in a redemptive sense, since they were earthly kingdom saints. They had become believing participates while the earthly kingdom program was still in operation.

Some have taken that verse and have said that means somebody else was in the Body of Christ before the apostle Paul, not so. Paul used the expression “in the flesh” in more than one way in his epistles. Just as he used the expression “in Christ” in more than one way, context determining the manner of usage. Just as he would “after the flesh” in more than one way. 2 Corinthians 10:3

There came a time when God ceased dealing with the nation Israel as a nation, but understand, that does not mean God ceased dealing with individuals who were Israelites at that time. The religious leadership of Israel never made that confession. For that matter, the vast majority of the nation never made that confession. Leviticus 26:40-46

Yet, attaining and maintaining their promised land would absolutely be depended upon that confession. Is it possible to differentiate in your Bible between scripture about the nation Israel, God’s program with her and the earth, and scripture written about the Body of Christ?

The difficulty for most people, is when it comes to finding that change of program in the book of Acts, that book covers such a lengthy portion of time, but a great change did indeed take place in the book of Acts. God is not dealing with Israel nationally today, he is dealing with all alike in the Age of Grace.

Realizing the entrapment of the flesh, and therefore the wretchedness of the flesh, helps us realize the direction which truth righteousness comes. If there was no battle, there would be no realization of performance incapacity when it comes to righteousness that can be acquired from doing and abstaining from doing.

Change your mind and agree with God and with Paul that it is totally impossible for you to do enough good. Galatians 5:17, is not something to overcome, but it is a reality to be understood, you will never escape. You are locked into the idea that when it comes to performance base righteousness for a right standing before God, YOU WILL NEVER EARN IT!

Religion, of course, views Romans 7:23 and Galatians 5:17 as obstacles to be overcome, not truths to be understood. LISTEN, if you do not understand the entrapment Paul’s talking about here, being locked away from an ability to merit righteousness before God through your performance, if you do not understand the entrapment he has in mind here when he stated, “so that you can not do the things you would,” you do not understand the incapacity of the flesh to please God. 

So prevalent in the religious circles of our society during these past few decades, thinking is God is the power source and you can tap into at will through the power tool God has given you called prayer. Was prayer given for the purpose of prodding God, pleading with God to alter the circumstances of your everyday lives?

When you are going through those difficult times, times that you did not bring on yourself through improper choices, times that life has brought your way because of the sin cursed world in which we live, you can trust God to know what is good for you, even in the face of all of your adverse circumstances.

God does indeed want you to pray, and prayer is indeed a powerful tool that God has given you, but was prayer given for the purpose of prodding God, pleading with God to alter the circumstances of your everyday lives? Or, was prayer given for the purpose of providing peace to the mind of the troubled saint?

There is a tremendous difference in one who believes they can influence God and therefore, alter their circumstances because they are a believer with prayer in hand and a believer who acknowledges that God is in absolute control and already doing what is best on behalf of every believer, no matter how unfortunate the circumstance is that’s at hand.

Reigning in life does not mean the absence of problems. Paul reigned in life in spite of the existence of the numerous and varied distressing circumstances in his life, because Paul understood the truth of 2 Corinthians 4:17. Those things were working for him a far more exceeding eternal weight of glory while he stopped looking at things which are seen, and started looking at things unseen.