Gary Gleans

                                                                             Romans 8:12-17 So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh.   For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.   For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.   For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!”   The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,   and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.   Identity is very important for us to understand.  Many people suffer from mistaken identity because they somehow believe that they have the authority to identify themselves.  Many people consider their identity to be determined by their race,

                                                                             Romans 8:9-11 You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.   But if Christ is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the Spirit is life because of righteousness.   If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.   The key to living the life God wants us to live in the dwelling of the Spirit in us.  The knowing of our position in Christ, that our mortal bodies are dead, the striving to abide by the law in the previous chapters are only possible in the life of the Spirit.  When Jesus sent His Spirit, He mad the life of sanctification possible.   THE SPIRIT DEWLLS IN ALL BELIEVERS: As believers, our primary identity is no longer as sinners.  We

                                                                                       Romans 8:1-8 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.   For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh,   in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.   For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit.   For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot.   Those who are in the f

                                                                        Romans 7:13-25 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.   So I find it to be a

                                                                             Romans 7:7-12 What then shall we say? That the law is sin? By no means! Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin. For I would not have known what it is to covet if the law had not said, “You shall not covet.”   But sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, produced in me all kinds of covetousness. For apart from the law, sin lies dead. I was once alive apart from the law, but when the commandment came, sin came alive and I died.   The very commandment that promised life proved to be death to me.   For sin, seizing an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me.   So the law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.   Paul continues to demonstrate just how perverse sinners are in that they have their desires for sin increased by the commands of the law.  That law then turns around and condemns them.  Paul has two goals in this arg

                                                                                  Romans 7:1-6 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   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   in our members   to bear fruit for death.   But now we are released from the law, having died to that which held

                                                                        Romans 6:15-23 W hat then?   Are we to sin   because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! Do you not know that if you present yourselves   to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? But   thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the   standard of teaching to which you were committed, and,   having been set free from sin,   have become slaves of righteousness. I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For   just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members   as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification. For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. But what fruit were you getting at that time

                                                                                  Romans 6:12-14 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.   Paul continues to talk about how to live a life of sanctification before God.  Since we are identified with Christ, sin has not power over us unless we grant it that power.  We can allow for sin to dominate us or we can resist the power of sin and offer our bodies as instruments of obedience to God.     PREVENT THE REIGN OF SIN: Since we have been crucified with Christ, the power of sin that enslaved us can no longer control us.  We do not need to continue presenting the members of our bodies to be used for sinful activi

                                                                                  Romans 6:5-11 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him.   For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.   All that is accomplished in our lives in the spiritual realm is accomplished in Christ.  He died and rose again so that sin and death could be defeated.  His victory is our victory.  By faith we are set free from

                                                                                            Romans 6:1-4 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?   By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?   Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?   We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.   Since we are justified by faith apart from the works of the law, some may presume that this would lead to a life of disobedience.  God’s grace is always greater than our sin, but that does not mean that sinfulness in unimportant.  Christ died to set us free from sin, not to make us free to sin.  In justification through faith, Christ makes sanctification available to all who believe.   GRACE IS NOT PERMISSION TO LIVE IN SIN: Since the sinfulness of men displays the grace

                                                                             Romans 5:12-21 Therefore, just as   sin came into the world through one man, and   death through sin, and   so death spread to all men because   all sinned— for sin indeed was in the world before the law was given, but   sin is not counted where there is no law.   Yet death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over those whose sinning was not   like the transgression of Adam,   who was a type of   the one who was to come. But the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many died through one man's trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for   many.   And the free gift is not like the result of that one man's sin. For   the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought   justification. For if, because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more wil

                                                                                       Romans 5:6-11 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die—but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.   The word of Christ in the lives of believers is astounding and transformative.  He changes everything taking us from a life of death and condemnation to a life of joy and reconciliation.  This is all accomplished through His death, resur