As a result of a personal ongoing study of Romans 7, I ran into some very interesting data today. During the days of the Roman occupation of Israel, surrounding the New Testament era, one of the ways of capital punishment for one found guilty of murder was to bind the body of the guilty person to the body of the corpse who had been the murder victim - so that the decay from the rotting body would overcome and cause the decay of the person under the order of execution. The condemned would literally be tied face to face with the person they had murdered. Death was certain, but delayed sufficiently to cause severe suffering. The corpse was labeled a Body of Death. This was the imagery Paul had in mind when he cried out in his frustration over sin, who will deliver me from this body of death? This is how the great Apostle Paul viewed the sin which clinged to him. Everyone who reads this is in the same death struggle with sin...and the battle never ends - so that while a true believer should see a decreasing pattern of sin in his life, his awareness of that sin increases the closer he gets to God. This is sanctification - and all truly redeemed people should see this pattern at work in their lives as the Spirit of God moves us from one level of glory to the next. One of the primary hallmarks of the truly regenerate is not spiritual fervor...intense emotion...religious activity or being a busy-bee for Jesus. Those things can be true of both believers and unbelievers. What distinguishes the truly redeemed individual on the narrow path which leads to life from the self-deceived lost individual on the broad path which leads to hell is a profound hatred of sin.
Posted on: Wed, 05 Mar 2014 05:08:41 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015