Positional Grace and Sanctification and Temporal Reality
Romans 5;6;7
God, Jesus, through Paul
5"Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:
2 By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.3 And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience;
4 And patience, experience; and experience, hope:
5 And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us." (Romans 5:1-5)
Here we see from the lawyer Paul, a vision of a court room setting. God being the Supreme Judge and Christ the Advocate of His Believers. Justified has the equated meaning in our current jargon, absolved of a judgment of condemnation for sin, all sin, past, present, and future. Condemnation is absolved. The sentence hearing stage of the punishment sentencing is absolved. Not expunged, completely REMOVED, removed from our account, and crushed upon Jesus, the reason He was forsaken. That is our position in Christ. We are now children of the KING! No more condemnation.
Now Beloved, there is a movement as old as the Garden of Eden itself, for there is nothing new under the sun, that says God does not see us commit wrong doing, sin, or ungodly acts after we are in grace, absolved of condemnation. In the aspect of our position in Christ, that is so...that Scripture aligns with, and I am in agreement with and live by. We would be mistaken to believe anything else but that. Beloved, that is the head sign of the coin in the teaching of grace That is positional standing in Christ before the Mercy Seat and throne of God, where the intent and law of God has and is written on our hearts. Still with me?
6 "What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?
2 God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?3 Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?
4 Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
5 For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection:
6 Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.
7 For he that is dead is freed from sin.
8 Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him:
9 Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him.
10 For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God.
11 Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.
13 Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.
14 For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.
15 What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid.
16 Know ye not, that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey; whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness?
17 But God be thanked, that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered you.
18 Being then made free from sin, ye became the servants of righteousness.
19 I speak after the manner of men because of the infirmity of your flesh: for as ye have yielded your members servants to uncleanness and to iniquity unto iniquity; even so now yield your members servants to righteousness unto holiness.
20 For when ye were the servants of sin, ye were free from righteousness.
21 What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed? for the end of those things is death.
22 But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.
23 For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."
All of Romans chapter 6 had to be posted. It behooves us all to read chapters 5, 6, 7, of Romans in an unstopped treatise or letter. Stop for a moment, and remove the passage and chapter numbers and read it as a letter to you, a Christian who is already positional in grace, justified and redeemed, facing not sentence of hell! Stop now, God read chapters five and six unbroken as the letter it is, and do so in prayer.
Notice what Paul has just eluded to? Notice his explanation? He is showing there is the flesh, the reality of the earthly tent of our bodies that our souls possess, yes, here on Terra Firma, until we pass to the Kingdom, to the presence of God, slipping the constraints of this flesh, which is marred and failing from sin, our physical bodies are dying because of sin, despite being regenerative and born again. If this was not so, we would not sin post grace and salvation. Correct? There is a semi popular "new doctrine" that teaches only positional grace in all aspects of the Believer's life. As for judgment, condemnation, and forgiveness of sins past, present, and future, that half of the teaching is so! Amen and amen! We are now speaking post salvation, as children of the King with law imprinted in our heart.
5 "For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, did work in our members to bring forth fruit unto death.
6 But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in the oldness of the letter.
7 What shall we say then? Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.
8 But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead.
9 For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died.
10 And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death.
11 For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me.
12 Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.
13 Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful.
14 For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin.
15 For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.
16 If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good.
17 Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.
19 For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
20 Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
21 I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.
22 For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:
23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
24 O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
25 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin."
See what Paul just did in Romans 7? He is showing applicable grace for the life, the temporal life of here and NOW! He is contrasting the battle of the saved soul in position of a flesh body, and the war that exist between the two. He is showing that the saved soul STILL SINS! Saved, yet in a battle between two natures until Christ returns and sin is no more a ravish of the Saint's body. He still recalls "positional grace" the seal that has saved (past tense...finished) act of God in Christ. No more condemnation. Every one see where we are now? That is positional grace before the Judge Who condemns the soul that has rejected Christ.
Now beloved let us move into temporal "reality of the soul that owns a flesh body." This is know by a few different descriptions: "Applicable grace on earth (not condemnation) but the aspect of expected Christ like behavior we are called to live in and by per our Lord Jesus, His Words through His Father, disciples, and apostles. I am about to mention the Decalogue or Ten Commandments. DON'T SCREAM LEGALISM! I mention them not for salvation or for redemption, rather as a moral code of conduct. Saint under grace, is it okay to rape since you are under grace? Is a lie a lie if told by a Saint? Is adultery a sin if it is done by a Saint? Is it a sin to take the Lord our God's name in vain, if we are a redeemed child of Christ? These are ALL RHETORICAL questions. Heaven forbid no it is sin regardless of your being forgiven and justified. Let us use a human analogy for a moment. I was a teenager over twenty years ago, and previous leaving home for the Marine Corps, I made choices against dad's will. I turned down scholarships to the University of Mississippi [Ole Miss] to be a Marine, an act that shattered his hopes, desires, and dreams for me His son. Did that remove me position of being his first born son? Heck no! Did it place a wedge in our relationship, our fellowship, and our peace? Yes, resoundingly, emphatically YES! Did dad see my disobedience? Of course, but did he disown me? NO! The whole crux of this is, the teaching f positional grace only is one sided. Does God see the acts we commit under grace? By corresponding epistles and verses in the Old Testament, yes He does. It is logical and Scriptural. Consider these verses:
17" I cried unto him with my mouth, and he was extolled with my tongue. 18 If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me:" Psalm 66:17-18
Writing to Christians in Ephesus, John wrote the Holy Spirit's word
6 "If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:
7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.
8 If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.
9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
10 If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us."
What are we confessing? Sin. To Whom are we confessing? God, this only serves to show that God recognizes the wedge of sin in between His child and His heart, (NOT IN CONDEMNATION) not in (LOSING SAVATION OR POSITION) but in growing in the image of Jesus. Yes our Father commands we remove sin from our lives for His GLORY and our PROGRESSIVE sanctification in these earthly tents, not positional sanctification, this must be taught always with positional grace. For not to do so is partial truth, incomplete counsel of God, and endangers the Saint to think he can live contrary to the Way, and still please God.
12 "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.
13 And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
14 If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it.
15 If ye love me, keep my commandments.
16 And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;
17 Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you." John 14:12-17 Jesus
Beloved, please share this, we are called to walk worthy of HIS calling on us. It is impossible to do so in a life of unconfessed sin. Love in Christ Jason
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