Paul Email 5Nov2013- Bearing Fruit to God Romans 7

How you doin? The ripple from Friday's Bible study continues. God used today's events/conversation to show me the importance of unity. A church body divided amongst themselves is heart breaking. The book of Acts is our first look at what "church" or the "body of Christ" or the "fellowship" is to look like. Acts 2:42-47 describes it well. Acts 2:44, "All the believers were together and had everything in common." Acts 4:32, "All the believers were one in heart and mind." There is something to be said for unity. I keep hearing "different parts... 1 Spirit". Unity seems to be of God. Lack of unity seems to be of Satan. Romans 7 today.

I love the first 6 verses. God has really been teaching me about the new covenant. Freedom from the inferior covenant that makes me aware of my sin, is coming. Verses 1-3 make the analogy of a married women who marries another man while her husband is still alive... she's an adulteress. This is the law of marriage. If her husband is dead then she's freed from the law. She may remarry without being an adulteress. Follow the law or you're bad... got it.

Verse 4, "So, my brothers and sisters, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit to God." That's a good word. I am dead to the law. DIG IT!!!!!!! "Bear fruit to God", is interesting. That poses a tough question, "do I bear fruit to God?". Not enough, I would say. A tougher question, "why not?". Verse 5, "For when we were controlled by the sinful nature, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in our bodies, so that we bore fruit for death." "Controlled by the sinful nature", the law makes me aware of my sin. If it weren't for the law sin would have no affect or relevance. "Sinful passions aroused by the law". I don't want that. This causes an identity crisis... am I righteous or am I a sinner? That's a tough question. I believe that I need to understand my sin through the old (inferior) covenant so that I can die to it and receive my new identity in the new covenant. AWESOME!!!!!!! Verse 6, "But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code." COME ON!!!!!!! This helps me reconcile my identity crisis. It's not even an identity crisis... it's identity theft. Satan tries to steal my identity by attacking me with the demonic spirit of religion, that stresses the law. God offers me "the new way of the Spirit". SO GOOD!!!!!!!

Verses 7-25, are something to be read on your own. It's WAY heavy. I classify that Scripture as "working out your salvation". I will touch on the final verse 25, "Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!
    So then, I myself in my mind am a slave to God’s law, but in my sinful nature a slave to the law of sin." There is a paragraph break in the verse. This often comes to a matter of the mind for me. Understanding who I am to God and who He is to me is the key. I pray often for the Spirit of revelation to reveal more of Jesus that is in me. COME ON!!!!!!! "Thanks be to God, who delivers me through Jesus Christ our Lord!" That's a good word. I'm glad I have the Old Testament to teach me what not to do. I praise Jesus for the new covenant that deliveries me from the law that I on my own can't adhere to. It's Christ in me that will prevail. OH SNAP!!!!!!! Bear fruit to/for God today.   

PS   I can't wait to read this later. I have oil coming out of my hands. I so desire to bear fruit to God.