Romans 7:24 - O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
First, he says "O wretched man that I am!" The word wretched means destitute. He sees himself as just a destroyed destitute person. Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? He sees his body is the house that he lives in. Who's going to deliver me from this body of death? The term "body of death" is an interesting term within the Roman judicial system.
For some of the hardened criminals that committed murder, they would sentence them to serve their time with the dead body of the person that they killed strapped on their back. As it corrupted, and as it decayed, they corrupted and decayed with it. It eventually killed them.
Paul says that's what I feel like. I have died to sin. And I feel like I've got that old man, the old nature, the old life strapped on my back, reminding me and haunting me. It no longer lords it over me, but it just keeps working away, influencing and trying to get me away from the things of the Lord.
Romans 8:2 - For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.
The word sin has the definite article, the Sin Principle.
Romans 8:5 - For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.
The word mind has to do with the frame of mind, not individual thoughts, but just the direction that our thoughts flow. The people who are not saved and are walking according to the flesh are people whose minds are always governed by the flesh, but they that are according to the Spirit the things of the Spirit.
Only the Spirit of God can produce this frame of mind because we don't 100% in our thought processes think about the Lord. We've got "other things" to do! But it's the Spirit of God that gives us a frame of mind to participate with the Spiritual things of God. A non-believer doesn't have that.
Romans 10:2 - For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.
The word zeal means to boil, to be on fire. We hear about people being "on fire" for the Lord!" Those are the people that I would stay out of their way lest I catch fire!
It says that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. If that zeal, that fervency, is not governed by the truth of God's word, it's dangerous because it becomes strictly excitement. And the thing that is lacking today is the same as in Hosea's day when he expressed God's heart when he said, "My people perish for a lack of knowledge."
We're in a day and age where people are more and more disinterested in what the bible has to say. And yet in it, God reveals Himself. You can't get a more important book than that.
But Israel has a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. In other words, they knew Messiah was coming but they didn't know that Jesus was the Messiah. They didn't put all the knowledge together. In fact, the word knowledge is the word "Complete knowledge." In the Geek text it is EPI and GNOSKO. Not according to complete knowledge. They had some of the knowledge but not all of it.
Roman 10:9 - That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
If thou shalt confess with thy mouth Lord Jesus. Please notice that I left out the word "the" because it's not in the Greek text. It's not a statement that a person says, but rather a personal relationship that one expresses. For instance, if you will confess in your mouth Lord Jesus, that's your relationship with Him.
And you shall believe in thine heart that God has raised him from the dead (because the Jews did not believe that He was the Messiah, and they did not believe in His resurrection), thou shalt be saved. It's a promise for the future. It doesn't say you are saved, but thou shalt be saved.
Romans 9:13 - As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.
What a serious statement to make! I have shared this in the past about these two words. The terms love and hate are called words of comparison. The words themselves don't mean He loves them, and He hates them.
The Greek word for hate, MISEO means to love less. It doesn't mean hostility. In Matthew 10:37, Jesus says, "He that loves father and mother more than me is not worthy of me, and he that loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me."
Jesus is talking about comparisons. He's saying that we must love Him so much that in comparison to everybody else, it looks like we hate them.
Romans 9:22 - What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction:
This word "fitted" is what's called the middle voice in Greek. That is, the vessel itself made itself a condition of a vessel for destruction. Nowhere in the text does it ever say God makes a good vessel for a vessel of destruction.
Just like Judas Iscariot, he didn't become evil and filled with Satan because God says, "You come here, I need to put Satan in you because I need somebody to be an evil disciple." The bible says he was evil already, and that Jesus literally chose, and that's what He said in John Chapter 6, "Haven't I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a demon." He needed somebody who was evil to fulfil the role of an evil disciple. But Judas was already evil.
So, a vessel fitted for destruction, and the word fitted means that the vessel conditions itself to be fitted for destruction. God doesn't do it! But once it's fitted for destruction, and it is a vessel of destruction, God uses it. He uses both honorable vessels and dishonorable vessels. He'll use them both for His glory and for His honor out of His choice.
"This word "fitted" is what's called the middle voice in Greek. That is, the vessel itself made itself a condition of a vessel for destruction. Nowhere in the text does it ever say God makes a good vessel for a vessel of destruction"
Romans 8:26 - Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.
With groanings which cannot be uttered. Some say that this is speaking in tongues. They say that this is "praying in the spirit." I would say to them no, you didn't catch it. It says groanings which cannot be uttered. The word uttered in the Greek means unspeakable. It's not words. The Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be spoken.
Romans 8:28 - And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
The word good is AGATHOS, spiritual good. Human good is KALOS. That makes a big difference because if I'm looking at it religiously, humanly, and on a horizontal physical plain, when it says, "all things work together for good," that means in the human, God's going to work things out good for me in the human and in the flesh.
But this is spiritual good. Also, please notice that it doesn't say all things are good. It says that all things are going to be worked out for the good. What's good and bad in the human, that's our judgment system. To God, everything is good because He's doing everything. And when we have things "go wrong," in God's vocabulary, that's not even in there. To Him everything is going right. Why? Because everything's going to work out according to the will of God, so that when I do pray for the Lord's will to be done, I can know because this is a promise right from God, that all things work together for the good.
Romans 9:2 - That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart.
He says I have great grief. The term heaviness is the word LUPE for grief. The term sorrow is the same word used for birth pains, the labor pains that a woman goes through. So, in his heart he has great grief and unceasing birth pains.
Romans 8:11 - But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.
Notice that he's talking about the Spirit that's dwelling in you. The only life that comes through my body that is spiritual, and it literally says in the Greek text that it is by His indwelling Spirit. It's a title! Every person that has the Spirit of Christ has the indwelling Spirit and He is the one who energizes them.
Romans 8:13 - For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.
Taking this along with Verse 12, notice that it's God's Spirit that puts to death the deeds of the body. And again, that has to do with separation. You're going to live! I think that is interesting. The obligations that we think we have are what other people put on us. Family, friends, jobs, whatever! And we feel obligated. The word debtor is the word for obligation. We are debtors not to the flesh to live according to the flesh. You have no obligation to anybody other than Christ.
Romans 8:15 - For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.
Abba is the Aramaic word for dad or father. You see, it's by the Spirit of God in me that causes me to have a relationship with God that I can call Him my Father, not religiously, but literally. I'm adopted into His family. When I received Christ, I was adopted into the family of God. But it's by the Spirit of adoption, not by me.
Romans 7:24 - O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
First, he says "O wretched man that I am!" The word wretched means destitute. He sees himself as just a destroyed destitute person. Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? He sees his body is the house that he lives in. Who's going to deliver me from this body of death? The term "body of death" is an interesting term within the Roman judicial system.
For some of the hardened criminals that committed murder, they would sentence them to serve their time with the dead body of the person that they killed strapped on their back. As it corrupted, and as it decayed, they corrupted and decayed with it. It eventually killed them.
Paul says that's what I feel like. I have died to sin. And I feel like I've got that old man, the old nature, the old life strapped on my back, reminding me and haunting me. It no longer lords it over me, but it just keeps working away, influencing and trying to get me away from the things of the Lord.
Romans 8:2 - For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.
The word sin has the definite article, the Sin Principle.
Romans 8:5 - For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.
The word mind has to do with the frame of mind, not individual thoughts, but just the direction that our thoughts flow. The people who are not saved and are walking according to the flesh are people whose minds are always governed by the flesh, but they that are according to the Spirit the things of the Spirit.
Only the Spirit of God can produce this frame of mind because we don't 100% in our thought processes think about the Lord. We've got "other things" to do! But it's the Spirit of God that gives us a frame of mind to participate with the Spiritual things of God. A non-believer doesn't have that.
Romans 10:2 - For I bear them record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge.
The word zeal means to boil, to be on fire. We hear about people being "on fire" for the Lord!" Those are the people that I would stay out of their way lest I catch fire!
It says that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. If that zeal, that fervency, is not governed by the truth of God's word, it's dangerous because it becomes strictly excitement. And the thing that is lacking today is the same as in Hosea's day when he expressed God's heart when he said, "My people perish for a lack of knowledge."
We're in a day and age where people are more and more disinterested in what the bible has to say. And yet in it, God reveals Himself. You can't get a more important book than that.
But Israel has a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. In other words, they knew Messiah was coming but they didn't know that Jesus was the Messiah. They didn't put all the knowledge together. In fact, the word knowledge is the word "Complete knowledge." In the Geek text it is EPI and GNOSKO. Not according to complete knowledge. They had some of the knowledge but not all of it.
Roman 10:9 - That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
If thou shalt confess with thy mouth Lord Jesus. Please notice that I left out the word "the" because it's not in the Greek text. It's not a statement that a person says, but rather a personal relationship that one expresses. For instance, if you will confess in your mouth Lord Jesus, that's your relationship with Him.
And you shall believe in thine heart that God has raised him from the dead (because the Jews did not believe that He was the Messiah, and they did not believe in His resurrection), thou shalt be saved. It's a promise for the future. It doesn't say you are saved, but thou shalt be saved.
Romans 9:13 - As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.
What a serious statement to make! I have shared this in the past about these two words. The terms love and hate are called words of comparison. The words themselves don't mean He loves them, and He hates them.
The Greek word for hate, MISEO means to love less. It doesn't mean hostility. In Matthew 10:37, Jesus says, "He that loves father and mother more than me is not worthy of me, and he that loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me."
Jesus is talking about comparisons. He's saying that we must love Him so much that in comparison to everybody else, it looks like we hate them.
Romans 9:22 - What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction:
This word "fitted" is what's called the middle voice in Greek. That is, the vessel itself made itself a condition of a vessel for destruction. Nowhere in the text does it ever say God makes a good vessel for a vessel of destruction.
Just like Judas Iscariot, he didn't become evil and filled with Satan because God says, "You come here, I need to put Satan in you because I need somebody to be an evil disciple." The bible says he was evil already, and that Jesus literally chose, and that's what He said in John Chapter 6, "Haven't I chosen you twelve, and one of you is a demon." He needed somebody who was evil to fulfil the role of an evil disciple. But Judas was already evil.
So, a vessel fitted for destruction, and the word fitted means that the vessel conditions itself to be fitted for destruction. God doesn't do it! But once it's fitted for destruction, and it is a vessel of destruction, God uses it. He uses both honorable vessels and dishonorable vessels. He'll use them both for His glory and for His honor out of His choice.
Very well put!
"This word "fitted" is what's called the middle voice in Greek. That is, the vessel itself made itself a condition of a vessel for destruction. Nowhere in the text does it ever say God makes a good vessel for a vessel of destruction"
Blessings!
Romans 8:26 - Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.
With groanings which cannot be uttered. Some say that this is speaking in tongues. They say that this is "praying in the spirit." I would say to them no, you didn't catch it. It says groanings which cannot be uttered. The word uttered in the Greek means unspeakable. It's not words. The Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be spoken.
Romans 8:28 - And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
The word good is AGATHOS, spiritual good. Human good is KALOS. That makes a big difference because if I'm looking at it religiously, humanly, and on a horizontal physical plain, when it says, "all things work together for good," that means in the human, God's going to work things out good for me in the human and in the flesh.
But this is spiritual good. Also, please notice that it doesn't say all things are good. It says that all things are going to be worked out for the good. What's good and bad in the human, that's our judgment system. To God, everything is good because He's doing everything. And when we have things "go wrong," in God's vocabulary, that's not even in there. To Him everything is going right. Why? Because everything's going to work out according to the will of God, so that when I do pray for the Lord's will to be done, I can know because this is a promise right from God, that all things work together for the good.
Romans 9:2 - That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart.
He says I have great grief. The term heaviness is the word LUPE for grief. The term sorrow is the same word used for birth pains, the labor pains that a woman goes through. So, in his heart he has great grief and unceasing birth pains.
Romans 8:11 - But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.
Notice that he's talking about the Spirit that's dwelling in you. The only life that comes through my body that is spiritual, and it literally says in the Greek text that it is by His indwelling Spirit. It's a title! Every person that has the Spirit of Christ has the indwelling Spirit and He is the one who energizes them.
Romans 8:13 - For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.
Taking this along with Verse 12, notice that it's God's Spirit that puts to death the deeds of the body. And again, that has to do with separation. You're going to live! I think that is interesting. The obligations that we think we have are what other people put on us. Family, friends, jobs, whatever! And we feel obligated. The word debtor is the word for obligation. We are debtors not to the flesh to live according to the flesh. You have no obligation to anybody other than Christ.
Romans 8:15 - For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.
Abba is the Aramaic word for dad or father. You see, it's by the Spirit of God in me that causes me to have a relationship with God that I can call Him my Father, not religiously, but literally. I'm adopted into His family. When I received Christ, I was adopted into the family of God. But it's by the Spirit of adoption, not by me.
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