Rabbi Schneider - The Response To Sin
If we're doing our best to live for the Lord and we sin, what do we do? We bring it to Jesus. We ask for forgiveness. By the grace of God, we pick ourselves up and we move on in Him. God as we continue with Paul in the Book of Romans. Paul says in chapter 6, verse number 22 these words: "But now, having been free from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life. For the wages of sin is death but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord".
On yesterday's or last week's broadcast, depending on what channel you were watching on, I made the point, beloved, that those of us that have come into relationship with Jesus were baptized into his death and when we were baptized into his death, our old life passed away and now we present ourselves, beloved, as slaves to the Lord, rather as those that are in slavery to sin. For Paul said, "The wage of sin is death but the free gift of God is eternal life". And I made some very strong applications on last week's broadcast when I talked about the fact, beloved, that we must choose righteousness. If we allow ourselves to be overcome by darkness, beloved, the outcome of that is death but if we can keep the sow to the Spirit, beloved, we're going to reap life, and joy, and peace, and everyday we're in a war, everyday is warfare, everyday we have to make those decisions, beloved, to choose life.
The Lord puts before us life and death and everyday we have to make those decisions to choose life. A lot of it involves watching what we say. The Bible says the power of life or death is in the tongue and we need to be careful what we're speaking. Everyday, beloved, we need to bring our tongue under the subjection of the Holy Spirit and choose life and I made many applications about this last week. If we choose, beloved, darkness, if we sin, we're going to reap destruction but through Jesus, beloved, our sins have been forgiven, our past life is washed away. We've been given the gift of the Holy Spirit, we're the righteousness of God, and as we sow to the Spirit, and as we choose life, and as we make those decisions to obey him, we're brought in, beloved, to an experiential reality of eternal life.
Jesus said, "This is eternal life that you know me". Listen once again before we press onto chapter 7, verse number 22: "But now having been freed from sin," and you need to know that you are no longer, beloved, a slave to sin. Now some of us have been addicted to something and it takes time to get free at times but I want you to know you will get free. I don't care what problem you're having, I don't care what stumbling block you're dealing with, I don't care what sin you've been addicted to, in Jesus, beloved, you're going to get free if you make up your mind to be free. It may take some time, it may take a year, for some of you even longer but if you make up your mind, you're going to get free. If you keep crying out to God, if you won't let go of God until you're free, you will get free, beloved, and you will reap eternal life.
Don't give yourself an excuse to keep sinning. Don't say you can't get free, that's a lie from the devil. Jesus said, "If the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed". Jesus said, "If you continue in my Word, you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free". The Bible says that when we were brought into relationship with Jesus, that our life died, that we were buried with him, it was buried with him. You will get free, you can get free, you must get free. Jesus, beloved, rose from the dead. He conquered death, he conquered the grave, he conquered every sin, he conquered every principality and power known to man. There's freedom in Jesus but you must make up your mind that there is freedom in Jesus. The Bible says that we confess with our mouth Jesus is Lord, and believe in our heart that God raised him from the dead.
What does it mean to believe that God raised him from the dead? It means that he conquered all and we believe that he conquered all and that through him we will conquer all. We're more than conquerors for him that loved us. You must get free, beloved, and you can get free through Jesus Christ, the Righteous, who died for you, beloved, and loves you, and as you continue to reach out to him, he will continue to empower you, and you will crush Satan under your feet and you will be free, hallelujah, indeed. Now, as we continue on, chapter number 7, verse 1: "Or do you not know, brethren (for I am speaking to those who know the law), that the law has jurisdiction over a person as long as he lives".
Now this is really interesting, what he's getting, and remember I told you earlier on in the broadcast, that much of the Book of Romans is dealing with the principle of the law, it's dealing with the role of the Jewish people, but there's application for you as a Gentile as well, and what Paul was about to do here, I'm setting this up for you, Paul's about to make this analogy: Paul's saying to the Jewish person, he says, "I'm speaking to those of you that know the law," and he's saying this: "that you were bound to the law," Paul's saying to the nation of Israel, "before Yeshua came but once Yeshua came, and died, and you were in him, you've now been released from the law to that whole system of works-place righteousness, you've been released from that to be joined to God, not through the law, but rather to be joined to God through namely one, Yeshua HaMashiach, the Righteous".
And he's going to point this out by a very specific analogy, here's the analogy he's going to use, and there's going to be application for you too, Mr. and Mrs. Gentile. I want you to know, this isn't just for Jewish people because I know some of you might be thinking, well I don't really care about the law but I'm telling you there's application for you so listen up. Now when I call you Mr. and Mrs. Gentile, I'm just having fun, you know that, I love you. We're Gentile and Jew, Jew and Gentile, amen, one in Messiah, hallelujah and praise the name of the Lord. It's all about Jesus.
Here's the analogy that Paul's going to make for us in Romans chapter 7, he's going to say this: A woman, when she's married to her husband, while the husband is living, she is bound to her husband and if while her husband is living, she gets involved with another man, she is an adulteress but then Paul goes on to say if, however, this woman's husband dies, if he dies, she then is released to be joined to another man in marriage and she would not be in adultery because her first husband has passed away, and that's relationship Paul is going to use now to explain to us our relationship to the law or to the system, listen now, of self righteousness or works-place righteousness.
Paul is about to tell us that before Jesus came the law convicted you of sin and you were bound to that law and if you're a gentile, he's saying, before Jesus came, you had a conscience and your conscience would accuse you when you were not fulfilling the law of God that was written in your conscience, and the only way that you knew how to relate to the Lord was through the law, either the Mosaic law, or through the law of your conscience. You couldn't go any further than that. It was a system of how good you could be but he says now that Jesus has come and he's fulfilled the law, in other words he lived it out perfectly, he fulfilled all God's standard of righteousness.
That's why Yeshua said, "Don't think I've come to abolish the law and the province, I'm not going to abolish but fulfill". He was the aim of the law and the end of it for everyone that believes in him. Now that Jesus has come, beloved, we're released from the Mosaic law in terms of going to the Lord through the Mosaic law, we're released from the law of self righteousness that would come to us from our conscience, where our conscience would tell us you're condemned because you're a hypocrite, or because you had a lustful thought, or because you stole something, or whatever it might be. Paul says, "You're released from all that, to stop looking at yourself, and to stop judging yourself by some law-based righteousness". "You're now free to come to the Lord just like you are". "Messiah died for you while you were a sinner and you were able to come to the Lord just like you are".
Receive the fullness of his love, to hear him say over your life, you are my child and in you I am well pleased because Jesus, beloved, has become your righteousness and now that you're in him, you are righteous. We're no longer, then, relating to the Lord through any type of law, we're not looking at ourselves, we're coming namely through the person of Jesus and Paul explains this by this marriage relationship in Romans 7. So hear the Word of the Lord, once again, Paul says this, verse number 2: "For the married woman is bound by law to her husband while he is living but if her husband dies, she is released from the law concerning the husband". "So then if while her husband living, she is joined to another man, she should be called and adulteress but if her husband dies, she is free from the law so that she is not an adulteress, though she is joined to another man".
Therefore, my brother, you also were made to die to the law through the body of Christ that you might be joined to another, get this now, to him, this is the point I'm trying to reach into your heart and bring you to Jesus. I'm trying to bring you out of religion to Jesus. I'm trying to bring you to the living person of Jesus to get established in him alone. He is the end of the law of righteousness to all of us that believe in him.
So once again, Paul says this: "That you might be joined to another," get it now, "to him, to Yeshua, who was raised from the dead that we might bear fruit for God". Verse number 6: "But now we have been released from the law, having died to that by which we were bound," because we're in Jesus, he died, when he died we were released from it to a brand new life, "so that we would serve in newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter". And so once again, beloved, we're looking at Jesus. You see anything, any type of preaching, any type of religious activity, any type of spiritual discipline that does not bring us to the person of Jesus is a waste of time because life is found in none other but in the person of Yeshua alone. He's alive, beloved.
Let's continue on. The aim of Paul's preaching was to bring us into this living, vital experiential relationship with God's Son. Let's continue on. In verse number 12: "So that the law," he says, "is holy and the commandment is holy, and righteous, and good". So he's going on to clarify that the problem isn't the law. He says, "The problem isn't the law". He says, "The law is holy, spiritual, righteous and good". He said, "The problem is us, we could not fulfill the requirement of the law". "We could not live up to the covenant". The covenant of the law was if you loved God enough, he's going to bless you. We couldn't do it. So what did do? He came with the new covenant. It was a covenant that Jesus instituted at his Last Supper, at Passover, when he lifted up the cup and he said, "This is the covenant and my blood shed for you".
The covenant that Jesus instituted, that we're released into, we're released from the old covenant, the works basis covenant, the self-righteous based covenant, the law-based covenant, we're released from that covenant which basically said, you need to do this, this and this. You need to love God with all your heart, strength, soul and mind and keep the six hundred thirteen commandments and then God's going to bless you. We're released from that commandment to the new covenant. The new covenant that Yeshua entered into at Passover is this: "This is the new covenant shed for you for the forgiveness of sin," and what is the new covenant, beloved? Not that we love God but that he loved us. The new covenant, beloved, it's not about what we do, it's about what God's done.
And we've just put ourselves in the place of receiving it like Mary that sat at Jesus' feet, Martha was busy working, doing so many things. She got upset at Mary because Mary wasn't doing anything; she was just sitting at his feet to receive and Martha started complaining. She said, "Lord, it's not fair; she's not doing anything". And what did Jesus say to Martha? "Martha, Martha, you're so concerned with so many things but Mary, your sister, she's chosen the one good thing". What was she doing? Just receiving Jesus and Jesus said, "And it will never be taken away from her". This is what Paul's saying here, hear the Word of God.
So Paul says, "The law is holy, spiritual, righteous and good," he said, "but the problem is that we couldn't fulfill its requirements". Why could we not fulfill it? Because Paul said, "We have within our members, within our body, something that is not in harmony with the law". Paul went on to say that he found within himself, that deep down inside that he agreed with the law, that he recognized the purity and the holiness of the law but he found within himself, he said, "the principle of evil". And he said this principle of evil within him kept him from keeping the law. So let's continue on here because it relates to you and I and I want you to understand, beloved, that God has a solution for us.
Let's continue on. "So then the law is holy and the commandment is holy, and righteous and good. Therefore that which is good becomes a cause of death for me? May it never be! But rather was sin," in other words it wasn't the law that became a source of death but it was the sin within Paul that became the source of death and the law just condemned it because of the nature of that covenant. So he says, "May it never be! Rather it was sin, in order that it might be shown to be sin by effecting my death through that which is good". In other words, the law is good but it caused men to die because of the sin that was in man.
So let's continue on. "That through the commandment sin might become utterly sinful". Verse 14, here we go. Remember, we're going through the Word of God line by line, precept by precept. Don't say this is boring but rather say like David, "Lord, I love thy Word". Discipline yourself, Yedidim, beloved Ones, to become a sincere student of the Word of God. Here we go, verse number 14: "For we know that the law is spiritual, but," Paul said, "but I am of flesh sold into bondage to sin". Paul said, "For that which I am doing I do not understand". In other words, Paul says he's got these two natures and he doesn't understand why he's doing these two different things that seem to contradict themselves. Paul says he doesn't understand why, even though he wants good, deep down inside he keeps on finding himself doing those things that are not good.
Let's continue on. Maybe some of you can relate to this. He says, "For that which I am doing," in verse 15, "I did not understand for I am not practicing what I would like to do but I am doing the very thing I hate". In other words, Paul's saying he's finding himself doing those things that he knows are wrong and he doesn't want to do those things and he hates those things but he finds himself doing those things. He says, "But if I do the very thing I did not wish to do, I agree with the law concerning that it is good". In other words, Paul says, "I realize that it's wrong and in realizing that it's wrong, I'm agreeing with the law even though I'm doing this wrong thing," Paul says, "I have enough common sense to hate it; I know that it's wrong. I'm agreeing with the law about".
Let's continue on. "So now no longer am I the one doing it but sin which indwells me". Now this is really interesting. Paul says that he finds himself in this struggle and that at times he finds himself doing things that he knows are wrong. What those things were, I don't know but Paul says that when he does go do those things that he knows are wrong and he realizes that they're wrong, he says it's no longer he that's doing it but sin that's dwelling in him. Notice that he didn't identify himself with the sin. He might have done something wrong but he didn't let what he did wrong define who he was. This is very important.
Let's look at this again. Let's look again. Verse number 17: "So now no longer am I the one doing it but sin which indwells me for I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh for the wishing is present in me but the doing of the good is not. For the good that I wish I do not do but I practice the very evil that I do not wish". Now let's look again in verse number 17. "So now no longer am I the one doing it but sin that indwells me".
So Paul's talking about these two natures and the struggle and what Paul did was when he found himself committing a sin, he didn't identify, beloved, who he was by the sin, he still identified himself as the righteousness of God. Now why am I saying this to you? Because some of you, while you've been a believer, you've messed up and I'm not talking about easy beliefism, and I'm not talking about easy grace because, beloved, if we're not repenting, we don't belong to the Lord, so I'm not talking about giving people a license to sin. If we know Jesus, if Yeshua's in us, we are striving to please the Lord and to live lives that are right but on the other hand sometime along the way when we're striving to live for the Lord, we can fall. It's just a reality of the situation.
This is what Paul's describing here. And Paul says that when he falls he realizes that it's wrong and he recognizes that it wasn't him that fell but it was sin that was dwelling in him. He's not identifying himself, beloved, with the sin. In other words, if a person fell into a specific sort of sin, I don't even want to name any because I don't want to give anybody and excuse to do these things and have people think it's going to be alright because it was alright Paul, it's alright for me.
This is exactly the point that Paul just got done making, should we sin, that grace may abound? May it never be. We've been called to love Jesus and anybody that has a mentality that says I can sin and God will forgive me, doesn't know the Lord, okay. That's not what Paul's talking about here. He's striving his best to live for the Lord and yet along the way at times he fell but when he fell, beloved, he didn't identify who he was in his core, in the nature of his identity as with that sin. In other words, if he had a drink he didn't say I'm a drunkard, okay, and personally I don't even feel there's a problem with having a glass of wine but that's just me but, you know, I mean there's a difference between having a glass of wine and getting drunk but I'm just simply saying, I'm just trying to use an illustration to make a point.
If Paul committed a sin, he didn't identify himself as that person. In other words, maybe some of you, when you were young you were sexually promiscuous. You don't carry that identity with you any longer. You're no longer sexually promiscuous, that isn't you, that was sin in you. You are now the righteousness of God. I'm trying to break condemnation off your life. If you've sinned, if you've fallen, if you've been doing your best to live for the Lord but along the way somewhere you fell, you don't identify yourself with the sin; that's not who you are. That's what Paul's saying. He said, "If I sin, it's no longer I that's doing it; I'm not identifying that as me. That wasn't me that did that; that was sin in me," and Paul's going to go on to say, "I'm going to crush this thing under my feet, thanks be to God that gives me the victory. I'm trying to get all self-condemnation off the people of God".
We have become the righteousness of God. If we're doing our best to live for the Lord and we sin, what do we do? We don't beat ourselves up, we don't let the devil ha satan which means the accuser condemn us. That only pushes us away from God. If we think God hates us, if we think God's mad at us because we've sinned, that's just going to put, that's just going to break fellowship with him. No. If we sin, what do we do? We bring it to Jesus, we ask for forgiveness, by the grace of God we pick ourself up and we move on in him. We don't identify ourself with the sin, we don't call ourself by the name of that sin, that's not our identity. We're the righteousness of God, we pick ourself up and we move on.
So Paul says, "If I sin, it's not me," he said. "It's in the member of my body". Let's say, for example, you have a trouble with your appetite and let's say that you've been doing really good resisting temptation with eating junk food because you're overweight and you know you're body's a temple of the Holy Spirit, and you've been doing great for six weeks but all of a sudden one day you just, you're really weak, you've been really striving hard, but one day you're just weak, you lose your balance, and you have two packs of Hostess Twinkies. What do you do? You don't say I'm a glutton, you don't say that, you know, you call yourself names, you say, that's not me. That's sin that dwells in me. I reject that. Lord, forgive me. I repent. I'm the righteousness of God. And so Paul says, "If I sin, it's no longer me that's doing it, it's sin that indwells me," and he's going to go on to say, "thanks be to God that gives me the victory". beloved children of God, we're going to get the victory, the complete victory. Satan, you are crushed under our feet. To God be the glory in Jesus' name, amen.