In our continuing study of the mandates of the PPOG for believers we are presently looking at the imperative moods found in Rom 6:11-13. Where we have the second person plural present middle imperative of "logizomai" that is translated "consider",
We are presently discussing the second part of the mandate where believers are commanded to consider themselves "alive to God in Christ Jesus" as members of the Royal Family of God and we stopped last time as we were contrasting the communication gifts for the church and teaching ministry of the Holy Spirit with the Mosaic Law that Paul makes in 2Cor 3:1-3;
The Mosaic Law establishes a system of human freedom related to morality and Divine establishment.
But simply keeping the Law is not the Christian way of life, Rom 8:1-4. Rom 10:4, "Christ is the end of the Law for righteousness to all who believe." Gal 5:18, "against such there is no law."
2Cor 3:3c "But on the fleshly tables of the right lobe of the soul." The right lobe is where metabolized doctrine resides and circulates in the believer's thinking. "Fleshly" refers to the human body where the soul resides that is also indwelt by God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
As the believer follows the mandate in Rom 6:11b to consider themselves alive to God in Christ Jesus.
The believer's position and enablement for living the spiritual life is made possible because each member of the Trinity indwells every Church Age believer and as we have seen, their experience in living the spiritual life is related to their advance to spiritual adulthood.
We have seen that the believer's spiritual self-esteem is when "Christ is being formed in the believer "per, Gal 4:19;
The believer's Spiritual autonomy is when "Christ is at home in the right lobe of the believer's soul, per Eph 3:17.
The believer's spiritual maturity is when "Christ being glorified in the body" per, Phil 1:20;
The indwelling of God the Father is the guarantee of His work on behalf of believers from eternity past. God the Father is the author of the believer's portfolio of invisible assets, the grantor of the escrow blessings, the designer of the spiritual life as the palace in the soul, and he is the designer of the protocol plan of God.
Therefore, the indwelling of God the Father is a guarantee of his provision of a personal plan for every believer.
The indwelling of TLJC is the badge of the royal family, the guarantee of the availability of divine power, the guarantee of life after death, the guarantee of the distribution of escrow blessings, perpetual motivation for momentum in spiritual adulthood, and the establishment of the right priorities of God emphasis over people emphasis and divine power over human power.
The purpose for the indwelling of the Holy Spirit is to provide a temple for the indwelling of Jesus Christ and a base of operations for the ministry of the Spirit in the execution of the protocol plan of God, and the lifestyle of wisdom that comprises the spiritual life.
The spiritual life is based on the fact that every person of the Trinity indwells the believer's body, and it is demonstrated by the believer's orientation to life as they advance to spiritual maturity through cognitive self confidence, cognitive independence and cognitive invincibility that correspond with the stages of spiritual adulthood.
The next mandate in our passage in Rom 6:11-13; is found in verse 12 with the third person singular present active imperative of the Greek word "Basileuo" that is translated reign in the NASB.
This is a mandate for believers not to permit the OSN to rule over their body of death so that they listen to or submit to it's desires.
Since the OSN resides in the cell structure of the body it is always presenting it's desires to the soul through the emotions for volitional consideration.
When the believer chooses for the desire of the OSN by submitting to their emotions, the believer sins and as a result the OSN regains control of the believer's life and places the believer back into a category of death that is called carnal death.
This passage is commanding the believer to reject these desires so that the OSN does not recover command of the believer's soul.
Remember the sinful desires that the OSN presents can be overt sins, mental attitude sins or sins that are spoken.
Most believers recognize overt sins but many do not recognize mental attitude sins or spoken sins.
Regardless of the type of sin, and regardless of weather the believer knows it is a sin or not, it results in death. Rom 5:12; Rom 6:23a;
This brings us to a brief discussion of the categories of death that are described in the Bible.
The first category of death is the Spiritual Death of the entire Human Race
Spiritual death was the penalty of sin, and was given as the warning to mankind in the garden before the fall. In Gen 2:17, with the statement "surely die" that is more correctly translated "dying you will die." because the Hebrew word "mooth" that is translated "die" or "dying" is repeated not simply for emphasis but to indicate that there would be two categories of death involved.
"Dying" refers to spiritual death that occurred at the fall of man, and "you shall die" refers to physical death that subsequently occurs for all mankind as a result of spiritual death.
The original sin of man in the garden was the origin of spiritual death.
The penalty of death was imposed at the fall of man and is perpetuated in the human race through the imputation of Adam's original sin to the genetically-formed old sin nature simultaneously with the imputation of human life or soul life at the birth of biological life.
We have seen that the old sin nature is transmitted into biological life at conception through the twenty-three male chromosomes that fertilize the female ovum.
Mankind is not condemned by their personal sins. Mankind is condemned as a result of the imputation of Adam's original sin to the OSN at birth therefore spiritual death occurs at the moment of physical birth.
The entire human race is born physically alive and spiritually dead because of these two imputations that occur at birth.
When biological life emerges from the womb, God creates soul life and imputes it to biological life. This is when human life begins. Human life does not begin at conception it occurs when God imputes soul life at birth.
As biological life and it's genetically formed OSN emerge from the womb and God also imputes Adam's original sin to the old sin nature.
This is the basis of spiritual death in human life at birth
Eph 2:1; "And you, being dead in your transgressions and sins," (not "because of your transgressions and sins") Personal sins are the result of mankind's identity with Adam and the OSN that came as a result of the original sin.
Rom 5:12, "Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world and death (spiritual death) through that sin, so (spiritual) death spread to all men because all sinned (when Adam sinned)."
This means that all naturally born members of the human race are born physically and soulishly alive and spiritually dead.
This also means that anyone who dies before reaching volitional accountability automatically goes to heaven.
Adam made a decision to sin for the entire human race so our personal sins are not imputed to us; they were imputed to TLJC on the cross.
Spiritual death is perpetuated in the human race at birth. This means that mankind is not condemned by their personal sins. Mankind is condemned by the imputation of Adam's original sin to the genetically formed old sin nature at birth.
There are two categories of spiritual death, real spiritual death and substitutionary spiritual death.
Real Spiritual Death was the actual spiritual death of Adam, who made the decision to sin for the entire human race that results in all of mankind being consigned to real spiritual death from the moment of physical birth.
Substitutionary spiritual death occurred on the cross, when our Lord bore the sins of all mankind in His own body where they were judged.
Our personal sins were never imputed to us for condemnation, but were imputed to Jesus Christ as our substitute, 1Pet 2:24; 1Pet 3:18; 2Cor 5:21; Isa 53:6; Rom 5:8.