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Rom 6:11 The mandate for believers to consider themselves dead to the OSN cont....


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.

In verse 11 we have the present middle imperative from the Greek verb" logizomai" that is translated "consider" in the NASB. We saw that it means to calculate, to take into account, to evaluate, to estimate, to think, consider, to ponder, to have in mind, to be of the opinion. It is a verb of application.

So the mandate is for the believer to logically consider that they are "dead to sin" because of the retroactive positional truth of their identity in union with TLJC at salvation by grace through faith alone in TLJC alone.

Because of this mandate, we started a study regarding just what the singular of the Greek word "hamartia" that is translated "sin" in this passage means and why there is a mandate for the believer to consider themselves dead to it.

We have found that it is referring to the OSN that all of mankind except for TLJC has inherited from Adam as a result of the fall through the 23 male chromosomes at conception and that it resides in the cell structure of the body until physical death.

Picking up where we left off last time when we were discussing the arrogance of living under the control of the OSN.

No one sins apart from their own consent. Even if you don't know it's a sin but you wanted to do it and subsequently chose to do it you are responsible for that sin because of that choice.

The sin nature is the source of temptation but human volition is the source of sin.

Once a sin is committed, the sin nature controls the soul and from that position is a stronger power than it was when it was merely residing in the body.

The believer sins after salvation in sins of cognizance when temptation from the sin nature is recognized as sin, and the volition still chooses to sin and in sins of ignorance, when temptation from the sin nature is not recognized as potential sin, yet the volition chooses it and thereby commits a sin of ignorance.

When the believer uses their volition to sin, they fragment their own life. This self fragmentation and the subsequent dissociation from the spiritual life is called carnality.

This means the believer's soul is under the control of the sin nature that results in life in the cosmic systems where the believer reverts back to the lifestyle they had as an unbeliever.

The trend toward lascivious lawlessness and the opposite trend toward self- righteous arrogance causes tremendous conflict among believers. People who participate in this conflict between the two opposite trends of the OSN dissociate themselves because Moral and immoral degeneracy are constantly at war.

This dissociation is not only a source of sinning, but is a state of confusion. Once the believer is persistently functioning in this dissociation, they become confused and cannot grow spiritually.

Believers are mandated to consider themselves "dead to sin" because God solved the problem of personal sin when he judged it on the cross.

All personal sins in the human race, past, present, and future, were recorded by the omniscience of God in eternity past as part of the free volitional decisions of mankind and were placed into the divine decree.

At the time of the crucifixion, God the Father called for this record all personal sins, and he imputed them all to Christ, and he judged every one of them. This is explained in the following passages:

1Pet 2:24, "He carried our sins in His own body on the cross."
2Cor 5:21, "He who did not know sin was made sin as a substitute for us."

Rom 5:8, "But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died as a substitute for us."

1Pet 3:18, "Because Christ died once for our sins, the righteous One as a substitute for the unrighteous ones, that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh (humanity of Christ), but made alive by means of the Spirit."

Gal 3:13, "Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law by means of becoming a curse as a substitute for us, for it stands written, `Cursed is everyone who hangs on a cross.'"

Because TLJC was judged on the cross for all sins, God's solution for all sins that are committed before salvation is faith alone in TLJC alone. This is explained in the following passages:

Gal 3:26, "For you are all the sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus."

Gal 2:16, "Knowing that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus that we might be justified by faith in Christ, and not by the works of the law; for by the works of the law no person will be justified."

Rom 5:1, "Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ."

Eph 2:8, "For by grace you have been saved in the past with the result that you stand saved forever through faith, and this (salvation) is not from yourselves; it is a gift from God, not of works lest anyone should boast."

Rom 3:22, "Even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ, for all those who believe."

Rom 3:28, "For we maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law."

John 20:31, "But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing, you may have eternal life through His person."

John 3:15, "That everyone who believes in Him may have eternal life."

John 3:16, "For God loved the world so much that He gave His Son, the unique One, in order that anyone who believes in Him shall never perish but have eternal life."

John 3:18, "He who believes in Him is not judged, but he who does not believe has been judged already because he has not believed in the person of the unique Son of God."

John 3:36, "He who believes in the Son has eternal life, but he who does not believe in the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him."

John 11:25, "Jesus said to her (Martha), `I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me shall live even if he dies.'"

1John 5:11-13, "This is the deposition: God has given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has this (eternal) life; He who does not have the Son does not have this (eternal) life. These things I have written to you who believe in the person of the Son of God, in order that you may know that you have (eternal) life."


The problem of sins committed before salvation is solved by personal faith in Jesus Christ. In the very moment that anyone believes in Christ, all pre-salvation sins are blotted out.

Isa 43:25, "I, even I, am the One who wipes out your transgressions for My own sake, and I will not remember your sins."

Col 1:14, "In whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins."

Faith plus anything else does not secure salvation. If anything is added to faith, the Holy Spirit cannot make it effective for salvation under His ministry of efficacious grace.

This means that faith plus "commitment" does not secure salvation.

Faith plus "lordship" does not secure salvation. Jesus Christ is the believer's Lord at the moment of salvation no matter what they do after salvation. No one makes Christ "Lord" by anything they do.

Faith plus morality does not secure salvation.

Faith plus baptism or any other church ritual does not secure salvation.

Faith plus "repentance from sins" does not secure salvation. The Greek word "metanoia" that is translated "repent" means to change your mind about Christ, not to feel sorry for your sins.

Faith plus emotion does not secure salvation.

Faith plus psychological works does not secure salvation.

Reverse invitations exclude faith. In salvation, God invites us to Him. Therefore, we cannot reverse that and invite Christ into our hearts or lives. Inviting Christ excludes faith altogether.

Inviting Christ into your heart is equivalent to inviting Christ into a spiritual garbage dump because, Jer 17:9, says "The heart is desperately wicked."

Inviting Christ into your life is the same as inviting Christ into a tomb, because the unbeliever is spiritually dead.

God the Holy Spirit provides for salvation through common grace. The spiritually dead unbeliever has spiritual death so when the Gospel is presented to the unbeliever, the Holy Spirit acts as a human spirit so that the Gospel, which is spiritual phenomena, can be understood by the unbeliever.

The accurate information that the Holy Spirit presents to the unbeliever's volition can then be understood in and a volitional decision made the left lobe of the unbeliever's soul.

Even when the person understands that salvation is through faith alone in Christ alone and believes in Christ, they are still spiritually dead. It is God the Holy Spirit's ministry of efficacious grace that takes faith and faith alone in Jesus Christ and makes it effective for eternal life in efficacious grace.

Therefore, if anything is added to faith, the Holy Spirit cannot make that effectual for salvation.

This is described in John 16:8-9, "And He (Holy Spirit), when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin; concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me."

Sin is really not the main issue in the unbeliever's life; the issue is Christ, because Jesus Christ was judged for all sins.

Rom 1:16, "I am not ashamed of the Gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Gentile."

So the solution to all sins committed before salvation is to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved.

The solution to post-salvation sin is acknowledgment of it to God.

1John 1:9, "If we acknowledge (admit, cite, name) our sins, He (God the Father) is faithful and just (righteous) with the result that He forgives us our sins (post-salvation sins of cognizance), and cleanses (purifies) us from all wrongdoing (post-salvation sins of ignorance)."

The substitution of self-judgment for divine discipline is the subject of 1Cor 11:31. "If we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged." Self-evaluation is equivalent to the confession of our sins.

Forgiveness and restoration to fellowship as well as the subsequent filling of the Holy Spirit and reentrance into the PPOG is based on the fact that God has already judged the sins that are cited at the cross.

This self evaluation and acknowledgement takes care of the sin problem for the believer.

When the believer names and cites their sins they are acknowledging that God judged the sin in the person of TLJC on the cross.

This is the only way believers can be extracted from the cosmic system and restored the spiritual life where the filling of the Holy Spirit, again controls the soul and the believer can function in the mandates for spirituality that are found in Gal 5:16 and Eph 5:18;

God has solved the problems created by the old sin nature through the use of condemnation or judgment.

All sins were judged at the cross and all human good and evil are judged at the Last Judgment. In the judgment at the cross, all the sins of the world (past, present and future) were imputed to Christ and judged by the justice of God the Father.

This was the first and most important judgment of the old sin nature and is the basis of our salvation that is obtained through personal faith in Jesus Christ.

This broke the power and rule of the old sin nature, 1Pet 2:24; 2Cor 5:19;, but, under the law of volitional responsibility, our sins, though judged at the cross, still have consequences from the function of our negative volition because most of our suffering is caused by our negative volition under the principle of adversity is inevitable stress is optional. John 16:33;

Because of our volitional responsibility we must evaluate ourselves and apply God's grace provision for recovery.

The human good and evil of the believer is judged immediately after the exit resurrection at the Judgment Seat of Christ , 1Cor 3:12-16; "Wood, hay and straw" refers to all the human good that believers have done that will be burned.

At the Great White Throne Judgment, that is described in Rev 20:12-15, is where the unbeliever is resurrected and brought before the Lord Jesus Christ. Their sins, having already been judged at the cross, are not mentioned.

Their human good works are compiled from the book of works. It can only to add up to negative righteousness, that cannot have fellowship with God's perfect righteousness, so they are cast into the Lake of Fire.

During the course of history God periodically judges evil; otherwise mankind would self-destruct. Evil continues all the way through to the end of the Millennium, as seen in the Gog and Magog Revolution. Rev 20:8-10;

Evil can only be engaged and defeated in the spiritual realm. This is why the believer's warfare is not against flesh and blood. Eph 6;12;

There will be no OSN in the resurrection of the Church. Phil 3:21, "Who (TLJC) will change the body of our humiliation (old sin nature) into conformity with the body of His glory (resurrection body of Jesus Christ) on the basis of the operational power from which He Himself is able to subordinate all things to Himself."

At the moment of salvation by grace through faith alone in TLJC alone, divine justice imputes divine righteousness to the believer, setting up the grace pipeline for blessing from God's justice. 2Cor 5:21;

God's justice is at the source; God's perfect righteousness that has been imputed to the believer becomes the target. This pipeline is encapsulated and protected by God.
Righteousness demands righteousness; justice demands justice so what the righteousness of God demands, the justice of God executes.

Therefore at salvation, perfect righteousness demands the conveyance of at least thirty nine other factors through the grace pipeline. From salvation to maturity, perfect righteousness demands logistical blessing that is sufficient to sustain believers in TLJC while they are on the earth behind enemy lines in the devil's world.

When believers reach spiritual maturity, perfect righteousness demands special blessings that go beyond logistics be conveyed via the grace pipeline. Just as justice condemns the arrogance of sin, human good, and evil, justice must also send grace blessings to the humble believer who has oriented to God's plan. James 4:6;

At the moment of salvation, the dominion of the old sin nature over human life is cancelled by the baptism of the Spirit. This is a positional cancellation that provides the basis for experiential cancellation that believers are commanded to choose.

Retroactive positional truth identifies believers with Jesus Christ in His spiritual death, physical death and burial.

In spiritual death, Christ also rejected human good and evil while accepting the imputation of all personal sins and their judgment. This means that because of their identification with TLJC, believers have also positionally rejected human good and evil.

In His physical death, Christ was totally separated from good and evil; therefore believers are positionally separated from good and evil.

In His burial, He was divorced from good and evil; so believers are also positionally divorced from good and evil.

God's provision for believers in the encapsulated environment is greater than his provision of the perfect environment of the garden, because it is based on his integrity not man's merit. Because of this it functions perfectly inside the devil's world regardless of sin, and human good and evil.

God encapsulates our blessings in time in an environment that He provides regardless of historical circumstances. The capacity to receive these blessings always comes from the application of the pertinent doctrine.

Because the policy of Satan is good and evil and the function of the old sin nature is good and evil, the old sin nature and Satan cooperate as long as good and evil are being produced.

But whenever the old sin nature produces sin, it is an impediment to Satan. Satan is trying establish the Millennium before TLJC returns.

It is retroactive positional truth that establishes the basis for our experiential renunciation and victory over the trends of the old sin nature. It's trends toward sin, human good, and evil.

Through the baptism of the Holy Spirit, we have retroactive positional truth that is positional separation as well as rejection and divorcement from Adam's trend, the old sin nature.

This rescinds the sovereignty of the old sin nature over human life and it provides for "life with God" on this earth in the devils' world, Rom 6:11.

The old sin nature, however remains in the cells of the body of corruption, and is still transmitted through the 23 male chromosomes. It still has to be there, because these same cells are part of the physical body. As long as we are alive in this body of corruption, we have an old sin nature, and as a result always have the OSN and personal sins, 1John 1:8,10;

But the power of the trends toward sin, good and evil, while still in the physical body, are positionally broken. At salvation, we enter God's power system but the old sin nature is not changed or eradicated.

As believer advance toward spiritual maturity from their PMA of Bible Doctrine they have more and more control over the old sin nature through the exercise of their volition to obey God.

While the power and dominion of the old sin nature over human life is destroyed positionally (Rom 6) and experientially (Rom 7), the trends of Adam still function in the life of the believer when the believer chooses them.

The contradiction between the positional destruction of the old sin nature's power at salvation through the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and the frustration of still following the trends of the old sin nature is the subject of Rom 7, especially Rom 7:15.

The continued function of the old sin nature after salvation in spite of retroactive positional truth indicates the necessity for Bible doctrine to be resident in the soul plus the filling of the Holy Spirit in order for the believer to overcome it.

Bible doctrine plus filling of the Holy Spirit provides experiential sanctification.

The pattern for the believer's carnality or sinfulness depends upon how much time the believer chooses to spend in Satan's cosmic system rather than in God's power system.

Believers are given the opportunity of rapid recovery from OSN control of the soul through their acknowledgement of known sin and thereby making adjustment to the justice of God.

When believers acknowledge known sin they become "dead to sin" and "alive to God". Rom 6:11;

 

© Copyright 2007, Michael Lemmon Bible Ministries. World Rights Reserved.  This document was created on 10/14/2009