Is or Was? The Preposition defined the Verb:
'We have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Christ ONCE for all! Heb10:10. Just as Christ cannot be 're-crucified', we can't repent over and over again and again: knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.Rom6:6
And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires Gal5:24
WAS Crucified, HAVE Crucified, Past tense, DONE and NOT to be repeated! The KJV uses the preposition 'is' in Rom6:6, as though it is taking place now and on-going, giving the impression that, 'We are Crucifying our Old man daily' by a process of sinning less and obeying more. This is NOT what the Passages are saying, they are clearly being expressed in the PAST tense, something already done. Called the Aorist tense in Greek, (Which has no equivalent in English) But usually expressed in the Past tense, Literally meaning: 'an action having begun at a certain point and ended at a certain point, not to be repeated', you can confirm this yourself by looking up Rom6:6 in the Greek Lexicon and checking the Parsing information of each passage. Both Rom6:6 and Gal5:24 are expressed in this manner and its vitally important to understand that the Crucifying of evil desires, Old man, takes place in Repentance, NOT as an on-going process of committing such sins as listed in Gal5:19-21, 1Cor6:9-10, these sins are DONE away, Put to death, Crucified in Repentance, they do not reoccur again and again as a dog returning to its vomit. The Prodigal Son rose up from the Pig Pen and went to the Father, he NEVER returned to it again.
Here's another example:
I have been
crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but
Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith
in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. Gal2:20
Again, the KJV uses the Wrong Tense: 'I am
Crucified with Christ', implying it is on-going, as 'I die daily', in
1Cor15:31, they will use to say Paul is slowly dying out to his Old man, but
this passage is speaking of facing death every day, not sinning everyday! The
Gal2:20 passage is called the Perfect Tense in the Greek, confirmed in
the Lexicon as an action that has been Completed in the Past, once for all, not
to be repeated. So Paul is affirming that the Putting to death the Old man is
DONE, once for all, not something he must do on a continual bases. They
tampered with the tense because of their flawed belief in gradual sanctification
and a supposed fallen nature dwelling in man that had to die out slowly over
time. He gets 'saved initially in his sins (faith alone) and then good
works or sinning less, should Spring out of his faith as he slowly
progresses in Sanctification. But the on-going sins are always excused because
of a 'sin-nature, or the old man dying out slowly as they confess 1Jh1:9 to as a
magic cover.
Rather,
we grow in Grace and Knowledge, 2Pet3:18, not sanctification, that took
place at Conversion, 1Cor6:11, Acts26:18, 'He Purified their hearts by faith',
Acts15:9, 'Since you have been Purified your heart through obedience to the
truth through the Spirit' 1Pet1:22, 'You are already Clean because of the Words
I have spoken to you' Jh15:3 (that abide you in by faith) You see the Point,
in Scripture the 'Cleaning takes place in Conversion, not afterward, 'The
Washing, Renewing and Regeneration' Titus3:5, the 'Refreshing of the spirit',
Acts3:19, 'From darkness to light, from the power of Satan to God', Acts26:18,
The 'Vessel scrubbed Clean', 2Tim2:21, ALMOST everyone has this Backward
and that's the reason genuine regeneration is NOT taking place! You
Cannot ADD to a Faith you NEVER had to begin with! It Must be a
Purity based Faith BEFORE true Virtue can be evident.
But also for this very
reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge,
to knowledge
self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness,
to godliness brotherly
kindness, and to brotherly kindness love.
For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither
barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
For he who lacks these
things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was
cleansed from his old sins.
2Pet1:5-9
The Old man of sin
and addiction is done, finished, DEAD! You are Not,
'Crucifying him daily, struggling against the sin in you or committing such sins
that would disqualify you from the Kingdom' You are:
'Working out your Salvation, Making your calling Sure, Running the Race with
endurance, Guarding your heart, Keeping yourself Pure, Building yourself up in
your Most Holy Faith and Making yourself ready', all from a Base Purity
that occurred at conversion. The 'Once for all'
significance of these Passages is being almost Completely ignored by on
line Pundits who Claim they teach sound Doctrine, outside the Church System. As
a result their teachings are polluted with such fallacies as 'Faith alone,
Substitution, Magic transfers of virtue, sin nature, gradual sanctification, the
sin-confess Christian and the 1Jh1:9 cop-out easy recovery from Known willful
sins. The VERY Same fabrications taught in EVERY professed
Christian Church on earth! 'Contradictions falsely called Knowledge'! And
I ask, 'WHAT part of PURE Don't you Understand, HOW can a
heart made PURE by faith, in conversion, still be DEFILED by Sin?
'And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself as HE is PURE!'
1Jh3:3
The
effort-less Gospel
'Not
of Works, Receive and Trust, Rest in His finished work and effortlessly abide.
It’s the essence of the 'faith alone' gospel in which Salvation is
based on the mythical notion that human effort is not required because of an
inbred malady called 'sinfulness has somehow disabled man's
ability to respond to simple Commands such as: 'Amend the evil of your doings,
lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, cleanse your hands, purify
your hearts, humble yourself in the sight of God. At best (under this notion)
Repentance is Preached from the premise that man is severely 'hindered from
making any positive changes in his behavior when seeking God for Salvation.
Therefore an arrangement had to be made whereby he could be Saved 'not of
himself but by an external operative force that 'effects (produces,
brings about, provokes) Salvation in spite of his inability to respond. In that
he 'Rests (assured) and believes that a new nature has been imparted to him,
writing the Laws of God on his heart, which he still 'struggles to keep them
because he is weak and futile in his thoughts. He 'desires to sin not, but
accepts the inevitability of failure in calm assurance he has an advocate with
the Father to confess and move on. Again, the 'effort is despised! Any
attempt of human effort in the equation is the worse sin of all and negates the
entire process by making it of 'works. So not sinning, doing what is Right,
living holy is said to be 'effortless because your Old nature has been
magically replaced by a New nature with the imprint of God on it. But the
quandary still exists; sin is ever present in their lives even though they pass
it off as the certainty of being human. (because salvation is never of human
effort)
Let's examine this logically:
You can't Repent of a Nature dwelling in you no more than you repent of your
gender or nationality
You can't be held accountable for being born that way, 'Sinful and Corrupt'
because its not your fault
And since God effects the desire change, from evil to good, personal
responsibility is not an imperative
So there's no severity of sin, as in it disqualifying you from the Kingdom, because anything you do that is not 100% focused on Christ every moment of the day is sin; proving you’re a sinner by Nature.
And that's why they
teach:
"When you Repent of your sin nature, He replaces it with a New Nature" (that
supposedly has no more desire or appetite to sin) BUT you will still sin,
since your Natural inclinations and desires are sinful, by nature; the fleeting
thought, the moment of distraction, feeling of resentment or anger, twinge of
fear or worry, all sin.
No worse in severity than falling back into lust, perversions, drunkenness etc,
it’s all the same to God.
So HOW do you Repent
of a Nature:
(other than 'Trust God will magically Change it from evil to good)
Since you're waiting for a Magic Desire change to come about there cannot be an
actual 'Turning from specific acts of sin involved because the sin is what you
are NOT what you DO! The (supposed) New Nature has to effect the
desire change, effortlessly, based on your faith (trust) in Jesus. You will
still sin, but not 'Continue in it because you (supposedly) love Him more than
you love sin. The goal is to 'never sin, but not as an effort to gain
Righteousness, only out of your affection and love for God. Having the Divine
Nature doesn’t mean you no longer sin but are ‘given the desire to not sin. So
even the ‘desire to sin less must come from God, not from the choices you make
by resolving to serve Him acceptably with reverence and godly fear.
All this sounds good to the ears, a new nature, new desires, the Spirit at work, but where is the imperative to produce deeds worthy of repentance and crucify the flesh? They say that all you need is love and the rest falls into place, while its true enough in that faith worketh by love, but a faith that did not originate in faithfulness to His commands to begin with and only rests in a gratefulness for what Jesus did, will not exert the effort required to put to death the deeds of the body as directed in Rom6:4-6, because effort implies merit and that would make salvation dependent on works. The problem with this is that it puts the cart before the horse so to speak. Man has to be given a New nature BEFORE he is able to Obey God and do anything pleasing in His sight. That puts producing deeds worthy of repentance on the back burner, which is Commanded to be the FIRST act of obedience toward God through which man can be saved. 'But God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. Rom6:16 (they can’t obey from a heart that is by nature sinful)
In Scripture the first act of faith is obedience to the truth, man is told to come and Reason with God in the act of reconciliation, meaning what is agreeable to logic and reason must be done before he can expect to be forgiven of his past sins and returned to favor; as in: 'Laying aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, amend his ways, producing deeds worthy of repentance, vehemently changing his desires with fear and zeal, cleansing himself of all guile and deceit and empty his heart of double-minded motives', NOT to make himself Holy (save himself) But as an act of obedience toward God in all humility as his 'reasonable service. When you make man unable to do these things (as commanded) due to some nature dwelling in him, you render true Redemption impossible.
This is why they 'receive rather than repent, 'trust rather than 'Obey and NEVER Stop sinning, even with their New Nature. The desire change has to come from within; God cannot and will not override man’s will, only you can make the necessary change required to be reconciled.
They’re told you come to Jesus admitting you’re a sinner and ‘desiring to sin no more, then they say that He supposedly gives you the desire to stop by changing your nature from naughty to nice. But the predicament remains;
they still have a problem with sin! And by sin, they mean ‘ANY sin; (since they won’t make a distinction) Because they didn’t repent of anything specific, like porn watching, drunkenness, fornication, etc, nothing they continue to do has much of an impact on their conscience toward convicting them of wrong doing. That’s why the sin nature myth is the perfect recipe to sear your conscience with a hot iron. (It’s always the ready excuse for ongoing sins)
Wouldn't it stand to reason that a person has to know what they are repenting of before they can forsake the things
God hates? When Jonah told the people of Nineveh to repent they didn't wait around for God to give them a New Nature to magically change their desires from evil to good. They ceased the evil of their doings and went humbly before God seeking His mercy. Any number of scriptural incidents can be sighted here; Zacchaeus the tax collector made amends for all his wrong doing BEFORE He came to Jesus seeking reconciliation, the Prodigal rose up OUT of the Pig Pen and then went to the Father seeking His forgiveness. John the Baptist told everyone to Produce Deeds WORTHY of Repentance before their past sins could be remitted. Jesus told His disciples to preach Repentance for Remission. And throughout the book of Acts this theme followed, people didn’t just ‘receive Jesus or ask God for a New nature, they came form darkness to light, from the power of Satan to God through repentance and faith proven by deeds. The point is that the people who heard the message of repentance and faith understood the specifics and that it meant forsaking their wrong doings and ridding themselves of everything in their life that offends God.
They didn’t look for excuses to keep on sinning or run around parroting ‘If I say I have no sin, I lie and know not the truth’, or argued in favor of a sin nature. You didn’t hear anyone saying ‘no one is perfect, we all sin, Judge not, its not of works, and they didn’t accuse the Righteous of sin. In contrast the sin nature crowd says all these things and more in direct opposition to the bible and MOST professed Christians can’t see it or just don’t care one way or the other, claiming that it doesn’t matter what someone believes as long as they ‘believe in Jesus.
Lastly let's Clarify the 'He will give you a New Heart issue', Ezk33:26-27, there no doubt that a Renewing of the mind takes place in Regeneration, 'Washing, Renewing and Regeneration' Tit3:7, the 'Eyes of the Understanding are miraculously opened to a new Spiritual realm. Its much more than the a desire change, it’s a radical transformation that renovates the entire human being from top to bottom. Although he continues to live in his 'mortal body (fleshly coil) he now does so 'crucified with Christ. (Gal2:20) The great difficulty people have understanding this today is based on the fallacy of a Sin Nature dwelling in man's flesh that makes him a sinner 'by nature. They understand the desires must change but put the entire process on God (faith alone) to Magically give them a new nature that 'desires to sin not. Whereas the process is that man must FIRST put forth the effort in humble repentance to get clear of his wrong doings and empty himself of all guile and deceit. In this he is 'MAKING himself a new heart (or let's say a prepared heart, Ezk18:31, Prov16:1, Lk8:15) so God is able to introduce the Spirit into a Vessel FIT for His use. He is NOT making himself 'holy, as the sin nature crowd claims, but there has to be a Scrubbing and Cleansing take place before an actual regeneration can occur to complete the job. And that's what they ALL deny!
It's really very simple, its not man doing it all by himself, or God doing it all, BUT the concept they all seem to hate of 'Working Together' 'Synergy, a scientific term defining the Physics of God's universal creation, that the creation of a whole is the sum of its parts! In other words Regeneration Cannot take place unless two things occur simultaneously, man Doing his part and God responding. So if you eliminate the laying aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness, the casting away of all transgressions, the amending of wrong doings, the self-cleansing humility of repentance there will be no New heart given, because it cannot happen without Synergy involved. James2:22,
Faith, Pistis, that worked in tandem, Synergeo, with his effort; ergon-works, resulted in Justification and was imputed as Righteousness! Man can't Regenerate himself, but he can clear himself of all things that offend God in the act of repentance. Sin Nature says he can't do anything and if he makes any effort whatsoever, he's trying to self-Justify, make himself holy, sinless and perfect without Jesus …. ALL Lies, stupid straw man assumptions that people buy because they want the easy way out to escape their responsibility to come clean. Such backward philosophy doesn't work in any other endeavor in human life except religion. Those who don't put forth the effort to succeed in life are losers and dead-beats, but in fake Christianity they are Chief theologians, scholars and notable church goers.