There must be full submission and repentance in our lives. Thank God for the Holy Spirit and His promptings. In our practical life, we come across many situations, where we get discouraged and not being able to perform well to the standards of the Word. But considering that we are in the flesh, we cannot give an excuse of being in the flesh and we cannot take an opportunity to sin at all. We need to come to the Lord with a full submission. We have the Holy Spirit. Let us deal with sin, ruthlessly. Always be against the sin – coming through the situations, words, thought life etc.
Romans 12:1, ‘Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship’
Apostle Paul is urging the brethren, we can see his heart! Before the foundation of the world, He has seen us and gave us life, to live in this world and be pleasing to Him. We need to rest upon Him in this life. We need to be living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God – this is our spiritual service of worship.
Romans 11:36, ‘For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen’.
Everything is through Him and to Him be the glory forever, Amen!
We need to present our flesh as a body to Him as a living and holy sacrifice!
When we go through situations, we don’t have to be discouraged, as we hear a high level of life in our Churches – Whether it is a sickness in our body or the deeds of our flesh, let us repent and get up immediately, listening to the promptings of the Holy Spirit and do not get discouraged at all, staying in that state of depression! Repent and keep on moving ahead, looking unto Jesus!
2 Corinthians 10:3, ‘For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh’
Though we are in our flesh, we do not war against the flesh.
V4, ‘for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses’
The weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. Whatever the fortresses that we have built up, we need to go against them, by destroying them! We have the power as God has given us the power. This power of God will help us live an overcoming life in this world. This is the Word of the Cross. The Word is foolishness to those who perish but to those who have been saved or those who want to follow Jesus are getting saved, day by day because, they are judging themselves day by day!
V5, ‘We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ’
We need to overcome these speculations, In the path of our lives, there are speculations, coming up in our lives against the knowledge of God. There is a sovereignty of God. Everything is for Him, to Him and Through Him. We need to glorify God in our lives. In our thought life, any wrong attitude coming towards anyone, needs to be cleansed immediately as the snow needs to be cleared off, from the runway, in European countries, after the snow-fall. These wrong thoughts, we need to clear them up as soon as they come up and make them captive to the obedience of Christ. The snow (wrong thoughts) needs to be cleared off, not piled up and hardened! It needs to be shoveled off, not leading to destruction!
Romans 6:13, ‘and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God’.
Everyday of our lives, we need to present the members of our body as instruments of righteousness to God.
V14, ‘For sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace’
Under any circumstance, sin should not be master over us as we are under grace. It is only through Jesus Christ, grace has come. We need to strongly believe and strongly overpower the sin and surrender ourselves to God, by having a humble dependence on God, every day!
V15, ‘What then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? May it never be! 16Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness?’
You are the slaves to the one whom you obey! Obeying to the sin, results in death but when we obey to the promptings of the Holy Spirit, it results in righteousness. Jesus called us to the righteousness!
V17-18, ‘But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed, 18and having been freed from sin, you became slaves of righteousness’.
When the Word comes to our heart, we are obeying it. We need to commit to the teaching as they were! We can get freed from sin and can become slaves of righteousness, by our obedience to the teaching. Let us fully surrender ourselves to God, not to sin!
V19, ‘I am speaking in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness, resulting in further lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness, resulting in sanctification’.
We know the weakness of our flesh – always dragging us towards the attractions of the world and hostile towards God. It (Flesh) always prompts us to do that which is not from God. When we submit ourselves to righteousness, it is resulting in our ‘Sanctification’! We need to be sanctified every day in our lives.
V21, ‘Therefore what benefit were you then deriving from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the outcome of those things is death. 22 But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life’
When we become sanctified, the result/ outcome is the ‘Eternal life’! This is how we can come close to God, every day! We can grow in getting His nature every day in our lives! Let us completely surrender ourselves as holy and living sacrifice to God.
Romans 7:18, ‘For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the willing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not’.
As Apostle Paul is saying here, it should always be at the back of our minds that, ‘nothing good dwells in me, in my flesh’ and there is a willing but doing of the good is not!
V20, ‘But if I am doing the very thing I do not want, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me’. V22, ‘For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man’ V23, ‘but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members. 24 Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?’
As he came to a conclusion that ‘Wretched man that I am!’ We also come to a point where we realize that there is no good dwells in my flesh and we are also wretched! Who can bring change in me? If we really have this realization and attitude, God is able to help us to make the changes in our lives and to help us and enable us to grow in to His nature!
V25, ‘Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin’.
Romans 8:1, ‘Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus’
Thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord. If we humbly depend on Him, then there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus! Thank God for the promptings of the Holy Spirit that He gives, to work within us and to have His nature, every day of our lives!
Luke 5:31-32, ‘And Jesus answered and said to them, “It is not those who are well who need a physician, but those who are sick. 32I have not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.”’
We need to acknowledge that we are sinners and we need someone who can make us well and help us to be pleasing in Your sight, as Jesus said that, He came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance.
Matthew 9:27 – 28, ‘As Jesus went on from there, two blind men followed Him, crying out, “Have mercy on us, Son of David!” 28 When He entered the house, the blind men came up to Him, and Jesus *said to them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” They *said to Him, “Yes, Lord.”’
Jesus is asking us the same question, ‘Do you believe that I can change you? Change your ways? Change your attitude towards sin? All areas where you are struggling?’ When the two blind men said, ‘Yes, Lord’ – It shows their total submission – ‘Lord I believe you, You are able to heal us’.
V29, ‘Then He touched their eyes, saying, “It shall be done to you according to your faith.”’
In the same way, ‘It shall be done to us, according to our faith’! If we really know we are sick and ask the Lord to change our hearts, He is able to change us, according to our faith. Let us come humbly in full repentance to God, in our blindness towards many things, He will give us sight to see His nature and the knowledge of God will grow, every day in our lives.
Hebrews 2:18, ‘For since He Himself was tempted in that which He has suffered, He is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted’.
When we come to the Lord Jesus Christ, He will come near to us, and when we are tempted to sin, He will come to our rescue. He is a living God to help us when we submit ourselves as living sacrifice to God.
Hebrews 4:14-15, ‘Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. 15 For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin’
V16, ‘Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need’.
We have a sympathizing God with us who can deliver us from sin. We need to draw near to Him and not shrink back, having confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Hebrews 5:7, ‘In the days of His flesh, He offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His piety’.
This is what Jesus did, when He was on this earth. He offered prayers and supplications with a loud cry in His heart. We also need to do this.
Romans 12:2, ‘And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.’
We need to have this renewal of our mind, every day of our lives. Do not be conformed to this world and do not go after this world, following its standards in terms of fashion and its requirements! When we renew our minds, the will of God is clearly proven in our lives. God is able to transform us, through this into His likeness. Let us submit ourselves to Him.
Thank God for His Word.
