Lesson
18
Intro Review:
Observations on the flesh:
1. Paul presents the sin nature
in 2 ways that help us understand its impact on us.
#1 As a reigning monarch, or
ruler to whom we can offer our bodies to fulfill the ruler's
claims/desires. Rom 6:12-13a
#2 Paul pictures the sin nature
as a master, who orders one to act as it desires, as its slave. Rom 6:14,17,20
2. The term sin in these passages
in not referring to an act but to a governing disposition which demands acts;
commonly call it the sin nature.
3. When the flesh rules, the
individual is oriented away from God and is focused totally on his own selfish
desires; and as a result can do nothing
that pleases God. Rom 8:5-8
4. The "flesh," the sin
nature, can only be countered by regeneration and the ministry of the Holy
Spirit in the life.
- Use of Flesh as the sin
nature Rom. 7:5; 8:3-5,8,9; Gal 5:16,17,19; 6:8; Eph 2:3; 2 Pet 2:10,18; 1 John 2:16;
5. The "flesh," the sin nature, is a problem that man has, just
as being dead, that only God has an effective solution!
e. Every Unbeliever
is under the Wrath of God. 2:3b
This is something we all were before the cross; emph. by 2 things;
#1 imperfect middle indicative
of eivmi,; describes a continuous
condition in the past, what we were continually as unbeliever;
#2 "by nature" fu,sij speaks of origin, by birth, therefore by nature;
Here the innate or inherent quality referred to is our
"old nature" that is untouched by God's word.