Lesson 54 October 13,
2002
Review:
Summary of 5:11 continued:
5. Man's
pride and arrogance causes him to be offended when he discovers that his own
works are worthless.
a. Rem. we
as believers have 2 potential rulers of life,
they dominate by impacting our thinking and therefore our actions.
1. The indwelling Holy Spirit along with the
mind of Christ, the Word. (producing the character of Christ.) DGP
2. The indwelling SIN NATURE which is
programmed with a knowledge of good (human) and evil (Rom 6:12). HuGP
b. Know
that at any time that one of the 2 rulers of life is ruling, and you determine through your choices which
one is!
6. Not only
are man's works rejected by God as sufficient to satisfy His holiness, but
these works become the basis of his eternal condemnation. Rom 4:4; cf. Rev. 20:11-14
7. When
works are added to the grace message of the Cross, it neutralizes the offense
of the cross and it prevents the unbeliever from seeing Christ.
5:12 Why stop at Circumcision
Would that those who are
troubling you would even mutilate themselves.
Summary 5:12
1. Need to understand just how extremely strong
this statement is!
2. The
Logical progression of Paul's argument.
If circumcision is somehow a spiritual benefit to you, then why not go
all the way and cut it off.
3. Paul's
statement is designed to wake them up to the reality that legalism has no
spiritual benefit, legalism makes them
impotent spiritual.
Introduction to this next very important section.
It begins here in 5:13
and runs through 6:10 and there are 4 major parts to it.
#1 5:13-15
First
he takes the emphasis on freedom, specifically freedom from slavery to the law,
or law performance systems. (5:1)
Secondly
he takes from 5:6 the fact that faith works or is operational through
love!
He
will then make the point that it is through love that the whole law is
fulfilled.
#2 5:16-23
This
section really deals with and points out for us the mechanics of how what he
just said in 5:13-15 is actually
accomplished.
We
will discover that "walking by
the Spirit" is God's provision for dealing with the flesh.
#3 6:1-6
This
section follows up on the exhortation of 5:26.
Have
here in these verses expressed how all this is worked out in practical ways,
that is being slaves to one another
through love.
#4 6:7-10
Here
Paul brings his argument full circle with the metaphor of sowing and reaping!
5:13 Liberty verses license
The
choice is to enjoy your freedom in Christ, utilizing the resources that are
yours, or lapse back into slavery to the sin nature and its desires.
For you were called to freedom,
What's all this telling
us? That God called us through the
Gospel and that one of His motivations for that was for the purpose or on the
basis of the freedom/liberty that the
believer would experience and enjoy in Christ.