Le Misérable Qui Pue: Deux

Posted on March 29, 2023 by Elizabeth Welte in Freedom Fighters

“For the law of the Spirit of life [which is] in Christ Jesus [the law of our new being] has freed me from the law of sin and death.” – Romans 8:2 (AMP)

The last time I was with you I told of a gruesome way the Romans punished murders during their heyday of being an empire. I shared with you the possibilities of the apostle Paul witnessing these actions in the prisons he was put in, all because preaching Christ was crucified, resurrected, and ascended. I also shared with you how it may look when we keep our old selves shackled to our new selves in a spiritual aspect. I also advised you NOT to say that you’re a wretch of person, staring at yourself in the mirror, while you’re shaving. Cutting yourself shaving while you’re having one of those mental self-mortification moments can leave a stinging that can last the day.

But what I didn’t share with you is, “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.” (Romans 8:1) It wasn’t my intention to crush your hope or steal your joy, but it was my usual/unusual way of getting you to understand, in an extreme way, what God must see as we struggle with the old man we’re trying to put to death. It isn’t a good idea to put new wine into old wineskins, as Jesus plainly tells us in Matthew 9:17, so it isn’t a good idea to keep your old ways shackled to your new ways. Why? Because it’ll look like you have no way at all…and that isn’t a good idea.

Yes, God’s hatred of sin surpasses our meager understanding, “’My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,’ Says the LORD.” (Isaiah 55:9) but He’ll also reject any phony attempt at surrendering stuff, “Though you offer Me burnt offerings and your grain offerings, I will not accept them, Nor will I regard your fattened peace offerings.” (Amos 5:22) So, all in all, a holy God isn’t accepting an unholy anything, and though we are told that we aren’t much more than filthy rags before a mighty God, He gave us a way of escaping His full wrath, through Jesus Christ.

“Therefore, we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us” — Hebrews 12:1

Ya know something, it was about 20 years into Paul’s conversion when he scribbled the line “O wretched man that I am!” in Romans 7. Maybe, as he grew closer to God, his sensitivity to the carnality that still exists in his members grew as well. Maybe he could smell the stench of death a little better than he did when he was a Pharisee? Hmm…it’s been almost 20 years into my conversion, how sensitive have I become to the carnality that still exists in my members? Do I smell like death? May that not be!

I may never see the sin that so easily entangles me in the same light that God does but that doesn’t mean I can’t make it a goal. Yes, there are times when I get overwhelmed with the revelation that, even with all my fanciness, I ain’t nothing but a filthy rag before a righteous God. BUT, if I get any encouragement out of the Scripture and out of the “prayer closet,” as I put on that armor of God that Paul also spoke about, I feel as if Jesus knows what this belt of Truth, this breastplate of Righteousness, these shoes of Peace, this shield of Faith, and this helmet of Salvation feels like as one grabs the sword of the Spirit as goes forward into the battle that we call…today!

I wanna touch on and agree with author, Ted Bowling, as I close with this quote: “If we remain faithful, enduring to the end, God, through Jesus Christ, will completely renew us and cleanse the stench of our sinful ways, releasing us from ‘this body of death.’ Then, God willing, we can become a sweet savor in Hid nostrils. So, who will save this stinky wretch of a man? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I, myself, serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.”

Amen?

 

Written by Chris Hughes: Chris is a child of El Elyon, a son, a husband, and a father. He has an education in Biblical doctrine and is a graduate of The Colony of Mercy, 11/2003. He has been a Freedom Fighter contributor since 2008. You can email him at cphughes515@verizon.net.

---

This Week’s Verse to Memorize:  “Not a word failed of any good thing which the Lord had spoken to the house of Israel. All came to pass.” (Joshua 21:45)