It really is not hard at all to take God’s word and manipulate, dilute or water it down, and then try to make it say something else. In fact, it’s pretty common place today which might explain why so many ‘Christian’ denominations exist. And truth be told, this is not some ‘new thing’. Satan has been doing this ever since God first told Adam about staying away from that ‘one tree’...and if he ate of it, he would ‘surely die’. (Gen. 2:17). In came the serpent and showed us how to do it, how to take God’s word and turn it around to say just the opposite. You can read for yourself there in Gen. 3:1-6.

Paul even refers to that event in 2 Cor. 11:2-4, warning the same thing could happen to us. Then it is recorded there in his second letter to Timothy, for all the world to see, that a day would come when people would ‘no longer endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires...wanting their ears tickled...would gather up for themselves teachers (who would tell them what they wanted to hear) and would turn their ears away from the truth...” (2 Tim. 4:3-4)

It's amazing how we ‘believers’ can spend so much time pouring over and ‘studying’ God’s word...and still totally miss out on what it is saying to us. Jesus had to call out some folks about doing that exact thing in John 5:39-40. Paul refers to it as them ‘always learning but never coming to the knowledge of the truth’, which is what so many people who are walking in a ‘form of godliness’ tend to do. (2 Tim. 3:5-7)

Every now and then I will hear someone mention how their pastor ‘spent two years going through the book of Ephesians’ or maybe the past 15 months wading through Romans 6-8. I continue to be blown away how I can open up those very chapters in Romans today, and as I’m reading through them, find myself shaking my head and asking...”How did I miss all this?” You know...things like where Paul asked: “How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?” (6:2). He mentions 2-3 times in that same chapter how we were ‘set free from sin’ (17-22). Or how about that part where he writes: “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. He who has died has been freed from sin.” (4-7)

And yet sincere folks, both in the pews and behind the pulpits will unashamedly admit they continue to sin on a ‘daily basis’...pointing out though, it’s ‘not their spirit that sins, but their flesh’. Say what??? Then they try to take Paul’s statements in Romans 7:14-24 to suggest Paul was still....living like a sinner. Friends...I have addressed this before on multiple occasions...Paul was simply explaining the battle that we all experience as we come to Christ and recognize this ‘conflict’ that exists within us. There is this ‘wretched body of sin’ that prevents us from living for Christ and allowing Him to fulfill His law in us. He calls it our carnal nature in Rom. 8:7-8, making it clear...this nature is ‘hostile towards God and will not, nor cannot subject itself to the law of God.

After sharing how when he ‘wants to do good but evil is always present’, he cries out: “O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? (Rom. 7:24). But don’t stop there! He answers that question in the very next verse and continues writing in chapter 8...how Christ ‘delivers’ us! He leads us to put this nature to death, even warning that if we don’t deal with it, then we will ‘surely die’. (Rom. 8:13). Friends...this is not ‘symbolism, or some pseudo-metaphor where we can talk about the ‘theory’ of putting this ‘old man’ to death. It is the ‘real deal’, and those...who truly belong to Christ...have done this very thing. (Gal. 5:24) Go read that verse again...for the first time.

And if...and when we do this, by His Spirit, of course, there will be some ‘suffering’ as we take up our cross in obedience. But do you know what the end result is? We will have ‘ceased from sinning so that we might live the rest of our time here...doing the will of God’. (1 Pet. 4:1-2). I don’t think I need to remind you why ‘doing the will of God’ is important either. (Matt. 7:21)

So why else...is dealing with this carnal nature that important and so serious, even though many today dismiss this kind of talk and teaching? I’m glad you asked and tomorrow, Lord willing, we will answer that question, again.