Prairie View Christian Church Norway, Iowa PastorTeacher Bill Wenstrom www'prairieviewchristian'org

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Prairie View Christian ChurchNorway,
IowaPastor-Teacher Bill Wenstromwww.prairievie
wchristian.org
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Tuesday September 9, 2008Romans Romans
711-Pauls Sin Nature Deceived And Killed Him
Through The Commandment Lesson 222
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Please turn in your Bibles to Romans 71.
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This evening in Romans 711, we will learn more
from Pauls own Christian experience since in it,
he teaches that because his sin nature seized a
base of operations through the commandment, it
deceived and killed him.
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Thus far in our studies of Romans chapter seven,
we have noted that in Romans 71-6, the apostle
Paul uses the analogy of marriage and argues that
the Christians bondage to the Law has been
severed because they have died with Christ and
have been freed from the Law and placed in union
with Christ.
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Romans 71-6, Or do you not know, brethren (for
I am speaking to those who know the law), that
the law has jurisdiction over a person as long as
he lives?
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For the married woman is bound by law to her
husband while he is living but if her husband
dies, she is released from the law concerning the
husband.
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So then, if while her husband is living she is
joined to another man, she shall be called an
adulteress but if her husband dies, she is free
from the law, so that she is not an adulteress
though she is joined to another man.
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Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die
to the Law through the body of Christ, so that
you might be joined to another, to Him who was
raised from the dead, in order that we might bear
fruit for God.
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For while we were in the flesh, the sinful
passions, which were aroused by the Law, were at
work in the members of our body to bear fruit for
death.
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But now we have been released from the Law,
having died to that by which we were bound, so
that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in
oldness of the letter.
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Then, we noted that beginning in verse 7 all the
way to the end of the chapter, Paul speaks of his
own personal experience with the Law in relation
to his sin nature.
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Romans 77-11, What shall we say then? Is the
Law sin? May it never be! On the contrary, I
would not have come to know sin except through
the Law
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for I would not have known about coveting if the
Law had not said, YOU SHALL NOT COVET. But sin,
taking opportunity through the commandment,
produced in me coveting of every kind for apart
from the Law sin is dead.
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I was once alive apart from the Law but when the
commandment came, sin became alive and I died and
this commandment, which was to result in life,
proved to result in death for me for sin, taking
an opportunity through the commandment, deceived
me and through it killed me.
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Pauls statement in Romans 711 explains his
statement in verse 10 and thus explains why this
is the case that the commandment resulted in him
experiencing loss of fellowship with God.
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Sin is the noun hamartia (a(martiva)
(ham-ar-tee-ah), which refers to the sin nature
as clearly indicated in that the word is being
strongly personified by the verb exapatao,
deceived and the verb apokteino, killed as
well as by the expression aphormen labousa,
taking opportunity.
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In verse 8, he uses the exact same expression
aphormen labousa, taking opportunity to
personify the sin nature.
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Taking is the verb lambano (lambavnw)
(lam-ban-o), which has as its subject the
articular form of the hamartia, sin, which
refers to the sin nature and it has as its direct
object, the noun aphorme, opportunity, thus, it
means, to seize.
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As was the case in verse 8, here in verse 11, the
verb and the noun aphorme are personifying the
sin nature, portraying it as engaging in a
military operation since the noun aphorme refers
to that from which an attack is launched, a
starting point, or a base of operations.
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That a military analogy is being used is
indicated by verses 9-11 where Paul speaks of the
sin nature killing him through the commandment
prohibiting coveting in the Mosaic Law.
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The picture is that the Law gave the sin nature
a base of operations to attack the soul of the
apostle Paul upon becoming a Christian so that
the sin nature could eventually kill him.
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1 Peter 211, Beloved, I urge you as aliens and
strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which
wage war against the soul.
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The verb is in the participle form and
functions as a participle of cause, indicating
that because the sin nature had seized a base
of operations through the tenth commandment that
appears in Exodus 2017, it deceived and killed
him.
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Romans 711, for sin, taking an opportunity
through the commandment, deceived me and through
it killed me.
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Opportunity is the noun aphorme (a)formhv)
(af-or-may), which depicts the sin nature as
engaging in a military operation against the soul
of the Paul in his regenerate state.
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Aphorme portrays the sin nature making the
tenth commandment in Exodus 2017 as its base of
operations and from that vantage point deceived
and killed Paul.
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Through the commandment indicates that the sin
nature seized a base of operations to war against
the soul of the apostle Paul through or by means
of the tenth commandment.
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Deceived is the verb exapatao (e)capatavw)
(ex-ap-at-ah-o), which means, to deceive or
seduce completely and thoroughly.
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In Romans 711, the verb is used with the sin
nature as its subject in relation to the apostle
Paul and means not only to give a false
impression but to actively lead astray.
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The sin nature caused Paul to believe or accept a
false idea about the commandment that it would
produce eternal life and holiness in him and make
him acceptable to God when in fact it was only
being used by the sin nature to deceive and cause
him to sin and thus get him out of fellowship
with God.
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Instead of giving him eternal life the
commandment only caused his sin nature to be
active in him and thus leading him to commit
personal sin and break the prohibition to not
covet.
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The commandment was simply the instrument used by
the sin nature to deceive Paul.
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Paul was deceived into thinking that he could
live under the Law, and fulfill the Law and
experience the life of God through obedience to
the Law.
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However, he found out quickly as a Christian that
attempting to live the spiritual life by strictly
adhering to the 613 mandates that appear in the
Law would only end in defeat and frustration for
him and loss of fellowship with God.
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This is why Christianity based upon adhering to a
specific set of rules and regulations is not
living spiritually in fellowship with God.
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The result of such an attempt to live the
Christian way of life will be guilt and defeat
and frustration and eventually giving up on God
and the Christian way of life.
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All the major denominations and organized
religion is all about such performance based
Christianity.
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The sin nature deceives us into thinking that
committing sin will result in satisfaction and
happiness and joy.
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In Romans 711, the meaning of the verb exapatao
teaches us that the sin nature is a liar since it
promises life but leads to death.
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Romans 711, for sin, taking an opportunity
through the commandment, deceived me and through
it killed me.
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Through it indicates that the sin nature killed
Paul in the sense that he lost fellowship with
God through or by means of the tenth
commandment.
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Killed is the verb apokteino (a)pokteivnw)
(ap-ok-ti-no), which is used of the sin nature
causing the apostle Paul to experience temporal
spiritual death as a Christian through the
commandment.
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As we noted in our previous studies in Romans
710 temporal spiritual death is related
exclusively to the believer and equivalent to
experiencing loss of fellowship with God.
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Spiritual death for the unbeliever is called
real spiritual death.
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As we noted in detail, in Romans 77-25, Paul is
speaking from his own personal experience as a
Christian and not as an unbeliever.
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Therefore, since real spiritual death is used
exclusively for the unbeliever and temporal
spiritual death is used exclusively of the
Christian, the latter is being referred to here
by Paul in Romans 711.
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Temporal spiritual death or loss of
fellowship with God takes place when the
believer commits mental, verbal or overt acts of
sin as a result of obeying the desires of the sin
nature.
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There is a distinction between the terms
relationship and fellowship.
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Since our relationship with God is eternal, it
can never be lost.
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Meanwhile, our fellowship with God, in time, can
be lost due to sin and is only restored through
the confession of sin to the Father (1 John 19).
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Fellowship is maintained by bringing ones
thoughts into obedience to the teaching of Jesus
Christ (2 Corinthians 103-5) through the power
of the Spirit, which constitutes obeying the
commands of Ephesians 518 to be influenced by
means of the Spirit and Colossians 316 to let
the Word of Christ richly dwell in your soul.
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Paul spoke of temporal spiritual death i.e.
loss of fellowship with God in Romans 616 and
speaks of it in Romans 79-10.
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Paul develops further the concept of temporal
spiritual death for the believer in Romans
85-13.
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