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发帖数: 5754 | 1 Chapter 1.7 Overcoming The Accuser
In view of what we have said we can now turn to face the enemy, for there is
a further aspect of the Blood which is Satanward. Satan’s most strategic
activity in this day is as the accuser of the brethren (Rev. 12:10) and it
is as this that our Lord confronts him with His special ministry as High
Priest “through his own blood” (Hebrews 9:12).
How then does the Blood operate against Satan? It does so by putting God on
the side of man against him. The Fall brough... 阅读全帖 |
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发帖数: 5754 | 2 Chapter 2: The Cross of Christ
We have seen that Romans 1 to 8 falls into two sections, in the first of
which we are shown that the Blood deals with what we have done, while in the
second we shall see that the Cross(2) deals with what we are. We need the
Blood for forgiveness; we need also the Cross for deliverance. We have dealt
briefly above with the first of these two and we shall move on now to the
second; but before we do so we will look for a moment at a few more features
of this passage w... 阅读全帖 |
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发帖数: 5754 | 3 Chapter 2.1 Some Further Distinctions
Two aspects of the resurrection are mentioned in the two sections, in
chapters 4 and 6. In Romans 4:25 the resurrection of the Lord Jesus is
mentioned in relation to our justification: “Jesus our Lord... was
delivered up for our trespasses, and was raised for our justification.”
Here the matter in view is that of our standing before God. But in Romans 6:
4 the resurrection is spoken of as imparting to us new life with a view to a
holy walk: “That like as Chr... 阅读全帖 |
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发帖数: 5754 | 4 Chapter 2.2 Man’s State By Nature
We come therefore to Romans 5:12-21. In this great passage, grace is brought
into contrast with sin and the obedience of Christ is set against the
disobedience of Adam. It is placed at the beginning of the second section of
(Romans 5:12 to 8:39) with which we shall now be particularly concerned,
and its argument leads to a conclusion which lies at the foundation of our
further meditations. What is that conclusion? It is found in verse 19
already quoted: “For as ... 阅读全帖 |
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发帖数: 5754 | 5 Chapter 2.3 As In Adam So In Christ
In Romans 5:12 to 21 we are not only told something about Adam; we are told
also something about the Lord Jesus. “As through the one man’s
disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of
the one shall the many be made righteous.” In Adam we receive everything
that is of Adam; in Christ we receive everything that is of Christ.
The terms ‘in Adam’ and ‘in Christ’ are too little understood by
Christians, and, at the risk of repetition, I... 阅读全帖 |
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发帖数: 5754 | 6 Chapter 2.4 The Divine Way of Deliverance
God clearly intends that this consideration should lead to our practical
deliverance from sin. Paul makes this quite plain when he opens chapter 6 of
his letter with the question: “Shall we continue in sin?” His whole being
recoils at the very suggestion. “God forbid!”, he exclaims. How could a
holy God be satisfied to have unholy, sin-fettered children? And so “how
shall we any longer live therein?” (Romans 6:1, 2). God has surely
therefore made adequat... 阅读全帖 |
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发帖数: 5754 | 7 Chapter 2.5 His Death and Resurrection Representative and Inclusive
The Lord Jesus, when He died on the Cross, shed His Blood, thus giving His
sinless life to atone for our sin and to satisfy the righteousness and
holiness of God. To do so was the prerogative of the Son of God alone. No
man could have a share in that. The Scripture has never told us that we shed
our blood with Christ. In His atoning work before God He acted alone; no
other could have a part. But the Lord did not die only to shed... 阅读全帖 |
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发帖数: 5754 | 9 Chapter 3: The Path of Progress: Knowing
Our old history ends with the Cross; our new history begins with the
resurrection. “If any man is in Christ, he is a new creature: the old
things are passed away; behold they are become new” (2 Cor. 5:17). The
Cross terminates the first creation, and out of death there is brought a new
creation in Christ, the second Man. If we are ‘in Adam’ all that is in
Adam necessarily devolves upon us; it becomes ours involuntarily, for we
have to do nothing to get it... 阅读全帖 |
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发帖数: 5754 | 10 Chapter 3.1 Our Death With Christ A Historic Fact
Romans 6:1-11 is the passage before us now. In these verses it is made clear
that the death of the Lord Jesus is representative and inclusive. In His
death we all died. None of us can progress spiritually without seeing this.
Just as we cannot have justification if we have not seen Him bearing our
sins on the Cross, so we cannot have sanctification if we have not seen Him
bearing us on the Cross. Not only have our sins been laid on Him but we
our... 阅读全帖 |
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发帖数: 5754 | 11 Chapter 3.2 The First Step: “Knowing This...”
The normal Christian life must begin with a very definite ‘knowing’, which
is not just knowing something about the truth nor understanding some
important doctrine. It is not intellectual knowledge at all, but an opening
of the eyes of the heart to see what we have in Christ.
How do you know your sins are forgiven? Is it because your pastor told you
so? No, you just know it. If I ask you how you know, you simply answer, ‘I
know it!’ Such knowledge com... 阅读全帖 |
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发帖数: 5754 | 12 Chapter 3.3 Divine Revelation Essential To Knowledge
So our first step is to seek from God a knowledge that comes by revelation—
a revelation, that is to say, not of ourselves but of the finished work of
the Lord Jesus Christ on the Cross. When Hudson Taylor, the founder of the
China Inland Mission, entered into the normal Christian life it was thus
that he did so. You remember how he tells of his long-standing problem of
how to live ‘in Christ’, how to draw the sap out of the Vine into himself.... 阅读全帖 |
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发帖数: 5754 | 13 chapter 3.4 The Cross Goes To The Root Of Our Problem
Let me remind you again of the fundamental nature of that which the Lord has
done on the Cross. I feel I cannot press this point too much for we must
see it. Suppose, for the sake of illustration, that the government of your
country should wish to deal drastically with the question of strong drink
and should decide that the whole country was to go ‘dry’, how could the
decision be carried into effect? How could we help? If we were to search
ev... 阅读全帖 |
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发帖数: 5754 | 14 Chapter 4: The Path of Progress: Reckoning
We now come to a matter on which there has been some confusion of thought
among the Lord’s children. It concerns what follows this knowledge. Note
again first of all the wording of Romans 6:6: “Knowing this, that our old
man was crucified with Him”. The tense of the verb is most precious for it
puts the event right back there in the past. It is final, once-for-all. The
thing has been done and cannot be undone. Our old man has been crucified
once and for... 阅读全帖 |
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发帖数: 5754 | 15 chapter 4.1 The Second Step: “Even So Reckon...”
What does reckoning mean? ‘Reckoning’ in Greek means doing accounts book-
keeping. Accounting is the only thing in the world we human beings can do
correctly. An artist paints a landscape. Can he do it with perfect accuracy?
Can the historian vouch for the absolute accuracy of any record, or the map
-maker for the perfect correctness of any map? They can make, at best, fair
approximations. Even in everyday speech, when we try to tell some incident... 阅读全帖 |
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D******r
发帖数: 637 | 16 zan
accuracy?
map
fair
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发帖数: 5754 | 17 chapter 4.2 The Reckoning Of Faith
The first four-and-a-half chapters of Romans speak of faith and faith and
faith. We are justified by faith in Him (Rom. 3:28; 5:1). Righteousness, the
forgiveness of our sins, and peace with God are all ours by faith, and
without faith in the finished work of Jesus Christ none can possess them.
But in the second section of Romans we do not find the same repeated mention
of faith, and it might at first appear that the emphasis is therefore
different. It is not r... 阅读全帖 |
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发帖数: 5754 | 18 chapter 4.3 Temptation And Failure, The Challenge To Faith
For us, then, the two greatest facts in history are these: that all our
sins are dealt with by the Blood, and that we ourselves are dealt with
by the Cross. But what now of the matter of temptation? What is to be
our attitude when, after we have seen and believed these facts, we
discover the old desires rising up again? Worse still, what if we fall
once more into known sin? What if we lose our temper, or worse? Is the
w... 阅读全帖 |
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发帖数: 5754 | 19 chapter 4.4 Abiding In Him
Now although we have already spent long on this matter, there is a further
thing that may help to make it clearer to us. the Scriptures declare that we
are “dead indeed”, but nowhere do they say that we are dead in ourselves.
We shall look in vain to find death within; that is just the place where it
is not to be found. We are dead not in ourselves but in Christ. We were
crucified with Him because we were in Him.
We are familiar with the words of the Lord Jesus, “Abide... 阅读全帖 |
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发帖数: 5754 | 20 Chapter 5: The Divide of the Cross
The kingdom of this world is not this kingdom of God. God had in His heart a
world-system - a universe of His creating—which should be headed up in
Christ His Son (Col. 1:16, 17). But Satan, working through man’s flesh, has
set up instead a rival system known in Scripture as “this world”—a
system in which we are involved and which he himself dominates. He has in
fact become “the prince of this world” (John 12:31).
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发帖数: 5754 | 21 Chapter 5.1 Two Creations
Thus, in Satan’s hands, the first creation has become the old creation, and
God’s primary concern is now no longer with that but with a second and new
creation. He is bringing in a new creation, a new kingdom and a new world,
and nothing of the old creation, the old kingdom or the old world can be
transferred to the new. It is a question now of these two rival realms, and
of which realm we belong to.
The apostle Paul, of course, leaves us in no doubt as to which of thes... 阅读全帖 |
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D******r
发帖数: 637 | 22 too long in every post
no time to read that much
and
new
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and
two
delivered
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发帖数: 5754 | 23 Chapter 5.2 Burial Means An End
Peter goes on now to describe baptism in the passage just quoted as “the
answer of a good conscience toward God” (1 Peter 3:21 A.V.). Now we cannot
answer without being spoken to . If God had said nothing we should have no
need to answer. But He has spoken; He has spoken to us by the Cross. By it
He has told of His judgment of us, of the world, of the old creation and of
the old kingdom. The Cross is not only Christ’s personally—an ‘individual
’ Cross. It is an al... 阅读全帖 |
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发帖数: 5754 | 24 chapter 5.3 Resurrection Unto Newness Of Life
"If we have become united with him by the likeness of his death, we
shall be also be the likeness of his resurrection (Rom. 6:5).
Now with resurrection the figure is different because something new is
introduced. I am "baptized into his death", but I do not enter in quite
the same way into His resurrection, for, Praise the Lord! His
resurrection enters into me, imparting to me a new life. In the death
of the Lord the emphasis is ... 阅读全帖 |
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l**********t
发帖数: 5754 | 25
sorry sishu I missed your posts earlier.
I post each section as I read thru them. It seems each section takes about 7
to 10 min to read, and one chapter (3 to 5 sections) would be 30 min to 1
hr, one day's reading assignment.
breaking into smaller pieces would may break the structure of the the book
and make it harder to follow the author's thread of thoughts. |
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发帖数: 5754 | 26 Chapter 6: The Path of Progress: Presenting Ourselves to God
Our study has now brought us to the point where we are able to consider
the true nature of consecration. We have before us the second half of
Romans 6 from verse 12 to the end. In Romans 6:12, 13 we read: "Let not
sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey the lusts
thereof: neither present your members unto sin as instruments of
unrighteousness; but present yourselves unto God, as alive from the
... 阅读全帖 |
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发帖数: 5754 | 27 Chapter 6.1 The Third Step: “Present Yourselves...”
Let us observe that this ‘presenting’ relates to the members of my body—
that body which, as we said earlier, is now unemployed in respect to sin. “
Present yourselves... and your members”, says Paul, and again: “Present
your members” (Romans 6:13, 19). God requires of me that I now regard all
my members, all my faculties, as belonging wholly to Him.
It is a great thing when I discover I am no longer my own but His. If the
ten shillings in my p... 阅读全帖 |
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发帖数: 5754 | 28 Chapter 6.2 Separated Unto The Lord
What is holiness? Many people think we become holy by the eradication of
something evil within. No, we become holy by being separated unto God. In
Old Testament times, it was when a man was chosen by God to be altogether
His that he was publicly anointed with oil and was then said to be ‘
sanctified’. Thereafter he was regarded as set apart to God. In the same
manner even animals or material things—a lamb, or the gold of the temple—
could be sanctified, not by... 阅读全帖 |
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发帖数: 5754 | 29 chapter 6.3 Servant Or Slave?
If we give ourselves unreservedly to God, many adjustments may have to be
made: in family, or business, or church relationships, or in the matter of
our personal views. God will not let anything of ourselves remain. His
finger will touch, point by point, everything that is not of Him, and He
will say: ‘This must go’. Are you willing? It is foolish to resist God,
and always wise to submit to Him. We admit that many of us still have
controversies with the Lord. He wan... 阅读全帖 |
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发帖数: 5754 | 30 Chapter 7: The Eternal Purpose
We have spoken of the need of revelation, of faith and of consecration, if
we are to live the normal Christian life. But unless we see the end God has
in view we shall never clearly understand why these steps are necessary to
lead us to that end. Before therefore we consider further the question of
inward experience, let us first look at the great Divine goal before us.
What is God’s purpose in creation and what is His purpose in redemption? It
may be summed up in ... 阅读全帖 |
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发帖数: 5754 | 31 chapter 7.1 Firstborn Among Many Brethren
This consideration takes us forward into Romans chapter 8 where the topic is
developed in verses 16 to 18 and again in verses 29 and 30. Paul says: “We
are children of God: and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-
heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also
glorified with him. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time
are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed to us”
(Romans ... 阅读全帖 |
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发帖数: 5754 | 32 chapter 7.2 The Grain Of Wheat
But how could God’s only begotten Son become His first begotten? The method
is explained in John 12:24: “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a
grain of wheat fall into the earth and die, it abideth by itself alone; but
if it die, it beareth much fruit.” Who was that grain? It was the Lord
Jesus. In the whole universe God had only one ‘grain of wheat’; He had no
second grain. God put His one grain of wheat into the ground and it died,
and in resurrection the only... 阅读全帖 |
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发帖数: 5754 | 33 chapter 7.3 The Choice That Confronted Adam
God planted a great number of trees in the garden of Eden, but “in the
midst of the garden”—that is, in a place of special prominence—He planted
two trees, the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
Adam was created innocent; he had no knowledge of good and evil. Think of a
grown man, say thirty years old, who has no sense of right or wrong, no
power to differentiate between the two! Would you not say such a man was
undeveloped? W... 阅读全帖 |
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发帖数: 5754 | 34 chapter 7.4 Adam’s Choice The Reason For The Cross
Adam chose the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and thereby took up
independent ground. In doing so he became (as man is now in his own eyes) a
‘fully developed’ man. He could command a knowledge; he could decide for
himself; he could go on or stop. From then on he was “wise” (Genesis 3:6).
But the consequence for his was death rather than life, because the choice
he had made involved complicity with Satan and brought him therefore under
... 阅读全帖 |
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发帖数: 5754 | 35 chapter 7.5 He That Hath The Son Hath The Life
There are various planes of life. Human life lies between the life of the
lower animals and the life of God. We cannot bridge the gulf that divides us
from the plane above or the plane below, and the distance that separates us
from the life of God is vastly greater than that which separates us from
the life of the lower animals.
In China one day I called on a Christian leader who was sick in bed, and
whom, for the sake of this story, I shall call ‘M... 阅读全帖 |
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发帖数: 5754 | 36 chapter 7.6 They Are All Of One
God wants sons who shall be joint-heirs with Christ in glory. That is His
goal; but how can He bring that about? Turn now to Hebrews 2:10 and 11: “It
became him, for whom are all things, and through whom are all things, in
bringing many sons unto glory, to make the author of their salvation perfect
through sufferings. For both he that sanctifieth and they that are
sanctified are all of one: for which cause he is not ashamed to call them
brethren.”
There are two pa... 阅读全帖 |
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发帖数: 5754 | 37 Chapter 8: The Holy Spirit
We have spoken of the eternal purpose of God as the motive and explanation
of all His dealings with us. Now, before we return to our study of the
phases of Christian experience as set forth in Romans, we must digress yet
again in order to consider something which lies at the heart of all our
experience as the vitalizing power of effective life and service. I refer to
the personal presence and ministry of the Holy Spirit of God.
And here, too, let us take as our startin... 阅读全帖 |
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发帖数: 5754 | 38 Chapter 8.1 The Spirit Outpoured
Let us turn first to Acts chapter 2 verses 32 to 36: ”(32) This Jesus did
God raise up, whereof we all are witnesses. (33) Being therefore by the
right hand of God exalted, and having received of the Father the promise of
the Holy Ghost, he hath poured forth this, which ye see and hear. (34) For
David ascended not into the heavens: but he saith himself, The Lord said
unto my Lord, sit thou on my right hand, (35) Till I make thine enemies the
footstool of thy feet... 阅读全帖 |
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发帖数: 5754 | 39 chapter 8.2 Faith Is Again The Key
As for forgiveness, so equally for the coming upon us of the Holy Spirit,
the whole question is one of faith. As soon as we see the Lord Jesus on the
Cross, we know our sins are forgiven; and as soon as we see the Lord Jesus
on the Throne, we know the Holy Spirit has been poured out upon us. The
basis upon which we receive the enduement of the Holy Spirit is not our
praying and fasting and waiting, but the exaltation of Christ. Those who
emphasize tarrying and ... 阅读全帖 |
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发帖数: 5754 | 40 chapter 8.3 The Diversity Of The Experience
But you ask: How shall I know that the Holy Spirit is come upon me?' I
cannot tell how you will know, but you will know. No description has
been given us of the personal sensations and emotions of the disciples
at Pentecost. We do not know exactly how they felt, but we do know that
their feelings and behaviour were somewhat abnormal, because people
seeing them said they were intoxicated. When the Holy Spirit falls upon
God's people... 阅读全帖 |
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发帖数: 5754 | 41 chapter 8.4 The Spirit Indwelling
We move on now to the second aspect of the gift of the Holy Spirit, which,
as we shall see in our next chapter, is more particularly the subject of
Romans 8. It is that which we have spoken of as the Spirit indwelling. “If
so be that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you...” (Romans 8:9). As with the
Spirit outpoured, so with the Spirit indwelling, if we are to know in
experience that which is ours in fact, our first need is of Divine
revelation. When we see Christ ... 阅读全帖 |
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发帖数: 5754 | 42 chapter 8.5 The Treasure In The Vessel
Do you know, my friends, that the Spirit within you is very God? Oh that our
eyes were opened to see the greatness of God’s gift! Oh that we might
realize the vastness of the resources secreted in our own hearts! I could
shout with joy as I think, ‘The Spirit who dwells within me is no mere
influence, but a living Person; He is very God. The infinite God is within
my heart!’ I am at a loss to convey to you the blessedness of this
discovery, that the Holy Sp... 阅读全帖 |
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发帖数: 5754 | 43 chapter 8.6 The Absolute Lordship Of Christ
“Know ye not that your body is a temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you,
which ye have from God? and ye are not your own; for ye were bought with a
price: glorify God therefore in your body” (1 Cor. 6:19, 20).
This verse now takes us a stage further, for, when once we have made the
discovery of the fact that we are the dwelling place of God, then a full
surrender of ourselves to God must follow. When we see that we are the
temple of God we shall imm... 阅读全帖 |
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R*o
发帖数: 3781 | 44 thanks for posting this good article
, |
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发帖数: 5754 | 45 Chapter 9: The Meaning and Value of Romans Seven
We must return now to our study of Romans. We broke off at the end of
chapter 6 in order to consider two related subjects, namely, God’s eternal
purpose, which is the motive and goal of our walk with Him, and the Holy
Spirit, who supplies the power and resource to bring us to that goal. We
come now to Romans 7, a chapter which many have felt to be almost
superfluous. Perhaps indeed it would be so if Christians really saw that the
old creation has ... 阅读全帖 |
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发帖数: 5754 | 46 chapter 9.1 The Flesh And Man’s Breakdown
Romans 7 has a new lesson to teach us. It is found in the discovery that I
am “in the flesh” (Rom. 7:5), that “I am carnal” (7:18). This goes
beyond the question of sin, for it relates also the matter of pleasing God.
We are dealing here not with sin in its forms but with man in his carnal
state. The latter includes the former but it takes us a stage further, for
it leads to the discovery that in this realm too we are totally impotent,
and that “they tha... 阅读全帖 |
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发帖数: 5754 | 48 chapter 9.2 What The Law Teaches
Many Christians are suddenly launched into the experience of Romans 7 and
they do not know why. They fancy Romans 6 is quite enough. Having grasped
that, they think there can be no more question of failure, and then to their
utmost surprise they suddenly find themselves in Romans 7. What is the
explanation?
First let us be quite clear that the death with Christ described in Romans 6
is fully adequate to cover all our need. It is the explanation of that
death, wit... 阅读全帖 |
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发帖数: 5754 | 49 chapter 9.3 Christ The End Of The Law
In Romans 6 we saw how God delivered us from sin; in Romans 7 we see how He
delivers us from the Law. In chapter 6 we were shown the way of deliverance
from sin in the picture of a master and his slave; in chapter 7 we are shown
the way of deliverance from the Law in the picture of two husbands and a
wife. The relation between sin and the sinner is that of master to slave;
the relation between the Law and the sinner is that of husband to wife.
Notice first t... 阅读全帖 |
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发帖数: 5754 | 50 chapter 9.4 Our End Is God’s Beginning
Now that we have settled the doctrinal side of the question we must come
down to practical issues, staying a little longer with the negative aspect
and keeping the positive for our next chapter. What does it mean in everyday
life to be delivered from the Law? At the risk of a little overstatement, I
reply, “It means that from henceforth I am going to do nothing whatever
for God: I am never again going to try to please Him.” ‘What a doctrine!’
you exclaim. ‘... 阅读全帖 |
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