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Greetings Daniel
My “clear.net email account is misbehaving so I will acknowledge your effort in the article Crucifying The Flesh on the JW Straight Talk Forum, giving public thanks for the kind and thoughtful scriptural explanation of the subject I had quizzed you on several days earlier..
The concepts of willingly putting are flesh to death in a spiritual sense is no casual conversation to be certain… But the thought of those chosen taking some time even years for some to fully put “it” to death brings some comfort or at least it helps in recognizing it is most definitely a process.. I read some of “Watchman Nee’s commentaries and he drove that thought home repeatedly..
Blessings to you my kind dedicated Daniel…
Brian

Brain,
As troubling as this subject is for all Christian's it is nevertheless the core truth which perfects our faith in God's goodness, rather than human good intentions by works of law.
None of us like being troubled with lust in our fleshly spirit because we have been transformed into the mind of Christ Jesus, but a priest of the good things to come our spiritual reality share in the sin offering at God's altar.
Without this divine process and God giving life to our mortal bodies we could not become vessels of mercy for setting creation free from the enslavement too sin. The thought and the lust of sin we all experience because we are sinners is the very wrestling that humbled the apostle Paul in his spirit and heart causing him acknowledge as we all must: “the worthless man I am! Who will rescue me from this death? Thanks be to our Lord Jesus Christ.
Yes, we are rescued in his righteousness earned by his sinless life, and we have to unconditionally accept the gift of undeserved kindness, without earned merit by something we can do, or perform in being righteous by some work of law.
I am thankful you are reading Watchman Nee there is much comfort and instruction in his writings. I have a number of his books listed for free on www.nu-truth.com
Your brother in Christ Jesus
Blessing,
Daniel

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Crucifying the Flesh
Gal.5:24 Those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and lusts.
What does it mean to crucify our flesh with its passions? For many it conjures up the idea of being relentless with our flesh and its desires. In other words, not killing the flesh, which is the thought of crucifying it, but rather taking strong measure with our flesh beating it mentally into it walks according to God's commandments.
Romans 3:20 Because by the works of the law, no flesh will be justified in his sight. For through the law comes the knowledge of sin.
But is this what the writer the apostle Paul had in mind when stating the verse above (Gal5:24), why do we ask such a question? It is because many since the time of Christ Jesus have done violence to themselves in cruel mistreatment of their flesh. Moreover, not only too oneself, but in many cases the killing literally of someone else flesh when not obeying the rule of law of a religion.
Acts 7:58 They threw him out of the city, and stoned him. The witnesses placed their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul.
Works of the Flesh
Many Christian's understand the works of the flesh as evil, which they define evil as the most egregious sins of the flesh, but a work/sin of the flesh according to God's word the bible can be as simple as lusting for the opposite sex, or holding a grudge, hating some one for wrong us.
Galatians 5:19 Now the works of the flesh are obvious, which are: adultery, sexual immorality, uncleanness, lustfulness.
So we should understand that in God's eyes there are only two kinds of works we can do. 1.) the works of the flesh literally being born into the sin of Adam and, 2.) the works of Christ Jesus being reborn into the life of Christ Jesus.
However, remembering these two types of works cannot be done at the same time, we must always be reminded that one work kills the the works of the other, but both cannot exist at the same time because one must die for the other work to live or be perform through us.
Romans 8:8 Those who are in the flesh can't please God.
The Fleshly Mind
Obviously, our flesh must have a mind to do works in our flesh, that is, the works we do under the sin of Adam. Just as the spirit body has a mind so does the fleshly body. But the question is what is the fleshly mind and its thoughts?
The fleshly mind is not a the spiritual mind, the fleshly mind was created when Adam and Eve chose for themselves to choose what was good and evil for their life. Hence, the fleshly mind is set upon rights and wrongs, according too what? Laws of the flesh, what are laws of our flesh? They are laws that control and govern our lives punishing us or condoning us for doing good, but they are not the laws of the spirit body and its mind.
Romans 8:7 because the mind of the flesh is hostile towards God; for it is not subject to God's law, neither indeed can it be.
Romans 8:4 that the ordinance of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
Romans 8:5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.
So when the fleshly mind hears that is must crucify its flesh, or that of another, what does it think? It first thinks of its own will, and its own works through self-control putting too death its own fleshly desires, it cannot think in any other manner, because when the fleshly mind is a live it is alienated from God's, and the mind of the spirit body.
Romans 8:7 because the mind of the flesh is hostile towards God; for it is not subject to God's law, neither indeed can it be.
The flesh knows one law the law of its flesh and what are these laws?
The Laws of The Flesh
The laws of the flesh have been stated above, they are laws alienated from the truth of God in Spirit and truth, which opposes and kills the laws of the Spirit. But more than this they are laws for punishing evil. Hence, the fleshly mind is set upon evil not good, how can we say this? It is because the fleshly mind was created by Adam, and Eve's rebellion against the Royal Law of God, which is love. The fleshly mind is alienated from God's mind, it is set upon the laws of its world which are designed to punish evil in people whom break fleshly laws. Once again what are fleshly laws? They are laws that govern and control the our lives under the sin of Adam, how can we say this?
Romans 8:12 So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh.
We can say this because God's words tells us that the laws of the flesh including the law given to Moses was for the wicked, and not the righteous, and what does that mean? It means that when a person sins they are unrighteous needing redemption from their sins, and where do they go for redemption of sin? Well, redemption does not come from their own fleshly will, in making it do more good works according to God's commandments, but rather a price has too be paid for our sins in order to right before God, redeemed, or forgiven for our sins debts against God's righteous laws.
1Tim.1:9 as knowing this, that law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and insubordinate, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for manslayers, 1:10 for the sexually immoral, for homosexuals, for slave-traders, for liars, for perjurers, and for any other thing contrary to the sound doctrine.
What is that price? It is the price of another innocent person or animal (animals under the law of Moses) redeeming us from our payment of debt to God for breaking his righteous laws. So the dilemma for the fleshly mind is to think in terms of more sins laws to judge the matter right and wrong for themselves, which is the equivalent of adding more sin to sin, which corrupts all the fleshly minds thinking into a legal laws book of do's and don't designed to punish the evil person and not the righteous person made clean from the blood God provided at His altar of redemption.
Romans 2:23 You who glory in the law, through your disobedience of the law do you dishonor God?
Romans 3:19 Now we know that whatever things the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be closed, and all the world may be brought under the judgment of God.
Romans 3:20 Because by the works of the law, no flesh will be justified in his sight. For through the law comes the knowledge of sin.
Yes, when a man is declared righteous by precious blood of God's Son a fleshly mind judgment is of no value at all and is unrighteous, because the person has been freed by God Himself how does the mind of the flesh bring judgment again by laws of the flesh that one has just been forgiven for by God?
Romans 6:14 For sin will not have dominion over you. For you are not under law, but under grace.
Romans 7:5 For when we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were through the law, worked in our members to bring forth fruit to death.
Now recalling that the fleshly mind cannot know the spirit mind, one mind must be killed so other can produces works, rather they be in the spirit body or in the fleshly body.
The Mind of the Spirit Body
So what is the mind of the spirit body for Christian's? It is important not only answer this question, but to comprehend this matter spiritually to understand the putting too death of our flesh. The mind of the spirit body is the mind of God, under the Royal law of love, which has been rewarded and placed into the Son of God, which becomes our Spirit and Truth we worship in.
1 Corinthians 2:16 "For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he should instruct him?"{Isaiah 40:13} But we have Christ's mind.
Heb. 1:1 God, having in the past spoken to the fathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways,
1:2 has at the end of these days spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom also he made the worlds.
1:3 His Son is the radiance of his glory, the very image of his substance, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself made purification for our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;
We do not worship God by our fleshly mind set upon punishing us and other with laws that are designed for sinners/evil those not made clean by the blood of Christ Jesus, that is, made a righteous person through the good works of Christ Jesus blood, and not their own works under the mind of the fleshly body. Just as the flesh has a mind with many unrighteous desires and good desires, the body of spirit also has the mind of Christ, but what is Christ Jesus desires? The desire of the body of Christ Jesus is walking in love.
Romans 8:6 For the mind of the flesh is death, but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace;
Romans 8:7 because the mind of the flesh is hostile towards God; for it is not subject to God's law, neither indeed can it be.
2 Corinthians 13:11 Finally, brothers, rejoice. Be perfected, be comforted, be of the same mind, live in peace, and the God of love and peace will be with you.
The fruit of the Spirit do not excite the desires of our fleshly mind and its heart, it rather kills the desires of our flesh. In other words, there are no works of the fleshly mind in Christ Jesus, how do we know that? It is because Christ Jesus conquered the world of the flesh being put to death in it and made alive in the spirit.
Galatians 5:16 But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you won't fulfill the lust of the flesh.
Galatians 5:17 For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, that you may not do the things that you desire.
So Christ Jesus has the very mind of God for us and God's wisdom, by his righteous life which he earned for us the merit so we can stand before God without the judgment of the fleshly mind and its laws which punish the evil.
So although there are many members in Christ Jesus, that is, many branched graft onto the tree of life, Christ Jesus, there is only one mind in the body of Christ Jesus, which is the mind of God given to Christ Jesus because of his righteousness upon earth in obeying God's laws without sinning.
Romans 9:8 That is, it is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as a seed.
Galatians 3:16 Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. He doesn't say, "To seeds," as of many, but as of one, "To your seed,"{Genesis 12:7; 13:15; 24:7} which is Christ.
The Will of the Fleshly Mind
The fleshly mind has a will of its own to control its members, that is, a heart (member) that lust for the opposite sex, the will of the flesh can stop that thought demanding obedience to its mind of flesh. The eye may covet things of our neighbor, but the will of the flesh through the control of the mind can stop it from coveting. The fleshly body may reach to steal a material thing from another, but the mind of the fleshly body can says; no!
The tongue of the fleshly body may want to slander another, but the mind of the fleshly body bits the tongue into submission of the will of the body. So the fleshly body has works of good and evil within the same mind, heart, and soul, but are those works righteous works justified by God?
Dead Works
No! What are dead works? First we must understand that sin is death, and all that is produce from sin is more death, sin is not a body of life, it is a body of death, and corruption too our flesh. So it should be easy enough to conclude that works coming from something that is dead is dead. In other words, just because Adam and Eve lived on in their fleshly minds and body they were dead to God's mind, so in that day they died to God's mind.
Hence, what came from Adam and Eve where not God's works through His mind, but rather works coming through the fleshly mind of Adam and Eve, which are dead works too God, why? Because God is life, not death, all thought coming from God produce life, not death, because God does not have sin, and death in Him, He is immortal, or incorruptible life eternal, everlasting.
Thus, works of the fleshly mind are opposed to life, and are dead works, no matter how righteous the fleshly mind speakings God's word it cannot be righteous and says: “My words are everlasting life, they are words that bring everlasting life.” or can it say: “My works created life eternal.”
No they can't, not even if they come from God's word the bible! What comes through the fleshly mind is death, not life, and the fleshly mind is dead to the mind of Christ Jesus. Subsequently, when the bible speaks of dead works this is what it is talking about, how do we know this? It is because the scribes and Pharisee's spoke God's word, but those words became dead works because they did not produce life without God providing the blood for redemption which made the words line up with truth in putting faith in the blood.
John 5:39 "You search the Scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and these are they which testify about me. 5:40 Yet you will not come to me, that you may have life.
5:41 I don't receive glory from men. 5:42 But I know you, that you don't have God's love in yourselves.
So simply put, words spoken by the flesh mind producing works, and those works are dead works, why? Because there is no fleshly mind in Christ Jesus, Christ Jesus has the mind of our heavenly Father which is spiritual mind having spiritual law, which is love.
The Mind Producing Works
Can we not say it is the mind that produce the works of our bodies, is it not the director of the works, does and hand work from its own will, does the hand kill its own flesh so it can do good works? No it does not, all members of our fleshly body are connected to the direction of our mind, they do not individual have a greater or lesser will than the will of the body under who's the mind controlling the body.
How does the mind judge members of its own body that we cannot control such as the eye? Do we condemn our eyes with the laws of the wicked to give it greater will so it will mind the head of the body? How foolish would that be? Is it not the mind of the body to muster the will of the body to make the eye obey its orders to stop sinning in lusting for the opposite sex?
Romans 6:13 Neither present your members to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God, as alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.
How is judging the eye as evil going to make a real difference in changing the lust of our heart - seen through the eye? Whose will creates good works? The members on the body, or the will in the body through the mind of the body?
Romans 6:19 I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh, for as you presented your members as servants to uncleanness and to wickedness upon wickedness, even so now present your members as servants to righteousness for sanctification.
Members Belong too Christ
Romans 12:4 For even as we have many members in one body, and all the members don't have the same function,
Romans 12:5 so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.
Whom do we belong to if it is not the Christ! Do we belong to him or too a body of fleshly thinks in laws of good and evil, why do we ask this question? Does Christ have good and evil in him, that is, some laws of love and some laws of sin that punish the evil in us? No! laws of good and evil that is what they are called. The law of love is not evil because it has no sin in it, how do we know that? It is YHWH has no sin in Him, and He is the law of love, because He is love. So where are the laws of evil, they are found in the fleshly mind created by Adam and Eve for the human race.
Romans 12:17 Repay no one evil for evil. Respect what is honorable in the sight of all men.
Romans 12:21 Don't be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
There are but two minds, one of God's and the other of the flesh created by sin in choosing good and evil. So the fleshly body has a mind and a will, so does the Spirit body have a mind and a will that produce good works through its members? Yes, of course it does, it is the will of God found in Christ Jesus, because Christ has the mind of God.
Does the members of Christ have individual wills that kills the flesh and its desires, will that is what the fleshly mind teaches. It teaches you can be in Christ Jesus and used the will or our flesh to kill the flesh, now how stupid is that would that not be suicide? And if a fleshly mind committed suicide with its own self-will would the person be anymore acceptable or righteous to God?
John 15:1 "I am the true vine, and my Father is the farmer.
15:2 Every branch in me that doesn't bear fruit, he takes away. Every branch that bears fruit, he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. 15:3 You are already pruned clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. 15:4 Remain in me, and I in you. As the branch can't bear fruit by itself, unless it remains in the vine, so neither can you, unless you remain in me. 15:5 I am the vine. You are the branches. He who remains in me, and I in him, the same bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. 15:6 If a man doesn't remain in me, he is thrown out as a branch, and is withered; and they gather them, throw them into the fire, and they are burned.
15:7 If you remain in me, and my words remain in you, you will ask whatever you desire, and it will be done for you.
In fact, this was the teaching of the scribes and Pharisee's and is the teachings of most religions based upon works of self-rightness instead of Christ Jesus rightness give too us in a free gift of God's love.
Big Tree of Righteousness
Here standing before us is a big tree of righteousness, and on its branches are the fruits of life, our eating of these fruits produced by this big tree of righteousness we have life as long as we eat of the fruit. But should we stop eating of this trees fruit we die, we cannot sustain our life without the fruit from this tree.
That big tree of righteousness is Christ Jesus - for us, planted by God's own hands, it was not created by man's will or fleshly mind at all, it is a divine miracle given us by God, whom is the light of this world in a beautiful righteous life of the Son of God.
But whom are the branches on this big tree of righteousness, and where did the fruit come from, and what are the fruit upon this one big tree of righteousness? Well, let us consider that all stem from one source of righteousness, and all are made righteous by the root stock of the tree, it fruit, it branches, its trunk all of the tree is holy and righteous.
Romans 11:16 If the first fruit is holy, so is the lump. If the root is holy, so are the branches.
We can now see that there can be only one life within this tree, and from that life of the tree comes all other life, we can see that the works of the tree in producing fruit must come from the life of the will of the tree, not each individual branch, the branches are dependent upon the life of this tree. Without the life of the tree the branches are neither holy or righteous.
Romans 11:18 don't boast over the branches. But if you boast, it is not you who support the root, but the root supports you.
So the will of each branch on the tree must be killed, put to death so the will of the tree can take hold and produce good fruits of life for all those partaking of its holy fruit. But whom does the killing, the individual branches of the tree or the tree own righteousness?
1Cor. 1:30 But of him, you are in Christ Jesus, who was made to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption:
Nothing of Man
Here than we find the confusion for most Christian's, whose own will kills the flesh, is it their own will, or God's will? The fleshly mind teaches it is up to each individual Christian's to take up self-control killing the desires of our flesh that we might live righteous before God, but they don't teach that the flesh must die, not just its desires killed. In other words, the flesh must die, that is, be kill first, and than the desires no longer follow, correct? Go to the morgue and you will see no spirit in a corpus, it is dead, and so is its desires that come from the flesh.
Romans 6:7 For he who has died has been freed from sin.
Do we kill our flesh, or just pluck out an eye, or perhaps cut off a hand or two? But does this kill the desire of the flesh? No! Nothing of man, means just that, in the body of Christ Jesus there is nothing of the old fleshly man that was impaled with Christ Jesus, it is dead, and because the old fleshly man is dead in Christ Jesus he no longer lives, so that those dead in Christ Jesus can be resurrected and born a new/again into the spirit world under the law of love, having the mind of Christ Jesus.
Romans 8:10 If Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is alive because of righteousness.
Ephesians 2:1 You were made alive when you were dead in transgressions and sins.
Colossians 1:18 He is the head of the body, the assembly, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.
Colossians 2:12 having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead.
How are they born a new? Very simply, by being being graft into another life, not the old life of the fleshly mind tree planted in the Garden of Eden by Adam's sin, but a new life in the tree of life Christ Jesus. They are dead, dead to what the old tree of the flesh, now a new life flows through them from a righteous life of the new tree. Their desires, their fruit, and their life, and its will are new, every thing has changes, but the old branches shell in which holds the life of Christ the big tree of righteousness life they have been grafted into.
Romans 8:11 But if the Spirit of him who raised up Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised up Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.
Nothing of man sin is found in Christ Jesus, that is, the old man of Adam sin, it is dead by the very life of Christ Jesus, what does this mean? It has been killed, but how, by Christ Jesus dying, and removing the laws that account us as evil, yes, the laws of the flesh which are created by the fleshly mind to punish evil. Now can you punish sin/evil in a branch that has no life but a righteous life in it Christ Jesus?
Rom. 8:33 Who could bring a charge against God's chosen ones? It is God who justifies.
Rom.8:10 If Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the spirit is alive because of righteousness.
Rom.8:12 So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. 8:13 For if you live after the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
No man every hated his fleshly body, but feeds and cherishes its members not blaming the members of his own body for bad, or judging members as evil. How much more so the life of Christ Jesus we are graft into? Christ Jesus has no laws of evil in him, he has no sin, or flesh from Adam, so what value are laws for evil too punish his members as though they were individually wicked? Does our Lord punish his own body beating it with many blows like an evil slave, or does he feed and cherish his body members needing his help? Would a sane mind do such a thing? Would Christ pluck out his own eye, would he kill the Spirit of God working through his own body, no!
Eph.5:28 Even so husbands also ought to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself.
5:29 For no man ever hated his own flesh; but nourishes and cherishes it, even as the Lord also does the assembly;
5:30 because we are members of his body, of his flesh and bones.
Rom.8:34 Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, yes rather, who was raised from the dead, who is at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. 8:35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Could oppression, or anguish, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
Crucifying The Flesh
The hand is not crucified, it does not kill its own fleshly desires by its own will, no! It instead receives all of what is in the body the, good, and the bad. If the body dies so goes the hand and foot. Christ Jesus was crucified for our sins, thus, when we are grafted into Christ the big tree of righteousness, we have been given the death and life of Christ Jesus, we are not a separate life. However, when we walk again by the fleshly mind, we find we are dead to the mind of Christ Jesus.
Romans 14:8 For if we live, we live to the Lord. Or if we die, we die to the Lord. If therefore we live or die, we are the Lord's.
What does it mean to crucify the flesh, and its desires? First let us remember it is the law that excites sin in us, it is the law that brings us the knowledge of sin. Second, it is the removal of the law that kills sin in us. When Christ Jesus was crucified he abolished our judgment how? By our being grafted into his imperishable righteous life, which is sinless. Thus, Christ completed the law because he righteously kept it perfectly without sin for us, and we are grafted into Christ Jesus we are dead to the laws judgment, and any other laws of our flesh.
1 Corinthians 8:6 yet to us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we for him; and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and we live through him.
But when we put our minds upon the judgment of flesh, and its evil which is sin, and its laws, hence, Christ Jesus mind is kill in us. So we have a dichotomy the more we try to kill our desires by our-self will the more we increase sin, and the more judgment we find ourselves in. This is why Jesus said stop judging, because when we judge we measure back judgments too our-self.
Romans 3:20 Because by the works of the law, no flesh will be justified in his sight. For through the law comes the knowledge of sin.
Romans 4:15 For the law works wrath, for where there is no law, neither is there disobedience.
Romans 5:20 The law came in besides, that the trespass might abound; but where sin abounded, grace abounded more exceedingly.
Romans 7:4 Therefore, my brothers, you also were made dead to the law through the body of Christ, that you would be joined to another, to him who was raised from the dead, that we might bring forth fruit to God.
Living In Faith
Faith is a much misunderstood word, and work among Christian's why? Because when it is muster from the fleshly mind through our fleshly body will it produces fruits of sins laws, what does that mean?
It mean's flesh faith has fruits of law which produce good works for the flesh, but those fruits are not the works of Christ Jesus whose fruit is of Holy Spirit. Christian's are to rest in the big tree of righteousness as a gift from God's love, what does this mean?
It means if a person finds themselves in a quick sand infested with diseases and sickness with no way out, and the only help is from a rescue team they must rest until help comes, because the more they fight the more they go into the quick sand. The flesh may want to fight but is does no good; one has to stop fighting and wait, they must trust that the rescue team will help them, it does not matter if they are a good person or not.
Psalms 27:14 Wait for Yahweh. Be strong, and let your heart take courage. Yes, wait for Yahweh.
It is the law of the land that requires the rescue team to help you, it was the State which hired them and trained them to help you, The rescue team does not judge right and wrong of a person personality, no! But to render aid.
John 8:15 You judge according to the flesh. I judge no one.
Resting goes against all human desire to live, but one must wait and follow the instruction of the teams captain. It will be their good works and training that will save you, not your own, you must rest and trust and claim your fears that is all you can offer in this operation, is it not?
Entrusted With Life
Christ Jesus was, and is, entrusted with the very glory of God, and what does this mean? It means Christ was entrusted with life for us, he is the rescue team, he has all the wisdom of God to deal with any sins of our flesh, in faith? Yes, it is our waiting upon Christ Jesus to act in helping us over come a sin, not our fighting in our flesh through self-will sinking even deeper into the pit of despondency, Christ Jesus is not judging us by our good works, or by our bad ones, he is not judging anyone at all, he is here to rescue us from sin, he has abolished our judgment by his life.
John 12:47 If anyone listens to my sayings, and doesn't believe, I don't judge him. For I came not to judge the world, but to save the world.
Can we rest in the Lord, and what does that mean? Can we rest that he is good enough, that God does not lie? Can we honestly comprehend that we can never not be a sinner, but we can rest in Christ Jesus having a good conscience that he removed our judgment?
1 Peter 3:21 This is a symbol of baptism, which now saves you--not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Do we understand that we can never be righteous by our good efforts that is was Christ Jesus good efforts that kills our flesh so we might have righteousness with God? Can we rest in the Great Sabbath of God knowing that he will in His love supplied the life of Christ Jesus too us making us righteous?
Psalms 37:7 Rest in Yahweh, and wait patiently for him. Don't fret because of him who prospers in his way, because of the man who makes wicked plots happen.
Hebrews 4:10 For he who has entered into his rest has himself also rested from his works, as God did from his.
Hebrews 4:11 Let us therefore give diligence to enter into that rest, lest anyone fall after the same example of disobedience.
Here we are faced with the biggest question of our lives when is our good good enough? What does that mean? it means if we never, stole, never committed adultery, never lust at the opposite sex, could we stand before God in our good works, no? This is the lie of the fleshly mind, to think if I could get read of this one sin, I would be a better Christian's, but once you did; here would come another to point out your unworthiness, and so goes the way of the fleshly mind earning credits by commandments.
Here is the workings of God, we don't know how long God will let us deal with a sin perhaps into death of this fleshly mind and body, but faith has made us clean in God's eyes, yes! God is not partial, he never changes, and He looks not at your good and evil, He looks only at the merit of Christ life, which has purchased you from God's judgment.
1 John 3:21 Beloved, if our hearts don't condemn us, we have boldness toward God.
Can you rest in this? No! None of us can that is why God is greater than our hearts, and mind, and is called Faithful. Nothing can separate us from God's love, not even evil which is sin, not even a lack of faith, because faith comes from Christ Jesus as product of Holy Spirit.
1 John 3:20 because if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things.
We stand in the blood of Christ Jesus, thank you Lord Jesus, come quickly.
Romans 5:2 through whom we also have our access by faith into this grace in which we stand. We rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
See also: nu-truth.com