Title: 13
Author: Joe Griffin
Last saved by: Paul J. Davey
Company: GDC

Clanking Chains

		07-10-28-B.CC02-818/

Attempts to Change One’s Behavior out of Fellowship Is Futile; Expanded Translation of Rom 8:1-7; Carnal Believers Are Not Able to Please God, v. 8

36.	When a believer is in status quo carnality he does not have the power to improve his situation.  He cannot will himself to do better, he cannot grow in grace, he cannot even study the Bible as means of overcoming the dominance of his sin nature’s trends and lust patterns.
37.	The only solution to his situation is first of all rebound, which restores the filling of the Holy Spirit, fellowship with God, and access to divine operating assets.
38.	The power of the Holy Spirit is available to him for spiritual growth but this can only occur by a concerted effort to return to a serious study of the Word of God.
39.	Thus rebound, followed by conscientious Bible study, is the only means by which a believer may renovate his soul from a period of extended residence in the cosmic systems.
40.	Mercifully, confession alone to God alone works every time.  However, too often the believer does not desire to return to Bible study or, in some cases, he pursues a theology that does not edify his spiritual recovery.
41.	Rebound works, but the recovery is short-circuited by the believer’s failure to put himself in a position to restore his soul.  Sadly, such a believer quickly returns to life in cosmos diabolicus.
42.	Fortunately, he will always have the problem-solving device of rebound available so that he can give it another try.
43.	The corrected and expanded translation of our passage reads as follows:
Romans 8:1 -	There is therefore now not one single instance of judgment [ oÙdšn ¥pa nàn kat£krima, ouden apa nun katakrima: incarceration of the person who is condemned ] for those who are in Christ Jesus [ current positional truth with top circle assets ].
Romans 8:2 -		For the principle of the Holy Spirit regarding the unique spiritual life made available through the agency of Christ Jesus [ prototype divine dynasphere ], has set you free from the law of sin [ status quo carnality ] and of death [ terminal death as a believer ].
v. 3 -		For what was not possible for the Law to do, because it was weak through the flesh [ the sin nature ], God did, sending His Own Son in the appearance, or in the likeness, of a human body that contains a sinful nature, but which in actuality was without a sinful nature, and as a substitute for sin, God judged the sinful nature in the flesh [ “… in His body on the cross,” 1 Peter 2:24 ],
v. 4 -		in order that the legal requirement of the Law—which is to demonstrate the resident righteousness of God through capacity righteousness but of which the believer is deficient at salvation—might be filled up  in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but who do walk according to the Holy Spirit.
v. 5 -		For those who are comfortable [ kat£, kata: indicates choice between what one finds agreeable or disagreeable ] about submitting to the desires of the flesh [ s£rx, sarx: the sinful nature & its lust patterns ] have a mind-set [ customary present of fronšw, phroneō: disposition or attitude ] habitually focused on the things of the flesh; but those who are comfortable about submitting to the desires of the Holy Spirit [ pneàma, pneuma ] have a mind-set habitually focused on the things of the Spirit.
v. 6 -		Consequently, the mindset [ behavior patterns, character traits, and lifestyle ] from the source of the sinful nature is terminal death but the mindset from the source of the Holy Spirit is life [ zw», zōē: capacity for life through doctrine ] and peace [ e…r»nh, eirēnē: tranquility of soul through harmonious rapport with God ],
v. 7 -	because the mind-set [ frÒnhma, phronēma ] motivated by the sinful nature is hostile [ œcqra, echthra ] toward God for it [ the carnal mind-set ] is not willingly subordinate [ oÙk Øpot£ssw, ouk hupotassō ] to the policy [ tù nÒmoj, tōi nomos ] of God because it is not able [ dÚnamai, dunamai ].
We continue now with the final verse of this paragraph which is a continuation of the sentence that begins in verse 6:
Romans 8:8 -	and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.  [NASB]
1.	This verse amplifies the fact that the believer in the cosmic systems is hostile to God and is functioning as an enemy of God through broken fellowship.
2.	The verse begins with a transitional conjunction, dš, de, translated “Moreover.”
3.	This is followed by the nominative plural definite article oƒ, oi, translated by the pronoun “they” and refers to the carnal believers in the context.
4.	This is followed by an ellipsis.  There is no verb in the verse which places emphasis on its message.  We can insert the present active participle of e„m…, eimi: “who are”:
present:	Retroactive progressive, denotes what has begun in the past and continues into the present; also called a durative present.
active:	The carnal and reversionistic believer produces the action of being powerless.
part.:	Contemporaneous; the action of the present participle: eimi, “who are ,“ plus s£rx, sarx  “in the flesh,” occurs simultaneously with the action of the main verb which is the present middle indicative of dÚnamai, dunamai plus the negative  conjunction oÙ, ou: “are not able.”
5.	The verb dunamai is the same verb that concluded verse 7 which states that the carnal believer is not willingly subordinate to the policy of God because he is not able.  Here it is pointed out that because he is “in the flesh” he is “not able” to “please God.”
6.	Both uses of the verb dunamai have to do with the delegated omnipotence of the Holy Spirit made available to the believer at the moment of salvation.
7.	This power is designed to facilitate the believer’s spiritual growth under the filling, teaching, and recall ministries of the Holy Spirit.
8.	A believer cannot fulfill the commandment to “grow in grace” (2 Peter 3:18) without the enabling power of the Holy Spirit, in fact, it is only through His instruction that the Bible can possibly be understood.

© 2007 by Joe Griffin Media Ministries.  All rights reserved.	www.joegriffin.org