haar

The doctrine of total depraverty teaches that every thing about man is bad. It means, that man's intentions, actions and ways are evil. This stems from Jeremiah's pronouncement that man's heart is desperatly wicket. It is also re- echored by Christ as He declared that out of the heart comes all the evil thoughts that lead to the acts such as murder, adultery etc. Nevertheless, man is made in God's image and is loved by Him. Modern man teaches that man is good just to make people feel right. While it is true that some aspects of man can still be good, most or all about him are evill outside the Lord. We need to stick to the right teaching found in the Bible about man and turn our selves to God for total cleansing and control.

What the law does very well is to show us clearly that sin is ugly and wrong. It however is not good in helping us not to sin. Knowing that sin is wrong does not keep us from comitting a sin as the sinfful and rebelious nature fights agaist our desire to do right. There is a battle between wanting to do the right thing and the strong desire to commit the sin.

The law reveals sin in its true ugly nature. Knowing this takes us closer to the truth, and we know that truth sets us free as the Bible said ' we shall know the truth and the truth shall set us free'. Ignorance leads to death as it is also written that my people perish for lack of knowledge. Thus the Law that reveals sin, leads us to the truth is good. This leads us to life. As the law reveals sin the more, the flesh fights against the Spirit so as to make us sin. When we yield to the flesh, we end up committing the very sin the law has clearly shown as bad and dangerous.

"Flesh" in the verses mentioned here refers to the rebelious sinful nature of man. It is that inherited Adam's nature that is not regenerated and is prone to commit sin.

Good doctrine or good teaching will produce the right thinking, the right belief, and of course righteous living in people. On the other hand hand, wrong doctrine will only succeed in leading people away from the truth and eventually to obeying Satan. We should therefor avoid false teaching or doctrine and endeavour to identify good doctrine and stick to it.

From Romans 6:18-22, from Paul's teaching, we are either slaves to sin (Satan) or to righteousnes (God). There is no other option. I choose to be a slave to my Lord God.

Obedience to any one/ thing that becomes habitual becomes slavery. Doing acts of rgteousness is slavery to righteounes that leads to life and hense is obedience to God. Doing bad things contiously becomes a pattern and is slavery, slavery to sin and to Satan. This type of slavery can be broken by willfully making up our minds to be obedient to our Redeemer and Lord Jesus by doing the right things only.

When we use our eyes to look lustfully at the opposite sex, we are using a member of our body to sin. When we use our mouth to curse, blasspheme or say un wholesome words, we also usin that member of our body (mouth/ tongue) to sin. on the other hand, when we use our moutns to sing praises, utter worship to God, or bless some oneor God, then we are using such a member (our) mouth to serve God. We can deliberately commit tourselves to the use of the members of our body (hands, legs, eyes, mouths etc) for the service of God by going to Church or fellowship meeting, playing instruments of worship, singing praise and worship etc) and no longer live in obedience to the urge to sin

Obedience to sin gives the enemy control over us. Satan is the agent of sin. As we submit ourselves to obeying our desires to commit sin, we become slaves to Satan. He then rules us and control us. I will rather submit myself to God and be a slave to the Lord Jesus.

To "rekon, consider, count" is meant to tuen the truth in our mind and be convinced (be sure without doubt) that Christ died to our sin once and we too have died to sin once. This does not mean that not we are being convinced to believe a lie. When we know and realise that Christ died for us once and we have should no longer live to sin. We will then be more victorious over sin.

The death of Christ on the cross has weaken our old self with its power to sin willfully. Our old selF should no longer compel us to sin. Our Crucified and risen powerfull self has ALL the arsenal AVAILABLE to resist and overcome all sinfull urge. I am therefore not a slave any more to sin. I MUST PRAYERFULLY REMEMBER THIS ALWAYS. THIS REALISATION WILL HELP ME OVERPOWER SIN WITH THE HELP OF THE SPIRIT

Paul reference to our death to sin is not about our personal death. He means that we are connected to Christ's death by our faith and baptism. It is Christ's own death he is refering to. Christ's death becomes ours when we come to faith in him and are united with him in baptism.

Going into the water during babtism represents the death and burrial of our Lord Jesus Christ. Coming out from the water depicts resurrection. This explains the significance of babtism by immersion in showing more clearly the death and resurrection of our Lor Jesus Christ.

Baptism brings about and symbolises our union with Christ. Christ died and rose for our sins. When we received Him as our Saviour and are bubtised, we are spiritually united to and with Him. The act of babtism is a symbol of his death, burrial and resurrection hense the symbol of our death and resurrection too.

At the time when Jesus Christ came, died for our sins and rose over 2000 years ago, this was the point the change over headship was posible for all. Hoever, the actual point of changeover each person is the point one accept the Lord Jesus Christ as his saviour and is then baptised. This must be done before the change over is done. The inplication to of this to us (Christian) is that we have died to sin and death- eternal death. We have victory over sin and death.

We are descendant of Adam and thus have his sinful nature and have all sined. Therefore he has the rigght to represent us. Christ died for all and we are justified by his death, therefore has the right to represnt all of us. If he is not our representative, his death cannot be effective in cleansing us. That is why we have to believe that he is our saviour (representative) before we can be saved.

Paul is saying that sin existed even before the law was given through Moses. The introduction of the law later made sin to be seen more clerly- its ugly nature and thus realising the abundance of grace through faith that wipes it away. There can be sin without the law because sin existed even before the law was ginen. This was as the result of the fall, adam's sin. The 'trespass increas' is a term I am still trying hard to understand. But I think what it means from the commentary just read, is that the introduction of the law did bring out the ugliness in sin to be more obvious even as it is viewed from the angle of righteousness.

One of the circumstances that one person can represent a group is a situation where a community rquests a lawyer to act as the community's mouth piece in a dispute between two communities. The people will be bound to the resolution reached in the course of solving the case.

Reconciliation means the exchange of hostility for friend ship. We were sinners, enemies and seperated from God. We were running away and hiding ourselves from God because of our horrible sins. But because of God's love, his son died and the shedding of his blood brought cleansing and making us righteous. By faith in God through Jesus Christ we are now justified, and therfore can aproach God unhindered as children and friends, not as enemies again. Reconciliation with God was necessary because in our filthy unredeemed state we could not aproach him (he is holy and cannot be contaminated by any filth). There was therefore a great devide that seperated us from God. Praise God, the gap has been bridged now. Jesus saved us by his death but his life is still saving us now by the activity of the holy spirit who lives in us justifying us, helping us to live righteuos lives and reminding us of the Word of the Lord. Jesus is now alive and is seated at the right hand of God interceding for us.

It is very important to embrace the truth that Christ died for the ungodly or sinners because this is the peak of love, mercy and grace. God's love for me motivated him to have mercy on me and have me reconciled to him by sending his son to die in my place despite me! Amazing grace indeed. Christ died for us sinners when we were deep in our filth and mess thus we were at our worst and not at our best. The fact that God loved me and made Christ to die for me when I was at my worst, is the best reminder I should always keep at the back of my mind- ALWAYS. Now that I am reconciled to Him, I have the confidence that He will still love me even when I sin. However, I will endeavour to run back to Him to confess the sin and repent. I thank and love you Lord God for such amazing grace.

We should rejoice in suffering and tribulation because it refines us as fire refines gold to make it more precious. God uses suffering to produce in us perseverance, character and hope. Perseverance is the holding on despite the bad situation. It helps build our faith as we hang on trusting that God will see us through the difficult situation stronger and more victorious. Tried character is similar to perseverance in my understanding. It refers to the ability to go through hardship and coming out victoriously because one'e trust in the Lord. Hope is the positve expectation of actaulisation of your future desires.

Abraham beieved God and was said to have faith and was declared righteus. In our case, as we believe in the saving power of our Lord Jesus, this demonstrates our faith. To be justfied is to be free from condemnation.

According to Psalm 23, the good shephered ensures that the sheep needs are taken care of and are secured/ safe. He does this by: =Leading them in the right path away from danger and trouble; =Protecting them from all form of danger; =Healing them when they have wounds; =Rescuing them when one is lost; =Providing food, water and shelter; =Helping the to find the best pasture and water; =Guiding them that they may not stray.

David quieten his inner person by leaning on the Lord; abandoning his wants and problems to God to resolve. He put his trust in the ever able God for the solutions to his problems. Some expressions used in this Psalm are 'stilled' and 'quietened' my soul. This implies stopping all wories and waiting patiently for God to come to the rescue at His own time.

It is true that even Christians do not escape death due to accidents, wars etc or other dangers. This not withstanding, when we have absolute faith in God He will deliver us absolutely. But even if He does not do so despite our absolute faith in Him, then we must be certain that He allows the circumstances for our good. This is however difficult to understand. Does God really protect? Asolutely YES, He does.He does this by shielding us from a lot of unseen dangers, spiritual and physical by surrounding us with His protective hedge as he did for Job.