Last week we started looking at Roman’s 6:11-13 and the relational aspect of those verses.  The context of these verses is the Spirit putting our flesh to rest and quickening our mortal bodies by leading us to the place we cry out Abba.

Rom 6:11  Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. 
Rom 6:12  Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in the lusts thereof.
Rom 6:13  Neither yield ye your members as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin: but yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness unto God.

Sin gets it right to reign in our lives by producing death and tribulation in the earth, and then using the trauma we encounter to try and blind us to the presence of the Father, and the goodness in His heart towards us, to serve us with the life we need; the peace; and the love; and the joy we need.  Sin wants to blind us to the presence of the Father altogether, but if it cant do that, it tries to paint God in the image of an abusive Father, so we cower away from Him in our hearts and in our lives, and self soothe, instead of running to Him for the comfort we need.   (Example of moms abuse and them telling her God wasnt there and he wouldn’t help her)

What happens is, if we dont have eyes to see God with us, loving us, serving us with the life, and the peace and the comfort we know we were made for, we will end up enlisting our members; we will end up enlisting our own strength to try and gather that life to ourselves.  That’s how sin gets it right to produce its fruit in us.  That’s what it looks like for sin to reign in our mortal bodies.  Paul says the body is dead because of sin.  If we try to produce the fruit of life.  If we try to produce the peace and the love and the joy we need through the body that is dead because of sin, sin is able to subject us to its death and lord it over us by producing the works of the flesh in our lives.  

Paul says sin loses its power to reign in our lives.  He says sin loses its power to produce its fruit in our lives, through us seeing we are alive to God.  He says if we see we are alive to God, if we see God is with us to raise us up out of death; what will happen is we will yield ourselves unto God.  We will yield our members unto God, and God will produce His fruit in us.  

***alive from the dead is to be alive unto God.  You are raised up from the dead on account of the Spirit giving you eyes to see God with you to serve you with the life you need, and you cry out  Abba***

Alive to God means your sight has been healed.  It means to see the Fathers face shining upon you.  If you look in the scriptures the psalmist talking to God in psalm 22 says you do not abhor the affliction of the afflicted one, neither is your face hid from him, but you hear him when he cries out to you.  That’s what it means to be alive to God.  You have eyes to see God with you, not despising you because of the affliction sin has brought upon your life.  You see God’s face isnt hid from you.  You see God isnt rejecting you because of your sin.  You see God is with you to comfort you from your affliction, and serve you with His life.  As Paul says something is born in your heart, where you see nothing can separate you from the love of God.  You see theres nothing that can keep God from serving you with His life.  And because you have eyes to see God there with you, as the lover of your life, you cry out to Him.  That’s what it means to yield yourself unto God.  Yielding yourself to God means you give yourself over into His arms because you see He can only ever be good to you.  Its when you commit your desire for life into the Father’s hands because you see His hand stretched forth towards you, possessing the life; the peace; the love; the joy you need.  Yielding yourself to God is when you look to the Father for the comfort and the peace and the strength you need because you see the gift He has in His hand to give you is the life you desire.  

Jesus yielded himself unto God on the cross when he said Father into your hands I commit my Spirit.  He saw the Father was there with him in the midst of his hurt, to be good to him, and He looked to the Father’s hand to be comforted with the comfort he needed.  Hebrews says Jesus looked to the one who could save him.  That’s what it looks like to yield yourself to God, it means to look to God and the life He has in Himself, as the power to be saved from the body of death and the fear thats in the world because of death.  

Rom 6:18  Being then made free from sin, you became the servants of righteousness. 

We are made free from sin by having our blindness healed ….. Being made free from sin, having had your blindness healed, seeing God is with you having raised you from the dead, never to be able to die again, you became servants of righteousness.  When you could see the work of the Father to conquer death in the flesh, You were taken captive by His love.  You came under the power of His righteous deed to serve you with His life.  You lived your life beholding the work of the Father, and the administration of His indestructible life over you.  

The woman caught in the act of adultery was a slave to sin.  Sin was reigning in her mortal body.  She was under the power of her flesh lusting for life.  Jesus healed her blindness.  He showed her she wasn’t alone, the Father was with her to be her advocate; to defend her life against the accuser; to remove the sentence of death that was reigning over her; to cloth upon the nakedness that was filling her with shame.  Jesus was there comforting her with the presence of the Father.  Jesus showed her the Father, so she might be made free from sin and become enslaved by the Fathers righteousness towards her.

Go and sin no more .. Go from this day forward seeing the Father’s righteousness towards you, to be with you, to serve you with the life you need.

Rom 8:1  There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.
Rom 8:2  For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.
Rom 8:3  For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:
Rom 8:4  That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

God condemned sin in the flesh; He condemned death in the flesh, when he raised Jesus from the dead, never to be able to die again.  Paul says God did that so the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk after the Spirit and not after the flesh; so the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who cry out Abba, and commit our desire for life; for peace; for joy into the hands of the Father.   

The righteousness of the law is to enter God’s rest.  It’s for your flesh to be put to rest on account of beholding the work of God.  Its for your faith to be towards God.  Deuteronomy is summed up in the saying you will have one God the Lord Your God.  God condemned death in the flesh so we can see He is with us to give our lives the care they need; so we would have one God the Lord our God.  He wanted us to see He loves us with all His heart, and is with us to give us the peace and comfort we need, so our hearts would cry out Abba.  

When you see God with you, in the person of Jesus, slaying the giant of death that held you in captivity.  You’ll no longer be enslaved by sin.  You’ll come under the power of God’s righteousness towards you; you’ll be enslaved by God’s righteousness towards you.  You’ll live all your days in this world knowing the Father is with you in good times and bad, stretching forth His hand towards you to give you the comfort and peace and love you need.  You’ll live all your days walking in the good work of God, knowing you are His workmanship, and He has taken it upon Himself to bright forth His life in you. 

In the year of the sabbath …Now listen as you enter Gods rest His fruit is ….You know in the sabbath year the land would rest. 

Rom 8:11  But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwells in you.
Rom 8:12  Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh.
Rom 8:13  For if you live after the flesh, you shall die: but if you through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, you shall live.

The deeds of the body are the works of the flesh.  It’s the fruit that comes forth in a person should they look to their own hand to gather peace and love and joy to themselves.  Paul says the body is dead because of sin.  If you look to the body that is dead to try and produce life, the result will be the fruit of death/works of the flesh.

Paul says its through the Spirit the deeds of the body are mortified.   

We want to take what we know about the Holy Spirit, and the ministry of the Holy Spirit into account when we read Paul say its through the Spirit the deeds of the body can be mortified.  Paul just said in romans 8 the Spirit leads us to the place we cry out Abba.  Jesus says he didnt come to speak of himself but his ministry was to reveal the Father to the world.  Isaiah says Jesus is Immanuel the revelation of God with us.  Jesus says he will send another like unto himself.  The one He will send will have the same ministry he has, to reveal the Father to the world.  He says just as he didnt come to speak of himself, the one He will send, the Comforter, will not speak of themselves, but will guide us into whatsoever things are revealed in him.  The things that were revealed in Jesus is the revelation of the Father. 

The Spirit mortifies the deeds of the body by giving us eyes to see God with us, loving our lives, serving us with the peace and the comfort we say is good.  The Holy Spirit is commonly known in the scriptures as the presence of God.  The Holy Spirit is God with us, Fathering in us the life we need.  You dont cry out to God unless you see He is with you.  You dont look to the comfort in God’s hand, in the day you need to be clothed in the fruit of the Spirit, unless you see God there with you; being good to you; speaking comfortably to you; holding out His hand towards you, gifting you with the life and the peace and the love and the joy you need. The Holy Spirit gives us eyes to see the Father with us serving us with the comfort we need.  

The Spirit mortifies the deeds of the body by comforting our flesh with the presence of the Father.  The Spirit causes us to yield ourselves unto God; it causes us to give ourselves over into the Fathers loving embrace, instead of enlisting our own strength to gather peace to ourselves, and that heals our flesh from the deeds that come forth from a dying body. 

If we look at Adam in the garden God clothed Adam so Adam could see He was with him, to serve him with life, and that mortified Adams members.  Adam’s flesh was put to rest on account of seeing God was with him, even in the midst of his sin, to pamper him with life.  

The Spirit is in the earth to comfort you with the presence of the Father, showing you God is with you, having condemned death in the body of Jesus’ resurrection, and just as Jesus members were put to rest by the revelation the Father was with Him, our members are put to rest in the midst of this world by the revelation of the Father with us. 

The abundant life is found in intimacy/fellowship with the Father.  In good times and bad, abundance is found in intimacy with the Father.  If we see God with us, holding out His hand to comfort us with His life, out of us connecting with God in the midst of our hurt, abundance will come forth in us.  Psalm 23 says Jesus saw the Father there with him in the midst of the cross Shepherding his life.  That’s why he cried out to Him; thats what filled Jesus with abundance on the cross; thats what filled Jesus with the abundance of life; thats why he says he lacks nothing; thats why he says he was made to lie down in the tender green grass.  

Prayer 

***Romans 6:23 says the wages of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life.  The result of sin blinding you to the presence of the Father is death.  But, when you see God with you; when you see the gift God has in his hand to give is His life, when you see His hand stretched forth towards you, giving it to you freely, the result is the abundance of life.****