Spiritual Circumcision: Method & Operation (04/04/2004)

We're gonna be in Colossians chapter two today. I'm gonna review a little bit for you before we get there.

We've been talking about the spiritual circumcision of the heart that Jesus Christ performs upon every new believer as he is brought into the family of God.

And the elements of this circumcised heart are that the person who has experienced this operation worships

God in spirit. Secondly, he rejoices in Jesus Christ, not in religiosity.

And thirdly, he has no confidence in the flesh. Therefore, he has no confidence that his flesh can keep any law or set of rules, but rather he rejoices in Jesus Christ.

It is not an outward or of the flesh or of the letter of the law.

However, it is inward of the heart in the spirit. It is not praised by men, but it is praised by God.

And last time we talked about the fact that what this circumcision accomplishes for us is that while we were uncircumcised, now we are reconciled unto

God. While we were without Christ, now the enmity is slain and we are friends of God.

While we were aliens of the commonwealth of Israel, now we're one with the commonwealth of Israel.

While we were strangers of the covenants of promise, we now have access to God. While we were having no hope, we now are at peace with God.

While we were without God in the world, we're now fellow citizens and part of the household of God. In fact, we are the habitation of God.

God dwells within our bodies. And while we were once far off, now we are made nigh by the blood.

Those are the things we've covered. I wanna go into Colossians chapter two, which is starting with verse 10, which will show us the method of this operation and the effect of it.

So let's pray and we'll begin. Father, we thank you for this day to come together and worship you and to learn of you and to fellowship with one another and with you.

And Lord, we ask you to teach us during this hour. In Jesus' name, amen.

Begin with Colossians chapter two in verse 10. It says, you are complete in his love, in him, which is the head of all principality and power.

We're gonna come back to this idea of being complete a little bit later. In whom also you are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ, buried with him in baptism, wherein also you are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God who hath raised him from the dead.

Now, I want you to notice, first of all, the method. We're gonna come back to this word complete because that's part of the effect.

So let's go to verse 10 and I want you to notice the word head or the phrase head of all principality and power.

The first way that God does or performs this operation is that he gives us a brain transplant.

Now, that's impossible in the medical field, at least for the time being.

However, God has already accomplished this in the saved person because he has made

Jesus to be the head of the church and when you are born again, if you think about it, this whole passage is about to deal with the flesh and even with the devil.

And yet, we know that we cannot perform sin in our body until we think about it in our mind, can we?

So all sin really happens between your ears. And so what

God does is that when you are born again, he gives you a new nature. He gives you the divine nature.

And he gives you a new mind and it's called the mind of Christ. And it allows us to think as Jesus Christ would think as long as we're walking in the spirit.

And so his head becomes our head, so to speak, and it becomes the head of this body.

Now, if you think about it, as long as you're connected and the Lord Jesus Christ is the head of this body, then this body can serve

God. All of my body, my soul, my spirit and my flesh can serve

God. You might think that from some of the footnotes you read in your Scofield Bible that it's impossible for your flesh to serve

God, that only your spirit could, but if you remember David, the psalmist said that he worshiped

God with his whole mind and body. And that's made possible. You see, David is interesting to study because it's almost like he's a

New Testament theologian in the Old Testament. It's as if he knew things that only the

Apostle Paul were going to reveal thousands of years later, he already knew those things somehow in his heart.

He seemed to understand that relationship with God that we can have when we're one with Christ. And so he becomes the head.

So the first part of this operation is the brain transplant. Now secondly, there's an amputation.

This sounds like a gruesome operation, doesn't it? Look at verse 11. And whom also you are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands in the putting off of the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ.

So there is an amputation. And what is removed from you is the body of the sin nature.

And that's not a reference to your real physical body. It's a reference to the principle of the sin nature that is in your members, as Paul talked about it.

That is what is amputated. Now it's not removed from your body of flesh, obviously, because we can lapse into the flesh and the carnal nature, can we not?

But it is absolutely amputated and removed and really never was a part of the new man, the real you.

Now the problem is when you were born in the flesh into this world, your very mind was connected to this carnal nature, this sin principle.

And it was more difficult. I've had some of my little children in my family at very young ages tell me,

Daddy, why is it harder to think of good things than bad things? And that's revealing.

Why is it harder to make myself think of good things than it is bad things?

And then there comes the salvation point. And the new man is created within us in the image of God, again, in the nature of God, the divine nature.

And at that moment, there is a you that you weren't aware of before. And that becomes the real you.

The new man is the real you. And so for the first time in your life, you're actually able to have periods of time, and that is when you're filled with the spirit, periods of time when you are aware that you're not controlled by the old nature.

And the truth is it's because it is not a part of that new nature. It's as if it's been amputated and removed from the new man.

The truth is that's how it feels to us. In reality, it was not amputated because it was never a part of the new man.

It's just that we grew up with the thinking and the body connected in such a way that we were under its power, the power of the physical body.

And then when we're born again, we begin to discover as we walk with the Lord and we learn doctrine and we feel what it's like to be a new man, it's as if the old has been cut off from our viewpoint.

You see, that's not from God's viewpoint. From God's viewpoint, it never was a part of the new man. It was just part of the old man.

But from our viewpoint as far as how it feels to walk as a Christian, it's as if the old sinful body of the flesh is cut off and removed from the thought life so long as we're walking with God.

And that's what this is talking about, this circumcision, which is without hands.

It cannot be performed by man. Only God can do this. It is a putting off of the body of the sins of the flesh.

So now we've had a brain transplant and an amputation. Now notice that this amputation is really, takes place, it says it is by the circumcision of Christ.

So it takes place on the cross, believe it or not. Almost 2 ,000 years ago is when this surgery happened to you.

And you were in Christ that day. You just didn't know that until you got saved, started reading the

Bible, and God reveals it to us. But we were in Christ the day that his body was cut off.

That is the circumcision, the cutting off of the flesh. We were in Christ and our old man died that same day.

It was crucified in Christ. So we see this amputation occurred, but it actually occurred 2 ,000 years ago.

The death of the sin nature happened in Christ on the cross. Therefore, it's part of the finished work.

Therefore, there's nothing you can do to change it. It is a fact. The old nature has been cut off to the extent that as long as you walk in the spirit, walking hand in hand with the

Lord, it has no influence on you at that time. Now, there's more.

Not only is there a brain transplant and an amputation, there's even a death.

Look at verse 12. Buried with him in baptism. You see, if there's anything that I learned by watching

The Passion, this new movie that's out about Jesus, the one thing that I think

I saw in that that I didn't see reading the scriptures, because in the Bible, it's just one verse, and that is when he was carrying that cross up the hill.

I mean, down that path, long path, and then up the hill to the top of Golgotha after he had been beaten to the place where he was not recognized as a human being.

Now, in the movie, they did not do that enough. A lot of people are criticizing it, saying it's too violent.

Too violent? He underdid it, because you could still recognize him as a man in the movie.

In real life, you could not. If you looked at his face, face front, you could not recognize it as a human head.

And yet, by the power of God, he lived long enough to carry that cross down that path and up the hill.

And that cross, how heavy do you suppose it might have been, Brother Otis, just the cross bar? 150 pounds minimum.

And he'd already been beaten to the point that any of us would have been dead already. Wow, visualizing that when

I saw that, it just, it was just gruesome. It was, it was awful.

And to think that he did that because of my sins. They weren't his sins. It was the stuff

I've already done and the things I will do today if I sin today and the things I will do tomorrow and the next day, the wrong things that I do that caused him to have to make that trip up that road in that condition.

And so, you know what I thought when I watched it? I told Charlotte, or I think it was Katie actually emailed me, because she had seen it.

She said, you know, I asked her, what'd you think? She said, I can't really talk about it. You'll just have to go see it.

And so when I saw it, came back, emailed her back. She said, what'd you think? And I said, you were right.

You can't talk about it that much, but I can say this, Katie. I questioned while I watched it, why would

God do this to his son? And the answer came to me,

David Mitchell, because you are so exceedingly sinful that you don't even understand how dangerous bad you are.

That's the answer that came in my mind. And I emailed that back to Katie. She hadn't come home since.

But you think about that now. I want you to try to picture, you can picture it in your mind better than it's in the movie, and that's one of the problems with watching it in the movie.

It's never gonna depict it properly. One thing it was not able to depict at all was the hell that Jesus suffered while he was on the cross before he died physically.

So if the trip up the road with the cross, having been beaten beyond recognition is not enough, think about the hell that he suffered while hanging on the cross before he died physically.

When he said, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? He is without God in the world, the same way we just read we were, he became.

And yet he had been alive for eternity, the one who had always been with the

Father, and for the first time, how can you even express this? You say the first time in eternity.

That we can't even, we can't even begin to comprehend whatever this was that he suffered when he was on the cross, when he was separated from God, having been with him for all eternity.

It defies human speech to even say it because we have to talk in time, and yet this happened outside of time and in time at the same time.

Therefore, it is absolutely possible that Jesus suffered eternal death while he was on the cross, while we were watching him in time.

In fact, that's what he did, we just don't know how that could work, but it happened. Now, when you look at that happening, you need to ask yourself the question, why did

God do this? And then you need to look inward, and you need to realize that your flesh and my flesh is so exceedingly sinful that this was the only answer for it.

It had to be destroyed. And so God reached back in time to all of the

Old Testament saints and forward in time to all of the Old Testament saints and to all of us who are God's children, and he took every evil, filthy, despicable thought and deed you've ever done and placed them upon Jesus when he was on that cross that moment.

And since Jesus is eternal, you multiply a little number by an infinitely large number, the answer is infinity.

So he suffered eternal hell with your sins and mine on his body, and he did it not only for the

Father, but for us. He did it for the Father, but he did it for us as well.

So there was a brain transplant, an amputation, and a death. And we were in him when he died, and our old nature was judged to the fullest on that cross.

The man Jesus Christ could not be judged, could he? Had he sinned?

Had he ever contemplated sin in his heart long enough for it to become sin?

No. So when you look at that man walking that path with that cross on his back, already beaten beyond comprehension, and you contemplate him suffering total separation from any existence or thought of there being a

God and being totally alone in the world in darkness, and you stop to think that that was not for him because he never sinned, you need to picture yourself there.

That's why it happened. You had to be killed, the old you.

It was that bad. There was nothing God could do with it. There was no way he could mend it.

There was no way he could adjust it. There was no way he could perform surgery on it to make it better.

He had to amputate it. He had to destroy it. And so there was a death and a burial, and we were buried with him in baptism.

That's not talking about the water. That's talking about spiritual baptism.

The Holy Spirit has taken our life and immersed it into the life of Jesus Christ, and we were there when he died.

We were there when he was buried, and it goes on and says in verse 12, wherein you are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God who hath raised him from the dead.

So there's a brain transplant, an amputation of death, and now there is a revival, a revival from the dead, which can only be done by God.

No faith healer has figured that one out yet. Only be done by God.

This is the operation that God performed. This is called circumcision. It's called spiritual circumcision.

It is a circumcision of the heart, and through your having been in Christ the day he carried that cross up the road, and you having been in Christ the day the nails were pounded through his hands and his feet, and he was raised up and jolted into that hole in the ground, and you having been in Christ as he suffered hell on the cross, and you having been

Christ as the body of this dead died, you were also in Christ three days later when he raised from the dead, and this is all part of the operation of God that was performed on you.

This was not performed on Jesus, really, for his sake. He didn't do any sins. It was performed on you in Christ.

Might be some things to think about there. And so it goes on and says, and you being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh hath he quickened together with him.

That means the day he rose from that grave, you were in him. And just as God quickened or brought

Jesus to life, he has now brought you to life, having forgiven you of all trespasses, blotting out the handwriting of the ordinances.

That's the law. That's the Ten Commandments. That's all of God's law. It's been blotted out because it was against you.

It was contrary to you. It took it out of the way, and it was nailed to his cross.

And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it.

Now let's begin to look at the effect of this operation because we've read a little bit about some of it, but the first one is mentioned in the first verse we read, verse 10, look up at the top again at verse 10.

You are complete in him. That is the first effect of this surgery that was performed.

Complete means you're absolutely already perfect in God's eyes. Now we know we're still growing, aren't we?

As long as we're on this planet until the rapture comes, we are growing and being molded to be more and more like Jesus.

Every bad thing we go through, as we look at them as bad things, those things where God applies the pressure, he's molding us to be more and more like Jesus.

And that's in time, and that's wonderful, but God looks at you right now, and he sees you as absolutely perfect, absolutely complete and mature in Christ because you are complete in Christ.

You're exactly where you're supposed to be today. Don't ever look back at your life and blame anything you did and worry about it.

Don't ever look back. The apostle Paul said, I never look back. He said, this one thing I know, I never look back.

He said, but I press forward to the mark, the finish line, the high calling.

So you cannot look back and beat yourself up because you didn't go through anything that God didn't already ordain and knew that you would go through it and used it to make you more like Jesus.

And so therefore, he now sees you as complete in him. Secondly, if you look down at verse 13 now, the last phrase in the verse, he counts you as forgiven.

Having forgiven you all trespasses. I want to show you something kind of interesting about this.

You were dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, and he has quickened you together with him.

Now, when did this quickening take place in your life? Now, don't put the last phrase.

Let me ask you this way because I don't want to get you diverted. When did the quickening take place in reality?

I'm not asking you when you became aware of it. I'm asking you, when did the quickening take place? Right, when

Jesus rose from the dead. You became aware of it at the day of your born again experience.

But if it's true that the quickening took place at the resurrection and in the same phrase, it says, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses, when did the forgiveness take place?

It took place at almost the same time period, perhaps the same exact day, but it's when he died and also when he presented his blood at the mercy seat in heaven and sprinkled his blood before the throne of God.

See, you thought you were forgiven a few minutes ago when you asked the Lord to forgive you again.

When you sin and you come back and you confess your sins and you say, Lord, forgive me. It's really a bit of a misappropriation when we ask him to do that because really all he says to do is to confess our sins and he's faithful to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

He didn't say, ask forgiveness of your sin. Do you know why? And I'm not saying it's wrong to. I think it's fine as a child to come before your father and say,

Lord, forgive me, but the truth is he's answering you. You're already forgiven. You've been forgiven since the blood was applied.

Forgiven means the absolute, and this is in the Greek language, by the way. The Greek word for forgive means to separate and remove one thing from another.

It doesn't mean God just overlooks your sins. It means he's removed them from you. They are not a part of who you really are anymore.

It's part of this surgery that was performed, the amputation part.

And so having quickened us together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses.

So we see the first effect of the surgery is that we are made complete in Jesus Christ.

The second effect is that we are aware of our forgiven state.

There is forgiveness, total and complete removal of sin from our life. Now what's another one?

Well, we have not only been made complete and forgiven, we have been made free from a couple of things.

Now think about this a moment. You once were a slave to sin, this body of sin that you lived in, and you were a slave to something else that a lot of people don't think about, and it was the law.

The Old Testament law never saved anybody. What it did was it showed how exceedingly sinful we really are, just like the cross showed that.

The cross was the ultimate show of it. The law was a smaller show of it. But every time your flesh tried to keep the law or keep any of the rules, what did you do?

You failed. Eventually, if it's not today, the next day, or the next day, you will fail it.

Even still today, as a saved person, when you attempt to keep the rules in the flesh, you will fail.

That's because we were a slave to these things. Now we've been set free from a couple of things. Let's look at the first one, verse 14.

We've been set free from the law, blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us and took it out of the way, nailing it to the cross.

There's a lot could be said about this, but that includes all of the Ten Commandments, all of the laws of Moses, all of the societal laws, but also all of the moral laws, including the very

Ten Commandments. It's been blotted out, nailed to the cross.

But that's with reference to our new man. Why is that? Why is the new man free from the law?

Because being in Christ, you are already ascended into heaven and you're above the law. The law is for the earth.

The law is for an earthly, earthy people. It is not for a heavenly people.

So you've been freed from the law. That's why Brother Otis talked about keeping the Sabbath this morning, and you're sitting there thinking, well, what's he talking about?

This is Sunday. The Sabbath is on Saturday. The true Sabbath of the

Bible that God talked about in Genesis the seventh day was Saturday, still is Saturday. Do we keep that?

No. Now, what Brother Otis was talking about, the old timers used to call

Sunday the Sabbath, didn't they, Brother Otis? And even the preachers would get up and preach and say, now, you need to be in the

Lord's house on the Sabbath, and they meant Sunday, but they really were not right, biblically, because the

Sabbath never changed from Saturday. But what they meant was, you still need to have a day of rest.

You still need to have a day where you set it aside for thinking about all the wonderful things God has done from the creation all the way to your life and your salvation.

And they kept that Sunday more strictly than we do today. But I'm going to say this, the truth is, you've been set free from any

Sabbath keeping. You know why? If you're in Christ, you're resting every moment.

And the word Sabbath means a rest. You are resting in Christ and in his works, not depending on your own.

Isn't that wonderful? You don't have to depend on yourself to save yourself. You don't have to depend on yourself to please

God, even with your works and your obedience. You only have to depend upon Jesus Christ and walk in him, and all of the law will be fulfilled when we do that.

So we've been set free from the letter of the law. Do we understand what this means? Our soul, our life is set free from the letter of the law.

It can no longer kill us. It can no longer slay us. It can no longer trip us up.

Second thing we've been set free from is in verse 15. And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of them openly triumphing over them in it.

Satan and his demons, all of his hierarchy, we've been set free from that to the extent that we walk in the spirit.

When you walk in the flesh, however, you're still exposed to spiritual warfare. And even when you walk in the spirit, you're surrounded by spiritual warfare, just like the prophets of God were.

But you cannot be defeated by it. You will be victorious in Christ.

So you need not fear it. Now in verses 16 and following, he simply goes on in and gives detail to the having been set free from the law.

It even specifically mentions, let no man judge you in meat or drink or with respect to a

Sabbath day, verse 16. Why? Because verse 17 says the

Sabbath was merely a shadow of the true rest in Christ every moment. You see that?

It was a shadow or a physical picture of the spiritual rest that happens every moment that we're walking in Jesus Christ.

Therefore, let no man beguile you with a reward in voluntary humility. The whole world, listen to me,

I know we're just about, we are out of time, but this whole world of religion, even those who call themselves

Christians, even churches surrounding us all in this town today and all over this country today and all over the world today,

I will promise you that the great majority of the preachers, both in Baptist churches and Catholic churches, obviously, other churches, but Baptist churches, want to bring you somehow under some type of voluntary humility and will worship.

They may call it keeping standards, they may have all number of names for it, but they want to bring your body under subjection where you keep a bunch of rules.

Don't ever allow your children to go to such a church. If you can help it.

Now, if you can't help it, such as happens sometimes, then

God will reveal it to them. But that's what this is a reference to.

Why has this happened to so many churches? Look at verse 19. They're not holding the head.

Who is the head? Jesus. If you're holding him, you don't have to have rules.

Now, God gives us the rules, the Bible's full of them, and he commands us to read it every day, doesn't he, and study it.

See, you're gonna get the rules, but you can't keep them just by knowing them. How many people have had

Bible studies three times a week? Does it help them keep the rules? No. And so the reason they want to set up even more rules than the

Bible has is because they're not holding the head. What they do is they study the Bible, they see the rules, their heart wants to keep them, because many times they are truly saved, their heart wants to keep the rules, and they say, well, this is hard, so they set up more rules and say, let's make this a little easier.

We'll make sure that the women wear dresses that go all the way to the bottom of the ankle, let's just say the foot, and all the way to the bottom of the chin, and that way, we won't have any of the men lusting.

Now, ladies, let me ask you a question. Do you think that stops the men from lusting? You can wear that all day long, and they have to drive to work tomorrow, and do you think the other women in town dress that way?

No. You haven't solved a thing by creating such a rule. And yet, how many churches do it?

Why is it they're not holding the head? Did you know that if your husband is holding Jesus Christ when he drives to work, it doesn't matter how the women dress?

I mean, it matters, because they shouldn't be doing that, but it doesn't matter with regard to him, because if his eyes gaze, and he says,

Lord, I see that, but help me think with the mind of Jesus, how would he think about her right now?

Well, he'd be concerned about her soul. That's not gonna get your husband in trouble. And so, that's how it should work.

Holding the head, they don't do it, therefore, they have to set up all these rules in the church. In churches. Holding the head, from which all the body, by joints and bands, having nourishment, the nourishment comes from Jesus, ministered and knit together, increases with the increase of God.

Wherefore, if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, that's the rules, why, as though living in the world, are you still subject to ordinances?

Don't touch this. Don't taste this. Handle not that. How many of you have been to churches where they had some form of rules like that?

Raise your hand, I wanna see it. You have to. All right, you've only ever been here, then, if you don't raise your hand.

Greg and his row's not raised. But I promise, almost every church you would go to, they have these kinds of things.

Well, you're not allowed to. You're not allowed to drink wine. Well, you can't tell me.

How many of you have ever been in a Baptist church other than this one? So you had at least that rule, didn't you?

Touch not, taste not, handle not. You're not allowed to go there. Tell me you've not had that.

If it's not spoken, it's implied. Well, and yet the

Bible says, why, if you're holding the head, if you're in Christ and you can walk the spirit -filled life, why are you dealing with these rudiments and these ordinances?

Touch not, taste not, handle not, which are all to perish with the using after the commandments and the doctrines of men.

So who made those rules? Man. Which things have indeed a show of wisdom in will worship.

It makes it look like a real spiritual church when they're all dressed like the pastor and all the women dressed like the pastor's wife.

And they all walk like them, talk like them, and everything's unique. I mean, nothing's unique, everything is uniform.

They all go to the same places and avoid the same places. To the outward man, there is much praise for this.

But when we studied the circumcision of the heart, did the Bible say man would praise that? No, man won't praise that, because it doesn't make sense to him.

How can you not have rules in your church? You mean they can, they can, man hates that.

But the Bible says God loves it. So you have a wisdom in will worship and humility, false humility.

They go around like this all the time. Oh, woe is me. I've got an evangelist friend right now that just is like, man,

I'm just making it through this hard life of having to rely on God to take care of me. Don't have any money, got an old cruddy car.

Don't have anything, and it's bad. But I'm serving Jesus. Well, he's got all these rules he set upon himself.

One of them is you can't work for a living if you're gonna be in full -time ministry. You can't go get a job, make money.

You just gotta just hope somebody will give you a handout. And there it goes.

Now, you see what this is? It's called a show of humility. And neglecting the body.

Not in any honor to the satisfying of the flesh. Well, it ends this way, chapter three, verse one.

If you're really risen with Christ, seek those things which are above.

You don't have to worry about the rudiments of the world. You're above it. Seek those things which are above, where Christ sits on the right hand of God.

Set your affection on those things, not on the things of the earth.

For in fact, there has been surgery. You are dead.

There has been this operation of God whereby your old man was killed and destroyed.

For you are dead, and your life now is hid with Christ in God, seated in the heavenlies.

When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.

Mortify, kill therefore your members which are upon the earth, fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness which is idolatry.

For which things sake the wrath of God comes on the children of disobedience? You see, if you're in Christ, risen with him, all of those things we list in verse five, they just don't happen in your life because you're connected with Jesus Christ.

You're holding the head. And that is the beauty of the spiritual circumcision.

The old flesh is cut off and removed so that you're now free to walk in the spirit and be seated in Christ in the heavenlies.

And it puts all of this other stuff below where it's really not a part of your life, and yet you find yourself fulfilling the law in Christ.

Let's stand and have prayer together. That sermon would be considered a heresy in a lot of churches today.

There's no praise of man in it. Lord, we thank you for your word.

We thank you for the beautiful truth that we see pictured in the walk to Golgotha and the mutilation of Jesus' body.

We can see vividly the destroying of our old flesh, our old sin nature, because it was destroyed in Christ.

And Father, the picture that we have of the cross is so minimalized by our ability to understand, but we know that your son suffered hell, separation from you, and that we were in him that day, and our old man was truly destroyed and separated and sent to hell.

But we also know that he was risen the third day and we were in him, and we are in him today.

And not only was he resurrected, he ascended into the heavenlies to sit at your right hand in a rest, a

Sabbath rest, which we are a part of every moment that we are holding the head,

Jesus Christ. Thank you for giving us the power of being able to be above the sin of the flesh, the world, and even the devil, and even the law.

Help us to walk in that mode every moment of the day, Lord, and when we fall from it into the flesh, may we be shown this vividly so that we might confess and come back into that relationship with you and spend absolutely as much of our time in Christ on this earth until we see him again.