Romans, 1978 - Part 3 — Norman Grubb

Salvation as an Exchange of Indwelling Spirits

In the resurrection, of course, that body becomes a dwelling place of the Spirit of God, quickened by the Spirit. And therefore, if that body represents us, we've now become a dwelling place of the Spirit of God, so it's been a replaced God.

So we move into the fact that what we call salvation is really only an exchange of the motivating person within us. It's the motivating deity within us, the Spirit of self-sacredness, and in Christ's death, representing us, he's out in the dead body, comes a new Spirit, and the new Spirit is the motivating Spirit of self-loving love, God.

So God, the living God, has replaced the false God in us. So the Gospel is a change of Gods, a change of Gods. And the God in us is the one who motivates us. So that's what he's saying, he says, you see, you can't go on sinning because you're under new motivation, under new management, you've got a new person, you're seen with self-sacredness, you had to live by self-sacredness, because the person in you is missing self-sacredness, and you can only be what the person inside you is.

Therefore, you can't be missing self-sacredness. We are talking about temptation now, you may slip into an area like that. You can't live in it, self for self, put up with self for self again, after you've been born in God's Spirit, comes the sin of the Saviour and so on, and you've moved in to find who you are, the love of God is shed more in your heart, and you can't be.

You're now under new motivation, so the new drive of your life is yourself, you're for God, and Christ, and people, and how you can begin to be a blesser of others in life, instead of being a person who is seeking your own blessing and so forth.

Reckoning Ourselves Dead to Sin and Alive to God

And so, he's saying, therefore, that you're to count on that as a fact. The word reckoned is really a banking term, like you've got cash in a bank. Count on that as a fact, that you're dead in Christ, to be under control of the sin spirit, which causes you motivation, to be self-certain, it's not what it's for, it may have been righteous self-certainty, or false righteous self-certainty, and count on it now, dead in the sin spirit, alive under God, through our Lord Jesus Christ.

It hasn't been quite clear enough yet, it's meant to be at this spot. There's more to be on the day, so we get that out. The Romans 6, the death chapter, you're out in the old. You are alive, it doesn't take too much about that.

You're alive under God, through our Lord Jesus Christ, until you yield your members now, your freedom, as agents of righteousness, instead of being what they were, agents of sin. Your members, you'll become your humanity, your being, because of that, by which, through your emotions, your appetites, your will, you become the expression of the God of all the love, in which your basis becomes, it could be the servant of others, as he is.

From Sin's Dominion to Christ's Lordship

Then he brings in this, this is where the issue arises. He slips in something there, because Paul saw through. Now he says, you see, sin won't have the mere view now, because you're not under the law, but under grace.

That's a new thing he put in there. We had the law out, as it's exposing sins, and then Jesus Christ taking the curse of the law, and therefore the guilt without, all that, we had that, and that's in the blood of Christ.

And suddenly we've got law-behaving. He says, now in this present life, now he's talking about the new life, which is Christ in you, not the old one in you. Sin won't have the mere view, because you're not under the law, but under grace.

Why does he say that? Very important. Well, first of all, he diverts for a moment, and says now, or you say then, if you're not under the law, you do what you like. He says, or you, then he brings in, people argue with him, do what you like, do what you like.

Well, you can't really know what you are, of course. But, or, you see, show me a sin which is not under the law, under grace, got to be, he says, because, he says, in the new life, when you know it, you're a slave.

You've changed slavery, you've changed bodies. That's what he puts another line there. He says the actual fact is, of course, you're under boss sin, you're under boss Christ now. You're under boss Satan, now you're under boss Jesus.

And you, your life is run by your boss in the old idea of slavery. You fulfil the jobs of your, the activities of your boss, in the old, in the Rome. And so he shows how you become free from the old life, but in the new one, it's because you obeyed from the faith, that doctrine.

He says, you were slaves of sin. Incidentally, you were slaves of sin, the spirit of sin in you, but you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine. He's living on, that's what he's talking about. You obeyed from the heart the fact that you have believed in Jesus Christ, your sin is wiped out, and you've gone to the Father now, you recognise that Jesus Christ has taken you over, this is someone new, it isn't properly settled yet, and you're under new management.

And so you're free from the old one, and you're now, if you like to put it that way, under the obligation of the new one. This needs further discussing. And then he reminds me, he says, in the old life you were free to see what you get.

In the old, I'm sorry, you were free from grace. In the old life you were free from grace. You did what you liked, what did you get? Just a mess. He says, aren't you ashamed now? Look back at the things you've got.

What fruit do you get out of that, he says? The things in which you're ashamed. We know that, don't we? We look back now, well now we look back and say we know those things, this fruitlessness, this emptiness, to say the least.

That's the old false freedom you had. Freedom from being God's man to be the devil's man. Now if you've changed now, your freedom from being a devil's man to be God's man. That's more than incidentally put it in.

To show a ridiculous stage you could continue in the old, you can't because the new boss is taking over. But that hasn't really solved our problem yet. And that's why he then moves on into this famous seventh chapter of Romans where he discusses freedom from the law.

Romans 7 and Freedom from the Law

Now he said freedom from sin. We've done that. Freedom from sin is in the blood. Freedom from sin if you recognize that you've identified in Christ that you are out from the secret of sin who caused you to be.

Sin being you're compulsively susceptible. Sins are, you get that, don't you? Sins are occasional products. Sin is the principle you live by. You cannot be born again and don't live by the principle I'm for self.

Because that's not broken at the cross. You're sinned, you may be forbidden occasionally. That's only sins. And he deals with that a little later on. But you cannot compulsively be, oh you're not born again.

You're born again in the new spirit of self-giving self. The spirit of Christ. They take you over. And you're in this new capacity which you, your whole, you go back to what he says in, I didn't go into detail, 2 Corinthians 5, where he says that you don't have any merit.

If you come into this new life of Christ, you don't even have merit of flesh. You see all men as potentially what they're meant to be. Either redeemed people or they're meant to be redeemed. They can be.

You don't see things of the earth. You've got a new outlook on the world. It's like how it can be an agent to bless people and please God. And he goes into this new self. He goes into that. Under this new dominion.

But then he brings up this question. There's a troublesome spot here which you've got to get right. And that's the law. Now he says the law was God's potent way, powerful way, in which he confided us with who we really are at an unsaved age.

You see, we never were devils. We were children of the devil, servants of the devil, agents of the devil. We weren't devils. We hadn't become fixed devils. As I say, a fixed devil means with a very central spirit, I'm that.

I'm for myself, period. And presumably, if according to the Bible, he can't be changed. He can't be changed. He'd become a fixed, the opposite. We were deceived, tricked. It's all that. Captured. We became captives.

The devil didn't make us. He stole us. Led captivity. Captive. We were devil's captives. Made God's captives. We're captives. That's why God can speak to us. That's why the Holy Spirit can get at us. And that's because underneath, our real being never was a devil's.

Humanity, Conscience, and the Law of God

Paul said that in his great Acts 17 speech. He says, Paul, the whole human race, in him, they're floating. In him, they live. The moon have their being. Their basic being is a form of God's being. Because a free person, I reject being God's.

I don't accept that I'm God's. I operate my being as for myself. But really, it isn't. Because it's God's being, I know underneath what I ought to be. Now, there's the beginning key of a lost person. We're not lost.

We don't know what we ought to be. We have that which we call it in conscience, that light in us. That's very important. We're not lost in the sense of devil's lost, and eternally lost. We can become so.

And while we remain so, we go that way. We are not basically fixed as that. Now, it's on that level, the law comes in. Now, the law comes in, and demands us. It's a little uncertainty, if we're uncertain, who the old man was to.

I don't think it makes clear. He's saying, you were married, and under certain laws to that marriage. Marriage puts you under law. Unless there's been a death, you're not free to marry somebody else. Unless there's been a death of your mate.

Now, he says, in that marriage, now it demands very new, it looks as if, he means, that your marriage was to the law. You could say, it was a marriage of sin. I'm not sure. We were bound to sin. We were captive by sin.

I don't think about the rest of the trade. But what I mean, in that same condition, thank God the law came down. You've got to be. You shouldn't be doing that. You shouldn't be doing that. So, there's always this guilt.

You shouldn't be doing that. That's how we knew. You shouldn't be doing that. You shouldn't be. No, you shouldn't. But you are, of course. So, we try to escape the law and pretend it isn't there. But thank God, there's a guilt in all humanity.

We know we ought to be. That's why politics always tries to do the best. We always try to make the best of everything because we know we ought to make the best of everything. We say we ought to have brotherhood.

We know we ought to have brotherhood. Thank God. That's in us. Thank God. Deeper than our sins. That's the way it's said that there remains some cohesion in humanity. Because underneath, we know what we ought to be.

We're gods underneath. We're all sheep. Political sons. And that's where the law operates. And in our own life, it's got us. Those of us in the reach of the law. They say, you shouldn't be. No, you shouldn't be.

And then we try to run away and hide and pretend that underneath, thank God, nobody is happy or at peace who is a fallen person. Because there's a law there. It may be a sense in which they're really married into a law.

A real law. It's the law of God. And you can be. The devil enslaved you which really belongs to the law of God. Maybe that's what he means. Because he then says, in the death of Christ, you come dead to that.

Because that only came to you when you've been caught by this false person. When you're caught up by Satan and you began to express the area of the expression of Satan, self-loving self, in that was this law.

And the law said, you ought to be that now. It's no business to be that. You know that. And never left us alone. And so while we were in that position under Satan, the law got at us. Now, of course, the faculty was, I told you before, Satan made us feel independent.

You ask, you know yourself, not one in a million of us would say, thought Satan was in us. We'd probably say we did the works of Satan. We'd probably admit it included Satan. But now, Satan's living inside of me.

We say other people have demons. They don't say we have them. So, you see, it's a deeper truth that's known. That's where we've been deceived. The Bible says here, sin deceives you. Sin deceives you. I told you, deceived is a very serious word.

Blindness means you just don't know. It also says that God is blind in our minds if we don't know who we are. Sin makes you think you are or do not. That's far worse. See, Satan... I'm myself. See, Satan has light.

Jesus said this very subtle thing in the Sermon on the Mount. He says, if the light which is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness. You think you are light, you are darkness. That's much worse.

If the light which is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness. You think it's right. That's where we've been. We thought we had light. We're decent people, so-and-so, and we have no idea what's going on about Satan.

We don't take what Jesus said, you are the father of the devil, we don't accept that at all. We don't accept that we're doing his lust. We may say we do a few things, we regard ourselves as responsible.

We don't see we've got a motivating devil inside us. We didn't know that. How deep it is, you see. We didn't know that. Now, the subtlety of that has made me think I'm myself. I'm just myself. I'm just, if you like, a selfish self.

That's myself. I've sinned. I've sinned. OK. And I thought, you see, I haven't known the rest. And therefore, my problem is because I thought I was a self-reliant self. And, of course, the law was getting at me and got me and got me under conviction and got me saved.

But I still think I'm a self-reliant self. That's how much I take it. I still think, well, I'm saved now. I'm God's. Therefore, this is a very subtle thing because the whole of this life claims self.

The whole of this world, that's what it's called, this life, and the wicked one, it says, you do what you want. Everything in life is follow your own way. Make your own reactions. Do this. We can't help it.

That's human life. We're always having. Everything is disturbing us in self-reactions. All life is. Well, worry about this, hush about that. Life can be nothing else. Now, you see, while I think that I haven't got that separation from that death and inner spirit right, I think I'm a responsible person.

And I shouldn't do this. Now, I still remain where the law is. The law is there while I think I'm independent. If I'm deceived to think I'm still independent, the law is still there. The law is there if you run yourself by it.

That's what the law... Oh, it came to you, which you couldn't be, of course. So, the law came in, Satan got us, but he deceived us to think we are saved. We didn't know we were being murdered by Satan.

And the law said, OK, don't steal then. Don't lie to me. Go and do it, of course. So, the law was there while I was the first misapprehension of an independent self, which is what Satan made me think of.

Satan became what he thought was independent, because he was a servant of God. He tried to buy a part of that one. So, it made me like that. Now, do you see the subtlety? I come into a deemed life. I know Christ my Saviour.

That's out. I've got the outer right. I might even say to a point I'm dead to sin. I might go so far as to say I've not control. I doubt it. I doubt I have to understand Romans 6 at all in that first stage.

But, of course, I'm not governed by Satan. I know I'm governed by Christ, but I've got this idea well, I'll be better. I'll be better. I must react. I must go about my reactions. Now, no matter what I do, that doesn't work.

Paul’s Struggle with Indwelling Sin

And the law says, follow me, then you're caught. Because, you see, independent self serves itself. That's the meaning of it. So, while I think I'm independent, I'm tempted to be angry. I'll be angry. I can't get rid of it.

I'll be angry. I'll, you know, I'm grabbed by the thing. Because that's part of me. I can't escape it. I think I can. I can't escape it. I may say, Christ is ready to help me, but while I think I'm there as a person responsible, then I struggle and I'm under all my fusses and my temptations because I think I shouldn't be like that.

So it goes for a whole period of life where we're bothered by I shouldn't be like that. And I don't want to be and this is the famous number seven. Well, I don't want to be, but I don't want to do it.

I should go and do it. I should do that and don't do it. I'm completely in a mess. Paul says he first finds himself on the question of consciousness. Paul is a very high man. You see, in the Philippines, I mean, he's a righteous blameless.

He really was a legalist. He really was a moralist. He had total ethics except for self-love himself which is a high affection. You know that one? What else has he got? And he was only caught by covetousness.

It suddenly occurred to him, oh, I'm fine. I shouldn't covet. Covetousness is not a sin. It's an inner sin. Well, you can't marry an inner sin to yourself. And he says, you know it says in the Romans Romans 7 verse 8, the verse 7, the Lord said, thou shalt not covet.

Romans 8 says, sin, taking occasion like covet, wanted me all manner of contributions. The Lord said it was dead. In other words, he said, when I said I shouldn't covet, I want to covet everything. I want to covet everything I shouldn't covet.

I was caught by an inner desire. That beat me. He said, I can handle that. I shouldn't steal. I shouldn't murder. I shouldn't be adultery. But I shouldn't desire too much. I can't take a hand on that one.

And he caught by law. Because law says you shouldn't do it. Why you're there and you shouldn't do it, then you're a trouble. And then he goes on to say, this is what, this is how sin gets you. Sin plays its trick on you.

You think you're an independent person. But you may think you're a new person in Christ. All right, you're a person. You haven't got it, it's Christ in you doing it. You haven't got, you know it's there.

You haven't got it clear that the one really running all out is he. You've got him in a relationship. You haven't got him in a union yet. And, and you're, you may think, you're thinking, I was a devil.

But, you know, you've got this second question bothering you. And then you see the temptation comes also you shouldn't and then you're guilty. I did that. I've lost my temper again. I've done this and I've done that and the other.

And I'm all caught up, I shouldn't do it, I shouldn't do it. And I'm out of guilt. That's a pause that he went through. And he says in Romans 7, he gives a whole description, you know, how he should, I did things I shouldn't do.

He says, it wasn't, there's something wrong with me. He says, didn't I, I did, sin is within me. You see, in me, you see, he said, if he knew, I said, I delight in the Lord God often in man. Romans 7, verse 22, I delight in my inner self, my inner spirit, that's what Christ is.

And, yet this sin gets me. Because, you see, he doesn't know he's not him, but Christ. And, why do you think, why do you think it's himself? Then sin gets him. Because sin's in the independent self. Why I try to fight my own battles, sin's got me, because I'm in the independent self.

My flesh gets me. I can't conquer them. So, he says, I couldn't get this thing right. Inside me, I didn't want to do them. Yet, somehow, as I followed on, I couldn't conquer them. I couldn't conquer them.

You know, that chapter's full of lie. And, he said, in the last, verse 24, I'm a wretched man. Oh, a wretched man. Now, of course, that doesn't mean he's a rotten man. He was that, like we all are. But, as soon as I say, he isn't rotten, but he's very wretched.

We go through the cave, we're not rotten, we're wretched. But, we haven't had this thing right. We haven't seen, somehow, how to, how to, make it work. This was the moment in Paul's life, in 24th chapter, where he suddenly thought of coming from somewhere else.

Who should deliver me from the body that's dead? Who? Oh, I can't do it. And after he found it, he was conditioned now, I can't do it. Who will deliver me? And then he found, his answer was, in the replacement inside him, by the, he may have known, you may say, the old, say, patent was out, by the spirit of Christ, the spirit of life.

The law of, the principle of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus, had made me free from the law of sin and death. And he goes a little later on to say, the spirit, the spirit of God was his, and so on.

Death to the Law Through Union with Christ

Now, see, the, main point, that Paul gets to, is that, while I think I'm independent, even though I do think I may not be governed by Satan, but I think I'm independent, there's still, I'm still, it's a lie.

There's no such thing as an independent person. There never was an independent person. This chapter, talks about, a change in marriage. Romans 7 says, you see, you were married, to sin, sin and law. Sin and law, so you shouldn't belong there at all, under guilt.

I said, that's out, in Christ's death, that whole marriage is out. You haven't got, you've got a new marriage. While you belong to, independent so, so, law, law gets at you. And law says, you shouldn't do this, you shouldn't do the other, under your own guilt.

Now, when you've died in Christ, you've died to sin and law. This is the important point of Romans 7. It says, you've died to law. Wherefore, you become dead to law, by the body of Christ. Why? Because the law is there, while I'm under Satan, while I think I'm independent, you do, and under Satan, think I should, run my own life.

Law comes, you shouldn't do that, shouldn't do that. So while I'm, related to, to Satan, and therefore to sin, law gets me. And, tells me again, which I can't be, there was that, tells me again, I can't be better.

Now, when I've found the death of Christ, I'm not only, I'm not only dead, to, sin, dwelling in me, I'm dead to law, which is there, saying, I ought to do the same thing, you ought to do the same thing.

Why? Because, you've got a new marriage. And in place of, the old spirit of error, causing you to do something, you've got the new spirit of Christ in you now. Christ in you. Now this is the new, a new person to be in the life of Christ.

Now, when you know, that the real person in you is Christ, it becomes a know-how to you. You know the real person is Christ. You, we cease, from, that the independent reaction we used to have, that's our trouble.

When was Satan, independent reaction, I shouldn't do this, I shouldn't do that, I shouldn't do that, the law says you shouldn't, you shouldn't. They're all mixed up between independent self, and law, and no guilty.

You struggle and can't do it. Now, when you move into, the new one, when you come to consciousness, the real you is Christ in you. The spirit of God in you. Now, you don't listen to independent self anymore, so law has no, you're dead to law.

See, you don't listen to independent self. Why? Because you see, you live a life under Christ's control, under his new union, when things turn up, which are contrary to that, now instead of saying, I shouldn't do so and so, you say, well that's just, that's just my outer reaction, so I go back to Christ.

And Christ handles it. So you aren't fighting to, you shouldn't do a thing, you accept it. And you accept your temptations, as a springboard to faith. There used to be a springboard for self-effort, that was our trouble.

Our temptations used to be, well I'm here, I'm a saved person, I shouldn't be angry, I shouldn't have a long short, I shouldn't be resentful, I shouldn't be so tense, I shouldn't handle things, life wrong, I shouldn't do this, have wrong relationships, all the rest of it.

I shouldn't. See, I've got that idea. And then law of course says, you shouldn't, you're caught. Because I'm living under the illusion, of independence, there's no such thing, there's no such thing, it's an illusion.

Romans said, it's an illusion. We've moved from an old marriage, to a new one. In the old marriage, yes, there was sin and law. In Jesus Christ you're dead, not only the sin, but the law, which says, you ought, you ought, you ought.

That's out, because you're not there any longer to be, you ought. You ought out, because you ought long, so when you're a long person, you ought to be right. Now you cease to be, in that condition now.

In the new life, the new one is saying, the person is Christ. Now when it comes to you, you ought to be right, when it comes to you, all kinds of temptations. Now you no longer say, you ought. You say, I've got it clear now, this is Christ's management.

Christ in Us as the New Life

So, you accept your temptation, as you're pretty bored. If you're worried, I'm worried. You don't say, you ought to be worried, you say, cut that back, you ought. You say, that's my human, that's not me.

My humanity is pulling at me. See, what temptation really does, it pulls me back to the illusion itself. See, when I've got this thing right, my new union, is not either Christ, I've moved now, where I haven't mentioned it, into Galatians chapter 20, which is mentioned in the actual terms in Romans 6.

My new self, it's this law of the spirit of life, the principle of the spirit of life, the spirit of life is the me in me, the spirit of life, my life is me. The spirit of life is me, it came through Christ delivering me from the old, through his death and resurrection.

And it says, you're not in the flesh, you're in the spirit, the spirit of God dwells in you, which is Christ dwells in you. He replaced you. Now, through, in the old relationship, through Satan, I got the fourth idea, I'm independent, which is a lie anyhow, as really being expressed by Satan, I thought I was independent, so I just thought of myself writing my own show, and the law kept saying we shouldn't do it.

Now I get the sins out and about the Christ, but I still come over, I've still got this deception, I've no, I may think I'm not under Satan in the sense of control, but I think I'm still independent, that's the lie.

The lie is the idea I'm independent, that's a lie. So I come over to the new life, and because, while I think I'm independent, the law is still there, so you shouldn't do it, you're caught. What do you say?

When the deception comes in, of course I'm a human, but that's, I'm not managing this, you're managing this. You don't take guilt. You don't take, I shouldn't. You accept God, I am angry, OK, God handles that.

I am wild, OK, God, you handle that. You don't, any longer, you're not there fighting your body. Your body, it actually turns right round, your body becomes precious to you, it becomes an asset. But temporarily in this area, you haven't got so far as to see the positive of the body, you tend towards the negative.

You've been through stages, you've been fighting against your failures, your weaknesses, your strains, your traces, and this is what, you're more conscious of the failing self and of Christ in you, you haven't got settled in yet.

This is Romans 7, 8. So in Romans 7, 1, you see, you've got this consciousness, this false consciousness. Now I dawned on you, it's a lie, that's adorning. Somewhere Paul had adorning. Oh, Richard, I can't do it, it doesn't mean anything any longer.

He saw through the illusion of thinking he ought to be something. And anyway you are, it's your independent self, self-conscious. He cut that out, I don't want to be. Why? Oh, because I never actually, I never was that.

I mean, there was independence. And he missed, the moment you're born again, you've got new marriage. That's why you don't know. You've moved to the death and resurrection, you've got a new marriage. And in the death, you're actually old marriage, in the resurrection, you're in the new marriage.

And you don't know that, because you don't know that, you know you belong to Jesus. You haven't got anything right. You, you, you haven't got that, that outlook right. So, you think you are your own self, fighting.

That's the lie. You may not, never realise, perhaps you were governed by Satan, in that sense, it doesn't matter. Except that, it's, you see, when you've got the false union, you can see the new one. If you can recognise, I was indra, Satan, expressing himself to me, it is, it's movement, I'm now indra by Christ, he's handing it to me.

It's a change of union, you see. You can see it better that way. But we didn't know that false union. So, all right, we have denied it. Because of that, we've had this idea, I was a sinner, now I'm indra by Christ, I'm justified, I'm still a person, that's my fault.

That's my, that's my, no, I'm, I'm still a person. That's a lie. I've moved from, a person, indra by Satan, to a person indra by Christ. The God in me has changed, the motivator in me, therefore I haven't got clear.

So, in order to get it clear, so that once and for all, I can settle myself in where it belongs, I have to go through a period, in which I've mistakenly think I'm there, I'm no longer the old bad person I was, but I think I ought to be different.

Yes, I ought, I ought, I ought to come to you. And so we've got to go through a miserable period. We want to be right, we can't make it. And we live under energies, where I, I get off this thing, get off that thing, get off this thing, get that sort of thing.

And then I live in a kind of a celibate, because I think I ought to be different. I ought, no, I move over, to a, a, a, a daring thing, I am different. I move over to an I am. I ought to, I am different.

I was in Satan, I now am in Christ. And Christ is the me in me. That's why I always say, at this moment, although it's not a moment, the, the, the most total verse, is the Galatians chapter 21. Because Galatians chapter 21 says this, now it says, I, I've been crucified with Christ.

I've got that. I say, in Christ, my human self, is no longer dominated by Satan, who is running me. I'm out. Now, the all important thing, if you get that first, that's the reckoning of the day, the art of sin.

Get that. Get that clear. Now, you haven't got to clear that life under God. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, it's more than that, it's, a life under God isn't, isn't a complete statement. Because you haven't got to Romans 8 yet.

That's, a relationship. It's not a relationship, it's a union, it's a replacement. It isn't a relationship, under God, through our Lord Jesus Christ, it's a replacement, Christ has taken me over. That's the deeper thing.

You can't quite get that yet, because you've got this false concept, I'm a person. It can't have been the Pope, it's a lie. And so, Paul, seeks to show that to us, in Romans 7. By a statement, you're dead to the law, because, if you're there, the law is outside you.

It shows you're not there. Because the law is there, why? I think I'm an independent person. Or, I'm the Satan, that's the law, it came to you, you shouldn't be that. You belong to me. So, while you're under the law, it means, you're in a false illusion, you're there.

If you're dead to the law, you're not there. That's the great proof, that statement's not there. Because the law shall find you, why are you independent? Now, when I move over, and this is a big thing, that Paul did, he said, not only am I crucified, because, yes I live, that's where you're placed.

That's the important point. There was a relation between, he said, I'm crucified with Christ, yet, not I, no, nevertheless I live, yet, not I, because it is me. My living self is not I. Get it? I'm crucified with Christ, I'm out, in that old relationship.

Now, I'm no longer an I, chatting about here. I live, no, I don't, Christ is in me. That's replacement. That means, my real I now, is the living deity, Jesus Christ, is the person living in me. Now, see, if I get that, and I've been disillusioned about this, this false idea of self-loving itself.

If I get that, now then, under my new life, I begin to be free, because I'm living in myself. Because I'm not I, I'm with Christ in me. Now you're coming to a new thing. That's where Paul goes on then to say, I'm crucified with Christ, I'm out.

I live, no, I don't, Christ is in me. That's the middle changeover. You change over, I say, from wrong self, in Satan, to no self, not you, but Christ, and you come back to right self. I now live in the flesh, I live it, by recognition of that fact, face of a substance, by recognition of the face of the Son of God, who loved me, gave himself for me.