“The covenant produces a new and divine community of men and women who are literally the body of Christ on the earth.  They are infused with His life, His very being, by the Spirit.  This company is the dwelling of Jesus Christ on earth by the Spirit; it is among these people that His words of forgiveness are heard and received, that His healing power can be known and experienced.”  - Malcolm Smith.

Those who are not in Christ (unbelievers) have an internal problem called the sinful nature. They can disguise it by doing a lot of good things in this world, but no matter how much good they do or try to do, they still have this internal problem of the sinful nature that ultimately causes their hearts to be rebellious towards God. That will continually keep manifesting in one way or another throughout their lives. Unfortunately, many Christians believe they still have a sinful nature. They see the sinful actions in their lives as evidence of a sinful nature inside them. In churches they have been taught to turn to the Law to manage their sinning. Either they think that the Law came to give a righteous standard to live up to, and by doing do, earn salvation, or that the Law was given not to get you saved, but now that you are saved, you need to prove your salvation by keeping the Law, or you are in danger of losing it. God never gave the Law to try and control or fix the internal sin problem. He gave it to expose the internal sin problem. The Law cannot fix the internal sin problem—it would be like seeing your unkempt hair reflected in a mirror and then physically using the mirror as a hair-brush. It just doesn’t work, because that’s not what it’s meant to do. The Bible says that the power of sin is the Law (1 Cor. 15:56). The Law doesn’t kill the sinful nature, it empowers it! As soon as Law comes, the sinful nature breaks it! The Law brings a consciousness to the person that they are in a state of sin before a holy and just God who condemns and judges sin. It’s the Law’s job to strip a person of all self-righteousness and reveal to them their desperate need of salvation. Once it has done that and the person comes into Christ, the Law becomes redundant. Galatians 3:24-25 – “The law was put in charge to lead us to Christ that we might be justified by faith. Now that faith has come, we are no longer under the supervision of the law.” Christians are accustomed to hearing preachers mix law and grace together to help control sin in their congregations. When you put law on a Christian, it doesn’t provoke the sinful nature—because they don’t have one! Instead, putting law on Christians drives them further away from God. The doesn’t stir up sin in the believer, but the further you are away from God, the easier it is to give into sin’s desires. Putting the Law back on Christians will result in them feeling far from God, cause them to struggle against sin, and struggle even harder to feel accepted and loved by God. It will also fill their mind with a sin consciousness that will keep them in condemnation. You cannot live in condemnation and feel close to God at the same time. Grace empowers us to know we live close to God. If preachers are using the Law to try and control sin in their congregation, the end result will be that their congregation will increasingly feel further away from God and sin more! If the law is used to try and control sin, then it ends up provoking sin, but if it is used to expose sin, then it reveals sin and condemns by stripping one of all self-righteousness and leaves one helpless before God, who is the holy judge. Therefore, the only hope for people is Jesus. But remember, once you become a Christian, your relationship to the Law changes: you are no longer under the Law; it is no longer your supervisor. Many Christians are confused about all this. They think they still have a sinful nature and are still under the Law. So they are trying to control something they don’t have by using something they are no longer under. In other words, they are trying to control (or die to!) a sinful nature they don’t have by using God’s Law that they are no longer under. That is called sanctification by Law, and it’s totally weak and useless! Sanctification by grace says that you don’t have to die to the sinful nature, because you have already died to it and have been given a new righteous nature.

Christ was born under the Law to redeem those who were under the Law when He died to the Law (Gal. 4:4-5.) We were joined to "him who is raised from the dead", which means that we can never die again, because Christ can never die again. In Christ, we died to the Law so we could be joined to Christ in grace. If you are in Christ, then you are in Righteousness, Grace, and in the Spirit. There is not to be any of this "dying to oneself" to "the sinful nature" or "crucifying of the flesh". In Christ, you are Righteous.

What was Adam and Eve's sin? It was that they tried to be like God! The issue is that they were already like God--He created them in His image. It was Satan who planted the idea that they weren't like God when he suggested that they needed to *do* something to be like Him.

We define being a "slave of sin" as being unable to to not sin. It actually means that one is a slave to the condition of being in sin (sinful nature)--you can't get out of that position by any of your actions. So, if you're a slave of righteousness, it really means that you can't get out of your position in Christ!

"Many preachers are desperate to develop and produce good character in their followers. They feel it's their burden to get Christians behaving right, moral and godly. I believe God does desire that we live right, but God's idea of living right is us walking by the spirit and with faith in the finished work of Jesus." ~ Ryan Rufus.

The flesh tends to stop us from accepting the free gift of God's love and covenant; it will accept--but with conditions. It must have time to make itself ready with dedications, promises to be godlier and disciplined--all of which will be in place tomorrow or next week. In doing so, the flesh will have produced a cause for receiving the promises of the covenant by a process in which it is still very much in control, determining when we are ready and when we are worthy to receive the covenant. Religious flesh must stay in control at any cost. To confront the reality of the unconditional love of God that has given all in Christ means death to the flesh. ~ Malcolm Smith