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#4.3 HOW SIN DWELLS in MAN

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Introduction 4.3

This bible study will show that sin dwells in our spiritual heart, in the form of a spirit man referred to as 'our old man' (Romans 6:6). This spirit man has a spiritual body called "the body of sin" (Romans 6:6), or "the body of this death" (Romans 7:24) and "the body of the sins of the flesh" (Colossians 2:11). This spiritual body is made up of spiritual flesh literally called "the flesh of sin" (Romans 8:3) although most translations render it as "sinful flesh". This body of sin is made up of "members" which are individual sins, some of which are listed (Colossians 3:5). This spirit man dwelling in our heart is the cause of all our sin because our thoughts, words, and deeds all come from the heart. This is why he has to be crucified and put to death for us to be set free from sin (Romans 6:6-7). This is the typology that the apostle Paul used to describe what most people refer to as a sin nature. It is not something we are born with but something that grows in us as we learn the knowledge of good and evil after we are born.

#4.31 Sin dwells in our spiritual heart

ECCLESIASTES 8:11 (Solomon)
11 Because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil.

ECCLESIASTES 9:3
3 This is an evil among all things that are done under the sun, that there is one event to all: yes, also the heart of the sons of men is full of evil, and madness is in their heart while they live, and after that they go to the dead.

OBADIAH 3
3 The pride of your heart has deceived you, you who dwell in the clefts of the rock, whose habitation is high; who say in his heart, who shall bring me down to the ground?

JEREMIAH 17:1
1 The sin of Judah is written with a pen of iron, and with a point of a diamond: it is engraved upon the tablet of their heart, and upon the horns of your altars;

JEREMIAH 17:9
9 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?

MATTHEW 15:19 (Jesus)
19 For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies:

MARK 7:21-23 (Jesus)
21 For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders,
22 Thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness:
23 All these things come from within, and defile a man.

MATTHEW 12:34-35 (Jesus)
34 O generation of vipers, how can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.
35 A good man out of the good treasure of the heart brings forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things.

HEBREWS 3:12
12 Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.

Note: This section shows that sin dwells in our spiritual heart and that our heart is the source of all our thoughts, words, and deeds, and so the source of all of our sin.

#4.32 Sin dwells in us as a spiritual body

ROMANS 6:6-7 (Paul)
6 Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that from now on we should not serve sin.
7 For he who is dead is freed from sin.

ROMANS 7:24 (Paul)
24 O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?

ROMANS 8:10 (Paul)
10 And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.

ROMANS 8:13 (Paul)
13 For if you live according to the flesh, you shall die: but if through the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you shall live.

COLOSSIANS 2:11 (Paul)
11 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:

Note: These are the scriptures which show the typology of this spiritual body which is made up of sin. It is called "the body of sin" (Romans 6:6), or "the body of this death" (Romans 7:24) and "the body of the sins of the flesh" (Colossians 2:11). This sinful spirit gives the Devil access to us and is what he uses to get us to do evil. He is referred to as "the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience." (Ephesians 2:2).

#4.33 Sin dwells in our spiritual flesh

ROMANS 7:17-18 (Paul)
17 Now it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwells in me.
18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwells no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I do not find.

ROMANS 7:25(Paul)
25 I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.

ROMANS 8:3 (Paul)
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 flesh of sin1, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh:

GALATIANS 5:16-17 (Paul)
16 This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.
17 For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that you cannot do the things that you would.

Note: In his descriptive typology of how sin dwells in us, these are the scriptures which the apostle Paul used to describe "the flesh" which causes us to sin. It is literally called "flesh of sin" (Romans 8:3) translated from the Greek σαρκὸς ἁμαρτίας (Gtr. sarkos hamartias). Jesus' physical flesh was a likeness of our spiritual flesh, and just as he submitted his physical flesh to be crucified we are called to submit our spiritual flesh to be crucified.

(Galatians 5:24) "Those who are Christ's have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires."

#4.34 Sin dwells in our spiritual members

ROMANS 7:5 (Paul)
5 For when we were in the flesh, the motions of sins, which were by the law, worked in our members to bring forth fruit to death.

ROMANS 7:23 (Paul)
23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.

COLOSSIANS 3:5 (Paul)
5 Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth: fornication, uncleanness, selfish passion, evil desire, and covetousness which is idolatry:

JAMES 3:5-6
5 Even so the tongue is a little member, and boasts great things. Behold how great a matter a little fire kindles!
6 And the tongue is a fire, the world of unrighteousness: so is the tongue among our members, that it defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of Gehenna.

JAMES 4:1
1 Where do wars and fighting come from among you? Do they not come even of your lusts that war in your members?

Note: The word "members" in these scriptures refer to the members of the spiritual body of our "old man", also called "the body of sin", or the "body of the sins of the flesh". According to Colossians 3:5 each member is a sin which has to be put to death in order for us to be free. So just like our physical body is made up of members, such as the tongue (James 3:5-6), fingers, eyes, ears etc. so the spiritual body of "our old man" is made up of different sins: fornication, uncleanness, selfish passion, evil desire, and covetousness which is idolatry (Colossians 3:5). These sins and others have to be "put off" (Ephesians 4:22; Colossians 3:8-9) which requires a willing effort on our part.

#4.35 Sin Dwells in us as lusts

JOHN 8:44 (Jesus)
44 You are of your father the Devil, and the lusts of your father you will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.

ROMANS 6:12 (Paul)
12 Do not let sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts.

ROMANS 13:14 (Paul)
14 But you put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not make provision for the flesh to fulfill its lusts.

GALATIANS 5:16 (Paul)
16 This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.

JAMES 4:1
1 Where do wars and fighting come from among you? Do they not come even of your lusts that war in your members?

1 PETER 2:11
11 Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul;

2 PETER 2:18
18 For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through much wantonness, those who were clean escaped from those who live in error.

1 JOHN 2:15-17
15 Do not love the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.
17 And the world passes away, and the lust of it: but he who does the will of God abides for ever.

JUDE 18
18 How that they told you there should be mockers in the last time, who should walk according to their own ungodly lusts.

Note: These scriptures show that sin dwells in us as lusts, which are simply "evil desires". They are called "the lusts of the flesh" (Galatians 5:16; 2 Peter 2:18; 1 John 2:16). These are the desires that need to be crucified for us to be set free from sin. Each sin in us gives us a desire to do that sin, and ungodly people tend to "walk according to their own ungodly lusts." (Jude 1:18). When the sin is repented-of and abstained-from the desire to do it dies and we get set free.

#4.36 Sin dwells in our physical body

ROMANS 6:12 (Paul)
12 Do not let sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts.

1 CORINTHIANS 9:27 (Paul)
27 But I keep my body under control, and bring it into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.

Note: Our physical bodies, in themselves, are not sinful, but sin in our heart does express itself through our physical body. For this reason, we need to ensure that sin does not control what we do. Paul said that he brought his body "into subjection" (1 Corinthians 7:27), that is, into subjection to the spirit of Christ which he said lived in him (Galatians 2:20). Sin cannot reign where Christ is in control. No doubt that this required some effort on Paul's part, which we can understand when we see what he subjected his physical body to (2 Corinthians 1:5; 4:10-11; 11:23-25; Galatians 6:17).

#4.37 Sin dwells in us as Wisdom, Knowledge and Understanding

ISAIAH 47:10
10 For you have trusted in your wickedness: you have said, No one sees me. Your wisdom and your knowledge has perverted you; and you have said in your heart, I am, and no one else beside me.

JEREMIAH 4:22
22 For my people are foolish, they have not known me; they are silly children, and they have no understanding: they are wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge.

1 CORINTHIANS 3:19
19 For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God; for it is written, "He catches the wise in their own craftiness."

Note: Sin dwells in us in the form of knowledge, wisdom and understanding that we have learned from the time we were born. Jeremiah said that God's people were "wise to do evil" (Jeremiah 4:22); therefore they did evil. They had no spiritual understanding or knowledge to do good and therefore they did not do good. Paul required that the saints at Rome would be "wise in what is good, and simple concerning evil" (Romans 16:19). This would ensure that they did good and not evil. Godly wisdom to do good is a spirit that dwells in us, and is either learned through the scriptures (Proverbs 2:1-7; 4:5-7; 8:32) or given as a gift by God (Exodus 28:3; 31:3;  1 Corinthians 12:8, Ephesians 1:17). God used wisdom, knowledge and understanding to create everything (Proverbs 3:19-20; 8:22-31). This spirit of wisdom dwells in our spiritual heart (Proverbs 2:10; 10:8; 11:29; 16:21; 23:15).

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