Growth in Godliness
The Prisoner of Lies
There are two men whose teaching ministries have done me more good than all the Church services I have attended for the past fifty years. One is John MacArthur of Grace Community Church in Sun Valley, California. Two is medical Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones in England. I am not looking to say these ministries are better than others; I will leave that judgment up to God at the Bema Seat of Christ. I am only talking about my spiritual growth, understanding God's holy Word, and respect for obtaining the truth, of which only God is the source.
A reality that has become very important to me is that for two men to be correct, each has to hear the same truth from God. God cannot be divided; He never says one thing to one person and another thing to someone else. Therefore, consistency in teaching is vital if we are to know the truth. Without exaggeration, after listening to thousands of sermons from both individuals, they have been extremely consistent with each other. I have found only two doctrines to differ, which is phenomenal. The one is the theme of this post.
The Prisoner of Lies in Romans 7:14-25
The teaching is from Romans 7:14-25. It is this teaching I believe to be the single most misunderstood portion of scripture that has impeded many believer's ability to overcome sin more than any other. When I heard each preach in the same text, they differed significantly regarding its meaning.
On the one hand, John is consistent with most writers and godly men down the centuries. On the other hand, is the majority always correct? It may seem proud to ask such a thing, but the text before us had caused me no minor injury for a couple of decades regarding my weakness regarding sinful behavior, and this was no small matter to me.
The majority holds to a dualism interpretation. It is said that there are two people in each of us, the sanctified saint and the man of flesh, and when temptations arise, and Satan also rises to corrupt us, we must choose between the lusts of our sinful flesh and obedience to Christ. Our choice wins or loses the day. Martin said such an interpretation is wrong. I say, where in the scriptures is choice more important than faith?
The Prisoner of Lies, Seeing the Chains Break Off
As previously stated, there must be agreement in God's Word because God is never inconsistent with Himself. Therefore, Martin spent one sermon placing Romans 7:14-25 in context with what Paul taught in chapters 6 through 8. Consistency is definitely missing! The second sermon was to place Romans 7:14-25 in context with the teaching of the entire New Testament, and again, there is no consistency. I began to turn.
I was listening to sermons at this point and reading John and Martin. At the end of the day, the scriptures had to speak to me through times of prayer and my study of the Greek text and its context. Verses like Romans 6:17, "But thanks be to God that though you were slaves of sin, you became obedient from the heart to that form of teaching to which you were committed," and verse 22, "But now having been freed from sin and enslaved to God, you derive your benefit, resulting in sanctification, and the outcome, eternal life." were making dualism look profoundly different from Paul's other teaching and the other New Testament authors. For instance, Peter, in his second letter, "For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust."
The Prisoner of Lies, Set Free in the Son
The alternative understanding is that upon rebirth, the believer is given a new nature by which we find our identification and victory in the Son of God. We don't, and this is vitally important. We do not have to fight by the exercise of our will to overcome the lusts of the flesh. In fact, that is the very thing Paul is striving to keep us from doing in his writing. Paul began chapter seven by saying, "Or do you not know, brethren (for I am speaking to those who know the law), that the law has jurisdiction over a person as long as he lives? Then, in verse 4, he says, "Therefore, my brethren, you also were made to die to the Law through the body of Christ, so that you might be joined to another, to Him who was raised from the dead..."
The alternative view says Paul placed himself artificially in the condition of a man trapped by striving to keep the law, and in so doing, he cannot overcome the lusts of the flesh and is disheartened in his Christ beliefs. Let me know if this is not so for most believers in the 20th Century, and I will tell you that you may need to pay closer attention to those around you. In my testimony, changing what I believe about this passage has profoundly and dramatically resulted in far more obedience to Christ.
In Conclusion, the prisoner of lies is the one who believes incorrectly the Gospel of Jesus Christ. "And making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members." Such a statement does not resemble the man Saul of Tarsus, who was transformed into Paul the Apostle. Paul would never say, "Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?" He knew precisely who set him free; he interviewed with Him on several occasions and proclaimed Him to his physical death.
If you need clarification on this teaching, take your time, pray over it, and remember it will mean the difference between freedom and unnecessary bondage for you.
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