16. Inside of Christ

Covering Romans 4:1 to 7:6:

Having just shared “Made Justly Innocent” in the Zoom meeting, I came away with a sense that, in joining Paul in taking the reader through hopeless despair, I might have contributed to the perverse idea that despair takes us to Jesus. Neither despair nor the death of the cross “takes us to” Jesus. Jesus came to us, wooing us to ask Him to live in our hearts, and from that moment on, full union with Christ in all that it means has been our ONLY reality.

Yet I felt troubled, and thought I should “explain” further, until I realized that Paul also felt deeply troubled. You see, even though Paul could not have known the excess of Nicene Christianity, he did know people, who were no different then than they are today. And Christians turn away from Jesus.

The Work of the Spell-Caster. We must bring back in Paul’s question of the Galatians. – Who has placed a spell on you? … You are so foolish! Having begun in Spirit, are you now accomplishing completion in flesh [by human ability and effort]?

The work of the spell-caster is to tempt Christians living in All-Salvation now, in full union with Christ from the start, to turn from Jesus to self improvement. Turning from Jesus takes us to despair, but the KINDNESS of God brings us back to knowing the only thing True. Or as James said (I paraphrase), “We saw ourselves inside of Jesus, but then we turned away and forgot!” Paul’s detour into guilt and silence was only to show us the wondrous meaning of Propitiation and Just Innocence, always together, the power of God carrying us.

Towards the Ruling Verse. To stay with Paul’s purpose, going forward, we must know that Paul is doing two things at the same time. On the one hand, Paul is driving absolutely towards the most extraordinary set of Words ever to enter into human consciousness, the Ruling Verse of the Bible, Romans 8:28-30. The Ruling Verse of the Bible has appeared only occasionally in Paul’s writing up until now, even though everything in the Bible comes first out from it. But as Paul begins Romans, “already sharing all with Jesus” fills his seeing, and he is directing all towards its explosion into our knowing.

But on the other hand, Paul continues to counter the perversity of Christian objection to his gospel of our full union with Christ. He does so by continuing to expand the Ruling HOW’S of God, the Blood, the Cross, and Resurrection Life.

The Kindness of God. Jeremiah was completely correct when he said that a heart empty of the knowledge of God, having turned away from Jesus in the imagination, is deceitful and wicked.

God blessed me by placing me under anointed preaching that twisted Paul’s words against Paul’s Gospel in every way, until I KNEW every “Bible” argument turning Christians away from Jesus. And thus the extraordinary year of 1998 in my life grows ever brighter. In February, I came to total despair that I would ever be a son of God, which is Romans 3:19. Then, over several months, I made the slow and deliberate decision that I would know JESUS alone! You see, even the despair itself was just the Kindness of God restoring me to the only thing that has ever been True. And now, knowing Jesus alone, let’s continue with Romans 4.

The Only Way. (Chapter 4) 3 But what does the Scripture say? • “Abraham believed God and it was reckoned and accounted to him into just innocence.” 5 The one who does not work, however, but believes upon Him who presently and actively declares justly innocent those who have been without God, his faith is reckoned into just innocence.

None of this can make any sense to one who does not first KNOW the Second and Third Ruling Verses of the Bible, God’s definition of what He means by our humanity. We are created to be filled with all the fulness of God; we are designed to reveal God as He is to all. God’s Word, spoken forth, enters into union with our faith, and our faith receives, in full, God’s Word entering us. This joining is the ONLY Way by which we can be what we are.

Knowing What We Are. The critical importance of Faith can be understood ONLY inside of knowing what we are to God and God to us, first.

Ruling Verses 2 & 3: We are created to be filled with all the fulness of God; we are designed to reveal God as He is to all. Nothing Paul is saying can have any meaning apart from first knowing God’s intention for the Life relationship He designed us to share with Him.

Ruling Verse 7: The joining together of God’s Word spoken forth, entering into union with our faith, and our faith receiving, in full, God’s Word entering us, is the ONLY Way by which we can be what we are. Nothing blocks God’s intentions more than our refusal to believe that He is telling us the Truth. Those who refuse Jesus place sin between themselves and God. Faith that speaks Christ our life honors and pleases God.

David Sinned! • 6 In the same way, David also declares the blessedness of the man to whom God credits just innocence, making it to be so, completely separate from works, that is, completely separate from what a person does or does not do. 7 “Blessed are those whose lawlessness is sent away, that is, made to vanish, and whose failures to connect with God are covered, that is, are entirely blanked out. 8 Blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not reckon or consider or count anything of the falling short of sin.”

Just about the most extraordinary thing said in the Bible about any human is what God said concerning David, “I have found Me a man after My own heart “(Acts 13:22). Part of what makes that statement extraordinary is that David failed God in breaking Moses’ law more than any other.

David RAN into God! It is what David did with his sin that separates him from most other humans. David ran straight into the Most Devoted Place and gave himself, with all of his sin and shame, only to God. And in doing so, David arose, not in sorrow, but in JOY, knowing that God had removed from him ALL of his disconnection from God. This is why we place David into the heart of Hebrews 10:19-22, as one who seized God for himself with all boldness. More than that, this is how God wants us to know Jesus, of the flesh of David (see Hebrews 5:7-9), though without sin.

Ruling Verse 6: We place David right at the heart of Ruling Verse 6, a man who ran straight into the Most Devoted, straight into God, with all of his sin and shame, and there rose up inside of joy knowing that his sin was gone, to seize with all enthusiasm everything that is God for himself, blessed, spoken well of, by God.

The SEAL of Just Innocence. 10 How then was it credited, that is, spoken inside of God? Was it when he was circumcised or before he was circumcised? It was before Abraham was circumcised, not after he was circumcised. • 11 Abraham then received the sign of circumcision as a seal of the just innocence of his faith before he was circumcised, so that he became the father of all those who believe into just innocence, that it is also credited to them, spoken inside of God, even though they are not circumcised.

To comprehend God’s meaning, we must have a clear definition of circumcision in both of its meanings, one of the flesh and the other inside of Spirit. The Spirit definition is then found inside of Romans 3:19, inside of Galatians 2:20. – Shut up about your “self,” speak only Christ.

Sealed. I must share something I had not realized until now. When God sealed my mind into Himself in May of 2013, this did not make me “perfect” in my thoughts, rather, from then until now, I have never called myself as separate from and thus opposed to God. A thousand times I might have, but I refused, and in refusing each time, I immediately acknowledged God my Father sharing even this with me.

This is the seal of the believer, the refusal to call ourselves as separated from God our Father, regardless. It is the mark of our faith, that we belong only to God. Our shame is His; it belongs to no one else. This is circumcision inside of Spirit. This seal is “silence,” in obedience to the Gospel, the refusal to speak of ourselves as separate from the Lord Jesus. Then, through faith, we call all our human thoughts as part of Him.

Speaking Christ Alone. And what is the SEAL of just innocence? – That we never again speak of ourselves as separate from Jesus (Philippians 3:2-11). And this was the meaning of circumcision to Abraham, “The mark in my body that I belong only to God.” As believers, it is the mark in our self-story, speaking Christ alone.

Definition: False circumcision is hacking at the flesh to “get right with God.” True Spirit circumcision is to cut away ever speaking of one’s self as separate from full union with Christ. We belong only to God; we place ourselves inside of Him regardless. Speaking Christ alone is our seal of just innocence.

Ruling Verse 5: Jesus always comes to us first, already in full union with us. As we believe that He is True, so God speaks our just innocence inside Himself, that nothing ever separates us from Him. We live only with God.

The Inheritance. • 13 Indeed, the promise to Abraham or to his seed, to be heir of the world-cosmos, did not come through law, but through the just innocence of faith. 14 If those out from law are heirs, then faith is unreal, and the promise is abolished.

The inheritance is always part of Kingdom. Kingdom is always coming out from Covenant. Notice that reliance on self abolishes the promise of the inheritance. Thus the New Covenant is also conditional regarding the inheritance, one condition, as Jesus said, “Stay inside of Me.” Or as Paul said, “Put on the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Kingdom: Inside the Promise to Abraham is found the inheritance of, and stewardship over, all creation. The fulfillment of this promise cannot come from self-reliance, but only out from abiding inside of Jesus.

Defining Salvation and Grace. • 16 Therefore it is out from faith and according to the finest details of grace, God giving Himself with certain surety, that the promise is sure to all the seed, not just to those out of law, but also to those coming out from the faith of Abraham, who is the father of all of us. 17 (As it is written, “I have made you a father of many ethnic families.”) • Besides that, the God whom he believed is the One continuously giving life to the dead and calling into existence things not existing.

I finally understand the relationship between Grace and Salvation. In spite of all my recent and enthusiastic writing about Grace, I knew that I did not yet see it clearly. Notice the change of wording in the definition of Grace that fits every Bible context in which Grace is defined. Salvation is sharing life with God; Grace is the giving that makes it happen.

Saved by Grace through Faith. You know, this really is Ruling Verse 1, for Ruling Verse 1 is the entire context inside of which everything works, and especially, the entire breadth of Kingdom. I want to stay with Paul’s words here as much as possible, however, just bringing in the key words of Romans 8:28-30 in order to frame these thoughts.

Ruling Verse 1: Salvation is sharing life with God – symmorphosed with the image of His Son, the heart of the Promise to Abraham. Grace is the giving that makes it happen. Synergeoing together is this continuous giving, this calling forth of Life. Our labor with God forever is to call all things, and every next moment, into Life and into Goodness.

God has finally given us a specific knowledge of “saved by grace through faith” (Ephesians 2).

Faith. 19 And not being weak in faith, he perceived his own body already become dead, being about a hundred years old, and the deadness of Sarah’s womb. • 20 He did not judge that deadness through unbelief, however, but he was empowered in faith into the promise of God, giving God glory.

Paul is giving Abraham as a clear example of the real meaning of faith, in the same vein as 2 Corinthians 4:18 and 5:17, we walk through faith and not through sight. Faith does not regard outward appearance, not even the dying of the body. The Word God speaks is a zillion times BIGGER.

Definition: Faith is not “blind,” nor does it “leap.” Faith is the receiving of every specific Word God speaks in the Gospel, that it is True and already fulfilled. Then faith looks squarely at outward appearance, and faith KNOWS that it must give way as the fulfillment of Promise stands forth.

The Relationship between Faith and Grace. • 21 Abraham was convinced to full measure and completion that what God had promised, He is also able to do. 22 Therefore, it was also credited to him into just innocence. 23 This was not written for him only, that it was credited to him, • 24 but also for us, to whom it is about to be credited, spoken inside of God, to those believing upon the One having raised Jesus our Lord out from the dead, 25 who was traded [life for life] through our falling away and was raised up through our being made justly innocent.

Now that we are finally able to see clearly the unbroken flow of Paul’s meaning, we see such glory beyond all in every line that he writes. Yes, these are Ruling Verses 7 and 5 again, yet taken into so much meaning as to quite blow us away. In fact, we find here the relationship between Faith and Grace.

Two Definitions. It dawns on me that the whole contention is regarding one’s definition of God. A God “of good and evil” is aloof and “moral,” judging all by the measure of right and wrong. A God of Life is a living God, close inside of each, wanting to share Life together. The two definitions of “saved by grace through faith” are the difference between Life and death.

Definition: A God “of good and evil” is aloof and “moral,” judging all by the measure of right and wrong. A God of Life is a living God, close inside of each, desiring a shared Life together.

Ruling Verses 5 & 7: Because Jesus resolves all differences between us and God, and because Jesus gives Himself to us in trade, life for life, we know that God speaks our just innocence inside of Himself and declares that He knows no disconnection from us. Thus our faith is conviction to full measure.

So Very Much, Beyond All. (Chapter 5) • 1 Because we have been made justly innocent out from faith, that is, declared never to have sinned, we have peace towards God through our Lord, Jesus Christ • 2 through whom also we have been brought through faith into this grace in which we stand, the full giving of God with us; and we boast upon expecting the glory of God. • 3 Not only that, but we now even exult boastfully inside the pressures of travail within and without, being fully aware that such pressures bring forth steadfastness, 4 and steadfastness, the proof of approval, and approval, hope. • 5 This hope does not leave us ashamed or confused, because the love of God has already been poured out and shed abroad inside of our hearts through the Devoted Spirit, the One already given freely to us.

So much here, so very, very much. Where do we even start?

Connected with God. Romans 5:1 & 2 are two different elements found in Ruling Verse 6. Verses 3 & 4 are clearly Ruling Verse 7, yet in its power to TURN us AROUND, God through us into our world, the meaning of travail. For that reason, we want to place Romans 5:5 thrice, into Ruling Verse 8, into Ruling Verse 9, and into the heart of Covenant. Romans 5:5 is HUGE, like 2 Corinthians 3:3.

Ruling Verse 6: Peace is our only relationship with God. That means that Jesus, in union with us, causes our desires and God’s desires to be fully compatible (see Philippians 2:13).

Ruling Verse 6: Carried into God through Jesus, we now live inside of and stand upon Grace, the full giving of God to us, and devotion, the giving of ourselves to Him in return.

Love Shed Abroad. Ruling Verse 7: We boast (Speak Christ) that God’s Glory belongs to us (Ruling Verse 1). We speak our confidence with all joy that through all the pressures of our travail, the Lord Jesus proves Himself faithful and True inside our lives.

Ruling Verse 8: The Love that is God Himself has already been poured out and shed abroad inside our hearts, for the Spirit is the Gift and giving of God, and is now our own spirit.

Ruling Verse 9: This travail, this Love, then, is not just for us, but it is now God through us into our world, His knowledge flowing as Love from us to many.

Covenant: The Covenant is the Promise of Spirit. God has given His Spirit to us utterly and completely, as Love poured out. Out from that Promise, we give thanks inside of all, and out from God’s Spirit now ours, we expect God to arise in all.

The Meaning of Our Redemption. • 8 God, however, establishes Himself with us, as love into us, that when we were still sinners, disconnected from God in rebellion, Christ died for us, for our sakes. • 9 Much more, then, having now been declared justly innocent, as never having sinned, inside of His blood, we are certain to be saved through Him, now far away from any anger. • 10 For if we were hostile, opposing God, when we were reconciled and brought into agreement with God through the death of His Son, much more, now being fully agreed with God, we will be saved and made whole inside of His life.

Paul is adding point after point to the meaning of our redemption so that when he blows us entirely out of the old creation, we can sustain the blast. This is how we are to understand Paul’s intention.

God Establishes Himself. Again, we must define God first. The definition of God in verse 8 is the opposite of the definition of God in Calvinism.

Definition: God is a God of Life, NOT a God who “judges all by right and wrong.” God ESTABLISHES Himself as Love into us, paying zero attention to our hostility. God alone is, and has always been, our Salvation inside of Love.

Ruling Verse 6: Inside of His Blood, Jesus carries us into the knowledge of God, our Salvation, in whom alone we dwell. We never again falsely accuse God of hostility towards us.

Life: Through His death (Ruling Verse 5), Jesus enters into union with us, joining us with God, yes, but Salvation is much more than just innocence. Salvation is LIFE. Salvation is a Life shared with the Father inside of Jesus, Life unfolding.

The Only Origin of Sin and Death. • 12 Consider that, just as through one man, sin and falling short of God entered into the world-cosmos, and through falling short, death; after which death spread into all humans, for all have disconnected themselves from God.

You can tell that Christians connect themselves to Adam in their opposition to God. “It’s the devil’s fault; the devil started all this rebellion against God.” “It’s the woman’s fault; women brought sin into the world.” No, oh man, it is your doing alone, your unthankfulness and contempt, your own reach for power over others.

Definition: Sin did not begin with the serpent, nor with Eve, both were unfallen until Adam’s teeth pierced the fruit of refusing to be like Jesus in the Tree of Life, hating the way God made him, and seizing power over others through law.

Law to Death; Grace to Life. • 18 So then, just as one act contrary to God brought all humans into condemnation, so also one act of just approval brings all humans into the just innocence that comes out from life. 19 For as indeed through the one man who did not listen, who did not connect with the speaking of God, the many were set forth as sinners disconnected from God, so also through the submission of the One, as He embraced what was spoken, the many will be set forth as justly innocent. • 20 The law entered so that acting contrary to God might abound, to be shown for what it is, yet far more than that, even where sin and falling short of God abounded, grace hyper-abounded, 21 such that, as disconnection once ruled inside of death, so now grace, God giving Himself into us, might rule through just approval into age-unfolding life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Defining Grace. I am so glad that the definition of God has come into our picture, for we define “grace” by how we define “God.” The serpentine definition of grace says this. “I judge all by right and wrong. I judge you WRONG – except that I punished Jesus instead of you. So now I will judge you “right,” so long as you know that it’s not really true.” – “Unmerited favor.” That is how faith became “believing what is not really true.”

Definition: There are two definitions of “grace,” one of the serpent’s tree of right and wrong, the other of the Tree of Life. False grace says, “Because I punished Jesus, I will judge you ‘right,’ even though it’s not really true.” – Unmerited favor. The Grace that is God says, “Inside of Jesus, I give you all of Myself, that you might live together with Me.”

Swept into One Meaning. (Chapter 6) 3 Or are you ignorant that • those who have been immersed into Christ Jesus have already been immersed into His death? 4 Therefore, we were buried together with Him through immersion into death, so that, • just as Christ was raised out from the dead through the glory of the Father, even so should it be that we also walk inside of newness of life. 

Paul has now begun to play with the Greek prefix “syn/ sym,” meaning “together with.” When he gets to Romans 8:29, he will invent a new word, one that did not exist in the Greek language before that moment – sym-morphosed. In that moment, every prior use of the prefix “syn/sym” in placing us together with Jesus in one way or another, is swept into that greatest of all meanings, sharing the same FORM together. “Syn/sym” means full union with Christ.

Resurrection Life Now. These two verses come out from the entirety of Jesus as our Way into Life, already accomplished, beginning with our full immersion into Christ Jesus as that Way. The ritual of being immersed in water shows us the reality of LIFE, of walking in Resurrection LIFE, now and forever. In the run-up to symmorphosed, it is important for us to place all three of the HOW verses, Jesus as our only Way into sharing Life with the Father, as all working together.

Ruling Verses 5, 6, & 7: The outward ritual of immersion into water shows us how the old is gone, that we live ONLY in Resurrection Life now. The Cross is our union with Christ. The Blood is our Way into the Knowledge of God-with-us, and Confidence is how we walk every moment in the present Life of Jesus, even in the dying of our bodies.

“In” is Literal. Every preposition joining us with the Lord Jesus is literal. You see, we do NOT know what we are, as John said, for we come out from God’s thoughts through the good-speaking of Jesus. We ARE inside of Jesus, literally and substantially, from Gethsemane on, in every step of the Atonement all the way to the right hand of God in the heavens.

Covenant: In Gethsemane, Jesus agreed to receive us into Himself, that He might carry us all the way through death and into Life (see Hebrews 2:13). The word “in” or “inside of” found between us and Jesus is LITERAL. We are literally and substantially inside of Jesus through every step of the Atonement. We are IN His death; we are IN His burial; we are IN His resurrection. God is REAL, and every Word of His Covenant with us is absolutely real.

Preparing Us to Be Turned Around. • 5 For as we now share the same genetic origin, just like Jesus’ death, so also we must share the same genetic origin with His resurrection. • 6 We know that our old self was crucified together with Him, sharing the same cross together, so that the body of sin and separation from God might be separated from us, since we are enslaved to sin and falling short no longer. • 7 Indeed, the one who has already died [with Christ] is declared justly innocent, far away from falling short.

These three verses are again the three HOW verses flowing together, a second time, ever more explicit. We must make this second comment even larger. You see, Paul’s intention is to turn us around, that our lives would become something we never knew. We must KNOW our Redemption as absolute.

Grounded in a Finished Redemption. Remember that Jesus did not die “because He was bad”; He died because He was carrying us all the way through death into Life shared with God. We share that same genetic origin.

Ruling Verses 5, 6, & 7: Jesus died because He was carrying us through death into Life shared with God. We share the same genetic origin of such giving. In the same way, we share the same genetic origin of that Resurrection Life with God that carries others. Through this walk of the Atonement, which God says we share completely with Jesus, every particle of that in us which once opposed God is gone forever. We were, literally and substantially, inside of Jesus as He died. We are, literally and substantially, inside of Jesus as He is now risen out from the dead, never to die again. This is the Way by which God brings us into Himself.

Our Covenant Connection. • 8 More than that, since we died together with Christ, we believe and are fully confident that we must also share His living, together with Him. 9 For we know that Christ, having been raised out from the dead, dies no more; death no longer has authority or rule over him. 10 Because Jesus died, He died to all disconnection from God once for all, now placed upon all. Because He lives, He lives utterly connected to God. • 11 In exactly the same way, you also consider, reckon, speak yourselves to be truly dead to any and all sin or falling short of God, and reckon and speak yourselves as living connected utterly to God inside of Christ Jesus.

These are Covenant verses, for they show us exactly how Jesus connects us with God. And they show our only response to that Covenant – we shout that it is TRUE.

Speak the Covenant. This is where we must raise the HOW’S of God to absolute profundity, larger than the universe, deeper than all depths, certain and sure beyond human comprehension.

Covenant: The Cross is absolute, larger than all creation and finished in all. The very meaning of the Cross separates us absolutely from all that has opposed God. The Blood is absolute, having rendered all wicked action obsolete. We have already entered God through the Blood. The Resurrection Life of Jesus is absolute and all, the only place we live.

Speak Christ: Romans 6:11 COMMANDS us to speak Christ, to shout at the top of our lungs, “I have zero connection to sin and death. Sin is gone from me, death is gone from me forever. I have all connection with God inside of Jesus; it is God in Whom I dwell.” We speak the only thing True.

Given Utterly to God. • 12 For this reason, do not allow any thought of falling short of God to rule in your dying body, that you would listen to or give weight to its desires. 13 Neither present your members as tools of injustice [against others], but place yourselves as connected utterly to God, as fully living, having already departed from the dead. And place your members as tools of just approval, connected utterly to God.

Every preacher I have heard wants to take these lines right back into the spell-caster. “Yea, we began in Spirit, sure. BUT it’s still up to you to get it right.” Yet this line exists inside an entirely different conception of reality. Of truth, this is “The Form for God through Jesus.” But a key word here is “injustice,” and the difference swings on one’s definition of “sin.”

Defining “Sin.” Sin, definition 1: God knows evil, and He brought evil out from Himself as substance. That evil is now you, you are sin by nature. Everything you do is sin; it’s just what you are. Sin, definition 2: God knows only Life through the good-speaking of Jesus sustaining all. Sin is an action of hurting others in order to punish God; it comes from refusing Jesus.

Definition: We must define “tools of injustice” to understand God’s meaning. Just as the two trees signify two definitions of God and of grace, so there are two definitions of sin. 1: God knows evil, and He left you evil by nature. Everything you do is sin; it’s just what you are. 2: God knows only Life through Jesus sustaining all. Sin happens only out from refusing Jesus; it is an action of contempt in hurting others (injustice) in order to punish God (unthankfulness).

We Are for God. I had a bullet point on verse 17, but I see now that Paul is just repeating himself, so I removed it and will expand on this whole wondrous meaning of devotion to God. In fact, we can now define and place “tools of just approval.” That’s just another way of saying Ephesians 4:16, being joined together out from the sharing of every member. In fact, this thought is what Paul will expand on in Romans 12.

The Form for God through Jesus: Paul is speaking of the parts of our human make-up in the same thinking as 1 Corinthians 12, that we are the form of Jesus in all heaven-earth. Out from God’s great giving of Himself to us (Grace), we give ourselves back to God in return (Devotion). Having “members as tools of just approval” means that out from God-with-us, all that we give to one another is pure and devoted.

The Fruit of Living inside of Jesus. • 22 Now, however, you are made free far away from all disconnection from God, and even more than that, because you are slaves connected utterly to and together with God, you possess your fruit into living as devotion to God and your present completion is age-unfolding life. • 23 Indeed, the payment for falling short is death, and its end result; but the grace of God Himself, God giving Himself into you, is age-unfolding life inside of Christ Jesus our Lord.

A shared life with God, Salvation, binds us to God, yes, but it also binds God to us, that is, the meaning of Blood Covenant. Notice how Paul’s words confirm precisely everything God has taught us concerning completing devotion, that devotion is our return to the Father of all He has given to us, Grace to grace, the Eucharist. Grace is how our life unfolds with God.

The Kingdom out from Life. The thing is, no matter how hard Paul tries, Jesus through John just says it better. “You inside of Me and I inside of you.” Yet if we want to understand the full meaning of this Tree of Life relationship, we must bring into it all the details Paul has given us.

Ruling Verse 10: The Tree of Life is John 14:20. “Know that I am inside of the Father and you inside of Me and I inside of you.” It is inside of Jesus that we live this Life shared with our Father, age-unfolding Life.

Kingdom: Our every next step with God is a step of Devotion, God to us and we to God. This Devotion is the fruit of our union with Christ, and this Life we now live with the Father is the completion of the Covenant.

A Final Establishment of Union. (Chapter 7) • 4 In the same way, my brothers and sisters, you also have already been put to death to law through the body of Christ so that now you belong to another in full marriage union, that is, to the One who was raised out from the dead, so that we should bear fruit [bring forth life] as now connected utterly to God. 5 While we were in the flesh, the desires of our separation from God were energeoing through the law inside our members to bring forth fruit to death. • 6 But now, we have been separated away from the law, having died to that which held us back from God, in order to serve now in newness of Spirit, not in oldness of letter, that is, not by any external law.

The establishment of our full union with Christ in Romans until this point is OVERWHELMINGLY clear.

Fruit to Life. We belong to Jesus in full marriage union, yet such union always comes with purpose. Our purpose is LIFE, that is, to bring forth the knowledge of God into the knowledge of all, Revelation 12:1-5, the Unveiling of Jesus Christ. Paul references again, as he did in Galatians 6, the absolute power of the cross that separates us from anything and everything that has to do with sin and death. – I have been crucified with Christ.

But let’s paraphrase verse 6 using Paul’s own words. – Now that we are inside of Spirit, the desires of our union with God are energeoing through the law of the Spirit of Life inside of Christ Jesus, inside all that we are, bringing forth fruit to Life, the knowledge of God into our world.

Life out from Union. Some of the things in our paraphrase have yet to be expressed by Paul. Yet I have written much of what is ahead before I am writing this bit. And I am ever more overwhelmed by the POWER of ONE Gospel Word flowing through Paul and unfolding in every letter that he writes.

Ruling Verse 5: Paul completes this part of Romans with a restatement of our full marriage union with Christ, inside of which we are protected from all sin and death by the Cross.

Life: Let’s paraphrase Romans 7:4-6, recasting Paul’s words. “Now that we are inside of Spirit, the desires of our union with God are energeoing through the law of the Spirit of Life inside of Christ Jesus (see Romans 8:2), inside all that we are, bringing forth fruit to Life, the knowledge of God into our world (see 2 Corinthians 2:14-15 & Revelation 12:1-5).

From Redemption into Salvation. Paul is not quite ready, in his mind, to catapult us into All-Glory. He is convinced, however, that he has so fully established us in the vast meaning of union with Christ, HOW God connects us back into a living relationship with Himself, that he can risk taking us back through despair again. Now, Paul and God have a critical reason for doing this. Union with Christ is HOW we live together with God. But living together with God is infinitely beyond-all, beyond all.

I can see now, that in taking us back through despair again, Paul intends to take the elements found inside the HOW of God out from Redemption and into All-Salvation-Now. This is the final platform for Paul to release the Unveiling of Jesus Christ PRESSING to explode out from his heart.