Class Notes: 2/6/2022

The book of Romans part 28

https://youtu.be/o5CbwoGGuoM

We are in a verse-by-verse study of the book of Romans and got through verses 1-6 with the expanded translation: Rom 1:1-6;

v1 "Paul, a slave of Christ Jesus, called an apostle, through having been appointed because of the Gospel from God."

v2 Which (This Gospel) He (God) promised in advance through His prophets in the holy Scriptures or writings"

v3 Concerning His (God's) Son who was born from the seed of David according to the flesh.

v 4"Who was marked out or selected by the divine decree the Son of God by means of power, according to the Holy Spirit, by means of resurrection from deaths of Jesus Christ the Lord."

v 5 "Through whom (the resurrected Christ) we have received grace and apostleship, for the purpose of obedience to doctrine among all nations, for the sake of his personal reputation."

v6 "Among whom also you are privileged royalty (kletos) of Jesus Christ."

This took us to the doctrine of election where last time we noted that the mechanics of the election of the Church is the baptism of the Spirit, that creates the new spiritual species that comprises God's royal family and is also the means of providing all of the invisible assets that God has provided for every individual believer.

The Equal Privilege of Election is the basis for the function of the universal priesthood of the Church Age. Our royal priesthood shows that God's plan for us in the Church Age, as royal family is totally and completely unique because there is complete equality and freedom.

Never before the Church Age and never after the exit resurrection of the Church is there ever another universal priesthood. The universal priesthood is only for Church Age believers.

God's objective is equality and freedom; satan's objective is equity and tyranny. This is why satan's assault on the client nation and the church is so desperate at this time. The more God's plan is discovered and revealed from scripture the more desperate satan becomes and the more unhinged his deceived minions become.

A priest is a human being who represents people before God. In the Church Age, since every believer is a priest, every believer represents him or herself before God. This establishes a unique system of equality, privacy and autonomy.

Under the privacy of your priesthood, you are responsible to God for yourself. This means you are responsible for every thought you think, every motive you have, every good decision you make, and every action you take, good or bad. God is holding you responsible for your own decisions. As a believer priest you are responsible to represent yourself before God.

The royal priesthood of the believer is taught many times in the New Testament. It was a favorite subject of Peter. Although the Catholic Church misunderstood his teaching, he was really teaching the royal priesthood of each individual autonomous Church Age believer. Peter was the first to teach this doctrine, found in 1Pet 2:5; and 1Pet 2:9; John also taught the doctrine.

As a royal priest, every Church Age believer has a direct line to God, this means that he represents himself before God, he evaluates himself, and he offers prayers for himself.

This explains the connection between the privacy of your priesthood as it relates to your spiritual advance. You have privacy so you can learn Bible doctrine yourself. You can never learn anything if you are not objective, if you reject authority, or if you have any form of arrogance you cannot advance because spiritual advance comes from learning God's Word of truth that requires maximum humility and objectivity.

This is why the local church must be an environment where believers can gather together and have their privacy respected. This means both your weaknesses and your strengths should be kept private.

The pastor- teacher, as the authority in the local church, must protect the privacy of all priests in his congregation by disciplining or removing those who violate others' privacy.

Believer-priests must learn to account for their thoughts, motives, decisions, and actions in definable objective terms. Under the privacy of your priesthood, you must learn how to define your life in terms of God's protocol, God's plan, God's provision, and God's policy.

This means you must learn the technical language and vocabulary of God's Word of truth as written n the original languages from an isagogical, categorical and exegetical framework. This keeps your thinking tethered to the absolute truth of God's Word.

When viewed in 3 dimensions the tether provides a sphere of doctrinal freedom for you to function in.

Once you have this doctrinal framework, you on your own as a believer priest because you can analyze and evaluate your own life and your own problems, and apply your own doctrine and make corrections to your own life autonomously before God under the privacy of your very own priesthood.

The privacy of the priesthood demands that we learn doctrine so that we can properly define and understand our situation from God's perspective at any given time regardless of the pressure.

The royal priest's self-improvement is based on the function of perception of doctrine under the teaching ministry of God the Holy Spirit. Any self-improvement that is based on the advice and counsel of others is really a setback because it creates dependency.

The royal priesthood is designed by God to function autonomously under conceptualism. No believer can think properly, apply doctrine, or solve problems through the mind or the personality of another believer.

This is why each one of us is a priest. To the extent that we seek counsel or advice, we're either not getting enough doctrine or we're not using our own doctrine. Initially there's a place for counseling with new believers, but as believers advance they should begin to handle your own problems by themselves.

You should know when you're wrong and when you're right, and you should be able to utilize all the doctrine you have learned to advance to maturity. Only in the cognitive invincibility and spiritual autonomy of spiritual maturity will you glorify God. Under the privacy of your priesthood, you have the right to assemble with other believers in a group, where your privacy is respected, to learn doctrine from whomever is your right pastor-teacher

The privacy of your priesthood permits the function of both your positive volition toward doctrine plus the right to metabolize and apply that doctrine to your own experience privately. There is a tendency to get arrogant and want to apply it to other people's experience.

The only human dependence of the royal priesthood is God's provision of the pastor-teacher, and consistent positive volition under his communication. In that sense, a pastor is very much like a parent and should be honored, but not necessarily loved.

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