https://youtu.be/2PCj6Zp8Eck
In our verse-by-verse study of Romans we are in Rom 7:18; at the phrase "no good resides in me that is in my flesh."
We noted that this refers to the status of total depravity at physical birth because of spiritual death. Total depravity is the imputation of Adam's original sin to the OSN at physical birth and a part of total depravity is spiritual death.
Spiritual death means more than no salvation relationship with God it also means complete and total ignorance of God, God's plan and God's policy. This means that no unbeliever has a clue about God but satan deceives unbelievers through the OSN and his cosmic system into thinking that they do.
The physical human body is hopeless so the only area remaining for a solution is the human soul. The solution always deals with the fact that God's Word of Truth must become resident in the soul. Spiritual growth and glorification of Christ cannot occur in the physical body, it can only occur in the soul. The physical body must die because it is irrecoverably infused with sin.
It is the soul, not the physical body that is saved at the moment of eternal salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. At the exit resurrection the believer receives a completely new body that replaces the corrupted biological body.
This means that the solution to the problems related to the believer's experiential life after salvation only relate to the soul. The only solution is God's Word of Truth that must become resident and circulating in the believer's soul's stream of consciousness from the filling of God the Holy Spirit and the daily function of GASP.
This means that spiritual growth and glorification of the Lord Jesus Christ cannot and does not occur in the body; it only happens in the soul. This is also why ritual without reality is meaningless because ritual is from the body but reality is in the soul's stream of consciousness.
God's energy of the filling of the Spirit must replace the physical human energy that comes from the physical body since the solution is located in the soul and not the body. Human energy and the function of human energy cannot and does not glorify Jesus Christ because God is never glorified by physical human energy.
That is why the spiritual food of Bible doctrine must be more important to us than the physical food that sustains our biological body. Spiritual food sustains the soul so it must have highest priority but this does not mean that we neglect physical food because asceticism is from the OSN. Matt 4:4;
The human body is the place where physical food is converted into human energy but the soul is the place where doctrine must reside and the Spirit must fill/control for the believer to advance to spiritual maturity, and to glorify Jesus Christ.
What human energy is to the body the spiritual energy of the filling of the Spirit and Bible Doctrine is to the soul. Physical food provides nourishment and sustenance for the body but Bible doctrine provides nourishment and sustenance for the soul.
God's solution that is the only solution depends upon the filling of the Spirit because God the Holy Spirit must control the battleground of the soul where God's Word of Truth resides and circulates.
All spiritual objectives are accomplished through experiential sanctification. Experiential sanctification begins with the filling of the Spirit and the daily function under GASP that if persisted in results in experiential sanctification from maturity adjustment to God's justice from Spirit taught (epignosis) doctrine.
The spiritual advance to maturity and the glorification of the Lord Jesus Christ in super-grace can only be accomplished under the teaching ministry of the God the Holy Spirit who converts gnosis doctrine in the nous into epignosis doctrine in the believer's heart where rational thought occurs.
Rom 7:18; "good" the accusative singular of " agathos" (intrinsic good) with the negative "ou" (no) is the object of the verb. The word "agathos" (intrinsic good) closes the parentheses so the prepositional phrase is "not (resides in me (that is in my flesh) intrinsic good)"
"for the willing is present in me" the explanatory conjunctive particle "gar" (for) followed by the articular present active infinitive of the verb "thelo" (to will, to want, to wish, to desire or to determine).
It also means to resolve so it describes the relationship between the soul's volition as it relates to one's purpose in life. The definite article "ho" (the) makes the case for converting the participle into a substantive that functions like a noun.
Since the definite article is in the nominative neuter singular that establishes the case for the infinitive participle when it is converted into a substantive.
The definite article tells us that when the infinitive is converted into a noun it is going to be a special stronger case of the noun so it is better to translate it as " resolved or determined" instead of " will or desire" because that is a stronger translation of the word "thelo."
Next is the present middle indicative of the verb "parakeimai" (present). This tells us that the believer has the resolve, the will, the desire, and the determination to please God by trying to obey God's directive will.
This is the present tense of repeated action, known as the tendential present that we have seen before that describes something that recurs at successive intervals as a staccato. The indirect middle emphasizes the agent (the believer) as producing the action of the verb rather than participating in the results of the action.
The agent is the believer who has inner conflict. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verbal action from the viewpoint of reality. Plus the locative of sphere from the personal pronoun "ego (me) so we have "for the resolve is present in me."
Our expanded translation so far is "In fact I know that there does not (reside in me (that is, in my human body) intrinsic good) for the resolve is present in me."
We see from this that the desire to please God, by complying with God's solution to the problem, comes from human volition that has authority over the soul but human volition cannot solve any problems or make the right decision on its own without logistical support.
From the very beginning man's volition has been involved because it all started when Adam took the fruit from out of the hand of the woman. In the garden Adam and the woman made decisions every day to avoid the tree of the knowledge of good and evil until she didn't.
Then one day they both made a decision to eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil so the first sin in the human race was an act of negative volition to God's mandate not to eat of the fruit of the tree.
Salvation is a non-meritorious act of volition because all of the merit for salvation comes from Jesus Christ, the object, not in the believer who is the subject. After salvation the volition of the believer must make similar daily volitional decisions for God's logistical grace provision.
When sin occurs there must be a volitional decision to choose to confess it to God but in order to confess it the believer must know and understand that they are required to confess it to God. 1John 1:9;
To reach the objective of the Christian way of life daily volitional decisions must be made for the perception of doctrine and for confession of sins aka rebound when necessary.
Paul is describing the believer who is determined to make good decisions but the believer is frustrated by ignorance of accurate doctrinal information.
Without the correct doctrinal facts and information the volition is frustrated and prevented from fulfilling God's policy because of a lack of the information that is necessary to execute God's directive will as stated in the divine decrees that are reveled exclusively in God's Word of Truth.
This means that no matter how resolved we are our volition is useless without direction, without accurate information, and without proper understanding of the mandates found in God's Word of Truth.
The resolve is present in the believer but execution of that resolve demands accurate doctrine. No matter how much you want to please God you can not please God until you have accurate information that explains how to please Him.
Rom 7:18; "alla" (but) "kagargazomai" ((to do, achieve, to accomplish, to work out, to perform or execute). In this case we will translate it "execution." This is an iterative present that describes events that repeatedly recur at successive intervals in staccato.
The middle voice of the deponent verb functions in the active voice. Paul uses himself to represent the activity of the human race under the control of the sin nature. The indicative mood is declarative representing the verb form from the viewpoint of reality.
"ho" (the) "kalos" (good) is the word for good but in this case it is not "agathos" divine (good) that describes something that is intrinsically good "kalos" is good in the sense of describing a quality that corresponds with a specific purpose. "Kalos" (good) has several translations including noble, praiseworthy, or advantageous. "ou" (not so we the last phrase in the verse is "but the good not"
Expanded Translation Rom 7:18;"In fact I know that there does not (reside in me (that is, in my human body) intrinsic good) for the resolve is present in me but the honorable execution not."
This verse explains that Christian sincerity is not a Christian virtue and that is the reason why sincere Christians often fail. Sincerity is related to volition but it has no inherent doctrine and volition without doctrine is helpless in both the execution of God's directive will and the attainment of the objective of maturity adjustment to God's justice from doctrinal application.
Sincerity is related to human emotion. Emotion is the connecting link between sincerity and the decisions made from sincerity. Sincerity is filled with good intentions but sincerity is human emotions trying to attain the objective from the strong side of the OSN but only the filling of God the Holy Spirit and the thinking of Christ contained in God's Word of Truth can attain the objective.
There is no glorification of Christ apart from maturity adjustment to God's justice through God's GASP system.
There is no direct blessing from God's justice apart from maturity adjustment to God's justice. There is no maturity adjustment to God's justice apart from Bible doctrine resident and circulating in the soul under the filling ministry of God the Holy Spirit.
So while human volition can be sincere in wanting to glorify God without doctrine sincerity cannot accomplish that objective. The best intentions of the sincere believer are destroyed on the shoals of ignorance of doctrine.
Believers cannot fulfill God's purpose and fulfill their resolve to glorify Jesus Christ if they do not know God's policy and how it works. Ignorance of doctrine interdicts between good intentions and motivations and the fulfillment of God's will. Sincere decisions made with good intentions are not necessarily God's will.
Sincerity plus ignorance of doctrine is a guarantee of failure. Sincere ignorance is not a virtue; it is irrational arrogance. Sincerity without doctrine is a road to reversionism and reversionism under the influence of evil is the road to apostasy.
The second attack of the ex-husband, the old sin nature, places emphasis on sincerity and emotional motivation. This is a quick road to reversionism and the sin unto death.
Before any believer can appreciate the God's solution and His grace policy he must come to the end of himself. That means the end of all human gimmicks. He must realize that the verse we are studying states that there does not reside in any of us any ability or talent, or sacrificial function that can be used to glorify God.
Sincere believers must run out of their own human solutions before they will accept God's solutions. The sincere believer is arrogant so he has to try every human solution before he tries the divine solution that is Bible doctrine resident in the soul through the daily function of GASP.
Honorable accomplishment from the execution of God's will is negative until the believer uses cognizance of doctrine to advance to the maturity adjustment to God's justice plus resultant glorification of Christ and maximum blessing conveyed from God's justice.
Grace blessing from God's justice cannot come to the believer by any means of human activity including asceticism, emotion, ritual or legalism because grace blessing from God only comes through doctrine that is resident in the believer's soul.
Honorable execution of the God's plan and the attainment of His objectives is negative until the believer accepts His logistical grace provision of a right pastor communicating doctrine systematically from God's Word on a consistent basis. Until you accept the teaching and the authority of whoever your right pastor happens to be your honorable achievement will be negative because without accurate doctrine the "doing of the good is NOT."