Can a believer be both a slave to sin and free from sin at the same time? Can one be able to keep all the righteous requirements of the law and not be able to do the good that he wants to do simultaneously?
You can't keep the righteous requirements of the law. You prove it by continuing to sin. Name someone who has? If you want to name Christ, then name someone else besides Christ. You misunderstand what is written.
It is not both! The flesh in this context is the sinful nature.
I see a claim without evidence. My "both" is as good as your claim without evidence.
Jesus sympathizes with us in our human condition and frailties. He was without sin, so his body was as Adam’s was when he was first created.
So when Jesus suffered in His human body, this wasn't from the result of death working in his body? I know exactly what I believe about the Incarnation. I've spent many years arguing the subject. I have many more questions relative the suffering of Christ than this. He bore our condition from the very beginning of His advent.
Sin is the transgression of the law. Do not conflate the effect of sin with the fact of sin.
I'm not conflating anything. Your flesh limits you from keeping the law. Wait till you get older and become incapacitated (I hope you never do). I know what it is to watch as those I love become a "powerless shell" of a person. Are you then going to appeal to innocence or is Jesus going to empower you beyond the natural limits of your body? (not saying that He can't. He can). Even the Spiritual must know English to learn of God. "Words easily understood".... This flesh/brain/body limits us at most every level.
The human body is neither sinful or holy in itself; sin is a spiritual entity and contaminates the spiritual nature of man, the soul and will and desires of the man.
The sinful nature affects the will and thus the desires and choices made by man, and thus will affect the wellbeing of his physical nature.
The human body is weak. He is merciful because He knows that we are but flesh... Don't conflate the soul with flesh.
Psalm 103.
14 For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust.
15 As for man, his days are as grass: as a flower of the field, so he flourisheth.
16 For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall know it no more.
Yeah... there goes that "sinful nature" thing over and over again. Didn't Calvin and Augustine start that?
We make eunuchs of men to prevent sin. Is that a requirement of flesh?
Who knows the lust of mankind relative to his flesh that encompass the desires of the heart. King David was given a young virgin when he was old and when he couldn't do anything with the willing women, Adonijah sought to be king. David's flesh stopped him.
Our flesh stands in opposition both to our good and evil. If you arm offends you.... If you eye offends you..... We were taken from the ashes of previous destruction. Think of chromosomal abnormalities.
You know I have. I'm challenging your beliefs. You have been influenced throughout your life by Arminianism. You should recognize this. When I about 24 or 25, I decided that was going start from "scratch". I had enough of both in my life. I knew they were both wrong. Wrong at fundamental levels that affected both of them equally. Arminianism isn't the solution to Calvinism. I decided I go where the Scriptures lead me. It has been a struggle but I'm more than capable of defending my position.
Which affects nothing I’ve said.
Doug
Sure it does. It doesn't fit the "sinful nature" demands in your theology.
