Wednesday, February 28th | Christ or Old Master Sin

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You can leave us some good five-star reviews on iTunes or Spotify. Anywhere you get your content from, I was going to say your Christian content from, which is also true, your podcasting content from, we're going to leave a couple of links in the description of this show so you can do just that. The verse of the day today comes from Habakkuk 2, verse 14. For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. That's the whole point of us doing this show.

We want the whole earth to be filled with the knowledge of the Lord. That's really our heart. It's not enough just to have a show. Anybody can do that.

Anybody can buy a couple of microphones this day and age, get a room together, put something out there. What we want to do is get the knowledge of the Lord into your heart, your mind, your children's mind, your grandchildren's minds, to have this show every single day be a resource so that you can love Jesus Christ more. That's really the heart behind this entire show. On today's episode, we want to continue yesterday's conversation talking about what it is that we're furnishing our spiritual life with. There's so many times that people can, in their spiritual lives, sort of get a mismatch of, I heard this preacher and I listened to this podcast and I read this meme. That becomes your version of Christianity. But really, the Christian life is focused on the truth of God's Word. Isn't it crazy?

I cut you off. Isn't it crazy how Christians do that? The most important thing that you can have, which is your faith in Jesus Christ. We just Frankenstein it together, puzzle piece everything. Stitch it together and make it something that they remember. I think that kind of looks good. It makes me think of those old cartoons where they build a shrine out of stuff that they have, like watermelons and poppy seeds and popcorn and stuff, and they just put it all together. Like, what's that girl?

Helga Pataki in the Shrines of Arnold? You got the bananas and the watermelons and stuff? That's kind of piecemeal it together.

That's silly, but that's what your faith looks like when you do stuff like that. Yeah, we're going to continue that conversation today. So good. Make sure you guys stay tuned after the commercial break. But if you guys have any questions or suggestions for new topics, write in and let us know, 2525825028. Or you can visit us online at clearveetodayshow.com. We'll be back after this. We'll be back after this.

Let's do it. Welcome back to Clear View Today with Dr. Abbadan Shah, the daily show that engages mind and heart for the gospel of Jesus Christ. You can visit us online at clearveetodayshow.com.

If you have any questions or suggestions for new topics, send us a text at 2525825028. That's right. We're here once again in the Clear View Today studio with Dr. Abbadan Shah, who is a Ph.D. from Testament Textual Criticism, professor at Carolina University, the author, full-time pastor, and the host of today's Clear View Today show. Dr. Shah, happy Hama Day, my friend. Happy Hama Day to you as well.

Yes, good day. Happy Wednesday. Happy Wednesday. Happy Wednesday. As they say on Vine, it is Wednesday, my dudes. It is. That's a deep pull.

Wow. I've said it on the show before, but yeah, it is Wednesday. It is Wednesday. All day long.

All the time. You could just go back. Take a stroll down memory lane to 2010.

It is Wednesday, my dudes. Dr. Shah, we were talking yesterday about how people furnish their house, their spiritual house with furniture that just doesn't make sense. And I was thinking about, I don't know if you guys ever saw this, but like the 90s furniture that was like Nickelodeon furniture, like the hand chairs, just like the Technicolor everything.

Literally, I'm not even joking right now, I think we need a room in the church that's like a B studio. That's where we go and it's just all 90s. Looks like a blast from the past. There's a hand and then the throw pillows on the couch is like someone's foot. Do you remember like in the 90s when everything was just Technicolor?

Not even Technicolor, but just all sorts of vivid bright. I don't. I don't.

Really? Yeah, this is like mid 90s or late 90s? Early 90s. Mid 90s. I said mid 90s.

Early to mid, yeah. Yeah. See, I was in college at the time. Yeah, okay. Not watching a lot of Nickelodeon back then. No, I was, I had come to America in 1991. So I was somewhere in that period of trying to figure things out.

I got you. And so, yeah, I didn't watch much Nickelodeon. Last thing we need, I think, would be a slime button. No. Everybody on Nickelodeon got a slime. Slime time. Slime time, yeah. Yeah, I do remember that.

Yeah. I remember watching that as a kid, that was so much fun. Just praying that somebody got slimed while you were watching, oh man. Remember Figure It Out, that was the show. That was the show. You had to figure it out, and if you didn't figure it out, you got slimed. Yeah.

That was a great time to be alive. Yeah. Figuring it out, you know, that relates to what we're talking about today, figuring out how to get your Christian life on track, figuring out how to furnish your Christian life. We started talking about this yesterday, this piecemeal religion that people try to develop and claim that it's Christianity.

But in reality, it's this sort of cherry-picked, this worked for me here, and this worked for me there. This kind of Frankenstein of beliefs that is, you know, it's not really what Christianity was ever intended to be, and it's not biblically accurate. Right. We call it the Little Mermaid. The Little Mermaid, yeah. Little Mermaid Christianity. A little treasure trove of all different things. I've got gadgets and gizmos aplenty. Yeah.

And comb with a fork. Yep. And you don't know what you're doing, and I think that's how many people's Christian lives are. Mm-hmm. They somehow collect this smorgasbord of ideas, some rich, deep theology, some really heretical stuff, some on the margin, and they mix it all together.

They got it from their childhood pastor or a friend or some seminary pastor who came through for like an eight-month stint, and he was writing a paper on that subject. Man, he was talking lots on it, and so we take that in. And then we put it all together with a little dash of Joel Osteen. Oh, no, dude, no. No, no, no. Not Joel Osteen. What was that?

It's the salt bay. I got you. You're garnishing the house with Joel Osteen.

Yeah. So I mean, you do stuff like this, and then what you end up having is this mishmash of theology and understanding, which is not really biblical. It has hints of truth in it, but most of it is just all. Yeah, trust serving that to Gordon Ramsay and see what he says. I mean, just like, here, Lord, here's my dish.

This is by far the worst theology I've ever seen. Out. Get out.

Oh, man. There's something about an angry British man yelling at other people. There's a bunch of them, right?

It's quality TV. There's a bunch of them. Yeah. You have the Simon guy. The Simon Cowell. Simon Cowell. Something about the accent. I can't take them seriously.

Then you have the Dancing with the Stars. What's his name? Oh, what's his name?

I don't know. I know exactly who you're talking about. Is he British? He is, but he's a nicer one, but he can get a little test.

He gets a little fiery. Tom Bergeron? No, no, no. He's the host. Oh, okay. So this is a judge? He's a judge.

Oh, okay. British guy on Dancing with the Stars. His name is... Lynn Goodman. Lynn Goodman. Yes. I've never seen...

I never saw Dancing with the Stars. But something about their accents, man. I just can never take it seriously.

If it's a British guy and he's really trying to fight me, I think I would just giggle. Yeah. Oh, man. I guess that's why. Anyway.

Anyway. We talked yesterday about this idea of people trying to do this. They try to build this hodgepodge of theology, and it all basically stems down to this desire to really stay in our sin, because Jesus rescues us from this condemned and crumbling house, and he brings us into the new home, so that's us being saved. But now it's like, what do I do when I'm in here?

I'm in this big, empty house of salvation, and I don't know what to do, so I'm gonna bring in what little I know and try to put it together. That's right. So we understand and we appreciate that Jesus forgave us of our sin. The hard part is understanding that he has also set us free from the power of sin. Right. Forgiveness is one thing, setting free is a different matter.

But it has happened. We are no longer slaves of sin, we are free, yet many Christians never experience this freedom. They struggle with some habit, some hang-up, some sin they had before they got saved, and it continues as if nothing has changed. But now they're Christians going to heaven, but oh, we gotta, I mean, you know, that's...

They've got to deal with... They've been made heirs, but they still live like slaves. Right.

They still sleep in the slave quarters, they still eat downstairs. Right, right. And some of them err on the side of sinless perfection. It's like, well, I'm not sinning, I mean, I've come to that place, but it's really not true.

Right. They're either lying or they are delusional, I don't know which one it is, but they're not really set free, but they're pretending to be. And some maybe have a better handle, may have a better handle on their sin life, but still not this perfection that they claim to have. Right, we still commit sins, even though we, you know, we've been forgiven of sin, Christ has been punished for those sins, and yet we still commit sins daily, but they would deny that. So we're kind of using 2 Peter 1.4 as the jumping off point, but we need to kind of really plant our feet on that verse before we jump off. And so what does it say in 2 Peter chapter 1 verse 4? It says that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. We talked about what does it mean to be partakers of the divine nature. Doesn't mean you become God, we don't hold to the doctrine of theosis or deification, we believe that our connection is with the humanity of Christ, right? Jesus was fully God, fully man, and yet one. The divine nature and the human nature came together, did not intermingle, did not mesh together, they both remained distinct, and yet Jesus is not two persons, he is one person. This came through the doctrine, through the council of Chalcedon.

We've covered this in a previous podcast, our videos. But now, what this does for us is something we need to flesh out. Of course we talked about how this makes us one with Christ, that unity that is with Christ. At the same time, there's a distinction between us and God. Just like in Christ, you have the divine and the human coming together, and yet there's a distinction, and yet one person. So also we are one with Christ, and yet there's a distinction between us and God. You see, all that is relevant, all that is critical to understand our Christian life. So these are not things like, how many angels dance on the head of a pin? I don't care about that.

All this matters. And the thing is, unfortunately, people don't get into these details, and yet there are many Christians sitting in the pew week after week, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90 years, struggling with these questions in their minds, but they know the person up there cannot answer those questions, they don't know. Or they feel like, well, if I do that, maybe I'm questioning too much, maybe I just need to stay within this safe place. Yeah, because if I question too much, then I don't have faith in God. So I better chill out a little bit. I may cross the line, and then before you know it, I'm going to start questioning everything, and I know some people who did that, and they're no longer Christians, so I don't want to get into that kind of mess.

Which, folks, that's the heart behind the Clear Read Today show. It's good to have those questions, it's good to have those moments where you can press in and dig further in your theology, but lean on Dr. Shah, lean on the Clear Read Today show, because that's going to help you navigate those questions and not leave them unanswered. Because when questions go unanswered, that's when we get people saying things like, I'm deconstructing or I'm walking away from the faith, because their questions never got answered. And I just want to tell you, there's not a single, single, single question that you can ask that hasn't been asked before, and been answered. Yeah, you're not going to be the first person in the history of Christianity to come up with the loophole that finally unravels the whole thing.

Yeah, it's not. It's been asked, and it's been answered. I'm not the first one to answer these questions, in fact, I'm getting my answers from people I trust, whether living or dead, but they were steeped in theology, steeped in biblical knowledge.

I may not agree with every single thing they proposed or stood for, but I do know what to pick from them that is in line with the biblical Orthodox Christianity. So going back to our 2 Peter 1.4, it says that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. We're sort of focusing on, what does that mean, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust? Of course, we know the judgment we have escaped. Corruption.

How do we escape the corruption? Is it the same thing? I think that's one of the things where people view the Bible as poetry when it's not being poetry. Right. And so they don't... Because I would not have made that distinction between sin, my being a sinner, and then corruption, you know what I mean? Or the judgment, like you said. I would have just said, oh, it's the same thing. He's saying the same thing. But he's saying two different things. Because it's the judgment, but it's also my day-to-day sins, which I think a lot of Christians, and myself included, until pretty recently, maybe the last couple of years, just figured that's hopeless.

You're going to sin. Right. And that's just what it is. Yeah. Right.

And that's not true. Right. There is something that has changed, and that's why I want to focus on the next five, 10 minutes. So what Peter puts in two verses, Paul takes Galatians 5 and Romans chapter 6 through 8 to unpack for us.

And how do we unpack? Listen to Romans chapter 6, verse 6. I'm just going to focus on Romans instead of going to Galatians.

But feel free to read that chapter as well. Romans 6, 6. Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin, i.e., that is, we have escaped the corruption of sin. That sin used to be our master. Yes. Sin used to be our, I mean, our master really is the best term.

I think that's something that we've been saying a lot here recently on the show, is that this language that is not metaphorical, this is a spiritual reality that was really plaguing us. But the key is, how did God get rid of old master sin? Well, he didn't.

Not yet. What he did do was that master sin is still alive, but God killed us. He crucified us. He didn't kill sin. He didn't kill sin, because as long as we're in this world, sin is still there. But he did kill us. What us?

The old man us. Two thousand years ago, when Jesus died for us, he not only died as our substitute, but he also died as our representative. Very important. And not the same thing.

Right. He died to represent our death from the family of sin, the family of Adam. So he died that death. So when he was hanging on the cross, and he says, Father, into your hand I commit my spirit, he not only died, but he also died my death, spiritually speaking.

It hasn't been applied yet, because I haven't been born yet. But when I am born, and then one day I'm born again, what's already happened two thousand years ago is then applied to me. And so now there's been a spiritual crucifixion that takes place to our old master sin. Right. In us.

In us. Correct. Our crucifixion takes place. Old master sin is still there.

But it's not like it's a process that we have to go through, or it's something that we have to work out. It is done. We're saved with all that faith in God, regeneration, justification, sanctification, at least the positional part, glorification, the initial. All this implies that you died, you were buried, and you have risen to walk in the newness of life. So all that is done. Now we are dead to master sin.

Master sin still comes around, but I'm no use to him. What are you going to do with a dead slave? Right. Yeah.

You can't use them. It's not a cadaver. It's just a body. That's right. Now many Christians, when they face master sin, guess what they do?

They try to dig up the old man and try to fight master sin in the power of their flesh. I'm not going to do this. I'm not going to do that.

I'm going to really be determined, and I'm going to be focused. And it lasts but a little while before master sin drags you right down the same place. Now he's not really dragging you. You just drag yourself. Yeah. Yeah. And it's so intense, but it's so good because what uses a dead body to a slave master?

What uses... He's not going to do anything. Are you going to flop the arms around like you're trying to complete a task? It's just not going to work. But then the Christian is going in and grave robbing essentially, going in, trying to dig up the body, put it back on, and then fight in that strength rather than just say, hey, I'm dead. You can't use this.

You can't use it. You can't use these old ways to fight the new life, in the new life. Galatians 2.20 says very clearly, I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. I'm just imagining like, this is a really silly montage, or a silly thought, but you know, like in Rocky, like the training montage, just imagine like the coach, come on, come on, come on.

You can do it. It's just a dead body. Yeah.

Just on the treadmill. I mean, that's pretty much what's happening. They're trying to train their old selves to be more disciplined, to be a better Christian.

Can't train a dead body. That's right. So what does God expect from me?

Very simple. It says in Romans 6.11, likewise, you also reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus, our Lord. My job, your job as believers is to reckon, and if you grew up in the South, I reckon is not the record. I reckon I believe you, man. I reckon. That's not what that means.

I reckon Jesus is pretty good. No, not with that. I mean, yes, but that's not what this reckon means. Reckon here means accept by faith that you are, this has happened. Count it as true. Is it any wonder that when Peter gives us this ladder of Christian growth, it begins with faith?

True. Because the reckoning is faithing, is really trusting, and if you don't trust God, not just for he's going to pay my bills or he's going to help me to find someone good in my life. No, no, no. Reckon faith here is that I am dead. This is the new me, and I have to live, and people are like, well, I don't feel like it. I still struggle.

I still have the old habits. I'm still old me, but I know I got saved. You're not trusting God. You're not walking by faith. For the past couple years, I've been really shocked and surprised at the lengths that some Christians... See, because I've been working here at Clearview for 10 years, and so the mindset and the culture here is pretty much all I've known, other than when I was first saved and stuff like that.

So I didn't realize the amount of diversity in Christians' beliefs, and one of the things that I think I've seen that really has blown my mind is, just like we were talking about, they'll try to just be better Christians and train that old man, but then there's others that are just like, I'm just going to turn back to the law. Fully knowing the ramifications of doing that and fully knowing that Paul said, hey, don't do that. I'm not kidding. Don't do that.

They're like, I'm going to do it. Yeah. And it's a tragedy.

It's a tragedy. Yeah. And Romans 6 14 says, for sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace. Sin shall not have dominion over you, for you're not under law but under grace. Right.

Think. To me, that seems like Christian 101, and yet some people are still not, I guess, just not getting it. Yeah. If you go back under the law, you'll give master sin the opportunity to control you. If you say, hey, the law, master sin says, that's right, the law. Yes. The law.

Well, you belong to me. Yeah. It's like, well, this dead body, how are you going to? And then master sin is going to try to use the dead body to spread death in this world. That's all he can do. He may not get you to do but so much, but what he does get you to do, it just destroys your testimony, makes you ineffective for God's kingdom. He wants you to make that list, to make that checklist for yourself.

Yeah. He wants you to look foolish in the side of the world and the world will say, look, life can be very simple for you. Here's how it happens. You're doing the same thing I'm doing. You have the same struggles I do, but guess what?

You go to church and have somebody get up there and tell you all the bad things you've done. I get to live in the world and enjoy life and do whatever I want to. Right. What's the difference? Why are you subjecting yourself to all these rules?

And Christians are like, well, you know, because God says here we got to keep his law. It's like, oh, such a misunderstanding. It's a trap. Yeah.

It's literally a trap. Yeah. Wow.

So law doesn't help. You can make all kinds of rules for yourself. I'm not going to do this. I'm not going to do this. You better not.

You better not. And we end up breaking those things. And Romans 7, 8 says, but sin, taking opportunity by the commandment produced in me all manner of evil desire. If it wasn't for that, it's like if it wasn't for that sign saying wet paint, do not touch. Never in a million years would I have wanted to touch that wall.

But now that you told me I can't, that's what I want. I feel like there's, and I don't know what it is because I'll walk by a wet paint sign. I'm 31 years old. Seriously.

I've been alive 31 years. But when I see that wet paint sign, I'm like, I mean, I got to just, I'm just going to brush it. Yeah. I don't know why. That's what people are doing all the time where they know this is not good. This lifestyle is not good or this behavior or this way of thinking is not good or this attitude that I have is not good. And they do it anyways because it's natural, it's the old self, it's what was comfortable when you were lost and you feel like, yeah, I'm going to revert back to just doing that. That's fine.

That's fine. It feels, it feels natural. It feels good. It's going to bring me some of that momentary pleasure I've been missing. And just think about it, apply it wherever, whether it's lust or greed or pride or insecurity or laziness.

Apply it anywhere. Yeah. And I love what you said earlier. You're not a slave to sin any longer. You know what I mean? You're, you're not under the law if you've really, you've really been set free.

And even if you don't feel, this is, this is something I really love that you say, even if you don't feel free or you don't understand fully the depth of that freedom, you still have it. Yeah. Right. Right. It's still with you.

The only way you will see your old man crucified is when you look to Christ. True. Yeah.

So important for us. Yeah. The only way, say that one more time. The only way. The only way you're going to see your old man crucified, cause I cannot like walk around and say, reckon, reckon, think, think, think, reckon, reckon, okay, I have to remember I'm dead. I have to remember I am dead.

I'm not, it's not me. If you do that, you will not be able to reckon. You will not be able to step on the first rung of this ladder of spiritual growth, which is faith.

You will not be able to do that. The only way you can do it is we look to Christ. That's right. I love that.

I love that because we're so, we're so focused on ourselves. Like I am this, I have this, I have this freedom, but the only way we can have that freedom and realize that freedom is by stop looking at ourselves and looking to Christ. That's right. You got to keep your eyes on Christ.

Yeah. And you take your eyes off of Christ and you will see your old self again. When Jesus was walking with these disciples, they were not stupid. They knew the old Testament.

I mean, this is Peter writing this. And if you remember, I preached on Peter's life in Galilee, how he, his family was, was more than likely very steeped in the old faith. They're very steeped in Hebrew scriptures, because those are the kind of Jewish people who were there in Galilee at the time, especially in places like Nazareth, they were, I'm sorry, not Nazareth, Capernaum, Nazareth is where Jesus came from. Capernaum is where Peter and Andrew and James and John went for fishing. And Capernaum was known for this very, almost pietistic Jewish people who were trying to keep their faith alive in a very secular environment. So they, so when I say they were sort of juvenile or they were sort of a kindergartener, don't think by that, that they were dumb, they were just foolish, they were just, you know, infantile. Inexperienced. No, they just didn't understand the deep concepts yet.

They were trying to grasp them and momentarily they would grasp them. Who do you say I am? You're one of the prophets or they say you're one of this, but who do you say that I am? You're Christ, son of the living God. Okay, you got it. That's who I am.

Right. Hey, there's somebody out there on the waves. He's walking towards us. Oh, it's a ghost. Oh no.

Oh no. And then Peter says, Lord, if it's you, if it's you, bid me come, ask me to come and I'll come to you, come. And then start sinking. That story could have just ended.

He came and he walked on the water and everybody praised God and it was a glorious day and the sun came out. Right. No, it was, he began to sink. To teach them at that level, you keep your eyes on me, you're going to walk on the waves.

You stop, you're going to sink. Now Paul tells us in Romans 6 through 8 what it means to walk with our eyes on Christ, not on the law. That's right.

That's it. We've got to keep our eyes on Jesus. If today was helpful for you guys, you learn more about your life and how to keep your focus on Christ, write in and let us know, 252-582-5028, or you can visit us online at ClearViewTodayShow.com. Scroll to the bottom, click that donate button and become part of our Clear View Today Show family. Also, we remind you to visit MightyMuscadine.com, the sponsors of today's episodes.

Check out their line of products. Use the promo code today when you check out T-O-D-A-Y. It's going to get you a discount and a portion of that purchase coming right back here to the Clear View Today Show. John, what's coming up tomorrow? We're going to keep talking about this, being slaves to sin. We're not slaves to sin any longer, and there's a verse in Romans that Dr. Shaw is going to walk us through tomorrow.

I think it's in chapter 6, it says, but God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered. What in the world does that mean? Guess what? We're going to find out tomorrow. Make sure you guys stay tuned. Love you guys. See you tomorrow on Clear View Today.