Romans 8 vs 1 - 4 - Highlights - 11
Publication Date: 1973
Victor Paul Wierwille was a Bible scholar and teacher for over four decades.
By means of Dr. Wierwille's dynamic teaching of the accuracy and integrity of God's Word, foundational class and advanced class graduates of Power for Abundant Living have learned that the one great requirement for every student of the Bible is to rightly divide the Word of Truth. Thus, his presentation of the Word of God was designed for students who desire the in-depth-accuracy of God’s Word.
In his many years of research, Dr. Wierwille studied with such men as Karl Barth, E. Stanley Jones, Glenn Clark, Bishop K.C. Pillai, and George M. Lamsa. His formal training included Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Theology degrees from Mission House (Lakeland) College and Seminary. He studied at the University of Chicago and at Princeton Theological Seminary from which he received a Master of Theology degree in Practical Theology. Later he completed his work for the Doctor of Theology degree.
Dr. Wierwille taught the first class on Power for Abundant Living in 1953.
Books by Dr. Wierwille include: Are the Dead Alive Now? published in 1971; Receiving the Holy Spirit Today published in 1972; five volumes of Studies in Abundant Living— The Bible Tells Me So (1971), The New, Dynamic Church (1971), The Word's Way (1971), God's Magnified Word (1977), Order My Steps in Thy Word (1985); Jesus Christ Is Not God (1975); Jesus Christ Our Passover (1980); and Jesus Christ Our Promised Seed (1982).
Dr. Wierwille researched God's Word, taught, wrote, and traveled worldwide, holding forth the accuracy of God's "wonderful, matchless" Word.
Romans 8:1-4
Lesson 11
Highlights of Romans
As I keep working in this thing, I just keep making notes for myself and going through
this stuff over and over again. I think I gave you that division of Romans 6:14-7:6 as the
last one, the fourth one, right? I thought I’d pick up just some highlights in here tonight,
and spend a little time in it and see what really can happen. But in a book that’s entitled
Light from the Ancient East, by Deissman, there’s a section in there that deals with the
setting free or as the word is the manumission of the law of slavery. And this record, you
know, is real, real exciting; especially in relationship to the freedom we have in Christ
Jesus. Having been set free, by the death of Christ and we having become bonded slaves of
Christ. And this is what he says in essence. The solemn right of fictitious purchase of a
slave by the divinity. It’s a real rite, it was a rite in Greece, where a slave was purchased by
the divinity. And this is how it is described in Greek literature. The owner of the slave
comes to the temple. He brings a slave with him, comes to the temple. And there he is sold
to the god of that temple. Not to become a temple servant but a slave to the god. He
doesn’t stay in the temple like the temple maiden and this stuff, but he becomes a slave to
the god. This master who sells this slave to the temple god, receives the purchase money
from the treasury of the temple. Which money has been placed in the temple by the slave
himself from his own savings and earnings. And from that day on he is the property of the
god. Completely free, even from his former master, except for loving acts of service to his
former master who freed him. He is emancipated fully, is what Deissman writes, and he
gave the facts concerning the case. Now, this is what I wrote down, and this is exactly what
it is on an inscription dated 199 B.C. on the polygonal wall at Delphi. The following is a
quotation from this inscription:
Apollo the Pythian bought from Sosibius of Amphissa for freedom a female body
whose name is Nicaea with a price. The purchase committed unto Apollo for freedom.
That is unique. That’s fantastic. This is the setting free by a legal process in Greece.
Where a master could take that slave, take him to the temple and Apollo would buy him
with money that the slave himself had made available which in turn money was given to
the owner who brought him and from that day on that slave belonged to Apollo the god.
For he was bought for freedom with a price.
The Lord Jesus Christ bought from the adversary, the devil, our bodies; and the price
was paid for the freedom and from that time on we legally are not the property of the
adversary, we are the property of God. Because of what Christ Jesus paid. Boy, I think that
documentation, and this isn’t the only place. They have things like this documented on
other inscriptions in the Greek world. I have this direct quote here and I’ll read it to you
again. I have omitted some words because it was too long for me to write it all but listen to
it and I’ll emphasize the words that are so important. Because you’ll see how the book of
Romans, how Corinthians, Galatians, everything else fits right into the greatness of this
thing. The counterfeit is so much like the genuine, remember?
Apollo the Pythian bought from Sosibius of Amphissa (See the name is given; the
Word says God knows us by our name.) for freedom a female body (It doesn’t say a
female, it says he bought that person’s, what? Body.) whose name is Nicaea (The name is
given, the one he bought it from, like the adversary, the person who got paid for it.) with a
price. The purchase (the body, the purchase) committed unto Apollo (the god Apollo)
for freedom.
That’s a quote from Deissman’s Light from the Ancient East. That’s really something,
isn’t it? That’s exactly what Romans teaches. You know, in Galatians 5:1.
Galatians 5:1:
Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us [what?] free, and
be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.
Emancipated fully, freedom, stand fast therefore in the freedom, liberty. Boldly with a
fearless mind, fantastic.
Galatians 5:1b:
...and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.
So it must be possible for someone to not stand fast and to be entangled again. Now,
this slave who has been emancipated fully, could by the freedom of his will now, walk
back under the enslavement if he wanted to. But he’d be a fool if he would, right? Sure, he
would be a fool. That’s where Christianity has been; they’ve been fools. Walking back
under that type of enslavement. But there is, as I told you earlier, a loving act of gratitude
to the master who brought him to Christ Jesus who paid the price for us. Boy there ought to
be loving acts of gratitude, understand? He was a man, he brought us to God and sold us to
God that we became the purchased possession of God through Jesus Christ, isn’t that
something. I also thought of I Corinthians and I looked it up today, it’s sort of neat. 7:23:
I Corinthians 7:23:
Ye are bought with a [what?] price;...
That’s right.
I Corinthians 7:23b:
...be not ye the servants of men.
Boy, that sounds just like this inscription where this woman’s body was bought by
Apollo. Bought with a price, really something.
Now, last week I talked to you about this newness of life of 6:4 of Romans. To have
newness of life, you have to have justification. And it’s justification which brings peace
with God and gives us the grace wherein we stand. This requires identification with Jesus
Christ. Without that identification with Jesus Christ, we could not have newness of life.
And you couldn’t have newness of life without justification. And justification brings peace,
peace with God and without man being at peace with God he could never have newness of,
what? {Life.} And that’s the grace wherein we stand. This requires our identification with
Jesus Christ that we had to be identified with him.
Now, there is a further requirement in life. And that is that now we have doctrine,
reproof and correction. Doctrine teaching us how to believe rightly. Since we know what
he did for us. To reprove us where we do not believe rightly. And to correct us, to put it on
us so that we do. See how this whole thing fits together? Where I’m heading for, if we ever
get there, and we will. We may not finish it tonight but we’ll get there, I’m going to hit you
on Romans 8:1 which Dr. Wade believes is the new birth, which I believe is the renewed
mind. The reason Dr. Wade believes this is because Bullinger believes it. Because C.H.
Welsh believes it, and you believed it in part the other night. Remember how T’d off I was
at you? T’d off at the whole world on this thing. Because if you take Bullinger on that,
you’re going to follow Bullinger that the church did not start on the day of Pentecost and
then by sure logic, you’re going to get rid of the book of Corinthians. Before you know it,
you won’t have any speaking in tongues, interpretation or prophecy left. It’s that important,
that urgent. It’s the matter of a two-fold understanding of condemnation. That’s why you
haven’t understood it, Romans 8:1. The reason you haven’t understood Romans 8:1, the
two-fold matter of condemnation because you never understood condemnation to begin
with. Or it’s two fold usage in the Word. And that our justification with Christ demands a
renewed mind. It’s like the new birth, Doug. If a little boy four or five years old, confesses
with his mouth in Sunday school, and believes God raised him from the dead, what has he?
All right now he lives amongst a bunch of unbelievers like you and I did. Really, okay. So
suppose you have unbelievers (born again unbelievers), other Sunday school kids. See?
Right. Now, pretty soon, you get to be nine, ten, eleven, twelve, you start to living it up
with the boys and the girls, right? Fourteen, fifteen and they have a revival meeting. Now,
we go to the revival meeting, and we confess with our mouth the Lord Jesus believed God
raised them from the dead, and they say they are now, what?
[Students:] Saved.
Are they? No. They were already, what?
[Students:] Saved.
What happened? That they didn’t know it. Because you don’t feel, what?
[Students:] Spirit.
Right, and when Christ died and he was condemned and took all of our condemnation
and he came within us spiritually, there is therefore within us no, what?
[Students:] Condemnation.
Condemnation. But you don’t feel that, that’s spirit. It’s in the head trip, see? Bullinger
says that Romans 8:1 is not the walk, it’s the new birth. I believe it’s the walk, because of a
two-fold knowledge of condemnation. Our condemnation is in that word “sentence” that
I’m getting Walter to look up, righteousness is translated in Romans 8, right? It means
much deeper than most people ever see, because it is a sentence of death. Not just death, it
is a sentence to it because man is dead in trespasses and sins. And therefore, what’s he got
coming? Nothing. I told you the other night, God doesn’t owe us a lousy thing. He doesn’t
owe anybody in India, Africa, or Timbuktu anything. If there is anything, we owe
everything to Him. Because man the natural man, Corinthians can not, what?
[Students:] Receive.
Amen, dead in what?
[Students:] Trespasses and sins.
Okay, so our identification with Christ gives us that new birth, you don’t feel it, you
don’t smell it, you don’t taste it, you don’t touch it. Therefore we have to have a
requirement, and the requirement is doctrine, reproof and correction. Be taught in the head
how to rightly believe what God did. Reprove us at the places we’re not rightly believing.
And correct us and tell us how to rightly believe so we can walk forth in this life.
This word “freedom” as it appears in the book of Romans, I want to talk to you about
it. We read a little a while ago, in Galatians: liberty, freedom, see? Freedom is either liberty
or license, one of the two. For the conservative biblical fundamentalist, the position that
the Word of God teaches so blazingly honest in the book of Romans, they would assume if
they accepted the truth of that, they assume it to mean license. I do not believe that. I
believe that the greatness of the redemption in Christ Jesus, that we’re saved by grace. That
Christ is the end of the law, all of those other things that we have read and covered in the
first seven chapters. That that freedom gives us liberty but not license. It gives us the
freedom of sin, but the liberty we have in it holds us in so that we do not sin; because the
word “liberty” literally means: to serve the Lord in newness of life. That’s what liberty
means in Romans or any other place in the Word of God addressed to the church. To serve
the Lord, freedom, liberty, to serve the Lord in newness of life. And I taught you that the
word “newness” is more than just to be made new. If this freedom gave us a license to sin,
it would mean that we would serve the Lord of our natural life, which would be selfindulgence.
Freedom is liberty to serve the Lord in newness of life rather than a license to
serve the lord of self-indulgence. You see, those conservative, biblical, fundamentalist,
they say, “Well, if I believed in salvation by grace like you do, then I can just do anything I
want to.” That’s right, you could, but you’d be stupid if you did. Because that freedom we
have is the liberty to serve the Lord in the newness of spirit. Later on, I’ll show you that
newness of spirit is called the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus. That’s what it’s called.
Now, never misunderstand the truth that this super abounding grace of Romans, comes
only by the reign through righteousness. That’s what Romans 5:21 says. We talked about
the reigning the other week, last week sometime. That you have it in Christ in what he did,
but it becomes into manifestation in your life when it reigns, remember? In the book of
Jude. Look at verse 3, [verse 4].
Jude 4a:
For there are certain men, crept in unawares....
They just sneak in on you, you know? They’re nice Joes, nice buddies, nice little Suzie
Q’s and Maggie Muggins, you know. But they just get into your believers’ fellowship sort
of unawares, they sneak in, understand? Man, they’re sense knowledge wise, nice guys and
Lesson 11 Romans 8:1-4 Highlights of Romans 127
they’re so religious, they do everything just perfect, when the candles need to be put on the
communion table, they do it just right for you, they do everything great. It says:
Jude 4b:
...who were before of old ordained to this condemnation....
They crept in unawares. You know like in Corinthians, wasn’t it to spy out your
freedom.
Jude 4:
...crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation,
ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, into lust, and
denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.
Isn’t that something? Boy oh boy what a verse. “Ordained to this condemnation,” you
see it? You know what the words literally are? Those cited for trial. I guess they still do this,
don’t they today? Whenever somebody’s cited for trial, they publish their names in the
newspaper. In the Bible, whenever somebody was cited for trial they published his name,
wrote it on the gate to the city. That’s what it means, those cited for trial.
Jude 4 (not KJV):
For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old cited for trial.
Why? Ungodly turning, turning. And the word “turning” is the word “misuse” or
“abuse.” They are from old, cited for trial because of their misuse or the abuse of the grace
of what? {God.} They’re the ones who said, “Well, the liberty gives me the license to sin
do as I fool please.” That’s what Peter’s talking about here. You know, if they kill you
someday, or try to kill you on predestination by saying, well, that you teach predestination.
You know, that you’re ordained to eternal life as it says in the Word or something, you can
always go back and say well then, these people here were ordained to this condemnation.
Right. Let them figure it out. The word “turning” is the word “misuse” or “abuse.”
Jude 4 (not KJV):
For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old cited for trial,
ungodly men, misusing the grace of our God to their own, [what?] lusts. And
denying by that usage the only Lord God, and [what?] our Lord Jesus Christ.
Two Lords, right? Lord God and the Lord, what? Master. Certainly two different
things. Because, to make him Lord, confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus,
manifestations, walk in life. And in order for that walk to magnify the grace of God, I will
need proper, what? Doctrine, and what will I need? {Reproof.} And what will it be?
{Corrections.} That’s right. Because nobody automatically walks in it, sure. Because the
gift is spirit; the walk is not automatic, it’s in the renewed mind. Putting on the mind of
Christ, all the rest of this stuff. II Peter has a goody too.
II Peter 2:18:
For when they speak great swelling words of vanity, they allure through the lusts
of the flesh, through much wantonness, those that were clean escaped from them
who live in error.
They speak great swelling words of, what? {Vanity.}
II Peter 2:19:
While they promise them [what?] liberty [freedom], they themselves are the
servants of [what?] corruption: for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he
[bought] in bondage.
Has to be, in the renewed mind. The bought in here class, the bought in here that lives
in me is by what? Grace, but my knowing it up here is by the walk, renewed mind. The
very people that stood greatly on grace, like Bullinger and the rest of those, and knew the
renewed mind, like Bullinger knew the manifestations. They missed it because they broke
their own understanding of the Word. Bullinger knew better than that, bless his soul, he
just got tricked on renewed mind. That’s where he got tricked on it. There’s another goody
in I Peter. There are a lot more in the Word than I picked out for you tonight. But I picked
enough if there’s any question about the truth of God’s Word, I think you’re hopeless.
Verse 15 of I Peter 2:
I Peter 2:15, 16:
For so is the will of God, that with well doing [renewed mind walk] ye may put to
silence [that means shut up your stupid mouth] the ignorance of [what?] foolish
men.
As free, [free, freedom,] and not using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness,
but as the slaves of [whom?] God.
Isn’t that good? Titus has one.
Titus 2:10:
Not purloining, but shewing all good fidelity; that they may adorn [put on] the
doctrine [the right believing] of God our Saviour in [what?] all things.
Right, here it is:
Titus 2:11, 12:
For [starts with for] the grace of God that bringeth [what?] salvation [The grace of
God brings salvation.] hath appeared to all men,
Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live [the grace
of God brought salvation:] soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world;
Why? Because we have liberty to serve the Lord in newness of what?
[Students:] Life.
Titus 2:13, 14, 15:
Looking for that blessed hope, [which is]...the glorious appearing of [our] great
God and our Savior Jesus Christ;
Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify
unto himself a peculiar...[gang, that’s us,] zealous [ with great zeal] of [what?]
good works.
These things speak,...exhort,...rebuke with all authority. Let no man despise thee.
Lesson 11 Romans 8:1-4 Highlights of Romans 129
I told you doctrine, reproof and what? {Correction.} I told you it has to be in the
renewed mind, it has to be taught. Otherwise, they will take their freedom, their liberty as a
license to sin.
II Corinthians 6:1:
We then, as [what?] workers together..., beseech...also that ye receive not the
grace of God [how?] in vain.
That’s right, to receive it in vain would be to take that freedom and that liberty and to
make it a license for sin. That’s the receiving. Isn’t that wonderful? You see, if they ever
get around to really understanding the grace of God, that does not make us sinless, it just
gives us a savior from sin. Because nobody ever walks with a perfectly renewed mind
except the Lord Jesus Christ. That’s why we needed a savior. And to get hung up on sex
trips and this kind of stuff, but the mind is also flesh and they never get to thinking that
they blow it a million other places, but they pick on one. I just don’t know what to do with
the poor people, but man I’m not responsible for them. The Word stands, nobody believes
it, see? You know, did I read you Corinthians before I left? Yeah. Colossians, I want to
show you, then I’m through with it. Boy there’s a statement in Colossians, hits you right
between the eyes when you read it with understanding.
Colossians 1:6:
Which is come unto you, as it is in all the world; and bringeth forth fruit,
increasingly as it doth also in you, since the day ye heard of it, and knew the grace
of God in truth:
Knowing grace in truth, not facts, truth. Knowing the grace of God in truth.
Justification by works, I don’t care what they use, burning candles, counting beads, sitting
on the front pew, giving an offering; I don’t care what it is, anything or anything that
anybody thinks they’re justified by works of any kind is absolutely intolerable. Just
intolerable.
Romans 5:1:
Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord
Jesus Christ.
That happens to be Romans 5:1. Galatians 5:1. That’s how I remember it, Romans 5,
Galatians 5.
Galatians 5:1:
Stand fast therefore in the liberty [the freedom]...
Justified by the faith of Jesus Christ we have peace with God, therefore stand fast
[what?] knowing the Grace of God in what? {In Christ.} Standfast.
Galatians 5:1b:
...and be not entangled...
Really something. Now, I said, justification by works of any kind is intolerable.