The deconstructing of the law in the New Testament

[saved by grace 101]

Why are you so determined to blame the law for your sin? All I read from you is a deflection of responsibility. You and I are sinners, and we were sinners long before the law confirmed it. You are a sinner because you sin. And you sin because you inherited a carnal nature from Adam. Which is why you need to be born again before you can have any hope of overcoming. But first, you need to accept responsibility for your sin. Stop blaming God.

BTW, I have always found the people who most flagrantly transgress the TC are those who continually insist they must be obeyed! We all sin by the way, what matters is, we are not happy about it!
A deflection of responsibility? That comes from people who have no consciousness of sin when they commit it!

 

[saved by grace 101]

Why are you so determined to blame the law for your sin? All I read from you is a deflection of responsibility. You and I are sinners, and we were sinners long before the law confirmed it. You are a sinner because you sin. And you sin because you inherited a carnal nature from Adam. Which is why you need to be born again before you can have any hope of overcoming. But first, you need to accept responsibility for your sin. Stop blaming God.

Ive already told you what this is about but you refuse to accept it. Someone says to a young teenager: ‘You MUST obey the TC’ Nothing added to that statement at all.

A statement that infers righteousness/or proving righteousness hinges on it. The teenager is not in denial of what those laws demand, there eyes are wide open

Thou shalt not covet/thou shalt not desire what is not yours to desire/though shalt not lust/thou shalt not dwell on any impure thought. That’s the wording of the commandment explained, as what the teenager is told they MUST do is an inflexible statement.

What will the teenager think?

‘I don’t want to go to hell, I must not dwell on any impure thought. They would be petrified of impure thoughts, what would you be more afraid of doing than something that could lead you to be cast into hell? Can you escape what you fear, or will thoughts of what you fear consume you? What will be the result? You really should know, its so obvious, I will let Paul explain it:

But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. Rom7:8

Hence: sinfull passions are aroused in us by the law Rom7:5

Hence: the power of sin is the law/the legally binding law with the power to condemn 1Cor15:56

Hence: For sin shall no longer be your master for you are not under law/righteousness of obeying the law, but under grace/righteousness of faith in Christ.

 

[saved by grace 101]

Why are you so determined to blame the law for your sin? All I read from you is a deflection of responsibility. You and I are sinners, and we were sinners long before the law confirmed it. You are a sinner because you sin. And you sin because you inherited a carnal nature from Adam. Which is why you need to be born again before you can have any hope of overcoming. But first, you need to accept responsibility for your sin. Stop blaming God.

I will give you an example, a testimony. I grew up with severe legalism. I believed the ‘’pat statements’ of people in the church I went to concerning how we should live. I didn’t once consider the people making those statements did not live up to them in their own lives. I heard much about obeying God’s laws, and how we should live, but nothing about righteousness apart from observing the law. I felt huge guilt, wondering why I could not be a perfect Christian as I assumed everyone else in the church was. I feared hell due to my imperfections, and the more I feared hell because of my imperfections, the worse those imperfections got. And in the early days those imperfections were mainly in my mind. Within a few years of making a commitment to God, you could say, I became consumed by all manner of concupiscence.

I walked away from the church, refusing to stay and be a hypocrite as I saw it, preaching what I knew I could not practice in my own life. In five years of going to that church , sin had engulfed me in a way I would never previously have thought possible.

A few years later I was in a mess, someone asked me to read a book, in it was a chapter on Paul’s message of grace. I could not believe what I was reading, I had no righteousness before God of obeying his laws, I was literally stunned. But, it was in the bible, so it must be true, I recommitted my life to Christ, believing even I could be a Christian with all my faults bearing in mind what I now knew.

But what of the sin? I didn’t want it. There was a particular sin I had been consumed by for six years, when I feared hell because of it, it simply got worse, but now, I just gave it to God and trusted I was saved because Jesus was my righteousness before God, this sin transgressed one of the TC. The next three days were so hard, here I was committing this sin but at the same time trusting I was righteous before God because Jesus died for me. A voice in my head relentlessly told me I could not be a Christian and do what I was doing, I was just a hypocrite, faking Christianity. With every fibre of my being, my logical thoughts I believed that voice must be true. But then, the bible said I was righteous by faith, not my own personal goodness under the law. It was so very hard to keep trusting I was saved, but I clung to Jesus in simple faith.

On the fourth day, this sin I had been a slave to and was my master for six years stopped, when I feared it could send me to hell, it only got worse:



The power of sin is the law 1Cor15:56

Sinfull passions are aroused in us by the law Rom7:5

For sin shall no longer be your master for you are not under law/righteousness of obeying the law, but under grace/;righteousness of faith in Christ Rom6:14

You see, with your message, I never could have been set free, for as soon as I recommitted my life to Christ, I would have had to keep telling myself I couldn’t be in a righteous state because I was transgressing one of the TC.

 

[saved by grace 101]

First, nowhere did I suggest that I had to obey all the commandments in order to "prove" I am righteous. I would like a reference to my post stating that.
Second, I agree with you that the commandments as Paul said, are holy.just, and good. They are after all, a transcript of the character of God. A perfect 10.
Third, yes, I have stated repeatedly that obedience to all of God's commandments are obligatory. Of course they are mandatory. God is God after all, and He is to be obeyed in all things.
Now we get to the nitty-gritty. Listen carefully. I have said this before, I will say it again as clear as I can. While obedience is essential, mandatory, and obligatory in every sense, we are NOT to rush out and enrol in self- improvement courses... mind strengthening courses... self discipline exercises... IT ISN'T ABOUT OUR EFFORT. AND EVEN ISRAEL MADE THE SAME MISTAKE WHEN THEY DECLARED AT THE BOTTOM OF SINAI... ALL THAT THE LORD HAS SAID, WE WILL DO.
As I said previously. It isn't the ten commandments written on our hearts in the form of letters and words. It is the Spirit of Christ... Christ Himself who abides within, He being the embodiment of the law, and the prefect expression of that law THROUGH HIS SELF- SACRIFICING LOVE ON CALVARY. Love, by the Spirit and power of God working in our lives, fulfills the law. In all its facets.

So if Christ is the embodiment of the law, and the law is love, and the law and love is the righteousness of Christ, then we receive that righteousness by receiving Christ. Righteousness comes to us by faith. Obedience is the fruit of having Christ in the life. What is impossible for man to accomplish on his own and in his own strength, becomes possible as Christ, through His abiding Spirit within, empowers the child of God to follow after righteousness and bear fruit to the glory of God.

You see I grew up, with the letter being preached and the way it was preached, the inference was it must be fully obeyed, and yes, by following after the Spirit
However, as a minister of fifty years stated: If we all followed after the Holy Spirit every minute of our lives we would never commit sin, the reality of which escapes us all.

That is your reality and every other believers reality. Churches that just preach the random letter, liking to, or giving the inference it can be perfectly obeyed, are best avoided in my view, for that is no ones reality. If you want to call that not taking responsibility for sin, sobiet

 

[amigo de christo]

Yes.

All foretold.

And the same is observed in Generation after Generation…
OF…the anti-God dying in Damnation…
AND…the Submitting dying in Salvation…
AND…the Wayward still back-stabbing in hopes of being seated at Satans Roundtable.

Glory to God,
Taken

Wait till inclusive law becomes law . if we think sharia law is deadly , and it is
IT holds not the power of the inclusive law . that law gonna hammer all who conformed not to its image
of what IT says is GOD and it calls love . AND BINGO if ya guessed that its god and its love
WILL SERVE THE AGENDA OF THE ONE WORLD RELIGOIN WHICH SERVES THE AGENDA OF THE ONE WORLD GOVT .
WE ARE ALL BEING deceived . Satan knows how to unify a people under what such a people
will beleive to be GOD and LOVE . Anyt hing that conforms not to its image , W ILL BE PERSECUTED
on a level of a tribulation so great that if it were not ended not a lamb one would be alive .
THIS is gonna explode my friends . . ITS GONNA explode . they have the system now
They have the religoin now
they have the power now TO DO ALL that was written would occur right at the end hour . They lead this people
into a lie they beleive will attain world peace n safety . BUT ITS PEACE IS OF ANTI CHRIST .
ITS COMING . And it has one common god
and one common love , and that god and its love , HATES And LEADS and WILL LEAD
this people into great war against the saints . YOU MARK THEM WORDS . ITS COMING and ITS AT THE DOOR .

 

[Brakelite]

You see I grew up, with the letter being preached and the way it was preached, the inference was it must be fully obeyed, and yes, by following after the Spirit
However, as a minister of fifty years stated: If we all followed after the Holy Spirit every minute of our lives we would never commit sin, the reality of which escapes us all.

That is your reality and every other believers reality. Churches that just preach the random letter, liking to, or giving the inference it can be perfectly obeyed, are best avoided in my view, for that is no ones reality. If you want to call that not taking responsibility for sin, sobiet

Why do you read only half my posts?

 

[saved by grace 101]

Why do you read only half my posts?

I read them and responded to your three laws as you asked me to.

But however you try and reason it, for you, it always comes back to the TC. You say they are mandatory/obligatory to be obeyed.

What does that statement mean? Well, it means if you do not obey them you cannot be in a saved state doesn’t it. It’s a blanket statement, but what you do not add, nor does anyone else who makes your statements is, you yourself much transgress the TC. So, are you deliberately insisting of others what you do not insist of yourself, or is it more likely, you just live with a watered down version of those laws. I will go with the latter.

Problem is, when you tell people who hold the TC to the pristine level they are set at, they are mandatory to obey, you will crush them, it happens all the time. The second greatest commandment is being ignored.

According to the bible, you are in effect telling people they must obey the letter that kills, the ministry of death and condemnation in order to be able to be in a saved state. Paul’s core message is certainly being ignored

Those commands are an inflexible law: Thou shalt NOT, no wiggle room, for error, perfectly obey them or stand guilty before them. We all stand guilty before the letter of that law.

And why, instead of saying the TC are mandatory do you not say Jesus teaching in the gospel is mandatory? Because that’s much harder for you isn’t it. You cannot be in any ignorance of what those commands state.

It is old covenant to keep insisting the TC must be obeyed. And in truth, it is an old covenant type of religion you follow.

BTW

Paul states in Rom2:14&15 if gentiles had never known of biblical law they can show the requirements(not some of the requirements) of the law are written on their hearts, obviously by the way they act

How many people do you think would, by instinct avoid the Levitical unclean foods and set aside a set Saturday sabbath if they had never known of biblical law?

 

[Brakelite]

You say they are mandatory/obligatory to be obeyed

You disagree with that?

 

[JustMe]

Ive already told you what this is about but you refuse to accept it. Someone says to a young teenager: ‘You MUST obey the TC’ Nothing added to that statement at all.

A statement that infers righteousness/or proving righteousness hinges on it. The teenager is not in denial of what those laws demand, there eyes are wide open

Thou shalt not covet/thou shalt not desire what is not yours to desire/though shalt not lust/thou shalt not dwell on any impure thought. That’s the wording of the commandment explained, as what the teenager is told they MUST do is an inflexible statement.

What will the teenager think?

‘I don’t want to go to hell, I must not dwell on any impure thought. They would be petrified of impure thoughts, what would you be more afraid of doing than something that could lead you to be cast into hell? Can you escape what you fear, or will thoughts of what you fear consume you? What will be the result? You really should know, its so obvious, I will let Paul explain it:

But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. Rom7:8

Hence: sinfull passions are aroused in us by the law Rom7:5

Hence: the power of sin is the law/the legally binding law with the power to condemn 1Cor15:56

Hence: For sin shall no longer be your master for you are not under law/righteousness of obeying the law, but under grace/righteousness of faith in Christ.

Right on target. The law was a tutor and a stern one for me, until grace was bestowed upon me by God, by my faith in and through his Son and his selfless actions.

Although the law was stern and demanding, it fulfilled its purpose by leading me and many people to recognize their need for grace, which was ultimately bestowed through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

 

[saved by grace 101]

Right on target. The law was a tutor and a stern one for me, until grace was bestowed upon me by God, by my faith in and through his Son and his selfless actions.

Although the law was stern and demanding, it fulfilled its purpose by leading me and many people to recognize their need for grace, which was ultimately bestowed through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

You know much, as proved by your understanding of this subject, and on the other thread where we met. It proves the Holy Spirit is leading you into truth, and he is the only one who can. God bless

 

[saved by grace 101]

You disagree with that?

You need to read this, it will show you where the gulf is between us.

I responded to an altar call at the age of Ten. There was one huge change in me, I became convicted of my shortcomings before God in a real and profound way. Why? Applicable law had been placed in my most inward parts, in my heart and mind. Can you comprehend what that means? It is part of who you are now, it is in every fibre of your being. I didn’t love others as I should, I felt bad about it, I told some fibs(as kids do) I felt bad about that too, things that hardly bothered me before now brought guilt when I did them. The second greatest commandment is important-right? I wasn’t such a happy kid anymore, I was burdened down by my guilt of imperfections. In my most inward parts I felt really bad about my imperfections, I couldn’t hide from them

But then I reached puberty and my problems magnified tenfold, along came impure thoughts. I honestly didn’t want them, I wanted to live a pure and holy life for God. And sin is sin-right? You can’t excuse what goes on, on the inside as unimportant. And I would hear people say ‘you must obey the TC’ and every time I heard that my thoughts turned inward and I felt huge guilt. And I feared greatly, I didn’t want to go to hell. You see, I fully agreed then with what you say now. The TC were obligatory, the righteous will obey them, so, I cannot be righteous before God if I don’t obey them. And the more I feared my impure thoughts would send me to hell the worse they got. In the end, I was consumed by all manner of concupiscence, just as Paul wrote.

Now you may think I took things too far, but why? Those thoughts transgress the TC and you have stated it is obligatory to obey all of them. The righteous will obey them, I lived by your handbook.

Now you may say, we need to follow after the Holy Spirit, and love others and we will therefore obey the TC for love fulfils the law. But here’s the problem, as long as you tie righteousness to obeying the TC you cannot do that, for your bottom line becomes obeying them, you cannot look away from them, to follow after the spirit, for your continued righteousness hinges on obeying them, if you do not, you prove you are not righteous before God and are therefore condemned.

Believe it or not, fear brings excitement, and you cannot escape what you fear, thoughts of what you fear will consume you.

Now if a person believes they have no righteousness of obeying the TC, all that fear will not be stirred up in them, so they will not be consumed by thoughts of what they fear, and they are then free to follow after the Spirit, and the fruits of the spirit may grow in them. And they have no licence to sin, for in their hearts they want to live as God desires them to live, for that is where applicable law has been placed and it stays there.

 

[Brakelite]

You need to read this, it will show you where the gulf is between us.

Hold on a minute. I asked a simple question. Is it obligatory to obey God's commandments or not?

 

[saved by grace 101]

Hold on a minute. I asked a simple question. Is it obligatory to obey God's commandments or not?

Mandatory in what sense, to be righteous before God? If so, you transgress God's laws so you could not then be righteous before God could you.;
It is obligatory to die to righteousness of obeying the law
It is obligatory to desire to live as God wants you to live, as covered by any applicable law, which is now in believers hearts.
It is obligatory not to water any applicable law down for convenience
I will assume by God's commandments you include the commandments of Christ in the Gospels, you wouldn't ignore them.
All christians have obligation to live/desire to live as the complete teaching shows, covered by the laws in their hearts. Mandatory? For what? I've never met any christian who even tried to obey each and every literal command of Christ in the gospels, have you? Fortunatley we are covered by grace, for we all fail the standard set.

It is obligatory not to insist of others what we do not insist of ourselves.
It is obligatory to know faith in Christ is our righteousness before God
It should be obligatory to stand with King David:

I trust in God's unfailing love forever and ever

Because: Do not bring your servant into judgement for no one living is righteous before you Psalms143:2

 

[Brakelite]

Mandatory in what sense, to be righteous before God?

No. Righteousness has already been given a a gift. As I've said to you many times. Obedience is the fruit of the presence of Christ in the heart. Obedience is mandatory because God is entitled to be obeyed. He is God. If He isn't your Lord, and you think God's commandmentsare merely optional extras, then your Lord is someone else.

 

[saved by grace 101]

No. Righteousness has already been given a a gift. As I've said to you many times. Obedience is the fruit of the presence of Christ in the heart. Obedience is mandatory because God is entitled to be obeyed. He is God. If He isn't your Lord, and you think God's commandmentsare merely optional extras, then your Lord is someone else.

OK, well how many of Christ's commands in the gospels do you even try and follow. Obedience is mandatory-right?
I know you believe obedience to the TC is mandatory and the righteous will obey them. So:
It is mandatory not to put anything before God in your life
It is mandatory not to erect any graven image in your mind
It is mandatory not to look at a woman with lust in your eye
It is mandatory not to tell any even little fibs about another
It is mandatory not to dwell on any impure thought
It is mandatory not to desire anything of your neighbours, whether material goods or a member of their household.
The righteous will obey the TC?
So what is your reality when you fail to obey the above list? Do you believe you have failed the test of being in a righteous state? No you don't do you. Your reality is what Im telling you.
I was raised with this in a church(on Sundays) People make pat statements based on selective literal verses of scripture and make demands of you they do make of themselves, the inference is, they obey the TC, so must you. In wishing to keep this conversation genial I will not turn to the gospels to show you the seriousness of such error

 

[saved by grace 101]

No. Righteousness has already been given a a gift. As I've said to you many times. Obedience is the fruit of the presence of Christ in the heart. Obedience is mandatory because God is entitled to be obeyed. He is God. If He isn't your Lord, and you think God's commandmentsare merely optional extras, then your Lord is someone else.

I addressed your point of mandatory, please do me the courtesy of reading the following:



I responded to an altar call at the age of Ten. There was one huge change in me, I became convicted of my shortcomings before God in a real and profound way. Why? Applicable law had been placed in my most inward parts, in my heart and mind. Can you comprehend what that means? It is part of who you are now, it is in every fibre of your being. I didn’t love others as I should, I felt bad about it, I told some fibs(as kids do) I felt bad about that too, things that hardly bothered me before now brought guilt when I did them. The second greatest commandment is important-right? I wasn’t such a happy kid anymore, I was burdened down by my guilt of imperfections. In my most inward parts I felt really bad about my imperfections, I couldn’t hide from them

But then I reached puberty and my problems magnified tenfold, along came impure thoughts. I honestly didn’t want them, I wanted to live a pure and holy life for God. And sin is sin-right? You can’t excuse what goes on, on the inside as unimportant. And I would hear people say ‘you must obey the TC’ and every time I heard that my thoughts turned inward and I felt huge guilt. And I feared greatly, I didn’t want to go to hell. You see, I fully agreed then with what you say now. The TC were obligatory, the righteous will obey them, so, I cannot be righteous before God if I don’t obey them. And the more I feared my impure thoughts would send me to hell the worse they got. In the end, I was consumed by all manner of concupiscence, just as Paul wrote.

Now you may think I took things too far, but why? Those thoughts transgress the TC and you have stated it is obligatory to obey all of them. The righteous will obey them, I lived by your handbook.

Now you may say, we need to follow after the Holy Spirit, and love others and we will therefore obey the TC for love fulfils the law. But here’s the problem, as long as you tie righteousness to obeying the TC you cannot do that, for your bottom line becomes obeying them, you cannot look away from them, to follow after the spirit, for your continued righteousness hinges on obeying them, if you do not, you prove you are not righteous before God and are therefore condemned.

Believe it or not, fear brings excitement, and you cannot escape what you fear, thoughts of what you fear will consume you.

Now if a person believes they have no righteousness of obeying the TC, all that fear will not be stirred up in them, so they will not be consumed by thoughts of what they fear, and they are then free to follow after the Spirit, and the fruits of the spirit may grow in them. And they have no licence to sin, for in their hearts they want to live as God desires them to live, for that is where applicable law has been placed and it stays there.

 

[St. SteVen]

No. Righteousness has already been given a a gift. As I've said to you many times. Obedience is the fruit of the presence of Christ in the heart. Obedience is mandatory because God is entitled to be obeyed. He is God. If He isn't your Lord, and you think God's commandmentsare merely optional extras, then your Lord is someone else.

Yes.

2 Corinthians 5:21 NIV
God made him who had no sin to be sin[a] for us,
so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

 

[St. SteVen]

Obedience is the fruit of the presence of Christ in the heart.

Personally I am most concerned about obedience to the promptings of God to minister to others.
There are all sorts of things we think we need to obey in the Bible. Who can measure up?
But I think God is MORE concerned about us hearing His voice and responding to His promptings.
(I have testimonies)

 

[Brakelite]

We have Christ in the heart. Jesus taught that we were to seek God's righteousness with as much hunger and as much passion as we would His kingdom. We are to hunger and thirst for it. And there's only one way to attain it. Through the Way, the Truth, and the Life. The closer we come to Jesus, the more unworthy we view ourselves, but the more gracious we view God, and love Him the more. We long that the image of Christ be created in us. We are filled with His love, and with His Spirit. And so long as we walk in the Spirit, there is no condemnation, though we may fail and fall short of the standard God has set, yet we can be confident that God will not give up His work in us, for He Himself has promised to finish and complete the work He has begun. And He will, so long as we walk in the Spirit and in faith, believing. But not everyone believes. Some say it isn't necessary to obey God's commandments, others say it's impossible. But the scripture says all things are possible to them that believe. The scripture says we can do all things through Christ Who strengthens us. The scripture says
“7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. 8 So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God. 9 But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. ”
Romans 8:7-9 KJV

Unfeigned Bible

Unfeigned Bible

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So if the carnal mind cannot obey the law of God, the spiritual mind can. And a previous text says exactly that...
“2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. 3 For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: 4 That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. ”
Romans 8:2-4 KJV

Unfeigned Bible

Unfeigned Bible

www.unfeignedbible.app

 

[Brakelite]

How do you know that the form of belief and faith you cling to is actually curing the disease and not just the symptoms? Is that which you cherish as 'church', faith or whatever, simply providing anti-inflammatory solutions to the consequences of sin, or is it dealing with the root cause - a very much alive and perfectly well 'self'.

Sin is a terminal disease for which there is only one sure remedy. This remedy must be taken daily, and in large doses. Sin is a rampant virulent poison that grows without restraint if given license, and destroys all whose paths it crosses. And the only remedy, the only cure, is death to self.

Anything else in the Christian life touches only the symptoms. The joy of fellowship, without death to self affects only that innate loneliness that comes from estrangement from God through sin.

Any peace we may experience as a result of knowledge or even faith in the scriptures, without death to self, is merely a short-term appeasement to the conscience.

Death to self or the carnal nature or the flesh, must come before being born again. Death to self must come before baptism. Death to self must come before the infilling of the Holy Spirit.

How do we know that the faith/religion/Christianity we hold to is curing the disease? By the fruits that grow as a result of the characters we feed. If we are feeding the carnal nature, then the carnal nature is going to flourish and live, and the fruits of that nature will be manifest in sin, worldliness, and compromise.
If we are however putting to death the carnal nature through faith in the power of Christ, then we starve it. We refuse to feed that nature. We instead feed the spirit. And the fruit of the spirit will be found in holiness and righteousness expressed through love that is implanted in our hearts by the Holy Spirit.

Mathew 16:24 ¶ Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.
25 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.

Throughout the NT Jesus likened the kingdom of heaven to a seed. We, like the seed, must die, be buried, and be raised up into a new life. Death is the only remedy to sin. It is that death that is figuratively portrayed by baptism.

There is a further aspect to this. Throughout Revelation we are promised great things if we would but 'overcome'. Jesus said to the Laodiceans that should we overcome, we will sit with Him on His throne, just as He overcame and sat down on His Father's throne. So that strongly implies to me that we are to overcome in the same precise way that Jesus did. How did Jesus overcome?

John was invited to see who had the right to open the seals of the book. Who had the power and authority to reveal the future? Who was He?

5 And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof.

Ahhh! A Lion!!! A ferocious Lion who by great strength and power has prevailed!!! Is that what John saw???

6 ¶ And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain

A Lamb!!! Yes, a Lamb as it had been slain. How did Jesus overcome? Through self sacrifice!!! And that my friends is how we are to overcome. Not by strength or power or force of arms, but by surrender! Complete self sacrificial surrender to God and our fellow man.

Re 12:11 And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.

We overcome by loving our enemies.
We overcome by praying for those who persecute us.
We overcome by feeding the hungry.
We overcome by clothing the naked.
We overcome by visiting those in prison.

My favourite chapter in the entire OT is Isaiah 58. He tells it like it is. We overcome...

6 Is not this the fast that I have chosen? to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke?
7 Is it not to deal thy bread to the hungry, and that thou bring the poor that are cast out to thy house? when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him; and that thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh?
8 ¶ Then shall thy light break forth as the morning, and thine health shall spring forth speedily: and thy righteousness shall go before thee; the glory of the LORD shall be thy rereward.
9 Then shalt thou call, and the LORD shall answer; thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am. If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger, and speaking vanity;
10 And if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry, and satisfy the afflicted soul; then shall thy light rise in obscurity, and thy darkness be as the noonday:
11 And the LORD shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.
12 And they that shall be of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the foundations of many generations; and thou shalt be called, The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in.
13 ¶ If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the LORD, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words:
14 Then shalt thou delight thyself in the LORD; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.

All the above cannot be accomplished without sacrificing self.
Joh 15:5
And we cannot hope to overcome as Christ did except we take up our own cross and follow Him. We cannot hope to overcome and share in His victory over sin, the devil, and the world, until we die to self and surrender to Him.

Rom 12:1

This is how we gain eternal life. By so identifying ourselves with Christ's death that we partake of the same.

Rom 6:1-7

Sin becomes anathema to us. The more we associate ourselves and integrate ourselves with the cross of Calvary, the more abhorrent sin becomes to us. Conversely, the more sacred and the more precious will the laws of God become, and the more joy we obtain in surrendered obedience to them.

Rom. 6:8-14.

We become instruments of righteousness by our self sacrificial surrendering to the grace and life that God will impart to us, and we become overcomers. This is the only way to eternal life. Only through partaking of Christ's death, and assimilating His life, can we have any hope for heaven.