Loving the Christ-life!

Who Are You?

By Tammy Lacock

“So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from the law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.” (Romans 7:3, KJV)

Warren Litzman explains the Apostle Paul’s message here in Romans 7:3 as an analogy to our new life in Christ as believers. When Christ died on the cross, our old lives died, too. By His death, we are no longer bound by sin and the law of our old life. We are now joined in one spirit with Christ. We are new creations, now married to Him. As born-again Christians, our new life is Christ.

We are saved from our old lives by His death, and we are saved by His Life that now resides in each and every believer.

Do you know who you are?

As believers in Christ, we are born-again, birthed by God to a new life in Christ. Christ is our new life, making us bona fide children of God, our Heavenly Father.

Knowing who you are now, one with Christ, will you give Him your mind, your body, your very life?

By Tammy Lacock

“So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from the law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.” (Romans 7:3)

With death comes Life! This is Warren Litzman’s discernment of Paul’s message to the Romans here in chapter 7 verse 3. He explains that this is at the heart of Paul’s analogy to marriage, where there must be a death to our old lives if we are to live our new life fully in Christ.

As believers in Christ’s death and resurrection on the cross, the very foundation of Christianity, our old sin-life is nailed to the cross with Christ. Our “old man” is crucified with Christ, and we arise to a new Life in Him.

However, most Christians don’t know this rebirth took place at all. As Christians, although saved, we are adulterers when we still carry on with our old lives.

We can only know this from Paul’s gospel. Only Paul was raised up by Christ himself to bring forth this message to the world.

By Christ’s death, we are left with a clean slate, an entirely new Life! As believers, we are freed from the law of sin and death and baptized into Christ. Christ lives in us and we in Him, joined together in one Spirit. “He that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit. (1 Corinthians 6:17).

Growing up in our new Life in Christ, by His Grace, the Holy Spirit teaches us of Christ and our new Life in Him. Although death to our old lives happened with Christ’s death on the cross, we still must allow the Holy Spirit to renew our minds to this knowledge so that we live the new Life, Christ.

By Tammy Lacock

“For the woman which hath a husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law.” (Romans 7:2, KJV)

Warren Litzman’s mission in today’s podcast is to explain Apostle Paul’s deeper meaning of Romans 7:2. On the surface, this verse says that a woman is bound to her husband until he dies. Then she is no longer his wife under the law, and she may start a new life. While this is true, Paul’s message goes deeper.

Warren explains there must be a death—death to our old life—to have a new life as the new creature God intended we become. Paul’s deeper message says by Christ’ death on the cross, as believers in Him, we died with Him, in Him. We died to our old lives, our sin-life, and to the law; and when He rose from death, we rose with Him, too, to His new life, in Him.

We are born again the moment we believe on Jesus Christ as our Savior. He saved us from our old lives when he bore all of humanity’s sins in His body. When He died, in Him our sins died and we died. In that moment, we are born again, and our new life is Christ.

A true Christian is dead to his old life; there must be a death to die to sin and law. The life he now lives is Christ, controlled by Christ, not law. Christ is alive in every believer!

Once the old creature is dead and living a new life, God's ongoing work is transforming his new son's old consciousness, his heart-mind-soul, to his new life to raise him to maturity, to the full stature of Christ, God's Son.

What will you do with this knowledge of Christ in you?

The heart of Paul’s message of Christ as our new life is also plainly conveyed by him in Galatians 2:20 (KJV) when he says, “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.”

By Tammy Lacock

“Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth?” (Romans 7:1, KJV)

Warren Litzman reiterates the Apostle Paul’s gospel is Romans 7:1, that those who are still living a Satan life have no life of their own and are bound by the law. However, those that believe that Christ suffered, died, was buried, and rose from the dead are no longer bound by the law. They are new creations who are now living in Christ. The Satan nature was replaced by Christ’s perfect nature. Their old Satan lives died, too, with Christ and arose to a whole new life in Him. The law has no life. There is no other life other than Christ. Christ fulfilled the law at the cross. As believers, we are finally freed from the law and our Satan lives.

There is nothing we can do to be saved. We are saved by what Christ did on the cross. As born again believers in Christ, we went from being bound by the law to a new life in Him. By Christ’s death and resurrection, we are now bona fide children of God!

The Apostle Paul is the Father of Christianity.

Warren’s mission here is to share Paul’s message of Christianity and the true meaning of a being a Christian. A Christian is a spiritual being, a Christ person, one who now has Christ living in them as their new life.

As Christians, we are born again. We have died to the law and are rebirthed in Christ.

The Father of Christianity states this message of Christ in us so wonderfully in 2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”

With the trials and tribulations of this world, and especially in an increasingly blatantly evil world, only born-again Christians with Christ as their new Life will survive it. Indeed, in the end, we will be taken up out of this world to live in our Heavenly Father’s house.

May the Holy Spirit open the minds and hearts of those who do not believe so that they, too, can overcome this world with Christ as their new Life and enter God’s Heavenly Kingdom.

By Tammy Lacock

In today’s podcast, Warren Litzman explains a bit further what Paul means by “brethren” in Romans 7:1 (KJV). Brethren are those in the Body of Christ, Christians (Christ-persons) whose life is now Christ’s Life.

Warren reminds us of Jesus of Nazareth’s golden rule about loving one another, loving our brethren. But, he says, it is not our love that comes through; it is the love of the living Christ coming through us. Indeed, we are not capable of loving our brethren unless we love Christ, the one who is our new Life. As believers, the Holy Spirit overwhelms our hearts with God’s love and His love shines through each of us.

At this point in time, with evil and corruption plaguing the world more and more, we must remember Paul’s gospel, the Final Gospel of Christ living in every believer. It is only through and in Him that we can overcome.

In the midst of life’s tribulations, may we let Christ’s unconditional love come through us and touch the hearts of all our brethren.

By Tammy Lacock

“Know ye not, brethren (for I speak to them that know the law) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth?” (Romans 7:1, KJV)

Warren Litzman elaborates on Romans 7:1 by explaining Paul’s emphasis on the detrimental effect of believers holding onto what they knew before coming to Christ. Paul tells us that as brothers and sisters in Christ, we are to let go of our old selves of adhering to law, a “doer” mentality. The law given to Moses by God is no longer needed. Even Jesus of Nazareth preached the law, but when He died on the cross, we were freed from it.

Paul tells us that the law will only keep us from fully knowing Christ as our new life. God ended the law by the death of Christ by bearing all of our sins in His body. When He died, our sins died, too. Christ did the work. There is nothing we can do to be saved. By His death and resurrection, we now live in grace and are bona fide children of God.

The law, and those bound by it, killed Christ. When on the cross, just before His death, Christ said “It is finished.” He meant we are no longer bound by the law and what we do to be saved. As believers, the finished work at the Cross ushered us out of sin and death and into grace, a new life in Him.

“For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.” (1 Corinthians 2:2 KJV)

By Tammy Lacock

“Know ye not, brethren (for I speak to them that know the law) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth?” (Romans 7:1 KJV)

Warren Litzman explains Romans 7:1 a bit further. Paul is telling his brethren, his brothers and sisters in Christ, to forget the law in their new life in Christ. As believers, we are not to know the law anymore. The law will not save us. Christ fulfilled the law. Only Christ is our salvation. He says to lay aside and die to our past lives and arise and live fully in our new life in Christ. There’s nothing we can do to be saved. Christ did the work by his death and resurrection. By the Cross, we are saved from the law and brought into God’s Grace. As believers, our old lives, driven by the law, died too. And by His resurrection, we arose with Him.

As believers, Christ’s Spirit is now joined to our spirit, making us one Spirit and, therefore, bona fide children of God. Let the Holy Spirit comfort us now in this new understanding and reveal more to us about our new life in Christ each day.

Out with our sin-nature, bound by the law. IN with Christ, free in Him by God’s relentless grace.

By Tammy Lacock

Warren Litzman begins a new study with Romans Chapter 7. In verse 1, he explains the Apostle Paul is addressing his brethren—his brothers and sisters in Christ—who know and live by the law. Paul tells them they are no longer under the law by Christ’s death and resurrection. He goes even further to say “Know ye not,” or know nothing else other than Christ. The law will always take over as long as we live in sin. However, when Christ died on the cross, our old lives of sin died, too. When Christ arose, we arose to a new life in Him, no longer subject to the law.

Christ fulfilled the law and there is nothing else we need to know other than Him.

By Tammy Lacock

“Therefore I endure all things for the elect’s sakes, that they may also obtain the salvation which is in Jesus Christ with eternal glory” (2 Timothy 2:10 KJV)

Warren Litzman explains verse 10 here in Part 4 of the 2 Timothy 2 series. But first he reminds us of the significant words Paul chose in the previous verses to help us grasp his message. In verse 8, Paul calls his revelation of Christ “my gospel.” In verse 9, he says the word of God cannot be bound, even as he is seen as an evil doer in the world, chained up in jail for spreading his gospel. In these verses Paul explains that his gospel is a personal gospel. It was given to him directly from Jesus Christ Himself and he’ll do whatever it takes for it to endure. In fact, in verse 10, he says, he will “endure all things” so that the “elect” will receive the same revelation of Christ. The elect is us!

We were “chosen in Him before the foundation of the world.” (Ephesians 1:4 KJV). Paul’s mission is to share with believers the revelation that Christ now literally lives in each and every one of us. No separation.

Christ is everything to Paul. He wants the whole world to know that by believing on Christ’s death and resurrection we can have the eternal glory, the eternal life of Christ in us now!

“My Gospel”

By Tammy Lacock

Warren Litzman continues to explores what the Apostle Paul means in 2 Timothy 2 verse 8 when he says “my gospel,” which he states many times throughout his epistles. Paul’s gospel is a new gospel, the final gospel for this dispensation of grace which is from the Cross until now. Paul’s gospel is to us now.

Paul’s gospel is this: At the Cross, Christ’s death and resurrection changed God’s way of dealing with human beings from outer works to an inner relationship with Him through His Son Jesus Christ. As believers in Him, Christ resides IN us; there’s no separation. Our old lives died with Him at the Cross and we too arose to a new life in Him. Our relationship with Christ is unique to each of us because we are growing up in Him now in a personal way. This is why Paul called it “my gospel” because Christ revealed it personally to him.

Paul says in Romans 5:10 to “Follow me as I follow Christ”; and in Ephesians 3:2, he says, “If ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God given me to you-ward.” Throughout his epistles, Paul is sharing with us his personal revelation from Christ through the Holy Spirit and asks us to listen, to follow him and we, too, will receive this revelation. A personal relationship with Christ here and now.

“I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20 KJV)

Paul is the only writer in the Bible whose gospel talks about the Cross and what took place at the Cross for believers. We know longer know Christ in the flesh. We know Him in Spirit as we are now joined to Him in one Spirit. (1 Corinthians 6:17 KJV). Again, Paul’s gospel is a personal gospel.

In verse 9, Paul says his gospel, the Word of God he received directly from Christ, cannot be bound. Even though he is chained up in jail and considered an evil doer by his opponents, he continues to spread the revelation of Christ in him to Timothy and to all the churches.

Christ is his Life now and Christ is all that matters to him.

May we follow Paul and let Christ be our only Life, our final gospel, too.