"Conformed To God" -2

Now then, because the propitiation (hilasmos) of Christ is what John says it is, the explanation of God's love, we are both liberated and held captive. We are liberated from sin and the death that is associated with it, but we are held captive by God's love and the magnitude of it's expression. For this reason, John says in chapter 4:8, "He that loveth not, knoweth not God, for God is Love." In other words, God's love is the expression of who He is, and those that are His, have seen and have been given the virtue of His love; which means, that His love, of which we previously did not know or posses, has been imported within us, and is now a virtue of who we are in Christ. We are now held captive by His love, which then obligates us to love also; in other words, it is not a choice, but is the fabric of who we are in Jesus Christ. This is the reason that the Love and the Propitiation become interchangeable realities necessary of one another; we can not have one without the other. So what does this mean? Simply this: He that loveth not, has not truly accepted God's forgiveness; which then comes right back to Faith, and the importance of Believing. Now, about our 'Old Man', that old sin nature; what must take place in the Believer's life is a conforming to God's Love. It is the Love of God, by God, and for God that enables us to be able to override our sinful nature. This is because of what Christ has done, not what we have the ability to do on our own. In other words, it is the combination of the cleansing from sin and the Love of God that is required for our lives; both of which are the achievement and the expression of who Jesus was, is, and always will be. Our sinful nature is actually still there, and very much alive; it is a part of who we are in this earthen vessel; but yet, because of God's Love, our desire is towards Him, and no longer towards the things of the flesh. Does that mean that we will no longer sin?; No; but what it does mean, is that sin will no longer rule our lives; we will not sin habitually, deliberately, easily, or maliciously as Cain did out of hatred of goodness. "And hereby we do know that we Know Him, if we keep His commandments. He that saith, I know Him, and keepeth not the commandments, is a liar, and the Truth is not in him. But whoso keepeth His Word, in him verily is the Love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in Him. He that saith he abideth in Him ought himself also so to walk, even as He walked." (1 John 2:3-6)