It’s interesting that Catholics always bring up that line. Not once have they ever been able to show that anyone has ever said that. No one I have ever known has said that. I can assure you that no one who is saved with the indwelling of Christ would ever utter those words or think that anyone would who professes faith in Him.
Look at what Jesus said to the Pharisees.
John 8:15 Ye judge after the flesh; I judge no man.
He wasn’t commending them in that passage. That was just after He said to the woman caught in adultery “Neither do I condemn thee”. That comment about “ye judge after the flesh” is something that Catholics should ponder and study. It means something. The focus on flesh is rather pervasive in the RCC. It’s not what Jesus and the apostles taught.
Romans 8:9 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.
“not in the flesh”? Those who are saved are not in the flesh? What does that mean to a Catholic who focuses so much on the flesh? Constantly they tell us it’s what is done “in the flesh” that is important yet both Jesus and Paul have told us it’s not “in the flesh” that we live or judge. How is that to be understood? Paul again tells us.
Galatians 3:27 For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
2 Corinthians 1:22 Who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts.
It’s Christ in us that gives us the ability and understanding of what “in the Spirit” means. It’s no longer we who live but Christ lives in us.
Paul 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.” Galatians 2:20
Notice it says by the faith of Christ. Not >u>my faith in Christ. It’s not our faith we rely on, it’s Christ’s faith which we were promised would sustain us. It’s not our righteousness we rely on which Catholics constantly try to impose.
And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith: Philippians 3:9
It’s the faith of Christ in us that imparts righteousness to us and not the following of the law of the flesh that Catholics insist is what is needed for salvation. The RCC teaches that it’s by living according to the laws of the flesh that is needed for salvation. True believers are told that it’s Christ Jesus living in us that gives us that righteousness, sanctification and redemption.
But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. 1 Corinthians 1:30-31
It’s God who gets the glory for it is God who works through us and not we who follow some law of the flesh. Now if each of us who truly have accepted Jesus as our savior possess the righteousness of Christ would you please tell me who has more righteousness then Christ?
So if it’s Christ who lives in us and it’s Christ’s righteousness we have been given why would we even want or think to “do anything we want” as Catholics accuse us of? If it’s “not I who live but Christ in me” how can you assume that Christ would cause us to believe we can “do what I like” as you said? Christ told us that we would have the law written in our heart and He told us we would have His Spirit living within us to give us the faith to live by that law “in the Spirit”. “it is not I who lives but Christ who lives in me”.
If Catholics want to live “in the flesh” and think they can do it by their own strength the result will be disappointing to say the least. Accusing others of thinking that if they are saved they can “do anything they want” indicates a lack of knowledge of what “Christ in us” means.
How ironic that we're accused of being followers of Paul and yet Catholics completely ignore what Paul taught about living in sin.
Romans 6 1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life.
5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6 We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. 7 For one who has died has been set free from sin. 8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 We know that Christ, being raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has dominion over him. 10 For the death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God. 11 So you also must consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus.
12 Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions. 13 Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness. 14 For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.
15 What then? Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! 16 Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness?
17 But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, 18 and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. 19 I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations.For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification.
20 For when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness. 21 But what fruit were you getting at that time from the things of which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death. 22 But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life. 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Methinks that those who think that just because we are free in Christ that it means that we think we have a license to sin, are projecting.
A lot.
They don’t or can’t understand that we don’t indulge in the flesh because we’re free in Christ and our salvation is assured, don’t understand because that is what they’d do (indulge in wanton sin) if they were in the place of thinking that they were free.
They need the outward restraint to keep them from sinning because they don’t have the inward restraint.