Weekly Devotional 5-5-14 Romans 8:1-10
Living By The Power of The Indwelling Holy Spirit
“1There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. 2For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. 3For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He condemned sin in the flesh, 4that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. 5For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. 6For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. 7Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. 8So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God. 9But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. 10And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness” ( NKJV )
Being young Christians, Paul’s readers were struggling with mixed desires; the desires of their regenerated spiritual natures and the desires of the flesh of their old natures. By way of encouragement Paul contrasts the life of the person in whom the Spirit of Christ (the Holy Spirit) dwells and the unregenerate or the unsaved. He reminds them (and us) that there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, who walk by the leading of the Holy Spirit. He emphatically states in verse 9b that if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ (the Holy Spirit) he or she does not belong to Christ. Their whole attitude about themselves was to be different now that they had come to Christ. That is, had been saved. They would at times sin, but their sin was condemned in the flesh. Paul wrote, “since Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness” (vs. 10).
Is this not how we are to live our lives and is this not how we are to think about ourselves? Paul wrote in another letter, his letter to the Galatians, “16 Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. 17For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish. 18But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.19Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, 20idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, 21envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law. 24And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. 26Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another” (Galatians 5:16-26 NKJV).
That same flesh, the same old nature that controls the life of the unsaved, the natural man, often times commands the life of the Christian, but it need not be so. In both letters Paul encourages his readers (including us) to live according to the Spirit, that is, live under His authority (control) and we will not succumb to the desires of the flesh. There is victory to be had.
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Transforming Power; The Work of God on Behalf of Man