Romans 8:1-11
There 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. For the law of the Spirit of
life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death. For 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, that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled
in us who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
For 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. For to be
carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law
of God, nor indeed can be.
So then,
those who are in the flesh cannot please God. But 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. And if Christ is in you, the body
is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. But if
the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised
Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through the Spirit
who dwells in you.
There is a
lot here so; I will attempt a simple summary.
1. Since the fall, sin has enjoyed a
comfy home in mankind.
2. We were incapable of living by God’s
law because sin had enslaved us from within.
3. By His victorious, sinless life,
Jesus condemned the sin that lives inside of mankind.
4. He did this to set us free from indwelling
sin.
5. Our freedom from sin is lived out by submitting
to or following the Holy Spirit Who lives within us once we have put our faith
in Jesus. God calls this freedom “life”.
6. The natural progression of the life
the Spirit gives to our spirits is to spread into our souls and bodies.
The Fall
At the fall
there was a fundamental change within mankind.
Then God
said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; “
This is the
last time that we are ever talked about as being in God’s likeness. We are
still in His image but, we are not like Him. We hear David’s lament and determination to be
like God in Psalm 17:15:
“As for me,
I will see Your face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied when I awake in
Your likeness.”
John picks
up on this theme in I John 3:2-3:
“Beloved,
now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be,
but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see
Him as He is. And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself, just as
He is pure.”
And this is
exactly where Paul is taking us:
Romans 8:29
“For whom He
foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might
be the firstborn among many brethren.”
John also
ends up here:
I John 4:17
“Love has
been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment;
because as He is, so are we in this world.”
One of the
benefits of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit is the gradual restoration of our
“likeness” of God on the inside.
James tells
us, “Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God”; for God cannot
be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone.” James 1:13
God the Holy Spirit is never tempted
by any evil or sin – and He lives inside of every believer in Jesus Christ.
This truth
reveals the possibility for every one of us to enjoy an “interior revolution”.
We have the
opportunity to learn how to live like God the Son lived on this earth. Right
here, right now, among our family and friends.
We can live
in such a way that when our co-workers and neighbors stand before the Lord He
can say, “If you've seen My people, you've seen Me.”
Because of the indwelling of the Holy
Spirit it is possible for us to live our lives free from the influence of sin.
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