A Christian has the
internal resources to live a life pleasing to God. He has a new
heart, a new spirit, God's spirit and internal motivation to be
obedient. The question becomes, will we use the resources we have to
live a life that is pleasing to God and that honors and glorifies
him?
In Romans 8, we
have several keys to help us understand how we are to use what we
have been given to live victorious and obedient lives.
First we have the
umbrella of protection that I've already discussed and that is that a
Christian is under absolutely no condemnation or judgment from God.
His sins have been completely forgiven and will never be brought up
again. He does not fear the judgment because God has declared him
completely righteous. This is not because he has been righteous, but
because the very righteousness of God has been imputed to him and
placed on his record.
Second, in verses 2
and 3 we are reminded that we have died to the law. The law no longer
has jurisdiction because as we saw earlier, a Christian is seen by
God to have died with Christ and to be raised with him and therefore
there is no further penalty for sin. Sin requires death. I've died.
Issue closed.
Romans
8:4 says, “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.” Here
we begin to see how this works. The righteous requirement of the law
will not be fulfilled because we try to be obedient to some external
list of rules. The righteousness of the law will be fulfilled in
us as we walk according to the spirit. As I said yesterday, a
Christian has had his own spirit made alive plus he has God's spirit
in him as well as a God-given motivation to do the right thing and so
these factors work together to provide internal obedience to the law
of God. But it takes place as we walk according to the Spirit. That
is we walk in unison or in step with the Spirit of God who indwells
us.
Paul
goes on to explain in verse 5 that a person who is according to the
Spirit is one who puts his mind on the things of the spirit. The one
who is according to the flesh is someone whose mind is on the things
of the flesh. What are these things? A list of the things of the
Spirit might include these kinds of things: love, joy, peace,
longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness,
self-control, tender mercies, humility, meekness, forbearance,
forgiveness, thankfulness, truthfulness, selflessness, and
compassion. Things of the flesh would include things such as these:
hatred,
contentions, jealousies, wrath, selfish ambition, dissension, heresy,
envy, murder, drunkenness, covetousness, malice, blasphemy, sexual
sin, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, filthy language, lying,
stealing, corrupt speech, bitterness, pride, boasting, strife, and
gossip.
So what Paul is saying here is that there are two
mind-sets a person can have. He can either have his mind set on the
things of the Spirit or the things of the flesh. The question we need
to ask ourselves is what is our mind-set? Generally speaking where
is our mind. What kinds of things do we think about and what kind of
responses come out of us when faced with a sudden obstacle?
Do these two choices of spiritual or fleshly-mindedness
represent possible choices for a Christian to pursue or are these
distinctions between Christians and non-Christians? That is the
question we want to look at next time.
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