Life in the Spirit
For Meditation
Last week we began our deep dive into Romans 8, one of the greatest chapters ever written. We learned that despite the sin in our lives and our propensity toward evil, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. In and through Christ, we are free now and forever.
But what is the point of all of this? So that we can go to heaven when we die? That may be one outcome, but Paul's focus on this chapter is what this great truth of Christ's work now enables us to become. Now, because Christ has defeated the power of sin and has given us his indwelling Spirit, we now have the power to fulfil the law, to become the people that we were always meant to be.
But this is not a magical transformation. This involves us first recognizing that we are now "in the Spirit," that we have a fundamentally new identity when we belong to Jesus. And then it involves us practicing living in that new identity, partnering with the Spirit who now lives within us to live out our new identity as God's beloved children.
Romans 8:4–13
…And so he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
5 Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. 6 The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. 7 The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. 8 Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.
9 You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. 10 But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness. 11 And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you.
12 Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation—but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it. 13 For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.