Friday DIVE – February 28, 2025 – Romans 8:1-4

Friday DIVE / By

 

 

TONIGHT’S TEXT

Romans 8:1-5  NRSV Updated Edition  

1 Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.  2 For the law of the Spirit[a] of life in Christ Jesus has set you[b] free from the law of sin and of death.  3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do: by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and to deal with sin,[c] he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 so that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.[d]  5 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[e] set their minds on the things of the Spirit.[f]  6 To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit[g] is life and peace.  7 For this reason the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law — indeed, it cannot, 8 and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.  

9 But you are not in the flesh; you are in the Spirit,[h] since the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.  10 But if Christ is in you, then the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit[i] is life because of righteousness.  11 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus[j] from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through[k] his Spirit that dwells in you.  

 

GOING DEEPER

1.  The CONTEXT … A summary, as per The Enduring Word Commentary … 

A. We are dead to the Law.

1. The law has authority only over the living. (Rom.7:1-3) 

2. Our death with Jesus sets us free from the law. (Rom.7:4) 

3. The problem with the law. (Rom.7:5) 

4. Delivered from the law. (Rom.7:6) 

B. Our problem with God’s perfect law.

1. The law is not sin … It is good because it reveals sin to us. (Rom.7:7) 

2. Sin corrupts the commandment (law). (Rom.7:8) 

3. Paul’s state of innocence before he knew the law. (Rom.7:9) 

4. Sin corrupts the law and defeats its purpose of giving life; once law is corrupted by sin, it brings death. (Rom.7:10-12) 

C. The purpose and character of the law.

1.  The law exposes and magnifies sin. (Rom.7:13) 

2.  The spiritual law cannot restrain a carnal man (Rom.7:14)

D. The struggle of obedience in our own strength 

1.  Paul describes his sense of helplessness (Rom.7:15-19) 

2.  The battle between the two selves (Rom.7:20-23) 

20 Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it but sin that dwells within me.

21 So I find it to be a law that, when I want to do what is good, evil lies close at hand.  22 For I delight in the law of God in my inmost self, 23 but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. 

E. The victory found in Jesus Christ   

1.  Paul’s desperation and perspective (Rom.7:24)  

24 Wretched person that I am!  Who will rescue me from this body of death? 

2.  Paul finally looks outside himself to Jesus (Rom.7:25)  

25 Thanks be to God[a] through Jesus Christ our Lord!

So then, with my mind I am enslaved to the law of God, but with my flesh I am enslaved to the law of sin.  

            • Romans 7:24-25 (NLT)  24 Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death?  25 Thank God!  The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord.  So you see how it is: In my mind I really want to obey God’s law, but because of my sinful nature I am a slave to sin.   

 

Back to our text for tonight …    

Romans 8:1-11 NRSV Romans 8:1-11 NET  Romans 8:1-11 NLT
1 Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.  

2 For the law of the Spirit[a] of life in Christ Jesus has set you[b] free from the law of sin and of death.  

 There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.[a] 

2 For the law of the life-giving Spirit[b] in Christ Jesus has set you[c] free from the law of sin and death.

 So now there is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus.   

2 And because you belong to him, the power[a] of the life-giving Spirit has freed you from the power of sin that leads to death.  
3 For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do: by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and to deal with sin,[c] he condemned sin in the flesh, 

 

3 For God achieved what the law could not do because[d] it was weakened through the flesh. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and concerning sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 

3 The law of Moses was unable to save us because of the weakness of our sinful nature.[c]  So God did what the law could not do.  He sent his own Son in a body like the bodies we sinners have.  And in that body God declared an end to sin’s control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins.  
4 so that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.[d]    4 so that the righteous requirement of the law may be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.   4 He did this so that the just requirement of the law would be fully satisfied for us, who no longer follow our sinful nature but instead follow the Spirit.  
5 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[e] set their minds on the things of the Spirit.[f]      5 For those who live according to the flesh have their outlook shaped by[e] the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit have their outlook shaped by the things of the Spirit.   5 Those who are dominated by the sinful nature think about sinful things, but those who are controlled by the Holy Spirit think about things that please the Spirit.  
6 To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit[g] is life and peace.   6 For the outlook[f]  of the flesh is death, but the outlook of the Spirit is life and peace, 

 6 So letting your sinful nature control your mind leads to death. But letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace.

7 For this reason the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law — indeed, it cannot, 

8 and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.  

7 because the outlook of the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to the law of God, nor is it able to do so. 

8 Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. 

7 For the sinful nature is always hostile to God.  It never did obey God’s laws, and it never will.

8 That’s why those who are still under the control of their sinful nature can never please God.
9 But you are not in the flesh; you are in the Spirit,[h] since the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.   9 You, however, are not in[g] the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, this person does not belong to him.  9 But you are not controlled by your sinful nature. You are controlled by the Spirit if you have the Spirit of God living in you. (And remember that those who do not have the Spirit of Christ living in them do not belong to him at all.) 
10 But if Christ is in you, then the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit[i] is life because of righteousness.  10 But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, but[h] the Spirit is your life[i] because of righteousness.   10 And Christ lives within you, so even though your body will die because of sin, the Spirit gives you life[d] because you have been made right with God. 
11 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus[j] from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through[k] his Spirit that dwells in you.   11 Moreover if the Spirit of the one[j]  who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, the one who raised Christ[k] from the dead will also make your mortal bodies alive through his Spirit who lives in you.[l] 11 The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you.

 

As we begin our unpacking of this passage, I want to note something that William Barclay said in his commentary on Romans 8 …

“This is a very difficult passage because it is so highly compressed, and because, all through it, Paul is making allusions to things which he has already said.

“Two words keep occurring again and again in this chapter, flesh (sarx) and spirit (pneuma).  We will not understand the passage at all unless we understand the way in which Paul is using these words.”

So … let’s scroll down and notice what else Barclay said …

(See Barclay’s notes at bottom of page)

 

Romans 8:1  NRSV Updated Edition  

Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 

The simple declaration of no condemnation comes to those who are in Christ Jesus.  Since God the Father does not condemn Jesus, neither can the Father condemn those who are in Jesus.  They are not condemned, they will not be condemned, and they cannot be condemned.

If we are one with Jesus … we can’t be condemned.  You can’t acquit the head and condemn the hand.  Because we are joined to Christ, we hear the verdict: “no condemnation.”

In Christ: There is a spiritual union beteen Christ and believers … This is sometimes expressed by Christ being in them … and sometimes by their being in Christ.

“Christ is in believers by His Spirit, and believers are in Christ by faith.” (Poole)

The verdict is not “less condemnation.” That’s where many believe they are – thinking our standing has improved in Jesus. It has not been improved, it’s been completely transformed, changed to a status of no condemnation.

No condemnation: This place of confidence and peace comes after the confusion and conflict that marked Romans 7.  Now Paul looks to Jesus and he finds his standing in Him.

Romans 8 begins with no condemnation; it ends with no separation, and in between there is no defeat.

Who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit: These words are not found in the earliest ancient manuscripts of the Book of Romans and they do not agree with the flow of Paul’s context here.

While it is true that those who are in Christ should not and do not consistently walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit, this is not a condition for their status of no condemnation. Our position in Jesus Christ is the reason for our standing of no condemnation.

No condemnation: We receive this glorious declaration from God’s court. We receive it though we certainly deserve condemnation. We receive this standing because Jesus bore the condemnation we deserved and our identity is now in Him.  As He is condemned no more, neither are we.

 

Romans 8:2  For the law of the Spirit[a] of life in Christ Jesus has set you[b] free from the law of sin and of death.   

The law of the sin and death was a strong and seemingly absolute law. Every sin we commit and every cemetery we see proves it.

But the law of the Spirit of life in Christ is stronger still, and the law of the Spirit frees us from the law of sin and death.

We are free from the law of sin.  Though he inevitably does, the Christian does not have to sin, because he is freed from sin’s dominion.

We are free from the law of death; death therefore no longer has any lasting power against the believer.

    • Romans 8:1 tells us we are free from the guilt of sin.
    • Romans 8:2 tells us we are free from the power of sin.

For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh:  The law can do many things.  It can guide us, teach us, and tell us about God’s character.  But the law cannot give energy to our flesh; it can give us the standard, but it can’t give us the power to please God.

Morris, quoting Manson: “Moses’ law has right but not might; sin’s law has might but not right; the law of the Spirit has both right and might.”

 

Romans 8:3  For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do: by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and to deal with sin,[c] he condemned sin in the flesh,  

“The law is weak to us, because we are weak to it: the sun cannot give light to blind eye, not from any impotency in itself, but merely from the incapacity of the subject it shines upon.” (Poole)

The law is weak because it speaks to our flesh.  It comes to fleshly men and speaks to them as fleshly men.  But the work of the Spirit transforms us by the crucifixion of the old man and it imparts the new man – a principle higher than the flesh.

“A vine does not produce grapes by Act of Parliament; they are the fruit of the vine’s own life; so the conduct which conforms to the standard of the Kingdom is not produced by any demand, not even God’s, but is the fruit of that divine nature which God gives as the result of what he has done in and by Christ.” (Hooke)

What the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son: The law could not defeat sin; it could only detect sin.  Only Jesus can defeat sin, and He did just that through His work on the cross.

e. By sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh: In order to defeat sin, Jesus had to identify with those bound by it, by coming in the likeness of sinful flesh. Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, Paul carefully chose his words here, indicating that Jesus was not sinful flesh, but He identified with it entirely.

    • We could not say that Jesus came in sinful flesh, because He was sinless.
    • We could not say that Jesus came in the likeness of flesh, because He really was human, not just like a human.
    • But we can say that Jesus came in the likeness of sinful flesh because although He was human, He was not sinful in Himself.

He condemned sin in the flesh: Sin was condemned in the flesh of Jesus as He bore the condemnation we deserved.  Since we are in Christ, the condemnation we deserve passes us over.

Romans 8:4  so that the just requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.[d]  

That the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us: Because Jesus fulfilled the righteous requirement of the law, and because we are in Christ, we fulfill the law. The law is fulfilled in us in regard to obedience, because Jesus’ righteousness stands for ours.  The law is fulfilled in us in regard to punishment, because any punishment demanded by the law was poured out upon Jesus.

    • Paul does not say that we fulfill the righteous requirement of the law. He carefully says that the righteous requirement of the law is fulfilled in us.  It isn’t fulfilled by us, but in us.
    • Simply put, Jesus is our substitute.  Jesus was treated as a sinner so we can be treated as righteous.

The people who enjoy this are those who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.  Their life is marked by obedience to the Holy Spirit, not by obedience to the flesh.

    • God wants the Spirit to rule over our flesh. When we allow the flesh to reign over the Spirit, we find ourselves bound by the sinful patterns and desperation that marked Paul’s life in his “Romans 7” struggle. Our walk – the pattern of our life – must be according to the Spirit, not according to the flesh.
    • Walking in the Spirit means that the course, the direction, the progress of one’s life is directed by the Holy Spirit. It is continued and progressive motion.
    • “Observe carefully that the flesh is there: he does not walk after it, but it is there. It is there, striving and warring, vexing and grieving, and it will be there till he is taken up into heaven. It is there as an alien and detested force, and not there so as to have dominion over him. He does not walk after it, nor practically obey it. He does not accept it as his guide, nor allow it to drive him into rebellion.” (Spurgeon)

Romans 8:5  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[e] set their minds on the things of the Spirit.[f]   

Set their minds on the things of the flesh: Paul gives an easy way for us to determine if we walk in the Spirit or walk in the flesh – to simply see where our mind is set. The mind is the strategic battleground where the flesh and the Spirit fight.

We shouldn’t think those who set their minds on the things of the flesh are only notorious sinners. They may be noble people who have good intentions. Peter meant well when he told Jesus to avoid the cross, but Jesus responded to Peter with these strong words: you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men (Matthew 16:23).

 

Romans 8:6  To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit[g] is life and peace.   

For to be carnally minded is death: When our minds are set on the things of the flesh (carnally minded) we bring death into our lives. But walking in the Spirit brings life and peace.

We must, however, guard against a false spirituality and see that Paul means the flesh insofar as it is an instrument in our rebellion against God. Paul is not talking about normal physical and emotional needs we may think about, only the sinful gratification of those needs.

 

Romans 8:7  For this reason the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law — indeed, it cannot, 

c. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: The flesh battles against God because it does not want to be crucified and surrendered to the Lord Jesus Christ. It does not want to live out Galatians 5:24: those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. In this battle to tame the flesh, the law is powerless.

i. Paul didn’t say that the carnal mind was at enmity with God – he put it even stronger than that. The carnal mind is enmity against God. “It is not black, but blackness; it is not at enmity, but enmity itself; it is not corrupt, but corruption; it is not rebellious, it is rebellion; it is not wicked, it is wickedness itself. The heart, though it be deceitful, is positively deceit; it is evil in the concrete, sin in the essence, it is the distillation, the quintessence of all things that are vile; it is not envious against God, it is envy; it is not at enmity, it is actual enmity.” (Spurgeon)

d. It is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be: We can try to do good in life without being subject to the law of God. We may hope to put God “in debt” to us by good works, thinking God owes us. But it doesn’t work. In the flesh we cannot please God, even if the flesh does religious things that are admired by men.

 

Romans 8:8  and those who are in the flesh cannot please God.  

Note that Paul says “cannot” NOT “may not” … speaking to ability, not permission.

 

Romans 8:9  But you are not in the flesh; you are in the Spirit, since the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him.   

But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you: Because the Holy Spirit is given to each believer when they are born again, every Christian has within themselves a principle higher and more powerful than the flesh.

“Many sincere people are yet spiritually under John the Baptist’s ministry of repentance.  Their state is practically that of the struggle of Romans Seven, where neither Christ nor the Holy Spirit is mentioned, but only a quickened but undelivered soul in struggle under a sense of ‘duty,’ not a sense of full acceptance in Christ and sealing by the Holy Spirit.” (Newell)

Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His: This means every believer has the Holy Spirit.  It is a misnomer to divide Christians among the “Spirit-filled” and the “non-Spirit-filled.” If a person is not filled with the Holy Spirit, they are not a Christian at all.

However, many do miss out on living the Christian life in the constant fullness of the Spirit because they are not constantly being filled with the Holy Spirit as Paul commanded in Ephesians 5:18. They have no experience of what Jesus spoke about when He described rivers of living water flowing from the believer (John 7:37-39).

How does one know that they have the Spirit?  Ask these questions:

    • Has the Spirit led you to Jesus?  
    • Has the Spirit put in you the desire to honor Jesus?  
    • Is the Spirit leading you to be more like Jesus?  
    • Is the Spirit at work in your heart?  

 

Romans 8:10  But if Christ is in you, then the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit[i] is life because of righteousness.  

And if the Spirit of Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin:  Because Jesus lives in us, the old man (body) is dead, but the Spirit lives and reigns, and will live out His salvation even through our mortal bodies through resurrection.  

 

Romans 8:11  If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus[j] from the dead will give life to your mortal bodies also through[k] his Spirit that dwells in you.  

Not only are we in Christ (Romans 8:1), but He also is in you, and because God cannot abide a sinful home, the body (old man) had to die when Jesus came in.

 

From Barclay’s Commentary …

THE LIBERATION OF OUR HUMAN NATURE

Romans 8:1-4

There is, therefore, now no condemnation against those who are in Christ Jesus.  For the law which comes from the Spirit and leads to life has in Christ Jesus set me free from the law which begets sin and leads to death.  As for the impotency of the law, that weakness of the law which resulted from the effects of our sinful human nature — God sent his own Son as a sin offering with that very same human nature which in us had sinned;  and thereby, while he existed in the same human nature as we have, he condemned sin, so that as a result the righteous demand of the law might be fulfilled in us, who live our lives not after the principle of sinful human nature, but after the principle of the Spirit.  

This is a very difficult passage because it is so highly compressed, and because, all through it, Paul is making allusions to things which he has already said.

Two words keep occurring again and again in this chapter, flesh (sarx) and spirit (pneuma).  We will not understand the passage at all unless we understand the way in which Paul is using these words.

(i) Sarx literally means flesh. The most cursory reading of Paul’s letters will show how often he uses the word, and how he uses it in a sense that is all his own. Broadly speaking, he uses it in three different ways.

(a) He uses it quite literally. He speaks of physical circumcision, literally “in the flesh” (Rom. 2:28).

(b) Over and over again he uses the phrase kata sarka, literally according to the flesh, which most often means looking at things from the human point of view. For instance, he says that Abraham is our forefather kata sarka, from the human point of view. He says that Jesus is the son of David kata sarka (Rom. 1:3), that is to say, on the human side of his descent. He speaks of the Jews being his kinsmen kata sarka (Rom. 9:3), that is to say, speaking of human relationships. When Paul uses the phrase kata sarka, it always implies that he is looking at things from the human point of view.

(c) But he has a use of this word sarx which is all his own. When he is talking of the Christians, he talks of the days when we were in the flesh (en sarki) (Rom. 7:5). He speaks of those who walk according to the flesh in contradistinction to those who live the Christian life (Rom. 8:4-5). He says that those who are in the flesh cannot please God (Rom. 8:8). He says that the mind of the flesh is death, and that it is hostile to God (Rom. 8:6,8). He talks about living according to the flesh (Rom. 8:12). He says to his Christian friends, “You are not in the flesh” (Rom. 8:9).

It is quite clear, especially from the last instance, that Paul is not using flesh simply in the sense of the body, as we say flesh and blood. How, then, is he using it? He really means human nature in all its weakness and he means human in its vulnerability to sin. He means that part of man which gives sin its bridgehead. He means sinful human nature, apart from Christ, everything that attaches a man to the world instead of to God. To live according to the flesh is to live a life dominated by the dictates and desires of sinful human nature instead of a life dominated by the dictates and the love of God. The flesh is the lower side of man’s nature.

It is to be carefully noted that when Paul thinks of the kind of life that a man dominated by the sarx lives he is not by any means thinking exclusively of sexual and bodily sins. When he gives a list of the works of the flesh in Gal. 5:19-21, he includes the bodily and the sexual sins; but he also includes idolatry, hatred, wrath, strife, heresies, envy, murder. The flesh to him was not a physical thing but spiritual. It was human nature in all its sin and weakness; it was all that man is without God and without Christ.

(ii) There is the word Spirit; in Rom. 8 it occurs no fewer than twenty times. This word has a very definite Old Testament background. In Hebrew it is ruach, and it has two basic thoughts.

(a) It is not only the word for Spirit; it is also the word for wind. It has always the idea of power about it, power as of a mighty rushing wind.

(b) In the Old Testament, it always has the idea of something that is more than human.  Spirit, to Paul, represented a power which was divine.

So Paul says in this passage that there was a time when the Christian was at the mercy of his own sinful human nature.  In that state the law simply became something that moved him to sin and he went from bad to worse, a defeated and frustrated man.  But, when he became a Christian, into his life there came the surging power of the Spirit of God, and, as a result, he entered into victorious living.

In the second part of the passage, Paul speaks of the effect of the work of Jesus on us.  It is complicated and difficult, but what Paul is getting at is this.  Let us remember that he began all this by saying that every man sinned in Adam.  We saw how the Jewish conception of solidarity made it possible for him to argue that, quite literally, all men were involved in Adam’s sin and in its consequence — death.  But there is another side to this picture.  Into this world came Jesus; with a completely human nature; and he brought to God a life of perfect obedience, of perfect fulfilment of God’s law.  Now, because Jesus was fully a man, just as we were one with Adam, we are now one with him; and, just as we were involved in Adam’s sin, we are now involved in Jesus’ perfection.  In Him, mankind brought to God the perfect obedience, just as in Adam mankind brought to God the fatal disobedience.  Men are saved because they were once involved in Adam’s sin but are now involved in Jesus’ goodness.  That is Paul’s argument, and, to him and to those who heard it, it was completely convincing, however hard it is for us to grasp it.  Because of what Jesus did, there opens out to the Christian a life no longer dominated by the flesh but by that Spirit of God, which fills a man with a power not his own.  The penalty of the past is removed and strength for his future is assured.

 

THE TWO PRINCIPLES OF LIFE

Romans 8:5-11

Those who live according to the dictates of sinful human nature are absorbed in worldly human things.  Those who live according to the dictates of the Spirit are absorbed in the things of the Spirit.  To be absorbed in worldly human things is death; but to be absorbed in the things of the Spirit is life and peace, because absorption in the things which fascinate our sinful human nature is hostility to God, for it does not obey the law of God, nor, indeed, can it do so.  Those whose life is a purely worldly thing cannot please God; but you are not dominated by the pursuits which fascinate our sinful human nature; you are dominated by the Spirit, if so it be that the Spirit of God dwells in you.  If anyone does not possess the Spirit of Christ he does not belong to Christ.  But if Christ is in you, even if because of sin your body is mortal, your Spirit has life through righteousness.  If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you he will make even your mortal bodies alive through his Spirit indwelling in you.  

Paul is drawing a contrast between two kinds of life.

(i) There is the life which is dominated by sinful human nature; whose focus and centre is self; whose only law is its own desires; which takes what it likes where it likes. In different people that life will be differently described. It may be passion-controlled, or lust-controlled, or pride-controlled, or ambition-controlled. Its characteristic is its absorption in the things that human nature without Christ sets its heart upon.

(ii) There is the life that is dominated by the Spirit of God. As a man lives in the air, he lives in Christ, never separated from him. As he breathes in the air and the air fills him, so Christ fills him. He has no mind of his own; Christ is his mind. He has no desires of his own; the will of Christ is his only law. He is Spirit-controlled, Christ-controlled, God-focused.

These two lives are going in diametrically opposite directions. The life that is dominated by the desires and activities of sinful human nature is on the way to death. In the most literal sense, there is no future in it–because it is getting further and further away from God. To allow the things of the world completely to dominate life is self extinction; it is spiritual suicide. By living it, a man is making himself totally unfit ever to stand in the presence of God. He is hostile to him, resentful of his law and his control. God is not his friend but his enemy, and no man ever won the last battle against him.

The Spirit-controlled life, the Christ-centred life, the God-focused life is daily coming nearer heaven even when it is still on earth. It is a life which is such a steady progress to God that the final transition of death is only a natural and inevitable stage on the way. It is like Enoch who walked with God and God took him. As the child said: “Enoch was a man who went walks with God–and one day he didn’t come back.”

No sooner has Paul said this than an inevitable objection strikes him. Someone may object: “You say that the Spirit-controlled man is on the way to life; but in point of fact every man must die. Just what do you mean?” Paul’s answer is this. All men die because they are involved in the human situation. Sin came into this world and with sin came death, the consequence of sin. Inevitably, therefore, all men die; but the man who is Spirit-controlled and whose heart is Christ-occupied, dies only to rise again. Paul’s basic thought is that the Christian is indissolubly one with Christ. Now Christ died and rose again; and the man who is one with Christ is one with death’s conqueror and shares in that victory.  The Spirit controlled, Christ-possessed man is on the way to life; death is but an inevitable interlude that has to be passed through on the way.

 

 

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